The Black (48 page)

He didn't answer.

I paced, which is weird to say because I was in limbo. There was no sense of direction or space. I had to think.

Where was Damon? What was he doing? What was he thinking? Did he have something to do with the disappearances? And the change in the visions? With his soldiers gone, he had no backup and no vision of his own. He was down, no doubt, but he wouldn't give up. No way. Not as long as he still had hope, and that hope was in the Light. The poleax. He could go after the poleax, and for that, he would go after Marsh.

That was it. That would be his plan.

I needed a plan of my own.

"If I'm gonna help you, I need you to help me," I said. "The poleax is in the Light and Damon is pretty much having his way there. I have to be able to compete with that."

"What are you asking?"

"I need Marsh to see me," I said. "If all I can do is move around some seeds or create a little wind, I don't stand a chance."

The Watcher stared at me for a moment, thinking. He then answered, "Damon's abilities do not come from us. He has developed them over the years."

"C'mon!" I shouted. "Throw me a bone! You must be able to do something!"

He nodded. "We will do what we can, but it will not be anything near what Damon is capable of. We do not interfere with the Light."

"I'll take whatever I can get. And I need something else."

"What is that?"

"Full immunity. If I influence things in the Light, I want to know that you're not going to bounce me into the Blood. Or anybody else who helps me either. I'm not trying to alter the course of history, I'm trying to stop somebody else from doing that."

He hesitated, then nodded.

"All right, good. I'll trust you on that. You're a higher being, right? You don't lie."

I took a deep breath to calm down. The guy standing across from me looked about as normal as could be. But he wasn't. He represented a power that was greater than anything I could imagine, and he was looking to me for help. How scary was that?

"Where's Damon now?" I asked.

"In the Light. With your friend."

"Now?" I screamed. "Right now? Why didn't you tell me?"

"If I told you before, you would not be as prepared as you are now."

I wanted to throttle the guy, even if he was a superior being.

"You better hope Marsh is okay, because if anything happens to him, I'm coming after
you,"
I threatened.

"If Damon succeeds, you won't have to bother," the guy replied, and disappeared.

"Damn!" I screamed to nobody but me.

It was on now. It was
really
on. I wished I knew what to do about it. I took a last look around at the void that was once Damon's vision. I was in the wrong place. The wrong reality. The colored fog appeared. When I stepped through it . . .

I arrived in the center of what looked like a massive sea of walking corpses.

31

Had I made a mistake?

Did I leave the Black only to make a wrong turn and end up in the Blood? It sure seemed like it. As far as I could see there were rotten cadavers, standing together in a macabre sea of gruesome humanity . . . a dead man's party in a cemetery full of upturned graves. It was as if a demonic earthquake had awakened the dead.

I didn't want to be anywhere near there and would have taken off if I hadn't heard a familiar voice.

"I don't know where to look," the frightened voice said.

I turned quickly to see Marsh . . . and someone I didn't recognize. It was a tall black-haired guy who had on a short white tunic thing that was edged in gold. He was built like a defensive end with clothes that made him look like a noble warrior from ancient times . . .

. . . and he was stalking Marsh. "The poleax is in the
Light," the guy bellowed with a deep, gravelly voice. "But the answer is in the Black." They moved around a reflecting pool that was built in front of an old mausoleum.

Poleax? Why was this guy looking for the poleax? Who was he? I moved quickly to get a better look at him and got my answer. His face was covered with deep scars. It was the one thing he hadn't changed about himself. He liked those scars. They were his badge of honor . . . that he had awarded to himself.

It was Damon. And this wasn't the Blood. It was a cemetery in the Light. The sea of corpses was another illusion that Damon had created to scare Marsh. He had even changed himself into looking like the kind of warrior he imagined himself to be. He had that kind of power in the Light.

Marsh backed away but couldn't go far because he was trapped by the walking corpses.

"The answer has always been in the Black," Damon muttered.

"What is the Black?" Marsh cried. "What does that mean?"

I was about to jump between them when Damon reached out, grabbed one of the corpses, and ripped off its arm. It was so sudden and violent that it froze me in place. He wrenched off the hand and fingers
casually as if it were a wishbone. His work complete, he held the bone like a weapon.

"You will walk the road and enter the Black," he said. "You will find the poleax."

"Tell me what the Black is. Where is it?" Marsh asked nervously. "How do I get there?"

Marsh was losing it and I didn't blame him. I somehow had to tell him that Damon couldn't hurt him. He was a spirit, and like the walking corpses, the bone was an illusion.

"There is only one way to enter the Black," Damon said, smiling.

"Okay, how?"

"You must die," he said as he rounded the pool, getting closer to Marsh.

He was toying with my friend because he couldn't actually kill him. It was all about scaring him into doing what he wanted. Marsh backed away, looking around for an escape route, but there was nothing out there but thousands of corpses. They were illusions, but Marsh didn't know that.

Damon stopped and looked down at him. "This will be painful," he said while tapping the bone into his other hand for effect. "This is your choice. I will allow you to stay in the Light if you bring me the poleax."

He started walking again, stalking my friend. I wanted to tell Marsh not to be scared but I didn't have Damon's abilities.

"Answer me," Damon growled. "Do you live in the Light? Or die in the Black?"

Marsh turned away from Damon. I think he was going to run, but his plans changed. Instead of taking off, he stopped short with a shocked
look on his face. He stood there with his mouth open and his eyes wide. As the saying goes, it looked like he had just seen a ghost, which was exactly what had happened.

Marshall Seaver was looking at
me.

The Watcher had kept his promise. I was in business.

I leaned casually against a marble statue, folded my arms, and with a smug smile looked past Marsh to Damon . . . and gave him the finger.

Damon's eyes flared with anger.

"Is this what you wish?" he called to me. "For him to join you?"

I ignored him and looked to Marsh. "Can you hear me, Ralph?" I asked.

Marsh didn't react. I held my hands up, gesturing for him not to move.

"You can save him," Damon bellowed. "End this now. Make him see."

"Give me a break!" I shouted to Damon. "You can't hurt him. This is all an illusion, just like your new look. Love the dress. Is that what all the cool generals wore back in the day?"

Marsh started moving away, using the opportunity to escape while Damon was focused on me. I didn't want him to do that. Damon's illusions weren't dangerous in themselves, but they made people do things that could hurt, like running somebody over with a speedboat. The safest place for Marsh to be was right where he was, which was the last place he wanted to be.

I held my hands up again and shook my head, trying to get him to stay still but as soon as my hands went up, they flickered. The act of moving took away my ability to be seen. The Watcher was
right, whatever power they could give me wasn't much compared to what Damon could do.

Marsh stopped moving, but when he did, Damon charged. With nowhere to go, Marsh cowered to the ground. Damon raised the bone high as if ready to bash him. It was his last desperate attempt to get Marsh to do what he asked.

"I will let you live," he snarled at Marsh. "If you bring me the poleax."

I had to let Marsh know that Damon's threat wasn't real. I took a few steps closer so he could get a good look at me. If he believed that he was really seeing my spirit, he would listen. I lifted both my hands, and as they flickered between ghostly and invisible, I flashed Marsh the double okay sign.

The effort cost me. I disappeared. I could no longer see my hands and from the confused look on Marsh's face, neither could he. I could only hope that I'd gotten my message across.

"What is your answer?" Damon bellowed.

Marsh was my best friend. There were a lot of reasons for that but one was that he trusted me. I'd given him a hard time about not wanting to grow up and face reality, but I was wrong. Marsh had grown up, all right. He was the exact guy he should be.

And he still trusted me.

I watched with pride as he got up off the ground, dusted off his pants, and stared Damon square in the eye.

"I'm not helping you," he said to Damon of Epirus. Damon the Butcher.

Damon the Vanquished.

"Raaaaaa!" Damon screamed so loud I felt the ground shake.

He brought the bone down hard, jamming it into the ground. The bone exploded into a million sharp bits that blew out from the point of impact, spreading impossibly across the cemetery. They flew through Marsh like tiny white phantoms that had no more effect on him than if they were shadows.

The corpses weren't so lucky. As the wave of bone fragments spread, it erased the horrifying zombies. In seconds, every last one was gone, leaving only the destroyed cemetery.

And Damon.

The warrior spirit was down on one knee, his face to the ground. Beaten.

Marsh said, "You have no physical power, do you? Cooper knew that."

"There are worse things than physical pain," Damon said, breathing hard. "I gave you a choice. Now you must live with the consequences. How much are you willing to endure before giving me what I seek?"

Damon looked up to Marsh. Marsh didn't even flinch. "You will walk the road with me," he said. "And you will suffer."

Damon raised his fist and punched the ground. The impact created a violent earthquake. Marsh stumbled, though I wasn't sure if it was because the ground was actually moving or because he thought it was. Either way, he tripped and fell into the reflecting pool.

The whole world went blurry as if it was being shaken out of focus. As the rumbling lessened, I was able to make out details once again and
realized that the cemetery had returned to normal. Grass covered the graves. Tombstones were no longer strewn about. The sun even poked through the cloud cover, turning the haunted day into a beautiful, warm afternoon.

And Damon was nowhere to be seen.

Marsh, on the other hand, was lying in the reflecting pool, soaking wet. I walked toward him and was surprised to see my own legs. I was still semitransparent, but I was no longer invisible. I wished more than anything else that he could hear me. I wanted him to know how proud I was of him. But he also had to know that it wasn't over and that I was going to do everything I could to help him.

But all I could think of saying was, "Man, I thought for sure you were going to take off."

Marsh looked up quickly. He had heard me!

I couldn't help but laugh. "Kinda creepy to be swimming in a cemetery, Ralph."

He spun around and we made eye contact. He could see me too. I had no idea why it was happening, but I didn't question it.

"Close your mouth, you look like a trout," I said.

The effort was too much. I disappeared, but then suddenly found myself looking at Marsh from the other side of the reflecting pool, as if I had been blown there by the wind.

Marsh looked around frantically until he saw me. He stepped out of the pool and walked toward me in a daze.

"I . . . I don't understand . . . Cooper? What's happening?"

"Very cool, Ralph. That took guts," I said.

"Not really. I trusted you."

"I'm trying my best," I said. "It's hard. I don't have
much control."

I disappeared again, and reappeared a few feet to my
left. It was totally annoying.

"Are you okay?" Marsh asked.

"Well, no. I'm kind of dead, Ralph. But it's cool in the
Black. Sort of."

"What is the Black?"

I disappeared again. It was clear that my time and abilities were limited. I had to make the most of it.

"Cooper!" Marsh called out.

I reappeared again on the far side of the memorial garden. "You're in Trouble Town, Ralph."