Through Glass (19 page)

I looked into the expanse of black sky that stretched between our houses, the inky color oppressive against me. It was there that the monster had taken Cohen away from me. He had disappeared into the sky right there, but I wouldn’t go that way, not yet. There had to be others and if movies had taught me anything, they would be in the center of town.

I turned around, my back facing the blackness that had swallowed Cohen, away from the last thing that I loved. I moved forward into the blackness of the city before me, into the world which had been taken from me. Into what could only be my end.

“Good-bye Cohen.”

The darkness was everywhere. It touched the once beautiful world I had lived in, seeping its poison into it and sucking the life and beauty from it.

I could see the shadow of color, the faded yellow of houses, the dark white of picket fences, a deep red of an upturned sedan. Even with the light strapped to my back the colors were faded in the darkness, swallowed by the black and my mind was unable to recall what the color had once been.

Green trees that had once stretched to the sky with heavy laden limbs were now cut through the grey of air above me in jagged shadows that stretched and elongated as the protective light shone on them. Skeletons of houses loomed around me, their broken faces screaming in pain from the torture that they had had to endure and the murders they’d had to witness.

Everything around me was bathed in the death of the dim light we had been left with. The life sucked out of it and the beauty stripped from it. The world was cast in shadow, but I had the light that served as my shield, which elongated those shadows into deathly fingers that only made the world look more forgotten.

Everything was dead, all life had been stripped away to open a wound on a now lonely planet.

I didn’t know how else to explain it.

There was no life here, not anymore. The endless stream of perfectly round piles of ash promised me that. I silently stepped around them, careful not to disturb the only reminder that people had once existed; the reminder of what may be in store for me.

Hundreds of them littered the ground around me; they pockmarked the cracked asphalt of the street and clustered around houses, broken cars, and street signs. Circles of ended life, of forgotten dreams. People that the Ulama had ended, that they had taken away. Just like Cohen.

I didn’t want to look. I willed myself to look away, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from wandering. I couldn’t stop the fear and anger from mixing together.

I had gone this way on purpose, turning my back on the black stretch of sky that Cohen had moved into while dutifully keeping away from the skate park where my family had left me forever. I had walked toward downtown in the hope that I would find refugees—others who had found the secret of the light. Deep inside, I hoped that if I walked long enough I would find a sun. Yet seeing this now, I was beginning to wonder if either were a possibility.

I walked down the street, my body dragging in exhaustion as I stubbornly moved myself forward. Every inch of my body ached from the exertion of walking, from carrying the heavy backpack. It all combined in a dull throb that covered every inch of me. I did my best to ignore it, but I already knew how useless it was.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been walking or how long it had been since I slept, but I could already tell it was longer than I had become accustomed to. Being trapped in the house, I had slept constantly, waking only to eat and speak to Cohen through the glass. My clock told me when to go to the window, my stomach when to eat and my body to sleep, but out here, I had no way of knowing if I had been awake for days or for hours. I couldn’t tell.

My eyes darted around me with each step I took, they moved to each shadow the light on my back cast in expectation of a golden claw or the flap of a wing. Even with the light strapped to my back I didn’t feel safe. I knew they were waiting for me just beyond the line of light that surrounded me. I couldn’t keep the shadows from coming alive. A shiver wound its way up my spine as my hands gripped the heavy bed rail so tightly I could feel the skin break open from the pressure. The palm of my hand pulsed and burned, but I didn’t dare let go of it. I didn’t dare loosen my hold.

It seemed like every footfall was the boom of a cannon in my ears; everything was horribly quiet, so still.

Dead.

Just like everyone else, like what the monster who stalked me wished me to be. I swallowed hard and clenched my jaw, my heart hurting as I attempted to will the fear away, as I tried not to feel the pain. I stiffened my grip against the bed rail, picking up my pace as I pushed the thought to the back of my mind.

My feet hit the ground heavily as I stumbled around the graves that littered the ground in my desperation to move away from them. My weight shifted, jostling the pack on my back and I watched in dread as the light on my back flickered and died.

“No… nononono,” I moaned as I swung the pack around, ripping off the light in desperation.

The light was the only thing keeping them at bay; the only thing keeping me safe. I shook the light as I hit the exposed batteries in my attempts to get the lights back on. My breathing picking up as I tried again and again to reignite the light.

The blaze of white light flashed one, twice, before flickering into darkness again. The darkness swallowing me whole.

The fear of death and dread rippled through me as the sound of the Ulama ricocheted through the air. Every muscle in my body tensed in expectation for what I knew was coming, what my body and mind had been trained to expect at the sound.

My breath caught in my chest as the screech of warning rent through the air. My muscles tightened and the prickle of danger surged violently up my spine.

I hit the light hard twice before throwing the useless thing to the side and clenching the rail, bringing it up like a bat; ready for something—anything—to come after me. My eyes scanned the darkness of the sky as I watched, as I waited, as I breathed.

I lifted my eyes to the dark patch of sky where the sound seemed to be reverberating from. Everything in me caught fire in fear and anger as two dark shapes formed against the dark sky, the screech increasing in my ears as they came toward me. They had waited, just outside the light, for their chance to strike and they had found it. They were coming for me

I was in control of my death, but not like this. Like this, they were in control of me. This was death.

I didn’t wait. I ran.

I held the bar tightly as I ran down the street, my breath coming in strangled puffs as my feet pounded against the pavement. The heavy beat of a drum echoed off the empty houses that surrounded me. I fought the stubborn need to fight them, the anger at what they had done still pulsing through me.

The screech of the Ulama came again. Louder this time. It called through the air, loud in warning and in anger. In death. The sound of their battle cry chilled me, reminding me how foolish fighting them would be right now.

“No.” The word hissed through my teeth as I picked up the pace, my weak legs burning and screaming at the exertion. The bones in my back and shoulders rebelled from carrying the heavy backpack and the rail.

Through that, I didn’t stop. I didn’t slow down. I increased my speed as I turned toward one of the many darkened houses that surrounded me.

The dark maw of the house, where the door once stood, swallowed me up as I ran into the pit. My feet moved as I cut through the destroyed living room, swinging through the dark kitchen before I immerged in the backyard.

I pulled the door shut behind me in an attempt to give myself some distance and kept running. My feet took me through the broken gate in their back fence and into the alley.

The cry of the Ulama cried again, the sound louder. It echoed around the alley I ran through as the creatures followed my every move. I needed to move faster. They were keeping up with me too easily. I looked back once to see the monsters chasing me down, their powerful legs pumping them faster as they overtook me.

Evasion was my only tactic now. I darted quickly into another backyard, the dead grass scattered with old toddler toys and dark rings of forgotten life. I jumped over them, not wanting to disrupt something so precious, only to launch myself over the wooden fence that surrounded the yard.

I could have held still, hid in the dog house that sat forgotten amongst the wilted flowers, but they were still too close and would find me too easily. I needed to get ahead of them. I needed to hide. I clenched the rail in my hand tightly, wishing I could turn and fight them. It seemed easier to me, but I knew how that would end.

The sound of their warning grew and my feet fled from it, taking me into the dirty white house that sat before me. The windows were broken and burned from some battle that had been lost.

I ran through the charred house, my father’s boots slipping on the ash that lined the floor of the once beautiful home. I ran through the blackened rooms, moving quicker as the sound of the Ulama surrounded me. Their warning was growing as it shifted.

I burst out of the house and onto the porch just as the change become clear. The creatures weren’t right behind me anymore, but I could still hear their call echo around the empty neighborhood as they hunted me. I was getting close. I just needed to move faster and then I could hide.

The sound echoed loudly and I could tell they were closer. The call of their kind was a gun shot in my ears and I took off running. I ran down the burned steps of the porch and into the street that stretched endlessly before me. I needed an alley, a yard, some form of maze to drag them into so I could lose them again. However, I saw nothing as I ran other than the closed up houses with the fences locked tight.

I ran hard as the screech increased, the sounds joining together as they caught sight of me again. The sound of my death echoed from their mouths as they pursued me, the clicks of their talons rattling the street as they came closer.

I needed to get away, to hide. I needed to find light. Although how, I wasn’t sure. I ran as the backpack thumped against my back, the weight heavy against my spine.

The lighter.

Fire was light. I ran faster, scanning the houses, looking for one I could get into easily; one that I could light on fire.

The screech of the monsters increased as another scream met the others, this one louder. The sounds cut through me and my body shook as I turned onto another side street, pushing myself farther than I had ever gone. I could feel my joints try to give in, the burn in my lungs begging me to stop. I grunted as I pushed my body, fighting to keep the howl of pain trapped in my chest. Every joint and every muscle continued to beg me to stop, but I couldn’t listen. Listening meant death, listening meant the terror that gripped me won. The sound of the Ulama that ricocheted through my head promised me that.

The screech of death increased as it bounced through the empty silence that surrounded me. It bounced through my head until it was just another pain to add to all the other aches I was already feeling.

“No,” I gasped again, the word strained as my body attempted to give in.

“NO!”

I ran into the first open door I could find, taking me into an abandoned house with the ornate red door wide open in front of me. I ran through the door and as far back into the house as I could. My legs screamed as I moved; my feet pounding, my body coiled in fear while the scream of my death echoed through the air. I couldn’t run any longer. I could feel my body threatening to collapse at any moment.

If I wanted to survive, I only had one option now.

I didn’t stop to think, to look, to plan. I just ran through the house and right into a large dark room, the only one that still had a door.

I slammed the door behind me, not caring if I made any sound, and fell to my knees. My breath came in sharp spurts as my heart beat wildly through my chest. Everything inside of me prickled in awareness. I could barely make out the call of my death through the door as the sound grew louder as the creatures followed me.

I didn’t have much time.