Edge of End (24 page)

“
Neither will walking
blindly,” he grumbled. “I’m trying to remember everything Mangaliny
told me about other words and build some theory in my head which
will help us out of here. I’d be grateful if you shut up and let me
do that.”

“
Share your memories.
Maybe we’ll work it out together.”

He just shook his head and stood
up.

“
Hey! Where are you
going?”

“
Quite,” he ordered
crossly. “I need some time. I’ll be there,” he pointed to another
broken wall.

Malcolm spun around and marched away,
Elizabeth and I following him until he was out of sight.

“
I hope he isn’t going to
leave us here,” Elizabeth said resting her head on my
shoulder.

“
I guess this is where our
way parts,” I said back. “I mean us and Malcolm.”

“
Let’s wait a bit. Maybe
he’ll find the way in his old head,” Elizabeth smiled as she said
that.

I tightened my arm around her. My
fingers were icy cold, my breath escaped my mouth in white clouds.
If Malcolm left us here I didn’t know what I would do next. I had
no idea where to start searching the escape let alone finding the
light that was supposed to take me back to the real
life.

“
Jonathan?” Elizabeth’s
voice was weak and trembling.

“
Yes.”

“
You think we’ll remember
all this if by some miracle we survive and reach the light?” she
asked.

“
This place is definitely
going to be one of the memories which won’t be easily erased from
my head,” I chuckled.

“
This isn’t happening in
our heads. I mean in our real heads. What if anything that happened
here won’t be attached to our souls and, waking up back on Earth,
we won’t have a memory of this place?” She unlatched herself from
me and looked at me mournfully. “What if I forget you?”

“
Our souls are directly
connected to our bodies,” I began explaining. “Remember what
Malcolm told us? Also the other persons who came back from the dead
remembered.”

“
How do you know that? You
have no memory about your past. So how do you know what they
told?”

“
Like I know how to
drive,” I answered mildly. “I don’t have a memory of myself but
somehow, here,” I pointed to my head, “is filled with a lot of
random information.” I traced my finger over her cheek and brushed
her hair behind her ear. “I don’t want to forget you Elizabeth. Not
after what we’ve been through.”

She smiled at me. Her smile pushed the
darkness away from me, and I found myself far from this hell and a
bright star in my arms.

“
What are you going to do
when you’re back?” she asked.

I shrugged. “At first I’m going to
find out who I am. Then I’ll try and change myself. Maybe I’ll gain
my way to heaven next time.”

“
I hope so. You are not a
bad person Jonathan,” the corners of her mouth twitched. “Sure I
have no clue who you were in life, but there was always living a
good you in your heart. Like it’d been locked and had been biding
its time.”

“
Thank you,” I held my
breath for a moment. “You think too much of me Elizabeth. I’m not a
good person back there.”

“
Do you know
anything?”

The running man in the gloomy alley
darkened my sight. Then his glazed eyes on me. I was more that sure
I’d killed that man. I doubted it was my only sin.

“
I killed men,” I let out
finally. “I saw it in my vision.”

“
Why would you do
that?”

“
That’s the part that was
left out. The town knows exactly what it has to show
you.”

“
To suffer you,” Elizabeth
added, and I nodded. “You should’ve had a good reason for
that.”

“
Maybe,” I averted my eyes
and pursed my lips. I took some time sinking in my vision and
finding myself running in the alley again. It felt more real, close
to real life, as I was pursuing that man, my footsteps echoing in
silence and reflecting off the short walls on both sides. I had a
gun in my right hand yet pointed down to the ground but I was
determined to lift it and aim the guy.

Then some fragments entered my vision,
short like several frames of my life movie being replayed before my
eyes in some seconds.

“
We’ve found him,
John,”
a short, black frizzy-haired man
told me.

While I’d wonder who the man was,
another frame followed.

“
Get everyone to
there,”
I recognized my voice. I was at a
black car, opening the door.

Then the image was swallowed up by
darkness. I reappeared at the beginning of the alley. I set of at a
run.

“
Cut his way,”
I ordered as I ran. The frizzy-haired man leaped
into the car and the wheels screech filled the air.

Next I was running again, the gun
pointed to the man. A shot followed and the man crashed down to the
ground. I didn’t stop, holding the gun at the man, I ran up to him.
He lay there facedown, a stream of blood escaping his body and
reaching my shoe. I nudged him by my foot.

My view darkened, the alley was pulled
away but before another shot sounded.

“
Jonathan?” I heard
Elizabeth’s voice and opened my eyes. The new darkness appeared to
be brighter than the one behind my mind.

Elizabeth was in my arms, quivering.
Cold had reached inside my boots numbing my toes.

I took a deep breath filling my lungs
with icy air. “Any news from Malcolm?”

“
No,” the disappointing
answer followed.

I cursed under my breath and looked
away. Should we go that way? Or maybe the other way? There was
nothing as long as my eyes caught the sight of that would guide us
to somewhere. The door that would teleport us back into the town
could be hidden anywhere.

“
Everything might’ve been
different if we met in real life, don’t you think?” Elizabeth
curled up in my arms, and I rested my chin on her head.

“
We could just walk past
each other,” I said.

“
Who knows,” she said in a
whisper.

I looked at the wall covering Malcolm
from me. Was he still there? I didn’t fully trust the old man.
Should I go and check? I definitely should. I tried to shift
myself.

“
Elizabeth,” I said. “I’m
going to check Malcolm.”

She didn’t respond. I caressed her
face and hair. “Elizabeth,” I called her name again. Still
silence.

Carefully I moved her away, my heart
hammering, a horrible thoughts entering my head. I leaned her
against the wall and bent forward to look at her face. Her eyes
were closed, her breath calm, the cold wind playing with her red
hair.

“
Elizabeth,” I let out a
mournful sound as I cupped her face. In one thing I was sure–she
couldn’t be dead. But I didn’t know what she was
experiencing–walking through visions or her body was close to dying
back on Earth and her soul got weaker.

I sat on my knees and ran my hand
through my hair. My fingers were like thin and long icicles. I
shivered as a gulp of wind crossed me.

I couldn’t help Elizabeth, I had to
wait. Either she’d wake up or stay like that until a demon found
her. But I wasn’t ready to give up on her, and, as I sighed, I
began debating a lot of ideas in my head.

Abruptly she sucked a huge gulp of
air, her eyes snapped open, magnified and horrified, staring at the
empty spot. Her whole body tightened as if an unbearable pain
entered her and started chawing her insides. The beautiful woman
I’d known and I’d been holding in my arms a moment ago was no
longer there.

I jerked back instinctively, my voice
refusing to leave my throat. Run or stay and help her? While I was
considering an ear-piercingly shriek escaped her mouth that pricked
my eardrums, and I covered my ears with my hands.

“
No!” She screamed in her
full voice stretching out her hands towards me. I hesitated to take
them, I just stared at her.

Then her body relaxed, her hands went
down to her sides. She tilted her head, breathing
rapidly.

“
Elizabeth?” I found my
voice again.

“
She’s dead,” she said
with a hiss. “She’s dead.”

“
Who?”

“
The girl.” She raised her
eyes at me, horror playing in them. “Jonathan,” she said in an
imploring voice. “I saw her in a coffin. Death had taken
her.”

“
Calm down,” I reached for
her and cupped her face. She put her trembling hand on
mine.

I heard footsteps coming from behind
and peeked back over my shoulder to see Malcolm.

“
I thought you left,” I
said.

“
I should have,” he said
in annoyance. “Why did I vouch to help you? What
happened?”

“
She just had a vision,” I
explained.

“
Can’t you keep your voice
in your stomach?” he arched his eyebrow. “You awoke the
evil.”

“
How do you–” I was
interrupted by a wail coming from the deep of the night.

I jumped to my feet and looked over
the wall. Only darkness. Another wail followed and I knew we were
discovered.

“
Fuck,” I cursed and
grabbed Elizabeth’s arm. “Come on. We’ve got to move. Now!” While
Elizabeth was struggling into her feet I looked at Malcolm. “You’ve
come up to a plan, haven’t you?”

He gave me a sarcastic
smile.

“
Shit,” I murmured. “What
were you doing all this time? Sleeping? Come on. We need to find
another place to hide.”

Elizabeth was on her feet next to me
holding my hand.

Malcolm looked at her and shook his
head. “Oh, woman,” he muttered. Both Elizabeth and I ignored him.
Then his eye found mine. “Which way, Mr. Smarty?”

“
This way,” Elizabeth
answered instead of me pointing to our left. “You’ve got to believe
me on this,” she added quickly as Malcolm and I looked at her
curiously.

We had no time to argue. I felt
uneasiness in the darkness in front of us. Demons or soul-eaters
were approaching.

“
Let’s go,” I
said.

We set off at a run, Elizabeth on the
lead.

It was hard to run through millions
stones of ruined houses scattered all over around. Twice I had to
help Elizabeth into her feet as she had stumbled over them. Dusty,
her hair disheveled, but she kept running ahead, and we followed
without questioning. All in all neither Malcolm, nor I had any idea
where to go.

“
Keep your heads down,” I
ordered as we rushed between broken walls that once had been
houses, or even buildings.

Glancing back every time I met only
darkness behind–disturbed darkness. The blackness itself was
pursuing us.

“
What can your eye see?” I
asked Malcolm who was right behind me.

“
Nothing,” he was
short.

“
Elizabeth,” I called to
her. “Where are we going?”

“
Just trust me,” she
tossed back.

“
I trust you. But I’d be
feeling much comfortable if I knew where I go.”

“
You’ll see. There is an
exit there.”

“
The way out?” I
exclaimed.

“
Yeah.”

I wanted her to tell me everything–how
she knew about the exit, where it was–but I kept running my mouth
shut.

I heard another wail this time
sounding closer. Instinctively the three of us peered back in awe
to see a smoky demon right in our tail, but the darkness covered
the demons too well.

I can’t say how long we were running.
My heart hammering, gasping for air, I kept following Elizabeth,
avoiding large rocks that were randomly scattered on our way. The
wind accompanied us all the time, hovering the cold air around us
that pierced its way into my lungs every time I inhaled and froze
my insides. My lungs felt to be two pieces of iceberg behind my
chest. With time I became heavy, I couldn’t feel my toes and
fingers, and it felt as if I was wearing an icy mask on my
face.

“
How long is left?” I
asked Elizabeth my voice sounding unnatural as it struggled its way
through my frozen throat.

“
I can’t say. But it’s
close,” she replied.

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes,” she said
vigorously.

I guessed we had covered a mile
through ruins and half-standing houses and buildings. Every so
often a wail would thunder the cold air shaking my back and then
would get lost in the heart of the night in front of us.

Doubts entered my head. In
the place like this you couldn’t trust even your own eyes. I
recalled the last house we had been before from where we’d been
teleported into this new, hell only knew what I could name
it,
town
. I fled
the house twice–first with Elizabeth in my arms and we had been
falling for a minute or so and then I had gone through darkness and
Elizabeth had turned into a demon. Second I had woken up in the
same room and Elizabeth had saved both me and Malcolm. And I
wondered whether this was really happening right now. I could’ve
been lying in that room, unconsciousness, the liquid-looking
nothingness that had been lurking behind the cracked wall covering
the floor and pulling my mind into its depth. Maybe the three of us
were still in that room, maybe we had never fled it.