Edge of End (30 page)

I smiled in delight and leapt into the
fight. At least I wasn’t alone against the huge pack of
monsters.

The fight was brutal. To my surprise,
Elizabeth turned out to be a skilled fighter than a runner. With
the tube firmly in her hand, she danced around the enemy lightly.
She sliced every one of those damned creatures that dared to come
close.

Dust rose and filled the air clouding
the space around us. We were fighting back to back against a circle
of freaks when a cracking sound thundered in the air. I peered back
over my shoulder.

The sound had escaped from the dark
palace. It was coming to life, rising from its deadly slumber.
Everyone froze as if time had stopped abruptly. It was like someone
had hit a gong signaling a break. The demonic statues flinched, and
their stony cover disappeared revealing huge black devils. One of
them, I guessed it was the commander, let out a high-pitched cry
spreading its wings wide. We covered our ears from the cacophony
and knelt down in despair. My head began ringing in my hands; I
screwed up my eyes in agony.

The other humans withdrew, watching
the devils come to life with fearful eyes. They knew what kind of
mighty evil was going to fall upon us.

“
Holy crap,” I cried out
trying to bear that horrendous wailing that was echoing in my head.
“They’re alive.” I was talking more to myself than to
Elizabeth.

“
Look! The others are
retreating.”

“
I bet nothing good will
come from that,” I remarked, thinking that if the other monsters
were leaving, then the new ones must be more dangerous than any
we’d met before.

Elizabeth peered in the direction of
the light desperately searching for our escape route. She had hoped
that the mist would ease up a bit and allow her to see through it,
but the haze still clouded her vision.

The first dismal-looking bird (bird is
too light a word for such dragon–flying devil) unlatched its claws
from the roof and flapped its ridiculously long wings about in the
air. A harsh wind gushed out from under the devil’s wings. It hit
my face and messed up my hair.

“
Got a plan?” Elizabeth
asked.

From the time she had been invested
with her new power, her voice had grown stronger, more determined.
She was fearless and ready to fight side by side with me. Had I had
such a good influence on her?

“
Just one,” I replied
raising my eyebrows.

“
Go on.”

“
Help me to jump high, and
I’ll try to stab the first one with the pipe,” I pointed to the
devil that had wailed. “It seems to be the commander.”

Her eyes glimmered. She gave me a thin
grin before averting her brown eyes. Like I had assumed it would,
the first devil moved towards us. The surrounding houses shook like
leaves in a high wind as the devil flew around flapping its wings
faster and faster.

It assessed both of us, grimaced for a
moment and sniffed about, and then without warning, swooped down
towards us. We stayed put, waiting for it to approach. It was
unimaginable that anything would remain of us if it crashed its
gigantic body into us. The only hope we had was my plan.

As soon as I thought it was close
enough for me to reach I screamed, “Now!”

Elizabeth seemed to have been reading
my mind well. She held out the spear in her right hand and threw it
up and towards the devil, then she turned back, clasping her hands
together. I broke into a run, faster than wind itself, jumped onto
her hands, and she boosted me up using her new-found strength. I
pushed myself off well–the two superhuman powers combined together
allowing me to fly through the air as high as the three-storied
house. I torpedoed through the air and catching onto the spear
soaring in mid-air, with one foul swoop I rushed down toward the
devil’s head.

The only thing it managed was one last
look at me as I stabbed the pipe into the middle of its gigantic
head. I stabbed it so hard and so deep it protruded out the other
side of its neck. The other devils watched us plummeting to the
ground which shook and cracked under the weight of the devil. A
large cloud of dust engulfed us as I fell from its back and rolled
along the dusty ground.

“
Elizabeth, where are
you?” I called out to her, struggling to my feet. She was lost in
the dusty fog

My words dried on my tongue as I
looked back. A big shadow wandered in the fog, another devil was
approaching.

I sighed, disappointed. Even without
the commander the devils kept on attacking us. They were probably
doing it without thinking, but still they attacked. I glanced down
at the pipe that stuck out from a devil’s motionless head. The
blurry shadow was getting closer and closer.

I dashed towards the tube. I had to
reach it before the devil reached me, but it turned out to be
faster than my legs could carry me. The devil swooped down towards
me and I threw myself forward in an effort to escape its razor-like
claws. All it did manage was to scrape along my leg, scratching
me.

Falling facedown on the ground, the
dust seeped into my mouth causing me to cough and splutter. It
continued to circle above me in the air, watching then it swooped
down heading towards me again.

I managed to crawl back onto all
fours, my eyes filled with fear and anguish. Another smaller vaguer
shadow was falling from the foggy sky.

What the hell was it? Whatever it was,
it fell onto the devils back, and as they held on to each other,
battling away, they slammed into the ground and tumbled towards me.
Rolling on my side, I instinctively curled myself into a ball and
covered my head with my hands.

The devil came to rest barely an inch
from me.

I raised my head unable to
believe I was still
alive
. As I rolled onto my back the
devil’s face appeared before my eyes, and I jerked back leaping to
my feet. My stomach turned to water at the sight of that scary
face. As I caught my breath I wondered about what the vaguer shadow
was that had come out of the sky to my rescue.

Malcolm emerged from behind the
devil’s monstrous body.

“
Missed me?” he asked
jovially. “Holy shit! What an enjoyable flight I’ve just
had.”

“
Fuck, Malcolm,” I burst
out indignantly. “I thought you were dead.”

Even though I was in shock
at my old comrade’s reemergence, I felt a sense of warmth and hope
at seeing him
alive
.

“
I’m still dead,
remember?” He winked.

“
All this time you were
flying about watching us battle?” I cried out.

“
Cool down,” he cut me off
with his thin and wicked smile. “Just for once I had to see the
town from above.” I stared at him uncomprehendingly. “You have come
too close to the light. It’s right there, behind the barrier of
mist. Where is your girlfriend by the way?” He looked around
curiously with his one eye in search of Elizabeth.

“
I lost her in the dust,”
I replied quickly as I looked around calling out for her once
again.

“
Jonathan!” she called
back and my heart began beating faster. She was still somewhere
close by, in the mist.

Calling my name she emerged from the
mist behind me. I ran up to greet her. I hugged her and kissed her
on the lips, feeling her sweet breath on my face.

“
Lovebirds, can’t you wait
till you’re back into your bodies?” Malcolm interrupted.

“
Malcolm!” Elizabeth cried
out taken aback. “But you were–”

“
I know, but I’m back. Did
both you think that a silly little bird would knock me out of this
amusing game?” He mocked us, rolling his eyes.

Game?
I had been right. This was just a game to him, just some
peculiar amusing pastime an interlude to the tiresome eternity he
had spent in this
town
.

A cracking sound interrupted my
thoughts, then almost immediately a powerful quake followed,
causing the words I was about to speak, to stick in my
throat.

The ground shook furiously beneath my
feet. Elizabeth hung on to my arm tightly. I stared vacantly at
Malcolm as if demanding an explanation. The ground rattled as huge
chunks of it fell down into an abyss.

Again, just like in the last house we
had been in, there was a gaping dark hole of nothingness. The three
of us looked at it in horror, the night world passing before our
eyes again. Now we knew where the blackness would take us if we
fell into the abyss.

The hole expanded quickly, moving
closer to us. I guess we should have retreated, but we all stood
there watching the mouth of the abyss spreading out rapidly.
Everything in its way was gobbled up–the fallen humans, the demons,
the dogs and even the devil that had detached itself from the dark
house and was now a statue again.

I could tell that the huge hungry
mouth full of darkness was seeking us as it spread its darkness
towards where we stood.

“
Get back!” Malcolm came
to his senses first.

He shoved Elizabeth back. I was
shell-shocked, but I followed them with small cautious steps
backward. The thought of not being able to cross the abyss made my
blood pump through my ears, made them burning hot, but somehow the
shock had not caused my heart to beat any faster.

After everything we had
been through, all those struggles, all those sacrifices and all our
aspirations, we had almost made it to the passage safely; but
the
town
played
unfair, it was mocking me, looking at me smugly, playing its wicked
game, it was doing everything in its power to keep me away from the
light. It pushed the most dangerous mix of nothingness it could
create into my path.

Like a stack of dominoes the nearby
houses fell into the never-ending hole of nothingness–residents and
all. I stood back mournfully watching the earthquake wreak its
havoc. A million thoughts run through my mind, but none of them was
of any use. We were still retreating.

“
We have to go back,”
Elizabeth shouted, but I failed to listen to her words.

I just stared in awe as I watched the
mist getting swallowed up by the abyss.

Another high-pitched wail from one of
the devil statues rang through my ears. I scanned my eyes back and
forth eagerly, trying to locate the source. It was directly ahead
of us, bravely flying over the dark abyss towards us.

“
Watch out!” I yelled,
pointing at the devil which had come out of the mist. Its humungous
outstretched wings blanketed the mouth of the abyss.

I pushed Elizabeth aside so she fell,
crashing to the ground with a squeal. As she fell, she rolled away
from me. Malcolm threw himself to one side while covering his face
with his hands. I remained standing, staring at the devil’s burning
eyes flying dangerously low, and its head almost at the same level
as mine. With each flap its wings rose dust up into the air forming
huge puffs of clouds. The air became even denser and dingy than it
was.

With the devil just a step or two away
from me, I bounced back. My feet hadn’t even reached the ground yet
and already its face was in front of mine, its slobbery teeth just
inches from my skin. As it flew up to me, time stopped momentarily,
enabling me to examine every little detail of the devil’s huge
body.

I hit the ground and rolled over
managing to avoid the thrashing tail that was pummeling the ground
around me. My eyes filled with dust and I had to blink several
times to clear my vision. I jerked my body back, and with that it
disappeared back into the mist. But there was already another black
beast swooping down towards me, taking its place. I pulled my eyes
away from the devil for a moment and looked back at Elizabeth
running towards me.

“
Don’t come near me,” I
shouted as loud as my throat would let me. “Get down.”

As I finished, I flung myself forward.
My feet brushed against the edge of its wing causing me to crash to
the ground, hitting it hard with my head.

My head became fuzzy, and my vision
swayed; the picture before me became cloudy. Finally, my eyes found
Elizabeth.

Get down,
please
, I thought. The devil proceeded
with its frenzied flight aiming for Elizabeth. For a fleeting
moment, she stopped dead, watching the deadly creature approach
her. As she came round and recovered from her shock, her sad eyes
fell on me–full of pity and sorrow as she understood that it was
going to be the last time she ever saw me.

“
No!” I cried out. I tried
to lift my arm up, but an acute pain shot through my
body.

Fortunately, Malcolm was near her.
What kind of man was he? Never shocked, never confused and always
on his guard. He sped towards Elizabeth faster than the wind
itself, and I could barely follow him with my eyes. He took a hold
of Elizabeth and dragged her along with him. I let out a huge sigh
of relief as the devil missed his target.

“
Thank you,” I muttered
under my breath, tilting my head towards Malcolm. “Thank you, thank
you.”