The Pulptress Versus The Bone Queen: Blood and Bone (13 page)

She lurched for me again, but I sidestepped and blocked her attack, slicing across her arm with her own sword. She howled and grabbed at my arm. Her skin had melted away and now only a blank skull with strands of black hair whipping wildly around it stared back at me.

I slammed her sword straight between her eyes, ripping through bone. A screaming wind tore through the chambers as her body dropped to the ground. I grabbed the second gem from the ground and pulled the sword free from the now totally still body of the Bone Queen before rushing for Jackson’s side.

I shook her shoulder, but she didn’t move.

“You have to finish it,” Aramis’ voice spoke up.

Chapter 16

I jumped and spun toward Aramis’ body, now sitting up, head attached and looking like nothing had happened.

“What?” I stared at him.

He tapped his chest. “So long as this gem is in me, I can’t die.” He let his fingers curl into his ribcage. “You need to destroy these gems before Renata wakes again. You’ve only stopped her momentarily.”

Slow realization hit me. “You knew all along that stopping her meant you would have to die.”

He smiled. “I’ve lived longer than I ever wanted to. I’m ready.” His fingers curled around the gem in his chest. “Once I rip this out, you have to use her sword to destroy the rest of the gems. That will take care of everything. That’s the only way.”

I slowly nodded. “After all this, that ought to be easy.”

He smiled. “Give me a good burial?” he asked.

“The best,” I promised. “Thank you, Aramis.”

He flashed a grin at me before closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he ripped the stone free from his body. Instantly, his skin melted away until nothing but a pile of bones remained, the skeletal hand still clutching at the stone.

I carefully pulled the stone from my friend’s hand, and turned back to the still body of the Bone Queen.

She started to move and I knew time was nearly gone. I ripped the gem free from the golden necklace and placed it and the stone from Aramis over her throat and immediately slammed the sword through them and her.

Light ruptured from the inside out of the Bone Queen, ripping through her slowly, obliterating her skull then down her spine, and burning away every fragment of bone that it touched. As the light tore through her she lurched toward me, wrapping her hands around my throat. I coughed, pain searing through me and eating me up. Light flickered all around me until the flaring pain became overwhelming; everything went white hot and silent.

Chapter 17

Something slammed into my chest.

A violent cough sent me doubling over, struggling with the weight over my chest. I groaned, "What the-"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Jackson snapped overhead. "God, what were you doing?"

"Exactly what I told you I'd do, getting rid of the Bone Queen." I said, catching my breath.

"Yeah, well next time don't try to take yourself out doing it. I won't always be around to breathe life back into you, got it?" she ordered.

I smiled faintly. "Got it." I rubbed my head, looking around.

Only a few strands of dark hair and a small piece of metal from the hilt of the sword remained of the Bone Queen.

I turned toward Jackson. “You were dead.”

Jackson blinked. “I came to and found you dead! I was just unconscious. What were you even thinking?" Jackson demanded.

I coughed and sat up, rubbing my chest, bruised ribs at least. "What do you think I was doing? Having a picnic with the Bone Queen? What did you expect me to do? I had to do what I had to do to make sure that she was stopped. All those gems are gone now, and according to what Aramis told us that means that she's gone, that she can't come back and do this anymore." I said, "That's worth any risk, even my own life."

Jackson frowned. "Well, regardless, I'm glad you're alright," she said, offering her hand and helping me get to my feet. "Now, if we're done, we still need to find a way out of here."

“First,” I shakily got to my feet and found the collection of Aramis’ bones, “help me collect these. Looks like we’ve got two funerals to put on.”

Jackson looked over and bit at her lip. “That’s Aramis, isn’t it?”

I nodded silently.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds before joining me in collecting the bones and carefully putting them into her bag.

I groaned in pain at putting weight on my leg, but took a deep breath and pushed through it.

"This place looks well built, like the bottom of a building of some sort. I bet we can find a staircase or something. There has to be some way out of here and back to the surface. I'd kill for some fresh air." Jackson said.

Every part of my body felt tender and bruised. Hell, every part of me probably was bruised, but I felt somehow lighter. "She's gone. She's really gone." I shook my head, laughing. "You know, for a minute there, just a minute, I really thought she had me."

"I don't think anyone will ever really have you down for long," Jackson said, guiding me toward a hallway at the edge of the room.

"That's a lot more faith in me than you had when we first met," I said.

"Let's just say you're very persuasive after I've seen you in action," she said before she turned and took a quick walk around the wall. Pushing aside a few loose bricks, she called, "Hey, stairs leading upwards!"

"Told you." I tried to increase my walking pace to get to the stairs.

Jackson helped me, making sure I stayed upright in my haste to get up the stairs.

I stumbled a few times, but Jackson kept me from face planting and eating the clay. I grunted in pain as we climbed higher up the stairs and streaks of sunlight began to appear. The air warmed and suddenly wasn't so stale and coarse in my lungs. Against the burning pain of my injuries, I took a deep breath and then let it all out.

"God that feels good," I murmured.

Jackson nodded beside me, taking her own slow, deep breaths. She finally turned to me and asked, "What are we going to do about Aramis and Eten?"

I took a deep breath. "Well, we made a promise to them, right? We promised that we'd get a real burial site, somewhere that Eten could rest in."

Jackson nodded. "I have a few friends at the funeral home here. I want to get him a real gravestone, something with his name on it. But, that's really all we know about him, isn't it? I don't even know what his last name was."

"Somehow I don't think that'd much matter. We've got enough. We can put them both to rest somewhere out here where they can watch over all this land and keep an eye on things if they want, but where no one will really bother them. No one except for us."

Jackson nodded. "I think they’d like that." She sighed. "What about her?" She looked back over her shoulder. "Should we do anything with her?"

I shook my head adamantly. "She doesn't deserve anything after all the crap she's done. All she's going to get is buried down here forever. Soon as we get back to the surface I'm going to make sure every entrance into or out of the place is blown to kingdom come so nothing makes it out or back in. Whatever's down there is going to stay there."

Jackson nodded. "And I'll keep an eye on it, make sure nothing strange happens. And if it does, guess it's good to know I've got a friend I could call on for some help." She looked at me.

I smiled. "You got it. But first, I think a hospital visit might be in order."

Jackson nodded as we took stock of where we were. I slumped to the ground. Now that the adrenaline was fading from my blood, I could feel everything starting to drop and get heavy. Peering upwards, I could see Jackson waving her phone around for a signal and then I saw nothing but darkness as I faded out of consciousness.

Chapter 18

I came to with Jackson at my side, looking over my medical chart.

“You supposed to be reading that?” I asked, voice slurred with sleep.

Jackson jumped and dropped the chart. “You weren’t supposed to be awake for another day.”

“I don’t follow rules very well.” I winced as I sat up. “How long was I out for? When can I get out of here?”

“You’ve been here for two whole days. The doctors want to run a few more tests and keep you for observation. They’re worried about-“

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I have to stay.” I pressed the nurse page button. “I know the leave hospital against medical advice forms well.”

Jackson shook her head, smiling. “You get yourself signed out of here and I’ll pick you up out front. I’ve got something I want to show you.”

I nodded and watched Jackson leave just as the nurses came in and my next real fight began.

*****

About thirty pieces of paper later, I was being wheeled to the front of the hospital. That was one fight I had lost; I had to be wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Jackson’s truck sputtered up to the entryway and she hopped out to open up the passenger door for me.

I noticed my bike was pulled into the bed of the truck, all my things already packed. Just barely listening to the nurse’s string of directions, I waved and hopped into Jackson’s truck.

Jackson shook her head, waving to the nurse as the truck bucked to life and we sped off.

“You know you really ought to listen to medical advice,” she told me.

“I’m whole and fine,” I said, “and I’ve wasted more than enough time laying out in a bed. There’s still all kinds of things out here that need my attention. The world’s a mess, and I’m here to fix what I can.”

She shook her head again and I winced as the truck bumped down the familiar road leading to the cemetery. I tensed for just a moment, and then relaxed. The Bone Queen was dead, and nothing dead would be coming after me anymore. Well, nothing sent from her at least.

Jackson parked in the gravel lot and stood close by as I got out of the car and hobbled after her. She led me into the cemetery, past the unmarked section.

“I had the entryways into those underground tunnels closed up,” she said. “Real quiet. Don’t think anyone but us even knows they’re here at all.”

“Thanks,” I said, glancing toward the mausoleum we had originally entered the bone pit of hell through. I shook those thoughts away. “Where are we headed?”

“I thought you’d want to pay your respects,” Jackson said.

I nodded. “You found a burial site?”

“Out of the way, but nice,” she promised. “I think they’d like it.”

She walked me past the edge of the unmarked graves and through a few sections of trees. Behind a rather thick growth of trees was a clearing where two very small gravestones rested side by side. One simply read ‘Aramis’ and the other ‘Eten’.

I nodded. “I think you’re right. They’d like it.” I leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing and closed my eyes for a moment. I wasn’t the praying-all-the-time type, but for these two I sure hoped they finally found the rest they both had been looking for.

When I opened my eyes Jackson was watching me. “So, where are you going to now?” she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Not sure yet. I guess home is a good place to start. I’m sure by the time I get back I’ll have a dozen new jobs to pick up.”

She nodded.

“What are you going to do?” I asked. “What happened with your job?”

She offered me a sly half-smile. “Well, turns out that a freak electrical fire destroyed a lot of the morgue. Several bodies were lost in the blaze.”

“Oh? That so?” I asked innocently.

Jackson smiled, shaking her head. “I don’t know how you do what you do. I don’t think I ever could.”

“I do what I do so that people like you don’t have to,” I explained, rolling my shoulders.

She nodded, and we stood in silence, looking over the gravestones for a few minutes before I turned back toward the cemetery. “Help me get my bike out of the truck?” I asked.

She nodded, and we walked back across the cemetery. Working together, we freed my bike from the bed of the truck and onto the ground.

I offered Jackson my hand. “It’s been a pleasure.”

She smiled and took my hand firmly, giving it a solid shake. “It has been an honor, and if you ever find yourself in Epsilon again…”

“You’ll be the first to know,” I promised as I let go of her hand and climbed onto my bike.

The engine revved to life and Jackson waved me off.

Heading down the road, I put the Bone Queen out of my mind. She was gone, but there’ll always be a need for the Pulptress.

About the Author

Andrea Judy is a writer who makes her home in Atlanta, GA. Passionate about language, she writes in multiple genres, and has had poems and short stories appear in various literary magazines as well as in several anthologies. She also studies and writes about fandom and video games.

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THE PULPTRESS VS. THE BONE QUEEN: BLOOD AND BONE

Edited by Tommy Hancock and Morgan McKay

Editor in Chief, Pro Se Productions-Tommy Hancock

Director of Corporate Operations-Morgan McKay

Publisher & Pro Se Productions, LLC-Chief Executive Officer-Fuller Bumpers