Authors: Paul Wigmore
She didn’t need to ask what the meaning of the little poem was, it was quite self explanatory, but could she believe it? Could it really be true? The
re was only one way to find out. She took the key and slid it into the brass lock on the front of the box. Liu was watching her like a vulture circling a lame calf. He had so wanted to open that box for many a year, but his loyalty to his father had forbade him to do it, and besides, his father had given him the name of the Water, that should have made him happy, but it was only to help him locate The Guardian and bring her to him, that was all.
She turned the key in the lock and as she did so, the door to the room slammed shut. The window rattled in its pane and as she removed the key and put her hand inside the velvet lined box
an ear shattering cry came from inside the box itself. It was the cry of the wind; it was the sound of waves crashing upon the rocks mixed with the crackle of fire and somewhere amongst that was the sound of every living plant being born from the soils of the planet. The noise was like nothing they had ever heard before. Seb put his hands over his ears as the noise enveloped the room but Clara pushed her hand deeper into the little box and brought out a little sheet of paper. It had been wrapped up in a scroll like fashion with a little red ribbon holding it together.
Liu was thrown back against the large metal headboard of the hospital bed, he grabbed his covers and tried to protect himself with those. Seb had gotten up from his chair because of the noise and overwhelming cacophony emanating from the little box and had stepped back towards the window, still with his hands over his ears.
Clara took the little piece of paper and unravelled it from the ribbon. She read the words out aloud, each one of the names would have been a tongue twister to anyone else because they were so unpronounceable but she read them with ease and as she did so, the cacophony began to die down. Not one of them had noticed but since Clara had opened the box, outside it had begun to rain heavier than any other day that year. The thunder and lightning was of apocalyptic proportions but when she had read the names, that also died down.
‘Hey, what’s going on in there... Mr Wong... Hello?’ An orderly came crashing through the door, he had been trying to gain entrance for the past five minutes but the door had been stuck and he had heard all sorts of unnatural sounds coming from this room. He finally pushed his way through. Clara turned her head towards him and just blew out a very soft breath in his direction. The door was slammed shut again knocking him to his very well padded behind on the other side of the door.
Clara rose from her seat, taking the box with her, although she no longer needed the box or the paper that the names were written on. The names had somehow been ingrained into her mind. She felt as if she were Mother Nature herself. The power that was coursing through her veins at that moment was undeniable, it was unquestionable and unequivocal.
She turned and looked into the eyes of Liu as he sat back against his headboard, his breathing had become erratic, he wasn’t meant to get excited as his heart was very feeble. She saw the death in his eyes and he knew it was there too as he gazed his final gaze upon
“The Guardian.”
‘I am honoured to have met you’ Seb managed to regain his composure enough to clock the momentary glance between the two and then Liu sighed his final breath, his last words were “Find the trident before...” and then he trailed off to find his father in his garden of lanterns before he could finish his final thought.
Seb got up and rushed over to the little mans bedside, he searched for a pulse, only to find none. There was a hammering on the door as the orderly got to his feet and also regained his composure. Clara blew a kiss towards Liu which
somehow took on a physical form, it looked much like a fluorescent blue butterfly that winged its way to his lips and then disappeared once it touched his flesh.
‘Right, I’ve had just about as much as I can take’ Seb shouted as he watched the strange butterfly thing meander its way over to Liu and disappear on his lips. He got up and started towards the door. Clara had already opened the door and brushed past the security that had been banging on the door with uncommon ease. As Seb got outside he saw they were all lay on the floor, perfectly unharmed but not willing to rise until they had passed.
‘What the hell just happened in there?’ he screamed after her... ‘What was that?, the whole thing with the noises and the.. the... the butterfly kisses? Are you kidding me? Come on’ he shouted to the back of her head. If he had looked a little further to the floor, he would have realised that she was no longer walking but, “floating” down the corridor but he was too busy still reeling from what had just happened in Lius room to notice
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Ring a ring o’ roses
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo, a-tishoo
We all fall down.
The song had been repeating through his head hour after hour, day after day but it was no less beautiful to him. Gavin had gone back to the charred remains of the house he had lived at with
Michelle; he had nowhere else to go. Sure...he could just turn up at any house he wanted to now and he could turf the occupant out, but he had a connection here.
He could feel that inside of him, there was something changing, and he wasn’t too unhappy about that. The crimes he had committed
since he had met Saul, well they were all deserving and the next on his list was Craig. He was going to make sure that Craig met a slow and agonising death for what he did to his Michelle.
He sat there for a while on the stairs, looking down at the place where he had been held and his love Michelle had been tortured and he felt the anger welling up inside of him again and he couldn’t get the words from that
blasted song out of his head. They seemed to be getting louder and louder, as if the children were in the room with him. It was no longer beautiful to him, the words seemed to echo off every wall and bounce back at him, they drove him into a panic and he rushed from the stairs into the blackened front room with his hands covering his ears.
‘Stop it... Stop it’ he cried to no one in particular, ‘Leave me alone please’. He ran into the kitchen still with his hands held to his ears and he kicked the door closed behind him and then he heard a more familiar voice, a more comforting voice, and he was glad to hear it.
‘Bring thy soul through the air
To serve before your master here’
‘Bring thy soul through the air
To serve before your master here’
‘Bring thy soul through the air
To serve before your master here’
And before he knew it he was travelling back over the city, retracing the steps of his very first journey that he had taken when he had met with Saul. Only this time he knew exactly where he was going, and he was happy with that. The city went by again in a blur of lights and he finished his journey at the feet of Saul.
‘I can see you have been busy my little protégé and you have made me very happy with your progress’ Saul smoothly remarked as he lifted Gavin to his feet.
Gavin looked up into the purple eyes of the only man that ever treated him with any respect and he felt love, he felt love for the man that had helped him become who he truly was, he felt utter respect and he also felt fear. Gavin was now probably the most powerful being on this planet but the respect and love he held for Saul was stronger. He threw his arms around him and thanked him for making him who he was.
Saul slapped him to the ground so hard that it would have separated the skull from the spine of any normal person, but Gavin just lay there confused and angry.
‘Never ever lay your hands on me again’ barked Saul, ‘Are we not men? Are we not bloodthirsty, unforgiving soldiers of torment? He cried at the top of his lungs. The demons that crept among the chandeliers even darted to hide away from the sound and Gavin reeled backwards as if hit from some invisible force.
Gavin was confused to say the least, he was happy to see Saul but he had made him angry now so he picked up a little pebble from the dust on the floor and he flung it at him, willing it to grow in size before it met its target. By the time it reached Saul it was the size of a basketball
but was heavier than a medicine ball. Saul seemed to be pleased at this, he simply side stepped the oncoming missile and let it smash to a million pieces behind him.
Gavin went for ano
ther pebble but Saul gathered him up before he had the chance to throw the missile.
‘Now the formalities are over, shall we talk?’ he asked as he led Gavin to a rather plush chair towards the bar in the warehouse/ hotel.
He found himself laughing and joking with Saul over the next few hours of his recent escapades. The demon seemed to be genuinely interested in how he had done away with Pinky and Phil, even though he had been a passenger on both occasions, he thought it best just to let Gavin tell his story without interruption.
He listened i
ntently to Gavins story and after a while he turned toward the bar.
He called for a bartender named Craig who appeared before them both. He had a silver tray in one hand and a white towel over the other. He seemed not to know why he was there or
where he was.
‘What the fuck?’ stammered Craig the bartender as he saw the two strange men sat in the high backed chairs in front of him. One of them was looking at him as if he
was the main course for Sunday lunch and the other didn’t seem to notice him at all
(at first).
Saul turned to Gavin as the tray fell from Craig the bartenders hand. He had thrown it in protest as 30 seconds ago he had been about to get into bed with his girl and now somehow he was all dressed up like some poncey waiter in a black and white outfit and a towel over his fucking arm like he was gonna serve some drinks to some fucking nonce.
Well screw that
he thought and threw the silver platter towards the two blokes sitting on the poncey chairs.
‘Oy.. oy... you two, what the fuck’s going on here. Am I fuckin’ dreamin’ or what? Yeah that must be it’ he said as he walked closer to the two men sat in the high backed chairs.
‘Well I was just about to get my little self a nice piece of ass, so if ya don’t mind, I’m just gonna be going now, seein as you two are so interested in each other, I think I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone, ya get me?
Craig turned away from the two men and was repeating the same line to himself over and over...
wake up, wake up ya daft cunt.
Saul then saw the spark of recognition that he had been searching for in
Gavin’s eye and felt a surge of exquisite pleasure as Gavin bolted up from his chair and put his hand out towards Craig the bartender.
‘You’re not sleeping’ he said ‘but you might wish that this was your worst nightmare before I have done with you’.
Craig unwillingly was turned around to see the face of
The
Freak
and he knew he wouldn’t be getting no ass anytime soon.
“Am I in hell?” Craig whimpered as he was led towards the middle of the warehouse/ hotel.
He struggled to get away from
The Freak,
but although he had only one hand on his shoulder, it was as if his shoulder were being held in some sort of clamp. There was no give in the grip at all. He was more likely to break his shoulder than he was to free himself of the grip that
The Freak
had on him now.
As he was being frogmarched to wherever it was they were taking him, he could hear bloodcurdling screeches and screams from above him. He didn’t want to look up to see what it was that was making those noises, but he couldn’
t help it. This is something he really regretted doing afterwards. He saw the shadows that hid in the shadows, he saw the beasts that would come and drag him to hell. Before he could take his eyes away he momentarily locked eyes with something that was writhing around the cable holding the chandelier to the ceiling. It was a black and smoky vision of a creature, the like he had never seen before. It had a long and thin head with just two small yellow dots for eyes at the very top of its head which was slightly thicker. There was no mouth that he could see but it had a long thin red tongue that was flicking to and fro from one of the lights. It moved around the top of the chandelier faster than a cat on a hot tin roof. Its body was long and sinewy and it appeared to be smoking, or at least that’s how it looked to Craig. Smoke was emanating from its whole body making it more difficult to make out the exact shape,
not that he wanted to.