The Tapestry (27 page)

    She had to have some kind of magical help as he knew that she was not capable of meddling with magic. She had only control over the forces of nature and that alone would not help her. He had to find her and destroy her as she was the only thing in his way of ruling the earth. It should have been easy but he searched and searched to find the one mind that was actively aware of him but there was nothing, just a void.

    She had help from someone with a near true power over the dark forces. While this puzzled him, he relished the challenge it would put to him.

    He stood a towering eighty foot tall and loomed over the city of Manchester as he went on his stampede, crushing the already burning buildings underfoot. He raised his gargantuan head towards the crimson sky, a horned silhouette against it, and let out another victory roar. He would not be stopped no matter who “The Guardian” had called upon to help her.
He couldn’t find her because of the shield that had been put around her but when he saw that vein of water tracing its way unnaturally across the skies, he knew it had to be her and he followed it to its destination. The ant like people were either crushed underfoot or the lucky ones just that just managed to get out of his path ran in the opposite direction to the beast, praying to God for this day to end, and wondering if the sun would ever rise again.

    The Guardian felt the great demon la
nd before she saw the beast appear at the top of Trident Hill. It was of a gargantuan size and its horns were a cold blackness against the red sky, they protruded from either side of its great head and curved inwards towards the top. His red eyes bore straight through her and his nostrils billowed an acrid black fog.

    ‘So Guardian, you think you can stop me from ruling this land? Nothing can stand in my way now. And don’t make me laugh, what do you intend to do with that little water toy?’

    The water was still rushing through the Trident to smash against the egg, but it appeared to be having no effect on the egg. The Guardian was confused... confused and terrified but she stood her ground and carried on hoping against all hope for just the tiniest crack to appear, but there was nothing. Before she knew it Saul’s massive claw had struck her and lifted her off her feet, she flew through the air, she went one way and the Trident went the other imbedding itself into a nearby field.

    ‘Ha ha ha, worthless tiny ant with delusions of Godliness, I spit on you, are you the only defence humankind has sent against me’

    He beat his chest with his mighty claws and roared his demonic laugh.

    The Guardian was shaken but somehow unhurt, she lifted herself above the trees so that she was at eye level with the beast and called her Trident to her. Her hair was splayed out magnificently around her head
and her robes shined an incandescent white against the darkness around them. She shone in the face of evil and she defied him.

    ‘You will not take this land from us, I’ll send you back to the fires of hell where you belong, and I wont waste any spit on you worthless demon’.

    A bolt of fierce yellow flame shot from the Trident and struck Saul straight in his face, he did nothing but wince at the puny effort.

    ‘I live and breath fire you silly little human, you think fire can harm me bitch’ and swatted her away again’.

    ‘Oh, good move’ thought Seb who had beaten a hasty retreat to the side of the pub,
(so much for staying by her side).

    He watched as the two exchanged blow after blow,
she managed to lift the beast up in a hurricane at one point and fling him into another field. Seb grew hopeful at this point but the beast just laughed and turned the hurricane against her. She lifted the mighty oak with the help of the Trident and it flew through the air like a javelin and smacked the beast square in the face, this only enraged him more.
She should have been dead by now, but something or someone was protecting her
, Saul needed to find out who or what was helping her. He tried to look into her mind, but that too was protected. He was growing weary of this tiresome battle now, if he could find out who was helping her then she would be no more, this meddlesome little bitch. He flung himself towards her in a fit of rage and then while Seb was watching the beast stampede towards her he had an idea that struck him like, well... like lightning really.

    ‘Use the lightning Clara... use the lightning to crack the egg’ he shouted hoping that she could hear him.

    She did hear him, of course...
‘why didn’t I think of that, stupid Guardian’
before she had time to chastise herself too much she called forth the lightning that was cracking whips above their heads, it hit the Trident with an electrically charged snap and she guided it towards the egg. It struck with an almighty clap and the egg cracked open.

    Clara fell to the ground exhausted from battle just as
the Dragon emerged from the egg, it looked to be no more than the size of a Shetland pony and The Guardian felt hope ebbing away before she closed her eyes.

    What The Guardian didn’t see was the Dragon as he soared to the skies, he grew in size. Seb was astonished at how he grew. By the time it had reached the top of its upward flight it appeared to Seb to be the size of the other two dragons in one, It was humongous.

    ‘You have tarnished the motherlands demon, you will go back to whence you came’ it looked down on Saul as if it had just found its first feed.

    ‘Aha, a worthy adversary at last’ Saul actually looked pleased at the sight of the beast. Seb saw his chance and ran to where The Guardian lay hoping he would be ignored.
(Unlucky for him)
Saul turned his head to see him running from the safety of the pub across the open field and Seb stopped dead in his tracks when the beast locked eyes with him. It sent cold icy fingers of fear right down his throat into his gullet.

    ‘You, you must be the one protecting the little bitch, well watch me now as I squash her underfoot’ and the beast stamped his foot onto the ground where The Guardian lay.

    ‘Noooooo’ screamed Seb in anguish, but then he saw the look of puzzlement spread across the beasts face as his foot stopped inches above where she lay. No matter how hard he tried he could not break through. Saul fumed at this and bounded over to Seb.

    ‘If it is you protecting her, then it is you who must die’ Seb was paralysed with fear but still managed to wet himself. As Saul came closer, Seb closed his eyes and prepared himself to take his last breath. When it didn’t come
, he timidly opened his eyes again to see the mighty Dragon had picked the Demon up in its’ eagle like claws. It had lifted the demon off the ground and soared high above them. Seb watched in astonishment as the Dragon soared higher and higher above them and then... well then it stopped and flew back towards the ground at breakneck speed.

    ‘Holy shit’ he cried when he realised what the Dragon was planning... the ultimate piledriver. He ran as fast as he could back towards the pub as he heard the might
y roar of protestation from Saul and the screech of dogged determination from the Dragon.

    When they finally hit the ground the earth moved and the trees shook from their roots to their tips. Saul cried out in pain. The crater caused by their landing was probably half a mile long. There were screeches and roars as the two mighty beasts battled it out in the crater tearing at each others bodies with claws and horns
.

    Seb was contemplating running over to Clara again to see if she was still alive before the decision was made for him. Saul rose from the crater first and would be looking for him.
Shit
he thought,
what now?
panic mode overtook him and for some reason he picked up a plant pot from the pub garden and hitched it through a window of the pub. He scrambled through the window pane and ducked down beneath a table in the hope he hadn’t been seen... but he had.

    Saul had watched him climb through the window just as he pulled himself over the lip of the crater. He had managed to subdue the dragon for now
, beating it into unconsciousness, he could kill the dragon right now, but like a cat, he liked to play with his food. A smile spread across his demonic face as he picked up the dragon by its tail and spun it round and round like a hammer. The dragon woke from its reverie but all too late. Saul’s aim was true and the dragon found itself flying through the walls of the pub. It did little damage to the dragon itself but Seb was crushed under the weight of the Dragon and the rubble, the table he had hidden under for protection snapped in two and pierced his lungs.

    Before the Dragon could gather itself
, Saul tried again to crush the Guardian, only to be thwarted once more. He bashed at the ground around her but nothing could break through. His anger was uncontrollable, it was obvious now that the other little ant wasn’t the one helping her, he cried out in frustration.
How could one little ant hold so much power?

                                            
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

    ‘I saw you, inside my mind... I watched you at that door’ Gavin held his sisters hand as they walked the dark hallways of his mind together. When Saul had no further use for Gavin, he had locked him back inside his own mind to wander for eternity. But Gavin saw Clara as she wept at what Saul had done to him, he had loved Lala as much as he had loved Michelle but in a brotherly way. He felt ashamed at the atrocities he had committed in Michelles name. He should have known that he would be discarded when Saul had no further use for him, just like he had left beetle man to rot when he’d had his fun.

    ‘We can make all of this right’ he said, ‘us two...together’

    ‘I knew it wasn’t you Gavvo’ she kissed him sweetly on his cheek and looked down the hallway to the dark passageway that she had stood at before.

    ‘When Saul left me, I thought I was lost inside here forever, lost in my own thoughts and memories. Do you know what that would do to a man? Not that I don’t deserve it
.’ she put a finger to his lips.

    ‘Hush with that talk, you were not yourself, that demon took advantage of you and now...’

    ‘I walked and walked these corridors, wanting to open doors but scared at what I might find. I wandered for what seemed like hours until I heard a voice calling me. I thought I was going mad, maybe I already have... I’m already dead’ he chuckled at the lunacy of it all

    ‘When I got to the room that the voice was coming from, I found the do
or open and inside there was a man, not a very scary looking man by no means but I presume he was wanting to appear friendly to me’ he trailed off seemingly lost in his own thoughts
(which is a bit of a paradox if you think about it)

    ‘Go on’ she urged

    ‘Well he showed me how I had been used and showed me how I could help you, he also told me his name, do you want to know what it was?’

    Clara wasn’t sure if she wanted to
know or not, but urged him on.

    ‘His name was Legion can you believe that
’ he said with a rather deadpan face.

    ‘I spoke with the devil and he showed me what was behind that door that you stood at, I know now why I was guarding it so fiercely, I was an Ill man and.... and’ he began to weep uncontrollably. ‘I’m so sorry Lala for everything I’ve done’

    ‘I know... I know’ Clara didn’t know how to console him; somehow he was now feeling the pain he had brought.

    ‘Let me show you’ he held her hand tighter and led her to the dark passageway. As they walked down the passage, the creatures that had been there before were now gone but it was still as dark as before. Inside the room was Gavin looking a lot younger, maybe ten or fifteen years younger than he was now or would be.

    ‘You never knew about Michelle did you?’ he asked her not waiting for a reply.

   
‘She was my girlfriend, or at least I thought she was. She cooked fine meals for me, she kept a tidy house and she tended to my every need, she was an amazing lover’ Clara winced at this, a little too much information.

    ‘You never mentioned her... why’

    ‘Like I said, I was a sick, sick man... look, there is my Michelle’ She looked into the room proper and saw Gavin with a box about four or five feet long. The look of glee on his face was all too evident.

    ‘This is the day we first met’ he pulled the object out of the box and carefully unwrapped it out of its Styrofoam packaging.

    ‘I thought we had met in Russia, funny how I never really remembered being in Russia though’

    A look of realisation spread across Claras face.

    ‘Oh my god, you poor soul’

    ‘I can see now on the packaging, she was an import from Russia, my whole life was one big lie to myself. Was I that lonely?’ maybe its better off that I’m dead and bound for hell’

    Clara was at a loss for words, if she understood it correctly then Gavin had thought this...this blow up doll to be his girlfriend, or wife or
something
, and he thought that she had cooked all of his meals and kept his house clean and tidy and satisfied his
every
need when in fact it had been him all along. She felt angry at herself that she had not noticed something wrong with her brother. Then again, how many times had she visited him over the years, the guilt then settled heavy on her heart,
maybe she could have done something for him if she had been around more.