Edge of End (25 page)

I recalled what Malcolm had told me
back in the café about the visions which drive the residents crazy.
They grabbed your head and play with your mind pulling out the
reality of you, and I remembered the guy on the street hitting his
head against the street lamp. My consciousness could’ve been sucked
by visions, the sense of reality been replaced by false one, and
how was I supposed to know? I mightn’t have been in this night at
all.

Malcolm wasn’t like him–too quiet,
running a step behind me. And Elizabeth–she had been out and then
had returned more determined assuring me she knew the way out of
night, but only thing we could do was running.

With those thoughts in my head, my
eyes dropped to the ground, I ran between two walls. I looked at
Elizabeth’s direction. The darkness in front of us swayed, the air
waved like liquid. I doubted my eyes, my legs hauling me into that
phenomenon themselves.

Abruptly a man rushed out of the
darkness and ran towards us. Like a soul-eater he was smoky,
ghostly. He wasn’t really human, rather a hologram lost within the
night.

I couldn’t see his face, but I was
sure he was looking back over his shoulder as if something–a demon
or a beast–was pursuing him. I slow down a bit, so did Elizabeth
and Malcolm. She peeked back at me with a great surprise, opened
her mouth to say something, but thought better of it.

“
What the–” A surprised
voice let out of me.

I opened my mouth anew to call to the
man but was interrupted by what happened next. A black thing about
a dog size appeared from the darkness and flung itself onto the
running man who grabbed the thing in mid-air and tossed it towards
us. I didn’t have time to react. The thing flew across the distance
between us and swooped down right at me. I shielded my head with my
hands and tried to duck. There was no way to avoid the
crash.

A panicked cry escaped my mouth when
the black thing hit me. I expected pain, finding myself rolling on
the ground the black thing in my arms. Instead it just passed
through me like strong wind causing me to lose my balance and
tumble to the ground. Before I would peer back the thing was pulled
into the night and out of sight.

I kept staring at the spot where the
black doglike thing had just vanished, my stomach flattering. The
coldness when it had passed me numbed my mind and it stopped
processing for a while.

At first I heard Elizabeth’s voice
coming from far away, the next was stronger and the third sounded
normal.

“
Are you okay?” she was
asking.

I looked up at her anxious
face.

“
What was that?” I managed
to say.

Before she could reply, Malcolm,
standing on my other side, pointed to where the strange man had
come from.

“
Watch out,” he said
loudly.

A big shadow, darker than the night
itself, followed the man who had just run past us. In a second it
was going to engulf us, we had only a moment to react. The only
thing I managed was holding Elizabeth’s hand, and with a shriek she
flung herself onto me covering me with her body, Malcolm tossed
himself aside to the ground. The shadow embraced us bringing a
strong and cold wind that finally froze even my heart, my blood
stopped in my veins. I tightened my arms around Elizabeth thinking
that was the end of our incredibly journey.

We said nothing to each other, we
couldn’t say anything because I thought my lips were glued
together. It was like we had jumped into a fridge the air of it 100
degrees below zero.

I wished myself back to
the
town,
to the
threshold of hell. It seemed to me heaven among the night, the
smoky soul-eaters, the ghostly man and the shadowy wind that went
past us and was shortly gone. The first some seconds I didn’t let
go of Elizabeth, keeping her tightly in my arms, so did
she.

I opened my eyes slowly and regarded
around. Malcolm was seated on the ground readjusting his rag on his
face.

“
It’s over,” I whispered
in Elizabeth’s ear.

She let go of me and moved back. “Are
you all right?”

“
I don’t know. We were
through the most freezing shadow ever,” I answered and pulled
myself into a sitting position. “What was that?”

She shrugged. I looked at the old
man.

“
We need to hide. The
soul-eaters are still on us, remember?” he said.

I nodded.

“
Can you stand up?”
Elizabeth asked as she struggled into her feet dust falling from
her clothes.

“
Give me a hand,” I
said.

It was easier than I’d expected. I
thought my legs were as frozen as they were going to crack and
shatter if I moved them.

“
Let’s hide in that
building,” Malcolm indicated the nearest one. More three walls that
would go down any moment burying us beneath its weight than a
building. Nevertheless we headed for it.

Elizabeth and I sat down on the ground
at a corner. Malcolm leaned against the wall and exhaled a deep,
cloudy breath. After the cold in the shadow the night air seemed to
me warm.

Finally I broke the silence. “What was
that?” she asked. “Another storm?”

“
I don’t think so,” I
expected a supposition form Malcolm, but that was Elizabeth who
answered me.

I looked at her with questioning
eyebrows.

“
When I saw that man I
thought it was you,” she went on. “I’d been thinking you were
always behind me.”

“
I was always behind you,
Elizabeth.”

“
I know. I glanced back
and saw you there. But then, I really had a strange sensation the
running man was you.”

“
I couldn’t be in two
different places at the same time, could I?” I smirked.

“
On Earth you couldn’t,”
Malcolm said with husky voice. “In here–” he trailed off without
finishing his thought.

“
How many times were you
in different places at the same time?” I asked him in annoyance.
Elizabeth looked doubtfully at me. “That man wasn’t me,” I pointed
to the way we’d come from, my eyebrows arched. “I don’t know what
you saw there Elizabeth, but didn’t you notice it wasn’t even a
human. Yes, outwardly it looked like a human, but it was… fuck. I
can’t even describe it.”

“
Smoky,” Elizabeth
murmured.

“
Yeah, whatever,” I let
out angrily. “He didn’t have flash, he was a ghost,
transparent.”

“
Maybe because you
appeared in the same place at the same time?” she
supposed.

“
That wasn’t me,” I said
outraged. “Hell, open your eyes and look at me.” Instead she tilted
her head and looked away, but I grabbed her by shoulder and shook
her. “Look at me,” I demanded.

“
Jonathan!” she pushed me
back rudely.

“
Calm down, Jonathan,”
Malcolm jumped to his feet. Was he going to hit me? “We’re in
fuckin’ evil world where everything could be possible. You can’t
know for sure.”

I rose holding on to the wall. “I know
where I’m. That man wasn’t me,” I said vigorously. Then it hit me
and an awkward smile appeared on my face. “You think I’m not real.
You think I’m a spy that the town put with you and is playing with
your poor minds, don’t you?” I glanced at Elizabeth taking a pause.
“If I was something else–a town freak, why would I free you,
Elizabeth? Tell me, why would I come to your house and save you
from the monster?”

“
Who tells that she’s a
real soul too?” Malcolm cut me off.

“
Stop it,” Elizabeth put
in and reached for my hand. “I didn’t think you aren’t real. I just
say I saw you.”

“
It can’t be me–” I
urged.

“
He moved like you, the
same hair color,” Elizabeth began but I interrupted her turning to
her.

“
You didn’t see his face,
did you?” I asked and she nodded. “Because there wasn’t a
face.”

“
I wouldn’t think I’d ever
say this, but Elizabeth is right,” Malcolm murmured. “Seeing the
man I also thought it was you.”

“
Maybe this place plays
with your mind and brings up some memories,” Elizabeth spluttered.
“Jonathan, don’t freak out. I don’t think you’re a
mirage.”

“
Yeah. If you remember,
the light in the town is on because of me. So I’m the only one
among us to have chances to be real.”

I pulled my hand rudely and sat down.
Elizabeth glanced at me resentfully, then she took a sit next to
me. Malcolm came up to the hole on the wall which once had been a
window and peeked out lightening a cigarette.

“
Can you see anything?” I
asked lowly.

“
Nope,” he replied but
kept looking out.

“
You think it’s clever to
smoke in night? The cigarette light gives us away.”

He grumbled something under his breath
and put out the cigarette. I sighed dropping my eyes downwards,
then I looked at Elizabeth. Her mouth twitched, she tried to smile
but soon gave up.

“
Where are we going?” I
asked her. “You said there is a way out. How do you know
that?”

“
My house,” she said. “I
can feel it in this place too. It’s calling me.”

“
Why Malcolm can’t feel
his house?” I thought aloud.

“
She’s weak, her house has
great power on her. I broke it a long time ago,” Malcolm explained
peeking back over his shoulder. “The question is where your house
is calling you?”

“
At least we have a
destination,” I didn’t let Elizabeth to answer. “How long
left?”

“
I don’t know,” she shook
her head then looked at me with narrowed eyes. “I feel it closer,
but I can’t count the distance. I can say that we’re close.” She
put her hand to her chest. “It hits right here.”

Two wails almost sounding
simultaneously pierced the air, and the walls shook. They were too
close as if the soul-eaters were next to me and were yelling in my
ear. Elizabeth instinctively moved to me and found herself in my
arms, Malcolm sat on his knees and looked at me in alarm. He put
his finger to his mouth and froze. My breath caught in my chest, my
hart forgot to beat, my ears strained to any sound.

They were out there, after us, closer
that we’d thought.

We sat in silence for a
long while afraid to move even our eyes. The cold air had its
chance to possess us but we struggled hard to keep our
bodies
against shaking.
Finally Elizabeth gave up and quivered in my arms like a leaf in a
high wind.

“
I’m sorry I shouted at
you,” I dared a whisper.

“
Never mind,” she
mouthed.

Malcolm slowly and carefully stood up
and reached the window. I dared not to call him, I let go Elizabeth
pointing to the old man and started crawling to him.

As I peeked out nothing but silent
darkness entered my view. Had the soul-eaters gone?

“
What do you think?” I
asked Malcolm as low as I could.

“
We can risk a run to her
house,” he pointed to Elizabeth who had shrunk in the corner, her
body shaking. I felt my legs and hands quivering too, my lips
should be dark blue.

“
If we stay we’d freeze
to–” I stopped in the middle sentence. I had wanted to say ‘freeze
to death’. I didn’t know what would happen to us if we sit there
and give us to coldness.

“
They might be right there
waiting for us to reveal ourselves.”

“
Can’t we fight them?
Didn’t Mangaliny mention anything?”

“
Maybe in town we could
fight a lone soul-eater, but in here–” he looked at his palms, so
did I. The power I had used to feel in the town had gone with
nightfall. “We’re rabbits in wolves’ territory. So we must stay low
and crawl.”

“
You don’t mean really
crawling, do you?” I allowed a cold smile. Then I heard a sound of
a stone to a stone and instantly looked in Elizabeth’s direction.
She had stood up and was approaching to us.

Next moment Malcolm and I looked out
the window in awe to see smoky demon. Luckily nothing was changed,
the night stood undisturbed.

“
Be careful,” I told
Elizabeth as she was next to me. She just nodded and stole a look
out.

“
We must go,” she said. “I
can’t stand cold anymore. Jonathan, we’re close. I believe we had
come the half way already.”

“
I think she’s right,” I
told Malcolm. “The wails has stopped coming.”

“
We run out and we might
not make even ten steps,” Malcolm murmured. “If they are there in
the dark, those soul-eaters, they are too fast.”

“
Maybe they have caught
that man, the other me,” I teased. “They couldn’t know how many of
us are here. They just heard Elizabeth and came after us. So maybe
this is our chance.”

My idea made Malcolm to tilt his head
and muse. I waited patiently looking from him to
Elizabeth.

“
Look,” Elizabeth nudged
my arm.