The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (3 page)

Jared was about to answer when the door to
the small corridor behind them finally broke in and the people from
outside spilled into the small room. Almost too fast to see the man
let Jared go and sprinted the three or four steps to the window
behind Sophie and hurled himself at it, his arms out in front of
him. The glass shattered loudly and Jared watched dumbfounded as he
disappeared into the night, the rain of glass following him
down. 

Jared turned from the shattered window to the security
guards and a nurse who were piling into the room. They looked
around quickly and saw the chaos and disarray. The nurse moved
quickly to Sophie and checked her vital signs and pulse, then
turned to the others
.
“She’s ok,”
she said, exhaling heavily, relieved. Then she glared
at Jared and seethed.
“Just
what the HELL happened in here young man?!!”

Chapter 2

As Jared got out of the taxi at Heathrow
airport he felt dizzy. The holiday in Malta had been planned for
about nine months and like Susan’s baby, his mother had fussed and
fretted the whole time. For the last seven days she’d gone into
anxiety overdrive until even Jared’s father had got sick of it as
she worried about the house in a frenzy of laundry, suitcases and
countless repacking of everybody’s luggage. 

The incident in the hospital a week earlier
had been awful and when the man had leapt out the window Jared had
been left alone with the comatose Sophie. Initially hostile to him,
the nurse and security guards had softened when his visible fear
and tears had made it quite clear that he’d simply interrupted
someone who had come to the girl’s room to cause mischief. The
police had interviewed him a short time later with his distraught
and tearful mother present alongside his ashen-faced father. Jared
had decided to lie and had stated only that a horrible man in a
nasty suit had been in the room when he’d walked past and had
trapped him and then jumped out the window. For some reason he felt
that he should respect the stranger’s wishes and not mention him or
the unbelievable things he’d seen. He’d managed to keep the
bracelet hidden, which was difficult as he couldn’t take it off no
matter what he did.

 
His mother had initially been
skeptical about his involvement and had asked him in front of the
police if he’d not smashed the window himself and was “fibbing” in
order to cover up. He was secretly pleased when the female
detective interviewing him had abruptly told his mother to shut up,
after she interrupted their
conversation for the third time to ask if Jared was “sure”
he wasn’t hiding something.

 
The
police had said they’d be in touch and had phoned a
few days later to say Jared wasn’t a suspect. They added that he
was in their opinion a brave lad for trying to stop whoever was in
the room. They then stated that in future he should call for help
and not try to intervene himself.  

His mother’s stress levels had gone through
the roof and he was glad that now finally they were about to go on
holiday and hopefully she would relax.

 
His father paid the
taxi driver and they got the suitcases out the boot. Jared’s
slipped and fell onto the tarmac.

 “
Watch what you’re doing
Jared!”
his mother snapped
angrily.
“If you looked after
other people’s property as much as your stupid comic books then you
wouldn’t keep breaking things all the time”
she seethed
.

 
The taxi driver
looked uncomfortable and Jared’s father looked away.
 

Jared knew she was just being spiteful but
kept quiet, knowing arguing would simply result in an embarrassing
display outside Terminal 5.

 
They moved into the
departure area. Only a few people were milling about as it was
6am.

 “
Quickly Jared, come on
Paul,”
his mother said
bossily. As they walked along Jared felt his wrist get warm. He
pulled back his sleeve to see that the green jewel in his bracelet
was glowing faintly. He shrugged and pulled his sleeve back,
glancing quickly to check that his parents hadn’t
seen.

 
As they moved deeper
into the huge room Jared squinted at the bright glare compared to
the gloom in the shadowy area they had been in before. The roof and
walls were glass and metal, towering above them in vast skeletal
forms. Huge metal pillars with vast nuts and bolts linking it all
together. His father spotted the departures screen nearest to them
and moved towards it. Jared felt the warmth get hotter on his wrist
and was starting to worry, he pulled his sleeve back as the glow
from the jewel became brighter.

 
His father returned and
smiled
. “
The flight checks in at desk 17, on the
left.”

 
As they moved towards the
desks a hooded and robed figure stepped out of an elevator and
looked around
slowly
, eyes finally
resting on Jared. Moving forward holding a large tube in one hand,
like
for mailing a
poster,
it moving lithely and
soundlessly between people, never bumping into
anyone.

 
Above them through
the glass structure were clouds of the early morning. Blue sky was
spattered amongst them and Jared hoped the day would have good
weather.

 
There was only one person
ahead of th
em at the check-in
desk. Jared’s mother’s insistence that they arrive a full 4 hours
before the flight was due to leave to cover for
“complications”
meant that they wouldn’t have to queue. The lady on the
desk smiled brightly as they approached and asked for their
passports. Jared glanced down at his wrist; the jewel was bright
green now and hot enough to feel like sunlight on his skin. It
wasn’t painful but it was impossible to ignore. As he glanced at
it, it began to pulsate in a steady rhythm and Jared remembered
what the man in the hospital had said. He was frightened now and
just as he looked to his father there was a deafening crash above
them.

 
Everyone looked up as chunks
of glass rained down, three or four thudding against the luggage
conveyer belt and one splitting a suitcase open, the clothes
bursting out. The cascade spattered around them and people shielded
their eyes and turned away. A loud whooping could be heard
and
, almost too quick to see,
a figure swooped down in a graceful arc from the ceiling. It
swerved in mid air and stopped in front of Jared and his terrified
parents. It was standing astride some kind of hover board and it
grinned wickedly. Dressed in tattered black leather and wearing
what looked like flying goggles and a black, tight fitting leather
cap. The check-in woman screamed in terror and dived behind her
desk. The hooded figure from the elevator began to run towards them
from the other side of the hall, sprinting fast while prising the
lid off the large
tube he was
carrying
.
 

“
We-e-e-lll
,”
the creature on
the hover board cackled malevolently.
“What do we have here then? Time to come with me
little boy.”
It grinned
evilly and licked its lips, reaching out to
Jared.

 “
No use to run, we catch you
boy. We love the chase we do,”
the creature laughed loudly and glanced at Jared’s father
who was standing rigid, his mouth silently opening and
closing.

 
His mother screamed
and fainted, hitting the floor with a loud thud. The creature
maneuvered the board to where Jared’s father stood and gave Paul a
hard shove, propelling him backwards towards his prostrate wife
where he toppled over and sat down hard on the floor.
 

“
Poor daddy
,”
the creature
snarled snatching its head round to glare at Jared. It spied the
bracelet on his wrist and tutted theatrically.
“Oooh, toys have we? Not going to do you much
good now.”
 

Jared was dumbstruck and scared beyond
belief. The creature had slitted, orange eyes that glowed brightly
and its smile was like a row of kitchen knives.  

Everywhere people were frozen to the spot.
The robed and hooded figure was pounding across the floor, tearing
the top off the long tube and reaching inside. 

The creature leaned over and cocked its head
conspiratorially.
“Come with
us boy, we take you for a ride,”
it said in almost a whisper, winking as it did
so. 

The people around them were staring, unmoving.
The check-in clerks were clearly
petrified but the nearest one scrabbled with her hand for the panic
button under her desk. 

Jared backed away. Chunks of glass were still pattering
down from the ceiling where the creature had burst through. It
snorted loudly through its nostrils as Jared staggered back
further, the jewel in his arm bracelet now glowing with a vivid and
almost blinding green light, as clear as a freshly cut emerald. A
piece of glass tocked against his shoulder and snapping out of his
fear he turned and ran. He remembered what the man had said in
the
hospital
“don’t let them get hold of you, do
whatever you can to get away.”

 “
IT TICKLES!!!”
The creature whooped with delight
and kicked the side of the black, bobbing board with its heel.
Weaving after Jared as he tore terror stricken down the concourse,
people staring dumbfounded as he ran past. The creature threw its
head back and laughed loudly, clearly enjoying the thrill of chase.
Jared glanced over its shoulder and saw the creature’s brown and
yellow, crooked teeth jutting from it mouth.
“God,”
he
thought suddenly,
“don’t any
of these people have dentists?”
and then wondered why he’d thought that at this of all
times. 

He turned down a side corridor and saw that it branched off
to left and right with closed shops either side, their grills down.
The creature swerved the board round the corner with an impressive
curve, the front end rising up and laughed again.
“Run boy, tickle all you want. We
will find you so we will!”

 
Jared turned and the
creature smoothly powered the board towards him. He staggered
backwards and tripped over his feet, landing hard on the floor and
wincing.

 
The creature lowered
itself and the board to just above ground level and then its voice
took on a serious tone.

 “
You come we take you, you don’t come we take you. Your
choice boy.”

 
Jared sat staring
through frightened eyes at the triumphant creature. As he looked
past the hovering monster he saw the hooded man charge round the
corner and pound up the corridor towards them. The creature
grinning at him was oblivious and simply stared at Jared and
reached out its hand, the filthy, curved nails on its fingers
clawing the air.

 
The hooded figure grasped
something inside the tube and tugged hard. A sword
in its sheath was pulled clear. He
dropped the tube, grasped the sheath with one hand and yanked the
weapon free. Jared saw to his amazement that it had three golden
blades which shone brightly, a big, engraved central blade and a
thinner one either side. As the man hurtled down the corridor he
raised the sword and just as the hovering creature turned to see
what was behind it the running man launched himself in a flying
kick. A booted foot caught the creature in the chest and with a
whoosh of air it flew back, smacking into the large window facing
the runways and then collapsed on the ground. The man ran past
Jared and as the creature furiously struggled to its feet it tugged
a long, thin blade free from its belt. Jumping into a squatting
position, it hissed madly as its attacker thundered towards
it.

 “
Cursed meddling
swine!!!”
it hissed loudly,
raising the blade. Before it could do anything else the figure
swung the three bladed sword towards it and on impact the creature
seemed to explode. One second there was an angry hissing monster,
the next the air was full of what looked like black dust. It
reminded Jared of watching a vacuum cleaner bag explode. The dust
shone and glittered crazily and swirled around the man who drew the
sword back into a defensive stance. With a disembodied scream the
particles flooded into the man’s chest, who stood impassive and
unmoving. Then there was no sign that the giggling monster had ever
existed except for its hover board, still bobbing slightly in the
air. Then, that too turned to dust and after a second the particles
sank to the floor.

 
The man sheathed the sword and
slung it over his
shoulder by
the red strap
.

 
He moved quickly
towards Jared and without saying anything scooped him up under his
arm and ran quickly down the left corridor.

 “
HEY! Let me go!”
Jared screamed in shock and
indignation, futilely struggling against the powerful grip. The
stranger ignored him. Jared saw signs they were heading for the
shuttle train platform that led to the other terminals and he
kicked madly. The people around them were pointing and shouting,
one or two taking photos on their mobile phones and cameras. The
man holding him skidded around a corner and then ran down a flight
of steps, bounding over them three at a time. He barged a woman out
of the way on the escalator and in four quick strides was at the
bottom and running to the train platform. The few early morning
passengers turned at Jared’s screams for help as the huge figure
jumped down onto the track and bolted into the dark tunnel. Jared
caught a glimpse of the digital clock on the platform wall. It said
“next train in 2 minutes.”