The Mortal Fringe (23 page)

"That's quite enough Jay, thank you”
Elizabeth does not want me to hear about that, I can tell from her
voice tone. After all, our bond is what is making us do this
now.

It is almost night, the room looks
just like when I first walk through that door, back when I was just
a troubled boy that had taken an eight hour flight to run away from
his own reality, when I thought that there was nothing else to this
life…Back to when I did not know Elizabeth. I realize that I won't
be here much longer, maybe five, ten minutes tops. I need to buy
some time, I don't want to leave. I can't lose her again. And
suddenly I see the answer in front of me. Something in me, like an
inner voice shows me the thing to do. The books that I left on my
desk, the ones that I had to return to the library, are still
there, waiting to be brought back to their rightful
place.

"Wait" I say, grabbing the books
quickly and holding them with my arms, like if they were the most
valuable thing in my life. "I need to get these back, I'd be in
trouble if I didn't."

"Can't it wait?" Elizabeth asks, quite
frustrated.

"Well, I was going to leave in three
days, then, it could have waited, but now that I am leaving in a
matter of hours…"

"I'll take you there, you will leave
the books and then you will be out of the city, for
good.”

She has everything so planned that I
am terrified of asking if I can stay a bit longer. Obviously, I
don't do it, I just got myself some more time and that's good
enough for me.

We remain silent for about an hour as
Elizabeth makes sure everything is alright. Abigail and Jay seem to
be enjoying a mute conversation, because they keep smiling and
punching each other, like three year olds, it makes it impossible
to see them as mythological beings, they looks so human that the
line that keeps me apart from them is almost invisible to
me.

Elizabeth is seating at the other end
of the room, all by herself, touching something hanging from her
neck. When she removes her hand I can see that it is the same
necklace that she gave me. I suddenly blush, I put my hand around
my own, and don't let go from it until Elizabeth breaks the silence
in the room.

"Ok then, we'll be back in no time.
Please, have everything ready. The flight leaves in three hours,
and you –she says pointing at me– need to board the suitcase. That
means that we are about to be late. So let's go.”

She stands up, crosses the room, grabs
my hand and without even looking at me, blinks and makes us
disappear. I don't even notice the fluctuations anymore, this has
become so normal for me that I think the one thing that will feel
strange is to seat on the plane for eight hours.

We arrive in the library in just a
second. It is closed down but the lights are still on. The silent
room is as beautiful as always, with its stairs at both sides of
the room and the crystal cabinet doors, letting us see the secrets
they hide inside them. I need to look up for one last time. The
second floor, with more books and the banisters around the edges of
the stairs is so mesmerizing that I think I could stare up
forever.

Suddenly a creepy laughter breaks the
silence.

"To be, or not to be" a low and
beastly voice coming from up above surrounds us. "That is the
question. Is it not, my dear sister?"

CHAPTER 33

"It is so easy to get into a mortal's
mind and make them do as I please. It used to be more fun some
centuries ago, now I just get bored and make them kill
themselves."

So the idea of coming here came from
Mal, not from my need to stay close to Elizabeth? I refuse to
believe it. She is not the master of my own will, I won't accept
it.

"Don't you have anyone else to bother
with your exquisite performance, Mal?" Elizabeth's fearless voice
kills the memory of Mal's laughter.

"You see, little girl, I like this
setting, and as you say, I don't have anywhere else to perform at
today, and given that it is just you and me, going after the same
reward, why not just play it out."

Am I the reward?

"I should be Hamlet, of course. I have
the better looks, but no, it's not quite that…. I also have the
brains to trap you both here, making you think that this is nothing
but a game, letting you think that I am crazy." She smiles again as
she walks down the spiral stairs. "You should be Laertes, Hamlet's
final adversary. And obviously the thing next to you would be
Ofelia, the nice but yet defenseless Ofelia, whose ultimate goal,
is… to die."

"In that case, you will join us in the
fall" Elizabeth smiles, ignoring her. "Providing that you have done
your reading, of course, I guess you know that."

"Sweetheart, the premise does not set
for the same conclusion."

"We will see."

"Indeed."

They are facing each other, hands
raised to each other's chest.

Mal makes the first move and Elizabeth
is blown away by an immeasurable force. She hits one of the stairs
and falls on the floor. She stands up quickly enough to avoid being
hit by a computer Mal has thrown at her. Elizabeth disappears and
teleports herself in front of her adversary, Mal crashes into one
of the cabinets and covers the floor with crystal and pieces of
wood.

Before she stands up, Elizabeth points
at me and moves her hand quickly to the door of the library. The
door opens and I am thrown out of the room immediately. The door
closes behind me.

"
Go away. Now."

I pretend I can't hear her. I am lying
on the ground, looking at her being hit over and over again by
Mal's fatal strikes. Elizabeth can't die as fast as I can, but her
body is as human as mine, and even if it heals faster, it sure
hurts as if she was human. I can see her lying on the floor too,
meters away from where I am, and staring at me. She does not care
about Mal, her mind is set on me, and I can feel it.

"Get back, have Abigail get you out
of here."

"I'm not going
anywhere."

Mal hits her again, this time
Elizabeth screams as if she was being tortured to death.

"So you thought you could beat
me?”

"No…" She answers with her rotten
voice. Mal is disappointed with that answer. She wanted a battle,
not a piece of cake. "I knew you were cruel, and pure evil. That's
why you became what you are. I am not surprised."

Mal stands up and smiles at her, with
a surprisingly mad look on her face.

"Is that what she told you? Is that
the reason she gave you for me becoming this?"

Elizabeth has no time to answer, Mal
rises both her arms and pulls Elizabeth up to the ceiling and drops
her on the central desk of the library.

"Is that what she told you?!" she
screams again, repeating her question, more furious than
ever.

Mal then moves her arm and Elizabeth
is thrown against the glass door of the library, I am so close to
her that I can almost touch her. I stand up and put my hand on top
of hers. The glass door is the only barrier between us
now.

"
Go
" she asks again, she is exhausted.
"
If you care
about me, Alex. Please."

With the last bit of her strength she
pushes me to the end of the corridor.

I can't leave her here. I could not
live with that on my back, I have failed my brother, I failed
Ingrid… I won't fail her too. I don't just care about
her.

"I love you, Elizabeth
Mears."

I stand up ignoring my shaking legs
and walk the corridor with my eyes fixed on Elizabeth. Mal is
playing with her body, throwing her from one side of the library to
the other. I can't stand it anymore. I try to unlock the doors but
Elizabeth has made sure that I can't come in. I look around and I
find some wooden chairs near the door. I take one of them and crash
it into the glass, which breaks at the third hit. I take one piece
of crystal, sharp enough to cut my hand the moment I touch it. I
grab it regardless of the pain and walk across the destroyed room.
Mal is on her knees, near Elizabeth's motionless body.

"Perhaps you should ask her what
really happened."

The woman stands up and gets herself
ready for the final hit, but I move faster and before she notices
me I stab her on the side, cutting the palm of my hand and just
scratching her body.

"Was that supposed to hurt me, little
something?"

I can't breathe. She is grabbing me
from my neck and she holds me away from the floor.

"I like this picture."

She breaks into crazy laughter once
more.

"I should have it made into a
postcard."

"Should you now?" Elizabeth is
standing behind her, and her exhausted expression scares me more
than Mal's hand around my neck. The library starts to shake, the
shelves of the books fall down in a matter of seconds and every
volume from the second floor falls on us. Mal lets me go, scared.
The tables, broken glass, computers and books, everything, starts
to move across the wrecked place. Elizabeth looks at Mal, but I
don't recognize her, it is like if it was someone completely
different. Suddenly, Mal is thrown away through the
window.

Everything stops moving, Elizabeth
looks at me for a couple of seconds and then her body falls down to
the floor.

I run to her and hold her in my arms.
I keep calling her name and try to awaken her, but it doesn’t
work.

"
I won't let you leave me like
this
" I
think to myself, and for her. "
You are not going anywhere, not
again
".

I keep trying to wake her up. I call
for help but there's no one in the building.

"
Jay! Abigail
!" I don't know if that will help, I don't
know if they can hear me.

I get closer to her, and kiss her
softly, I don't want her to go, not like this.

When my lips meet with hers I feel my
life leaving my body and getting into hers. I can't get away, I
feel weaker and weaker and I am about to pass out when she finally
wakes up. She let's go of me.

"I need to get you away from
me."

I nod, too tired to answer.

"
And thank you
" she thinks “
for not going
away
."

Jay and Abigail pop up a minute later,
smiling at first but slowly changing their expression to a one full
of terror.

"What happened?"

"Mal, she set us up."

"No, she set me up" I explain,
ashamed.

There's an uncomfortable
silence.

"Abigail, take him away" Elizabeth is
so sure of her words that it hurts me.

I stand up and try to speak, but
before I can do so Abigail is already holding me.

"Goodbye, my friend" Jay is as close
as I am to breaking into tears.

I look at Elizabeth. She does not
move, and she doesn't say a thing. And it looks like if she could,
she would look away rather than have her eyes fixed on me. Those
green eyes, I can't believe how scared I used to be about them not
too long ago. I can't believe I need them by my side now. I can't
just leave, not like this.

"Is that it?" I ask, screaming "that's
all?" I scream louder.

She looks at me and then closes her
eyes. She slowly stands up and opens them again. Her green eyes are
fixed on me.

"Yes."

CHAPTER 34

The morning sun wakes me up. I am
seating on a bench line near the departure gate at the airport.
Abigail is right next to me, holding some magazine which she only
uses to cover her face and avoid being discovered.

"Some of those might be with Mal" She
pulls the magazine even higher "Oh look! I can't believe that
Amanda Barks had another baby!"

Amanda Barks is one of the most famous
Hollywood stars at the moment, I am surprised she knows about her.
She keeps reading and ignores me. I silently seat here, looking at
the gate that will lead me to where I came from. Looking at it
makes my shiver, there's a bizarre and yet perfectly normal mixture
of feelings going on inside me that try to show me everything I
have gained by coming here, and everything that I am going to
lose.

"When does the flight leave?" I ask
trying not to disturb Abigail's intense reading.

"In an hour."

I wish we could just teleport. It
would be much easier, but I need to tell myself every now and then
that if we had opted for the teleportation, the traces of Abigail's
powers would lead them to us straight away.

"Where are Elizabeth and
Jay?"

"Gone. You need to remember
that."

Like I could forget. I still hear
Elizabeth's last words on my head, killing me from the inside out.
She is giving everything up so I can live, I know how thankful I
should be, and I am, but the way she said goodbye troubles my
thoughts.