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  Chapter twelve: An inch from nothingness

  Fading whispers, floating puffs of cloud-like meandering ghosts, dingy air.

  I found myself in a strange place. With one single step I had moved into another space totally far away from the mist, flying demons and vicious guard dogs.

  I was in a cubicle. A door to my left led into a larger room, and the narrow corridor that lay in front of me ended in dingy darkness. Those awful sounds from outside still managed to creep in through the door that stood slightly ajar.

  Petrified I watched with great interest the foggy wisps swarming over me.

  Were they ghosts? Should I be afraid? I was hypnotized; I raised my hand slowly into the air to reach one of the white clouds bobbing up and down in front of me, but I was quickly stopped in my tracks.

  “Don’t touch anything you don’t know anything about,” Malcolm’s gruff voice came from behind. As he spoke, I quickly lowered my hand and peered back at him.

  Standing in the doorway, the old man surveyed the gloomily lit room with his single eye. I hadn’t thought that Malcolm would follow me in. Fear had been evident in his eye when I had darted into the house.

  “You’re like a baby reaching for any new thing it sees,” he added flippantly.

  “What are they?” I was curious. The door slammed shut alone silencing the moaning sounds from outside.

  “Only hell knows. Beautiful, yes? Every house is different, as is the evil dwelling in them.”

  “What kind of evil lives in your house?” I asked with a jolt of surprise in my voice. “How did you get out?”

  “My house must remain only in my memories,” he pointed to his own head. “It must leave this town with me.” He sighed and glanced at the large room that was on my left.

  “You played that monster’s game in the other houses,” I remembered. “You’ve been in a lot of them, haven’t you?”

  “We went into the ones that stand at the beginning of the town. There the residents are weak, and the evil didn’t require strong power to keep them imprisoned–we could break in and out of the places much easier.”

  “But you did break into a powerful one, didn’t you?”

  His eye widened. There was great fear in his expression. It had just been a supposition, a simple guess that he had done so, but I was right, obviously.

  “Yes, we tried once,” he muttered and then paused for a moment. “We didn’t have a clue about the strong evil that resided there. You have to understand Jonathan; every resident in this hell hole is at its strongest in its own house, on its own property. We met an invincible power inside.”

  “That’s where you had your–” I tightened my fists, it just happened naturally especially when I felt apprehension or fear. I indicated the soiled rag he had wrapped around the right side of his face.

  “We had better get on with the search for your girlfriend.” He changed the subject sounding displeased. “Which way do you think she went?”

  I could only guess. Deep in thought, I stared from the door to the corridor.

  “Elizabeth!” I called.

  Malcolm nudged my arm, “Shut up! Don’t wake up the evil.”

  I looked at him morosely, but before I could even get a word out the ghostly clouds began moving faster. They weren’t gliding normally, instead they were darting back and forth like they were fishes in an aquarium.

  “I reckon we should go through the corridor,” I whispered boldly, my eyes following the clouds which were hovering around us now.

  Malcolm hesitated. He didn’t want to approach the obscurity at the end of the corridor. I also peered into the darkness dubiously. Malcolm had lived in that town much longer and had seen more horrible things that I could imagine. If he was wary of the corridor then I should stay on my guard, too.

  “Can you see anything amiss there?” I asked as quietly as I could.

  “If there are unseen things in this town,” he warned, “you’d better stay away from them,” his voice was irritated, but to my surprise, he took a careful and slow step in the direction of the corridor. “Don’t stir the ghosts,” he whispered back to me.

  Carefully I stooped and swerved to the right and began to follow him.

  The white puffy clouds had begun to slow down making it easier for us to pass. The wooden floor creaked heavily beneath our feet as we tried to advance quietly.

  The corridor was dim. We had to stand for a brief period to let our eyes adjust to its blackness.

  A strange sensation overcame me. I felt like the darkness was alive. In waves, it moved horizontally across the corridor, rippling like water. The air pressed against my head, heavier than in the room we had just left.

  Inhaling deeply, I moved forward into the unknown bravely with Malcolm at my heels. My heart hammered as I cautiously moved along the gloomy walls. As I took a few more steps, the corridor became lighter, but it was still really dingy looking. Right at the end of it there were two passages.

  “I can see two doors over there,” I managed in a squeaky voice.

  Malcolm peered ahead keeping silent.

  I began to move more carefully, my hands instinctively clenching into fists. The power within me flew throughout my body firing itself up in preparation to help me at any moment. I desperately prayed that it would be enough to get us through. I had no idea who or what I was praying to, but I did pray. Of course, I doubted God would listen to my pleas. In any case, I believed Lord was far too busy to help a sinner like me.

  We were in the middle of the corridor. I peered back over my shoulder; the only thing I could see was Malcolm. Behind him, there was a dense space of absolute darkness. The room we had just exited seemed to have never existed. We were leaping from one space to another with a single step.

  I was about to turn back when a wail washed over us. The source was on the other side of the wall on my right.

  “No!” I recognized Elizabeth’s voice at once. “Get off me!”

  She was in danger. She needed me.

  I forgot about the evil lurking in the dark. My eyes glazed over, and my blood pounded around my body crazily. Elizabeth was behind that wall, much closer than I had expected. I had to make it through the stony wall that was separating us.

  Malcolm opened his mouth, but before any words left his throat, I punched the sturdy wall with all my might. It gave in instantly as my supernatural power travelled along my arm and into my clenched fist.

  With a roar, the wall exploded and tumbled backwards. As it broke apart, the pieces of the demolished wall froze in mid-air as if time had stopped. There was nothing but darkness and emptiness behind the wall of suspended bricks. I could have easily stretched out my hand and touched them.

  If I were to fall through the hole I had made, I would drop into a bottomless abyss. I would fall and fall and never reach the ground.

  The shape of a mystical woman–Melissa’s mother–materialized from the black air, her wispy black hair blowing behind her. She was suspended in mid-air, staring intently into my eyes. Without really knowing or understanding what was going on, I looked at her in disbelief, unable to turn away from her. Her appearance had paralyzed my limbs.

  “Jonathan,” she whispered ruefully.

  As she spoke she breathed small puffs of white clouds into the air that fused with the dark air. Beneath the haze, I could see her twisted and distorted face.

  The woman lifted her hand and drew her palm closer to her mouth to blow delicate clouds into my face. Suddenly the stream of cloud took the form of a devil. It became alive, rising above my head and then it swooped down towards me.

  It was well beyond my understanding. I stood motionless and watched so dazed and confused by the strangeness that I had forgotten to breathe. My body was failing me and disobeying my will.

  The swooping cloud was an inch from me and then it just disappeared. I found myself somehow lying on the floor with Malcolm beside me. A huge gust of wind blew from the end of the corridor and poured into the
cavern in the wall; it overwhelmed us and spread throughout the darkness. I felt myself gliding over the floor. The flurry of wind picked me up and carried me towards that monstrous mouth of nothing.

  “Hold on!” Malcolm cried out, catching me by my arm.

  He pulled me over backwards onto the floor, both of us struggling against the strong wind. Malcolm crawled along the corridor heading towards the two doors. I was trying with all my might to follow and keep up. Digging my nails into the old wooden floorboards, I tried to drag myself along. Blood seeped through my nails and my fingers trembled in agonizing pain.

  Malcolm reached the doors and threw himself into the next room. I was a few steps behind him fighting for my life.

  Elizabeth’s scream came from Malcolm’s direction. “Don’t touch me!”

  I told myself I had to survive–not just for my sake, but for hers too. I reasoned with myself that whatever had her at that moment, I had to free her and help her escape its evil embrace. But first, I had to fight my way through those deadly winds.

  Gathering all my strength, I continued crawling. Numb with pain and bright red from my own blood, my fingers throbbed. Leaning against the damp walls, I pushed my aching body towards Malcolm.

  “Come on, just a little bit more,” he stretched out his hand to grab me and pull me up.

  Malcolm had known what lay behind that wall. He had warned me against demolishing it, but as always my mind was on Elizabeth and I had hurried to her without giving too much thought to the evil and the games the town had planned for me. It was Malcolm who had saved me from falling into the bottomless abyss. He had remained in control and managed to push me away from the huge mouth of darkness when my mind had been fully occupied by the powerful vision that the darkness had brainwashed me with. Although I could clearly see the anger in his expression, he still hadn’t left me and that spoke volumes.

  I stretched out my hand, and he was able to catch it. He pulled me up through the high crazy winds. I used my legs to help him, but even my very own supernatural power wasn’t enough to fight against the sucking maelstrom of the darkness hiding behind the wall. The powerful evil had been lurking there for some time, craving fresh souls, craving me, but I wasn’t going to give in to it easily–no way!

  With great difficulty we managed to inch me closer to the doors. Malcolm moved back slightly giving me enough room to grab onto the doorframe in front of me.

  I had survived; I had managed to break free from the nothingness. I sighed in relief. My muscles loosened up and I looked at Malcolm smiling awkwardly.

  He shook his head. “From now on never touch anything without asking,” he said harshly.

  I sat up and leaned against the side of the door, tilting my head back and breathing rapidly. Malcolm sat on a small step in front of me. I slowly became aware of the room behind him–it was hazy and indecipherable.

  Elizabeth’s screaming made me come to my senses. Malcolm swung around. I was at the point of jumping to my feet when a human’s hand came out from the fuzzy interior of the room and grasped Malcolm’s shoulder.

  “Watch out,” I cried to him, but before the old man could react, the hand had dragged him out of my view.

  “Malcolm!” I shouted, pushing myself quickly to my feet.

  The crazy wind was still blowing, its powerful force skirting around me and flying into the narrow passage.

  I balled my hands into fists, my eyebrows arched, and darted after Malcolm and towards Elizabeth, into the unknown.