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  Chapter seventeen: The old man’s gone

  We were in Elizabeth house, in her living-room, the open album still lying in the table. I’d never thought before I’d be happy to see this room again and now my muscles relaxed and I sighed.

  I lay on the wooden floor, Malcolm leaned against a wall a slight smile curling his lips. Elizabeth collapsed to her knees cupping her face and breathing rapidly.

  “Hey!” I called to her and hurried into my feet, dust falling from my clothes. “You okay?” I put my hands on my shoulder.

  “Yeah,” she murmured. She looked at me her eyes gleaming. “We did it.”

  “Of course. I never doubted in you,” I said with a broad smile.

  Malcolm’s loud laugh followed.

  “Amusing,” he cried out as we looked at him uncomprehendingly.

  “What’s so funny,” I asked.

  “Honestly, I didn’t think we’d come out of the night,” he said with cheerful voice. “Don’t you understand what we’ve just done? We went into the demons’ world and came back from the dark. Nobody before has done something like this.”

  In a matter of fact he was right.

  “It’s Elizabeth who brought us back,” I said.

  “It’s her who took us there too,” he reminded then quickly added. “Don’t get me wrong, Elizabeth, I do start liking you and the way both you struggle against the town.” He let out a long breath. “God, it’s been a long time I last have fun.”

  “Depends what you call fun,” I put in.

  “We were an inch from–” she paused.

  “Sucked up,” I continued. “What part of that do you find funny?”

  “You’re boring,” he tilted his head disappointed. “I’ll make sure everyone in hell hears your story. Believe me, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.”

  “Better we never find our way to hell,” I muttered and rose, holding out my hand to aid Elizabeth. “How did you do that?” I asked her. “How did you know you’d be able to bring us back?”

  “I just know,” she answered. “My house called my soul, it was ready to pull me out of the night. I can’t convey these emotions, but I knew I could. It was somehow planted in my head.”

  “So the night world was the reflection of this town and the ruined houses were our houses,” I started building a theory.

  “It was a place where our past and present were mixed up,” Elizabeth said.

  “Time doesn’t have meaning there,” Malcolm spoke tonelessly. He fished out his cigarette pack and Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, but soon realized that it wasn’t her real home. Malcolm lit one and went on, “You live ages in town which on Earth could be seconds. We don’t know how the time we spent in night affected here. Time is much deeper knowledge.”

  “That’s the sciences’ puzzle,” I said. My gaze dropped to my hands, my superhuman power returning to me as if I’d been charging with power since night had gone. “Let’s go and see what is outside. We still can reach the light.”

  I was about to turn around when a low voice stopped me and I held my hand in the air.

  “Shhh,” I hissed. “You hear that?”

  It was coming from the bathroom as if the tap was left open and water flew to the floor. We stared at the door. Reddened water found its way into the room flowing over the floor and with surprisingly speed it streamed towards us.

  “This is not for our good,” Elizabeth said.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I reached for her and started ushering her toward the corridor.

  Malcolm tossed his cigarette to the floor and followed us. As we were at the doorway where once had been a white door and now broken to pieces by the humanoid monster, Elizabeth abruptly halted collapsing to her knees and took her head in her arms.

  “Elizabeth?” I called out her name surprised.

  She shriek in agony, then turned back to look at the living-room.

  “Hey, can you hear me?” I took her by shoulders. “What is it?”

  “No!” she cried hysterically. “The girl!”

  “The house recognizes her,” Malcolm said. “It wants her here.”

  “I’m not going to give her to it,” I said determined.

  “We’ve got to carry her out. She can’t hear you, her mind is blackened, a vision entered her head.”

  I wrapped my hands around her and tried to usher her out, but she fought me off. Malcolm came to my help grabbing her by shoulders and together we hauled her towards the exit. She struggled against us, hit me into the face once, but I kept carrying her. She cried and tried to hold on to the walls, she was mighty in her house, but she couldn’t fight Malcolm and me.

  Finally we were out the house. Elizabeth stopped yelling, her hands dropped to her sides and she tilted her head gasping for air. I lay her on the ground and brushed her hair off her face meeting her scared and glazed eyes.

  “We need to give her a minute,” I told more to myself than to Malcolm.

  “I’m not in a hurry,” the old man murmured.

  Within seconds her breath calmed down, and she blinked.

  “How do you feel?” I asked her.

  Elizabeth gave me a wan smile and struggled into a sitting position. “I saw that girl again, dead, lying on the floor in the living-room and the man from the album standing at her. He beckoned me. He said ‘take a look what you’ve done’.”

  “It was just a vision, Elizabeth,” I caressed her face making her to look me in the eye. “Town tries to keep you inside.”

  “I know them–the girl and the man. I just can’t remember who they are to me.”

  I could tell her my theory but if she knew she may lose the desire to go back to real life. If I tell her she was a mother who had lost her daughter, she would give up.

  “Get up!” Malcolm ordered with a husky voice. I raised my eyes. The old man stared into the mist. I had already forgotten the town was possessed by white and dense cloud.

  “Can you walk?” I asked Elizabeth.

  She nodded and stood up.

  “The good news is we’re about there where we left,” Malcolm said his back to us.

  “And the bad?” Elizabeth asked.

  “The bad news is, sweetheart, that your house had outrun the one you entered and took us to the night.” He trailed off and the silence engulfed us. I strained my ears to any sound recalling the flying demons in the mist. I had to forget about the night and concentrate on my mission in town. “Let’s go,” Malcolm resumed and took a brave step out into the mist. He paused for a moment and strained his ears trying to note anything peculiar.

  Elizabeth and I exchanged a look. She shrugged and followed Malcolm. I looked at where the light was supposed to be but now covered by the misty blanket. Although it was out of my sight, I could feel it, better than before.

  We marched out of the yard, all our eyes scouring every direction, but not one single dog emerged from the mist. We hopped over the fence, and suddenly I felt the presence of demons swimming in the dense mist before us.

  “Malcolm,” I reached for his arm. “We’re not alone.”

  “I know.”

  “They are in the mist,” Elizabeth said. “Are they nearby?”

  “Just above us,” I whispered. “We could run, I guess. We're nearly there.”

  “Yeah. The last few hours we only run,” she smirked.

  “Elizabeth, we’ve got to get through this.”

  “I’ll try as hard as I can,” she said. There was a hint of resentment in her voice.

  “Hey!” Malcolm said looking Elizabeth up and down. “Jonathan, you run first, then Elizabeth. She can go between us. That way we’re going to be able to protect her easier.” He looked at her obliquely. “Don’t you mind if Jonathan is on the lead? You did your job well back in night, now it’s Jonathan who hears the call of the light.”

  “Sure,” she said.

  “Okay,” he turned to me. “We’d better to stick up to the road this time. No more houses. Clear?”

>   “Okay,” I agreed walking toward the old Ford parked at Elizabeth’s house and opened the front door.

  “The old story,” I heard Malcolm grumbling. I liked my last shield. Better that than nothing. When I returned to them I was lifting my shield in front of me. “Elizabeth, follow my every move.”

  She nodded. Taking a deep breath, I broke into a quick run. As my feet pounded the street, a wail pierced the air that hovered around my head and poured into my brain. The demons were gathering, soon flying along with me–just above my head. They were so close that the flapping of their wings rushed over me. I lifted my shield up above my face.

  “Don’t get lost in the mist,” I shouted back to Elizabeth. “They’re coming! Get ready!”

  I felt every damn move they made. My power allowed me to understand them, but whether it was going to be enough to defeat them and let me through was an entirely different story.

  I saw a road sign on the right side of the road and a thought suddenly hit me. I quickly made my way to it. I uprooted it and kicked the sign off the pole–I now had a long spear in my right hand and a shield in my left.

  “Like a warrior from the middle-ages,” Malcolm said teasingly. He snorted with laughter. I arched my eyebrows.

  We began moving through the mist. My power was pulsating in my hands. I was craving a fight, craving blood. Hold tight, I told myself, you’ll soon have your chance.

  As I finished, a demon with its wings spread wide came out of the mist swooping towards me. I held the pole back in preparation and at full power I whacked it as hard as I could.

  The shattering of its bones sounded over us. It shrieked and fell backwards to the ground rolling and within a split second the mist had swallowed it up.

  “Good strike,” Elizabeth said from behind. I grinned slightly, nevertheless, she didn’t see my face.

  “Another two are coming at us!” I warned my comrades.

  My intuition didn’t let me down. Suddenly I was face to face with their two hideous faces with their coal colored eyes fixed on us. Their long fang-like teeth were hungry for our blood.

  I managed to shove the first away with my shield. Then I did the unthinkable, I leapt high up into the air, much higher than the other demon was flying. My piece of pipe met its head and pierced through it, cracking open its skull. The monster rebounded and slammed back into the ground. It slid back a meter or two and then just stopped.

  Malcolm grabbed the first one I had knocked back with my shield and punched it twice in the chest. The beast roared, sending shockwaves of thunder through the air. It tried to break free, but Malcolm had everything under control and was holding onto its leg tightly. With one more punch, the monster fell to the ground.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Elizabeth.

  “Somehow,” she muttered, her eyes looking back and forth. “Be careful, I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Glad to be back,” Malcolm said cheerfully.

  “He can’t be serious, can he?” Elizabeth looked at me in indignation.

  “Oh, he can,” I replied and hurried ahead tightening my fingers around my makeshift spear.

  With my trusty homemade weapons, I was able to fight and defeat another four flying demons. My heart beating excitedly as I realized that we were closer to the light than ever. Even though I couldn’t actually see the light and the town was doing its best to conceal my destination behind the mist, I still felt its bright presence. It was going to transport me back to my real body.

  “We’re almost there,” I called out to Elizabeth panting hard. “We’ve almost made it!”

  “I can’t see the light,” she replied worriedly. “What if we’re just running around?”

  “No, I can feel it. I don’t know how, but I can,” I said jovially.

  “Yeah. I understand you,” she murmured.

  I stopped for a second and looked at there. Yes, she knew what I was talking about as she had been feeling the call of her house back in night.

  “Keep running,” Malcolm distracted me from Elizabeth. I turned around and darted ahead.

  Could I handle the travelling the remainder of the way? I had become much stronger than I had been before I went into that last house to get Elizabeth. My power was continuing to increase, growing with each step I took.

  From nowhere, a doglike creature rushed towards Elizabeth that had sniffed out the weakest and most vulnerable of the group, but I was ready to defend her no matter what. I halted and pivoted, sheltering Elizabeth in my arms, and then I held my shield up high in the air. The beast smashed against the car door, rolling backwards. I released Elizabeth and, raising my spear, I stabbed right through the dog’s chest. As the spear was removed, a tar-like substance hurried to empty its body–its black blood. The thirsty ground sucked the blood up greedily.

  “Jonathan,” Elizabeth called my name appalled. “Just a second more and that beast would have torn me to shreds. How on Earth did you know?”

  “I told you, I can feel them. Somehow, they’ve become a part of me. Somehow we’re connected.”

  Malcolm came to a halt beside us. “Your power has reached its peak,” he murmured staring down at the motionless dog. “Soon you’ll be the strongest thing in the town, but it’ll last only for a moment, then the light will fade, and you’ll be taken straight to hell.”

  “Don’t be in too much of a rush to bury me,” I winked. “We’ve still got time. Come on.”

  I took Elizabeth’s hand and was about to start moving again when a great stream of the enemy swooped over the top of us. In shock, I raised my eyes.

  “Jonathan?” Elizabeth’s voice trembled with fear.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered to myself.

  The monsters had planned their attack simultaneously. En masse they fell from the mist and swooped down on us. With no hesitation at all, I grabbed Elizabeth by the, and we ran.

  We ran as fast as we had ever run, the beasts on our tails and quickly gaining.

  It was my duty to ward them all off, to fight them. The first demon attacked me from my right. I stopped its strike with my shield. It was all systems go. I then took hold of my spear and used it to violently stab the second beast that was attempting to block our path.

  From behind, Malcolm struggled as he tried to protect Elizabeth, but the old man wasn’t as fast and strong as I’d become. With great ease, I slaughtered and disposed of another five beasts. My glory was quickly interrupted by Malcolm’s desperate yell. One of the flying monsters had snatched him up by his shoulders its dark piercing nails dug deeply into the upper part of the older man’s body.

  “Malcolm!” Elizabeth cried out. “Jonathan, help him.” She dashed towards the old man without waiting for me. Another demon blocked her way and she instinctively jumped onto it punching it in the head and sending it to die on the ground.

  But I was too late. With a few simple flaps of wings that sent powdery dust flying up into the air, the beast soared up into the mist taking Malcolm away. We lost sight of our old companion; he had disappeared behind the cloudy mist.

  “They have him Jonathan,” Elizabeth proceeded shouting. “Do something. It has taken him up…”

  I ran close to her and grabbed her by shoulders. “He’s gone Elizabeth. I can’t help him anymore,” I shook her. “I’m not Superman, I can’t just fly after him.” Her eyes fixed on me for a moment. “Get a grip and let’s get out of this fuckin’ town.”

  She blinked and nodded. I shoved her forward roughly. We were by ourselves. We had no Malcolm to guide us, to lead us towards the light. We had no one to warn us of any potential dangers. I now had to watch out for Elizabeth on my own.

  Malcolm had never liked her, and he had tried to convince me to dump and get rid of her on a number of occasions but in the end he had helped to protect her.

  After what we had been through the–the dangerous house, the night–Malcolm had become my teammate but now he was gone. I was ready to share my passage with him. Malcolm’s soul didn�
�t deserve to be sucked by demons, torn apart and be scatter around Satan’s worlds. But I was no longer help for him.

  With my heart sinking, I proceeded my way up the street.

  Now the town had its own plans for the old man who had defied it.