Edge of End Read online

  Chapter five: They want me in the house

  For a little while we walked in silence, musing about the suggestions we had both just put forward. I guessed the word hell was stubbornly hovering in her mind. Regardless of her attempts to avoid the idea about death and the afterlife in hell, I believed, I might be right.

  Also the theory about the experiment with monsters and the average people like us seemed plausible too. Yes, it sounded like a Hollywood fantasy movie, but I couldn’t easily dismiss this idea.

  Quiet fell in the street, air stood, trees were motionless. The weather got hotter; soon I was covered by sweat and repeatedly wiped my forehead by my arm. The bottom of my boots seemed to be on fire, the ground got warmer as if lava streamed a metre beneath it.

  “It’s hot,” Elizabeth broke the silence.

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “We should’ve been out the town now,” Elizabeth said.

  “I don’t know how deep I entered it.”

  “Are you sure we’re going to the right direction?”

  “There is no any other way to go,” I looked around and saw a van parked to our right. “Let’s check it.”

  “What? The car?”

  “Come on.”

  Thick dust on the car covered even its color. I reached for the door and pulled it open. As I did so, a cloud of dust engulfed me, and I coughed.

  “It should’ve been here for ages,” Elizabeth said. “I doubt it’s still usable.”

  “At least we can check,” I replied and leaped in behind the steering wheel.

  While I examined it and looked for the key the other door opened sending a puff of dusty cloud into the car and then Elizabeth sat on the next seat.

  “If we bring it to life we can travel through the desert,” I thought aloud.

  “We don’t even know there is a gas in the tank.”

  I placed my hands below the steering wheel and pulled the panel. It cracked and gave away intently and wire rope sheaves hang in mid-air.

  “You know what to do?” Elizabeth bent forward to have a better look.

  “I guess. It’s in my head. Maybe I was a car thief back…” I stammered looking for the right words. “Back at the life I have no memory anymore.”

  I cut two different wires and tied them to each other.

  “And?” Elizabeth looked at my impatiently.

  “Nothing,” I replied and got out of the car.

  I opened the hood and found as much dust under it as on the car. This car was useless, I doubted that anyone could bring it to life ever.

  I went back, got into it and leaned against the back of the driver seat. My hands to my sides I stared up at the empty spot while Elizabeth was watching me with interest.

  “You were right,” I muttered. “This car is a scrap metal.”

  “We can check the next one,” Elizabeth said.

  “I guess the others are dead as well,” I lowered my eyes on her. Her cheeks were reddened, her lips plump and fresh as she ran her tongue over them.

  “So we walk,” she said.

  “We walk,” I repeated, crossed my fingers and leaned my forehead on them. “Let’s go back to the start. Each of us woke up in the desert and hurried to this town hoping to find some help. Instead I found you, the only normal human looking person, then monsters, abnormal dogs with long and sharp nails, an ugly woman and rag-faced man.”

  “What woman?”

  “There is a café up the street. Working,” I added with a wan smile. “She runs it. A rude, plump woman. Maybe we should head to the café?”

  Elizabeth glanced back. “We still have those dogs up the street blocking our way.”

  “I barely forgot about them,” I murmured and then hit the steering wheel. “Fuck,” I cried out.

  “Oh,” a surprised voice escaped her mouth.

  “Sorry.” I looked at her affectionately.

  “You might be right about the light,” Elizabeth said abruptly changing the subject. “Maybe it’s where we have to go.”

  “We must deepen into the heart of the town, cross it to reach the light. We’ll either become a meal for those dogs, or a humanoid monster kills us both.” I glanced down the street. “Let’s just go to the entrance and get out of here.”

  “There might be hundred miles to the civilization,” Elizabeth widened her eyes. “We may die in the desert. Besides, if my supposition about aliens turns right, we won’t find anything out there.”

  “Get over it, Elizabeth. Aliens,” I smirked. “We’re rather dead than transferred to another planet by aliens.”

  I pushed the door open and got out.

  “Are you coming?” I asked over my shoulder.

  She didn’t answer, got out of the car and started walking at my side.

  We were on the road leading to the beginning of the town again. We passed by several houses when Elizabeth stopped abruptly.

  “Look,” she whispered. Instinctively I glanced back in awe. “No, there,” she indicated to the left.

  There, at a dim walled house settled about fifty steps away, I saw a person set on a broken bench, a hood tossed over its head. It was seemingly an old woman wrapped in a ragged and splotchy dress.

  I took a step towards her, but Elizabeth reached for my arm.

  “We don’t know what it is,” she said in a whisper. “It may be something like the monster in my house.”

  I nodded, but I couldn’t ignore and just pass her either.

  “Let’s take a peek,” I said.

  Elizabeth swallowed, saying nothing in return. As I picked up my pace, she was next to me.

  As we closed in, the woman’s hushed voice reached me, singing under her breath.

  “Where do bad folks go when they die?

  No heaven awaits them, say to it goodbye”

  She repeated those two phrases over and over again.

  We came to a halt five steps from her. Narrowing my eyes I tried hard to steal a look of her face, but her head was tilted.

  “I’m sorry,” that was Elizabeth, “Could you help us, please?”

  “Off you go, woman.”

  Yes, it was an old woman’s hoarse voice speaking from under the hood.

  “She can talk,” I said scornfully.

  “As could that monster,” Elizabeth remarked. Then she turned to the woman asking, “Where am I supposed to go?”

  “To your house,” she replied.

  “I have no house here,” I said aloud trying to turn her attention on me.

  The old woman stopped muttering. I hoped she would look up, but she remained still.

  “You’re the newbie.” It sounded as though she smiled under the hood as she said that. “You’ve taken the wrong way to go, young man.”

  “I want to get out of this fuckin’ town,” I said. “What is out there in the desert? Is there any place with normal people nearby?”

  “There is only endless sand. The one entering the town can’t be released anymore.”

  “I didn’t see any gate or high walls around.” I looked at Elizabeth and she shrugged. “We are not in a prison. What can hold me from leaving this damned place?”

  “The town itself will,” she smirked raising her head. Both Elizabeth and I stared at her wonderingly, now able to see her face.

  I guess, we both felt disappointed. There was a wrinkled old face under the hood with narrow eyes and large scar on her right cheek, but her lips… They just didn’t exist–like they had been ripped off her leaving several yellow teeth to dangle in her mouth.

  “What?” she said. “Want a fierce kiss, babe?” She laughed. I stared at her, perplexed, until her mouth relaxed in a smile. To be honest, I couldn’t tell if she grinned or not, there were no lips to hide her nasty teeth.

  “No, thank you,” I regained myself. “I’d rather kiss her,” I said and looked at Elizabeth and chortled.

  “What did happen to you?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Chose the wrong man to kiss, dear,” the old woman sa
id quietly. “That son of a bitch was cute, really cute, but monster lived behind that beauty, like every other one in this town.”

  “Are there other residents? Where?” Elizabeth interrogated.

  “You’re better not to know,” she tilted her head hiding her ugly face. “Especially you, newbie.”

  “Why me? What is it about me?” I found my voice shaking.

  “You are not wanted here. Homeless people should be off. The others envy you, I guess. You have what they don’t.”

  “What do I have? What are you talking about?”

  “I’m just saying–be on guard, young man,” she muttered remotely. “You’ve got a power, but you’re still weak. I can feel it. I could put my hand on you, you wouldn’t fight me off, but, fortunately, my husband is waiting for me inside.”

  “Husband?” Elizabeth said surprised her voice low as only I heard. “What kind of man keeps her around?”

  I shrugged, uninterested. As my eyes tore away from the old woman and traveled over the yard towards the house, I spotted a man at the window, much younger than the woman, about my age. As our eyes met, he hit the glass with his elbows hysterically.

  “Hey you, out there. Help me,” he cried in his full voice. “Please!”

  “Is that your husband crying over there?” Elizabeth asked raising her eyebrows.

  “Yes. He’s a little bit confused,” the woman rose.

  “I don’t think he can be a husband to you,” Elizabeth made a step towards her and onto the yard.

  I held her arm curtly. “What the hell are you doing?” I hissed.

  “That man needs our help,” she said back in whisper. “We can handle an old woman.”

  “We?” I raised my right eyebrow. A grim sound hit my chest as a doglike beast stepped out from behind the house and slowly made its way towards us.

  “Stop there, bastard,” the woman ordered, and the animal obeyed, but the way it looked at me with its green and shining eyes made my heart hammer.

  “I’m sure, you’d handle this bastard, young man,” she resumed with raspy voice. “And another time I would be pleased to see you fight, but not now. I don’t want any attention here. And I don’t want my time with my husband to be mixed up. I’m nicely asking you to leave. I don’t care which way you go, just leave.”

  I glanced back at the other doglike beasts up the street which were lessening the distance between us. I held Elizabeth by her shoulders.

  “Let’s go,” I muttered.

  She stepped back and out of the yard. Looking at the other animals she nodded. “You’re right,” she said, fear playing in her voice.

  We turned around and started off. As I peeked back over my shoulder, the old woman had already gone into the house, but the beast remained by the door guarding it.

  “Jonathan. What did she mean mentioning a power?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I said back.

  “But in my house, remember, you were inhumanly strong,” she gave me a weak smile.

  I looked about. The quiet and loneliness had returned to the street. My eyes fell on my palms. The power was in them, I felt it like feeling the rush of blood in my veins.

  “Why do you keep staring at your hands?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Don’t you feel a little awkward about your palms?” I said looking at her impatiently.

  “Awkward?” she repeated chortling. “I feel awkward about everything around, Jonathan. Like we’ve been moved into another world and time. Maybe we’re dreaming?” she said a jolt of hope in her voice.

  I smiled at the way she tried to avoid the reality. Okay, that wasn’t quite the reality I had been used to, I know, but it wasn’t a dream either.

  Finally, I saw the entrance. My eyes looked to the right seeking the house of the woman and her daughter–Melisa. The garden full of dry leaves and grass stood empty, the swing swaying in the breeze. I made my way to the house, Elizabeth padding behind me in silence.

  “What is it?” she asked me as I came to a halt on the path.

  I ignored her question. My thoughts drifted back to the little girl living in that house with gloomy, dark and opaque windows. Not one soul could be seen through them. But the emptiness of the house didn’t cause my distraction; my attention had fallen upon the new house next door. I was fairly certain I hadn’t seen it before. I observed it for a few moments; my legs hauled my body closer to it involuntarily.

  “This house wasn’t here when I first arrived.” I was standing in front of it dazed and confused. “I’m sure I didn’t see it standing here. Did you?”

  “I…” Elizabeth stammered. “I’m not sure I was in this district at all. Have we come the right way?” She looked lost in thought, surveying the houses around us.

  I saw she didn’t recognize anything.

  “Look,” I pointed my finger towards the entrance. At that moment, I think my jaw dropped. I was about to say that the entrance was there, but my hand froze in mid-air, my body remained fixed like a statue. There, in the far distance, the horizon was lost in a yellow phenomenon.

  Elizabeth stepped forward and took a better look. “What the hell is that?” she asked.

  “Storm,” came out of my mouth. A big cloud had risen and was approaching the town like an enormous tsunami–its intention, to come and wipe us away.

  “Jonathan,” she said my name in an undertone. “Do you see the same as what I do?”

  “I guess so,” I attested. I lowered my outstretched hand and walked slowly to the town’s entrance.

  “Where are you going?” Elizabeth asked worriedly.

  “Can you see that?” I said without looking at her, my eyes stared ahead. “Over there, on the road.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Oh my God! Who is that?”

  There was someone running towards us, a chunky-looking man, hauling his legs heavily. I hadn’t seen him when I had mentioned the storm. He had emerged suddenly as though he had come out of nowhere and materialized from thin air.

  “We can’t leave the town, Jonathan. We’ll die out there,” Elizabeth hissed. I glanced at her, spotting the hopelessness in her eyes.

  “Yeah,” I had to admit that she was right. “It seems like some sort of supernatural power wants to keep us in this hellish town.”

  “Like the old woman said,” Elizabeth reminded me.

  I smirked and shook my head in puzzlement. “This is a nightmare, an awful nightmare.”

  She eyed me; her expression read ‘I’m real, not an imagination of yours, and not a part of your unreal nightmare.' She quickly averted her eyes from me and looked back at the houses.

  “We still have some time until the storm reaches us,” I supposed, but Elizabeth didn’t listen to me.

  “I still doubt,” she muttered. “Maybe I came through another entrance. Do you think that’s possible?”

  I glanced back. The newly emerged house was comparatively smaller than the one where I had seen the woman and the girl. Judging from its exterior the new one appeared abandoned just like all the other houses we had seen in this town. Its windows were dirty, and the ground was cracked like the arid desert that had never seen a drop of water.

  As I was examining it, a girl’s snicker made me jerk my eyes back to the familiar house. I was looking for Melissa. She was nowhere to be seen, but I could hear her voice, her laugh.

  “Can you hear her?” I asked Elizabeth, though I didn’t wait for her answer and ran to the house.

  “What should I be hearing?” she called after me.

  I didn’t pay attention to her, and on reaching the house, I stood still on its path. The door and the windows were closed, but the girl’s voice continued to echo in my ears as though she were standing right beside me.

  “Jonathan, what can you hear?”

  “A young girl. I saw her playing in this yard. Now I can hear her voice.”

  “I hear nothing,” Elizabeth looked around in astonishment.

  “Wait here,” I ordered and started towards the d
oor.

  With every step the girl’s voice became louder and sounded happier. It wasn’t just an ordinary voice, it carried an odd power which possessed my mind and pulled me closer. Imagine you’ve been starving all day long and abruptly a scent of a grill fills your nose, and you carry your heavy legs to ask, no, to beg for a piece of steak or sausage. Or you’re a smoker, and you haven’t smoked in two to three days, then a big puff of cigarette smoke seizes your senses–that’s what it felt like.

  “Jonathan,” Elizabeth called me with quivery voice, but I didn’t stop, and with a great sense of purpose I approached the house.

  I arrived at the door and put my hand on its handle cautiously. I could still hear the girl’s laugh as if it was seducing me to step inside, but I lingered.

  What was I doing? Why should I go after that girl?

  I didn’t even know who she was or what she was. She wasn’t even real if Elizabeth couldn’t hear her. She was only in my mind, which meant she was there only for me.

  I thought about it again letting the knob go slowly and looking back to Elizabeth. With sorrowful eyes she was watching me. We had just met, but I felt I meant more to her than just a mere stranger.

  I was the person who had saved her life from a ravaging monster. No, she didn’t want to lose me, not because the town seemed almost abandoned, and I was the only human beside her; there was more to the expression in her eyes. Even though there was a distance between us, I delved into her expression seeking the reason. I can’t say I wasn’t attracted to her, but I just hadn’t given it too much thought, mainly because of the unbelievable things that were happening to us in this town.

  “Hey! Please, help me.” Both Elizabeth and I looked at the entrance absently. The chunky man was at the new house, panting, one of his hands outstretched begging for help. “What is this town? Where am I?”

  “We’re strangers here,” Elizabeth said.

  “Morsfinis,” I announced. Two curious gazes fell on me. “The name of the town,” I shrugged.

  For a moment, three of us stood in silence.

  “Unfamiliar name,” the man muttered. “Is this in the United States?”

  “No idea. Who are you? Where have you come from?” I asked having a strange sensation that this man wouldn’t remember his past, just like Elizabeth and I.

  “I was alone in the desert,” the man began explaining quickly. “I don’t know how I got there; I only saw this town nearby. Could you help me, please?”

  “Help you?” I said. “What do you want? How can I help you?”

  The man rolled his eyes, looked down at the ground and muttered something under his breath.

  “What is your name, mister?” that was Elizabeth asking.

  “I… I can’t remember,” the man said shocked. He raised his head, his expression blank and carried no memories, just like me. He rubbed his eyes and brushed his curly hair back with his hand. “I don’t remember who I am. I woke up in the desert without any memory. My head was empty, absolutely empty.” He mumbled fixing his eyes on Elizabeth. “What’s going on? Where am I? Am I dead?”

  “Who knows,” I shrugged trying to take his attention away from Elizabeth. “Haven’t you had any flashbacks from your past? Was there anyone who seemed familiar, but you can’t remember who it is?”

  “No,” the man said thoughtfully. “I woke up and I looked around. There was a storm coming in my direction. I saw this town and I didn’t have much time to consider my memory loss.”

  “Everything’s almost the same except for the storm,” I said to myself casting my eyes downwards deep in thought.

  All of us appeared in the very same desert, alone, without any memory, and the only place we could reach was this town.

  What was lying there? What kind of secrets did the town hold?

  “What’s the same?” Elizabeth had to ask twice to gain my attention.

  “He came into the town with the house’s appearance,” I continued thinking aloud. “New resident, new house. Yes, of course, that’s it!”

  “What is it Jonathan?”

  “That man, who saved us from the monster, that one with rag on his face,” I began.

  “What about him?”

  “He was surprised when I said I didn’t have a house in this town,” I peered back over my shoulder at the front door. The girl’s snigger heckled me.

  ‘Come to me Jonathan,' a haunting sound mixed with the girl’s laugh, a familiar voice. It was the one I had heard in my unconsciousness. The woman, the mother of the girl. “Look, you went into that house because you saw a man and a girl inviting you in. You can’t hear the voice of a woman who is trying to lure me in now.”

  “A woman’s voice?” Elizabeth repeated. “What voice?”

  “You see? Something here wants me to enter this house,” I pointed to the door behind me. “It’s not easy to say, but it seems every house in this town is meant for someone. That one, the one you were in, was meant for you, and I believe this one is mine. I avoided it at first, but the evidence has led me back here. Yes, the old woman said that I was going the wrong way. I think she meant for me to turn around and get away from my house.” I put my hand on my forehead. “Why do you think the doglike animals don’t attack us? They only follow.”

  “I don’t know. Probably they got scared of the man who saved us,” Elizabeth suggested.

  “He’s not here. No, I think it’s because I was on the way back here,” I tilted my head and thought for a second. “I think they want me in this house, but I don’t know why yet.”

  “I don’t get it Jonathan. Why would they want that?”

  “I’m pretty sure now, that every house in the town, even the ones that appear abandoned, has someone inside, stuck in the four walls like you were until I came and freed you. You said every time you wanted to get out some sort of force pushed you away from the door, remember?”

  “Yes,” she said with uncertainty in her voice. “You’re going to say that the houses are prisons, aren’t you? If you enter the one meant for you, you won’t ever get out?” That was it! Yes, that was what I had implied. I didn’t know for sure, but that was my guess.

  “The town itself,” Elizabeth announced.

  “What?”

  “That woman,” she said. “When you told her you intended to leave the town, she told the town itself wouldn’t let you. I daresay, she meant your unreal theory.”

  “From the outside it looks unreal, but being sucked into it…,” I pressed my lips together dropping my eyes onto my palms again. If there was a power in them, then I could come upon any abnormal theory, couldn’t I?

  “Hey! Boy! Come here. Hey!”

  While Elizabeth and I had been talking, the man had totally slipped my mind. I looked at the place where I had last seen him. He was now at the foot of the new house calling out to a boy who neither Elizabeth nor I could see. Although I knew it was a mirage only for that man, I was too late to stop him from entering the house.

  “Hey, stop! Don’t go into that damn house,” I cried after him as loud as possible, but he appeared not to hear me. His imagination controlled him, and those invisible tentacles were wrapped around his mind, luring him into the house.

  “Mister!” Elizabeth shouted and darted after him. I broke into a run, and, as I did, a thought entered my mind. If every house was meant for someone, for a single living soul, it didn’t let anyone else in anymore. Why? I had been attacked by guard dogs at Elizabeth’s house, remember? I was sure that the new house would be guarded furtively by those hellish animals too. My aim wasn’t to stop the man crossing the threshold, fuck him; but I wasn’t going to lose Elizabeth. She was soft, looked defenseless and definitely had no idea about the guards.

  “Elizabeth, stop! Don’t enter the yard,” I was yelling and running, my heart hammering again. “Elizabeth!”

  She glanced at me but didn’t stop. “He’s going to go in Jonathan.”

  “Let him go,” I shouted. “Just whatever you do, don’
t fucking put a step into the garden! There are beasts around the house.”

  Thank God, she stopped still just at the yard, looking at me with scared eyes. She then looked at the garden in curiosity, trying to find the dogs. I came to a halt beside her and held her hand.

  “They are there,” I panted trying to catch my breath.

  “How do you know?”

  “Trust me.” The man had already gone, into the house and out of our sight forever, I guessed. He had found his prison (that’s how I now liked to think of the houses–‘prisons’). I had no desire to get to know what he was going to discover inside.

  I was still holding Elizabeth’s soft and warm hand, and I was glad it was in my palm, that it was not lying on the ground being ripped apart by a beast. Our eyes met, and her big brown ones thanked me for saving her for the second time. After a moment she released her hand from my touch.

  “Oh! I’m sorry,” I mumbled and let her go from my grip.

  “That’s okay,” she smiled meekly resting her hand on my forearm graciously. I stared at her, her scent filling my nostrils like a drug that was seducing me, willing me to take a hold of her and kiss her passionately. I felt an intense desire touch and caress her skin as she looked at me modestly, her deep brown eyes wide, full of purity and clarity.

  I lifted my hand slowly, my fingers trembling, but it went unnoticed by her. She stole a quick look at my rising hand and then stared into my eyes with her sensual look. She was speaking to me with her actions and her expression, but all the time her mouth remained shut, yet her lips quivered like a leaf in the wind.

  This town was a weird place.

  At first, I hadn’t remembered anything, but then a lot of feelings had washed over me momentarily, and Elizabeth was experiencing the same thing. Among many odd occurrences and supernatural surroundings, I would never have thought that I could experience such a feeling as I did for Elizabeth.

  A sharp wind came up from the entrance and blew Elizabeth’s hair angrily into my face. I glanced over her shoulder at the storm beyond. In my mind's eye I saw the picture of the storm capturing the town and hovering around it, and my hand shielded Elizabeth’s face. She spun around.

  “It’s coming at us,” I muttered. “We haven’t got much time left.”

  I spotted a chill running down the back of her neck, and she got cold. The weather had changed; the ground wasn’t in fire anymore. It wasn’t too cold, but the air was chilly. She took my arm, which she had been holding around her waist and rested it on her stomach. I was overcome with warmth. We stared unblinkingly, her hair dancing over my chest.

  Whatever power that was housed in the town, bewildered me. I wasn’t scared, somehow I had defeated the fear of the death in my past. The barrier between me and my memories didn’t let me through to get known how I had done it. I was between a rock and a hard place. The situation I found myself in was mazy. You won’t wake up in a desert with your memories wiped from your head every day, and then wander into a town filled with monsters, and mystery, with a gorgeous woman next to you.

  There was no way back–the doglike beasts were waiting for me back there, guarding the road, and there was no way out of the town either. I was stuck with Elizabeth at the house meant for me. To survive the storm we had to find a place to hide until it receded.

  I untwined our hands. Stepping back, I put my face into my hands, and a great feeling of gloom filled my being.

  What to do? Where to go for help?

  I crouched down on the ground and heard Elizabeth’s footsteps approaching me.

  She sat down beside me, cradling her elbows in her palms. “Jonathan, we’re stuck here, aren’t we?” I nodded. “At least I’ve met you.” I guess she smiled at that moment; my face was still buried in my hands. “I wonder why you entered my house. There are a lot of houses in this town, and you chose mine.”

  “I don’t know,” I lied. I wasn’t ready to tell her about my vague visions yet, and the girl who had led me to her.

  “I thought maybe we could enter your house together. We’ll wait for the storm to pass over the town, and I will help you get out just like you helped me.”

  “We don’t know what is lurking inside,” I lowered my hands off my face. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

  “Sitting here and waiting for the storm isn’t a good idea either, Jonathan,” Elizabeth’s voice trembled. “We don’t know if we can survive being outside in such a storm. But, on the other hand, you’re right to dread entering and meeting such a monster like you did inside mine.”

  “I believe you won’t go back to your house either, will you?” I looked into her eyes and saw the monster’s wicked and satisfied smile in them. The memories of that monster were there.

  “It’s really frustrating not remembering anything from your past,” I mumbled. “What do you think who are the man and the girl that invited you into your house Elizabeth? Didn’t they seem familiar to you?”

  She didn’t respond immediately.

  “I know it’s difficult, but I just wondered. I guess this town is playing with us on the sly. It has sucked out all our memories, and it’s using them against us.”

  “You may be right,” Elizabeth agreed. Again, she eyed the storm and then her gaze wandered to the street that lead deep into the town. “I’m pretty sure I was related to them before. Not only them, but the house itself seemed familiar to me, too. Perhaps I lived in one similar previously. ”

  “I’m just curious. I’d like to figure this all out before the storm reaches us, but this fuckin’ brain,” I tapped my head. “It’s empty.”

  I knew she felt the same emptiness within her head, and remembering brought a look of sorrow to her face. I wanted her to be happy and shine and not be too depressed and full of gloom, but shining in such a horrible town was rather unrealistic.

  “I’d like to know more about you, if it is possible,” I said soothingly after a little while. “If you can remember anything, share it.”

  “I’d like to, but I’m as empty as you are,” Elizabeth said. “I have nothing other than that man and the girl in my mind. And sometimes…” she lingered.

  “What is it?”

  “Just dreams,” she said hesitantly. “Visions maybe.”

  Dreams, I thought. I had had some too. I was sure those weren’t dreams though. Those were flashbacks from my past.

  “I see a bathroom with white marble walls,” Elizabeth went on. “And a bathtub. The water in it is red, bloody. A thin red stream is flowing out of the bathtub down the floor towards me. It seems to be calling me,” I met her eyes, which were wide open, but they seemed to look straight through me as her thoughts drifted back to her visions.

  I remembered my dream–the dark alley and the murdered man lying at my feet. What those dreams were supposed to mean, I still didn’t know, and maybe I never would figure it out.

  The wind grew stronger, its invisible hands picking up dry leaves and blowing them towards us.

  I looked at the road. Keeping their distance, those doglike animals were still guarding us.

  “You really think we’re dead?” Elizabeth asked in a whisper.

  “This town looks like a hell possessed with supernatural power. We would probably never find such an anomalous town on Earth, would we?”

  “What is normal for the ones who remember nothing?” Elizabeth grinned. I liked her mouth when it stretched into a smile. “Maybe this is normal. I mean we don’t know what normal is and what is not, do we?”

  “Oh, no, Elizabeth,” I cut her off gently. “I agree that my memories have been erased, but I can still remember how to talk, I know that the Earth is round and so on. My subconscious knows what a dog should look like. Those are unearthly creatures,” I pointed at the road’s guards. “What does your subconscious tell you about them? Honestly?”

  She took another look at the animals: “They seem strange to me, hideous, monstrous. They won’t attack us, will they?” she asked.

  “
As long as I’m at my house, I suppose they won’t,” I said, my voice sounding confident.

  Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed.

  “Jonathan,” she paused. “I suppose that’s your real name.”

  “I believe it is.”

  “This seems to be the end,” her voice was desperate. “There is no way to escape. If you’ve decided not to go inside one of those houses, I will stay with you. I don’t know how long I was alone, since I woke up empty-headed, but I don’t want to endure any more loneliness.”

  Time had no meaning or value here. There were no days, no nights. She could have been stuck in that time space for a long time without realizing it, and then she had finally found me. She was afraid of losing the only human she had ever known amongst all the beasts.

  “Thank you Jonathan.”

  I took her hand into mine and placed it on my chest. She rested her head on my shoulder, her eyes closed, and her breathing surprisingly calm. She probably felt safe in my arms. She also had purposefully chosen to remain with me and face whatever might be coming with the storm. We had become really close in a very short time, much shorter than I would have expected. But I was happy to have her even though I was going to drag her into the dusty cloud with me. Deep inside me I knew she would prefer to die with me rather than live with that hellish and gray-skinned monster.

  I breathed out in relief and lowered my lips to her head.