Edge of End (20 page)

Malcolm fought the other demon down,
catching it in the air and slamming it onto the ground much as I
had, the ground shaking beneath our feet.

We paused and looked at each other
knowingly for a moment then Malcolm rushed ahead. I glanced back in
search of Elizabeth. She was still behind.

Just as I had turned my back, another
demon appeared from nowhere, landing on my back, its claws tearing
into me. Again I defended myself with my shield, my only weapon,
and I struck the beast with force. It went cartwheeled across the
ground, then stood up dizzy and shook its head absently. I didn’t
give it enough time to regain its senses as I jumped onto the
staggering beast. The demon eyed me from the air and retreated, its
prominent black eyes following me.

I landed right beside the fallen demon
and stabbed my shield into its neck. It yelped in pain, falling to
the ground, its body contorted in agony.

But now there were a lot of flying
beasts swirling around us. They were as fast as they were strong,
and even I couldn’t fight them all together.

Before I had a chance to regroup,
there was another falling on me, grabbing me by the shoulder. My
automatic response was to punch it in its face.

I yelled in a fit of rage as my fist
hit its razor-sharp teeth. Blood flowed from the cut covering my
hand in red, but despite it I managed to free myself from the
monster’s claws.

“
Jonathan, watch out!”
Elizabeth cried, startled and pointing behind my back.

I spun around quickly my shield raised
ready for the attack. The powerful demon hit the car door at full
speed. I lost my balance and stumbled back, falling until I hit the
ground with a thump. Both hands up, I held the shield in front of
me. It had become heavier with the crafty demon standing on it with
its full weight.

“
Jonathan!” Elizabeth
yelled again.

I struggled to turn my heavy head in
her direction. The demon had pressed me against the ground firmly.
I bawled in frustration, trying to lift the metal door and the
demon on it, but it didn’t move.

I was captured, locked between my
shield and the ground.

The flying demon’s face appeared from
behind the shield; two green eyes full of evil pinned on a dark
gray face. Smoke billowed from its nostrils as it blew out an
exasperated breath, saliva dribbled onto the shield. I watched it
pinned beneath its weight, unable to move. With those sharp teeth
it had bared, it would tear my head in a fraction of a
second.

There was no time to wonder what I
would feel while I was being stabbed by its sharp nails and teeth.
Suddenly, the demon rolled aside and I was able to regain my feet.
I lowered the shield and wonderingly looked about in search of my
savior.

“
Get up,” Elizabeth held
out her hand to me.

There was no time to waste. I grabbed
her hand and she pulled me up. The demon sprang to its feet shaking
its head.

“
Nice strike,” I told
Elizabeth.

“
You could just say
thanks,” she panted.

“
Get back!” and I shoved
her backward.

Sniffing angrily, the flying beast
glared at me. Hurriedly I snatched the car door, holding it before
me again and waiting for the demon to make the first
move.

It roared and flung itself onto me,
its long nails outstretched. I jerked aside momentarily, and,
putting all my power into the hand holding the shield, struck it in
the head. The crack of its neck as it broke was loud, and the evil
animal crashed down at my feet, motionless.

Immediately I wheeled around to
discover Elizabeth fighting against another demon with no success,
and she set off at a run. Yet another demon joined the first,
appearing from the dense mist, both chasing her. I tried to go to
her aid, but was stopped by a third demon.

“
Elizabeth!” I called out
in panic running towards where I had last seen her. “Malcolm,” I
threw back, “I’m after Elizabeth.”

Fog had masked my view of her. But I
hurried to her as quickly as my legs would carry me.

As I sprinted, particles of mist hit
my face and finally she came into my view only about ten steps or
so ahead, but the demons were still hot on her tail. Only a single
step separated the closest one from her, so I had no time
whatsoever to think about what I was doing. From a distance, I
hurled my make-shift shield at the demon. Like a spear it flew
through the air and pierced its body.

“
Elizabeth, stop!” I
roared, but she was too scared and didn’t pay any attention to my
command.

Without considering the consequences,
Elizabeth ran into the front yard of a bleak-looking house. She had
completely forgotten everything we had learned and ran towards the
front door. Unfortunately, the door was wide open, and she flung
herself inside without looking back.

I was about to dart after her when
Malcolm’s hand leaped out from the fog and held me back
firmly.

“
Jonathan, whatever you
do, don’t go inside,” he instructed me firmly. “It’s too dangerous,
more so than outside.”

I looked at him, sharply shaking my
hand out of his clutch, “I’m going after her no matter what the
danger.”

“
The power in your hands
is helpless against the evil dwelling in the last houses of the
town Jonathan,” Malcolm warned. “They are not as simple as
Elizabeth’s house. It’s time to get on and get over her. You can’t
save her, don’t you understand?”

“
To hell with them, I
won’t leave her.” With these words, I pulled my eyes away from his
intense stare and determinedly set off towards the
house.

I didn’t know why
Elizabeth and I had met each other or whether we had been supposed
to meet, but deep inside I felt it would be worthless to flee
the
town
without
her. It was quite possible that she was the only person there that
didn’t actually deserve such afterlife. I know people like Malcolm
and I in real life would never help someone like Elizabeth at all;
mainly because we had been monsters in our pasts.

But having been on the threshold of
hell and having transformed into a new me, (I didn’t remember my
old one, as my memories were lost and I hoped they would never
return) I realized I had a chance to redeem myself, to become a man
who would deserve better than hell. Elizabeth was the key to the
cleansing of my soul; I was her salvation. More determined than
ever, I headed straight for the house.

Although the fog concealed the demons
in the air above me, I could feel them soaring around my head. They
didn’t try to stop me going in.

A dog caught me off guard, appearing
from behind the house. For a brief moment I recoiled, but I quickly
came to my senses and ran to meet it. As it unlatched from the
ground I threw myself down and glided over the ground. Avoiding its
grip I jumped into my feet and dashed towards the door. Adrenalin
ran through my body, and with a sudden surge of enthusiasm I ran up
the steps and kicked the door in.

It flew open, and I entered with
ease.

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.