Edge of End (9 page)

“
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.

Yellow puffs of cloud were licking the
gray skies. The growing wind that howled reminded us of the
approaching storm. Elizabeth remained in my arms. Together we sat
on the ground in silence, both lost in our thoughts, waiting for
nature to come and wash us away.

But what could we remember?

What happy flashbacks could pass in
front of our eyes before the hungry storm came and enveloped us
whole?

“
Jonathan,” Elizabeth
whispered.

“
Yes.”

“
I just thought if we’re
already dead, then we can’t die for a second time. We shouldn’t
dread the storm. It can’t harm us, can it?”

“
We can still feel,” I
reminded her. I recalled the pain that had shot through my body
when the monster had viciously attacked me, knocking me to the
ground. “I don’t think dying is the worst thing that can happen to
us.” I trailed off. I didn’t voice aloud the terrible torture I
imagined. Talking about feelings, I still had a vague sensation
within. The power I had felt in Elizabeth’s house continued flowing
through my veins.

“
Are you scared?”
Elizabeth asked abruptly.

I froze, forgetting to
breathe.

Was I? I guess I wasn’t
scared of the storm and death, but I regretted not being able to
discover what had happened to me before, and what I had done to
deserve being sent to this
town
.

“
I’m scared,” she
confessed when I didn’t answer her.

She lifted her eyes up towards me and,
as she did, a sad smile formed at the corners of her lips. I looked
down at my palms in wonder. My palms held a secret, they had an
invisible power. What if that power in my palms was meant to help
me?

“
I think I’ve got a plan,”
I said with a little bit of uncertainty. My words got Elizabeth’s
attention. She lifted her head up from my chest and stared straight
into me with hopeful eyes. “There is a café up the street. I
mentioned it before, remember?”

“
Your solution is hiding
there, right? Until the storm passes?” She understood correctly.
She glanced at the road and the beasts standing in the way of our
freedom and salvation. She didn’t need to express her
concern.

“
I think they won’t hurt
you if you go past them alone. They know your house is up the
street. It’s only a guess, but I’m almost sure they’re going to let
you pass.”

“
Almost?” she widened her
eyes, raising her eyebrows. “What will I do if your 'almost'
doesn’t work?”

“
It’s our only chance,
Elizabeth.” I glanced at the storm then turned my head towards the
doglike animals. If I had to choose which way I was going to go,
which way I was going to try my luck, I’d take the beasts, there
still was a chance. “We don’t know what will come out from the
storm or my house if we dare to enter, but we know for sure what is
waiting for us if we take the road and go to the café. If we
succeed, we’ll stay
alive
,” I hesitated saying the last
word.
If we’re still
alive
, my mind thought.