Limbo's Child (65 page)

“Dude!” Tim said in shock, “Where’d you get the gun?!”

“I got this one from an obliging security guard at the hospital,” Amanda said matter-of-factly.

“You…you didn’t kill him did you?” Lucy asked nervously.

“No, Lucy, he’s perfectly fine. He’s just locked up in a morgue drawer.”

“What is it with you people and morgue drawers?!” Tim exclaimed.

She turned back to look at Tim. “Shut up, you!” She reached up to feel the back of her head with her free hand. “I’m not normally in the business of killing, unlike
some
people.” She shot a sideward glance at Moríro. “But I have been known to make the rare exception when I am
extremely
irritated.” She took a menacing step towards Tim. Tim cowered behind Sky.

Moríro used the momentary distraction to bridge the distance between him and Amanda. It was amazingly fast. He had left the porch and crossed the drive in less than an eye blink, biting his knuckle as he went. A half-second later, he had wrested the hand with the gun downward until it pointed harmlessly to the ground.

“Stop!” Amanda yelled out, surprised.

“AMARANTHA, DEPART!” Moríro yelled pressing one bloody knuckle with his free hand against Amanda’s forehead. Amanda gasped and shuddered and raised the other hand to push him back. It looked like her strength was leaving her, but obviously not quickly enough for Moríro.

“Release her, Amarantha!! Release her!! AMARANTHA, DEPART!” he bellowed again. Amanda’s body went limp, her head hung on her shoulders, but she didn’t fall down or drop the gun. Moríro let her go and she hung there as if in a trance, lightly floating on her feet, the gun hanging gently at her side. The three boys took a step forward, but Moríro held up a hand of caution to warn them back. Moríro leaned in closer to examine her, and that’s when Lucy saw a faint trace of a smile on Amanda’s face. Lucy had no time to warn the old Spaniard. Amanda raised the hand with the gun and pistol-whipped Moríro across the face…hard.

“Ay!” he cried out.

Then she hit him again with the backhand.

“Santa Maria!” he cursed and fell over backwards.

Lucy heard the crunch of bone on the last hit and saw Moríro grimacing in pain, his nose broken and his brow bloody. Lucy nearly ran to him but stopped at the steps on the edge of the porch out of fear.

Tim advanced but Amanda had the gun on him in a heartbeat. “Cool it, orderly,” she said menacingly. Tim obliged. Sky was edging around the front of the car stealthily as if to flank her.

She called him back without even looking at him, “AND I DON’T EVEN NEED A BULLET TO KILL YOU!” Sky made his way slowly back to the fender as if he wasn’t planning anything.

“Everyone just stay where they are!” she threatened. “I only came here to talk. No one gets any ideas and I won’t have to kill any of you. Some of you for the first time,” she pointed the gun at Tim, “Some of you for the second,” she shot Miles a vicious look.

“
How?!”
Moríro said rolling over on to his knees, recovering from the attack, wincing in pain.

“You don’t think you found Amanda Tipping by accident, do you?!” she said triumphantly wiping the bloody streak off her forehead with the back of her free hand. “I’ve…
we’ve
…been watching her…I mean
me!
…for years now. Her blood, I mean
my
blood, may be weak.
She
…that is
I
…may only just be one sixteenth necromancer, but that’s more than enough to summon a talented necromancer like me,
Amarantha
, who can make up all the difference.”

She was obviously trying to relish this moment of triumph, but she was getting flustered, struggling with her pronouns. It was really weird. She was talking like she really
was
two different people.

“What’s going on?!” Lucy screamed, but no one answered her.

“Amarantha! Let her go! Let Amanda go!” Moríro yelled back at Amanda.

“CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON?!!” Lucy screamed, nearly at her breaking point, “WHO IS AMARANTHA?!”

“Hasn’t he told you, Lucy?” Amanda looked up at Lucy placidly. “Hasn’t he told you about the orphaned boy without hope of life or survival and the woman who took him in? Who raised him as her own and taught him all of her secrets?” She turned to face Moríro. “And how he later betrayed her and left her to die without mercy!” She pushed the muzzle of the gun tightly up against Moríro’s temple before shoving him back to the ground with it.

She took a few steps back and regarded the fallen man before her. “And now I’ve come back for justice. First for myself,” she pointed the gun first at Moríro, and then slowly at Sky, Miles and Tim, “And then for everyone else.”

“Her name is Amarantha!” Moríro said abruptly, as if to draw her attention back to himself. It worked. Amanda turned the gun back on him. “And she is…my godmother,” Moríro said this as if resigned to the matter, his voice tinged with something like shame.

“Yes, Lucy,” Amanda stated smugly, “Welcome to the family! He’s your great uncle, several generations removed of course, and I am your umpteenth great aunt,
his
godmother and your distant cousin all wrapped up in one. We are your last known living relatives. It’s a great big dysfunctional family reunion!” she said in a mocking tone. “We should have our own television show really.”

Moríro narrowed his eyes at her and continued to explain, “She passed away long ago.”

Amanda snorted, “You say that as if you had nothing to do with the matter! You walked away and left me to DIE under that tamarind tree in Mexico, MORÍRO! REMEMBER?!” As she said this, she stood over him and pressed the gun hard to the old man’s temple.

Lucy noticed that Miles stood up and tensed a little as if this meant something more to him. Amanda’s anger was palpable and seemed to affect the air around them like a sudden wind. Lucy caught a glimpse of the long-haired phantom she had seen in the hospital in Amanda’s face, but then it was gone. Amanda wasn’t finished, however.

“When all it would have taken was for you to say a word, A SINGLE WORD, MORÍRO! And I would have lived!!” She beat against her chest with her free hand. “Yet you turned away and let me die!”

“It was your time, you had lived too long, Amarantha.”

“Ha! As if that were your choice to make alone!”

“It
is
my choice!” he shouted defiantly. Then in a more mournful tone, “I never asked for it, but it
is
my choice. You
made
it my choice, when you trained me to replace you as Necromancer,” He added ruefully.

Amanda stood there staring at him her nostrils flaring. “A mistake I hope to remedy very soon,” she said in an icy voice.

An awkward moment passed before Moríro turned to Lucy and continued, “She was a necromancer once,
THE
Necromancer. She raised me, but died and descended to the pits of punishment. She is little more than a demon now.”

“Demon?!” Amanda just snorted in derision as she pulled the gun away and rested it on her shoulder while walking in a tight circle, agitated. “Oh that’s rich coming from
you
. She…
I
…only want to save the world from death
and
misery, oh, she’s,
I’m,
such
a monster, godson,” that last line was uttered with particularly venomous sarcasm that was effective even with the odd use of pronouns.

“She has taken the body of this young woman, Amanda, and possessed it for herself.” Moríro explained, ignoring that last retort. “Release her, Amarantha!” he suddenly ordered, “Let her go!”

Lucy pulled her hair back from her forehead and turned from side to side as if looking for a place to hide from her anxiety. Amanda really was
two
people! It was almost too much to take.

“I’m sorry, godson, but this body is by invitation only,” Amanda said coolly, “Amanda
wants
me here.” She thumped her fist hard against her chest. “We WANT to be together.”

“Amanda,” Moríro pleaded desperately, “Force her away! Let her go! You have the power. She is a demon! She will destroy you!” Moríro implored.

Amanda just laughed. “DESTROY ME?! She only saved us…
me
…from dying of cancer, miserable, ALONE! When you were content to let us…I mean
me
…suffer and die, but only after you had tried to use us to get what
you
wanted of course.”

“What did she mean by that last part? What did Moríro want with Amanda…or Amarantha…this was all so confusing,” thought Lucy.

“What does she mean?!” Lucy asked.

Moríro took a breath and closed his eyes as if in shame before speaking. “I…I summoned Amarantha into the body of Amanda Tipping.”

“What?! Why would you do that?!” Lucy asked exasperated.

“Answers,” Amanda or Amarantha or whatever she was, replied calmly, “He needed answers. Answers only I could give. And now I’m here to deliver them…in person.”

“What do you want with me?!” Moríro demanded, breaking off the previous thread of discussion.

“With you?” Amanda scoffed, “I don’t want
anything
to do with you.” She pointed the gun at his head again. “Except for maybe tidying up some unfinished business, perhaps.”

Lucy watched as Amanda stepped forward slowly towards Moríro with dead eyes, the gun fixed on his head. She stepped forward until the gun was just inches from his forehead, her fingers tensed on the trigger. Lucy was convinced she was about to see Moríro get his brains blown out. She tried to look away but couldn’t move. She was frozen in place from sheer horror. She wanted to yell out “Stop!” or something but couldn’t make the words come out. The three teenage boys looked equally petrified into inaction. Moríro closed his eyes and waited for the gunshot, but just as if she could hear Lucy’s pounding heart beat, Amanda looked up into her tearing eyes and her face softened to the kinder Amanda once more. Amanda moved the finger off the trigger and lowered the gun to her side.

“But I didn’t come here to kill,” Amanda said simply, “I came here to save lives, unlike
some
people.” She turned to face Lucy. “I came here for you, Lucy. I came here to save you from
him
.”

“What are you talking about?” Lucy demanded.       

“Hasn’t he told you?” Amanda looked to Moríro and then turned back to Lucy casually. “Hasn’t he told you the job description yet? The job he expected your mother and now
you
to fulfill? Hasn’t he told you what it is the Necromancer
does
? How he maintains the balance?” She turned to face Moríro and adopted a sardonic tone. “If you expect her to take over the family business you really should let her know what she’s in for,
godson
. It’s only polite.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Moríro implored.

Amanda walked back to Moríro, crouched down and looked right at him. “Tell her, Moríro! Tell her the truth. Tell her what it is you’re supposed to do for Death everyday for the rest of your miserable life. Tell her what your job
really
is.”

Moríro was silent.

Amanda smiled and rested the gun on her shoulder and looked between Lucy and Moríro smugly.

“What is she saying?” Lucy asked, but Moríro said nothing and remained on his knees, as if utterly defeated. Amanda sneered at him, stood up and walked towards Lucy and let the gun fall to her side again. Lucy’s eyes darted to the gun. At least she wasn’t pointing it at anyone anymore.

“The truth, Lucy. That’s all I want you to know. The truth.”

“Don’t listen to her!” Moríro yelled.

“The truth, Lucy, is that the Necromancer is not the champion of Death, no matter what he tells you. Oh, you have powers. Powers of life and death, but you are strictly limited in how you can use them.” Amanda turned and walked back to Moríro. “Oh, you can call up the dead all day if you want. Summon up all the ghosts and spooks you want. Stitch together dead meat into golems and slaves…” She strolled past the three boys, “Raise the dead, zombies and mummies, call up the shades, the
inferi
,
dis
and
manibus
, and all the infernal spirits and monsters of the underworld and have tea parties, wouldn’t
that
be lovely.” She looked Sky up and down contemptuously, “Even
vampires
and other
worthless
minions if you want.”

“Tease,” Schuyler said playfully twisting the lollipop in his mouth. Amanda wrinkled her nose at Sky, but smiled coolly at Miles, who only looked down, and then she walked back to Lucy casually.      

“You can play all day long and all night too, to your heart’s content with all the
dead
things
, but do you know what you can do for the living?”

There was a long pause. Lucy stared into Amanda’s eyes. It was hard to tell if this was the hard Amanda, or Amarantha, or the nice Amanda. Was there even a
nice
Amanda? Or was it all an act, like Sky in the gift shop or Tim’s fake vampire teeth? She didn’t know anymore.

“No…what?” Lucy asked, both scared and genuinely curious.

“Amarantha!” Moríro interjected but Amanda just smiled.

“Nothing,” Amanda said simply.