The Cornerstone (20 page)

This, in Max’s opinion, was
brilliant
. An on-the-fly piece of creative deceit any politician would be proud of.

‘Well, the doctor says you don’t appear to have any lasting effects from the seizures,’ Amanda said, a bit unsure. ‘First twitch I see though and you’re back here sharpish. Got me?’

‘Right.’

‘Dad’s got Monica this morning and I want to get home before he bores her to death.’

Max loved his mother’s manner of speech.

It was one genetic hand-me-down he was happy to have. He was also very pleased Monica had to spend a dull morning with Grandad.

Every situation has a silver lining.

Twenty minutes later, Amanda’s Ford Focus pulled into the road leading to the library.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Max, as they neared the disaster zone.

Police tape was strung across the road, blocking it off. Two bored looking coppers were turning traffic around and trying to ignore the morning drizzle. In the car park were several police cars, an ambulance and a fire engine, taking up every available space next to the grey library building.

It was clear something pretty catastrophic had happened. Max was willing to bet it had something to do with his seizures and that annoying book.

The image he’d had of Merelie – injured and scared – came back to him.

‘Drive a bit closer, mum.’

Amanda did so and Max unwound his window, beckoning a bedraggled PC over.

‘Can I help?’ the officer asked, flashing them the quick smile he’d been trained to use in situations like this.

‘What happened here, mate?’ Max asked, showing a disregard for authority that would no doubt get him into trouble in later life.

‘We’re not sure… maybe a gas explosion. Can’t say any more than that I’m afraid.’ He looked at Amanda. ‘I’ll have to ask you to turn around and head back the way you came, miss.’

Amanda, who hadn’t been a miss for eighteen years, gave the PC a winsome smile. ‘Certainly officer, we’ll get out of your way.’

She turned the car and headed back in the other direction, a half smile on her lips.

‘Stop the car!’ Max shouted.

Amanda braked and pulled the car over to the kerb, tyres squealing in protest. ‘What? What!? Are you having a seizure?’ She slapped a hand to his forehead, checking his temperature. Max batted it away.

‘I’m fine!’ he told her, looking through the rain streaked windscreen at the cold and lost looking figure of Merelie Carvallen.

- 4 -

 ‘Wait here mum, there’s somebody over there I know.’

Max got out of the car and jogged over to where Merelie was standing in the entrance to the local church. She was staring at the library, The Cornerstone clutched tightly to her chest.

Max didn’t quite know how to handle this.

The girl looked tired and scared, so he supposed approaching her with care and consideration was the way to go. On the other hand, this was the person responsible for several smacks on the head, a couple of embarrassing seizures and the inability to walk past a book shop without feeling nauseous, so he didn’t feel all that sympathetic.

He decided on a neutral approach.

‘Hello Merelie.’

She spun around, eyes wide with shock. When she realised it was Max, shock turned to relief. ‘Max! I’m so pleased to see you!’ she cried, throwing her arms around him.

Mum’s watching all of this like a hawk. I’m never going to live it down.

He extricated himself from the hug. ‘What are you doing here Merelie?’

‘It was the driest place to stand, underneath the trees,’ she said, indicating the large oak growing nearby.

‘Ok,’ he wasn’t sure she’d understood him. ‘I meant… why are you
here
? In my world?’ Then he remembered the seizure. ‘They came didn’t they? The monsters you were worried about.’

‘Yes,’ she said, her voice small and scared. ‘Everybody’s gone, Max.’

‘You jumped over here to get away? Followed by that big bloke in the leather get up?’

Merelie looked surprised. ‘How do you know about Elijah?’

He pointed at the book. ‘That stupid thing. I saw you both come over. I had a fit every time the book got used and had to go to hospital.’ The accusing tone in his voice probably wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t help himself.

‘Your link to The Cornerstone must be very strong, Max,’ Merelie said, curiosity momentarily overcoming her fear.

‘Yeah. Any ideas why?’

‘No. I’ve never heard of anything like it before. Maybe it’s because of who you are.’

‘You’re not going to start that whole super wizard thing again, are you?’ Max backed off and held his hands up.

‘I’m too tired to think about anything right now.’

Max looked over at the library. ‘What happened down there?’

‘The thing that possessed Elijah came through The Cornerstone. We had to fight it.’

‘What did you use? A cruise missile?’

‘What?’

‘Never mind. Can you get back?’ His eyes flicked down to the book.

‘It’s not working,’ she said, ‘no power again. Anyway, I’m not sure if I should try, I don’t know what’s waiting on the other side.’

‘Fair enough. Dropping into a crowd of those things wouldn’t be a great idea, would it?’

Merelie shook her head and looked back at the library.

Max lapsed into thought.

On the one hand, the sensible part of his brain was ordering him to walk away and leave Merelie to her fate. He hadn’t asked to get caught up in all this and now the police were involved it was likely to get even worse.

Then there were the hoards of void-dwelling, people-possessing monsters potentially lined up on the other side of the pages of The Cornerstone, waiting to suck his eyeballs out through his arse.

…it was at times like this Max wished he didn’t have such a vivid imagination, and therefore wouldn’t have to deal with the mental image that idea conjured up.

While leaving well enough alone would be the sensible thing, Max was a teenage boy, and being sensible was generally to be avoided like the plague. Chuck in the hormones stirred up whenever the extremely pretty Merelie Carvallen was about and rationality stood no chance.

Dumb heroism was therefore the order of the day.

Max didn’t quite put his hands on his hips and look off into the middle distance, but he might as well have. ‘You need to come home with me, Merelie. It’s not safe here.’

‘Imelda told me to stay here until she got rid of the Chapter Guards.’

‘The what?’

‘The ones in the armour.’

‘The old bill, you mean? You standing here will grab their attention eventually. Besides, we can always come back later. No point you hanging round here getting wet and cold, eh?’

Merelie was exhausted from a night sleeping rough and would have traded The Cornerstone itself for a warm place to rest. ‘Ok, Max, I’ll come. This place scares me.’

Now that’s a good point…

This world wasn’t anything like hers and the culture shock must be huge. The Chapter Lands were about as different as it was possible to get.

…no Starbucks or FHM magazine, for starters.

Merelie’s home wasn’t exactly backward, but it wasn’t as chaotic or busy as Earth. All the noise and bedlam must be freaking her out.

‘My mum’s parked over there. Come on,’ Max said and led the way over to the Ford Focus, dreading the next few minutes.

When they reached the car, the grin on Amanda Bloom’s face was so large it was a wonder the top of her head didn’t fall off.

Max opened the back door and let Merelie in. She still clutched The Cornerstone close and looked wary as she lowered herself into the Focus.

Max got back in and steeled himself.

‘Aren’t you going to introduce us?’ Amanda said, the amusement difficult to keep out of her voice.

‘This is Merelie, mum… Merelie, this is my mum,’ Max mumbled.

‘Merelie? That’s a very pretty name. Where does it come from? Ireland?’

‘No ma’am. It was my great grandmother’s name. She was Carvallen Chapter Lord for thirty years – and was famous for quelling unrest in the Borders and bringing them into the fold.’

‘Aah. That sounds… lovely.’ Amanda shot her son a bewildered look.

‘She’s… she’s half Spanish,’ Max made up on the spot, and immediately changed the subject. ‘Can Merelie come back home with us for a bit? She was coming to see her aunt who works in the library, but obviously with what’s going on she couldn’t find her.’

Max’s mastery of the convincing lie had reached new heights.

‘Oh my goodness! Is she alright? Not hurt in the explosion I hope?’

‘No ma’am,’ Merelie said. ‘She is well and talking to the
policies
.’

‘See? Spanish!’ Max threw in before his mother could comment on the girl’s pronunciation.

Amanda knew something funny was going on here, but her son seemed to like this girl  - she could tell by how red his face had gone - so let it go.

The rest of the journey home was carried out in silence, with Max biting his fingernails, Merelie gawping out of the window at the world around her and Amanda wondering what the hell a Chapter Lord was.

Amanda left Max and Merelie in the house while she went to pick up Monica - who was probably climbing the walls by now, having listened to her grandfather’s stories about his bowel trouble for over an hour.

This came as something of a relief to Max. He was burning with curiosity about what had happened in Merelie’s world and was pleased to get some peace and quiet.

He made her a mug of hot sweet tea, which she sipped gratefully.

He also made Marmite on toast, which didn’t go down so well, replacing it with a doughnut when she’d stopped retching.

While the drizzle continued to stick to the windows outside - and while Imelda Warrington searched high and low for her - Merelie recounted the events of her life since Max had popped out of existence three weeks ago, ending with her escape as Imelda prepared for the arrival of the police.

- 5 -

‘So, you were in your staff room making a cup of coffee,’ the rather portly looking sergeant stated.

‘ …and a curry flavoured Pot Noodle,’ Imelda added, hoping she could throw him off balance with lots of trivial details. Slurping her tea couldn’t hurt either.

‘ …and a curry flavoured Pot Noodle, when you heard a massive explosion from outside.’

‘Oh my yes. Huge, it was.’ Slurp.

‘Huge explosion from outside. You went out to investigate and that’s when you heard another explosion from in here.’

‘That’s about the size of it.’ Slurp.

‘That was lucky, don’t you think?’ the sergeant said. He was beginning to regret coming out of the station to help with this one. There was a bacon sandwich with his name on back at the yard and this woman was starting to get on his nerves.

‘It would seem so.’ Slurp slurp.

‘This was the point at which you noticed the man dressed in black leather, lying in the wreckage?’

‘Indeed. Very strange I thought that was.’ Imelda’s eyes went wide in a contrived effort to look scared. ‘You think he’s a terrorist, officer?’

‘Um… I don’t know, madam. I’d say this would be an odd target for a terrorist attack.’

‘Yes. We haven’t even got a copy of the Koran… or the Bible for that matter. Secularism is the watchword here at Farefield library!’ Imelda remarked cheerfully, playing the part of the harmless and slightly befuddled librarian for all she was worth.

‘Where is the young man? Is he alright?’ she asked the copper.

If Elijah were to awaken and go on a rampage through the town…

‘He’s unconscious, but there aren’t any obvious signs of trauma, which is incredible. There’s something funny going on with his eyes, I’m led to believe. He’s been taken to hospital for treatment.’

‘Oh, that is
good
news,’ Imelda lied.

‘He’ never made it to the hospital.

Five minutes drive from the library, on the hill leading out of town, the seemingly indestructible Dweller awoke and made short work of escaping the ambulance, leaving the paramedics the ones in need of extensive treatment.

Freed from the confinement of the shrieking metal box and spitting mad, the thing inside Elijah knew it had to reclaim the girl and get back to the safety of the Chapter Lands as quickly as possible.

It had nearly entered her mind and fed – only being denied a meal by the dirtiest of fighting tactics. It meant to set the record straight as soon as possible… and pick up a metal codpiece from somewhere if it had the time.

An echo of the brief link it had shared with Merelie’s mind remained and the Dweller looked across the town, searching for her.

There was
something
… far away, but definitely there.

With a vague idea of where its target was - and a hunger so deep it hurt - the Dweller set off.

- 6 -

Hours later, and back in Max’s kitchen, Merelie had finished updating him on events.

‘Christ on a bike. That sucks donkey balls, Merelie,’ he said, biting into his toast. ‘I mean… your whole world taken over like that? And now one of them is here as well. Do you think it’ll wake up again?’

‘Hard to say. We hurt it, that’s for certain, and it wasn’t moving when I left.’

‘Imelda can handle things,’ he said, trying to sound positive.

‘Maybe, though it sounded like she’d be with your policy people for a while.’

That actually gave Max some comfort. If this Elijah did spring up and start trying to suck some brains, Farefield Constabulary’s finest would make a fight of it.

Would CS Gas work on denizens of the purple void?

Merelie sat in silence, her hands wrapped round a rapidly cooling second cup of tea.

Max stared out of the window.

What the hell do you say to someone who knows their world is doomed?

He didn’t know what fate had befallen Merelie’s friends and family, but he was sure it wasn’t good. There was every chance they were dead… or sporting a lovely new set of purple eyeballs.

He chose his next words carefully. ‘Are you planning on going back?’

She looked at him and did her best not to cry. ‘I suppose so. I can’t do anything here. If nothing else, I can see if Garrowain got away. We can get out of the Chapter House and see if anybody else survived. Start a resistance or something.’