by G Sauvé
I fly past the second level, barely even noticing the vast emptiness. The third level is also deserted. It’s not until I reach the roof that I finally find who I’m looking for.
Avalon stands at the centre of an open stone platform. The edges of the tower are devoid of banisters, which means one wrong move can send me tumbling to my death. I take note of this and move on to the next detail. The hole in the platform I emerged from is the only way off the roof, which means Avalon is now trapped. Speaking of the raven-haired woman, she stands next to a strange device.
It’s a stone throne, only the backrest is angled, and there are leather straps protruding from a series of slits along both edges. Their use is clear. They’re designed to restrain whoever sits in the chair. There’s also a series of wires and electrodes which are plugged into a crude machine. The final detail I notice is a makeshift wired helmet. Though I have no proof of this, I suspect that’s how Avalon is planning to extract my powers.
“I’m surprised,” admits Avalon. “I didn’t think you’d have the guts to face me alone.” After a brief moment, she adds, “I guess your friends are otherwise occupied.”
I ignore her obvious goading.
“They’re going to die, you know,” she mocks.
I’m about to respond when the tower shakes. It only lasts a few seconds, but it’s enough to remind me time is running out. Now is not the time to argue. It’s the time for action.
“Give me what I want, and I’ll let you live,” I say.
Avalon chuckles. “That’s funny. I was just going to say that.”
We stare at each other for a while, debating how to proceed. I have Jonn’s knife, but I know from experience Avalon is a skilled fighter. Perhaps not as proficient as Jonn or Kara, but nonetheless quite capable.
“Give me what’s mine, and I promise to get you back to your time,” proposes Avalon.
It’s a tempting offer, but I’m no longer the coward I once was. Jonn and Kara risked their lives to buy me time so I could defeat Avalon. I can’t abandon them. Not to mention the fact that Avalon would most likely betray me as soon as she regained her ability to shift.
“No deal,” I say, “but I have a counter offer. Give yourself up, and I promise you won’t be harmed.”
“I don’t think so.”
We’re right back where we started.
“Give me the ring,” I order as I raise Jonn’s knife and take a threatening step forward.
“Which one?” asks Avalon. “This one”—she raises her left hand, revealing her hourglass ring—“or this one?” She reaches into her pocket and retrieves my mother’s ring.
“Give it to me,” I command, knife still raised.
“Come and get it,” counters Avalon, placing the ring onto her open palm.
The object of my desire is a few metres away, yet it may as well be on the moon. Deep down I know it’s unwise to trust Avalon, but I can’t pass up such an opportunity.
I take a step forward.
“That’s it,” encourages Avalon. I ignore her and take another step.
“You’re almost there,” teases the raven-haired woman. Ignoring her words, I take a third step. The ring is within reach. All I need to do is reach out and grab it, but I suspect it won’t be that easy.
“Don’t try anything,” I warn as I hesitantly reach out.
“I’m hurt,” she kids. “I thought you would have learned to trust me by now.”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t.”
My fingers are now mere centimetres from the ring.
“Smart move,” admits Avalon as she curls her fingers around the ring right before I grasp it. Taking a step back, she reveals the hand which I only now realize has been hidden behind her back the entire time. Clenched in it is an Atlantean pistol.
Dammit! Why didn’t I see this coming?
“Drop your knife,” commands Avalon.
The last thing I want to do is rid myself of my only weapon, but my opponent has the upper hand. Or does she?
“I don’t think so,” I say.
Avalon falters.
“Excuse me?”
I can’t conceal an amused smile.
“You can’t shoot me,” I remind. “If I die, you lose your powers forever.”
“You’re right,” admits Avalon as she lowers her weapon. I do the same. We may no longer be in immediate danger, yet we’re still in a stalemate.
“What now?” I ask.
“We could fight it out,” suggests Avalon, “but one of us might end up dying.”
She’s right. As much as I despise Avalon, I don’t want to kill her. Nor do I want to die.
“We could drop our weapons,” I suggest.
“We could,” she admits.
No one moves. I don’t want to be the first to back down, and neither does Avalon. We stay that way until another tremor shakes the tower. It’s more forceful than the last and nearly sends us crumbling to the ground. Time is running out. I need to make a move. Now.
I have an idea. It’s risky, but it’s the only solution.
“All right,” I say. “I’ll go first.”
I drop my knife. It clatters to the ground and stays there.
I’m now defenceless, but Avalon knows as well as I do that if she shoots me, all hopes of regaining her powers will die along with me. Still, it takes a moment before she musters the willpower to drop her gun.
I don’t wait for the weapon to hit the ground. I rush forward as soon as it drops from Avalon’s hand. I pump my legs like an Olympic sprinter and tackle her before she can react. She tumbles backward and slams into the stone roof.
She’s winded and confused, and I take full advantage of it. I straddle her, and using my weight as a weapon, I pin her against the stone surface. She struggles to break free, but she’s still a little disoriented from the attack, so I reach for the Atlantean gun. Avalon sees what I’m doing and tries to beat me to the punch, but I slap her hand away and grab the pistol.
“It’s over,” I say as I press the muzzle of the gun to her chest. One shot at this range will kill her, and she knows it. She stops struggling.
I can’t believe it. I won. Well, almost.
“Give me the ring,” I command, pressing the gun harder against her chest. She winces but doesn’t complain. Nor does she release the ring.
“Give it,” I growl. “NOW!”
Avalon’s anger is evident, but there’s something else in that gaze of hers. It takes a moment, but I finally recognize it.
It’s joy.
Why is she happy? I wonder. But not for long. Mere seconds after the question forms in my mind, the tower begins trembling. The shudders intensify until it feels like the structure is swaying. Avalon takes advantage of this to knock the gun from my hand. A blow to the jaw sends me tumbling. I roll a short distance, then come to a stop. I half expect Avalon to finish me off, but she merely lies there, staring at something in disbelief. I follow her gaze, and a similar expression overpowers me.
Where the stone throne and the machine that accompanied it once stood now lies a gaping hole. My first thought is for Jonn and Kara and all the lava korrigans that stand beneath what once used to be the roof, but I forget all about them when the stones surrounding the cave-in begin to crumble.
The hole is growing. Fast. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches me and swallows me up. Desperate to avoid such a fate, I scramble backward until I reach the edge of the tower. I don’t look back, knowing my fear of heights will only make things worse. But what difference will that make when my demise is imminent?
The collapsing of the roof progresses quickly. Within seconds, the edge of the expanding pit reaches my feet. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the roof gives out, and when that happens, I’m going to die. The only upside is that Avalon will perish along with me. Or so I think until the shudders abruptly stop. Moments later, the collapsing of the roof ceases.
I can’t believe it. I’m still alive. So is Avalon. She lies a
few metres away, staring in amazement at the metre-wide doughnut of stone that supports us.
“That was close,” I say, too relieved to be alive to care the only person remaining to share my good fortune is the woman whose goal it is to destroy me.
Avalon doesn’t seem to share my optimism.
“It’s not over,” she says.
I don’t understand what she means until a beam of white energy erupts from the gaping hole which once was the inside of the tower. It takes a moment before I understand what’s happening. When I finally do, the relief that inhabits me vanishes like a rabbit inside a magician’s hat.
“Oh no,” I groan. “It’s happening.”
Memory 96
I stare at the beam of energy. It’s beautiful, yet terrifying. I can’t help thinking of what Avalon told us when we first fell into her trap. She claimed Nibiran energy had been building within the Mountain of Fire for years. I also recall her mentioning something about the release of energy being linked to the eruption of the dormant volcano. But the worst part of all was her claim this blast of energy would cause a tear in the fabric of time and space. If that’s true, I’m about to witness the emergence of the Chicxulub asteroid. In other words, it’s the start of the end.
I stare at the beam. Higher and higher it rises until it vanishes. But still it keeps going. And going. And going. It’s not until the earthly reserve of Nibiran energy runs dry that something finally happens.
The tip of the beam, which by now has reached outer space, explodes in a flash of white. Momentarily blinded, I blink furiously. By the time my vision returns, the world has changed. A massive tear has appeared in the sky. It’s so massive it has to be measured in kilometres, not metres. The energy feeds the expansion, making the tear grow in both length and width. By the time the last few shreds of Nibiran energy are spent, the crack has quite literally split the sky in half. But that’s not what worries me.
Out of the tear emerges the largest asteroid I have ever seen. It’s bright red and so massive it barely fits through the fissure. And it only gets bigger as more and more of it is revealed. Only a portion of it is visible, yet already it’s massive enough to wipe out all living things within a ten-kilometre radius. It’s such a horrifying sight it’s almost beautiful.
It’s happening exactly as Avalon said it would. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’m not sure how long it will take before it reaches us, but I don’t plan on sticking around to find out. Jonn and Kara are most likely dead, and Avalon is no longer of any concern to me. All I now care about it finding my mother’s ring and opening a portal back to my time.
I glance around in search of my ring. There’s no way Avalon held on to it throughout all of this, and with a little luck, it’s still around here somewhere. If worse comes to worse, I can always try to steal Avalon’s.
I don’t find the ring, but I do come across Jonn’s knife. I pick it up and continue my search. The more time passes, the less likely I am to find it. I’m just about to give up when a voice reaches my ears.
“Are you looking for this?” asks Avalon. I look up to find her showing me her ring. “Or maybe this,” she adds, waving around my mother’s time travel device.
“Give it back,” I growl as I take a step closer. I’m surprised by the lack of vertigo—after all, I’m standing on a metre-wide stone doughnut with nothing but a plummet to certain death on either side—but too much has happened for me to care about such trivialities.
“Don’t come any closer,” warns Avalon as she outstretches her arm. Her hand now hovers over empty space. One quick movement is all it will take to send my mother’s ring tumbling into the volcano.
I stop. It’s the last thing I want to do, but I don’t have a choice.
“It’s not too late,” says Avalon. “Come with me. Give me my powers back, and I promise to return you to your time.”
It’s a tempting offer, but accepting it would be an insult to Jonn and Kara’s memories. They gave their lives to get me here. I can’t betray them, even if it means giving up what I care about most.
“Never!” I respond, taking another step forward.
“Too bad,” says Avalon as she drops my ring.
“NOOO!!!” I yell as it plummets into the volcano. I almost follow it with my gaze, but I catch myself just in time. The last thing I need is to lose my balance and fall in after it.
My ring is gone. As devastating a blow as this is, it relieves Avalon of her leverage. Now nothing stands between me and revenge. Nothing, that is, except for Avalon herself.
“You’re dead,” I growl as I take another step.
“I don’t think so,” she disagrees. She twists the first of the two triangles that adorn her ring. One more and a portal will open, allowing her to escape.
My anger fades, replaced by fear.
“You c-can’t just leave me here,” I blurt out. “I’ll die.”
“That’s a possibility,” admits Avalon, “but I suspect you’ll find a way to survive.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I’m not,” she admits, “but I have faith. And the next time we meet, your powers will be mine.”
I expect her to twist the second triangle, but she doesn’t. Instead, she takes a step forward and topples off the edge of the tower. I watch, stunned, as she plummets. Strangely, the height doesn’t seem to affect me. I watch, unbothered by the precariousness of my situation, as Avalon drops. I’m just about to look away when a portal crackles to life mere metres before her. A split second later, she gets swallowed up by it and vanishes.
I can’t believe it. She got away. I could try to jump and hope I land in the portal, but the odds of success are slim. Not to mention the fact that my acrophobia has finally caught up with me. My vision swims, and my head spins. I look away just in time. By the time I recover enough to muster another look, the portal is gone.
It’s official. I’m trapped.
Memory 97
T he Chicxulub asteroid is on its way. The volcano is about to erupt. The tower on which I stand is like a house of cards. One more tremor and it will crumble, taking me down with it. My one chance at survival is to make it down to ground level and find a way down the mountain before the volcano erupts or the asteroid hits.
I tuck Jonn’s knife into my belt and make my way to the staircase. All that remains is the outer half of the steps. In some places, they’re missing. In others, the stones that remain are less than half a metre in width. But the worst part is by far the large shaft of emptiness that borders what remains of the staircase. All three floors are gone, leaving a gaping hole at the bottom of which stands a bubbling, hissing pool of molten rock.
Why me? I wonder. Why did all of this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? But no amount of deprecating pondering will help me now. I have one shot at survival, and I’m not about to let it slip through my fingers. Unfortunately, Kara is no longer here to distract me with kisses. Nor is Jonn to keep me busy with one of his stories. I’m on my own, and unless I find it within me to overcome my fear of heights, I’m going to die.
I refuse to give up. I have survived too much to let it all end now. Still, it’s with sweaty palms and shaky knees that I begin the slow, perilous journey down the tower. The first few steps aren’t that bad, but the farther I progress, the more difficult it becomes. More than once I slip, nearly plummeting into the volcano’s maw, but always I manage to regain my balance. It takes a while for me to recover from these near-death experiences, but I continue the journey down what remains of the tower.
After a while, I allow myself to believe I will make it. Of course, that’s the very moment things go wrong. The earth shakes. It’s merely a tremor, but it’s enough to critically jeopardize the precarious balance of the tower. The entire structure shifts, and for a brief moment, I fear it will collapse. Against all odds, it doesn’t, but the same can’t be said for the staircase. A portion of it gives out before me, nearly drawing me to my death. I backpedal, only to
have another section crumble behind me. The trembling eventually ceases, but I’m now trapped.
The fragment of stairs on which I stand is barely big enough for me to maintain my balance. The gap behind me is over a metre long. The one before me is twice as massive. Even with the downward angle of the staircase, there’s no way I can make such a jump.
I am, for all intents and purposes, doomed.
I can’t believe this is how it ends. I think back to what my older self said. I guess he was wrong about both my destiny and the fact that I would one day get to meet my parents. I don’t know what I did wrong, but I failed. And now I’m going to die. I could wait for the next tremor to do the job for me, but if this is to be the end, I prefer it be on my terms.
I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would commit suicide, but at the moment, it seems like the only logical option. Not to mention it’s not really suicide if I’m going to die anyway. Is it?
It doesn’t matter. My mind is made up. I take a deep breath, turn toward the mouth of the volcano, and get ready to jump.
Memory 98
M y heart hammers against my ribcage. My muscles are flexed like springs ready to unfurl. Tears run down my cheeks. My hands shake. Beads of cold sweat coat my brow. I’m terrified, yet I know what must be done.
I’m about to leap into the abyss when a panicked voice reaches my ears.
“WILL!”
The voice sounds familiar, yet I can’t make out where it comes from. Smoke rises from the volcano, filling the air and obscuring my vision. My eyes sting, though I can’t tell if it’s because of the smoke or the tears. It doesn’t matter. I must find the source of the voice. I look around, but there’s nothing. I’m just about to give up when, finally, I see her.
Kara.
She emerges from the smoke like a spirit from the darkness. Her face is stained with blood and grime, but she’s unhurt. So is Jonn. He stands behind her, a broad smile curling his lips. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear he’s happy to see me.
“You didn’t think we’d abandon you, did you?” he asks.