by Amy Cross
“Judith,” I said with a sigh, “we -”
“We'll still win the war,” she added, interrupting me as she took a couple of steps back. “Do you know how I know that? I know it because good always triumphs over evil. I know it because strong men are on our side. Klaus Zieghoff wasn't the only good man in our ranks, you know.” There were tears in her eyes. “We're so close to victory already. Fate and destiny are on our side. I'd have liked to have seen it myself, but... I know sometimes we have to rely on faith alone.”
She took another step back.
“Judith,” I replied, “you're wrong. You have to know that.”
“You'll see,” she said, taking yet another step back. There were tears in her eyes. “I know it in my heart.”
And another step.
“And you'll never take that away from me,” she added finally. “Glory to the Third Reich.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but suddenly she fell back and toppled over the side of the bridge.
“No!” I screamed, rushing out across the bridge in a futile attempt to stop her. She was long gone by the time I reached the edge, however, and when I looked down I saw the awful truth.
Judith had fallen about twenty feet, and she'd landed on some rocks that lay in a shallow river. Her limbs were twisted from the impact and her dead eyes were staring up at the sky, and blood was already flowing from a wound on the back of her head, mixing in with the moonlit water. There was no chance of saving her, and she'd gone to her death firm in the belief that she'd been on the right side.
I guess, in her mind, she'd won.
Chapter Twenty
Hugo
“This really is bad luck, isn't it?” Judith said, whispering into my ear as I felt myself slipping into darkness. “Getting staked twice in one night. How will you ever live it down?”
I opened my mouth to ask what was happening, but in an instant she twisted the stake, sending a searing agony burning through my chest.
“I'm so sorry, Hugo,” she continued as she eased me down to the ground, and as I began to lose consciousness. “You have to believe me. I never wanted you to find out this way.”
Before I could reply, I felt a grinding pain in my chest. I blinked, and in an instant I was suddenly on my hands and knees in the church, and when I looked down I saw that the cross was no longer in my chest. A moment later, I turned and saw that Matthias and Chloe were towering above me. There was a strange look in their eyes, something that seemed almost... full of sorrow.
“I...”
For a moment, I wasn't sure what to say. I tried to work out what had happened, and I quickly realized that – somehow – I must have been staked again. My mind was racing as I thought back to the moment when the cross had been driven into my chest, but somehow I found myself remembering that it was Judith who had attacked me. That was impossible, of course, so I figured my mind had to be completely wrecked.
“What do you remember?” Matthias asked gravely.
“I remember a -”
I blinked, and in that instant I again heard Judith's terrible words. Somehow, a false memory had been planted in my mind, one that had turned Judith into a traitor. I tried again and again to look past that illusion, yet each time I came back to it again.
“Hugo,” Matthias said after a moment, “tell us what you remember?”
“Where's Judith?” I replied, starting to get to my feet, only to feel a sharp pain in my chest. I hauled myself onto one of the nearby pews while I waited to fully recover. “I want to talk to Judith.”
“Do you remember who attacked you?” Chloe asked.
“Yes. No. I'm not sure. Where's Judith?”
I waited for one of them to speak, but after a moment I realized that they both seemed too scared to say anything. Deep down, I was starting to worry that something might have happened to her, but at the same time my mind was filled with conflicting images in which I heard Judith snarl into my ear that she'd betrayed me. For an illusion, these images seemed terribly real.
“Where is she?” I asked again, trying not to panic. “I swear, you will tell me right now. Bring her to me. Where's Judith?”
***
“No!” I gasped, as I struggled to get down the steep embankment that led to the edge of the river. “Judith, I'm coming! Everything's going to be okay!”
I slipped and fell, landing hard on the rocks at the bottom, but I immediately began clambering out to where Judith lay partially submerged by the water. I knew she was okay, I was absolutely certain that she'd be fine just so long as I reached her, but the stake in my chest had left me weakened and it took several more seconds before I was able to get to her. Dropping to my knees, I began to gather her up in my arms.
“I know they're lying!” I snarled angrily. “You should have heard the things they said about you, my darling! They're already trying to blacken your name!”
I touched the side of her face. Wet, matted hair clung to her cheek, and after a moment I realized that there was a large wound on the back of her head, no doubt caused by her fall from the bridge. Still, I knew deep down that she had to be alive, that my wonderful, perfect Judith could never have perished. I tried to find a pulse, and then I reached out and entered her mind, searching frantically for any trace of her soul.
“Stay strong,” I sobbed. “Judith, I'm right here, I'm with you. My darling, you have to...”
My voice trailed off.
Never before had I gone into the mind of someone who seemed dead. Instead of the usual rush of thoughts and emotions, I felt nothing but absolute stone-cold emptiness, stretching out in vast swathes in every direction. The rooms of her soul were gone, replaced by nothingness, yet still I searched desperately for her before realizing that the cold was becoming too much. I screamed in her mind, shouting her name and begging her to return; I ran through her skull, searching for even the tiniest trace that might let me bring her back. I told myself that even one atom of her mind would be enough, but there was nothing. Her body was empty, and she was gone. There was not so much as a flicker of light anywhere.
Finally, shivering slightly, I pulled my mind out and found myself once again staring down at her. There had to have been a mistake, and I told myself that I simply needed to work out what to do next.
“This can't be happening,” I whispered, feeling as if my own mind was about to explode with rage. “I refuse to believe it. I refuse to let it happen. I demand... I demand that you come back to me.”
I waited, but she remained limp in my arms.
“It was only a short fall,” I continued. “Why were you so weak? Why didn't I make you stronger, before this could happen?”
Again, I waited.
Again, she did not reply.
“Answer me!” I screamed, shaking her wildly, unable to contain myself. “I order you to answer me! I order you to live again!”
Suddenly hearing footsteps, I looked up and saw that Matthias and Chloe were staring down at me from the bridge. From the same spot where Judith must have stood before her fall.
“Hugo,” Matthias said cautiously, “I'm so sorry.”
“You're sorry?” I whispered.
“We tried to help her,” he added. “We did everything we could.”
“You're sorry?” I snarled.
“I know this must hurt,” he said, “but you have to believe me, we wanted to bring her back to you. We wanted her to explain her actions. She threw herself off the bridge.”
“This is all your fault!” I screamed at him suddenly, still cradling Judith's body in my arms. “If you hadn't interfered, she'd still be alive!”
I turned to Chloe.
“And you too!” I shouted. “I trusted you!”
“Hugo,” she replied with cheating, lying tears in her eyes, “please...”
“I'll make you pay!” I told them both. “I don't know how, but I'll find a way to get her back, and when I do, I'll make sure you both pay for your crimes!”
“You need to listen to
us,” Matthias replied firmly. “Judith was lying to -”
“No!” I shouted. “Don't you dare! Don't say one word against her!”
He hesitated, but I could see that he knew I was serious. I swear that in that moment I was filled with such fury that I could easily have killed my own brother on the spot. Indeed, as I stared up at him, I told myself that perhaps I no longer had a brother, that perhaps I hated him too much for our sibling bond to endure. I tried to push the hatred down, to force myself to remember that Matthias was a good person, but instead I felt as if a tree of anger was growing rapidly in my body, rising up through my chest and spreading its branches everywhere. No matter how hard I tried to push back, I knew that pure hatred was settling in my mind.
And as I stared up at Matthias, I saw the fear in his eyes. It was as if he could sense the hatred, even as it grew and grew within me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Chloe
“What do we do now?” I asked Matthias as we stood in the cold, empty church. “What do we do about...”
My voice trailed off as I glanced over at Hugo, who had been sitting silently on one of the pews ever since we'd returned from the river. He'd insisted on leaving Judith's body where it had fallen, claiming that her flesh and bones were just an empty shell. Matthias and I had tried to go down and move the body, but Hugo had warned us away. The three of us had finally come back to the church, but Hugo had said nothing since we walked through the door and now he simply sat staring at Matthias.
“What do we do about him?” I whispered.
“He is my brother,” Matthias replied calmly.
“He's in shock,” I point out. “He's mourning her. There's something else, too. There's something about the way he's looking at you. Matthias, in the future, you and Hugo are not on good terms.”
He paused, before nodding.
“Maybe you should talk to him,” I continued. “It might help.”
“I don't think he wants to talk right now,” Matthias replied.
“It still might be a good idea. Make him listen, at least. You have to get him to understand what really happened with Judith. I don't think he's taken the truth in yet, I think he's still clinging to the belief that we're lying.”
“You want me to go over there and tell my brother that Judith was a monster?” he asked. “That she perhaps never even loved him at all? You want me to say those things to him right now?”
“I'm sure she loved him,” I replied.
“How can you say that?” he asked. “She was like an un-caged monster at the end. Her mask slipped and the real Judith was filled with hatred, driven by a passion for evil. When she was on that bridge, she said and did nothing that suggested she gave a damn about Hugo.”
“What about...”
I hesitated, but I knew he was right.
“We can't leave her body in the river like that,” I said finally. “It's just not right. I know Hugo's angry, but we should at least bury her.”
“Hugo doesn't see it that way.”
“He'll understand eventually,” I added. “I'm going to go back and fetch her, and we'll bury her right here, in the cemetery. Please, Matthias, you have to trust me. This is the right thing to do, and eventually Hugo will realize that.”
“I hope so,” he replied, before looking over at Hugo again. “While you're gone, I'll talk to him. Even if I can't get through to him and make him understand... I have to try.”
***
Judith's body lay awkwardly in the wheelbarrow as I pushed her back along the road, heading toward the church. I'd noticed the wheelbarrow earlier in the cemetery, although it was very rusty and now the wheel was constantly squeaking as it turned. I figured I looked pretty strange, wheeling a dead woman toward a church in the middle of the night, but I had no choice.
I couldn't have just left her in the river like that.
As we reached the church, I wheeled Judith through the gate and then stopped. My plan had been to bring her back and then dig a grave, although I was starting to wonder how I was going to achieve the second of those two aims. The discovery of the wheelbarrow had been fortuitous, but it was unrealistic to expect a bunch of other tools to be just sitting around in the undergrowth. I figured that maybe Matthias would know what to do, although I was also trying to come up with some other idea. If we couldn't bury Judith, I figured, we might be able to at least do something respectful to mark her passing.
More respectful than leaving her where she fell, at least.
“Hey,” I said, looking down at her face and seeing that her dead eyes were still open, “I'm just going to go and talk to the others, okay?”
I half expected her to reply, for her to suddenly sit up. I knew she was dead, but so many strange things had been happening to me since I'd first met Matthias. If vampires were real, then why not ghosts?
“Back in a minute,” I added, before turning and heading toward the church's main door.
I'd assumed that I'd probably find Matthias and Hugo arguing, but as I reached the door and stepped inside I discovered instead that there was no sound at all. Hugo was no longer sitting on the pew, which I figured was a development of sorts, although as I stepped over to the end of the aisle I realized that there was no sign of anyone at all. I looked around, and I began to worry that perhaps leaving the pair of them alone hadn't been such a good idea.
And then, suddenly, I saw him.
Matthias was at the far end of the church, spread out on the altar, and something was sticking out of his chest.
“No,” I whispered, horrified by what I was seeing but trying to convince myself that I was wrong, “come on, not again.”
I began to hurry along the aisle, but it was already clear that the wooden cross had been used to stake Matthias through the chest. I'd never seen a vampire get staked before that night, but as I reached the altar I realized that this was the fourth staking in just a few hours. The epidemic was getting out of hand.
“Damn it,” I muttered, stepping around the altar and reaching out to grab the stake so that I could pull it out. “I guess that little talk didn't go so well.”
Suddenly a hand clamped tight over my mouth and pulled me back, and I felt another hand grab my wrist.
“I'm so sorry,” Hugo whispered into my ear, “but Matthias and I had a little disagreement about how to proceed. And I'm afraid that I ended up winning the argument, so you're coming with me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hugo
“No!” Chloe screamed, still struggling on the back seat of the car as she tried desperately to get free of her restraints. “Hugo, we have to go back! You can't just leave him in the church like that!”
I should have gagged her.
As morning sunlight broke across the fields and I steered the car along a winding country lane, I realized that I should have stuck a sock or something into Chloe's mouth. She hadn't stopped yelling ever since we'd left the church, and her incessant whining was starting to get on my nerves. I'm sure I would have thought to gag her, had I not needed to fix the wires my brother had pulled out in his little act of sabotage. Still, a moment later I spotted the stones of Murhenge on the horizon, and I felt a flicker of anticipation in my chest as I realized that we'd finally arrived.
Soon, Judith would be back with me, and all the lies and horrors of the past few hours would be forgotten.
***
“Get off me!” Chloe yelled as I dragged her by the feet across the cold, damp morning grass. “Hugo, whatever you're planning, you have to stop!”
“On the contrary,” I replied, “I think I've been rather too patient up to this point. Now, however, is the time for action. I've spent too long studying that ring, when I should have been more like my brother, or more like Zieghoff. I should have just plunged in and got this over with!”
Reaching the center of the stone circle, I let go of Chloe's feet and then stepped forward. I put my hands into one of my pockets and pulled out the bag containing the ring, and
then I reached into the other pocket and took out the same ring again. I'd got my hands on the supposed 'copy' when I was working with Zieghoff, although it hadn't taken long to determine that the 'copy' was simply a version of the ring from a different time. One was the original ring, and the other was the ring that Chloe had brought back with her. They were the same ring, and the only difference was that the 'future' version had a very slight scratch on one side.
Wear and tear, I assumed.
But the strangest thing was that even though both rings felt solid, they passed through one another whenever I tried to make them touch.
“There are secrets of the universe that even I do not understand,” I whispered as I continually moved the rings through each other, over and over again. I couldn't help but marvel at what I was seeing. “That's what makes things so exciting, really. Imagine knowing everything, imagine there being no more secrets left to uncover. I'd be totally -”
Suddenly I felt a thud against the back of my left leg, and I looked down to see that Chloe was trying to kick me. He legs were tied together at the ankles, but she was still managing to put up quite a fight.
“I respect your spirit,” I told her, before looking at the stones that stood all around is in a circle. Some were tilting, some had fallen, some still stood tall and proud. “I'm afraid, however, that I have bigger things on my mind. If the ring was supposed to be brought here, one would assume that somebody should have been waiting. Then again, maybe they realized there'd been a delay, and they left.”
“Or it was Judith!” Chloe snapped.
I turned to her again.
“You've got to start accepting the truth,” she continued breathlessly. “Judith was carrying on in Zieghoff's footsteps. With him gone, she probably figured that she had to be the one to put his crazy plans into action. She was going on about a prophecy here at Murhenge, she was probably -”