Afterworld

by Lynnette Lounsbury

  ‘Are you done?’ Satarial said quietly. His voice held the same iciness as his eyes.

  Dom spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground as he tried to laugh. ‘No. Bet you can’t kill me.’

  Satarial’s eyes narrowed. ‘Bet I can make you wish that I could.’ He swung both arms around, hitting Dominic’s head in quick succession. The darkness returned and Dom could see only a tiny dot of light as he slithered down the wall. He saw Eva with the other two Nephilim. They had hold of her arms and were keeping her back. He was so tired. He tried to heal, but his mind was muddled. He thought he smelled the streets of India again. Mud and dust and dysentery. He wanted to sleep. He’d done everything he was asked to do, hadn’t he? Game over. He laid his head on the dust. If he could just sleep for a moment he might be all right. He closed his eyes.

  The dust swirled and he felt wind washing across his skin. Maybe he was in India. There was no wind in Necropolis. He felt it lifting the hairs on his skin, pushing the sandy dust into his face. It was all a dream. All of it. It had to be. He was at the airport waiting for his father’s driver. Someone wanted his iPod.

  He opened his eyes a crack.

  The dust was still swirling and the sound of the wind was louder, a strange sound like the intake of breath, only much louder. He looked up. It was the intake of breath. The thousand-strong collective breath of the stadium as an Angel, his monumental wings extended and his arms raised, descended slowly into the Arena to stand between Satarial and Dominic.

  Eduardo’s voice was ethereal, echoing its deep-accented huskiness across the empty space. ‘I will also fight for him. He won your contest. It is over.’

  Satarial’s face contorted in anger.

  He spat the words at Eduardo, whatever fear he had originally felt in the Angel’s presence long traded for bitterness. ‘It is over when I say it is over.’

  Dom felt some of his pain subside, but he could not seem to heal completely, he was too tired. He struggled to his feet, using his hands to pull himself up the wall of the Arena.

  Satarial struck at Eduardo and the Angel leapt into the air, landing on light feet a few inches out of reach. Satarial launched the best of his skill at the Angel, a sublime leaping attack of martial art such as Dominic had never seen. The Nephilim was a skilled and dangerous weapon. But he was no match for the Angel. Again there was the intake of breath from the audience. Eduardo moved in circular motions, his arms and wings and legs in supernatural unison. He immediately had the upper hand, his wings swiping Satarial out of the way, knocking back his kicks, deflecting his arms. Dominic had seen nothing like this in their training, he had been given only the merest glimpses of the Angel’s power. Finally Eduardo seemed to tire of the fight and he swung his wings in an arc, out, around and upwards, grasping Satarial on either side of his head, his wings ready to use the movement Dominic had copied to fight the others. He stopped short however, simply holding the Nephilim in place. Satarial stared at both of them, hatred and defiance burning the whites of his eyes into a dull red.

  ‘I say it is over,’ Eduardo said, more softly this time. ‘Take your prize, Dominic Mathers. You have earned it.’

  Dom did not have to be told a second time. He turned and with the supreme effort of his life jumped to grasp the medallion that swung gently from the wall, pulling it into his hand and holding it up towards the sky. The audience erupted. It was a riot. People stormed out of their seats, unsure of what they were doing or where they were going. They stepped closer to the edge, closer to the Angel, filling the aisles and then the circular walkway that ran the circumference of the Arena and held the collection of glass boxes filled with Satarial’s prizes. Dom continued to hold up the medallion, even as Eva was freed and ran to him, her arms helping to hold him up.

  He didn’t see which cage went first, but he heard it. The crack of the glass and the wash of the water as the cage was shattered by the crowd. There was a cheer as the man inside was pulled free. There followed a cacophony of shattering glass and the noise was enough to bolster Dominic into action.

  He kissed Eva. Through the mud and blood and dust that covered both their faces, he kissed her and she pulled him back towards her, their mouths sore and tired and hungry for each other.

  Satarial pulled away from Eduardo and vanished, leaping up the wall of the Arena and out of sight.

  Eduardo turned and looked down at Dominic. ‘You did it.’ There were tears in his eyes, and Dom’s own eyes stung when he saw them.

  ‘We did it.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant.’ The Angel laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘You spoke to them. And they heard you. That was the greatest battle. Look at this.’ The three of them gazed up at the rioting crowd who were now tearing up the wooden branches of the stadium, anything small enough to be broken. There was a scent of smoke.

  ‘They are going to burn it down! They are going to end this.’ Eduardo’s voice showed his excitement.

  Eva spoke first. ‘We should go. It is volatile here and the Nephilim are still very powerful. We should get to the gate now. I will get your bag.’ She ran from Dom’s side and was quickly lost from sight.

  People were flooding down into the Arena and heading towards him. Eduardo put a protective arm out to keep them at bay and such was his size that most stayed a few metres away, but the crowd was growing and beginning to move forwards and they had to push to get out of the Arena.

  At the gate, Eva was waiting for them, holding his hourglass and satchel in her hands. He took them and as he passed through the gate he held his hourglass up to the vault and it filled to the top. Ten-thousand minutes. He smiled as he remembered the first three minutes he had earned, so many days ago. All of this, all of this pain and work for one week of time. He pulled it close and looked at the liquid time. It all came down to this: a few precious minutes in which to do something significant. That was life. And it was death as well.

  Eduardo urged him to walk faster and as best he could, his legs aching with fatigue, Dom walked between his Guide and his Guardian one last time through the City of Necropolis. They crossed the bridge before most of the crowd had reached it and headed past the Gardens and the Workhouse with its courtyard, mostly empty today, and finally through a part of the City Dom had never seen before. It was only sparsely built, a few houses and apartments, the oldest he had seen, small, squat and wooden, without the black stone or glowing windows of the rest of the City. The road was more roughly cobbled and narrow and eventually they were walking on a dirt path surrounded on either side by fields of grass. The road was straight and at the end he could see the gate and the walls that ringed the City. This gate was also ancient and marked with strange symbols and hieroglyphs that Dominic couldn’t read. They slowed as they reached it, contemplating the gravity of what was ahead.

  Eva spoke softly. ‘When you reach the gate you must open it yourself and as you enter you will turn your hourglass. The time will begin immediately to fall through it no matter if you turn it back or not. I can’t tell you what else will happen. As I said, it’s different for everyone, but most of it will be in the book I gave you.’

  ‘Are you coming with me?’ Dom bit his lip.

  She seemed pained. ‘I want to. But I’m a Guide. I have the minutes and I will try, but I don’t know what will happen. I will go first and if I can’t follow you into the Maze . . . then we can say goodbye. Okay?’

  It was not okay with Dom at all, and he had no idea what he would actually do if Eva could not come with him.

  ‘And you?’ He looked up at Eduardo.

  The Angel laughed a little, but it was a disconsolate sound. ‘Dominic, I am still waiting . . . there are things . . . I am not ready to let go . . . so I must wait a little longer.’

  ‘I saw her.’ Dom wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to say. ‘In your . . . your memories. Maya. I saw her.’

  Eduardo sighed.

  ‘I saw how she looked at you. And I would wait for that too. Forever,’ Dom finished.

/>   The Angel’s eyes were wet. ‘Forever has proved to be a long time, my young friend.’

  ‘Will you be a Guardian again?’

  He laughed more heartily this time. ‘I don’t know. I think perhaps my disguise is no longer anonymous.’

  ‘Your cover is blown.’ Dom laughed.

  ‘I like that. My cover. I would need a new cover, I think. Maybe. I don’t know what will be.’ He gestured back towards the City where plumes of smoke were billowing from the Arena. ‘This place was changed today. I was very glad to be a small part of that. Perhaps I can help Necropolis find its future.’

  ‘Thanks, man. For everything. You’re the best Angel I’ve ever met.’ He held out his hand. The Angel ignored it and gave him a bear hug and a kiss on both cheeks.

  ‘Good fortune to you, Dominic Mathers. I wish for you luck and love and after today I am sure that you have the makings of both. We will meet again one day, in some other place.’ He turned to Eva. ‘Ah, my Eva, we have been together for many years and only now do we begin to know each other.’

  ‘And like each other,’ she said softly. ‘Thank you. For . . . well . . .’

  He laughed and pulled her into his huge chest. ‘I hope that I do not see you here again. I have made you very angry many times. I enjoyed that immensely.’

  She punched his shoulder.

  ‘Be careful with Anubis. The Guardian of the Maze is not to be trusted. I know you want to find answers, but try to find them without attracting his attention. Nothing is worth that.’ He was suddenly overcome with the emotion of the moment. ‘I will leave you now. You do not need me any longer.’

  Dom reached out his arm and tried again. ‘Please. Come with us.’

  Eduardo’s face twisted. ‘I am not ready, Dominic. I can’t let go. Not yet.’ He smiled sadly and spread his wings wide, they lifted him into the air and he soared slowly away from them, higher and higher, a smooth, graceful glide until they could no longer see him.

  Dom turned to Eva. ‘Are you ready?’

  She grinned back at him. ‘As I will ever be.’ She stood on her toes and kissed him again, more slowly this time. ‘Ten thousand minutes alone together . . . we might kill each other.’ She handed him the bag and then, smiling her crooked wry grin, she opened the heavy wooden gate and walked through. Dom could see nothing on the other side but a mirror of the path they had just walked along, another field of short greenish grass, another dark City silhouetted in the distance. Eva looked back at him one last time and then pulled her hourglass from her bag, lifting it in front of her and gently turning it.

  They waited for a long inhaled breath and then slowly the silver liquid began to squeeze downwards through the narrow neck. She turned to say something, but the gate swung shut and she was gone. Dom sighed happily. She was through.

  11

  Dominic’s Hourglass

  10,000 Minutes

  Dom pulled his bag onto his shoulders and lifted his own heavy hourglass from the satchel across his chest. He reached his hand out to open the gate.

  ‘No. You are not leaving.’ A hand slapped his away from the heavy wood. Dom was startled and turned quickly to see Satarial, covered in sweat and dirt, standing beside him.

  He sighed. ‘What now? Just get over it and let me go. Why do you even want me here?’

  ‘I don’t want you. I want nothing to do with you. You were just a novelty. A child. I don’t even remember being fifteen. I just wanted you to fight. To lose. But I met your sister.’ His face almost lost its composure.

  ‘Well, you should never have gone—’ Dom was silenced by a swinging slap across his face.

  ‘I have never met anyone like her. There was no one like that in my time. She truly loves. Everything. She loves and feels everything. I don’t understand it. I don’t . . .’ He trailed off.

  ‘I don’t understand it either. I never did.’ Dom looked at him with a sudden compassion.

  ‘I’ve never felt that . . . happiness. Ever. And for a few moments with her . . . I did.’ His face filled with rage again. ‘And all you had to do was kill her body. A body that was already destroyed. And you couldn’t do it. She is now lost to life and death.’

  Dom stared at the ground, there was nothing he could say. Satarial was right. It was his fault. He heard a sound and saw movement further up the path, more Nephilim were coming. A sudden panic filled him. Eva was waiting for him, her minutes were slipping away.

  ‘Let me go.’

  ‘No.’ The word was spat at him. Dom glanced at the coming crowd, six or seven Nephilim. He wasn’t ready to fight again, he was still tired, his right side ached where the ribs had been shattered. He looked at the gate and wondered if he could make a run for it. Satarial had no hourglass with him. He inched closer and instantly the Nephilim’s hand was around his throat, lifting him upwards and cutting off his air. He knew he could survive it, but he couldn’t find a way to relax, all he could think about was Eva waiting, unable to get back, but not going forward without him. The hand was a vice and the lack of air was clouding his mind, sending it into a mute mist of confusion. He wondered if Eduardo would fly in and save him this time. The Nephilim were close and he heard Satarial’s name being called. Satarial ignored it and stared into Dom’s eyes. Dom tried to prise the hands away, but he couldn’t move the stone grip; he tried to strike, his palms lifting limply towards Satarial’s neck. The blackness crept closer.

  And then he could breathe. He was on the ground and he could breathe. He looked up. Satarial was gazing at the others in shock, his face paler than usual and taut with strong emotion. Dom followed his gaze and felt the same tidal wave of emotion.

  ‘Kaide,’ he croaked.

  ‘I told you to leave him alone.’ Kaide was walking towards the Nephilim, her long legs taking confident strides, her body straight.

  Dom watched her in awe. She was truly beautiful; her face glowed the way it always had and there was no trace of any injury.

  ‘What happened? I thought you were dead.’

  She smirked at him and changed her course, offering him a hand and pulling him to his feet. ‘I am dead.’

  She left Dom standing in stunned silence as she took a step to Satarial’s side and put her arms gently around him. He leaned forward and buried his face in her neck and the two of them stood very still for a long moment. As Dom watched them it began to sink in. Kaide had died after all. He smiled. Satarial raised his head and their eyes met, a long silent stare that said more than any mere words would have been able to.

  ‘Kaide?’ He called her attention. She turned and he noticed that while she had the same greyish tint to her skin that everyone in the Necropolis had, her eyes had stayed the same violet colour that had always startled him. ‘What’s going on? What happened?’

  ‘I died. That simple. I think my body tried to hold on a few more days, but it was too broken, Dom, it just eventually died. Not your fault, before you start feeling all guilty about it. I am exactly where I am supposed to be.’ She put her hand on his arm. ‘You won. I knew you would.’

  ‘We can go. I have plenty of minutes for both us.’

  Kaide paused. ‘I want to, Dom. I do. But . . . not yet.’ She glanced at Satarial, who was silent and tense, and then she looked back past him at the City. ‘I need to stay here.’

  ‘No you don’t. Please don’t. I’ll never be able to do this knowing you are here with him.’ He glared at the Nephilim, who had the grace to turn away.

  Kaide smiled a little. ‘It’s not just him. We are meant to do this when we die, you know? Whatever it is this place is about, I need to find out for myself.’

  ‘I would have been happy to skip the Necropolis,’ he said.

  ‘And maybe I can help fix up the mess you’ve left behind.’ She smiled more broadly this time, gesturing back to the City where smoke was rising in plumes from more than one place. ‘Seriously though, Dom,’ she leaned in and whispered, ‘you’re okay now, you’ll be fine in there. But he needs me. I have to
stay.’

  Satarial’s face had softened into a look Dom had never seen before and couldn’t place. Hope, maybe? He became regal with it, a king.

  Dom sighed. ‘I have to go.’

  ‘I know.’ She smiled. ‘We’ll just think of it as back to school for the term, hey? I’ll see you next summer? Or Christmas? We’ll see each other again soon.’

  ‘That works for me.’ He wondered if he would ever see her again, but the thought caught in his throat, it was too hard to breathe it in. He raised his voice, ‘I probably don’t need to say it, but take care of my sister okay?’

  The Nephilim merely raised an eyebrow. Dom held Kaide for a moment and then turned to the gate. ‘And take care of my Angel,’ he called over his shoulder, and he thought he heard Satarial laugh.

  The gate was heavy, but it swung easily on its giant hinges. He expected to see Eva’s impatient face on the other side, but there was nothing, just an empty path. He took a breath and lifted his hourglass up. Inside the liquid swirled, like the Glass of the lake. He wondered what he would see if he looked into the Glass now. He imagined his mother and father side by side with Angie at the clinic, handing out cheap sodas and administering needles to wide-eyed babies. He turned the heavy hourglass over. It was full of time yet to be filled with action. He whispered, ‘I’m ready.’