Dead Souls Volume Three (Parts 27 to 39)

by Amy Cross

  Anna looked up and saw Mrs. Beecham standing over her. “I want to go home,” she whispered.

  “What's that?”

  “I want to go home.”

  “It's not nearly time to go home. You're supposed to be studying. If you don't pay attention during your lessons, how do you ever expect to grow up and become a responsible adult?”

  “No,” Anna replied, looking over at the door. “I don't want to be a responsible adult, I want to go home.”

  “You've been lost in a world of your own all morning,” Mrs. Beecham continued. “I let it pass at first, because I know you've had some trouble at home, but this is getting ridiculous. You might as well not be here at all.”

  Some of Anna's classmates giggled. They were all watching, and they all found the situation hilarious.

  “Get up,” Mrs. Beecham said, heading to the door. “Come on, Anna, I'm taking you to Mrs. Wallace's office.”

  “Can I go home?” Anna asked.

  “No, you may not go home. You may come with me to the office.”

  Getting to her feet, Anna hurried past the other desks and out into the corridor. Mrs. Beecham was already knocking on the door to the headmistress's office, and a moment later the elderly woman could be heard calling for her to enter. There was another voice in there, too, a woman's voice that sounded calm and firm, with a tone that instantly made Anna feel as if her bones were shuddering.

  “Wait there,” Mrs. Beecham told Anna. “Turn to face the wall.”

  Doing as she was told, Anna stopped and listened to the voices in the office, and although she knew it was rude and bad to mind other people's business, she couldn't help but overhear her own name being mentioned.

  “Anna has always been a very good girl,” Mrs. Wallace was saying. “Quite sharp, I think, if she applies herself well.”

  “Application is not a problem with us,” the unfamiliar voice replied. “I don't mean to be indelicate here, but a small school on a small island can hardly be expected to have the most modern techniques.”

  “We do our best,” Mrs. Wallace said, sounding a little put out by the suggestion.

  There followed a brief silence, as if none of the women in the room knew what to say next.

  “Perhaps,” Mrs. Beecham suggested finally, “I should fetch the young lady in question?”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Wallace replied, “by all means. Bring Anna in.”

  A moment later, Mrs. Beecham reappeared in the doorway. “Anna, you must come through to Mrs. Wallace's office at once.”

  Lingering for a moment, Anna slowly began to walk along the corridor.

  “Come along, don't dawdle.”

  Picking up her pace slightly, Anna felt the sickening sensation in her stomach getting worse with every step, until finally she reached the door and looked through to see a tall woman wearing a black dress, sitting at Mrs. Wallace's office. Slowly, the woman turned to look at Anna, revealing two large, diagonal scars, one running down each cheek to form a V shape on her face, along with the blackest eyes Anna had ever seen in her life.

  ***

  “Let me through!” Kate screamed, pushing people out of the way as she rushed through the crowd. Up ahead, she could see a figure standing on the gallows, and another figure hanging from the neck. “Get out of my way!”

  “Move!” Benjamin yelled, following just behind.

  “You're too late,” a voice muttered from nearby.

  “It's over,” added another.

  Bursting out through the front of the crowd, Kate stopped and stared in horror as she saw Joshua Wood pulling down hard on Jennifer's dangling legs.

  “That's to make sure she's definitely dead,” said someone in the crowd.

  “I heard her neck snap,” said someone else.

  “No!” Kate shouted, racing up the wooden steps and pushing Joshua out of the way. Grabbing the stool, she pulled it closer and then climbed up. While Benjamin grabbed Jennifer's waist and tried to hold her up, lessening the strain on the woman's neck, Kate tried desperately to get the noose untied.

  “There's nothing you can do,” Joshua said, taking a step back. “The job's done.”

  “I don't know how to do this!” Kate shouted, still struggling with the noose.

  “Here,” Benjamin said, holding a knife up for her.

  Cutting the noose, Kate finally managed to ease Jennifer down so that she and Benjamin could set her on the wooden stage. Carefully slipping the blade under the rope around Jennifer's neck, Kate cut the rest free and then checked for a pulse, before placing her left ear against the body's chest.

  “Her neck broke right away,” Joshua explained. “There really wasn't anything anyone could do after that.”

  “Come on,” Kate continued, trying not to panic as she checked for a pulse again and then climbed on top of Jennifer and began to give her chest compressions, stopping regularly to try the kiss of life. Determined to find a way to resuscitate her friend, she ignored all the calls and cries around here, even Benjamin's words, and she focused solely on bringing Jennifer back, even as she began to realize that she'd been trying for several minutes.

  “Kate,” Benjamin said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Leave me alone!” she shouted, trying some more compressions before leaning down and giving Jennifer the kiss of life again. After checking for a pulse and once again finding nothing, she got ready to give more compressions, pushing harder and harder this time as her desperation grew until, finally, she felt a snapping sensation as a couple of Jennifer's ribs broke. Stopping, she stared down at Jennifer's face and began to realize that she could keep giving first aid forever, and it still wouldn't have any effect.

  “Kate,” Benjamin continued, “it's too late. She's gone.”

  Looking up, Kate saw that the crowd had already begun to disperse.

  “Told you,” Joshua said, still standing nearby.

  “You did this?” Benjamin replied, turning to him with pure anger in his eyes.

  “He paid handsomely,” Joshua pointed out, “and it's not like he wouldn't have found someone else if I'd said no, is it?”

  Getting to his feet, Benjamin took a few steps toward his brother.

  “Now hang on -” Joshua began to say.

  Before he could finish, however, he was knocked clean out by a single punch to the side of the face. Falling back, he slumped off the side of the stage, landing hard on the dirt below.

  “You're no brother of mine,” Benjamin muttered, examining his painful fist.

  “Where is he?” Madeleine shouted, running across the town square.

  “Where were you?” Kate asked, looking over at her.

  “I was waiting to fire, but there was no sign of Quill! It's like he didn't even stick around to watch the hanging.”

  “Why didn't you shoot the rope?”

  “Shoot the rope?” Madeleine paused. “Well I didn't think of that! Anyway, I didn't want to give myself away. I still have a shot for Quill.” She glanced around the square. “Of course, I'll have to find him first. I was convinced he'd stay to the end so he could gloat.”

  “His job was done as soon as the rope was slipped around her neck,” Kate replied, sitting back and staring at Jennifer's dead body. “He was ready to move on to the next stage of his plan.”

  “And what exactly is that going to be?” Benjamin asked.

  “I don't know,” Kate told him, “but I'm sure some innocent -”

  Before she could finish, they all heard a scream from nearby. Turning, they watched as several figures reached the end of the wooden jetty. One of the figures climbed down into a waiting boat, and then the other figure handed down a wriggling, struggling form. Another scream could be heard, this time recognizably that of a little girl, before being drowned out by the sound of a petrol engine being started.

  “No,” Kate whispered, as she was struck by a sudden moment of realization. “Anna...”

  Getting to her feet, she raced across the stage and jumped down, b
efore running toward the shore and then onto the wooden jetty. By the time she got halfway along, however, the boat was already speeding away. Stopping, Kate watched in horror as Quill turned and smiled at her.

  “What have you done?” she asked.

  “My job,” he said calmly.

  Kate watched as the boat got further and further away, speeding toward the horizon.

  “Where are you sending her?”

  “To the mainland.”

  “Why?”

  “As of a few minutes ago,” Quill continued, “Anna Kazakos is now an orphan, so I did the only thing that a responsible, caring man could do with an orphan. I sent her to an orphanage.”

  Part Thirty-Seven

  I

  “You...”

  Standing on the wooden jetty, Kate tried to make sense of the horror that was slowly filling her thoughts.

  “No, you... You can't, you... You sent her to an orphanage?”

  “On the mainland,” Quill replied, his smile slowly growing as he saw the color draining from Kate's face. “An acquaintance of mine runs a facility that is dedicated to taking in the waifs and strays of this world. I spoke to Ms. Eversham myself and assured her that young Anna will require special attention. She was only too keen to step in and help.”

  Looking toward the horizon, Kate realized that the boat was already out of sight.

  “Bring her back,” she whispered, before realizing that she had to do something, anything, to fix things. The thought of Anna being taken away by strangers, terrified and alone on a boat, was too much to deal with. “Bring her back!” she shouted, turning to Quill. “You can't do this! Bright her back right now!”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “I'm telling you to bring her back,” she said firmly, taking a step toward him.

  “Or what?”

  “Or...” Pausing, she realized it would be futile to issue threats, yet at the same time she was filled with a furious need to do something.

  “Or you'll run to Edgar Le Compte and beg him to help?” Quill continued. “Is that your best plan? The floundering maiden, begging a big, strong man to step in and fix her problem?”

  “She's just a child,” Kate continued. “Please, whatever's going on between you and Edgar, you can't do something like this to a child! She's never done anything to you, she doesn't deserve to be used as a pawn in whatever's going on between the pair of you!”

  “What was the alternative? Leave her to roam the island like a savage?”

  “I was looking after her!”

  “Well you didn't do a very good job, did you?” Turning, Quill leaned on his cane and began to limp along the jetty, heading back toward the shore. “Children are our future, Ms. Langley, and we must do everything within our power to look after them. The orphanage I selected is one that has a very strong reputation for molding feral young girls into useful, hard-working women. Anna Kazakos will have a better life than she could ever have dreamed. The girl is -”

  Stopping suddenly, he saw that Madeleine was aiming her pistol straight at his face.

  “And what do we have here?” he asked, still smiling. “I would have thought, Ms. Le Compte, that you learned your lesson the other day?”

  Staring at him, Madeleine tried to keep from showing fear, although her hand was trembling a little.

  “I'm a busy man,” Quill continued. “If you're going to shoot me, shoot me. Otherwise, I should get back to my office.”

  “I know why you're here,” she replied. “The children of Narm didn't die because of Edgar. It was a tragedy, I get that, I even agree with you, but you have to realize that you're seeking revenge against the wrong man!”

  “And how do you work that out?” Quill asked, his smile finally fading. “Don't you think your sibling loyalty might be clouding your judgment just a little?”

  “It was a man named Makho,” Madeleine continued. “He's the one who killed those children, but he's dead now. Edgar killed him.”

  “How noble.”

  “Edgar's not responsible for what happened! He wasn't the -”

  Before she could finish, Quill lashed out, knocking the gun from her hand and then pulling her close.

  “Leave her alone!” Benjamin shouted, rushing forward. He tried to free Madeleine from Quill's grip, but instead he found himself slammed down hard against the jetty, with enough force to knock him out cold.

  “You have no idea what your brother did,” Quill sneered, pulling Madeleine even closer until their faces were just inches apart. “You didn't hear the screams. You didn't walk through the burned nest, feeling the bodies of the children being crushed beneath your boots. You didn't spend day after day searching for survivors, for just one glimpse of hope in all the carnage, only to be met by pile after pile of little dead skulls.” He paused for a moment, his eyes filled with horror as if he was reliving that time, moment by moment. “I saw all of that and more,” he added finally. “I searched for days, trying to find a survivor. Eventually I found one. Just one. A cold-blooded child, his body so badly burned, he was writing in pain, his mind already shattered. I picked him up, thinking I could somehow help him. I carried him out of the nest and I tended to him for days, doing everything I could to ease his pain so that he might recover.”

  Madeleine stared back at him, her eyes filled with horror. “Then...” She paused. “Then what happened.”

  For a moment, Quill seemed lost in the memory, as if he couldn't even hear her. “Then,” he added finally, “when I realized I was merely prolonging his agony, I took a rock and I... I ended his suffering.”

  “I'm sorry,” Madeleine replied, with tears in her eyes. “I can't imagine what -”

  “That's right!” he sneered, interrupting her. “You can't imagine what it was like to have to kill that child, and to have to bury him! Don't presume, Ms. Le Compte, that you can possibly, ever imagine what it was like, not from the comfort of your family's peaceful little island. That child would still be alive if your brother hadn't concocted his little weapon. All those children would be alive. I know you hot-blooded vampires believe cold-bloods to be foul and disgusting, and you'd probably be revolted by the sight of our children. But I will not allow Edgar Le Compte to get away with what he did to us!”

  “And I won't allow you to hurt my brother,” Madeleine told him. “The war's over. The fighting has to stop!”

  “This matter is between Edgar and myself,” he replied. “You would do well to keep out.”

  Madeleine opened her mouth to reply, but for a moment she seemed struck by fear.

  “Wrong,” a voice said suddenly.

  Turning, Quill saw that Kate had picked up the pistol and was now aiming it at him.

  “It was between you and Edgar,” Kate continued, her hand not shaking at all as she held the weapon, “until you killed my friend and sent her daughter to an orphanage. Now it's between you and me as well.”

  Quill stared at her for a moment, and finally the smile crept back onto his face.

  “I don't think,” he said finally, “that in my long life, I have ever been threatened by a mere human.”

  “Get used to it,” Kate told him. “Bring her back. Now.”

  “Or what? Do you -”

  Suddenly Kate pulled the trigger, shooting Quill in the neck and sending him stumbling back until he fell and landed hard on the jetty's wooden boards. Letting out a gasp of pain, he reached up and clutched the wound. Thick, syrupy blood flowed out, as the sound of the gunshot reverberated off the buildings in the nearby town square.

  “I know that injury won't kill you,” Kate continued, taking a step toward him, “and I know a thousand shots from this thing wouldn't have much effect, but hopefully it at least stings. I might not be able to do anything right here, right now to stop you and to get Anna back, but think about it for a moment. Can you be absolutely certain that I won't find a way in the future?” She paused, watching as Quill struggled to get back to his feet. “Why don't you just bring her back t
o Thaxos right now, and this mess can go back to being just between you and Edgar, the way you wanted?”

  “And then you'd keep out?” Quill gasped, still trying to stifle the flow of blood.

  “Of course,” Kate told him. “Edgar can fight his own battles. Right now, you're racking up the enemies pretty fast.”

  “For a human,” Quill continued, “you're remarkably...” He paused, as if he couldn't quite find the right word, and then he took a few steps across the jetty and picked up his cane. The wound on his neck had already stopped bleeding, and although he was clearly in pain, he seemed to be recovering quickly enough. “You're very, very lucky that I haven't already removed your head, Ms. Langley.”

  “I'm a busy woman,” she replied, still aiming the gun at him. “If you're going to do it, do it. Otherwise, I have places to be.”

  Quill stared at her for a moment, before limping closer and examining the gun.

  “Your hand isn't shaking,” he said finally. “The Le Compte bitch couldn't aim this thing at me without her hand shaking with fear, but you...” He paused. “Remarkable.”

  “Bring her back,” Kate said firmly.

  “No.”

  Kate pulled the trigger again, but the pistol merely clicked impotently.

  “Bang,” Quill whispered.

  “Bring her back or I'll find a way to make you,” Kate told him.

  “I'm terrified.”

  “No, you're not,” she replied. “You think I'm an idiot. You think I'm just a human, taking on a fight I can't hope to win. You think I'm a distraction at best and an annoyance at worst, but you're wrong. Just because I can't stop you right now, don't assume I won't find a way later.”

  He paused again. “If I truly thought you had even half a chance of inconveniencing me,” he said finally, “I would kill you now. As things stand, however, I would prefer to let you take your best shot. I think I would enjoy killing you more if I knew you'd worked harder for the privilege of dying at my hands.”

  As Kate stared at him, her hand began to tremble for just a moment, before she brought it back under control. Slowly, she lowered the pistol.