Destroyer of Worlds kots-3

by Mark Chadbourn

  'You're ready?'

  'No. But I'll do my best.'

  'That's all anyone's ever asked of you, Church. And you've never let anyone down.'

  Carlton led Church back to Ruth and Tom who waited by the cave he thought he had visited in a dream when he had been in the Sleep Like Death. Whatever lay inside made his perception skew wildly. He saw a network of lights, a mandala, a rotating crystal, and then the image his mind found easiest: an enormous machine of cogs and gears with a protruding lever.

  'Just like before? Pull the lever?'

  'It'll be easier this time,' Carlton said.

  'Symbols,' Church whispered to himself before announcing, 'This could be the last gasp of my dying brain. The final shape of the hallucination. Pull the lever and it's all over. Is that what it is? The lever is death?'

  'It's whatever you believe it to be,' Carlton said.

  Ruth kissed him on the cheek. 'Just remember, whatever happens, we've won. Against all the odds, we've rid the world of corruption. It's been a long, hard struggle, but we've won.'

  'What kind of world will you make, Church?' Carlton asked.

  'A good one,' Church replied. 'I hope.'

  'Jack?' Tom caught his attention. 'You're a good man. Don't forget that.'

  Church placed both hands on the lever and steadied himself. He looked to Tom and then Ruth and drew strength from the absolute trust he saw in their eyes.

  'Every happy ending is a new beginning. Come on, Church — pull the lever,' Ruth encouraged.

  He hesitated for a long time.

  Her final words were a whisper, a prayer, a promise from the depths of her heart. 'You can do it, Church. I trust you. I love you. I'll love you always… and for ever.'

  He pulled the lever.

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