Figments of Fear (A Dark Fantasy Horror): The Edge of Reflection 2

by Carver Pike

  Gabe and Ivy ran towards the manhole with Dozier and Language following close behind. Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe saw Belgrave shooting at the redhead sister while Riker fought off a figment. As the sister turned her attention on something else, Belgrave turned and saw Gabe making his way towards the manhole.

  “Cutter, you motherfucker!” Belgrave yelled and started storming his way over with Riker right behind him.

  “Gabe, lookout!” Ivy screamed.

  Gabe turned in time to see one of Cloak’s circular saw blades spinning right at his face. He fell backwards and the blade nicked his chin and kept going. As he hit the ground he heard a howl and looked back to see that the blade had struck one of Belgrave’s men right between the teeth.

  “Up!” Ivy ordered as she dragged Gabe by the hand. He crawled forward on his knees and then got to his feet and ran.

  The manhole was close, but Cloak was closer and Gabe knew he didn’t stand a chance of getting into the sewer before the assassin reached him. Anger replaced fear as he raised his gun and fired at Cloak, hitting him in the chest.

  Cloak dropped back a couple of steps, looked down at the bullet holes in his cloak, and kept going. Gabe fired again, hitting him a couple more times, but it still wasn’t doing the damage Gabe needed.

  The assassin threw another saw blade. Gabe saw this one coming and dove out of the way, but that brief moment he had his back turned proved to be too long. Gabe was climbing to his feet when Cloak reached him.

  “Get down!” Ivy yelled as she slammed her shoulder into Gabe’s ribs, knocking him down just as Cloak’s blade swung for his neck.

  It missed by only an inch, and in his usual fashion, in one continuous fluid arch Cloak swung both of his blades down at the ground in a scissor-like motion. Gabe countered with a piece of wood he found lying on the ground and brought it up to his face fast enough to block the attack. The blades sliced through the wood, but missed his face.

  Gabe rolled away from Cloak and spun around, kicking Cloak’s kneecap hard, popping it backwards at an awkward angle. He didn’t wait to see the result of his strike. He’d witnessed Cloak’s blinding speed on more than one occasion and knew that every second counted if he had any hope of escaping. He crawled up from the ground and ran with Ivy right beside him.

  Ahead, Dozier and Language were waiting at the manhole, returning fire at Belgrave’s men. Gabe looked back once to see if Cloak was still following, and watched in disbelief as Cloak calmly looked down at his knee, kicked out his leg and popped his kneecap back into place. He stomped his foot against the ground to test his leg’s strength and then continued with the hunt.

  “Just get in the hole!” Ivy yelled as she raced beside Gabe.

  Dozier was waiting for Language to make her way down into the manhole when Cloak let another of his blades fly. Gabe saw the assassin take aim, but someone’s bullet hit Cloak in the arm, making him wobble at the last second.

  The blade sloppily passed Gabe and buried itself in Language’s stomach. She gasped and fell into the hole. It happened so quickly that Dozier didn’t seem to know what happened. He dove in after her.

  “He’s coming!” Ivy warned Gabe as she lowered herself into the sewer.

  He looked back once more to see Cloak slowed down by the brunette sister. She flew at him, but he turned and jabbed his sword in her direction, planting it right beneath her chin. In the background, Gabe saw Belgrave and Riker trying to get a clean shot at him.

  “The tunnels!” he heard Belgrave inform his buddy.

  He saw the two men turn and disappear into the side alley they’d emerged from, as he lowered himself into the manhole.

  Chapter 13 – The Great Escape

  The tunnel was dark and grimy. Scant light from the street above seeped in through the sewage drains. They trudged through thigh-high scummy water. Haylay was in the lead, trying to determine how safe it would be to remain in the sewer.

  Gabe and Ivy slogged through the water, looking for Dozier. They found him lying in the muck. Gabe dragged him to the side of the tunnel, where a narrow concrete rim provided a dry rest spot. He was alive, but half out of it.

  Gabe draped his friend’s body over the rim and slapped his face a few times, trying to wake him up.

  Dozier spit out a mouthful of water and thrashed around, confused. He looked at Gabe, then over at Haylay, and back to Gabe, as if trying to figure out where he was. Gabe gave him a gentle shake.

  “You with us?” he asked.

  Dozier looked up at Gabe’s face and finally seemed to realize what was going on. He pushed Gabe away and rose to his feet. He started looking around at the walls and at the water at their feet.

  “Where’s Language?” he asked.

  Ivy was pulling her out of the water by her arms.

  “She’s here.”

  Dozier moved to help Ivy lift her out of the water.

  “She’s got a blade in her stomach,” he said.

  He looked at Gabe and sadness flashed across his face.

  “Compliments of your friend up there.”

  He slid through the water, took Language into his arms, and dragged her over to the rim, where he laid her down on her side.

  In the real world, his world, Gabe wouldn’t be able to move on after the night’s events. As it was, it seemed that his body was operating on autopilot. He wanted to give his friend time to nurse his newfound image love back to health, but killers lurked everywhere, and one in particular would definitely be hunting them.

  “We gotta go!” Ivy warned, as if reading Gabe’s mind. “Cloak’s coming and nothing will stop him.”

  Dozier whipped his head around and glared at Ivy. His face was beet red and Gabe could’ve sworn his saw tears forming in the man’s eyes.

  “Let him come,” he said.

  Dozier turned back to Language and gently slapped her face, but she wouldn’t open her eyes.

  “Hey! Wake up!” he commanded, and slapped her again.

  This time her eyes fluttered open. She gasped and sucked in a quivering breath. She looked to be in a great deal of pain, and Gabe wondered if it had been a good idea to wake her up. She tried to speak, but her words were unintelligible.

  “It’s okay, baby,” Dozier assured her. “You got hit, that’s all. You’re gonna be okay though ‘cause ain’t no blade or bullet in the world can stop you.”

  She smiled up at him, mumbling incoherently

  “Shh.” Dozier put his fingers to her lips. “Don’t try to talk.”

  “Not…bad…I…” she repeated.

  Gabe looked down at the water. Watching this private moment felt wrong. He turned Ivy away. With their backs to Dozier and Language, Gabe looked at Ivy’s face and saw sadness. Images weren’t so bad. Not all of them, anyway. Behind them, he could hear Dozier struggle to hold on to the woman he’d grown so fond of.

  “Goo…not…bad…I…” Language tried hard to explain herself.

  Dozier’s voice sounded muffled as he dealt with her pain.

  “Yes, you’re good. You’re not bad at all. You’re not like the other images. You’re a good girl,” he assured her.

  The sound of her coughing and gasping for air made Gabe turn around. He saw Language force a smile through the pain. She coughed again and blood spewed everywhere, some of it spraying on Dozier’s face. He didn’t wipe it away, but instead moved closer to her. She tried to smile again, but gasped instead. Her head dropped back.

  She was dead.

  Dozier glanced up at Gabe and shook his head.

  “I cain’t leave her here,” he said. “I cain’t leave her to rot in these tunnels. She’s better than that.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gabe said to him. “She was a good girl.”

  “I’m not leavin’ her,” Dozier repeated.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to,” Gabe agreed.

  He turned to Haylay.

  “Where does this tunnel lead?” Gabe asked.

  Haylay stood with his hands on his hip
s, his matted wig looking like a muddy mop on top of his head.

  “Uh…how the hell should I know?” he replied. “I don’t spend my free time travelin’ the sewer systems. All I know is some freaky ninja dude was throwin’ razor discuses at us and this looked like a damn nice alternative.”

  “Hey!” Dozier called out to Haylay. “A good girl just died right here. Shut your fuckin’ pie hole.”

  Haylay turned away, muttering under his breath.

  “Who does this motherfucker think he is?”

  Gabe led the way through the tunnels, having no idea where he was taking them. All he knew was they needed to get far away from where they’d entered the tunnel. Behind him, he could hear the sound of Dozier’s strained breath wheezing as he struggled with the weight of Language’s body over his shoulder.

  “I don’t want to say this,” Gabe said.

  “Then don’t,” Dozier interrupted.

  “She’s not with us anymore,” Gabe said. “I know you don’t want to leave her down here, but brother, you can’t carry her anymore, and even if you did, what will we do with her once we get out of this tunnel?”

  “Dozier, Cloak knows we’re down here and I’m sure he won’t give up,” Ivy added.

  Dozier kept his face pointed down at Language, but raised his eyes up to Ivy in a mean spirited scowl. He spoke through clenched teeth.

  “Just…need…to rest…a second,” he hissed.

  Ivy approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. Gabe watched in amazement as the image version of Lisa showed more sympathy than he thought she was capable of.

  “Look, I know she means something to you,” Ivy said. “But this world is different than yours. There are no church services for the dearly departed. She’s better off down here than up there with the criminally insane.”

  “We could at least bury her somewhere and say a few words,” Dozier argued.

  “The creatures in the ground would eat her just the same as any creature in this tunnel,” Ivy informed him.

  Dozier only stared at her. He looked angry and distraught. Ivy looked back at Gabe and then once more at Dozier, who looked like a bull ready to charge at her; then all of a sudden, that’s exactly what he did.

  Dozier leapt at her and tackled her down into the murky water. Bullets whizzed by and slapped the water right where she’d been standing only a second before.

  Gabe and Haylay dove into the water as Belgrave and Riker rose up from the murk. Water and bullets sprayed forth as they both screamed vengeful howls. Bullets smashed the brick walls of the tunnels and sent water splashing up everywhere. Shattered concrete dust filled the air, clouding the world around them. Finally, they stopped firing long enough to survey the damage.

  Gabe and Dozier were the first to lift their heads up out of the water. Haylay popped up soon after with his wig threatening to fall completely off. He yanked it off and tossed it to one side. It hit the water and floated, looking like the fur of a dead animal. Haylay looked like a completely different person with a shiny bald head.

  Gabe was worried. Where was Ivy? Calmly, she lifted her head up, high enough to breathe.

  “Ya thought you were gettin’ away that easy, huh?”

  Belgrave’s voice boomed through the tunnel. Gabe looked around at the walls, hearing the echoes bounce off them, and tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. Up ahead was filled with smoke and dust, but he assumed they were in the same place they’d been only moments before.

  “You still alive, Cutter?” Belgrave’s voice echoed again.

  Gabe wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to get out of this one alive, but he knew he needed to do something. He looked over at Haylay and Ivy.

  “Stay back and cover me,” he said quietly.

  “Nah, it’s time to hand out a manly ass whoopin’,” Haylay argued.

  “I ain’t playin’ this game no more,” Dozier growled.

  Before Gabe could stop him, he charged forward through the water and began shooting at the ceiling above the area where Belgrave and Riker had popped up out of the water. The cement and stone shattered. Chunks of debris rained down everywhere.

  Dozier lowered his aim and sprayed a swarm of bullets from left to right. Gabe and Haylay followed his lead, with Ivy staying behind to cover. Haylay shot down at the water in front of them, hoping to slaughter the two men if they dove down into the muck.

  They all charged forward behind their hail of bullets until they reached the spot where Belgrave and Riker stood only moments before. The sound of gunfire bouncing off the walls screamed into all of their ears, causing a dead silence once it stopped.

  As they waded through the muck, they pointed their guns down at the water. The dust and debris made it nearly impossible to see. As the air began to clear, Riker popped out of his hiding place in one of the recessed areas, wielding a large knife.

  Dozier heard Riker before he saw him, and growled like a fierce bear, spinning around just in time to catch him in mid-air. Dozier slammed Riker into the water head first and then dove on top of him. Like an alligator wrestling match, the churning and thrashing in the water was all the evidence of their battle.

  With their attention focused completely on Dozier and Riker, no one noticed Belgrave slip out of the shadows with his gun in front of him.

  Gabe heard Belgrave’s voice even before he felt the cold steel press against the back of his head.

  “Gotcha motherfucker.” Belgrave said. “The badass Cutter. You done got soft, boy.”

  Gabe didn’t waste time on unnecessary dialogue. He knew that there was nothing in his grammatical arsenal that would convince Belgrave to let him go. The man had a deep hatred for Cutter that wouldn’t go away with a few words.

  Fortunately for Gabe, Belgrave’s anger was causing him to take his time and relish the moment. Instead of simply shooting Cutter in the back of the head, Gabe knew he wanted to chat a little and make Cutter understand that on this night, Belgrave was the better man. Belgrave was the king of the Slums of York.

  Gabe stood still with his eyes on Ivy and Haylay. Riker jumped up out of the water, but was pulled down by Dozier and the underwater thrashing continued. Ivy and Haylay both had their guns trained on Belgrave.

  “You shoot me and you’re wide open for their attack,” Gabe reminded Belgrave.

  “Shit, you think I’m gonna let some she-male and your trampy girlfriend fuck this up?”

  Belgrave gestured at his own body with his right hand, displaying to them the studliness of his physique. Gabe made a split second decision to use Belgrave’s arrogance against him. He let his legs collapse and dropped into the water below, opening him up for Haylay’s attack.

  Haylay didn’t miss a beat.

  The sound of his bullets spraying into Belgrave’s chest could be heard from underwater, and when Gabe resurfaced, it was confirmed. Belgrave’s body was lying against the wall behind him, and Haylay was still letting the bullets fly. He’d turned the Italian gangster into a bloody mess.

  “Haylay,” Gabe called out.

  Haylay stopped firing, but kept his attention focused on Belgrave for a moment.

  “Haylay,” Gabe said again. “Thanks.”

  Haylay turned to face him.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “But you should know that my price just went up. You’re gonna owe me big time when this is all over.”

  Gabe smiled, but then realized that Dozier was still fighting Riker and turned to help his friend.

  “Dozier!” Gabe yelled.

  Dozier lifted up out of the water with a knife wound to his side. Blood ran down from his ribs to the front of his pants. Dozier ignored the blood. He was looking down at the water, trying to find Riker.

  “Where did he go?”

  To be on the safe side, Gabe and Haylay both opened fire. Water popped and splashed as the bullets sank in, but there was no movement, and they didn’t know if they’d hit their target.

  Gabe didn’t see him anywhere and it didn�
��t appear that anyone else did. Ivy had her eyes on the water too. She looked up at Gabe and shrugged her shoulders. She had her gun out in front of her, prepared in case of a surprise attack.

  Ivy’s dark side specialty was whoring; yes, she’d been involved in a little bit of gunplay from time to time, but Gabe should have realized that orchestrating a tactical search wasn’t in her repertoire. So when Riker quietly rose out of the water behind her and wrapped his arm around her throat, she was caught off guard and screamed. Gabe couldn’t react quickly enough. His gun was still pointed at the water, and he knew that if he raised it, Riker might put a bullet in her head.