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

by Carver Pike

  “Ivy! No!” Gabe yelled.

  “Belgrave, where you at, mate?” Riker asked aloud.

  “Uh…he’s no longer with us,” Haylay said.

  “He’s dead. Let the girl go and we’ll let you walk out of here,” Gabe suggested.

  “You…Cutter…cares about this girl?” Riker asked confused.

  “Just let her go,” Gabe ordered.

  “Wait a minute. You’re not Cutter,” Riker said.

  “I never claimed to be!”

  “So even Cutter has a soft side. Well, if I kill Cutter’s soft side then he can never come back, right?”

  There was a moment of silence as Gabe realized that Riker was putting together a little plan of his own. He was right. If he put a bullet in Gabe’s forehead, Gabe would be dead and Cutter would be stuck on the other side of the mirror, with Lisa, because surely Riker would kill Ivy too.

  Plus, with Belgrave dead, the Irish gangster might be able to take over his empire. Gabe racked his brain for a solution to this standoff. There had to be something Riker wanted.

  Before he could come up with an answer, salvation arrived in the deadly form that Gabe thought he’d never be excited to see.

  Directly behind Riker and in perfect stealth mode, Cloak slowly rose from the water. Riker heard the dripping of water behind him as the water fell from Cloak’s arms and clothes. His eyes opened wide.

  “Ivy, duck!” Gabe yelled.

  Ivy leaned forward. Riker tried to yank her back, but Cloak swiped his blades across Riker’s neck in one swift movement. Riker let go of Ivy and fell forward into the water, his head toppling down first.

  Gabe leapt forward and opened fire on Cloak. He’d learned from experience that the bullets wouldn’t stop him, but they might slow him down enough to allow Ivy to crawl away. Each bullet that hit Cloak’s chest caused him to take a step back.

  Haylay joined him and with the two guns firing at Cloak’s chest, it proved to be too much for him and he fell backwards into the water.

  “Come on. There’s a ladder up ahead!” Haylay informed the rest of them.

  Gabe reached down into the water, grabbed Ivy’s arm and dragged her to her feet in a desperate attempt to hurry her out of the water before Cloak regained his composure.

  They reached the ladder and Gabe looked back over his shoulder. There was no sign of Cloak. Haylay quickly ascended the ladder. Dozier ushered Gabe and Ivy onto it and waited at the bottom. He looked back into the tunnel.

  “I left her,” he said.

  It took Gabe a moment to realize who Dozier was talking about. He’d put Language down to rest for a second when Belgrave’s attack occurred.

  “Please man. She’s dead. I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” Gabe said. “You can’t save her. But you can save yourself.”

  Dozier hesitated for a moment and it was clear that his decision was eating at him. He began his climb, and as he did, Cloak sat up in the water. Gabe rushed the others.

  “Go! He’s coming!”

  Cloak pulled out two of his circular saw blades and fanned them out in his hand like a master poker player checking his hand. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he flung the blades at the ladder.

  Gabe saw the first blade coming and let go of the ladder, falling down a few rungs and kicking Dozier in the face in the process. The blade whizzed past his head and struck the metal of the ladder, causing sparks to fly.

  “Ivy, go! Climb!” Gabe yelled.

  The second saw blade slammed into Dozier’s thigh, planting itself in his skin, muscle, and bone. He howled in pain and almost fell off the ladder, hanging on by only one hand.

  “Come on!” Gabe yelled as he reached down and offered his hand to Dozier, who accepted it and kept climbing.

  Haylay and Ivy made it to the top and slid the manhole cover away. They climbed out onto the street. All was silent. They were on a small side street, not an alleyway. Loud shouting could be heard off in the distance, but where they were appeared to be safe for the moment.

  Down below, Cloak had risen to his feet and was marching towards Gabe and Dozier. Gabe was trying to rush Dozier, but his stomach was a bloody mess and a waterfall of blood was gushing down his leg as well.

  “I don’t know if I’m gonna make it, man,” Dozier said.

  “You’re gonna make it. Come on,” Gabe replied.

  “Even if I do, do you really think there’s a hospital ER up there on the street? No field medic stuff is gonna fix my ripped gut, man. I’m done, bro.”

  Gabe knew that Dozier was right. Even if they made it out of the sewer, even if they somehow managed to kill Cloak in the process and even if they made it to safety, Dozier’s wounds were fatal. He was losing a lot of blood. No stitches would do the trick. None of the mushy substance Language had used earlier was going to heal him.

  Cloak stalked towards them. He pulled two small guns out of his thigh holsters and held them out in front of him. When he pulled the triggers, a spear with wires attached shot out of the end of each gun. The spears flew past Gabe and Dozier and attached to the ceiling right behind them.

  “He missed,” Dozier said.

  “I don’t think so,” Gabe replied.

  Cloak was suddenly jerked up off the ground and yanked into the air. He flew forward like an angel of death, his muscular arms held out like wings, holding on to the guns as he soared right at them.

  “Gabe, lookout!” Dozier yelled.

  Cloak was only about ten feet away when he let go of the guns and shot his swords into his hands. He flew right at Gabe. Dozier pushed off the ladder with his good leg and dove at Cloak, stopping him with a bear hug in midair. They plummeted into the murky water below.

  Gabe made it to the top of the ladder and watched in horror as Cloak stood up out of the water and stabbed his blades downward. Dozier’s foot thrashed around for a second, and then air bubbles rose to the top of the water.

  “Dozier!” Gabe yelled.

  Cloak looked up at him and then walked toward the ladder, silently continuing the hunt. Gabe watched as Cloak stopped and tried to shake off something that was holding on to his foot.

  Dozier’s hand shot up out of the water and snatched the pin out of one of the grenades on Cloak’s belt. Cloak looked down at his waist and then quickly pulled out three circular saw blades and made one final attempt to kill Gabe, flinging the saw blades at him.

  Gabe crawled out of the manhole. One of the blades missed his face and soared high into the air. The other two didn’t make it out of the hole. He rolled away from the manhole as the grenade exploded.

  Cloak’s body was engulfed in fire as the entire tunnel was instantly filled with flames. Haylay and Ivy grabbed Gabe’s arms and dragged him away from the manhole as flames shot out, tossing the manhole lid through the air. Gabe watched the inferno.

  “He’s dead. They’re all dead because of me,” Gabe said.

  Ivy held him from behind and rested her chin on the top of his head as she too watched the fire.

  “If you’re really the Haissem, it’ll be worth it,” she assured him.

  “Please, y’all. Let’s get out of these alleys and off these streets,” Haylay suggested.

  Chapter 14 – The Calm Before the Storm

  Gabe and Ivy followed Haylay through the streets of the Slums. They were a mess. In the real world, they would have solicited strange stares and disgusted glances by the passersby. No one walked the streets looking the way they did unless they were either high or very, very drunk.

  But on the dark side, they simply fit in. Gabe looked at Ivy and Haylay and couldn’t help thinking that earlier that day he’d been traveling with Sergio, T-Nate, Dozier, Ty, Language, and Conductor. Now their large hunting party had dwindled down to three.

  Then it dawned on him that he was the only real person in the group. He wondered why two images would even continue on this quest. What would Haylay or Ivy have to gain if he was, in fact, the Haissem and rid the world of all evil?

  He was
not only in the company of two images, but they were both prostitutes. The humor of that thought eased him of a little pain, so he allowed a small hiss of laughter to escape his lips. Ivy heard it and turned to check on him.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s nothing,” he assured her and continued on.

  Walking the dark and quiet streets was the first chance Gabe had to actually reflect on all of the events that had transpired and to really stop and think about the dark side itself. He’d been so bombarded by violence since entering this world that he hadn’t even had a chance to breathe, let alone think.

  It seemed like ages since he’d first fallen through the mirror and taken a flight through a window and down to the hard pavement of the alley below. He found it humorous again thinking that he, the so-called Haissem, could have been killed when the bums tossed him through the window. That would have sucked.

  So as he walked, he breathed in the deep, nasty smell of gasoline burning in the night mixed with garbage and dead animals. It was the closest thing to fresh air he’d enjoyed in a while.

  He looked over at Ivy and saw in her a strong, quiet beauty. She looked so much like Lisa. He missed her immensely. It made him wonder why there needed to be two versions of the same person.

  He’d been to church quite a bit growing up, he’d been exposed to the Bible, and he didn’t remember it ever mentioning anything about two worlds. Sure, there was heaven and hell, but was this hell? Was it possible that all of the talk about Lucifer being cast into hell could have meant that Lucifer was sent into this world?

  In a strange way, it kind of made sense to Gabe. If Lucifer was really the most beautiful of angels and was jealous because he wanted to take God’s place and rule the kingdom, maybe God did the whole “be careful what you wish for” thing and gave him his own kingdom to rule; the dark side with the dark, twisted versions of real people. Dark versions of all places on earth, filled with horrific monsters and dangerous creatures.

  What a slap in the face that would be.

  So if he were the Haissem, would that mean that he was sent there to end Lucifer’s reign? If he destroyed the dark side and all of the dark versions disappeared, then there couldn’t be evil on the other side. There would be no one left to cross through the mirror and hurt people on the other side.

  But even if this absurd thought was true, how could he possibly destroy the dark side of the mirror? It wasn’t like a vampire movie where he only needed to toss some holy water on the world around him and shove a wooden stake into the ground. The dark side wouldn’t explode in a fiery death like the spawn of Dracula.

  This was something bigger and Gabe had only one plan, which was to do what he’d started out to do in the first place. He would find Cutter and stop him. Anything else would have to just fall into place.

  When they reached the building where Haylay lived, Gabe was a bit confused. The outside was an old hardware store. No one was around. The windows had been smashed in long ago and the brick looked charred, which apparently had been caused by the crumbled building that lay next to it, probably the result of a fire.

  “This is where you live?” Gabe asked Haylay.

  “Well, not right here on the street,” Haylay said sarcastically. “Come on, through here.”

  Haylay stepped up onto the windowsill and climbed carefully over it and into the dark store. Ivy didn’t hesitate to follow, which left Gabe standing on the cracked sidewalk alone. He looked at the street behind him and once again was astonished at the life the images had grown accustomed to.

  He imagined that any image that crossed over to the other side of the mirror must be overwhelmed at first by the differences. The light alone would be an oddity, let alone a clean house with warm blankets and soft pillows.

  “Amazing,” Gabe said to himself before crawling through the non-existent window.

  Haylay led them down the middle aisle, which appeared to have been ransacked many years before. Even the metal bars that may have held merchandise had been ripped from the shelf and more than likely used for weapons. The only proof that it had ever been a hardware store lay with the destroyed sign at the front of the building. Inside was completely demolished and void of hardware supplies.

  As they reached the end of the aisle, Ivy gasped and jumped in shock as a man’s mud-covered face stared up at them from the floor. Haylay put a hand on Ivy’s shoulder to calm her.

  “Monty,” Haylay said as he waved a hand at the man.

  The man called Monty only grunted and waved. They passed him and continued towards the back of the store and a sign marked “restrooms.”

  “Neighbor of yours?” Gabe asked.

  “Monty’s been here almost as long as I have. That’s one thing about the Slums, maybe the rest of this world for all I know, we’re very territorial. Once you’ve staked a claim, you don’t let it go…for nothing.”

  “And what if someone comes in here and tries to take your home?” Gabe asked.

  “What would you do if someone tried to take your home?” Haylay returned the question.

  “I’d call the cops,” Gabe said sarcastically.

  “Cops?” Haylay asked.

  Gabe realized that Haylay had no idea what the word meant and he remembered that the dark side had no sort of peacekeeping unit. Belgrave’s hoodlums were the closest thing to government they had in the Slums and he surely wasn’t providing any type of law enforcement. Besides, a town would have to have laws in order for them to be enforced.

  “Forget it,” Gabe said. “I get it. You protect what little bit you have here.”

  “Yeah,” Haylay replied. “And Monty has come in handy many times. He’s kind of like an old, crusty guard dog.”

  Haylay stopped at the ladies' room door and pulled out a strange looking key.

  “Ladies room?” Ivy asked with a grin.

  “Damn right,” Haylay replied. “Ain’t no diva gonna be shackin’ up in the men’s room, honey. And the men piss all over toilet seats and stuff. I can’t be livin’ where men mighta pissed all over my floors.”

  “Hell, over here I’m bettin’ that half of the women piss on the floor,” Gabe said.

  Haylay snapped his fingers.

  “Hey, don’t be forgettin’ you’re in the presence of two ladies,” he said.

  “And two of your so-called images,” Ivy added.

  Gabe threw up his hands in defense, refusing to dig his hole any deeper.

  Haylay popped the lock on his ladies room apartment door and shoved it open so they could step inside. The door swung inward and a slight breeze blew across Ivy’s face.

  “Smells pretty,” Ivy said.

  Haylay lit a lantern and the small room brightened. It was a typical women’s bathroom with two stalls. The counter had an old copper vase filled with some kind of exotic plant. A bin full of lipstick and other make up odds and ends sat on the counter. Hanging from the drop ceiling were wire clothes hangers bent into the shape of a hook. At the end of each hook was a wig. Haylay had wigs in all shapes and colors.

  “I like to change it up a little. The men seem to like it that way,” Haylay mentioned when he saw that Gabe’s attention was focused on the wigs.

  “Master of disguises, I see,” Gabe joked.

  “They come in handy,” Haylay admitted. “And of course the best disguise of all, when I really need to remain inconspicuous, I just take off the wig and go out as a regular man.”

  “You’re like a gay chameleon.”

  Haylay shot him a scornful glance but then laughed.

  Ivy walked past them and went on a little tour of her own. She opened the first stall and found a toilet with the lid down. On top of the lid was an old typewriter and on the back of the toilet sat two candles.

  “Interesting,” Ivy said.

  “Well, when you’ve got no running water, a toilet is pretty useless,” Haylay replied.

  “A typewriter?” Gabe asked when he saw what was behind door number one.


  “Yeah. I kind of moonlight as a messenger,” Haylay admitted. “Most of the people here can’t read or write, and if they need something in written form, I’ll take care of it for a small fee. I have to admit, though, it’s getting harder and harder to find typewriter ribbon.”

  Ivy pushed the door open on the second stall and found an old, thin mattress, like one might find on a futon. There was a rolled up blanket for a pillow and one sheet covering the mattress.

  “Yeah, so this is my humble home,” Haylay said.