by Ruby Brown
Warm sunlight streaming down from a bright blue sky surrounded her. Trees with bright green leaves housed birds that sung their sweet melodies into the air which was perfumed with the scents of brightly coloured flowers glowing in the bushes. Lining the paths that wound their way through the town was stalls and shops selling a glorious array of objects, the vendors calling out to the people on the pavement in cheery voices. Everything was bright and warm and comforting. The whole thing was overshadowed by a glorious castle with spiralling turrets sparkling in the sun.
“Oh my god...”Rose muttered softly, grabbing onto Dallas’ arm with one hand and putting the other over her mouth. Her face was ashen, eyes wide and staring at what was in front of her without comprehension. “Look at them, They’re...dead.”
Everyone around her, including Rose herself, knew that dead wasn’t the right word, but what else could they say to describe the creatures in front of them? At first, they appeared human and perfectly normal, but when you looked a little closer you could see the prominent veins that pulsed with scarlet blood beneath their greyish skin. Their frail hands were tipped with overgrown, yellowed fingernails. Their mouths moved in soundless whispers, telling stories best left forgotten. But their eyes were the most frightening. Every time one of them looked at you, the chills that ran down your spine were electric. All of the pains, the emptiness, the trauma, were there for you to see like stars spread out across a dark sky. Whoever these people were, something dark and poisonous had crawled inside and destroyed them. Now they were nothing.
“Why?” Dallas whispered, and it was the only time his limited speech had been able to sum up the thoughts of everyone around him.
“Too much exposure to the dark magic,” Claire said, her voice on the edge of a razorblade. “It seeps into everything. It’s imprinted itself into the ink on the pages they read and poisoned the air they breathe. There are traces of it in their food and drink. It surrounds them every day and brings out the darkest parts of them. Some of them live their whole lives like this, never knowing what lies behind the veil of smoke.”
“That’s so sad...” Trixie said.
“I disagree,” Claire said, but she didn’t give them time to ask what she meant. “Keep your head down and follow me,” she said quietly, and started to lead them through the market towards the castle. Mal didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, but as they walked the rest of the group formed a protective circle around her, shielding her from everything around them. Any other time, Mal would have protested and said that she could look after herself, but this time she was grateful. She didn’t want to look at those...things. Dallas was the only one who didn’t seem greatly unsettled by their presence. In fact, sometimes Mal thought that, if the sun hit him just right, she could see a glimmer of their emptiness mimicked in his crystal blue eyes.
Claire walked them around to the back of the castle, making sure that they no one who might be lurking behind the gleaming windows could see them. Then she turned to face them and softly said “do you trust me?” Rose’s immediate response of no collided with Mal’s instantaneous reply of yes. They both turned to look at each other, and the similarity of their pleading expressions startled them for a moment.
“Good,” Claire said after a moment’s pause, choosing to ignore Rose. Why would she care if that bitch trusted her? All that mattered was that she still had Mal’s loyalty, so Mal would follow her orders and she’d be able to keep her safe. She’d protected her from Akraansir for all these years, and she wasn’t about to give up now. “Because we’re gonna have to climb.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Thomas demanded. Dallas’ eyes widened. Trixie shook her head firmly. Rose’s mouth twitched.
“It’s the only way,” Claire said. “If we start from the bottom and try to climb up, we’re bound to be seen. This way, we can climb through the windows and directly into where they’re keeping Mal’s parents. We don’t have a choice.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Rose protested.
“So you want us to just turn around and go back home? After everything we’ve been through to get here?”
“If we’re careful, we can just climb up using the stairs. You’re forgetting we’re all trained for combat, if anyone causes us any trouble we can handle it.”
“And you’re forgetting that I know Akraansir and this place better than any of you. Trust me; the castle will be teeming with her servants and the Aril. I know that you are all strong but Trixie has been sick since we found her and...”
“Yeah, Trixie is sick, which is all the more reason not to put her at the top of a goddamn tower!” Rose shouted.
“Quiet,” Dallas hissed cautiously. Rose looked embarrassed to have let herself slip up like that when they were in such a precarious situation.
“I can do it,” Trixie said firmly, quietening Thomas’ concern with a single scathing glance in his direction.
“We can all do it,” Claire confirmed, looking directly at Rose as an unspoken challenge.
“Whatever we’re doing, we have to be quick. We’re running out of time,” Mal said urgently. Her blood was zipping through her veins. This was the closest to her parents she had been in months. The thought that they were trapped in one of the rooms contained in the giant building in front of them was almost too much for her to bear. She was so full of anxious energy, the nerves channelling themselves into bloodlust. She could feel her magic energy bubbling to the surface of her skin. It was killing her to stand still and discuss their next move when all she wanted to do was explode.
“If any of us die, or get hurt,” Rose said softly, dangerously. “The blood is on your hands. Don’t let us down.”
Claire nodded. “I’ve climbed up and down this castle before, so it’s very important that you all step where I step. Don’t look down, avoid the windows, and for God’s sake try to be quick.” Then she spun round and started scrambling up the side of the tower with frightening speed. The others fell into line behind her, each one carefully examining the positioning of the hands and feet of their predecessor.
Climbing these walls came easily to Claire. Her hands and feet easily found purchase in the rock, following the same pattern she had used for years. It was almost second nature at this point. Rose climbed with quiet determination, glancing down every now and then despite Claire’s instructions to check on the people below her. Trixie clung grimly to the wall and climbed as fast as she could, determined not to let the group down despite her physical condition. Thomas kept looking at her anxiously; one hand always sitting slightly loosely on the wall just in case she stumbled and he needed to catch her. Dallas didn’t look anywhere but at the wall in front of him, focusing on the way the bricks locked together and the bugs that crawled across the cracks to try and distract him from the empty space where his axe should be. Mal’s thoughts were like dynamite, exploding in her brain and distracting her so much she kept slipping.
Although they all found the climb relatively easy at first, it became harder and harder as they wound their way up. The cold wind slashed mercilessly at any exposed flesh, bringing tears to their eyes and making it even harder to grip the wall as their fingers started slowly growing numb. Their arms and legs started trembling with exhaustion and fear of the colossal drop below them, and they were only getting higher. Their heads started to spin, and the blazing desire for revenge that had driven Mal this far seemed to have been extinguished.
“Just a little longer!” Claire called; although she wasn’t sure how many people heard her as the wind tore the words from the air. She could almost feel the exhaustion and trepidation radiating from her friends, if she could even call them that, and it burdened her. Even she was finding this part of the journey difficult. She became more cautious, tracing the brickwork with her fingertips to make doubly sure her next move was the right one. She was poisonously aware that any wrong move would send her, and potentially the others, straight to hell.
Finally, Claire found herself next to the window leading in
to the room Mal’s parents were being kept in. With shaking fingers, she pulled a thin blade from her belt and jammed it underneath the window frame. Carefully, she started moving it around and trying to lever the window open.
“Hurry up!” Rose grumbled. “We’re all freezing to death up here.”
“Shut up,” Claire said crossly. “I’d like to see you do a better job.”
“Are you two bickering again?” Mal called up.
Claire rolled her eyes just as she managed to get the window to crack open. With a decent degree of desperation, she stowed her knife in her belt and pushed the window open the rest of the way with her hand. The hinges creaked slightly, and as soon as the gap was large enough she launched herself through. There was a moment of mild panic as her feet left the solid walls of the castle and were left kicking in the air, and then she landed with a soft thud on the wooden floors of the room. By the time she had straightened up, Rose had materialized next to her, and she was staring at Mal’s parents with horror clearly painted on the pale canvas of her face.
“I know,” Claire said grimly.
“But Mal...”
“I know.”
Rose turned to Claire, and they shared a moment of shock and despair that seemed to hang suspended in time, before the furious expression in Rose’s eyes dimmed and her jaw clenched. The two of them helped the others through the window, although really it was Rose who did all of the work. Whenever Claire outstretched her hands to help, Rose was there, preventing her from getting any closer to the people she cared about as if she was afraid that even the slightest brush of Claire’s fingers would contaminate them.
As Mal saw Dallas’ legs disappear through the window, she took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the wall for just a second. She knew that she was next, and that she was going to see her parents for the first time in months, and she was so nervous and scared and happy and it made her want to be sick. Her thoughts were all lost in the confusion. A noise similar to TV static was buzzing in her ears. She was terrified of what she would see, but so far she hadn’t heard any gut-wrenching screams, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? At least that’s what she told herself as Rose seized her shaking hands and dragged her into the room.
Mal landed heavily on her hands and knees. The first thing she registered was the pale plastic tubes, lying in front of her like tangled vines. Then came the smell. The stench of rot and decay and the decomposition of the very thing that makes us human. She clenched her hands into fists and rose slowly, trying to prepare herself for what would come next. She didn’t want to. She wanted to fix this, to somehow change everything so that things were different. But she had to face up to it, and nothing could be worse than the constant voice in her head, screaming that this was her fault. She had made this happen. Taking a deep and shaky breath, she stood up and her eyes snapped open.
That’s when she saw them.
Chapter 34
They were barely noticeable lying in their beds under the tangle of tubes that snaked around their bodies and embedded themselves in the rotting flesh like parasites refusing to let go. As Mal got closer, she could see the papery skin stretched over protruding bones that were so sharp it looked painful. She had no idea how they were still breathing, but she could see the rise and fall of their chests, even though it was irregular and shallow. It brought her some small comfort.
“Mum...” Mal reached out her hand to touch her mother’s face, hoping that the pressure of her fingers would somehow trigger something alive, something to give her hope. As she pulled her hand away, she realised she was holding a bunch of Abigail’s hair. She gasped and recoiled, dropping it onto the bed and wiping her hand on her clothes.
She felt a strong hand grab her shoulder and shake her slightly. It was Dallas. Mal reached up to put her hand on top of his and took a deep, shaking breath. She closed her eyes for a second and pushed all her emotions deep, deep down, except for her anger. She let that bubble and boil in her stomach. She was going to use it to drive her and find whoever did this. She had to keep going. “How do we get them out?” she said firmly as her eyes snapped open.
“I don’t know,” Claire said, rushing forward to examine the different tubes. She picked up Peter’s arm, and Mal had to stop herself from screaming at her to leave them alone. The words caught in her throat and came out in a low growl that only Dallas heard. “They’re so fragile, like the bones of a bird. One wrong move would most likely kill them.”
“You didn’t tell us they were this bad,” Mal said accusingly.
“I didn’t know! When I left, they weren’t like this.”
“I thought you knew everything about this place,” Rose said smugly, crossing her arms.
Claire opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment the door opened. Two people, a man and a woman both dressed in doctor’s uniforms, walked into the room. They were so engaged in their discussion that they didn’t notice the others. The woman was holding a clipboard and enthusiastically jabbing at something. “It’s extraordinary, really, the way their souls react under such immense pressure...” then she looked up and screamed.
Everything happened at once. Mal seized two throwing knives and hurled them with unnatural precision. One thudded into the man’s chest and the other whirled through the air and embedded itself in the woman’s skull. They both collapsed to the floor, but just before they hit the ground Mal darted forwards and grabbed them, dragging them away from the door and wrenching the knives from their bodies, leaving gaping and bloody wounds.
She wasn’t quick enough. The sudden uproar from outside was undeniable proof that they had been seen. Rose darted forward and slammed the door shut. Trixie leant against a wall and closed her eyes. “Oh my god oh my god oh my god...” she murmured over and over again. Rose called Dallas over to help her barricade the door. Mal raced over to Claire and asked what she could do to help.
“We’re going to have to risk it,” Claire said frantically as people started banging on the door from the outside. Trixie sunk to the floor with her hands over her ears. Thomas tried to sit down next to her but Rose yelled at him to come and help her. “Help me disconnect him.” With shaking fingers, Mal helped Claire get the tubes out of her dad’s lifeless body. “I’m going to climb out of the window and you have to pass him down to me.”
“That’s stupid. You’re going to fall,” Mal protested.
“Look at him, he weighs nothing. Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing. Just trust me.”
Mal scooped up Peter’s body in her arms. Claire was right, he was extremely light. It scared Mal how easily she could lift him. His head lolled backwards and his limbs dangled eerily. He was completely unresponsive. Claire jumped out of the window and plunged her knives into the wall so she’d have a more secure grip. She outstretched one of her arms and Mal lifted her dad up onto the windowsill to start carefully lowering him down.
Just as Claire got a grip on Peter’s ankle, the door burst open. Akraansir’s servants flooded the room. Trixie screamed as they grabbed her and pulled her up from the floor, holding her arms so harshly they left bruises. Rose’s gunshots echoed through the room, but her weapons were wrenched from her hands and thrown across the room. Dallas managed to take two of them down before he was swarmed and forced to his knees. Someone tripped Thomas over as he tried to help, and he ended up sprawled on the floor. Strong arms seized Mal from behind and hauled her away from the window. “No!” Mal shrieked as she felt her grip on her father’s body loosen. Claire tried to grab him, but she was too late. Even as Mal was dragged away, she could hear the horrifying crunch of Peter’s body hitting the ground far below them. Claire started climbing down the building and disappeared from sight.
Mal tried to scream but one of the men punched her so hard her head flew back and her neck almost snapped in two. Her mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood and the side of her face exploded with pain. The man then grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. He was breathing heavily, with a br
uise forming on his cheekbone. His wretched breath washed over Mal in hot waves. She tried to pull her head away and whimpered in pain when he wrenched it back. She couldn’t stop herself from shaking. Her brain was going haywire, barely able to make sense of the situation. Loud clattering filled the room as weapons were wrenched from bodies and thrown onto the floor.
“It’s her...” said the man softly, his dark eyes widening. They reminded Mal of the tunnel they had all walked through to get here, terrifying in their emptiness. Instantly, the room fell silent and all heads turned to Mal. She put on a mask and did her best to be brave, to meet everyone’s gaze with a challenging glare that softened when her eyes fell upon her friends. The man let go of her face and stood up. “Take them to the dungeons, but take special care of that one.” His eyes flashed towards Mal, and a sly grin spread across his face. “Akraansir will want to talk to her.”
Mal felt herself being lifted off of her feet and they started carrying her downstairs. She struggled against the arms that held her so tightly it felt like her ribs were cracking. It was a painful effort to draw in each breath. The lack of oxygen was making her head spin, but that didn’t stop her from doing her best to get out of her captor’s grasp. Looking around, she could see the others struggling just as much as she was. She could almost feel the icy fury radiating from Dallas, and a never-ending string of curse words and insults were spewing from Rose’s mouth. Her bright red lipstick was smeared across her face, and it looked eerily like blood. Trixie was the only one not putting up a fight. Her body was limp, and she was staring at the ceiling with faraway eyes, clearly distant from the chaos around her. For some reason, Trixie’s apathy scared Mal more than anything else she’d seen today.
They were brought down to the lower sections of the most imposing building Mal had ever seen. It was covered with gold furnishings and black marble, heavy red curtains blocking out the light from the windows so the rooms could be eerily lit by loads of softly glowing chandeliers. Clearly, whoever owned this place didn’t care about the electricity bills. It reminded Mal of posh houses from the Victorian era, like the ones she’d seen in school textbooks.