The Beholder

by Ivan Amberlake

With relief, Jason opened his eyes again and saw the intensity of the light had subsided. The ocean was on fire, and red tongues of the turbulent water stretched up, attempting to sear Emily and Jason with lava. The heat was almost unbearable, and Jason realized there was no longer a shield of protection around him. Emily no longer emitted sprouts of Energy, and she was flying very low, maneuvering amidst the surges.

  Tyler was nowhere to be seen. What about the others? Jason scrutinized the inky skies, trying to discern Tyler, but thick black pitch had spread all over. Though she was right there, he could hardly even make out Emily’s features.

  “They are all right,” Emily shouted. “But we’re getting out of here. I’m not going to let you get into any more trouble!”

  From out of the blackness appeared a star, luminous and liquid. It slowly descended, illuminating the sky with an unsteady flickering, and when it touched the salty water the darkness was gone, as were the spheres of fire. The fight was over, and they’d survived.

  Time sped by as they flew towards New York, and it seemed only minutes before night turned to morning and the coast came into view. Emily’s body tensed, and he knew she was wary of another trap. New York’s shining lights, flickering beneath a heavy layering of clouds, smeared a colored patch along Jason’s failing consciousness.

  The whole world shook in that moment. As if reality exploded. Jason stared in mute disbelief as the hovering clouds began to crumble and fall on New York. The onslaught began sluggishly, as if in slow motion, then accelerated, falling onto the travelers. Jason closed his eyes again, certain he and his friends would be squashed and swept away. Emily shot towards the skyscrapers.

  A fraction of a second later Jason lay on his back on a cool surface, gasping for air. The flight was over, and nothing could have been more comforting than the simple act of lying still on a steady surface. He lay in a dark room thick with the smell of neglect, lit only by a hint of outside light. When he could breathe normally, Jason pulled himself together, then cautiously sat up and looked around. It was a nondescript place with dingy wallpaper, furnished with a moth-eaten couch, a few chairs that didn’t match, and an old desk stacked high with heaps of magazines.

  He glanced at Emily, who stood nearby, hands on her hips. Before he could ask, three bodies popped out of thin air. Matthew and Debbie lay as he had, sprawled on the floor, panting for breath. Tyler loomed above them, appearing almost menacing, while Jason struggled to his own feet so he could help them sit on the threadbare couch.

  “Could have done it quicker,” Emily snapped. “You need more practice.”

  “I went as fast as I could,” Tyler said, sounding offended.

  “What the hell was with the sky?” Jason asked.

  Emily stared, amazed. “You saw?”

  “How could I not see?”

  Tyler was watching them both, his brow heavy with puzzlement. “You did try to shield him from Insanifictia, didn’t you?”

  “Of course,” Emily said, frowning accusingly at Jason. “Seems I can’t control him anymore.”

  Tyler gave a little snort. “Huh,” he said, almost to himself. “And yet he’s still sane.” He turned to Jason. “Are you sane?”

  “I’m not really sure,” he replied, smiling ruefully.

  He staggered towards a window and peered outside. As he’d thought, Emily had brought them to the top of a very high building, and now he looked down on the city. “Then again, I’ve questioned my sanity for a while now.”

  In the past, Jason had watched movies of adventure, some of which were based around the end of the world. He’d never imagined he’d actually see that kind of picture in real life. But the New York he saw now was the perfect setting for such a movie. The skyscrapers stood in a broken line, some of them crumbling to the ground as he watched, forming clouds of thick white dust. Others still stood, but their windows were smashed and roofs had gone missing, as if the city had been neglected and uninhabited for a hundred years.

  The sight made him angry, as did all the mystery behind it. “Can anyone tell me what’s going on?”

  Tyler sighed. “They used one of the weapons in their arsenal,” he said. “Insanifictia. It’s one of the most ancient and most effective. It doesn’t even have to kill—”

  “—because it turns an Unsighted person irreversibly insane,” Emily finished.

  Jason spun towards his friends. “But they’re okay, aren’t they?”

  “D’you think so?” Matt asked, still out of breath.

  Emily nodded. “Yes, don’t worry. They’re all right.”

  “Why?” Jason asked, staring at Matt and Debbie. “Why didn’t it—”

  “—because I created a Fraud Energy Image around them,” Tyler explained.

  Silence fell in the room as they each digested what had just happened. It was Emily who broke the quiet. “You’re getting stronger, Jason.”

  He scowled, unconvinced. The last he’d noticed, she’d been carrying him around like a useless lump of black cloth.

  “What was that flash over the ocean?” Matt asked.

  Tyler joined Jason at the window, gazing sadly down at the devastation. “We killed one of them,” he said without turning around. “The intensity of light showed how much Energy was discharged into the outside world.”

  Emily looked bothered by that. She wrung her hands and looked at the floor. Tyler hadn’t sounded particularly pleased, either.

  “But that’s a good thing, right?” Debbie asked. “It can’t be bad.”

  “The uncontrolled release of so much Energy,” Emily explained, “brings various forms of disaster. Especially in, let’s say, parts of the earth where there are rarified Energy zones.” She crossed her arms and started pacing the room. “It could be a tsunami, an earthquake, a deluge … anything. We’ll be lucky if no one gets killed. Thanks to Tyler, some of the explosion wave was extinguished, but—” She froze, all color draining from her beautiful face. “Oh no,” she whispered.

  Tyler had paled as well, and his jaw was set. “I feel it too,” he said quietly. Jason shook his head, waiting for an explanation. “They set all their hunters free. And we’re trapped here.”

  Dread crept through Jason, tingling in his hands and feet, making him dizzy. “All their hunters? That doesn’t sound good.”

  Emily shook her head. “Pariah is furious. We crossed his path this time, and they are out to kill.” Emily sat beside Debbie and Matt on the couch, massaging her temples in little circles. “What are we going to do?”

  “Aren’t they afraid someone will notice them?” Debbie asked hopefully.

  Tyler scoffed, stepping away. “People don’t see this kind of Energy. Plus, their memory is easy to erase or modify.”

  Jason leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the window, resting his hands on the dusty windowsill. He closed his eyes, listening to the quiet drumming of rain on the window. When he opened them again he realized it wasn’t just simple rain. A solid, slanted wall of water banged against the window, demanding entry. The skies wept, their tears sobbing in streams down the outward surface of the window. As if in agreement, the wind began wailing, and the window glass fogged around Jason’s face as the outside temperature fell.

  Matthew and Debbie stood by Jason, their eyes reflecting the disasters they saw. Debbie opened her mouth to speak, then stopped.

  A dark shape appeared in the air and hovered, darker than any storm cloud, studying the side of their building. When the shape reached the level of their window, it froze in mid-air and its blood red gaze stared into Jason’s eyes.

  “Don’t move!” Emily whispered.

  Five statues stood, barely breathing in the semi-dark. The room seemed dead. A second later the enemy soared away, and Tyler sighed.

  “That was close! Next time we may not be so lucky.”

  “Didn’t he see us?” Matt asked.

  Emily and Tyler glanced at each other, then Emily smiled weakly. “Nope,” she said. “This apartment is hidden in t
he same way the estate is. Instead of us, the Darksighted saw a Fraud Energy Pattern of a middle-aged couple and their dog. Tyler’s idea.”

  But Jason wasn’t convinced. He was positive the hunter had been staring directly at him. Every instinct in him screamed, “Get out of here! Pariah is coming!”

  He turned from the window. “We need to get out of here. Pariah is close!”

  Four pairs of eyes stared at him. Debbie shook her head, looking like the last thing she wanted was to go on the move again. “Jason, the hunter didn’t see us,” she said. “He’s gone.”

  “Yes,” Jason agreed, speaking slowly, knowing to the marrow of his bones that he was right. “For now. He’s gone to alert all the others that we’re here. They will be here in less than a minute.”

  Emily collapsed to the floor with a gasp of pain, and Jason lunged forward to catch her, but Tyler stopped him just in time. As her lips moved, golden words started writing themselves around her, carving letters into the floor and onto the walls.

  Darkness descends to eclipse the Light

  Death will take the lives of many, sparing no one.

  In deaths of the Doomed, Light shimmers:

  The Light that will set the Beholder free.

  A thick fall of hair hid her face as she spoke, and Jason watched helplessly, wishing he could stop her chanting, stop the torture he saw in her eyes. Instead, he nodded with grim satisfaction, knowing his words had been proven true.

  “We need to get away from here,” he repeated slowly, trying to ignore the panic that roared through him. “They’re coming for us.”

  Chapter 29

  Emily recovered quickly, then she stared directly at Jason. “We’ll go by motorcycle, you and I.”

  Jason frowned. The motorcycle again? Now that he knew they could fly, it seemed ridiculous to resort to slow, regular modes of transportation. But Emily’s expression was set.

  “Okay. Where is it?” Jason asked.

  Tyler grinned. “I parked it in the basement. Emily had a feeling we might need it.”

  “What about us?” Debbie cried.

  Emily glanced towards the window again, checking, then went around the room, folding up the black flying cloaks and goggles in case they were needed later. “Tyler will take you,” she told Debbie, stuffing everything into a bag she pulled from under the couch. “It’ll be less risky this way.”

  “Where are we going?” Matt asked.

  “McAlester’s. That’s our only chance,” replied Emily.

  McAlester’s was a safe house then. That explained a lot. Why else would McAlester have hired a trio of little known designers to work on his beautiful restaurant? Slightly disillusioned, Jason realized they hadn’t just been brought in for their talent. Being in his building allowed McAlester to watch them and make sure they were out of danger.

  Matt apparently reached the same conclusion. “So Mr. McAlester is one of you.” He smiled and shook his head. “I’m hardly even surprised about that.”

  Tyler confirmed Matt’s theory with a smile and a slight nod.

  “Amazing,” Jason whispered, then focused on Emily. “But the motorcycle isn’t fast enough if we want to outrun them.” Ultrafast, yes, but only according to human criteria.

  She shook her head once. “Believe me, we’ll make it. Right now it’s safer to ride a bike than fly, and you’ll need it again pretty soon anyway. Plus we need to save our Energy.” She blanched suddenly, then whispered, “They’re here! Go!”

  The apartment shook as if it had been bombed, and the walls crumbled. Emily grabbed Jason by the sleeve, and the room vanished. They fell, plunging straight through the apartments below, but there was no evidence of any destruction as they broke through the floors. Evidently, the owners didn’t even see them. At one point, Jason thought he’d actually landed right on top of one of them, then fallen through the floor without the man even noticing. In what seemed like no time at all, they touched down on the floor of the cool basement. The motorcycle waited nearby, its smooth lines standing out against the dimness of the place.

  Tyler held Debbie’s hand, standing to the side while Emily pushed Jason towards the bike. Jason caught a glimpse of Matt running in a different direction, but he didn’t have time to see where he’d gone. He threw himself onto the motorcycle, then waited for Emily’s reassuring grip around his waist.

  “Key?”

  Tyler tossed the key into his palm, and Jason switched on the ignition. The motorcycle growled with enthusiasm, and Jason’s mind filled with confidence. He was in his element again. The back wheel screeched and they shot towards the exit, roaring into the very heart of the worst storm New York had ever experienced.

  Before they reached the outside, Emily yelled, “I scanned the streets. There’s no traffic outside. None at all. The Unsighted have all been removed. As soon as we get outside, the Legates are going to pursue us, so you better keep this baby moving.”

  “But what about—”

  “Just drive. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  The motorcycle leaped from the basement and landed in a nightmare. Bolts of lightning carved through the blackness, possessing the city’s skies. The rain was a solid, gushing waterfall. As Emily had said, no one was in the street, and no traffic was stuck in the storm; the labyrinth of New York’s streets looked desolate and lifeless within the deluge.

  They rode into the street and turned right. In five seconds the speedometer showed nearly a hundred miles per hour, but it seemed to Jason they were barely moving. The rain dragged him down, pulling at his heavy, wet clothing. If it hadn’t been for the endless forks of lightning, he wouldn’t have had any idea where he was going. It was as if he were driving blindfolded. Must be nice to be able to see in the dark, he mused, thinking of Emily. Streams of water got in his way, making riding even more difficult, and though he accelerated all the time, it seemed to make no difference.

  Suddenly Emily’s hands released his waist, and the bike darted forward more easily, as if it were a stallion whose reins had been cut. The rush of water seemed no longer to be a problem, because the vehicle glided smoothly along the road between two completely separate streams that didn’t touch him. The dial hand switched to one hundred and thirty, and Jason glanced back at his passenger. Her hands were stretched to either side, her Energy aimed at the violent downpour.

  Though it was easier to move now, the atmosphere grew more oppressive with each second. McAlester’s was still far, maybe a mile or two, and he should have been relieved that there were no hunters in sight. Strangely, that fact made him even more nervous. Where were they?

  As quick as lightning, a vision flashed. It was short, but the picture was clear. Hundreds of hunters clung to the skyscrapers, like bats on tombstones, biding their time before they dined on their preys’ blood.

  They are here, watching us.

  Did Emily see them? Why were they just watching? Why hadn’t they attacked?

  “Emily! The hunters are—”

  Jason glanced back and saw to his horror that Emily no longer rode behind. He was alone on the motorcycle. Emily was above him, just ahead, performing elaborate maneuvers. As torrents of water tumbled over her, she shot upwards with a dizzying twisting movement, turning the rain into a spiraling foam. As he watched, she blocked the enemies’ hail of Energy blows and sent waves of her own blue sparks in response. The sky now swarmed with hunters, closing in around Emily. The impressive, intimidating army had been lurking in the dark, waiting to strike a lethal blow.

  But Emily wasn’t easy to intimidate. She moved with quickness and grace, rising higher and rotating in the air like a figure skater. The sparks she threw hypnotized, creating a sight so spellbinding Jason didn’t want to look away.

  Then, when it appeared she’d had enough, she froze, quickly absorbing all the Energy within reach. In the next instant, the air around her exploded like a supernova, and the hunters close to her were blown away.

  When the sky blazed, Jason was brought out of
his daze, and he remembered he was still moving tremendously fast. For a second he felt disoriented, realizing the speed was too high, but he swallowed the panic, steadied his hands, and kept going.

  He figured the incredible light of Emily’s explosion would have been visible within several hundred miles, but there had probably been no witnesses to the splendor, other than the Sighted. The bright light lasted for half a minute at least, then died away, to be replaced by a veil of mauve. The nebula settled over the city, creating a perfect night sky with constellations of tiny stars embedded into it. Emily was an artist; heaven was her canvas.

  It was still raining—though the deluge had dwindled to little more than a drizzle—but when Jason gazed into the sky, he no longer thought it beautiful. The hunters had reappeared: countless black, poisonous dots piercing Emily’s nebula. They approached on all sides, infuriated and thirsty for revenge.

  It was time to get away. The engine roared, but he could go no faster. No matter how hard Jason tried to move away from the swarm of hunters, they were getting ever closer.

  The sound of another engine came from behind, catching his attention. He recognized the purr of Debbie’s VW Beetle, and when he glanced back he saw Matt behind the wheel, Debbie in the passenger seat, and Tyler … standing on the shining hood. His long, fair hair flew in the wind, and his black leather cloak billowed over the roof of the car. He was staring at the sky, at Emily, the pallid skin of his face glowing with the mauve that inundated the night. His light gray eyes had changed, and now they somehow glowed a pale blue, like two opaque pieces of the moon. The mask of Tyler’s face twitched as he stared straight ahead into the distance, his expression changing to one of curiosity. Jason followed his gaze.

  A fork of lightning—followed by a devastating peal of thunder—shook the skies and illuminated something massive standing far in the distance. At the sight of it, the hunters stopped in mid-air, as if an invisible glass dome prevented them from unleashing any further revenge.

  Three silhouettes stood perfectly still in the middle of the dark road ahead of them, visible only when bolts of lightning slashed the skies. Their auras throbbed, radiating a dark, malevolent red that felt thick and powerful even at such a distance. Jason felt instantly sick, as if someone had dealt him a terrible blow to the stomach, and he braked to a stop.