Days of Fury

by B. J. Castillo

  Then she remembered what Tadhg had told her at the precise moment when he handed it to her. Indeed; during the self-defense lessons her father had insisted on taking her to a makeshift shooting camp. She had been fearful, but after the first dozen shots, she began to feel more agreeable and had the gun in her hands. Her father had not been able to hide his surprise at the accuracy of her shots: most had almost hit the target. How did Tadhg know that she had learned to shoot a weapon? She wondered, how much more did she know about her? How long had he been spying on her, if that was the case?

  Maybe he had been right all this time and, after all, he did come from the future.

  There was an explosion, and Evelyn jumped, drowned a scream, and covered her mouth with her hands, dropping the weapon to the floor. It made a dull sound, which startled her even more. Again silence. She crawled to the door and pressed her ear to try to hear something else. There was another outburst and she went away at the murmur; she took the weapon with trembling hands and tried, by slow breathing, to calm her distress.

  In addition to another pair of bursts, which were like light explosions of some tearful bomb or a slow hiss, she also heard blows. If she believed what she was hearing, then that meant that Tadhg was facing someone, or something, in the hallway near the stairs or in the hallway to the kitchen. She deduced that the first explosion had not been that in itself, but an explosion. The bursting of the door when being knocked down.

  She heard more detonations; they were not bullets, but rather like... lasers. What the hell was happening? It was a dream? If that was the case, Evelyn wanted to wake up. Someone was panting and cursing, and associated that with Tadhg's voice. A rumble. A catastrophe. Disaster. Something, loudly inhuman, screamed and fainted.

  And then, nothing.

  The silence was dense; then, brittle, and finally unbearable. She stood up. Her legs, hands and lips trembled, and it was not because of the cold, which clearly prevailed in the bathroom. She inhaled and exhaled deeply.

  “Evelyn.”

  She was startled... until he recognized Tadhg's voice.

  “You're good?”

  “Yes,” he stammered.

  An instant of silence.

  “Open, Evelyn.” There was a certain lack of cadence in that voice, a tone too monotonous. The hand that held the gun began to shake Eve. “Open the door, Evelyn.”

  "Remember, I'll give three touches," Tadhg had said.

  A thump was slammed against the door, and she reacted by leaping backwards.

  “That was not Tadhg.”

  “Open, Evelyn!” He cried.

  “Do not!”

  She lifted the device, trying to control her frantic pulse, and pointed toward the door. She did not know what effect that weapon would have, perhaps death, and he would have to carry the rest of her life with it if that was the case. Her heart was beating very fast and her lips were dry and his eyes were wet with tears.

  "Evelyn," said the voice as a warning.

  After a long and icy silence, a knock came through the door. A fist pierced the wood. Then, a bright black and blue face watched her through the hole. She got scared. She heard a laugh. The face disappeared. Then, suddenly, and accompanied by a shrill sound, the door burst open. She screamed.

  A cloud of smoke entered the bathroom, gray and black, and Evelyn began to cough. The shadow of something came out of nowhere and suddenly it was there inside. She froze at the sight of what it was. It was unpleasant she had not seen anything like that before. She seemed to smile at him, but she was not sure. Its head was black and shiny as ceramic, oval; he had no eyes and hardly a mouth. He was a tall being, almost had to bend down to pass through the door, and as thin as an asparagus. He extended one of his hands to her; his fingers were long and sharp like sharp broken glass. Evelyn reacted.

  And shot.

  The sound that continued her reaction was chilling. Eve stayed as stiff as a statue. The weapon, when activated, had emitted a violet laser that hit the chest of the fearsome creature. It staggered back a moment. The other was petrified.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “You're good?” Asked Tadhg, who appeared next in the doorway, holding both hands against the doorframe. He looked exalted, his breathing proved it. His face was beaded with sweat and a bleeding wound on his eyebrow, very slight. He glanced at the creature, then at Evelyn, at the creature, and then fixed on it again. “Well done, Fury,” he added with a smile.

  “W-What is that?” She stammered, as if she did not already know the answer.

  It was evident that it was not of that world.

  “Come on, I'll tell you later.” Tadhg motioned for her to approach him, and she obeyed. Tadhg took the weapon from her trembling hands and guided her to the door of her room. “We have to get you out of here before more of them arrive.”

  Evelyn frowned.

  “We have?”

  “Yes. My sister waits in a van to get us out of here.”

  “Where will we go?” She asked, too agitated.

  Tadhg took her by the shoulders and stared at her.

  “To the Agency,” he said. “There you will be safe.”

  “And will you leave that here?” She pointed a finger at the immobilized creature.

  Tadhg shook his head.

  “Of course not,” he said in a tone that suggested she had offended him. “Who do you take me for? Go to your room, change those clothes and get off immediately, while I take care of the pyxi. Outside, Rhys is waiting to get us out of here.”

  Evelyn guessed that Rhys was his sister. She nodded.

  She went to her room, took off her nightclothes, and dressed in another change: jeans, a black blouse of coarse cloth, a sweater of the same color, and sneakers. She thought maybe she should take some changes, but rejected the idea. There was no time, and they could arrive at any time. She picked up her dark brown hair in a ponytail and left the room.

  Once below, the chaotic vision hit her eyes. The gray smoke cloud was dissipating through the door, which was open, and she saw two of those scattered creatures: one on the ground at one side of the stairs, and another on the steps. The walls were torn, split by the sharp fingers of the creature, and the glass of the door, that was demolished, was broken and scattered by the ground.

  Evelyn made a move to the other rooms when she heard footsteps coming down the thin staircase. Tadhg appeared with a rock in his hand and offered it to her. She took it almost without realizing it. It seemed obsidian; it was cold and its texture was sharp.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Tadhg glanced at the elongated creature on the stairs and grinned.

  “It's not possible!” Exclaimed Evelyn, and looked back at the subject. “How…?”

  “Professor Kerr says it's his original state," said Tadhg. “I do not agree, and since the law of the agency forbids to reveal certain things of the future, I have had to restrain myself from telling the truth. He approached one of the creatures and pointed a small pistol, the same one that had seen him before. He shot the dead body.

  Eve started. The black stone fell from her hand and hit the ground. The light emitted by the weapon was very bright, almost blinding. She had to cover her eyes with the back of her arm to avoid the incandescent glow. When it stopped, instead of a creature there was only a black, shiny rock, the size of a golf ball, on one of the steps.

  Before doing the same with the next pyxi, Tadhg looked at Evelyn sideways and pointed to the door.

  “Go outside,” he ordered sharply, like a scolding.

  She raised the tooth of the sweater and left.

  The black van —the same one that Evelyn had first seen that night while Tadhg deliberately made her way inside the house— was parked at the other end of the street, with the lights on and ready to go. She also noticed that the windows were still up; the glass was black and impenetrable to the eye.

  Eve climbed into one of the back seats. The interior of the car was f
rozen; it smelled of leather and vanilla. There was someone in the driver's seat, of course. For a moment she thought that Tadhg's sister had not noticed her presence, until she noticed the glass in the mirror. She was staring at her, her eyes were coppery like a pair of bright amethysts. The instant of meeting their eyes lasted almost half a minute, limited only to the small mirror.

  “I cannot believe it's you,” she heard her murmur.

  Evelyn frowned.

  “What?”

  Rhys turned to her sideways and smiled at her. She almost felt safe before the overwhelming look that that girl was throwing at him. Although Eve did not think she was a girl her age; maybe she was twenty or a little older, clearly older than her and younger than Tadhg.

  “My name is Rhys,” she said as she held out her hand to Eve.

  Eve shook it and smiled too, barely a hint.

  “My name…”

  “I know who you are,” Rhys interrupted. “I know perfectly who you are. But my brother and I are forbidden to talk about it; that’s how the TAF Laws are. You know we're coming from the future, right?”

  Eve nodded.

  “Good,” Rhys continued. “It's all we can say for now. Do not be overwhelmed. We will have plenty of time to talk, although with certain limitations.” She spoke a little fast as if she was nervous. “When you get to the Agency you will know everyone; they wait anxiously for you. I…”

  The copilot door opened.

  “It's ready," Tadhg gasped; he glanced at Rhys and then at Evelyn, and closed the door. “What were you talking about?”

  Rhys looked at Evelyn and winked.

  “Nothing.”

  Tadhg did not seem convinced, but was satisfied.

  “In that case,” he said urgently, “start the car —we must go now.”

  * * *

  It was past midnight when they left the Brooklyn Bridge behind.

  Evelyn was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, though she did her best to keep the two strangers from noticing. She asked several times —six— where they were going. Tadhg and his sister had simply answered the same answer over and over again.

  “To the Agency,” Rhys answered a seventh time. “It's in the Midtown, you'll see.”

  Eve soon found out that Rhys was more sensitive than her brother, although she noticed that she was losing patience every time she asked about the final destination of that adventure. Tadhg had been silent all the time, tense, and looking straight ahead, very serious. They passed through Chinatown and left Bowery Avenue. Eve gave a deep snort. Suddenly a lot of compunctions and charges of conscience came to mind.

  “What will my father think when he sees how our house has been?” She murmured softly.

  “He will think the worst,” said Tadhg, stiff and inflexible. He did not watch her.

  “And what will happen if those creatures come back and attack him?”

  “They will not,” Tadhg assured her. “They do not seek your father, but you —it’s too late for him to die.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Tadhg snorted.

  “The only reason why the pyxis wanted to kill your father,” he said dryly, “would be to avoid your birth. You are here. The pyxis would not waste their time killing...”

  “And should I settle for that?”

  Tadhg shrugged.

  “Nothing will happen to him, Evelyn,” Rhys agreed with a smile. She was watching her with her dark eyes through the mirror, as before; she tried to calm her down.

  However, Evelyn could not remain calm; there were no words that could calm her impatience and fear.

  “Would you explain what these things were?” She inquired as calmly as she could.

  The brothers exchanged a look.

  “The Pyxi are beings from another dimension,” Tadhg began. He turned a moment to Eve, watched her with those stunning blue eyes that seemed to pierce the shadows, and ran his hand through his hair, exasperated. “I should not explain this to you now, until we get to the Agency. But you are so insistent...”

  “Yes. I am,” Eve said. “I'm on my right. I hardly know you. Maybe both are serial killers and this is part of a macabre game for you, a kind of fetish as a prelude to my bloody death.”

  But deep down, she knew it was not like that.

  Rhys chuckled from the driver's seat.

  “You have always been the same, have not you?” She heard her say. It was a rhetorical question.

  “You were there,” Tadhg spoke firmly. “You saw those creatures, one of them almost killed you. You want to know what the Pyxis are, and I'll tell you. But just that. You will have more details when we arrive at the Agency. Now listen…”

  Tadhg explained that the pyxis were beings from another dimension; that some madman invited them to enter that dimension without foreseeing the chaos that they would cause; that there were at least a dozen races of those beings, each with a different corporeal form or some gift they used against their main enemies: humans. He said that the purpose of the pyxis was to destroy humanity and take over the world. He argue that the future was immensely chaotic, that most of the nations of the world had been depopulated and others were at war.

  “TAF, Future Agency, was created with the purpose of stopping the previous events of the Great Catastrophe.” Tadhg finished, at the moment Rhys was tending the car towards Park Avenue. “There are three events that determined the end of civilization and the beginning of a new one, and I will explain what each one of these events is about once we are the Agency.”

  “Why do not they use the machine that brought them from the future to take them to the moment when the portal was opened?” Eve asked.

  "We do not know who or when the first Apex was opened," Rhys said. “So we can only act on the facts framed in history.”

  “Besides, it's not that easy,” Tadhg added.

  “And you?” Eve snapped unexpectedly.

  After a long silence, Tadhg turned to her.

  “What do you want to know about us?” he asked.

  Eve shrugged.

  “I do not know,” she said. “I mean, rather, how did they become agents of the future? Do you have family... in the future?”

  Tadhg glanced at his sister.

  “That's part of the information we cannot share now,” Tadhg pointed out mechanically, sighed and looked straight ahead. “But yes. Rhys and I have family in the future, and also here, in the past. We choose to be agents of the future because...”

  Suddenly he stopped. Something rammed the truck's defenses. Evelyn was pushed forward; maybe she would have gone through the glass if she did not wear a seatbelt. The cars buzzed from side to side. Rhys was forced to tilt the truck toward Madison Avenue, but, later, they were rammed again.

  “Are they!” Tadhg roared, tending the body back to look.

  Evelyn also took a look. A metal porch went after them, with the front already defended because to the thrusts. Evelyn could not distinguish the driver; the mirrors were dark and polarized. Rhys pressed the accelerator —and as soon as the car started, it stopped. Again, Eve was pushed forward. Times Square flashed its intense luminosity on her and the agents of the future. A group of passersby crossed the avenue. New York never slept.

  “We must go down,” cried Tadhg. “Now!”

  Said and done; they got out of the car with haste and mixed with the tide of people. Evelyn almost lost sight of the brothers. Someone took her by the wrist while following the flow to Broadway. Rhys pulled on her. The noise, the lights and the smells were suffocating. She felt extremely exhausted. The world was spinning around her. She tripped on something on the ground and, on the verge of stumbling, came to herself.

  The route was eternal and tiresome, they had to separate and zigzag through the avenues of the center to lose track of their pursuers. Rhys had a record hugging friendship with a young New Yorker with traits similar to those of her brother and was lost among the people who were going to the Sixth
Avenue. Tadhg and Evelyn continued in the opposite direction. They made stops at Macy's and at one or another shopping center, before reaching the fifth avenue.

  “You're good?” Tadhg asked her very naturally, as if the new life was part of their common day, something usual. Eve, on the other hand, was exhausted and sweating cold on her forehead and other places where she did not want to think at that moment. She sighed deeply.

  “Yes. Very good.”

  She was blushing. Her condition seemed to give Tadhg great pleasure, because he smiled. He was as attractive and unattainable as a dream, which would gladly be another deep sigh.

  “Well,” he said. “Because we're here.”

  “Where is the Agency?” Evelyn asked, shaking her head from side to side, expecting to see some marquee that would say Future Agency with striking golden lights on a tall building. Tadhg smiled again and pointed to the place. She was confused. “The Public Library? Really?”

  “Why not?” Tadhg seemed really funny with her reaction.

  She swallowed hard and a little more air.

  "No, I did not mean..." She sighed. “Well, it was not what I expected.”

  “And what did you expect?” He asked as they crossed the street. “A sign saying Future Agency about a building the size of the Empire State Building?”

  Eve was about to nod.

  “Do not.”

  Tadhg pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, looked at the time on his watch and then at the library.

  “Do you come with me?”

  Eve raised an eyebrow.

  “I have another option?”

  “I'm afraid not.” He made a move to climb the steps to the building.

  -Wait!”

  “Tadhg stopped and watched her closely.

  “It's closed,” she said loudly. “Look.”

  “Evelyn,” said Tadhg. “How is it possible that you think it is closed? The Public Library is always open.”

  “Is that…”

  Tadhg snorted. Goodbye to his patience; he frowned and, stooping, continued climbing the steps.

  With nothing else to do, Evelyn followed him.

  Once up, in the shadow of the door of the New York Public Library, Tadhg raised his fist, put his wristwatch to his face and said: