by Cege Smith
"I need to find Max Turner. Tell me where he is, Mikel." The pressure in the room was starting to build again. Ellie sensed that her time, or rather Mikel's, was growing short. "You have the opportunity to do something good. If you really cared about me at all, as you said you did, you will help me."
Mikel was next to her so fast that Ellie didn't even see him move. His hand bit into the fleshy part of her upper arm as he dragged her up to her feet. "You dare to throw my affection for you in my face? Don’t you think you used that little leverage to your benefit already? Look around, Ellie. You put me here. I’d think you’d be quite happy with yourself and what you’ve already accomplished."
His eyes flashed a dark violent blue hue, and Ellie thought that she was finally seeing a crack in Mikel's cool exterior. It made her feel dirty using the tack that she was, but she was desperate.
She softened her face and forced herself to relax. "You said it yourself, Mikel. I'm in danger. I need to know everything I can to stay a step ahead of whoever may try to threaten me. It’s called self-preservation, and from everything you’ve done, I know you’re a fan of it."
Mikel's grip on her arm gave ever so slightly. "Why Max Turner?"
"Nobody else knows as much about the waypoints as he does, which means he can tell me how to use the waypoint and my connection to it to protect myself." Ellie had no idea where the words came from, but they had a disturbing ring of truth to them. She didn’t want Mikel to know of her interest in the Bradford waypoint in particular.
"Here I thought you were going to ask him about your parents," Mikel said softly.
Ellie realized that Mikel was seeing much more into her thinking than she wanted him to and cursed.
Mikel chuckled, "I've been watching you, Ellie Coulter, observing you. Seeing how you behave as you go about your daily business and your life. I probably know you better than you know yourself. You want to find Max Turner so that you can escape this place with your precious David, but I’m going to guess not before you figure out how you were already connected to the Afterlife."
"You don't know what you are talking about," Ellie said.
"Don't I?" Mikel moved disturbingly close and Ellie could feel the heat rolling off his skin. In the already sweltering heat, his closeness was making her dizzy. "What if I told you that I could tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your parents and where they came from?"
"I'd say you were lying," Ellie hissed. She tried to pull away, but Mikel held her arm fast.
"Are you willing to risk it?" Mikel's eyes searched hers. "Are you willing to leave this place empty-handed? You've come all this way and risked much being here. That seems foolish."
"What do you want in return?" Ellie said tearing her eyes away from his. She hated to admit that he was right. If Mikel had any real information about her parents, she wanted to know it. She needed to know it.
If she hadn't seen the crayon colored pictures on the wall of her childhood bedroom with the man with the flame colored hair in almost every one of them, she would have been certain that Mikel was lying about her parents. But there was just enough of the truth in his words that she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that he knew something that could help her answer those questions.
"I’ve already told you what I wanted," Mikel said with a wry grin.
It took Ellie a moment to remember his request. "You can't just waltz out of here! Besides, where would you go?"
"I would go wherever you go," Mikel said. "You asked for my help, and I'm giving it to you."
"I didn't ask for you to help me directly," Ellie sputtered.
"Those are the terms of condition if you want any information from me." Mikel finally dropped her arm, and Ellie rubbed where the feel of his fingers still burned on her upper arm. He crossed his arms and stood there waiting.
Then a low rumbling reached Ellie’s ears and her head whipped around trying to make out what direction it was coming from. “What was that?” she whispered.
Mikel’s face darkened. “I believe I mentioned that the cat doesn’t let the mouse rest for long. At the moment it is having too much fun at my expense. You’d better make your decision quickly. In case it wasn’t overtly obvious, I can’t guarantee the state I will be if you decide to try your luck in returning here another time. In fact, I can’t guarantee that I will be here at all.”
“You’re just saying that so that I will feel pressured to help you. I don’t even know how to help you.” It felt like there was a heavy weight on Ellie’s chest making it difficult for her to breath. Lucy’s protection spell seemed to have some flaws.
“Lucy is close by, I’m assuming?” Mikel looked over her shoulder. Ellie nodded reluctantly. “How was she getting you out of here?”
“That part is a little bit fuzzy,” Ellie admitted. Her mouth wanted to clamp shut, but a drawn out growl coming from the shadows made the words tumble out of her mouth. “It had to do with my blood. I swear she’s taken enough of it to brew up a spell to move an entire village around the Afterlife.”
“That’s what I was hoping,” Mikel said, grabbing Ellie’s hand. “Now what I need you to do is play along for a couple of minutes.”
“Why?”
Mikel pointed down toward their feet, and Ellie gasped. A winding chain of glowing red metal was wrapped around Mikel’s left foot. Her eyes followed it across the floor and into the swirling grey darkness where it disappeared, but then she saw that it re-emerged further up the machine and stretched through multiple cogs and pulleys. There were hooks of various shapes and sizes all along the way, and Ellie’s mind suddenly envisioned a body being pulled through all the various contraptions.
“It hurts much worse than you could ever imagine,” Mikel said answering Ellie’s unspoken question. His voice was so low that Ellie barely heard it.
“What is it that you want me to do?” Ellie stammered. She couldn’t imagine putting a creature through that kind of torment, even Mikel.
“I don’t suppose you have any more of that magical blood lying about, do you?” Mikel was looking at her shirt where Lucy had cut Ellie’s side.
She felt at the edges. “It’s dry. The wound healed quickly.” She had a very bad feeling about what Mikel was going to propose next.
“Eyes on me, Ellie,” Mikel said. His voice had taken on that of a snake charmer, and she felt compelled to look at him. “This isn’t going to be pleasant for you, but it’s necessary. Remember that as soon as I’m free, I’ll help you find out what you want to know.” He took her hand in his.
“What are you going to do?” Ellie tried to pull her hand away, but Mikel held it tight. He pulled her down into a crouch even as the nearby growl grew louder.
“There’s no time to be delicate about this. Trust me. I will help you, and I’m not going to hurt you. But I need to get rid of this chain in order to get out of here.”
Before Ellie could protest again, and just as the roar seemed to shatter the darkness, Mikel bit down deep into the flesh of her palm, and Ellie couldn’t help but cry out. There was a stinging pang of intense pain as his sharp incisors ripped a gash into her skin. Then Mikel thrust her hand down onto the chain saying a few words under his breath.
Her vulnerable bleeding wound met scalding hot metal and Ellie almost passed out from the electric shot of blinding white pain that ran straight up her arm. She barely had time to note the liquid from her hand melting through the chain before Mikel swept her up into his arms and yanked at the shackle, which promptly fell away.
He strode to the door, and Ellie tried to concentrate on what was supposed to happen next, but then she saw over Mikel’s shoulder the huge blood red eyes emerge from the darkness. They latched onto hers. The monster had arrived.
“Now, Ellie! Call to Lucy!” Mikel whispered urgently in her ear.
“Get me out of here, Lucy!” Ellie cried out as loud as she could. Mikel’s arms tightened around her. The looming ugly visage of the monster bound toward them, and just as Ell
ie saw a taloned claw swat at them, the edges of the room started to bend, and a familiar white light surrounded both of them.
Moments later, as the landing of the mansion’s third floor came into focus, Mikel collapsed onto the floor. Ellie’s limbs went flying, and she heard Lucy’s squeal of surprise. Then Ellie sat up and found Mikel lying next to her smiling.
Lucy loomed over them with her hands on her hips, a look of displeasure and anger on her face. “Well, that’s just great, Ellie. Now you’ve done it.”
Ellie fell onto her back and sighed.
CHAPTER NINE
“You knew Ellie’s parents?” The idea, which at first seemed so far-fetched, made several details fall into place in David’s mind. Then it seemed so obvious that David wondered why he hadn’t realized it before that moment.
“Yes,” Braz nodded. “What I didn’t know until it was much too late was that they had become romantically involved.”
“And that’s bad because…”
“Romantic entanglements are not encouraged in the Afterlife,” Braz said, casting his eyes back toward the darkening sky. “And they are not permitted at all between those of different sectors here. The number of people who even are allowed to speak to others outside of our boundaries is minuscule. Only those in positions of authority that govern the sectors, and those that travel between them have that ability.”
“People like the transports.”
“Yes. As I’ve told you, David, the balance here is carefully held in place, and even the slightest wavering one way or another could throw all of that off. Engaging in the very human emotion of affection or love adds a wild card into the mix. It calls into question one’s loyalty to their assigned sector.”
“So what happened?” It sounded like a fairy tale, but David knew that it had an unhappy ending.
“Garrett and Milla found a loophole, one they never revealed to me, and escaped to the Other Side. There they hid within the confines of a magical spell designed to keep the eyes of the Afterlife away from them. They married and had a daughter and started to age. Everything was perfect.”
“Then they had the car accident and died,” David said.
A shadow fell over Braz’s face. “That was the official explanation. But I knew that the inevitable had happened. What they did was unforgivable here, and justice was carried out for their crime.”
David felt his jaw tighten. “That left Ellie an orphan. It messed up the rest of her life.”
“I did what I could do for her when I found out that Garrett and Milla were gone,” Braz said as he studied his hands. “I knew Elizabeth was special. With parents like Garrett and Milla, it was a given. I recast the protection spell around her and then released one of the dormant gifts that I found lying in wait inside of her.”
The night that Mikel bartered with Ellie for their freedom, she revealed to David that she was able to see people’s auras. It was a skill she said had surfaced after her parents’ death. Everything about Ellie’s life was being tied up into a neat bow, but it all seemed too convenient for David’s taste.
“So was it Mikel that killed her parents?” Anger swelled in David’s chest, and he bounded to his feet and began to pace on the sidewalk in front of the stoop.
“I don’t know,” Braz said, finally looking at David. He stood as well and made his way to the bottom step. “But I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
Braz leaned against one side of the stoop. “There’s a lot more to Mikel’s story that we don’t have time for right now. He is a self-serving bastard, no doubt, but he was once a man. As such, he carries the same baggage that we all do from our previous lives. At the moment, Elizabeth intrigues him, and he sees use for her, just as he did her mother.”
David paled. “What do you mean?”
Suddenly Braz stood up straight and cocked an ear to the air. His face went slack and then his expression changed to one of anger. “Dammit!” he hissed. “We don’t have any more time, David. I need to know, will you protect Elizabeth Coulter to the point of sacrificing your own life?”
“You know I will. What’s going on, Braz?”
Braz’s face darkened. “Things are already shifting out of control. I have been summoned.” He pointed down the dark street. “Building 1582. Find Lila. Tell her that I am ordering her to take you to the Bradford Waypoint without delay and to keep that information to herself. Tell her that I will explain everything to her later. Keep a low profile here and try not to speak to anyone along the way. Do you understand?”
Dazed, David repeated. “Building 1582. Lila. Stay out of the way.”
“Good,” Braz said tersely. Then he whirled around.
“But Braz, what’s going to happen once they find out I’m gone?”
“Find your girl, David. Then follow your heart, and maybe you’ll get lucky enough to find a way out of this mess that doesn’t bring the entire Afterlife to its knees.” Then Braz was gone.
As the door slammed shut with a boom, David considered for a moment going after Braz and demanding that he explain what he meant about Mikel’s involvement with Ellie’s mother. But as a siren started to blare, he thought better of it. Everything that Braz had told him confirmed that Ellie needed him. The sooner he found his way to her the better.
Feeling conspicuous out in the open, David ducked into the alleyway of the building across the street. He stared at the front façade and wondered if they all looked the same on the inside. He thought not. He couldn’t see a number or anything on it to indicate an address or location. Finding Building 1582 could prove to be more difficult than he realized.
David heard footsteps and he pulled back into the shadows as he saw a stream of people suddenly appear and make their way up the stairs and into the building that Braz had just entered, and he had so recently exited. His absence would soon be discovered. He wondered if Braz was going to get into trouble, but he knew that he couldn’t focus on Braz. Braz could take care of himself. David needed to find a way to find Lila.
David slipped back and turned to follow the alley to the other end. He emerged onto a street that looked exactly like the one before it. A sense of dread came over him. He looked up and down the street. He saw a few people walking in and out of buildings. He thought for a moment about approaching one of them to ask for directions, but remembered Braz’s warning to lay low. Plus he figured most people in Purgatory would find someone asking for directions suspicious.
It wasn’t until that moment that David realized he had no idea what Lila looked like. The only thing he knew for certain was that she was the Purgatory representative on the transports. He knew nothing else about her, which certainly was going to make the task at hand much more difficult.
David pulled the windbreaker that Braz had given him closer around his shoulders and ducked his chin into the collar, keeping his eyes downcast as he stepped onto the sidewalk. The daylight was growing dimmer by the minute, and it didn’t appear that things like streetlights existed in Purgatory. The wind picked up and ruffled his hair as it whipped past him, causing him to draw in a deep breath. He was fairly certain that he had spent a period of time in Hell as Mikel’s “guest” and so saw the irony in the extremes of his environments.
He needed to put distance between himself and the building where he had been held captive. He felt anxious knowing that he was losing himself in a giant unknown maze. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat and sped up his pace.
As the final rays of light seemed to choke out of air, David looked up and his eyes widened. He didn’t slow down for fear of appearing obvious, especially as he noticed there were a few people sitting on the stoop of the building he was passing, but he saw numbers “4332” glowing on the building above their heads.
His nod to the group was almost non-existent, but as he felt the eyes pass over him, he felt it necessary to at least acknowledge them. Then he moved on. David raised his head slightly as soon as he was out of earshot. Sure enough, each of the buil
dings had a bright glowing number above the door. The space between the buildings was deep and black, and David could barely see his feet hitting the pavement, but the numbers gave off enough light to guide him forward in the ensuing darkness.
Braz would have known that David would be able to make his way through the maze with the illuminated numbers at night, and he would be less noticeable if he kept to the shadows. It had likely been the man’s plan all along, and David had to shake his head in admiration. But that quickly turned to suspicion.
Why was Braz helping him now? Were his intentions really that honorable? David had nothing but Braz’s word to go on, and his story about knowing Ellie’s parents brought up as many questions as it answered. There was still a lot that he didn’t know about the story, and David wondered if Ellie had any idea that her parents came from the Afterlife. He didn’t want to be the one to tell her that her parents came from the two opposing sections of Heaven and Hell. It all seemed to fantastical to be real.
As David trudged from building to building, he had to come to grips with the fact that his life was nothing short of fantastical as well. Braz seemed to believe him that his purpose was to help Ellie, and so that is what David would do. Plus escaping Lillian’s clutches was a welcome bonus. David was done with being under Lillian’s thumb and being a pawn in someone else’s game. He hoped that by accepting Braz’s help in getting out of Purgatory, he wasn’t making an even bigger mistake.
Deciding those thoughts weren’t helpful; David hurried from building to building. He was relieved to see that the numbers were gradually decreasing. Following a hunch, at “4320” David ducked into the alley and cut across to the next street over. As he suspected, he found himself coming up on the backside of “3320”. He needed to course correct.
David was crossing the street and heading into the next alley when he heard voices approaching him. Swearing, David dug his chin into his chest and stayed tight to the wall. He didn’t look up as he heard the voices get closer. Two distinct voices were evident: a high-pitched female voice, and a low tenor that told him a male accompanied the woman. It sounded as if they were arguing.