by Tim O'Rourke
As the brothers continued to stare at her, they could see that she was standing in a bleak and barren wasteland. The earth looked dry and arid and was splintered with cracks. The ground was so white and dry, it looked like sand. Far off in the distance, a giant spike, which was silver in colour, jutted up into the sky. It was so tall that the top of the structure was hidden by cloud.
The woman on the other side of the mirror came slowly forward. She yanked on the chain, and the withered man stumbled after her. Jack and Nik instinctively took a step backwards. And although such a beautiful woman would have normally inflamed their desires, and their first thoughts would have been of the fun they might have had with her before killing her, no such thoughts came to their minds. There was something about this woman that they both instinctively feared. It was as if an unimaginable power ebbed and flowed from her. And even though neither of them would have admitted it to themselves nor to each other, she raised the feeling in them that they hadn’t felt in such a long time. That feeling was fear.
The woman raised her free hand as if she was going to knock on the mirror once more. But instead of making a fist to do so, she extended her fingers. The mirror began to ripple as if it wasn’t made of glass, but water. Her outstretched hand passed through the wavering glass, pushing through the mirror and into the room where both Jack and Nik stood and watched in awe. Very slowly, not only did the woman’s hand pass through the mirror, but her arm, then shoulder, until she was no longer standing on the opposite side of the mirror, but in the room.
Once more, she yanked on the chain, and the withered man stumbled through the mirror and into the room behind her.
The woman eyed Jack and Nik up and down. She enjoyed seeing the look of shock and wonder on their faces. Unlike other women who the brothers had butchered and tortured, she was not scared of them. She wasn’t scared one little bit. She knew it was they who were scared of her. She could sense it. She could feel it. She enjoyed it.
Before either brother had a chance to ask who she was and where she had come from, the woman spoke to them.
“Jack and Nik Seth,” she said as a statement rather than a question.
They glanced at each other, then back at her. They simply nodded their heads as if they’d lost the power to speak.
“My name is Araghney and this is my companion, Roc,” she said, pulling on the chain once more, but not looking back at the man who cowered behind her.
As if finding the ability to speak once more, Jack said, “Who are you? Where are you from?”
“I am the witch of the Mirror Realm,” she said, her voice soft, like that of a song.
“And what do you want?” Nik spoke up, the fear he had first felt on seeing the woman on the other side of the mirror now easing just a little.
One corner of the witch’s beautiful mouth curled up into a smile. She looked at the brothers. “Why, I want exactly what you do.”
“And what’s that?” Jack asked, his eyes blazing in the shadow caused by the beak of his baseball cap.
“I want the railway man dead,” Araghney said. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Jack said, standing to his full height, the top of his head brushing against the high ceiling.
“But why do you want him dead?” Nik asked.
“Because he took from me what was rightfully mine,” Araghney said, her smile now fading. “He stole my throne away from me with the help of others. The Mirror Realm was my kingdom and I should have been Queen of it, but Noah, along with the help of some others, stole that chance away from me.”
“What others?” Jack asked, although he sensed he already knew the answer to his own question.
“Your half-sister, Kiera Hudson, for starters,” Araghney said, her once calm and soft voice now brimming with disgust and resentment. “I could name a few others, but I suspect you already know their names.”
“Kiera Hudson is already dead,” Jack said.
“Is she?” Araghney said, a knowing smile spreading across her face. “Are you so sure about that?”
“Kiera and that twat, Potter, got shot up at some point in the future,” Nik started to explain.
“Do you really believe that Kiera Hudson got shot?” Araghney chuckled again. She was mocking them. Neither Jack nor Nik liked it.
“We thought of that,” Jack said, wanting to prove a point. He wanted to show the witch that they had planned for every eventuality. “Kiera and Potter had a son named, Karl. So we sent somebody we trust to the year 2067 to keep close to him should Kiera and Potter not really be dead.”
“And what news does your spy have about Kiera Hudson?” Araghney asked with a sneer.
“We used a portal that’s shaped like a jukebox to push forward in time,” Nik started explain. “But it appears that the jukebox in 2067 is fucked somehow, and we’ve lost contact with the person we have in place there.”
Araghney looked at the two brothers with distaste. “Perhaps you’re not trying hard enough to kill Noah. Perhaps someone is standing in your way?”
“Like who?” Jack asked.
“Your sister?” Araghney said. “You know if you get too close to Noah, Kiera Hudson and her allies will come to his defence. To get at Noah, you have to kill her first.”
“We have no love for Kiera Hudson,” Nik said.
“We have as much dislike and resentment for Kiera Hudson as you do,” Jack assured her. “I tried to get close to my sister, to have some kind of relationship with her, but ultimately, her loyalty had lain with another, and that was Noah. She chose him over us, her two brothers. We owe Kiera Hudson no loyalty, love, or protection.”
“So you want to help us track Noah down and kill him?” Nik asked.
The witch began to chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Nik asked, not liking the idea of being laughed at by a woman—witch or not.
“I’m not going to help you,” Araghney said with a knowing smile. “You’re going to help me.”
“But we already have a plan set in place,” Jack began to explain.
“So why is Noah still alive?” she asked.
“Because he pushes,” Nik said. “He passes between the layers like no one else can. He has a steam train…”
“We tried to spread our allies far and wide,” Jack cut in, not wanting the witch to think they couldn’t cope without her help.
“Well, thankfully for you, you no longer need a train or a jukebox, to push through the layers,” Araghney said. “I have the power and the knowledge to get you exactly where you need to be.”
“And where’s that, exactly?” Nik asked.
Araghney looked at him with her piercing blue eyes. “You said that Kiera Hudson and Potter had a son who was living in the year 2067, so that’s where you should be. You should go there and liaise with your spy and see if you can’t flush Kiera Hudson out of hiding. I bet you all the power in the Mirror Realm that she is still alive.”
“So how do we get there?” Nik asked her.
Araghney turned to face the mirror attached to the wardrobe door. “You need to step into the mirror, of course.” She turned once more to look at Nik, and added, “What are you waiting for?”
Nik glanced at his brother. Jack nodded his head at him as if giving him permission to follow Araghney’s advice—or was that orders?
Nik stepped toward the wardrobe door and the mirror attached to it. Araghney’s companion, Roc, who had remained silent the whole time, suddenly began to snigger.
“What’s so funny?” Nik scowled at him.
“He’s easily amused,” Araghney said, in answer for Roc.
She sensed Nik’s hesitation as he stood before the mirror. He glanced back at her and his brother. “Should I just wait for you in 2067?”
Jack glanced at Araghney as if she now held all the answers.
“Yes,” Araghney said. “We will come for you when the time is right, but first, your brother Jack and I have a journey of our own to make.”
/> Then, reaching out with one long, slender hand, she ushered Nik toward the mirror. The glass surface began to ripple once more as Nik stepped into it.
Jack watched his brother disappear. He stared into the mirror, wondering whether he might see him on the other side. But all he could see was darkness. He shot a look at Araghney and said, “How do we know that we can trust you?”
Araghney offered him her free hand. Jack looked down at it then at her. “I promise, I don’t bite.” She smiled up at him.
“No, but I do,” Jack said. “And if you’re tricking me and my brother in some way, despite the power you think you might have, I won’t think twice before ripping your fucking heart out.”
Araghney shrugged and smiled. “Then it’s a good job I’m a heartless bitch—or should that be witch?”
Reaching out once more, she closed her cool, slender fingers around Jack’s bony hand. “Look into the mirror, Jack, and you will see that you can trust me.”
Holding her hand, Jack strode forward and stood before the mirror. He stooped forward at the waist so he could peer at his deformed reflection. But it wasn’t the wrinkled face of the old, emaciated man he had become staring back at him, but that of a young man in his mid-twenties. He was finally coming face-to-face with the man that he should be.
“I promise you, Jack,” Araghney said, “if you follow me, and do as I say, you will become the beautiful young man you really are—the man who hides beneath your emaciated frame which has been created because of the hate and anger that you feel. But once our enemy is dead, you’ll have no reason to hate any longer. And your youthfulness and beauty will return once more.”
Still holding his hand, she led him toward the mirror, Roc close behind them. As Araghney was about to pull Jack through the rippling surface, he said, “Where are you taking me?”
Half in and out of the mirror, Araghney looked back at him. “We’re travelling forward to 1985.”
“Why? What’s there?”
“A prisoner, who we need to set free,” Araghney said.
“Why do we need to set this prisoner free?”
“So she can help us hunt down Noah.”
“Why would she want to hunt Noah down?” Jack asked.
“Because Noah stole her baby from her,” Araghney replied.
“Who was this baby?”
A playful smile formed across Araghney’s lips. “The young woman who just escaped out of the window with Noah.”
Hearing this, Jack smiled, too. “Does that young woman know that Noah snatched her from her mother?”
“Not yet,” Araghney said. “But when she does discover his treachery, she will want Noah dead as much as we do.”
Chapter Ten
The year 1985
Carol looked into the face of the dark-skinned man. He placed his cold fingers around her wrists and gripped tightly. She resisted, pulling away from him.
Leaning in close to Carol, his breath ice-cold, Noah whispered into her ear and said, “Your choice is simple, you stay here in this alleyway and explain to the approaching police officers what you’re doing here with these known drug dealers, who have now seemingly lost their minds, and face arrest, or you can come with me.”
“But why would I want to come with you?” Carol said, trying once more to pull away from him. His grip was vice-like. She couldn’t break free. And although the man had a kind face, his eyes were so dark that she feared him. It was as if his eyes had seen and witnessed too much darkness and it had somehow poisoned him.
Noah glanced down the alleyway in the direction of the approaching cops. He then looked back at Carol. “And how will you explain away what happened to those men? Perhaps the police officers will think that it was you who attacked them, desperate for your next fix.”
“I’ll tell them the truth,” Carol said. “I’ll tell them the young man named Jake Stranger attacked them.”
Noah narrowed his dark eyes at her. “And how did he do that, exactly?”
And however absurd it might have sounded, Carol said, “He used magic on them. I saw streams of blue light come from his fingertips—”
“And therein lies the problem,” Noah cut in. “You’ve seen too much, and therefore, you might say too much.”
Then, closing his brittle fingers around Carol’s wrists to the point of crushing, he dragged her with him into the shadows.
She screamed, but before the sound of her scream cleared her throat and alerted the approaching police officers, Carol was no longer in the alleyway, but standing in what appeared to be some kind of ancient cellblock.
The strange railway man was no longer gripping her by the wrists, but standing in the open doorway of a cell. Carol glanced back, hoping she might see the alleyway, but where it had once been now stood a grey stone wall. She turned to face the railway man once more. She thought that perhaps she had been mistaken and that he was wearing a police uniform after all. Why else had he brought her to the strange police station?
“Are you some kind of cop?” she asked, her chest feeling tight, heart racing.
Noah pushed the cap to the back of his head. He looked at her and smiled. “No, I’m not a cop.”
“Then who are you?” Carol asked. Then, thinking of Jake Stranger and the streams of light she believed she had seen oozing from his fingers, she quickly added, “What are you? Are you like that other guy, Jake Stranger—the guy who saved me?”
Noah took a step forward, closer to Carol. He appraised her with his jet-black eyes. “Are you so sure that Jake Stranger saved you? Perhaps what you meant to say was that Jake Stranger cursed you, just like he cursed those three men in the alleyway we’ve just come from.”
Beginning to feel really freaked out now, Carol stepped away from the odd railway man until her back was pressed against the cellblock wall. She glanced to her right, searching for a way of escape. All she could see was a stone passageway which led into more darkness.
She looked back at Noah and said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t understand where I am, or any of this.”
There was a part of Carol that had begun to wonder whether perhaps she was on some kind of bad trip and that the drugs she had scored before heading into the bar, where she had met Jake Stranger, had fried her brains.
As if being able to read her mind, Noah rubbed his bony hands together and chuckled. “No, Carol, this is not a bad trip that you’re coming down from. All of this is very real.”
“How do you know my name?” she asked, as if this fact was the most important thing. She suddenly found it hard to focus.
“I know your name, because I know you,” Noah said, edging closer and closer toward her. When he was just an inch away, he added, “But more importantly, Carol, I know what happens to you. I know how it ends. I know what the layers have planned for you.”
Carol shook her head, the whole situation she now found herself in becoming more and more bizarre with every passing moment. She was now convinced that none of this was real, and that she was, in fact, tripping. “What are you talking about? What happens to me?”
“This,” Noah said, his lips stretching into a wide grin to reveal a mouthful of jagged teeth.
Thrusting his head forward, he sunk his fangs into the side of Carol’s neck.
Chapter Eleven
The year 2067
Annora Snow followed Kiera and Potter along the narrow passageway set into the mountainside. Water sloshed about her feet from where rain had run down the side of the rock walls. It reminded her of a school trip she had attended as a child and had been taken caving by her teachers. But whereas then they had used flashlights to illuminate their way, no such thing was needed here. Attached to the craggy walls were a series of lanterns that glowed warmly in the gloom. The passageway veered left then right, and it wasn’t long before Annora felt completely disorientated. She glanced back over her shoulder and could no longer see the opening she had stepped through.
After some time, Kiera and Pot
ter led Annora out into a wide, circular chamber below ground. And just like the passageway, the underground cavern was lit by lanterns. The room was chilly, despite the three bar electric fire that glowed red in one corner. As Annora took in her surroundings, she could see an old cooker leaning against one wall. Alongside it was a sink that had been plumbed into the rocky walls. There was little furniture, but in the dim light from the lanterns, she could see that there was a large armchair. The fabric had been ripped along one arm and had been sealed shut with masking tape. There was a sofa that looked just as tattered as the chair. A bookcase leant against one wall, and it was full of leather-bound and dog-eared books. It appeared that Kiera and Potter had somehow tried to make this look like a home. But what Annora couldn’t understand was why the underground cavern was decorated with items that looked as if they had come from the early 20th Century rather than the year 2067.
As she stepped deeper into the room, she could see three other passageways leading from the cavern. She wondered where they led to. Perhaps the bathroom? Bedrooms? Kiera and Potter had to sleep somewhere, didn’t they? She glanced up at the cathedral-like ceiling and wondered if perhaps Kiera and Potter slept hanging upside down from above, just like the vampires had in the movie The Lost Boys. After all, Annora had no real idea how these bat-like creatures really lived.
“Park your arse in the armchair,” Potter said, gesturing toward it.
Still clutching the umbrella to her, Annora crossed the cavern and sat down. She perched on the edge of the seat, not yet wanting to make herself too comfortable. She still didn’t know for sure whether to trust Kiera and Potter and might yet still need to make her escape.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” Kiera asked, filling a saucepan full of water and setting it down onto the stove.