Dark Winter: Trilogy

by Hennessy, John

  I didn’t buy it. This could be anyone, anyone at all. But this had been Curie’s game all along. He had a death wish, and could not escape Dana, or Diabhal, by a conventional death.

  No. Someone else would have to do it. Someone unconnected. Someone pure.

  Beth.

  As these thoughts raced through my mind, it was too late. She had pushed through the pain, and let the adrenaline carry her.

  She was going to kill Curie, and the damnedest thing of all? He had planned it all along.

  ***

  "Toril! Jesus! Get in here!" shouted Troy.

  He kicked out at the zombies, and they backed off. He brandished a large candleholder at them, and the flames licked at the group, and they seemed to recoil.

  It gave Troy the time and space he needed to free Toril from the grabbing hands.

  "Get back you scum," he shouted.

  Troy managed to shut the door, and bolt it securely.

  He desperately wanted to kiss Toril, and tell her everything would be alright.

  She was hurt, he could see that, but she was breathing. Just.

  "Withers, please, don’t die on me here."

  Toril’s eyes flickered into life.

  "You look terrible, Jackson."

  "You’re not looking so hot yourself, my lady," said Troy. "You’re not going to die on me, are you?"

  "Not a chance. But when I am better, you have got some questions to answer. Boy, have you."

  "At least you’re still talking to me," said Troy.

  "For the moment," said Toril. "We do have a problem."

  "Just the one?"

  "I prefer to see all challenges as a collective problem," said Toril. "You should know that about me by now."

  Toril slowly sat up, and hugged her knees. Then, looking around, she wore a panicked look in her face.

  "What I also know," said Troy, "is when you try and look all cool but inside, you are tripping. Now what is it? Our pale-faced friends outside aren’t going to wait. I have to get you to safety."

  "My wand, and my pentacle," said Toril. "I’ve lost them both. It’s over, Troy."

  Looking at him now, the anger she had felt evaporated. He had made a good job of it, but there was no mistaking the wound. A Zeryth had wounded him, and whatever time Troy had left on this earth, would not be much.

  There would be no final kiss, no way to be close again. The demons had even taken that from her.

  "Then if it’s over, let it be, Toril. I’m going to stay with you."

  He went to hug her, but she put her hands up towards his chest, but took care not to touch him.

  "You have to go outside, Troy, and be with them. You know this."

  "Then why did you come here?" said Troy, desperation in his voice. "I came here to save you, and now, you want me out? Is that it?"

  "You’re hurt. You can’t save me."

  "I know, but I just want to be with you."

  "You can’t, Troy. You just can’t."

  "Toril, please."

  "If you stay, you will hurt me for sure."

  "I promise you, I won’t. I just saved you, didn’t I?"

  "Yes," said Toril. "But when you become one of them, you will hurt me. I don’t have the power to stop you."

  "You think you are only strong because of your pentacle and that wand? We’re all much stronger than we realise."

  "Is that why you delivered Romilly into the hands of Curie? Why you threw that axe at Dana? She can’t be killed, Troy! He sent you on a suicide mission, only it’s Jacinta, and not you, who are dead!"

  Okay, cheap shot, thought Toril. But her head hurt, her back was wracked in pain, and her boyfriend was about to join the legions of Zerythra that were banging down on the door.

  Instead of getting angry at her, Troy wanted to hold her, and wipe the tears from Toril’s face.

  "I suppose this is my punishment for hurting Jacinta," said Troy, "but I really was aiming for Dana. I…I had no control over what I was doing, you have to believe me."

  Toril’s face, which had been contorted in equal amounts of pain and rage, softened.

  "I know. I’d like to think we always have control over what we’re doing. Maybe it’s much less than we realise."

  Troy had come around to accepting his fate. "I’m glad it will be you that will do it though, Toril, you know, when the time comes. Don’t feed me to the wolves, will you?"

  Toril was trying to consider all possibilities. If she left things as they are, Troy would turn into a full Zeryth, and would kill her. If she went outside, the group of Zerythra would kill her, go find Romilly and Beth, assuming they were still alive, and kill them too.

  Troy’s situation was unsalvageable. He would turn into one of them, soon enough, maybe hours, maybe a few minutes. It was impossible to tell.

  She would have to kill him, but how?

  Troy seemed to read her mind. He got up, started to walk around, and just as Toril was about to say "Where are you going?" Troy returned.

  "It’s rather heavy," he said, holding up a gold-plated candlestick in his hand. "You might need both arms to swing it, but yeah, with enough momentum, it should be okay. Make sure it’s in one, Toril, okay?"

  Oh my. thought Toril. He’s thinking of doing, what I was having to think of doing. I just didn’t have the sense of rage with Troy, that I had against Dana, and we all saw how that ended. Curie was right. I was pathetic.

  Troy continued, unabated, and handed Toril the candlestick. He was right, it was really heavy.

  "Come on now Withers, no self-pity. This is not the time."

  Troy dropped to his knees and placed his hands on the floor.

  He nodded his head forward. "I don’t want you to look at me whilst you do this. I just want good memories of you, Toril. Don’t let me become one of them."

  Logic dictated that Troy could not be saved, and that Toril had to do this, otherwise Troy would become undead, and pretty much unkillable. Apart from the thud-thud-thudding noises, these Zeryths were completely unlike any zombies Toril had read about.

  Toril’s eyes locked in on the back of Troy’s head. She lifted the candlestick as high as she could, swinging it back like a baseball bat, and gritted her teeth.

  "Now, Toril!" shouted Troy. "It has to be NOW!"

  ***

  "Beth! No!" I screamed after her, but she was moving too fast for me. How this was possible, I did not know. Her leg was supposed to be hurt, and yet she was racing ahead of me.

  I ran after her, and could see a clearing in the woods that I had not noticed before. Curie was on his knees, the moonlight shining on his wizened face. He was smiling, laughing even, as

  Beth stood a few feet from him, the bow trained on his skull.

  I could barely breathe. "Beth," I wheezed, "Please don’t do this. This is what he wants. Don’t give it to him."

  "All I’ve ever done, is serve the school, be the slave to all of you. Did I get any gratitude? No. None of you could see what I was doing."

  "All you did was kill innocent people! That’s not my sister in there!" screamed Beth.

  "You always had a good sense of humour," said Curie. "Innocent, were they? What kind of parents did you have anyway, Beth? One was a lawyer, another, a corporate whore who screwed people out of their livelihoods. We were rats, fighting for the scraps your parents saw fit to give us. Your rat of a sister would have ended up just like them. I saved her. I saved you. You’re going to become something better, something memorable. No-one will forget what you’ve done here today."

  "Beth, put the bow down, ignore him," I said. "Let whatever is going to happen to him, take the natural course. If you kill him, you’ll become what he is."

  "I’d listen to her Beth," said Curie, mocking me. "She knows all about becoming like me. Say, Romilly, just what were you thinking when you were going to smash the Mirror over Beth’s pretty head?"

  That seemed to stir Beth in a manner I didn’t like at all.

  "Yes….yes, Romilly, what
was that?"

  Beth turned the bow in my direction.

  "I…I didn’t know what I was doing, Beth. I’m going crazy because of that damned Mirror. Please believe me. He’s trying to turn you against me."

  "Beth, you know she’s not telling the truth," said Curie. "She’d say anything to get out of this. She had the power to bring your sister back, did you know that? Using the Mirror, she could have done that, but she refused. What kind of friend is she?"

  "Romilly, what have you got to say to that?" asked Beth, still pointing the bow in my direction. Curie remained calm, with a smile on his face.

  "He wants you to believe that because he’s a liar, and a murderer. I swear I know little more about how to use that Mirror than you do. You were there, when I trapped that zombie pretending to be Toril. I saved you, remember?"

  Beth looked like she remembered, but Curie still had the upper hand.

  "She wants you for herself!" said Curie. "Romilly Winter knows that if you had a sister, you’d forget all about her, Beth. She’s an only child. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have siblings. She cares about nothing and no-one but herself."

  Forgetting the bow was pointed at me, I lunged at Curie and smacked him as hard as I could in the face.

  "You shut your mouth!" I screamed.

  I broke two of my fingers when my fist connected with his jaw.

  Bleeding once again, Curie spat blood out, along with his words.

  "So, what are you going to do, Beth? Become a hero, or be remembered like your scum parents are? Loathed as much in death, as in life?"

  Then Beth did something I did not expect. Glaring at both me and Curie, she said, "Get up, both of you."

  Beth got me and Curie to stand back to back.

  "Close your eyes."

  I didn’t want to. I wanted to plead with Beth, but Curie would read that, and use it to poison Beth against me, even more than he had already.

  I didn’t have to open my eyes to know what Beth was planning.

  She couldn’t decide which of us was telling the truth, so the only thing to do was to get rid of us both. I realised that maybe the Demon had passed from me, to her.

  I bit my lip hard as I heard her strain the bow.

  ***

  The candlestick clattered to the ground. The noise deafened even the thud-thud-thuds from outside the big wrought iron door.

  Troy turned to Toril.

  "Withers, what the hell are you doing?"

  Toril grabbed his arm. "On your feet, Jackson."

  "There’s a portal, Troy, outside the front of the chapel. I used it to bring me, Beth, and Jacinta’s body here. We’re going back to the Forest."

  Toril was pushing a weakening Troy so hard that he didn’t have the energy to argue. She really was stronger than he gave her credit for.

  "Why?"

  "Because Romilly is there, and Romilly has the Mirror. I sent Beth back there to protect her, because I thought you had gone mad, and was working with Curie. We get the Mirror, we might just be able to save you."

  Toril kicked open the chapel doors. The portal was still there. There wasn’t time to close it, she had to get Troy through there now. The iron door at the rear of the chapel had been broken. The Zeryths were coming.

  You were supposed to step up carefully to portals. The force of transference could rip you apart otherwise.

  But there was no time for that. Like jumping into a room wreathed with fire, Toril and Troy threw themselves at the portal.

  "Please please be gentle," said Toril.

  ***

  So many times I had faced death in the last two years, but there was no screams, no chills around my body. There was no more to be said. Beth held all the cards, whilst she held that bow. The option even to use the Mirror on her, was lost. It was still in that infernal house, and I had no idea if it was intact or not.

  At the final moment, a blinding light appeared. It wasn’t the fabled white tunnel of light, because I knew I was still here, still breathing, the tall grass caressing my ankles.

  "Beth! Give that to me. I’ll have that, thank you."

  Beth turned to face Toril and Troy, who was gesturing towards the bow.

  "No!" said Beth, "I have to do this."

  Curie suddenly opened his eyes.

  "Yes, that’s right, Troy. At least Beth can be counted on to do the job properly."

  Troy ignored Curie and wrestled Beth to the ground, prising the bow from her.

  "No, Beth, not you. Let me do it."

  "You can’t kill me with that."

  Those were to be Curie’s last words. Without hesitation Troy let the arrow fly. Curie’s head shattered as the arrow entered through his eyeball.

  His body dropped to the ground. Blood oozed from his skull, and did not make a return journey.

  Finally, Curie was dead.

  "Thank the stars for that," said Troy. "I never thought he’d shut up."

  Whilst Toril, Beth and myself contemplated what had just transpired, sounds filled the forest. The army of Zerythra were coming.

  ***

  "How many, Rom? How many?"

  Troy’s voice was quickening. I could see the wound on his neck, but I clearly hadn’t read the situation right. I mean, the last time I saw him, he was dragging me into Diabhal Takh, helping Curie to pin me down to that table.

  "It’s okay Romilly, he’s with us," said Toril.

  I strained my neck. "Maybe a hundred, could be a hundred and fifty. It’s hopeless."

  "Maybe it is hopeless," said Toril, "but I’m not dying, not today, not like this. All stand close together, okay? I’m casting a circle to protect us."

  I didn’t mean to sound so despondent, but there was no way we could fight off so many. The sounds got louder and louder. Beth stood stone-faced over Curie’s body.

  The rest of us were distracted. Beth watched as Curie’s corpse disappeared before her eyes.

  "What the –"

  Beth looked dazed, confused, but most of all, angry. Even in death, it seemed Curie could upstage everyone else.

  "Beth?" I held out my hand, grabbed hers, and pulled her into the circle. She looked at me, so strangely. We had both been through it, and we knew that there were questions we had to ask each other. For now, we had to work together.

  "Uh-huh," said Beth, and followed me to where I pulled her. She was still looking around the Forest. With everything going on, I could not tell what was bothering her.

  "Troy?"

  "Better draw two circles, Withers."

  "I’m not doing this without you. Now stand by Beth and Romilly."

  "Still giving the orders, eh Withers?"

  "Troy, come on. Please?"

  "Only if you draw a circle within the circle. I’ll stand there."

  "Understood."

  Toril may have understood, but I hadn’t at that moment, and Beth….I realised Beth was still thinking about Curie.

  "Romilly, can you run? I’m a bit hurt, and I see Beth is too. Troy has to stay here." There was an uncomfortable tone to Toril’s words. "Can you run, and run fast? I need you to get that Mirror of yours."

  It ends when you break the Circle.

  I nodded in agreement. Toril had her reasons for asking for the Mirror, but I could at least be the keeper of it. I didn’t even know if the Mirror was intact. I supposed not, because where had all these zombies come from? I had failed. Diabhal’s army of horrors were unleashed.

  I ran to the house as fast as I could. Eerily, I knew the layout of the place all too well, and found the Mirror with ease.

  At first glance, incredibly, it seemed undamaged. I hit it under my jumper and ran just as fast as I could, back towards Toril and the others.

  "You got it?"

  "Yes," I breathed heavily.

  Troy had his back to us, and was facing north, towards the group of zombies who were making their way to us.

  "Okay," said Toril. "I’ve cast a protective circle around us. It’s my hope that we’l
l be safe here, and that the Zerythra can’t penetrate the barrier."

  "How long do we have to stay here?" I asked.

  "Until they get bored and go get lost."

  "That’s the plan?"

  "Have you a better one?"

  I scratched my head. Then it came to me.

  "The Mirror, Toril. I have to use the Mirror."