by Jason Letts
Awestruck, Fortst let go of Arent and turned to Mira.
“Are you sure it’s OK?” Fortst asked. “I passed Aoi as I raced up here. She’s about as bad off as you are.”
Mira continued to laugh, though it puzzled the others.
“This whole time, we should’ve been trying to help him get the carafe! The war, the kidnapping, the only reason any of it happened was because we only had half of it. That’s the difference between seeing someone’s pain and sympathizing with it.”
Fortst bit his lip and shook his head, and then stuck his hand out to Arent. Taking it, Arent accepted his help and rose to his feet. He still held the carafe, which made him feel the same bond with Fortst that he had with Mira. They were both men of the wild, and both knew more about lonely nights than most anyone. After all the strife they’ve caused each other, it only now seemed to bring them together as friends.
“What’s gonna happen now?” Clara asked Mira, who leaned against one arm.
“We’re not safe yet. There’s still Goober. Only one of us can stop him.”
Arent stepped into the middle of the throne room, feeling a swell of guilt for everything he’d done to torture those who were no different than he was. It all made sense now. There was a clear path before him to atone for his selfish misdeeds.
“The one who can stop him, it’s me,” Arent realized.
“Let her go right now!” Will screeched to Jeremy, who had his arm wrapped tightly around Roselyn’s neck. Her scarlet face, gasping for breath, pleaded for help. Gloria pinned Will against the edge between the ravine and the excavated palace. Mary stood by his side, glaring angrily at Gloria. Standing next to her, Chucky tried to sneak farther to the right.
“Stay right where you are!” Jeremy howled. “I’ll choke the life out of her right in front of you.”
“This is taking forever!” Gloria complained, turning to her accomplice. Will cast his eyes into the palace’s great hall. Though he’d heard yelling, he couldn’t see anything. There was no way to know what was going on.
“Just hold your horses, Gloria. Mira will find the carafe, bring it back to us, and then it’ll all be over. We’ll never have to worry about dealing with these scumbags again.”
Will was desperate to find a way out of this predicament. He itched to make a run for Jeremy, though he knew he would never make it around Gloria while she was watching him. Even if she touched him, maybe he would still be able to free Roselyn before Gloria’s gooey poison stopped his heart.
“Look at that!” Chucky said, pointing down the hillside. Everyone turned to see Goober slowly crawling toward them. They were close enough to see the lurid fascination twinkling in his eyes.
“We’re in trouble,” Gloria moaned.
Straining, Roselyn kicked back with her heel and struck Jeremy between the legs while his attention was on Goober. Swinging her elbow, she caught him in the face as he doubled over. Yelping from the sudden blows, he lost hold of her and reeled back. Before she could get away, Jeremy stuck out his leg and tripped her. Roselyn collapsed onto the rock face and Jeremy fell on top of her.
Will ran from the edge toward them as soon as Gloria took her eyes off him. She clapped at him from a few feet away, but he swerved around her.
“This is for never giving me a chance!” Jeremy roared, holding Roselyn by her blonde curls. Pulling his right fist back, he punched her just under her left eye.
“No!” Will shouted, racing at them. Gloria trailed behind. Will grabbed Jeremy and ripped him from Roselyn. Throwing him back, he flailed, struggling to stay on his feet. Teetering backward, Jeremy collided with Gloria, who instinctively put out her hands to prevent him from hitting her.
“Wait,” the petrified word escaped Jeremy’s lips in a moment of panic. Gloria had one arm on his shoulder and the other against the back of his head. The green goo oozed onto his chest and over his forehead. It bubbled and frothed as it sunk into his skin. His eyes lost their luster and his body started to go limp. Soon green liquid dribbled from his eye sockets and out his mouth.
The momentum of Jeremy’s body toward the ravine was more than Gloria could handle, and it knocked her back toward its edge. Gravity pulled the body toward the rock surface, but she held it like a lifesaver even as it continued to push her back. The edge so close behind her, she brought a longing gaze to Will, who turned to her.
“Was it so wrong to love you?” Gloria whimpered, a tear in her eye.
“You’ve got a strange way of showing it.”
Taking a deep breath, Will expelled a powerful gust of air that blew Gloria over the edge into the ravine. She dropped out of sight, Jeremy’s lifeless body falling after her. For a moment Will thought he heard Gloria scream, but it could’ve just as easily been the wind howling over the rocky hillside.
Turning from the ravine, Will went to Roselyn’s side. He held her head up. The spot where Jeremy punched her had swelled and become red. Her eyes were open even though she looked dazed, and he admired her beautiful blue irises.
“I should’ve known you’d be able to take care of yourself,” he said. Roselyn smiled and they shared a hug.
“They’re really gone,” Mary said, standing by the ravine and looking over the edge.
“They got what they wanted,” Will declared.
Taking a breath, he stood and helped Roselyn to her feet. She held her head and leaned to the side.
“Just take it easy,” Chucky advised, and she leaned against him for support. He still had Knoll strapped to his back, and the child laughed as though it were all a game.
The sound of shifting stones caught their ears, and they turned their attention down the hillside, where Goober lumbered toward them. He wheezed through a dumbstruck grin on his face. Considering how he had turned Neeko to dust and had tried to drain the life out of the rest of them, Will, Roselyn, Mary, and Chucky all backed away toward the top of the hill.
“Why don’t you leave us alone!” Will shouted at him.
“Life can’t last forever. Sooner or later it all falls apart,” the boy huffed. His skin was covered in sediment, and he had lost all of the extra weight he had carried.
“Mira!” Chucky shouted into the temple behind them, but no call answered him.
Goober inched closer on all fours. The rock underneath his hands started to crack and chip. The small group pressed right against the edge of the palace wall. Will considered the path Mira had taken to get down, but it seemed impossible for all of them to traverse it.
“What do we do now?” Mary asked, hyperventilating. “I’m too young to grow old!”
Raising his hand, Goober pointed at them.
“This way, toward the throne room!” Chucky called, hustling off to the right.
The others followed immediately, running across the hill’s smooth stone precipice between the steep wall of the palace on one side and the slope on the other. Goober trudged after them, slowly and relentlessly. Will passed Chucky and was the first to catch a glimpse of the throne room.
“It’s Fortst!” he cheered, though his excitement turned to confusion when he saw Arent and Mira right next to him. “What’s going on?” he shouted down at them.
“It’s OK,” Mira shouted back.
“No, it’s not!” Chucky responded. “Goober is coming after us. He wants the carafe!”
The two groups stared at each other for a moment, unsure of what to do. Will’s ears caught the sound of a sputtering cry coming from over the right hillside. His throat went dry and his heart skipped a beat when he realized it had to be Aoi.
The side of her face pressed against a pool of her own blood that slowly dribbled down the rock face, Aoi stared blankly toward the south, the direction from which they had come to make this grueling journey. Arent had beaten her to a pulp, repeatedly smashing his fist into her head and chest, but nothing would finish her off. She had watched him reigning blows onto her as one would watch the clouds float across the sky. They had become like feathers tickling her
skin, and soon he left her in a semi-lucid haze.
A number of moving figures entered her view, Will, Mary, Roselyn, and Chucky. She couldn’t hear their footsteps or even her own groans. Will shook her on the shoulder and she looked up at him. He pushed her onto her back and wiped the sand and blood from her face.
“Are you OK?” he asked, looking as though he would break into tears. He shouted, but his words barely registered.
“Is it forever yet?” Aoi mumbled.
“Is he still following us?” Will asked, directing his attention to Chucky.
“I can’t tell. He hasn’t turned the corner,” Chucky said.
All of a sudden the ground started shaking. A section of the rock at the top of the throne room wall broke off and fell in, leaving a jagged divot in the surface. Mary jumped away from the cracking rock so she too didn’t fall in. The stone shattered against the throne, cleaving it into pieces that blew everywhere.
“What’s happening?” Mira screamed, taking cover behind Arent and Fortst. The rock beneath their feet continued to shake. Will lost his balance and fell next to Aoi, who squirmed.
“He’s making an earthquake!” Chucky hollered down, his legs wide and bracing for the next sudden tremor.
“Someone get us out of here! The whole thing’s collapsing!” Mira yelled as cracks dug into the palace walls. The sound of tumbling pillars rushed in from the great hall. Will lifted Aoi to her feet, though they could barely stand.
“We can’t do anything!” Mary shouted amongst the cacophony of rumbling rocks. Part of the wall gave way and the throne room started to cave in around them. Angry shouts came from Arent and Fortst as they tried to fight off the stone falling onto their heads.
“But I can!” came a voice from the northern side. Vern emerged onto the edge overlooking the throne room. An instant later, Goober scampered up to the ledge on the opposite side, grinning wildly. Mira left her feet and started floating into the air, even as a large crack struck through the stone right under Vern. The crack splintered and grew deeper until Mira could almost reach out and touch it.
“Come on!” Vern strained.
Goober, as if attempting a handstand, brought his hands to the rock, sending another shockwave through the entire heap. Mira suddenly started to drop when Vern let her to go avoid falling with the crumbling stone. He leapt to the side, catching her in midair, and soon she was close enough for him to catch her.
“Where’s the carafe?” he gasped once she was on her feet.
“Arent has it. You have to save him too. Trust me!” she implored.
“It’s not just the palace that’s collapsing. The whole mountain is falling apart,” Vern hollered loud enough for everyone to hear. As he started to pull Arent from the splintering chamber, everyone looked to the mountain, where huge sections of rock broke apart and plummeted into the ravine. The peak still towered over them, and if it were to fall their way, escape would be impossible.
“Can’t we do anything to him?” Will pleaded. He picked up a rock and threw it at Goober, but it disintegrated into a puff of dust and never even distracted him.
“None of us can touch him,” Aoi said, feeling nauseated. It was so hard to concentrate on anything.
Arent reached the top of the wall and turned back to face of the young boy who was making the ground shake.
“It has to be me. I can take him!” he growled.
“Can’t we use the carafe? There’s got to be a way to make him stop before he kills us all!” Mira called. Vern started to pull up Fortst, who was trapped within a constant deluge of stone. The tunnel had collapsed, and he was constantly leaping out of the way of the next barrage of raining stone.
“It’s all yours,” Arent said, willingly handing over the carafe to Mira. Aoi and the others along the east wall watched the exchange, their mouths hanging open at the astonishment.
“It did bring peace,” Mary gasped.
Mira took the carafe and shivered as though a sudden chill swept over her. She looked at Goober, and a profound sadness took shape on her face.
“Never before has there been such a tortured soul. His power controls him entirely, but freedom can only come with death. That’s why he’s always yearned for it. The destruction he wreaks is the one he most desires for himself.”
Fortst made it to the top, and he immediately started pushing the others from the edge.
“Quickly, we must clear to the east!” he urged them.
Hobbling amid the shifting stones, the two groups met at the northeast corner. The sound of cleaving rock and shaking earth became deafening. Boulders the size of houses collided with the hillside and the palace, caving in the walls and demolishing it completely. The midsection of the mountain was now carved out like a tree about to be felled. It appeared as though it would tip right on top of them.
“We can’t let him get the carafe!” Mira screeched above the racket. The rock beneath their feet turned to gravel and they slid until they hit an outcropping. Goober loomed over them near the top of the hillside, indifferent to the shifting and tumbling rocks.
“All of us in our darkest moments wish we’d never been born. Let me answer those prayers. The malady of existence need not ever be inflicted on another being again,” the boy said, reaching out for the carafe.
“No!” Mira wailed.
Struggling to get up, they untangled themselves from each other and spread out along the rocky hillside. A loud crack rippled through the skies from the mountain, which seemed to teeter over them. Arent stepped forward, lunging up the rock beyond the others. He pulled his strong frame toward Goober, a surge of blue bolts weaving through his arms.
“What are you doing?” Mira yelled.
“I owe it to you,” he said, his grisly face looking over his shoulder at her. “I’ll hold him off.”
Arent staggered upward, glaring at the frail-looking harbinger of doom swaying absentmindedly on the rock.
“You know I’m the one who is meant to stop you!” Gritting his teeth, he held up his hands.
“Will you give your life to take mine? I’m afraid you’ll pay your due without getting anything in return,” Goober heckled.
“He’s right!” Aoi said, coughing and venturing a step forward. “You’ll never be able to hold onto him long enough. He’ll turn you to dust in a second!”
The wind kicked up, sending an icy chill over them. Goober skidded closer, his eyes on the diamond carafe in Mira’s hand.
“What do we do?” Mira shouted.
“I have to help him,” Aoi said, realizing she had to make use of the tremendous power she’d been given. “It’s our energies. They have to work together. If I can affect the reaction, it’ll give him a chance!”
Aoi put her hand to her forehead. She felt lightheaded and drained, lost for what to do. Like wetting a finger to feel the direction of the wind, Aoi cleared her mind and tried to make herself transparent enough for anything to pass through. The invisible forces in the air enveloped her, becoming tangible enough to touch.
Taking another step closer to their mindless enemy, Arent clenched the muscles in his arms and chest. He grunted, working up an electrical charge that traveled through him. Throwing his hands forward, he expelled the charge at Goober, but it barely left his fingers before dispersing harmlessly into the air.
Arent seemed like a turbine of energy, constantly generating watts, but it was the nature of energy to even out, and that was how Goober rebuffed him. In the long run, nothing could escape the power of decay. It was up to Aoi to restrain him, to hold back the force that brings everything to ruin just enough so he could be touched. Breathing out, she let the calm in her mind neutralize the willful pull toward disintegration.
Roaring, Arent created another surge and hurled it at their adversary. The bolts frayed around the boy, striking the hillside and increasing the tremors. It became hard for anyone to stand still, but the flow of energy plucked Aoi from the ground as her friends tumbled around beside her.
Arent trudged closer, glaring into the boy’s fascinated gaze. When he reached out his hand to deliver the deathblow, his adversary did much the same. Arent’s fingertips turned to dust and flaked away with the wind. He screamed in agony, the tissue turning to ash and creeping to his knuckles before his very eyes.
“No!” Mira screamed, her face contorted and pained.
“I’m coming!” Fortst hollered, steadying himself against the shifting rock and leaping up toward the embattled pair. Arent and Goober stood just a few feet apart, and Fortst raced for the gap.
“You’ll die!” Mira warned him, but her cry drowned within a thunderous crack from the mountain. Another huge piece of the midsection fell away, and the entire peak toppled from its rocky foundation. Screams erupted from everyone present as the falling mountaintop blocked out the sun and arced over them.
Ogden Fortst heaved, taking another leap to the next ledge. Passively, Aoi watched him lunge toward Arent and Goober. It was just as the twin Specials had predicted. It would take all three of them to return the force of entropy to the web. Aoi could restrain Goober’s power to his body, but it would take the conductor to bridge the gap between the generator and its target.
The upper echelons of the mountain hung overhead, and there were only seconds before it would collide. Arent’s fingers had completely turned to dust. They blew away in the wind even as he wailed and mustered another charge. Goober watched him with his tongue hanging out and his fingers wiggling, unconcerned about the falling colossus of stone.
Hollering a war cry, Fortst rushed between them. Sliding in, he gripped each of them by the wrist and transferred their powers to the opposite side. All three of them yelled, the force of the energy creating a bright light that shot out in all directions. Arent turned to dust in an instant, but his energy ripped through Goober and vaporized him as well. Aoi carried the force of their reaction into the sky, and before the mountaintop struck the surface, it had disintegrated entirely to tons of ash and soot that rolled over the landscape in thick, black clouds.