by Tim O'Rourke
“Have some of that, you ugly fucker!” Murphy roared.
I smiled to myself and lowered my head.
We were jostled and shoved through the town square. Glancing sideways, I could see that many of the wolves were holding sacks soaked red with human body parts. They would soon be thrown at me and my friends, just like they had been thrown at Potter before his execution. The square was flood-lit with several large lights erected on nearby stands. They obviously didn’t want to miss a single moment of our degrading deaths. I looked up and could see the stage ahead of us and the true realisation of what was about to happen hit me. Standing on the stage and shackled just like me, was Gayle, Alice, Peter, and Meren, and all of them looked terrified. Alice was sobbing as her brother, Peter, was saying something to her, but I couldn’t hear what over the sound of the wolves howling and woofing. I guessed he was trying to offer her some kind words of comfort.
Murphy and I were shoved up the stairs at the side of the stage. I saw Alice look up, as did the others, their eyes now wide and full of expectation. Did they believe that we had come to save them? The stage was as it was before. The guillotine was positioned at its centre, the blade gleaming like glass above it. The hooded executioner was standing to one side, but the announcer was centre stage. This time his face was hidden behind a hood. There were two small round slits for him to see through. On the other side of the stage there was a priest. I couldn’t see his face as he was bent forward, hands clasped together as if in prayer. Was he praying for our souls? I doubted it.
We were roughly shoved in line next to our friends.
“Dad!” Meren exclaimed on seeing Murphy. “They’re going to kill us, aren’t they? Just like they did to Potter,” she said.
“Don’t worry about a thing. We’re all going to be just fine,” he tried to comfort her. But I could tell by the waver in his voice that he didn’t really believe that.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” the announcer suddenly roared. “Welcome to the main event!”
The wolves, packed into the town square, began to howl and bark. It was so loud that it drowned out the sound of the now constant thunderclaps. I looked up and out across the sea of excited wolves. Some of them waved the arms of human corpses above their heads like supporters waving scarves at a football match. I looked away.
“Show us your face,” Murphy demanded. “If you have the guts to kill us, then show us our executioner’s face. Or are you the cowards I know you are?”
“Is it my face you want to see?” the announcer asked, and although I couldn’t see it, I knew he was smiling behind the mask. He came forward, coming toe to toe with Murphy. Then, reaching out with his hand, the announcer yanked off his hood.
“Rom,” Murphy spat. “Why?”
“I have a score to settle with you!” Rom said, his bald head glistening with sweat beneath the floodlights. He mopped it away with the hood he now held in his hand.
“What score?” Murphy asked.
“Do you not remember killing me in the St. Mary’s Church graveyard back in the Ragged Cove?” Rom said, his gaunt face twisted with hate.
“But you were being an arsehole,” Murphy reminded him. “You let yourself be twisted by Bishop. You were killing humans…turning them into vampires. That was forbidden. It was against the law – Vampyrus law. You knew the penalty for that was death.”
“You executed me that night. Ripped me to pieces and tossed me in the fire,” Rom snarled.
“Bishop also took part in your execution…” Murphy tried to remind him.
“It was a sacrifice I was prepared to make for the greater good, so future generations of Vampyrus could live above ground and not cower beneath the feet of humans like you wanted them to,” Rom argued.
“Bishop used you back then, and he will use you now,” Murphy shot back. “He’s the traitor.”
“No, you’re the traitor!” Rom shouted, his pale face now blushing red with rage. “I trained you, Murphy. I had your back more times than I can care to remember – and what did you do? You ripped my body to pieces and then chucked it in the fire!”
“You might kill me now – take your revenge, but Luke can’t win,” Murphy told him.
“It’s not about winning,” Rom said back, his voice just a whisper now, so the wolves gathered in the square couldn’t hear him. “It’s about surviving. And the one thing I know for sure is, it won’t be the humans or the wolves that survive; it will be the Vampyrus who survive.”
“So where is Luke now?” I asked, looking at the executioner who still hid behind the hood. Was it him? How would I feel about seeing the man who had murdered so many of my friends?
As if in answer to my question, the executioner pulled off his hood, like a magician doing some cheap party trick.
“Phillips,” I said. Was I surprised? No not really. They were Luke’s allies and always would be. I looked across the stage at the priest who still knelt as if deep in prayer. I didn’t have to see his face to know that it was Father Taylor.
As if being able to read my thoughts, Murphy said, “Well it’s nice to see the old team back together.”
“But there is one missing,” I said dryly. “Where is Luke?” I suspected that he was lurking somewhere close by. Looking at Rom, I said, “It’s me Luke wants so let my friends go. He can take me this time. I won’t put up a fight. Just release my friends.”
Stepping away from Murphy, Rom came and stood before me. He stared into my face with his rodent-like eyes.
Rolling back his thin dry lips and looking at me, he sneered and said, “Don’t flatter yourself, Hudson. All Luke has ever wanted from you in this pushed world is to see you dead.”
“That’s because he fears me,” I smiled. “That’s because he knows I’m a threat to him. He knows I can beat him like I did once before. He knows that I’ve come back from the dead to stop him again.”
Wheeling around, Rom faced the crowd. “You’ve just heard it from the Dead Angel we have been searching for. This is Kiera Hudson, who has come back from the dead to kill Luke Bishop – our leader – the wolf man!”
The wolves broke out in a frenzy of excitement. The body parts they had brought with them were now cartwheeling through the air toward me. A lump of flesh hit me in the chest, slid down the front of my coat, and hit the stage with a sickening plop. This was a sound that was repeated over and over as arms, legs, fingers and entrails splattered me, my friends and the stage.
“If Bishop wants me dead, why isn’t he man enough to come here and do it himself?” I hollered at Rom.
“The wolf man has far more pressing matters to deal with than killing you,” Rom grinned with a knowing smile.
“He’s not even a fucking wolf!” Murphy roared at him, but over the sound of the seemingly never-ending stream of body parts and flesh falling onto the stage, the wolves couldn’t hear what Murphy had just said.
And the wolves’ howling drowned out Rom as he hooked his thumb over his shoulder at them and with a smile said, “And they don’t know Luke isn’t a wolf either. But they will soon find out for themselves.”
“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Murphy shouted.
Ignoring him, Rom roared at the ground and said, “I think it’s time we had ourselves an execution!”
The sound of howling became almost deafening.
Leaping across the stage, coattails flapping like the wings I knew he had hidden under it, Rom snatched hold of Alice.
“No!” Peter cried out, watching his sister being dragged across the stage toward the guillotine.
“Peter!” Alice screamed, looking back at her brother, eyes wide and desperate looking. She dug her heels into the wooden board. But with her hands and ankles manacled, she was no match for Rom.
“Stop! Please stop!” Peter begged. “Don’t hurt my sister!”
Driving his fist though the air, Phillips punched Peter squarely in the face. His head rocked to the right, blood spraying from his nose. He staggered then fell down.
“Peter!” Alice screamed again, as Rom forced her into a kneeling position over the guillotine. Father Taylor stepped forward and began to whisper over and over, his thin twisted lips open and closing. Was he actually praying for her? Giving Alice her last rites?
“Stop this, you sick fuckers!” Murphy roared, his voice sounding hoarse and broken.
The crowed howled with delight as Phillips reached up and wrapped his hands around the lever that would release the glinting blade above.
With her head over the block and being held in place by Rom, I heard Alice scream, “Please don’t…please…I’m sorry.”
And I knew in my heart what Alice was saying sorry for. She was apologising for being different. She thought that if she were like them then they wouldn’t kill her.
“Don’t be sorry Alice!” I screamed in anger. I wasn’t angry with Alice but with the wolves. “Alice you are different, but that’s what makes you better than them!”
“I’m sorry…!” Her last cry was cut short as the blade came slicing down. Her head simply dropped onto the stage and rolled over. Her blank eyes stared up at the cracks into the sky.
With Peter screaming, Gayle sobbing, and Meren and Murphy making all kinds of threats, I blinked away the tears that were pricking my eyes. I looked at Alice’s face as it started to crack, break apart until it was nothing but a white pile of ash. Rom let go of her body and took a step backwards. He looked down at his hands with disgust. They looked to be covered in a fine white powder. Rom wiped the ash down the front of his coat, then looked back at Alice’s lifeless body as it started to crumble and break apart. The crowd of wolves suddenly fell silent as they watched the pile of ash that had once been Alice stir, as if caught in a sudden gust of wind. Then, as if being sucked upwards, the ash floated up into the night. It twinkled as if someone had thrown a handful of glitter up into the air. Then it spiralled upwards. I tilted my head back, we all did, and watched the twinkling ash disappear through one of the cracks.
Alice had been pushed through the cracks, and I hoped that wherever she ended up, the people there would love her for being different.
“You bastards!” Peter roared, staggering to his feet.
Peter’s cry had broken the spell that Alice’s execution had cast over all of us. The wolves started to howl, bark, and woof again, as Rom reached for Peter and dragged him to his death. Peter fought less than his sister, his head tilted back and looking up at the crack that his sister had disappeared through. With his fist knotted in Peter’s blond hair, Rom forced him into a kneeling position over the wooden block. The wolves went crazy all over again. Peter seemed deaf to their excitement. With his head over the block, he twisted it to one side so he could keep looking at the crack in the sky. Phillips released the blade and Peter smiled.
Just like Alice had, Peter broke apart into a mound of white-looking ash. It started to shift and ripple across the stage until it shot up into the night sky where it shone brightly before disappearing through the crack his sister had passed through.
Rom reached for Gayle and she struggled the least as she was forced toward the block. Slowly she glanced sideways looking at Murphy, Meren, then at me. It was like she knew what was about to happen. She had a look of relief in her eyes, and I understood that. Relief that this nightmare was finally nearing its end for her and there was a hope of something better on the other side of the cracks. Refusing to cry out, and without having to be forced by Rom, Gayle calmly knelt over the block. Rom gave Phillips a nod of his head. Taylor continued to chant as the blade sliced through Gayle’s neck. Within moments, her head and body were twinkly clouds of ash that went racing away up into the night. It swept through the sky like the tail of a blazing comet and disappeared through the crack her friends had.
The wolves jeered and hollered as they threw the last of the body parts up onto the stage and at Murphy, Meren, and me. With blood trickling down my face, I watched as Rom reached for Meren.
“Get your dirty fucking hands off her, Rom,” Murphy warned him, his voice a deep, threatening rattle. There was a look in my friend’s eyes that I had never seen before. He stared at Rom with pure hatred and loathing.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to give orders,” Rom sneered, dragging Meren toward the block.
“Get off me!” Meren screeched, twisting and fighting as best as she could while restrained so securely.
With his eyes fixed on Rom, like they were piercing his very soul, Murphy said in a voice that was calm but sinister and chilling, “Let my daughter go, and I promise I won’t tear your heart out. I’ll just eat your fucking face off.”
Then the floodlights suddenly went out and the town of Wasp Water was thrown into total darkness.
Chapter Eleven
Potter
We raced toward Wasp Water. Kayla flew to my right, and Isidor, with Melody in his arms, to my left. The night was cold and my heart beat in my chest. Isidor had said that Luke had set some kind of trap there for Kiera and my friends. I could only take comfort in the knowledge that the last time I had seen Kiera was on the road on the outskirts of Wasp Water. That was soon after she had seen who she believed was me get executed. I had stood on a nearby hill and looked down at her as Meren tried to drag her away. It had broken my heart to see her in such despair and I’d wanted to go and tell her that I wasn’t really dead. But Lilly had insisted that I didn’t. Kiera’s grief had to be real or the Elders might suspect that something was wrong. Lilly had explained to both me and Jack that the Elders fed off Kiera’s sadness, that it made them strong. It’s what kept them alive. Some Vampyrus feed off human blood to keep alive, but the Elders sucked up something completely different; something much more sinister. But were the Elders even Vampyrus? I had stolen a look beneath their hoods just once, and they seemed like nothing more than skeletons covered in white leathery skin that was held in place by a patchwork of ragged stitches.
I placed my arms tight into my sides to give me greater propulsion. The three of us flew so fast that the noise we made as we tore through the night drowned out the thunder now crashing all around us. Some of the cracks looked as if they were getting bigger – deeper. I glanced up at them and stared at the nothingness behind them. It scared me a little. I looked front and shot forward, my wings pointed back like jet fighter wings as I sped through the sky. Kayla and Isidor matched my speed. I glanced at Melody as she held onto Isidor. Was I doing the right thing by taking a wolf into Wasp Water? She was one of them.
But that doesn’t mean she is like them… I heard Kayla whisper in my ear.
I wanted to trust Melody for Isidor’s sake, but trusting people – not just wolves – didn’t come easy to me. I’d been let down in the past and my mind turned to Sophie. I tried to push thoughts of her away, but I couldn’t get what Lilly had said from my mind. Did Sophie and I really have a daughter named Abbie in another layer – another where and when? There had been another Kiera and Potter in this world – but they’d had a completely different kind of relationship to the one me and the Kiera I was in love with had. The Kiera from this pushed world had murdered my other self to prove to Luke Bishop that she wasn’t the Dead Angel he was searching for. But how many layers – how many wheres and whens were there? Did they have no end like the universe itself? And what would happen if they all collided, collapsed on each other if the cracks in the layers became too many and weakened them? Lilly had said that’s why I had seen my daughter from a different when, but was there a place where another me existed with Kiera – where we were happy and had a daughter of our own?
Thinking about the whole thing was beginning to put me on a bit of a mind-fuck and I tried to clear my head of any thoughts of whens and wheres. What was the point in worrying about what my life was like in a different layer when I couldn’t even sort out the life I had in this one?
We were nearing Wasp Water and in the distance I saw what looked like a firework go shooting up into the night sky and disappear through one of t
he cracks. I glanced sideways at Kayla and she back at me. What looked like another firework fizzed up into the night sky. It shone brightly like a star before being engulfed by the crack.
“What’s that sound?” I heard Isidor yell. “It sounds like thunder, but…”
“It’s not thunder,” Melody said knowingly. “It’s wolves.”
I looked back in the direction we were heading, just as another of those odd-looking fireworks trailed up into the night sky. “What, are they throwing some kind of party? What would a bunch of wolves have to celebrate…?” Remembering the excited howls I had heard as Nik had been executed in the town square, I knew Kiera and the others were in trouble.
Dropping out of the sky, we raced over the hills and treetops toward Wasp Water. Within seconds we were swooping over the roofs of the houses and shops that lined the streets of the ancient town. Bright lights lit up the square and we darted toward it at speed. With my heart racing, I saw Kiera and Murphy shackled on the stage. I could see Rom, too, and he was dragging Meren toward a block of wood that was beneath a gleaming guillotine. Soaring over the square, but unseen by the wolves below, as they were too enthralled by what was taking place on stage, we perched on the rooftop of a nearby house. I knew we didn’t have much time to save our friends and any rescue would have to be quick. Again I glanced at Melody as she clung to Isidor.
“Can I trust you?” I asked. “You’re going to see some wolves die here tonight.”
“I’m not like these wolves,” Melody said, her eyes shining brightly back at me.
I didn’t have time to press her any further. “Isidor, you take out the lights. Melody, you take the stage and stop any of the wolves clambering up onto it. Kayla…Kayla do what you do best.”