by Eli Ingle
Frivlok’s thoughts were interrupted as Zeph began making that dreadful sound between his teeth: that dry screaming sound, with his eyes bulging, turning red where the capillaries burst. Still, he did not die. What a day.
“That’s enough,” Vegalior instructed to the head surgeon. She nodded and they resumed their operation.
Vegalior moved to the other side of the room, and with great reverence picked up the smoking black blood orb in both hands. Then he turned on the spot, taking measured and ritual steps towards the boy. Black smoke poured off the orb down Vegalior’s hands and pooled around his feet. Sensing the approach of the orb, Zeph craned his neck forward to look at it, giving out a dry scream and shaking his head. Vegalior smiled as he stood at the bottom of the bed. Chanting words that clanked through their heads, Vegalior stepped forwards towards the fallen Light One. The smoke seemed to sense the change and began spiralling down into a tornado that whipped and flicked, attempting to enter the hole in the boy’s chest. The orderlies scattered out of the way, standing at the back of the room and hoping that not even one wisp of smoke would touch their bodies.
“Umbreyta,” Vegalior said and placed the swirling blood orb inside Zeph’s chest.
The boy gave one last wail of misery, the last pure sound he would ever make.
With a hiss of boiling skin, the wound over his chest sealed with an inky black scar, the smoke pouring out like gas from a vent. The operating lights flickered and went out.
Zeph was dead. Nýr was born.
Chapter Eighteen
Screaming for help, the children dived down the stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom. The adults jumped up, alarmed by their sudden appearance, and demanded to know what was happening.
“Fallen Ones! Fallen Ones!” cried Rigel, terrified.
The name froze Laurie to the spot in terror.
“What’s a Fallen One?” demanded Uncle. “What’s going on?”
Unearthly roars from upstairs alerted him to what was going on and he froze at the sound of the Fallen Ones travelling towards the stairs.
“Fools! Ungodly fools! You stupid, insolent, nasty, spoilt, rotten, goddamn awful little brats! You’ve let them in and you’ll be the death of us all!” screamed Uncle, looking unhinged and actually rather dangerous as he bore down on the children, even though he was the same height as they were.
“Don’t you speak to them like that!” hissed Laurie. “Concentrate on fighting and we’ll worry about it afterwards. They’re not going to have done it on purpose.” Rigel felt slightly better to hear Laurie standing up for them, but the screaming of the Fallen Ones soon put a stop to the good feeling.
“Talk about it afterwards?” laughed Uncle, sounding manic. “There isn’t going to be an afterwards and if there is, it isn’t going to be one worth mentioning to anyone!”
“Not with that attitude there won’t be,” snapped Jhoan as he loosened his pistols from his holsters.
“What are you going to do with those?” sneered Uncle, pointing at the pistols in Jhoan’s hand.
“Fight?” suggested the bandit.
“A fat lot of good they’ll do you. You’ll just blow holes in them and then they’ll reform again.”
“At least I’m trying to do something rather than just standing there criticising everyone!” shouted the bandit.
“At least I’m trying to do something rather than just standing their criticising everyone!” mocked Uncle in a high pitched voice.
“You know, Uncle. I don’t really like this side of you,” said Jhoan.
“Surely you’ve got something to fight with?” asked Laurie. A switch seemed to click on in Uncle’s head. He dived for a cabinet and pulled out a gun that looked almost as big as himself with a barrel the size of a small cannon. Reaching back in the cabinet, he pulled out a box of bright, shiny silver cartridges.
“That’s more like it!” said Jhoan.
“I want one!” said Laurie.
“I’ve only got one,” snapped Uncle, “and it wasn’t cheap.”
“Well what about us?” demanded Erdiz.
Jhoan sighed and loosened a revolver, which he handed to Laurie, and a bowie knife, which he handed to Erdiz. The wise-woman took it gingerly and then looked at Jhoan.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!” she said indignantly.
“You could spread butter in their general direction?” suggested Rona.
“You can talk – you haven’t even got a weapon,” he retorted.
“I’ve got these,” said Rona, waggling her hands at him.
“What is she going to do, strangle the smoke?” asked Uncle, looking distracted.
“Game plan, team,” said Laurie, largely ignoring the unhelpful commentary of events. “We’ll fire off at them and then Rona and Rigel will finish them off with a barrage. Right guys?” he asked, turning to the children. They gave him their best smiles, which slipped off their faces as soon as his back was turned. Looking at each other, white faced, they held a whispered conversation.
“What are we going to do?” Rigel asked.
“I don’t know! Can you do the thing?”
“No! Can you?”
“No!”
Rigel swore. “Well, what are we going to do then?”
“Hope for the best?” she suggested weakly.
“Yeah, that’s never really worked out too well in the past when we’ve tried it,” he commented.
Screaming from upstairs told them that the Fallen Ones had arrived at the top of the stairs and were gliding down. Smoke preceded them and their forms followed. Looking over the bannister, they screamed and increased their speed as they spotted the humans gathered down below. The adults held a tighter formation that blocked the children from view. It appeared that the Fallen Ones knew their prey was trapped, for they had made no move to rush towards them, almost as if sensing the fear of a slow approach was a more effective way to terrorise their victims.
“Ready?” asked Laurie. The group shook their heads. “Okay, fire!” The deafening roar of the guns filled the air as the barrage of bullets shot towards the creatures. Jhoan’s and Laurie’s soared through them harmlessly and hit the wall behind, ripping wallpaper and shattering plaster in clouds across the room. Uncle’s gun let off a boom and knocked him backwards with the recoil. The bullet pounded towards the creature nearer the top of the stairs and hit it, causing an explosion of black smoke as it fell backwards.
The second glided down and towards them. Erdiz threw her bowie knife with surprising dexterity and the children watched as it soared end over end towards the creature … before going straight through its head and landing harmlessly in the wall with a thud.
“Oh well, worth a try,” sighed the wise-woman. The Fallen One turned to her and raised its wraith-like hand before sending a bolt of black energy towards her. It hit Erdiz in the chest and sent her careening backwards, hitting the wall with a thump. Laurie raised his revolver and shot it in the head but the bullets continued to fly through harmlessly.
“Get down!” shouted Uncle. He had reloaded his gun and swung it round to the Fallen One. Shooting it, he recoiled as the gun blasted backwards. The bullet missed the creature due to the ricochet and blasted away a good chunk of the wall, making dust and shards of brick and stone fly everywhere. The second creature had reached the bottom of the stairs despite its previous hit and the two of them reconvened at the other side of the room. Laurie and Jhoan were out of bullets, their guns clicking pointlessly with their empty chambers. The Captain pulled the bandit to the floor and they covered their heads.
“You two, now!” he shouted, looking back at Rona and Rigel.
They raised their hands together, the fingers of their adjacent palms interlocked, and willed with all their might towards the creatures.
There was no fiery ball of white light streaking towards the creatures or even a crackling beam of energy. A flickering white mist, thin and weak looking sai
led towards one of them and burnt it, causing half of the smoky form to dissipate, but the energy it took to do so drained Rigel and Rona until they fell weakly to the floor.
“No!” cried Laurie, slamming his fist on the floor. “Do it again! Do it again right now!”
“Can’t,” whimpered Rigel between cracked lips, his vision fading.
“What the hell was that?!” screamed Uncle, distracted from the laborious process of reloading.
“Never mind!” shouted Jhoan. “Just reload your flipping gun!”
Uncle nodded distractedly, putting the heavy cartridge in the barrel and tipping the gun up. It slid to the bottom and hit with a heavy metallic thud. Raising it to his shoulder he shot one of the Fallen Ones through the head, making it explode into a cloud of smoke that disappeared entirely. The other was nearly upon him though, and he did not have enough time to reload. In his haze of near unconsciousness, Rigel realised that something strange was happening to Jhoan: he was shuddering on the floor and a brief glimpse of his eyes showed Rigel that the irises, usually a hazel brown, had turned a smoky black colour. Standing up, he spread his arms wide in front of the Fallen One as it raised its own hand towards Uncle. The blast of black energy meant for Uncle hit the bandit instead, but rather than flying towards the wall as Erdiz had, Rigel watched with horrified fascination as the energy instead swirled around Jhoan and seemed to collect in a cloud around his body. The bandit swayed as though struck with a sickness but remained on his feet. The energy began to swirl around his heart and sink into his chest like water going down a plughole. With the cloud gone, the bandit swayed, barely remaining upright.
“Surprise,” he said to the Fallen one, and reaching behind his back, grabbed the gun from Uncle barrel first, spun it over his shoulder, reloaded it, pressed it into place and shot. The creature exploded with a scream, leaving the room empty and completely blasted to pieces.
There was a moment of stunned silence whilst everyone stared at Jhoan. Except for Uncle, who was staring at where the Fallen One had disappeared.
“What the hell was that?!” Laurie demanded of the bandit, jumping to his feet and pointing accusingly at him.
Jhoan swayed on the spot before keeling over and throwing up a thick black sludge. He fell down onto his hands and knees and remained there, panting heavily before throwing up again. Rigel looked away, feeling queasy.
“Easy there,” said Uncle rubbing his back. “That was mighty impressive what you did back there …. Thank you.”
“Well, what I want to know is how he did it,” Laurie said. “And what was up with you two?” he asked, turning to the children. He seemed to be dealing with the stress of the situation by shouting at everybody. Rona started crying and managed to avoid answering the question.
Erdiz was upside down, her eyes just starting to flicker open.
“Oh don’t worry about me,” she groaned loudly. “I’m fine just here.”
Also hoping to avoid answering the question, Rigel hurried over to the wise-woman and helped her to her feet.
“What happened?” she asked. Rigel briefly told her what had happened after he had been knocked out. “Trust me to take the first hit,” Erdiz grumbled afterwards.
“We can’t stay here,” said Uncle, distracting everyone. “The house has been breached. We need to leave immediately!”
“You mean there’s more of those thin—”
“Don’t even say it!” screamed the old man. “We need to move now!” He reloaded the gun and put on a belt that allowed him to slot three cartridges through belt loops within easy reach for reloading. “Get stuff and go.”
Grabbing what bags they could handle, they were nearly out of the door when Laurie suddenly cried out.
“Food! We need food and supplies!”
“No!” shouted Uncle, grabbing him and pulling him towards the door. “If we survive the night, which, may I say, is very unlikely at this point, we can collect stuff in the morning. For now, move!”
The shouting and fighting had attracted more attention and Rigel could hear the dreaded screeching of more Fallen Ones as they broke in through the upstairs window.
“Go! Go! Go!” screamed Uncle, pushing everyone out of the door. He was about to follow Erdiz, the last one out, when he suddenly uttered a wail of despair and tried to go back inside. Laurie grabbed him and pulled him back out.
“What are you doing?!” he demanded. “We need to go.”
“My wife! I’ve left my wife and children! No!” He became frantic and was beating at the Captain, trying to get back inside. Even as Rigel opened his mouth to argue he realised it was not the time to do so.
“If we get through this then we’ll come back for them,” the Captain promised.
“No! I’ve left them once before I can’t do it again! Irene! IRENE!”
“Shut up!” shouted Jhoan, who was still looking violently ill.
Uncle was oblivious to reason now. “IRENE! IRENE!”
“Come on, you stupid old man!” shouted Jhoan unkindly and helped Laurie to drag him down the street. Uncle’s shouting had been replaced by ugly sobbing.
“I’m sorry! I’m so, so, sorry, Irene!” he wailed. “I’m sorry!”
“Shut the hell up and tell us what to do!” demanded Jhoan. Rigel was startled at the anger and resentment he saw boiling there.
“Where do we need to go?” panted Erdiz.
“Undercover,” sniffed Uncle. “Not safe here. They’ll find us. Church.”
“We should go to the church?” asked Laurie. Uncle nodded. “Which way is it?” He pointed down a side street. Hurrying down it, they arrived in a courtyard that was framed at the end by a huge church carved out of grey stone.
Running over to it, they pulled open the heavy wooden doors even as they spotted more Fallen Ones converging on their position. Inside, they pressed their shoulders against the doors and shut them with a boom, whilst Erdiz and Laurie found things to pile against them to form a barricade. The Fallen Ones slammed into the doors and screamed as they beat them, but could not make them open.
“It won’t hold forever,” reported Uncle in a dead voice. “Someone will need to keep an eye on it.”
“I will,” volunteered Jhoan. “Keep away from your crazy hide,” he muttered, but only Rigel, who was standing nearby, heard him.
“Everyone else towards the front,” Laurie instructed. Following him towards the altar; Rigel looked around as he went, noticing the details of the church. Stacked in the pews were copies of The Account of All Things That Happened and Will Be.
Various stained glass windows on either side of the church depicted demons creeping towards the front, but the central pane at the end of the church was twice the height and width of the others. Candles underneath the window made it twinkle in the dark. It showed a boy with pale skin and hair wearing white robes. A crimson cape hung over his shoulders and fanned out behind him. A sword and cane were sheathed at his belt. His eyes were closed and his palms outstretched and from these plumes of white light – depicted as elegant sheets of white glass – spread out away from him towards the approaching demons. Underneath in the glass was written “Albireo the Protector”.
“They certainly think a lot of him, don’t they?” asked Rona as she looked up at the windows.
“Or he thinks a lot of himself,” muttered Rigel.
“True ....”
Moving towards the others, they sat at the front and looked back upon the rows of pews.
“It feels kind of wrong to have all this and no-one to look at it, don’t you think?” asked Rona.
“Well that’s certainly my viewpoint,” agreed Uncle. “What’s the point in building all this and having no-one to live here? It’s been around for nearly a decade now. A decade! But they refuse to send anyone out here and I don’t know why. There was something strange going on in Jo-do town when I was leaving, but of course, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what that might hav
e been ....”
“I suppose it might be expensive for them if they’re sending people out here and they don’t want to spend the money,” suggested Laurie. “Or they don’t fund people and they don’t have the inclination to move so they stay where they are.”
“People are so lazy,” said Rona, looking gloomy.
“Why did they send me out if they don’t want to afford it?” asked Uncle.
“Great PR stunt,” commented Rigel. Everyone looked at him. “Well, it is! It makes them look as if they’re doing something positive and puts out a good image in their favour.”
“I’d never thought about it like that,” said Uncle.
“There you are, Uncle,” said Laurie, slapping him on the back, “you’re the true face of public bureaucracy!”
“I’ve been living a lie!” he cried, looking ill.
“Well done, Laurie,” said Erdiz, looking annoyed. “Our host is having an existential crisis now.”
The Captain patted Uncle awkwardly on the back as the old man sat with his head in his hands.
“There, there … it’s not your fault you’ve been lied to … you should blame the establishment,” said Laurie.
A boom from the front doors announced that that Fallen Ones were getting restless.
“We’ve got company,” reported Jhoan from the front as he struggled to keep the doors shut with his shoulder. Laurie, Rigel and Erdiz hurried towards the bandit and lent their efforts to keeping the doors pressed shut as Rona and Uncle dragged several pews between them and wedged them between two columns and the doors. Another bang from a Fallen One barely even made the wood shiver and they knew that it was safe to leave it now.
Walking back to the altar, Jhoan joined them a moment later, sitting down on the carpet.
“This is nice,” said the bandit, probably being sarcastic.
“Yes,” said Laurie, obviously not picking up on that. “I’ve always wanted to spend a night in an abandoned church with nightmarish creatures banging on the door with no hope of escape and at least six hours until daylight.”
“Careful, Laurie, you’re being so cheerful you might annoy the rest of us,” said Jhoan, rolling his eyes.