The Enoch Pill

by Matthew William

  Meanwhile, Iris stood up and approached Morrigan, her flamethrower at her side.

  Father Morrigan stood upon the stage, a cloud of crows swarming around him.

  Kizzy hid behind a pew and watched. What should she do? Who should she help? Whomever won would come for her next. She had to pick the right moment to act.

  Iris charged at Morrigan, blasting the flamethrower from her hip, orange and yellow flames erupting into the air. Morrigan swung his arms towards her, the crows lunging over his shoulder like a black wave. They crashed into Iris. Some were engulfed in flames and fell to the floor. Others tried to grab hold of her arms and legs but she bashed them away with her pipe arm. The crows pulled her legs out from under her and she collapsed to the floor. They jumped onto her back, but she used her pneumatic lift to spring back up to her feet.

  She inched towards Father Morrigan. Frantically he sent wave after wave of crows at her, but still she moved towards him, beating and blasting away whatever bird tried to grip her.

  If Iris killed Morrigan, Kizzy knew there would be no saving Diego. And she would hunt them down forever. If Morrigan won, he would destroy whatever chance the world had at survival.

  Kizzy knew what she had to do. She snuck towards the stage and moved behind the red velvet curtains that hung behind Morrigan, holding the scythe tight against her chest. She would attack him from behind. She peeked out from the curtain. Iris was getting closer and closer to Morrigan who still had the large swarm of crows swirling around him. Kizzy took small steps out into the open. She wrapped her fingers around the scythe. She would swing it right into Morrigan’s side, his insides would probably spill out all over the floor. She took another step. Morrigan’s attention was still on Iris.

  Kizzy noticed a crow above Morrigan turn to look at her. An instant later Morrigan turned. Kizzy hadn’t made a sound. It was as if he could see what the crows saw. He swung his arm in her direction and six crows descended upon her. He turned back towards Iris. Kizzy took two swings and sent the birds sliced to the floor. Morrigan turned back.

  “Give it up!” he yelled.

  A flame came from behind him and ignited his long red robe. Kizzy could see his eyes inside the mask grow big in panic as he tried to pat it out. The crows that were circling him grabbed hold of his robes and flapped their wing against the fire. Kizzy eyed the cross in the helmet and the chain it was attached to dangling from his neck.

  This was her only chance. The crows could peck her eyes out, the fire could torch her skin or Iris could blast her to nothingness. But none of that mattered anymore. There was no lying her way out of this. She couldn’t protect herself.

  This was it.

  She ran and lunged at the cross, it hung like fruit from a tree. Kizzy grabbed hold of it. Morrigan caught her by the wrist. Kizzy yanked it away. As soon as she had the cross in her possession her sight exploded into a thousand different perspectives. It was as if her eyes had been shattered like glass. Each little section showed moving pictures. She closed her eyelids, but they were all still there. And all of a sudden she was starving. She stumbled away, dropping the cross to the floor. The thousand pictures before her eyes vanished in an instant.

  Morrigan scrambled down to the ground for the cross, but Kizzy picked it up again and her vision was once more split into a thousand pieces. She felt punch in her stomach. In some of the little sections she could see herself from above, with Morrigan on his knees in front of her. She realized she was seeing from the crow’s eyes. All of them. In some of the other fragments she could see Iris approaching them fast. Morrigan punched her again. If she dropped the cross Morrigan would take it and kill her.

  Morrigan punched her yet another time. She tasted the blood in her mouth rising up her throat. She wished she could stop him. She wished she could pull him away. The view of herself and Morrigan from different angles came into her eyes. They grew bigger. The images zoomed in on Morrigan and he was being pulled away from her, high, high, high up into the air, up near the ceiling of the church. She wanted him to be hurt. The crows let go and he dropped away from them, face first down onto the hard stone floor. He didn’t move at all.

  Kizzy saw Iris scurry to his body and reach into all of his pockets. When she found nothing she glared up at Kizzy. “It’s not here you little liar.” She blasted the flamethrower into the air and began to march.

  Kizzy wanted her to stop walking. The crows swooped onto her. Iris bashed and blasted them away. Some of the fragments went dark. Kizzy felt pain and sadness. Those crows had died. Still, she wanted Iris to stop. More of the crows swept in, only to be torched or smashed. Kizzy needed to distract her. But the only way to do that was with Diego. She couldn’t do that could she?

  She took the key from her pocket. She wanted it in the hell box. A crow flew to her, its talons pierced her arm as it snatched the key and flew it into the hole in the box. Iris’s head spun to the box as it creaked open. In a trance she began to walk towards it.

  Kizzy wanted to stop her, she needed to be stopped. The crows lunged down upon Iris, pulling her back. Her brass feet scraped across the stone floor. She mindlessly swung to free herself. The crows managed to pull the pipe from her arm, exposing the damaged metal and wires beneath. Still Iris moved ever onward.

  Kizzy needed more crows, there weren’t enough. She felt lonely. Suddenly more fragments lit up in her vision, flying into through the church windows. They descended upon Iris. They pulled her back, she battled them off. Two steps forward, one step back. More and more crows came. They latched onto whatever piece of her they could grab, arm joints, bolts, overlapping metal. Iris was almost within blasting distance of the box.

  Kizzy wanted to tear Iris apart. The images began to shake violently as the crows struggled to pull at the metal. More and more sections came to her vision. Crows grabbed onto other crows. Kizzy felt the pain of the talons in their flesh.

  Iris’s metal moaned as it began to bend. She blasted the flamethrower at the box. The fire came up short. Kizzy spread her arms out and the crows pulled more and more viciously in opposite directions. Kizzy flexed her muscles and flapped with the flock. They cawed and shrieked in pain. Iris tried to twist herself loose, but the crows had her in a death-grip. They lifted her off the floor. Kizzy’s muscles began to shake, but she couldn’t stop until Iris was stopped. She began to scream. The crows squawked with her. Her mind felt like it was going to explode. Her eyes were about to burst. She couldn’t take it anymore. The bolts in Iris’ body began to quiver. The metal began to shake. The wires began to sizzle. This was it

  “Don’t break me,” Iris said in a sad tone. “I’m in love with him. I want to make him mine. I need to...”

  In an instant Iris’s body split into twenty pieces. First her arms, then her pneumatic leg. Her head and serrated spine followed. The lights of her eyes faded to black.

  Kizzy dropped the cross and collapsed onto the floor.

  When she awoke she was completely surrounded by the crows. They stared at her blankly, one let out a whimper of a caw. Kizzy’s mouth and chin felt sticky. She touched her face. A stream of blood had poured from her nose, but it was dry and crusty now. Her brain felt as if it had been deep fried. She leaned up. A hundred crows mindlessly pecked at the brass remains of the cremation droid. Father Morrigan was nowhere to be seen. Had he escaped? Had the crows eaten him? Kizzy carefully picked up the cross from the floor using a leather bag Josephine had given her.

  Across the room Kizzy saw the hell box with its door still opened. Her heart skipped a beat. Diego must have been there somewhere. She tried to stand, but her head was spinning. She made her hands into fists and pushed off the floor. In a daze she stumbled to the box.

  Diego stood inside, perfectly still. His eyes were open. Kizzy touched his face, but there was no response. In his hand he held a small black pill bottle.

  26

>   Leo pulled up to the church in his cruiser. God, the place was a freaking mess. The windows were all shattered, bird feathers and shit were all over the place. Some crows fluttered about outside pecking at the ground. What the hell had Morrigan been doing? Something must have gone seriously wrong. It was still the middle of the night, so hopefully no one had gotten hurt. Leo got out of the car and approached the church.

  “Leo,” came a weak voice from the darkness.

  Leo nearly jumped out of his skin.

  “Thank god you’re here.”

  Leo’s eyes adjusted to the darkness until he could make out Morrigan crawling on the ground out from the church. His legs limp and lifeless behind him.

  “The girl is inside Leo, she’s taken my cross, she’s controlling the crows now. You’ve got your gun right?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got it.”

  “Well, go and finish her off.”

  Leo was quiet for a moment. “No, I don’t think I’m going to do that.”

  “Leo, what the hell is wrong with you? Go in there and take care of business.”

  “Nah,” said Leo. “I don’t want to.”

  “Ha! You don’t want to, that’s rich. You don’t have a choice.”

  “It’s just, I don’t think I can take orders from you anymore, in good conscience.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about conscience,” Morrigan said, with disgust in his voice.

  “Maybe I don’t, but I know that when I can hardly look at myself in the mirror, it’s time to make a change.”

  “Do you have a death-wish Leo?” Morrigan asked. “You can’t just make a change. It’s too late for that. I own you. If I go down, I’m taking you down with me.” Leo pulled the gun from its holster. A shot rang out into the night.

  Behind him a car engine started. Leo froze. He peaked back over his shoulder. It was Morrigan’s black Cadillac. It peeled out in the direction of the canal yards.

  ∞

  Kizzy dragged Diego’s body along the catwalk. He, like all the machinery below them was fast asleep. Kizzy groaned, he was as heavy as hell. Josephine could bring him back first. But once he was back, Kizzy wondered, could she ever really trust him again? Or had his betrayal cut her too deep? Only time would tell.

  After Diego Josephine could bring back the others too, once they located their bodies, of course. Kizzy entered the lab as Josephine was worked in a frenzy at the table.

  She glanced up and managed a microscopic nod, followed by a gasp a few seconds later when she realized Kizzy had brought a friend. “Who is this?” she asked as she ran to them, her face completely serious. “The boy you went to save?”

  “Yes,” Kizzy answered. She pulled his limp body into the room.

  “What happened to him?”

  “He took some pills,” Kizzy said. “I think he’s dead. Should we start with him?”

  “Start what with him?”

  “Bring him back to life. Then my mother and Banshee and Laura.”

  “Kizzy,” Josephine said softly. Her voice was anxious and full of pity. “I can’t bring anyone back to life. I never said that I could.”

  Kizzy went numb. Time seemed to just stop... “You’re not serious.”

  “I am. I don’t even know where you got that idea. And you said it just as you were leaving. You were off to save the world... I couldn’t tell you then. You would’ve lost all hope.”

  The floor was trembling beneath Kizzy’s feet. “You let me believe you.”

  “You were the only person in the world that could stop Morrigan.”

  Tears came to Kizzy’s eyes.

  “Once a person is gone, they’re gone,” Josephine said. “And you can’t bring them back. Nobody can. Why do you think we never brought back the people who died in the pill disaster?”

  “I just never thought of it I guess...” Josephine approached with a hand-held scanner and checked Diego’s vitals. There were no signs of life.

  Kizzy stared at Diego lying there. His eyes open, looking out into infinity. She would never make peace with him. She could never speak to him again, never to be held safe in his arms again. Never hear him sing “my love kills me” again. Kizzy fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. But he felt empty, like she was hugging a lump of meat. She sobbed quietly. Had he been telling the truth? Was Josephine trying to destroy the human race?

  “Did you get the cross Kizzy?” Josephine asked.

  “What are you?” Kizzy screamed.

  “Excuse me?”

  Kizzy looked up at the woman standing before her. Her posture erect, her hand awaiting the cross. At the far end of the room Kizzy noticed the black velvet curtain that covered the other half of the laboratory. What was back there? Was Josephine merely a machine, a monster that had used her to do her bidding? A look behind that curtain would answer everything. Kizzy jumped to her feet and ran to it.

  “What are you doing?” Josephine asked. “Wait, stop!”

  Kizzy reached out and grasped onto the black velvet. “What’s behind here?”

  “Why do you want to know?” Josephine asked.

  “I need to know the truth.”

  “Go ahead and look,” Josephine said. “It won’t change a thing.”

  Kizzy stared at the curtain. If it wasn’t hiding some sort of robotic controls what else could it be? What else would she be concealing? Was it even worth looking? If she saw something terrible, would Josephine be forced to keep her there forever?

  Kizzy ripped the curtain open. The next room was a large garden with fruit trees and shelves upon shelves of plants and vegetables. In the center was a fountain that circulated water through the system. It all moved and flowed so beautifully.

  “Are you satisfied?” Josephine asked.

  “But, why the curtain?”

  “Not all curtains are hiding something Kizzy. This one keeps the moisture out of the lab.”

  Kizzy dropped her head. Diego had believed the wrong person, and now he too was dead. She staggered back to him and put her face on his chest.

  I’m sorry I didn’t save you sooner. I’m sorry you thought I never would. Josephine put her arm around her. Kizzy began to cry.

  “He must have been so scared in that box. He thought I wouldn’t come for him. He lost all hope in me.”

  Josephine pulled her close, her body was warm against her side.

  “I don’t think I can go on,” Kizzy said.

  “You have to.”

  “I can’t.”

  Josephine walked to the table and grabbed a small round bottle of pink liquid.

  “While you were gone I was able to develop this. It’s a cure for you Kizzy. It will make you live forever again, while retaining your ability to have children.”

  Kizzy stared at her. The bottle seemed so pointless now. A few days ago she would have given literally anything for it. But now her life had been stripped of everything that made it worth living in the first place.

  “It’s the only one I can make,” Josephine said. “Your genes are decaying at too fast a rate to make anymore. The process can’t be duplicated. But you only have to take this once.”

  “I don’t want it.”

  “What do you mean you don’t want it?”

  “I mean I don’t want it.”

  “I know this is hard Kizzy. People used to go through this all the time, but they always managed to get over it.”

  “But I don’t want to get over it,” Kizzy said. “I don’t want to live if he doesn’t exist.”

  Josephine marched across the room and put the bottle in Kizzy’s hands. “You don’t have to drink it now. But take it with you.”

  “What? Should I just go home then? The police are still after me, my mother is dead
.”

  “No, not home. You have to go someplace safe. And far away.”

  “But why?”

  “I’ve developed a new Enoch compound using your blood. I think it will work. But then again, I thought the original compound would work. It could all go disastrously. And you can still have children. So you need to be removed from the equation, as a backup. Do you know any place you can go? Someplace nobody would ever find you?”

  “Yes,” Kizzy whispered.

  “Then you have to go now, while it’s still dark. I’m making the change to the compound tonight.”

  “What if it doesn’t work?”

  “Then you’ll be our only hope Kizzy.”

  Kizzy took one last look at Diego. Goodbye. I love you. She began to walk out the door. The long catwalk stood in front of her like a lonesome road.

  “Kizzy,” said Josephine, she was kneeled over Diego’s body with the scanner in her hands. “He’s not dead. At least not yet. He’s taken an overdose of mini-death pills.”

  “What?” Kizzy asked, wiping the tears from her cheek. “Are you sure?”

  “I am,” Josephine said. “I invented them myself as a potential cure, but they didn’t work. He’s going to be dead for real if we don’t help him.”

  “Whatever it takes I don’t care.”

  Josephine accidentally glanced at the elixir in Kizzy’s hand. Kizzy stared at the pink bottle. “Will this help him?”

  Josephine looked away.

  Kizzy’s lifespan had been extended back to what it once had been. Back to infinity. But it was a gray and weary road, one she didn’t want to travel. With Diego she had walked a path that was bright and beautiful, however short it had been. The only right thing to do was give back what she had taken from him. Forever had to be repaid with forever. She handed the bottle to Josephine. “I want him to have it.”