Sombre

by S. B. Norton

  Halliday licked the lips of The Morphia. For the very first time, she had almost complete control of her monster.

  She was it. It was she.

  The hunger was still there, the mindlessness wasn’t. It was as Lucretia had said it would be - the ultimate. It was as how Hamish had explained it to her as well; her Morphia was so very much darker than she. Yet it was something to relish, not to be feared. The feeling of animalistic killer intertwined with her own remarkable self. She found it both painful and exhilarating.

  But this was a pivotal moment in the mission. She couldn’t show Ether intelligence.

  “NO HALLIDAY … ME.”

  ‘Oh, well played, Hope’s Halliday! Make the miscreant move first,’ said an Other-self with another well-intentioned, but unwelcome, invasion.

  ‘Speaking for all of us, we think we like you better as this version of The Morphia. A brainy yet ugly brute – never change!’ quipped another Other’.

  Halliday’s Morphia emitted a low growl.

  Ether’s glare was as sharp as the blade he produced from under his sleeve.

  There was to be bloodshed.

  Halliday gathered The Morphia’s chain, breath quickening.

  Another blast of pain jarred her beast’s headspace as it sensed the second target again.

  Eyes shifting left to right, her monster surveyed the room with frustration. Where was it?

  “Very well,” Ether said garnering The Morphia’s attention. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of the hand that held the blade. “How fast are you beast, I wonder?”

  With a knowing smile, he vanished.

  The knife came quicker than his re-materialization.

  The Morphia spun and whipped the chain just as the tip of the blade was at its back and digging. Metal opened Ether’s face and The Morphia lunged, jaw wide and snapping. Ether’s blade stabbed at its snarling maw and Halliday’s monster caught it in its teeth, a third of the way in, biting down hard. Snarling, eyes wild, The Morphia wrenched its head sideways, ripping the blade from his grip, it spat it out letting it hit the floor. With a clawed swipe The Morphia went for the throat with the intention of removing his jugular. Ether was too fast. The temporary man vanished again. He reappeared briefly, slipping away like an illusionist, escaping through a hatch in the control cabins roof.

  Howling with rage, The Morphia followed, launching itself up and through the opening, back into the airships vast inner. Catching the edge of maintenance bridging it swung itself up. On all fours, it canvassed the bridging and spotted the enemy. Ether crossed the structural inner as if catapulted along a fast-moving conveyer. With almost comical speed he scaled an adjoining ladder-well to a fourth-tier bridge, then crashed through the thin outer wall of the airship’s ongoing dinner party.

  The Morphia sprung and gave chase, boots banging like a snare drum on the hardened aluminum of the maintenance bridging. Halliday bristled just below her beasts surface. As it scaled the rungs, her head pounded. With the pain came an absolute clarity. She now knew every inch of her monster.

  “HOPE!!!!!”

  The Morphia blurted the name of Hope of the waking world, out into the atmosphere, her namesake, her version of Halliday. Everything was suddenly one. Her mind threatened to burst through her skull. With a wounded sounding growl, it swung onto the bridging and burst through the broken wall.

  Skidding to a stop on the linoleum, The Morphia arrived at a party being quickly decimated. Ether working as a blur. The smartly dressed and smarmy passengers it had ran into upon entry were dropping to the floor, bodies folding like ribbons; unfinished cigars and cigarettes rolled around the room. Small fires were gaining momentum fast.

  The Morphia stood in the rooms centre, tense and ready to lunge, watching one murder then another and another.

  It searched for two, it still felt two – yet it only saw one. His dark hair and raincoat appearing as shadow-motion at each victim’s back, just seconds before they were felled.

  The mission was almost over, the target, Ether, was tantalizingly close.

  Halliday held The Morphia back. Her smarts telling her that Ether would have to be closer for her monster to have its best chance. “Patience, monster,” she spoke out loud for the first time, with her intelligence - yet in The Morphia’s tone, a low and evil command.

  Another violent stab of agony tore through The Morphia’s head, from one temple to the other. Bracing its skull with both hands, shutting its eyes, it howled with pain. Valuable seconds passed.

  Ether taunted, his waspish voice enveloping the room. “So close! You need to stop this, monster! But can you stop this? I am Sombre’s future! I am plague! I am this world’s forever!”

  The Morphia opened its eyes.

  And Halliday saw it.

  The presence she had been feeling all along flashed into view, in the corner of the room. The figure of a girl. Peering down. It flickered and then vanished like bad transmission.

  “UHHHH!” Confused, The Morphia gasped. Halliday switched the beast’s focus from the real target, then back to where the girl had stood. Power coursed through her body, a violence so pure, boiled and craved release.

  Something still told Halliday to hold her monster back, just a few seconds more.

  “Act, beast!” Ether slung another male victim to one side and then threw the fellows Beating Clock, the timepiece hitting her square in the mouth.

  The Morphia growled, chest heaving, spit spraying from its open grimace.

  ‘Oh, I agree with the smelly wet fellow! Finish the bastard!’ said an Otherself, ‘You have control of your Morphia, Hope’s Halliday. Something none of us had ever achieved! Do it now!’

  ‘I was close! Let’s not forget that!’ said another Other’, indignant. ‘

  ‘No, you weren’t, you liar!’ the first Otherself countered with a laugh.

  ‘I was!!!’

  ‘No, you ruddy well weren’t!’

  The ill-timed exchange went on, eventually fading to the background.

  Halliday still held The Morphia back. Smoke now engulfed the room. She blinked away tears from its weeping eyes.

  A mere shadow in the fiery grey dark, now just a foot away from The Morphia, Ether screamed with frustration, “What is wrong with you monster? Act!!!!”

  Like a fast-moving smoky apparition, the girl, came running back into the room. The time was now.

  “ACT!!!!” The Morphia mimicked and lunged. Mouth snapping, it ripped into Ether’s upper cheek as its full body hit the temporary man, with a vicious slam into the floor. “Kill me beast! This is what you do!” Ether laughed madly, wrapping his long thin arms around Halliday’s monster. “Show her your potential! Your potency! Through your pitiless dark comes clarity for all! This road you are on is incalculable! Could it even be infinite? So full of opportunity! Show herrrrrrr!!!!!!” Ether slurred and fell into silence as he was gored. Hands ripping into his torso; pulling out fistful after fistful of flesh and organ. The Morphia’s teeth cracked then crunched cheekbone, mauling Ether’s eye sockets - its tongue spat out the temporary man’s jellied eyes as if they were rotten food. The Morphia ripped Ether into two pieces, then four, then six. It all took seconds.

  Finished, it picked up the monster’s long-haired skull. Prying the jaw wide open, The Morphia ran its chain through the mouth, rammed it through the back of the cranium, and let it hang. This time Ether hadn’t been hollow – he was solid, human, man.

  The mission was complete.

  Halliday transformed; her jaw shrinking, mouth easing into a loose smile, before grimacing once her nostrils copped the full brunt of the smoke. Her fingers felt stiff and sore as she wiped them down the front of her dress. Everything was aching, everything felt heavy.

  “Oh, this is all sorts of trouble,” she understated with a throat as dry as stale bay leaf. “Time to go.”

  A cracking explosion shook the area as she spun in a tired pirouette and made back toward her entry; flames at her boot heels, flames at
her back, licking at the hem of her dress.

  Ahead, she saw the hazy shape of Ether’s accomplice, bolting through the smoke.

  “A-ha! -Cough! - Wait! You’ll be wanted by the Menders, you devil’s left-hander, you! -Cough! -Cough! -” She tried again, “you there! Girl! Stop …!”

  Halliday threw herself out through the smashed entrance wall as another explosion followed her onto the maintenance bridging. Landing on all fours, she peered up as the girl climbed the ladder-well, fast, higher and higher toward the top of the airship’s massive envelope. Halliday started her own climb up, right as the airship was showing the first real, horrifying signs of faltering. The fourth-tier fire had quickly ignited the bottom of the envelope, its gas filled gut exploding. A sea of whirring and folding flames ripped through the ship’s framework. The craft only had seconds left in the air.

  Eyes only for her target, Halliday now had a better view of Ether’s accomplice; as out-of-place on this airship as a barking cat in a dog kennel; she wore trainers and jeans, a white, short sleeved t-shirt. Was there something familiar about this brown-haired girl? Not that she could see the transitive’s face at all, she’d not looked down once.

  The girl crossed a girder to a torn opening and climbed out.

  “Goodness! Like a whippet!” Halliday marveled at her pluck.

  That was the last she saw of her.

  Halliday scaled the ladder faster as a swirling pool of gas flame whirred and fizzed, an airborne hell-pit at her boot heels. Deciding that her best chance of any sort of survival was as The Morphia, Halliday engaged once again.

  Without hesitation, The Morphia jumped. Its master crossed her fingers and hoped she didn’t have to lose another stroke.

  Like one massive, burning, skeletal tea bag, the airship’s walls quickly disappeared as more explosions filled the air of Loew Avion. Spreading the destruction, flames caught every surrounding wing and fuselage, rotor and balloon – greedy in its impending demise, the airship was to take plenty of unwilling participants with it on the plummet down to the tarmac.

  It all fell down.

  CHAPTER 34

  Take out at The Kelley’s

  Friday evening, Evelyn Kelley had invited Hope’s new friend around for a meal. On the menu: takeout taco’s and enchiladas, cokes and ice cream. The typical Health and Co. inspired fair had been vetoed for a showing of parental coolness.

  An unusually bubbly Kate Kelley approved of both Parker and the food, she wiped salsa from her mouth. “If we start eating like this, I might invite my friends over more often. This is yum!”

  Not really sharing the same love of the meal, Devan Kelley cleared his throat and pressed a napkin to his mouth. “So, Parker. Hope’s relatively new to Centurion High, what do you think of the school? How long have you lived in Pento?” He took a big skull of his water and smiled warmly.

  Using her napkin, Parker wiped her mouth. “Mum moved me and my brother here when I was five. And I have to tell you, Mr. Kelley, it’s been a pleasure ever since …” she smiled raising her eyebrows, not quite able to take a break from the Parker Wright brand of sarcasm.

  Hope glanced over at her mother; Evelyn Kelley chewed her food slowly and studied her daughters new friend. She had worn a weak smile ever since Parker stepped through the door.

  Parker continued, “Actually, Pento’s quite nice really. Even in the part where we live. The bins get emptied before they get kicked over; they have a go at removing the graffiti here and there. We’ve got pretty much everything.” She gazed down at the rest of her meal and picked up her fork. “Centurion’s alright as well. Has your usual teenage cliques and dramas I suppose. The football team’s only so-so; I know, I used to cheer’ for them.” She broke off more burrito with her fork. “They won the regional championship a few years back.”

  “I can’t wait to go,” Kate said.

  Hope slowly shook her head at her sister. “My god you lie, Kate! You called it a hole the other morning.”

  “Every school’s a hole …” Kate shrugged, “… we just gotta go.”

  “Ha! Well said!” Parker giggled as she sipped her Coke.

  Evelyn Kelley rolled her eyes. “Don’t encourage her, Parker. She’s a semi-solid B student at the moment. I’d rather she didn’t slip any further upon entry into high school.”

  “Thanks, mother!” Kate said and blushed.

  “You make your bed, Kate, you lay in it.”

  She swung the subject back to the antics of the previous day, “So, skipping school you two. I’m not a fan. Not a fan of getting calls. Not much of a fan of any of that sort of thing, really.”

  Thankfully, Parker came in with a save before Hope could.

  “Oh, no, Mrs. Kelley, you don’t need to worry, that’s was just a oncer’! Seriously, Jerry’s just an extended family friend who’s ran in to some trouble – mixing with a bad crowd. I’ve been watching out for him since the first time he got beat up and crashed into Hope. Actually, that was sort of how Hope and I met.” Parker finished, tying the bow up tight on the lie.

  Nails tapping on her glass of water, Evelyn gave them both a knowing smile, a slow nod of the head. “Okay, just don’t want your grades to slip. That boy sounds like trouble you don’t need.”

  The two girls gave each other a look and got up from their seats. Parker nodded to both parents.

  “Thank you for the meal. It was nice.”

  Wiping her mouth, Kate got up with them, “Hope, can I hang out?”

  “No,” was Hope’s curt reply as she pushed her glasses up on her nose and left the dining room. She knew Kate just wanted to witness her weird big sister hanging with the new cool older girl.

  “So, do you reckon I passed the ‘folks’ test?” Parker said keeping her tone low as she glanced around the living room on the way to the front door. “I like your house - looks brand new.”

  “Thanks.” Hope said giving the room an offhanded once over. She burped and rubbed her stomach; the semi ingested Mexican sat like a cheesy brick in her insides. “Geez, I think a walk will be a good idea …”

  She pulled open the front door and let Parker step out first. The night was warm, a gentle breeze relaxed the senses, that sometimes special - twilit time as the day slipped away lazily to a close. Hope breathed in deep and exhaled as they hit the sidewalk. She answered Parker’s original question.

  “I think they’re both just happy I have a real friend – the well’s been fairly dry for a while there. But we wouldn’t want to be skipping school too often,” Hope said gazing down at the ground, “Sorry about my mother, with the sermon about us skipping school and the rest. She got a bit carried away. Not like her.”

  Parker shrugged, “Your folks are a little tightly wound, but at least they care Hope. My gem of a mother didn’t even mention it. Too busy pouring wine down her throat. She’d had a hard day, yesterday. She has a few too many hard days, really …” she sighed and shrugged, “Anyway, to change the subject - do we think Ether is actually gone now? Now Halliday has done the business in Sombre.”

  Hope pulled her hair out of its ponytail and gave it half a tussle. “I wouldn’t have a clue. I think Halliday thought it was finished at the time. Her Morphia monster thing certainly made a mess of him. He was very dismembered.”

  Looking straight ahead down the quiet road, Parker raised her eyebrows and grinned savagely. “Cool as fuck.”

  “Colonel Em Contusion played her part as well,” Hope added.

  “Oh, good god! That’s all sorts of bullshit, Hope! Don’t make me laugh! I don’t need you to extend me some sort of dream charity! Ha! You know, when your monster was swinging on the axle of that bi-plane, and that spikey haired aviatrix woman was climbing all over the wings in mid-air?”

  “Yeh.”

  “Well, I’m sure my Em Contusion was just sitting in the back seat actually making plane noises with her mouth! You know, like ‘bbbbrrrrrrruuuuuuummmmm!!!!!’ She’s just a fucking skull full of marbles, isn’t she!”
>
  The two girls burst into laughter.

  “Em’s a little endearing though, you have to admit,” Hope said.

  “I suppose so. I’m still just a little stunned at who I got lumped with. Maybe she’ll sharpen up sooner or later.”

  “She might,” Hope agreed as the two girls reached the end of the street and turned down another.

  Hope gazed up at a lazy looking, orange sun as it hovered over a pitched landscape of suburban rooftops - a day in Pento drawing to a close. At this moment, she was about as relaxed and contented as she could ever remember being. The food in her belly seemed to be finally digesting, the hour had just passed eight pm on a Friday night, and she wasn’t already indoors in her pajamas. Indeed, she was walking the streets with a cool Parker Wright. She felt like some sort femme-warrior post battle; having just vanquished a dream demon of the highest order, both here on earth and as Halliday in Sombre. The only thing left undone was her book report on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

  She would finish it tonight.

  Parker, who had been scrolling on her phone, continued to do so as she shared some news, “Huh! Shit, eh? Guess what?”

  “What?” Hope watched a small gang of what looked like twelve-year-old boys about a hundred feet up the road. They were flipping skateboards and trying to land back on, to varying degrees of success.

  “Just got a message through the social-pipeline. Jerry Cowle has been admitted to a psyche ward upstate for treatment,” Parker said without even a hint of humour.

  Hope stopped in the middle of the path. She had to catch her breath. Jerry. Mental hospital. Upstate. That was what she heard.

  “Parker, what does that mean?”

  The older girl shrugged, “It means he’s ridin’ the barking bus, I guess.”

  “He probably still thinks he’s Captain Andrew Pfeiffer,” Hope said in horrified wonder.

  “I’d say the poor thing has gone full-blown Andrew, actually. At least he’s alive. I thought he was dead.” Parker said not taking her eyes from her phone.

  Sombre had actually sent someone mad. The cold reality of their situation suddenly dawned on Hope. The setting sun now seemed ominous, reminding her of the orange orb from the day before. The orange orb that had guided them to the bizarre house that was shaped like her. The house full of her past and warnings about her future. Ether telling her to wake up or she would die a thousand deaths. That it was all for her and she had to wake up. Wake up to what?