by R. W. Ridley
I looked at the drawing. “I know what this picture means, Wes. I can’t tell you how or why, but I know what I’m supposed to do. What I will do.”
He placed his hands on his hips. “Well, I ain’t going to let you do it. The Storytellers have created this world, right? And they’ve written what we all do and say. Well, I’ve been written to stop you from doing some idiot thing like turning Délon.”
I held up the drawing. “Nate is a Storyteller, Wes. He can change a story. He may not be able to write, but he drew this picture. He can make things happen. This isn’t what I’m supposed to do. This is what I’m going to do.”
“No you ain’t!”
I tried to calm myself. “There’s no use discussing this, Wes. This is the way it’s going to be done.” I turned to Tyrone to tell him to stay behind with April when my world suddenly went dark. My mind felt like it was being sucked out of my head. I had a vague notion that I was falling at some point, but I was in a pitch black void before I could put together any thoughts.
***
When there was light again, a white fuzzy haze covered everything. The haze wasn’t outside. The haze was in my brain. I blinked to clear my vision. A tree branch came into focus. Soon I was able to make out the handrail of a platform. Looking past it I could see the rocky hill.
I attempted to lean forward by I couldn’t move. Looking down, I saw that I was sitting on the platform. When I attempted to move my arms, I was faced with the reality that they were tied behind my back.
The world wasn’t completely spinning, but it was rocking back and forth a bit. I forced my eyelids wide open and called out. “Hey!” My head throbbed. “Somebody! Wes! Tyrone! Gordy!”
“They’re gone,” I heard April say.
“Gone?” I shook my head to try to clear out the fog. “Where did they go? What did you do with them?”
“They went into the cave.”
“The cave? No, no, they can’t do that. I’m the one... I should be in the cave. The drawing...”
April shrugged. “I guess Wes didn’t see it that way. He smacked you upside the head with a good-sized rock when you weren’t looking. Made the others drag you here and tie you up. Told me to look after you ‘til they got back.”
I struggled to pull my hands free, but it was impossible. I felt around blindly with my fingers until I understood how I was tied up. One end of the rope was tied to one wrist and then stretched around the trunk of the tree where the other end of the rope was tied to my other wrist. “Where did they even get the rope?” I asked.
“They took it off the walkway.”
“Untie me,” I said.
“Can’t,” she said walking out of view.
“C’mon, April. They need me.”
“No,” she said, “they don’t.” Her voice seemed to be dropping.
“I’m not playing games,” I said fighting against the ropes.
“I’m not either, Oz Griffin.” Her voice was much deeper.
I tilted my head back to try to get a look at her. I could only see movement. “April...”
“April isn’t here anymore.”
I saw a pair of legs step out in front of me. They weren’t wearing the jeans April had been wearing. They were clad in black. I scanned up to the face. It was a Délon, the Délon, the Pure.
He squatted next to me. “Why do you insist on walking around like this?” he asked. “Humans are so weak.” He leaned in and held his purple face with dead eyes just inches from mine.
“Wha-where’s April?”
“April?” He leaned back and in an instant his face morphed into April’s. “You mean April.” He morphed back to his ugly face. “She served her usefulness. She’s no longer necessary.”
“I don’t understand. How did you...”
“Oh, you are wasting so much time with these stupid questions. I am the Pure, Oz Griffin. I’m not bound by the limitations of my fellow Délons. They can only assume their old human forms. I can assume any human form.”
“What happened to April? What did you do with her?”
“I found her in the closet where you imprisoned her.”
I had to think hard to remember what closet he was talking about. “In the Biltmore. The basement.”
“She was so miserable. I did her a favor really.”
“What favor?”
He smiled and with it sent little needles of pain through the back of my head. “Let’s just say I got hungry and she was so very frightened.” He rubbed his hands together. “Frightened blood tastes so, so spicy.”
I gritted my teeth and jerked against the ropes.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s it. Get mad. I need you to get very, very angry.”
A terrible thought came to me. “You kissed me.”
He nodded. “I did. I did. You are just so... charismatic, Oz Griffin. How could I not?”
“What do you want from me?”
He held up Nate’s drawing. “I want what your Storyteller wants.”
“What?”
“For you to turn. To be what you were meant to be once and for all. To join me and help me take back what is mine. To give me the source.”
“I am Creyshaw,” I said.
He laughed. “You are many things, Oz Griffin, but the only one that counts is the Délon you.”
I pulled on the rope and screamed in frustration.
“You can break that rope, Oz Griffin,” the Pure said. “You just have to become who you really are.”
I felt myself begin to warm up. My blood was getting hotter.
The Pure sniffed the air. “There it is,” he said with a sickening delight. “You’ve found it.”
“Let me go!”
“No,” he said slapping me.
The pain felt good. It felt warm. I needed the warmth.
He slapped me on the other side of my face. “Wake up, Délon! Wake up!”
The anger was building and my blood was beginning to boil. I heard the strands of the rope snapping and cutting into my wrists. I was bleeding. I wanted to bleed. I wanted to make others bleed. Bostic. I wanted to tear the skin from his body.
“There are those eyes. Those beautiful Délon eyes. Those beautiful dead eyes.”
The rope broke and I brought my hands forward. My skin was purple, the pale lifeless purple of a Délon. I stood and stared at the Pure. I was flooded with hatred for him, but I didn’t want to kill him. I wanted to serve him.
“Welcome home, Oz Griffin,” the Pure said. “Are you ready to fulfill your destiny? To be who you were always meant to be?”
I thought about his question. “I am.”
He pointed to the cave. “Kill those humans. All of them. It’s time you eliminate everything that makes you weak.”
I felt an odd sense of joy that he wanted me to kill the humans. I did not bother climbing down the tree to the ground. I leapt over the handrail and landed like a cat on the ground.
“Once your humanness is behind you, your future is limitless. The world belongs to the ruthless, Oz Griffin. Ruthless is what you have always done best. We are here because of your ruthlessness. This is who you are. Nothing can stop you now.”
I climbed up the trail to the cave. Délon blood was rushing through my veins. I wanted my legs to carry me faster, but I also wanted to savor every moment thinking about killing the humans.
Standing in the mouth of the cave, my Délon eyes did not need to adjust to the darkness. I could see perfectly. The entire interior of the cave was moving. Tilting my head and focusing on the shadows, I could see what the movement was. The walls and ceiling were thickly covered in climbers, like bats hiding in the darkness.
I stepped inside the cave and the climbers went berserk. Some jumped to the cave floor and charged me at full speed, while others charged me from above.
The first wall of climbers reached me and jumped me, covering nearly every inch of my Délon body. They dug their tiny little claws into me. I stomped the ground and threw my arms
out to my side. This sent most of the climbers soaring backwards and exploding on impact with the cave walls and floor.
A second wave of climbers descended on me, and I disposed of them in the same way. More waves of climbers came, and they were all dealt with easily. I started to wonder why I had refused my Délon side before. I felt invincible.
I kept moving forward and entered a chamber. The ground was crawling with Banshees. They moved like waves, and if I didn’t have my Délon vision I might have thought the movement was water sloshing about.
Dead center stood Bostic holding a torch. “Oz?
“Bostic,” I said with a voice that wasn’t mine.
“Holy crap, you went full on crazy purple on me.”
“Where are the humans?”
“Humans?” He tilted his head from right to left. “You mean your friends.”
“I mean the humans.”
“They’re here. Don’t you worry your pretty little spider-leg head about them.”
“Where?” I yelled so loud the cave wall cracked.
“Okay, okay, let’s not get too excited. Look to your left over there on the ground,” he said pointing.
I looked to my left and he whistled. The mass of worms cleared away and revealed Tyrone lying as still as possible.
“He’s alive. I just advised him not to make any sudden movement. I only got so much control over these Banshees, you know.”
Tyrone looked up at me and hid his shock at my appearance. “Help,” he said barely moving his mouth.
Bostic whistled again, and the worms crawled back over Tyrone. “They’re all here. Just as still and alive as angry boy is there.”
“What do you want?” I asked. I wasn’t interested in the least, but I thought I would play his game.
He laughed. “You. I want you.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone and everything else wants you. You’re some kind of golden boy bargaining chip... or should I say purple boy bargaining chip?”
“And what do you expect to get for me?”
“Anything I want. The Myrmidons were going to give me 100 of their own kind for you. Do you understand? They were offering themselves up as cattle just to get their hands on you.”
“They don’t want me,” I said.
“I beg to differ. They were pretty damn clear on that point.”
“They want the Source. I am not the Source.”
Bostic tilted his head to the right. “I don’t think you got the slightest idea what you are, boy.”
“You’re wrong about that. I am Délon.” I stepped down onto the chamber floor, squashing a worm in the process.
“Now don’t do anything rash,” he said nervously. “One whistle from me and my Banshees will tear into you like pigs on a bucket of slop.”
“Then I will have no value to you.”
“Well, now that is true, but I will be alive and given a choice between you alive and me alive, I’ll go with me every time.”
I kept moving towards him. The worms suffered as I did. “Where is the girl?” When the words came out of my mouth it startled me. Why had I asked about the girl? What difference did it make to me where she was?
“The girl? Oh, right the girl. Your girlfriend. I almost forgot. She’s here. Want to see her?”
I should have said no, but the word yes fell out of my mouth.
Bostic whistled twice this time, and a group of worms in the back cleared away. “Stand up, girl.”
I saw her stand, wiping the gook from the worms off her exposed skin. She caught a glimpse of me and gasped. “What are you doing, Bostic?”
“I ain’t doing nothing. He asked to see you.”
“No, I mean why is a Délon here? Don’t tell me you’re trying to make a deal with them.”
“Deal?” He snickered. “Honey, don’t you recognize your boyfriend when you see him?”
“Boyfriend?” She craned her neck forward and focused through the darkness. “Oz?”
I did not respond to her. In fact, I forced myself to look away from her. For some reason I couldn’t hold onto my anger while looking at her. “There will be no deals made. I am not a bargaining chip. I am Délon.”
“You don’t seem to understand there, Mr. Oz Griffin. I don’t care if you’re purple and nasty now. I will have my worms eat your friends if you don’t agree to give yourself up to me. It’s as simple as that.”
“Not if I kill them first,” I said rushing him. I clasped my hand around his throat before he could whistle. He dropped his torch and placed both hands around my wrist.
“Oz,” Lou said. “Stop!”
I kept my grip around Bostic’s throat, but shifted my dead eyes to her.
“Don’t kill him. You can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s holding the worms back. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but they obey him.”
“She’s right,” Bostic said through smashed vocal chords. “They’ll all die.”
I squeezed a little harder. “I don’t care.”
“You’ll die, too,” he somehow managed to say.
I eased my grip slightly.
“I don’t care how big and strong you are now, the worms will eventually get you. There’s too many of them. You saw what they did to the Myrmidons.”
He was right. I would die. If I died, I could not serve the Pure. I eased my grip even more.
A flash went off in my head. Nate’s drawing. I was holding something. The egg. “Where’s the backpack?”
“What backpack?” Bostic asked.
“There,” Lou said pointing to the cave wall behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the pack sitting on an outcropping of rocks. I turned to her. “Bring it to me.”
She moved carefully through the mass of worms.
I felt the muscles in Bostic’s jaw tense up, and I knew he was about to whistle. I tightened my grip again to stop him. “Okay,” he said with a wheeze. “Okay.”
Lou made it to the backpack and turned to bring it to me when a worm as big as a man stretched up to investigate her. She put her hand over her mouth to muffle her scream.
“Call him off,” I said to Bostic. “No tricks or I snap your neck.”
He breathed awkwardly and let out a short whistle.
The large worm immediately retreated.
Lou continued to me and held out the pack.
“Open it,” I said.
She did as requested.
“Give me what’s inside.”
She reached in and pulled out the egg.
Bostic’s eyes widened and I tightened my grip before he could say anything or whistle.
“Hand it to me.”
She reached out. I didn’t take it right away. I studied her face. There was something about it that unnerved me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. As I reached for the egg, the word “beautiful” popped in my head. It was a strange word to my Délon brain. It sent waves of pain through my skull. When I touched her hand, I saw us sitting on a wagon being pulled by Phil and Ryder. I saw Nate in his baby sling around Lou’s shoulder. I saw her looking up at me and telling me about her grandmother seeing the magic in people. My knees buckled a little, but I regained my composure and took the egg.
Bostic’s eyes shifted from the ball of goo to me. He was terrified.
I moved my hand up his neck and applied pressure to both sides of his jaw. “I’m going to need you to open wide,” I said.
He shook his head rapidly.
I squeezed the pressure points and his mouth opened against his will. Before he could close it, I shoved the egg in his mouth and then covered his mouth and nose with my hand. Recalling what he had said to me earlier, I said. “C’mon, Bostic. Swallow it, and it will be done. Won’t have another care in the world. I guarantee it.”
His eyes bulged as he fought the need to swallow and breathe. He attempted to free himself from my grip, but it was no use.
“Oz,” Lou said. I s
ensed she wanted to tell me to stop, but she knew that there was nothing else to be done. She knew he had to be dealt with. If he wasn’t, he would continue his business of befriending travelers, offering them shelter and food, and then feeding them to the worms.
Bostic slapped my arm in a last ditch effort to loosen my grasp. Then his eyes closed, and he swallowed the egg. I released him.
He fell to his knees gasping and coughing, with his hands clutching his throat.
The sound was faint at first. You could barely make it out. But, the worms noticed it right away. The climbers who had entered the chamber heard it, too.
Bostic put his hand over his stomach and looked up with a helpless expression. When his mouth dropped open, you could clearly hear the egg screaming from inside his stomach.
He stood. “I’m dead.”
“You are,” I said.
The worms slowly started to slither his way.
“What am I going to do?” he asked in a shaky voice.
I pointed to a tunnel behind him and simply said, “Run.”
Backing away, he watched the worms as they followed him. One of the smaller worms hissed and nipped his leg. He yelped, turned towards the tunnel, and ran. The worms burrowed underneath the soil and pursued him, while the climbers bounded through the chamber and gave chase.
Wes, Gordy, Tyrone, Ajax, and Ariabod all stood wiping the worm slime from their clothes and bodies.
“I am so over this kind stuff,” Gordy said. “This just ain’t necessary.” He saw me for the first time. “Whoa!”
“Oz?” Wes asked
Tyrone pulled his knife from its sheath.
“Put that away,” Wes said.
I backed away from them. I wanted to kill them. I had to kill them, but something in me held me back. “No, don’t put that away. You should all have weapons.”
The two gorillas bared their fangs and bluff charged, pounding their chests as they did.
Lou stepped between them and me. “Don’t hurt him!”
Hearing her voice, I knew she was what was holding me back. I wasn’t full Délon when she was around. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t embrace the anger and hate that fed the Délon part of me.