Earthbound and Down ebook 20170826

by Shaun Meeks

  But a picture of Godfrey in his current state being sent out all over Facebook and Instagram would send things into chaos. So, it’s best to take this as slow as possible. That’s what I am thinking when Godfrey grabs the handrail and leaps clear to the other side. Fifteen feet as if it was nothing.

  Must be nice.

  “Hurry,” he says, and motions towards me.

  “Easy for you to say, Frogger. Maybe you should’ve grabbed me before you jumped.”

  “I would’ve if you’d stop getting donuts at Tim Hortons,” he says, and mocks having a big gut while pointing at me.

  “Are you trying to say I’m fat?” I say, offended at the implication.

  “Not trying. I am. Is Rouge a chubby chaser? Oh that’s right, fat people like you don’t run so there’s no need to chase.”

  Oh, he’s having a ball over there, trying to call me fat. I’m going to get over there and see just how my fat foot fits up his reptile ass in a second. First, I have to make it across.

  There’s two ways I can do this. I can balance beam on the handrail, or slowly make my way over using the skeletal frame of the bridge. Either way there’s a huge risk of falling, but I need to get over there no matter what. I decide the latter way is the only safe way to go and I just do it.

  It’s slow and tedious work. I inch my way over and after what feels like an hour, but is more like five minutes, I’m beside Godfrey.

  “It’s about time.” He chuckles and slaps my back.

  “Seriously, I’m about to throw you off of here.”

  “Maybe you can try and fight me later. For now, let’s get this over with, Tubs.”

  I elbow him hard in the ribs and then slowly open the door into the building I’m hoping to find the Colossus’. Right away the smell hits me and I know we’re in the right place. The smell is a little like cat urine, but there’s more to it than that. There are hints of mould, decaying bodies of animals and sulphur. Not sure what all of that means, but it could very well have something to do with the Colossus’.

  I let the door close quietly and when it does we are plunged into darkness. It’s so intense, like nothing I’ve ever seen before and my usual keen eyes are having a lot of trouble adjusting. I close them for a count of ten, do it as hard as I can and then open and it’s still thick black everywhere. That usually helps at the very least.

  “You need a hand?” Godfrey asks, and I feel his hand on my arm.

  “I can’t see a thing,” I admit.

  “Hold on to me and I’ll lead you down the stairs. Maybe it’ll get better.”

  I certainly hope so.

  As blind as I’ve ever been I hold onto Godfrey as he leads me along what feels like a hallway and then I hear the slight sound of a door opening. He warns me of stairs ahead and I carefully feel my way down. We get through three levels and find nothing. On the main floor Godfrey tells me he’s having trouble finding a door to any sort of basement or cellar. I decide to let go of him and feel along the walls in hopes of finding it. Down here the smell is worse than ever, but it’s only a smell. It can’t hurt me.

  My hands slide along the wall and it’s filthy. There is grim which feels a lot like soot, but there’s a slimy feel to it, very oily. I have the urge to wipe my hands off, but as I’d only dirty them again there’s no point. I keep going. Through the filth and the stench I move on…and I find it.

  Finally!

  I get Godfrey’s attention by waving my hands wildly in every direction. I have no idea where he is so I have to look like an idiot in hope that he sees me. I don’t want to call out to him and alert whatever might be below, so it’s arm waving or nothing. I hear his feet on the floor, clawed toes scrape along the ground and then he’s beside me. It’s then that panic starts to fill me a bit.

  “Are you ready for this, Dillon?” Godfrey asks, and even though I can’t see his face I can hear the hesitation in his voice.

  “Not really, but what choice do I have? I want to end this.”

  “Good. Turn around so I can get the sceptre out.”

  Once that’s done, the sceptre in hand, I reach out and push the door inwards. It’s quiet, not rusty like the others, as though it’s been used more recently. Once it is ajar, I see light flickering from below and I breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted was to have to face off against the Colossus’ in total darkness. That wouldn’t be fun.

  I put the sceptre in my right hand, the same arm that has the symbol carved in it. I take a final long breath and move slow and quiet down the stairs. I’m halfway down when I can hear a voice. It’s Garcia. He’s here already. Damn it. I should’ve known, but I was hoping he wouldn’t be able to find the place so fast. I stop for a second to listen.

  “…no! You promised. I did everything you asked, now give me my son and I’ll give you the book.” He sounds terrible, like a man on the verge of tears and madness. I’m sure that stern look has melted away and has been replaced by something sad and pathetic. I can’t really blame him. The man loves his son.

  “This is not a place for bargains, Detective. Give me the book or my Colossus here will simply take it from your dead hands. And then, they’ll eat your son. Does that sound fair to you?” It’s the voice of the shadowy man, something foreign and yet so familiar. If he’s here and the Colossus’ are too, this can be all over in a matter of minutes. Kill them, and then him.

  “I just want my son,” I hear Garcia say weakly. He sounds so close.

  “Then give me the book. Stop this or I will lose my patience. The book if you please.”

  I can’t wait any longer. I have to get down there before Garcia has a chance to give him the book. I don’t even know why the shadowy man wants it so bad, but the fact that he does want it at all means I have to stop it.

  With the sceptre tightly gripped in my hand, I run down the stairs fast. I don’t know if it’s quiet or not and I don’t care at this point. Time to attack.

  “Don’t do it, Garcia. Don’t give him the book!” I yell this out as I hit the bottom of the stairs and take in the scene. The room is big, three times as wide as it is tall and it’s over thirty feet in height. There are tools and machines all over, partial dismantled barrels, and a few tables scattered around us. On one of the tables is a child I’m assuming is Garcia’s son. The boy is tied down and unconscious. Right behind the child, facing me, is the shadowy man. He’s wearing a hood up over his head so I can’t see his face, but his body language tells me just how unhappy he is to see me. That’s what I was hoping.

  “Give him his kid back and it’ll just be us, asshole!” I yell, and move forward. I turn and look at Garcia. “Whatever you do, don’t give him that book.”

  “In fact,” Godfrey says, and comes around me towards the detective, “I’ll take that for you. Keep it safe.”

  “Jesus Christ!” is all Garcia musters to say, as he pulls the book tight to his chest.

  “No. I’m Godfrey.”

  “Detective, it’s all right, he’s with me. He’s here to help us get your son back and stop all of this,” I tell him, and he looks at the monster lizard with fear nearly swallowing him up. I don’t know what to tell him to make him feel better, but I’d better act fast. I turn away from Garcia and look at the shadowy man who is backing away from us, nearly disappearing into the shadows.

  “You told me you killed him, Detective. Now your son will pay for your lies. I’m sorry it had to be like this.”

  And then the shadowy man is gone, swallowed by the dark behind him.

  “He’s going to kill my son! You ruined it. He was about to let Phoenix go and you ruined it!”

  I run over to him and grab the book from his hands. He fights for a moment, but releases it, and then I see why. From his coat he’s pulled a gun, the same one he already shot me with, and no doubt means to do again. I nearly drop the book at the sight of it, but Godfrey
acts quickly. He rips the gun from the man’s hand and tosses it away.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Godfrey growls. “Go and get your son and get out of here while you still can.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing, Garcia,” I say, and put the book back in my bag. “I have a sinking feeling things are about to get bad in here.”

  I’m guessing he knows I’m hinting that the Colossus’ are about to come and he nods. Garcia runs to his son, Godfrey at his side, and they free the unconscious boy. I’m looking all around and there’s no sign of the monsters; not even a sound. My heart’s racing a bit and I try to calm down. I need a clear head and steady hand for the storm coming.

  “You almost done?” I ask impatiently.

  “Fast as we can, Dillon,” Godfrey answers, and goes back to work on freeing the boy. After a minute they come back my way with the unconscious boy in his father’s arms. I point to where the detective needs to go to get out. I tell him to hurry and he does, thanking me as he goes. I see him disappear in the door to the stairs, and it’s a relief. That’s seconds before the ground under me starts to quake.

  Here they come.

  “Don’t let go of the sceptre,” Godfrey tells me, and looks into the shadows the conjuror disappeared into. He has nothing to worry about. If I held this thing any tighter I’m pretty sure it would shatter. I’m squeezing it as tight as I can, watching and waiting.

  Each second is like a beat, a pulse of time that moves with the rumbling of the approaching monsters. I take a deep breath, hold it for three of those beats and when I let it out, the silhouette of the first monster comes from the darkness and is born into the room as it lets out a terrible sound. I’m afraid. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. The thing is terrifying and I’ve already seen what it can do to someone. The memory of the beast biting into Platanov is still fresh in my mind. At the thought my mouth is filling with the acidic and metallic taste of fear and adrenaline. Yet I know I have something in my hands that can defeat it, a sceptre wrapped in the one thing which can bring it down. This time, they’ll get a fight.

  “Get behind me,” I tell Godfrey, and take a step forward.

  The monster slows its charge as it scans the room. The nest of eyes on the elongated face of the Colossus fall on me, and as they do the beast charges at us with full force. The monster’s mouth opens, webs of mucus hang from broken, browned teeth. The muscles in the arms of the thing are rippling and the scent of the long buried monster hits my nose as it closes the gap. There’s little time left before it’s do or die and I know I’m not ready to die.

  Not today.

  Not yet.

  Now it’s picking up its pace, charging at me like a runaway freight train. All perpetual motion. I hold steady until it is about ten feet away from me, knowing it won’t be able to stop at this rate. I have inertia on my side.

  It’s fifteen feet away.

  Ten feet.

  Five feet.

  Two feet.

  That’s when I raise my hand, lift the sceptre up and allow its own force to provide me what I need to strike it. The Colossus’ weigh slams into the sceptre and its eyes fall on it seconds before contact is made. I wish I could say there was fear in one of its numerous onyx eyes, but there’s no way to know. It does try to stop, attempts to put on the brakes and avoid the inevitable, but it’s much too late for that. The monster moves as though it wants to veer right, and it almost does, but the sceptre still hits it straight in the face and blinding green light explodes from the beast’s face. I thought for a moment it would pierce the creature, that the monster would be impaled on the cylinder of petrified wood, but it doesn’t. As the two touch, the green light comes and knocks it backwards a full two feet.

  It mewls and cries as fissures erupt across the black haired head of the Colossus. I watch as the beast falls to its side and its hands shoot up to his face as though it can stop what’s happening. More light bleeds from the cracks spreading across its body and from the splits in the ancient flesh—I can see thick, black liquid seep through looking like molasses. It bubbles out, pooling on the floor as steam rises from it and I know I’m watching it die. I’m so thankful this worked, that the beast is stopped by it, but before I can watch it die and celebrate, I catch sight of the other two out of the corner of my eye.

  Damn it.

  “Dillon,” Godfrey says, and taps me on the shoulder in case I didn’t already notice the obvious.

  “Yeah, don’t worry, I see them,” I say, and turn to them.

  Neither is as quick to run at me now that they see the remains of their fallen brother. I watch as they look from me to the one on the ground and back at me again. I wonder if they’re afraid. I’m curious if they know one of their number is dying on the floor and soon they’ll be joining him. I’m feeling confident about this. Killing the first wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought It’d be, so these two will be easy. I’ve faced worse.

  Or maybe not.

  I think I might’ve been too cocky. The monsters speak to one another in a language that sounds like people talking underwater and then they move towards me and Godfrey, but not straight on. They’re circling up, one coming up the right, the other on the left and now I’m worried. If they attack at the same time, this might not turn out so well. We only have one sceptre and there’s no way to do anything about that.

  “I hope you have a good plan, Dillon,” Godfrey says, and they’re so close now.

  “Not a good one at all. Wish I did.”

  “I see. Well, if we don’t make it, I hope you rot in whatever hell you end up in. Damn fool. You should’ve stayed out of this. I told you that, didn’t I?”

  “I know. I don’t think I had much of a choice though. One way or another, I think ending up here was inevitable.”

  They attack.

  It’s amazing how fast these giants are. Over twice the height and width of me, but I don’t even think I could move quite as quick. They manage to cut the distance between us in seconds and it’s all or nothing now. I want to help Godfrey, but there’s no time. All I can do is hope to hit the one close to me, and then quickly strike at the other before it hits my friend.

  The sceptre arches through the air; I think I can almost hear it whistling as it goes. I definitely feel it strike home and I silently cheer to myself at the great shot. I could’ve easily missed, but there’s no missing the way the sceptre feels when it whacks the muscular form. Knowing the way the sceptre instantly destroys the Colossus, that I only have to touch it and the deed is done, I spin around in hopes of helping Godfrey. When I do, I notice something’s wrong. My hand feels too light and when I look over at it, I am surprised to find it empty. The sceptre is gone.

  I look at the Colossus I just hit and can’t believe it. The damn thing sacrificed itself, grabbed the sceptre as I hit it and pulled it from me. The thing cries out as it falls to the ground, holding it close to its disintegrating body, and that’s when I see crack and then hear it shatter. My one weapon against them, destroyed.

  Great.

  I turn back to Godfrey in time to see the monster’s arm slam into my lizard friend’s chest and send him sailing through the room, where he disappears into the shadows. There’s a dull thud as he hits what I’m guessing is either the wall or ground, but I can’t worry about him now. I absently call out to him, but I know he’s not going to answer. I hate to think it, but I’m pretty sure he’s dead.

  Again, there’s no time to worry about him because the last surviving Colossus is inching towards me. I need to move, to figure out what to do, but there’s really nothing left for me to do but run. It’s not like I have the sceptre any more, and I can’t fight this thing with my bare hands or even my Tincher. There’s no way to win this, so I have to flee. With my bag on my back, I turn quickly and run at the stairs I’d come down and hope I have enough adrenaline in me to out run the thing.

/>   My feet just miss a pool of black, tar-like blood as I go. The monster cries out a sound that’s a bit like a cross between a thousand bees and metal scraping on metal. I wince, but am close to the stairs. They’re narrow, so I hope that’ll play to help me get away. The big thing right now is I can’t fall. No movie clichés here please. I just need to run and keep on running until I can get somewhere safe and find another way to kill this thing. Luckily I still have the book, so I will hold onto hope there’ll be some alternative answer in it.

  Less than halfway up the stairs I hear the cracking and crumbling of the walls behind me. My hope it wouldn’t be able to follow me up the close quarters are dashed, so I dig deep and find a little more strength to help me get up the steps. I use the fear and need to survive to help me run even faster.

  I can feel the monster’s hot breathe billowing up the narrow quarters and I do not want to feel it any closer than that. I don’t want to feel it at all, to be honest. I just want to be at home with Rouge and to have this whole nightmare behind me. Safe and sound, in my own apartment; not here at all.

  I get to the top of the stair and try and figure out how to get out of here. I look around quickly and there it is. When Garcia and his son fled, they must’ve left the door open. I can see it on the far side of the room, the waning sunlight is coming bleeding in and I know that’s my holy grail, my sanctuary. I run straight to it.