Dreadmyre

by J A Raikes

  We put our backs to the wall continuing to watch behind us for any sort of movement or anything that might be coming towards us. I still had that sinking feeling that something was wrong but so far things were going alright, considering.

  “Where do you suppose the Voidkin are?” I asked Harris, not taking my eyes off the darkness in front of us.

  “I'm not sure, but I'm grateful they didn't follow us here,” Harris replied.

  Just then, Eva began to stir. She lifted an arm to her head slowly and winced when she touched the bump. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked up at Harris holding her. Groggy, she smiled a little and without saying a word, Harris gently put her feet down so she could stand, though he continued to hold her by the waist until she was steady.

  “How do you feel?” I asked her, turning my attention back to the darkness ahead of us.

  “Like I was run over by a freight train,” she replied. It took her a moment to get her balance and soon she seemed to have her bearings about her. I smiled her direction but didn’t take my eyes off our approach.

  The lift was close to our level when out of the corner of my eye I noticed those same blue glowing eyes like beacons in the night. The creature was a ways off, but there was no telling how long it would be until it found us standing there.

  “Over there!” I hissed through clenched teeth.

  “Cogspit!” Harris spat and then looked up at the dial above the doorway to the elevator that showed the lift was still 20 floors above. “I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

  Eva squinted into the darkness and then wobbled on her feet slightly, having to grab my chair to steady herself. I reached up a hand to help her and looked to Harris for an idea of what to do.

  “Let’s hole up somewhere nearby and then make a mad break for it when the lift comes,” he said.

  “Alright, where to? I’ll follow you and make sure Eva makes it.”

  Harris pointed to a small alley between two buildings a few doors down and without hesitation, he dashed over and shuffled out of sight. I pushed Eva ahead of me and she worked to make it over there. Once she was out of sight, I rolled my chair toward the opening. As I pushed, I heard a loud whoosh. Just before I rounded the corner, a massive black sinewed hand grabbed the back of my chair and spun me around. In front of me was a hulking creature from the things of nightmares. It’s what I imagined a demon looks like, if it was a massive, ten-foot tall beast with arms and legs made of nothing but muscle, cloaked in black. Batlike wings spread several feet to either side of its barreled torso and a palpable darkness coiled around it like a mist. The face was vaguely human, but mostly Freddy Krueger-ish (yes, that's a word now. I panicked and that's what came to mind first). Where eyes should have been, there were simply two glowing blue orbs that appeared like fire and conveyed no emotion.

  My heart probably stopped for a few seconds. Thankfully, I had enough presence of mind to yell “RUN!” but as I drew in a breath to scream, the beast reached out and put a grotesque large hand over my mouth to silence me. My eyes grew wide as I felt the leathery fingers wrap around the side and back of my head and pressed to stop my scream. I tried pulling backward, away from the Voidkin but with a hand grappling my head, there was nowhere for me to go.

  A second Voidkin landed next to me and my heart, which was already trying to burst from my chest, kicked into overdrive and I started feeling lightheaded. The dark mist between the two monsters was thick and moist and I felt my skin prickle with every passing moment. Time seemed to slow and all of a sudden, all I could hear was my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

  The monsters grabbed my arms and took to flight. It was not a smooth ride, either. They weren’t flying in sync and it seemed like they had different ideas about where to take me, presumably to enjoy me for a mid-evening snack. I pulled against them, trying to break free but it was no use. They had me firm in their grasp and nothing was going to stop them from tearing me limb from limb. A few moments later, the Voidkin had flown me up several stories to a landing outside a building next to the elevator we had been waiting for earlier. I could see the elevator descending placidly without a care in the world down to where we had called it while the Voidkin dropped me on the landing and stood over me with a menacing scowl. Then again, truth be told, everything they did was menacing. A dull pain pulsed through my body as my back and arm seemed rather unhappy with being violently removed from the wheelchair, then dropped to the ground. What is it with me and falling painfully to the earth?

  From the darkness between the Voidkin, a smaller figure stepped forward. A man who looked to be no more than 30 stood before me, a wistful grin on his face, his arms loosely crossed. He was exceedingly pale to the point of near translucent skin, so much so that even in the darkness I could see how pale he was, though that didn’t belay how handsome he was. He wore a tight, jet black coat which fastened on his left flank by a few large silver buttons and had a small sturdy collar. The coat fanned out at the bottom and disappeared in the dark mist around him. Sharp features and short cropped hair whisked to the side made him seem commanding yet approachable. That is, until you glance at his piercing red eyes. The whites nearly blended in with his pale skin and bled into an altogether sinister red iris with black pupils. I gulped hard and determined that I was living out one of my own personal ideas of what hell would be like.

  After a beat, the man pointed a slender finger at me and leaned in close to my face. His lips parted slightly and a cool, baritone honeyed voice said, “Finnegan Benjamin Riley, how nice to finally meet you.”

  Cogspit.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The chilling, macabre man in front of me with his hulking friends were giving my blood pressure a run for its money. My heart sank and I was pretty sure the soup from earlier was about to make its way back up. It probably would have, save for the massive black hand wrapped three quarters of the way around my face and covering my mouth.

  The pale man continued, one eyebrow arched. “Oh yes, Finn, I know you. I know you, your family and your entire life. I know how you got here and I know why you’re here.” His red eyes flashed as he spoke, punctuating each of his remarks. His voice was unnervingly smooth but had a malevolent twist to it. He, too, had an accent, but this one was more South African than English proper.

  “Now, I bet you have a load of questions and I’m sure we can get to those in time.” He licked his lips like he was tasting more than the air around us. As his tongue passed over the skin, it momentarily looked rotten and decayed before resuming its pale features. “Before we get to that, though, I need to know where the shard is.”

  He rested a hand on the Voidkin’s arm and it immediately released its grip on my mouth. He held a finger up on his other hand toward me and raised both eyebrows with a gesture of ‘don’t you dare scream or you’ll regret it.’ Yes, I definitely wanted to scream, but at this point my heart was beating so fast and my mouth was so completely dry that I wasn’t sure I could make any sound, let alone a scream.

  “Come now, Finnegan, I haven’t got much time,” he said, wiggling his finger impatiently.

  I tried to speak but nothing came out. As a matter of fact, everything got so quiet I couldn’t even hear my heartbeat anymore. I think I was getting tunnel vision or something because I couldn’t hear or move or anything and the edges of my sight were getting blurry. Everything seemed to slow down too.

  The pale man slowly turned his head and looked off to his right. In an instant, his expression shifted from impatient indifference to a twisted sneer and suddenly he vanished in a cloud of black mist. A moment later, the Voidkin whose arm had been wrapped around my head pitched forward, its face twisted in pain. The other Voidkin snarled and turned to its right and lunged behind the first Voidkin, arms outstretched. Behind them at the elevator stood Eva and Harris and with them, Giles and a few other people I didn’t recognize. Giles held something resembling a long whip with barbs all along it and was in the process of reeling it back towards him fro
m having lashed the Voidkin. Oh, and did I mention the whip was crackling with blue green lightning. Yeah.

  Next to him, a shorter, rotund woman stood, feet spread and holding a gun. Well, no, I guess maybe not. I only got a quick look, but it looked more like the exoskeleton of a gun, if that were a thing. It didn’t look completely whole, as the barrel was exposed to the air with a hole in the middle of it and the mechanisms were all outside the casing. She pulled the trigger once and a pellet of blue light cracked through the darkness and caught the other Voidkin between the eyes and its head snapped backward. It crumpled to the ground and a moment later, dissolved into dark mist.

  Giles reared back once more and cast the whip out again. This time, the leather caught the creature along the leg and wrapped around it several times. A flash of light rippled through the weapon. The Voidkin’s body tensed for a moment and something resembling steam rose off its flesh before it, too, turned to mist.

  Clearing his throat, Giles recoiled the whip in one fluid motion and called out in his gruff voice, “Get in the lift, everyone. Now!”

  Without missing a beat, Harris stepped back inside the elevator and pulled Eva along inside as well. The woman, with the two other younger men behind her, turned and walked a few paces to stand on alert in the carriage as well. Giles dashed over to me with surprising agility for a man his age and threw one arm under my good arm and heaved me to my feet.

  “Lad, you’re going to have to do some of the lifting this time,” he said through clenched teeth, nearly dragging me toward the elevator shaft, my feet stumbling. With one arm under me and his whip still in his right hand, Giles heaved me into the elevator into the waiting arms of Harris and Eva. Immediately, he closed the gate and mashed the button for the top floor, level 82. He closed his eyes and placed a hand against the panel and small blue sparks rippled out from his fingers. At once, the elevator took to new speeds. The lift carriage looked like a well maintained elevator from the early to mid 1900s, with a metal frame and glass windows looking out on the city. The sides of the elevator car were a wrought metal with beautiful depictions of people and sunlight and a large wall with an intricate design on it. All told, it had a similar feel to the supply freighter from before.

  I held on to Harris and Eva tightly, partly because I was terrified out of my mind from the Voidkin and that freaky pale guy, partly because I was startled by whatever the heck I’d just seen Giles and that other lady do, partly because we were about to be a living demonstration of the Tower of Terror ride in this elevator, and partly because I couldn’t really stand or walk on my own.

  No one spoke during the ride. The two young men and the woman with the gun stood looking intently out the glass panel, presumably to see through the darkness for anything that might come back for round two. They appeared to be trained military or somesuch. Or maybe not. I have no clue. Eva and Harris held me up and did their best to stay out of the way of her dad. Giles kept his eyes shut the entire trip and focused on whatever he was doing to the elevator to make it go so fast.

  Altogether, the entire ride was probably 30 seconds? Maybe faster. I don’t know or want to think much more about it. I’m pretty much over the whole “being thrown from something moving at obnoxious speeds to my impending doom” part of life. I didn’t want it to be a part of life to begin with.

  The lift slowed and came to a stop and Giles threw open the door with a slam. The others all filed out and headed down the hallway to several enormous metal doors which open slightly, let them in and then shut abruptly. Eva and Harris helped me out of the elevator and plopped me on a chair just outside the lift doors. Giles walked a few brisk steps down the hallway and then turned on his heel to face us.

  “Father, we - ” Eva began, but was interrupted by Giles throwing up a hand in a frustrated silencing gesture.

  “Save it, Eva. Of all the foolish, bullheaded, idiotic ideas you’ve had, this one tops the list,” he grumbled angrily. “You all could’ve been killed out there! When we spoke, I told you that under no circumstances were you to leave the Barrow. And you certainly weren’t to come here.” He stood there, one hand up and gesturing wildly as he spoke, the other firmly planted on his hip. “Kal would’ve looked after you lot while we got this under control. I can’t believe he let you go. I’m going to have a word with him next time - ”

  This time it was Eva’s turn to interrupt.

  “Kal’s gone dad. Everyone…” she paused, her voice catching in her throat. “We were going to stay, really. But as we waited, one of the Voidkin managed to get into the Network and find us down there. The people seeking shelter in the Barrow were killed and Kal bought us the time we needed to get out on the supply freighter. He saved us, dad.”

  Giles’ expression changed at once and he swallowed hard.

  Eva continued, “We had no choice. As soon as we got in the freighter, the Voidkin chased after us and even managed to get at us a few times.” She turned slightly to show her still immensely swollen bump on her head.

  “By the Ember, child!” Giles replied, his gruff tone softening. He shifted over to her and investigated the swelling more carefully. “We need to get that swelling down quickly! Get down the hall to Cecilia and have her take care of you.”

  He hugged her tightly and then without a word ushered her down the hall. He then turned and looked at Harris.

  “Mr. Archer, you’ve done so much for us already but would you be willing to escort Eva to Dr. Kilpatrick’s?” Giles asked, eyes pleading with the young man.

  Harris nodded and moved to catch up with Eva, sliding his arm through hers to help stabilize her as she walked.

  Finally,Giles then turned and looked at me, squinting and tilting his head slightly.

  “And you, young man. You’re doubly lucky to be alive. I can see that the bandages I gave you are gone and you’re wearing a tablecloth now. You’re lucky the stitches didn’t rip out or the Augs didn’t just simply paralyze you the moment you left your bed.” His tone was softer than it had been when we first got off the elevator but he still seemed frustrated.

  I faked a smile and replied, “Well, it was either leave my bed or be eaten alive by a terrifying nightmare creature straight out of a Stephen King novel.” I replied. Giles’ frown deepened and I couldn’t tell if he didn’t like my joke, or just didn’t get it.

  “In any case,” he continued, “hang tight and I’ll have one of my assistants come and take care of you shortly. You seem well enough that I don’t have to worry about you passing out on me again. I need to get back into the Council meeting or we may never be rid of those things, otherwise I’d take care of you myself.” Giles motioned to the guards near the large doors the others had gone through and it clicked open.

  “By the way,” he continued as he turned to head through the door, “when this is all over, you and I are going to need to have a talk.” That heavy tone returned to his voice once again.

  “I think you’re right,” I shot back, a bit of an edge creeping into my voice. He waved a hand above his head in a “yeah, you bet” gesture and proceeded through the large metal doors that shut behind him.

  I melted into the chair and let the silence and stillness center me. I took several deep breaths and worked to bring my heart rate back to normal. Left by myself and seemingly safe for the time being, it gave me a chance to take in my surroundings. Since the darkness had settled in, this was one of the only rooms in which the lights worked, aside from the Barrow earlier. The hallway I sat in was fairly mundane. There were polished marble floors with a carpeted floor runner heading from one end where the elevator was all the way down the hallway to the massive doors that Giles had left through. Just before those doors, however, was a hallway branching off to the right which I couldn’t see down at this time.

  There were a few side tables lining the corridor and a number of old ornate Victorian era portraits hanging on the walls, bordered by beautifully crafted golden frames. Most were of a member of the Council and had a small plaque b
eneath with the name of the person depicted. Ultimately, they were all too far away for me to read the inscriptions and there was no way I was getting up from this chair.

  A few other paintings hung in the hallway as well, closer to where I sat. Across the hall from me, one picture in particular caught my eye. It was a scene of what appeared to be a volcano and a huge wall, similar to the relief in the elevator. This picture, though, had a bright light on the volcano and a terrifying dark face off in the distance, nearly the size of the mountain itself. The plaque beneath stated “The Culling.”

  On the wall just above me and to my right was a detailed schematic. In the top right corner, the words “The Territories of the United People of the Emberwall.” The depiction had the look of a blueprint, though it was colored and incredibly detailed. A compass rose was etched in the bottom right hand corner indicating “north.” To the east, there seemed to be a sharp and clearly defined line that cut diagonally across the schematic from the top to the bottom. None of the territories passed this line and the words scrawled in calligraphy along the line simply stated Emberwall. At the northern edge, topography detailed that the Obsidian Mountain Range began. The schematic cut off just past the start of the mountain on the northern side. Along the west and southern edge, it looked like someone had drawn large tendrils licking out from the edge of the city schematics with the word “Embervein” on each.

  The rest of the blueprint detailed twelve Wards, which I guess are like districts, each with a separate name and color pattern. On the bottom of the depiction appeared a brief description: