Chapter nine: Moving
The storm outside had gone. I blinked, exhaled deeply and flexed my fingers recognizing I was back again.
“Jonathan,” Malcolm’s voice rang in my ears. My eyes jerked. He was sitting in front of me, his expression serious. “Time to go, get up! The storm has faded; you’re losing time.”
I howled. My body (in a figurative sense only–my real body was lying somewhere on Earth) felt weary.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The power of the town,” Malcolm replied. “It’s natural here. You fell into some kind of trance.”
I arched my eyebrows trying to recall the last thing my eyes had registered in my head. It was Elizabeth, her beautiful face, her good tasting lips on mine. I recalled I had felt what she had. Could those feelings of hers be false?
Look what the town is doing to you. It squeezes your soul, it plays with your feelings and uses them against you, my wit told me. I ignored it.
“Where is Elizabeth?” I asked crossly, my eyes widening with a sudden panic. There was nobody in the café apart from Malcolm and myself.
“She left,” Malcolm offered flatly. “Forget about her, Jonathan. You know she’d only slow you down. With her in tow, you’ll miss your chance.”
“What have you done to her?” I demanded.
“I did nothing,” he interrupted me crossly. “I told her the truth and she strode off her own free will.”
“What kind of truth?”
“You know the truth. Stop playing with me,” he raised his voice angrily. “She’s too weak to make such a trip. Do you really think those doglike creatures and those humanoid monsters outside are the only things waiting for you out there? The town itself will rise in defense if you decide to take her. Taking someone who has entered its house is against the rules. This is not a game Jonathan; this is the threshold of hell.”
I jolted up from the chair instantly, knocking it backwards. It fell noisily to the floor behind me. I threw a wicked glance towards Malcolm and hurried out of the café.
“Jonathan,” he called after me, but I ignored him.
I paused on the café steps momentarily. Gazing from left to right, I carefully inspected my surroundings. I was well aware of the monsters and demons that might cross my path but surprisingly, the queer-looking street stood empty and abandoned, just as it had been before the storm.
To my left there was the Godly light, my salvation, my destination, my passage to my real body. It cut through the gray skies and reflected off the solid ground. I stared at it admiringly; it was lucid, very bright, almost blinding.
“Jonathan,” Malcolm was behind me standing at the café door. “I did you a favor, a second favor. Get a grip and get out of this town. You still have a chance to change your life; don’t lose it for a woman. I know she’s nice, she’s sexy, but you’ll find many more just like her, in reality.”
My wit was desperately convincing me to listen to Malcolm and head for the light alone, but I decided to trust my instincts. While I was looking at Malcolm I realized that Elizabeth had been a sign given by Melissa. The little girl hadn’t dragged me into the house supposed for me, she had showed me the path leading to Elizabeth. I didn’t know who Melissa was to me, and my instincts told me to listen to her. If I wanted to start a new me, I must do it right away. If I didn’t want me back in this town after I went back to Earth, this was the right moment to change myself. The town itself, without realizing it, had given me a good opportunity.
If I left Elizabeth I’d be the same heartless, monstrous guy who did deserve the town. I’d add up another sin to my long list.
I raised my thoughtful eyes on the old man.
“Fuck you and your favors, Malcolm,” I cried angrily. “Nobody here would do a favor for nothing. You think I’m so stupid as to believe you’re willing to help me?” I raised my forefinger into the air and jabbed it towards him. “You’re an old son of a bitch, who wants to get out of here using my ability, aren’t you? Nobody appears here accidentally. We are all monsters here, and monsters can’t be any good. We are monsters even after life is over. You do a favor for a favor.”
“You don’t know what kind of favor I want you to do for me yet,” Malcolm cut me off sternly and stepped closer to me. “I don’t need to get out of here; it’s too late for me.”
“What else would you want other than that, Malcolm?” I laughed out loud. “There is nothing else.”
“You know nothing about this place,” he spoke those words solemnly. “You’ve only spent several miserable moments in the town; you have only understood a few things, and that was with my help. It would’ve taken you a very long time to try and figure these things out by yourself. It’s completely natural that you want to leave, but your leaving will turn out to be a temporary one. You’ll die one day and come back to this hell again. People like us never change, even if we’ve passed through hell and back.” He said matter-of-factly.
“You don’t know me-”
“You don’t know yourself,” Malcolm chuckled.
“Yes, that’s my weapon against my previous life,” I realized. “I don’t want to know the former me. I choose to get to know the new me.”
Malcolm gazed at me attentively. “We’re on a tight schedule. The light won’t stay around and wait for you to reach it. Your power grows fast, but the light is fading at the same time.”
“So I have to run that risk. If I leave Elizabeth here and hurry back into my body, I will become the same monster I was all my life.”
“But you won’t go back with her either. You’ll just remain here and you’ll be the same monster that you were, or even worse.”
Worse? I thought. The real me was the worst in me, and I wanted to leave it behind.
I needed Elizabeth. I had thought she had just been using me, but after the kiss I had realized I had been sent to help her.
I wheeled around curtly and set off.
“What an idiot,” Malcolm said after me.
“Fuck off,” I said back over my shoulder.
Malcolm didn’t follow me, just watched me walk until I was completely out of sight.
The storm had come and gone. It had cleaned the town, and then just like that it had left, appearing to have taken nothing with it. The houses remained unharmed though they were covered in thick blankets of dust. The demons of the storm–soul-eaters–might’ve taken some poor souls though. I hoped Elizabeth wasn’t among them and that she had left the café after the storm.
I reached Elizabeth’s house. The remains of the torn fence lay scattered in the yard. The white front door of the house was missing, and the only reminder of it was the pieces of wood that were strewn across the dry lawn.
Clenching my fists tightly, I stepped into the yard. As I had expected, an eerie dog appeared. We stared into each other’s eyes while two streams of saliva dribbled down its long fangs and dripped to the ground.
I felt the corner of my eyes twitch. “Come on,” I challenged, but the dog stood its ground, not stirring.
Taking a step closer to the house and then bravely taking another one, and another, I moved on, but the dog didn’t dare attack me. For my surprise it slowly moved back until finally it disappeared behind the house.
I ran my eyes over my right palm curiously trying to make sense of my invisible power. How strong had I become?
I was right in front of the entrance to the house. Breathing deeply, I hurried in. Next I was in the same corridor leading to the living room. Carefully, but hastily I entered the room. Nothing had changed; the same atmosphere as before hung in the air. Even the album on the table remained untouched.
“Elizabeth,” I called loudly. “Where are you?”
No reply.
Maybe she hadn’t returned to her house at all? Where was I supposed to look for her then?
“Elizabeth,” I cried again. “It’s Jonathan. I’ve come for you, Elizabeth, can you hear me?”
There was nothing but silence
. I know I had rushed back for her, but I was also conscious of the danger. What if the town had changed its mind, its plans like it decided to keep me imprisoned in another house–for instance in Elizabeth’s?
“Elizabeth!” I called breaking the heavy silence.
I strained my ears, and as I did, I felt a great sense of gloom and uncertainty in my stomach. At the same moment, I heard the sound of a quiet sob coming from my right. There was a door there and I moved in its direction cautiously. It stood ajar, and I peered in.
It was a bathroom. I yanked the door open wide prepared for an attack by some unknown creature or a demon.
The first image that struck me was a bathtub full of reddened water, like blood, a little girl’s body floating helplessly on the surface. I recoiled back in shock and pulled my eyes away from the bathroom. When I looked back, the bathtub was empty as though the blood and the girl had never been there. I shook my head, rubbed my eyes, but the blood filled bath and the body of the girl didn’t return.
Visions?
This one hadn’t been a vision I had had before. It had seemed real.
Nonetheless, I walked in more bravely, but slowly finding Elizabeth sitting on the white marble floor her chin resting on her knees, her face hidden behind her hair. She had changed her shirt and was holding mine which I had given to her on the road back to the town entrance.
“Elizabeth,” I exclaimed happily. Kneeling down to her level, I placed my hand tenderly on her shoulder. “What are you doing here? Elizabeth, can you hear me?”
She didn’t reply immediately. She was clearly far away, lost in her own mind or visions.
I waited.
“Jonathan?” she muttered. It was like she was checking to see if it really was me beside her.
“Yes, it’s me. Look at me.”
She raised her head and finally turned her red, full of tears and void of any life eyes towards me. “Is this really you?”
“Yes, I’ve come for you. Get up, we’ve got to move,” I said hastily and pulled her up. “Come on.”
Elizabeth was weak, visions and the house had sucked enough strength from her. She stood on her feet reeling dizzily. I took her in my arms so that she wouldn’t slink to the floor again.
“What happened to you?” I whispered into her ear. “Why did you leave me?”
“You can’t save both of us, but you can save yourself. At least, one of us will survive, Jonathan. I don’t want to trap you here forever.”
She let go of me and pulled her head away. Her disheveled hair hung over her mouth covering the right side of her face. I brushed it out of her eyes and looked into them. Her eyes were dark and solemn, but they were also very deep. They were so deep it seemed they could swallow me whole, and I would fall and fall forever.
Elizabeth was ready to sacrifice herself for me. She had left the café so that I could go and find the passage.
Why? I asked myself. She could have held onto me, onto the only chance to live again, but she had me go and given up on saving herself so easily. Did some things work in that way here–in hell?
The town could steal your memories and torture you by keep you a prisoner forever, but it wasn’t able to make you stop feeling.
I lowered my head towards hers and pecked a short kiss on her lips, “I’m going to leave this damned town with you Elizabeth.”
She blinked, and a delighted smile appeared on her face. “It’s a big risk. You know that, don’t you? Malcolm said nobody had ever done this before.”
“Fuck Malcolm,” I cut her off with a sharp gesture. “I know what I want and where I want to go, and I’ll do it with you no matter what goddamned creature stands in our way.”
For a moment, we gazed into each other’s eyes in silence. I wondered what she was thinking about. What was she searching for in my eyes?
“Why?” she asked abruptly. “Why me? Why have you come for me? We barely know each other.”
That was a question I had already asked myself. “Because there is still we.”
“We?”
“Yes. The we that is going to challenge the town,” I said boldly.
“Hah,” she allowed a smile. “It’s impossible.”
“If nobody has done it before it doesn’t mean it’s impossible,” I said back. “Beside Malcolm hasn’t been here forever, he couldn’t know every man who passed the town.”
“So you think the old man helps you to find his own way out?” she asked.
“You think so too?”
“It crossed my mind, but I dared not to tell you,” she explained. “You were so absorbed by the thought we’re dead and I’m an extra weight on your shoulders as you–”
“I didn’t tell that,” I protested.
“But you thought that,” she shot back and I had nothing to say in return. My eyes would set me up.
“We’ve got to go now, Elizabeth,” I managed to say. “We have to reach the light as soon as possible.”
She stepped back out of my arms and nodded. She held out my shirt, “Thank you.”
I took it from her and quickly pulled it on.
“Let’s go,” Elizabeth said.
We left the bathroom happily, my hand on her back protectively.
The living room was no longer empty. Malcolm stood at the coffee table carefully examining the album with the picture of the man and the girl in it.
As we entered he put it back down on the table, “Nice house you have, Elizabeth. Your husband and daughter, I guess?” he pointed to the album.
“They might be, I don’t know,” Elizabeth replied honestly. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
She was clearly miffed that he had showed up again. I had no idea what had been discussed when I had been zoned out before. What did Malcolm tell her? But whatever he had said to her had made Elizabeth despise him; that much was obvious.
“You really thought you, a pair of newbies, would succeed this mission without my help?” He laughed heartily his voice loud echoing in the room. “The youth. No respect at all. And you think that I’m crazy.”
“Will you help us?” she asked surprised.
We needed Malcolm’s help whether I wanted him or not. He knew the way to the light, he bore a supernatural power too, and could guide us through the town. We were going to have to put up with him.
“He needs a favor in return,” I added dryly. “What do you want us to do for you?”
“I’ll let you know when the time comes,” Malcolm grinned broadly showing his old yellow stained teeth. “We’d better hurry now. We need to cover as much ground as we can before the town actually realizes what you poor souls have planned.”
I let Elizabeth out of my hold and moved towards Malcolm. I stood in front of him and bent my face down towards his nose. I was a good head taller than he was.
“If you try to fool me, I swear, I will rip you into little pieces and toss them on the ground. You’ll have to suffer another eternity feeling those dogs gnawing at your remains, and the demons sucking your soul.”
“That’s nice of you,” Malcolm smirked. “Deal!”
I stared at him unconvinced, but then my muscles began to relax.
“Okay,” I let out a long breath. “What’s the plan? Do we have one or we go out and walk.”
“We go out and walk,” Malcolm said then added quickly, “What did you expect? A helicopter by the door that will kindly fly us over the town? I’ll snap my fingers and we’ll disappear and reappear at the light. You’re a big guy Jonathan, you don’t believe in magic, do you?”
I peered down on my palms.
“Oh no,” Malcolm smiled. “Don’t mix up your power with magic. You always have power, it keeps your soul in your body, gives you life. Here you don’t have body so your power is released.”
“How do you know that?” Elizabeth asked.
“Dear, you don’t think I go to café only to drink and give my soul to that demon for nothing in return, do you?” Malcolm said a satisfied smile pinned
to his face.
“The barwoman,” Elizabeth corrected.
“She’s different. She likes to chat.”
“So she fills you with information,” I said. “You have long conversations together. Wed her, just so?” I teased.
Malcolm shook his head and thinned his lips while Elizabeth came up to me and took my hand into hers.
“Jonathan? Let’s go.”
Right then the house shook followed by Elizabeth’s shriek. She fell into my arms, and Malcolm moved cautiously back towards the wall. We looked up, our eyes drawn to the ceiling.
“What the hell is going on?” Elizabeth burst out anxiously.
“The house is moving on,” Malcolm replied unfazed. “Somebody has left the town and was moved into hell, I guess. I doubt anyone’s going to fall into heaven from here.”
Malcolm was obviously indifferent. It was almost impossible to catch him off guard or even to shock him. He had witnessed everything in this town before.
I held on to the table until the quake stopped. Everything quietened down as fast as it had started. An unexpected gust of wind rushed through the corridor towards us, ruffled our hair and then quickly escaped through the open window in the living-room.
“Is it over?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes,” Malcolm moved away from the wall. “Let’s go and see where we are.”
He winked at me sneakily as he spun around and headed for the corridor. I frowned at him then put my hand warmly around Elizabeth’s shoulder.
“Let’s go and get out of this place,” I said with great determination in my voice.
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