Chapter ten: On the road
When Elizabeth and I left the house, Malcolm was at the steps staring at the road. The house was now standing in front of the café, on the opposite side of the street. We had overtaken seven or eight houses.
Instinctively, I stole a look at the light radiating at the very end of the road. It was still shining, which meant the hope within me could live on.
“Is it bad?” I broke the silence approaching Malcolm.
He eyed me indifferently. “Her time’s running out. Her body is breaking down; it’s dying faster than the others’.”
Elizabeth and I exchanged a quick glance. She had clearly heard everything that had been said and opened her mouth to answer back, but then thought better of it.
“It’s possible that her house could reach the end before we make it out, right?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
Malcolm nodded, heaved a silent sigh and made his way towards the fence. I looked at Elizabeth’s worried face.
“We’ll reach the light faster, won’t we?” she smiled a false smile and walked down the steps. “You’re with me now, Jonathan. I’m not afraid of anything.”
“That’s fine,” I gave her a reassuring smile as I touched her cheek gently. “But we’d better move fast. You can manage it, can’t you?”
“Yes,” she answered, but there was doubt in her voice.
I ushered her out of the yard, and onto the road. Just by looking at the light beyond the horizon I couldn’t estimate the distance–it could have been a mile, it could have been five or maybe even more. What I did know was that it was going to be a long and tiring trip.
“Hey!” I called to Malcolm as soon as he started off. He didn’t stop, he just nodded. “Can’t we get a cab or something? You know, maybe a demon who’d drop us off for a bit of our soul?”
Malcolm shook his head, mumbling something under his breath. Elizabeth looked at me flustered.
“What? I tried to make a joke,” I shrugged. Nobody replied.
A light breeze hovered around us lifting the fine dust particles and throwing them into the dry and really heavy air, and while it was difficult to breathe, it was bearable.
It seemed insane, why did my soul have to breathe at all? But, then why did my soul have a human look?
“I can feel something weird,” Elizabeth said, gazing down at her palms.
“The house?” I asked worriedly.
“No, not that. Something else. It rushes in my hands.”
“You’re possessed by the inhuman power,” I guessed pleased.
“She should be,” Malcolm heard us talking. “But her power is weak. Sure she would handle a lone dog, but, as I mentioned before, the dogs are only a piece of sweet cake.”
“Thanks for your support,” Elizabeth shot back at him.
“You’re welcome anytime, sweetheart,” Malcolm chuckled smugly.
“Never mind him,” I said in a low voice. “He’s an old man who’s been stuck in hell longer than any of us. His mind…” I put my forefinger on my head. “You got it, didn’t you?”
A broad smile curled her lips and she giggled cupping her mouth.
“Hey!” I jerked as Malcolm called to me loudly. “I can hear you.”
“You have sharp ears, indeed,” Elizabeth was still giggling.
“Keep your opinions about me to yourselves,” he said displeased.
Elizabeth and I smiled at each other. She reached for my hand and for several houses, we marched by in silence. Malcolm was deep in thought and walked a step ahead leading us into the heart of the town.
I, on the other hand, walked with my eyes wide open, scanning the surroundings. Stressed out, I continually clenched and unclenched my fists. I scoured the landscape looking everywhere for those hidden abnormal animals or demons. But we appeared to be lucky as they seemed to have disappeared, leaving us to wander the town alone.
“Malcolm,” I picked up my steps. He was humming to himself and didn’t look at me. “The dog at Elizabeth’s house didn’t attack me,” I continued despite his lack of acknowledgement. “It watched me and allowed me to enter. I have a feeling it was afraid of me.”
“I doubt it. It felt your power. It knew very well that its strength was much weaker than yours, but,” he sucked in the humid air and turned to look at me, “It might come back with its friends. These dogs aren’t as strong as anything else in this town, but they can seriously be pain in the ass.”
A high-pitched shriek came from the house on the right as we passed by. The piercing sound stopped us in our tracks and got our attention. With glassy eyes, Elizabeth turned towards the house.
“Don’t freak out at every scream or squeal you hear,” Malcolm prodded me from behind. “It’s natural in this town.”
“But someone needs help,” Elizabeth proclaimed grumpily. “We can help–”
“We’re running out of time, Elizabeth,” I interrupted her, feeling Malcolm’s displeased eyes on me. “We can’t help everybody here.”
Elizabeth understood my words all too well. She kept on walking along, following Malcolm and I. Another wail reached us from that house.
“Jonathan, I remember the monster that attacked me in my house,” she said as we were on the way again. “What would I have done if you hadn’t appeared?” She was just asking, her expression told me she didn’t require an answer. “I just wonder what is going to happen to that resident,” she pointed at the house where the shriek had come from, “if the same monster is there.”
“We’d better avoid it,” I warned.
“Yes, you better,” Malcolm added.
“What is it by the way?” Elizabeth asked curiously her eyes on me as she refused to look at Malcolm.
“He’s like us–human,” Malcolm replied thrusting one hand into his coat pocket. “He is an old resident. His house is the first one on the road.”
“He has reached a great power, I guess,” the words left my mouth with some angst.
“Yes, he’s too strong, but just like the others, he made a mistake and was seduced by visions.”
“He entered his house,” it wasn’t hard for Elizabeth to guess. “But his face…” I recalled his look–dark-gray skin with a ripped and worn face. “He is not like you and Jonathan; he is not like a human at all.”
“You haven’t spent as much time here as he has. You don’t know what the real torture of the town is. And as Jonathan has noted correctly, a good soul has nothing to do here. He’s very wicked. His soul is evil and as time has passed he’s made this town his game.” Malcolm slowed down his pace, and as he spoke, he looked at me fiercely, “He likes to stop people who’re just like you Jonathan; he doesn’t want people to reach the light. I’ve been trying to tell you this, but you’ve paid no attention. He’s found a way to suck on the others’ power and make himself stronger. He’s like a demon from the human world. He loves this game he’s playing, much more than anything else.”
“You’re talking as though there is something else that can be adored,” I said sarcastically looking around at the seemingly abandoned houses with their rusty cars parked on the road. What else could be adored in a town of outcasts? And we were outcasts, stuck somewhere between life and death. We had nowhere to go until the time came when our bodies died on Earth and freed our shallow souls from the grasp of the town. Though, the only way out of this town surely led to hell.
“You’re underestimating him Jonathan.”
“You said my power grows faster and mightier. I’ll be able to fight him if he tries to stand between us and the passage,” I said boldly ignoring the following condescending sneer from Malcolm.
“You don’t understand. This game is his second nature; he knows how to torture the other residents. That’s all he knows.” Malcolm’s smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, and his eye darkened becoming serious, black and bottomless. “You’re a rare thing in this town, Jonathan. You’re a new game. That’s why he hasn’t killed you yet. He’s patien
tly waiting until you’re strong. It will be more of a challenge, it’s more fun that way.”
Great! I had become a play thing for a crazy son of a bitch.
“But it was you who saved us from him,” Elizabeth reminded Malcolm. She was walking on my left. “If you hadn’t come to our aid, he’d have destroyed Jonathan.”
“No, dear, he didn’t even try to fight back. He didn’t need to, but now–” he stopped mid-sentence thinking that we must know how it was going to end.
Elizabeth interrogated him more, “Have you fought against him before? Have you seen him stopping anyone like Jonathan?”
“Yes,” Malcolm confirmed morosely.
There was more to his vague ‘yes’ than he was letting on. I stared at him wonderingly. His ‘yes’ concealed a continuation which Malcolm preferred to keep unspoken.
“Did he stop you? He stood between you and the way out of the town, Malcolm, didn’t he?” I asked. He stopped abruptly and eyed me up and down from head to toe. “He did, didn’t he? Now, you crave revenge, and that’s why you need my help, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve taken a keen interest in me?”
He chuckled, “No, Jonathan, there wasn’t a passage meant for me, I had my own house.”
“Malcolm, you obviously hide something. I don’t need you pulling my leg. Tell me what it is.”
“You’ll be disappointed in me,” he started forward and gestured us to follow. Elizabeth looked at me in disbelief. I shrugged and moved forward trying to catch him. I wanted more answers.
“My house is right next to his,” Malcolm resumed after a little while. “We used to play this game together until the day I thought about quitting. There is still a good part in my soul that convinced me to stop.”
“You played with him? How did he let you go?” Elizabeth asked while I was imagining Malcolm with that monster, consuming other residents for casual fun.
“Again the game, dear,” Malcolm said airily, unfazed. “When I left, he began a new game. He needs a match that’s worthy–strong, mighty, clever and sly. Every great and mighty man needs a powerful opposition on the other side to help keep the balance.”
Game. The word played over and over in my mind. What if his help was a game too? What if Malcolm was the part of that monster’s game? He would lead us to the monster and set me up against him as soon as we reach the last house. I would remain alone pitted against two old and powerful residents of the town.
And Elizabeth? She would be a pleasant gift for the monster to suck her strengths slowly and agonizingly after they finished with me.
I couldn’t trust Malcolm anymore. Every word he spoke seemed dubious. Every step he took made me trust him less. I had been wondering why he had wanted to help me. Could he be changed? Could he do penance for his sins? I doubted that anybody was able to change himself or herself for the better in such hellish place.
But you’re changing, aren’t you? I heard my mind telling me. I was ready to risk everything for Elizabeth. I haven’t been stuck here as long as Malcolm, I told myself sternly. I was new, I hadn’t entered my house; I was different.
“Why did you let Jonathan go back to his house,” Elizabeth asked Malcolm. “You could’ve warned him not to enter his damned house, couldn’t you? But yet, you pulled back as you sent away the humanoid monster.”
Clever, I have to say. Honestly, the idea hadn’t crossed my mind.
“I wasn’t sure of him,” Malcolm replied tonelessly.
“Meaning?” that was me asking.
“Meaning that I didn’t believe in your boldness,” Malcolm looked at me from out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve seen many people avoiding their houses, but being dogged back into their places afterwards. I had to make sure you weren’t a coward. Cowards aren’t wanted, you know.”
“He could have been swept from the town,” Elizabeth said and then quickly added, “By the storm.”
“Sure. I have to say that the storm wasn’t part of my plan. But, you know, everything can’t be planned.”
“He showed boldness, and then you decided to help him with his journey,” Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.
“Yes. He’s brave and stupid as well,” Malcolm peeked back at Elizabeth over his shoulder.
“I can hear you,” Elizabeth exclaimed exasperated. “I get what you mean.”
“I bet on it.”
“Know what?” she jabbed her finger towards Malcolm picking up her pace. “I didn’t ask for your help at all. And as my memory serves me, Jonathan didn’t either. I didn’t ask anybody anything.”
“I’m not helping you, woman,” Malcolm said airily. “I’m helping him and he’s helping you. That’s all.”
“Then stop insulting me and talking as though I’m a ghost,” Elizabeth blew out an exasperated breath.
“Hey guys, quit it,” I stepped in. “We have some other problems here, remember?”
Both of them shut their mouths.
The light appeared to be farther away than I had estimated as we had already covered a mile, but the end of the road remained out of sight.
Wandering in silence, we passed an imposing three-storied house. With just a glimpse of it, you could believe you were at a dark palace. Surrounded by high stone walls with sharp spikes with a number of handmade statues carved on them it stood some steps afar, its foundation starting from deep under the ground as if eons ago a seed had been buried right there that had grown becoming a palace. The roof was tar-black, and the windows dull-looking. If you stared long enough into them, you’d feel your soul being sucked out hungrily by whatever was on the other side.
The main four columns stretched up higher than the roof itself, several huge surreal statues of monsters sitting perched on top of them. Like cruel guardians they looked down at the street which would come to life as soon as an inquisitive soul took a step into their reign. As I stared into the statues’ eyes, I had the strangest feeling of being followed, examined by their beady stone eyes.
I got lost in looking at the house and, as I did, inconceivable hisses filled my mind, talking to me, probably trying to scare me off, probably trying to make me quit–their huge influence paralyzed me. Standing alone in front of that palace, I might have lost control on my body and knelt down to the power of those hisses.
Elizabeth paced next to me and placed her hand on my shoulder. Her touch broke my connection with the dark house.
“What kind of demon lives here?” Elizabeth asked her steps slowed down with her uncertainty.
I took her arm and pulled her gently closer to me, “We’re not going to find out,” I whispered in her ear.
“Be quiet, both of you,” Malcolm shushed us. We stopped, completely still. We were so conscious of not moving, we momentarily forgot to breathe. With strained ears I glazed my eyes, trying to catch any sound coming from that monstrosity of the house.
Malcolm surveyed it cautiously with his single eye like a Cyclops. I had this really odd feeling that his eye was magical and deftly pierced through those dark windows and walls.
“There is uneasiness in the house,” Malcolm muttered in a low voice. “They’re moving, they know.”
Could his eye really see the unseen?
“Know what?” Elizabeth asked flustered.
“Who are they?” I added curiously.
Malcolm tore his eyes from the house, “Let’s get out of here. Quickly!”
He spun around abruptly and hurried away. With one more look at the dark, sprawling mansion, Elizabeth and I quickly followed in his footsteps. As we gained more of a distance, the sounds of the continual hissing in my head subsided, but they didn’t stop entirely.
“What did you see in there Malcolm?” I demanded. Now we were walking faster than before. Malcolm looked pensive, his eye dropped to the ground, and I had to ask him again to get his attention.
“As far as I know that house is like…” he stuttered trying to find the right word.
“It’s connected to the Lord of the town?” Elizab
eth tried to guess.
Lord of the town? What the fuck? Who was that supposed to be?
Her hand slid into mine and squeezed it tightly. My eyes fell on her as she held onto me.
“It’s like a police station,” Malcolm resumed. “They control the houses, demons, spirits and dogs, everything. Honestly, I don’t know what kind of demons and monsters dwell there, Lord of the town, or whatever, but they know something is amiss.”
His disapproving eye fell on me as if he was asking me to leave Elizabeth. I refused his offer flatly giving him a dirty look, and Malcolm’s mouth twitched wickedly. “We’re extremely wrong here. We’ll eventually change the rules. I doubt they’ll let us do that. The rules may be changed by them if we move on.”
“We’ll try,” I said bravely and confidently, wrapping Elizabeth’s hand in mine. “You don’t know all the rules of the town, do you? If nobody has ever done what I intend to do, doesn’t mean it’s against the town rules.”
Malcolm didn’t reply, and Elizabeth also kept her mouth shut.
I wondered if I should have kept my opinion to myself. I couldn’t help but wonder about Malcolm. I didn’t know whether to trust him or not. The only thing I was sure about was that we were moving in the right direction, the light was ahead, and we were getting nearer.
Repeatedly knocks came from a distance. As we approached the sound became clearer, and I saw a middle-aged man dressed in a ripped shirt and dirty trousers. He had wrapped his hands around a lamp column and was hitting his head against it.
“The visions make him crazy,” Malcolm explained remotely. “As we get deeper into the town we’ll see more insane people. Get used to them.”
“Aren’t they dangerous?” Elizabeth asked. I looked at the man’s bloody, nasty face.
“Everything is dangerous, even a bag,” Malcolm answered her. “The deeper we get the more danger awaits.”
We walked past the man carefully, trying not to make much noise. He didn’t notice us, he was deeply engrossed in his head-hitting business.
“You must have a lot of visions Malcolm,” with a last glance at the madman I turned to Malcolm. He nodded in reply. “How did you get rid of them and why haven’t you become mad?”
Malcolm chortled at my question. “Instead of internalizing the agonizing pain that my visions brought upon me, I let them out.”
“How?”
“By torturing the other residents,” Malcolm said unfazed. “But then I quit. That monster in Elizabeth house didn’t.”
“Then the visions would take control of you, wouldn’t they?” Elizabeth muttered.
“I found another way.” As he looked back at me, his eye gleamed. “That shit drink in the café.”
Please, don’t remind me of it.
“That’s what that old woman was doing to her…” she stammered looking for the words. “Husband,” she added dubiously.
“What did she look like?” Malcolm asked without looking at her.
“Always smiling,” I teased.
“Ah. That’s Rosemary.”
“Who?” Elizabeth shot him a look out of the corner of her eye.
“An old bitch,” Malcolm waved. “You’re lucky she let you pass. She loves fresh souls.”
“I guess, she had already found one,” I smirked.
“Otherwise it’d be you instead.”
In my mind’s eye I saw the old woman kissing me. How was she supposed to do it without lips? A chill ran over my whole body as her nasty smile appeared before my eyes. I closed them, shaking the vision of her off.
“Malcolm,” I began, “What do your visions tell you? You should know why you’re locked in here. What were you back in life?”
He grimaced and tightened his lips, “I was a soldier, a commander in the war in Syria.”
“You killed innocent people?”
“I did,” he sighed ruefully. “My group of soldiers did a lot of bad things in that country–we deserve such an afterlife. I did the dirty work for the government by cleaning up their shit. The faces of women and children I killed still haunt me in my dreams, laughing, smirking at me, whereas I’m probably a hero in my country. But I don’t deserve the name hero. Murdering and raping innocent people can’t make you hero. So called heroes like me should rot in a place like this town, Jonathan.”
If Malcolm was telling the truth, he in life had protected his country, he might be a better person than I was, or even Elizabeth, whose appearance stuck between life and hell still remained a puzzle to me.
Why her? I didn’t believe she had killed anybody in her life. I was pretty sure she hadn’t acted as badly as Malcolm and I had. What had brought her here?
And then it hit me. I recalled the bathtub filled with blood in Elizabeth’s house. The girl from the album, her body had been floating helplessly in the bathtub.
Elizabeth should have been there instead. She had committed suicide, cut her veins and the question was, why?
Malcolm had been right. The man and the girl in the picture were Elizabeth’s husband and daughter. Her daughter must have died, probably accidentally, and Elizabeth had, as a result, ended her own life.
It is my belief that a person who tries to take its own life is deemed a self-murderer, and is sent to hell regardless of how he or she has lived life. Only Lord can give or take lives.
Elizabeth was a decent person; she just had chosen a very wrong way to die when she had sliced open her veins.
Everything was falling into place, and I was surer than ever that she deserved her passage out of here more than anyone else. She should return and try to live her lost life. She should try and appreciate the life delights, and in that way she could change her final destination to heaven instead of hell where, I believed, Elizabeth’s daughter would be waiting for her.
I glanced over at her and looked into her eyes and at her contemplative expression. I wondered if she knew what I had realized. Should I bring it up in conversation? Instead I held it back leaving my thoughts unspoken.
That eerie looking house with its mystifying statues was far behind us now. Whatever had been crawling inside it was long gone, or so I hoped. Hopefully, they wouldn’t follow us, but Malcolm’s excited face bothered me.
“The street is suspiciously empty,” Elizabeth said taking in the nearest houses. “Do you think we can sneak through it unnoticed?”
I liked her idea, but I didn’t share her optimism. The wind had quietened down, and the hisses in my head had subsided. The town was wallowing in the calm before the storm, or in our case the peace before the war.
“Let’s hope so,” I replied. “Just keep close so I can protect you. You’re not as strong as me.”
“I believe, I can handle some dirty dogs, though,” she smiled, apparently touched by my consideration. “Now I understand you. I feel the rush of power in me. I know it’s not as much as yours.”
“You just stay close, okay?” I insisted.
“I’ve got nowhere else to go,” she giggled.
“What about your house?”
“I can feel it call.”
“Where is it?”
She pointed back. “Still there.”
“Fine,” I said delighted.
Malcolm looked directly at us for a brief moment and then became lost in his thoughts once again.
Every time Elizabeth spoke Malcolm arched his eyebrow showing his displeasure with her, but she was there under my orders, and he’d have to deal with her whether he liked it or not. During peaceful moments like we were now experiencing, he wouldn’t dream of harming her, but in the back of my mind, I did worry that he’d try to get rid of her at any other moment. As well as all the demons and monsters that were lurking about, I guessed I had to keep an eye on Malcolm too. As a matter of fact you ought to keep an eye on everything around you, I reminded myself once again.
I smiled melancholically to myself, shook my head, and we continued on our way.
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