Rollerskater: Death
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This instalment contains graphic violence and scenes some readers may find upsetting.
The illustration for this instalment contains elements drawn by Igzell Vázquez, © 2020. It is reproduced here by kind permission. All rights reserved.
Dolly woke to the sound of music and a feeling of warmth in her soul. For a moment, she thought she had ascended to Heaven, to be with babusya i didus’. She felt as though she had been roused from a strange nightmare, and it was only in coming to that she realised that the dream had been true.
She sat up. Her broken body was repaired, not a broken bone or scratch on her. She looked across the room and saw – there were K-Os and Socks, and beside them was a motorbike, its engine still fiercely rumbling, parked in the middle of the room and propped up by a kick-stand. A woman with albinism, wearing motorcycling leathers, was propped against it, and next to her stood a silver-haired girl with a bass guitar and rainbow-iridescent eyes, wearing a pastel pink pinafore, underneath which was a long-sleeved blouse patterned with constellations. From the guitar’s neck flowed strings of golden light – the light that had healed her.
She stood, and ran over to her.
“Thank you,” Dolly said.
“My pleasure,” the rainbow-eyed girl said, holding out a hand. “Daisy.”
“Dolly,” Dolly replied, taking it.
“Nice work, Daisy,” Socks said. “That was close.”
“Thank you,” Daisy replied, succinctly.
Socks shifted uncomfortably.
The umbric users seemed to be in a state of shock, transfixed by their mentor, who was swaying from side to side, propping himself against a stone pillar.
“What do we do, boss?” asked a large man in military boots, jeans and a black tank-top.
Chesterton panted and snarled, clutching his face. Dolly realised that part of his head had been destroyed.
“Kill them all,” he said, angrily.
With that, he took a running jump – impressively athletic for an old fart like him – and dived into the pool of liquid umbric, seemingly sinking to the bottom of the tank.
Tanizaki stepped forward. “Step back, my friends. The rollerskater is mine.”
Chroma followed him. “Then I shall kill the boy.”
The Man in Black loaded his pistol. “And I shall kill the Sugar Plum Fairy.”
The Light Havoc looked at each other, then at Daisy, and said nothing.
The stage had been set. The battle was about to commence.
There were a few moments of silence, as none saw fit to make the first move. It was eerily quiet in the chamber, like the moments before a torrential downpour of rain, where the sky grows thick and dark.
And then comes the crash.
Tanizaki charged forward, wielding his dagger, and K-Os immediately split into two pieces, flowing around him in milky strands.
“Defend yourselves at all costs!” she shouted. “I’ll handle this one!”
The battle had begun.
*
Tanizaki waved his blade at K-Os menacingly.
“It is nice to see you again, K-Os,” he said.
“I can’t say the same for you,” K-Os replied. “You should have stayed dead.”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Tanizaki said. “Do you want to know what death feels like, K-Os? How it feels as every atom in your body is torn apart? How it feels to face oblivion?”
“You fool,” K-Os said. “All things must die, and what Chesterton promises you is an empty lie.”
“BLASPHEMY!” Tanizaki replied. “You are the old God, soon to be usurped by the new, more just divine! Nihilist!”
K-Os reeled. Tanizaki’s fanaticism was unshakeable. There was no talking him down. She had to kill him to survive.
Tanizaki held out a hand.
K-Os looked behind her, realising too late that in the moonlight shining in through the hole made by Chelsea’s bike, her shadow was being cast on the stone floor.
“This shadow was cast by the Moon,” Tanizaki said, grinning fiendishly.
K-Os’s shadow peeled away from the ground with a groan, and proceeded to lunge for her.
“It is stronger than any other shadow I can control. What shall I do with it, I wonder? Have it tear your head off? Strangle you? Or maybe I’ll just have it throw you from the tower…”
K-Os looked up and saw a beam in the ceiling. Quickly, she liquefied her arm and threw it up to the beam, sticking to it and reeling herself in as if it were a grappling-hook. She hung from the beam by her arms. As predicted, her shadow remained trapped below, limited only to the shape it had taken when it had formed.
Tanizaki growled, turning to the shadow.
“After her!” he shouted. The shadow obeyed, and began searching for a method to chase her.
“You can’t hold that beam forever!” Tanizaki said.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” K-Os replied, swinging her legs up on to the beam, wrapping them around it. “I am over sixty million years old. You had better believe I’m in shape.”
Tanizaki growled, looking up at her.
“When you fall, devil, I’m going to send you straight to Hell!”
*
Chroma approached Socks silently, cat-like.
“I must admit,” she said, “I underestimated you in our first fight. I thought you were a mere weakling, a simple normal I could easily dispatch, and he would never know or understand why. Like crushing a worm under my heel.”
“That was your first mistake,” Socks replied.
“And my second?”
Socks smiled. “Pride.”
Chroma smiled back.
With a wave of her arm, she manifested the green mask over her head once again, and Socks had a terrible feeling of déjà vu.
“What’s the matter?” Chroma said, manifesting her blade in her hand. “Are you scared?”
“No,” Socks said. “I’m just…bored.”
“Oh? Well then allow me to make things more exciting!”
Chroma lunged at him with the dagger, and he threw a punch at her, only for her to disappear from in front of him.
Socks blinked and looked around him.
There was the sound of laughter from the shadows.
“Do you like my new trick?” she said. “Total camouflage. I blend right into my surroundings. Now, then, boy – where do you think my next attack will come from? What will you do, I wonder? Swing your arms uselessly? Or will you lay down and die?”
Socks looked around him and smiled.
“You may be camouflaged,” he said, “But this is a stone room. I can still hear your footsteps. Think fast!”
He swung his arms behind him, sensing a presence, only to make contact with nothing.
“Wh—”
“You idiot,” Chroma replied. “A stone room has reverberations that make it hard to tell the direction of any sound.”
With that, Socks felt a fist make contact with his face, and he lurched sideways, clutching his mouth.
“You’re fun, Socks,” the voice said. “I think I’ll torture you before I destroy you.”
*
The Man in Black approached Dolly slowly, menacingly. Dolly backed away from him.
“Good evening, young lady,” he said, in his soft, strange accent.
“Step back,” Dolly replied. “I’m warning you.”
“You know,” the Man in Black said, “That girl you killed last week – Felicity – she was my protegé. I was her handler for a time. I taught her everything she knew about umbric.”
“Keep her name out of your mouth,” Dolly replied. “You scum.”
The Man in Black laughed robotically. “Ha. Ha. She spoke about you a few times. Only obliquely, of course. But when I met you in the village a few months ago, I recognised you from her descriptions. It was why I was willing to let you go. You see, I was aware that she still loved you. And I thought that it would be rather ungentlemanly of me to rob her of the opportunity to dispatch you personally.”
“Bastard,” Dolly retorted. “You poisoned her spirit.”
“No,” the Man in Black replied. “I fixed it. Honed it. Made it pure. She was so close to self-actualisation, when she was obliterated by you. From what I understand, she loved you to the very end. How must it feel, I wonder, to know that you killed someone who loved you unconditionally? It must destroy you inside, mustn’t it? Well, not to worry. I will soon fix that. And you shall know peace.”
With that, he produced a black cube from his pocket and threw it at the ground, where it exploded in a ball of fire, transforming into a car. He climbed into it and started the engine.
“Coward,” Dolly replied. “Hiding inside your car instead of fighting me one-on-one.”
“No,” the Man in Black said. “It’s strictly business, my dear. Who cares about my methods if I can get the job done?”
The engine revved and the wheels spun, throwing up dust from the stone floor. Dolly stood in front of the car, reaching into her handbag.
The car accelerated forwards. Dolly had a split second to position her attack just so. From her bag she pulled a sherbet fountain, of the same type she had used to attack Fliss, ducked and rolled just as the car passed her. She then fired a blast of energy at the car’s umbric tyre – not enough to damage it, but enough to alter its trajectory.
The car skidded around her with a hideous skreeeeeeee, and went careening towards the wall behind them. The building was square-shaped, and the car crashed through the corner where the north and west side met, causing a cloud of dust and debris to fill the room. The car perched uneasily on the precipice. Dolly walked up to the car’s rear.
The Man in Black leaned out of his window, pointing his gun at her.
“Don’t you dare,” he said.
“Going down,” Dolly replied, lightly kicking the car’s rear. With that, it toppled.
The Man in Black’s gun went off, the shot smacking uselessly into the ceiling, and the car went tumbling from the top of the tower to the ground below, landing upside-down on its roof with a krump.
Dolly dusted her hands off.
“Fucking amateur,” she said, looking down. She knew that wouldn’t have killed him, but it would have severely damaged his pride.
She ran for the staircase down.
*
Socks watched as the car went flying through the wall, opening up the tower to the night. The dust and debris thrown up by the attack sailed through the air, settling on anyone standing nearby.
In the dark, the shape of a woman could be made out of the clouds of silicate dust.
“Shit!” she said. “That moron!”
Socks ran towards her, attempting once again to hit her, but she quickly ducked and made her escape.
“You won’t kill me that easily,” she said, seemingly disappearing into the shadows.
Christ, she’s resilient, Socks thought.
*
The Light Havoc advanced on Daisy and Chelsea.
Derrick manifested his umbric plectrum in his hand.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said, turning to Sven and Danny.
“You and me both,” Danny said, manifesting his drumstick daggers and pointing to Daisy.
Daisy scowled at them.
“You killed Jules,” she said. “You stabbed him in the heart like he was nothing.”
“And I’d do it again,” Derrick said. “Fucking normals need to know their place.”
“Ah,” Chelsea said. “So you confirm that all that shit about immortality you spout is really a cover for your prejudices. Gotcha.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Derrick hissed.
“No,” Chelsea said. “I don’t think I will.”
“Who the fuck are you, bitch?” Danny said.
“Me?” Chelsea replied. “I’m just a girl with a motorbike.” She smiled deviously. “Oh, and I’m a fucking nightmare for blokes like you.”
The Light Havoc looked at each other, their anger mounting. Chelsea continued.
“See, if there’s one thing I like doing more than anything, it’s making smarmy, hipster wankers like you squirm. You ooze cool, don’t you, right up until someone breaks down your flimsy façade, and what’s underneath? Just another sad fucking nerd. And look, they even come in sets of three.”
They all looked too angry to even speak.
“What’s the matter?” Chelsea asked. “Never had a woman tell you to fuck off before? Fuck off, by the way.”
“Uppity little tart,” Sven spat, manifesting his axe.
“Ooh, that’s a good one. Mind if I get that printed on a T-shirt?”
“I’ve had enough of this,” Danny said. “Both of these bitches need to die.”
“Charming,” Chelsea replied.
Daisy was shaking with rage. These men – these cruel men – who had killed Jules like he was nothing, who had torn her life apart, were back again, back from the grave she had sent them to. She wanted nothing more than to see them dead again.
“Chelsea,” Daisy said. “Let’s kill these pricks.”
Daisy climbed on the back of Chelsea’s bike, as Chelsea started it. The engine revved and they rode in circles around the three.
“Fucking kill the one on the back first,” Derrick said. “She has powers.”
“Don’t worry about it!” Danny said, charging after the bike.
“On your nine!” Chelsea shouted.
“I see him,” Daisy replied.
“I’m glad someone does,” Chelsea replied.
From Daisy’s back, white tendrils sprouted like a spider’s legs, each one ending in a clawed appendage resembling a human hand.
“Danny, watch out!” Sven shouted.
Danny tried to attack the two as they rode past.
“Eat this!” Daisy shouted.
Daisy made a jerking motion, and two of the tendrils lashed like a rope, swatting at the man’s head.
Danny cried out, and stumbled backwards.
“Idiot,” Derrick said.
“Oh Jesus,” Danny said. “Oh, Christ, not again!”
Three massive cracks formed in the top of his head, which deepened as the top of his head disintegrated and exploded. Daisy noted that it was far less gruesome when his body was made out of umbric.
Derrick looked down at him and then at the women.
“Enough of this,” he said, striking the strings of his guitar with his plectrum. A chord issued forth like a battering ram, and the bike was suddenly knocked sideways. The two were thrown from the bike and skidded across the stone floor.
Sven walked over to Danny’s body, touching his axe against it.
“Take some of my umbric,” he said.
Silently, Danny’s body responded, repairing his broken head.
Danny sat up, and Sven reconfigured his weapon into a Viking sword.
“Thank you, my brother,” Danny said.
“No problem,” Sven replied. “I’ve been meaning to upgrade. ‘Less is more,’ as they say.”
The Light Havoc moved over to where the two women had landed, unmoving.
“Did we kill them?” Sven asked.
“Let’s make sure,” Derrick said, getting close.
He raised his hand, and brought his hand down on the strings.
DWAAANNNNNNGGGGGG.
There was silence for a few seconds.
“Did you get them?” Danny asked.
Derrick turned, looking slightly off-kilter.
“Derrick, what’s wrong?” Sven asked.
Derrick bent over and vomited liquid umbric on the ground. The other two recoiled in horror and disgust.
“What the hell did you do?” Danny asked.
“I think you mean what the hell did we do,” Chelsea said.
“What?!” Danny said. “They’re still alive!”
“Very observant,” Chelsea said. “You’re a genius.”
Daisy stood up, dusting herself off.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t have planned for that?” she said. “The bike protects us with an invisible shield. Derrick’s attack just bounced off the shield and hit him instead.”
Derrick staggered, clearly in pain.
“I’ll do you both for that,” he growled.
“I know you will,” Daisy said. “That’s why we planned for that, too.”
The two jumped on the bike, and Chelsea revved its engine.
The bike accelerated and sped towards the hole in the wall made by the Man in Black’s car, where it leapt from the tower and down to the ground below.
The Light Havoc ran over to the hole, looking down at the ground below, where the bike was now on the grass, speeding away.
One by one, each of them leapt from the hole, landing on the ground with a solid thunk, leaving a pit in the earth.
“Okay,” Derrick said, sounding weary. “Now they’re dead.”
*
Tanizaki was circling under K-Os’s beam like a shark circling someone hanging from the side of a ship.
The shadow had managed to climb up the wall and make it on to the beam, and was quickly approaching. It clamped a hand on K-Os’s arm, trying to pry them apart.
“Get away from me,” she said.
The shadow did not listen (if it was even capable of that), and managed to pull her arms apart. K-Os’s legs were still wrapped around the beam, but she was now hanging up side down. Not an ideal position. The shadow continued towards her legs. Nothing for it, she had to let herself fall.
She held her arms out, liquefied, and “flowed” downwards, like honey from a jar, viscously flowing to the ground and reconstituting herself.
The shadow was on the beam, and looked down at her with its eyeless face.
“Get ready to die, you demon,” Tanizaki said, advancing on her.
He looked up at the shadow. “Get down here.”
The shadow jumped down and landed without a sound.
K-Os stood still. The shadow stepped forward and held her arms behind her back.
Rock solid. She couldn’t move.
Tanizaki advanced with the dagger.
“It is a shame, K-Os,” Tanizaki said. “You are a worthy opponent.”
“Is that supposed to console me?” K-Os said.
“No,” Tanizaki said, smiling. “Now…let’s hear you scream.”
He took a step forwards with his dagger, then stopped.
K-Os’s shadow stood behind her, but it looked different somehow. He was trying to work out how, K-Os could see.
She swiftly used that momentary confusion to her advantage.
Tanizaki suddenly found himself choking, unable to breathe.
“Wh…what…” he stammered, scrabbling at his throat.
He felt it.
Hair.
The shadow loosened its grip, and K-Os slipped out of its hands.
“Your fatal flaw, Tanizaki,” she said, “Is that you aren’t nearly observant enough.”
Tanizaki staggered backwards, and looked up at her, noticing at last what it was that was different.
K-Os had cut off one of her ponytails and it was acting as a makeshift garotte around his throat.
“You…bitch…” he choked.
K-Os stepped towards him. He took the blade and cut the hair away, cutting his own neck in the process. Black blood seeped from the wound in his throat.
“I’ve had enough,” he growled, and charged towards her, brandishing the knife.
K-Os rolled her eyes, ducked and delivered a blow to Tanizaki’s stomach, and he tumbled to the ground.
Tanizaki rolled over and stood up.
“Get over here,” he said. “I’m going to—”
K-Os’s eyes flitted to his chest.
“What are you looking at?” he said.
He looked down.
Sticking out of his chest was his own dagger.
“Ah,” Tanizaki said.
K-Os wasted no time. She ran forward and delivered a punch to his face, causing it to crack. He went flying backwards.
He got up, groaning and wheezing in pain.
“That dagger has weakened you,” K-Os said. “You’re as brittle as porcelain.”
Tanizaki steadied himself against the wall.
“Please,” he said. “No more…I’m dying.”
K-Os approached him. He flinched.
“I’m so weak,” he said. “Please, leave me to die in peace.”
K-Os stood in front of him, hesitant, reluctant to hit him again.
Tanizaki stopped panting.
He laughed.
“Stupid bitch,” he said. “That boy really has softened your heart! Now die!”
He pulled the blade from his chest and ran at her.
K-Os did not so much as flinch.
There was the sound of something hard thumping against flesh.
What Tanizaki must have been thinking, for a few seconds, was Yes, I got her.
What must have followed was Why am I flying?
And after that was probably something in the vein of Oh shit.
In his delirium of pain, he had failed to notice that K-Os had actually punched him towards the corner of the room, the same corner through which the Man in Black’s car had left. He had also failed to notice that K-Os had aligned herself perfectly with said hole, such that if he came running at her, she could quite easily toss him through the hole.
As he sailed through the air, a look of horror crossed his face as he saw his dagger clatter to the ground beside K-Os, as K-Os lowered the leg she had just used to kick him through the hole. He enjoyed a further two seconds of terror, marked by a horrified yelp, as he fell to Earth.
On impact with the ground, there was a glassy crunch.
K-Os’s shadow flattened and slinked its way back under her, where it belonged.
K-Os looked out of the hole. He looked like a broken china doll. He had shattered on impact.
“Moron,” she said.
She looked into the distance. In the field below, the Man in Black and The Light Havoc were attacking Daisy, Dolly and Chelsea. She decided she would help them out, and prepared to leave.
There came a sound from behind her.
Blorrrrrp.
There was a terrific splash, and a figure emerged from the liquid.
His head was once again complete – his skin was still grey and pallid, yet his aged body looked younger, more refreshed. He now resembled a man in his mid-forties. His muscles bulged out of his clothing like those of a bodybuilder. He took off his suit jacket and rolled the sleeves of his white shirt up, flexing his muscles.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said, looking at K-Os.
*
Socks watched as the Grey Man emerged from the pool once again, fully rejuvenated.
K-Os backed away from him slowly, exiting the tower through the hole in the wall, and seemingly climbing up on to the roof. The Grey Man pursued.
He thought he should help her, but was suddenly stopped by a sound coming from the stone steps, and a voice – a woman’s voice – crying out.
He ran over to the wooden door and opened it, staring into the dark as the figure emerged from the shadows.
It was Daisy, her silver hair unruly and tousled, and her clothes torn. She was crying, and appeared to be bleeding from a wound to her shoulder.
She came up the stairs and saw Socks, stumbling into the room. She took a few steps forward, and then collapsed.
“Daisy,” Socks said. “What happened?”
“The Light Havoc got me,” she said. “I’m badly hurt, Socks.”
He ran to her side and put his arm around her shoulder.
Daisy shuddered and breathed uneasily.
“Socks,” Daisy said. “I think I might be dying.”
“Don’t say that,” Socks said.
“They got me with an umbric weapon,” Daisy said. “Oh God, I think it’s over.”
“Where’s your guitar?” Socks said. “Can’t you heal yourself?”
“They destroyed it,” Daisy said, sobbing. “Socks, I don’t want to die.”
“You won’t die!”
Daisy shuddered. “I feel so cold…”
“Daisy – Daisy – hey!”
She fell backwards in Socks’s arms, her body seemingly losing the strength to sit upright.
“Come on, Daisy, stop fooling around,” Socks said.
“Oh, Socks…there was so much I wanted to say to you…”
“Like what?” Socks replied.
Daisy reached up tenderly with her hand.
“I wanted to tell you…wanted to tell you…” she said, weakly.
“What?” Socks said, prompting her.
“I wanted to tell you…that I love you,” Daisy said, pulling him in for a kiss.
Socks kissed her, pulled away, and looked down at her for a few moments.
He punched her, very hard, in the right side of her head with his left fist.
He stood up, watching as she rolled for a few seconds, got up and staggered slightly, clutching her head. The shape of Daisy melted away, and revealed Chroma, now unmasked, with a spider’s web of cracks running along her face.
“Did you really think I was that stupid?” Socks said.
“Bastard…you bastard…” Chroma choked. “How…how did you know…”
“Daisy and I had a falling-out several weeks ago,” Socks said. “She can’t stand me, much less want to kiss me. Looks like you need to learn how to read a room.”
Chroma scowled and the cracks in her face deepened.
“Insolent worm!” she roared, manifesting her dagger.
She ran towards him, prepared to strike him down.
Socks wasted no time. He struck the dagger with his left hand.
Instantly the dagger cracked and shattered, exploding into dust after a few moments. Chroma’s right arm, in whose hand she had been holding the dagger, also cracked, exploding into dust and embers. She lost her balance slightly.
“Bastard…” she said. “Bastard…this is far from over…I’ll show you yet…you’ll see…you’ll see…”
She limped away into the dark, muttering to herself, and turned invisible once more. Socks heard no more sound.
He assumed that she had slunk away to die.
On the roof above him, he heard footsteps.
K-Os needed him now, more than ever, and he had sworn to fight by her side. He intended to keep that promise.
He stepped over to the hole in the wall. His Reeboks were crap, but he would climb up on to the tower’s roof, or die trying.
He took a deep breath, stepped through the hole, and began to climb.
*
As the battle on the tower continued overhead, the situation below had grown more desperate. The Man in Black had, as Dolly predicted, survived the crash, just as he had in the village across the river those months ago. He had destroyed the car, repairing his injuries with ease, and was now inside a new, more robust car, similar to the one he had crashed into the sweet shop.
Meanwhile, the Light Havoc had entered the battlefield, pursuing Daisy and Chelsea, who had been evading them on the back of a motorbike.
The band, seeing the Man in Black’s car, realised that they could kill three birds with one stone. They had flagged him down and climbed in the back, and were now trying to kill the three by running them down with the near-indestructible vehicle. The Man in Black had unfurled the gun kept in the car’s bonnet and was currently spraying umbric ammunition.
“Do we have any plans?” Daisy asked Chelsea, who was currently trying to evade them. The bike’s shield would only hold for so long, and the bike could only fit two people – Dolly was left out in the open, having to keep to the car’s blind spot to survive.
“Have you tried playing your guitar?” Chelsea said.
“We aren’t holding still enough for me to direct my attacks, and my tendrils have limited range. I can’t even get a scratch on the roof.”
“Great,” Chelsea said. “So we’re fucked.”
“There’s got to be something we can do. Can you ram the car with the bike?”
“And risk getting cut to shreds by shrapnel? Yeah, no thanks.”
Dolly was unable to make any attacks of her own. She couldn’t attack the bike with the sweets she had in her bag as it was driving away from her too quickly to be effective.
They were locked in a stalemate, and it was only a matter of time before they ran out of energy and the Man in Black’s car bore down on them, and they were all killed.
Dolly was rummaging through her bag, trying to work out a plan of action, when she felt the ground vibrate beneath her.
She stopped running for a moment. Her heart was going over one hundred and eighty beats per minute. She was silently thankful that her ontologically enhanced metabolism meant that, despite her carb-heavy diet, she was surprisingly fit, or she would have collapsed long ago.
She watched the grass. Though it was dark and she could only see by the moonlight, the ground was moving, shaking. Something bulged out from under it.
She stepped backwards as the ground distorted and stretched. Something was burrowing its way up from beneath the topsoil.
The Man in Black noticed, as well, drawing his car to a stop.
Derrick got out of the car. “Why have we stopped?” he asked.
Chelsea and Daisy also noticed, and kept their distance while stopping to watch.
“Look,” the Man in Black said, pointing. “There’s…something moving.”
The ground bulged and stretched.
There was the sound of roots tearing apart, and dirt erupted from under the ground, great clods of dirt raining down on them like meteors.
It was about twelve feet tall, vaguely humanoid, dressed in what looked like a one-piece, navy-blue woman’s uniform of the sort a female flight attendant or train station worker would have worn perhaps half a century ago, and red shoes with absurdly high heel. It had long – unnaturally long, supposing the rest of this monstrosity could be considered “natural” – arms that sagged down to its feet, and a hunched back. On top of its shoulders, in place of a head, was a loudspeaker, from on top of which grew long, curled brown hair, and on top of that, a navy blue garrison cap.
The creature bucked and swayed, moving animalistically, not human-like; it seemed to waver between standing on its legs and using one of its arms and one of its legs to stand on, leaving the other arm and the other leg free to act as freakish “arms” in their own right.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Danny shouted.
The creature looked down at them, despite the fact it had an eyeless face, and roared:
“WE ARE SORRY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE 19:30 SERVICE TO BISHOP’S STORTFORD IS DELAYED.”
“Harri-Bec,” Dolly said.
“Harri-Bec,” Chelsea said.
“Who?” Daisy said.
The creature ran forwards as the four umbric users tried to pile back into their car, but it was no use – it was already upon them, and it brought its fists down on the car’s roof like an angry chimpanzee, ripping the roof off like a tin can.
The occupants quickly jumped out of the car and fled. The Man in Black, to avoid having the damage reflected on him, quickly destroyed the car.
“O Jisses,” Sven shouted. “It’s made out of umbric! It’s made out of—!”
The creature loomed over him as the others ran away. He raised his sword valiantly.
“Get back!” he shouted, swinging it. “Get back, I said! I’ll—”
The creature swatted him away with a strong enough force to bisect him.
His upper body went flying for at least five metres, before coming to rest about ten metres away. Meanwhile, his legs buckled and swayed, and finally collapsed.
Sven Gunnarson had died for the second time.
“SVEN!” Danny shouted.
The creature ran at them.
“For fuck’s sake, Danny,” Derrick shouted. “You’re attracting it.”
Danny looked at him.
“It killed Sven,” he said. “So I’m going to kill it.”
Daisy and Chelsea tried to put distance between themselves and the creature, as did Dolly, who made her way over to them. While the creature was, ostensibly, on their side, it was still more-or-less a wild animal, rather like releasing a tiger from its cage at the zoo to stop a murderer – it would quite happily rip a child to pieces as easily as it would devour the murderer.
They watched from afar as Danny manifested his daggers, running at the beast with fury – he was over ninety kilograms of muscle and was charging at it with near-superhuman speed. The creature banged its fists against the ground like a gorilla defending its territory and bounded towards him.
“Die!” Danny roared, thrusting his daggers into its chest.
The creature cried out and moaned. The loudspeaker buzzed and crackled.
“WE ARE SORRY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE…19:48 SERVICE TO NORWICH…IS CANCELLED…”
“I don’t know what the fuck you are,” Danny said, “But you’re already dead.”
With the daggers, he pushed until his arm pierced through its chest, coated in oily black blood.
The creature fell with a creaking moan, and Danny climbed on top of it, stabbing it over and over again with his daggers with the ferocity of a serial killer. After a while he abandoned the daggers, and began pounding on the loudspeaker-head with his fists, smashing it to bits until he had fully decapitated it.
He stepped away from it, panting, then turned to the other two, watching with disturbed fascination, and then to the three girls, who were horrified by the brutality of the killing.
“You may have killed Sven,” he bellowed, “But you’ve not won by a damn sight.”
He began making his way over to them, with Derrick and the Man in Black following behind him.
The three stood side by side and looked at each other.
“Well, ladies,” Chelsea said. “It’s been an honour fighting alongside you this evening.”
“Right,” Dolly said.
“Wait,” Daisy said. “Don’t give up hope. There’s got to be something…”
The men were getting closer.
“…there must be something we can do…”
But there was nothing they could do. Death was now fast approaching. They could evade it, but it was inevitable: The umbric users had finally claimed victory.
*
The tower’s copper roof had a bright green patina, and had an incline leading up to the skylight. Socks’s legs were shaking. He had never been a fan of heights at the best of times, and this was really testing him. As he hoisted himself up the brick wall, he caught sight of the Grey Man, slowly and silently stalking K-Os. He tried to remain out of sight and make as little sound as possible.
“Admit it, Lady Chaos,” he said. “You have lost. On the ground below, as we speak, your friends are about to be slaughtered by my loyal followers. You have reached your end.”
There was silence on the roof.
“You can’t hide from me forever, you cowardly little slattern.”
Another silence, then a sound.
“You can’t win, Chesterton,” said a voice from across the roof. “This won’t go the way you think, whatever happens.”
“You would say that, you nihilist, you defiler, you filth. You are nothing more than a cancer to be eradicated.”
“That is your problem, Chesterton,” K-Os replied. She emerged from the shadows, and seemed to skate effortlessly towards him, even on the corrugated roof. “You are invested solely in human concerns.”
“Because humanism is a great good,” he retorted. “Look around you at what human beings have achieved – the total restructuring of the landscape to their own needs. The earth made fertile, bearing crops. The houses made of stone, to shelter from the harsh winters. And here – a water-tower – so that none may thirst. And yet…human beings have not yet mastered all reality. Humans have not yet conquered death, not yet seized control of fate, still beholden to the whims of chaotic systems.”
Socks took off his shoes so as to quieten his footfalls. His sobriquet had never felt more appropriate. He tiptoed around, trying to get behind the Grey Man…he had to make sure his timing was right.
The Grey Man continued. “August 9th, 1945 – the day the Americans dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki, killing eighty thousand people. Did you know that on that day, Nagasaki was not the primary target for that raid? The intention had been to bomb Kokura, to the north. Yet, because of poor weather conditions and low visibility, Nagasaki was chosen in its stead.” He paused. “Human beings…can split the atom, producing energy comparable to that produced by this planet’s Sun…yet they cannot even predict the outcome of chaotic weather systems more than a few days in advance.”
“So that is why you massacred an entire town to bring back your comrades?” K-Os said. “Because of the weather?”
“No,” he replied. “You see, August 9th 1945 was not only the day of Nagasaki’s destruction…it was also the day that I was willed back into existence by the Universe. I remembered our confrontation at the dawn of humanity, and woke to a new world, where little had changed – human beings, still clamouring and killing over nations and capital, as though it meant anything in the face of oblivion. In the face of the Supreme Nihilist herself, still pulling our universe to pieces bit by bit, and revelling in it. No, my dear – it was not because of the weather that I killed those people. It was because I am willing to sacrifice a few hundred people in order to save the lives of eight billion, to enable this lowly race to transcend mere matter, to become as gods – not selfish gods like you, but new gods – gods who can forge their own path, who can turn all reality into a tool, a friend – not a great enemy that tramples them into the dirt and destroys them, but a faithful companion, to live eternal, safe in the knowledge that all that has ever existed will always exist. to make death a mere myth that is told to children to have them tidy their living space. And to make that a reality, I must destroy chaos, must end entropy, must remake this tainted universe from the ground up, a universe that will never die, a universe where all life is sacred, where death is an impossibility!”
K-Os looked at him disdainfully.
“You are a fool,” she said.
“I expected you to say that,” Chesterton replied.
“All things must die, Chesterton,” K-Os replied. “You call me selfish – I am not selfish. I exist to maintain the balance you seek to upset. It is you that is selfish. You don’t want to end suffering and death. You have murdered for your cause. No. What you wish to do is make the Universe your plaything. Like a child playing with toys. You simply resent that the natural processes of this universe do not fall in line with your own infantile, anthropocentric whims. So, I say again – you are a fool. And killing me will only prove that.”
Chesterton was silent for a few moments.
“If all things must die,” he said, quietly, “Then so too must death.”
He lunged for her, trying to grab her. A single touch would surely kill her, as she turned to umbric. K-Os liquefied, warping her body as he tried to hit her with a two-fingered strike, made by drawing his hand back as though pulling back the string on a longbow, and then jabbing forward as though following the motion of an invisible arrow.
K-Os ducked out of the way, somersaulting backwards. She landed flat on her back, a vulnerable position to be in.
Socks had the sense that it was now or never – he had to kill Chesterton now, or K-Os would be killed. He quietly walked up behind the man, as he stood, looming over her. She looked up at Chesterton, then, for a moment, looked behind him, making eye contact with Socks, who pressed a finger to his lips to silence her.
“Well, my dear,” he said. “You fought valiantly, I will grant you that, but it appears that you have met your end!”
He drew his arm back again, assured that he would kill her with his next attack.
CRRRRRUUUNCCCHHHH
Chesterton stood, stunned for a moment. He looked down at his chest, to see a hand, a man’s hand, had penetrated right through it, and was now sticking out of it, coated in black blood and fragments of solid crystal.
He turned to see Socks, standing behind him with a grin on his face.
“Not today,” he said, and moved to withdraw his arm.
Chesterton smiled back.
Socks tried to remove his arm from Chesterton’s torso, but it wouldn’t budge. It was as though it were being gripped, held in place, as a vice might hold a block of wood.
“Wh…” he said.
“Stupid boy,” Chesterton said. “Did you think that your feeble attack would kill me? Perhaps if you had gone for my head you would have had a better chance. Unfortunately…you wasted your only opportunity. What a pity.”
Socks felt something tighten and constrict and cried out in pain. He realised – Chesterton was healing his torso around his arm. It was fully stuck, as though trapped in rapidly drying cement, and his arm was being crushed.
“Now, then,” Chesterton said. “You’ve had your fun. Let’s take away your toys.”
“Socks!” K-Os shouted.
With a sudden movement, the Grey Man jerked his torso to the right, with Socks’s arm still trapped in it.
There was a sickening crunch and a sound of something wet and fleshy tearing.
Socks staggered backwards in shock, blinking a couple of times.
He looked down at his left forearm.
It wasn’t there.
With terror, as though in some nightmare, he watched as his forearm and left hand, which now jutted from Chesterton’s torso, were turned to umbric and absorbed into Chesterton’s body.
Gouts of blood sprayed from his upper arm, as severed blood vessels now found themselves pumping blood to nowhere. His left humerus poked out of the ragged, torn flesh, now attached to nothing.
He collapsed against the roof’s slope. The roof was covered in blood. He found himself in disbelief that a human body could have that much blood in it. He was near-certain that he would die soon from the wound.
His vision began to become hazy as K-Os ran to his side.
“Socks,” she said, sternly. “Stay with me.”
“It hurts,” Socks said.
K-Os turned to Chesterton. “Bastard!” she shouted.
As she sat by Socks’s side, blood sprayed on to her skates, staining them, and they turned blood-red, drinking the blood hungrily as though they were vampires.
K-Os stood as Chesterton smiled smugly.
“Are you not going to save your friend?” he said, mockingly.
K-Os approached him, physically shaking with rage.
“This is what you really are,” she said, gesturing to Socks, breathing shallowly, his eyes fluttering. “Murderer. Torturer. Mutilator. Killer. You claim to stand for life, yet you casually destroy it.”
She clenched her fists, and her eyes began to glow golden.
“But that ends now,” she said, pointing at him. “Cosimo Chesterton, The Grey Man, Lord of Order…prepare to die.”
And in a flash of light, she seemed to explode into a pillar of flame that could be seen all the way from space, and a golden light washed over the entire landscape, illuminating it like a single torch against the darkest, blackest abyss in the deepest cavern on Earth, a defiant light that said: I banish thee.
A wave of chaotic energy burst from her body, and Chesterton was blown backwards, shielding his face with his arms.
The final battle had begun.
*
Danny, Derrick and The Man in Black were upon them now, brandishing their weapons. The three girls had joined hands defiantly. If they were to die, they had silently agreed, then it would be together. None left to mourn the others. They had done the best they could, and their best hadn’t been enough. What mattered now was that they die with honour.
Daisy’s cheeks were stained with tears, and she was thinking: I’m sorry, Jules. I’m so sorry.
She opened them, and the men were here now, preparing to make their final attack.
The world seemed to grow dark for a moment, and everything was drawn into focus, and Daisy had the horrible feeling that everything she had ever done had been for nothing.
And there was light—
A golden light seemed to explode from on top of the tower, a wave that came washing towards them like the heat from a nuclear bomb. The three men heard it disturb the air around them, turned to see it and were blown off their feet, crashing to the ground.
They stood, dusting themselves off as they looked at it – a pillar of golden light, burning into the night sky from the tower’s roof.
“What the hell…?” Derrick said. “What is that?”
“I don’t know,” The Man in Black replied. “But I hope it isn’t…what I think it is…”
“Never mind that shit,” Danny said. “We’ll deal with her in a second. Firstly, let’s kill these three.”
He began to approach them again.
Daisy felt some warmth against her body, like the embrace of an old friend. She looked down at her guitar.
It was glowing golden.
Dolly looked at it as well, then up at her, and smiled.
Chelsea seemed to notice the change in the light, and she, too, smiled.
“Is that…?” Dolly said.
“Let’s see,” Daisy replied.
She began to play a bassline on it:
Dum da da dee dum da dum da da dee dum da dum da da dee dum
“Oh no you don’t!” Derrick shouted, rushing forward with his own guitar, bringing his plectrum down hard on the strings.
The strings made no sound.
“Wha—” he said, looking down at the neck.
A pair of hands were muting the strings.
A pair of hands belonging to someone quite familiar.
“N…no,” Derrick stammered. “No…no…I…I killed you…I saw you die…you’re just a fucking normal, how…”
For there, standing before him, was Jules – back from the dead.
He was dressed the same way he had been dressed when he had died, complete with a torn hole in the left breast of his shirt – though conspicuously absent of blood. His body was somewhat translucent, and glowed with an eerie blue light.
“Jules?” Daisy asked, equally in disbelief.
Jules looked over at her and smiled. “Hello, Daisy. I’ve missed you.”
“How can you be here?” Daisy asked, tearing up. “Y…you’re dead.”
“Didn’t you hear what Ella told you? My base pattern – what some might call a ‘soul’ – is still in your guitar. That burst of energy was all I needed to fully manifest.”
“But she told me…that you weren’t you any more.”
“I’m not,” Jules said. “I’ve been reconstructed using your memories of me.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Chelsea said. She cleared her throat slightly. “Though, er, that’s not saying much.”
“Impossible,” Derrick said. “This doesn’t happen…this can’t happen without using umbric…!”
Jules turned his attention to Derrick.
“And as for you,” he said, disdainfully. “Didn’t you get the hint last time? When I boiled you alive, gutted you and burned you, I must not have been clear enough: You stay the fuck away from Daisy.”
Derrick trembled. “No,” he said. “I killed you once, you bastard. You’d better believe I’m going to kill you again. And you’d better believe that when I kill you, you’re gonna stay dead!”
Jules looked at him, seeming utterly bored.
“Go on then,” he said. “Kill me.”
“With pleasure,” Derrick said, striking the strings of his guitar once again.
Daisy winced, remembering the pain she had felt when he had attacked her before with his guitar.
She opened her eyes and realised that she felt no pain.
Jules was standing in front of her, and above his left index finger, which he held pointing upwards, was a tiny ball of energy, sparking like a tiny firework.
“That was piss-poor, Derrick, I won’t lie,” he said. “But I wouldn’t let it bother you.”
“No,” Derrick cried. “NO!”
He played several more chords, each of them caught by Jules’s spirit, who added them to the ball of light sparking above his finger.
“You know, Derrick,” Jules said, “I was willing to let you off easy. But you’ve proven me that you’re not worthy of that.”
“Why won’t you die?!” Derrick shouted, bashing the strings over and over again.
“Goodbye, Derrick,” Jules said, pointing his finger at him.
Derrick barely had time to scream before Jules released the ball of energy back at him, and he was instantly vaporised.
Danny and the Man in Black looked on in shock.
“You look scared, lads,” Jules said.
“Thank you…Jules,” Daisy said, not quite believing he was really there.
“Don’t mention it,” Jules replied, smiling beautifully.
“You motherfucker,” Danny said.
“I’ve had enough of these games,” The Man in Black said. “Danny.”
The two ran over to Daisy and Dolly. Danny held his dagger to Daisy’s throat, and The Man in Black his pistol to Dolly’s head.
“Get away from them!” Chelsea shouted, showing a surprisingly uncharacteristic lack of aloofness about the situation – had Dolly not been more concerned with the more pressing matter of the gun currently pointed at her head, she would probably have been quite stunned by the revelation that Chelsea actually had a capacity for empathy.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Jules said.
“Don’t give me that shit,” Danny said. “So you can collect up balls of energy. Big fucking deal, you poncey twat. You’re a ghost. You can’t do fuck all to stop me cutting this girl’s throat, isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
“True,” Jules said. “But fortunately, I’m not alone.”
The two men looked around them and laughed.
The two girls looked extremely anxious, and Chelsea was just barely holding herself back from charging at them.
“That was a very funny joke,” The Man in Black said. “But I don’t see how you could possibly—”
SCHINK
He was instantly silenced.
The gun clattered to the floor.
“What…?” Danny said.
The Man in Black stumbled backwards momentarily, and then his head fell off. A geyser of black blood sprayed from the neck, and his body collapsed to the ground, crumbling and bursting into flames.
For standing behind him was another ghost, of a young woman wearing clown makeup, a Harlequin leotard, and wielding a white-golden scythe.
“Fliss?” Dolly said, disbelievingly. “But you’re…I killed you…”
“Your camera is in your handbag,” Fliss said. “When you took pictures inside my psychic realm, you copied part of my base pattern into the camera’s film. That burst of chaotic energy, combined with your memories of me, has allowed me to manifest.”
“Fliss…” Dolly said. “I’m so sorry…”
“No hard feelings, Dolly. I wasn’t myself, after all.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jules said, walking over to her and shaking her spectral hand. “Jules.”
“Terminal Felicity,” Fliss said. “But my friends call me Fliss.” Her eyes darted over to Dolly. “Well…not just friends.”
Danny looked at the two ghosts, pressing his dagger into Daisy’s throat.
“In case you’ve forgotten,” he said, “I’m still going to cut this bitch’s throat if you don’t fuck off. And I’m going to do it even if you do.”
Daisy winced as she felt the tip begin to cut into her carotid.
Chelsea cleared her throat.
“Hey, fuckwit.”
He turned around.
She clocked him one with her helmet.
Danny went crashing to the ground.
He stood up, his face cracked, took one look at the situation, and decided the best thing was to make a break for it.
The two ghosts looked at Chelsea.
“Helmet’s magic,” she said.
“Helmet’s magic,” the two ghosts replied.
Danny was already making a beeline across the field, having decided, as most cowards do, that his loyalty to his cause was of less value to him than his desire to continue living.
“He’s all yours,” Chelsea said.
The ghosts looked at each other and pursued the coward, who looked behind him.
“Get away from me!” he shouted. “I said GET AWAY FROM ME!”
“After you threatened to kill Daisy?” Jules said. “I don’t think so.”
“Die, you bastard!” Danny shouted, stabbing his daggers at Jules’s translucent chest.
Daisy gasped.
Jules simply looked down at them and smiled.
The daggers exploded, spraying shards of umbric into Danny’s face, and taking his arms with it.
Danny, half-blinded, staggered backwards, screaming in pain, collapsing on to his back.
“I’m tired of this guy,” Jules said. “Felicity, would you do the honour?”
“With pleasure,” she said, floating forwards.
Danny looked up at her, near-crying in fear.
“You know,” she said, “The scythe you people gave me was a pretty neat weapon. But you wanted me to use it for evil, not for good. So here’s my replacement: A scythe of chaos. Once charged with chaotic energy, it can cut through umbric like a knife through butter.”
“Please,” Danny said, desperately. “You’ve already taught me a lesson…”
“Oh no,” Fliss said. “I know all about you, Danny St. James. We used to be on the same side, remember. I recall how you used to kill – not because you believed in a noble cause, because it was a cruel necessity – but because you enjoyed killing. You haven’t changed. You’ll never change. If I allow you to live, you will continue to kill. So this is my final judgement: I’m ridding the world of you, once and for all.”
Danny looked up at her, terrified beyond belief.
Fliss silently drew back the scythe and with a single swipe, carved the man’s torso in two on the diagonal.
Danny screamed as jets of flame burst from the cracks now spreading across his body, disintegrating him.
Finally, he was silenced.
The two ghosts left the smouldering pile of ash that had once been Danny, and returned to their respective hosts.
“Did you get them?” Chelsea asked.
“We got them,” Jules said.
The two stood in front of Daisy and Dolly.
Daisy’s lip trembled and she began to cry.
“Jules…” she said, bowing her head. Tears dripped on to the grass. “I miss you so much.”
“I miss you too,” Jules said. “But, do you know something?”
“What?” Daisy said, sniffing.
“It’s natural to feel that way. But you need to let yourself move on. I’m dead. I’m only back for a little while because you needed me. But I want you to remember something: It’s nobody’s fault that I’m dead except for that prick I just turned to dust.” He paused. “It’s natural to be angry at K-Os and Socks for not telling you. I’m angry at them for not telling you. Maybe I’d still be here if they had. But what’s done is done. The past is the past. And right now, they’re doing all they can to make it right. You don’t have to forgive them, but you can’t cling to that anger forever, Daisy. It’ll destroy you.”
Daisy shuddered and nodded.
“I love you, Jules,” she said. “I always will.”
“I know,” Jules replied. “I love you too. But when you’re ready…don’t forget to let me go.”
“I won’t,” Daisy said.
The ghost looked over at Fliss, nodded, and then transformed into white-golden light, and disappeared back into Daisy’s guitar.
“I suppose this is goodbye for me, too,” Fliss said.
Dolly cleared her throat and looked away. “Yes, I suppose so.”
“Listen, Dolly,” Fliss said. “I…I deeply regret it ended like that. You were right with what you said in my Blossom World. I was cowardly…I didn’t know what I wanted. I should have told you I wanted to leave you, and instead I hurt you. I’m sorry.”
Dolly paused. “It’s…hard for me to forgive you, Fliss,” she said. “But I appreciate your honesty. I’m sorry that you had to die.”
“It took you killing me to realise what I’d done was wrong,” Fliss said. “Life can be quite bizarre.”
“That it can,” Dolly said. She paused again. “I…I really do miss you, Fliss. I have done for years.”
“That’s okay,” Fliss said. “I miss you too. But I’ll always be in that big, beautiful mind of yours. And I hope you remember the good times more than the bad.”
Dolly smiled slightly. “We’ll see,” she said.
“‘We’ll see’ is always better than ‘no’,” Fliss said, smiling back.
“You always were a stubborn cow,” Dolly said.
“You can talk,” Fliss said.
There was a long pause.
“Goodbye, Dolly,” Fliss said.
“Goodbye,” Dolly said.
Fliss smiled one final time, and she, too, turned into white-golden light, and disappeared into Dolly’s bag, where her camera waited.
The three women stood together – Chelsea, Daisy and Dolly.
“Well, that was an adventure,” Chelsea said. “Who’s for sushi?”
“The fight’s not over yet,” Dolly said.
“Oh, right, the grey bastard. Forgot about him. I’m sure K-Os will deal with him.”
“We’re not leaving to get sushi while K-Os is fighting for the fate of the universe, Chelsea.”
“Fine. I say we give it fifteen minutes, then we leave.”
They looked up at the tower, and waited for the outcome.
*
Socks was now drifting in and out of consciousness. He must have lost at least half the blood in his body. He was beginning to feel numb. He had never imagined death would be like this – he had always seen it as a very sudden thing. This was slow, like the parts of him were dissolving, disappearing into that oblivion so feared by the Grey Man.
Then, suddenly, he felt warmth, and a light washed over him, and his eyes opened again.
K-Os was glowing golden – that same gold he had seen all those months ago, in December. Her hand was clasped around the end of Socks’s upper left arm. Socks looked down to see that she had completely healed the injury site – not brought his forearm arm back, no – but regenerated flesh around the residual limb. He felt a surge of warmth through his body, as he realised she had also regenerated his blood – she had brought him back from the brink of death, at the cost of his arm.
“Th-thank you,” he stammered.
K-Os stood again.
“An entertaining parlour trick,” Chesterton said. “But let me be clear, my dear – I am not afraid of you. My subordinates may have feared your might when you are in this state. But I have seen you in this state before. I contained you in those skates.”
“Really?” K-Os replied, and her voice seemed booming, as though the universe itself were speaking. “I don’t remember it that way.”
The Grey Man stood back, and placed a fist against his hip.
“Ah, I see that the blood on your skates has returned your memory to you.”
“I remember you now, Chesterton,” K-Os said. “You were a priest, a shaman of some kind. Yes, I remember now. You were a seer, weren’t you – you were able to see time itself; the root system that tethers all matter in patterns of interaction. It was as though you could see every moment…you could see how the universe began…how it ended…and it destroyed your spirit. For you had realised that you are tiny, and insignificant. One day, in a cave, you stumbled upon it – a mass of umbric in a fissure, calling to you. It heard your distress. It asked you to meld with it. And it became you, and you became it. You returned to your village. You called me a devil, a demon, a great evil that must be vanquished. You confronted me in a forest clearing. Just before I was able to destroy you, from the root system, you plucked something – anything – that could contain my power. And it just so happened to be the skates.”
Chesterton smiled. “So you do remember me.”
“Yes. I remember you. I destroyed you, erased you from time. As though you had never existed. Yet you were reincarnated a few decades ago, willed into being out of the chaos of the twentieth century. Just as the umbric is order born of chaos, born of the Giant Impact…so, too, are you.”
“And you,” Chesterton replied. “Chaos born of order – born in the K-Pg extinction event.”
Socks tried to prop himself up, struggling to orient himself with the missing limb. He could have sworn he had heard that somewhere before, but in the moment, he couldn’t figure out where.
“You have spun a tale,” K-Os continued. “About me being evil, to convince naïve humans to follow you.”
“Yes. And now I will personally destroy you.”
“No,” K-Os said. “You can never destroy me.”
“Watch me,” Chesterton hissed.
He charged forwards, drawing his two fingers back.
K-Os drew a fist back, her body glowing with that golden aura, and made a grunt like “URRRRAHHH!”
She punched Chesterton hard in the head – so hard that he crashed through the roof, caving it in and falling into the stone room below.
K-Os looked at Socks.
“Stay here,” she said, and leapt into the hole, following after Chesterton.
There were a few moments of silence.
Socks breathed anxiously, swallowing air.
His ears were ringing with tinnitus – the new blood K-Os had produced had temporarily elevated his blood pressure, and he was feeling dizzy.
He stood, walking over to a safety railing that had been installed on the roof. He decided to abandon his Reeboks – with his left arm gone there would be no way he could put the shoes on again anyway.
He would have to climb, one-armed, back down to the stone room.
He got a leg over the railing. His primary instinct, now, was survival – survival, and protecting K-Os, even at the cost of his own life.
He looked over the edge. It was a long way down.
Steeling himself, he put a leg over the edge, then another – then, with his right arm, positioned himself so he could hang just within reach of the hole.
He let himself drop, hanging on to the brickwork with his right hand. He could see the hole now, he was hanging just above and in front of it.
He remembered – that night he lost his Timberlands, the night that changed his life forever – he had been so afraid to die, so afraid that nobody would ever find out what happened to him. He remembered how he had used that fear, that survival instinct, to push on. Different bad guy, same principle. Come on.
Swinging his legs, he used his momentum to power himself back and forth, back and forth, generating enough swing to let go—
There was a terrifying moment where it seemed he wouldn’t make it.
He pulled himself into the room, clothes soaked in blood, panting, blood pumping in his ears.
Chesterton was trying to hit K-Os, and she was parrying and ducking out of the way of his every blow, still glowing, her eyes still burning with that infinite, unfathomable rage at the man who thought himself a god.
He clasped his hands together and tried to use them as a sort of sledgehammer, to knock K-Os off course, beat her down, but every attack seemed to bounce off her, like bullets off of titanium. She continued to step forwards.
“How does it feel, Chesterton?” she said. “To know that you are tiny, to know that all your plans, all your machinations have been worth nothing? How does it feel to know that every cruelty you have perpetrated, every life you’ve destroyed, was for naught? All you are is a coward – a coward and a fool.”
She punched him, knocking him to the ground, climbed on top of his prone body, and proceeded to hail fists down on his head, cracking it under the flurry of her fists.
“Your plans won’t work,” she boomed. “You cannot kill me. And I’m finally going to prove it to you.”
She beat his head against the hard stone floor.
CRRRNK. CRRRRRRNNNKKKK. CRRRRRRNNNNKKKTTTSSCCCHHH.
She eased off him, pushing herself away from him as he lay on the floor, gasping and moaning in pain.
He sat up. K-Os had obliterated half his head, leaving his left eye swivelling in its socket. It looked around the room, half in terror, half in blind pain.
He pushed himself away from her with his legs.
He whimpered, propping himself against the windowsill. Crystals tinkled from his broken head. He seemed to reach up to the right side of his head, feeling for something.
He leaned against the sill, seeing Socks in the dark.
“You,” he said, looking at him.
K-Os turned to look at him.
“Socks,” she hissed. “I told you to stay outside.”
The Grey Man continued, wheezing. “Can you not see that you are siding with the Angel of Death? Do you not realise that this woman will watch you grow old and die, while she stays young forever? Has it not occurred to you that this woman will watch this universe die – that she wills it to happen?”
Socks cleared his throat. He was still reeling from the loss of his arm. His mind was a mess.
“I don’t believe you,” he said.
“No,” the Grey Man said. “You wouldn’t, would you?”
He groaned and panted, looking out of the window at the full moon.
“That moon was born at the same time as the umbric,” he said. “More ancient than humanity itself. A symbol of the unknown. And beyond it…eternity. All I wanted…all I wanted was to grant humanity that eternity…to grant humanity that great good.”
“Ignore him, Socks,” K-Os said. “He’s playing with you.”
“No,” Chesterton said. “Let him listen to me. Have you parents, boy?”
“Don’t answer him,” K-Os said, angrily.
“Yes,” Socks replied. “Yes, I do.”
Chesterton smiled – the most genuine smile Socks had ever seen him give – and nodded.
“And you love them?”
“Yes,” Socks said. “Very much.”
“Then,” Chesterton asked. “Why would you side with someone who not only guarantees that they will die, and you after them…but who actually wills it?”
Socks had no answer. He turned to K-Os.
“K-Os…is that true?”
“All things must die, Socks,” K-Os said. “Even your parents, and even you.”
“But not…you,” Socks said.
K-Os’s face seemed to contort in rage.
“Are you really falling for this man’s bullshit? Don’t be an idiot, Socks. He tore your arm off.”
“But how can you justify the existence of death?”
“I don’t,” K-Os replied. “Because it is a fact of the universe.”
“But does it have to be?”
“Yes,” K-Os replied. “It’s just how things are.”
Socks fell silent. Could it be true? Could it be true that K-Os’s aspirations, her goals, her values – could it be that they were at odds with his own?
“Then…” Socks said. “…are you really on my side?”
K-Os remained silent for a few moments.
“Don’t be a fucking idiot, Socks,” she said.
There was a long pause.
“No,” Chesterton said. “I think the boy is just getting wise!”
“K-Os!” Socks shouted.
Too late.
Chesterton ran at K-Os, taking her legs out from under her and pushing her into the pool of liquid umbric.
Socks ran over to her.
“K-Os!” he shouted. “K-Os…K-OS!”
The umbric bubbled for a few moments, then K-Os emerged from beneath it, her hair all wet and bedraggled. She was still glowing.
She looked up at Chesterton, pulling herself from the pool and approaching him.
“You idiot,” she said. “The blood on my skates is still protecting me from your umbric. That did nothing to me.”
Chesterton simply smiled.
“I know,” he said. “That wasn’t what was meant to kill you.”
He held something up in his hand.
Simultaneously, Socks and K-Os realised what it was.
His attack had been a cover for his true intention – stealing K-Os’s pink messenger bag, contained within which was…
“The Product,” K-Os said, with mounting horror. “Socks – The PRODUCT!”
And Socks realised what Chesterton had been reaching for as he leaned against the sill.
He had broken off part of his own head, a shard of crystal umbric – to use as a weapon.
Both tried to rush at him, but they had realised too late.
In a quick motion, Chesterton stabbed the Product, piercing it so hard that the shard penetrated his own hand, jutting out of the back of it like a stigma.
The glow that surrounded K-Os immediately faded, and she bent double, as though winded.
Chesterton stepped forwards, as she looked up at him in pain.
“Goodbye, K-Os,” he said, and kicked her backwards, into the pool of umbric.
K-Os did not scream as she fell. She made no sound. But Socks did.
“K-OS!”
He grabbed hold of her left leg, sticking over the edge of the pool.
With horror, he realised what was happening to her – the umbric had begun to form a pink scum on its surface.
Her body had begun dissolving, melting into the pot.
He held the skate and tried to pull her back, but her leg was coming apart like a soft dough.
The skate’s hue shifted from red, to white, to black.
K-Os began to sink.
She looked at him, desperation and horrible sadness in her eyes.
“Socks,” she said, weakly. “Run.”
And as Socks held the skate, her body finally lost its structure. She dissolved into the umbric, as though digested.
An act of unthinkable cruelty.
Socks silently crawled away from the hole, clutching K-Os’s left skate.
K-Os…
K-Os had…
K-Os had died.
Chesterton stared in disbelief for a few moments.
“I…I did it,” he said, staring down at his two hands. The Product had vanished. He pulled the umbric shard out of his hand. “I…I killed her…I killed K-Os…killed Chaos…I killed chaos.”
Socks stared down at the skate in despair.
Chesterton laughed manically, near-dancing with joy. “I won,” he bellowed. “I WON! I won! I killed chaos! I will never die! I’ve saved the universe!”
He continued laughing, then looked over at Socks.
“Ah,” he thought aloud. “But…what to do with you…”
Socks looked up at him.
“You killed her,” he said. There were tears in his eyes.
“Yes,” Chesterton said. He thought for a moment. “Then will you join me?”
There was a long silence.
“No,” Socks replied.
The Grey Man’s face fell. He tutted in disappointment.
“Even at the end, you stay loyal to that bitch,” he said. “How very disappointing.” He raised the umbric shard. “Very well, have it your way.”
“NO!” Socks roared, fiercely.
Chesterton blinked, surprised by the force of the shout.
He took a step towards Socks.
There was a flash.
Chesterton covered his eye, and when he uncovered it, he saw that Socks – and the skate – had disappeared.
Chesterton regarded the empty space for a moment.
He shook his head. Never mind. He laughed – louder and louder, opening his arms wide as he walked to the window, and looked up at the Moon.
“And now,” he said. “To remake this wretched universe.”
He clapped his hands together, and the world ended.
*
A sudden chill seemed to fall across the grass.
“Did…” Chelsea said. “Did anyone else feel that?”
“Yeah,” Dolly said, looking anxiously up at the tower. “What just…happened?”
“I don’t know,” Daisy said.
Dolly covered her mouth in shock.
“What?” Daisy asked.
“Daisy…” Dolly replied. “Your eyes…”
A look of fear crossed Daisy’s face.
Dolly reached into her handbag and pulled out a mirror with a shaking hand.
Even in the dim light, it was clear – her rainbow-incandescent eyes had reverted to their natural colour.
Dolly reached into her bag and pulled out a small boiled sweet, unwrapped it, and tried to make it explode. Nothing happened.
Chelsea walked over to her bike, placing her hand against it, only to find that the bike had turned to stone – totally inert.
“Oh God,” Chelsea said. Dolly had never heard her sound so worried in all her life. “Oh God…”
She turned to the other two. “Guys…she lost.”
“No…” Dolly said. “No, no…that can’t be right…that can’t be…”
Daisy played the strings of her guitar. It had transformed back into a simple bass guitar. She, too, had lost her abilities.
“Oh my God…” Dolly said. “But if K-Os lost, then that means—”
And they looked up at the tower, and from its top, they saw it:
A sphere, a dark sphere, rapidly “inflating”.
It swallowed the tower as it grew, and began to propagate outwards, consuming the entire field.
“No!” Daisy cried.
It approached them quickly, impossible to avoid – like the event horizon of a black hole; by the time you’ve seen it, it’s too late to move out of its range.
The three stood together and held each other as the dark sphere washed over them.
Darkness fell.
The universe died.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
And
then
there
was
light…
*
She sensed it.
A psychic cry.
Travelling down the railways.
Like time itself was screaming.
It was here.
The fall.
She had suspected it would happen for some time.
Therefore she had been prepared.
A contingency she had worked out for such an occasion.
She put it into practice without hesitation.
“Go,” she said.
The lines on her dress slid away like snakes slithering down her legs.
“Seal the city.”
“Protect London.”
They slithered away.
They did as instructed.
Just as rehearsed.
A dome encasing nine million inhabitants.
Not even the end of the world would kill this city.
The end approached, but London was safe.
An enclosed circle.
Her love for her city was so great she would guard it with her life.
A velodrome, protected against oblivion.
She watched as the universe ended around them.
The city was ejected out of time and space.
A necessary cost.
A refugee city, with no world to return to.
She looked upon her works.
She saw that they were good.
*
He woke.
He stood and looked around him.
I remember this place.
The noplace, the notime, the nowhere.
The Notherethere.
“I see you’ve come back,” a voice said.
He turned to see who it belonged to.
Yes, of course.
Magpie.
The man was now dressed all in black, as though ready for a funeral.
Magpie offered him a hand, and he stood, clutching a rollerskate in his right hand. The left one was missing, though why, he couldn’t remember. Magpie took the skate from him and laced it so that it hung loosely from his neck.
There was a cat on Magpie’s shoulders. A black cat. It glared at him dispassionately.
“You’re in a bad way,” Magpie said. “But, er…so is everything else, at the moment. Myself included, I’m sorry to say.”
“What happened?”
“Well…the universe, as you know it, at least, no longer exists. It was remade yesterday, which in this place is as good as a billion years ago.”
“Remade…?”
“Yes, my boy,” Magpie replied. “Fourteen billion years of history. Poof. Gone. The new universe had to be rebuilt from the ground up. Seems like you got out before the whole thing went up. No ontological inertia in this place, though, I’m afraid. You’ve probably lost your old identity irrevocably.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means I’ve made a new one for you. Since I like you.”
He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
There was a thumping sound on the soft, spongey ground.
He turned and saw what it was – a pale horse with a saddle.
“I dub thee the Wanderer,” Magpie said.
“What’s this?” the Wanderer said, pointing at the animal.
“Your familiar,” Magpie replied. “A faithful companion for the tough times ahead.” He looked down at the Wanderer’s naked body. “Oh, I almost forgot.”
Out of nowhere, Magpie manifested a suitcase.
“New clothes,” he said. “Since you’re a new person.”
“But where will I go?” the Wanderer said.
“That, my friend, is up to you. Who knows…in an eternity or so…you might be able to get us all out of this mess.”
The Wanderer looked at Magpie, then at the horse.
He climbed up on top of it.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t mention it,” Magpie said.
The Wanderer directed the horse to begin moving.
“Oh, one more thing before you go,” Magpie said.
The Wanderer stopped the horse.
“What?”
“If you find her,” Magpie said, “tell her someone’s looking for her.”
The Wanderer had no idea what that meant.
He looked away and the horse began to move again.
Eternity stretched out before him in all directions.
Nowhere to go but forwards.
The horse began to trot at a steady pace.
He rode into the distance alone.
no time, no place…
ROLLERSKATER ARC ONE
END
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except the illustration, which is copyrighted in perpetuity by Igzell Vázquez, and displayed here by kind permission.
ARC ONE: UMBRIC SPRING
I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII
Click here for ARC TWO: ROSE GOLD
Happy New Year, Rollerskater Post-Arc III Housekeeping – C R E Mullins
4 January 2021 @ 9:51 pm
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