by Mark Ayre
Whatever the case, it didn’t change her answer.
“I can think of nothing less appealing,” said Sam, “than a piece of that.”
Beauty rolled her eyes. Came away from the wall. Sam finished her drink and put the cup by her chair leg.
“Actually, I believe that,” said Beauty. “You’re weak, pathetic. Look at you, sitting here diligently, though the police will arrest you. And why? For your brother. For Benjamin. You must see the joke of that?”
“I can see why you might think it’s a joke,” said Sam. “Because you don’t understand what it is to care about someone, to love them. Have you no family?”
Beauty shook her head. “Not any more. As I said, I raised hell for them when I was around.”
“Exactly.”
“But I still loved them, and they loved me,” said Beauty. This surprised Sam. Not so much that Beauty had loved her family—even the cruellest of monsters tended to love someone. More that she would admit to such love so brazenly. Sam didn’t yet understand what was this particular monster’s point. For some reason, she didn’t want to ask.
“Enough of the chit chat,” said Beauty. “My new boss wants to see you. Who knows why. I told him you were pathetic. That you wouldn’t be interested in the same aims as were we. Still, he insisted. So here I am, ready to collect.”
Sam stood. Shock flashed across Beauty’s face. She hadn’t expected this to be so easy.
Bending over, Sam took her spent cup, crossed the room and binned it. She returned to her chair and sat down with a thump.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “Even if I was interested in joining your little humanity destroying team, which I’m not, I won’t leave my brother.”
“I thought it might come to that,” said Beauty. “I mentioned I loved my family. There were many ways they showed me they loved me back. For example, and this is a big one, they never abused me.”
Sam felt her chest tighten. Then her heart began to beat a little faster. Clenching her fists by her side, she chose not to respond.
“I’ve hurt a lot of people,” said Beauty. “You’ve probably noticed, I’m a nasty piece of work. But I never hurt my family. Not physically, anyway. I hurt them by going off the rails, by refusing to obey. I never once laid a finger on any of them. That’s a good sign of love.”
“Benny loves me,” said Sam. She couldn’t help herself. The words slipped free before she could stop them. She blinked. Was angered to find tears in her eyes, waiting to break free.
“He hurts you,” said Beauty. “Beats and abuses you. Don’t think I couldn’t see it the moment you two walked in. He’s a bastard, a dick. You’re pathetic. You tell me which is worse.”
Fighting the boiling rage, Sam bit her lip. Words bubbled towards the surface, but she managed not to speak. She thought of Benny. Dying, perhaps already dead. His whole life, he had protected her. She’d never made it easy. That wasn’t his fault any more than was his short temper. She was supposed to be careful. She knew what he was like. He was her protector. He did love her. He did.
“Cops will be here soon,” said Beauty. “You sit around waiting for your brother, they’re going to arrest you. Is that what you want? What you going to tell them when they drag you into the interrogation room?”
“The truth,” said Sam, believing her words dripped with menace. Hoping she might frighten her adversary.
Beauty laughed. “You’re going to tell them you seduced a guy and helped your brother kidnap him? You’re going to tell them you were involved in a ritual you don’t understand and can’t explain, that an invisible force murdered Titus and that the boy you kidnapped accepted into his soul a God from another dimension? That’ll be your story?”
Sam didn’t respond. Of course not. What could she say? Beauty enjoyed watching the younger woman squirm.
“Here’s what the police know so far,” Beauty said. “They have CCTV footage of your brother bundling Liam into a van and the two of you driving him away. Liam’s missing. His parents are going spare. The police wouldn’t have any leads except you’ve dropped into their lap. They know you kidnapped Liam and now they’ve found you with a dead stranger and your almost dead brother. They’ll ask where you’ve put Liam. When you can’t give them a satisfactory answer, they’ll arrest you. They’ll never find Liam, so you’ll escape a murder charge, but you and your brother will go to prison for kidnap. They have more than enough evidence for that. I’d suggest what your sentence might be but, to be honest, it doesn’t matter. My guess is you’ll be dead within the week.”
Beauty smiled. The speech must have made her thirsty because she returned to the cooler, grabbed a new cup and poured herself another water. She pointed at the remaining cups and looked at Sam. “Another?”
Out in the hall, Sam could hear the footsteps moving backwards and forwards. People rushing, people wandering, people wheeling in wheelchairs. All these people walked past the door behind which conversed Beauty and Sam. Sooner or later, someone would stop and enter. It might be the doctor. More likely, it would be the police. They would ask Sam to join them at the station to answer a few questions. She would tell them she wanted to stay close to her brother. They would insist. If it came to it, they would compel.
Maybe they’d skip all that and go straight to arrest. She wouldn’t be asked but would be told she was to join the cops at the police station. There it would go down like Beauty said. They would want to know about Liam and Titus and Benny. Sam could tell them the truth, but they wouldn’t believe her. No lie would be convincing.
It would be stupid to call her choices limited. She wished she had so many as that.
Beauty had finished her drink. She said, “I can’t hang around. Come now, and I can get you out under the eyes of any security that might be watching, take you somewhere safe. It might not be a long term solution, but it’s the best you got.”
Sam was still thinking, her heart still pounding. She was afraid of jail cells and interrogation rooms. If she was arrested for kidnap, what could she do? She was a terrible liar, and kidnapping Liam was exactly what they’d done.
Liam was gone now. Whatever had happened to him, the gentleman she had convinced to walk her home was no longer at the wheel. That was Sam’s fault. She deserved to be punished. Forget letting the police arrest her. She should hand herself in.
She wouldn’t. She knew that. Was too weak. Like Beauty said, she was pathetic. She wanted to escape jail time.
But still…
“I can’t go,” she said. “Benny.”
“Well obviously I knew that’d be a problem,” said Beauty. “So I can further sweeten the deal, lucky for you.”
“How?”
“They won’t arrest Benjamin while he’s in surgery. You come meet the boss, and we’ll ensure your bro’s moved as soon as he’s well enough, and before the police can take him into custody. Now, how does that sound for a good deal?”
It sounded good. That was the problem. Sam wanted to say yes, to get her and Benny free, though they didn’t deserve to be so. And it wasn’t just getting away with something when she didn’t deserve to escape justice. Beauty believed Liam was a God who planned to enslave humanity. Whatever was the truth, Liam was different. Evil. Could Sam side with that, even temporarily?
Beauty had crushed another cup and chucked it away. She was moving to the door. Easing it open, she peeked into the hall, then closed it again.
“I’m out of here,” she said. “Boss wants you real bad, but whatever, I’ll tell him I tried. This is your last chance. I won’t ask again.”
Sam knew she shouldn’t side with this villain or her new boss. But she couldn’t go to prison. Couldn’t condemn Benny to jail time either.
“How can I trust you’ll get Benny out?”
Beauty’s hand was on the door. Her piercing, beautiful eyes burned into Sam’s. She held that look a few seconds. Then spoke.
“I’m done trying to convince you. I’m leaving now. You can co
me with me or not.”
She threw open the door and nodded into the hall.
“Sam. It’s time to decide.”
Twenty-Nine
Success was always sweet. Heidi could not deny this particular victory had been tinged with something bitter, right at the end.
Earlier that day Heidi had tried to squeeze every drop of enjoyment from her walk through Harvey Michaels’ gardens, supposing it would be her last such stroll in some time.
Not so. After that cow Mercury blew them up, Heidi expected Cleo to give chase. Instead, they made their way out of the building and located Heidi’s car. Through supernatural dust shows in the sky and explosions in buildings, her driver had remained by the vehicle. That was the beauty of the infected.
Already, sirens had filled the air. With the explosion, the street had cleared. Soon the police and fire brigade would arrive, though nothing was on fire. No human force could threaten the trio. Still, it was better not to stick around.
Cleo turned to Heidi. “Take us home.”
They drove. Cleo, who resided in the body of Heidi’s second favourite non-infected follower, Talina, and the newly Christened Aurora, who resided in Amira, remained silent, their eyes filled with determination and purpose.
Heidi would have liked to speak. Perhaps even gloat. Because she was in trouble, she stayed silent. She had been stupid to let Mercury go. She shouldn’t have believed the human’s story, but even if she did, she should have detained this proven problem until Cleo arrived. Heidi had acted foolishly letting Mercury go. She didn’t like to think about why.
The grenade made things worse. Cleo had stepped forward, taken the blast. Her clothes remained torn, but the burns and cuts, the hole in her stomach; all that had healed in minutes. But that was meaningless. It was the affront of the attack that hurt. That some human, who should have been dead, had been able to launch at these Gods an explosive.
Cleo was not known for her tolerance. In the bleak dimension from where they came, insubordination or failure was often met with destruction. That Heidi had achieved what no other of her kind had managed, releasing Cleo from that world into this, earned her enough favour to survive the Mercury blunder. She could not mess up again.
The mansion was quiet. Many of the staff had become infected and died to call forth Cleo. Those who remained were cautious around their mistress. They knew something was not right. Had Olivia been more available in life, her staff might have been even more sure something was wrong in her death.
“Take me to people,” said Cleo.
In one of the rec rooms used exclusively by the staff, the trio found a duo. A cleaner and a cook. A boy and a girl. When Heidi entered the room, they jumped to attention, though this was never something she’d asked of them.
“Miss Michaels,” said the girl. “We didn’t expect you back so soon.”
Both members of staff were in their twenties. If they were attractive, Heidi couldn’t tell. They were human, after all. They bore no interest to Heidi other than in what they could provide.
Heidi said nothing. Cleo stepped beyond the fake Olivia and approached the boy and the girl.
Talina had been viewed as attractive. Had she been the most hideous of humans, it would not have mattered. Under Cleo’s control, she could become the most beautiful woman on Earth to whoever looked upon her. More than that, she could inspire lust and desire in any human. The boy could have been gay, the girl straight, it would make no difference.
As Cleo approached, Heidi watched the staff members’ eyes dilate. They became breathless. They fought not to reach out, though they were desperate to touch her.
They would get their wish.
Cleo leaned in and kissed first the boy, then the girl. The kisses were short, chaste. When Cleo stepped away, the pair she faced would have battled to the death for another peck on the lips.
“You will give yourselves to me,” said Cleo. It wasn’t a question because she knew the answer. The staff members nodded like idiots.
Cleo smiled. “You will be the first in my new and short-lived army. So, let’s get started.”
There were fourteen members of staff within the house. Heidi rounded them up. Sending them all to the rec room except for Abigail, the last of her three human, non-infected followers, who she sent from the mansion with clear instructions and her infected driver.
Of the thirteen humans Cleo saw, Heidi expected at least a couple would become possessed. Instead, thirteen infected became their entourage as they stepped through the French doors, onto the patio and across the garden.
As they walked, Cleo looked to the sky. To Heidi, she said, “You’re too young to remember our true world, I suppose?”
Heidi was about to say yes. She knew the war had turned her beautiful world into a barren, decrepit landscape; had destroyed the bodies her kind had once enjoyed and turned them into wailing spirits that could experience little other than pain and misery. She was too young to remember the war. Had been born as a spirit and into this barren world. Still, the wording tripped her up.
“What do you mean, “true” world?”
Cleo was walking, leading the way. As they made for the hedge maze, she continued.
“The world on which our kind went to war was far smaller than the world on which you were born. I was a mere child when it happened. I watched the beauty of our surroundings fall and burn. Our sky was a stunning blue, much like the one above our heads as we speak. The greed of our leaders started the process that would destroy it. The war brought by the revolution sped up and, at last, ended the process.”
They reached the maze. Cleo paused at its entrance. Heidi looked to the ground, searching for signs that a man had died here, earlier today. Her team had done a good job. No one would be able to tell.
“Since our world ended, we have sought escape. Breaking down the walls between one dimension and the next has always been the aim, and there have always been those greedy and foolish enough to help us achieve our goals on the other side. Come on.”
They entered the maze: the thirteen infected, Heidi, Cleo, Aurora. The place was huge, with many available wrong turns. Using the mind of Talina, who had loved this place, Cleo navigated with ease and did not make one mistake on her path to the maze’s centre circle.
It was spacious enough to comfortably house fifty people. There were green benches set in a circle around a stone water fountain centrepiece. A statue topped the water fountain. A man on a horse, his lance held aloft, pointed into the distance.
“This is perfect,” said Cleo.
Like all her kind, Heidi had grown up in fear of Cleo, the most powerful being of all time. It was a crime to question the wishes of the master or to imply she might not know what she was doing. Perhaps Heidi had been on Earth too long. She could not hold her tongue.
“Forgive me,” she said. “I had assumed, when you arrived, you would move quickly to bring more of us to this world. Within a few weeks, we can have saved all our people from that horrible dimension. Within months, perhaps sooner, this world can be ours.”
Cleo approached the statue. Raising a hand, she touched the horses’ stone flank. Beneath her touch, the material seemed to ripple. When she pulled her hand away, the stone she had touched began to change. It had been white, pristine. Now it glowed, and the colour changed to black, to red, to grey, to green. It continued to cycle as Cleo turned away, faced Heidi once more.
“Under my predecessor as ruler of our kind, our people began to move into another dimension, possessing the indigenous people of a world nothing like this one. As with this world, it took some time, but eventually, our commander was pulled into a vessel, and he did as you now want me to do. He pulled each and every one of our kind into the reigning species on this new world. Once we were all through, we took over, destroying most of their kind, infecting many more, and enslaving the rest. Within months, we had a new home awash with beauty and comfort. You remember that Aurora?”
Aurora nodded but did not spea
k. It was as though she had yet to get used to having a voice box. Back home, they communicated via thought. It was a dimension as silent as it was hellish.
“Our commander was content,” said Cleo. “He said we had arrived and we would live out our days on this world. Happy.”
As she said the last word, Cleo’s face contorted in rage. She turned, slapped the horses flank, this time with both hands. Both palms she pressed into the stone. The rippling section of the horse began to shimmer and change colour even faster than before. Then, like a disease of the skin, it began to spread.
“When our commander stood before us and declared us victorious, I was aghast,” said Cleo, her arms still on the horse. “He wanted us to spend an eternity strapped into these tiny prisons the natives called bodies. Confined to these ridiculous dimensions.”
The shimmering colours had now spread across the horse. They touched the leg of the stone rider and began to take him as well. Before long, they reached the lance and climbed.
“I don’t understand,” said Heidi. “We’re in human form now. We’ve taken their bodies.”
“And that’s an insult to us,” said Cleo. “It’s a necessary evil, for now, but I will condemn no more of my kind to this punishment than I have to. There are the three of us, and one more I have sent to deal with the mess you made with Mercury. Other than that, no more. We deserve to be free.”
“I don’t understand,” Heidi said again. She hated feeling stupid when, for so long she had been wrapped in the power afforded to her by the strength of her race and the money of the human she had possessed. Now she was faced with the contemptuous smile of her master.
“Most people believe we lost our bodies in the almighty war. I disagree,” said Cleo. “I believe we were released from them and cast into our true forms. Forms of complete and total power. Our commander, back then, wanted to shackle us again. I wouldn’t have it. I met Aurora and other like-minded people. I sought to do what was right for our kind. That idiot had let down his guard, thinking there was nothing to fear. I killed him, thus taking his power and becoming your ruler. Then I did what needed to be done. Unlike my predecessor, I did right by my people.”
