“Oh my God, Brian! Put that thing back on! You could blind someone with that pasty whiteness,” Katie teased, dramatically shielding her eyes.
“Ha, ha,” he smirked. “I’ve never been a big fan of exposing my skin to the sun, but I think all redheads feel the same way.”
“I was only picking,” she explained with a grin. “Though I don’t share your condition, I’m well aware of the fact that people with red hair sunburn very easily. I was just trying to keep the mood light. The task before us will likely take that away from us soon enough. Might as well smile and be happy while we still can.”
Knowing she spoke the truth, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Glancing toward what lay ahead for them, Brian traced the path of the rails with his eyes. It was impossible to tell from where he sat, but if he wasn’t mistaken their journey would be more treacherous from here on out. The tangled brush swallowed the tracks shortly after emerging on the opposite side of the river, but he could see dots of shiny reflections at irregular intervals upon the fairly steep incline of the hill, which by his estimation would take them an hour or less to reach.
Brian’s silence was beginning to make Katie nervous. Is he angry with me for making fun of him? Or, does he know something that he’s not telling me? “Are you all right?”
“Sorry, I was lost in thought,” he replied, shaking his head as he turned to face her, noticing a hint of panic in her voice. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
She offered him a thin smile, believing he was hiding something from her. “Ready to get moving again?”
“I suppose we should. The sooner we get this business taken care of, the better.” He sighed, picking up his shirt and pulling it on.
Standing up, they gathered their things and began to cross the bridge. It was a more tedious journey than what they had endured to this point. Footing was perilous at best. The missing planks were easy enough to avoid, but the wood of some of the other boards was more rotten than they would have thought them to be. Especially considering that the rails showed no indication of flaws in the supporting structure. When they had managed to get within fifty feet of the end of the bridge, Brian began to relax slightly. Just as he did, a loud crack broke the silence. Spinning around toward the sound, he reacted just quick enough to keep Katie from plunging to the rushing water below by grabbing hold of her wrist as her leg plummeted through a rotten plank.
“Son of a bitch!” Katie grimaced in agony as the pressure of Brian’s grip caused a sudden flare of pain in her broken hand. Grasping his forearm with her good hand, she eased the tension on her screaming appendage just enough to keep from passing out as Brian hauled her up from the ragged hole. Once Katie was on solid ground again, she gingerly inspected her fractured extremity.
“I’m sorry. It all happened so fast. I didn’t have time to consider which of your hands was injured before I latched on,” he apologized, wincing as he watched her prod and massage the damaged appendage, checking to see if the incident had made matters worse.
“It’s okay. I prefer a healthy dose of pain as opposed to death,” she confessed.
“You’ve got a point,” he remarked with a half smile. Shifting his position so she could throw her good arm over his shoulder, he wrapped an arm around her waist. “Let’s get you off this bridge before something else happens.”
Using Brian as a crutch, she hobbled her way to dry land before easing herself to the ground. Katie tenderly checked her leg as he anxiously watched. The broken plank she had fallen through had ripped a foot-long gash in her leather pants. Widening the gap so she could inspect the flesh beneath, she saw an angry red stripe on her skin where the board had bit into her. The section of her leg that had come into contact with the jagged plank first, the area just above her kneecap, was the only part of the scrape which was bleeding. “Minor flesh wound,” she announced, meeting Brian’s worried gaze. “Can you grab me a strip of cloth from the pack?”
He quickly complied, rummaging in the pack and pulling out one of the few remnants of cloth inside which had made the journey from future Earth when they’d been fighting for their very lives against the hordes of undead. “Thanks.” She smiled, snatching the strip of cloth from his hand. Tucking it through the tear in her pants, she encircled the wound on her thigh just tight enough to put pressure on it to stanch the flow of blood, then pulled the ends out of the hole. Pinching the leather together, Katie wound the remaining material around the outside of her pants and knotted it firmly. Holding out her good hand, she gestured for Brian to help her up. Once she was on her feet again, she attempted to hide the grimace of pain as she shifted her weight to the injured leg.
“Should we go back to the inn, or do you think you can go on?”
Katie hesitated a moment before answering, subconsciously asking herself the same question. “I should be okay,” she finally said, unsure if her words were a lie to comfort him. The one thing she did know was that she didn’t want to return to the inn and tell Edward they had failed to reach their objective. “I’m sure that once we get moving again, it will start feeling better,” she added, seeing the skeptical look on his face.
“I hope you’re right,” he stated with a tight-lipped, half smile.
***
Thankfully, after the first half an hour of resuming their trek, Katie’s wounded leg was bothering her less and less. Her broken hand, however, was another matter entirely. Ever since Brian had grabbed her wrist to save her life, and put the pressure of her suspended body weight on it, the extremity had been throbbing like an infected tooth. It hadn’t been a huge issue, but that seemed about to change. Just ahead, the railroad tracks were beginning to wind steadily upward, which meant she would be required to do some climbing very soon. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a steep enough incline that she would need to worry. Especially when she considered that a rail-car had traveled these tracks without getting derailed, though, that said nothing of her needing to use the broken hand to maintain her balance. If push came to shove she would rather grasp something with it and endure the agony than tumble back down the hill, which could potentially be far more devastating to her wellbeing.
Brian stopped for a minute and glanced behind him. “Having second thoughts?”
“Just catching my breath,” she wheezed.
Nodding, he put his hands on his hips and turned away from her to study the tracks. Their path was slightly easier to see, now that they had emerged from the thickest of the foliage which had shrouded them from sight earlier. Craning his head upward, he still could not make out where they were going. For all he knew these rails could go on for miles, cresting the hill they were climbing and running down the other side like a medieval roller-coaster.
“Okay, I’m ready to go again,” Katie announced, startling Brian from his thoughts.
“Are you sure you don’t need help?” He scrutinized her expression as he awaited her response.
“Nope, I’m good,” she replied, giving him a thumbs up.
With an almost imperceptible nod, he turned and resumed the long, uphill trudge.
Chapter 7
It was obvious upon his entering the inn that the wolf before him could at the very least sense his presence, possibly even see him. Forced into making a quick decision, George weighed his options while he still had time. He would be trapped if the wizard came back inside and shut the door. Attempting to infiltrate and possess the animal in front of him didn’t seem like a viable solution, though he couldn’t be absolutely sure. The logistics of trying such a thing seemed doomed to failure. The physics of transferring his ghostly essence into a creature which did not share the same physical attributes as humans was a conundrum George had never tested, making it impossible for him to know if it could be done. There was always the possibility that his arms could slide into the animal’s forelegs, but the more he thought about it, the less sure he was about the potential outcome.
Deciding to test a theory, he allowed himself to drift backwards and to the left, hopi
ng to determine if the animal could indeed see him, or track his movements. Indicating that it could, the wolf rose from the floor, turning its head in his direction with its eyes focused intently on him.
Edward appeared in the doorway, poking his head inside. “What’s all the fuss about, Jack?” The wolf seemed to ignore his question, his gleaming eyes remaining locked on some unseen threat he perceived. As his mind furiously reeled with possibilities, an idea struck him. It could be a ghost, like Amber! We’ve only been able to see her when the sun was down, even though she’s told us before that she is usually nearby. Although, I seriously doubt Jack would act this way if it were indeed her. The gears in his head turned, rapidly searching for the answer which seemed just beyond his grasp. Suddenly it hit him. Even though he had never encountered a ghost other than Amber, it was entirely possible that an unfamiliar entity had found its way to them, perhaps brought here by Amber herself!
Testing his hypothesis, he took a step backward and swung the door shut. With the ambient light source cut off the interior of the inn grew dim, the grime-coated windows allowing only a hint of the morning sun to penetrate their panes. Edward closed his eyes for a moment, hoping it would force them to adjust to the dimness a few seconds faster. When he opened them, he squinted toward the area that Jack seemed to be focused upon. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? If not, there was a hazy, man-shaped mist hanging in the air before him, looking much like someone’s reflection in a dirty mirror.
The sound of the closing door startled George. Daring to take his eyes off of the wolf before him, he whipped his head toward the man. It took a few seconds for him to figure out why the wizard had done what he did, but as the man reopened his eyes and looked in his direction, squinting for a moment before a shocked look of recognition appeared on his pasty face, George suddenly knew the game was up. The wizard was staring directly at him!
On the verge of panic, seeing his plans swirling down the drain, he knew he had to make a decision … now! His first instinct was to flee and hide, giving him more time to come up with a concrete plan of action, but with the way the wolf was locked onto him now, it didn’t seem like a very good option. Chances are, that beast would be on my trail the whole time. As if to punctuate this point, Jack inched closer, baring his massive fangs and snarling viciously. George had nearly resigned himself to taking his chances and trying to hide when the solution to his dilemma smacked him like a tire iron to the skull.
Hoping to catch Edward off guard, George rushed toward him. Maybe it was the wizard’s weakened state, but whatever the reason, the penetration of his fleshy exterior went easier than he could have anticipated. Within moments, he had plunged into the man’s core, immediately stretching his form to match that of his host, like putting on a twisted Halloween skin-suit. He didn’t come forward and take control of the man’s body right away, but instead watched and waited, looking to see how the wolf would react.
In his injured state, Edward was unable to dodge the oncoming misty form of his adversary. He let out a shocked gasp as the ghost passed through his skin, expecting the sensation to be more painful than it actually was. Once the initial surprise wore off, he gazed around, disoriented and frightened, almost as if he was anticipating another of the Black Knight’s creepy minions to suddenly jump out of the shadows to attack him. When nothing of the sort happened, he turned back to regard Jack, who stared at him with the same look of bafflement he felt. “Where did it go, Jack?” Taking a tentative step toward the wolf, he crouched down and stroked his fur, attempting to calm the confused beast and himself at the same time.
The instant Edward laid a hand on him, Jack began to whimper and nervously shuffled back a few steps. “What’s wrong, Jack?” Unable to comprehend his friend’s reaction to his touch, he sat down on the dusty floor and patted the wooden planks beside him. The wolf did not approach him immediately, but instead cocked its head in nervous curiosity, as if it was having the same trouble grasping the concept of what had just transpired as Edward was. Then, before his very eyes, Jack’s demeanor seemed to change after raising his snout and taking a whiff of the stale air in the room.
“What is it, Jack?” Edward’s voice crackled with nervousness as the animal began stalking toward him as if it no longer recognized him. When the beast was within a couple of feet of him, its upper lip pulled upward, saliva dripping from its exposed fangs. Refusing to use his magic to restrain his friend, Edward continued talking in a soothing tone of voice. When Jack’s teeth gnashed together inches from his face as the wolf lunged forward, he knew that keeping his magic bottled up inside of him was no longer an option.
As he began to summon a spell to repel the crazed animal, Edward’s eyes lost their focus as George shoved his way forward to take control of his body. Maybe it was the difference which glinted in the steely, gray orbs in the eye sockets of Edward’s skull that tipped the wolf off to his presence, but it no longer mattered. With control over the wizard’s body, he wasn’t just an impotent and intangible being; he could now pull the man’s strings like an expert puppeteer.
Lowering his center of gravity, Jack prepared to attack, coiling his good leg beneath him like a serpent that was about to strike. Saliva dripped from his jowls as he opened his mouth wide and launched himself through the air at Edward.
A split second before the wolf’s jaws would have snapped shut on his face, Edward’s hands shot up from his sides and grasped the animal around the neck with a strength that was not his own. Squeezing with all of his might, George dug the wizard’s fingernails into Jack’s flesh, puncturing the wolf’s hide and causing blood to spurt from the wounds. Pushing his front paws against Edward’s chest, Jack struggled to break free of his grip. Choking, blood began to gurgle in his throat and his makeshift hindquarter scratched weakly at Edward’s clothing. After a few moments, his legs hung limply from his torso and his head lolled to one side at an unnatural angle.
***
Edward regained consciousness a short time later, feeling as if he were rising from the depths of a nightmare. His head throbbed with an ache unlike any he had ever dealt with before, but it wasn’t the only part of him that hurt. Pushing himself up from the floor, where he’d apparently collapsed, he grimaced in agony as his muscles protested. Managing to at least get to an upright, sitting position, he was greeted by the sight of carnage he wasn’t prepared to see. Body parts appeared to be flung carelessly in every direction, human body parts. A severed arm lying by his foot, a twisted rope of intestines a few inches from that, and a little further to his right was what looked to be a partial leg. Fearing the worst had happened, Edward raised his hands, intending to cup them around his mouth to yell for his friend, even though the evidence before him suggested that he’d been killed. As his hands passed in front of his face, he saw they were slick with sticky, half-dried blood. Just then, an awful realization struck him with explosive force. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but Edward knew that his own hands had been Jack’s undoing. Turning his head away from the carnage, he vomited violently. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he saw the one thing he had hoped to never see … Jack’s decapitated head lying on the floor in the corner of the room, staring back at him accusingly. “Oh my God! What have I done?”
Chapter 8
Judging by the position of the fiery orb in the sky it was early afternoon. Their uphill progress, slow as it might have seemed, was relatively quick when they considered the angle of their ascent, which at times was borderline vertical. How the rail-car had traversed the length of the track, and made it to the bottom of the hill without flying off of the rails, was a topic that defied logic. Then there was the matter of its return trip, ignoring the laws of physics and gravity as the rail-car had made the seemingly impossible climb.
As if to punctuate just how arduous their journey had been to this point, Katie stopped to catch her breath, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her broken hand. Leaning forward to balance her center of gravity, she took a quick
look over her shoulder to see how far they had come. The dizzying height caused her to gulp loudly. Though the foliage below her nearly obscured the abandoned town at the base of the hill, she could just barely make out the dilapidated buildings, looking like nothing more than mere specks from her vantage point. Quickly, she turned back to face the tracks before the woozy feeling weakened her knees and caused her to plummet to the bottom of the hill, knowing if she were to fall from this high up that there would be nothing more than bits and pieces of her body left.
Brian also paused his ascent when he realized he could no longer hear Katie’s labored breathing. Digging his fingers into the dirt above a railroad tie, he grasped the beam as tightly as he could manage, and tilted his head to the left to glance behind him. When he gazed down at Katie’s uplifted face, her tight-lipped expression and raised eyebrows put him on the edge of panic. “What’s wrong?” He tried to remain calm, but the nervousness in his voice betrayed him.
“I’m scared,” she admitted, “and I’m beginning to wonder if this is a good idea.”
“Why would you think that? Is your hand bothering you? Are you afraid of falling?” His questions flew with such rapidity that he didn’t even pause to take a breath between them.
“Well, I wasn’t really freaked out about falling until I looked down.” She laughed nervously. “As for my hand, I think I can block out the pain enough to continue on. What scares me more than anything, though, is the thought of leaving Edward behind in his condition. I’m worried about something happening down there and us being too far away to help.”
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