by Gareth Otton
There was no chance though.
King didn’t even gesture to exert his will. He looked at the approaching ghost and Charles stopped dead.
“Please. You wouldn’t even be an annoyance,” King said to the fat ghost before he raised his free hand toward Charles. At once Charles’ body went rigid and his eyes opened wide.
“Oh no, Charles. What have you done?” Miriam gasped.
“What?” Stella asked, not yet seeing the significance. She didn’t get her answer. They all just watched in horror as a light started to grow within Charles.
“Charles,” Tad gasped from underneath King’s hand. Stella’s heart broke at the expression on his damaged face. “Move on.”
It didn’t look like Charles had heard him. He remained stiff, growing ever brighter. Finally Stella saw an imperceptible shake of the head.
“It’s better than this,” Tony shouted from beside Stella. “Don’t be stubborn Charles, move on.”
Again the shake of the head.
“Don’t be afraid Charles,” Tad said. “I promise, you have long since made up for your sins… they weren’t even that bad to begin with. If you ever trusted me, please, find that trust one last time. Move on, my friend. Please.”
The conversation was going over Stella’s head, but she could hear the anguish in all the voices around her and knew that whatever they were talking about was significant to them.
Charles didn’t shake his head this time, but neither did he do as asked. He remained locked in King’s power, looking terrified and undecided. He was clearly struggling against what was happening and the naked fear on his face was the kind that made Stella feel sick. The light within him was growing so bright it was no longer the red light that shined through flesh, but was turning white.
“The stubborn fool,” Miriam groaned. “Why doesn’t he move on? It can’t be worse than this. Surely.”
Stella was about to ask her what she meant, but never got the chance as Tad spoke up instead. His words were barely audible and he was struggling to speak as he fought back his own despairing tears.
“Charles, my oldest friend. Please forgive me for this.”
Tad focused on his ghost as Stella tried to make sense of what happened next. The glowing figure of Charles collapsed in on itself, almost as though it was being destroyed. Stella would have thought that was exactly what was happening were it not for the look on King’s face.
His was a look of astonishment and a touch of fear.
The shape continued to collapse until it was little more than a sphere of white mist. It hung in the air for a heartbeat before zipping away into the distance far quicker than the eye could follow.
Suddenly it vanished and when it did Stella felt a warmth like she had never felt before. It settled over all of them, gentle and loving. It sunk deep within Stella’s body, easing the pain from her bruises and chafing wrists. The deep terror and hopelessness that had been overwhelming her since she had been brought to that place abruptly left, and she was at peace.
Stella could see that everyone felt the same, save one person. King. He did not look at peace, he looked terrified.
He turned and grabbed Tad’s shirt. With a fist full of material he hauled Tad off the table to bring him to eye height.
“How did you do that?” he demanded. “That was impossible, you can’t make ghosts move on. How did you do it?”
It was Tad’s turn to laugh at his enemy. His face was bloodied and a big bruise was building over the side of his head. It made the laugh seem all the more sinister and mocking. In spite of that laugh, there were tears in his eyes that spoke of the pain he endured over what he had just been forced to do.
“Don’t you know? I thought you were the all powerful Joshua King, a Proxy without equal. How do you not know how to do something so basic?”
The words landed on King as though they were physical blows and he took a startled step back, dropping Tad back to the stone altar. Tad landed with a heavy thud and Stella winced as his head bounced off the table.
“It’s impossible,” King muttered to himself. He continued to mumble for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Never mind. If you can do it, so can I. I just need to figure it out.”
In control of himself again, King took that step back to the altar once more. Suddenly there was a knife in his hand. Stella had not seen him draw it. It was almost as though it had appeared from nowhere. King had simply dreamt it up.
“I’m done with you. You’re too dangerous to leave alive.” He took another step closer. “It’s time to finish this.”
Stella watched in horror as he positioned the knife over Tad’s chest. She had just enough time to realise she should do something, try to help Tad as he had tried to help her. But it was too late.
King brought the knife up overhead and with startling speed and strength, the knife descended towards Tad’s unprotected chest.
Stella heard a scream. She was surprised to find it was her own. It cut off abruptly as the knife stopped with a thud.
36
Sunday, 30th November 2015
01:58
Charles was gone. Tad couldn’t believe it.
Since he was nine, Charles had been his constant companion. Now, he was not only gone, but Tad had forced him to face his biggest fear to save his soul. It didn’t matter that it paid off. All that mattered was he was gone.
Between his swimming head, the pain in his jaw, and losing his oldest friend, Tad barely noticed King raise the knife.
He was suddenly exhausted.
He’d been feeling tired for a long time. Since he had first learnt of Proxies disappearing, it had been one long succession of losses, sleepless nights and perpetual worry.
He was ready for it to be over. Maybe he would welcome death. All he had to do was make sure he moved on before King could get him. Then he could be with Charles again.
A frown formed as King lined the knife up with his chest. Something about Tad’s last train of thought didn’t seem right.
Charles had moved on, but where to?
Weren’t they in Death? Wasn’t that the point of killing Proxies, to lower the barriers between life and death? If this was Death, then where had Charles gone. It wasn’t part of this world, Tad knew that much. He sensed it when he added his power to the spiderweb that connected Charles to the next life.
No, there was something beyond this world. Tad was confident that King was partially wrong about this place. He wasn’t wrong about it being the source of their strength, but it wasn’t Death.
So, where were they?
The more he thought about it, the more he knew he was onto something. All the clues were there, and he just needed the time to put them together. Time was something he didn’t have. He was aware of King’s intense focus on him, of his hand moving closer to Tad’s chest and the shining blade he held in his fist.
It was typical. Tad was seconds away from death and he felt he was finally on the verge of something important. He was tempted to stop thinking about it, to focus on the knife and the moment of his death. A part of him was screaming to keep thinking though, telling him he was close.
Suddenly it came to him.
It was obvious now he thought of it. The clues had been there all along and he was amazed he hadn’t discovered it before. The best part was that if he was right, there still might be a chance.
He focused on the knife that was an inch away from his heart and forced a realisation on himself. Yet again it was about perception. This time, if he was right, it would change everything.
"I am dreaming," he stated out loud.
He not only stated it, he forced himself to believe it.
The knife stopped.
The tip was touching his chest and had actually drawn a droplet of blood. But it had stopped.
Tad turned his attention from the blade to King. He was frozen in time, a grimace of hatred on his face mixed with triumph. No doubt he thought his work was complete.
T
ad’s attention wandered to the figures behind King. Stella, Tony, Miriam and Kate were locked in place as well, each caught in mid stride as they ran towards King, coming to rescue Tad. The tableau moved him greatly. They were ready to risk their lives to save his. They would be late, but it was the thought that counted.
With just a thought he was standing beside King. Now he'd had his epiphany it was all so easy.
This world that King had been trying so hard to merge with their own was not Death, it was Dream. It was the realm that all people went to when they slept, it was a place where anything was possible.
The more Tad thought about it, the more it made sense. He should have realised the minute he stepped into the world and had gone blind. It was exactly like it was in his dreams. Then there was the nightmare that attacked them. It was like the world had been trying to tell him, but he was too dense to listen.
As was the way with memories, this new knowledge changed them. He looked back through his mind and see things from a new perspective.
His interactions with the ghosts all started with dreams. That was where they merged minds. Then there was the time he spent in the dream world with Jen, how Jen had reached him when he was unconscious, and how he had got through to Dinah's memories.
He shook his head and laughed. A sudden leap of intuition lead him to the obvious conclusion. Proxies were never conduits of death, but instead they channeled the power of dreams.
"But why ghosts?"
He asked the question aloud as though hoping for an answer. All around him were stuck in a frozen moment of time, held that way by his will until he was ready to continue. The answer instead came from the world itself, in the same way so much of his knowledge did.
Dream was the realm between worlds. It was a place where the spirit could exist without being either alive or dead. It was where the spirit went when the body shut down and recharged during sleep. It was where ghosts could stay by ignoring the call to the afterlife.
All this time Proxies had been wrong. They were never masters of death, they were the lords of dreams. They interacted with the dreamworld even when awake, and their abilities were to bring the infinite possibilities of dreams into the world of the living.
In dreams, what you imagined was real. Perception was everything. When you know you’re dreaming, you become the master of your dreams.
Poor King. He was so close to getting what he wanted and he had never understood it at all. He was powerful in this place because he was powerful in the living world. There, his ghosts gave him a stronger connection to Dream which made him more than Tad could ever be. Here everyone was equal as they were only limited by their imaginations and perception.
King had perceived himself strong and therefore he had been. But he also knew he had limitations. As Tad had proved by the fact that no one was moving, there were no limitations in this place.
With a thought Tad healed the injuries he had endured, making them vanish as though they had never been. It put a smile on his face and for the first time in a long time, it left him feeling confident.
Tad set time free.
The first sound he heard was the thud as the knife struck the stone of the altar followed by King's startled exclamation.
"What?" he demanded, then turned to find Tad standing behind him. "That's impossible."
Tad just smiled and shook his head.
"How little you know, Joshua. All this time you were so close, but you never understood."
King might not understand, but knew he was being mocked. His lip curled, and he moved to strike, turning the knife around and aiming for Tad's chest. Like before, he moved faster than was humanly possible, but nothing was faster than thought.
Tad let King strike where he had been, but once more Tad changed his position. Now he was standing behind the man and it was he who held the knife in his hands.
"Is this what you used to take all those innocent lives?" he asked.
King stumbled and almost fell, righting himself only through his supernatural talents and turning on his heel to face Tad. His eyes were wide with frustration but there was a hint of fear as well.
"How did you do that?"
Tad sighed. "If you don't know now, you never will. Not even with all your ghosts. Speaking of which…"
With a thought Tad expelled every soul from King's body that was not Joshua King's own. King shuddered as though his whole body had sneezed violently. All at once ghosts burst forth, hundreds of them in a crowd that filled the garden.
King looked at the startled faces in horror, and again perception was his undoing. As far as he knew these ghosts were the reason for his strength. His mind perceived his lack of them as losing his power and applied that reality to his body.
The popping and cracking sounds were his left arm as it broke and twisted, withering away as it had been in Dinah's memory. The rest of him deflated, the muscles wasting away and the skin losing its colour as it grew taut across his skeleton. Dark rings spread around his eyes until the onetime god looked like a frail old man.
"What did you do to me?" he gasped.
Tad didn't answer, instead turning to the assembled ghosts.
"None of you need fear him any longer. He has no hold over you and no power to control you. I have cut that from him."
At first no one believed him. They had been trapped by King for so long they had no reason to believe Tad now. King was their nightmare, what they feared more than death.
Slowly understanding spread. For the first time King was without ghosts. More than that, he had not yet exercised his will to draw them back. One by one, the ghosts realised that maybe Tad was right. Their confusion turned to anger.
They crowded in around a terrified King, blocking him from Tad’s ghosts and Stella. But they could hear his screams as the ghosts started in.
Tad could sense what was happening and knew King was getting exactly as he deserved. It didn't last long enough for justice, but it was more than enough for Tad to stomach. King's screams were agonised and pitiful, and Tad had no stomach for that sort of thing. It was why he was glad when Dinah ended it.
Dinah, who’d remained silent since Kate died, somehow made it through the ghosts to get to King’s side. With an expression close to ecstasy, Dinah slid a knife into King's back, directly into his heart.
The withered husk that was Joshua King gasped as the knife pierced his heart and then slumped, ripping the blade from Dinah's hand and falling to the floor in a heap.
Tad paid no more attention to the thing that had been Joshua King. Instead he turned his senses to the presence growing amongst the ghosts who had moved away from the corpse as though they couldn't stand to be near it.
That presence was a newly freed spirt trying to coalesce into the image of what it had been in life. A mist could be seen over King's corpse that took on the appearance of the dead man at its feet.
The surrounding ghosts moved in closer, ready to start in on the man once more. Tad had other plans.
He found every last spiderweb that connected the hundreds of souls to the next life and increased the energy of the pull to move on.
They had no chance to fight. As one they collapsed in on themselves, shrinking into balls of white mist until only King, Dinah, Tad, Stella, Miriam, Kate and Tony remained. Each ball sped away just as Charles’ had, each seeking a different destination.
Tad felt the warmth of the next life, but also the cold. The souls were called to various locations and the collision of hot and cold caused great peals of thunder, the drumroll of the gods, welcoming the souls home.
The thunder echoed throughout the garden, deafening them until it rolled on by and they were alone.
"What now?" King asked, breaking the silence that followed. "Won't you send me on my way too?"
Tad shook his head.
"No. I can't risk that. I have no idea what waits for us in the next life and can't risk that you might find your way back. You, I destroy."
King actually looke
d pleased.
"Better that than where I'd be headed," he said. Tad couldn't help but agree and he rethought his decision, but came to the same conclusion. As far as he knew no one had ever returned from the next world, but he couldn't take that chance. King had to go.
There were no gestures, nothing dramatic to tell others what he was doing. He simply looked to King and thought that he wanted him gone. The light that rose this time was more like the flash of an incredibly bright camera than a slow build up. One minute King had been there and the next he was gone forever.
Standing behind where King had been was Dinah. She was looking smaller than ever and there was a weary smile on her face and tears running down her cheeks. She looked to Tad and her smile widened.
"Finally," she said.
Tad could have stopped her if he wanted, but he didn’t. Dinah took the knife from King’s corpse and plunged it into her own neck. Stella and the ghosts gasped, but Tad wasn’t surprised. He had been in her head. She had done horrific things, but she never taken that final step to becoming a monster. She had never enjoyed them.
Now the reason for her evil acts was gone she was free to leave this world. Her spirit didn't even try reforming before it moved onto the next world. Yet again Tad felt the chill of death as Dinah was taken to the next life. It was not as cold as he expected, but it was not warmth either.
With that done, only Tad and his friends remained. Each looked at the other, none prepared to break the awkward silence. Finally all eyes turned to Tad who was struggling to smile at them reassuringly. He should feel triumphant. They had won, it was over… but the cost was too great.
Charles.
His oldest friend, a brother, a father to him in some ways. He had been with Tad for so long and he was gone now, forever. Tad forced him to face his biggest fears and he could never see his friend again to ask for forgiveness.
Yes, he had won the battle, but he had lost so much more.
"How about we go home?" he said.
Before they could answer the world changed. The garden vanished, the grass turned to carpet, and walls grew around them. Everyone save Tad gaped at their new surroundings.
