Dead Man Walking

by Zach Adams

  “Go figure,” Isaac said, rolling his eyes as he did. “Well, regardless, whoever it is clearly doesn’t care who else gets hurt. No one is safe around me.”

  For example, Donny.

  Isaac swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and grabbed his backpack to leave. Tobias jumped from his seat in a remarkably swift flash of maroon flannel and blocked his path to the door.

  “Whoa there, where do you think you’re going?” Tobias demanded. His arms were extended to either side as he stared down his beaklike nose and six-inch height lead at Isaac. The latter held his backpack in front of him, prepared to use it as a shield to push past his cousin.

  “I’m going to try to save my ass and I’d really prefer no one else died in the process,” Isaac said pointedly.

  Tobias placed his palms carefully on Isaac’s shoulders, taking care not to provoke him. The younger of the two tensed up at the contact. This time, Tobias figured it was better than letting the boy get himself killed.

  “I have a better plan,” Tobias said. “Stay here, get some rest. I’ll make a couple of calls and we’ll figure this all out. Deal?” His concerned tone, in Isaac’s ears, was just a shade or two shy of condescending.

  Isaac squirmed out of his cousin’s reach.

  “Do not call Chloe. She can’t get involved.” He felt it should have been clear in his tone that this was not meant to open a negotiation. Tobias missed that point and continued speaking.

  “She’s called me four times already. She deserves the-” Tobias began before Isaac cut him off.

  “Do. Not. Call. Her.” Isaac growled, jabbing a finger threateningly in Tobias’ face. The elder Falcone simply frowned and pushed the offending appendage aside.

  “Fine, I won’t call her,” Tobias promised. “But I won’t lie to her when she calls again, either. And you know she will call again.”

  The pair stared one another down, unsure where the conversation would end. Tobias eventually broke the tension.

  “Crash on the couch tonight,” He said. “All I ask. No point dodging your would-be killer just to kill yourself in the process.”

  Isaac sighed in defeat but nodded anyway. He returned his backpack to the floor and sunk into the couch.

  “Don’t call Chloe,” He slurred at his cousin as he passed out.

  “Yeah. I won’t.” Tobias replied, but the way he turned his head as he said it told Isaac it was a lie.

  Chapter Nineteen: Velryd

  2018-ERR.

  As soon as Isaac stepped through the portal from the labyrinth of memories, it was dark. The lights hadn’t been switched off - light itself had been sucked out of everything no longer in sight. Sound went with it. The darkness became something else - like walking through a lazy stream of chilly water, topped with a layer of oil.

  Though he had no idea how incorrect he truly was, Isaac got a sense that this was what the Empty Place felt like.

  A dim, full silver moon could be vaguely made out in the distance, hanging frozen in the black and violet sky, but no light from it could be seen on the ground here. Those things which live in such a place, things only imagined in the meanest nightmares, did not require light to see their prey.

  Isaac stumbled in a direction he could only hope was forward, his shivering, goose bumped arms extended in front. Three times he planted them straight in an unidentifiable sticky, freezing, dust-coated substance. Three others his hands missed an upcoming obstacle and he walked face-first into jagged, twisted trees.

  Definitely did not pack well for this, Isaac thought bitterly as he adjusted the backpack strap on his shoulders. Half of the contents of the bag had been lost or used up on the way to this place, where - or what - ever this place was. Having lost his Star Wars coat, he pulled out his blue towel and pulled it around himself for warmth.

  Isaac plucked his cell phone from his pocket, swiping open the screen. The map had vanished, leaving a sheet of off-gray static in its place. The temperature simply read “-”, and the device refused even a passing attempt at the time, reading only “PM”.

  As Isaac returned the device to its resting place, everything shook. Not a vibration or shiver, but a jarring and violent shake which reminded the pitiful human just how weak and alone he was. The world twisted, bounced, and spun for a never-ending few seconds. He fell flat on his front, protecting his sore face with his arms at the last moment. They got stuck in another sticky mass on the ground, and it took several seconds for Isaac to free himself.

  As the ground groaned back into whatever shape it felt like being in, Isaac thought he could hear snarls, some distance to his right. So, he sprinted left. In that direction he felt some presence, like eyes locked on him, but he’d take his chances with a vague presence over a group of snarling whatever-they-were’s at this point.

  When the aftershocks finally ceased, so did Isaac, involuntarily. He collided face-first with the trunk of a tree, getting a mouthful of coal-flavored dust for his trouble. On the upside, downside, left or right side, Isaac really couldn’t tell anymore, it was quiet again. Silent like the library.

  Remember that one Doctor Who episode in the library - Panic started.

  Nope! Not having that train of thought right now. Thank you for your attempt. The snarling is done, that’s what I care about.

  Isaac took the silence as a sign that he could “safely” take some dusty air into his burning, out-of-shape lungs. He’d had better times accidentally inhaling damp ash from his pipe back home. It was enough, for now, to get him back on his feet.

  Within seconds, the silence was broken. An ear-shattering, spine-shaking shriek, like a thousand exclamation points pushed through high-gain speakers feeding back, split the air and sent Isaac running. He couldn’t hear, and thus no one can prove, that he hit the highest vocal note of his life at the same time.

  A scorching stream of orange light erupted in a stream as big around as Isaac’s car several yards overhead. He turned his gaze upward for a quick glance and wished he hadn’t. The orange light was a massive, flying cylinder of fire. It lit up the tops of many skeletal, towering trees, breaking through the void to illuminate the environment. The trees were a light black color with only a hint of brown, bearing no leaves or fruit. Gnarled, spiky branches jutted out at unexpected angles, roots poking through the snowy ground to form organic traps.

  What was blended into the dusty snow was what made Isaac’s stomach wiggle unpleasantly. The sticky substance that had impeded his progress was a series of spider webs, though each strand was as thick as a rope, and coated with some pasty substance. Cracked, chewed up bones of many shapes and sizes were visible underneath.

  In the distance, Isaac could see the original source of the snarling. It looked a lot like the demon-cat-lizard, with a lighter coat. And bigger. Oh, goodness, this thing was bigger, damn near the size of a motor home. Instead of a spiny tail with a scorpion-stinger end, this monstrosity had an entire live cobra sticking out of its rear. It stalked Isaac carefully, each of its steps matching at least three of his. He suspected this wasn’t the source of the flames. The grotesquely twisted human face, another distinct difference from the smaller demon-cat-lizard, could easily have been the one who screamed.

  Isaac took advantage of the blazes above revealing his path and took off at full speed to get out of the forest. He had no desire to see whatever provided the rope-webs and huge jet of fire - so of course he took an impulsive look over his shoulder. The fire blocked its owner from view.

  Isaac continued running, doing his (admittedly poor) best to avoid roots and web at his feet. While not the most coordinated or athletic person, he at least managed to remain upright for a short while.

  Another burst of fire came for him. Feeling the approaching heat on his back, he frantically leapt to his left. The blaze splashed against a tree instead of a person and lit up a considerable chunk of the area. All while Isaac was stuck on his side in another web.

  As he struggled to free himself, he looked back one more time
, getting a look at the thing behind him, rapidly closing the distance between them.

  Isaac’s eyes first followed the fire to its source; a long snout coated in red scales, mouth open and full of interlocked fangs. Smoke swirled from a pair of flared nostrils, and when that vanished it revealed a pair of furious eyes, the same shade as the scales. Underneath was a long neck lined with razor spines, capped with a pair of leathery wings the size of a commercial airplane.

  Isaac had never seen a dragon outside of storybooks, of course - but he was certain that their lower half did not consist of a black widow spider the size of a tank, the optically privileged face and venom-spitting mouth living on the dragon’s upper chest. Six hairy limbs flailed about in twitchy chaos as the whole beastly mess was held aloft by its wings.

  I was right, Isaac thought, his external voice only forming whimpers. I did not want to see that.

  The monster roared; this time close enough for the sound to reach Isaac’s ears. A colossal, explosive noise with a layer of a gurgling hiss came from it. The power of it generated another brutal shockwave, and Isaac panicked as he thought of something from the Book which could save him.

  Can’t burn, freeze, cut, or erase the web, I’d take myself with it, He thought. I had to have learned something useful!

  The spider-dragon glided closer and closer, pushing aside the blazing forest to get a proper look at its prey.

  “æ’géminë!” The beast roared, kicking up a small dust storm with its breath. The planet-rattling voice dripped with fanatical, venomous loathing. Without another word, it gathered a killing shot in its jaws, ready to destroy the intruder who dared enter its home.

  Isaac shut his eyes and screamed, “Säväním!” thrusting his free palm toward the ground.

  A burst of kinetic energy ran down his arm and made his fingertips tingle, flying out as an unseen push. His lack of control or concentration caused the spell to disintegrate partially upon release, but the remaining energy was enough to bounce Isaac from his trap as though he were on a small trampoline. He rolled to the side, avoiding any more web. In the distance, separate from the arachniwyrm’s roars and hisses, he thought he could hear howling, not unlike a wolf.

  A momentary disruption bought just enough time to tip the scales (no pun intended). While the spider-dragon redirected its attention, an arrow whizzed through the air and caught the monster in its dark-furred, spider-like underbelly. The six eyes on what should have been its chest widened in fury and their fanged mouth, again a place that would have been perfect for a stomach had the top half continued being a comfortably recognizable dragon, hissed and spat venom into the air. It sizzled wherever it landed, and Isaac bolted for the edge of the blackened forest, desperately trying to avoid any landing on him.

  The edge was in sight, he could see part of a stone structure on the horizon. It looked like a perfect hiding place. He didn’t have time to consider the distance or the fact that all around this safe place was wide, gray nothingness. The moon was much closer and brighter over this space.

  Isaac dove, arm’s first, away from the trees and into what he thought was just bleached sand until he got a mouthful of ashes. He wasted precious seconds swatting around his mouth and spitting. At the same time, he pushed himself too slowly to his feet, a task made more challenging by the sudden violent rumbling of the ground as the spider-dragon creature descended to it. Aftershocks came with every one of its steps.

  Isaac felt something small hit him in the right shoulder. Tears of fresh, searing pain flowed from his eyes before they could process the fingertip-sized glob of green acid burning into his flesh. Out of reflex he swatted it off with his hand, which sent most of the fluid to burn a hole into the ground, but also left painful red welts across his palm.

  Get to that structure before something worse happens! Panic shrieked.

  Isaac ran as fast as his sore legs would take him. His now-useless arm dangled at his side. Arrows began to fly from an unseen shooter, several coming closer and closer to Isaac as he approached his hopeful hiding place, but apparently meant for the monster chasing him. For a moment as he hobbled to safety, he felt lucky that they seemed to be keeping the beast in its twisted forest.

  In less stressful circumstances it would have occurred to Isaac that his luck was never that good. He felt a jolt in his left thigh, unable to process further pain as his shoulder continued to burn. He looked down and saw blood flowing from a knobby but more or less straight piece of wood sticking out of him.

  Oh, son of a -! Rage started to roar but faded into obscurity as Isaac lacked the mental capacity to maintain the imaginary companion. Isaac hit the ground hard and rolled to his back. His shoulder was losing feeling and blood just as his leg was, and his vision was starting to go. Ten-feet-high walls appeared on either side of him, rising in a sequence like reverse dominoes. More arrows came, and Isaac could hear a wheezy cackle in the distance.

  “æ’géminë?” The cackling voice asked.

  Isaac pushed himself to his feet, made it as far as his knees, and crawled as fast as he was able. More howls rang out in the distance, but the cackle seemed closer. Isaac’s skin crawled.

  A new wall materialized directly in Isaac’s path, without enough warning for Isaac to change direction before running into the obstacle. The impact knocked him, dazed and numb, to the ground. An arrow lodged itself in a hole in the wall, shaking stone dust loose over him.

  A sickly-looking, hunch-backed, ghoulish figure with greenish-gray skin visible wherever it wasn’t covered in shredded rags and feathers, stepped from the shadows of the crumbling temple. The new arrival had a bow in their hands which was clearly handmade, and not expertly. He was aiming an arrow, with a rough stone tip, directly at Isaac’s head with shaky hands.

  The assassin stopped laughing as he launched another arrow. His bleeding target rolled to one side just in time to avoid an involuntary frontal lobotomy, and he gave a grunt of frustration as he readied another.

  Isaac took the opportunity to duck out of what he now realized was not a suitable hiding place after all and kept going.

  The ghoul shouted and chased after him, as did the ever-growing howl. When the archer exited the broken temple, the owner of the howl ordered him to stay back or die. He tossed his bow and dove back into the temple.

  Isaac discovered, after several hundred yards of wishing he had jogged when his life was normal, why he couldn’t see past the expansive ash desert.

  The ash dipped into a steep slope which he was completely unprepared for, and his face led the tumble down to the base. He stayed on the ground for longer than he could afford. Dazed and barely able to move, he looked up at his salvation; a grand forest of chestnut brown trees veined with cold blue, covered with pale green leaves streaked with silver. Gold-and-white feathers that gleamed metallically in the moonlight dotted the ground all around him, and he could see several more beyond the gate. Sheets of ice coated them all, as well as the leg-thick roots which rose in a twisting and impenetrable barrier which stretched to either side as far as Isaac could see. He pulled himself, groaning and sobbing in pain, to the wall and used it to drag himself to his feet. This forest looked significantly more inviting than the one he had left behind, and bereft of any other options he went for it. He kept his fingers crossed in hope that it wasn’t another hellscape full of predators.

  “Someone let me in!” Isaac called into the new forest. No answer came, not even a rustle of leaves. The force which had terrified the ghoulish archer into submission appeared against the moonlight as a black mass of hunched-over malice, with claws waving in the air.

  “Ægö næ’wä!” Isaac cried at the barrier. Nothing happened. He repeated the phrase three more times with no results. Not ready to give up, though his vision was nearly gone, and his entire body threatened to collapse, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  “Ægö næ -” He said. Before he could finish, a new scorching, sharp pain ran between his shoulder blades, followed by a slas
h across his collarbone by a jagged claw attached to a huge, dark-furred hand. Drops of fresh red rolled down the claw.

  Isaac turned to see who owned the claw, seeing only a faint glimpse of long, sharp teeth before they sank into his neck, as the claws did more work on his torso and back.

  As the monster sunk its claws and teeth into him, its warm breath running up and down his neck, Isaac heard one last voice off in the dark sky, not belonging to the beast who had caught him.

  “Remember me,” the night said. The sound echoed into his ears as the killer pulled away, howling in response.

  Everything went blank.

  Chapter Twenty: A Wolf in Beige Clothing

  ?2018?

  Isaac opened his eyes. His heart thundered in his chest, sending shockwaves through the rest of him. He could feel a cold, body-shaped puddle soaked into the couch cushions, and a burning pain between his shoulder blades a lot like he had felt when he first woke up at home, the day the first hollow attacked. Looking around, he seemed to still be in Tobias’ apartment. A digital clock on the wall opposite him read 2:22AM.

  Struggling to get his breathing under control, Isaac leaned over and grabbed his backpack. He pulled a notebook and pen from inside and scribbled what he could remember from his dream; a list of details about the murderous flying spider-dragon, followed by the spells he used and what they did, and ending with the creatures he saw just before waking up.

  That last one had to have been L’æon, Panic told him. Didn’t get much of a look, but who else could it have been, with the claws? Could he have been that archer too, somehow? Tricky bastard can turn himself into Charlie Chaplin, who knows what else he can do? For a moment, Isaac was distracted by the sound of Tobias’ honking snores from the far end of the hallway.