‘Blasphemy!’
‘Whatever. You know it is truth. You doubt them too. I have seen it, in your heart.’
Melody went quiet then.
‘Now, how are we going to get you off this boat? God knows how you got on it in the first place.’
‘I hid in that crate over there. It was easy.’
‘Well, it might not be so easy to get off.’
‘Do I call you Messiah? Or saviour? Or Morning Star?’
‘Uh, just “Kay” will be fine.’
‘Land ho!’ they heard suddenly over the tannoy, cutting over the music.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
‘This conversation is not over,’ Khaos hissed. ‘Wait here.’
Khaos climbed up the stairs to the main deck of the boat, which was thronged with passengers again, all pressed up against the railings to see if they could see the island. Khaos managed to squeeze through them enough to get a glimpse of land, at the moment a green and brown smudge, still perhaps half an hour away. They sailed past an iron sign in the water, painted a bright blue, and written on it in bold was the following:
Legend Island
Where the party never ends!
What was intended to be a fun, catchy slogan, perceived light-heartedly by the rest of the passengers, chilled Khaos to the bone now that she knew of the demon Gluttony’s appetite for souls. But how did he consume them? Did he just eat their souls, suck the life force out of them, or did he consume the whole body?
Khaos was also still reeling from the discovery of Melody.
‘How can she see me when I look into her soul? No one can normally do that, can they?’
Some humans perceive more than others. I do not know how she is able to see your true form. But she really believes in you. Perhaps her belief gives her eyes to see the truth.
‘No kidding. She really does believe in me. Shit. She really actually thinks I’m Jesus or something.’
In some ways, she is not completely wrong, Khaos.
‘What? How can that be? Don’t be ridiculous.’
These mortals have it all wrong. They aren’t getting a second coming of Jesus. Just a reaping. A reaping of demons, a cleansing of the world of its evil. Then the world will be destroyed. And you are the one who will do this, Khaos. No one else. No one else is coming for them.
‘So their world is just ending? Just like that?’
They will have Heaven of course.
‘Still, so many of them are expecting something… else. Not me.’
Well, they will be disappointed.
Khaos sighed. It was a great burden to bear, this knowledge of the end of the world and how it would be. And she had to bear it alone.
‘Still, what am I going to do with her? I can’t really let Melody follow me.’
If she follows you, she may be harmed. Even killed. Then again, she would be in more danger if you tried to send her back now. No one returns from this island, remember?
‘Hmm. You’ve got a point. Maybe it would be nice to have company.’ Even if it was a young slip of a girl with no street sense and a brain full of confused biblical references and beliefs. Khaos was finding that she missed human company, after being away from her street friends the past few days. Perhaps it would be nice to have a human around, instead of only a shape-shifting horse and a voice in her head for company.
From the boat, the island was becoming clearer and clearer, and it was not what Khaos had expected at all. From this distance, the buildings were white shapes with bright lights emanating from them, and the surrounding foliage was green and lush. Encircling the island was a beach of white sand, with many sun loungers and umbrellas dotting it in anticipation of the crowds. It was quite beautiful, really.
It could be any island resort. Except that there was not a soul in sight.
The place seemed deserted. The music was loud enough though.
Khaos sighed again. More repetitive music. Even from this distance, you could hear the pounding of the bass.
Khaos went back downstairs.
‘We are nearly at the island. We will have to figure this out when we get off the boat.’
Melody joyfully followed her, like a dog anticipating a walk.
On the top deck, the crowd was cheering and shouting in anticipation of the island, which was now very close indeed. This close it seemed even more beautiful and idyllic. The white sand stretched round like an arm around the coast as far as Khaos could see, the waves lapping the edge gently, and there were now signs of life; people were beginning to mill around the beach area.
Inland, a large white building with a now-visible “Hotel” sign above it crouched amid the tropical greenery. Palm trees occasionally swayed in the distance. The excitement in the other passengers was palpable, though no one really spoke. It was more a noise, a hubbub of chatter between themselves. Khaos could not believe how much energy these people had; they had been drinking and dancing since they had got on the boat, hours ago, and now they seemed ready for round two on the island. They had probably been out the night before as well.
A shape flitted by overhead, and Khaos looked up in time to see a white bird, possibly the one she had spotted earlier, fly past the boat and disappear into the foliage further inland. Khaos sighed, knowing that she would encounter Loka again before the end.
The boat finally docked, the ropes were tied, and the passengers disembarked, all trying to cram onto the small bridge at the same time.
‘Stay close, or you will get lost among all these idiots,’ Khaos muttered to Melody.
‘Heathens!’ exclaimed Melody, totally overwhelmed by the press of all these people.
‘What?’
‘Heathens! Non-believers!’
‘Tickets! Show me your tickets!’ came a cry from the jetty. Khaos could see up ahead an inspector of sorts, or at least he had an official-looking hat (a stiff grey cap with a black peak and a gold motif on the front) perched on his head. He wore shorts and a vest, no shoes, and looked like he spent most of his time sunbathing. ‘Tickets! Or it’s straight back to Edgewater for you! Tickets please!’ he drawled. ‘Tickets, or you’ll get thrown into the sea! Tickets!’
As he cast his eyes on Melody, who was still staring around her in amazement, it occurred to Khaos that Melody didn’t have a ticket. She was a stowaway.
‘Ticket please, hun,’ said the inspector to Melody. She stared at him as if he spoke another language, opening and closing her mouth in a fish-like manner.
‘Hey, I have your ticket!’ Khaos suddenly remembered the extra tickets she had swiped from Loka’s office. ‘Here you are.’ She waved two under the inspector’s nose. ‘Silly friend of mine, Melody, had a few too many beers!’ Khaos made a series of desperate hand gestures. ‘Forgot her ticket, didn’t she!’ She slapped Melody on the shoulder in a show of camaraderie.
The inspector stared at them blankly, seemingly completely uninterested in Khaos’ explanation. He nodded and carried on.
‘Move along, next! Tickets please!’
With a sigh of relief, Khaos practically pushed Melody off the gangway and onto dry land.
The first thing Khaos noticed when she set her feet down on the island was the smell. The smell of food. The first whiff seemed to be a delicious bread and garlic smell: pizza! But as she took a few steps further, it seemed spicy and fragrant: curry perhaps? Then the next moment it smelt like cooked meat. Each smell tantalised her tastebuds, and her stomach rumbled. For the first time that Khaos could remember, she actually felt hungry! Famished, in fact.
‘When did I last eat?’ she murmured, mostly to herself. She noticed Melody was staring at her again. ‘What is it?’
‘You said I was your friend!’ If Melody had seemed happy before, she was now ecstatic.
‘Uh, yeah. I suppose you are,’ Khaos conceded. Then she pulled Melody by her arm out of the way of the other passengers, who were piling past them onto the island. ‘Listen, if you must follow me, please try not to slow me down.’
‘Good.’
‘So where are we going?’
‘Well, we are looking for a… a demon.’
‘Ah, of course,’ said Melody, sagely. ‘What does he look like?’
‘Uh, I’m not sure what he will look like. As a man, he had black hair I think, mid-thirties, bit of a beer gut. He runs this place. But I don’t know what he might look like now.’
‘He has taken a demonic form?’
‘Uh, yeah. So he could look like anything. He could be monstrous, gigantic. Slimy, most likely.’ Khaos recalled the last demon she had slain.
Melody nodded, unfazed.
‘It will be easy to find him, I think.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘We just have to follow everyone else. Heathens are always drawn to evil.’
Khaos stared, dumfounded, at this strange girl, chatting away about demons and evil as if it was completely normal, like they were discussing the weather. But of course, Melody did have a heavily religious upbringing, she would know all about demons and suchlike. It was refreshing, talking to someone who knew about such things, compared to every other time Khaos had tried to talk about her quest to anyone else.
‘Hey can you smell that?’ Melody was sniffing the air, obviously noticing the food smells too.
‘Yeah, you hungry?’
‘Starving!’
‘I guess we should find something to eat.’
They waited until Nyx was unloaded from the cargo bay, a black motorbike once more. Khaos mounted and nodded to Melody to sit on the back.
They followed the crowds of people, who were all heading along a wide paved path. This also seemed to be where the nice smells were coming from, so they inevitably found themselves following the scent of the food. Along the edge of the path were palm trees, planted at regular intervals, and between them they got glimpses of sparkling blue water and soft white sand on one side, green sun-kissed grounds on the other, and the towering white hotel dead ahead of them, encircled by several other white buildings.
The music was still all around them; speakers were strung up on some of the palm trees, and at several occasions along the way they were offered free drinks by topless men or, more often than not, attractive girls in very small bikinis. Khaos found it increasingly difficult to know where to look. Every so often they would pass a bar, already packed with people, all on the same mission: to party all day and all night long.
As they drove slowly around the island, Melody exclaimed and gawped at everything, as if she were seeing it for the first time. She stared at groups of topless men downing pints of beer, goading each other on, balked at a group of girls dancing very suggestively in skimpy dresses, whilst men stood around them, pouring champagne on them.
‘The whores of Babylon!’ she breathed. She narrated the whole time in her strange biblical way, which was both amusing and alarming at the same time. Khaos was not familiar enough, or at least she did not remember the Bible enough, to know how accurate the things Melody said were, but she found some of the things she said rang true in her mind. Khaos found a lot in common with this religious girl. This island, this nonstop feel-good place, did not sit right with her either. In fact, she couldn’t wait to get off it. But they must find that demon.
The path bore round to the left, heading toward the sea. After a while it ended completely, and the sand began. Here, Nyx sprouted two more wheels under them and became a gleaming black dune buggy. They set off with their new mode of transport across the beach, which was beginning to fill up with people, all dancing and jostling one another, drinking continually. The music was loud here too, no words to it, just a continuous repetitive series of sounds. Every so often a pretty girl in a bikini would pass with a tray of multi-coloured shots in her hand.
‘What are these tiny drinks?’ Melody reached out to one tray as it passed.
‘Leave them!’ Khaos slapped Melody’s hand down. ‘It’s alcohol! Really strong alcohol!’
‘But they are such bright colours!’
‘They taste terrible. Don’t drink anything here, Melody. And if people try and get you to drink, ignore them. Get away from them, do you understand? When you start, they won’t let you stop!’
As they carried on along the soft sand, Khaos noticed at the far end of the beach a high, sheer precipice of rock, blocking off the coast. She had not noticed this from the boat on their way here; Khaos surmised that they must be on the other side of the island to where the boat had docked. There seemed no way of getting around or over the precipice, save climbing the vertical cliffs. The water lapped the bottom of it, eroding it gradually. Khaos wondered briefly what might lie on the other side.
Up ahead was a small stage where it seemed several people were taking turns dancing round a metal pole. At the moment, a very drunk woman in an electric pink bikini was spinning round it, giggling. A small but growing crowd was gathered round, cheering and clapping. Next up, a younger man with a shaved head leapt onto the stage, proceeding to take his top off. His body was a little gangly but he seemed confident despite this. He started spinning and gyrating round the pole too, when suddenly he stopped and pointed right at Khaos.
‘Kay!’ he shouted, in recognition.
‘Ripper!’ Khaos said, in disbelief.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘Kay! I can’t believe it’s you!’ exclaimed Ripper, jumping off the stage and running to them on the sand. ‘You came after all!’
‘Ripper! You seem… different!’ Khaos replied, a little dazed from this further turn of events. She and Melody dismounted Nyx to greet him.
‘Why, because I haven’t got my T-shirt on?’ Ripper laughed, lifting Khaos up in a bear hug. ‘Who is this little lady?’ He gestured at Melody.
‘Uh, Ripper, this is my new friend, Melody.’
‘Lovely to meet you! You can never have too many lovely ladies at one beach party! Let me get you guys a drink!’
‘Uh, no thanks.’
‘What? Come on, you’re at a party for Christ’s sake!’
‘No, really. Maybe later.’
‘Come on, they’re on me!’ He laughed heartily. ‘Kidding. Everything is free here!’ He grinned at her. ‘You changed your mind then! Missed me, I bet.’
‘Yeah, so much! You all made it here safely, then?’
‘Yeah. Our plan went to plan, yeah,’ he slurred, and Khaos realised he was drunk. He stank, actually, up close, of stale beer. It wasn’t just that he was topless and in beach wear, he seemed different, careless, not like his clever old self, who would be looking to take advantage of this situation wherever possible.
‘So, where’re the others? Barden and Georgi?’
‘Oh, they were starving, so they went to get a bite to eat.’ He burst out laughing, senselessly. ‘I think that was yesterday, though! I bet they are making the most of the buffet!’
Khaos suddenly remembered Bottle.
‘Ripper, listen, I saw Bottle… ’
‘Bottle! Yeah he ditched us in Edgewater when we first got there. The first sniff of a free beer and he was gone. Probably having a whale of a time back there, drinking to his heart’s content, all the booze you could possibly want; did you know the alcohol is free at Edgewater as well?’
‘I saw him, Ripper. He’s dead.’
‘Huh?’
‘Bottle is dead. I found him in an alley.’
‘Yeah, dead drunk!’ To Khaos’ amazement, Ripper just burst out laughing again. ‘Wait, do you girls want a drink?’
‘What? Didn’t you hear what I said? Bottle is dead! And everyone else is doomed too!’
‘You’re talking too serious, you’re killing my buzz.’
‘You need to be serious now, Ripper! Lives are at stake here!’
‘God, who pissed in your beer today?’
‘Sober up, now, Ripper! Help me find Adam Zaphira, the owner of this place. I need to find Adam Zaphira!’
‘Well, that’s easy. He’s
up at the big white hotel. I saw him up there earlier. Or maybe it was yesterday. I can’t remember! I’ve been partying the whole time! How long have I been here?’
Khaos thought then of Barden and Georgi. She grabbed Ripper by the shoulders.
‘Help me find Barden and Georgi then! They are in danger! Do you understand?’
‘Danger!’ He laughed again. ‘No one is in danger here! I think someone needs to lighten up and have a drink.’
Khaos was about to retort, when a shout came from behind them.
‘Last chance to get on the pirate ship party!’
‘Pirate ship?’ Khaos turned to see another official-looking guy, with a similar hat to the ticket inspector, speaking through a megaphone. Lying on the shore beside him was a small white speedboat. People from all over the beach began running to meet him. Then Khaos looked out to sea and noticed a wooden ship with black sails sitting just outside the cove. It must have sailed up while they had been talking. Khaos turned back and realised Ripper was gone. She spotted him in the distance, racing toward the speedboat, seemingly desperate to join in the fun. Not only that, but he had Melody by the hand and was towing her along with him.
‘Not another boat,’ Khaos muttered to herself.
With a sigh, she mounted Nyx and rode as close as she could to the shoreline, then dismounted.
‘Nyx, follow us, I might need you later.’ Reluctantly, she trailed after Ripper and Melody.
A swarm of people were gathered round the speedboat; everyone seemed overly keen to get on this ridiculous thing. When Khaos had caught up, Ripper grabbed her wrist and dragged both her and Melody to the front of the crowd to increase their chances of getting on the boat.
To Ripper’s delight, the official guy chose the three of them and two others to get in the speedboat first, and they set off at high speed across the water. Khaos sat between Ripper and Melody, each of them gripping either of her forearms in anticipation. She had a glimpse then of what it might feel like to be a worried mother between her two over-excited children. While she was wrought with nerves, the other two just sat there, grinning, having the time of their lives.
Resort Page 10
