When she opened her eyes, she saw that a path had been opened through what had been a blank stone side of the cliff. A crawlspace, just big enough for her to clamber through.
Khaos pushed through to the other side, coughing and spluttering, the sand filling her mouth and eyes and nose.
A few nearby partygoers pointed and laughed at her as she kneeled on the sand, rubbing the dirt from her face, but apart from that, her entrance back onto the beach from the hole in the cliff-side did not attract much attention. Even the people who had noticed her were too drunk to really care.
She ran to the water’s edge and rinsed her hands and face in the cool water. Then she stared around, shading her eyes from the sun, trying to see if Melody was here. She could still be on the boat. Or she may have gotten in the water. Perhaps Khaos should have stayed on the other beach to see? But no, she had to hope that Melody would be sensible, otherwise she was just another life lost because of Khaos’ incompetence.
Not seeing any sign of her, Khaos moved along the shore, scanning the beach, which was even more crammed with people, all dancing and drinking as ever. The perpetual music blared. She spotted the dance pole where they had found Ripper and checked the faces of the people that surrounded it, gyrating and dancing ridiculously, oblivious to the beach of death on the other side of the cliff, yards from them.
But Melody was not there. Then Khaos spotted the speedboat that had taken them to the pirate ship. It was moored a little out to sea. There were no pirates or any official-looking people around it; they must’ve been finished for the day.
Then her heart was suddenly lifted as she spotted a familiar blonde-haired girl standing by the shore near the boat: Melody, looking anxiously out to sea. Khaos waved her arms to get her attention. As she approached her, she noticed Melody was speaking to one of the drink-serving girls and prepared to scold her for this. Had she not told her not to touch any of the alcohol?
‘Saviour! You have returned!’ Melody grabbed Khaos’ hands and kissed them reverently, much to Khaos’ embarrassment.
‘Uh, Kay is just fine. Thanks,’ said Khaos, her face flushed with colour.
‘Kay! You jumped in the water and didn’t come up for air for ages! Then the other people jumped in, and they started disappearing, one by one! Then I saw you in a black boat!’
‘Did you see anything else?’
‘Yes.’ Melody’s face went a little pale. ‘Something grabbed you out of the water! It had long arms and claws… ’
‘The demon. He has become far more powerful than I realised.’
‘And what about that friend of yours? What happened to him?’
‘He is gone.’ Khaos decided not to divulge the full details of the bodies on the other beach; it was all a bit too horrific, even for Melody.
‘Kay, I forgot to tell you! This is my sister!’ Melody grabbed the arm of the serving girl, who had been standing behind them while they talked.
‘Your sister?’
CHAPTER TWENTY
‘This is my sister, Joy.’ Melody’s face beamed with happiness. ‘Joy, this is the one I have been telling you about. Our saviour incarnate!’
‘Kay, please just call me Kay.’ Khaos was incredulous. Melody’s sister? In this place? Not another one. She groaned inwardly, but tried to appear pleased for Melody. ‘So did you follow Melody here? Are you going to take her back home? With your family to, what do you call it, the Ministry?’
‘No way! That hellhole? Not likely!’ Joy grinned. She had the same pale face and freckles as Melody, and in stature they were also alike, but Joy was like a sexy version of Melody; it was amazing what a trowel-load of makeup and a push-up bra could do. It gave insight into how Melody might look if she ditched her drab clothes and got a tan. Joy’s hair was also dyed black and cut short, the total opposite of Melody’s long mousy locks.
‘Joy left the Ministry before I did. She has been missing for years! I can’t believe I found you in this place!’
‘I wasn’t missing, Melody. Didn’t they tell you?’
‘Tell me what?’
‘I tried to come back. But the wonderful Pastor Jack wouldn’t let me.’
‘No… ’
‘You know what he called me? A harlot. A painted jezebel. A whore of Satan! For Christ’s sake!’
‘If Mama had known… ’
‘Mama was there, honey. She didn’t want to know me.’
‘Mama wouldn’t do that! Mama loves you!’
‘You better believe she would. She would never disagree with anything Pastor Jack said, not even when it came to her own daughter.’
‘Why did you leave?’ asked Khaos.
‘I got pregnant. I had a secret boyfriend who wasn’t from the Ministry. We planned to raise the baby together, get jobs, a place of our own. I knew they wouldn’t accept what I had done, so I just ran away.’
‘Joy, no! Surely it isn’t so!’
‘It is, sister. His name is Joshua. He’s two.’
‘And the boyfriend?’
‘That jerk? It didn’t work out.’ She shrugged. ‘He turned out not to be a father type. Or a commitment type.’
‘So you have been on your own, all this time?’
‘Only Joshua for company. Why do you think I work here?’
Khaos could not help but notice her “uniform” - tiny denim shorts and a white sleeveless shirt tied in a knot at the front, skimming her cleavage, which Khaos kept catching herself glancing at by accident.
‘Where is the baby?’
‘A friend of mine takes care of him on the mainland while I work. You want to meet him?’
‘Well, yes… ’
‘Come back with me after I finish work, my shift is over in about an hour.’ She checked her watch.
‘Oh, well actually… ’ Melody caught Khaos’ eye.
‘Go with her if you want, Melody. It would be safer for you there than with me.’
‘But I made a promise! I am your disciple, remember?’
‘You’re what?’ said Joy.
‘I swore allegiance to Kay, that I would be her disciple and help her with her quest on this Earth.’
Joy narrowed her eyes.
‘Which is?’
‘She is slaying a demon!’ whispered Melody, conspiratorially.
Joy rolled her eyes.
‘Melody, you don’t have to believe all that anymore. You aren’t with the Ministry now.’
‘But it’s true, Kay has these incredible powers! She must find the demon and destroy him!’
‘There are no such things as demons. That’s all stories to get you to be afraid, so you will do what Pastor Jack says. He doesn’t own you anymore, Melody. You don’t have to worry about all that stuff.’ Joy put an arm around her in a sisterly hug.
‘It’s not stuff!’ Melody shrugged away Joy’s arm. ‘It’s real! Kay is our Messiah, returned to save our souls from the Devil, to slay his evil demons and restore the world to a place of happiness and joy and love!’
‘Something like that,’ Khaos muttered.
‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’ said Joy, sharply. ‘Taking advantage of a young vulnerable girl, filling her head with this crap, for what? What do you want from my sister?’
‘Nothing! I haven’t–’
‘It’s not crap!’ Melody interrupted, her face flushed red. ‘I saw it all for myself! God, what has this world done to you? Have you no faith left at all?’
‘Oh, sis, when you are turning tricks to feed your little baby child, not knowing how you will survive the next day, then you try talking to me about faith in God. Trust me, no one up there’ – she pointed to the sky – ‘cares about us down here.’ She pointed to the ground.
‘I can’t believe what you have become! What about the story of Job? He suffered much yet he did not relinquish his faith… ’
‘Job didn’t get raped, Melody! Job didn’t have to prostitute himself for money! Job didn’t have a baby son to raise! That book is bullshit anyway.’
‘Well, this isn’t. This is real, whatever you might think. I have a job to do, Joy. Maybe I will see you again, when the demon has been slain.’
‘Yeah, look me up when you’re done.’ Joy sighed and rolled her eyes again. ‘I have to get back to my shift now.’ She picked up her tray. ‘Take care, Melody. Come and visit me when you come to your senses, ok?’ She cuddled her sister again, glaring at Khaos over Melody’s shoulder. ‘Take care of my sister, you. Whatever you are doing. She better not get hurt.’ With that, she marched off across the sand.
Melody stared after her for a moment, then turned back to Khaos.
‘Kay, where must we go next?’
‘We must find that demon now. Is there any way we could get to that boat? Perhaps… ’ Then she lost her train of thought. A waft of the most amazing food smell suddenly filled her nostrils, and she realised it may have been days since she had eaten. Her stomach growled loudly.
Melody smelt it too.
‘Mmm! So hungry!’ She turned slowly and began to wander up the beach toward the path. Kay started to follow, before she stopped herself. The demon’s powers were strong. Many others from the beach had promptly stopped what they were doing and were wandering as if in a trance up the beach, following the scent of the food. The demon was trying to lure them. Yet Khaos decided to give in for now, and follow. The scent, she realised, would surely lead her to him.
Khaos and Melody meandered slowly along the path, following the other people, who trudged along like they were in a dream and not fully in control of their bodies, following the scent of food. Drinks were abandoned. The bar areas and dance floor areas suddenly emptied. Like cattle, they shuffled back towards the white hotel which they had passed earlier, and Khaos wondered if they were going inside, but no, they headed down a gravel foot path behind the hotel. This led further inland; trees and shrubberies surrounded them, rising up above their heads, the laden branches like a canopy shielding them from the evening sun. Eventually the path opened out to a sight that Khaos was not expecting.
A vast area of the land had been flattened and cleared, and what had been built there could only be described as some sort of food mecca. There were food stations as far as the eye could see, each one only a few steps from the next, where chefs were cooking food enough to feed an army. People clustered round these, waiting for their dinner. Next to these were rows and rows of low tables, crammed with more people, hunched over plates piled high with food of every description; chicken legs, steaks, pizza, pasta, rice and curried meat, breads of all kinds, slices of roast beef and pork, all smothered with a variety of sauces.
For those who did not want the inconvenience of waiting for their food, there was, on the opposite side, a mile-long self-serving area, with vast, bathtub-sized tureens filled with every kind of food imaginable. At this also, people were queuing up, spooning generous helpings of food onto their plates.
Some even rushed back for more, as if that huge plateful hadn’t been enough. In each face, Khaos saw a blank, faraway look, as if no thoughts passed through these people’s minds other than the consumption of this food. They sweated, their faces crimson, but no one got up to leave; in fact more and more people piled in, filling the available seats. No one seemed to get full here. Wafts of delicious-smelling food called silently to them, and Khaos found it tremendously difficult to ignore it. But she must; she could see from the faces of these people that if she sat down to eat she would never get up again.
There was music here, also, not as intense as the other areas of the island, but still relentless, giving the eaters something to keep time to.
Khaos’ eyes alighted on a couple sitting near the middle of the seating area, shovelling their food into their mouths with their hands, their cutlery long discarded. They were covered with sauce and fragments of food, but they carried on relentlessly eating. With a sinking heart, Khaos recognised them as Georgi and Barden, the last two of her friends whom she had been looking for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The couple continued to gorge on their food, unaware that they were being watched or approached by Khaos and Melody. Khaos touched Georgi’s shoulder but she didn’t look up.
‘Georgi?’ Nothing. Khaos tried jabbing her a bit harder, but all that resulted in was Georgi flapping a hand around, as if trying to swat an annoying fly away.
‘Georgi! It’s me, Kay! Georgi?’ Khaos stared into her face, but it was as if she were invisible. Georgi continued to shovel the food greedily into her mouth. ‘Barden?’ She tried poking his shoulder, but his reaction was the same. They were completely uninterested in anything other than food.
And it was beginning to take its toll on them. Their stomachs were both alarmingly distended, their clothes covered in food and stains. And what was that smell? An unwashed body odour. And unfortunately, the reek of urine and faeces as well. How long had they sat here? Were they so absorbed in stuffing their faces that they could not pry themselves away from the table, even to relieve themselves?
With a sudden lurch, Barden did get up, but waddled heavily over to the self-service area, where he proceeded to fill the tray – not just the plates but his whole tray – with food of every kind. As he came back, Khaos stepped between him and the table.
‘No. You’ve had too much already.’ She grabbed the edge of his tray. ‘Let me have this.’ He gripped his side of the tray all the harder, and his face became suddenly aggressive. ‘I’m not letting you eat all this. Look at yourself!’ He did not budge, but his eyebrows knitted further. ‘Let go! Let it go now!’ She pulled, but he pulled harder.
Khaos felt a sudden whack across the back of her head that took her by surprise. Dazed, she let go and turned around to see Georgi holding her empty tray, an annoyed expression on her face. Barden barged past Khaos, the tray clattering on the table. Then, like animals, he and Georgi plunged their faces into the food, not even bothering to use their hands anymore.
‘What has happened to you? Can’t you see what you are doing?’ Khaos cried, staring from one face to the other in distress. They gave her no heed.
They can’t see, Human Soul. Nor speak, even if they wanted to. All they care about is the glut of food. But they will never be satisfied.
‘But this is not like them! They are peaceful, good-living people. They wouldn’t be like this. And Georgi… why did she hit me?’
You got in the way. Between them and the food. That’s all.
‘That’s all?’ Khaos was incredulous.
The demon’s power still surprises you. You have yet to fully see how vile he himself has become.
‘But why, what for? What purpose will all these people stuffing their faces be to him?’
You will see, soon enough.
Khaos was suddenly conscious that Melody was not by her side anymore. Wildly, she spun around, looking for her.
‘Not this again,’ she muttered to herself. Would that girl not stay still even for one minute? It was like looking after a child!
Her friends needed her more than ever right now, but she couldn’t risk letting Melody become like this as well. One bite of this hateful food would be all it took. Reluctantly, she knew she had to go.
‘I will set you free of this, Georgi.’ She touched her friend’s shoulder as she turned to head away. There was no expression of acknowledgement from Georgi. Instead, she and Barden began to growl at each other over a slice of pizza, their eyes narrowing.
Khaos cast around, looking for Melody. But there was such a swarm of people here, and everyone she knocked into or bumped by accident shot her that same angry look, as if somehow she was keeping them from their feast.
Then she spotted the long straggly hair of her disciple standing by the self-service area, lifting a chicken leg to her mouth.
‘Stop! No!’ Khaos broke into a run, despite the press of people around her, and the angry growls and grunts she received. ‘Don’t eat it!’ She grabbed Melody’s arm and knocked the offending chicken leg to the floor. Then Mel
ody chewed, and Khaos reacted immediately. ‘Stop! Spit it out! Spit it out! She grabbed her by the hair and the other hand gripped her jaw. ‘Spit it out!’ Khaos commanded.
Melody reluctantly conceded, but thankfully did not seem to have consumed any of the food.
‘I just wanted one bite! Just one!’
‘Don’t touch it! What did I tell you about this place? It is evil, and everything in it is evil. It will undo you.’
‘But I’m so hungry!’
‘I know. But you can’t eat this stuff. I will find you something, but not this.’
Just as Khaos began to drag a reluctant Melody from the court, the music stopped, a loud gong rang out, and a soft feminine voice came over the speakers.
‘Anyone for dessert? Dessert will be served now, in the dessert lounge.’
The heads of all the people hunched over their plates suddenly shot up: now they were listening. Behind them, sections of what had appeared to be ordinary green foliage were being folded back to reveal a wide, dark tunnel. Khaos could not see where it led, but caught a whiff of a salty smell, like the sea. Yet they were inland, could it somehow lead back to the beach?
‘Please make your way through the tunnel to the dessert lounge.’ The voice over the speakers said, reassuringly.
Dessert lounge? What fresh hell would that be?
Like a herd of cattle, the already overfed eaters began to lurch to their feet and shuffle toward the tunnel.
‘Stop, stop! Don’t go that way!’ Khaos waved her arms, trying to get their attention. She may as well have been trying to stop an avalanche; the eaters continued toward their desire, oblivious or perhaps just uninterested in her cries. ‘Stop! Now! Don’t go in there! You will never come back, don’t you see?’
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