He had no idea that the vortex had already grown tired of waiting.
16/ Places You Can't Go Back To
Fuyuko stood waiting for Gwynn at the corner of the school grounds. She gave an angry look at her watch.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry.” Gwynn huffed. He’d run all the way.
“He should still be inside. Come on.”
Gwynn scanned the grounds for any teachers or students who might notice him.
“You know I’m not supposed to be on school grounds during my suspension, right?”
Fuyuko shrugged. “This is more important.”
Gwynn followed Fuyuko into the school. Even though classes had ended just thirty minutes earlier, the halls were deserted.
“So who are we meeting?”
Fuyuko sighed. In that single gesture, Gwynn understood. She would not answer all his questions. Instead, she would take him to someone who could stomach the torrent of quandaries Gwynn had. She’s from Suture. He felt no doubt.
“We’re meeting someone who’s better equipped to answer your questions.”
There it was.
Gwynn followed her through the school. He found it odd how two days had passed, yet this place seemed like a relic from another lifetime. He’d never been comfortable here, but now he felt removed, above it. Why had he ever worried about the petty politics and social maneuvering? A world existed with things none of them had even begun to understand. But he had started to. He’d become a part of it. Not just that one, large world, but millions of worlds. A multitude of universes, opening wide for him to explore and draw strength from. This place was beneath him.
They came to an office door. Fuyuko knocked and waited. Gwynn stole a glance at the nameplate on the door.
“Mr. Baker? We’re here to see my English teacher?”
“He’s much more than that.” She said with a wink.
Fuyuko knocked again. After waiting another minute, she eased her ear toward the door. Her eyes and nose crinkled into an expression of puzzlement and she opened the door.
The office was empty.
Not just empty, deserted.
Fuyuko went behind the desk and started opening drawers. She moved from drawer to drawer, getting more flustered with each failure to find anything.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice filled with anxiety. “I just spoke to him. I was sure that’s why he was here. There…there’s nothing left. He hasn’t even left his teaching notes. Other than the name, it’s like he’s erased himself.” She spoke the last bit in an ever–quieting voice. Terror crossed her face. “No. Oh no.”
Someone cleared their throat behind Gwynn. He turned and found the principal, Mr. Davis, standing behind him.
“Students should not be in a teacher’s office unsupervised.” Mr. Davis said. Then he clamped his hand on Gwynn’s shoulder. “Especially students who are suspended.”
Mr. Davis’ voice started to change. It filled with the sounds of breaking stones and the finish of his sentence ended in a guttural growl. Gwynn stood transfixed. The man he had known changed. The skin in Mr. Davis’ shoulders bubbled and expanded. His face elongated and his teeth became jagged and too large for his mouth. The grip on Gwynn’s shoulder increased in pressure.
Gwynn grimaced in pain, much more and he expected his shoulder would snap. Still, he couldn’t break his gaze from the horror happening in front of him.
“Gwynn.” Fuyuko yelled.
The sound of her voice snapped his senses back into place. He struggled against Mr. Davis’ grip. The thing that used to be Mr. Davis did the closest thing to a smile that its disfigured mouth would allow.
Fuyuko’s feet smashed into the thing’s face. It released its grip on Gwynn and fell backward. Fuyuko rolled away and got back on her feet next to Gwynn.
“Move.” She yelled and she shoved him out the door.
Behind them, the monster howled. Gwynn thought if its mouth and teeth weren’t so deformed, it might have been screaming obscenities.
Gwynn and Fuyuko made it a few steps when the world exploded in a hail of concrete. The two fell to the floor and covered their heads as rubble fell on them.
Gwynn twisted to see the creature hulking out of Mr. Baker’s office. Its eyes were red and murderous.
Fuyuko scrambled through the dust and debris. Gwynn followed her lead.
They ran at full pace, twisting around hall corners.
“Tell me again why we don’t fight him?” Gwynn asked.
“Too close. We need more space.”
Behind them, the sound of smashing concrete and savage roars signaled the creature’s pursuit.
Gwynn tried to lay out a map of the school in his head. He plotted the exits, the nearby rooms. Space, they needed space… He turned to Fuyuko. She had the same idea.
“Cafeteria.” Gwynn said.
“Yes.”
The cafeteria lay at the end of the hall. To get outside would require a few more halls. Not to mention letting the creature outside could prove a disaster.
The air sizzled. Fuyuko had torn into the Veil and drawn her spear. He tried to do the same, but stumbled and failed to produce any result.
“Problem?” Fuyuko asked.
How did he tell her he had never torn the Veil while moving before?
“Just give me a minute.” Gwynn said.
He slammed into the doors of the cafeteria and burst into the large room that doubled as an auditorium space. A few kids surrounded a table playing cards.
“Get out of here.” Gwynn yelled.
“Fuck off.” One of them said while the others snickered.
Gwynn tore into the Veil. The energy gushed through his system. If he had been fatigued from running, he didn’t feel it any longer. His muscles tightened and rippled. He spun and pounded his fist into the closest table. A shower of wood shards filled the air.
“I said, get out.” He bellowed in a voice that he didn’t recognize.
The kids scattered.
I’ll never be able to come back here again. He realized that didn’t matter anymore.
From the other side of the cafeteria doors came the sound of oncoming destruction.
“You’ll need your weapon.” Fuyuko said.
Gwynn plunged his arm into the Veil once more. Despite trying to picture the sword he held the night before, the Veil refused to heed his call.
The cafeteria door buckled.
“It’s not coming.” Gwynn tried to keep the rising panic from his voice.
Fuyuko’s eyes probed him. “Call out to it.”
“What?” Why couldn’t she say something straight forward? Did she miss the threat of a huge monster about to pulverize them?
“Try tearing the Veil and call out to Xanthe.”
Gwynn meant to question her, but the doors burst open, revealing the hulking mass of death beyond.
He tore the Veil again. Xanthe.
Dark mist snaked around and out from his hand. It took shape and gained mass. It took seconds, maybe less, for him to hold the sword again.
The thing that had been Mr. Davis lumbered into the cafeteria. Its shoulders were broad and high, with its head hung low. In shape and posture, it resembled a fur–less gorilla. It bellowed and seized one of the tattered metal doors. The creature tore the door free of the last of its hinges and tossed it at Fuyuko. She didn’t flinch. Instead, she dropped low to the ground, allowing the door to sail above her. The door had just cleared her head and she was back on her feet, charging at the creature. It swung at her and she jumped toward the wall. She propelled from the wall back toward the beast, catching it across the eyes with her heel. Her momentum carried her past the monster. She landed on her feet and swept her spear forward, striking the beast low on the legs and tripping it backward. Gwynn rushed forward, bring his sword down against the monster’s chest.
Too slow.
The thing swept its massive hand forward and crashed it against Gwynn’s midsection. He huffed as some
thing in his side gave. He slammed hard into the wall and crumpled on the floor.
The beast regained its footing. It moved with a speed that seemed impossible given its size. Gwynn caught sight of its clawed hand crashing toward him and rolled away. A searing pain erupted in his side. He scrambled to his feet. His coat hung in tatters and warm, slick blood ran down his side.
Fuyuko jumped on the creature’s shoulders, trying to stab it in the head with her spear. It swatted her aside like an annoying bug and returned its attention to Gwynn. It charged forward, a murderous bellow erupting from its mouth.
Take to the air. Did he think it, or did someone say it to him?
As the beast bore down on him, Gwynn followed the suggestion and leaped into the air, spinning as he did so. The beast passed under him, just as his sword came crashing down on its skull. The black blade passed straight through without effort.
The monster’s momentum carried it forward and it crashed with a sickening thud against the wall.
Gwynn landed on his feet, but a wave of weakness swept through him and he fell to his knees. Fuyuko limped up to him.
“Are you all right?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” Something was broken and his side still oozed blood.
Gwynn closed his eyes and let the sword disperse back to the Veil. Then he tore into it and drew its power into him. The warmth rushed from his arm and coursed through his entire body. The flow of energy swept him along with it, feeling each of his organs. He followed the flow of his own blood, passing through his beating heart out to the extremities of his body. Gwynn sensed the broken rib and wounds. He moved with the energy of the Veil, surged them into the damaged areas of his body. He envisioned the energy as a thick substance that acted like a form of cement, sealing the breaks in his rib and plugging the holes in his flesh.
“Gwynn.” Fuyuko yelled and shook him.
Gwynn snapped his eyes open, the disconnect from his body sudden and jarring. His head swam like he’d stood up too fast.
“Stop the flow, Gwynn. You’re drawing too much.”
The meaning of her words got lost in a haze. The continued rush of warmth from the Veil made him aware he had yet to sever the connection. He composed himself, shook his head clear, which rewarded him with a stabbing pain, and closed the Veil. He hazarded a deep breath and felt content to find no sign of pain. Gwynn ran his hand along his side. There was still the blood that had spilled already, but no sign of any injury. He grinned.
“Idiot.” Fuyuko punched his shoulder. Hard. “You could’ve gotten Veil drunk and then what good would you be?”
Gwynn started to protest, but Fuyuko grabbed his shoulder.
“We need to go.” She said.
She looked over his shoulder. He turned in that direction as well, but Fuyuko stopped him.
“Just trust me. We need to go.” Her voice softened. “And you don’t need to see.”
Numbness made his limbs heavy, but he got to his feet and followed Fuyuko back through the ruined cafeteria doors. They wound their way through the debris of the monster’s onslaught until they reached another hall that branched off and would take them to the outside doors.
“I killed him, didn’t I?” Gwynn tasted bile.
“You protected yourself.”
Gwynn shook. What kind of monster had he become?
“I just don’t get it.” Fuyuko said. “I don’t feel a tear nearby. How would he have gotten enough of a dose to change like that?”
Terror swept through Gwynn as he recalled Pridament’s words; Horrors of Biblical proportions.
“It’s the vortex.” He said.
“The what?”
Gwynn told Fuyuko what he knew, which sounded like very little. It was enough to shake her.
“That should mean a full deployment.” Fuyuko cried. “There’s no way I should be here alone. And now Justinian’s screwed off somewhere? What the hell is going on?”
“Wait. You’re here alone? There aren’t more of you Suture people?” Gwynn asked.
“No, it’s just me.” She stopped and gripped his shoulder. Thankfully, not as hard as the monster had. “Wait, how do you know about Suture?”
They moved away from the school and took shelter in a walkway.
“I’ll explain later. Do you have a cell phone?”
Fuyuko handed him her phone. Gwynn rooted in his pockets and found Pridament’s crumpled card. Another of Life’s ironies—remember the card but not his own cell phone. He dialed the numbers and waited.
“Hello?” Pridament answered on the other side.
“It’s Gwynn. It’s happening. We can’t wait anymore. Can you pick me up?”
Gwynn told Pridament where to meet them and hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” Fuyuko asked.
“The man I told you about; the one that’s been helping me.”
“Who is he?”
“His name’s Pridament.” Gwynn said.
Fuyuko tore into the Veil and drew her spear.
Gwynn held up his hands. “What’s that for?”
Fuyuko grit her teeth. “Pridament is one of the Fallen.”
17/ Questions of Trust
Gwynn looked to the end of the walkway in response to the high–pitched screeching of tires.
“Gwynn, what the hell—” Pridament said as he exited his car.
From the corner of his eye, Gwynn detected movement. He didn’t think, just reacted. His hand shot out and grabbed Fuyuko’s leg. He swung her down against the ground. The wind escaped her in a huff and her spear fell from her hands. Gwynn tore into the Veil.
Xanthe.
The sword heeded his call and before she could react, he had the tip pointed at her throat.
Fuyuko’s eyes burned with hatred. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“No. I have no idea. Every time I turn around someone isn’t what they say they are. Every time I think I have a handle on this, something changes. Everyone just needs to stop and be straight with me.” Gwynn shot a brief glance at Pridament; he wanted the old man to know he meant him as well.
“Can I let you up, or are you going to try and kill Pridament again?”
Fuyuko just stared.
“Stand down, Gwynn.” Pridament said. “I can take care of myself if she chooses to attack me.”
Gwynn stepped back and let Xanthe flow back into the Veil. Fuyuko made no attempt to move.
“Do you know why she was trying to kill you?” Gwynn asked.
Pridament stood motionless. Gwynn couldn’t read anything in the man’s expression. A deep breath and sigh broke the statue–like stance.
“Because I used to be a member of the Fallen.”
“Was? No one leaves the Fallen.” Fuyuko got to her feet.
“It’s true, not many leave. The people who join them now believe in their cause to the point of fanaticism.” Pridament’s voice grew quieter, “It wasn’t like that in the beginning.”
“And you’re different?” Every word from Fuyuko’s mouth dripped venom.
The sound of sirens flying past drowned them.
Pridament glared at Fuyuko. “I joined the Fallen for my own reasons. When I realized what they were truly doing, I left.”
“Too convenient.”
Anxiety rose like acid from his gut. “Really, I don’t give a shit. He’s saved my life and so have you. Right now, you stand about even in my books. What’s more important is the fact my fucking principal just turned into a monster and tore my school up.”
“What?”
Gwynn gave Pridament a brief version of the events since they had last been together. “It’s happening, isn’t it?”
Pridament was grim. “It sounds like it.” He then said to Fuyuko. “You’re from Suture?”
“Yes.” She grumbled.
“So there’s a team in place to stop this?”
A tremble passed up her spine. She remained silent, refusing to meet Pridament’s eyes.
“I guess not
.” Pridament said. “I don’t understand.”
“What’s there to understand? She’s alone. Suture is busy or doesn’t give a shit. So either we stop this, or we’re all dead.”
“Are you up to this?” Pridament asked Gwynn.
How did Gwynn answer? No, he wasn’t ready. He had powers he didn’t understand, let alone know how to use. But if Pridament had told him the truth, if Pridament could even be trusted, only Gwynn could close the vortex.
“There’s no other option.” Gwynn said.
Gwynn turned to Fuyuko. “We could use your help.”
Fuyuko looked beyond Gwynn to Pridament. She calculated and weighed her options. She turned her head and refused to meet Gwynn’s eyes any further.
“Fine.” Gwynn moved toward Pridament. “Let’s get moving.”
§
They sped down Dixie. Through Pridament’s coaching, Gwynn studied the vortex above and spotted two tendrils extending down from it.
“Those will be the two tears feeding it. We close those, we close the vortex.” Pridament said.
They were heading toward the first one now.
“I need your phone.” Gwynn said.
“Who are you calling?”
“Jaimie.”
With each passing ring, the knots in Gwynn’s stomach tightened. If Jaimie had left work already, it meant she wouldn’t pick up again until she got home. One ring, then a second, then a third, Gwynn’s finger hovered above the disconnect button when Jaimie’s voice answered.
“Jaimie, it’s Gwynn. Where are you?”
“Just about to leave work. Sorry, I was running late.”
The knot in his chest lessened. “No, that’s a good thing. Jaimie, you can’t come home.”
After a long pause, she asked, “Why? What’s happening Gwynn?”
“I don’t know how much Pridament told you, but trust me; it’s safer if you stay away for a day or two.”
“But—”
“Please.” Gwynn’s voice verged on a sob. “If you’ve ever trusted me, if you love me even half as much as I love you, please, you need to stay away.”
“Gwynn, you’re scaring me.”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.” Gwynn stung. He wanted to believe everything, including himself, would be all right. Saying it aloud felt like a lie. “There’s something Pridament and I have to do. It would just be a lot easier if I knew you weren’t in town.”
Harbinger (The Bleeding Worlds) Page 14
