‘I thought you would enjoy it.’
‘Oh yes, loving it. My footnotes on the burned corpses make excellent bedtime stories.’
‘Joking aside, I know you enjoy a good puzzle. I’ve never seen you smile more than when you’ve put away a really bad crim. You love a challenge.’
‘Well, I must admit, this one… It’s an onion, put it that way.’
‘Layers?’
‘So many. Yet it doesn’t seem to be getting smaller.’
‘It will.’ He smiled, then his forehead creased with concern. ‘I’m not working you too hard am I? You know I worry.’
‘Of course not.’
‘Promise me that you will sleep sometimes, and perhaps, take a lunch break? Just a small one.’
‘I promise.’
‘Good.’ They turned the corner to Heel’s office. ‘Oh, Detective, before I forget, you need to check the Manchester database. There’s has been an incident you might be interested in.’
‘What have they got?’
‘They logged a report on April fifteenth.’
‘Fifteenth? That’s the day before Begby was killed…’
‘Check it out. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it, actually.’
‘Murder?’
‘Of course.’
‘Victim burned to death?’
‘You bet. Enjoy.’ He patted her shoulder encouragingly.
They arrived at a yet another unknown land, the flying horse thudded onto the new earth softly. Khaos dismounted and surveyed the landscape she now found herself in; a desolate, cold gray desert with nothing but sand and rock and a persistent mist to break up the endless nothingness.
‘Where are we?’ Khaos whispered.
‘We are in the realm between human reality and the underworld; the in-between world of dead-time.’
‘It’s so quiet.’
‘That is because you are the only one here. No mortal can come here. Even immortals cannot navigate the stars to find this place. Only Nyx, who commands the sky, knows the way.’
‘Great. So why are we here?’
‘We need to find the moment in time when the demon Envy manifests in human form.’
‘Did we not just see that with those two brothers back there?’
‘No, that was merely the first time envy was present in the world, his birth, if you like. And envy has been present a millennia of times since then, in various strengths. But only once, in the entire span of human existence, does he ever get so powerful that he can possess a human completely. At this point he will be at his most influential to mortals. And at his weakest to your powers – for by possessing a human, he takes on their human mortality.’
‘Do you mean he can be killed?’
‘You cannot kill his spirit, but once the human he has possessed has been killed, his spirit can be captured, as it is at this point he is in his weakest form.’
‘So how do we find him?’
‘We must search through time for the right moment – past, present and future.’
‘But where?’ said Khaos, casting around her. ‘There is nothing here but sand and rocks.’
‘To your untrained eye maybe. Look above you.’ Khaos obeyed, looking up into a surprisingly clear sky. All the stars were out, Orion, the plough, the bear, Venus and Mars, and several million others that Khaos did not recognise. As she stared up there, she realised that the stars she was looking at were not mere balls of burning gas, but points in time that she could gaze through like looking through a photo album. Her eyes cast over historic events of the past millennia, browsing through the past, present and future of the human world; the fall of man, the building of the pyramids, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the rise and fall of nations and powerful men, natural disaster, death. Birth.
‘Wow,’ exclaimed Khaos, her breath taken away.
‘Outside of the universe, time is visible, like wisps of cold breath whispering by. On earth, mankind is so caught up in trying to save time, running around like ants in an anthill. Mortality prevents humans from seeing the time swirling around them, prevents them from seeing their destiny mapped out in front of them, for outside of the universe it is possible to see everything that has happened and everything that is happening right now and everything that will happen to any one person. To someone who is immortal, above the system of birth and death, it is easy to walk through time, go back and forth from beginning to end, to look through time and pinpoint exact moments in history, find people, places, events.’
‘It’s like flicking through a magazine,’ said Khaos , overwhelmed.
‘Indeed. Now we must look for the demon Envy – scroll through the moments he has been present, we should know it when we see it.’
They stared up to the stars, and focused on Cain killing Abel, the first instance of envy in the world. Thousands of instances flowed from that moment; an ancient king jealous of a servant boy’s harp playing, Envy was there, whispering suggestions of death in his ear. A wife, envying her husband’s other wife for her fertility. Twelve brothers, but one is favoured more by their father so the brothers turn against him, beating him to within an inch of his life. Jesus himself, envied by the priests of his time for his abilities to heal, and for the people who loved him. And every instance of envy undocumented by mankind; men envying other men’s wives, competition for jobs, a group of friends jealous of the most successful, the most beautiful: at all time Envy was there, whispering sweet words of destruction: ‘if you can’t have her, no one should.’ It seemed that whenver someone did well, or was favoured more highly than others, or was loved, there was contempt for their success from those around them. As Khaos scrolled through the ages, she could see that envy got more and more ingrained in the minds of man, it was almost an integral part of human thought.
‘Can you see how Envy has evolved over the years? He has gotten good at getting inside people’s heads. All he needs is the invitation, the slightest of weaknesses in the mind of one human, and he’s there. Mortals think envious thoughts so easily they presume it is natural to them,’ said the voice, echoing Khaos’ own thoughts. They continued looking; an aged film star, famed for her beauty, hating her daughter for her looks and success. Countless ordinary people, envying the fame of others. A millionaire suffering the envy of all her so called friends, using her for her money and all the while hating her for her good luck.
Then finally, they saw something darker than all the rest. Two sisters, wealthy, successful, but the elder was jealous of the younger for her beauty and natural charm. She was blind to her own success or good looks, and could only focus, with burning resentment, on her sister’s luck in love and the ease with which she got through life. She was so jealous, that she wanted to kill her…
‘This is it. This is the moment that Envy manifests. We must move! Quickly!’
Khaos rushed to obey, but as she rushed to Nyx’s side to mount up, she thought she saw a movement among a pile of rocks on her left. She turned to look, and was sure she saw the tail and back legs of some sort of animal, possibly a cat, disappear behind of one of the larger rocks.
‘What was that?’
‘Master? What is wrong?’ murmured Nyx.
‘I thought I saw… something.’ She stared at the rock, but there was no further movement. She remembered what the voice had said about her being alone here, and reassured herself that her eyes had tricked her. She mounted Nyx and the three of them set off into the point in time where they would find the two sisters.
A moment later, a white cat appeared from behind the rock, and nonchalantly licked its paws.
Dawn was just beginning to break on a sprawling city that never slept. In a deserted alleyway behind a large department store, four heavy hoofed feet clopped down, almost throwing the rider from her seat. Huge, feathered wings folded and flurried around what seemed to be a huge black horse, but it really was too huge to be real. The rider that disembarked wore nothing but ancient armour, discoloured metal panels all over with
rough leather lining. Slung over her back was a long, copper coloured sword that flickered every so often with a blue flame.
‘Why are we here?’ Khaos said out loud. ‘Where are the sisters?’
‘Nyx can only bring us within a few miles of our targets. We have to try to find the sisters ourselves.’ The voice replied in her head. ‘Let me look.’ Khaos felt that intense headache again, and covered her eyes with her hands. When she re-opened them, there was the grey world. They scoured the land, passing many mortal souls, their grey shadows almost blending in to the non-descript background. After only a moment though, it felt as though needles were being forced into her eyeballs, and she squeezed them shut, the pain unbearable.
‘Your pathetic human soul is fighting me! It won’t let me look!’ screamed the voice.
Khaos cried out and lurched forward, as the pain doubled. Her whole body shook, and she clutched at her head as if it was going to explode. ‘Please stop. Please stop.’ She begged, trying to stop the hammering behind her eyes. When she opened them, she found she could not focus, and felt that she was spinning.
Finally, her frail human mind could take no more, and the sky darkened as the pavement came up to meet her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
A man, on his knees, his face distorted, burnt and scarred as if he had survived an explosion. He was laughing. No, he’s shouting. Screaming. His hands fly to his face and something strange happens; small cracks appear all over his skin as if he were a statue, crumbling. His skin turns a dark brown, like earth. He opens his mouth and spews up – well, it looks like hair. Or string. Or grass. Grass. It’s actually grass, coming out of his mouth and nose. He screams again, but it’s as if the vision is on mute, Khaos cannot hear anything. Then he explodes, as if he were nothing more than a pile of dry dirt. Clods of earth and dust shower everywhere.
This grey vision fades, and others come to her in quick succession, only this time in vivid colour. Khaos was curled up, sobbing, and those cool, papery hands were stroking her hair, reassuring her. But she couldn’t stop the sobbing, and could not quell this intense feeling of hopelessness. This was a memory, she was sure.
Then before her was the woman on the bed, looking at the unknown piece of paper. This time she was crying. She stared hard at the hands, wondering if they were the same hands that reassured her in the memory before. They looked a little wrinkled. Again, there was this feeling of guilt, the emotion was similar to the feeling she had experienced previously, but this time it was laced with a layer of dread as well as guilt. Was this woman her mother?
As fleetingly as the memory arrived, it departed, and another fluttered over her consciousness. Hands were on her, at least ten pairs, laid gently on her head and shoulders. They surrounded her, there was no escape, and the rows of arms formed a dense wall that she couldn’t see past. She could hear a muffled drone, though, perhaps voices all talking at once, but she couldn’t see any of the faces that these arms belonged to.
Then suddenly the vision changed. There was only one arm in front of her, its hand on the neck of a boy, choking him. It was the face of the boy she had seen in a previous dream. He pleaded again for his life. Was it her hand on his throat?
The world swam back into focus, and Khaos found herself lying on her back, staring up at a brick wall. She shuddered at the recollection of her nightmares. Why did such vivid images plague her so? They couldn’t all be memories, could they? Perhaps she was just disturbed, and her head was full of nonsense. But, surely they couldn’t all be just bad dreams… Could they?
It could be no more than an hour or so since she had passed out, as it was still very early in the morning. She also had the distinct feeling that she was alone in her head. The voice must be subdued somehow, at least for now. The black horse’s muzzle was inches from her face and was snuffling her moistly. She sat up, clutching her head, and saw that they were still in the alleyway behind a department store.
‘Are you ok?’ said the horse.
‘I’m fine, I just blacked out for a minute. It’s the spirit, my body aches every time he even speaks to me. I can’t handle this power!’
‘You have barely begun to try. Don’t worry, you will learn to overcome your human feelings.’
‘Thanks for the encouragement!’ she moaned, massaging her temples. ‘Where is the spirit voice anyway? I can’t hear him.’
‘Your human Subconcious has subdued him.’
‘Great. Now what?’
‘Do not worry, he will find a way back. For now, we must press on. First, you need a disguise.’
‘You think this Stone Age armour is a bit much, do you?’
‘You look too conspicuous. You need clothes,’ replied the horse.
‘Well, can I ditch the armour then? I look ridiculous.’
‘Trust us, you will need it. You are not ready to fight demons without protection.’
‘But I thought I had all this power?’
‘Yes, but you don’t know how to harness it yet. Until you remember, or let the spirit take control, you are a mere pathetic human, who has no idea how to fight.’
‘Oh thanks! So glad that you have so much faith in me!’
‘It was not meant as an insult, it is the truth. I forget your human emotions sometimes,’ the horse sighed.
‘So if I need clothes, how am I supposed to get in? It must be three or four in the morning…’
‘Khaos does not wait for opening times.’
‘But how am I supposed to get in?’
‘Nothing is a barrier to Khaos.’
‘So are you suggesting I break in? Is stealing not a sin then?’
‘Needs must. You can return them when we are finished in this time, if that makes you feel better.’
‘I don’t even know the first thing about breaking and entering,’ said Khaos hopelessly, touching the solid brick wall of the building. ‘I can’t blast through the wall, can I?’
‘Not yet. But try the sword.’
‘Can a sword cut through a wall?’
‘This one can. Draw it, it will know what to do.’
Unconvinced, Khaos drew the sword, the flame burning red as she clasped the hilt with both hands. Expecting the sword to blunt on contact, she swung it inexpertly at the solid wall in front of her. In the moments that followed, the sword seemed to take on a life of its own, and in a blur of movement and with a crunch of metal against stone, the sword sliced effortlessly into the wall. To Khaos’s astonishment, a six foot arch of masonry fell forward into the room within.
Staring at the sword in wonder, Khaos entered the building, into a dark and dusty storeroom filled to the ceiling with large boxes, and blessedly empty of any possible witnesses. Using the sword, she sliced easily through the top of one of the boxes, though in doing so she accidentally damaged the contents. She slung the sword over her back and rummaged through the melted plastic and polyester until she finally came across some undamaged stock: a sealed, individually-wrapped men’s suit. Destruction of another box revealed a white shirt and tie combo. The metal clad armoured boots would have to remain, as she could not find any boxes containing shoes.
After hurriedly shoving the clothes on, and pulling the belt as tight as it would go, Khaos left the dusty room through the new exit she had cut, muttering to herself about the ill fitting stolen clothes.
Outside, the alleyway was empty, but a honking horn from the end of the street heralded her transport; Nyx, now incognito as a traditional London black cab, complete with driverThe passenger door open and waiting for her.
‘Could we not have broken into somewhere a bit more fashionable? I look ridiculous in this!’
‘Clothes are clothes, aren’t they?’Khaos was surprised to see that when the driver opened his mouth, Nyx’s voice replied to her.
‘These are men’s clothes! I hardly look inconspicuous in this!’ She held up the sleeves of the suit, which were much longer than her arms.
‘Well I think you look fine. We don’t have time to stop a
nywhere else now.’ Khaos noticed that though the top half of the cab driver looked real, his left hand was fused to the gearstick, and his legs merged into the foot well of the driver’s seat, as if he were an integral part of the car, which, she supposed, technically he was. There was something more than a bit strange about sitting inside Nyx, but after a while it began to feel normal. It was hardly the weirdest thing that she had experienced that day.
‘What’s the hurry? I thought I was a time traveller. Surely I can never run out of time.’
‘When you are a time traveller, it does not mean that the flow of life is easy for you. There are more possibilities to worry about, things are changing all the time in different parts of the future, and demons are constantly moving. You must always be in a hurry, for if you rest, you let apathy set in.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘You will understand when you try to capture your first demon.’
‘Difficult, is it?’
‘Let’s just say, they don’t stay still and let you destroy them. For now, let’s just focus on finding this one. You will have to be on guard at all times.’
‘Where is this demon Envy now?’ She found that even saying its name made her skin crawl.
‘That’s what we need to find out. Normally, you would be able to look through the spirit’s eyes and you would have easily found its trail. But he is not with us just now, and in any case, we can’t risk you wasting more time fainting again, so we will have to do it the long way round. You will have to keep your senses alert for any signs of it. We’re stopping here.’
The cab stopped abruptly in front of a train station, much to the rage of the drivers behind. Standing by the roadside was a man in an anorak carrying a load of papers under one arm, the other extended to passers-by, offering them a paper.
‘Get one,’ said the fake cabby.
‘A free paper? What use will that be?’
‘We need news.’
A little bemused, Khaos ducked out of the cab briefly, grabbed a paper from the anoraked man’s outstretched hand, and jumped back in, slamming the door behind her. The cab pulled away again, and Khaos browsed the thin and flimsy newspaper idly, not sure what she was meant to be looking for. ‘Is Envy interested in local news, then?’
Khaos Page 5
