by Tim O'Rourke
Isidor looked at me, and leaning forward on the bench, he said, “You mean Melody might be here? Just because she’s dead in the other world, it doesn’t mean that she is dead here.”
“This world has been pushed,” Kayla gasped. “That’s what she was trying to say when she wrote that word across the back of the picture!”
I listened to what Kayla had said, and I thought of my own dad. He was dead in the other world – but what about here? He could still be alive! I looked at Potter and our eyes fixed on one another’s momentarily.
As if knowing what I was thinking, he looked at me and said, “Don’t go getting any funny ideas, Kiera.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked him.
“All I’m trying to say is, don’t give Isidor false hope,” he said, lighting up a cigarette. “Just because that girl died before the world got pushed, it doesn’t mean that she is alive here.”
“But what about my dad...” I started.
“Don’t go there, Kiera,” he cut over me. “You’ll only get hurt.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked him with a frown.
“I’m not sure about anything, but we haven’t come back to go waking the dead,” he said, and sucked on the end of his cigarette.
“But he might not be dead...”
Again Potter spoke over me and said, “Look, we don’t know anything for sure and raising ghosts isn’t what I call a good idea.”
I looked at Potter and I got a feeling that perhaps he knew more about this world, which had been pushed, than he was telling me.
“What I want to know is,” Kayla piped up, “how did the photograph end up in that grate if it came from this world which has been pushed?”
“How should I freaking know?” Potter shrugged, blowing out a mouthful of smoke.
“Pictures, postcards and stuff like that shouldn’t be able to slip between the two different worlds, should they?” she asked him.
Potter paused for a moment, as if he had been slapped across the face. Then, recovering quickly, he barked, “Why are you asking me? I don’t know every goddamn thing.”
Again, I got that sinking feeling that he was keeping something from us.
But before I’d the chance to question him further, Potter turned on Isidor and said, “So, you sure you didn’t see Melody again?”
“No,” Isidor insisted. “After what happened to Melody, I spent most of my time on my own. I felt utterly lost without her being around. I looked at the picture constantly, and in my heart I knew that one day we would meet each other again. We had to – we were in the picture together. I just didn’t know where or when that would be. A couple of years later, I was about sixteen, I went back to the lake and the bushes where we had our camp. To my surprise, I found one of the old eyeliners that Melody had stolen from the shop, and the comic she had first brought me. They were hidden in the camp beneath some dry leaves and twigs. But it wasn’t the same without Melody. I would wait for hours, sometimes days hoping she would come back, just like the photograph suggested she would. Eventually, it became too painful to go there.
“I returned to The Hollows, where I would lie on my bed writing stories and rereading that comic she had given to me. But in my heart, I just couldn’t stop wondering where Melody was or what she was doing. I just hoped she was happy. I only went back to look for Melody once more, and that time, I went to the house where she had lived with her mum.
“The windows were all boarded over. The front garden was overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. The house looked derelict and abandoned. I wanted to know what had happened, so I returned to the library and checked the local newspapers. I didn’t have to look for very long, as I soon came across an article about a local woman who had hung herself in a chapel constructed in the basement of her house. There was other stuff written about her but I didn’t need to read it. I knew she had sacrificed herself in search of the redemption she hoped to find. Did I feel bad about what had happened to her? No more than she felt bad about punishing her daughter in that chapel,” Isidor said.
“But what about that word Pushed?” I asked again. “How did she know about that?”
Before anyone had a chance to even consider the answer to my question, Kayla had placed a finger over her lips and said, “Shhh!”
We all watched as she went to the window and peered out.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“I can hear them coming,” she said, staring out into the dark.
“Hear who?” Potter asked.
“Those Berserkers, and there’s a lot of them,” she said, turning to look at us, her eyes wide.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kiera
I could only hear the wind howling through the nearby valleys and over the hills. My hearing wasn’t as sensitive as Kayla’s, but I had no reason to doubt her. I raced across the waiting room, and easing her to one side, I peered out into the darkness.
With the hairs prickling at the base of my neck, I could see a mass of dark shadows as they poured into the valley like liquid black. They moved fast, like a huge wave cascading over the hills and flooding the valley that the station sat in.
“We’re in trouble,” I breathed, turning away from the window and looking at the others.
“What kinda trouble?” Potter asked, his fangs, claws, and wings already out. He stood in the pale light of the waiting room, like a winged demon, his claws so big that the ivory nails swung below his knees. His eyes had turned so black that I could no longer see the pupils.
“There are lots of them, and they’re heading this way - and fast,” I told him, releasing my own claws, wings, and fangs. My wings hummed on either side of me, those bony black fingers snatching at the air.
“What’s that?” Kayla suddenly asked, going back to the window, her wings shimmering as if sprayed with glitter.
“What’s what?” Potter snapped, the tension in the waiting room rising.
Tilting her head to one side, Kayla looked back at us and said, “I can hear a train coming.”
“How far away is it?” I asked, peering over her shoulder and into the night.
“It’s closer than those berserkers are,” Kayla whispered, her eyes wide and full of fear.
Potter went to the door, opened it, and stepped out onto the platform. A gust of wind howled into the waiting room, blowing Kayla’s red hair back from her face like an explosion of flames.
“The train is close, but so are those berserkers,” Potter barked as he raced back into the waiting room. “Which of them gets here first is anyone’s guess, but let’s be ready. Wake the wolf-boy, Kayla.”
I looked across the waiting room at Isidor. He sat on the bench, his head low and crossbow placed across his lap. “Isidor?” I said, surprised that he wasn’t standing with his wings out and crossbow at the ready. “Isidor, the Berserkers are coming. We’ve got to get out of here, and quick,” I said, hoping this would stir him.
Then, raising his head to look at me, he said, “Kiera, I’m not coming with you.”
“Listen, kid, we don’t have time to fuck about,” Potter said, glancing at him, but keeping one eye on the door. “Get your shit together, we’re moving out.”
“I’m not coming,” Isidor said again.
The wind roared outside, and rattled the windows in their frames. A rumble of thunder boomed so loud in the distance that the waiting room shook in its foundations.
“Come on, Isidor,” I pushed, “the storm is getting worse. We’ve got to go.”
“That wasn’t the sound of the storm you just heard,” Kayla gasped, “that was the Berserkers you could hear.”
I snapped my head around and looked through the open doorway. With my eyes like two narrow slits, I peered into the distance and could now see the Berserkers racing through the valley towards the station. Their howling and snarling was like a monstrous chorus, as all of them charged towards us. Knowing that we had just minutes to make our escape, I looked left and could see the headlight o
f a train heading out of the night towards us.
I turned to look at Isidor, who was still seated. With very little time to waste, I darted towards him and took hold of his wrist in my claws. “Get up,” I snapped at him. “You’re coming with us.”
“I’m staying,” he said softly as he looked into my eyes.
“Say what?” Kayla gasped, as if she had only just realised that Isidor was being serious. “You can’t stay. There are so many of those Berserkers...”
“You go,” Isidor smiled kindly at his sister. “I’ll stay and draw them away so you can escape.”
“No!” Kayla snapped, trying to yank him off the bench.
“Please, Kayla,” Isidor said. “I want to do this.”
“I don’t want you to,” Kayla cried, and I could see tears beginning to stand in her eyes. “I’m not leaving without you.”
With an uncharacteristic look of concern on his face, Potter came forward, and moving Kayla aside, he looked down at Isidor and said, “Are you for fucking real?”
“I want to stay,” Isidor said, looking back at him.
“Why?” Potter asked his voice now full of concern.
“You don’t need me,” Isidor explained. “You’ve got Kiera and Kiera has you. Kayla has Sam. Who do I have?”
“You have your friends,” Potter said, holding out his hand for Isidor to take.
“It’s not enough,” Isidor said over the sound of the approaching Berserkers. “I’m tired.”
“Tired of what?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing.
“Tired of having no real place in the team,” Isidor said. “I don’t bring anything to the party. I never solve the mystery – I just provide the laughs – I’m Shaggy-Doo.”
Potter stared at Isidor, then flashing his fangs; he gripped Isidor by his arm and dragged him from his seat. “Like it or not, Isidor, you’re coming with us. I’m not leaving here without you.”
With a wild snarl like I had never heard come from Isidor before, he pushed Potter off him and drew his crossbow. Aiming it at Potter, he hissed, “I’m not coming! Now go – all of you!”
“Isidor, please!” Kayla cried out, throwing herself at him. With her arms wrapped about his waist, she began to sob. “Please come with us. You’re my brother. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Isidor whispered, tears spilling onto his cheeks. “But that’s why I’m staying. I don’t want to run anymore. I’ll draw the Berserkers’ attention so you can get away.”
“But they’ll kill you,” she sobbed, holding him tighter.
“I’m already dead,” he whispered back. “I have been, since Melody was taken from me that day. I hoped that I would find something to fill the hole that she left inside of me – but I never have. Let me just do this one thing for the team. I’ll catch you up – I promise.”
“No, that’s not true,” she cried against him.
“Go, Kayla,” he said, easing her gently off him. “Save your friend Sam. Get him to the Fountain of Souls. You have him now; aren’t I entitled to have a special friend, too?”
As if knowing that Isidor wasn’t going to be persuaded to come with us, and the Berserkers just moments away, Potter stepped forward and took Kayla in his arms. Smoothing out her hair with his claws, he whispered, “Kayla, get Sam onto the platform, because when that train comes steaming through, we need to be on it.”
“I can’t,” she sobbed in Potter’s arms.
“You have to,” he whispered back, guiding her over to the bench where Sam lay.
Crying softly, Kayla scooped Sam up into her arms and carried him from the waiting room, not once looking back at her brother.
With the sound of the train roaring towards us, and the yapping and howling of the Berserkers growing ever nearer, I looked at Isidor and said, “You don’t have anything to prove. You are part of our team – part of our family.”
“I have to stay and wait for Melody,” Isidor said, taking the picture of them from his coat pocket again.
“But the Berserkers will kill you while you wait for her,” I tried desperately to convince him.
“But don’t you see?” he said holding up the picture. “The Berserkers can’t kill me because this picture hasn’t been taken yet. The fact that it exists says that I’m not going to die today.”
“But...” I started.
“I’m so tired of waiting – hoping that the moment this picture was taken comes,” he said. “So maybe by waiting for the Berserkers, it will force her hand and she’ll come for me.”
“Please...” I started again, but couldn’t finish, as my lower lip trembled and tears trickled down my cheeks. I took a deep breath as I tried to steady myself, and looking at him, I said one last time, “Come with us, Isidor.”
Staring back at me, a look of determination drawn over his face, Isidor said, “Run, Kiera, or you’re gonna miss your train.”
Knowing that I would never get him to change his mind, I crossed the waiting room and held him tightly in my arms. “I love you, Isidor,” I whispered and kissed him softly on his cheek. “See you later, alligator.”
“In a while, crocodile,” he whispered back.
Then, letting go of him, I ran across the waiting room, snatched up the rucksacks, and ran out onto the platform.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Isidor
“Shouldn’t you be going, too?” I asked Potter, as he stood before me in the waiting room.
“Why are you doing this?” Potter asked with a frown.
“Because I want to see Melody again,” I answered.
Taking two steps towards me, so we were just inches apart, Potter spoke in a hushed voice and said, “Isidor, believe it or not, I know what it feels like to have a broken heart. I loved a girl once but she’s gone now, and in a way, it was the best thing that could have happened to me, because I would’ve never met Kiera.”
“But I haven’t met anyone else, that’s my point,” I tried to explain. “I don’t have anybody. Melody hasn’t gone, she is here somewhere, we will meet again – the picture proves that.”
Then, glancing quickly back over his shoulder then back at me, Potter whispered, “I know about pictures and stuff that seem to have been pushed between the two worlds, and no good will come of it.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked him.
“I don’t have time to explain,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder. “But believe me, Isidor, that picture of you and Melody, just like the letters that got pushed over to the girl I once loved, only led to suffering, and eventually, her death. Please come with us, Isidor, I don’t want to leave you behind.”
“I’m staying, Potter, I know what I’m doing,” I told him.
With the rickety old waiting room now lurching from side to side in the growing storm, and the sound of the approaching train and Berserkers nearly upon us, Potter looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, Isidor. I never meant to put you down or hurt you. You are my friend – you’re my brother.”
To hear him say that meant more to me than anything. It made me want to cry with happiness, but just like Melody had said to me once, I just couldn’t let it show. With a smile pulling at the corner of my mouth, I held out my hand for him to shake and said, “I know – but just like all older brothers, I guess someday you’ve got to let your younger brother find his own way.”
Potter glanced down at my hand, but instead of shaking it, he came forward and hugged me so tight that I thought he was going to shatter every one of my ribs. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Then releasing his grip on me, he took a cigarette from his trouser pocket, and tucked it behind my ear.
“But I don’t smoke,” I told him.
“It’s for Melody,” he said softly, then he turned and left me standing alone in the waiting room.
I heard the train slow as it passed through the station, and I hoped Kayla and my friends had managed to get on board. The driver blew on the horn as the train started to speed up
. The wind screamed and howled outside and the door to the waiting room rattled in its frame. Then caught in a sudden gust of wind, the door flew open, snatching the photograph of Melody and me from my hand. It flew into the air, seesawed momentarily so I could get one last glimpse of us together, then it fluttered out of the open doorway and up into the grey dawn sky. I raced to the door, but it was gone.
I looked to my right and could see the train speeding out of the station, and to my left I saw the first of the Berserkers leap onto the platform. This was the first time that I had seen them – and they didn’t really look like wolves at all – they looked as if they had been trapped halfway between wolf and human – just how Sam now looked. They bounded up the platform on all fours towards me. Their claws made a clacking sound against the ground. Sniffing at the air, they looked at me with their seething eyes and snarled. With their half-human faces and flesh coloured snouts, they rolled back their lips and brandished their razor-like teeth at me
Turning, I went back into the waiting room and closed the door behind me. I knew that it wouldn’t hold them back for long, if at all. The old fashioned-looking radio that I had first noticed on the counter by the tiny ticket booth made a crackling sound. I moved towards it, and I could clearly hear the sound of static. Picking it up, I pressed my ear flat against it and closed my eyes. In the hiss of the static, I was sure I could hear the faint sound of music and it was growing louder. With hands beginning to tremble, I realised I had heard that song before; it was the song that Melody and I used to sit and listen to down by Lake Lure. As the music grew louder and clearer, I began to hum along to Heroes by David Bowie.
With the music now filling the waiting room in a thick wall of sound, I set the radio down and looked back over my shoulder at the door. It slowly swung open, and in the doorway were several of those Berserkers. They were no longer on all fours, but standing upright like men. With giant paws that swung against their knees, they walked towards me. I looked into their burning eyes, and each of them opened their drooling jaws and roared.
