The Beholder

by Ivan Amberlake

  Ask the Energy, he heard.

  It was all Jason had, so he needed to make the most of it. He wrenched at the handgrip, and the back wheel began to smoke. Energy Threads streamed out of Jason and glued to the ground, holding him steady. He released the motorcycle’s handlebars, and the front wheel rose in the air. As he approached the wall, the Energy Threads clung to both him and the motorcycle, moving both upwards. Gravity shifted with a jolt around Jason as he moved along the wall, now traveling rapidly towards the roof. The edge came closer, and when the lines of the building ended, Jason plummeted downwards. He panicked, unsure of how to change gravity back, but when he closed his eyes in concentration the Energy pulled him back to the rooftop. The wheels of the motorcycle crashed against the hard surface, and Jason braked sharply, coming to a halt right before the brink.

  Here it was: the vision he had seen not long ago, when he had been with Pariah on top of this building. But there was no one here now except him.

  New York glowed with the lights of the Sighted battle, surges of silver Energy crossing over and under layers of blood red in an incredible display. To the west, Jason saw more of his own dragging the citizens of New York away from danger, the mass of people shimmering with auras which were dim in comparison to the ones they couldn’t see.

  Jason came out of the Sight, and the vision of the galaxy vanished, instantly fading to black. The world became more harsh, the weight of the motorcycle heavier.

  With a sickening lurch, he realized it hadn’t been Pariah in his last vision. It had been him alone, in battle with himself. Jason, the Beholder.

  With a sudden decisive movement, Jason pushed the Honda forward to the edge and over. He watched it fall, rolling over and over into the abyss, until it merged with the dark. With all his new strengths, he knew he didn’t need it anymore, but the machine would provide one final use.

  Amidst the turmoil of everything around him, Jason stood on the skyscraper roof, feeling as insignificant as a speck of dust, rain trickling in tiny rivers down his face. Through Unsighted eyes he studied New York, as if to imprint its beauty onto his soul. The city was enveloped in a pall of darkness, interrupted only by tortuous forks of lightning scarring the inky canvas of the night sky. Beneath him, the abyss beckoned, sending a hypnotic pulsation that coincided with the pounding of his heart.

  Pain burned in his throat, as if something invisible and unpleasant coiled up around his neck, but when he jerked his hand to check, there was nothing there.

  He couldn’t wait any longer. It might already be too late. He took a step forward and leaped into the dark, engaging his Sight as he fell. With a thought he slowed—then stopped time, though he continued to plunge downwards. A web of Energy Threads spread its tendrils all around him, and he reached for the Honda, frozen far below him at what he estimated to be the twenty-fourth floor. Thrusting his right hand down, he let out a stream of destructive energy that reached the Honda, followed by a deafening explosion. The blast blinded those waiting for him, earning him an important couple of seconds.

  A strange thought crept into Jason’s mind: he couldn’t feel anyone’s presence within the building. It was like a capsule sheltering the interior from his gaze. But the Energy pushed him to keep doing what he was doing.

  Jason returned time to normal, and it ticked again at its regular pace. He fell faster and faster until his left hand created an Energy that drew and bound him to the wall of the building, slowing his speed. The Energy yanked at the building, making the wall snap and crumble, and pieces poured down—along with Jason—creating a violent hail and leaving a luminescent trail in his wake, like that of a comet.

  Jason started counting down.

  The 30th floor …

  27th …

  25th …

  Releasing the crumbling wall, Jason leaped into the blinding light of the E&L office building.

  Chapter 36

  Jason hadn’t expected an immediate confrontation. He had planned for the Honda’s explosion to throw them off guard, but it hadn’t. Instead, a flash of malevolent light flew in his direction. Without thinking, he blocked it, and the blinding light died.

  But the attack left him doubting his newly acquired sense of invincibility. Drained, Jason came out of the Sight, then looked across the office and discovered the deadly wave had been sent by Damien. Not only that, but the Dark One now gripped Debbie’s throat with his hand. Though her eyes were almost closed, her mouth showing no expression, he knew she was still alive … just sleeping somehow.

  Jason tried to reenter the Sight, needing to equalize himself with Damien’s powers, but nothing happened. The world continued in its usual drab, normal condition.

  Get a grip, everything’s fine, he told himself, hoping it was just a lag in his Energy and he’d soon regain it, but try as he might, there was no improvement.

  The office was a disaster, evidence of the building’s recent run-in with the Dark Ones. Paper, lamps, furniture … everything was scattered and covered by a thick layer of dust. Jason knew where their desks used to be, but now there wasn’t one piece of undamaged furniture in sight.

  As he’d seen before, Matt lay on the floor a few paces away. His face was pale, and his twisted frame seemed too still for a living person. Jason gritted his teeth, trying to resist the urge to run towards Matt, because Damien and Catherine stood by his body, smug satisfaction on their faces. And the one he most feared to see, the one who had tricked him so skillfully, stood behind them.

  Emily.

  Damien’s hand coiled around Debbie’s neck, her face pale as the moon. She wouldn’t be able to resist his grip long; Jason needed to come up with something quickly.

  He looked at Emily, shocked at the changes he saw in her beautiful face. Blue circles under her eyes seemed so out of place, and her skin was so pale she looked ashen. For the first time since they’d met, she looked haggard. He stared at her, pleading for her to make a sign—at least to wink or something, to let him know this was a trick and she had it all under control. But the amber eyes he’d loved had gone hollow, offered him no light.

  If it had been possible, he would have pitied her, but this was not the time for comfort or sympathy for traitors. Suddenly sure of what she’d done, he realized he wanted her to feel the pain, the soul-splitting, agonizing pain he had endured during the last three and a half weeks. In that moment of hate, he thought that if he were able to enter the Sight, he would have turned them all to ashes and dust.

  Behind Damien, Catherine, and Emily waited their imposing servants. Tall, broad-shouldered men stood alongside rough-looking women with tousled hair, all wearing scowls of distaste. No one moved. No one had uttered a word since his appearance.

  Jason felt reality once again weighing him down with its stale pressure.

  “De-Energization. No entrance into the Sight for a while,” came a dead voice, ripping the silence. Jason’s eyes went directly to the speaker: Emily, her voice faintly familiar, yet distorted.

  From the look on Damien’s face, he wasn’t pleased about that at all. “Fine,” he growled. “We’ll wait. Besides, there are some things my friend Jason and I can talk about while we wait,” he said, using his other hand to grab Debbie even tighter around her waist. From what Jason could see, Debbie’s eyes were dull, her head lolled against the fist at her throat. In contrast, Damien looked complacent, triumph twisted on his face. Jason desired to crush the loathsome creature’s skull.

  “Oh really? Like what?” Jason asked, trying to sound bored.

  “Don’t you want to listen to the real story of what happened? How you got tricked so easily?” He shrugged lightly. “Unfortunately, it’s not as funny as I’d expected it would be.”

  “The real story?” Jason asked, confused.

  He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to know what Damien meant, but if he was going to hear it, he’d like to find out the truth from Emily. And he wanted to look her in the eyes while she told him.

  As if he read Jason’s mi
nd, Damien turned to Emily. “Will you tell him, or shall I?”

  Jason waited, but no one moved in the crowd. He wrestled with the truth, feeling overwhelmed by a violent gagging sensation and unable to find air. He was suffocating, the sensation uncomfortably familiar. It was the same fear he had experienced when his own slimy reflection from the dark passage had reached out and pulled his face towards itself. Jason burst out in icy beads of perspiration and steeled himself for what he knew was coming next.

  Do you feel it? Do you feel the pain?

  He did. His sickening reflection reached inside and sliced at his organs, burned his tissues with acid, drained him of blood. He’d felt it all before, too many times.

  It will all be yours. It will be the essence of your existence. And you’ll like it. You’ll become pain. You’ll become me. His own voice filled his head with exultant whispering, impossible to escape.

  So it was the end. One second he’d had hope, in the next it was eradicated from his mind.

  Damien smiled triumphantly. Emily was silent.

  How? How could she? How was it possible?

  Damien grinned. “How is it possible, you ask? It’s not all that difficult, actually. Roger and Rebecca Ethans knew way too much about us and our plans, as did Emily’s grandfather. Pariah wanted them dead.”

  Emily didn’t move.

  “An unfortunate car crash took care of that problem,” Damien went on, and Jason’s attention was drawn by the sudden hardening in Emily’s eyes. Eyes which were no longer an intoxicating shade of amber, but a pure, bottomless black. “No one got suspicious. Car crashes occur rather often, don’t they? We killed all the Ethans at once—except Emily.

  “Pariah wanted her under control when she became Sighted, because her Energy was enormous and her talent undisputed. She could have become the darkest Sighted ever.” Anger flared in his narrowed eyes. “We had her for a while, but Emily had been born to the Lightsighted and it took a while before she returned. And when she did,” he said, a slow smile returning to his features, “she brought with her some precious secrets and was happy to share.”

  Jason tried to remain calm on the outside, but rage, blind and fierce, was building in his aching chest.

  “You killed the Ethans. All right. Why did you kill the other people?” he asked. “The Doomed Ones?”

  “Oh, Jason. Sometimes I forget this is all so new to you.” He smiled complacently, as if Jason were just a little boy. “That was because of the Prophecy,” he said. “Emily’s Prophecy. It was so powerful that violent waves of Energy were released into the world. There they turned to vortices which hovered over the planet for a while, seeking refuge in people’s souls. Only one vortex belonged to the Beholder. Only one contained real power. The other eleven were exact copies protecting it. And only one really knew about it, because she was Sighted. That was Emily.”

  Damien turned Debbie towards him and lifted her into the air by her neck. Debbie’s eyes bulged, but she still seemed unaware. “One of the vortices settled in Emily,” Damien explained, “and another in your girlfriend here.

  “Of course we attempted to annihilate you first, but it didn’t work out. The Prophecy gave us some hints to work with: especially auras. So we knew we had to get rid of those protecting you. That’s when we started to track the others.” Damien was clearly enjoying this prelude to their fight.

  “I saw Emily in a dream,” Jason said through gritted teeth. “Through Pariah’s eyes.”

  “What are you talking about?” Damien raised his eyebrows, and his smile changed to a look of bewilderment. Jason liked the way the expression looked on him. “He blocked himself from you.”

  “Pariah is a coward,” Jason hissed.

  He shot a furious glance at Emily, who still avoided his gaze. How could you betray us?

  “Why didn’t you include Emily in your riddle?” Jason asked. “You’ve obviously killed the spirit she was.”

  Damien frowned. “Riddle?”

  “With the country names of the Doomed Ones you murdered.”

  Light dawned in Damien’s eyes, and his smile returned. “Oh, the ‘Fear me Jason’ riddle. That was Pariah’s idea. You and your friends were getting on his nerves, so we decided to use them to our advantage.” He grinned at Debbie’s beautiful, oblivious face. “It was I who showed your lovely friend the articles with the news of people disappearing. Otherwise she wouldn’t have got them.” He glanced at Matt’s still body. “It was I who made him come up with ideas he never would have thought of by himself.”

  Jason was getting fed up with his inability to do anything. He was tired of standing still, listening, waiting. His muscles burned, screaming for release. At least Damien’s revelations postponed the key moment during which he would be all alone.

  “Once we’re able to come into the Sight again, we’ll finish you and your friends.” The Dark One promised. “And we will rise to an inconceivable power.”

  Jason had to keep Damien talking, keep soaking in the answers to all his questions.

  “Tyler is Sighted,” Jason said, tilting his head towards Emily. “Why didn’t he see she was a traitor?”

  Emily raised her lifeless eyes and gazed sadly into his. Damien didn’t seem to notice the movement. “Guess he’s not as strong as he thinks he is.”

  Again the smug smile, the evil lust for victory crackling in his eyes. Damien’s complacency and pride were so excessive it was impossible for Jason not to hate him.

  The air around Jason quivered, like electricity flickering before it returned. It was time for the questions to end. Only one remained.

  Jason turned to Emily, letting her see the hatred and pain in his eyes. “How could you betray us?”

  Jason craved blackness and oblivion. He closed his eyes, and his mind filled with subtle patterns of lines and dots. These Energy lines and dots became Energy Traces, and he realized Energy Vision and the Sight had been restored. De-Energization had come to an end.

  That was when he heard Damien’s voice, speaking in the Sight, “Emily, summon him.”

  Jason opened his eyes and watched Emily’s parched lips move, remembering a better time, when those lips had been warm against his, when they’d spoken of … love. But now they spoke of something completely different. “Come forth, Pariah. Finish what you began centuries ago. Come and wreak havoc over the world.”

  Her voice was chilling, but something worse slithered from behind her. Black vapors of smoke, sinewy as a snake, fluid as water, wound around Emily and Damien, then materialized in front of Jason, revealing the true form of Pariah.

  He appeared to be older than all the others combined, and the sheer evil of his expression ran worlds deeper. His pitch black eyes bore neither pupils nor whites but shone with twin coronas of white light resembling lunar eclipses. They bored into Jason as if trying to hypnotize him, read all his thoughts, but Jason felt no fear.

  Pariah thrust two lashes in Jason’s direction, but at that moment two Sighted flew into the office at blinding speed.

  Tyler and William! Excellent timing, Jason thought.

  Pariah screamed to Damien, “Finish the girl!”

  Dodging the lashes, Jason lunged towards Damien, striking the Darksighted’s right temple with all the force he had. Damien let go of Debbie’s heavily bruised neck, and she tumbled to the ground in a lump. Then Damien was gone, and all the Legates turned into whirling smoke as Jason had seen them in fusions, and he rushed onto them.

  Tyler sent a bright ray of light into Emily and she stumbled back, looking too weak to defend herself. William sent a wave towards the first four ominous sentinels behind Pariah, then went after the others. Jason was fascinated to see that when McAlester’s Energy reached the hunters, the blackness swirling around them vanished. The smoke had evidently been their protection, and without it, the hunters were vulnerable. Jason helped William finish the foursome by sending Énergie Morte into them, then he moved Debbie and Matt as far away from the fight as possible.


  Pariah’s lashes were the most dangerous threat. Jason studied the creature’s movements, watched how the relentless tendrils danced around him. Grabbing his one opportunity, Jason darted to Pariah and used an Energy wave to rip one of the lashes from its owner. In that moment everything was bleached with a flash of white, and Pariah screamed in both agony and rage. He whipped the remaining lash around him, and Jason had a hard time dodging a deadly charge of Energy as it rushed his way. He ducked to evade the lash, and it burned through the framework of the building, causing the entire place to shake violently. Dust rained down on them from the ceiling.

  Jason had to act quickly, or else he and everyone else would be crushed under tons of concrete. He focused on the damage done, and his Energy went to work, weaving Threads around the ruined walls and welding them back together.

  Tyler was battling one of the Legates who was blocking his numerous Energy strikes. Obviously frustrated, Tyler sent fiercer and fiercer blows, culminating in the most power Energy wave he could muster, and the Legate conjured up a reflecting shield to deflect it. The wave bounced off, but Tyler managed to escape the mortal light. Instead, it struck another one of the Legates in the back, and the reflected wave of deadly energy welded with William’s.

  Both fell instantly to the ground, lifeless.

  “No!” Tyler and Jason screamed together, and just as Jason turned towards William’s prone body, he saw Emily approach Tyler from behind. There was nothing Jason could do as his friend collapsed, drained of life.

  The room was quiet for a moment, as if it took a breath after so many sudden, shocking tragedies. Jason stepped backwards and looked around, devastated by the sight of Matt, Debbie, William, and Tyler, all lying motionless and covered in dust among the debris of the office, together with the bodies of dead Legates.

  The Beholder’s mission had been a complete failure.

  Death’s scythe hanging over him

  Will not forget to slash at the crack of dawn,

  When the Energy demands for the Librium to restore.