Limbo's Child (Book One of The Dead Things Series)

by Jonah Hewitt

Hokharty paused only long enough to give them orders, “Mikhail, Elizabeth, gather as many as you can and meet us in the ballroom.” Both looked nervously at each other before bolting off.

  Miles was already shaking off the limp in the stabbed thigh. Imp blades hurt, but they didn’t seem to harm you very much, at least not vampires. The bruises from Hokharty and the blisters from the silver chains would take longer. The three charged down the hall and through the parlor to the foyer. Hokharty didn’t hesitate but walked straight in through the doors.

  It was hard to describe the scene. A large, blue-white sphere of light was suspended in the middle of the room. Beneath it was Lucy, her right hand outstretched, tense. She was struggling to hold it upright like she was holding up an invisible weight. Her other hand was clasping her mother’s and clinging around her middle was the strange boy from earlier, but Amanda was nowhere to be seen.

  “Lucy!” Miles cried and he began his way across the large ballroom. Nephys and Hokharty followed, but the second the imp caught sight of Lucy and the boy it went berserk again, frothing and honking and swinging the knife in a mad rage. The boy screamed and hugged Lucy tighter.

  “Hiero, no!” Nephys grabbed the little imp around the middle and tried his hardest to restrain the bagpipes, but it wasn’t easy. Hokharty and Miles left Nephys to struggle with the crazy thing and went hurriedly to the other side of the room.

  Miles had to pause in disbelief. From this side, it didn’t look like a sphere of light, but a tunnel extending far into the distance. There was a roaring sound like being under a waterfall and a rush of wind was pouring into the tunnel. It was unbelievable. Miles had to shake himself back to reality.

  “Lucy! You have to stop!” Miles yelled again.

  “I can’t!” she nearly cried, “My mother’s on the other side.”

  “But if ya bring ya mother back, Death will follow her ta this side!”

  “THAT’S NOT TRUE!” she yelled back, but she wasn’t certain anymore.

  “Child…listen,” Hokharty began but he never got a chance. There was a bright pulse of grey light and then a specter with hollow eyes and long hair emerged from the tunnel. It rose up like an eagle and its hair spread out like two black wings. Then it collapsed back violently, like an explosion run backwards, into the form of Amanda who fell to her hands and knees.

  “She’s there!” Amanda gasped, clearly fatigued, exhausted by the trip. “She’s there! But I can’t bring her the rest of the way here.”

  “My mom?!” Lucy frantically looked at the tunnel to see if she could see her mother. There was a faint light in the shape of a person, like a pale reflection of moonlight on running water, but she couldn’t see anything else. Was that her? Was that her mother? In her excitement she lost concentration and her hand danced momentarily. She struggled to bring it back to the center of resistance, but the tunnel of light contracted slightly anyway.

  “KEEP THE GATE OPEN!!” Amanda screamed at her. “AARRGH!” Amanda groaned, “You’ve let the gate get too narrow!”

  “I’m sorry…” Lucy began meekly before Amanda snapped back at her.

  “QUIET!! Concentrate! When it opens back up you must call to your mother!! You must do this as soon as you can!” and then after several hard breaths Amanda muttered something else that made everyone’s blood run cold, “He’s coming Lucy! He’s coming for her already!”

  “HE?!” Lucy thought, “Does she mean Death?!”

  Lucy’s eyes snapped back to the gate wide-eyed, as if she was afraid to blink.

  Amanda then got up to her knees, still breathing heavily, when she noticed the other occupants of the room.

  “Vampires!” she muttered contemptuously.

  “Mistress,” Hokharty began in his usual officious manner, “I believe we have miscalculated.” He approached her cautiously. “I was wrong. I was blind, we both were. Death cannot be allowed to walk the earth. We were wrong to tempt the Great Master. We must close the gate immediately.”

  Amanda laughed a dry laugh. “No, Hokharty, it is you, who have miscalculated. Death will soon never walk the earth or anywhere else ever again.” She stood up, her strength returning.

  “What do you mean?” he asked, uncertain, but she just smiled. Hokharty looked at her querulously as if something horrible was just dawning on him, but there wasn’t enough time for the expression to fully form on his face before Amanda lunged at him with a bloody finger. She shouted his name and something else in some unknown language. Hokharty’s body went limp and collapsed to the ground. All around him, a thin red smoke rose into the air and then dissipated. Miles rushed to his side and rolled him over, but he was gone. The body was just a corpse again.

  Before Miles even had a chance to think about the implications of what had just happened, several vampires burst into the room, Betty, Mikhail, even the five sisters and several others. They stared curiously at Miles crouched over the fallen form of the Father of All Vampires that had held out a hope of a new life for all of them. Miles looked at them and had no time to think of what to say before Amanda spoke.

  “HOKHARTY IS DEAD!” Amanda screamed, “THEY KILLED HIM!”

  She pointed the incriminating finger at Miles and Nephys who, up until that moment, was still struggling with Hiero who in turn stopped long enough to look up and say, “Farnt?”

  Miles looked back at her with indignation, and even caught a glimpse of Lucy’s shocked face over Amanda’s mendacity before he turned back to see the rapid onslaught of vampires coming his way who had already decided their course of action.

  “Oh, bugger.”

  Miles barreled across the room turning into the dog-monster mid-leap over Nephys and Hiero. He crashed through the five snarling sisters and sent them flying like a bowling ball crashing through a basket of kittens. He managed to knock down Mikhail and several others, and only Betty managed to jump out of the way. This gave him barely enough time to circle back to Nephys and transform back into human form long enough to say just two words.

  “STOP LUCY!!”

  The words were hardly out of his mouth before the other vampires had already regrouped. They were pulling Miles away before Nephys even had a chance to say “But, how?!”

  The vampires dog-piled Miles, and soon he was concealed under their bodies. They were plunging their snarling, bloody faces into him like a pack of wolves biting into their still-kicking prey. Miles exploded out of the midst of them in his dog form and ran around the room yelping, trying desperately to throw them off his back before fleeing out the foyer doors. Focused on their prey, they ignored Nephys and Hiero and pursued him like screeching animals.

  “Vampires!” Amanda muttered to herself before deciding that she would have to handle things herself. She turned back to Lucy and snarled her last orders, “WHEN THE GATE IS WIDE ENOUGH, CALL YOUR MOTHER!”

  “But, Amanda!” Lucy cried out, however Amanda just screamed back at her.

  “HE IS COMING, LUCY!! IF HE REACHES HER BEFORE YOU CAN CALL HER BACK, EVERYONE WILL DIE!! EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON YOUR MOTHER!! NOW CONCENTRATE!” Instantly she exploded into the long-haired specter and tore off across the room and out the doors towards the sounds of Miles and the vampires fighting.

  Hiero instantly restarted his struggle to get free of Nephys’ arms and reach Lucy as if it was his only imperative, but Nephys held him and yelled at him, “HIERO! NO! NO! I’ll talk to Lucy! Help Miles!!”

  Hiero stopped struggling for a moment, he looked to Lucy and began to try to wriggle out of Nephys’ arms again to reach her, but Nephys refused.

  “NO! NO, HIERO!! GO HELP MILES!!” The imp looked back and forth between Lucy and the door Miles had fled through with several vampires on his back. He looked like he was making the most excruciating decision of his life.

  Finally after screeching, “FLUBBIT!!” through all three pipes and his flute-like nose he pulled free and tore off after Miles and Amanda.

  Nephys stood up and ran to Lucy’s side.

  “Lucy,
you have to stop!”

  “STAY AWAY FROM HER!!” the strange boy yelled back at him.

  Nephys stopped a few short feet from Lucy. He thought for a moment about simply knocking the stone from her hand, but then he didn’t know what would happen.

  “Lucy, you have to stop. Death is coming and he’s going to kill everyone if you don’t stop.”

  “NO, SHE WON’T!!” Yo-yo yelled, “She’s going to save her mother and everyone’s mothers!!”

  “Yo-yo’s right,” Lucy said weakly, “I have to do this.”

  “Lucy, I know you’re hurt, but you can’t do this!!” Nephys looked at her and bit his lip. “Lucy, I know what it’s like not to have a mother. I lost my mother too. I know what it’s like to be alone. I’ve been alone for nearly two thousand years, but now you are going to take everyone’s mother away if you don’t stop.”

  “DON’T LISTEN TO HIM, LUCY!!” Yo-yo cried, “He’s lying! Look at him! Look at his throat…he’s one of those dead things.”

  “It’s ok, Yo-Yo,” she tried to console him, though he gripped her all the tighter. Then she tried to answer Nephys without taking her eyes off the gate, “You don’t understand, Nep. That won’t happen. My mother has powers.”

  Nephys drew a breath and walked closer. “I don’t doubt that she does. If she can turn an imp into a watering can, she can probably do anything! But you can’t do this!”

  Lucy looked away from the tunnel and focused on Nephys. Watering can? What was he talking about?! “No, not like that, she has powers to stop death! Amanda told me! I believe in her. I have faith in her. I know she can stop all this. I just have to try a little while longer and she’ll be here. She can stop Death, itself. I just know it! It’s going to be all right, Nep. This is what she would have wanted.” Lucy looked down at her mother’s body for just a second and squeezed her dead hand. In a few moments it wouldn’t be dead anymore, and she could hardly wait for her to wake up and hug her.

  “You tell him, Lucy!” Yo-yo belted out.

  Nephys swallowed hard and thought. How was he going to convince her?! Then it struck him.

  “But she didn’t want this, Lucy. If you really believe in her, why don’t you have faith in what she told you?”

  Lucy blanched.

  “Think about what your mother said. Think about the note!”

  “Note?” Yo-yo said curiously, “What note?!”

  Lucy looked away from the gate for a moment and thought about the note and the ominous “DON’T” in front of those three words of promise, “BRING ME BACK.” She suddenly had doubts.

  “It’s…not…that is…this is different,” Lucy stammered.

  “No it’s not, Lucy,” Nephys continued.

  “What note?!!” Yo-yo asked again, this time more angrily.

  Lucy’s mind was racing. “There are things she didn’t know…if she had known, she wouldn’t have written that note in the first place. It will all turn out okay.”

  “How do you know that?!” Nephys implored, “Maybe she did know you would try and she knew it wouldn’t be okay. Maybe she didn’t tell you because she was trying to protect you! How can you know for sure?!”

  “WHAT NOTE?!!!” Yo-yo screamed.

  “I just know, OK?!” Lucy yelled back at Nephys, but she wasn’t sure anymore. Her mother had kept things from her, and she had done it to protect her. Was she trying to help her now from even beyond the grave? She was so uncertain.

  “Lucy, look!” It was Yo-yo. He had let go of her middle and stood up next to her. He was pointing up to the tunnel of light. It had widened enough so that she could see the dark tunnel on the other side, but the tunnel was filled with some great, monstrous beast. It had no clear form but looked like it was draped in thick, dark shrouds. Under the shrouds, she could see the form of a giant wing here, the indistinct head of an animal there. From under the edges, she saw many feet: taloned claws, like those of an eagle, iron hooves and even paws like a lion, only far bigger than any lion on earth. It made the sounds of all of those creatures, as well as the chanting and moaning of thousands of human souls in torment. It was as if someone had thrown a huge tarpaulin over a monstrous menagerie the size of a house. It breathed out a raspy, shuddering breath punctuated by horrifying screeches that unhinged your very psyche. It was radiating a sickly amber light that was filled with dust. As the dust fell, everything it touched seemed to disintegrate and waste away into nothingness. The very walls of the tunnel seemed to crack and crumble into dust as it stepped forward.

  “It’s the Great Master,” Nephys whispered in horror.

  Lucy didn’t need Nephys’ words to tell her what she already knew somehow, instinctively. This was Death, the taker of life, the taker of every life that had ever lived from gnat to king.

  It was the most horrifying thing Lucy had ever seen. She had expected a man or a skeleton in a robe with a scythe, not this unfathomable, ancient monster. She could imagine her mother fighting some lanky skeleton in a robe, but no one had told her Death was like this! How could her mother fight this?! It seemed impossible and maybe it was. Maybe Amanda had lied to her after all.

  “There she is, Lucy!” Yo-yo cried, “It’s your mother!!”

  There, in the rubble-strewn path before the monster, was the tiny figure of a woman cowering. It was so small compared to the beast, it wasn’t surprising she hadn’t seen it, but she couldn’t see her clearly. Was it really her mother? She couldn’t tell. The figure was hiding behind the broken-off foot of a massive statue, but the foot was disintegrating before the slow, endless advance of Death. The monster took only one step at a time, plodding slowly, but so giant were its strides it didn’t matter. It moved with the pace of something that knew it was irresistible.

  “Mother?” Lucy said weakly watching the sad, poor, pathetic victim at the feet of this monster.

  “Call her, Lucy! Call her to you! Bring her back into her body!! You can do it!” Yo-yo implored, yanking on her arm like an earnest and needy child.

  There was a crashing sound as Amanda came storming into the room. Miles was right behind her literally dragging himself after her, one back leg hanging loosely behind him. He pulled himself up to his feet, changing into his human shape and tried to bar the doors. From the sound on the other side, the vampires hadn’t given up the chase just yet. Amanda hurried to Lucy’s side of the room, and her eyes lit up in horror and delight at the sight of the small figure in front of the Great Master before she turned to Lucy.

  “LUCY!! Do it now!! Do it before it’s too late!!”

  Nephys was speechless and just shook his head numbly from side to side.

  Lucy looked in earnest between all three of them, but she was paralyzed and didn’t know what to do.

  “Lucy, you can do it! We believe in you!” Yo-yo said.

  “DO IT NOW!” Amanda commanded.

  The monster crept closer to the tiny figure, but suddenly, there beside her mother, was another figure screaming and waving, cursing at the monster. Who was it? It was impossible to tell. A tall and gaunt man it looked like. In the room, Amanda and Yo-yo were yelling at her to continue, and now Miles too was joining in, yelling for her stop.

  All of them wanted her to do something and they were yelling at her and she just couldn’t think. If she could get them all to stop just for a moment and let her think!!

  Lucy closed her eyes and screamed, “STOP!!”

  In Scranton an emergency trauma patient dying on the operating table inexplicably stopped dying. Her heart rate had crashed, her pulse non-existent, but she was stubbornly remaining alive. The doctors tending her were mystified at the sudden reversal and began frantically working to make good use of the time. Somewhere in a logging camp in Siberia, a man crushed under a massive log that had rolled off of a truck when a chain broke lay in anguish unable to die. A crowd gathered in shock and horror as they watched the pulped body of the man, which should no longer be living, refuse to die. A child dying of cancer in a hospital in Riverside, Californ
ia stopped in the middle of her dying breath and opened her eyes for the first time in months. She had long ago felt she shouldn’t remain, but now, when the moment had finally arrived, she found she couldn’t leave. Her mother cried. Another man in China who lay dying of emphysema and wishing for death found his last breath stuck in his throat and yet he couldn’t die. He lay in agony, waiting for the end, but it wouldn’t come. Everywhere Death had stopped, and the dying had stopped dying and Lucy could see them all. For some, the pause was a blessing, giving moments of desperate hope but for others, it was a horrid curse extending the pain of their passing. Everywhere it had stopped, for old people and young people, the ones long dying and the ones just recently struck by tragedy in every land and nation. For how long she couldn’t tell, but it had stopped everywhere.

  Lucy looked up at the tunnel. The monster had stopped, just inches from her mother and the other figure. It stood there towering over them, but it wasn’t still. It was wheezing and gasping, as tired and weary as that man in China. It was looking at her, looking at her with many eyes and heads and faces. Even under all those shrouds, she could tell. It was showing this to her, it wanted her to see. She became faintly aware that Yo-yo and Amanda were still there – still yelling, begging, demanding that she call her mom forth. They hadn’t stopped, but Death had stopped. She had asked for someone, anyone to stop and give her some time to think, and DEATH had listened. It was listening now. And waiting. How long had passed, a minute, maybe less, she didn’t know, but it was waiting to see what she would do, but as something unspoken was communicated between her and the monster, she knew it wouldn’t wait forever.

  Ok, so she wanted time to think and it was giving it to her, so think, Lucy! THINK! She thought about everything Amanda had said, and how she could bring her Mom back, and that somehow bringing her mom back would conquer death, and she knew it was true. Death would not have come this far, to the very edge of the world of the living if it wasn’t. Then she thought of the note and realized that her mother must have known it too, but knew that it was wrong.

  Death did not want to destroy her mother, but Lucy was forcing the issue. Lucy had dragged her mother and Death itself to the brink. She had done it, and if she had simply said no, then none of this would be happening. She had made the choice to bring it this far. It was all her fault. And all those languishing now, pleading for the release of death that would not come, or being tortured by false hope of a sudden pardon, she was the cause of that too.