by Clayton Wood
“Get him into a painting!” he ordered.
Bella nodded, her eyes going to the Collector’s painting. It’d slid to one corner of the room; she got to her feet, running for it.
And the Collector reached out, his glowing sword sliding across the floor and leaping back into his hand. He batted Gideon’s cane to the side.
“Miss Savage!” he shouted, “Wake up!”
Miss Savage’s eyes jerked open.
Bella reached the Collector’s painting, grabbing it and hauling it back toward Myko…just as Miss Savage got to her feet. She opened her mouth.
And shrieked.
The horrible sound filled the room, piercing Bella’s ears. Bella and Gideon – and the Collector – screamed, clutching at their ears in agony.
Bella sank to her knees, her eyes watering as invisible knives plunged into her eardrums, seeming to drill into her very brain.
Miss Savage’s scream ended, and she strode up to the Gideon and the Collector. Gideon had also sunk to his knees…and Miss Savage kicked him right between the eyes. Gideon’s head snapped back, and he fell backward onto the floor. Blood spurted from his nose, his eyes rolling back in their sockets.
And right next to her, Myko was barely breathing, bloody foam spilling from the corner of his mouth.
Bella gasped, her head still pounding from Miss Savage’s shriek. She struggled to get to her feet, but her legs wobbled beneath her, sending her right back onto her butt.
Miss Savage turned to the Collector, kneeling before him. Blood still poured from his right forearm, and his face was terribly pale, his breathing labored.
“Get in the painting my love,” she urged, gesturing at the painting beside Bella. “I’ll find a way to save you. No matter how long it takes.”
“No,” he retorted, his jawline rippling.
“But…”
“Take it down,” he ordered. “Take it all down.”
She stared at him mutely, and he turned to her, lifting his good hand to her cheek. He leaned in, kissing her on the lips, then pulled away.
“I love you,” he murmured. She smiled, her silver eyes turning moist.
“I know.”
“Why do you love me?” he asked.
“Because I do,” she answered, stroking his scalp gently. He smiled.
“That’s good enough for me.”
“Any requests?” she inquired, a tear dribbling down her cheek.
“One last request,” he stated, watching as Gideon and Bella got to their feet. “The End.”
Miss Savage swallowed visibly, then bowed.
“As you wish, Collector.”
She returned to her charred chair, sitting down to play.
Chapter 50
Piper flew backwards through the doorway of the Collector’s office, landing on his back with a thump in the waiting room beyond. The impact would have stunned a normal man, but Piper wasn’t a normal man. In fact, he wasn’t even Piper.
He was Vengeance.
Vengeance sprang to his feet, spotting the Doppelganger rushing through the doorway toward him. It swung its bottle at his head, and he blocked it, grabbing it by the jaw with one massive hand and squeezing.
Its jaw crumpled.
Simon sprinted through the doorway behind the Doppelganger, and Vengeance tossed the Doppelganger aside, lunging at the boy. He kicked the boy’s chest, his heel connecting with bone-crunching force.
And felt a force slam into his chest with a loud crack.
Vengeance flew backward, landing flat on his back. The impact blasted the air from his lungs, making it impossible to breathe. Agony shot through his breastbone, and when he finally was able to draw a breath in, it felt like he was being stabbed in the heart.
He struggled to get to his feet, stumbling backward. Simon stepped leisurely toward him, completely unharmed, his face dark and expressionless.
“You can’t hurt me, Actor,” the kid said.
Vengeance continued to back away, clutching at his chest. The Doppelganger had already recovered from being attacked, returning to Simon’s side.
A thick black tentacle wrapped around the Doppelganger’s waist from behind…and Nightmare threw him sideways, so violently that the Doppelganger sailed thirty feet to the right, smashing into the wall.
The creature shattered.
At the same time, Nightmare wrapped another tentacle around Simon’s waist. But instead of the Familiar throwing him to the side, Nightmare was the one thrown…in the opposite direction. Nightmare careened toward the other wall, but used its other tentacles to soften the blow.
And then Kendra stepped through the door…and it slammed shut behind her.
Piper felt himself changing back to his original form, the room seeming to grow bigger all around him.
“Look kid, I don’t have a problem with you,” he told Simon, holding out one hand. “We don’t want to hurt you. We’re here to…”
“Kill the Collector?” Simon interrupted.
“Put him back where he belongs,” Piper corrected. “My wife worked for him for over a decade,” he continued, gesturing at Kendra. “She did everything he asked. She was loyal to him. And he betrayed her, trapping her in a Painting. And that’s exactly what he’s going to do to you.”
“Wrong,” Simon retorted.
“With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kendra shot back, stepping around him to Piper’s side.
“Hey hon,” Piper greeted, flashing her a smile.
Green gel squeezed under the door to the Collector’s office then, oozing onto the floor behind Simon and the Doppelganger. It was Goo, Bella’s creation. Piper resisted the urge to look at Goo, keeping his eyes on Simon.
“Come with us,” he urged. “We can help you. You don’t know who the Collector is.”
Simon’s lips curled into a smirk.
“I know who he is,” he retorted. “I know his story. The one that made him and the one that he made.”
“Kid…”
“And your story,” Simon interrupted, “…is about to end.”
The Doppelganger lifted its bottle, then charged at them!
Or at least it tried to. Goo lunged at it, wrapping a gelatinous tendril around the Doppelganger’s legs. The porcelain creature looked down, then raised its bottle, trying to smash it down on Goo. But the bottle merely sank into Goo’s translucent flesh…and stuck there.
The Doppelganger went berserk.
It thrashed wildly, jerking its bottle free, then struggling to free its legs from Goo. But it was no use. A black mist began to seep from the Doppelganger into Goo, making Goo grow larger.
And larger…and larger.
Still Doppelganger thrashed, becoming more and more violent.
Goo swelled up as he absorbed the thing’s fury, doubling in size, then tripling…and quadrupling. But the Doppelganger only struggled more. It started smashing its own leg, breaking through its left shin, then working on its right.
Suddenly it stopped, lifting its gaze to Simon, as if a secret communication had passed between them.
Then it exploded.
Pieces of its porcelain body flew outward in all directions, and Piper jumped in front of Kendra, shielding her with his body. The sharp fragments sliced through Piper’s skin, opening gaping wounds in his flesh.
Then the pieces converged in front of Piper, the Doppelganger re-forming before him. It raised its bottle above its head, then sent it crashing down on Piper’s skull.
A black tentacle shot outward, blocking the blow, then wrapping around the Doppelganger’s torso. This time, instead of throwing or crushing the Doppelganger, Nightmare merely lifted it in the air, holding it captive.
Piper grunted, releasing Kendra and facing Simon…just as Goo – now at least ten feet cubed – rose up like a wave in the ocean behind Simon, crashing down on the boy. But Simon reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a small, brown glass orb and throwing it at his own feet.
It shattered…and fragm
ents of glass shot upward, expanding as they did so to form a large, translucent dome around Simon. Goo fell upon it, wrapping himself around the dome, but Simon remained safely within.
Then the fragments of glass making up the dome exploded outward, sending Goo flying upward and backward. Goo slammed into the wall above the door to the Collector’s office, and the glass fragments coalesced to form a wall that trapped him against it.
Simon ignored Goo, stepping calmly toward Piper and Kendra.
Nightmare lunged at the boy, wrapping his thick tentacles around Simons legs, belly, and neck, and pinning his arms to his sides. At the same time, Kendra reached into her forearm-painting, grabbing a long silver javelin and launching it at Simon.
It struck the right side of Simon’s chest…and vanished.
Piper heard a thump to his left, and turned…seeing Kendra stumbling backward, her eyes wide, her mouth agape.
The javelin was embedded in her chest, its cruel tip protruding from her back.
Kendra fell to her knees, clutching at the shaft. A crimson stain spread outward from it, staining her shirt. She fell to her knees, and Piper caught her, staring at her in horror.
“Oh no,” he mumbled. “No no no…”
“I told you you can’t hurt me,” Simon stated, still in Nightmare’s clutches. “The Collector’s suit does unto others what they would do unto me.” Piper turned to him, clutching onto Kendra.
“You bastard!” he shouted. “What have you done?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Simon retorted.
Kendra tried to speak, but coughed instead, blood gurgling out of her mouth and pouring down her chin.
“Oh god baby,” Piper murmured, turning back to her. “Oh god no!” He felt a flash of fear, then anger. Felt the Flow sweep over him. Piper let it take him, the anger turning to rage. His limbs grew, muscles bulging, the room seeming to shrink around him as he metamorphosed.
Into Vengeance.
The floor seemed to tremble under his feet, the wailing of a violin sounding in the distance.
Piper set Kendra down, then lunged at Simon, still bound by Nightmare’s tentacles. He punched the kid square in the face…and felt a force smash into his own face. Vengeance stumbled backward, blood gushing from his nose.
He roared.
Vengeance swung at Simon again and again, each blow striking him instead of the boy. He didn’t care, punching and kicking at Simon, ignoring the pain of each attack.
And Simon just stood there, staring back at him with that smug little expression on his face.
Vengeance lunged at Simon, wrapping his huge hands around the boy’s scrawny neck…and squeezed. He felt his own throat close, the blood supply to his head cutting off. His vision blackened, and he let go, stumbling backward.
And he felt the Flow leave him, and he became Piper once more.
Piper stood there, beaten and bloodied, staring at Simon. The boy was utterly unharmed…and Kendra was on her hands and knees, a pool of blood growing under her. Piper’s shoulders slumped. There was no beating this boy, not when he was wearing the Collector’s suit.
“We surrender,” he muttered. “Just let us go.”
The Doppelganger shattered, its porcelain fragments flying in a straight line at one of the tentacles holding Simon. The razor-sharp pieces cut right through the black flesh, severing the tentacle…and the Doppelganger re-formed beyond it. It repeated the process, severing the rest of the tentacles, and Simon levitated gently down to the floor.
“No,” he replied.
The floor quaked suddenly, Miss Savage’s desk in the leftmost part of the room vibrating, a glass set atop it tipping over and falling to shatter on the floor. Piper heard the wailing of a violin from beyond the door of the Collector’s office again, louder this time. Rapid notes stumbling over each other in a nightmarish song. One that sent a chill down Piper’s spine.
A feeling of impending doom came over him, his hackles rising.
The notes swelled, higher and louder, a cacophony of chaos. The castle groaned, a violent shudder running through it. Dust fell from the ceiling, fine cracks appearing in the stone walls.
Simon spun around, rushing toward the door and trying to fling it open. But it was locked.
“Collector!” he cried, pounding on the door.
“Nightmare!” Piper prompted, kneeling down and picking Kendra up in his arms. “Get us out of here!”
The Doppelganger burst into fragments, shooting into the small gap between the door and the floor. Moments later, the door swung open, revealing the Doppelganger standing on the other side.
The wailing of the violin slammed into Piper’s consciousness.
Terror gripped him…and the floor shuddered, cracks appearing in the stone. More dust fell from the ceiling, along with hunks of mortar.
The glass wall entrapping Goo shattered, the pieces shrinking and coming together in Simon’s hand to re-form the small glass orb. Goo fell to the floor with a thump, and Simon left the room, closing the door behind him.
The castle shuddered again, so violently that it nearly threw Piper to his knees. He clutched Kendra to him, spotting a huge crack in the ceiling directly above. It widened, a large chunk of the ceiling breaking free and falling to the floor beside him.
“We gotta get outta here,” he urged, carrying her toward the doorway leading out of the waiting room, to the hallway beyond. But the castle quaked again, and the ceiling ahead of them collapsed, huge chunks of stone coming crashing down.
And blocking their only exit.
Piper swore, turning around and making his way back to the door to the Collector’s office. He tried the knob, but it was locked.
“Damn it!” he cursed, kicking the door. “Hey! Help!” He kicked the door again, and Kendra gasped, clutching onto the javelin impaling her. “Gideon! Bella! Open the goddamn door!”
Kendra tried to say something, but coughed up clotted blood, each cough making her clutch her chest harder.
“Nightmare, get us out of here,” Piper ordered. The Familiar went to the collapsed hallway, lifting pieces of rubble with its tentacles. A small hole appeared above, silver rays of moonlight streaming through.
Yes!
But the castle quaked again, and the floor gave out suddenly under Nightmare. The Familiar vanished below…and the hole in the floor expanded, hunks of the stone giving way only a few feet from where Piper stood. He swore, backing away toward the corner of the room. A small island of the floor remained around Piper and to one side of the door to the Collector’s office…where Goo was hanging half-off the edge of the hole.
The ceiling above crumbled, hunks of stone falling into steadily-widening abyss. Directly above Piper, the ceiling sagged, a huge hunk of it threatening to break free.
Goo hoisted himself up onto the small piece of floor, climbing up the walls to what remained of the ceiling. He sent green tendrils out above Piper and Kendra…tendrils that supported the sagging ceiling, preventing it from crashing down on them.
For now.
Kendra gripped the shaft of the javelin tightly, trying to pull it out of herself. Piper gasped in horror.
“Baby, what are you doing?”
“Get it…out,” she ordered.
“You’ll die,” he retorted. She grimaced, trying again, but to no avail.
“Do it,” she insisted.
“I can still save us,” Piper insisted. The castle quaked again, more of the floor giving way…and then the whole castle seemed to shift.
It was leaning.
“And now the castle’s tipping over,” he realized.
“Can’t…save us,” Kendra mumbled. Piper hesitated, then glanced up at the ceiling. Goo was the only thing stopping it from collapsing on them…and if this room was collapsing, that meant the main tower above would too. And if the rubble from that fell on them…
“Well damn,” he muttered.
“Told you…so,” she stated with a bloody smirk. She coughed, spitting out
another clot. She kicked off her boots then. “Take them,” she prompted. “Run down…the walls.”
“I’ll carry you down with me,” Piper said. “We can…”
“My weight will screw it…up,” Kendra retorted. “Go. Get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Piper insisted.
“I deserve it,” Kendra argued. “After everything I…did. The people I betrayed.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” he retorted. “I forgive you.”
“I don’t forgive myself,” she shot back. “Piper, go on without me. It’s better…this way.”
“No way.”
“Do it,” Kendra ordered. “Go find…someone else to…torture.”
“Babe…”
“She better…be cute,” Kendra said, devolving into another fit of coughing. “I want to be jealous when I come back to haunt you.”
Piper smiled despite himself.
“You’re something else, you know that?”
“Go on,” she insisted.
“No.”
“Go,” she pressed, glaring at him. “That’s an order.”
“Not a chance,” Piper replied. He felt the whole castle shift, and it seemed to lean even more to the left. He squatted down, holding Kendra in his arms. “I made a promise, remember?”
“Piper…”
“Where you go, I go,” he vowed.
There was a horrible crack, and the floor underneath them sank downward a foot. Kendra clutched onto Piper tightly, and he held her close, leaning over to kiss her on the forehead.
“Ready love?” he asked. She shook her head, tearing welling up in her eyes.
“No.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
And then the world crumbled beneath them, and the castle swallowed them whole.
Chapter 51
Bella stood a few yards from the Collector, Sleep Terror clutched in her right hand. Gideon lay unconscious on the floor, his face bloodied, Nemesis’s decapitated body close by. Myko was on his side on the floor by Bella, his throat crushed, struggling for air.
She rushed to Gideon’s side…right as Miss Savage – sitting in her chair nearby – drew her bow across her violin, starting a new song. A song that was fast and furious, sending a shudder through Bella. Indeed, the whole castle seemed to shudder, the floor vibrating subtly beneath them.
