The Tapestry

by Wigmore, Paul

  This was all in the space of a few hours, the devastation was unseen since the days of the black plague which Saul had wrought upon this world before, although he had not quite finished his masterpiece yet.

  At 1:45 that afternoon, Tom Mclurey walked through the streets of death, pulling his cart behind him, not really sure where he was going to take his cart or what to do with it when he got there. He had just decided that he had to focus on something.

  Of course when he had kissed his wife Linda goodbye that morning and shook his over zealous Labrador pup from his ankle, he had not known his whole world was about to fall down around his eyes like the London stock market on Black Wednesday. But it had and there was nothing he could do to change that now, all he could do was ring the bell he had found in the rubble around the Paternoster Square Column which now lay on its side amid the rubble of the London Stock Exchange itself.

  He had fled the building earlier on that morning when the fleas first took hold. There was a slow wave of realisation that swept through the building as people began scratching at their arms and legs whilst trying to buy or sell their shares, for their clients. The mild discomfort soon turned to panic as the little parasites became all too visible. He was lucky as he had been close to the exits when the wave of panic spread to hysteria and people began to rush towards him and the exits. He turned tail and fled like any sane person would. He ran for maybe five minutes but those five minutes felt like five hours as he watched the devastation all around him spread like wildfire. Over the next hour or two he wandered the streets, trying to avoid the crazy people and falling bodies. He wanted to get back home to Linda and the Labrador pup, “Cobra” but as the time went on it became more and more difficult to move through the streets. He eventually realised he had turned back on himself and was heading back towards Paternoster Square. He was riddled with bites and felt sick to his stomach but something pushed him on to go back there.

  There had been an explosion from what seemed to have originated from “The Gentry”. It was a pub directly opposite the Stock Exchange that Tom frequented most afternoons. It looked to him as if it had blown right through the pub and also the gas pipes underneath as it had blown right through the front of his beloved exchange. This was his second home, in fact Linda had said he spent more time at work than at home lately. He saw the bodies lying strewn all over and the Column on its side. There were still people screaming from windows or falling to their deaths. He clambered over the column itself towards something that had been twinkling in the firelight. He picked up the bell, which he recognised as the one Joe would have used in “The Gentry” at last orders and that was the moment he finally lost it. His friends had all gone, his wife was unreachable... he had tried calling but received no answer at home, so he could only think the worst. He took the bell and for reasons only known to himself, went looking for a suitable cart. When he found one in a local supermarket he began to fill up his cart with the dead as he walked along the streets of London calling an all too familiar chant whilst he rang his bell.

  Bring out your dead,

  Bring out your dead.

  And that’s how at 1:45 on the 5th June 2010 a London stockbroker was found to be walking the streets of London with a Tesco pallet trolley dragging behind him ringing a bell and calling for the dead to be brought forward.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  Seb and Clara were unaware of the events unfolding around them as the Dragons had kept them in a protective bubble, so that no harm could come to the Guardian. At first Seb was in shock and felt an overwhelming sense of awe when he saw the first majestic creature settle on the open field nearby. It took up nearly the whole of the field and took nearly all his strength not to turn tail and run, also Clara sensed his fear and grabbed his hand in hers and led him forwards, towards the mighty beasts and somehow Seb realised he would rather die than look a coward in the eyes of Clara. Whatever had happened over the last few days had brought them closer together and he wondered, would he? Could he, could they? After Stan...? But they were questions best left unspoken until they had finished whatever they needed to do right now and were back to normality. Although he doubted that things would ever be back to normal again.

  The other beast settled nearby and Clara walked proud and tall towards them showing no signs of fear at all.

  ‘Stop Clara, this is madness’ Seb tried to pull her back but she just wriggled her hand free of his and carried on shouting over her shoulder.

  ‘They won’t harm us Seb, come closer.’ The woman’s finally flipped, he thought but found his feet moving him further into the field towards the beasts instead of away from them (which is actually what he thought they should be doing... god damn treacherous feet)

  Clara was stood no more than twenty feet away from the massive beasts, their heads dwarfing her when she looked up and began to chide them like naughty children.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me, did you not think I had a right to know that this “evil one” you spoke of is actually the lost soul of my brother...well?’

  Of all the sights that Seb had seen over the last few days, of all the strange things that had happened to him, this had to be the most ridiculous sight he had ever seen or he thought he ever would. A middle aged woman, standing in a field occupied with two of the largest most fiercesome creatures known to have walked this planet, and what was she doing? Giving them a good telling off that’s what. It could only be Clara that would do such a thing he thought and rushed to her side, although he wasn’t sure what he might do were they to attack. As he got to her side, the one occupying the first field spoke, the other one had settled itself across two adjacent smaller fields. It sounded like music made from ancient instruments clattering against each other, bongs and chimes somehow in its voice when it spoke. It was like music heard from far away, on the other side of a mountain that had bounced and echoed off the valley walls before it reached his ears. It was trance like, almost hypnotic in its melody and beauty.

  ‘We are sorry for the turmoil and anguish you are feeling right now Guardian, but would you be here right now if we had told you sooner?

  ‘Well, you didn’t tell me at all; Satans wife had to tell me actually, can’t say I’m impressed with your choice of messenger either.’

  The dragon had a look of coyness about him and shifted his gaze lower as if ashamed.

  ‘That was an unfortunate oversight on our part’ He lifted his front paw to his mighty head and coughed as if trying to clear his throat.

  ‘We meant to tell you this noon day and not before, we didn’t...’ Clara cut him off

  ‘Oh, so you weren’t going to tell me until today? Well that’s mighty kind of you...thankyou, maybe it’s a good job that Lilith visited with me then.’ the dark sarcasm in her tone was all too evident.

  Seb reached for her arm to try and stay her from angering the beasts but she shrugged him off again and strode further towards the beast. The dragons’ breath danced around her as it snorted its surprise at her proximity.

  ‘It seems we chose wisely, you have the courage of a dragon coursing through your veins Guardian’ Seb stood by her side and was craning his neck to look up into the eyes of the beautiful creature. Somehow he felt safe, he knew they would not be harmed. Although they were fiercesome looking creatures, he knew they were benevolent, generous creatures that were not known to harm innocent beings.

  The other dragon crept closer so that it might see the Guardian a little better. When it spoke it was even more beautiful than the other. The sound was that of harps and chimes, a hundred or more all playing simultaneously to make one beautiful set of chords that Clara felt the likes of would only be heard in heaven.

  ‘You have also chosen wisely in your assistant Guardian, I can see he has a noble mind, but his will is not so strong. You can not finish this day without him Guardian, but you will end this day, one way or another... this day will end’ there was a look passed between the two females that Seb didn’t catch as he was too busy marv
elling at the pearl of wisdom beneath its chin. It seemed to be just a mass of roiling clouds that his eyes couldn’t penetrate but kept his gaze as if he were held in a hypnotic stare (and maybe it was better for him that he didn’t see the knowing look passed between them) The dragon that Clara had begun to think of as the male one of the two, turned it’s majestic head towards her and in a kindly tone said

  ‘And we...the Tien-lung are aware that you have no others to help as it were’ Clara wanted to speak, she wanted to ask if there was any other way, she wanted to plead with them but somehow she knew that this was the only way. But the dragons chose her and her grandmother for their strength and for the very fact that they had the hearts of dragons themselves. This day might end, but I will not, she thought in utter defiance.

  ‘So tell me about my brother Gavin, what am I to do’ she finally asked.

  ‘Your brother can still be helped, he is not the evil one, his soul has been used as a puppet for a demon known to us as Saul. When his usefulness has expired, his soul will be devoured by Saul, but you can still help him’ the male dragons pearl under his chin shone brighter than ever before.

  ‘Look into the pearl of wisdom Guardian and you will find your answers’ As she looked inside, the clouds began to clear and she was horrified at what she saw, the bird attacking the drunken man, the girls in the pub, dying at her brothers hand. It also showed her Saul, in all his demonic glory, grooming the soul of Gavin. She went back into his own mind with him and Saul, and she watched as he wept at the sight of “the man”. She also saw the bloody revenge he had dealt him. She saw how Gavin had been used by this demon and she wept uncontrollably at what had happened to her brother who should be sitting above watching over her now.

  ‘Stop... stop this, I can’t know anymore... how can he be saved, his soul is bound for hell and there is nothing I can do to change it’ she muffled through the sleeve of her blouse as she cried into her arm. Seb had looked into the pearl too; he had known Gavin and always thought of him as slightly odd, but not in this way. He felt sick to his stomach when he saw what had happened to the little beetle man, but he felt sure that wasn’t Gavin; it was that demon controlling him somehow. Clara had knelt to the floor crying uncontrollably into her arms, he bent to lift her up but she shooed him away.

  ‘Get out, go away, I don’t want you to see this... please Seb, just walk away’

  ‘I just want to help’ he pleaded

  ‘Then leave me to see the terror my own brother has wrought on my own’ she turned to look into his face and the tears were streaming, but there was something else in her face. It was anger, it was hatred for her brothers memory being defiled in such a way.

  ‘But, it wasn’t him, can’t you see...’

  ‘GO...please’ she begged.

  He left her in the circle of clouds and waited at the foot of a nearby tree, feeling slightly useless.

  The dragons took her further into the darkest corners of her brothers’ mind. They showed her the dark twisting staircases of his diseased consciousness and she wept further as she walked those dark, damp halls with its hundreds upon hundreds of doors. So many memories locked away... why? Such a waste, she thought. He hadn’t only locked away the bad memories, he had also locked away the good memories, never to be looked upon again. But then she understood, they had not had a good childhood, in fact it could not even be called a childhood. So many beatings they had received at the hands of that awful man. He had stolen their childhood from them. So Gavin had not only locked away the bad memories. He had locked away the good ones too; for he was scared that maybe they weren’t real. Anything good that had happened to him, could be taken away in a flash, just like when he was a boy. So he protected them even from himself in this massive library of memories, that way nothing could harm him. As she walked through those corridors with the little lamps only faintly glowing along the walls, she tried each door, hoping to be able to open one at least, but there was not an open door to be found. Such a closed mind, and such a terrible waste she kept thinking to herself through her tears.

  The dragons then led her to a door which had its own corridor; there were no lights in this corridor. It was totally separate from the rest of the hallways. The darkness around this one hallway seemed to be teeming with life; its shape was ever changing. It was quite clear that the door at the end of this hallway was never meant to be opened ever again, the key had been thrown away, never to be found.

  What could be beyond that door she wondered, the dragons had shown her this door for a reason, but why?

  She nervously stepped into the darkness, only to be pulled back from it instantly.

  ‘Guardian, you can’t walk that path alone’ and as the voice boomed in her head she saw a shadow from the wall forming into something. It seemed to have a sallow face dressed in a robe of darkness that contrasted the pale colour of its face. Its eyes were just empty sockets and its mouth was nothing more than a hole that dripped the shadowy liquid onto its face. But it was coming towards her and she was paralysed with fear. It lifted one cloaked arm and floated towards her, the bones beneath its robes were only just discernible as it sped towards her with a speed she thought not possible, its’ eye sockets shining and its open maw ready to taste her blood before she found herself back in the safety of the clouds.

  She didn’t know how or why, but she knew that door was somehow the key, the key to saving Gavin from an eternal damnation in hell. He was still her brother, no matter what he had done, she knew he had been controlled by this Saul demon, and she would save him...somehow, she would.

  She tried to look through the clouds, to see more, she needed to know, but their density was too thick.

  ‘Show me more’ she demanded ‘You must show me everything’

  ‘Very well’ came the melodic voice and the clouds parted again.

  ‘Since you have been under our protective wings, the demon Saul has wrought terror on our Earth. Many have died and many more will die, he has brought pestilence and disease of a scale never known to humankind before. You and you alone can stop him’

  The visions of people falling to their deaths from the burning buildings and the looting were all played out before Claras eyes. The terror and the destruction, the people wandering aimlessly in the rubble, looking for loved ones, there was also a vision of a man pulling a cart behind him full of bodies, dressed in a shirt and tie slightly askew ringing a bell. Then the vision took her to the warehouse and Gavin, Saul and Lilith chanting the age old nursery rhyme that had been prevalent in her own head for so long now. She saw the fleas being born from the glass, laden with disease and she retched. One hand held to her stomach and the other to her mouth as she begged,

  ‘This can not be true, please tell me this is a lie, please I beg you?’

  ‘This is the way of things as they are at the moment Guardian, only you can change what is happening, only you can bring us back to what once was, otherwise the dogs of hell will descend upon Mothers Earth and Saul will rejoice’.

  ‘Let me out... I can’t take anymore, let me out’

  The dragons let her free from the pearl and she stood, looking more like a broken woman than ever before.

  ‘What am I to do, one woman?’ she implored them as she stood before the mighty beasts feeling more and more insignificant as the seconds ticked away, Her legs gave way before she received an answer, but Seb was there to catch her.

  When she came round it felt like days had passed although it had only been an hour or two, the dragons had let her rest before they sprayed the lavender from their scales to arouse her.

  ‘Tell me how I must defeat this Saul.’ she said rather sullenly as she stood to face the dragons again.

  They told her a tale of long ago, how they had known this day was coming, they came from their palace under the sea and they laid a hundred eggs across the land, each one in a very important position where the ley lines crossed each other to create magical forces, all for the power of good. The eggs that the
y laid would hold the most powerful Dragon, more powerful than themselves; more powerful than any force of nature and the job of the Guardian was to call the forces of nature to crack open this egg, should the time ever arise. The Guardian was never meant to defeat the Evil one herself; she would have some help... She would have the Dragonfire and its makers to help her.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  Once the dragons had left, Clara and Seb ran to the Pub and she put her hands out towards the Trident. It came alive when it realised her presence. The humming became louder and the iron itself began to glow a strange electric blue before it loosed itself from its brackets and shot into her hands.

  ‘The village’ she shouted and then ran in the direction of the trident path. When Clara got to the top of the path, she could see nothing but flames searching for the sky, she also knew this wasn’t the worst of it.

  ‘Stay back, just stay there for gods sake’ she cried back to Seb, who was amazed at the strength she seemed to have found since holding the trident. It must have weighed more than a house and yet she carried it with ease, it was still glowing that eerie blue light, but none of this seemed to phase her and now she was yelling at him to stay back. Well he was having none of it, he was about to run to her side to see what had been happening, he could see the cloud of smoke coming from the village so he knew it wasn’t good, but then his phone rang...it was Sophia.

  ‘Don’t answer that’ Clara screamed, knowing only too well, who it would be, but it was too late.

  Seb ran towards the hedge and Clara overlooking the burning village answering his phone as he did.

  ‘Dad, what’s happening, please help’ came the anguished cry from the other end of satellite beams.