by Tim O'Rourke
“A hello would have been good,” I said, brushing Isidor out of the way. “She risked her life coming in search of you, but all you’ve done since we got here is bitch about Ravenwood.”
“I’m sorry,” Isidor said, looking with concern at his sister as I scooped her up into my arms.
“You will be if we don’t get her to the Dead Waters – and fast,” I said, spreading my wings and soaring up into the sky.
Another blast of thunder rocked the darkening sky all around me. I looked down to see Isidor racing up toward me, Melody Rose in his arms. It was then I saw a set of white claws reach up out of the hole in the ground, and refill it with earth, so you would’ve never known it was there.
By the time we reached the shores of the Dead Waters, it was night and Kayla felt like stone in my arms. I headed over the sand and toward the crimson waters that sloshed against the shoreline.
“Hey!” I heard Isidor call out.
I looked back. Melody was sitting further along the shore where Isidor had left her. Isidor heaved Kayla from my arms and into his.
“Let me take her,” Isidor said. “When she wakes, I want to be the first person she sees.”
I stood with the blood red tide sloshing around my boots, and watched Isidor carry his sister out into the middle of the lake. I turned my back on them and slowly headed up the shore, picking up driftwood as I went. Reaching Melody, I knelt in the sand next to her and started to build a fire. It was cold, and when I glanced up at the night sky it was starless. There was no moon – just the cracks. I lit the fire and Melody shuffled closer to it to keep warm. She pulled Isidor’s coat tight about her shoulders.
I lit a cigarette. “Are you sure you don’t want one?”
“Sure”, she said, looking out across the lake. I followed her stare and could see Isidor lowering Kayla into the water like he were baptising her. Kayla was only beneath the water moments before the surface of it began to ripple and stir. Then, very slowly, Kayla’s head and shoulders appeared from beneath the water. She looked at her brother and he stared back at her. They flung their arms tightly about each other and even from the shoreline I could hear the unmistakable sound of Kayla’s happy sobs. If nothing else, that made going to find Isidor worthwhile to me.
I glanced at Melody as she watched Isidor and Kayla in the water.
“Are you feeling stronger?” I asked. I had noticed what looked like gunshot wounds on her back earlier.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I’ll be fine tomorrow. I heal quickly.”
“I didn’t know you were a Vampyrus like us,” I said, surprised by her remark.
She looked at me. “I’m not a Vampyrus. I’m a Lycanthrope – a wolf,” she said.
I was even more shocked by this comment and I think Melody sensed this. “Does Isidor know?”
“I would’ve thought so, wouldn’t you?” she came back at me, her long, pink hair draped over the collar of Isidor’s coat.
I looked back out across the water. Isidor and Kayla were now splashing each other with handfuls of water. My first instinct was to tell Melody to fuck off – we didn’t need another wolf tagging along. They just brought trouble with them. But as I watched Kayla laughing as she splashed her brother with the blood red waters, I thought of what she had said about each wolf being different. Just like my own race, the Vampyrus, there was good and bad.
So, flicking ash from my cigarette into the fire, I glanced sideways at her and said, “Do you love him?”
“With all my heart,” she said, looking at me, the glow from the fire making her pretty eyes sparkle with light.
“I’m glad to hear it, because that boy loves you,” I told her. “He risked his life – he risked everything to find you.”
“Isidor explained,” she said, looking back across the waters at him. “I know what he did, and that’s why I love him.”
Then, dropping my voice low, I said, “I’m not the biggest fan of the wolves, but I’m happy to give you a chance for Isidor’s sake. But if you so much as harm one hair on that boy’s head, I promise I will rip your fucking heart out without even blinking.”
Melody turned to look at me from beneath her pink fringe. “I think me and you are going to be great friends, Potter.”
“Oh yeah, and what makes you think that?”
“Because we both have something in common,” she said.
I raised my eyebrows. “Such as?”
“We obviously both love Isidor very much. The only difference is that I am not too scared to show it,” she smiled, turning and looking back at Isidor and Kayla splashing happily about in the Dead Waters.
Chapter Seven
Kayla
Even over the splashing of the water, and being in the middle of the vast lake, I heard the warning Potter had given Melody.
Smiling to myself, I looked at Isidor and said, “Potter has just told Melody that he’s going to rip her fucking heart out.”
“What!” Isidor gasped, wiping away the dead waters that dripped from his soaked hair and onto his face.
He turned and started to wade back toward the shore. I gripped his arm. “Wait, Isidor, it’s not what you think. He only said it because he cares about you.”
“Cares about me?” Isidor spluttered, looking back at me.
“We all care about you, Isi,” I said. “That night you stayed back at the station broke all of our hearts. Even Potter’s. He told me as much. You know what he can be like at times. He doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just his way. We all thought you had died.”
Isidor waded closer to me, taking my hands in his. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I’m sorry for hurting any of you, but I had to go and find Melody.”
“I understand now, but back then, it hurt so much to think that I’d lost you. For so long I’ve believed that you were dead.”
“And I would’ve been if it hadn’t have been for Jack Seth,” Isidor explained.
“So it was Jack who saved you?” I said, and for the first time since being pushed into this world, I felt my heart start to be beat. It was starting again in a quick series of flutters, then it sped up and I staggered forward as if being shoved from behind. Isidor steadied me.
“Is your heart beating again?” he asked.
“Yes,” I breathed, looking at him.
“Mine started as soon as I stepped into the waters,” he said. “Feels strange, doesn’t it? And to think I never noticed it before. I guess it’s like breathing. You do it hundreds of times a day without even noticing. You’ll get used to the sensation again. In a few hours it will be like your heart had never stopped beating.”
I looked at my hands and the skin was pale and soft to the touch. I felt my cheeks, water dripping from the tips of my fingers. The flesh covering my face felt supple once again. “How do I look?” I asked him.
“As beautiful as ever,” he grinned at me.
“I missed you, Isidor,” I said.
“Well I’m back now,” he smiled again. Then looking over at the shore, he said, “Where’s Sam? Where are the others?”
“Sam’s dead,” I told him.
“How?” Isidor asked, his smile now gone.
With the water lapping about us, I told Isidor how Sam and I had been tricked by Luke Bishop to travel back through the cracks and take photographs. “That’s how I guessed that you were still alive,” I explained. “We were sent to times and places where we knew each of you would be. But Sam never came back with a picture of you and Melody like he was supposed to. Instead, Sam came back with a picture of Jack Seth and his brother Nik. Luke was furious and beat Sam to death. But it got me wondering if perhaps somehow Jack had intervened and taken your place.”
“Jack showed up just moments after you left that station waiting room,” Isidor said over another deep rumble of thunder. “He said he was saving my life and that I was to go and search for Melody Rose. I still don’t understand why he swapped places with me. Why would he sacrifice himself for me?”
“I think h
e did it for his sister,” I said thoughtfully, looking down at my hands again.
“Sister?” Isidor frowned.
“Kiera,” I said, glancing up at him. Then seeing the look of bewilderment on his face, I realised that Isidor had no idea that Jack and Kiera were related. Isidor had missed so much. Taking Isidor by the hand, and wading back through the red waters toward the shore, I explained as much as I knew about Kiera, Jack, and how I believed I would one day see Sam again.
We reached the fire where Potter and Melody sat. Potter looked as moody and as sullen as ever. Melody smiled at me as I sat next to her before the fire. I could already feel the heat from the crackling flames drying my hair, skin, and clothes. Isidor sat next to Potter.
“Hey, Melody,” I said. “I feel like I know you already, as Isidor has told us all so much about you.”
Snuggled before the fire and wearing Isidor’s coat, I could see why Isidor took such great risks to be with her again. She was real pretty with her long, pink hair, and the rose tattoos that covered her neck and the backs of her hands and feet. She looked a little uncomfortable as we all knew each other well and she only knew Isidor.
“I’ve heard so much about you, too, Kayla,” Melody said. “It’s great to finally meet you.”
“So what about the cracks?” Isidor asked, looking up at the fractured night sky.
I heard someone coming and looked up to see a woman standing just at the edge of the treeline that circled the Dead Waters.
“What about them?” the woman said.
She was wearing a long, white fur coat, her hair was white-blonde and she had full red lips. She was stunningly beautiful and shared a striking resemblance to Marilyn Monroe. She sauntered slowly down the shore toward us.
Stopping before the fire, hands on hips, she glared down at Potter and said, “I thought I told you not to change anything. Didn’t I warn you that to do so would be very dangerous indeed?”
“Stop getting your knickers in a twist, Blue-eyes or whatever your name is this week, and take a seat by the fire,” Potter grunted, lighting another cigarette.
Reluctantly, the woman sat down next to Potter.
Chapter Eight
Kiera
I sat alone on a plateau of rock that jutted out of the side of a small hill. I took my iPod from my pocket, pressed the earphones into my ears and listened to the song Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paloma Faith. It was cold and I pulled my coat tight about me. I let the wind dry the tears that had stained my cheeks. The night sky looked like a giant cracked piece of dark granite stone above me. The distant boom of thunder sounded like bombs exploding over the horizon.
Below I could see the cones of torchlight sweeping back and forth over the rugged countryside as the Skin-walkers searched for us. They were relentless in their search and I knew they would never give up. Perhaps they sensed too that all of this – this pushed world – was going to come to an end soon. It looked like it was falling apart. Breaking away, piece by piece. I glanced up at the night sky again. The song came to an end and I heard a sudden noise behind me. I looked back, claws out.
“It’s just me, Kiera,” a voice said.
I screwed my eyes tight and peered through my long lashes and into the dark. Murphy was coming toward me. His wings were gone, so were his claws and his mean expression had evaporated. He looked like the Murphy I really knew and loved. His shredded shirt was missing, and he wore only his trousers and worn out slippers.
“Budge up,” he said, sitting down beside me on the lip of rock.
I looked out across the vast countryside, the torchlight still weaving to and fro below.
“I’m sorry, Kiera,” Murphy whispered. “I didn’t mean what I said back there. If I could take it back, I would. You were right about what you see in me. I’m just hurting and I’m angry, but I should have never taken it out on you. I know none of this mess rests entirely on you.”
“But I feel it does,” I said, his apology accepted but still unable to look at him. It was difficult seeing such pain in the eyes of the man who I loved like a father. Murphy had usually been so strong and I relied on that strength. It kept me strong, too. Meren had said on the road that she had believed in me. Watching me struggle had made her stronger. And I had drawn strength from watching Murphy face down his demons too.
“Why do you think this all rests with you?” Murphy asked, sitting shoulder to shoulder with me.
“The Elders told me that I wouldn’t be going back with you – with any of you,” I said.
“The Elders can say what they want, but no one is getting left behind, Kiera. We’re family. All of us,” Murphy said. Placing his hand gently over mine, he added, “Ever since I saved you as a newborn baby from the Dead Waters, I’ve watched over you. It might sometimes have been from afar, but I’ve always had your back. You might have not always known it – but I’ve always been there.”
I laced my fingers through his and gently squeezed his hand. “Like when?”
“Do you remember that creepy priest you investigated while still at police training school? His name was Father Rochford,” Murphy said.
“Vaguely,” I said, now glancing at him in the dark. That life seemed like it had taken place a hundred lifetimes ago. Perhaps it had.
“Well, I’d gone that day to lay flowers on my brother’s grave – your father’s grave – and you showed up. The Vampyrus had been watching that freak for a while, he was just like those other fuck-wits Taylor, Phillips and Rom. Rochford was a Vampyrus too, but one that wanted to suck the blood from humans. But you seemed to have stumbled across him too, so I sat back and watched. I wanted to see if you would suss him out. And you came close – you did pretty good. But he eventually had you trapped in those corridors and I couldn’t let him kill you, so I killed him. Do you remember that?”
I closed my eyes and could see myself being suffocated by a man in a narrow corridor. But I sensed there had been someone else in that corridor with me. Someone who had taken the bad man away. But trying to remember it now was like trying to watch an old black and white movie through a shattered TV screen. I opened my eyes. Murphy was watching me.
“You don’t really remember, do you?” he said. “It doesn’t matter now, but what I’m trying to say, Kiera, is that I’ve always been there for you, even when you didn’t know it, and I ain’t going to stop being here for you now.”
“I don’t think it’s down to you – it’s down to me. The Elders told me so,” I said.
“Those twisted fuckers are just playing games,” Murphy grumbled. “They’re punishing you for not choosing between the Vampyrus and humans, we all know that.” He pulled his pipe from his back pocket, cupping his hand around the bowl as he lit it, shielding the flame from the wind and the Skin-walkers who searched for us below. He pumped wispy clouds of smoke into the night. The tobacco smelt stale and old.
“And that’s why the buck does stop with me,” I said. “This time I’m not choosing between the Vampyrus and the humans – or even the wolves. This time, my choice is letting you all go back to happy lives and me staying here alone. That’s my punishment. That’s why you were all brought back. I’m the only one who can end this nightmare for you all. It’s not my own suffering I can’t bear. It’s your suffering and that of all my friends. They are dying because of me.”
“That’s not true,” Murphy said, slipping one strong arm about my shoulders and pulling me close. “You’ve got to stop thinking like that, Kiera.”
“What I say is true,” I told him, feeling secure and safe next to him. I wanted that feeling to last forever, but I knew that was an impossible dream. But I would cherish the moment now and forevermore. “I know how I can end my friends’ suffering. I think I’ve known for a while now.”
“What is it you think you know?” Murphy asked me, the pipe drooping from the corner of his mouth.
“When I went in search of my father just after we lost Isidor, I came across a graveyard. The Elders were waiting f
or me there. They showed me several statues. There was a statue of you, Murphy, and you were with Meren and Nessa. There was a statue of Isidor and Melody, Sam and Kayla, and Potter and Sophie Harrison. All of you looked so happy. Even though you were all just statues, I could see the joy in your eyes. The Elders told me that all of you could be happy with the people you loved but you would all forget me. It would be like I had never touched your lives. But I’ve been selfish.”
“Kiera, you are the most unselfish person I’ve ever met,” Murphy said. “You are always putting others first. Christ, you even gave up your own life to save the humans…”
“But I have been selfish,” I cut in. I didn’t want him to think that I was some kind of saint when I really wasn’t. “I could have ended your suffering some time ago. I could have prevented Potter’s death…if only I had said I’d give you up and send you back to the world before it got pushed…or to some other happier place. But I pretended I couldn’t see the choice I was being asked to make. I couldn’t choose to let any of you go because I didn’t want to be alone. But more than that, I didn’t want to see Potter in the arms of another. I didn’t want him to be with Sophie. I wanted him to be with me. But I’ve lost him anyway now. I fear that I will see all of you die one by one, until only I’m left. And that is how the Elders will truly punish me for deceiving them in the Dust Palace.”
Murphy looked at me. “Kiera, I’m not going back without you. Do you think I would be happier in a world where you played no part? Haven’t I already told you that I’ve been a part of your life since the day you were born? I’ve been there for you since you took your first breath, and I’ll be at your side holding your hand when you draw your last. The Elders are lying. How could any of us be happy if you weren’t part of our lives?”
“The Elders said you would forget me,” I reminded him. “They said it would be like you had never known me – like I’d never been part of your lives. So what would there be to miss? Why then would you be unhappy without me?”
