Dead End

by Tim O'Rourke

  “I fucking love this part,” she said grinning, her fangs and claws already out.

  Isidor sprang into the sky and Melody crept from the roof. I glanced back at the stage just as Murphy looked up. He saw me and his eyes widened. He opened his mouth as if to call out to me. I placed one finger over my lips and winked back at him. Masking his surprise, and as if understanding what was coming next, he called out to Rom. I couldn’t hear what he said over the roar of the wolves below.

  I looked down to see Melody easing her way through the crowds and toward the stage. Then, glancing at Isidor and Kayla who were hovering in the air next to the nearby lights, I nodded my head and said, “Let’s do this.”

  The lights went out.

  Chapter Twelve

  Kiera

  I stared through the darkness and wondered if I wasn’t dead already. Had my head been sliced from my shoulders without me realising it? Why else would I be seeing Potter racing through the sky toward me, tatty-looking wings spread out on either side of him like some avenging angel? Had I died and disappeared through one of those cracks to find Potter waiting for me?

  Before I’d had the chance to figure out exactly what was happening, Potter was behind me, slicing his claws through my shackles and setting me free.

  “How you doing, sweet-cheeks?” he whispered, his mouth brushing against my ear. His breath was warm. It wasn’t cold like that of a living corpse. As if to wake me from my trance, he squeezed my arse and said, “That still feels as cute as ever.”

  Then he was gone, throwing himself across the stage and sinking his claws into Phillips’ face.

  Still in shock, and still not sure whether I was dead or seeing a ghost, I watched Kayla come screaming out of the sky. With claws out before her like a set of blades, she buried them deep into Father Taylor’s chest. Blood pumped over and up her forearms as Taylor convulsed before her, his mouth open and eyes bulging wide. With one swift movement she had yanked the priest’s heart out. He dropped to the floor, one leg twitching uncontrollably. Holding his pumping heart in her fist, Kayla took a bite from it as if it were nothing more than a juicy red apple. Kayla saw me staring at her wide-eyed.

  “Hey, Kiera,” she said around a mouthful of heart. It was like we had never been parted. “We’ve come to rescue you.”

  I blinked as if struggling to take everything in. “Is that really Potter?” I gasped.

  “The one and only,” Kayla smiled as she swallowed the last chunk of heart and licked her blood-stained claws clean.

  “But I thought he was dead,” I said, struggling to make sense of watching Potter tearing and biting out Phillips’s throat. “I saw him die…”

  Before Kayla had had a chance to say anything, there was a roar and scrambling sound coming from the front of the stage. The wolves were trying to get onto it. There was a young woman standing at the front of the stage and she was trying to shoo them back by waving her hands at them. The wolves clawed at her, sinking their long, broken nails into her thigh. She cried out. It was shrill at first, then gradually turned into a deep roar. The girl covered in roses suddenly changed shape. It was like a giant wolf had burst from within the roses that covered her skin. It seemed the monster had always been hiding amongst the beautiful flowers, but was just waiting to be set free. Now that it was, it snapped its giant jaws at the wolves clambering up onto the stage.

  “Is that Melody Ro…?” I started to ask, turning to look at Kayla again. But she had gone, and was helping to release Murphy with the aid of Isidor…Isidor!

  Isidor is alive too! I must be dead. I wanted to touch him, hug him, to make sure that he was really there. As I crossed the stage, I saw Meren lying on her side, hands still secured with chains behind her back. A wolf had managed to slip past Melody. It slinked forward, heading toward Meren. Drool swung from the creature’s jaws. It raised one giant paw. With my wings tearing from my back and those little claws at each tip opening and closing, I flew across the stage. Quicker than a blink, my fangs had burst from my gums and my claws had slid from my fingertips. I pounced onto the back of the wolf. Howling, the beast threw its head backwards in an attempt to chuck me clear. But with my claws dug into his fur-covered flanks, I held tight. I could feel the wolf’s blood pumping over my fists as I tore and stabbed at its internal organs. Wrapping my claws around its slippery guts, I yanked as hard as I could. The wolf bucked so violently beneath me, that this time I was thrown clear. I clattered across the stage, rolling to a stop next to Meren.

  I looked back at the wolf to see it writhing in agony. Blood gushed from its long snout like a river of black tar. Knowing that I was safe – for now at least – I crouched beside Meren, rolling her over onto her front. With my claws out, I slashed at the chains. They came away, rattling to the ground. I helped Meren to her feet.

  “Thanks, Kiera,” she said before springing away, wings beating furiously.

  She landed on the stage next to her father. I looked at Murphy. He had Rom pinned down, while he bit and tore at his face. His fangs peeled the flesh from Rom’s bald head, slicing it away from his skull like skin coming away from an overripe fruit. Rom tried to fight back as blood gushed down his face and into his arms. Murphy pinned him flat as he savagely chomped away at Rom’s face with his jaws. He bit off each of Rom’s ears and tore off his nose, spitting them from his mouth in a pool of blood. Murphy was keeping the promise he had made to Rom.

  With Rom falling still, the fight now gone, Murphy swung back his arm so he could drive his claw into his enemy’s chest. Meren grabbed his fist. Murphy looked up at her.

  “Let me do it,” she urged her father. “Let me do it for Alice, Peter, and Gayle.”

  Murphy lowered his claw and moved aside so his daughter could get at Rom. Meren pulled back her claw, then screaming, she drove it into Rom’s chest. Rom bucked beneath her, then fell perfectly still as Meren ripped his heart from his chest. She stood, panting, blood dripping from her fist that held Rom’s heart. She took one last look at Rom, then let his heart slide from between her claws and splatter wetly onto the stage. Coolly, she simply turned and walked away.

  I had been right about Meren. She was very much like her father.

  Looking in the direction of the crowds, I could see that Potter and Isidor had now joined Melody in preventing the wolves from climbing up onto the stage. They slashed their claws back and forth, slicing and cutting at the wolves that dared come too close.

  “Do we have everyone?” Potter yelled back over his shoulder. He caught my eye and smiled, then looked away.

  “We’re done here,” Murphy shouted.

  “Then let’s fuck off out of here,” Potter yelled back, spreading his wings and soaring up into the night. Isidor threw one arm around Melody as she changed back into that innocent-looking young woman covered in roses. Isidor launched into the sky with her, followed by Meren. Murphy followed and so did I.

  We didn’t fly for long, only as far as the next town I knew to be called Snake Weed. We hovered over the hills surrounding the town that lay at the bottom of a deep valley. Potter swooped in beside me, reaching for my hand. I let him take it. I didn’t know what to feel or what to say. A part of me still felt like this was some dying dream I was having as my head rolled away on that stage beneath the guillotine. I couldn’t believe it was real. I didn’t want to believe that Potter was alive – just in case I did wake up to discover that this was all some dream. But his touch felt so real – so warm – and I so wanted to believe. If this was real, why hadn’t Potter swooped me up into his arms and kissed me passionately? Why had he instead called me sweet-cheeks and slapped my arse? Because that’s exactly what Potter would have done in real life. Only in my dreams would he have swept me from off my feet.

  Still holding my hand, Potter swept down out of the sky, taking me with him. The others followed. All of us stood on the crest of a hill, the town of Snake Weed stretching out in the darkness below us. I had my eyes fixed on Potter. I wanted to ask him how? Why? But I
couldn’t. My head thumped and I felt suddenly sick and dizzy. The world seemed to be caving in on me.

  “We thought you were dead,” Murphy said to Potter.

  “Well I’m not,” Potter grinned.

  Murphy strode forward, punching Potter straight in the face. Potter dropped to his arse.

  “What was that for?” Potter groaned, throwing his hand to his now bleeding nose.

  “For being a complete and utter nob-end!” Murphy barked at him. “Do you have any idea how much hurt and pain you’ve caused?”

  “Well, I fucking do now,” Potter said, pulling himself to his feet, while trying to stem the flow of blood from his nostrils. “To be honest, I didn’t think anyone would really give a shit.”

  “Give a shit…?” Murphy breathed, then without saying another word, he pulled Potter close and hugged him tight. Then as quickly as he had taken hold of Potter, Murphy let his friend go again, then walked away, wiping his eyes as he went.

  “How? Why?” I whispered, looking at Potter, while the others all watched me in silence.

  “Nik took my place,” Potter said, arming away the blood that covered his top lip. He took the cigarette that he had parked behind his ear and lit it. “It wasn’t me you saw die, it was Jack Seth’s brother.”

  “Jack?” I breathed, my head feeling as if it were spinning.

  “He took my place,” Isidor said, stepping forward. “Jack Seth died saving my life.”

  I stared at Isidor, then back at Potter. He seemed to flicker in and out of focus before me. I was right, he was a ghost after all. Suddenly my legs buckled beneath me and the world went black.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kiera

  My eyes flickered open. I was sitting on a wooden bench. It had once been painted green, but the paint had long since come away, just leaving crusty flakes of colour. It was cold and I shivered, pulling my coat about me like a blanket. I couldn’t be sure of the time. The sky had that white colour – the colour that threatens snow. But there were no cracks above me at least. They had all gone now. I glanced about and could see that I was in the middle of a village – sitting in the town square. Was I back in Wasp Water? No, it looked different. There was a sign poking up out of the ground to my right. It swayed gently from side to side in the breeze. It read: Snake Weed.

  Snake weed? Why was I here alone? Weren’t my friends meant to be here too? Was this where Potter had led us? If so, why wasn’t he here too? But there was someone. There was a person standing in the centre of the town square. Their back was to me and I could see wings protruding from their back. The figure was too slender – too short to be Potter. It was a female Vampyrus.

  “Hello!” I called out. No response – not even a flinch. Their wings didn’t even flutter in the growing wind.

  Standing, hands in coat pockets, I made my way across the abandoned town square and toward the figure. As I neared, I could see that it wasn’t a person at all, but a statue.

  I stood in front of it and looked into its face. My heart suddenly felt as heavy as the statue standing before me. It was a statue of me. I was naked, my hair coiling over my shoulders and covering my stone breasts. My head was tilted slightly to one side, as if I was about to ask a question, and my hands were placed over my lap, to give me some modesty at least. One of my legs was slightly bent at the knee. There was a wooden plaque beneath my feet.

  Before I’d had a chance to read it, I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. I spun around to see my friends now standing before the statue just like me. How had they managed to creep up on me?

  “Hey,” I smiled, glad to see them. Perhaps they could explain why there was a statue of me in the middle of Snake Weed.

  They said nothing, like they hadn’t heard me.

  “Hey,” I said again, this time louder. Again they ignored me. It was like I wasn’t there. And then I got the sinking feeling in my heart that perhaps I wasn’t. But they were looking right at me. Why then wouldn’t they answer me?

  I went to speak to them again but my lips wouldn’t move. They wouldn’t open. What was happening to me? I tried to look down at myself, but to my horror I couldn’t. It was like I had become solid. Unmoveable, like a statue.

  I looked at my friends again and realised that I was the statue. It was as if I were trapped inside of it. I could see and hear my friends but I couldn’t talk to them or touch them. My hands were entwined over my lap, my head tilted slightly to one side as I stared down at them staring up at me. I could see Murphy. He stood arm in arm with a woman with thick white curly hair and full bright red lips. Meren stood with them and there was another girl who I guessed was her twin sister, Nessa. Isidor and Melody were staring up at me too. They were holding hands and looked so in love. Kayla! I could see Kayla and Sam. And just like Isidor and Melody Rose, they too were holding hands. Then I saw Potter. I wanted to call to him – reach for him, but I just couldn’t move. There was a woman standing by his side and she was truly beautiful. I had seen her before. She had been the pathologist who had carried out the post-mortem on my body when I got pushed into this world. I knew it was Sophie who stood with Potter. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and the end of it swished about her shoulders. Her blue eyes were piercing yet kind, and her lips were so full, the kind that any man would find very kissable. With her pretty face staring up into mine, Sophie slowly snaked her arm through Potter’s and he pulled her close. Potter and Sophie looked truly happy together – they looked very much in love.

  I wanted to turn my head and look away. I didn’t want to see Potter with another woman. I didn’t want to see him with Sophie. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t. Statues didn’t cry. They were nothing more than hollow husks with no soul and no feeling. But why then did my heart ache so much?

  “She looks like an angel,” I heard Isidor say, looking up at me.

  “Whoever she was, she was very beautiful,” Sophie added.

  “Look, there’s a plaque,” Kayla said, pointing at my stone feet. “What does it say?”

  Squinting, Potter lent forward and read what was inscribed across the chiselled scroll at my feet.

  “It says Kiera Hudson,” Potter said.

  “Never heard of her,” Murphy grunted.

  “Those wings are so pretty,” Melody said. “I wonder what those claws are for?”

  “She was probably some kind of monster,” Pen chucked in.

  “I don’t think she was a monster,” Meren said.

  “Me neither,” Nessa added. “Why would they make a statue of a monster? They only ever make statues of people if that person was kind, did something incredibly brave, or impacted on other’s lives in a good way.”

  They were discussing me as if I wasn’t even there. But to them I wasn’t. I was just a piece of rock that had been sculpted to look like a woman named Kiera Hudson who none of them seemed to have ever met or known.

  “Whoever she was,” Potter shrugged, “its’ going to start snowing soon and the drive back to the Ragged Cove is a long one. I don’t want to be caught in some storm and spend the night freezing my nuts off and having to listen to Murphy fucking moaning.”

  “I don’t moan,” Murphy moaned.

  “Yeah, you do you, old fart,” Potter said, turning away arm in arm with Sophie.

  I stood helplessly and watched my friends walk away – back to the lives they had in the Ragged Cove – a place where it appeared I had never existed. Snow began to seesaw from the sky in large fluffy flakes. I felt the dampness against my cheek. But it wasn’t snow that I could feel running down the length of my face, but tears. Perhaps statues did cry after all.

  Potter! I desperately wanted to call out but I had no voice.

  Potter…

  “…Shhh, I’m right here, Kiera,” I heard Potter whisper in my ear.

  I opened my eyes and found myself looking into his. I was lying down on a bed in a snug-looking room. It was dark and I couldn’t be sure where I was. All I cared about was tha
t I felt safe in Potter’s arms. The song All of Me by John Legend was quietly playing, and I guessed Potter had been messing with my iPod again.

  “Hello again, sweet-cheeks,” he said, placing the softest of kisses on my mouth.

  With fragments of my nightmare still slicing away at the corners of my mind, I held him tight. “I love you. I love you,” I gasped.

  “I love you, too,” he smiled, kissing away the tears that covered my face. “Why are you crying?”

  “I thought I’d lost you,” I cried.

  “Never,” he said and began to slowly undress me.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Potter

  We lay naked in each other’s arms on the bed in one of the upstairs rooms in the abandoned farmhouse we had found after Kiera had fainted. I could hear rain pelting against the sash windows over the sound of us catching our breath. My chest hitched up and down as Kiera rested her head against me. I ran my hands slowly through her hair. It felt pretty fucking amazing to be with her again. Not because of our lovemaking, but because she was my best friend and it was impossible for me to imagine life without her. It was as we clung to each as we’d made love, I truly understood the hurt she had suffered while believing I was dead. I understood how she felt, as I knew the pain I would suffer if Kiera were to ever leave me. She took me someplace else. Kiera had shown me what true love really was and she was all I ever needed.

  “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” I said, letting my fingers stray from her hair so I could gently stroke her face.

  “Why pretend that you were dead?” Kiera asked. She didn’t sound angry, just confused. “Why let me believe you had been pushed again? Why let Nik take your place?”

  “I’m not passing the buck here,” I started, not wanting to sound like a little kid who had been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, “but it was Pen’s idea.”

  “Pen?” she said, lifting her head from off my chest so she could look at me.