by Tim O'Rourke
Taking me by the hand, he pulled me to my feet. I placed my iPod into my pocket and went with him.
I followed him in silence until we were far enough away from the others to not be overheard. I then asked, “Where are you taking me?”
“I want to show you something,” he whispered back at me. “What?”
“You’ll see when we get there,” he said, leaping from the side of the mountain and dragging me with him. We plummeted into the night sky, opening our wings and soaring into the night.
“We shouldn’t be flying,” I said as I glided next to him. “Coanda said that the Vampyrus could pick us up using their echo -”
“The guy’s a Muppet,” Potter grinned back at me. “It’s not far, and if we keep low we should be okay.”
“But…”
Then Potter was banking away so I followed. We skimmed just inches over the red, hard-panned landscape. Dust blew up in our wake, and my hair tossed out behind me. In the distance I could see an orange glow, like a crack in the night. As we drew closer, the crack grew bigger and it no longer looked like a mere split but an opening in the centre of the Earth. We raced towards it and the air grew warmer.
Potter began to slow, and I spread my wings to keep alongside him. Arching his wings back, Potter hovered in the air, then taking hold of my hand, we gently floated towards the ground.
Leading me over to the giant fracture in the rocky ground, I watched as bright orange lumps of what looked like molten lava shot up into the night like a series of fireworks. Taking me towards the very edge, the air blew hot and arid. Dust swirled around us and it was as if we had become separated from the rest of the world. I looked at him, and his rugged looks glowed red and orange from the light that seeped from the abyss beneath us.
“Where are we?” I breathed, feeling breathless at the sight before me.
“A promise is a promise,” he smiled back at me, and I loved that smile. It wasn’t his cocky smile, the one I’d so often wanted to wipe from his face, but it was the nice smile – the one that I had so often wanted to kiss, the one that made my heart race.
“What are you talking about?” I asked him.
“Remember in the caves beneath that fountain I told you about that canyon?” he asked me. “Talles Varineris. I made you a promise that one day I would take you to see it. Well, this is it.”
I looked down into the abyss, and it was like staring down into an erupting volcano. Red, yellow, and orange lava bubbled, hissed, and spat way below me.
Taking a deep breath, Potter said, “The canyon runs for miles, it’s a fracture that runs across the centre of the Earth. Like I told you before, some Vampyrus have undertaken expeditions to try and find its start and its end, but none ever returned. Some say that they fell in or went mad and got lost in the millions of gorges and tunnels that twist and turn through the Talles Varineris.”
Unable to take my eyes off the sight before me, I said, “I remember you telling me that if you stand right out on the very edge and stare down into the canyon, it’s like looking into the Earth’s soul. I didn’t know what you meant back then, but I do now.” I continued to watch the lava shift and move below as it took on the most incredible shapes of beauty. It was like my mind was playing tricks on me. The flames looked like horses galloping through hot orange waves, dolphins diving up into the air then melting into a spray of boiling lava. It shifted and rolled, and it was as if I could see all of Earth’s creations bathing in the great, writhing sea of lava below. It was like the whole of creation had started down there in its depths and with each plume of lava that shot up into the air, it carried the spirit of that creature up into The Hollows, soaring higher through the layers of the earth and above ground.
“Enough already,” Potter suddenly said, taking my arm and pulling me back from the edge of the canyon. “I told you that many have gone mad, mesmerized by what they see down there.”
“But…” I started looking back over my shoulder at it, just wanting one last glimpse of its beauty.
“That’s a sacred place down there,” Potter said, turning my face in his strong hands. “It’s to be respected, not understood.”
Looking at him, I said, “You told me you came here with your mother and father.”
“Yes,” he said, looking away. “I don’t have many good memories of them, especially not my father. But this place seemed to ease his temper somehow.”
“You have a temper, Potter,” I said, now turning his face back to look at mine.
“What’s got into you?” he suddenly asked. “You’ve barely said two words to me since I came back from rescuing Luke.”
“Im scared of you,” I told him, as the sky lit up with jets of molten lava.
“Scared of me?” he scoffed. “Why would you be scared of me?”
“Why did you kill Eloisa?” I asked him straight out. The time for misunderstandings and untruths had passed. I wanted him to be honest with me.
“To get back at Jack Seth for playing his part in the death of Murphy,” he growled at me.
“I don’t believe you!” I yelled. “Stop lying to me!”
“She was a child killer, Kiera!” he shouted back. “Isn’t that enough of a reason?”
“It isn’t the reason why you killed her and I know it!” I raged at him, clenching my fists by my sides.
“What part of being a child killer do you not understand!” he roared, and the veins on his neck stood out like wires running beneath a carpet. “For hundreds of years, Eloisa and her kind have snatched children from their beds, strangled them, disemboweled them, fed on them, then discarded them like pieces of litter. For fuck’s sake, Kiera, stop being so naïve. She was nothing but child-murdering scum and she deserved to die.”
“Not like that,” I said, staring at him. “Not to have her heart ripped out and chucked on the floor at the feet of Seth. No one deserves to die like that.”
“That’s how Murphy died!” Potter almost seemed to scream at me. “Jesus, Kiera, you just don’t get it, do you!”
“Get what?” I hollered at him.
“You’ve never known what it’s like to have your father punch you in the side of the head and tell you that you’re a worthless piece of shit and that you would never amount to anything. You’ve never known what it’s like to see your father come home and beat up on your mum, to have to listen to her screams coming from the bedroom while you lay in bed feeling helpless. Murphy was more like a father to me than my own ever was.”
I watched Potter throw his hands over his ears, as if he could still hear his mother’s screams. In the glow of the light from the canyon, I saw tears glistening on his cheeks. Then, staring at me, he said, “That’s why I killed her, because she murdered children, she took their innocence – she took their lives! And however much she claimed to have made amends for her past, you can never redeem yourself for doing something like that. So, I’m sorry if I scared you, Kiera, but however scared you felt seeing that, it couldn’t come close to the fear she put into the hearts of the children she murdered.”
I looked at him as he took his hands away from over his ears, his mother’s screams now fading away. “I’m sorry,” I said, going towards him.
Holding out his hand as if to stop me from coming closer, Potter said, “Please, Kiera, just leave me alone.”
Ignoring him, I took his hand in mine and lowered it. “I’m sorry,” I whispered again.
“What do you care anyhow?” he asked, unable to look at me. “I’m just Potter, the hired muscle, the gopher, the joker in the pack.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“I’ve seen you and Luke having your private little chats since he came back,” he said. “I saw you walking hand in hand up that mountain.”
“We weren’t holding hands,” I said.
“Whatever,” he huffed, pulling away from me. “I won’t stand in your way now that Luke’s back. I know you’re in love with him and who could blame you? I mean that gu
y is the only one I know who can get the shit kicked out of him and still look good enough to appear in an Armani commercial! And then there’s me with the crooked nose from too many fights…”
“Will you just shut up before I break your freaking nose?” I hollered at him. “I don’t love Luke. It’s you I’m in love with, Potter!”
“Look, sweet cheeks, you don’t have to let me down lightly, I can take it,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard what I just said.
“Potter, will you shut that mouth of yours for once and listen?” I screamed at him. “I love you!”
Then looking at me as if I had just punched him straight in his jaw, he said, “What did you just say?”
“I said, I love you. Even though you can be the most infuriating arsehole I’ve ever met, you smoke like a goddamn chimney, you’re arrogant, foul-mouthed, and -”
“Okay, so they are all my good points,” he cut in, “What don’t you like about me?”
“You scare me,” I whispered as he came close.
“I thought I explained that,” he said.
“No, it’s more than that,” I said, looking into his eyes. “There’s a darkness about you, but I’m drawn to it, even though I get the feeling that I’m going to get hurt. I can’t help myself.”
Then, pulling me against him, he said, “I won’t ever hurt you, tiger.”
Before I had a chance to say anything else, he had covered my lips with his and we were sinking onto the ground as the night sky shone orange and red from the lava that created its beautiful shapes below.
Chapter Sixteen
The warm air rising from the canyon kept our naked bodies warm. I fumbled for my iPod in the pocket of my overalls which lay strewn across the ground where Potter had thrown them.
Handing it to him, I said, “Find us a song.”
He took it from me and without saying anything, he scrolled down the list of songs. Then, placing it on the ground next to us, Wonderwall by Oasis started to play.
I lay on my back and looked up into the night sky. Plumes of lava sprayed up into the night like a fireworks display. Watching them create their magical shapes, I noticed what appeared to be two irregular-shaped moons shining brightly back at me.
Potter caught me staring at them and said, “They’re pretty cool, aren’t they?”
“Are they moons?” I asked him.
With his head tilted back, he spoke quietly as if he were in the presence of some great power. “We call them our moons, but in fact, they are two captured asteroids.”
“Asteroids?” I asked confused. “Don’t they belong in space?”
“It’s what we call them. I guess they are just two old rocks that float around up there and no one really knows why. Asteroids sound better than just boring old rocks!” Then pointing up into the sky with one long finger, he added, “We call that one Phobos and the other Deimos.”
“They’re incredible,” I agreed. “They are just as beautiful as the moon.”
Potter remained silent as he continued to stare up at the two bright asteroids, or rocks, that bathed us in their milky light.
I thought about above ground and realised I had never looked at it in the same way I looked at The Hollows with its two moons. Perhaps I had taken my own home for granted. Perhaps it was as beautiful as The Hollows, but I had just never truly appreciated it.
“Above ground is beautiful too,” I sighed thoughtfully, as the music continued to play.
Potter rolled onto his side, and brushing my hair from my face, he traced his fingers down the length of my neck, over my breasts, and laid his hand gently across the flat of my stomach. I looked at him and smiled, then stared again up at Phobos and Deimos again.
“Where do we go from here?” I whispered.
“Ask Coanda, he’s the man with the plan,” Potter said.
“I didn’t mean that,” I smiled back at him.
“What did you mean, sweet cheeks?” he muttered as he lightly kissed my neck, making my skin tingle.
Taking his hand from my stomach, my heart beginning to race, I asked, “Are you Elias Munn?”
“What?” Potter stammered, his eyes widening. “This is some kind of joke, right?”
“No joke,” I said, staring back at him.
“Why would you even think that?” he asked, sounding more confused than angry.
“Elias Munn killed his lover by ripping her heart out,” I told him.
“So?” Potter said, staring back at me, his eyes so black I could see the lava that was shooting up into the sky reflecting back in them.
“That’s how you killed Eloisa,” I whispered, breaking his stare.
“And that’s how Phillips killed Murphy,” Potter reminded me. “Perhaps he’s this Elias Munn. Ever thought about that?”
“No,” I whispered.
Pulling me close to him, he held me in his arms and said, “Kiera, I don’t know where or how you got this crazy idea into your head, but I’m not him. I promise.”
Then, looking up into his face, I whispered, “I’m scared, Potter.”
“Why? I’ll keep you safe,” he tried to assure me.
“I don’t need looking after,” I told him softly. “I’m scared of this decision I’ve got to make. If I choose the Vampyrus to live, then the humans die and I can’t do that. But if I choose them over the Vampyrus, then you die.”
“Listen to me, Kiera, Ravenwood was just a crazy old man,” he said. “Wait until we get to the Elders, they will tell you what the truth is.”
“But it’s not just Ravenwood’s letter that spoke of this choice I have to make,” I said. “There was someone else too.”
“Who?”
“Coanda,” I told him.
“Coanda is full of shit!” Potter groaned. “The guy thinks he’s a freaking legend. Yesterday was the first time I met the guy, but I’ve heard the stories about him. He thinks he’s the Evel Knievel of the skies!”
“But he’s built this resistance…” I started.
“Resistance my arse!” Potter spat. “That’s not a resistance - that’s a bunch of fucking groupies! He’s probably screwed half of them! The guy is an arrogant, womanizing, Biggles-wannabe. Don’t listen to him.”
“But…” I started, then stopped.
“But what?” Potter pushed.
“It’s nothing,” I said, looking away.
“Tell me, Kiera,” Potter insisted. “What has he said? Or more importantly, what has he got planned?”
“He told me not to tell anyone,” I told him.
“Where is he leading us?” Potter asked, his voice full of concern. “Kiera, listen to me, that guy has pulled so many crazy stunts in his time, he could have his own series of ‘Jackass’. He could be leading us into a whole heap of shit!”
Turning to look at him, I said, “I promised him I wouldn’t say anything, for Kayla’s sake.”
“Kayla!” Potter barked. “What has she got to do with this?”
“I can’t…he told me not to trust anyone,” I whispered.
“But it’s okay to trust him?” Potter hissed. “That’s rich coming from the guy who is so far up his own fucking arse he thinks he’s one of the Wright Brothers! He’s more like one of the Marx Brothers! The guy’s a clown!”
I looked at Potter and he stared back.
“If you love me, Kiera, you will trust me,” he pushed.
“He’s taking us to the Light House,” I whispered, fearing that someone other than us might hear.
“The Light House!” Potter almost choked.
“Shhh!” I hissed, and glanced back over my shoulder.
“Are you taking the piss?” he asked in disbelief.
“No, that’s where Coanda is leading us,” I said.
“Kiera, this isn’t like any ordinary lighthouse,” he cried. “It’s not tall and white, with a pretty-looking light on top and it isn’t set on the shores of some beautiful coastline.”
“What is this Light House like, then?” I snap
ped back.
“Your worst fucking nightmare, that’s what it’s like!” he hissed.
“I don’t know so much, I’ve had some pretty intense nightmares lately,” I told him.
“The Light House is a needle of rock that towers out of the ground.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I told him.
“When I say that it towers out of the ground,” Potter said, “It juts out of the Earth’s core! Coanda must be smoking crack if he thinks we can go to the Light House.”
“Why?”
“We call that splinter of rock the Light House, because it reflects the light from the centre of the Earth, which, if you didn’t know already, is a hideous, raging, inferno. The tower is unstable and floats on a whirlpool of burning, molten lava, and as it turns, it showers its light across The Hollows, creating day and night.”
“Coanda explained that part to me,” I told him.
“That was big of him,” Potter scowled. “So, where does Kayla fit into all of this?”
“Coanda knows that she has heightened hearing,” I explained, “So he wants to get as close enough to the Light House as possible.”
“Why? What the fuck is he hoping to hear?”
“That’s where Elias Munn is going to coordinate his above ground attack from,” I told him. “He’s going to send his orders by echo-waves via the light radiated from the Light House.”
“So what’s he planning to do, even if Kayla does hear some gem of intelligence?” Potter asked, sounding unconvinced.
“It will give him and the resistance a chance to outwit Elias Munn,” I said.
“That is the craziest idea I’ve heard,” Potter groaned. “It’s not even an idea, its suicide and I’m not going to be a part of it and neither are you.”
“Please,” I said, “We’ve got to go along with it. Otherwise, Coanda will know that I’ve told you.”
“But it could be a trap,” Potter warned me. “Where did he get this information from?”
“One of the resistance who was spying on the Vampyrus,” I tried to assure him.
“What about Kayla? We could be putting her in danger,” he said, staring at me with his dead, black eyes.
