The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  “Me? Mike Padgett? Save the world?” Mike asked straightened up. He looked at Perry and then laughed.

  “What is so funny, Mike?” Falco’s voice held just the slightest tinge of aggravation.

  “I don’t know who you are or what you are, but I do know Mr. Aliger a bit,” Mike said in a much stronger voice. “He might not be like us. Like the folks in Magnolia Springs, but he ain’t really done no harm I can see. In fact, seems like he ain’t done nothin’ but good, except maybe takin’ Mr. Morris’ girl away and I don’t see where that might not have been a favor to her. It appears to me that you might have somethin’ against him yourself. If you want him dead, you’ll have to do it. I ain’t gonna do it for you. I ain’t gonna get caught up in this shit.”

  Mike faded away to be replaced by Billy Johnson almost immediately.

  Perry drew in a sharp breath. Falco had saved the best for last.

  “Mr. Johnson! Nice to see you!” The Primus’ voice was congenial. Billy frowned and looked all around before glaring at Perry. He set the beer bottle he was carrying on the table.

  “Shit!” He looked at the table in front of him. “I didn’t mean no harm, Mr. Aliger. It was just the booze.”

  “Relax, Billy,” Falco told him. “He’s not here for revenge. In fact, quite the contrary. I believe you still have a bone to pick with him? You realize that it was his fault entirely that you suffered that heart attack at Sam’s place. What did you call him... a pansy-ass? He humiliated you in front of your friends. He even caused you to beat up on your two best friends, didn’t he? You feel bad about hurting Mike and Tyler, don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Billy nodded. “I guess I do.”

  “Well, then, here’s you chance to get rid of him and everything that’s happened since he came to town. All you have to do is choose the method. No one will ever know what happened to him.”

  “Who are you?” Billy looked around. “Is this some kinda dream or somethin’? Or one of them reality TV shows?” he asked and then grinned and picked up his beer to take a long pull off the bottle.

  “Not exactly,” Falco’s voice was silky again. “You remember what Mike told you about him? That he’s not like you? Well, Mike is right, Billy. Perry Aliger is not what he appears to be. How else could he have beaten you so easily? How else could he have made you have a heart attack?”

  “Mike’s always sayin’ things like that. Weird shit.”

  “You believe him, though. You might laugh, but you know deep down that Mike has the sight and that scares you, doesn’t it?” Falco’s voice was comforting and sympathetic. “There’s no need for you to be afraid of someone in your hometown, Billy. You were born and raised in Magnolia Springs. Why should you be running scared in your own town? Rid yourself of the problem. Choose your weapon.”

  “It wuddun nothin’ but a good ol’ country ass-kickin’,” Billy shook his head and picked up the pistol, giving it an appraising look. “A man should oughta be able to take a little roughin’ up now and then. It ain’t nothin’ personal. Just good fun.”

  “But Perry Aliger has a personal problem with you, Billy,” Falco continued. “He has made friends with your cousin Hannah. He knows about the land deal and the marina. He’s a shrewd businessman. He knows the value of that land down by the river and he also has considerable influence on what goes on at the Savings and Loan board meetings. Mrs. Morris is his friend. She likes him. Very much.”

  “I don’t like this one damned bit,” Billy picked up the pistol. “I might be a mean SOB when I’m drinkin’, but I ain’t nobody’s fool. I think you better show yourself right now. I don’t know what you’ve got against Mr. Aliger, but I ain’t got nothin’ against him any more. He took his medicine like a man. He didn’t run to the police and try to file charges like the pansy-ass I thought he was.”

  “Would you risk letting him ruin your chances of making good now? Would you let him keep you down, Billy? The choice is yours.”

  Billy held up the pistol.

  “You either send me back home or I’m gonna find you and kick your ass!” Billy turned around pointing the pistol at the darkness. “I been meanin’ to apologize to Mr. Aliger. I just ain’t go around to it yet.”

  Billy vanished.

  Perry stood up. The cords no longer held him. Falco walked into the light to glare at him.

  “You have misjudged them,” Perry said simply.

  Falco caught his arm and it felt like fire. Perry pulled away from him.

  “In all of our history not one of us has ever turned against another,” Perry told him. “Why are you doing this?”

  Angelica sat in the chair in front of the window overlooking Main Street. She held a cup of cold tea in her hands. Her thoughts were elsewhere when she heard a noise behind her. She turned to see a tall man, somewhat heavier than Peregrin, but with the same general features and lighter hair.

  “Father!” She stood up, dropping the tea to the carpet.

  “Angelica.” He held out his arms and she rushed into them, hugging him tightly.

  “Is something wrong?” She asked him pushing back from him to look into his deep violet eyes.

  “What will you do, Angelica?” He asked her. He wore a brightly flowered shirt and white trousers. She looked him up and down frowning. Where had he come from?

  “I can do nothing,” she told him and went to pick up the cup from the floor to set it on the coffee table. “I can’t interfere in their affairs. You know that.”

  “I am not talking about them.” He shook his head and sat on the sofa crossing his legs. “I am talking about what are you going to do? You have been searching so hard for the answer, you have forgotten the question.”

  “I don’t understand. What question?” She asked as she sat down on the arm of the chair.

  “The original question: where shall we go?”

  “That was not my question.” She frowned.

  “That is the question from whence all other questions arise,” he told her. “It has been too long. This is the only place left. All the other questions have been answered. We are waiting for your recommendations.”

  “You are testing them?” She asked in surprise.

  “And you.” He smiled. “We had to know.”

  “To know what?” She asked.

  “If we could live here,” he said. “We have to live somewhere. The Center has totally disintegrated.”

  Her mouth fell open.

  “When?”

  “A long time ago by these standards.” He waved one hand about the room.

  “But the universal element... the collective body. Where is everyone? Where have they gone?”

  “They are here... and there,” he said in his enigmatic way. “Mostly just waiting.”

  “Waiting for me?” She asked in shocked horror.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “Would you like to witness the final round?”

  “The final round,” she repeated the words and he stood up to give her his hand.

  “Yes, Primus, the final round.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six:.

  Falco opened his mouth to say something and the world changed.

  Perry found himself inside his apartment over the Gift Shop, standing in the middle of the living room. He looked around somewhat surprised to have gotten off so easily. He walked down the hall looking for Angelica wondering if she had gone to bed after all and not waited up as she had said she would. Angelica was not in the bedroom nor was she in the bathroom or any where else in the apartment. He could not sense her presence anywhere. Now he was worried. Where would she have gone so late at night. Looking for him? He went to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. After taking a swallow he held his head back and closed his eyes trying to concentrate on her presence. Where was she? He lowered his head and raised the bottle again to take another swallow.

  Metal clanged against metal and he opened his eyes. It was a windy, overcast day. The smell of salt water assaulted him and the breeze from the se
a whipped around him making tiny whistling noises in the joints of his helmet. For a moment, he thought he was inside the Mercedes again. He lowered the bottle which had become a short broad sword with a grooved blade and reached up to pull the heavy helmet gear from his head to look at it in confusion. It was an elaborate crested affair with a long, black horsehair tail flowing out the topknot in the Greek fashion. His arms were covered with bronze-studded leather gauntlets and he wore a leather gherkin with similar bronze plates attached to the front. This was not a change for the better. The ground in front of him was pocked and studded with protruding white rocks rounded smooth that reminded him of the skulls of so many dead who appeared to be struggling to come out of the hard-packed earth. He turned around slowly to see a towering wall of gray stone in front of him.

  “Peregrin!” Some one shouted from above him.

  Angelica was standing on top of the wall. Where her hair had once been short, it now cascaded around her shoulders in long curling tendrils blown here and there about her head by the erratic breeze. She wore a long white dress beneath a gold and red overlay, tied at the waist with a silver cord. He stood looking up at her unsure of what to do next.

  “Peregrin!” The wind whipped over the embankment making her sound much further away than she actually was. He looked around for someway to enter the structure or climb it but saw nothing but overlapping stones set closely together disappearing in both directions.

  “Angelica!” He called up to her. “Can you come down here?”

  She glanced about and then picked up her skirts before disappearing down into the structure behind her.

  He surveyed the landscape as he waited for her to join him. The ground sloped down away from the wall to a point where it appeared a cliff or a bluff dropped to what he could only presume to be a beach below. Seagulls whirled and fussed in the air above the cliff and he could hear the sound of the surf breaking against rocks. Beyond the cliff, the sea was covered with whitecaps and in the distance, the gray water blended into the gray sky obscuring the horizon completely. This is not good, he thought again and wondered what the Primus was up to now. He knew that he could have never engineered such a deception and was surprised to see that Falco could do such a thing.

  Presently he heard footsteps on the stony ground behind him and turned, expecting to see Angelica. Instead, a soldier dressed in similar garb to his own approached walking slowly along the base of the wall. He wore a helmet with a cropped brush-style crest of red horse hair. His armor was silver in color and his sword was held tightly against a round shield in front of his body. This was definitely a bad sign. Peregrin lifted his helmet and put it on his head. He had no shield, only the sword. Already at a disadvantage and he didn’t even know how to use the sword much less fight off someone else armed in a similar fashion. The man approached him and stopped some ten yards away to stand peering at him through the slit in his helmet.

  “Primus?” Perry heard himself ask. His voice reverberated inside the helmet.

  “Primus?” Came the echoed answer from the other.

  “What is it you are doing now?” He asked.

  “Don’t play games with me!” Falco shouted at him.

  “This is not my game, Primus.” Perry gestured with the sword. “You are the one who studied war, not I.”

  “This is one of your tricks,” Falco insisted and advanced a few steps toward him.

  “I assure that I don’t have the capability...” Perry stopped and turned as he heard Angelica calling his name from near the wall. She had made her way down to the plain and was tripping along over the rocks and rough ground, holding her flowing dress in both hands.

  She came to stand beside him.

  “What do you intend to do?” She looked up at him.

  “I... this is... I didn’t...” he said and tried to shake his head in the helmet. Another mistake. His head moved, but the heavy metal did not. “Ow!” He pressed the hilt of the sword against the side of the helmet to re-adjust it properly. He directed his attention back to Falco who had advanced another few yards.

  “What is the purpose of this?” He asked the man.

  “I would ask you the same, Primus,” Falco retorted as he held up his sword in front of the slits in his helmet. A long, burgundy cape attached at his shoulders flapped in the breeze behind him. “I believe we are on opposing sides here if my memory is correct. You are Greek and I am Trojan?”

  “This is ridiculous!” Angelica shouted at him. “I will not allow it.”

  “I always say go with the flow,” Falco told her and continued to advance on them with the sword raised. “We might as well get it over with.”

  Perry stumbled backwards a step or two and looked at Angelica.

  “I believe he wants to kill me,” he said in dismay. “I fail to understand why.”

  Angelica tripped across the ground to place herself in front of Falco.

  “What are you doing?” She asked him.

  “What I am supposed to do.”

  “I won’t allow you to fight.”

  “I don’t believe you can stop me,” he said and then gently pushed her aside with the shield. She stumbled away from him on the rough ground, fighting the gown that had turned on her.

  Falco attacked Perry with the short sword with a speed and accuracy that surprised even Angelica as she righted herself, caught her balance and ran back into the small personal war.

  Perry went down on one knee and threw up his sword to catch Falco’s a glancing blow which narrowly missed his neck. Angelica stepped between them and turned her back to Falco to confront Perry while he struggled to regain his feet.

  “You will not fight over me!” She objected.

  “Stop protecting him, Angelica,” Falco told her and tried to move around her. She kept herself positioned between him and his would-be victim.

  “I am not fighting over you,” Perry told her and moved around her to present himself to Falco. The man charged him and knocked him on his back with his shield. Falco raised his sword to bring it straight down in a move that would have certainly sent the tip of the blade through the leathery covering and into his heart had he not rolled aside. Falco’s blade pierced the ground by several inches. Perry’s move neatly mowed Angelica’s feet out from under her and sent her toppling onto him.

  Falco struggled to pull his sword loose from the ground as Perry tried to extricate himself from the tangle of Angelica’s gown.

  “Angelica, please!” Perry told her as they helped each other up. “If you do not move back, you are sure to be injured!”

  “If you are not fighting over me,” she said breathlessly as he pushed her back “then what are you fighting for?”

  “My life?” He asked and then backed away from her as Falco made another charge around her to attack him in a vicious frontal assault. Perry went back and back again closer to the edge of the sea cliff. He could barely manage to keep his assailant from cutting off his arms and legs and other vital parts. He had seen many sword fights in his life, but he had never participated in one directly. It was much harder than it looked.

  Angelica picked up her skirts and hurried after them. Falco had him down again on both knees this time. He tossed aside the shield and grabbed the hilt of the sword with both hands, drawing it back like a double-edged club, the obvious target being Perry’s neck. The blow would have certainly beheaded him, but Angelica rammed him in his backside with her shoulder and sent him sprawling across Perry’s head. All three landed in a heap of swords, helmets, cape and gown.

  “Damn it, Angelica!” Falco shouted at her as he crab-walked backwards away from them with one sandaled foot entangled in the hem of her dress. The fabric ripped and he was free. Perry got up slowly and pulled Angelica up again.

  “So what are you saying, Peregrin?” She looked up at him in amazement. “You would not fight for me?”

  “I didn’t say that!” He told her, picking his sword up from the ground and adjusting his helmet. “If I thought it
was necessary, I would.”

  “Move, Angelica!” Falco was behind her again. The two antagonists circled her trying to get clear of her, but she persisted and stayed between them.

  “Peregrin!” She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot. “I will not have you injure yourself on my account!”

  “Angelica, I assure you that I would not be injuring myself,” he told her.

  “That’s right!” Falco told her. “If you will kindly remove yourself, I will do the honor for him.”

  “And you!” Angelica turned on him. “What is it exactly that you hope to accomplish by this violence? Do you presume to think that if you should kill Peregrin, that I would just go off with you and live happily ever after? I think not!”

  “I am not interested in that any more,” Falco said. “Your father has made it quite clear that he intends for you to marry Peregrin. It makes little difference to me what you do now. Now move!” He feinted left and confused her by turning back to the right to lunge at Perry. Perry jumped back and dropped his sword. It bounced and clanged on the rocks and skittered over the edge of the cliff. Now he was completely unarmed. It would be over very soon now. Perry felt almost relieved. He would be dead and Angelica would be safe from inadvertent injury. At least he wouldn’t die feeling so guilty.

  Angelica turned back to see what had happened to him and immediately went to put herself between Falco’s advance and Perry who stood calmly waiting for the inevitable end.

  “Stop!” She looked at Perry in horror. He shook his head and pointed at Falco. She looked around in confusion and then spun around to face Falco. “Stop!” She held up one hand. He drew up short to look down at her before laughing. He grabbed her upper arm, intending to pull her out of the way.

  When his hand touched her arm, a blue flash erupted that sent him flying backwards. He landed on his back on the rocks and stayed there quite dazed and surprised.

  Perry looked at her in astonishment.