by R. W. Ridley
“It’s not safe for you,” I said. “Any of you. Leave.”
“Not without you,” Lou said.
“Damn it, boy,” Wes said. “I told you it was a fool idea going Délon. Now look at you.”
“Get out of here,” I said as I started to shake from fighting my natural Délon urges.
“I say we listen to Oz,” Gordy said. “He’s not looking too... friendly.”
Lou reached out and touched my arm.
I pulled back and barked in pain. My arm felt as if I had been smashed by a two ton rock.
Lou touched me again.
I cried out in pain.
“What are you doing, trying to kill him?” Gordy asked.
“No,” she said, “I’m trying to save him.”
She tried to touch me again, but I snatched up her wrist and twisted her arm until she yelped in pain.
“Let her go, boy,” Wes said.
The hair on the gorillas’ shoulders puffed up, and they pounded the ground with their fists.
“Listen to me, Oz,” Lou said. “You are not a Délon. You’re Oz Griffin. You are Creyshaw!”
“Shut up,” I said, “or I’ll break your arm!” I twisted it a little harder. Touching her was tearing me up in side. The air was leaving my lungs. My heart was crashing against my ribcage. I was miserable, but I couldn’t bring myself to let go.
“I’m here because of you, Oz!”
I loosened my grip.
“Stevie, he put me here. He made me to help you. Let me help you.”
I let her go.
“What in the hell are you talking about, girl?” Wes asked.
“Yeah, that don’t make any sense at all,” Gordy said.
“You just couldn’t keep a secret, could you?” the Pure said standing at the entrance of the chamber. No one had noticed him until he’d spoken.
“Holy crap, it’s like Délon friggin’ central around here,” Gordy said.
The gorillas lumbered toward the Pure slowly.
Lou looked at the Pure with a confused expression.
The Pure morphed into April and said, “I told you that in confidence.”
Gordy puffed out a long guttural breath. “Holy mother...!”
“No way,” Tyrone said.
Wes just stared in disbelief.
“I cannot believe you violated my trust,” April said.
Lou turned to me. “This moment is why I’m here, Oz. This is why Stevie put me here. I’m here to remind you that you’re not this.” She grabbed my hand and showed me my purple skin. “You are not this monster. This bully.” She placed the palm of her hand on my heart. “There is magic inside of you, Oz. Stevie saw that it in you. I see it.”
April clapped. “This is so wonderfully sappy and heartfelt, but so awfully boring at the same time.” She morphed back into the Pure. “Everyone say their goodbyes. It’s time to sever Oz Griffin from pesky little things like friends and loved ones now. We really must be getting on with taking control of the world and such.”
I looked from the Pure to Lou. I could feel the Délon side of me boiling up again.
She could see it, too. Before another second passed, she leaned up and kissed me on the mouth.
It sent a horrible stinging through my brain, but instead of pushing her away, I kissed her back. Eventually, I felt myself melting. The anger, the hate, the need to serve the Pure just fell away.
The Pure was livid. He hurried to us in the blink of an eye, grabbed my spider leg hair and bent my head back. “This is so tiresome! If you will not rid yourself of these... things, I will.” With that he tossed me to the ground.
I reached my hand over to pull myself up and saw why he had grown so angry. My purple skin was fading. I prayed that I could hold onto it just a little bit longer.
Before he could reach Lou, I grabbed his ankle and swept his leg out from under him. He hit the ground with an earthshaking thud.
Ajax and Ariabod leapt forward and whaled on his chest.
It had little effect on the Pure. He grabbed Ariabod’s fist in mid-air and hurled the gorilla head over feet to the opposite side of the chamber. He then kicked Ajax in the midsection, knocking all the wind out of him.
I roared towards the Pure and threw my shoulder into his back. We stumbled together into the cave wall. Rock and dust flew everywhere, but neither one of us was seriously injured.
The Pure turned as quick as a cat and shoved me back hard enough for me to hear my ribs crack. I landed on the ground next to Bostic’s torch.
I heard Wes, Tyrone, and Gordy yell in unison as they ran towards the Pure. They were all sent reeling back by a single roundhouse kick from the Délon.
I spotted the backpack and remembered the last remaining item in it. I crawled towards the pack, but stopped when I heard Lou scream.
The Pure stood before me holding her by her hair. She swung her arms, fighting with every inch of her body to get free.
“Don’t hurt her,” I said.
The Pure shook his head. “I fail to understand this need to care for other people. I mean I suppose if I had to care for something I could, provided it were real. But she’s not real, Oz. She’s the figment of some poor mentally deficient kid’s mind. She’s only here because Stevie learned to draw.”
I sat down and began to move stealthily towards the backpack. I didn’t want to give the Pure any indication that it contained something I wanted. “Lou is real,” I said. “She didn’t get here the same as us, but that doesn’t make her any less real.”
“That’s such a ridiculously optimistic way to look at it Oz. I don’t know whether to cry or throw up.”
“You know, if she’s not real then neither are you. You were both created in the same way by the same type of people.”
“Délons aren’t imaginary charaters, Oz. We are the fear, intolerance, anger, and hopelessness that our creators lived with their entire lives. Lou, all sweet and brave and pretty, she’s the fantasy.”
“You’re wrong,” I said.
“Are we done? I really want to get on to the part where I break her neck.”
“Wait!” I reached into a pocket of the backpack and retrieved a folded piece of paper.
“What is that?” the Pure asked.
I unfolded it and showed him the detailed drawing of the Délon. “It’s you.”
“Me?”
“Your source. What you’ve been looking for.”
He looked at the paper and nearly smiled. “You do have it. I knew it was close.” He looked at his hands opening and closing them. “It is why I feel so strong, so invincible.
“Let Lou go.”
He pulled her head back even farther. “Why? She is of no consequence now. Don’t you see? If I possess my own Source, my power is limitless. You will serve the true one. You will be my right hand. All other Délons and Destroyers will bow before you because I will let it be known that you act on my behalf. This girl... this fake girl means nothing.”
“If she’s nothing, there’s no reason to hurt her,” I said feeling the Délon part of me slipping away.
“You bargain for her life too vigorously. It concerns me.” With that, he lifted her over his head, one hand still holding her by the hair, the other wrapped around her calf. In a smooth, effortless motion he threw her towards the cave wall.
In an instant, the Délon part of me surged back in with a vengeance. I watched Lou fly through the air as if she were moving in slow motion. She would die instantly given the force of the throw.
While my mind saw her almost floating towards the rock wall, I saw myself moving in normal speed. I raced towards her. Everyone else but the Pure moved in the same slow speed that Lou was moving. I didn’t know what was happening, but I didn’t have the time to question it. I just ran after Lou, catching up to her just before her head collided with the jagged edge of the cave. I scooped her up and gently placed her on the ground unharmed.
She touched my face and I paused for a split second to take it i
n. Any longer than that and it would have softened me. I needed to be a monster for a little while longer.
I stood and dove towards the Pure. I moved so quickly it caught him off guard. We both tumbled to the ground. While I still had the element of surprise, I twisted him underneath me and pinned him to the ground with a knee on his chest and my other foot on his hand. Before he regained his wits, I threw three punches into this face.
He grabbed me by my spider-leg hair and yanked me to the ground. He whirled himself around and was now standing over me. “Fine, I’ll kill you all!”
I kicked him in the lower back, and searched the cave floor for the drawing. It was on the ground near the backpack. The Pure and I saw it at the same time. I rammed my elbow into the back of his knee, but it didn’t faze him. He stomped on my stomach and stepped toward the drawing.
Ajax and Ariabod roared and flew over me with their fists above their heads. They pounced on the Pure’s back and started pummeling him. He fell to his hands and knees with the gorillas pounding away.
I scurried to the drawing and grabbed it.
The Pure blasted out a howl that shook the ground and caused fragments of rock to fall from the cave ceiling. The two gorillas fell to the ground with their hands cupping their ears. Lou and the others were on their knees covering their own ears.
I picked up the torch and stood with it in one hand and the drawing in the other. “You want this?”
“What are you doing?” the Pure asked.
“I control the Source! You serve me!”
He snarled. “I could tear you apart before you take your next breath.”
I moved the sketch closer to the flame. “And I could burn this before you take your next step.”
“Stop!” He looked panicked for the first time. “Be reasonable. It’s the Source. It means everything. You don’t want to destroy it.”
“No, you don’t want me to destroy it.” I moved it still closer to the flame.
“No!” He got down on one knee and bowed his head. “I’ll serve you. I’ll do anything. Just don’t burn it.”
I looked at Lou. “Take the others. Get out of here. The worms will be returning soon. Get to the platform.”
“Not without you,” Lou said.
I turned to Wes. “You know it has to be this way. Go. Get her out of here.”
Wes stood as if he was frozen in time. He didn’t want to leave me either.
Tyrone made the first move. “C’mon,” he said, “Oz has this.”
He headed for the corridor that led to the cave entrance.
Gordy said, “Dude, smoke this idiot and get out of here before the oversized fish bait comes back.” He followed Tyrone.
Wes nodded, “Once again you’re screwing me out of being the adult and taking care of this like a man.”
“You have something much more important to do. Take care of Lou.”
He took her by her arm and said, “Son, you can count on that, but only until you rejoin us. She’s all yours after that.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m a puppy. I can take care of myself.” She reluctantly went with Wes. Turning back she said, “You better make it out of here, Oz Griffin.”
The gorillas flanked the Pure on either side. Their huge fists dug into the cave floor. They were ready to tear into him, even though they knew they couldn’t beat him. They could beat another Délon maybe, but not the Pure. He was too strong with the Source this close.
“You two,” I said. “Out.”
They huffed and snorted, but eventually complied.
I waited until they were out of sight and then inched the drawing closer to the torch.
“Oz Griffin, you don’t know what you’d be giving up if you destroy the Source.”
“I’m not interested in what it can give me.” Closer.
“You can go back!”
I pulled the sketch back. “What?”
“You can go back to before. Your world. No Destroyers. Just humans.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“That’s all well and good, Oz Griffin, but are you willing to risk a chance to go back? You must trust me.”
“How can the Source help me go back?” I looked at him suspiciously.
“If I possess it, I am the ultimate power. I can do all. Including bringing your world back.” He started stepping to his left with his eyes locked on me.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I care nothing about humans! They sicken me. I cannot stand that my race is mixed with humans. I can separate our worlds. Keep the Destroyers here where they belong and send the humans where they belong. If I bring back the human world, I purify the Délon race. Don’t you see?”
“Back? To the way it was? My parents... Kimball... alive?”
“Yes, yes, the way it was. Your parents, your dog, your friends, everyone you knew before will be alive and well and have no memory of this place.” He continued to move.
“What about Stevie Dayton? Can you go back to before he... died?”
He hesitated and then said, “I could but why would you want to. You are here because of him.”
“No,” I said, “I’m here because of me.”
“Then I will make it so. I will send you back to before Stevie Dayton’s death.”
I considered his offer. “What about Lou?”
He tried to look sympathetic, but he couldn’t pull it off. “I understand your affection for the girl. It is a very human thing, but I understand it nonetheless. She is pleasant in so many ways, and I know humans put great value on pleasantness. But, I am afraid I cannot send her back. It is beyond my abilities even if I had possession of the Source.”
I felt something a Délon shouldn’t feel, sadness. It was a strange feeling and physically weighed me down. I found it difficult to even hold the torch. He wasn’t lying to me. I knew that the second he said he couldn’t send Lou back.
He stepped toward me and I tightened my grip on both the torch and the sketch.
“How do I know you won’t just kill me once I give you the Source?”
“You don’t, Oz Griffin. But I can promise that I will kill you if you do destroy it.”
I started moving the torch way from the sketch. If he could send us home, I had to take his offer. I stopped. He wouldn’t be sending us home, would he? Lou wouldn’t be coming with us. She belonged with us... with me. “And what happens if I burn it.”
“Chaos,” he said, “General Roy was not meant to rule this world. When he supplanted me, he triggered the collapse of order in this world. Each Destroyer race is vying for control. The Délons are holding on, but barely and not for much longer.”
“Chaos?” I said thinking back to Tarek on the platform with Nate.
“It will be war. A war that will consume everything in this world. You and your friends included.”
I snickered. “A good friend once said to me, it is sometimes best to cause chaos than it is to encounter chaos in an effort to avoid it.” With that I brought the torch down, lit the drawing on fire, and flung it to the floor.
The Pure screamed in horror. He dove for the sketch, but I tackled him to the ground. He was so concerned about the Source he panicked. He didn’t know whether to fight me or go for the drawing. It continued to burn while he grappled with the decision. By the time he knocked me off him with a single punch, the sketch was nothing but a pile of ashes.
He picked them up and stared at the gray and black specks. His body started to shake as they slipped through his fingers. “What have you done?”
“I’m starting a war that you’ll have to fight.”
He turned with rage in his dead eyes. “You gave up your home for what? Because she can’t go back with you? You destroyed yourself because of your affection for that girl? This is what it’s like being human? Pathetic and weak and stupid!”
“No,” I said, “this is what it’s like to be in love.�
�
“Then love is your ruin, Oz Griffin.” He stooped and prepared to pounce. Something whizzed over my head. I felt the air being split in two. I heard a dull thud and saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out of the Pure’s cheek. Turning, I saw Lou reloading her crossbow. I should have been mad at her for coming back, but I was glad she did.
“Down,” she said as she aimed.
I dove to my left.
Another arrow left her crossbow and hit the Pure in the hand he was using to extract the first arrow from his face.
I stood and motioned towards him, but stopped when I saw the ground giving way behind him.
I didn’t wait to see why. I knew why. The worms had come to feast.
“Run,” I said to Lou.
She fired one more arrow. It struck the Pure in the shoulder. Then she bolted in front of me down the corridor. The ground behind us showed the telltale signs of the worms burrowing their way underground.
Another group of worms was waiting for us just outside the cave entrance. They surfaced and submerged like fish in water. Without saying a word, I picked Lou up, put her over my shoulder and leapt over the worm pit. We made it to the platform with them nipping at my heels the whole way.
“Damn it to hell, Lou,” Wes said. To me, “She got away from me. I couldn’t go after her because of the blasted worms.”
I backed away from everyone on the platform. I was still Délon, and that meant I could smell their blood. I could tell if they were scared or angry or relieved, and each odor signaled a taste sensation in my head that I wanted to satisfy.
“Why are you still purple?” Gordy asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t shut it down. Not completely.”
“I told you,” Wes said. “It was a bad idea.”
Lou shoved me back. “You idiot!”
“Take it easy, little girl,” Wes said. “Oz will work through it.”
“I’m not talking about that,” She said. “He could have brought it back. He could have gone home.”
“What?” Wes asked.
“It’s true! The Pure offered him a deal! The world back to the way it used to be for the drawing! And he didn’t take it!”
