Jay, Lizzie and the Tale of the Stairs

by G J Lee

  Chapter 46

  The Shadows

  I had never seen, let alone touched, a person that was dying before. But I could feel Lizzie’s life slipping slowly away. Although there was still the whisper of a smile on her lips her eyelids were becoming heavier and now she stared past me as if she saw something over my shoulder. All I wanted to do was erase the last few minutes, record over it like an old programme off the TV. Anything to stop the pain in my chest.

  I felt, rather than saw, the presence of Albert. I needed to say something. Explain. Give reasons.

  “Albert,” I shouted up towards the roof of the shelter. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  I knew he’d heard. Had listened. Had understood. But there was a pause before the answer came, low and sad.

  You had to do it. Nothing you could have done can change that now.

  I felt like lying down beside Lizzie and giving up. I couldn’t go on after this.

  Jay, you must destroy the Sphere.

  I shook my head as Lizzie’s hand moved to mine, holding it weakly. And then her whole body felt like a rag-doll and I knew I had killed Lizzie Raynor.

  Jay, look to Rosie!

  With an almighty effort I let what was left of Lizzie slip to the floor but I didn’t look to Rosie. Instead I looked straight ahead and saw The Face stood holding Lizzie’s pistol. Hanz was checking Dr Meen but the doctor had long since stopped breathing and moving. Only then did I look to Rosie who had in fact been stood beside me all along. I looked at what she held. And what she held in her hands on arms straight out had kept everyone in the shelter from seeking revenge.

  It was the grenade.

  Rosie was supporting it with one small hand while a finger of the other was hooked around the ring of the pin, threatening anyone who might come too close. I saw this timid little girl and I saw Lizzie’s bravery in Rosie, glimpsed her Grand-daughter in her, and I knew I couldn’t just give up and abandon her.

  I picked up the machine gun.

  I got to my feet.

  It was a stand-off. The Face was grinding his teeth in anticipation with the pistol held down at his side. He just wanted to bring it up and fire, to get his hands on us. And behind him others were moving about, coming closer, impatient to see an end to this.

  With my right hand I held the machine gun and with the other I held Rosie’s shoulders. Brought her closer. Rosie still held the grenade like some sort of weird gift and I pointed the gun at The Face and Hanz. Then me and Rosie started to move, like a drunk crab, sideways towards the Junction Sphere.

  I could see shapes moving all around now. Strangers determined to stop our escape. Shadows moving quickly like shapes in mist.

  Suddenly a huge gust of wind lifted Rosie’s hair and grabbed at our clothes. The gun in my hand was dropped and, although I still held onto Rosie, I went down on one knee. The sudden storm of air had taken everyone else by surprise and it blew on as I struggled to my feet. It was at that point that I realised the shadows moving beyond The Face and Hanz weren’t shadows at all. They were real, living things.

  They were moving closer.

  Slowly I realised that these shapes weren’t just moving closer, they were actually appearing out of the air in front of us. Becoming clearer. Sharper. These living objects swirled around on the gusts of air that battered us all, moving between people who were as fascinated as we were, creating a low moaning that drowned out the hum of the J-Sphere. The sound was horrible. It was like the wailing of a thousand people condemned to death. The sound rooted me to the spot. I couldn’t move. So we watched as a terrific wind forced us away from the Sphere and the forms moved amongst the startled watchers in the shelter.

  Steadily moving nearer and nearer to me and Rosie.

  Amazed and horrified I picked out blurred heads without bodies. Eyes wide and mouths open in a constant scream, rushing here and there. I saw running legs and beckoning hands attached to arms without any owner. I saw half-eaten dogs and cats scampering across the floor. I saw the crazy movement of the legs of spiders. The wriggling of snakes. Rats tails. Abandoned babies. Sobbing mothers. Squashed frogs. Beetles. Ants. What I was seeing was every nightmare that you could imagine. All liquidised into one hurling, swirling mass.

  I saw Hanz stand, look towards the churning cloud of bad dreams and stretch out his arms in a Jesus on the Cross sort of way and the word ‘fathers’ was just caught on the storm that was booming and moving amongst us. His screams were quickly cut short as he disappeared, buried under a dozen or more of his worst nightmares. Scratching. Tearing. Eating.

  Smothered.

  So this was The Fathers. Who, or what, they were I couldn’t begin to think about. A storm of nightmares for sure. But why were they here and what sort of evil would show itself in this way? What terrible force would taunt and tear apart the people who celebrated their existence, expected their help, worshipped them?

  I wondered if Dr Meen knew exactly who The Fathers were.

  I saw the blood and the bits of Hanz that the shapes had left behind and I gripped Rosie tightly and dragged her into the wind and towards the tumbling colours of the J-Sphere.

  The Sphere had turned to golds, dark reds and sparkly blacks and I knew that this living thing felt threatened, was disturbed by what was happening around it. I was full of doubt about our escape into the Sphere. Could we do what Dr Meen had done? If we did, what would we find on the inside and beyond? We had no time to think about that as the moaning was building and the wind was becoming even stronger.

  As we drew close to the Sphere, showers of warm sparks covered us and lit Rosie’s face like a bedside lamp. They showed terrified eyes looking to mine for explanations. Reassurance.

  I couldn’t explain and I couldn’t reassure her.

  We just had to get on with it.

  So we paused, took a deep breath and plunged into the The Junction Sphere.