Edge of End (5 page)

Determinedly, I stabbed it into the
monster’s back. It growled in pain, tossing the woman to the floor
and turning its body towards me. On impulse, I punched it in its
stomach sending the monster onto the desk.

Perplexed and astounded, I looked down
at my palms. Blood was pulsing in them rapidly. I had a power, a
mighty one. I spent too much time contemplating it. The monster
jolted its body upright and leaped at me, together we smashed into
the wall destroying it completely.

I found myself lying on the floor at
the top of the stairs, the pieces of the torn wall raining over my
face. The next moment the monster was on me grabbing my neck. I
punched it in the face with all my might, and as I did so, a black
liquid seeped from its face, splashing all over me. It was probably
what passed for its blood.

I kicked the monster backwards trying
to free myself. It glided through the air and fell with a thump
onto the wooden floor.

We stood up
simultaneously. I held my hands before me ready to defend myself.
The monster attacked. It was so close. I squeezed it by its
shoulders and tossed it back towards the study as if it was a light
box. It seemed as light as a cat. At that very moment, I was in awe
of my realized strength–superhuman powers, and I realized why I had
been sent to this
town
. There was something wrong with me either, like with the
barwoman, the dogs and Malcolm, and this monster.

The monster fell back thrashing into
the desk with a loud crash that sent shockwaves through the
floor.

The woman let out a scream. She
continued to cower in the nearest corner watching us fight, her
eyes wide and in utter shock at the unusual performance. If I had
been in her position, I would have been exactly the same. But when
you’re in a precarious situation, you don’t give much thought to a
lot of things, you just fight to survive.

“
Get up,” I told her
taking her hand grimly. “Run, now!” She snatched her shoes, and I
shoved her towards the stairs, leading her down before the monster
could come to its senses.

“
What’s going on?” she
mumbled. We were in the large room downstairs. “What was that
thing? Where are we?”

“
Where are we?” I made a
surprised face. “I don’t know. You tell me,” I said sharply. How
was I supposed to know where we were? This was her place, wasn’t
it? I urged her into the passage with me. “How did you happen to
end up with this
guy
,” mentioning the word ‘guy’ I stammered.

“
Guy?” she asked as we ran
across the gloomy passage. “Did you see the same as I? It wasn’t
even a human.”

Yes, woman, I saw the
same
. Instead I said, “That thing isn’t
dead yet. It’ll come after us. Maybe it’s already coming,” we came
to a halt at the white door of the house, and the exasperated growl
of the monster proved my words. “We have to get out of
here.”

“
What are we waiting for
then?” She handled the knob instantly, but I stopped
her.

“
There are monsters
outside, too,” I told her, trying to sound calm, but my heart was
pounding like there was no tomorrow. “They’re monsters, like dogs
or something.”

“
What are we gonna do?”
She cried in a panic looking from the end of the corridor to the
door. “Are we gonna die here?”

“
Or we are gonna die
outside,” I finished her sentence. I was pretty sure the monster
had regained itself and the next time it wouldn’t give me another
chance to escape.

She nodded. Her fiery red,
well-groomed hair cascaded the tops of her shoulders and fell at
the cups of her bra. With her rapid breathing her breasts heaved.
The remains of her ripped shirt covered only her shoulders and the
half of her back.

“
You’re a strong man. You
just fought that thing off. Why didn’t you kill it?”

“
Honestly, I don’t know
how I did it,” I said meeting her anxious eyes. “I was dazed and
confused and acted on impulse. I daresay, it’s livid now and it
will tear us to pieces. We have to get out of this place.” I jerked
the door open. “If I fall behind, don’t wait for me, run up the
street. There is a café there.”

She didn’t reply. I heard the beast
rushing down the stairs. The floor shuddered beneath his
feet.

“
Ready?” as I asked I was
faced the door and didn’t wait to hear her answer. Opening it, I
darted out of the house like a bullet. She followed suit, slamming
the door shut behind her.

I jumped down the white steps in front
of the house and ran towards the destroyed fence, and, as I did, I
looked behind me searching for any sign of the dogs.

Holy shit.
One of the beasts appeared from the left of the
house. Its wail made the woman turn. She screamed, holding her hand
to her mouth in horror. Apparently she saw such a thing for the
first time.

“
Don’t stop,” I cried out
as we were already at the fence.

The dog ran too fast. I knew we
wouldn’t be able to get very far and besides the woman moved slower
than I did.

I could have left her there in the
garden, a meal for the dogs and the monstrous creature inside the
house, and flee, but I didn’t.

Not my nature.

Perhaps because she was
the only normal looking human I had met in the
town
, I didn’t want to lose her. Or
perhaps it was because she was so attractive.

Reaching the fence, I
picked up the nearest piece of metal and used it as a
weapon.
Holding it up, I leaped back to
confront the beast. “Go! Don’t stop!” I ordered in a determined
voice. Holding onto her hiked up skirt with one hand, her shoes in
the other, she jumped over the fence.

The dog proceeded to charge
purposefully at me. I took a fighting stance and circled my fingers
around my weapon tighter.

“
Come on, bitch!” I
clenched my teeth and narrowed my eyes, scrunching my
eyebrows.

The dog launched itself from the
ground, flying at me with its sharp nails outstretched. Filled with
adrenalin, I reacted faster than before, ducking and stabbing the
metal rod right into its chest.

The animal’s shriek
pierced through the air and could have been heard for probably a
mile or two.
The dog kept on fight with
desperate tries to stab its nails in me even while it was lying on
the ground. I managed to keep hold of my weapon tightly, forcing it
deeper inside its chest, and the animal weakened quickly, its dark
red blood gushing out of its deadly wound.

“
Die!” I shouted in full
measure.

Before I could release the weapon and
catch my breath, the house door exploded open, the broken pieces
reaching as far as my feet. I forgot to breathe, as my eyes
traveled over the yard and found the house and the humanoid monster
standing at the threshold frowning at me with great displeasure.
The weapon slid out of my hand, and I backed away slowly with even
steps. The monster’s mouth relaxed into a smug gloating
smile.

“
Run!” I heard the woman
shouting.

She hadn’t run far, she was only at
the dusty car in front of the fence. I did as I had been told–I
spun around and broke into a sprint.

Shocked and confused, I
ran after the woman, and down the street, back towards the
town’s
entrance.

“
Not that way,” I called
out to her, but there was no chance to turn back.

Every now and then I glanced back over
my shoulder to see the monster pursuing us. It was gaining
us.

I finally caught up with the woman and
held tightly onto her arm dragging her with me.

“
Faster!” I ordered,
panting. “It’s overtaking us.”

She glanced back with eyes full of
fear.

Everything happened so fast. Before I
could process the situation, I found myself crashing to the ground.
The monster, with its inhuman leap, had flown directly onto us.
Together, the woman and I collapsed into a heap facedown on the
ground. The strength that had overcome the monster at that very
moment was unbelievably powerful, and it fell on me making my bones
groan and crack.

I coughed up the dust from my lungs,
and with great difficulty, I lifted my head. An acute pain jolted
up my spine making me howl in anguish. The blurred picture in front
of me swayed, yet my cognizance understood the woman was lying next
to me.

“
Hey, are you alive?” My
breath left my lungs in a hissing rush. She flinched in an answer
with a groan.

We had enraged the monster and learned
his true power. For a split second I was amazed at how I had
managed to escape it inside the house.

Its heavy footsteps shook the ground
sending waves against me chest. I saw it approaching slowly and
enjoying the painful picture of my fall. I keeled over backwards in
fear. That mystical gray sky without a sun was before my eyes
again, the sucking force spread its arms over me, and, staring up
at it, I felt my body begin to weaken.

The monster obscured my view; its face
blocked the sky. One hideous thing was replaced by another. As if
satisfied with my weakness, its bloody eyes watched me scornfully.
With outstretched it bent forward hand and wrapped its long and
vicious fingers around my neck. Within seconds I was in the air, my
feet uselessly kicking several inches above the ground for the
second time.

Choking, I fought for my life, and for
the life which was still unfamiliar to me; for the life that had
started in the desert; for the life I had only experienced for a
few hours or so.

My arms felt weak and heavy, and my
strikes no longer had the great power as they had had in the house.
My enemy seemed to be enjoying my feeble attempts at fighting back.
Its mouth stretched wide from ear to ear showing me its yellowed
teeth.

After what seemed like minutes of
choking, I felt my arms weakening and falling limply down to my
sides. Moments later, I could only move my eyes. I was losing my
life at the hand of that brutal monster.

What had I done to deserve
such death?
I could reason a while, but,
as a matter of fact, I didn’t have much time, perhaps ten-fifteen
seconds max.

The sky far behind the
monster cracked, and a fiery light stretched down to the ground.
Although the sound of my life was dying in my ears, I heard an
angry voice like thunder, which spread over the
town
causing the monster to glance
back over its shoulder. But still its grip around my neck didn’t
slacken.

“
You won’t reach it,” the
monster eyed me, its voice harsh and hoarse and reached me from
afar.

“
Stop! Don’t kill him,
please,” the woman begged in a soft voice. Somehow my heart ached
with the desire to look at her beautiful eyes one more time before
I went.

It is said that the life you have
lived passes in front of your eyes before you die, but I saw
nothing, even being an inch from death, my mind behaved too slyly,
keeping my memories deep in its abyss. Instead, my eyes closed, and
I was swallowed up by the darkness and nothingness.

Was I dead?

But then I saw an unfamiliar man,
lying on the asphalt, his face covered with blood and the glassy,
lifeless eyes focused on me.

I tore my eyes away from him and
surveyed my surroundings. Dim walls, dark sky, a gloomy shining
moon–the very same alley I had been in during the flashes of my
memories earlier. Through the darkness, I saw a woman standing ten
to fifteen steps ahead of me and watching me with some sort of
sorrow in her eyes.

I narrowed my eyes and
squinted at her, trying to focus on her face and I recognized
her–the mysterious woman from the first house of that damn
town
. Her loosened hair
blew free in the wind dancing between me and her face.

I wanted to ask where I knew her from,
but no word escaped my mouth, I was speechless. I lifted my hand
toward her and, to my surprise, I made out a gun in my outstretched
hand. Had I killed the man lying at my feet?

I forgot where I was, and instead, I
cast my eyes downwards realizing I had committed a murder. I had
taken a life that I hadn’t given to that man.

My hand trembled nervously.

“
Jonathan.
” The voice came from
behind.

I wheeled around; my eyes
met the woman’s. She raised her hands and gently placed them on my
cheeks. “
Jonathan, wake up and come to me.
Come to me
,” she whispered and blew into
my face. I screwed up my eyes tightly then opened them
again.

A mass of fiery red hair with a gray
sky backdrop came into view. I was lying on the ground, and the
woman I had rescued from the monster was trying to bring me back to
consciousness.

“
Can you hear me?” she was
asking. Her voice was melodic, have I mentioned that? “Can you
move? Answer me. We’ve got to go.”