The Four Realms (53 page)

"Tom, get here and help me," Monk called out from the passageway.
 
"I think I can get this door open."

Maureen hesitated for a second as Honest Tom began an obstacle course across the rubble-strewn floor avoiding the chaos.
 
If they could get the door open, she could escape, return to Venefasia.
 
But there was no guarantee they would succeed, and even if they did, would her magical abilities really protect her from a horde of vampires?
 
No, she thought, better to escape somewhere in this world now and return after the battle and make her way into Venefasia then.
 
There were just too many risks, too many unknowns.
 
Wishing her decision could be something different she edged along the wall toward the stairs.

Then she saw Ernest's journal.

It was lying there in the middle of the room, half obscured by masonry.
 
Her first instinct was to leave it, abandon it along with her dream of ever escaping to Venefasia.
 
But she stopped herself.
 
This lay at the heart of everything and whilst yes, it was just a stupid little notebook, it was Ernest's and he had died protecting it (well, she assumed that to be the case.
 
It wasn't as if he had given the thing away).
 
Her thoughts told her to just get out, that Ernest would have worried more about her wellbeing than any silly notebook.

But she was her own person, and after a couple of days feeling like she was being manipulated by everyone - from Rofen and the Friary through to Simon revealing there was more to him than just a nosey neighbour - there was an urge to assert some control back over her life.

No, she decided.
 
She was stubborn and she wasn't just going to run away.
 
She was going to take that notebook.

The limbs had now grown not only in number but in thickness and length; as thick as torsos in places.
 
They ran the floor and walls like vines terminating around the battling vampires.
 
Honest Tom ducked, dodged and snarled at limbs as he tried to make his way to the passageway.
 
D'Toeni ripped at the tentacles that tried to cocoon him as he fought to free Brian who was repeatedly being thrashed against the ceiling.
 
Darwin swung wildly at those that encircled him as he tried to make his way to Cassidy as she fought the one coiled round her, lifting her to the air.
 
No-one seemed to be bothered about Maureen.

She breathed deep, feeling a tingle deep inside, like the day she first stepped out in Venefasia, and made for the notebook.
 
She had to keep her wits about her as the ebb and flow of the battle constantly changed.
 
She narrowly missed being side-swiped by a limb Darwin had just batted out the way.
 
She bent down and picked up the notebook.

"Oh Maureen," a voice called out.
 
"You don't want to do that."

She turned to see Mr West walking toward her, his limbs branching into five tentacles where his hands should be.

"It's not yours," she replied defiantly.

Simon could only laugh and take another step forward.

"Get back," she shouted, brandishing her flowerpot as if it was Darwin's sword.
 
"Leave me alone."

The creature smirked.
 
Oh how she hated smirking.
 
Deep inside her, fear was replaced with anger.
 
This was her home, how dare they.
 
And not just the vampires, but Simon and his flunkies as well.
 
Inside she boiled and then felt a shiver go down her spine.
 
It was if she could feel a draft, coming from the blocked door.
 
She was caught off-guard as a tentacle from Mr North behind her wrapped round her wrist and began to tug.

"No," she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes and turning round to face him.

She felt the grip on her wrist loosen and when she opened her eyes she saw a fire bolt spell hit Mr North in the chest.
 
He stumbled backward, tentacle limbs flailing, his suit spotted with flame. Cassidy had to dart to the side to avoid him.
 

Mr North roared with pain as Maureen instinctively looked down into her flower pot to see the mushrooms whither and disintegrate.
 
How could that be?
 
She looked toward the passageway and saw Monk tearing away at the door, a fist sized hole visible in the top right hand corner.
 
She felt a slight breeze coming from it.

Mr North meanwhile was metamorphosing.
 
His clothes ripped, his skin turning to inky black, as he grew into a shape Maureen recognised. She'd seen this type of huge cephaloid creature before, in the elves' warehouse in Venefasia.
 
As it grew it reached the ceiling, and then as it continued to grow she watched it lift the floor above.
 
The house seemed to shake as the floor above broke, one corner sagging down into the basement.
 
Contents spilled into the basement, everyone scampering out the way as her cooker and fridge, toppled into the basement with a thud.
 
It stopped short of falling completely down on top of them, although Maureen wondered if the creature was the only thing now holding it in place.

Either way, she needed to act fast.
 
She scouted out a couple of the other flowerpots lying around and checked them for mushrooms.
 
If mana was blowing in here through the hole Monk had made in the door, then she could do magic.

And that changed everything.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE - Cometh The Hour

Darwin jumped to the side as the refrigerator from the kitchen upstairs fell into the basement.
 
He looked cautiously above, wondering if the ceiling would hold or whether the entire building was about to come crashing down on top of him.
 
His attention returned to the tentacles trying to encircle him.
 
He swatted another one aside with the sword.

He was already exhausted, his ribs still hurting from where D'Toeni had kicked them.
 
But the arrival of West had snapped him out of his depression.
 
Maybe if he got them all through safely, he could explain.
 
Maybe the vampires would understand, forgive him.

"Darwin, we need the sword," Monk called out from the passageway where he and Honest Tom tore at the broken door.
 
He was about to run over and join them when Cassidy called out again.

"Darwin!
 
Help!"

He glanced over to see tentacles wrapped round her middle hoisting her to the ceiling.
 
Damn her, he thought.
 
This was all her fault.
 
He should leave her there, go to Monk and Honest Tom, try and regain some of their lost faith in him.
 
But from the pained look on her face as she tried to push the coils around her away, Cassidy was in real trouble.

"Fuck."

Another tip of a tentacle came dangerously close - the mass of them intertwining across the room made it impossible to tell whose it was - and he swatted it away a little more aggressively.

"She has you round her little finger," he grumbled to himself as he leapt through the gap he'd just created, vaulted another limb and brought the sword down hard on the tentacle now holding her.
 
There was a scream, the wound spitting black blood as the limb was severed in two.
   
Cassidy dropped to the floor and the stump hastily recoiled.

Without even checking if Cassidy was OK, he turned to make his way back toward the passageway, only to meet the bloody end of the tentacle coming back round to swat him.
 
It lifted him off of his feet, the sword falling out of his hand as he was flung back hard against a wall.

His head rang as it connected with brick and slumped to the floor dazed and confused.

Get up
, he thought to himself.
 
Get up and get out
.
 
Pain seemed to flood into him, not just from his spine and back of his head, but from the earlier facial and rib injuries.
 
He felt beaten, defeated and didn't know if he had the energy to carry on.
 
Win back their trust
, he thought.
 
Show them your worth
.

He hauled himself to his feet, picked up the sword and looked around him.
 
The old lady seemed to be searching in flowerpots for something, no time to save her.
 
Cassidy was swatting away encroaching tentacles with a frying pan that had fallen from the kitchen above.
 
But at the other end of the basement, he saw Brian and D'Toeni battling the one that had been referred to as Mr Magellan.
 
D'Toeni was fiercer than Darwin had ever seen him, snarling and ripping at the wall of tentacles Magellan had placed between him and the vampire. And as Darwin watched, he saw Magellan transform into a second oversized cephalopod.
 
The ceiling groaned again as he grew above the height of the basement, and there were crashes around him as further items from upstairs crashed through.
 
That ceiling wasn't going to last very long.

"Darwin.
 
The Sword.
 
Now!"

Mr North was making his way around the break in realities, starting to send tentacles down the passageway.
 
Magellan meanwhile cocooned D'Toeni and continued to thrash Brian against the walls and ceiling.

That left him and the old lady.

He was tempted to run.
 
Leave them all to their fates and just worry about himself.
 
But where would he go?
 
Would they still come after him?
 
He sighed.
 
He was going to die here, he knew it.
 
Might as well face up to the fact and go down fighting.

As he ran toward Magellan, he felt tears sting his cheeks.
 
For all his depression, he didn't want to die.
 
No, not death he thought.
 
Death wasn't what frightened him, it wasn’t even that nothingness that followed.
 
He hated the idea that his life had meant nothing.

He found himself yell as he reached Magellan, Brian suspended by one tentacle, D'Toeni somewhere in the mass of ten or so limbs that entombed him.
 
Darwin brought the sword down hard on this mass, judging where he thought D'Toeni wasn't.
 
For an old sword it was still remarkably sharp as it sliced through the limbs with ease.
 
The knot of limbs fell to the ground as the creature roared, rising once again from its crouching position, pushing up the ceiling.
 
In the opposite corner, part of the floor above collapsed, a sofa and television tumbling into the cellar.

There was movement in the dead clump of tentacles as first a hand then a bloody face emerged.
 
D'Toeni stared at Darwin as if he was waiting for some pithy remark.
 
But Darwin had time for none and instead, focused his attention on Brian.

Magellan was thrashing.
 
Brian slammed into both ceiling and floor with enough force to kill an ordinary man. Darwin rolled as a flailing tentacle came straight for him, but Magellan seemed oblivious to Darwin's presence until the vampire sliced through the tentacle holding Brian.

Brian fell to the floor, the dead strand of tentacle still choking him.
 
No matter, he was a vampire and as such choking was merely painful rather than life threatening.
 
Darwin's attention instead was Magellan who was now acutely aware of who had injured him so.

Magellan roared at him.
 
Darwin wasn't going to be intimidated by an oversized octopus and instead, raised his sword and charged.

By his estimations, he'd sliced off around ten or eleven of Magellan's limbs, yet still it looked like two thirds of them still remained.
 
The ones that were not used to enable the creature to stand now came at him, seemingly from all directions.

Instinctively, Darwin twirled a full three hundred and sixty degrees, sword angled to make contact with any limb that came too close.
 
It was enough for Magellan to flinch backward toward the exploded wall.
 
Darwin pushed his advantage.
 
Swinging wildly with a distinct lack of finesse, lest any of those limbs try to approach him again, he pushed the creature back another couple of feet, before it stopped and roared at him again.

Darwin could make out the black slit of the mouth, even glimpsed what might have been a tooth as spittle and a smell of rotting fish hit him.
 
He turned his head briefly for a second, but it was enough for Magellan to catch him off-guard as a tentacle side-swiped him.
 
It wasn't enough to send him flying but enough to knock him tumbling across the rubble strewn floor.

Darwin was beyond pain now, adrenaline masking his injuries.
 
He immediately got back up and charged at the creature.
 
Magellan charged in return, scurrying on his remaining limbs.
 
Darwin jumped, delivering a clumsy drop-kick to the creature's body.
 
The creature stumbled back a few paces. Darwin landed awkwardly on the ground, his back and shoulder slamming into a piece of masonry.
 
Get up he told himself, thinking of all those remaining limbs that would now be zeroing in on him.
 
He saw Brian and D'Toeni run in front of him, grabbing at the thrashing tentacles and diverting Magellan's attention.