IX.
Asteroids of concrete and meteors of bricks began raining down upon them with deathly intent, but Vagari had no designs on being entombed there with the creature. So, he ran – as fast as he ever had, as fast as he could towards that gnawed tunnel, towards the blooming dawn beyond. He could feel the Amalgamation’s psionic impression explode behind him like the crumbling pillars – sending waves of fear, confusion, rage, and sorrow washing over his mind. Some part of the creature even exuded relief, a sense of happiness as the rubble rained down upon it. Those thankful intents, however, were far from dominant in the abomination’s overflowing mind. The Amalgamation snapped its mouthful of gnarled tusks together rapidly and in all directions, like a rabid animal biting at ghosts. Briefly it fought with itself, those dueling wills, those opposing intents locking it in place, giving Vagari the head start he needed to reach the ruins of the glass prison. It was over quick, and the victor was as apparent as the thunderous footsteps heard even above the violent death throes of the fabled Site-B.
Vagari threw himself through the hole in the glass, stumbling to the ground just long enough to give him a glimpse of the devastation that drew close behind: a solid wall of dust and debris, succeeding one of mottled flesh and snapping jaws. Vagari leapt to his feet and hurriedly began his ascent to the surface, cursing every breath as he pushed himself once more to his limits. Halfway, he could hear his impending doom hit the inner wall before beginning its own ascent. The Amalgamation’s screams echoed through the tunnel like knives to the ears, violent wails of pure rage. Vagari couldn’t tell if it was dust from the fast-approaching collapse or the vile creature’s heated breath nipping at his heels, but almost by instinct, he decided there were no more chances to take. He could see the sun, burning bright above so close he could almost reach it. It was do or die now, and like a whip, Vagari spun about and thrust his palms into the open maw of the void.
For a moment it felt as if the world had nearly frozen solid as he lay there, waiting hours in a single breath, arms outstretched at the precipice of freedom. His thoughts went to Soprano running for her life, and to the father they left behind in the one last place that truly felt like home: now, only a tomb thanks to her pursuers. He wasn’t going to die there, Vagari was adamant of, not there in that long-forgotten city, not back where he started, and surely not before he sends those murderous bastards straight to hell.
In that timeless instant he drew forth all the remaining will he had left and channeled it all into a shout, into a word as old as time – a word of power. “Hengnis!” Vagari cried, soundless to his own ears. He was, at first, unsure if the word had truly managed to escape, or if it were stuck in that frozen moment with the rest of the world. But that moment thawed, and with it, it brought surety – surety in the form of Hellfire. The eldritch flame was his will made manifest, a violent intent of defiance and devastation. It began as a match flame, flickering alone in the darkness before blooming into the very heart of the sun. Shining bright within the maw of darkness, it illuminated the hidden jaws within, falling fast, so close to achieving their goal – the kill. The ice that held the world shattered and that brightness erupt into an inferno hot enough to boil steel. And still, Vagari prayed that that would be enough.
Like a volcano, the mouth of the jagged pit bellowed out smoke and dust, showering the ruined carpark in debris. BP shieled her bulbous eyes the best she could as the veiling cloud filled in the world around her. “Vagari!” she shouted in shock and bewilderment, unsure of what just happened. She quickly turned her attention to the tablet held tight in her hand. “Aan, Aan! Check… check for bio-signs! Check for…” Her frantic words dropped to a cautious silence in an instant. There was a darkness in the cloud, a shadow, tall and overbearing. She could feel it still, the Amalgamation – quieter than it ever had been, but still there. BP knew what that still shadow was. It was waiting for her to run. “BP?” Choked out a familiar voice from somewhere within the dust. “BP where are you?”
It was Vagari, she realized with a jolt of relief before a cold splash of reality washed it away. He didn’t know. He didn’t know it was still there. BP spat out a quick and insistent hush in the general direction of the voice, but Vagari didn’t seem to realize. “Ah there you are…” He said between coughs. “Give me one moment. I can clear this up.” Suddenly there came a loud buzzing from within the cloud, causing her heart to freeze solid in her chest. It had to hear them now, it had to know they were there! And it did, she could sense it. BP shushed frantically into the cloud but to no avail, he couldn’t hear her over that strange buzzing. Finally, she would just shout. “Run, Vagari!” BP hollered; her own safety be damned. “It’s still here! I can feel it! You need to run!”
“I know it is…” Vagari admitted softly as the cloud began to clear. “But it’s okay.”
BP could see him now, standing not far from the shadow. The air seemed to be moving around him as if it were being blown away by something. A moment more and she could see that it was, that he had wings. BP stared in awe at Vagari as he used his wings to clear away the dust. With the cloud gone, she could see what his reassurance meant. It was the Amalgamation, but not nearly all of it. Where the opening had been was a single outreaching arm, firmly rooted in the collapsed tunnel. It swayed in the breeze like a tree grown in the blackest pits of Hell itself.
Vagari stood in silence for a moment, seeing how very narrow his escape had been. Site-B was all but gone now, reduced to a heap of rubble over the collapsed garage. A second later and he would have been caught in the belly of the beast, be it Site-B or the monster it had created. Vagari let out an exhausted sigh and turned his attention back to BP who stood there staring with bulging green eyes full of tears. It was funny, Vagari thought, and wholly strange that the dwarfish thing, so quick to tears, had been ready to die moments before, and all just to warn him. If the Amalgamation had truly been free, she would have stood no chance, drawing its attention. He knew it and so did she, and yet…
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Vagari managed a weak but kind smile as he furled his wings. For her sake he tried to put on a brave face and the guise that he wasn’t as wrecked from the encounter as he actually was. Since his arrival at the curio shop every step forward had felt like one deeper into Hell. He was spent in every fashion, but something in those eyes made him pretend otherwise. “See?” Vagari said softly. “I told you I’d be right behind you. Everything is okay.”
BP nodded surely, but it was plain to see that everything wasn’t okay. At first, he had thought the tears were for him but then he noticed the tablet wasn’t all she clutched protectively to her breast. There was something else, something long and metallic. Vagari wanted to ask, but felt it wasn’t the time or place just yet, so instead he looked towards the rising sun and then said, “Lets get out of here… I know a place not far from here, I think, where we can rest and get our bearings.”
“What’s it called?” BP asked, all the excitement drained from her avian croak. “I’ll take us there.”
“If it’s still there,” Vagari added before answering, “Longborrow’s Lake.”
--
Longborrow’s Lake – Western Shore
Vagari sunk down upon the gravel beach and stared off across the lakeside. He didn’t know what he had expected to find there, but some part of him felt disappointed that he didn’t find it. BP sat beside him and together they watched the lapping waves in silence for a time. It was peaceful, but a mournful peace, like a visit to the graveyard that it, in all actuality, was. “How did you know about this place?” BP asked him in a hushed tone, just barely breaking the silence between them. “It’s pretty.”
“Someone I used to know told me,” Vagari answered truthfully. “They used to come here on the weekends, him and his wife. It was the only real time they got to spend together after he changed jobs. Drove all day just to watch the sunset.”
BP looked across the lake to the rolling cloud of fog blanketing its distant shores. It burned bright with the rising sun behind it, a wall of fire dancing with colors she had never imagined. She looked down to the slender metal object she held in her lap. “Dr. Xu promised to show me the sunset,” BP admitted. “He told me that once their work was done we’d all get to see it. I tried to tell the others, tell them how excited they should be, like I was, that if they were just good and let the doctors do their work… They never listened to me. And now… Now everyone is gone. I’m the only one left,” BP admitted painedly as she let the metal thing fall to the ground before her.
It took Vagari only a glance to tell what the object had been, the shin of a prosthetic leg. “I’m… sorry for your loss,” he uttered softly. Whoever Dr. Xu had been, be him man or the monster Vagari suspected he was, Vagari couldn’t help but truly feel for the sorrowful creature’s loss. It was plain that the man had been her anchor, one that was severed now, sending her adrift. “There has been too much loss in the world lately… I know what you’re going through. I lost someone recently as well. Someone who was like a son to me.”
“I’m sorry too…” the homunculus said, bulging eyes worn and red as she stared down at the ruined leg. “What happened to him?”
“He was killed, murdered,” Vagari said truthfully, “by a different kind of monster. It’s his daughter I’m trying to reach. That monster is still after her. Unfortunately, as you’ll find, there is no shortage of monsters in this world.”
“Maybe not,” BP said, eyes upon the horizon, “but there’s you. You stopped to save me, even when someone else needs you. I… I’m sorry for what I did…” she continued with a pause as she slid the tablet towards him. “I put your code in. You don’t need me anymore. You can leave me here. I won’t be mad.”
Vagari huffed and shook his head. “No,” he said flatly. “I didn’t risk everything for you to just give up and stay. I’m taking you to Eastend, as I said I would. Deal or no deal, Soprano wouldn’t want that… She wouldn’t be able to stomach me if she knew I left you behind. Her whole family was like that. Always taking in strays. So, no…” Vagari decided firmly, pushing to tablet back towards her. “Keep it. I’ll follow your direction. Then, when we get to Eastend, and only then, if you want to part ways, so be it. Until then, you’re stuck with me.” Vagari looked over his shoulder to see BP holding the tablet tight with her face pressed against the screen, weeping. He slid backwards until he was sitting right next to her and then said to her, and partially to himself. “It’s going to be okay,” Vagari said, wrapping an arm around her, his thoughts on Soprano and how she must be going through the exact same pain. He wished he was there for her now, that they both were. Even if he didn’t believe it, he swore to her, to Soprano, and even to himself, “In the end, everything is going to be okay.”
Vagari held her there, feeling that pain, soaking up tears, and the world shook. BP clung tight, in shock and fear, as he stared off across the lake, deep into that veiling mist and watched as a great shadow sunk into it. The once glass-like waters cracked and crashed against the shore as the bones of an ancient building crumbled into it, sending flocks of the glowing birds soaring into the sky. That shadow listed through the veil as tall as the buildings without. A deep drone filled the air, a whisper, a thousand whispers, a thousand voices just beyond the edge of comprehension. They watched as the mountainous thing strode in front of the sun, casting the world again in shadow, and watched as it moved on across the way and back into the city depths. That was the ‘Her’ BP had mentioned, Vagari realized, the source, the compound and subject of the good doctor’s notes. It had grown much since its escape, becoming a leviathan of biblical proportions. A fitting moniker. “Behold, the hope of him is in vain,” Vagari said as the world grew still once more. “Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?"