The Monstrous Hunt

before this can be fixed.

  As I raced my way back to the Dales, the surreal conversation I had just had swirled around in my mind and haunted me. How had he known those things? And given the proof that he was aware of so much, how could I truly deny that Amelia might be in trouble?

  The hike back up to the cave was likely faster than the first time. I knew the way and I was running but it felt far too slow. It was taking too long. Then even parts of my own mind turned on me, becoming convinced that the man was right and that I would be too late. I was not sure exactly what it was I feared to find. Would she be a Point or a Crest? Would she be dead? Would that thing that attacked me somehow be here too?

  I emerged onto the plateau and looked around. The morning sun lit the entire area so that it was easy to investigate at a glance. There was no sign of anything amiss. My boulder was still blocking the cave just as when I had left.

  With great effort, I managed to move the boulder away from the opening enough to get inside. It was dark. The fire had gone out and there was no sign of even the smallest ember glowing its last. The air was thick with smoke and stagnant.

  As I tried to crawl forward, my hand brushed against something. It was cold but feathery soft. I tried to look at it but the light from the entrance did not enter that far into the cave. My fingers shook as I touched it. It was Amelia's hair.

  "Amelia?" I called, hoping she had just been asleep.

  There was no answer. I moved my hand in the darkness to find her body. I found her hand. Her fingers were too cold to be normal.

  "I am going to get you out of here," I said.

  I grasped her hand tightly and pulled. As her body dragged on the ground and I was able to move closer to the light of the entrance, I saw her other hand and grasped that as well. I pulled, tugged, and dragged her from the cave.

  When I had her out in the sunlight, I checked her over. I called to her.

  Her eyes were closed, her skin too pale to be natural. I called to her again. She did not answer. I dared not check for a pulse. I held her close and told her everything would turn out alright, that we would overcome all the craziness. Her hair became wet with my pleading.

  I begged her to wake up and come back to me. I loved her so much. I couldn't live without her. I had done the craziest things of my life chasing her down because I loved her. I rocked her.

  When the reality was so obvious even to me, there was no need to check for a pulse. There would have been none. My fingers shook beyond control even as I tried to pull them through her hair.

  I wondered what had happened. There was no sign of anyone else having been in the cave. There was none of that same horrible feeling of that thing that had violated me. She was not a Point or a Crest. She was simply dead.

  That was when you came.

  No, it is not. You can remember.

  That’s all I have left. What more do you want from me?

  For you to stop hiding and take responsibility.

  I didn’t do anything!

  Remember, Oliver! Think back carefully and you will remember. Think!

  No!

  Yes. What were you thinking as you held her? Were you alone? It is there inside you. The truth wants to be freed.

  Fine!

  As my mind searched for someone to blame, I heard her voice.

  "It's never you, is it?" she said.

  I jerked my head up to the west. My grip upon her body nearly gave way. It slumped in my slackened embrace.

  In all her beauty, she stood at the edge of the plateau. She was not alone. A Myyga stood next to her. The morning sun upon her made her nearly glow. The Myyga looked as grey as always.

  I looked down at the body in my arms, confirming that it was her. I looked up at the vision before me.

  She gestured at the Myyga. "He saved me," she said. "All my fear and pain, all the terror you gave me, it is gone now."

  "I gave you?" I asked. I was too confused to be offended. My fingers involuntarily clutched her body more tightly again.

  She was not indifferent as she spoke but her emotions were muted. If anything, she seemed content. "You really don't realize what you did?" she asked.

  She looked me over as if she were evaluating me. I clutched her tighter, not knowing how else to respond.

  "I was terrified of you," she explained. "How could you not see it?"

  "You were terrified of the monsters," I insisted.

  She nodded. "Yes, when I did not understand," she said, "But I also feared you. You are obsessed with me, even now. You followed me to try to win me. Even after I had rejected you, you came looking for me."

  She was being so unfair. "Only to protect you!" I said, feeling completely justified in my outrage.

  She stared at me without movement or words for many seconds. Then she said, "You do not understand real love. You came because you wanted any excuse to pursue me again. My safety was not your real concern. You may have convinced yourself of that but even you must admit that a silly assertion now."

  I looked down at her body. She died while I was gone. How was I to know that would happen? I never would have left if I had known.

  "You left because you knew," she said. "How do you think I died?"

  There was pain in my fingers. I looked down and saw that I was holding her so tightly my knuckles had turned white. I could not relax them.

  "Look at my throat," she called to me.

  I buried my face in her hair. I wanted to escape. In my fantasy, she would wake up and we would be happy and run away together. She would be my Amelia again. The woman judging me was not the one I remembered.

  "You never knew me," she said. "You imagined what you wanted of me. Your mind was set before you ever said hello." She paused. "Look at my throat."

  I hesitated. I did not want to know.

  "Look at it," she pressed. She did not yell but her voice was increasingly stern as she ordered me to examine her corpse.

  The wind upon the plateau felt piercing against my wet cheeks as I pulled the body away from me.

  Her face was so serene. I wish she had been sleeping but there was nothing of slumber in how she looked now. I lifted her chin so that I could see her neck.

  My stomach flipped and twisted as I saw the series of small bruises. I ran my fingers along them, the similarity in placement and size did not escape my notice and my fingers froze.

  "I heard you yelling at me when I pushed the boulder in front of the entrance," I whispered.

  "Perhaps as I echoed in your mind," she said.

  I looked up at her, expecting hatred given what I had done. I deserved it. How could I have done such a thing? How did I not remember? Even now, thinking back, I cannot remember it as it was.

  She did not hate me. She seemed entirely resigned as we stared at each other.

  Finally, she said, "You have interfered in the natural order. You have interrupted the cleansings of several souls, you have caused the death of Myyga, and you have brought a great darkness upon York. The Myyga can no longer trust you to correct this situation on your own."

  I was grabbed from behind. I struggled but the two Myyga who had grabbed me were too strong and I was outnumbered. I watched helplessly as Amelia and her Myyga companion walked away.

  Thank you for recalling all that, though your memory has proved somewhat faulty. You know what happened now.

  I'm glad you do but I am still in the dark.

  You know what you did and now we can work to rectify the mess you created.

  The mess that I created? It was you Myyga that ruined everything. If it hadn't been for you, everything would have been alright.

  Do you still honestly believe Amelia would have loved you?

  She, well, she might have done. But I didn't get a fair chance. With you things all around, how could I show her my best?

  Amelia did not and would never have loved you.

  Maybe that would have changed if you hadn't taken her from me.

  You are the one that hunted her an
d you are the one who killed her. We had nothing to do with it.

  Then what about the Myyga in the Dales? Why were they there? Why did you have to start going after people? What are you?

  We were simply doing what we have done since the beginning of time. It is our job.

  That tells me nothing!

  We are the cleaners of souls. When one dies, a Myyga sucks all the negativity from within that person so that the soul is pure enough to move on.

  I thought bad people just went to Hell.

  If God has his way, they would.

  What about those murdered people? I wasn't the only one who saw the mangled bodies the Myyga went after.

  You interrupted those Myyga. Most never see us or the evidence of our work but these went unfinished.

  The first man had had too much to drink. He had hit his head on the cobbles and died. The second had had a heart attack and I believe it was the interrupting of the two Myyga with him that caused the most damage.

  Because they had to seek out more?

  Yes and no. The Myyga feed upon the negativity. It is our food but we are neither negative nor positive. The way our cleansing process works, stopping in the middle is like cutting a blood transfusion short. A weakened Myyga cannot convert the negativity.

  There had been two Myyga upon that one gentleman because he had been a despicable man. He had been involved in corruption to the highest levels and had nothing good in his heart. Regardless of your interruption, he would have been a difficult soul to cleanse.

  The Myyga that had worked on him became consumed by his