Chapter four: Elizabeth
“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.”
I guess I stared at her without any expression in my glassy eyes because she slapped me across the face.
“Ugh!” I exploded, finally conscious. “What the–”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she muttered quickly bringing her hand up to her mouth. “I thought you were dead.”
“I’m alive, okay?” I grumbled. “My God, what a day! Stop hitting me. First that monster and now you?” I complained as I struggled to get myself into a sitting position. She held my arm and helped me up. “What happened?” I asked anxiously looking around in search of the monster. “What did you do to that thing?”
“I did nothing.”
“Don’t tell me it left me alive and strode away.”
“That wasn’t me who made it let you go,” she sat back.
“Who then?”
“A man emerged from over there,” she indicated the nearest house on my left. “He was as strong as you were in the house. I think that the monster recognized him, it was afraid of him. It left you lying on the ground and retreated. He saved both of us.”
“What did he look like? Where is he now?” I interrogated.
“He looked weird,” she confessed cocking her head. “He was older, in his sixties, I guess.”
“And half his face was wrapped with a rag, wasn’t it?” I cut her off with a sarcastic smile.
“Yes, do you know him?” She asked.
“We met once. He likes drinking.” I recalled the taste of the nasty drink he had bought me. The sheer thought of it sent chills through my body and I shuddered.
“I’ve never met a human in this town before I met you,” she muttered in a low voice.
“Nothing to be surprised about,” I mumbled. “Not many people can survive these monsters, indeed.”
She regarded me curiously. “Can you stand up?” she asked.
“Yes, I guess. I feel dizzy though. What is it?” I followed her gaze. Now she was suspiciously watching the nearest house.
“There were several scary-looking dogs across from us. Seeing that man, they also retreated,” she explained tonelessly. “I can hear strange voices, and I daresay they are waiting for us. We’d better get moving.”
I stood up. My body still ached, but I could manage it. I held out my hand to aid her.
“What do you think? What kind of things are these creatures?” she hissed, looking towards the house out of the corner of her eye.
She was nervous, shocked, her eyes wide. It was the first time she’d seen the monsters too.
“No idea,” I replied after a moment.
The street was empty, but it wasn’t as silent as it had been. She was right; there were some kinds of creatures lurking out there.
As I looked up the street, not far from us, several dogs appeared in my view staring in our direction, but they clearly had no intention of attacking us, just watched us having the look of guardians rather than attackers.
“Let’s move down the street and get out of this town once and for all. What do you think?” I said lowly staring at the beasts.
She peeked back over her shoulder and jolted back shrieking. She cupped her hand over her mouth in horror. I grabbed her by the shoulders.
“It’s okay, look at me,” I said loudly, trying to get her attention, but nothing was okay, it was far from okay. When have you ever been okay seeing monsters?
“They are there, they’re coming for us…” she stammered jabbing her finger towards the beasts.
I caught her outstretched hand and lowered it sternly. “They aren’t coming, calm down. But we’d better get moving before they change their minds.”
She nodded. “There is an endless desert out there,” she reminded me. “Where are we supposed to go?”
Right. Had she come from the desert too? Or she had tried to escape the town before.
“That’s better than here. I’m not going to try those bastards’ patience,” I turned back and made my way down the street. I heard her following me obediently.
But she wasn’t the only one walking behind me. We were being watched by someone or something that was lurking behind all those unattractive houses we passed.
“This town, do you live here? What has happened here?” I asked curiously.
“No, I don’t live here. I saw this town when I woke up in the desert recently,” she picked up her pace and caught up with me, her arms folded across her chest to hide her breasts. “I had nowhere to go.”
As did I.
“And you don’t remember anything, do you?” I cut her off.
“No,” she smirked. “You too, I guess.”
I nodded reluctantly. For a minute or two we walked in silence, my ears strained for any odd sound. There were some that reached my ears, but my eyes weren’t properly sharp. They saw only the empty street and dusty houses.
“I wonder what kind of town this is. There are no residents; it’s full of monsters and abnormal dogs all around,” I muttered to myself.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that we’ve both been sent here without any memory?” She interrupted my thoughts.
“Yeah, it is weird. We’re both in the same situation,” I mused letting my eyes drop to the ground. “Why me? Or you?” I questioned myself. I stopped and finally looked down at her dumbly. She was a pretty woman, her kind eyes and soft frizzled hair, made my stomach flutter. She wrapped her arms around herself as though she was cold, and my eyes instinctively fell down to her breasts.
“What are you looking at?” she asked ashamed, a confused smile appeared on her face as she covered them.
I took off my shirt and handed it to her. “Put it on.”
She took it. “Thank you,” she muttered modestly, quickly pulling my shirt on. I stood before her with just a white vest on my bare chest.
“By the way, thank you for saving me from that monster.”
“Never mind that,” I cut her off with a gesture. “They are still following us,” I noted, glancing back. Several doglike animals, keeping their distance, were on the street watching us. “They don’t attack us. They just want us to go in this direction,” I told myself.
“I don’t think they’re doing this for our good, though,” she muttered. “Maybe they are pushing us into the trap?”
“You want to turn back?” I asked.
The look my words put on her face instantly read otherwise. I wondered what she was afraid of–facing the beasts or staying alone, without me.
“I didn’t say that,” she said sounding resentful.
I sighed. “Okay. Let’s just figure out what lies outside the city and start over this craziness from the beginning of the town.” I smiled at her slightly adding, “Again.”
She answered my smile. I peeked back again. The light coming from the sky had laid some kind of brightness onto the town. The dingy grayness hanging above us became bearable.
“I have never seen such a phenomenon in my life,” I remarked pointing at the fiery light.
“It’s a really weird thing indeed,” she murmured forcing me to rest my eyes on her again. I chortled. “What?” she asked me.
“Everything is weird in this place, don’t you think?”
Her face lit up with a thin smile. The corner of my mouths twitched, but I held my smile, and we started off.
“Do you have a name that I can call you?” I changed the subject.
“Elizabeth, yeah, you can call me that,” she said dubiously. “You?”
“Jonathan.” At least the woman in my mind had called me that. “Why did you enter that house Elizabeth?”
“It felt familiar to me. I saw a man and a girl at the house door who called me in. I was confused and remembered nothing.” Elizabeth paused, pursing her lips. “I needed help,” she added vaguely.
“Didn’t you notice the guard dogs when you entered?”
“There wasn’t any,” she said quickly. “The whole street was empty, no living soul nearby. I was scared, and, seeing a man, I hurried to him for help.”
“But the house was empty. I didn’t meet anybody but you and that monster inside,” I remembered. “From what you’ve told me, I saw only a photo album on the table.”
“I didn’t find them inside the house either,” she swept her hair out of her face, allowing it to fall loosely on her shoulders. “I wandered into the house in search of that man. I tried the telephone, but it didn’t work. Then, I just, I…” her face crumpled as she looked at one of the houses, her thoughts drifting back.
“How long were you in the house for?”
She looked at me thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I had no strength to get out. The house seemed to force me to stay in. It had a strange influence on my mind. Every time I reached the door to get out, several mysterious pictures flashed before my eyes, probably from my past, but they were torturous.”
“What did you see?”
She averted her eyes aside and trailed off. I was pretty sure she was crying soundlessly. I heaved a silent sigh and glanced back again. The dogs were still following. Don’t you have anything else to do? I thought arching my eyebrows.
“I was upstairs in the study looking out to the garden,” she resumed without facing me, “The monster sneaking into the house unnoticed and pounced on me from behind. I wonder why I didn’t faint just from seeing it. It was the worst nightmare that could even occur.” Elizabeth trailed off tilting her head.
Inscrutable silence fell upon us. Even the sound of our footsteps deadened a bit. Nature seemed to be a living and mindful thing in the town, watching our every little step, our every move and listening to every single word we exchanged. Could it be?
“I think we’re in some sort of experiment,” she rubbed her eyes as she spoke. “Evidently, this town is meant for abnormal creatures, I suppose, we might be here,” she paused, her voice becoming fainter, “to see how average people would react after finding themselves in this hell. The people, who built this place, might be watching us secretly now so they can work on their creation.”
“As a matter of fact, I’m not a normal man anymore,” I added flatly. I could feel an unfamiliar power flowing through my veins. “You saw what my strikes did to that monster in the house. But I have been thinking about the hell you just mentioned. We might be dead, what do you think?” I deduced.
“Dead?” she screamed out appalled. “You think we’re in hell? I mean in the real hell?”
“Look, both of us woke up remembering nothing, who and what we had been before, not a single piece of shit from our past. What was waiting for us in the desert?” I demanded an answer from her but didn’t wait too long and continued. “This damned town.”
I could clearly see the fear twinkling in her shocked eyes. Hadn’t she thought about the idea I had just given her? She was walking next to me, but her thoughts were far away.
“What have I done to deserve an afterlife in hell?” she murmured under her breath ruefully.
“That’s the question we might not be able to solve, ever. Sometimes we do things we’re sorry for later. That’s if we ever remember those things,” I said miserably. “Maybe the answer is somewhere there,” I pointed back towards the light peeking out from under the gray sky.
“We’ll never get through this town and its beasts to reach it, though.”
Deep inside, to be honest with me, I shared her supposition. I had barely defeated one dog, let alone a pack of monstrous animals, or abnormal creatures created by some crazy scientists. Whatever, they would surely tear me to bits like piranhas do to their poor victims that have chosen the wrong waters to pass.
“We can’t get out of the town if we’re dead,” Elizabeth said. “There is no turn back from hell Jonathan.”
“Yeah, right,” I murmured. “We have to check it anyway. Maybe I’m wrong.”
“You definitely are. For me we’ve been abducted and sent to here. Whoever is doing this, they may erase our memory by some powerful poison and threw us here.”
“Maybe,” I sighed mournfully. “What about the sunless sky? You think they covered it by enormous monitor? Like a cupola over the whole town?”
She didn’t answer at once.
“We might have been captured by aliens and moved to another world or planet.” I understood her; she stubbornly wanted to avoid the death theory in any possible way.
I liked the idea. Who wants to die?
But the fact was both of us had had several flashbacks from our past, which we had relived, and we had both seen someone who most probably had been the dearest person to us ever. This might have been their way of torturing the remainder of our souls forever.
On the subject of time, I realized at that moment that time had stopped in that town.
Although I hated to look up, I had to have a glimpse of that gray, dingy space that hung eerily above my head. The sun’s absence meant that there wouldn’t even be a sunrise or a sunset. The corners of my mouth twitched, and I smiled to myself realizing that an hour was going to be forever. At that very moment I understood the true meaning of the word forever.