Edwina

  Exodor.

  Empowered by a strength she didn't know she possessed anymore, Ida rose to her hurting legs and watched as the stunning unicorn slowly came closer to her, then lowered its head and let her reach out and touch it. She stroked it gently, felt its soft fur, as soft and smooth as a bird's plumage. Then Ida laughed, to some it might have sounded like madman's laughter, but to Ida (and Exodor) it was a laugh of victory, of someone knowing she had won. She stared at the rats, whose eyes were looking back at her from beyond the darkness. Ida grabbed the unicorn's mane and pulled herself up onto its back. The unicorn lifted its head, backed up a few steps, neighed, then lowered its head again and ran as fast as the wind with its horn pointing at the blue door. It went straight through on the first try, creating a giant hole in the door that they sprang through. Ida held tightly onto its mane as it climbed the stairs and carried her up into the hallway. In the doorway leading to the living room, she found Sebastian. He was still screaming. Carefully, she slid her sore body off the unicorn's back and walked towards him. When she approached, she could see why he was screaming. On the floor of the living room lay Marie-Therese in a pool of blood and vomit. Her eyes stared at the ceiling, making her look like one of Ida's dolls that she never played with anymore.

  Ida gasped then grabbed Sebastian in her arms and turned him away. It hurt to hold him against her wounds, but she did it anyway. Exodor snorted and neighed in the hallway. Sebastian cried, then pulled back and looked at her. He shrieked again when he saw the blood and the swollen wounds.

  "It is me Sebastian," she said.

  "What happened?" he asked. "Where were you?"

  "It's a long story," she said. "I’ll tell you later. First we need to get you out of here."

  Still filled with a strange power of what might have been adrenalin or maybe even hope, Ida grabbed Sebastian by the hand and started walking (mostly limping) out of the living room, leaving the body of Marie-Therese behind them.

  Almost at the front door, someone was suddenly standing in front of them. Her skin glowed green and her head was fuming. She had white foam around her mouth, making her look like a rabid animal. She was clicking her long fingernails against each other.

  Ida screamed and a lightning bolt struck nearby. All the lights went out in the house and on the street outside. Now there was nothing but darkness. But even the deepest darkness couldn't cover Edwina's glowing green skin.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The lights went out. Then the entire building shook for a while, as if an earthquake had struck or a bomb had gone off nearby. Dan got up from his chair. This was Denmark. There were no earthquakes in Denmark. His hands were clammy. He had been waiting for something to happen. He knew it was time. He walked towards his father's bed, where the monitors stopped beeping as they shut down. The ventilator which helped him breathe had stopped. Dan pulled off Thomas’ mask and threw it on the floor. There was screaming and running in the hallway outside, as nurses rushed to see patients. Dan glared outside the window, where the entire town was now prolapsed into deep darkness. He thought he heard helicopters nearby, or were they jets? Maybe drones, he thought. They were coming for him, no doubt about it. Dan watched his father in the darkness, looking peaceful. The door opened and a nurse stormed inside. Frantically, she looked at all the monitors and pushed the buttons on them.

  "I don't understand," she said, looking at Dan, as if she thought he could somehow help, which was probably normal for a hero in a great big movie. "Why hasn't the generator taken over yet?" Dan sighed, then paused to look for something clever to say, but his line wasn't there.

  "It's supposed to take over in case of a black-out. This isn't supposed to happen," the nurse continued.

  She felt his father's throat, and then looked up at Dan with panic. "How long has he been dead?"

  Dan felt a pinch in his heart, but swallowed his tears. This was neither the time nor the place.

  "It's like a nightmare," she said and held her head between her hands. "It's horrible."

  Dan wondered if he was supposed to hold her in his arms, if that was in the script or not. He decided to remain calm.

  "They're dying…Everybody is dying," she screamed the last word so loud it hurt Dan's ears. "Nothing is working, all the intensive care patients are dying and there is not a damn thing we can do about it. Not a damn thing!"

  Dan took one last glance at his father and nodded. Another nurse yelled through the door. "Annie, we need you in the operating room, right now!"

  "I'm sorry," she said, crying, as she raced out of the room.

  Dan stayed in the darkness for a few minutes more, wondering what was going to be this hero's next move. Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise wouldn’t just stay there, just sit in the darkness and wait for danger to come to them, now would they? No, they would get in character and let John McClane and Maverick take care of business. They would seek and devour danger. It was time for Dan to finally step into character as well.

  He closed his eyes and heard bombs go off in the distance. He heard more airplanes in the sky outside, cars crashing, tanks roaming. There was a gun fight, machine guns. Then he opened his eyes again, looked at his father, and searched for something to say, one last line, clever or funny, just something, but none came.

  Instead, he left. He walked out the door, while nurses screamed and yelled and ran around in the hallways like the chickens on his friend's farm outside of town had done when Dan and his friend chased them, cut their heads off with a pocketknife, and then watched them run around headless afterwards.

  Dan walked stoically (and probably in slow motion) along the hallway, not letting all the turmoil disturb his state of mind. As he entered the parking lot, a bomb went off and took the entire hospital down behind him, but he hardly moved; he didn't even look back. The building collapsed behind him with a huge sound and all he felt was the pressure wave pushing him in the back as he started running across town, towards his house, the very home that had once housed his entire family, of which he was now the only one left.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Ida and Edwina locked eyes. Sebastian was screaming again and clawing his face with his nails as Edwina blocked their way to the front door.

  "I want out…I want to get out; it's dark in here. Sebastian doesn’t like darkness. It brings out the monsters under the bed."

  Ida put her hurting arm around him and pulled him closer. "I'll get you out," she whispered, then turned her head and winked at Exodor, who was standing right next to them in a bright sea of light. The unicorn neighed again, and then bowed like it was greeting her.

  Edwina laughed and Ida turned to look at her again. It was like Ida felt sick just from looking into her eyes. A wave of nausea overwhelmed her, like the time she had had the stomach flu. Only this time Ida felt certain this was no ordinary stomach flu. This was of Edwina's making. She was somehow making her feel sick.

  Ida bent over, feeling like throwing up. Edwina reached out her hand and began walking closer. Ida and Sebastian retreated. Edwina grinned. Ida felt worse, like everything was burning inside, like her blood was boiling. Ida remembered how Marie-Therese had been lying in a pool of vomit and blood and realized she had to hurry. She bent down and grabbed the screaming Sebastian by the waist and lifted him up. Then she ran with him in her arms into the kitchen, where she barricaded the door by pushing the kitchen table against it.

  Then she fell to the floor, panting, hurting, and fighting the desire to throw up.

  Sebastian had gone quiet. "Ida?" he asked. He bent down and stroked her cheek. She looked up at him with her one good eye and tried to smile. She saw the fear in his eyes and his lip start to shake.

  You have to make it, Ida, for Sebastian's sake. You're all he has left.

  Ida groaned and tried to get up. She felt so weak. The fever had grown stronger; her wounds were so sore and swollen. She sat up and looked at Sebastian. She could tell he was frightened by the way she looked. She grabbed the table by the leg and d
ragged herself off the ground. Leaning her body on the table, she spotted something on the kitchen table. A small white box that seemed to light up in the darkness. She staggered towards it and picked it up. It had Marie-Therese's name on it.

  Knowing what it was, since she had seen Marie-Therese take these for her infection, Ida smiled, then took one out and swallowed it. Then she took out the rest and put them in the small pocket on the chest of her T-shirt. She walked to the cupboard and pulled out a glass, poured herself a glass of water and drank greedily, then she poured herself another one and drank that as well, not caring that she was spilling water on her shirt and the floor. The feeling of water running into her body, moisturizing every small cell inside of her, felt better than anything she had ever experienced. She sighed and drank again. The penicillin would probably take days to work, but at this moment, Ida felt like it had started working immediately. If it was the water or the medicine she never knew, but at that instant, Ida felt more powerful than ever. She looked at Exodor, who was looking back at her.

  There was a scratching on the door. Sebastian jumped and Ida gasped. It could only be her; it could only be Edwina, she thought. She grabbed Sebastian in her arms. "She can't hurt us in here," she whispered, knowing it probably wasn't true.

  "I don't feel so good," Sebastian suddenly said.

  Ida looked at him and, even though it was very dark, she could tell he had turned almost green.

  "My stomach is hurting," he said with a strained face. "I think I'm going to be sick."

  Ida shook her head. "No," she said. "You'll be fine; trust me."

  Ida picked up her own glass of water, filled it again, and then handed it to Sebastian. "Drink this. It will make you feel better."

  "I don't…" Sebastian leaned over and threw up on the floor, hitting Ida's swollen, red toes.

  Remains of chocolate ice cream formed a puddle on the floor. Ida looked at Sebastian and realized more was coming. Sebastian landed another puddle next to the first. Ida felt anger rise inside of her. She couldn't bear to see Sebastian like this.

  "It hurts," he sobbed, before throwing up once again. "My tummy hurts bad."

  That's it, Ida thought, and pulled the table away from the door. Edwina was still scratching her nails across it.

  I've had enough.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Ida grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. As expected, Edwina was standing outside pointing her finger at her while grinning, showing her small pointy teeth. Her eyes were on fire.

  "Stop," Ida said. "Stop it."

  Edwina looked at her, still grinning. Her fingernails were making clicking sounds again.

  "Stop hurting Sebastian," Ida said.

  Edwina grinned again.

  "I mean it," Ida screamed and, without thinking, she grabbed Edwina's shoulders and shook them. Edwina was still grinning, until Ida, with all her strength, pushed her and she fell backwards and hit the wall.

  That was when Edwina stopped smiling. Ida gasped and backed up, trying to block Edwina from looking at Sebastian and hurting him further. With a loud hissing noise, Edwina was airborne and lifted off the floor against Ida (Ida would later claim she was flying, since she wasn't touching the ground) her nails pointing at Ida, throwing herself at her, scratching Ida in her sore wounds, causing her to scream and fall to the floor in utter pain.

  As Ida fell, she felt the house start spinning around her. She heard Sebastian scream in the distance and she smelled fire and sulfur. Ida hurt her head and it all became one big haze. The house was shaking, windows blowing open, lightning struck outside, causing the house to shudder and a window to break in the kitchen. Ida tried to push off Edwina, but she kept scratching her in her wounds and it was so painful Ida almost blacked out. She could hardly see anything and fell into a sea of pain, when suddenly there was a sound, and she felt Edwina move and something warm and wet hit her face. She opened her eye and looked up. It was Sebastian. He was holding Marie-Therese's big wooden cross from the living room wall. There was blood on the end and side of it. He had used it to hit Edwina and knock her off Ida. Now he was holding it over her body, and somehow it forced her to stay down. It was like she couldn't get up because of its presence. Ida rose and realized the house was in fact spinning and had caught on fire somehow. The floors and the ceiling were burning and crackling.

  Sebastian was bent over Edwina, who lay with her eyes closed and blood running from her forehead across the big lump. He was panting and staring at the little, almost glowing, green girl on the floor, then he lifted the cross higher in the air, getting ready to hit her once again, but Ida stopped him.

  "We have to get out of here," she said. "While we still can."

  Sebastian let the cross hit the floor while snorting at Edwina, then placed it on top of her body, forcing her to stay down.

  Ida grabbed him by the hand and they ran towards the front door, just as a huge burning beam came loose and fell to the ground in front of them, and dragged many others with it, blocking the front entrance.

  Sebastian shrieked and Ida stopped both of them. "We'll try the other way," she said, and they both turned. There was a huge noise and another beam fell to the ground, causing the fire to flame up and blocked their way back.

  "We're trapped," Ida said, staring at the burning beams and floors, trying to cover Sebastian so the flames wouldn't get to him.

  "How are we going to get out?" screamed Sebastian in panic.

  "I'll find a way," Ida said "There has to be a way."

  As she said those words, there was a bright light in the middle of the flames and, once again, Exodor showed his magnificent face. With grace, he walked past them.

  "We'll follow the unicorn," Ida said.

  Sebastian cried. "What unicorn?"

  Ida kneeled next to him. She looked into his eyes. "Just trust me," she whispered. "Close your eyes and follow me."

  Sebastian didn't seem like he trusted her, but since there was no other way for him, he closed his eyes and did as she told him.

  Ida was certain she saw Exodor smile right before he went through the flames and cleared the way for them with his horn.

  Chapter Fifty

  The entire town was in flames behind Dan as he reached Langholm, the street of his once-safe childhood home. Planes and helicopters were searching for him, but he managed to get back unseen. Now he opened the door to his house, carefully, pushing it halfway open first, while hiding and seeing if anything or anyone would jump out. But there was nothing. No hidden bombs or booby-traps, no snipers.

  Dan walked cautiously through the living room, careful to not make a sound and reveal that he was there to anyone who might be listening in or watching the house. He sneaked up the stairs, found a suitcase, and packed some clothes, a picture of his family, and his passport. Then he went downstairs, where his father had lived on the couch the last couple of days and took his wallet from the table and the car keys.

  Dan turned and took one last look around the house, said his goodbyes, but not lingering long enough to be sentimental. This was not that kind of movie.

  Dan closed the front door behind him, making it look like no one had been there, then went into the garage and got into the car. He put the key in the ignition with a deep breath, expecting the entire garage to blow up, but was relieved to find that it didn't; he opened the garage door and backed out the way his father had let him do so many times.

  As he drove onto the road, he saw flames coming from the house next door and, just as he passed it, he saw the most extraordinary sight. A girl, at least that was what he assumed she was, with a swollen face, covered in red marks and bruises, her one eye hanging loose, and blood running down her cheek, carrying a little boy in her arms, as she fought her way out of the flames with nothing but a hammer in her hand and her eyes closed. Flames had gotten a hold of her T-shirt and her hair had caught on fire on one side. Dan gasped and stopped the car. He took his water bottle that he had just pulled out from the refrigerat
or at home, to make sure he had something to drink for the ride, and jumped out of the car and splashed it all over her. She whined, and then sank to her knees, while the house went up in flames behind her, the walls crumbling down one by one, the windows popping and shattering glass into the street.

  Dan gathered up the girl and the boy in his arms and put them into the back seat of the car.

  As he had started the engine once again, he heard someone yell, and looked out to see a girl, well, a woman, really. She knocked on his window, asking him to roll it down. The girl smiled.

  "Can I get a lift? My boyfriend just died in the hospital and I want to get the hell out of this town."

  "Jump in," Dan said, and moved the map he had put in the passenger seat to make room for her. She got in and sat down with a deep sigh.

  "I'm Dan."

  She looked at him and smiled. "I'm Emma."

  Dan started the car up again with a smile. "Well, Emma, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship," he said, for once remembering his line.

  The engine roared seconds later as he left town, driving towards the sun rising in the distance. Rumors would later state that some people saw tanks and helicopters following the car closely on one side and a beautiful white unicorn on the other. But no one ever believed them; they were, after all, just silly rumors.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Line Petersen sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead. She flipped some pages in the file in front of her, and then looked up at Edwina, sitting in the chair in her small office. Line put the glasses on the tip of her nose and looked at Edwina above them.

  "What do you suppose I am to do with you now?" she asked the girl she knew would never answer. She leaned back in her chair.