Chapter 15 – The Fall
I wake up that night with a headache. There is a whistling noise in my ears that threatens to burst my head open it’s so irritating. I climb out of bed, splash some warm water on my face, and stare into the mirror. My eyes are terribly bloodshot and there is a slither of blood running from my nose over my lip. I wipe it off with a towel and splash some more water over my face. I’ve never had a nosebleed before.
I trip over my bow when I head back towards my bed. I’d have really loved to learn to use it properly, but Brian isn’t speaking to me now. He’ll never speak to me again after what I did, even though maybe I deserve it. But I’ll show him. I’ll learn to shoot an arrow by myself. I don’t need Brian. Lottie can have him.
So I dress, pick up my bow and quiver, and head outside. It’s dark, and the air is eerily calm like before a storm, but I don’t mind. I have quite good night vision, and there is a full moon out so there is decent light for me to see. I’d have the target range all to myself.
As I approach my destination, I notice shadow like figures standing around. I tense, expecting Felum or the Order of Power, but as I tiptoe closer, I can make out easily what they are. There are four of them, doing exactly what I had thought of doing; practicing their bow skills in the dark. I think about turning round and heading back inside until I see one of them catch my eye and groan.
“What are you doing here?” Tara demands. “Is it too much to ask to have one day free of you?”
“I didn’t know you’d be here,” I say defensively. She has no right to talk to me like that!
Tara snorts. “Yeah, right.”
Standing next to her is Flynn, who doesn’t appear nearly as hostile as he was yesterday. A bit further away, stringing their bows and ignoring me, are Brian and Lottie. It’s like some sort of meeting of the “We Hate Ben Casper Club” and I’ve gate crashed the proceedings. I’m so embarrassed I want to turn back around and go straight home.
No! I won’t do that. I’m going to be mayor soon. I have to stand up to these people. If I can’t do it now then I probably never will.
“I’ve got as much right to use this target range as anyone else,” I say calmly. “You can’t stop me.”
Lottie twangs the string on her bow and mutters, “Pity.”
“He’s right,” says Flynn, shocking me. “We’re taking it in turns anyway so what does it matter if he’s here or not?”
I wonder what sort of game Flynn is playing. He appears to be genuine, though, so I let it go.
Brian looks at his wife. “Lottie?”
“As long as he doesn’t speak to me,” says Lottie snidely. “Or kiss my husband. If he doesn’t try either of these things, then fine.”
Brian is silent. He just looks at me and nods his head. I’m not even worth speaking to! Is that how much he hates me now? I clutch my bow so tightly I hurt myself. I feel so angry, so betrayed, that I could hit him, not kiss him. Brian is not the person I thought he was. If even Flynn can be civil to me, and I had assaulted him and threatened to have his family thrown out, then what hope do I have with Brian?
Despite his cold treatment I still love him. I’m such an idiot.
I stand politely aside as Tara takes her turn. It appears she is an excellent archer in the moonlight as well, which doesn’t surprise me. I have this overwhelming urge to nudge her next time she takes a shot, but I don’t want to antagonize her any further.
“Why are you sticking up for me?” I whisper towards Flynn.
He puts his mouth closer to my ear. “Maybe your father was right to keep things a secret. My parents are in a real panic.”
“Everyone’s in a panic,” I say. “I’m not sure even Father’s sweet talk can stop it now.”
Flynn holds out his hand. “I’m sorry for being a pain.”
“I was upset over Skye leaving and everything with Father.” I shake his hand and we both smile. It feels good to make a friend. I don’t like being antagonistic with people all the time. I just hope I can make it up with Brian. I don’t imagine it will ever happen but I can wish for it.
As Flynn takes over with his bow, after being berated by Tara for making friends with me, I can’t help but listen in on Brian and Lottie talking as time ticks by.
“I’ve thought of some baby names,” says Lottie excitedly.
“Brian Junior if it’s a boy and Briana if it’s a girl,” says Brian, a happy smile lighting up his face. “What do you think?”
Lottie’s face falls. “Why don’t we just call it cowpat and be done with it?”
“What’s wrong with the name Brian?”
“Nothing. It suits you. But it doesn’t suit our baby. What if we called it the name of the month it was born in?”
“It’s due in November, right?” says Brian.
Lottie’s face falls even further. “Oh. I liked the name June, but that’s not going to happen, is it? This is so annoying. I always think of baby names when I can’t sleep and you always say they’re rubbish.”
I want to shout out that Brian is a wonderful name, but decide they probably won’t appreciate my input. Though I do think November might be quite an interesting name for a baby.
Thunder crackles in the distance. The hairs on my arms stand up and my teeth tingle. It’s a strange experience. I look at Brian and Lottie and see something is wrong with them too. They’re looking at something. I gaze up into the night sky. I see only the stars and a few rain clouds that are due to deliver their downpour. There is something else, though; a bright pinprick of light shooting downwards from space itself.
“Look over there,” says Tara. “I wonder what it is?”
“What do you think it is?” I say out loud, cutting Tara off.
“It’s probably just the weather or something,” says Brian.
Lottie shivers. “Do you feel that?”
I notice that Tara is looking in the opposite direction to where the rest of us are looking. I look at what has caught her eye and see something else in the distance. There is another dot of light coming, not from space, but from the direction of the coast and the sea.
“I heard that there’s a flying automobile out there somewhere that actually still works,” says Lottie with awe. “Perhaps it’s one of them?”
I know what those two dots of light are. We have to get out of here.
Suddenly the two lights arrive. Like two comets streaking at near light speed across the sky they collide; the two gods, Mixcoatl and Ninurta. The sound of their arrival causes sonic booms and shockwaves to swell out around them like ripples. Every pane of glass in The Glass Palace shatters into tiny shards. The five of us out at the target range are flung backwards onto the ground, clutching our ears, the sound almost blowing out our eardrums. We all cry out in pain.
At the very instant their immortal bodies make contact, the fight begins with mindless, unadulterated violence. The first punch is fierce, delivered in the speed of light by Ninurta into the square jaw of his rival. The force of it alone could have crushed a human or split a mountain in half, but this blow is merely the touch of a moth’s wing. From my vantage point, on the ground, unable to get up, I can see them, hovering about twenty meters above the biggest dome. Mixcoatl is angry because of the punch. I can’t see his face exactly, I just know. Then he performs his devastating counter-attack. He transforms himself into a spinning whirlwind, a tornado. He launches himself at Ninurta, hurling the both of them miles further up into the clouds, whipping the clouds and the very air itself into their gravity like a massive whirlpool.
Tornado is very, very angry. Why do I know that? I’d be angry if somebody hit me in the face, but it’s almost as if I can see his face in my mind, feel what he’s feeling. Tornado/Mixcoatl’s emotions are so full of hate and malice and a concentrated desire to kill, it scares me.
“Please go!” I call out.
There is a roar that resembles the word “no!” The two gods come hurtling back down again, zooming around the s
ky, before heading further back up into what remains of the clouds. We must be like ants to them. Do they even know we’re here?
I get to my feet first, my eyes initially taking in the sight about my home. The gods are merely blurred figures of light from this far way, lighting the night up with flashes of fireballs, lightening strikes and blood red sparks of energy that explode around them like fireworks. It is an awesome spectacle, a million times more a marvel than my first sighting of them. It is utterly breath taking. We all stare in silence.
“They’re beautiful,” says Brian.
We all nod in agreement. It is beautiful to see the gods in action, terrifying but brilliant.
“Make them go,” Lottie whimpers. I look at her, still on the ground, curled up into a fetal position. Her hands are clutching her arms and she is shivering in terror. I remember that Lottie had been with Glory the day she’d been killed. She’d seen her best friend, my sister, crushed to death.
There is another roar, loud like the pounding of planet size drums, and we put our hands over our ears again. The gods are shouting at each other! What are they saying?
“I’ve got to kill him...got to kill him...”
It is Tornado’s voice. I can hear it in my head like he’s standing right next to me! How is this possible? I try to pinpoint it and listen in further, hoping to get a viewpoint on what they want, but a vast noise like static attacks my brain. It hurts badly.
A blast of air emanates from the gods. One of them, Ninurta with the blue hair, flies backwards towards us. Brian screams and begins to pull a hysterical Lottie away, as the god ploughs into the ground, scything through the dirt and cracked concrete like its butter. We all manage to leap out of the way just in time.
Coughing and spitting muck out of my mouth, I pull myself to my feet. There is a huge furrow going all the way through the abandoned roads and up into the old train station. The trail left in the ground glows like fairy dust and steams like a frying egg. I touch the edge of it but pull my hand away. It’s very, very hot.
“Lottie?” Brian asks worryingly “Lottie?”
“I’m fine,” she cries. “I’m fine!”
The reality of the situation suddenly sinks in like a dagger to my back. The entire House is in grave danger. The shattered glass could have injured people. We need to get in there quick and evacuate. If even one spark of fire enters the House then the whole place could go up. The fight appears to be over for now but who knows when it could start up again?
I look towards the back entrance of the House. I can see my mother and Uncle Rooster and others milling around, unsure what to do. I wave to them and some of them came over. Mother has blood running down her head and arms and I run to her. If she’s hurt then I don’t know what I’ll do.
Mixcoatl lands in front of me.
“Do I know you?” he asks. His voice is soft, mild mannered, kind. He appears to be confused, like he doesn’t know where he is.
Everyone stops dead still and a dozen pairs of eyes lock onto the god. I don’t stop, though. I have to move forward and see him up close. I don’t know why, it’s a compulsion.
“I’m Ben,” I tell him. I’m not frightened. I feel quite calm. Why is that? With one breath he could literally kill me.
Mixcoatl stares directly at me. He is tall, taller than Father. His face is square jawed and he has deep purple eyes like violets. He wears viridian robes that barely hide his mildly muscular frame. He breathes slowly as he examines me. I can feel his gaze scorching over me.
“I want to stop,” the god says. A tear trickles down his face.
“Then stop,” I tell him. “You’re a god. You can do whatever you want.”
He smiles warmly and says, “I want to stop…”
He holds his hand out to me. Uncle Rooster and Mother are standing nearby, clearly frightened, but simultaneously angry. The gods had killed my sister when she was only five years old. They don’t want me to end up the same way.
Everyone here sees a mythic figure of destruction, a killer. Five minutes ago I felt the same. But for some reason I don’t see a killer, or even a god. I see a man; a man who looks like he has the whole universe on his shoulders and desperately wants a break.
“Move aside!” Mixcoatl roars. Some invisible force of power hits the people surrounding him, and we’re projected backwards into the air. As I hit the ground, and I hear a bone crack in my arm, I see something huge in the air coming down towards where I’d just been standing.
“STOP!” shouts Mixcoatl.
It is a train carriage; old, rusted and dripping with wetness and slugs, being towed through the air with ease by Ninurta. The rival god laughs like a maniac and hammers the train down on Mixcoatl’s head. The carriage explodes into metal shards upon impact. I fear for Tornado when he powers through the train, straight into Ninurta, forcing him back into the air above the House. He deliberately moved us all aside so we wouldn’t be hurt. Why did he save us?
“Ben!” says Rooster, running forwards and hugging me. “Are you alright? What are you doing out here?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
I look towards the entrance and my face pales. The rest of the people are going back inside. That’s the worst place they could be! I witness Milo being pulled back by his parents. He waves frantically at me, his mouth begging me to save him, before he vanishes from view.
“What are they doing?” I cry, struggling to stand, my broken arm causing me great pain. “We have to get everyone out of there!”
“They think they’re safe in their homes,” says Mother. She’s pale, swaying on her feet, and there is blood literally gushing down her face now. I want so much to help her at the moment but I don’t know what to do.
“We won’t be safe until we get as far away from here as possible,” I rant. “You have to see that!”
“Ben, we can’t just abandon our home,” says Mother. She clutches onto Rooster as she almost topples over. “It’s all we have!”
I interrupt her. “The House is finished. We have to go!”
“Your father is still in there, trying his best to get them to leave,” says Mother. “If they won’t listen to him, then whom will they listen to?”
“Rosa’s in there too,” Rooster adds, clearly worried.
I’m struggling over what to do when Mother passes out in front of us. She’s still breathing, but quite heavily, and when I bend down to check her out I can see why. The blood I’d seen rushing down her face is coming from a massive tear down the back of her head. There is a shard of glass stuck in it. At that angle it would be inside her skull.
“Mother?” I cry. Every sound in the world seems to disappear. All I can see is my mother, on the ground, dying. I can’t lose someone else, not now. I have to save her.
I have to...
I have to...
I sense something coming from Mixcoatl, a flash of hate so intense it causes my stomach to lurch and all extraneous sounds come rushing back into my head. I look up to see Mixcoatl shoot off a huge fireball towards Ninurta. The blue haired god holds out his hands like a barrier and the fireball is deflected, sending it hurtling downwards at an alarming speed. I scream no, running forward, my dying mother temporarily forgotten, but the fireball crashes through the roof of the largest dome. There is an explosion so loud it seems to rip the breath from my lungs. Fire, red-orange and lethal, floods out of the House, spewing metal railings and melting plastic into the air like a coughing volcano.
I don’t know what to say. Mother is dying, and Father could be dead, and I think I’m in charge now.
“We have to...”
Brian cuts me off with, “Lottie, you stay out here and hide in the trees.”
Lottie can only nod. Her mind seems to have retreated to somewhere where her family is possibly still alive. I feel myself heading to that state myself. It feels good. If I ignore it all it might just go away.
Brian stares down at his wife and then turns to the others. He still refuses
to look at me, despite the situation. “You lot, come with me. We have to help get everyone out of there quickly!”
Flynn and Tara nod. All I can do is stare at the flames spewing out from what remains of the hall roof, and the gods, who are a blur of lights and fire and energy. Things are happening so fast. What good would I be able to do as mayor? Brian has so much more control than I do. He would be a far better leader than I could ever hope to be.
“Ben?” Brian screams. I’m so lost in my thoughts I don’t hear him. I watch him, Tara, Flynn and Rooster rush off and leave me, but I don’t really take any notice of them. All I can see in my eyes is the fire. All I can think is my family could be burning right now, and I can’t even move to help them. I’m even incapable of helping my own mother, who is right in front of me.
“Mother?” I whisper. She doesn’t move. I feel for a pulse and cry out. She’s dead.
Out of the corner of my eye, which isn’t even filling up with tears, I see Lottie make a desperate move forward. I grab hold of her arm.
“Let me go,” she protests. “I have to go in there!”
“You can’t afford to get hurt,” I tell her, feeling numb. “Think of the baby.”
She is crying. “But my family!”
I think of Father, and Milo and Megan, and Rooster. The very notion that they might be burning alive right now makes me vomit on the ground. I could go in there and rescue them. It’s what I have to do. I see the others near the entrance. Brian is in the lead, about to go back in the House to start rescuing people. I start running to catch them up. I can help. I can do this. Father doesn’t have to die, too.
“This is a book,” said Mother. “It has stories in it.”
I cocked my head, unsure. Stories came out of people’s mouths, not from these books. But Mama knew about things. I could trust her.
“What is it called?” I asked timidly.
She took my tiny hand in hers and said, “It’s about this magical world that exists on top of four elephants standing on a giant turtle.”
“What’s an elephant?” I wondered.
There is another roar, thunderous and more urgent than the rest. I instinctively look up and my stomach lurches. The gods are clinging to each other. Their bodies glow a hot red, like liquid metal, as they rip at each other’s bodies, freefalling down towards the House. I shout out to Brian but he doesn’t hear me. Before I have a chance to jump to the floor Mixcoatl and Ninurta smash into the House. The ground shakes. A huge slab of rock erupts up out of the earth and slams me aside, spinning me meters through the air. I hit the ground, my head throbbing, as everything around me judders, explodes and quakes. I know now how the people of the past felt when the gods started to destroy their world. I’m helpless as the House of Casper moans and the ground it stands upon crumbles.
Lottie screams as the quaking ground yanks her off her feet. Dirt showers me, lodging in my eyes, blinding me. I can only hear more explosions, the ground itself groaning as it splits and cracks, and the metal skeleton of my home collapsing in on itself. And there are the screams. These aren’t screams of the gods, they are the screams of my family, their death cries.
I call out but the ground still trembles beneath me. When I get onto my feet I’m knocked back down again. I hit my head against something and then it all goes dark.
BOOK TWO – UNDERGROUND