Tom unfurled a roll of paper towel, holding it like an ancient scroll.
“It’s the good shit. Three times the absorbing power of an undisclosed competitor’s.”
The absurdity of the situation bubbled up in my gut and I let out an involuntary laugh.
“There we go,” Tom said with a sparkle in his eye. “Relax. AJ’s okay. We can handle this together. I’ve got a plan.”
He reared back and threw the paper towel, dropping several of the other rolls he was holding in the process.
The Marquess expression turned livid as he swatted the roll away and found that it stuck to his hand as it unraveled. There was a sound that was steadily getting louder. Hundreds of skittering feet and chittering feral squeaks. They came from every one of the abandoned stores around us.
Tom turned to me, visibly sweating. “Step one of the plan is to get me the fuck out of here.”
A wave of rats poured out from the display behind us. Other swarms clustered against glass and squeezed through metal shutters. They brought the scent of rat droppings and blood with them.
I scooped Tom up and dashed down the hall away from the Marquess. Tom pitched the rest of the cleaning supplies he was holding at the swarm, which did nothing to slow them down. More rats burst through the store windows in front of us, the rats clawing over one another in their rapid fanatic attempts to reach us.
I Shaped the rats, creating a tunnel of wicker weavings to part the horse and provide safe passage. As I ran down the tunnel, the sound of gnawing came from all around us. One rat fell from a hole and smacked against Tom’s face. His grip on me tightened as I picked up the pace, streaking towards the exit and crashing through to the outside.
“What do you think that mushy Herald is made of?” Tom asked. “Molasses? Do you think he tastes good?”
“I dunno,” I said distractedly, looking for our allies. “Whatever it is, it’s alive.”
“That’s… what I thought.”
I looked at Tom in alarm. He was breathing heavily and a deep black mark was spreading across his cheek and neck, like severe bruising.
Some of our allies were running towards us. Neve was with them. One of the others had old burn scars across his hands, which he raised towards the entrance. As the rats began to pour out of the strip mall, they burst into flame and retreated, squeaking in pain.
“Hurts,” Tom wheezed.
I desperately tried to hold back the progression of his affliction, but I was too shaken up to properly analyze it. Makeshift attempts to restore his skin didn’t address the underlying infection.
“I got him.”
Neve came to our side, scooping her hands under Tom’s body. She met my gaze. “You distract the Goddess while we set up. She’s ripping us to pieces.”
I hesitated to let go of Tom until he patted my hand. “All part of the plan, girl.”
More Shapers gathered around the strip mall’s exits, preparing for the Marquess to emerge.
“You heard him,” Neve said as a medic injected something into Tom’s thigh. “We have a plan and for once I actually like it.” She pointed in a direction.
I can feel it too. Cecily’s presence felt like underwater pressure, a slowly crushing weight. I left and headed straight for her.
On the way I passed Shapers retreating while nursing terrible wounds. Crushed limbs and tissues sliced deep. Even with proper medical attention, some of them wouldn’t make it. I tried to steel myself. AJ’s fine. Tom said so. You have to trust him.
I found Cecily in the middle of a platform formed by her golden locks, like a lotus flower stretching between the buildings that hadn’t been leveled. Spires of hair were erected like crosses, with the bodies of Shapers bloodily affixed to them.
Some of the remaining survivors gathered in a circle where the golden strands didn’t reach, kept at bay by the Witches. The perimeter cinched tighter by the second and sharp points of hair jabbed closer and closer to their frightened faces.
Cecily watched them with a curled lip. She opened her mouth, but said nothing for a moment, her brow furrowed. Then she ground her teeth and a branch of gold shot out like a cannon towards them.
I landed in front and seized the branch, redirecting it while Shaping it into a real branch, one with cherry blossom petals along its length.
Cecily eyed me with fury. “Here to fight for the undeserving once again?”
I assimilated the branch and absorbed new memories. A chapel bell tolling and faces twisted by hate, rising into the sky. I tried to help them and they spit in my face. “Your fault!” they screamed. And I screamed it back at them.
She gestured at the crucified people. I noticed that one of them was still breathing, her chest going up and down near imperceptibly.
“If you wish to be a sacrifice that badly, perhaps I should honor that.” Her gaze felt heavy on me. “Hm. I could take you. Bring you back to that hell I came from. I could make it your hell. I could punish you in their stead.”
A chill passed down my spine at her words. She leaned forward, hair wrapping around her like a cobra’s hood. “Think of all the ways I could torment you up there. I could construct whole realities, I could make you forget yourself, I could make you form new bonds with people who aren’t real, only to remind you where you came from to deepen the despair. Perhaps after an eternity, I will feel as though you have suffered enough for their sins. Are you so noble that you would accept that fate?”
I squeezed my fists, trying to calm my breathing. “No. I couldn’t do that. To be honest, I don’t love humanity enough to agree to that. Maybe the past me would have thrown themselves away, out of some stupid desire to gain self-worth through self-immolation. But that isn’t who I am anymore. I got this chance at a new life and I don’t want to squander it.”
“Don’t you get it?” Cecily growled. “There is no future for anyone anymore.”
Her anger pulsed through the air and everyone present.
I shook my head. “Of course there is!” I shouted.
Cecily flew at me, clawed hands outstretched. I ducked and rolled away, surprised that I could match her speed.
She seemed to be surprised as well. She turned towards the Witches still huddled in their circle. A vein pulsated red within her neck.
“Begone!”
Spires rosed around the Witches, with flat heavy blades forming at the tops. They plunged down like guillotines.
I lunged forward, seizing Cecily’s neck from behind and gave.
The guillotines halted.
Cecily was frozen, her eyes darting back and forth.
“It only felt fair,” I said, backing up with raised hands. “Now we both know each other. Nice to meet you. I’m Sage.”
Cecily held a hand to her head. Her pupils trembled. “You still doubt my conviction.”
“No. I’ve felt your memories. I can tell it’s real. I’m inviting you to change. Transform that conviction. Like Nell did. You saw her in my memories, right?” I asked hopefully.
“Change? WHY?!”
Cecily screamed the word and the sky darkened. I looked up to see massive boughs of gold curling overhead, cutting off the sun.
“There is no reason to!” she raged. “No hope remains inside of me. Not a drop. You all will suffer and then that will be it. The final note to the sad play of existence. That is my decree.”
There was the sound of an explosion and a ripple passed through the canopy of hair. Cracks of light spilled through and the smell of burning hair hit my nose. Then I heard the fighter jets rumbling over the city. The air shook and fire spilled through the gaps.
A drone shot through a gap towards me. Bailey’s voice came from it, “Back out! Unidentified aircraft are heading your way. Some country’s military is getting involved, we don’t know where they’re from, but they have payloads!”
Cecily roared at the jets and shot upwards.
Two jets performed maneuvers to narrowly avoid her as they flew past.
Then Cecily turned and for a brief moment I saw the blur of a third jet. Then there was a flare of light and everyone was knocked off their feet. The sound came a split second after, drowning out everything and leaving a dull ringing behind as it rumbled into nothing. Smoke began to encroach on the space.
Precious seconds ticked by and I forced myself to get up and move. Bombs wouldn’t keep the Goddess down.
I Shaped the hair, creating an exit lined with cotton. Then I set to ushering out the survivors, keeping an eye on the smoke above. When everyone was out, I checked on the impaled people. Even the one I’d noticed was breathing before was cold and lifeless now.
No time to process. Focus on the living.
I could hear the Marquess laughing in my head, rekindling my anger. I headed back towards the strip mall.
“I love how much you all struggle!” he spoke to everyone through their minds. “Wriggling like specimens pinned to wood, still fitfully believing you have a chance. You can’t comprehend how long I have been a Witch, how long I’ve had to steep in my power. Each of your lives are a second on the clock, a mere blink and I’ve outlasted it. You think anything mankind has learned in the past three hundred years is enough to match me? Now compare that to the Divine One.”
I halted at the edge of a building overlooking the strip mall.
The Marquess had already emerged. He was ripping through our ranks. Witches attempted to drive him away, but he overpowered them, pressing against invisible forces until they crumbled and he fell on them, turning them into his puppets. He carried forward like a flood, his face emerging from the cresting wave, gleeful in his wrought destruction.
Tom stood at the end of the road, head held high. He held a roll of paper towel above his head like a flag.
The Marquess noticed him and surged forward, dragging a morass of human body parts along in the oily sludge behind him.
“Fight!” Tom bellowed, teeth bared in a mocking smile.
Our allies responded, shouting battlecries of defiance. Wolves used their bodies to shield their Witches so that they could redouble their efforts, squeezing the Marquess’ fluid out of his victims, forcing him into a tight path. But he found the weakness in their combined power. Any small crack in their forces he could squeeze his body through. He headed straight for Tom, laughing all the way.
I was too far to stop him.
But someone else stepped out to block the Marquess’ path. A solid wall of a human with his arms spread wide, as if to embrace the Marquess.
“Graham!” I cried out.
The Marquess poured into Graham’s mouth. His clenched hands jerked back and forth from the force of the invasion. Black sludge began to seep from his eyes and ears.
No no no no no.
Graham swayed on his feet, blind to the world. Any moment now, the Marquess would take control. He opened his mouth. A burbling sound came from deep within him.
Then the Marquess screamed in pain.
The black fluid began to gush out and Graham shut his mouth, grimly keeping everything locked down as Marquess writhed inside of him. Finally, he couldn’t bear it and he vomited out a puddle of blackness that wriggled.
When Graham wiped his face, his eyes were clear of sludge.
I made it to ground level and rushed to his side.
“What… what is this?!” the Marquess groaned, trying in vain to reassemble himself. Bits of his body sizzled on the ground like they were being held under a magnifying glass in the sun.
“Antibiotics,” Graham explained patiently to him. “I’ve been pumped full with more of them than anyone else could handle. Mankind has learned quite a bit in the last three hundred years and you would do well not to diminish that.”
The Marquess tried to escape and found that he was trapped with an invisible box.
A few Wolves let loose exultant cheers. Graham nodded in satisfaction, looking weary. Tom swaggered up to the Marquess, paper towel in hand. But then he stopped and turned to the sky, arms going limp as his face turned to horror.
A skeleton floated down to us, her golden hair scorched and scarred but intact. Her bones were blackened. Alien organs pulsated inside her ribcage. Embers burned deep in her eye sockets. The pressure remained, stifling our victory, proving it pointless.
No one could muster up a single word.
Muscles began to wrap around the bones, deposits of yellow fat grew back in and skin began to spread across her face.
Cecily gazed down at her Herald.
“Do you need anything from me, Marquess?”
The Marquess was quiet, and then said, “No. Your will be done.”
She nodded solemnly.
In the distance, the wreckage of jets sat atop buildings overshadowed by a tsunami of shimmering gold rushing towards us. The first city-leveling wave had been the start to our battle. It was clear, this was the one to end it.