“Please don’t hurt her.”
The only words Damascus had ever spoken to me, pleaded as I walked away.
“Why not?” I asked, fire seething beneath my skin. “A measure of pain for every one she’s doled out to others seems fair, doesn’t it?”
Damascus didn’t have a rebuttal. “Please,” he repeated while hanging his head, shoulders shaking.
She hadn’t even stayed to support her Wolf.
I stepped out of the arena of thin branches where Nell waited for me solemnly.
“She’s made it to the top,” she said. “We should hurry.”
I let her wrap her arms around me as I formed Locust Legs.
“Did it feel good?” she asked quietly, right beside my ear.
“Not really.”
“I was expecting to feel your satisfaction. I was afraid that I wouldn’t.”
“Damascus is just a tool. She’s the real villain and she’s run out of pawns. I bet she’s scared now.”
“I’m talking about how we feel, Nick. Fuck what she feels. I don’t care anymore. I wanna know what comes next.”
“Then let’s go get our resolution,” I said as I sprang upwards.
The massive tree had settled, its shape complete. The groaning and snapping of bark and new growth fell silent and the sounds of the thunder storm felt eerily quiet without them. The manor section at the top was quite whole still, partly due to the heavily reinforced nature of the innermost sanctum and partly due to Nell’s precise care in extracting it, wrapping it up in countless leafy green branches.
The half of the library that Jason and Kay had risen in now lay empty next to it. They had gone inside.
I carried Nell to the entrance and then set her down. We walked into a wide hallway.
Nell pointed to the steel slabs that hung above our heads, identical to what had slammed down and sealed us off in the library. These untriggered protective walls lined the way down a sterile passage, stretching out far ahead of us, like the halls of my nightmares when I dreamed of my dad’s workplace. We walked towards the final room and Nell was lost in thought, sifting through her emotions.
I didn’t have an answer for what came next. Was it so bad to just look forward to an end and not think about what lay beyond it? It didn’t help that I was on an invisible time limit. The curse was still with me, held at bay with promises and willpower. I understood why the man who had given it to me was so crazed and suicidal. Hot potato, pass it on.
We stepped through into the last room. The ceiling had collapsed and the clouds roiled above, so close they almost were touching the walls.
The Witch stood above the prone bodies of Kay and Jason. They gasped for air that should have been easy to breathe. Behind them lay the briefcase, ominously sealed inside three layers of glass. A control panel stood off to one side with a button that was labeled “Incinerator”.
She spoke, “Your friends are brave.”
She gestured to where the Worm lay in a square sheet of flesh, riddled with bleeding bullet holes. “Unfortunately for them, they ran out of bullets before I even closed the distance.”
My hands shook. “What’s your name?” I asked.
She cocked her head. “What a strange timing to ask that, here at the end of our interactions.” She drew herself up to stare at me with unnervingly human eyes.
“Quinn.”
“Quinn,” I tested the name on my tongue. “I’m going to give you a taste of the curse you inflicted so callously on others and then you’ll die.”
“Such flowery language. My view on the matter is far less romantic. Organ is schismed, its original mission contested. Someone else with power and influence will take up the mantle and continue the work like I never even existed. Even if Organ dies, it will simply be reborn under a new name. Killing me will achieve nothing but personal satisfaction.”
I took a step forward. “That’s the hope.”
“Wait,” Nell said. “Tell us about the Crawling Skin.”
Quinn tapped a finger on her arm. “It’s an autonomous nervous system that can forcefully interface with any tissue that it comes into contact with, bringing it into its system, overriding and replacing any existing control.”
I stared at the briefcase that I’d been so close to on a number of occasions, even while it was open. If someone were to touch that…
“How would it be used to fight against the Lacuna?” Nell asked.
“Would you like a demonstration?” Quinn asked derisively. “The process is quite rapid and proliferative. Anything that is touched becomes a part of the system, capable of spreading by touch as well. If every living thing on Earth linked hands at once, we would lose the Earth the second the first hand was touched by it. The Crawling Skin can rearrange tissue quite readily once it has been introduced. Our prediction was that if it ever ran rampant, it would cover the entire Earth in a layer of skin while it processed its new body. A primordial mixing of all living creatures into one entity. A powerful measure against an unknowably powerful threat such as the Lacuna.”
Every hair on my body stood on end as I imagined that end for humanity, a living planet of gnashing teeth and flailing limbs.
“How is that worth the risk?” I whispered.
“It isn’t,” Quinn answered flatly. “That’s why it hasn’t been used. But if the entity in the Lacuna chooses to end us, it would be a chance for us to end them first. We are just beginning this new era of growth for humanity. To risk us being wiped out now would be an insult to every person who aided the path of progress for our species. The hope is that with our failsafes, we would kill the Crawling Skin after deploying it and be left with a Lacuna that we can use for ourselves.”
“What failsafes?” Nell asked.
My muscles felt like they were straining to the point of breaking. I didn’t want to leave my friends gasping on the ground for another second.
“A neuro-degenerative disease finetuned to kill it in seconds. A self-destruct command baked into its DNA.”
“Or we could just burn it up right now,” I said.
Quinn squared her shoulders. “No. We have nothing to fall back on if the Lacuna holds the animosity we believe it does.”
“There is nothing that could justify the thing that’s in that case,” Nell said.
Quinn’s face screwed up in frustration. “I just want the world to change! Why can’t you see that? Nell, surely you want it too. You want to see what the world could become if we only could give it the directions it needs. The power is right there!” She flung her hand skyward as the clouds rumbled.
“That’s enough,” Nell said.
Her emotions burst through, flowing into me like lightning. Every fiber of my being sprung into action at once. I strode towards Quinn.
Her eyes narrowed and her presence fell heavily on me, stripping away my ability to balance, my ability to breathe, even blink. I teetered, strings cut.
And then her mouth dropped as I took another step towards her. Then another.
I wasn’t using my body. My will was there, conjoined with Nell’s, pushing my body forward through Shaping alone. Roots moved my feet. Bones sprawled out of my skin, digging into the tiled floor to support me. Each step was full of a thousand motions intricately woven together.
Her eyes flared and my heart stopped beating on its own.
But Nell was there to pump it for me. My lungs were given air. My mind sparked with emotions that felt as vivid as colours.
I rested my hand on Quinn’s neck.
“It’s over,” we said.
It was time. The invisible curse leaned its crooked neck over my shoulder with gleeful anticipation.
My hand melted into her neck and her whole body stiffened.
Every time my heart had quickened. Every time my blood had turned to ice. Every realization that something was wrong. I remembered it all and then force fed it down Quinn’s throat.
The Spider. The Tongue. The Pianist. The Painter. People who had been twisted into Aberrants. Their wills destroyed, their bodies taken and used as puppets. I gave it all back. My mouth tightened into a grimace of a smile. Kay and Jason recovered, slowly getting their breathing back under control. They watched with rapt attention at the sight of tissue moving, forcing itself into Quinn as she writhed.
Until Nell pulled me back.
“Nick. Stop.”
I turned to look at her in disbelief.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, carving a river through the dirt and sweat.
She took a shaky breath and said, “Don’t kill her.”
I stared at her, not comprehending. It didn’t feel real, like I was watching a movie with the wrong soundtrack.
Nell was crying. And yet behind her was a flame that burned with such intense hatred, such pain that she emanated in waves that made my stomach and hands squeeze with every pulse.
I forced a smile. “This is a joke, right? This is what we promised we would do. This is the end.”
Nell put her hands on her head and started to pace. “Just- just give me a second to think.”
Quinn tried to pry my hand off her neck. I dug my nails in until she stopped trying.
Nell continued to pace and I shook my head. “I don’t know why you’re confused. The way you’re feeling… It’s like an order. It’s very clear. I know what to do.”
“Listen to what I’m actually saying, Nick!” Nell rocked on her heels, frame shaking. “If you were actually feeling everything then you’d feel the hesitation I have.”
I needed to do something. She was so distressed. But the thing that felt like the answer, Nell was telling me no?
“You don’t need to do it. You don’t even have to look,” I bargained. “It won’t be on your hands. You’ve killed enough.”
Nell faced me, hands twisting up her shirt. “It would be the same as me doing it. It’s my emotion, my memories that are driving you to do this. No. This isn’t the right way.”
Quinn turned her face to the sky, smiling wryly. “Not going to eat me, Wolf? Shame. I’ve always been curious about the results of a Phage consuming an Ortum. Unfortunately those experiments had to be put on the back burner. I didn’t have enough Witches to spare.”
“Shut up!” I snarled at her.
Then I turned back to Nell. “Listen to me, Nell. I get that you’re trying to move on. But this hate you have for her, it’s still all there. That pain hasn’t gone away, even after all this time.”
“That’s what I’m concerned about! The hate is the problem.” Nell gestured to Quinn. “What if it doesn’t go away when she’s dead? Then I won’t have a target. It could spill over into things and relationships and I don’t want it to.” She clutched her heart. “I have to deal with the hate.”
“How?”
Nell breathed in and it felt like the tree breathed in with her, creaking from far below as it shifted with its master. Some measure of resolution flitted across her face. “I have to transform. To change, just like you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. My voice choked up, “So that’s it? We just forgive and forget? Sing Kumbaya together? Remember what she did. To you and to all those innocent people who turned into Aberrants. It was cruel beyond anything I know!”
“I’m not forgiving her. This isn’t about her. This is about me. I don’t want to hate myself any more than I already do.”
Cold hands gripped my shoulders. Every muscle in my body tightened and I shivered. I knew it was just a hallucination, but it felt so real. The curse had returned to me. I could hear it whispering behind my back. I refused to open my eyes.
No. Wait your turn.
I took a deep breath and focused on the physical sensations of my body. I was in control. I relaxed my stomach. Emotions didn’t control me. I focused on each finger, letting it relax and hang loose before I paid attention to the next. I trust Nell. My arm dropped away from Quinn’s neck. Let her make the call. I shook a little as the tension left my body.
I wasn’t calm, but it was a step in that direction. Then I opened my eyes.
I looked to Kay. Her expression was reassuring. Not a smile, but her eyes were full of confidence. She’d been through so much in such a short time, yet she didn’t let the horrors sway her convictions. I could use some of that.
I looked to Jason. He nodded solemnly. A reminder of what Organ had robbed from so many. But he hadn’t given in to despair. He believed that what had been broken could be repaired.
I looked to Nell and she gave me a small, hesitant smile. Was this too much for her to ask of me?
Of course not.
“Okay,” I said finally.
I felt truly calm and I stepped away from Quinn who remained kneeling, staying stock-still. The hate didn’t seem uncontrollable. I barely even felt it. And Nell looked like she was dreaming, her eyes half-lidded and a soft smile playing across her face.
Then I felt nothing at all.
A void. Ill-fitting to the situation, but if it was a problem, I would have felt bothered, no?
Then from behind me, a voice.
“What do you think they’re all dreaming about?” Chase asked me.