44

The different parts of Marith’s brain stopped communicating. She knew she was about to slip into a rage black-out. Her contemplations had always held her back, so she let any hint of doubt about what she was about to do go.

Her mind became a void, apart from the location that housed her talent, the segment that could deploy the snares. That part of her brain was running on emergency power. Deep inside her the strings were glowing, vibrating and rhythmically beating the insides of her skull.

The world had always appeared to be one big trap to Marith and what was playing out in front of her eyes proved that thesis.

Nick sat on his knees, in the goo, next to Gene’s limp body. He had interlaced his fingers and with stiff arms he was violently reanimating the man that had been his company’s lawyer since forever. Gene’s torso weakly moved up and down with the pressure Nick applied to his chest. Marith could tell his ribs were already broken by Nick’s attempts to bring him back to life.

Nick was the most charitable and cheerful person that Marith had ever met. He had bravely stood up as CEO of Pine Industries when there was nobody else to save the family company. He had insisted on housing Marith and Lieke, when Gene hadn’t been able to. Nick was a young man with a good heart that had been a victim of way too much dark and, to him, inexplicable misfortunes. No amount of family money could fix what Nick had been forced to live through.

Nate had also immediately plunged to the snotty road, to dive after Lieke. Her back rested against his chest and her head had found support in his neck, under his chin. He had positioned his sister-in-law in such a way that he could hold her wrists.

Vanessa returned from the Pupil’s struggle to contain the monsters next to the schoolbus that Samuel had foolishly attempted to break through their line of vehicles with. As she moved towards Nick in a flash she made eye-contact with Marith.

The look on her face told Marith that she wanted to know if there was any point in what Nick was doing, because if so she was ready to take over the reanimation from him.

Marith’s eyes were empty, Vanessa’s were secretly already mourning.

He’s gone, Marith shared, with a slight shake of her head.

She had made a quick scan of his heart and there was nothing left to save, just like when she had dragged Dorian’s body out of Sweet Lake. She immediately forced that memory into a desolate part of her mind. She couldn’t allow herself flashbacks of traumatizing events, while she was living through brand new traumatizing events.

Samuel had broken Gene’s neck, but it had happened so fast that Nick had never been able to grasp how exactly he had died. Vanessa dropped to her knees and urged Nick to cease his attempts at bringing Gene back, which he promptly did. Marith didn’t listen in on the hushed conversation they were having, but she was pretty sure Vanessa was able to convince Nick of the permanence of Gene’s current state.

The rest of the Chain caught onto what was taking place alongside the second schoolbus and left their position around the blubbers. There wasn’t much they could do besides encircle them and stand very still to fool them anyway. The Pupils had found out that as long as the monsters were confused about where to go they remained sedentary.

Marith stood unmovable in the war raging around her. So did Samuel. Marith tore her gaze away from her father and her sister to lock eyes with him.

There was one thing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man and that was a traumatized woman. Lieke may have been an ignorant, snotty little brat for most of her life, but it was her stupid, spoiled, little… pregnant sister… and Samuel was going to pay.

Nothing else mattered anymore, but the survival of her own flesh and blood, and preserving the next generation. What was the point of living if you couldn’t pass a decent shot at survival onto your lineage?

Marith looked at James and remembered his words. Now, for the love of anything holy, kill the fucking deer!

James stared back at her, suddenly realizing what Marith was about to do. A better Runner would have stopped her, but James understood now that this was how it was supposed to happen all along.

Nate, send Lieke to our fort. I will meet you both there, Marith told him.

Nate jerked his head up and stared at her in shock.

Marith, no, he told her. Listen to me. Whatever you’re going to do, don’t do that!

Marith knew what she had to do and it was bigger than what she had built with Nate. This was their only way out.

Please, Marith, you promised! We belong together! He pleaded.

She belongs to her destiny and to no one else, the orbs interrupted Nate’s appeals.

Marith looked up at the souls of the Elders, hovering above them. Their glow had surged into blinding lights. The Pupils shielded their eyes as the spheres emerged from the grey clouds. Marith saw that they had formed a perfect circle. It was no more than 10 metres in diameter and it looked like it had a purpose.

You must collide with your destiny. What you have to lose is nothing compared to what you have to gain, they continued, only to Marith.

Marith knew they were right, even though it wouldn’t feel right or just to the rest of the Chain.

James looked at Nate menacingly. “You’re going to let her do it,” he told him darkly.

Nate knew that he was no match for James and he also knew that abandoning his post, holding Lieke’s wrists, would mean a certain death for her.

You know what to do, the orbs shared.

Will I be ready? She wondered.

They didn’t answer. They showed her the way.

Anchor light into this interaction and suspend him in the Empty, they commanded.

Marith knew the whole Chain was listening. Those instructions weren’t just meant for her.

Marith also knew that fear was contagious, it could jump from person to person faster than the flu, but then so was courage.

The shining, heavenly bodies of the Elders kept descending. Each Pupil within the scope of the circle moved outward, holding their hands over their eyes, until only Marith and Samuel stood within their field.

Every soul present looked on breathless, now that they realized the orbs hadn’t travelled down to lecture them, but to single out the Mage and the Runner.

“Let’s go,” Samuel whispered, his eyes bulging with anticipation and, if Marith wasn’t mistaken, a hint of respect for her.

Their feet lost touch with the road. The orbs kept them at an equal level, but their surroundings sunk away into darkness.

Samuel’s eyes looked dull, but ominous. Marith’s eyes were ablaze with an otherworldly madness. They both understood they were about to get a peek into the workings of the Well.

It wasn’t just the previous three months that were going to count. Marith had been preparing her whole life to face this bastard. The last couple of months had merely been the finishing touches, added to her wrath.

The Kid was a lost soul that wanted to be saved. The only way to save the Web, the Chain and the Kid was to return him to his prison. Marith was turning out to be a means to an end. James knew that, Marith knew it and most importantly, the Elders knew it.

If Samuel’s parents had taught him one thing it was that he should never surrender, not even when facing the end. He would go out like a warrior.

Also, dying a hero now, would get him out from under his unfortunate and fated chore, the one he was called to Los Angeles for.

He had never been too sure about the outcome of that. That Dutch broad putting him back to rest would give him an easy out. It would also postpone the apocalypse somewhat, which was probably not the worst thing in the world.

He had intensely enjoyed spreading apathy, depression and hopelessness around the tri-lake area, but he also liked being at the top of the food chain, being the most feared, the main kahuna of emptiness. In the event that his pilgrimage to LA would have been successful he would most definitely have lost that position… and his excellent reputation amongst Pupils and Elders worldwide.

Marith and the rest of the Chain had come from a generation in which abusing, starving or screaming at pets was frowned upon, but doing the same stuff to your children was considered “raising” them “well”.

In the presence of the Kid Marith kept rediscovering all the ways in which her parents had done her wrong and had set her up for failure. It was a miracle she had fallen in love with Nate and not a homicidal maniac like Samuel.

Marith had been raised to be mature from a very young age on. Ever since she was a teenager her parents had just become random figures in her life. Interacting with them reminded her that they were absolute strangers and that she would never find comfort in their presence. She had never been able to be a child, to be carefree, helpless or naïve, because that dynamic had never existed in the first place.

Even at Marith’s darkest hour she knew she was alone. This was how it always had been and how it always would be, like it was supposed to be this way. She knew she was strong enough to face the Kid by herself, to finish this chapter.

Marith shivered and resisted the urge to look down. Helpless screams, filled with frustration and disbelief, reached her ears. She pushed them away.

She left the pressure of the world and the promises she had made to the Chain behind. The rules they had repeated the night of the Ritual had been a formality anyway, she thought. Of course one person always had to sacrifice herself in order to save the rest if the opportunity arose.

Marith decided that if she was going to be anything before she would die she wanted to be dangerous.

She had that bubbly, prickly sensation on her arms and in the palms of her hands again. It quickly spread all over her body, working together with the bundle of energy in her mind.

Right in her centre, the core of her being, there was this orb that contained all her emotions, the good and the bad. It was the bundle of strings that could lash out if she wanted them to. The bundle was throbbing now, aching to be deployed.

Those strings were the source of her knowing, her own personal Well. Over the past few months they had taught her what to do, how to live, what was right and what was wrong. They had become her compass, they had fine-tuned her intuition into an unbeatable entity of its own.

Right now they wanted to be send into action, to be put in harm’s way.

Samuel didn’t speak until they were suspended about 15 metres up in the air.

“How are you doing, Marshjjj?” He lisped.

They were still being carried heavenward. The only source of light came from the glowing orbs that were guiding them towards the dark sky.

“Absolutely amazing. You?”

“Great,” he answered curtly. “I am mostly glad we can talk in private for a bit,” he said, glancing mousey at the orbs that were now floating at the same height as their torsos.

The Elders looked like a giant halo, hovering around them, illuminating just the Runner and the Mage.

The thick clouds had darkened the day fast. Snowflakes kept rushing down, often sticking to their hair, eyebrows and lashes. Marith noticed a thin layer of snow building up on Samuel’s shoulders.

“Those guys down there… they mean well, but they are not like you and me.”

“Which is what?” Marith asked, looking straight through his feeble attempt at manipulating her.

“Loners, quiet and reflective people, unrecognized by society.”

“They recognize me,” Marith answered, referring to the Pupils. “They know what I am capable of.”

“Is that why they are so worried right now?” Samuel wondered with a smirk.

They could still distinguish random screams travelling towards them, begging Marith to come down, as if she was in control of being lifting almost twenty metres up in the air.

“They must be worried for you,” Marith rebuked.

There was a moment of silence between them, while the unrest beneath them grew.

“Are you scared, Marisshj?” Samuel wondered.

“No, not at all,” she responded, and she meant it. “Are you?”

“Yes, actually,” he answered.

His voice sounded as if he was full of deep thoughts that he couldn’t put into words.

He looked at her with empty eyes. They were almost completely white now. It was a disturbing sight for Marith. The lines around his pale irises had almost entirely faded away. His pupils were tiny, but sharp. Marith knew his eyesight was still better than hers.

“Are you scared to be alone again?” She asked, an uneasy feeling getting a hold on her stomach.

She realized the Elders were only lifting them up, so she could do some killing. Currently they were only doing some chatting.

“Well, I am not looking forward to that, to be honest, but that’s not it.” He sighed a pitiful and performative sigh.

“Then what is it?”

“We’ve only met a few months ago. There is so much you don’t know about me,” Samuel started.

“I have known you my whole life,” Marith said, swallowing something bitter back to where it had emerged from.

Samuel knew that was true, so he ignored it.

“Let’s just say that I think you’re going to regret putting me away, sooner than you think,” he said instead.

“I doubt that,” she said, smiling through her tears.

“So you’ve made up your mind?” He asked, knowing the answer.

Marith steadied her breathing, closing her eyes and slowly opening them again. More tears left the corners of her eyes. They froze on her cheeks.

“I am in pain… always,” she said, unable to keep her voice from trembling. “It needs to end.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” he answered in a whisper.

To Marith’s surprise he sounded like he somewhat meant it.

“I just want to feel again,” she clarified hoarsely.

She felt like she owed him some sort of explanation, given what she was about to do.

Over the years Marith had become almost comfortable in her emptiness, but even she knew misery was not meant to be experienced forever.

“You want freedom from oppression, I understand. So do I.”

He was silent again for a few moments, just staring at her face in quiet adoration. To Marith he looked pale and sad and defeated. She sort of understood why. What kind of reason to live had he left? Whenever he was alone he probably felt as dull and empty as she did.

“Can you please be gentle?” He asked. “With my body, I mean. Just return me to the tomb in these clothes. I picked them out for the occasion. This is what I want to be laid to rest in.”

They floated through the air at about the same height as the treetops now.

“Also, I have one other request, just one,” he assured the Mage who stared at him with growing astonishment. “Leave this on me.”

He fished a shiny, black square from an inside pocket and pushed a button on the side.

“I’ve grown rather attached to this device and when you inevitably re-awaken me I want to be reunited with it,” he finished, placing it back and buttoning up his heavy coat again.

“Okay, I think I am ready,” he said, closing his eyes and trying to control his breathing.

Marith stared at him in disbelief. Her mouth hung slightly open. She closed it, only to open it again.

“Wait… you’re going to let me do it?”

Samuel opened his eyes again. A breeze played with the strands of hair that were still standing up straight. The wind tugged at Marith’s ragged clothing.

“Being confined to the Empty doesn’t stop me from fulfilling my purpose,” the Kid almost whispered.

“Which is what exactly?” Marith asked defiantly. He had never given her a decent explanation after all.

“I change the world in acceptable dosages, so that nobody will understand what is happening or where things are going. The people that complain, will be silenced, because they differ from the group. People will blame each other and in the end nobody, except maybe some Pupils, will resist me. The mobs are blaming and fighting each other, while I suck on their madness and remain firmly in the saddle that I have constructed for myself.”

“You’re so calm about it,” Marith spoke softly.

“Why would I not be? It has already happened several times over… because I made it happen. That is why I don’t have to be here to do my job. I can do it from the Empty just fine.”

“What are you scared of?” Marith wondered.

Her astute question seemed to take him aback. To Marith this indicated she was onto something.

“Why do you want to return to the Empty so bad?” Marith clarified her previous question by formulating another one, when he didn’t answer.

“The darkness is where we both belong, Marsjh. The darkness wants us. It’s where we are both capable of greatness, but for now the timing just isn’t right for us to team up.”

Marith recognized the manipulation in his voice again. She was getting quite good at knowing when he was genuine with her and when he was feeding her twisted facts and half-truths.

She realized he wasn’t going to answer her question under any circumstances.

“Shall I just rip your heart out then?” She asked.

Samuel froze mid-air. “Was that how you were planning to do this?”

“Maybe.”

“Can you even do that?”

Marith didn’t answer. The look she gave him told him that she had never attempted anything of the sorts before, but she knew she was surely capable of doing so if she wanted to.

Was she out of her mind? Absolutely.

Would she ever be fully sound? Probably not.

But Marith, and the Elders, understood now that she was meant to be like this. Horribly dark and complicated at heart. Enough to not be a danger to society and also enough to end the Kid’s physical manifestation in this world, the world of the Pupils and the girls.

The crowd down below them had gone silent. The Pupils had stopped protesting. Either the Elders had told them their resistance was futile or they had come to that conclusion themselves.

The Mage and the Runner knew that the Runners on the ground could follow their conversation word for word, unless the Elders had created some kind of magical barrier that could stop sounds from reaching them.

Anton, Alexander and Joshua had tried to make a human tree to climb up to the ring of spheres to yank Marith down, but James and Juliette had refused to aid them and Jonathan had stayed on his feet to catch Joshua who inevitably fell down at the third try.

“You are living inside an unfinished idea,” Samuel spoke defensively. “And I am living inside everybody’s paranoia. Good luck with that.”

Marith noticed how he had to put effort in to keep his voice steady.

She knew Lieke and Nate were waiting for her in the Inbetween and as far as Marith was concerned Lieke was the first human without a Rebirth to ever enter that dimension. She wanted to go to her little sister and she was running out of patience with Samuel. She was in no state of mind to listen to another one of his self-important story times.

“Whatever you do to me. You can never get rid of me completely,” he told her.

He seemed to be wavering. He knew that what Marith was going to do to him would be one of the most unpleasant experiences of his existence.

“I am going to do it anyway,” Marith almost whispered.

She thought she sounded more dangerous that way.

On that last note from the Mage the individual orbs merged into a ring, linking one by one, as if they had been ignited by heavenly fire.

Finally the Web allowed them to form the Chain they could have been all along. The magical swirls of glittering dust that used to hover over the Pupil’s clockworks, before Samuel had awakened, was now moving counter-clockwise between the Elders. Specks of cosmic particles, emanating from the blue and purple clouds that spiralled and churned in between the Elders, emerged between the Mage and the Runner.

Marith closed her eyes and felt how love was poured all over her heart. She knew the world was living inside of her, in the same way that she was living inside the world and therefore she would never truly die.

“Until we see again, I guess,” Samuel spoke.

He dramatically spread his arms and closed his eyes as well.

Marith waited for the Elders to give her a sign. In their state of being they would be able to know when all the cosmic particles of the Web aligned in such a way that the timing of the sacrifice of the Kid would be just right.

“Tell the darkness I’m not coming,” she mumbled.

She knew Samuel could hear it and he wisely decided not to have the last word.

The strings that were pounding the insides of her skull had become so magnificent they overpowered her other senses. This didn’t bother Marith in the slightest. Pupils often relied on their sixth sense and the talent given to them at their Rebirth more than on the first five senses they had been given at their actual, physical birth.

Marith took a deep breath of ice cold air through her nose and tried to control the madness inside of her.

The energy pulsing through her slowly started to overheat her body. To Marith it felt as if her muscles and organs were being boiled. The Sun was inside of her and it wanted to rip her skin open in order to burst free.

The light of the orbs intensified, the winds reversed and a sinister, unholy flow of energy merged with the signals the Pupils were receiving from the Web.

Now.

Marith’s eyes shot open as she unleashed her snares. They escaped her body like a thousand scourges seeking for revenge.

She saw how the bundle of strings erupting from her healed stabbing wound flashed through the colourful dust-clouds in between them towards Samuel’s pale face.

Her arms and legs were pulled backwards and her spine arched involuntarily, while the vibrating strings shot out of her ruptured skin. She resisted some Dutch swearwords. She was pretty sure she shrieked instead, but it was hard to tell with the violent energies, that she had carried inside for so long, now leaving her body.

It hurt, in the same way that Marith imagined childbirth would hurt. It was the kind of pain that was important and inevitable. She had to get through it for the greater good.

Samuel had opened his eyes as well. He wanted to look whatever was going to end him in the face. A part of him still had difficulty believing that what Marith was going to do to him was actually possible.

The long, glowing oscillating wires that rushed towards him were so hot they were almost white, but if Samuel would have had the opportunity to take a longer look he would have seen that they were actually a really shiny hue of gold.

Samuel stiffened as he braced himself for impact.

When the Mage reached him her touch carried more pain and suffering than he would have imagined. Marith’s strings ripped through his clothing with ease and slashed his flesh like a thousand flaming surgical blades. He couldn’t keep himself from crying out in pain. She had given him what he craved most and now she took it from him, because that is what he’d done to her.

The screams from the mist of chaos and confusion below them returned, as the other Pupils realized what was happening.

Samuel kept howling until he couldn’t cry it out anymore. He wasn’t used to being sliced open. He had never been cut in his life. There weren’t much creatures and instruments in existence that could ever pose a threat to him in the first place and now he was being hurt beyond human comprehension.

The First Runner was reminded that even the most infallible creature that the Well had ever produced, would meet a worthy opponent at some point in time as long as the Web was still aiming for balance.

As the last thread of pulsating energy left Marith’s body the veil that separated what existed inside her mind and in the reality of the outside world fell away, fluttering to the pavement, like an autumn leaf ready to meet a new destiny, away from the tree that had grown it.

Heaven and Hell collided and, not entirely without coincidence, a black hole was formed on the other end of the Cosmos at about the same time.

The tree of the Multiverse was shook. Creatures from parallel worlds experienced erupting volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunami’s, they observed abrupt differences in weather conditions or they felt a slight itch, all depending on their reality.

Samuel’s eyes imploded into their own whiteness. As a matter of fact, his entire face did. His physical being made place for his ghost. Very, very briefly, and only for the attentive beholder, a tiny flash showed the entirety of the expanding Universe.

But Marith wasn’t looking at him anymore.

Light failed to travel to her, so she decided to go look for it herself. She wanted to be in control of what would happen next, for once.

When the Kid’s wet, bloody heart hit the slimy asphalt, the sound of a tuning fork that was just struck, echoed through Marith’s mind. At last she left the noise behind and merged with the silence.

Samuel’s body followed promptly, plummeting from the sky like a piano in a cartoon. The lifeless hull collapsed into the drab. Apart from the gaping hole in the Kid’s chest his body remained intact.

The bright colours of the gardens stood in stark contrast to the environment Marith had just left. The sunlight was almost blinding. The Mage brought her arm up to protect her eyes and saw Nate and Lieke on the other side of the fountain.

Nate was explaining things to Lieke to the best of his abilities. Through the mist of the clattering water Marith could tell he looked frustrated.

Are we dead or not? Lieke asked him, her arms folded.

You are, I am not, Nate pressed.

He sounded as if this was not the first time he had told her this.

Marith watched them from the other side of the white, sculptured rock. Lieke had spotted her already. Nate hadn’t.

Marith, are we dead?! Lieke almost yelled at her big sister.

No, not yet, I believe, Marith answered.

Nate spun around and immediately sped towards her. Marith didn’t move.

She closed her eyes and squeezed some tears out of her eyes by doing so. She froze, awaiting Nate’s response to what she had done. Traumatized by decades of abuse and toxic relationships she wondered if he would slap her or maybe just scream at her.

Marith, he whispered, before gently wrapping his arms around her.

He enveloped her with his body. Any and all tension left Marith’s spirit. She unclenched her jaw, lowered her shoulders and hugged him back, while continuing to sob.

I am so so sorry, Marith whispered back.

No, don’t be. You did the right thing. I can see that now.

Really?

Yes, why else would the Elders have singled you out and helped you like that?

As a response Marith just nodded, while brushing some hair out of her face. He had let go of her and looked her in the eyes.

I do have to go back, he told Marith, while holding her hands.

I know, Marith nodded.

You will return with Lieke? That’s how this works, right? You can do that?

Yes, I can do that, Marith said, smiling through the tears.

Are you sure? He asked for confirmation.

Yes, I am sure, she lied.

I’ll be waiting for you, he answered expectantly, mustering a little smile as well.

He pinched her shoulders and kissed her, before leaving the gardens behind to throw himself off the nearest cliff. The look in his bright and loving eyes when he looked over his shoulder to wave at her broke her heart, but her mind was too focused on getting Lieke out of the Inbetween too allow herself to have a break down over that.

Saving Lieke’s life by means of this dimension was a huge experiment. There was no way of knowing how this would work out.

Now what? Lieke wondered, slowly walking up to her through the white gravel. What is going on here, Marith?

Marith sighed. She wiped her face with the palms of her hands and looked up at the bright, blue sky, then around at the bushes filled with colourful flowers, overflowing with sunshine. She listened to the myriad of birds tweeting and chirping all around them. The humming bees and the buzzing cicadas. She felt the warmth of a star pleasantly shining on her face, for the first time in what seemed like forever.

We are right in between life and death. Think of this place as a halfway station… and also, eh, you appear to be pregnant.

They were standing in the centre of the perfectly kept gardens of the Inbetween. Marith intuitively started to move to where the castle with the arcade and the doors was.

What? Lieke repeated in a demanding tone of voice. What are you talking about? I can’t be pregnant! I literally cannot...

I can hear the heartbeat of the baby, Marith answered diffident.

They had stopped walking and looked at each other and then at Lieke’s lower abdomen, as if there was anything to be seen.

Are you out of your mind?! Have you finally lost it completely?

Don’t be like that, Lieke.

Marith turned around to continue their path, But Lieke didn’t move a muscle.

How did I get pregnant then… according to you? Lieke scoffed.

The night you were drawn to the lake, Marith shared carefully. She swallowed before continuing. That’s about ten weeks ago. I don’t know why I am only hearing the heartbeat now, she rambled on. I should have been paying more attention to you.

Wait, you can hear heartbeats now?

The night the men drowned, but the women lived, was later. That’s why I didn’t notice double heartbeats on the other girls.

Marith was mostly explaining things to herself. Lieke had halted all her movements and thoughts.

Was I raped? She whispered, on the brink of breaking out in sobs.

Sort of, Marith spoke hesitantly before continuing. I think there was something in the water of the lake that impregnated you… and the others.

What? That’s disgusting. How is that even possible?

I don’t know, but apparently it is.

Lieke slowly nodded, while staring around. Some things started to dawn on her. Those things were only the tip of the ice berg, but for now Lieke was as well informed as possible.

Come on, we need to get back, Marith said.

She stretched out her arm to offer her hand. Lieke took it and together they proceeded towards the big, beige stone construction through the crunching grit.

Marith guided her pregnant sister through the gardens where the flowers forever bloomed and the birds forever sang.

I cannot believe any of this is real, Lieke proclaimed, gazing around.

It is real, because Nate and I imagined it, Marith confirmed, remembering her conversation with Oracle and Anica.

Your mind can become anything you can fathom and the Well will allow you to create everything you can imagine in the Web, was what Oracle had told her during her Rebirth.

And everything you can create, becomes a reality, Anica had added. You have to believe you can bend what others perceive as reality and you have to believe that you can do it again and again, even on a grander scale. You have to believe that you can give shape to the world, your world, and every issue you may have, becomes weightless in the end.

Marith repeated their words in her mind over and over and over. They had become an important mantra for her, because she finally started to understand the true meaning and intention behind them.

The disintegrating women seemed to be coming from all directions. They emerged from the depths of the dark forest, from behind the bright yellow busses and from both directions on the long, winding road.

Before they could come up with a plan the Pupils were encircled by snot, mucus, stink and rotting bodies that just wouldn’t stop moving.

“An?”

“Yeah, I am seeing the same things you guys are seeing,” An answered, nervously glancing around.

The commotion that had arisen after Marith and Samuel had been taken by the orbs hadn’t just made the first group of blubbers change course, but had also attracted new flights of monsters. The ones that An had tried to burn before in the forest had joined forces with several other groups. Their internal compass had told them where to find the group of disenfranchised and disorganized teenagers and twenty-somethings. Now they came barrelling towards the Pupils at a staggering 3 kilometres per hour.

The first horde was slithering and crawling back in the direction they had emerged from, to where Nick had parked the second schoolbus, which was where the Pupils had formed a circle around Gene and Lieke and Marith.

“Vanessa, I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on you, but…” Kyle started.

“The pressure is necessary,” James interrupted. “Vanessa, stop these things,” he ordered.

“On it,” she responded.

Vanessa didn’t have the time or energy left to lecture him on his tone. She had just lost Gene and maybe both of his daughters. The only slightly good news was that Samuel’s physical and mental manifestations seemed to be taken care of, but even that remained to be seen.

The monsters had reached the bodies of the police officers. While they stumbled and slid over the lifeless guardians of the law their moist undersides appeared to be swallowing them as well.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” William uttered.

He held a fist in front of his mouth as if he was preventing vomit from coming out. Lisa pulled him away from the women and staggered backwards with him.

Other responses included “Oh, hell no!”, “This cannot be real…” and “Mom, please, stop it!”.

“Why are they still moving?” Anton asked over his shoulder.

He was ready to fire more arrows, which he had grabbed from Brad’s truck together with Alexander, knowing full well there was no point in fighting those creatures with physical weapons.

“I don’t know,” Vanessa answered.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and her vision was blurry because she couldn’t stop crying, but she knew she didn’t really need her eyes for this. Her talent came from within.

Why wasn’t her bubble working?

“Do you see those fishbowls… around their heads, I mean?” Brad wondered.

“No,” she answered, shaking her head. “I am pretty sure they are already dead,” she informed.

She halted all her movements and turned around to look at the Pupils behind her.

“Does your talent work on non-living things?” Alexander informed wisely.

She shook her head with big, wet eyes, while the former-women kept crawling and slithering towards them.

“Yeah, I guess there isn’t really a point in that,” Alexander said, thinking aloud.

The bodies of Gene and Samuel were lingering around lifeless, while Nate continued to hold Lieke’s wrists until she would return with Marith.

A few moments after Samuel had landed in their midst, rather undignified, Marith’s body had been brought back to Earth solemnly, by the ring of Elders.

Jonathan sat on the road and looked around helplessly with Marith in his arms. After they had send Samuel’s soul back to the Empty he couldn’t stand the idea of her just laying there in the slimy wetness of the monsters, especially not after what she had done for the Chain. So now he was subject to the disgusting feeling of the stinking wetness slowly creeping into his clothes.

If any of the Pupils still on Earth would have bothered to look up they would have known that the ring of spheres had merged with the night sky. Lucille, Pavan, dr. Sybling and the other Elders appeared to have passed on.

“Guess it’s my turn again,” An said with a sigh.

Brad yanked Amber and Meriyem out of what was about to be a blast-zone.

An unleashed his flames, to no avail, once more. The skins of the blubbers crackled and melted further, but no other damage seemed to have been done.

Jonathan and Nate looked at each other with growing unease. They were both sitting down and holding a Merryfield sister and the situation was looking bleaker by the second.

James stomped up to An, who was breaking a sweat, despite the cold.

“Dude! Has the fire worked so far?” He asked the Mage, as more flames escaped his mind.

His attempts at roasting the former-women were becoming more and more violent each time to which they moved towards the Pupils with more perseverance and agitation.

“No?” An answered.

“Then I suggest you try the opposite!”

“Good call,” An murmured.

An froze his first monster. Ice shards appeared about two metres away from his face and shot towards the advancing creatures.

The movements of one of the women up front came to a creaking halt. The remnants of a ragged blue dress hardened around the green snot that oozed out of her body. What was left of her physical body was frozen moments later.

“Bro, we don’t have time for you to freeze them one by one,” Jonathan told him.

The Pupils now remembered it had taken An days to put a layer of ice on top of Sweet Lake. They figured it would take him at least a few hours to bring the women to a complete halt… and they didn’t have that kind of time.

“I have an idea!” William shared, marching towards them, before An could freeze his second monster. “You can mask us, right?” He asked Vanessa. “You have done it before with Etienne… This can buy us some time for An to freeze them all.”

“Right,” Vanessa answered, nodding shakily.

She closed her eyes and concentrated.

Pedro and An stepped forward. When Vanessa allowed them to move through the transparent barrier, their silhouettes were briefly rimmed by the colours of the rainbow, as if the sun shone on a bubble of soap.

Vanessa stepped out of the comfort-zone after them. She wanted to discuss something with An, while Pedro desensitized the women.

“He doesn’t have to freeze them all,” Amber said, full of thought, an idea tugging at her mind.

“What do you mean?” Brad asked.

“If he just freezes the ones on the outsides the ones on the inside have nowhere to go,” she shared.

“That’s actually a brilliant idea,” James said.

Amber looked proud. James didn’t give empty compliments.

“Did you hear what she said, An?” He asked the Mage loudly from inside Vanessa’s bubble.

An just nodded and gave him a thumbs up. He tried to remain focused, while Vanessa was also giving him a wild idea to work with.

Nick had stood by horrified the whole time. He had stopped attempting to get the girls back into the bus. They had all gathered around Gene and Lieke and Marith’s friends.

He had joined them after Marith had flown up into the air together with the orbs and the pale kidnapper.

The world had stopped making sense after he had forced his car into that green, stinking, heaving mass. His brain had gotten tired of making up stories that would make everything logical and alright again. He now let everything happen and was waiting for a cue that would force his legs to move again.

The trance of the girls had appeared to be over, since William had attempted to fry Samuel. Judging by their panicked cries and wild, uncontrollable sobbing they had fully returned to reality. They were holding and hugging each other, wondering where they were, how they had gotten there and why any of this was happening.

They didn’t pay much attention to Samuel and his severed heart. Both of those were lying on the road, lifeless and now ignored.

Theresa had taken pity on the girls. She was explaining things to the best of her abilities, but she soon found out that they had barely any memory of their abduction and the man that had executed it, which resulted in some of the girls blaming the Pupils for the unfortunate turn their Christmas had taken.

“We’re going to need blankets and hot drinks to keep them warm,” Theresa suggested.

She was ignoring the accusations from the girls and was trying to make eye-contact with the Pupils that weren’t saving Lieke and Marith or fighting their fellow villagers.

“Or they just need to be inside,” Joshua said, while nodding at the bus.

“How?!” Nick gestured around agitated, indicating that there was no way he could get about 60 hysterical girls into a schoolbus under these circumstances.

The Runner didn’t speak. He merely pointed at Pedro, who looked like some sort of shaman to Nick.

Pedro had already sensed his services were needed elsewhere as soon as he was done taking away the senses of the monsters. He stepped back through Vanessa’s bubble. Colourful rays shot around his silhouette as he entered the ‘masked’ area again.

The Mage quietly moved over to Joshua, Nick and Theresa.

“I am once again asking… ‘how?’” Nick brought out tired and at the end of his wits.

“I have a way with women,” Pedro shared cryptically.

Theresa laughed a horribly inappropriate laugh, which caused James to join them to see what was up and why another man was making his woman laugh.

“Is that really it?” Nick wondered sceptically.

“Can you hypnotize them?” Theresa asked with big eyes, after she got her laughter under control.

She was surprised that none of the Pupils had realized Pedro probably did possess this ability, given his other talents.

“Like him?” Nick wondered, nodding at Samuel and his heart, just lying there a few metres away from them.

“I can influence the grey mass to some extent,” Pedro informed Nick. “Not quite in the same way that Samuel has done, but it will suffice.”

“Have you ever hypnotized any of us?” James wondered with a frown.

“No, it doesn’t work on Pupils,” Pedro told him. “Only on humans,” he affirmed, seeing the looks on their faces.

“So how do we do this?” Nick asked.

“Just stand back and let me handle it,” Pedro said calmly.

He stepped away from the group, walked over to the massive, yellow bus and turned around to face the mayhem again. He closed his eyes and folded his hands. At first Nick thought he was going into prayer, but then he rubbed his hands together to subsequently spread his arms with a grand movement.

James abruptly moved himself, Theresa and Nick to the side, so none of Pedro’s energies would affect them in any way.

Pedro’s talent worked faster than any sleeping pill Nick had ever tried. Most of the girls stopped sobbing almost instantly and started to look around in wonder, only to find a Jesus-like figure standing in front of the second schoolbus with his eyes closed and his arms wide. As if they had just had the revelation of a lifetime the girls left the chaos and the bodies and their mothers behind and moved towards the mysterious man that seemed to possess all the answers to their suffering.

“I cannot believe this,” James muttered.

“I bet he could stop a war,” Theresa shared in astonishment.

“I bet he is going to be on the news for running a cult in a few years from now,” James mumbled, a bit surly about Theresa’s sudden adoration for Pedro.

“Well, he got the job done,” Nick said, followed by a sigh of relief.

He noticed how Pedro went into the bus after the last girl had entered. He decided to wait until the Mage had left the vehicle again.

Nick looked at Nate, who was still sitting on the ground with Lieke in his lap, holding her wrists and waiting for her and Marith to return. He was completely unaware of the technicalities behind what his brother was doing, but he had a strong feeling that it was saving Lieke’s life.

Nate felt Nick’s eyes on him, turned around and looked at him. For the first time in years they looked each other in the eyes.

“Go,” Nate told his hesitating brother. “Take them… as far away from here as possible.”

“Where to?” Nick wondered.

“To the clinic,” Theresa instructed. “They might have frostbite and trauma and more of that.”

“Right,” Nick nodded nervously, while Pedro stepped out of the bus behind him.

“You can detour through…” James started explaining another route he could take, since their roadblock was still in effect.

Nick didn’t really listen to James. He had been born and raised in the area. He would find another way to get the girls to the clinic.

His gaze darted over the chaos before him. His eyes jumped from Gene to Marith to Vanessa and An trying to create some kind of supernatural amplifier to combat the smelly creatures that had totalled his car earlier that day.

He finally locked eyes with Nate one more time, who nodded at him encouragingly, before he pulled himself away from the war zone and forced himself to enter the bus he had stolen.

The keys were still in the ignition. The insides were warm, relative to the temperature outside at least.

Nick looked over his shoulder through the aisle, occupied by a group of scantily clad young girls, now sitting calmly on the rows of benches behind him. His chest tightened at the thought of having to explain to any health care provider what he was doing exactly with about sixty women, many of whom were minors, only wearing pyjamas and nightgowns.

He decided that bringing them to the hospital was the only right thing to do. He hoped that honesty was the best policy and that Brad would come and jailbreak him if and when they would lock him up.

Before he closed the doors Olive managed to jump inside and took a seat beside him. He put the vehicle in reverse and backed it up, straight into a line of unfrozen monster-women.

How does this work again? Lieke asked, not really focusing on Marith or the magical doors, but staring down at her belly and stroking her lower abdomen with her hands, wondering when she would be able to feel the child.

A door is supposed to appear, so you can go back, Marith promised.

She left out the part in which she would be hurtled back to their dimension of origins. She would learn that soon enough.

A free fall is the most effective way to be reunited with the physical body, Nate had told her the first time he had took her there. Marith felt sick to her stomach thinking about how she had likely lied to him, straight to his face.

She was currently just waiting for the winds. Why did it always feel like they were late?

Will the baby live? Lieke asked with a little, insecure voice.

That’s what we’re aiming for, Marith answered clumsily, with a thin smile.

Whatever happens next, don’t even consider opening the doors on the outer end of the arcade, okay? Marith asked for confirmation from her absentminded sister.

What happens again if I do?

Marith closed her eyes to muster the energy and the patience to explain the mystery of the doors and the nonsensical length of the hallway to her once more, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang.

The winds finally came barrelling towards them and they had forced the heavy doors at the beginning of the arcade to fly open and clash with the castle walls. Their hair slapped wildly into their faces and their tunica’s were almost ripped off their bodies by the abrupt air displacement.

Marith grabbed her little sister and dragged her to the side of the hallway, while they were both pulled to the outer end. She sensed how Lieke was full of fear and confusion.

The sisters hopped in the direction of the winds as slowly as possible, still holding onto each other. They both skinned the tips of their fingers by trying to slow themselves down by means of getting a hold of the crude stone walls.

To Marith’s relief a door did appear in the bare castle wall as soon as they left the part of the hallway with the Renaissance paintings and the stairwell behind. For some reason Marith had known absolutely certain that the door would show up again. She hadn’t been that worried for Lieke’s life, because she had trusted the outcome of her plan.

Maybe the side of herself that had always carried the potential to become a Prophet had not left her completely after her Rebirth. Maybe the talents of the Prophets had started to rub off on her, since the Ritual. Maybe reality was just what she wanted it to be in the Inbetween.

She wasn’t sure of the reason and she didn’t have the luxury to find the answer right now. She grabbed the brass doorknob and the door slapped open. Marith was almost sucked towards the row of doors at the end of the arcade, but Lieke managed to get a hold of the doorpost.

Go inside! Marith yelled over the howling winds, holding onto the knob for dear life.

Lieke took a look inside the tiny space behind the opening and frowned at her sister.

What?! No! How?

There is no time. I’ll explain it later.

Marith could feel the window of opportunity closing in on them, like an internal alarm-clock.

When Lieke kept hesitating she managed to take a leap against the direction of the violent streams of air and shoved her sister inside the claustrophobic room.

Just stand still and wait. I am going to close the door. Just breathe. Okay?

Lieke nodded rather distressed and did as she was told.

Can you imagine the rest of your life? Marith asked cryptically. Can you see yourself living it? Either with or without the baby?

Of course I can, Lieke answered.

Good. That’s good. I’ll see you in a minute then. Marith swallowed, trying to steady her voice and her emotions.

The winds had died down as soon as Marith had managed to get Lieke inside, but an elusive force in the arcade yanked the cool, brass doorknob from her right hand, as if it was slippery, which it wasn’t.

Marith could see a sliver of Lieke’s baffled face, before it was slammed shut.

Exhausted the Mage collapsed onto the unforgiving stone floor. She rested her head against the wooden door. She could feel Lieke on the other side.

Now that the winds had laid down it felt as if they were in the eye of a hurricane.

Another door will appear. Trust me, Marith said, trembling.

She told herself it was the draught causing her shivers.

Marith? Lieke’s voice sounded muffled and insecure.

Yeah?

Sorry I yelled at you, Lieke said sorrowful.

It’s fine, honestly, Marith answered, shaking her head to herself.

It was all fine, as long as Lieke and the baby made it. Then it would all be worth it.

Alongside the fluttering of a brand new heart, she listened to the unique beating of her sisters heart. The heart she had shared a room with until they became teenagers. She could sense what went on in Lieke’s mind. Her sister was full of turmoil and relief. Her beautiful vibrating and energetic soul was going to survive. A soul Marith had shared secrets and gossip with, a soul she had fought with, a soul she had mentored and advised, albeit poorly, a soul she had finally become friends with, during the previous months.

Marith?

Yes, I am still here Lieke! On the other side. You need to go back now. I will be right behind you!

Marith? Lieke’s voice now seemed to tremble as well.

Yes?

I love you.

I love you too.

Marith could feel her sister leave the room that was just created for her and wanted it to be her turn now.

The door didn’t disappear, as with Vanessa, which was a good sign, because this time Marith was fairly certain she was dead as well. There was no way in the Multiverse she had survived taking her power back, by removing Samuel’s heart. Jumping off one of the towers was likely not going to lead her anywhere.

She wondered if it would hurt to land on the ground in this world. It was her world, after all, and she wasn’t actually physically there, so she guessed there wouldn’t be real physical pain, but likely she would experience mental agony over the knowing that her death had become a fact.

She scrambled to her feet and tried the doorknob. It wouldn't budge.

But she had to take this portal. She had to!

She became acutely aware that on Earth her heart had stopped beating, her skin had stopping feeling, her synapses had stopped weeping and her nervous system had stopped responding.

She yanked the brass doorknob until it came off. She stumbled backwards and saw the door disappear into the wall.

Inside her astral body she felt as if her heart plummeted to her feet. She had officially lied to Nate. She sat down on the harsh, cool stone floor again and looked around powerless and full of disbelief until she could cry.

She cried tears of sorrow, knowing she had just talked to Lieke for the last time. She cried tears of desperation, knowing Nate would never forgive her. She cried tears of relief, knowing that, if anything, she had helped put Samuel away.

As so often in Marith’s existence she had imagined things to go differently, which was incredibly naive. Why would she be the one to survive?

Fighting evil asked for sacrifices. Her life turned out to be one of those sacrifices.

She had known, in some primal part of her brain, that she wasn’t going to make it and she had known this for a while, but that couldn’t mitigate the shock when she realized this was final.

Suddenly it was all over, even life. Marith’s life wasn’t hers anyway and it never had been. It had always belonged to a higher power, a bigger force.

Her death had been a long time coming, but Marith didn’t fully realize it yet until it actually happened. The finality and the meaning of it all came crashing down on her.

She decided to lie down on the cool floor, while the birds and the bees and the rest of nature kept humming, buzzing and blooming outside of the arcade. She stared up at the beautiful stone arches above her. A part of her marvelled about the architecture and the craftsmanship. She was pretty sure Nate had added most of the details in the ceiling for her. She smiled through her tears at the absurdity of it all.

Her whole material existence Marith had been afraid to live. She had just learned that she was not afraid to die. The only thing she didn’t understand was why the Web had allowed her to meet Nate if there wasn’t a way for them to be together.

Was this the meaning of life? Finding love and purpose, just to have it yanked right away from under you?