When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XXVII

~{§}~

T w e n t y - S e v e n

The light shut off so all power could be used for the launch, sending the narrow hallway into complete blackness. The floor began to rumble and I suddenly felt as if all of my bones had turned to lead. I was pressed to the floor as the rocket lurched upward. The air was filled with a thundering noise that blocked out all else.

The next thing I knew, the room was flooded with light. The door had been blasted open so hard, it was a miracle it hadn't come off its hinges. An alarm started blaring, but it seemed quiet compared to the barraging thunder of the engines spilling in through the now open door. On one wall, another red light pulsed urgently. The sign below it screamed, "AIRLOCK FAILURE" in large capital letters.

I looked at the opening and realized that Tarron was gone. He had been sucked straight out the door.

I crawled over to the door and felt a hand grab my leg. I started in surprise. It was Erin. She smiled at me and we went over to the door together and reached out to pull it shut. Since it wouldn't lock, I looked around for something to hold it shut. There was a short, metal handrail attached to the wall, but only barely.

If I just give it a good kick... Ow! Not with that foot! I tried again with my left leg. There! The bar fell to the floor with no audible sound. I carefully reached to grab it, still keeping a death grip on the door with my other hand. With great effort, I pulled the handrail over to us and Erin helped me slide it through the wheel. When I let go of the door, it immediately jerked outward but the ends of the bar caught on the doorframe and it held. I sat back against the wall and heaved a sigh of relief. I would've wiped my brow, but I doubted I'd have the strength.

"WE'RE NOT OUT OF THIS YET!" Erin hollered in my ear to be heard above the roar.

I struggled to my feet and made to follow her to a second door my eyes had skipped right over. She and I pulled it with all our strength, which wasn't much by then, but it didn't move.

"WE HAVE TO CLOSE THE AIRLOCK!" she shouted. "OR WE HAVE A MUCH LOWER CHANCE OF SURVIVING!" I nodded, but there wasn't much I could do.

Suddenly, there was a great screeching noise, loud enough for me to hear it, and the hall was filled with light once more. Erin and I were both dragged to the opening once more and with a jolt I realized that I was going to join Tarron. I twisted around to Erin, a terrified expression fixed on my face. At the last moment, she grabbed my hand and wedged her feet against the doorframe, determination glinting in her eyes. I could see that she wasn't going to let me go. I was still hanging out of the rocket, though, and I soon found the reason why the handrail had given way.

Somehow, impossibly, Tarron was clinging to the smooth side of the ship, just to the right of the door. He gave me a look of pure hatred and reached behind his back, his hand returning with a small, but razor sharp dagger. He was the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. His hair was a mess, half of it wild and tangled, the other half gone, leaving behind only charred skin. One of his eyes was still blazing red while the other matched his minions' eyes perfectly. Both his arms were smoking, like his head, the sleeves of his suit tattered and ripped. His legs... That was the worst of it. They were completely soaked in blood and missing most of the flesh so you could see the bone, gleaming white, beneath. His feet were completely gone. His legs just ended at the ankle, or, what was left of them.

Tarron let out a scream of rage so loud it resounded in my head and made me want to clap my hands to the side of my head and not let go until it stopped. Blood gushed from his mouth in a red fountain as he leaped from the side of the rocket, knife pointed at my heart. "Checkmate!" he growled.

Everything seemed to slow down. I could barely hear the roar of the rocket any more and Tarron seemed to be coming at me in slow motion. I looked back at Erin and suddenly I was in another time and place.

━━━

The wall explodes outward. I flatten myself to the street, trying to make myself as small as possible. Chunks of stone and charred books smash into the ground all around me.

Soon enough, the shaking has lessened and I lift myself off the ground and look up. Standing above me is a silhouette. The figure's features are hidden in shadow. I can tell it is a girl with really long hair, blown about by the wind. She reaches out a hand to me and I grasp it. She pulls me to my feet and suddenly I feel as if a veil has been pulled aside. I take in her silvery hair, startling blue eyes, and kind smile, and I realize I know this face. My older sister, my friend and ally for as long as I can remember. The one I can confide in when times are rough.

It is Erin.

━━━

I gazed at her as everything continued to move slowly. I saw her through new eyes. Instead of a stranger I'd only met recently, a stranger who'd been living in the desert for a while and had a very outlandish tale, I saw her as she was. My friend, someone I trusted dearly, and, most of all, family. I saw her eyes widen in surprise, then clear in recognition. She knew. I knew.

Tarron mustn't be left alive.

I swung my foot around (I'd been doing a lot of kicking lately) and whacked Tarron in the head. His eyes glazed over and he lost momentum, falling into the clouds below.

Erin yanked me back into the rocket and my foot caught the door, pulling it shut behind me. It slammed into place and the wheel spun tight. We were safe.

━━━

They lay flat on the floor, catching their breath, until Erin sat up.

"Ryan!" she said.

"Erin," he replied. "I remember."

She clasped his hand. "You remember!" Tears of joy glistened at the edges of her vision.

Ryan sat up too and his expression suddenly turned to one of pain. He looked down and Erin was stunned to see that Tarron's dagger was the source of that pain. A small trickle of blood ran down his prison suit onto the metal floor panels. He slowly raised his gaze to meet Erin's again.

"You're hurt!" she whispered, unnecessarily. She raised a hand involuntarily to touch the spot where the same dagger had pierced her skin those many days ago. The sock had fallen away at some point during the events of the day, revealing that the wound had long since faded from sight.

"I'm fine," he smiled weakly.

"No you're not!" She forced him to lay flat again, then started looking around frantically for a medical kit.

"It won't help," he told her as she was pulling open panels in the wall and rummaging through the spaces beyond. "I don't think there's anything you can do."

"But..." she returned to Ryan's side. "There's so much I want to tell you, so much I want to do! I want to go back home and live with you and Dad and tell the story of our adventures and live and be happy and-" he raised a hand to stop the tumble of words.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I just..." she gave a huge sigh and stifled a sob, then took a deep breath and went on. "I've been looking for you the past five years and now, when I've finally found you, I fall apart and you're-" she couldn't bring herself to say the last few words.

"It'll be okay," he said. "Just remember..." But whatever Ryan had been about to say, Erin would never know. His hand fell back against the floor with a dull thump and his head turned slightly to the side, his eyes out of focus.

And as Maya appeared at the bottom of the ladder, no doubt wondering what had happened, Erin rested her head against his shoulder and wept silently, letting all the sorrow and loneliness she had felt for the last five years spill out over his already cooling body.

[END of Part One]