Heaven's End

Chapter 4

Within 5 minutes everyone still alive (all 11 of us) surrounded the desk in the reception. The light above us flickers randomly, emitting a quiet buzzing sound as it did so. It reminded me of times gone by, when I was a child. When I still had a life.

The room was full of muttering, a few laughs every now and again from the emo-looking girl at the back. She stood like me, alone and with her back leaning against one of the many pillars that held the roof up, one foot on the floor as the other pushed against the surface behind her. Her hair repeatedly fell into her eyes, but she just flicked her hair back to temporally solve the problem. She wrinkled her nose a few times, trying to hold a scratch back. Although it looked like she was desperate, she held back, keeping her arms crossed. I would approach her, but both the embarrassment of knowing not knowing her name, and that she gave the finger to anyone who even dared to move towards her.

Her eyes narrowed at Sky, who returned the gesture every time she looked her way between calming Ellen down. There was obviously a hidden conflict between them. My guess was that Sky’s now dead boyfriend was the reason behind this.

I never did get the reason why people crave romance. Nor do I ever intend to start. Sure, I get lonely, who doesn’t, but when you’re in a place where most people’s self-confidence is near non-existent, it isn’t hard to find a companion for the night, male or female; so the concept of relationship is meaningless to me. Call me a cold-hearted bastard all you want, but this is Heaven’s End, a place where the average life expectancy is 20 minutes. To put yourself in any form of commitment would be torture. Sky and her former partner where the only ones who were strong enough to hold on, and look what’s happened to them. Sky can’t even look any guy here in the face.

Apart from me, Ellen, Sky and that emo girl, a few other familiar faces where here.

Damir stood to my left, chatting with Halu, both middle-aged Arab men. Both bonded to each other because of their similar backgrounds. Both committed suicide after Islamophobic abuse, even though they had saved people’s lives at 9/11 and 7/7 respectively. The only difference between them was Damir’s loss of faith, and Halu’s loss of hair.

In a huddled group were four sisters from an American family, relatively new to Heaven’s End. They were hard to tell apart, only small differences in the shade of their ginger hair, a few inches of height and the placement of freckles on their face separated their looks. Rumours have it that they were all lesbians who had a suicide pact. Rumours also say there were five of them...that probably changed last night from the mournful expressions they give. Two of them hold their arms, cuts and glass shards over the flesh.

Finally, standing behind the desk, is Rain. His wise, eternal eyes pass glances over all of us as he taps his finger on the world, still thinking over the situation. How he keeps his emotions calm is beyond me, anyone one else would have repeated their suicide with the amount of continual stress he receives. He gets no sleep as proven by the dark bags that cling onto his face.

I always think of Rain as being the unofficial leader of Heaven’s End, in fact he’s the one who first used my name for this place, now everybody calls it that: makes the place seem less mysterious, less like a hell because it has a name. It is an extremely small step towards understanding this place, but makes it seem a little less unknown, a reason to be a little less fearful.

After what seems like an eternity of Rain’s silence, as the rest of pack talk about trivial subjects, he finally speaks.

“Any ideas guys?”

The rest of us look at each other, in confusion and fear. Rain always had the answer. He always knew what to do in times of crisis.

For the next few minutes we all sit in silence. Eyes looking left to right, hoping someone will be our saviour in these dark times.

“We could actually do something other than moping around like idiots.” The emo girl yawned once, and pushed herself forward, walking behind the desk, beside Rain, “Think about it this way, it’s probably affected the entirety of this place. We could start fresh. Hardly any competition.”

We all laugh, mostly out of pity.

Damir stands up “Look, that would be great if it would actually work. But we’re in hell here, I doubt that’s going to change because of a few of us.”

Rain bites his lip “She has a point.” He leaps on top of the desk, standing tall and looking over us, “Yes, the idea is a little far-fetched...but we could expand the area we own. Instead of one hotel, we own an entire street.” He moves his hands slightly, falling to his natural skill of being a public speaker.

While most of the group start to nod in agreement, Damir and I exchange glances. We both stand in disagreement. Rain sees this too, knowing that he can’t change our opinions on this. Instead he gives Damir a chance to speak again, hoping to hear his story, and point out the flaws in his agreement.

Damir seems surprised by this chance, but leaps to the stage, wiping away the sweat from his forehead.

“We could hardly hold a motel tonight, but at least a few of us survived because of the compact areas. He held up the area, and now we’re safe. He could control this motel. But if that light ever comes back, and we have an entire street...we’re fucked.”

All at once, we all bow our heads in thought, except Rain, who stands watching Damir, a hawk-like appearance at Damir. The reason why Damir had been so surprised was because Rain had usually kept a tight grip on his power. He was, by all means, a dictator, a just one none the less. For him to give a moment of power, no matter how brief,

Damir smiled, expressing his opinion fluently “If, in a few decades, the light doesn’t go back, then we can think about expanding. We can train an army to fight. We can slowly take control. Yes, it might be brutal, but it will work. We-“

Damir’s sudden cut-off startled us a bit. At first, we presumed it was a sudden case of nerves. His wide-open eyes and gapping mouth gave that impression too. But the slow movement of his hand to the back of his neck showed us the truth.

He pulled his hand slowly back, his finger tips dyed rouge.

After a brief stumble forward, he collapses to the floor in a heap, twitching slightly before finally coming to a rest, in both movement and life.

Rain was standing behind him, holding a knife laced with blood. He stares down at his kill, face darkened, but you could see his mouth. A slow smile that formed after was chilling, but common on the face of an executioner.

Rain had seen someone hold the same control over the people here than he did. He didn’t like that, not one little bit.

So he gave him to the guy with the scythe.

All were fixed on Damir’s lifeless shell, a cold reminder that Rain’s word is law. Halu seemed most affected by it, to the point where a tear rolled down his face. The emo girl stood in shock, no laughing anymore.

While there were all transfixed on Damir, my eyes were aimed, alone, at Rain.

Rain brought the blade of his knife up to his mouth, the smile still there. He flicked back his head, and stuck his tongue out, licking the blade clean. His eyes rolled back into his head as his face seemed to light up.

Until I saw the man I admired, the man I looked up to, the man who stopped me become a bloodthirsty monster do an act as sadistic as that, I didn’t believe a human could be purely associated with the label of good or evil.

Now my eyes are opened. My fists clench as I watch the embodiment of immorality stand before us, wishing the others would look up at this vile beast.

It seems the light has affected us too, even without looking upon it directly. It had transformed the saviour of Heaven’s End to the...thing that walks among us.

And he’s our leader.

Closing my eyes, I walk away, running my knife along the stained walls as I do so. Soon the walls are replaced by my skin. The thrill of the deep cut relaxes me. It prepares my body for the mental torture that will follow as I am forced to take orders from Rain.

Makes the rest of Heaven’s End feel like paradise.