Chapter Seven

We find Blue in a room at the end of the hall. She is laying on a thin bench along the back wall. Kara is with her.

With a single burst of creation I trap Kara up against the wall, binding her neck and arms with thick tendrils of stone, extending out from the wall behind her. I don’t use restraint, the force of it knocks her out cold.

‘Don’t Solis,’ I hear Blue say, ‘please, don’t kill her.’ I look down at her as she pushes herself into a sitting position, the pain still clear in her eyes. ‘I know you’re angry Solis, I know, but we can’t, we mustn’t,’ she is pleading with me, the way I pleaded with Jhon. ‘They’re wrong, they think they’re right, but they’re wrong, please Solis, don’t kill them.’

I move towards her, bending down on my knees and holding her close. ‘I’m getting you out of here,’ is all I say.

‘Sooner is better,’ says Solomon from behind me. I help Blue to her feet, she is unsteady, but she can hold her weight.

‘Solomon, we need to get back to the surface, without being noticed.’

‘If I’m not mistaken, didn’t your friend here disappear from us right before our eyes just the other night?’ he asks. I look at Blue, but she is already shaking her head.

‘I didn’t disappear, I wanted to hide from everything, so I made myself small, as small as I could be,’ she shivers, ‘I hid with Ezekiel, nobody noticed me. And then I was alone, and that was worse than before, so I came back and followed you.’ She looks at me, ‘I didn’t know what else to do, every road seemed to lead to more people getting hurt, more pain.’

I hold onto her even tighter, ‘It’s okay, it’s nearly over I promise you, I promise.’

‘There might be another thing we can try,’ says Solomon. ‘I’m not someone people like to question around here, I can walk you out, bound in chains, the same way you were walked in.’

‘And if someone does try to stop us? If Jhon sees us?

‘Then, we die, or they do,’ he replies, ‘it is the only way.’

Blue shivers in my arms. ‘It won’t come to that,’ I say with conviction. Solomon looks at me knowingly, aware of the lie. Blue doesn’t move at all.

‘Make the chains,’ I say to Solomon. ‘It’s time to get the fuck out of this place.’

--- The first people we pass are in a room with windows spanning along its outer wall. Solomon walks past without breaking stride, he doesn’t look into the room, and he doesn’t give us much of a chance to either, pulling on our chains with stern reproach. I can’t help myself, I sneak a glance through the windows. The people inside are looking out at us, some even appear mildly curious. But none of them make any move to leave the room. We pass out of sight, and they turn back to their work. Solomon, it seems, was not exaggerating about his reputation in this place.

More rooms pass with the same events, and each one builds my confidence in the plan. Blue is in front of me, chained close to Solomon. I want to reach out and touch her, to assure her it was all going to be okay. But I don’t. I keep my head hanging low.

We make it to the stairs. They ring noisily as we climb them. It sets my nerves on edge. We reach the top. The hallway out into the Firmament stretches before us. More people walk past, their eyes pass over us, with curiosity, but nothing more. My heart is racing, but I keep the panic hidden, I hang my shoulders, and I feign the look of a prisoner, defeated and afraid.

We reach the opening and step out into the light. The Firmament is even more beautiful than I remember. The glass waves seem to sway and crash hundreds of feet above us, and the dancing sunlight trickles down in perfect mimicry of crystal clear waters. Blue looks up at the surface, transfixed by the waves. I keep my eyes on the doorway. It’s directly in front of us, and wide open.

We make it almost exactly half way.

‘Solis!’

My name echoes, impossibly loud, bouncing off the walls and carrying through the immense space around us. I drop the chains off my wrists, and turn around.

Iver is standing at the edge of the alcove, only a single step from the shadows. He looks the way I expect him to, small, and weak. And then I see something that fills me with fear.

From the shadows behind Iver, a figure steps out into the light. He is shorter than Iver, and thinner, but the difference between them is as clear as the divide in nature between predator and prey. Jhon looks out at us, and I hear Solomon’s warning ringing in my ears - either we die, or they do.

More people emerge from the shadows. Jhon’s creators and followers, dozens of them. ‘Solis,’ I hear Solomon say behind me, ‘we have to run.’ His voice is full of fear, and I know he doesn’t believe his own words. He knows just as well as I do, that running won’t work.

‘This isn’t about escape,’ I tell him, my voice distant, ‘it’s about release.’

Jhon takes a step towards us. It is as slow and calm as a step can be. The message is clear. He is coming for us, and there is nothing we can do to stop him. I take a step as well, but I’m forced to stop mid way through, one leg raised. Blue is holding my arm in her hands, her grip is delicate, but the sensation is enough to hold me back.

‘Solis,’ she says, in almost a whisper. I turn towards her. She is still looking up at the glass dome above us. Her voice is thick with fear, it trembles as she speaks, ‘what if the ocean isn’t below the surface with us? What if we are just standing in its reflection, and the real ocean is on the other side.’

I stare at her, confused, even a little afraid. My eyes swing back to Jhon and the others, they are walking towards us, moving at a steady pace. I look back at Blue. She is still gazing up at the glass surface, her face etched with fierce determination. ‘We wouldn’t have to fight. Everyone would have to run.’

I look up at the surface too. The illusion of waves is mesmerising. I watch them break and fall against one another. And then I understand.

‘Can you do that Blue?’ I ask with fevered excitement.

‘Of course,’ she replies simply, ‘it’s just an ocean.’

I look back at Jhon, I see the threat in his eyes, the hatred, and the hunger.

‘Do it,’ I say to Blue. ‘Do it now!’

A sound like thunder shakes the walls around us and the ground below. All eyes turn upwards to the dome, just in time to see it burst into a million tiny shards. They fall towards us, but they don’t fall alone.

An entire ocean falls with them.

For that brief moment in time, every single person in the Firmament watches in awe. It descends as a single body of water, a churning wall of ocean rushing downwards.

‘Run!’ Solomon’s voice explodes around me.

We run. Like only creators can, moving without friction, without restraint. We make it into the tunnel as the ocean hits the ground behind us. The impact shakes the earth. Water erupts through the tunnel after us. We put everything we have into it, feeding off each other’s fear, and our own.

I step out of the tunnel a faction of a second before the water does. It erupts like a geyser, with enough force to tear flesh from bone. We run out of its path, heading along the outside wall of the stadium. The whole building seems to groan under the pressure of the water within, but the stone is thick, and the walls hold.

We stop running, all of us panting for breath, our hearts racing.

‘Do you think they’re okay?’ asks Blue, her voice shaky, ‘I didn’t think it would be so much.’ Solomon and I share a look.

‘If we made it out, you can bet Jhon did too,’ says Solomon, ‘we should keep moving.’

I look back at the rushing water. It flows from the stadium with torrential strength. It is a force of nature, just like Blue. But even before the thought is finished, I know, Solomon is right. If we made it out, so did Jhon. None of us are safe yet.

‘You need to go back to the city.’ I turn and look at Blue. She’s exhausted, trembling and still filled with fear of what she just did, for who she might have hurt. ‘It’s going to be okay Blue, I promised, remember?’ She gives me a weak smile, but there is love there. I give her one back. I turn to Solomon, ‘Take Blue, get her away from here.’

‘What about you?’ He asks gravely.

‘I’m going to stay, just a little while longer,’ I reply.

Blue looks at me with a wide frightened stare, ‘Solis, no, you have to leave with us, it’s not safe!’

I look back into those pale eyes, and I see the full gravity of the pain I have caused her. It’s not about revenge for her, it’s not even about survival. Blue just doesn’t want anyone else to have to die.

But I am not Blue. As much as I wish it were so, as much as I love her. For me, there is no letting go.

A familiar voice rises up in my mind, and this time, I hear my own voice, mixed in with hers. You can beat it ten times or a thousand, it makes no difference. Fear will always find you again.

I take Blue’s hands in mine, and I lie to her, one last time. ‘I’m going to help Iver and the others, and when it is all over, I’ll come find you, I promise Blue.’ I kiss her, quickly. ‘Now go.’ She hesitates, opens her mouth to protest, and then closes it again. ‘I’ll be right behind you,’ I say forcefully.

‘Let’s go Blue,’ Solomon says, in his deep, stoic voice.

She looks at me like she is seeing me for the first time. She knows why I’m staying, and she knows why she can’t. ‘You have to come back Solis, when it’s over, you promised, remember?’

‘I won’t forget,’ I say.

She smiles. And then they leave.

--- The water coming out of the tunnel is now a steady stream. I watch it as it trails past.

The first body I see makes me jump, it floats by face down in the water. More follow not long after. Around half a dozen go by before I recognise Iver among them. His hair is matted, and his eyes are wide open, staring lifeless up at the sky. I feel like it should be harder to see, that I should be sad, or angry, or anything really. But I don’t feel a thing.

‘Bye Iver,’ I say softly, as the current carries him away from the stadium, disappearing from view. I watch the stream as it loses its strength. Soon it is slow enough to walk through. And there is still no sign of Jhon. I wait patiently. If he is alive, he will come, sooner or later.

It happens sooner.

The sound of splashing water draws my gaze to the mouth of the tunnel. Jhon steps out into the daylight. He is soaked through, but other than that he seems unharmed. He notices me standing at the edge of the water ahead of him. And he greets me like a long forgotten friend. ‘Solis, you waited for me. I’d say I was surprised but let’s face it, nothing you do could surprise me anymore.’

‘I did say I was going to kill you,’ I reply plainly.

‘Ah, that you did,’ he approaches me through the water, ‘but I believe I made a similar promise, something about you, “dying easily.” Well, one of us is about to be made a liar, Solis, and I have to say, I do not think it will be me.’ The gold bullet poised at the tip of his finger glints in the sunlight. He stops walking.

It’s over in less than a heartbeat, the bullet travels like a path of mind, hitting me right between the eyes.

I don’t drop to the floor. I simply let the mirror image fade.

Jhon realises his mistake before I get to him. He spins around, his face contorted into what can only be described as fear. He finishes turning just in time to look me in the eyes as I stab him through the heart. My knife is long and jagged, it passes all the way through him. I hold onto the knife’s handle, leaning in close to whisper in his ear, with a voice full of hate, ‘you’re a relic from a dead world Jhon.’

He looks at me, not in anger, or pain. ‘We all are,’ he whispers back.

There is no sound, or pain, but I feel the pressure on my chest and the warmth of blood slowly running over me, getting thicker and thicker with every frantic heartbeat.

He falls first. I feel relieved about that. I get to watch him float away in the shallow stream.

I fall second.