Despair

There was a ringing in Adam’s ears.

It was annoying. He was trying to sleep, but that ringing was keeping him from taking that last step into unconsciousness. He felt warm too, now that he thought about it. And that thought led to another (there’s something poking into my back), which led to another (why does my leg hurt?), and another, and another, until it all came crashing back and Adam flung his eyes open and gasped like he hadn’t taken a breath since he’d fallen through the ceiling. But how long ago had that been?

Adam sat up and looked around him. The air was still thick with dust. The room looked like a bomb had gone off. The broken remains of the ceiling covered the floor, along with the storage boxes that had come down with it, most of which had burst open and spilled their contents all over the place, adding to the general mayhem around him. His eye caught movement, and he turned to see Ridley struggling to his feet. The tall boy looked shaky, but unhurt. Suddenly Ridley dropped to his knees and Adam thought he must have collapsed, then he noticed he was frantically digging through a pile of the boxes. A few moments later he lifted Gen’s tiny body out of the mess.

Gen looked like she was sleeping, and Adam could’ve almost believed it, if not for the blood running down her face from a deep cut on her forehead. Ridley’s face was filled with pain, and it shocked Adam to realise that none of it was his own. It was all for Gen. His inner thoughts were so easy to read he might as well have been shouting them out loud. He’d failed to protect her. He blamed himself. Why were they all so determined to take responsibility for something they didn’t do? He was just like Cora.

Cora!

Adam looked straight up, through the giant hole in the ceiling and into the room above.

Cora wasn’t holding onto the boxes any more. She wasn’t anywhere in sight. Just as Adam started thinking she must have fallen down here with them, he heard the unmistakable sound of Cora’s shoes striking something - then again, and again. There was no tremor in the walls, no more collapsing floors. There was only one thing Cora could be kicking like that, over and over. She was fighting with the Nightmare.

An image flashed into Adam’s mind. He saw the Nightmare standing before him, its thin arm outstretched, and its spidery hand clutched around a throat. Cora’s throat. She was thrashing, trying to break free. Then she went limp, just like Banter.

Adam leapt to his feet.

“We’ve got to get back up there!” His shout drew Ridley’s attention away from Gen. It also woke up Moan, who emerged from underneath a pile of broken boxes and crumpled papers a short distance from Adam.

The booming sounds of Cora’s kicks were getting softer, and the silence between them longer. She was tired. How much longer could she keep this up?

“What are you waiting for? We have to help her!”

Ridley shook his head. “How Adam? We can’t stop it. Cora did this so we could get out of here. We should run while we can. And Gen needs healing.” He looked at the frail girl in his arms again. All his swagger was gone. He was just another scared kid now, desperate not to lose anyone else.

Moan let out a groan of pain as he staggered to his feet. “Ridley’s right. We have to get out of here. Dorian will save Cora. He’s the strongest Inferno! He won’t let it get his daughter.” Ridley was nodding in agreement, but Adam could see the doubt on both their faces. He remembered the way Cora had been so sure Dorian wouldn’t interfere, that he would let the Nightmare come for them, that he would let Cora handle it herself. Because he believed Cora was the one who made it. He believed his daughter was the Wildfire. He wasn’t coming to save her, because he didn’t think she could ever need saving.

A final, feeble bang rang out, then there was silence in the room above. It only lasted a few tense moments, before Cora began to scream.

Something snapped inside of Adam. Although he was shaking with fear, he didn’t feel it anymore. It had been pushed aside to make room for a much more powerful feeling. An overwhelming desire to stop that terrible sound. He couldn’t bear to hear Cora suffering like that - he would rather it were him.

Adam looked around desperately for something he could use to climb back up to the room above. He spotted Moan’s bat, half buried under a piece of the ceiling. There was no sign of Banter anywhere. Everything else in the room was either too small, or too broken to be of any use. His fists were clenched so hard they were beginning to shake. He needed a ladder, but where was he going to find one of those in D Block? He couldn’t think straight, Cora’s screaming was drowning out all rational thought. He was panicking, his breathing coming in short, sharp gasps, and the cracks were beginning to appear in the air around him.

THE CRACKS!

Adam had completely forgotten the reason they were all there in the first place. The one thing that united them. They were all makers!

Concentrating harder than he’d ever had in his life, Adam imagined a ladder resting on the broken edge of the ceiling above them. A long crack appeared, and then the ladder was there, just as he’d envisioned it. Adam didn’t hesitate. He sprung towards the ladder and scrambled up it as fast as he could. He didn’t hear Ridley shouting at him to stop. He didn’t see Moan’s attempt to grab him and pull him back down. All he heard was Cora. All he saw was the next rung on the ladder in front of him. Then he was at the top, and he knew before he’d even taken his first step, that he was too late.

Cora had dropped to her knees. Her scream had become a hoarse croaking sound. Her face was long and drawn in horror. The Nightmare stood over her, their eyes only inches apart. Its skeletal hands gripping her upper arms to keep her from escaping, though there was no chance of that happening now. Cora was lost. The Nightmare had driven her inside, just like it had with Marcus.

Adam felt all the determination that had driven him so recklessly up the ladder drain out of him in an instant. Without it, all his fear came crashing back and he froze in place, unable to turn and run, and unable to try and save what little was left of Cora.

The Nightmare let go of her, and Cora dropped to the ground, writhing in silence. Then it turned its bulging white eyes on Adam. It began moving towards him, taking those jerky steps that sent shivers coursing through Adam’s body. As it drew nearer, Adam began to hear its voice again, a whisper that wavered and cracked, disjointed like its movements, and just as unsettling.

She is safe now… safe inside… as you should be… it’s what you want… it’s why you made me… to help you hide… inside forever… INSIDE FOREVER…

Adam urged his body to move, but it was like the signal had been jammed. He could still think step backwards, but his legs wouldn’t listen. The Nightmare was only a few feet in front of him now. Soon it would reach out and grab him. Then he would join Cora, trapped inside.

It’s what you want… to hide away… no need to run… no need to fight… I will save you… I’ll save them all… you’ll be together… inside forever…

The Nightmare reached out its long, bony hands, grabbing Adam by the shoulders, drawing its face up close to his, until all Adam could see was its bulging white eyes, and gaping mouth. He felt his own face stretch into the same shape. He could hear screaming off in the distance, and felt his blood turn to ice when he realised it was coming from him.

“That’s not what I want!” Adam was not sure if he’d managed to say this out loud or if it was only in his head, but the Nightmare seemed to pause for a moment, its round eyes narrowing slightly as if it were confused.

Then the window behind the Nightmare shattered, and through it came a figure dressed in shining armour - plates of silver and bronze fitting so perfectly against their body it was almost like metal skin. A dark cape flowed over their broad shoulders, matching the colour of their hair exactly. Adam didn’t need more than a glance to recognise who it was.

Dorian had finally come.

Cracks of white light radiated off the tall man. He rushed towards the Nightmare, and Adam caught flashes of different weapons briefly appearing in Dorian’s open palms, as if he were subconsciously deciding the best way to kill it. A sleek spear, a double-headed axe, and a Colt revolver, all existed for a moment before disappearing again within the few seconds it took for Dorian to close the distance between them. Then he reached the Nightmare and swung a shining samurai sword downward towards the Nightmare’s thin neck.

Adam only had time for a single thought to enter his mind before the sword struck - let this kill it. But the instant the blade struck the exposed neck of the Nightmare he knew there was no hope. With a ringing sound, like metal striking metal, the sword snapped at the point of impact. The shattered tip went flying and embedded itself in the wall, still quivering from the sheer force of the blow. For a moment, Dorian and the Nightmare stared straight into each other’s eyes. The tall man’s filled with fury, and the small monster’s filled with dread. Then through the shattered window came more flying figures, each dressed for war just like Dorian, though none looking as made for it as the tall dark man. They fell on the Nightmare, blades and bullets, fire and ice, Adam’s eyes could not keep track of all the ways in which the Infernos tried to destroy the weak looking creature.

Adam was knocked to the floor, skidding backwards away from the violence. Never had he witnessed such destructive force, not even in his wildest daydreams. Right at its heart, he saw Dorian raining down blow after blow with a warhammer that looked heavier than the man himself. The Nightmare was curled up on the floor covering its head as best it could with its skeletal arms. For a split second, just like the moment he’d first seen it, Adam felt deeply sorry for the creature. Then he turned to see Cora, crumpled and writhing silently on the floor, and the feeling was dispelled by hateful rage. He turned back to the Nightmare, this time feeling deeply satisfied with each blow the Inferno’s dealt.

But something was wrong. It dawned on them slowly, as one by one the Infernos began to notice the impact of all their efforts to destroy the pitiful thing at their feet. Even Dorian’s mindless rage couldn’t protect him from the blatant truth. They’d given the Nightmare a few fresh cuts and bruises, nothing you wouldn’t expect to see on a child who’d just spent a few good hours playing outside. But they were not truly hurting it. And they were nowhere near killing it.

As if sensing the doubt within its attackers, the Nightmare chose that moment to make its move. It sprung into a crab-like position, then launched itself upwards, escaping from the ring of Infernos and landing like a spider on the ceiling. It scuttled towards the window in a blur of speed. Dorian and the others reeled to chase after it, but it had leapt through the window before they’d managed to take more than a few steps.

“AFTER IT!” bellowed Dorian, as he went to hurl himself out the window.

“Dorian!” The way his name was called, stopped him cold. Elena’s voice was wracked with pain. She was on her knees beside her daughter, trying to hold Cora’s writhing body. “Dorian, help me.”

Dorian crossed the room even faster than he’d chased the Nightmare. He reached his wife and his daughter, hesitating for a moment, before dropping to his knees and taking Cora out of Elena’s arms and into his own.

“Cora!” He spoke commandingly, ordering his daughter to return to him. She writhed in his arms, living but not really alive. Just a shell. The real Cora was buried far too deep to hear her father calling.

“CORA!” Dorian shouted her name again, only this time there was nothing commanding about it. He was begging her - pleading with her - and Adam had to turn away, like he was witnessing something shameful. The desperation in Dorian’s voice was a confession of his own powerlessness - his inability to change this one terrible thing. Something about the way he said it made Adam certain that it was the first time he’d ever felt this way.

Adam noticed many of the other Infernos looked just as shocked to see Dorian lose control like this. But as Adam got to his feet, more and more eyes began to turn on him, and their looks of disbelief were replaced with cold fury. Almost on instinct, Adam turned back towards the Aetos family, and felt a renewed sense of dread.

Dorian was staring right at him, with vengeance burning in his eyes.