Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 48
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
‘No. Every now and then we can glimpse the other side but it’s a rare privilege. I know some of what you did, though. People have passed through here. Nobody I know, but people Mum knows,’ she spoke calmly, still staring up at the sky. Not a care in the world. Not a shred of judgement.
‘So you know I sided with Nickolas Blackwood?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. And I know that you stopped him in the end. That’s what matters.’
Not according to Lucifer, I thought. ‘You aren’t angry at me or anything?’ I pushed myself up on my forearms so I could see her properly. She looked up at me and smiled. It was one of those smiles reserved for people who were being silly.
‘Of course not. We’re both dead now. Nothing before matters. Not really. The fact that you’re here proves that you were a good man. You’ve come to a good place rather than being sent off for eternal torment.’
‘About that,’ I said, looking off into the distance. ‘I’m only here for tonight.’ Her happiness ebbed away and I told her the deal I’d made with Lucifer.
‘Oh, thank God,’ she said, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. I looked at her in confusion. ‘I thought you meant we had one night and then you were going to be tortured for the rest of time!’
I burst out laughing. It was a high and raucous sound. Ashley slapped me on the chest hard enough to sting a little.
‘Don’t do that to me!’ She scolded.
‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’ I fell back to the sand and we lay together in silence, watching the stars together. ‘So what do you do here?’ I asked.
‘Whatever I want. I live with Mum in the family home. Sometimes we see people. Others who’ve died, you know.’
I chewed on my lower lip as I listened to her talking. Living with her mum in her family home sounded nice. For her. Not for me.
‘We’ll get our own place when you’re here for good,’ she said, as though she’d been reading my mind.
‘Are there any people here? The whole street seemed empty,’ I said. I liked peace, but not this much. Although it was handy having no-one around when you were lying naked on the beach.
‘You can go to see other people, but most people stick with their loved ones in their own little pockets of the afterlife. I think it's only so quiet here because that’s how me and Mum like it. Other people might live with more people around,’ she explained. ‘There’s a train that takes you wherever you want to go if you want to see people.’
‘A train?’ I repeated. How strange a concept that was. A train that choo-chooed its way through the Underworld. The train would be a blessing for me. I like my solitude but a world with only three people was certainly not my idea of Heaven. Not at all.
We lay together under the stars, in that perfectly cliched fashion until we both fell asleep. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept so peacefully. Probably not since I was a little boy safe with my parents. I did not dream and I did not wake up once. I slept all night with Ashley in my arms. When I woke up in the morning she was gone.
Chapter Four
I sat up and looked both ways up and down the beach. The sky was pink as the sun rose and the golden sands were clear in both directions.
‘Ashley?’ I called as if she might have been hiding behind a sand dune or something.
‘Your time with Ashley has ended. She has gone home.’ I turned to see a man standing a few feet away. He was a plain man, dressed in plain black robes. His face was young and angular, like a thin diamond. Thin black hair was combed back across his head. I don’t know how I knew it, but this was the figure who’d been lurking in the throne room.
‘Who are you?’ I asked. I realised I was still naked as I climbed to my feet. I covered my dangly bits and looked around for my clothes but I had no idea where they’d gone. We hadn’t stripped off that far from here, had we?
‘My name is Malek. I am the Lord of Death’s lieutenant.’
‘Lucifer sent you?’ I asked, abandoning the search for my garments.
‘I have been sent to return you to the Living Realm,’ he said, staring me down with distaste.
‘Okay. Have you seen my clothes?’
‘There will be time for clothing later. It hardly matters right now.’ He shook his head as if I were a nuisance. I couldn’t help but notice that he was not naked. There was plenty of time for him to be dressed.
‘It matters to me, mate.’
‘Mate?’ He took a long time pronouncing the word as if it was the first time he’d heard it. ‘I am not your mate. We are not equals. You ought to show me some respect, if not for the fact that I am an angel, then for the fact that had it not been for me you would not have been granted this gracious opportunity to forgo judgement.’
‘If not for you?’ I looked at him, eyes narrowed. He was up to something, that much was obvious.
‘Indeed. I recommended this idea to Lucifer. I am his oldest friend. I have his ear.’ He raised his chin with pride.
‘Why? Why me? Why not any one of the other dead guys you’ve got wandering through here?’
‘Wandering through here… The Dead Realm is not a market.’ He shook his head at me again.
‘But why me?’
Ignoring my question, he reached into his robes and pulled out a small phial of glowing white liquid. It looked like radioactive milk. Or something else…
‘Drink this,’ he commanded, offering it to me.
‘Uh… What is it?’ I asked. There was no way I was going to put some suspicious white liquid down my gullet. It could be anything. And I think we all know where my mind was wandering.
‘This is but a sample of Lord Lucifer’s grace. You will need this if you are to be returned to a full living state.’
‘I see.’ I took the phial and turned it over in my hands. The liquid moved like treacle. ‘And where did it come from?’
‘From within Lucifer’ I grimaced at that.
‘And, from which orifice was this extracted?’
Malek’s nose wrinkled in disgust. He glared at me the way a parent might look at a child who’d farted at the dinner table. ‘Grace is to an angel what blood is to a human. It was extracted via an incision to the forearm. Now drink it before I change my mind and choose a new candidate from the many hordes of deceased souls we have wandering around down here.’
I pulled off the lid and raised the phial to my lips. I closed my eyes as I tipped Lucifer’s grace into my mouth. I needn’t have worried. It was actually delicious. Kind of tasted like custard. I only wished there was more of it.
‘My God, that was good!’ I exclaimed and then smacked my lips with enthusiasm. My body warmed from within as the grace worked its way inside me. I felt like I was glowing even though I clearly was not.
‘How dare you say that word in my presence,’ growled Malek.
‘Malek, you are far too serious. Maybe you should come back to the Living Realm with me. We could have fun together.’
‘A combination of being rendered powerless and being in your company is enough to drive even an angel to suicide.’ He turned and beckoned for me to follow. I decided not to be offended by his blatant rudeness.
I followed him along the beach until we came to the trusty elevator. This was not the place I’d got off the night before which meant it could appear anywhere. That begged the question why didn’t he just summon it where we were already standing?
Pfft, angels.
We stepped inside and the door slid shut behind us.
‘If you’re an angel like Lucifer why did I have to drink his grace, why not yours?’ I asked.
‘I am not like Lucifer. I am an angel whereas he is an archangel. Only his grace has the power to restore life,’ Malek told me. ‘Any angel could send a dead soul back to the Living Realm, but only an archangel can restore life fully.’
‘Sucks to be you then,’ I said without thinking.
‘It will suck a lot more to be you when you inevitably fail in your quest.’
We stepped out into a large white room. Lines of people stood sentry on either side of the room. They were dressed in white and their faces were covered by expressionless white masks. Or those were their faces. It was hard to tell. I guessed they were some sort of guards. I hadn’t seen guards anywhere else in the Realm so far which meant this room was important.
None of the sentries moved as we passed them. Malek led me up to the far wall which looked like a giant window covered in cellophane. Through the window, I could see a blurred street. It was dark but I could just about make out the shapes of parked cars beneath glowing streetlights. Silhouettes moved about on the street too.
‘Your town,’ Malek said, nodding at the window. ‘Maidstone.’
‘Is this the gateway then?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ he replied simply. ‘Do I need to remind you of your task?’
‘Find the Ambrotos Dagger and bring it back here,’ I said. As if I’d forget such a simple task. He really thought I was a moron.
‘You won’t be able to bring it back here. Once you have it I will send an envoy to bring you to me. The Dagger will be handed to Lucifer and you will be able to spend eternity rolling around on that beach.’
My cheeks blushed at the idea that Malek had been watching me and Ashley get busy. If that’s how things were here then I would be far more cautious about where we did it in the future. Angel or not, I did not want him watching me in action.
‘Before I go back, I don’t suppose you know where the Dagger is?’ I asked. I’d last seen it in Cedarstone but such a powerful artefact was unlikely to have been left there. The moment the debris had settled someone would’ve gone in to retrieve it. The question was who.
Malek stared at me in disbelief. ‘If I knew where it was I would hardly need you.’
‘I’m still not sure why you do need me. I mean anyone would do.’
‘Just consider yourself lucky it is you and stop worrying about the why. Curiosity will be the death of your race.’ He took hold of my wrist and turned it over in his hand. His touch was frosty and made my blood slow in my veins. He touched his index finger to my tattoo. An hourglass with green sand trickling through the funnel. I’d got it to remind me not to waste time.
‘How very fitting,’ he said. My tattoo glowed with faint purple light as whatever spell he was casting took hold of me. ‘We don’t want you getting any funny ideas and deciding to stay over there in the Living Realm. You were not given enough grace to make your resurrection permanent but that doesn’t mean you won’t find another way.’
‘This is all unnecessary,’ I told him. ‘I want to get back to Ashley.’
‘Perhaps. But if you come to realise you cannot complete your task your only alternative would be to avoid dying again. This makes that impossible.’
He released my wrist and I saw that my tattoo was no longer a static image. The sand, which was now purple, had all shifted into the top portion of the hourglass and was very slowly trickling through to the bottom. He’d made my tattoo a real timepiece. It looked pretty cool.
‘When the last of the sands fall to the bottom your time will be up and you will return here. If you do not have the Ambrotos Dagger then you will not enjoy your time here. Which will be forever.’
‘This wasn’t part of the deal,’ I protested, holding my wrist out for him to remove the spell.
‘Good luck, Eddie Lancaster. See you soon.’ He said and then shoved me through the window.
Chapter Five
It was like walking through a spider’s web. The window resisted me, tried to keep me in the Realm of the Dead. But the force with which Malek had shoved me barrelled me through and I stumbled onto the other side. I fell onto the road, scraping open my knees as I landed. I was still naked. Shit. It was a cold night too. I pushed myself to my feet and darted off the road before any cars came by and saw me standing in the middle of town totally naked. Malek could have let me get dressed.
Bloody angel.
I called on a little magic to warm myself but came to the startling realisation that I had no magic to call on. There was absolutely nothing there. I’d never been resurrected before, but I’d assumed that I would have my powers restored to me when I returned to life. I guessed that because my magic had exploded out of my body and killed me that it was not possible to return it to me. It would only kill me again. So here I was, naked and powerless.
I looked around and saw the old closed down ABC Cinema. I was at the bottom of Gabriel’s Hill. It was fairly quiet which meant it must be a weekday. If it had been the weekend there would have been a lot more people about. Gabriel’s Hill had never held much interest to me. None of the shops sold anything of worth and most of them were charity shops anyway. Now, however, that was very useful. People dumped donations on the doorsteps of charity shops which meant there might be some clothes in one of them.
I walked quickly along the street, doing my best to keep to the shadows. There were a few middle-aged women outside Gala Bingo smoking away like a bunch of chimneys. Terrific. I kept my head down and tried to go by unnoticed.
‘Oi oi!’ One of them called shrilly. The other two whistled loudly the way builders do when pretty girls walk past them. So this was how that felt.
‘Bit chilly is it?’ The older one asked and then cackled at me. If only I had magic. I shot the old hag a mean glare and then carried on past them.
I headed up the hill until I came to the first charity which had a black sack on its step as well as some cardboard boxes filled with toys and books. I was grateful that the nightclub nearby was closed otherwise there would’ve been a lot more people to see me in my state of undress. I ripped open the black sack and closed my eyes in relief at the sight of all the clothing inside. My relief turned to despair as I sorted through it and discovered it was all skirts and blouses. There was even a bra which was odd. I didn’t think people donated underwear to charity shops.
Finally, I found some men’s clothing. I pulled on a pair of red corduroy trousers. They were the kind that only old men wore. I wondered if someone had died wearing them. Then I realised it didn’t really matter since I was dead myself. Or undead. I wasn’t really sure what I was anymore.
Next, I found a t-shirt that was far too small which was a shame because it was fairly normal looking. Far more normal than the yellow shirt with black polka dots that I ended up having to wear. I found a tatty pair of green suede loafers that I managed to get on even though they were a size too small. I topped the whole outfit off with a grey blazer. The blazer was the most normal part of the ensemble. I glanced at my reflection in the shop window. All I needed was a bit of face paint and I’d fit right in at the nearest circus.
It seemed wrong stealing from a charity shop but I could hardly go about naked. Besides, it didn’t matter what I did wrong as long as I got the Ambrotos Dagger. Lucifer would let me move on without being judged. Hell, I could get away with killing the pope as long as I handed that dagger over when the sand ran out.
I needed magic. I wasn’t going to be able to achieve anything without a bit of power in my corner. I wasn’t going to be able to overpower any sorcerers without any magic which meant I needed a power source that couldn’t fight back. There was a chance that I had a box of magic set aside for emergencies just like this one. I used to keep magic reserves in my storage unit but I couldn’t remember if I’d left any after I’d consumed the lot. I’d given up my storage unit after moving in with Ashley and then taken all my things to Gabe’s house when she’d died and I’d moved in with him.
A little while ago I’d created a brand new species of vampire and Gabe and his crew were sired from that bloodline. They’d all ended up working for me until I died. Before I died I’d told Gabe to go travelling or something. I really hoped he hadn’t left yet but I needed to have a look around that house. If he had gone hopefully he’d left the other vampires at home. But with me being dead they might have all decided there was nothing keeping them in Maidstone anymore. There was only one way to find out.
With no money and no magic, I had no choice but to walk. I walked to the top of Gabriel’s Hill and turned right. There were a lot more people now that I was right in the centre of town but nobody paid me much attention despite my ridiculous attire.
It was strange to be back in Maidstone. You know, after dying and all. When I’d laid down in Cedarstone with all of Nick’s magic flowing through me I didn’t think I’d ever see this place again. And yet here it was. There was nothing special about it at all and yet I had defended it so fiercely. I’d claimed the town as my own and fought to be its ruler. Why? I didn’t understand it now. Because it was my home? It didn’t have to be, though. I’d spent most of my life moving from town to town. Sure, I’d stayed in Maidstone for the longest duration of my adult life, but that was only because my old nemesis Rachel had taken so long to find me here. It was true that I had built a life here. I’d started a business, made friends, and found love. But all of that was gone now. My business died with me. My friends had left to find a safer place to live. My girlfriend had died. And then I died too. Maidstone had lost its appeal.
My foot caught in something and I stumbled. I sort of hopped across the pavement like a lunatic as I tried to free my foot from a tramp’s sleeping bag that had been left in the middle of the path. The sleeping bag came away and I regained my balance. I looked about wondering where the tramp had gone. He’d left his sleeping bag, a cardboard sign asking for donations and an empty dog’s bowl. Maybe he’d taken his dog for a walk.
I noticed a tatty copy of the Kent Messenger newspaper and picked it up, wondering what had been going on since I’d died. Maybe I’d made the news with my heroics in Cedarstone. There had been news helicopters around when I’d died. I wondered what the world had made of that incident. Had the Alliance of Covens managed to cover the whole thing up?
