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  I kicked wildly against him, twisting my face away from his. Had I inadvertently given him the idea about creating the cracks? Had I come back only to give Luke the idea that would seal all of our fates?

  Don’t change too much…I heard Lilly whisper in my ear.

  If I had never come back would Luke have ever had the idea to create cracks – to bring the Vampyrus back?

  “Tell me!” he roared, his face beginning to heal. “Tell me now, Kayla!”

  “Never!” I screamed, driving my knee up into his exposed groin.

  He bulked forward, driving both hands between his legs. Seizing my chance, I knotted my claws in his hair and yanked his head back, exposing his throat.

  “Tell me!” he screeched.

  I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine.

  “Push off,” I whispered, slitting his throat with my claws.

  I held his head in my hands as his body slumped against the rocks. Holding his head up, I looked into his dead eyes. There was a rock pool nearby full of crabs. Suddenly feeling as if I no longer had a care in the world, I tossed Luke’s head into the rock pool. With a smile tugging at my lips, I stood and watched the crabs scamper greedily over his dead face.

  I raced back through the air toward the beach, arriving on the shore just as the boat got back to the jetty. It was just how Sam had once described it to me. He was being led from the boat by the captain. Sam looked to be in shock. He had told me that his parents had fallen overboard and their bodies had never been found. Only I knew the answer as to why and what had really happened to them.

  And just like Sam had said, police officers, paramedics, and members of the coast guard were gathered on the beach by the jetty. Pulling my hood up, I headed across the sand toward them. I knew exactly what happened from this point. I watched closely as Sam stood at the end of the jetty. He looked dazed and confused. As far as he was aware, his parents had just fallen overboard and drowned. His knees buckled. I stepped forward like I was meant to, and snaked my arm about his shoulders and held him up.

  Sam glanced sideways, as if trying to peer beneath my hood.

  I leant forward and whispered into his ear, “Everything is going to be okay. I promise,” I said, because I knew now that it was going to be.

  “Who are you?” Sam whispered back.

  One of the police officers stepped forward and said, “Do you know this boy’s name?”

  “Brooke. Sam Brooke,” I said, sliding my arm from around Sam’s shoulders.

  “Do you know him?” the police officer asked me.

  I knew what I was meant to say next, but this time I went off script.

  “Sam is my friend,” I said to the police officer. “I will look after him.”

  We hadn’t gone far, when Sam, still looking dazed and confused, looked at me and said, “Who are you?”

  Slowly I pulled back my hood. He looked at me with a blank expression. He didn’t yet know me, we had yet to meet. Had I done the right thing by changing events and leading Sam away up the beach with me?

  Be careful what you change, I heard Lilly whisper in my ear again.

  It was a bit late for me to heed her warning now. I had just killed Luke Bishop. I had changed everything. And, as if to prove me right, the world began to blink and so did I.

  I opened my eyes. I was no longer standing on the beach and holding Sam’s hands. Instead I was holding his hand as I stood on the underground platform beneath the grand station. Melody and Lilly were standing in the exact same spot as where I had left them. It was like no time had passed at all.

  “Kayla,” I heard Sam say.

  I turned to face him. “You remember?” I smiled.

  “Everything,” he whispered, leaning forward and crushing his lips against mine.

  Chapter Thirty

  Potter

  No sooner had the words, “I think we’re in deep shit,” escaped from my mouth, things started to change.

  I hovered just above the ground with Murphy, Meren, and Isidor and watched the hundreds and hundreds of Vampyrus flock toward us. It was then I realised that the thunder that had roared ever since I’d come back through the cracks with Kayla, had now stopped.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked Murphy.

  “Hear what?” he growled, his eyes focused on the approaching Vampyrus.

  “Thunder,” I said.

  “I can’t hear any,” Meren said.

  “Me neither,” added Isidor.

  “Exactly!” I said.

  “What the fuck?” Murphy muttered, as if to himself.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Look at the cracks!” Meren yelled, pointing up at the sky.

  We glanced up, and to my amazement, the cracks were closing. They were pulling back together. But that wasn’t the only change. With the flock of Vampyrus just feet away they started to fly upwards – or to be more accurate – they were being drawn upwards – toward the cracks that were closing fast. The Vampyrus tried to fight against it, but however much they kicked and thrashed their mighty black wings about, they were being sucked through the cracks and into what I suspected was oblivion waiting on the other side for them.

  “What’s happening?” Meren gasped, her wings buzzing excitedly on either side of her.

  “Kayla, that’s what’s happening,” I yelled in triumph. “Kayla did it. She fucking did it!” I punched my fist into the air over and over.

  “How can you be so sure?” Meren said, sounding like she wanted to believe what I said was true.

  “Because the cracks are closing and the Vampyrus are disappearing,” Isidor said, as if the penny was slowly dropping for him. “She must have killed Luke.”

  “Hoo-fucking-rah!” Murphy roared with delight, back-flipping through the air and spreading his wings.

  “Be careful, old man!” I laughed. “You’ll do yourself an injury!”

  “Look, there goes the last of them!” Meren hollered, pointing up at the cracks.

  Together, we watched the last of the Vampyrus get dragged beyond the cracks. With grins spread across our faces, we swooped through the air, the four of us coming together and wrapping our arms tight about each other.

  “Kayla, you fucking beauty!” I roared with delight as the cracks continued to close, healing the sky once again above us. “Kayla, you did it!”

  “What now?” Meren asked, fluttering all about us.

  “We head for the station – and fast,” Murphy said. “I’ve got the feeling that we need to be on one of those trains before the last of the cracks close permanently, or we might not ever get home.”

  “I think you might be right,” I said, watching the cracks close faster now.

  “Of course I’m right, I’m the sergeant,” Murphy said, speeding away toward the railway station.

  We raced after him, drawing level as we reached the road. Dropping out of the sky, we raced up the strip of tarmac. Bounding up the stone steps, I pushed open the door and we dashed inside.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Kiera

  “Here come your friends,” Noah said.

  I looked back in the direction he was staring. I could see Potter, Murphy, Meren, and Isidor standing before the poster of the steam train. Seeing me in the centre of the concourse with Noah, the four of them came charging down the escalators toward me. At the very same time, Lilly, Melody, Sam, and Kayla raced back up onto the concourse via the escalators that led up from the platforms below.

  I turned to look at Noah again.

  “All of you are going to have to get back through the cracks before they close, or you will all be trapped here forever,” Noah said. “That’s what the Elders are hoping for. They still don’t believe you can see a way out of this. They still don’t believe you can destroy them.”

  “But I have seen a way,” I said, looking back into his glass-like eyes.

  “Then you know what to do,” Noah said. “You know the choice you have to make.”

  I nodded, then turne
d to face my friends, who rushed toward me. Potter was the first of them to reach me. He scooped me up into his arms and spun me around. “The cracks are closing,” he said, holding me tight. “We can get the fuck out of here and get hitched.”

  “I know,” I smiled at him.

  He kissed me hard on the lips and I kissed him back. I looked over his shoulder and watched my friends backslap and embrace each other in the middle of the station. Hand in hand, Potter and I joined them. As a group we held each other, laughed and cheered.

  “You have to go,” Noah prompted us.

  I glanced back at him and he smiled. Then, pulling on Potter’s hand, I dragged him toward the escalators which would lead us down onto the platform and the train we needed.

  “C’mon,” I said. “We have to go now, or we’ll get trapped here.”

  We ran toward the escalators hand in hand, and our friends followed. We clambered down the stairs. knowing in my heart that we didn’t have a minute to spare. At the bottom we spilt onto the platform. It was dark, the only light coming from a tall, thin black gas lamp. A huge black steam train waited, almost identical to the one shown on the poster stuck to the concourse wall.

  I looked back to make sure that everyone was on the platform. Noah stood silently watching on from the foot of the escalators. His eyes shone like two neon flashlights in the gloom. I looked away, and then back at my friends.

  “Hurry,” I said, gesturing them toward the train. “Please hurry.”

  I stood by the door as each of them climbed on board. I watched Lilly, Meren, Sam, and Melody go first. As they went, I found a reason to touch every single one of them. I let my hand brush over Kayla’s as she reached up and gripped the handrail. She looked at me.

  “I’m so proud of you for what you did,” I said. “I just want you to know that.”

  “I’ll tell you all about it when we get home,” she smiled, clambering on board.

  “Hey, Isidor,” I said as he passed me at the door.

  “Huh?” he said, looking back at me.

  “You did good,” I smiled. “You always do good, don’t ever let anyone tell you different.”

  “Try telling that to Potter,” he smiled, clambering on board.

  Murphy came next. “I just wanted to say thanks,” I said.

  “What for? he asked.

  “To agreeing to stand in as my father at the wedding,” I said. “I only asked because I couldn’t have wished for a better father…not ever.”

  “Well, we can sort it all out when we get back,” he said. Then leaning in close, he whispered into my ear and added, “Between you and me, I couldn’t have asked for a better daughter than you.”

  He pressed something into my hand, then he was gone, climbing on board. I opened my fist to find the small cross he had once given to me and I had given to Meren.

  Potter came last, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth as usual. I yanked it away, tossing it beneath the train and onto the tracks.

  “What did you do that for?”

  “So I can do this,” I smiled, reaching up on tiptoe and kissing him softly on the lips. “I love you, Potter, and I always will.”

  “I love you, too, sweet-cheeks,” he grinned climbing on board. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Taking the deepest breath of my life, I slammed the door closed behind him – behind all of them. Potter glanced back at the sound of the door slamming shut. He looked back at me through the window.

  “Goodbye, Potter,” I whispered.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” he said, reaching for the door. He shook the handle, but the door wouldn’t open, just like Noah had told me it wouldn’t. “Kiera, stop fucking about. Open this door and get onto this train right now.”

  “I can’t,” I said, tears spilling silently onto my cheeks.

  “Kiera!” he roared as he now realised what I had done. “Open this fucking door right now!”

  “The reason I can’t come back is because I love you,” I said, unable now to stop the tears that raced down my face.

  Realising what was happening, Murphy, Isidor, and Kayla appeared at the carriage windows. “Kiera!” Murphy roared, banging his fists against the windows.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Kiera!” I heard Kayla cry out. I couldn’t bear to look at her. To hear the sounds of her claws scratching at the windows was enough.

  “We’ve got to get off,” Isidor shouted from somewhere within the carriage. “We’ve got to stop the train. We can’t leave Kiera behind.”

  I looked at Potter through the window. He hammered against it with his fists. The glass didn’t break – it didn’t even crack.

  “You said you would marry me,” he said, no longer sounding angry, but just hurt and confused.

  I looked into his eyes and saw the tears roll from them down onto his face. He didn’t even bother to wipe them away. He just stood watching me through the glass. The horn blew and the train lurched forward. As if knowing what came next, and for once he was powerless to stop it, he placed the flat of his hand against the window. I reached out and placed mine over his.

  “I love you.” I smiled back through my tears.

  “I love you more,” he said.

  The train rolled forward, steam hissing and spitting up from beneath the wheels, smoke tumbling from the funnel.

  I looked at Potter one last time.

  “See you later, alligator,” he said through the glass.

  “In a while, croc…” before I’d even finished, the train had gone… and so had my friends.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Kiera

  With tears covering my face, I kept telling myself over and over that I had done the right thing. I had set my friends free so they could go back to their lives where I knew they would be happy and beyond the reach of the Elders. That was the choice I had to make. The other was to keep them in this pushed world with me. It didn’t matter that Luke had died and the cracks had been closed, my friends would be made to suffer because of me, and I couldn’t bear to watch that happen. I loved them too much to sit back and watch them suffer for my own selfish reasons.

  Wiping the tears from my eyes, I turned to see Noah still standing by the foot of the escalators. But he was no longer alone. The Elders stood with him. They had their hoods pulled up, covering their wretched faces. I could hear them chuckling with delight.

  “So you finally did it, Kiera Hudson,” one of them said, its voice childlike and unnatural. “You finally made a choice.”

  “And not the one we were expecting,” said another with a dry rasp.

  “Yes, you have surprised us,” said another.

  I looked at them, and Noah looked at me.

  The Elders began to laugh – or so I thought. At first it sounded like laughter, but it soon turned into something quite different. It changed into cries of anguish.

  “What is happening?” one of them cried from beneath their long grey robes.

  “She has tricked us. Deceived us!” another screeched.

  Shooting forward, I pulled each of their hoods back in turn. I looked upon their emaciated faces. Potter had been right in his description of them. The Elders’ faces were nothing more than skulls covered in parchment-like flesh that was held together by a series of ragged black stitches. They threw their hands to their faces and cried out in dismay.

  “What have you done to us?” one cried.

  “Why can we no longer feel your unhappiness – your pain?” screeched another.

  “Because you don’t know me!” I hollered at them, making fists with my hands. “You might have been feeding off my misery, but you don’t see what I see. You couldn’t truly see into my heart, because it isn’t as black and as twisted as yours.”

  “What does she say?” the Elder standing nearest to Noah screamed.

  Noah said nothing. He stood in his smart blue uniform, eyes twinkling.

  “You underestimated me!” I yelled at them. �
�You thought I was just like you. But I’m not. You thought I would be screwed up with hatred and hurt if I sent my friends back. You thought I would be in agony without them. But you’re wrong. I would have been in agony if they had stayed – If I’d had to watch them get tormented by you every day for the rest of their lives. So I’m not sad that they’ve gone back. I’m happy because they’re now happy. That is what true love is all about. It’s not about jealously or possession. It’s about wanting those you love most in this world to be happy. I’m happy knowing that they are free of you and free to lead their lives.”

  “But how will they be happy without you?” one of them cried, buckling forward at the waist as if tortured by pain.

  “Because they won’t remember me,” I said, “You told me that in the graveyard when you showed me those statues. My friends can’t miss what they’ve never had. To them, I never existed. I was never a part of their lives.”

  “But what about you?” one of them rasped, its voice growing weaker and fainter. “You will miss them. That will cause you pain.”

  “That’s what you were banking on,” I shot back. “I know I will miss them with all my heart, but I won’t miss watching them suffer. And the joy in my heart knowing that they are happy blinds any sadness I might feel at their loss.” Reaching forward, I pulled free their robes. They stood huddled before me as if shivering. Their skeletal frames had no skin, no flesh. I could see right through them. They were empty souls, kept alive by mine and Luke’s misery. But Luke was dead now, and I wasn’t prepared to suffer anymore. They couldn’t yet feed off another because they had chosen me, and I was very much alive. The dead waters had given me life in this pushed world, just like they had when Murphy had placed my dead body into the dead waters as a baby.

  I looked at the wretched creatures before me. I didn’t know what they truly were or where they had come from, and I didn’t care. What mattered was I no longer feared them. And if I didn’t fear them, they grew weaker. And as long as I continued to be true to myself, they had no power over me. As long as I treasured those memoires I had of my friends and the times we had spent together, I would always have that feel of love. That’s what I had seen in my heart.