Book of Joshua Page 2

  They spent a good couple of hours by the beach, feeling neither tired, nor hungry during all that time. Joshua didn’t want to overdo it though, so he began to think about going back home soon. There would always be tomorrow, and the next day, and the next…

  Hours later, he was about to get up and dive one last time, when Alex asked: ‘What?’

  ‘What?’ Joshua asked back, confused.

  ‘You what?’ Alex replied, looking up at him, her eyes smiling playfully.

  ‘Good one, Alex,’ Joshua said, ruffling her hair. She was obviously playing one of her little games she always made up with him. He then got up, wondering about the look of confusion on his sister’s face, but quickly decided to dismiss it as just one of her little quirks. ‘I’m just gonna have one last dive before we go. You stay here and do not go anywhere, ok? I won’t be long.’

  ‘Ok,’ said Alex and returned to her almost finished sandcastle.

  ‘Alex, promise me, or I will never bring you here again.’

  ‘I promise, Joshy,’ she said and crossed her heart. Joshua believed her and walked away. If Alex promised something, she always kept her word; he had taught her that much. He had barely made a few steps into the water, when Alex called again.

  ‘What?’

  Joshua stopped and looked at her, concerned. This again.

  ‘Now what?’

  ‘You called me.’

  ‘No, I didn’t. Stop playing, Alex; this isn’t funny.’

  ‘But you called my name.’

  Joshua felt perplexed, worried even. Alex did not seem to be lying. He didn’t like this. Maybe they should leave right away.

  ‘Are you sure you heard me call your name?’

  Alex seemed to be thinking.

  ‘I don’t know; I think I did.’ She didn’t sound too sure now. Maybe it had been the wind playing with her mind. Joshua was halfway immersed already.

  ‘Listen, I will be right back, ok. Just stay where you are and finish your castle. We’ll go home right after.’

  ‘But I don’t wanna go home yet, Joshy. I’m not tired,’ Alex protested.

  ‘Do you wanna come back tomorrow, or not?’ Joshua threatened.

  ‘Okay, fine,’ Alex surrendered and turned back to her sandcastle, her long dark hair hiding her little eyes again. Joshua proceeded to dive into the warm water and wash away all the sand from his body and shorts.

  When he came back out shortly after, he noticed with concern that Alex was lying on the sand where he’d left her, as if she was sleeping. He practically had to force himself not to run to her; he didn’t even want to think that something might be wrong. She was surely fooling around, pretending to be asleep.

  As he came out of the water and reached for her, he suddenly realised that she was not pretending. She did that quite often with him, whenever she didn’t want to sleep, and he could always tell. But this, this was real; she seemed to be dead asleep, her pupils moving fast underneath her eyelids as if she was having a dream or a nightmare.

  ‘Alex, wake up,’ he shook her gently. Nothing happened; the little girl didn’t give any sign of acknowledging him. ‘Alex, please,’ Joshua shook her again, his voice trembling with dread and worry. Still nothing.

  He was really panicking now, calling her name over and over again, trying desperately to shake her awake. His voice grew raspy, his throat hurt, and tears began running down his face. What had happened? His sister was right there in front of him, and yet she was not. It was like she had gone someplace else; like she was having a dream within the dream. But how could that be? Did this have anything to do with that voice she had heard earlier, calling her name? And would she come back to him at some point?

  Despairing, he sat on the little sandcastle Alex had been perfecting over the last hour and took her in his bosom. Slowly he began to give in to the horror that he might have actually lost his sister. What would he tell their mom? She was not gonna survive this; not this.

  Where are you, Alex? Where did you go?

  The air felt humid and heavy as Junior flew non-stop for the third day in a row, making it even more difficult for him to keep willing his wings into motion. As if the tiredness and the lack of sleep over the past few days wasn’t enough already. Add to that his absolute miserable state of mind after Hëna had plunged herself into the darkness below and certain death, not to mention the repetitive need to shift and swerve in the air in order to keep unconscious Séraphin from sliding off of him. The factors contributing to his excruciating fatigue kept piling one on top of the other and seemed unwilling to give him a break anytime soon.

  How had it all come to this? Just what exactly had happened inside that castle? He’d been racking his brain ever since they’d taken off the balcony to try and put this puzzle together, but he was missing so many of the pieces. Whoever had taken over Hëna’s body down there had said that everyone else was dead, that pretty blonde queen he first saw when they’d arrived at the castle, this Daniel and Nemo she had mentioned - Hëna’s apparent husband and friend - and of course, Nazir.

  Poor Nazir; he wished he knew how he had died. That’s if he had actually died; Junior had no way of knowing if Hëna, or whoever that had been, had told him the truth about anything. For all he knew, they were all alive back there. He had struggled with the idea of turning around and going back to the castle to find out for himself, but that was just not an option. For one, they were already too far gone, and it might take him a good while to find his way back. Also, he did not want to have to fight those dreaded creatures again, especially now that he had no one else to fight alongside him.

  But more importantly, if he turned around, he would not only loose the path to Endërland, but also precious time, time which Séraphin was fast running out of. He could barely feel his friend’s heartbeat now; it was so weak and slow. Even if by some miracle they actually entered Endërland, he was not sure Séraphin would make it. But he had to try; he had no other choice but to trust that whoever that was who had taken over Hëna’s body for a while, had told him the truth about the flight path. He had to, or it would be all for nothing, Hëna’s sacrifice most of all.

  Hëna.

  What had really happened to her? When she had come out of that gate and had smiled at him, he’d thought that she was actually happy to see him, and that she had decided to finally forgive him for what had happened back when they’d first met. He had been so relieved. But then she had stabbed Séraphin and almost killed him, and had said that everyone else was dead, as if she had killed them herself. He had known then that she could not have been Hëna, it just didn’t feel right. And she had confirmed his suspicion. Only, she’d never said who she really was, and Junior would probably never find out. That person was gone, and Hëna herself had made sure of it. It must have been a very evil person indeed, if Hëna was willing to sacrifice her own life and give up on the search for her daughter, just so that she could stop whatever it was he or she had planned.

  That had definitely been the most humbling and sad moment in all of Junior’s young life. He’d almost dived in after Hëna when she’d thrown herself off and fallen towards the earth, but she had begged him not to, and somehow, he’d known that he had to obey. He would have surely lost Séraphin, had he gone after her; or so he chose to tell himself. The truth is, he’d been feeling very guilty from the second he’d lost sight of her, knowing he could have caught her, if he’d tried. He could have stopped her; he could have saved her. There must have been some other way to get rid of whoever had taken up residence inside of her; there had to. But he had taken that away from her. He had failed both her and Séraphin. The wingman would hate him for sure, as would their people in Endërland, if they ever made it there. And they would have every right to; he hated himself very much right now.

  He was vaguely aware of the tears that had begun to fall freely from his eyes yet again. He’d cried for a long while after Hëna’s death, shocked and broken just like when his mother had died; until he’d finally
stopped. But even though he’d gotten most of it out of his system, he would still well up every time he thought of her and of how he had let her go.

  So, he tried not to think of her, and instead focus on Séraphin and their flight to his home world. He was still alive, he knew it; barely breathing, but still alive. Though, for how long, Junior could not say. That’s why he continued to beat his enormous wings like crazy, and fight off his sleep and exhaustion with a determination that he never thought he would possess. He may have lost everyone else, but he was not gonna lose Séraphin, not as long as his wings could carry him.

  Sadly, he was getting impossibly tired with every hour. His wings had grown massively heavy, his faces were frozen from endlessly cutting into the cold air, his muscles had almost all gone numb, and he had no idea how he kept on going. But going on he did.

  Around him he could still see nothing; darkness covered everything. But he was certain of one thing at least, they had left that other world behind and had possibly entered Endërland already, though he could not be sure of this. There were no mountains underneath them by now, only sea. He could taste its salt in the air. So, no matter how tired he felt, he had no choice but to keep on going; there was nowhere to land and rest for a little while down there. He just wished there would be some light so that he could see. Even his Eagle vision wasn’t helping him much; there was only darkness ahead.

  But he continued to fly. Hours passed and the more he piled on the miles crossed, the more tired he grew. Soon, he was barely able to keep his eyes open. His wings kept moving robotically, as if he didn’t even command them anymore, and his breathing had grown so hard and laboured that it seemed to require even more energy than staying up in the air. Every other function of his body seemed to have shut down but for these two, breathing and flying. Junior wasn’t thinking, wasn’t looking where he was going anymore, wasn’t even worrying about Séraphin sliding down from his back. He just kept flying, furiously beating his wings to take him as far as they could.

  And thus it was that he missed the first signs of approaching Endërland; the bright stars up in the night sky, the sea creatures right underneath him, and the distant mainland drawing ever closer. He was too far gone by now and had already reached and even surpassed his limits.

  Eventually the moment came when with the very last bit of energy he had left, Junior beat his wings one more time and then he could beat them no more. He lost consciousness, and in a last effort for survival, he instinctively spread his magnificent wings and allowed himself to glide in the air, letting the wind carry him as far as it would. His last thought was of just floating over the waves of the sea for a while, until he could gather some more strength and get back up again.

  But he never saw where he collapsed, or even if his wingman friend was still with him. Unable to help it, he finally shut his eyes and completely passed out, darkness claiming him.

  With bloodied hands and eyes just as red, Daniel kept trying to break open the iron gate of their small cell, using anything and everything he could get his hands on. He’d been at it for hours now and simply refused to give up.

  Sitting on the floor by one of the beds, with Sam's head resting on his lap, Nemo leaned against the wall, not even looking at him anymore. The gate wouldn’t bulge; it was useless. They’d tried to reach through it at one of the fallen soldiers who had the keys still hanging on his belt, but he was too far from them. And all hope of Séraphin or anyone else coming down from upstairs to let them out, had by now vanished completely. It was clear that their wingman friend was no longer alive. He’d either been killed by the Erinyes, or the entity that had taken over Hëna had gotten to him too.

  So, they were stuck in this cell for who knew how long and seemed to be resigned to the fact that they weren’t leaving it anytime soon, that was, unless the Erinyes got to them. And even then, they weren’t leaving here alive, or in one piece. Well, at least Nemo seemed to have been surrendered to that fact; Daniel still kept trying, for all the good that it did him.

  ‘Dan, enough, please,’ Nemo decided to try one more time to get his friend to sit down. ‘You’re only exhausting yourself. That gate’s not bulging, and you know it.’

  ‘What else am I supposed to do, Nemo?’ Daniel snapped at his best friend. He knew Nemo was right, but he didn’t want to hear it right now.

  ‘You can help me try and wake Sam up. Maybe there’s something she can do to get us out of here.’

  ‘Oh, what’s the point? She’s just as useless as this thing.’ Daniel dropped the iron bar he had broken off one of the beds and slid down against the wall, hiding his head in his hands. Nemo was taken aback; his friend never spoke this way.

  ‘You don’t mean that,’ he reproached.

  ‘Don’t I?’ countered Daniel, anger flaring up in his eyes. The emerald green was replaced by a dark black for that one moment. ‘This is all her fault; if she hadn’t been so weak, none of this would have ever happened. How many people do you think died because of her? Her entire world, Nemo. And that thing is not gonna stop there. Who knows where it’s headed next and how many people it’s going to kill or feed to those monsters? She should have been stronger and never let it inside of her in the first place.’

  ‘I think you’re being just a little unfair,’ Nemo criticized, not so sure he should. He’d never seen his friend so angry before and wasn’t sure what might happen, but he wasn’t going to hold back on him now; he never had.

  ‘Oh, leave me alone, Nemo,’ Daniel tried to shut him out, not feeling much like reasoning anything with anyone just now.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Nemo countered, now feeling quite a bit angry himself. ‘We tried that one before, and we both know how well it turned out.’

  ‘Oh, don’t start with that again.’

  ‘No, don’t you start. Listen, I know you’re angry and worried about Hëna, about Serena, about Séraphin and everyone else, and I know that we’re in a bind right now and it seems like we’re never leaving this place, but that’s no reason for you to start losing it and point fingers. I swear, man, it’s like I don’t even know you right now.’

  ‘What’s your problem, anyway?’ Daniel fired back. ‘Why are you protecting her? You don’t even know her.’

  ‘I’m not protecting anyone,’ Nemo replied. ‘I just don’t like who you are right now, and frankly it’s scaring me. It seems to me that you’re forgetting something quite important; if Sam was weak to let that thing get inside of her and control her all this time, then so was Hëna.’

  ‘Don’t you dare talk about my wife that way,’ Daniel threatened, now standing up and practically dangling his fists right in front of Nemo’s face. He had murder in his eyes and it truly scared Nemo for a moment. Only for a moment though, he quickly reminded himself that Daniel was desperate like he’d never been in his entire life. Still, his own blood was practically boiling, and he was feeling rather murderous himself.

  ‘Oh, pull yourself together, man. Look at you, turning on your best friend; ready to jump at my throat for no reason. You need to snap out of it, before you do something you’ll really regret.’

  It wasn’t as much what he said as the tone of his voice and the fear in his eyes that caused Daniel to actually stop and think. He looked at his best friend still sitting down with Sam's head on his lap, and then at his bloodied fist raised up and ready to punch, and it was like his eyes just opened and he awoke from a bad nightmare. What was he doing, threatening Nemo like this? He fell down on his knees where he was and covered his face with his hands again. Tears approached and he could hold them back no longer.

  ‘Oh, Nemo. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I’m doing; please forgive me. I’m so scared; I think I may have lost her forever.’

  Nemo knew very well what he was talking about. Just earlier that day, while they were both resting, having given up on any attempts to get the gate open, Daniel had gotten up suddenly, clutching at his chest, screaming in pain and crying Hëna’s name out loud
. He could not explain it, but he’d sensed something terrible happen, and just knew that she was gone, really gone. Nemo had tried to calm him down and convince him that it was just his fear playing tricks on him, but Daniel knew what he felt, or rather did not feel anymore. Her connection to him was gone.

  ‘I wish I could tell you that you haven’t, Dan, but I just don’t know.’ Nemo had now rested unconscious Sam against the cold floor, and was hugging his best friend, trying to give him whatever comfort he could. ‘All I can tell you is that we’re still alive, and we still have to help Serena. I don’t know if anything’s happened to Hëna or not, but she’s tougher than you and I combined, you know that; if there’s anyone who can survive whatever that thing is, it’s her. But you need to focus on Serena right now; we have to find a way to get out of here and then to her. She needs you, Dan.’

  Daniel knew of course that Nemo was only mentioning Serena to get him motivated again, but it was working all the same. His friend was right; whatever may have happened to Hëna, he still needed to find his daughter. The question, however, was, how? He drew back from Nemo’s embrace and wiped the tears from his face.

  ‘But I don’t know where to go from here. How do we get out of this place? How do we get to the real world? And then it gets even better; how do I get Serena back home from there, even if by some miracle I manage to find her? Will she even be safe in Endërland?’

  ‘Whoa there,’ Nemo stopped him. ‘Why don’t we just take this one step at a time, okay? First things, first; let’s see if there’s anything we can do about Sam. She really might have a way out of this for us.’

  Daniel put his hands down and composed himself. Nemo drew back, giving him some space, but still kept eye contact. An embarrassed look came over Daniel now, and he lowered his eyes.

  ‘Forgive me, Nemo. I really lost it there for a moment, didn’t I?’