[Original Novel] Pressure 2: Dark Corners, Part 18 (the finale!)

^{Previous parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17}

“Olivia!” Hank ran up and embraced her. She wore a placid expression of shock, but eventually did wrap her arms around him. Only James noticed anything wrong. “Does she seem alright to you?” Hank looked wounded. “Of course she isn’t. God knows where she’s been, what she’s seen. We need to find her some blankets, and some food.” James cringed. “I don’t...think...she’ll be needing either.”

Apparent to him alone was the long, twisted umbilical running from her belly button back to the shadowy mass. He also guessed that only he could see the visible scars where she’d been carefully reassembled, as per the deal. “You’re talking nonsense James. You’d like some food wouldn’t you, poor girl.” He stared confusion as she pushed him off and approached James.

“...You really brought me back….I didn’t think you’d find a way to do it. Can I leave here like this?” James held her close, unsurprised by the lack of warmth. “Anywhere there’s shadow. It sustains you from there. If you go anywhere lit too brightly and too evenly with nowhere dark within perhaps a hundred feet, the illusion will fail. People will see you as you are, and a few minutes after that you’ll de-animate. This is the best I could do.”

Her eyes teared up. “Don’t say that. This is wonderful. You came back, you were as good as your word. Now we can leave here. I’ll make you forget Lisa. I’m the one you should….” She went silent as her gaze moved down his body and stopped at his midsection. “Where’s yours, James? The deal was for both of us, right? Where’s your umbilical?”

Hank looked around, mystified. “Umbilical? Olivia, we need to get you to the medical bay.” She now ran her hands over James’ stomach, searching for what she could not accept wasn’t there. “James, where is it? Where’s your umbilical? You’ll need it to-” He grasped her hand and moved it away. She met his gaze to find it grim and resolute. In silence, he shook his head and began backing away from her, and towards the shadow.

“Oh no. No, it can’t be. What did you do James? What did you do to make him let me go? There has to be some way. James, don’t leave me again.” His calm was unshaken. This was something he’d been preparing for since the cages. “The deal was only for you, Olivia. I’m sorry Hank. I’m even sorry for you, Remer. After I make good on my end of the deal, it will come for you too.”

Hank just looked dumbfounded and lost. Remer spoke up. “Can it be fought?” James reflected on what it had told him about the universe, humanity and itself. “Yes, I think so. Something put it in the trench, right? But we can’t fight it, not as we are now. I could only broker a deal, and only on his terms. Three for one.” Hank looked at Remer. “Three?”

“There has to be some other way” Olivia pleaded. “I don’t want this. What will I do without you?” James was now just inches from the shadowy mass. Small, whisper thin tendrils of it reached out for him.

“The same thing I’ve done without Lisa, probably. But I can’t do that anymore. I know it isn’t what it pretends to be. But it’s close enough. It’s the only way for me, I need you to see that. Where I am going, I will be happy. For the first time since she left, and forever. I’m going to be whole again. There’s a field of sunflowers. Not exactly like in the dreams but close. The little cottage is there, too. I want you to understand. I want to stay with you and dry your every tear. But someone is waiting for me on the other side.”

Without another word, he stepped into the shadow. Olivia collapsed, face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. When the last lights went out, only she was not taken. Hank cried out as he was absorbed. Remer just smiled as the shadow finished enveloping Hank and came for him. “Thank God it’s over.”

In the depths of the trench, at the pulsating core of the living cavern, something new hung from the cluster. Below the heart, above the stomach, a billowy translucent sac spiderwebbed with slender veins. Within that membrane, tucked away in a writhing mass of umbilical cord slept a fully developed fetus. Dark, serpentine veins showed through the milky white skin. In its chest sat a small black heart which did not beat, and wasn’t meant to.

Back in the darkened, flooding wreck of the Tartarus, the little man danced up and down the halls singing hymns of celebration. Celebrating the hastening of the day when they all come together, and of new life entering the world. The cavern shuddered and began to give birth. As the newborn emerged from the sac, six thin red eyes opened for the first time, and it cried.

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^{The End.}