The Gravest Girl of All Read online

  “I'm sure someone smarter could have pressed home this new advantage,” Abberoth says, clearly amused by her increasing desperation. “Whoever gave you these powers probably hoped that you would rise to the challenge. What a shame that you can't do that.”

  Anna tries to reply, but Abberoth gives her no time. Instead, he tears her body apart, ripping a line down from her shoulder to her waist before twisting the two halves aside and then throwing them down to the ground.

  “Anna, no!” Sam screams, scrambling to her feet and rushing over just as Anna's shuddering body hits the mud.

  “Sam!” Anna gasps, as blood pours from her severed chest, while her lower half twitches wildly just a few meters away. “I don't think I... got it quite... right, I... I let you down, I... I'm so sorry...forgive...”

  Her lips tremble for a moment, before her head tilts and a dribble of blood runs from her mouth.

  “Anna, wait,” Sam says, dropping to her knees and rolling Anna onto her back. Looking down, she sees that her friend's body has been torn completely in two, and that part of Anna's spine is hanging out from the bloodied pulp at her waist. “It's going to be okay, Anna,” she continues. “You can't die, remember? No-one can die right now.”

  “Exactly,” Abberoth says. “Isn't that nice?”

  “I'm sorry, Sam,” Anna gasps, “I...”

  She pauses, before letting out a faint, guttural groan. Finally her head tilts back, and a one more gasp leaves her lips as she seems to be on the verge of dying.

  “You can't go!” Sam sobs, hugging her body tight as more and more blood soaks into the mud. “I need you here! Anna, come back!”

  Anna falls still for a moment, but then suddenly she lets out a pained gasp and opens her eyes. More blood runs from her mouth, and nearby her severed legs are twitching slightly.

  “It's okay,” Sam stammers. “Everything's going to be okay.”

  “I'm so sorry!” Anna sobs.

  “Let her die,” Sam whispers, before turning to Abberoth. “Let her die, damn you! She's in agony!”

  He says nothing.

  Instead, he merely laughs as Anna's cries continue.

  “What do you get out of this?” Sam sobs. “Do you just enjoy leaving people to suffer for all eternity?”

  “Were I in the mood to show any pity,” he snarls, “then I dare say I would be touched by this tender scene.” He turns and steps back toward his ruined throne. “As things stand, however, I have already wasted far too much time here.” He picks up one of the chains that's still attached to the cowering, terrified Devil. “Enjoy your victory, Ms. Marker. You wanted to save the world, and you have succeeded. You wanted to save the people who live here, and again you have achieved your desire. The world is still here, and no-one will ever die again. Congratulations.”

  “Anna, why did you do that?” Sam whimpers, still holding her friend's body in her arms. “Maybe if we'd had time to come up with a plan, we could have done something!”

  Anna gurgles and splutters, but she can't get any words out.

  A moment later, feeling something hot and wet beneath her knees, she looks down and sees that Anna's blood is soaking through the ground. She turns and looks toward Abberoth, and then she spots the Dagger of Rahl Amon resting in the mud.

  In the distance, a scream rings out.

  Scott's aunt, Cathy, is in agony. Soon, Sam realizes, there'll be more and more people in pain, and eventually the whole world will be suffering without death. Cathy and Anna and everyone else. One day, even Henry.

  Her eyes fix on the dagger.

  “The Dagger of Rahl Amon has two purposes,” she remembers reading. “But never let the dagger's blade enter soil that is soaked in the blood of innocents, for then all of reality will be destroyed.”

  “All of reality,” she whispers.

  Cathy's scream continues to ring out across Rippon, as Anna lets out another gurgled cry.

  Sam hesitates for a moment, before scrambling on her hands and knees and grabbing the dagger, and then turning to look down at the huge patch of Anna's blood in the soil. Reaching down, she presses her hand against the wetness, then she turns her palm over and sees the muddied blood on her palm.

  “What's more innocent than an angel?” she wonders out loud.

  She pauses for a few more seconds, and then she turns around and kneels before slowly holding the dagger up high. For a moment the blade glints in the sunlight, before Sam slowly tilts the handle and aims the tip down toward the blood-soaked ground.

  More blood is still pouring from Anna's body, still soaking and spreading through the soil.

  “Farewell, then,” Abberoth chuckles, pulling the Devil's chain tighter before turning to glance back at Sam. “You shouldn't feel too -”

  Stopping suddenly, he sees the downward-pointing dagger in her trembling hands.

  “And what,” he says after a moment, “do you think you're doing now?”

  Sam stares down at the blood, as she tries to find the courage to go through with her plan. She's terrified, but at the same time she also knows that she has to do something.

  “What,” Abberoth continues, with just a hint of concern in his voice, “is this all about?”

  “Oh no,” the Devil whispers, as if he's suddenly begun to understand. “Please, tell me no-one's this stupid.”

  “All of reality,” Sam stammers, trying to make sense of the plan that's forming in her mind. “All of it. This world. Hell. Everything that's real.”

  “You've been fighting for so long to save this world,” Abberoth points out. “You would not turn around now and destroy it. Nobody is that foolish.”

  “You're real,” Sam says, still staring at the ground. “Those chains are real. But someone once told me that the Devil can exist outside of reality itself, which means this is the only way to free him.”

  “Sam, no,” the Devil groans, turning to her with a bloodied, torn face. “I know you think you've figured out a loophole, but it won't work.”

  “And then you can put things straight,” she continues, struggling to stay conscious as she feels herself weakening. “You can put the world back to how it should be. You'll have that power, because you'll have been freed from the chains. Even Abberoth won't exist.” She pauses. “None of us will.”

  “You would trust the Devil?” Abberoth asks, followed by a faint, unconvincing laugh. “After everything that you've experienced, you would leave the fate of existence in his hands?”

  “He's right,” the Devil says. “You can't trust me, Sam. I've always sought dominion over existence. If you give it to me, I won't be able to resist. I'll do all the terrible things I've been planning. I'll finally be unstoppable, Sam, and I'll destroy everything that's good. It's my instinct, my nature. It's what I am.”

  “At least there's a chance that you'll fix the world,” she tells him, “and that's better than leaving things as they are. And you surrendered to Abberoth, which shows you can do the right thing from time to time.”

  She raises the dagger a little higher, ready to plunge it into the soil.

  “Sam, don't do it!” the Devil shouts. “I'm serious! I surrendered to buy myself time, so I could maybe come up with a better idea! I was still thinking about myself, you can't trust me! Find some other way!”

  “There is no other way,” she whispers, trying to find the courage to go through with her plan. “I've tried everything else, and this is my last shot.”

  “You'll never do it,” Abberoth sneers. “You're too weak.”

  “Go to Hell,” she whispers, and then finally she drives the dagger down, straight into the blood-soaked soil.

  “No!” the Devil screams. “Sam, don't!”

  Slumping forward, she puts all her weight on the dagger's hilt. She squeezes her eyes tight shut and waits, counting the seconds slowly, hoping against hope that the world will end in a flash. And then, just as she's beginning to lose faith, she feels the ground starting to shake. She hesitates, worried that she's imaginin
g the whole thing, but the shaking sensation slowly gets stronger and stronger until she feels her teeth starting to chatter.

  “You have no idea what you've just done!” the Devil snaps. “I'm the Devil, Sam! It's in my nature to do terrible things! I'll run amok! I'll destroy everything!”

  “Tear it all up, you mean?” she asks, with tears in her eyes as the whole world shudders. “Like a coaster?”

  Before the Devil can reply, a deafening roar fills the air, accompanied by the sound of rock being torn asunder. Turning, Sam looks toward the horizon, just in time to see that huge chunks of the horizon are actually crumbling away. She looks around, only to see the same thing everywhere, and then suddenly the ground seems to swing around beneath her. Above, the stars twist as if the entire world is being wrenched around on its axis.

  “I've waited so long for power!” Abberoth screams, letting go of the Devil's chain and stumbling toward Sam. “Pull that dagger out now! There might still be time!”

  Leaning down, Sam uses her body to shield the handle as the world continues to fall apart.

  “I'll destroy you!” Abberoth sneers, reaching out for her throat. “I'll...”

  He lets out a sudden gasp as his hand turns to ash, and then the ground begins to break apart beneath his feet. He tries to cry out, but all he can manage is a faint scream as he falls into a sudden crack that sends him tumbling down into the fires below. A moment later, a fierce hiss of steam rises from the depths, as if Abberoth's body was obliterated.

  “You're a fool, Sam Marker!” the Devil shouts. “You could have let the world carry on as it was!”

  “This will work,” she tells him, struggling as flames fill the air all around. “It can work, anyway. And I'd rather take the risk than let everyone suffer in agony for all eternity!”

  “You put your faith in the wrong person,” he replies. “I'm the Devil, Sam. Literally. And I'm about to gain unlimited power over all of reality. You can't seriously think that'll end well.”

  “You'd better not fuck this up,” she says, as the heat builds and builds all around her. “If you do, I swear I'll -”

  Before she can finish, a blast of heat fills the air and she screams. Her eyes turn to liquid and run down her face, and her flesh burns and peels away from her skull. Her scream is quickly cut off, and a moment later her clothes catch fire. Slumping forward, she tries one final time to protect the dagger, but then she falls onto her side just as a vast core of molten heat bursts up through the ground and begins to disintegrate her body.

  “You're an idiot!” the Devil can just about be heard shouting, as fragments of the horizon fall away in every direction, until finally Rippon itself is all that's left of the world, floating in space as the planet's molten core burns in the freezing vacuum.

  If there were anybody left to watch, they might spot two figures clinging to that last surviving clump of rock. One on his knees, yelling as the chains began to fall from his body. And the other burning away second by second, screaming as she dies.

  And then the destruction spreads out, destroying even Rippon and then racing out into the stars, destroying not only the stars but every last vestige of creation itself.

  The End

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Rain again.

  Sitting up in bed, Sam feels ice-cold drops falling onto the back of her neck. She wipes them away as she gets to her feet, muttering to herself as she hears someone knocking on the front door again. She feels a little dazed most mornings, but this morning seems different. It's almost as if she had a heavy night, but of course that's impossible since she no longer drinks, so she figures she just slept on the wrong side.

  “Coming!” she calls out, tripping on her shoes and almost falling flat on her face. She glances up at the hole in the ceiling, through which the storm has managed to reach her, and then she makes her way across the dark bedroom until she reaches the hallway.

  Someone knocks again.

  “Coming!” she sighs, bumping against the wall as she ties her dressing gown around her waist. She already knows, or at least strongly suspects, who'll be waiting for her when she gets to the cottage's front door. Seeing that the clock on the wall shows 7am, she can't help sighing at the thought of yet another day's work ahead of her. At the same time, she knows she'll feel much better once she actually gets started.

  Finally she gets to the door, slides the eleven bolts across, and then pulls the door open to see Doctor Burnham standing outside, soaking wet as more rain comes lashing down across the cemetery. Somehow, in that moment, the sight of the world seems wrong somehow, as if...

  As if the world shouldn't be there.

  “Hey,” she says cautiously, “what's wrong?”

  “I'm afraid there's been a death in Rippon,” he replies. “Not an unexpected one, to be sure, but... She was only in her late thirties. Poor Catherine. At least she's no longer suffering.”

  “Catherine?” She pauses. “Scott's aunt?”

  “Indeed. The family had been expecting this, but that makes it no less painful.”

  “She died?” Sam furrows her brow. “She actually died.”

  Doctor Burnham waits for her to spring into action.

  “So it's raining,” he says finally. “Out here. Outside. Where I'm standing at this very moment.”

  Sam sighs. “I'll get my -”

  And then she freezes as she sees the rain falling against a slowly-lightening sky. For a moment, she can't help but marvel at the beauty of the world, even with the rain crashing down. Finally she reaches out and feels rain drops hitting her hand, and somehow that simple act brings all the memories flooding back.

  Abberoth.

  The Devil.

  That whole business with the end of the world.

  Suddenly she reaches up and touches the top of her head, and she finds to her shock that the dagger is no longer sticking out from her skull.

  “Ms. Marker?” Doctor Burnham says cautiously. “Is anything wrong?”

  ***

  “Anna!” Sam shouts, hurrying along the street, still wearing her dressing gown. “Anna, wait!”

  Ahead, Anna is standing on the steps outside the house where Scott lives. She's sheltering from the rain, and at the same time she's drying her eyes.

  “Anna,” Sam says, stopping at the bottom of the steps and looking up at her. “You're alive!”

  Reaching out, she touches Anna's shoulders, checking to make sure that she can feel them.

  She can.

  “Scott's aunt died,” Anna replies, sniffing back more tears. “We knew it was coming, she'd been ill for so long, but it's still really sad. Is it wrong that I actually feel relieved for her? She was in so much pain.”

  “Then it's true,” Sam whispers.

  “What is?”

  “She actually died,” Sam continues, as rain continues to crash down all around her. She pauses, before letting go of her friend's shoulders. “Anna, do you remember anything... unusual from the past few days?”

  “Unusual?”

  “Anything odd. Anything out of the ordinary.”

  Anna pauses, before shaking her head.

  “Think, Anna!” Sam says firmly. “It's really important, I need to know. Do you remember anything odd?”

  “I... don't think so.”

  “Nothing at all?” Sam asks.

  “Like what?”

  “Never mind,” Sam replies, soaked now as she tries to make sense of everything that has happened. “I guess that's for the best. Everything's back to normal, and there's not really any need for people to remember, is there? It's probably better that way.” She pauses. “Well, I suppose not everything's back to how it was. There's no sign of Sparky, and we both have our memories.” She pauses again, still trying to make sense of everything, before turning to walk away. “I'll catch you later. We'll get Cathy's body ready for a viewing, but there's one other thing I need to do first.”

  “I do remember all the stuff with Abberoth,” Anna adds.
>
  Sam turns to her.

  “I remember having angel wings,” Anna continues, “and I remember Abberoth making it so people couldn't die, and I remember the world seeming to end a load of times. I remember you and me basically saving the world. I remember all that.” She pauses, and then a faint smile crosses her lips as she shrugs. “But I don't remember anything unusual,” she adds with a grin. “Just the normal stuff that we get up to round these parts.”

  “But -”

  “No-one else seems to remember, though,” Anna adds. “Scott and his family don't, anyway.”

  “Do you still have the wings?” Sam asks.

  “I don't think so. And my eyes don't glow anymore. I could be wrong, but so far I seem to be pretty... human. Like, how I was when I first met you. I suppose that's a good thing, although I do miss being able to spy on people and walk through walls. That was pretty bitching.”

  Sam opens her mouth to ask more questions, but then she realizes that she should go and find the one person who might have some answers.

  “Meet back at the cottage,” she says finally, turning and hurrying up the hill. “We've got work to do. I'll see you there in a few minutes. And tell Scott I'm sorry about his aunt!”

  ***

  As she reaches the town square, Sam can't help but notice that her heart is pounding. She feels a crushing sensation in her chest, a sensation that she initially assumes is just more of the same old fear and anxiety that fills her days. But then, as she sees that the cafe is open, and that several locals are sitting around drinking tea with cakes, she realizes that this particular sensation is a little different to anything she's felt before.

  She stops for a moment, almost too scared to continue, but then she makes her way across the cobblestones until finally she reaches the cafe's door, where she looks inside and sees a familiar figure setting some more cakes on a table.

  “There you go, Mrs. Allen,” the Devil says. “Extra cream, just for you.”

  “Thank you so much,” she replies, although her mouth is too full for her to get the words out clearly. “You really do know how to spoil us, don't you?”