Read Online World's End by Will Elliott - Free Book Online

features gouged and chipped out of glistening obsidian, tilted sideways on its neck and gazing, it seemed, right at him.
    The backwards step Eric took was purely from surprise to find he was observed. What at another time might have been fear was instead cold anger at the violation this creature represented, imposing itself like this upon his homecoming. He took the gun from its holster, held it aloft, stepped towards the Tormentor. Slowly one of its hands rose; it seemed to be askinghim not to shoot. A greater shock came when its mouth opened and a voice issued from it: ‘
Waste
,’ it said.
    Eric was so amazed to hear it speak he laughed. ‘What? What did you say?’ Its flat stony eyes looked down from a metre above. ‘You said “waste”,’ Eric said. He was near enough now to reach out and touch it. ‘Do you mean I’d waste a bullet, if I shot you? What the fuck … why do you
care
if I waste my bullets? How do you even know what a bullet is, what a gun is? What the fuck are you even
doing
here?’
    Its voice was like feet scraping on dirt. ‘Here
you … will find … what kills … dragons.
’
    Eric pointed the gun at its face. He wanted to shoot but his hand seemed to lock. ‘What kills dragons?’ he said.
    Its mouth did not move to shape the words which scraped out.
‘The haiyens have … no name for them … in your speech. The haiyens … must teach you … to live in a world … which
they
come to. Your flesh is … their clay. Your flesh is … their home. Your flesh …
is
them. They … collect … clay. Until the time they … as your kind … has now learned to do … become gods.’
    â€˜I don’t understand you,’ Eric said. His hand holding the gun shook. ‘I miss my apartment. I just want to see my apartment.’
    Distantly there came more sounds not unlike those he’d heard before: squealing metal as something was crushed. Something crumbling and falling with booming thuds to the ground, then quiet. The Tormentor tilted its head away from him, seeming to look into the distance behind him.
    â€˜Why don’t you kill me?’ Eric asked it.
    It did not move or answer. He stepped yet closer to it. A rage brewed deep and hot within him, one he didn’t understand at all. He held the gun to its head. ‘Why don’t you try to kill me? I’m right here. Do it.’
    It didn’t move. Its wavering spikes all went still. ‘
A high place … will give you … sight of them.
’
    He fired the gun. Its
boom
was unbelievably loud. Part of the Tormentor’s face flew off. A larger part slipped more slowly to the ground, carrying with it one of the creature’s eyes. Its body did not fall, still did not move. ‘What did you do to this world?’ Eric said.
    Its voice still came:
‘This work, my kind … did not wreak. Nor man … nor dragon.’
One of its arms – shaking – slowly lifted, pointed to the top of the rise.
‘Go there. See. Learn why you must … set the dragons … free.’
    Eric went to where it pointed. He turned back twice to see if the Tormentor had toppled over yet, but it had not. Further along towards his apartment, along the same footpaths and roads he’d taken to walk home from the office – with a mind for microwave dinners, failed novels in progress, comic books newly purchased – buildings were mounds of detritus, piled like the rocks he and Case had walked through in the rubble plains. Cars were crushed flat, streetlight poles were knocked over, power lines a messy tangle. Slabs of road were tilted up. A dog appeared among the wreckage of a corner shop. It sniffed the air as if it had forgotten people altogether and could hardly believe its eyes now to see one. When Eric called to it, it ran away.
    The path ahead was blocked by a pile of debris. He climbed it, slipping