Max and Sebastian - Chapter 46
Contemporary young adult horror fiction
Dearest Penguin People.
Thank you for reading the latest chapter of Max and Sebastian, my evil kid/ghost story. This chapter references something that happened way back in Chapter One, so if you are new to Max and Sebastian it may be a good idea to start here…
A special thank you to P.Q. Rubin for little penguin guy up top…
From the previous chapter…
The air trembled. Souls, dark and splintered, weaved through the clouds, pursued by a creature with a thousand eyes, one for each ghost.
“What is that?” Max whispered.
Lady Keres’ icy fingers dug deep into Max’s shoulders, her breath leaving trails of frost on her neck. “That,” she whispered into Max’s ear, “is our Collector. It finds wayward souls and spits them into the world Beyond The Gray.” She paused, sparks flying from her fingertips. “No pansy elephant for us.”
The Collector licked the air, devouring the spirits in its path.
Max shuddered. “It’s coming for me, isn’t it?”
Max backed away, ears quivering.
Leonard pulled himself onto the ledge and scooted as far away from Max as he could. She was crouched on all fours, whiskers quivering in the rain.
The imp on his shoulder wound around his neck, whispering, “Push her now. She’s not there.”
All too aware of the river raging below, Leonard edged closer. He waved a hand in front of Max’s face. “What are you looking at, rat?”
She didn’t answer. She was listening to someone else.
“Mommy, are you there? I’m scared.”
Max closed her eyes. It was easier to see that way. She opened a door into a small room. Her son lay huddled on a bed, his tiny face peeking from beneath a mound of blankets. She sat next to him, the aftermath of cheap wine pounding in her head. “What’s wrong?”
“I saw a monster.”
“Where Sweetie? Under the bed?”
“No, it was crawling on the wall. It was staring at me.”
“I’m sure it was a dream.”
“No, it was real.”
Max held her son’s hand. She leaned in, whispering, “Sebastian, do you think for one minute that I would let anything happen to you?”
“But…”
She rubbed her nose against his. “I’ll let you in on a secret.”
He giggled. “What?”
“I’m scarier than any monster you’ll ever meet.”
She placed her head on the pillow next to his. “Now go to sleep.”
She closed her eyes.
The little voice rang out again. “Mommy?”
An earnest face, slightly older now, looked up at her, markers in hand, a rainbow of ink smudges across his cheek. “Look,” he said, his tiny face proud as he stood in front of a beige leather couch covered in brightly colored stick figures. Max gritted her teeth, knowing the ink would never come off.
His tiny brow crinkled. “Do you like it? I made it for you.”
She looked again. Mother and son walked hand in hand through bright fields of purple flowers while three-legged bunnies and squirrels peeked from behind umbrella trees. All of them unbearably happy under the gaze of the biggest smiley-face sun she had ever seen. An ache pierced her heart. They had never shared moments like this, and yet here he was, so anxious and determined, showing her a work of utmost importance.
Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Don’t listen to him!” Lady Keres swirled angrily above her head.
“But that’s just it,” Max whispered. “I stopped listening a long time ago.”
“Mom, please, I can’t hold on much longer.”
Another image found its way through the rain. Sebastian, older now, stood in a doorway between two uniformed policemen, one holding an air rifle. It seemed the streetlamps weren’t safe from her bundle of joy. The policeman holding the BB gun cleared his throat. She took it, tossing it onto the carpet behind her. They walked away with their slow swagger, convinced they would be back soon. Whether for mother or son, they didn’t care.
She slammed the door on their retreating backs, ready to scream. When she turned around, she found a little boy with ink-stained fingers looking up at her, tiny arms raised. She lost her knees. Covering her mouth with her hand, she reached for him, wanting to hold her little boy one more time. But he wasn’t there. Instead, she hugged the sullen young man before her, holding him tight, the musty scent of cigarettes filling her nose. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered. He didn’t reply, turning to mist in her arms.
Behind her, Lady Keres waited in the darkness. They were running out of time. If Max didn’t take care of Leonard soon, she would have to do it herself. She scowled. The little imp would be a sour pill to swallow. She rose up, spiders floating through her hair.
“Mom!”
A tiny spark glimmered in the rain. It shared one last memory: one of lying on hard asphalt, harsh grit in her throat, the sun beating down. Sebastian’s panicked face hovered above her as he yelled for help. The sun’s rays dimmed. A chill steadily grew, spreading through her limbs. She faded, never saying what needed to be said.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the rain, “I didn’t want to leave you.”
In the distance, the light bobbed up and down, screaming in silence.
The Collector, having gathered all the souls it could find, looked down at the light below. The chill returned to Max’s bones. It would take her son. She deserved hell, but he did not.
The Collector, with its sea of eyes, dove toward the earth.
“No!”
Max stood up, the fur and claws falling away. A girl once more, she threw her gauntlet down, waving and stomping her feet. “Over here!”
“It’s too late to change anything,” Lady Keres said.
“We both know that’s a lie.”
Lady Keres looked away.
The Collector of all things, dark and miserable, swooped down through the clouds to meet Max on the ledge. A thousand eyes blinked. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Well, here I am.”
“And so you are.” The Collector cupped Max’s cheeks between its claws, turning her face this way and that. “I am a mouse,” it said.
Max turned a lighter shade of pale.
“I bite when provoked. I live in your house, unseen, unwanted; aware of the desperate, hidden thoughts that seep through the facades of pretty faces and forced smiles.”
Max averted her gaze, suddenly feeling very small.
The Collector squeezed her shoulders, then sidled up to Lady Keres. “I see all, like God, but without the benefit of forethought.”
She sniffed, offering nothing.
Not to leave anyone out, it swiveled toward Leonard, hissing in his ear. “I won’t live long, just long enough to creep under your skin and take what is mine.”
Leonard pressed his back against the railing, the imp clinging to his neck.
Not impressed, Lady Keres readied her razor-tipped fingers. “The girl is not dead. You can’t have her.”
“Is that so?” The Collector picked her up, holding Lady Keres up to its face.
“Put me down.”
It laughed, tickling her chin with its long nails. “Pray I don’t find you before you disappear into the oblivion that eventually claims us all.”
Lady Keres went still, caught in the thrall of its thousand eye stare.
“Because if I do, I will drag you into the darkest places where only the smallest can go.”
The Collector, glimmer rolling off it in dark, gleaming waves, plucked the spiders from Lady Keres’ hair, flicking them into the void.
The hum of tattered wings rose above the storm. Souls, long suffering and bitter, burst through Lady Keres’ skin, fluttering about her head like angry fireflies. Without their spark she crumbled, a pile of ghost dust in The Collector’s hands.
The souls wavered in front of The Collector, awaiting judgement. It shrugged and flung them into the heavens.
For a moment they lingered, a shimmering tapestry in the clouds. “Goodbye Max,” they sang. Then they were gone.
“Where are they going?” Max asked.
“None of my concern.” The Collector turned its hoary head toward her. “Now what shall we do with you?”
Max gazed down at the light waiting for her. “I’m okay with being a mouse.”
She gripped the railing, the world turning sideways. “Unless you’re going to turn me into dust, too?”
“Maybe next time.” The Collector smiled, fading back into the never-ending rain.
Max and Leonard remained on the ledge. A bolt of lightning cracked above their heads, briefly illuminating the night sky.
Below her, waiting by the riverbank, the one soul who had never turned away, grew dim. Was she too late? Her eyelids fluttered. She sank onto the ledge.
Imp on his back, Leonard loomed over her, battered by the wind. “None of this changes anything.”
The imp bared its teeth. “Kill her now. Wicked girl will come back again.”
A shadow passed over his face. “I hate you,” Leonard said. “I always have.”
Max lay silently on her back, staring at the sky.
“Say something. Don’t pretend that you don’t hate me back.”
“I don’t.”
“Liar.”
“It’s not that I can’t.” She closed her eyes. The world had shifted, falling apart at the edges. “It’s that I won’t.”
The imp jumped up and down, spitting out its own teeth.
Leonard reached down to touch her shoulder. “Max?”
“The rain. It’s so heavy.”
Lifeless, Max toppled over the edge.
The imp laughed. But Leonard knew some weight shouldn’t be born alone.
He stepped off the bridge, catching her in his arms, a fallen bird with broken wings. Together they plummeted into the dark water below.
As a side note…none of this was written with AI and I kindly ask that no one use it for training purposes. Thank you :)
