Jelly Cooper: Alien
Chapter 21

I can feel...

I feel…

Nothing. I’m empty. Are my internal organs still in place? Surely there’s nothing left inside me to take? My friends, my family…

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

The Hunter whispers in my ear.

“AAARGH,” I jump a mile high. I whirl, frantically searching the beach.

He’s vanished.

“Do you like it?”

“AAARGH!”

Again, the whisper in my ear. I turn to my family, hanging in their unnatural spotlight.

“Modern art can take such interesting turns, don’t you think?”

Thorn appears at my shoulder and appraising the limp figures.

“It seems to me like you have a choice to make. One, you don’t struggle and return to Javoria with me and your family lives. Two, you fight me, you lose, I take you back to Javoria anyway and I kill your family very, very slowly. It’s up to you.”

Silence hangs in the air.

“I won’t lie to you,” the Hunter steps before me. “No matter what option you take, you will die.”

There’s no choice, I have to go with him and save my family. I hold out my hands.

From out of nowhere, Luke rugby tackles Thorn, knocking him to the ground. He wrestles with the bashrak on the dimpled sand. Managing somehow to pull the black cloak up and over the monster’s head, Luke yells,

“HE’S LYING. THEY NEVER SPARE ANYONE. NEVER!”

And I see that he’s right. The Hunter will secure me, then kill my family and Luke before leaving Earth. Not because he has to, but because he wants to.

I lower my arms.

Thorn pulls the cloak off his head and hovers in mid air, Luke clinging to his back.

Without warning, the Hunter rockets into the sky.

Tucking my arms to my sides, I kick off. Slicing through the air, I hone in on the two struggling figures. The Hunter twirls in the air, trying to shake Luke off. Luke knees Thorn in the back, once, twice. He puts everything into it and his grip slips. He grabs a handful of cape and wraps it around his wrist.

Hold on, hold on.

The Hunter rolls into a ball and the action sends Luke sailing over his shoulders. The cape snaps tight and Luke’ body rebounds in the other direction. Somehow, he keeps his grip on the cape, but he looks limp and dazed. He can’t last much longer.

The wind whips past me as I rocket through the sky, but not fast enough. Willing myself on, I quicken my speed and draw level with them. I reach out for Luke’ arm…

…his fingers are slipping…

…if I can just get closer…

…one last…

GGGGGGGLLLSSSSHHRRRRUUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGRRRRRRRUNN!

Thunder. A huge clap of thunder roars in the silence. The Hunter ducks and Luke flinches and lets go. With a strangled cry he begins his fall to earth.

Instinctively, I barrel roll in the air, narrowly avoiding a collision with Thorn. Swooping back towards the ground, I plummet.

I see Luke’ white face beneath me. His mouth is stretched wide; a black cavernous hole in his head letting out his last scream. The gap between us grows.

Oh God.

I’m not going to catch him. He’s going to die.

He closes his eyes.

I focus so hard and so fast that everything goes black for a second. The pressure in my head sends darts of pain along my jawbone that drill into my teeth. I zoom towards the earth.

Tears stream from my eyes as the wind hits me full in the face. The ground looms and blurs.

If he dies, I die: I commit myself to Luke.

With one last push I catch him and, with seconds to spare, stop.

We hang.

Inches above the ground.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH”.

I throw back my head and roar.

Luke starts the second I stop.

“Jelly, thank you, thank…”

I let go and he drops, in a heap, onto the sand. Looking up into the night sky, the fire burning bright in my eyes, I see black robes rippling in the wind.

Revenge.

I take off.

Keeping my eyes trained on the hovering demon, I climb, the wind tearing at my face. My hatred has become a palpable thing; I can feel it, taste it. I savour it.

“Option one and two are out.” I shout to be heard over the wind.

Thorn raises an eyebrow.

“Oh yes?”

“One and two are out. Option three is in.”

“And option three would be…?”

“Well, I’m not going quietly and you’re not leaving here without me. Why don’t you have a wild stab in the dark at what option three is?”

“Oh.” His eyes flash.

He wants it bad. The opportunity to fight me is too much of a temptation. I knew it would be. He grins. I stare back.

sssssssssssssSLAP

He hits me. Not with his fists, but with power, and it hurts.

I feel the force of the blow in every bone in my body; my entire skeleton rattles. I imagine Humphrey at the hands of the bashrak and welcome the pain. I suck it up. When I kill this piece of filth, Humphrey’s going to be with me every step of the way.

Lightening flickers out at sea as I tumble backwards, my head spinning. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse the Hunter circling to my left.

Sneaky weasel.

I spin and, reaching out my arm, send a shock wave towards him.

Caught off guard, the Hunter catches the brunt of the blow and cartwheels backwards. He stops in the air and rights himself, his lips peeling back. He runs his horrible purple tongue over a row of razor sharp teeth.

Sick. The guy needs help.

Without warning, Thorn launches himself at me, physically.

Wasn’t expecting that.

Framed by flashing lightening, he looks huge, like a monstrous, evil, leviathan, coming straight at me. His robe streams out behind him as he closes the gap between us with terrifying speed. There’s no time to prepare and, in seconds, he’s on me. His hands close around my throat, squeezing my windpipe. I claw at his hideous bony fingers as the pressure increases and try to draw some breath into my burning lungs. His nails scrape my skin.

He mutters to himself as he squeezes.

“I’ve tried the old ways, I’ve tried the new ways. I’ve tried tricking you, being your friend, threatening your friends, your family. And where has it got me?” He shakes me and stars explode behind my eyes. “I’ll tell you where it’s got me: nowhere! NOWHERE AT ALL!”

I force three fingers underneath one of his and try to pull his hand from my throat. Fighting for air, my vision starts to go.

“You just refuse to lie down and die. Do you know how annoying that is? Hmm? EXTREMELY ANNOYING!”

Spit flies onto my face as he screams.

“So, I’m going to do it the human way.”

He laughs. It makes me think of a bucket of worms, slick with slime, writhing against each other.

As the storm draws nearer, I start to lose consciousness. My body is dissolving.

The Hunter chuckles as he closes my windpipe.

“Oh, that’s cute. That is so cute. You might be invisible, but I can still feel your scrawny neck under my fingers. A neck that I’m about to break. I am feeling good!”

It’s not supposed to end this way. I will it not to end this way.

Thunder booms from the clouds. Thorn jumps and his grip on my throat slips.

Gulping a ragged breath, I come back from the brink of unconsciousness.

“Jelleeeeeeeeee, Je-lleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

I hear Luke shouting my name from the beach below and something clicks in my mind. Something he said earlier, when we were hiding…

Maybe it’ll thunder. They hate the thunder.

Why do they hate the thunder? It can’t hurt them, can it?

Can it?

Something I’m missing…I can’t quite…

“Thunder,” spits Thorn, as he re-tightens his grip on my throat.

Click.

And I get it. Man oh man, do I get it.

It all comes together in one terrible, defining moment. Me, my history, my life, my birth, my planet, the bashrak. The things I’m capable of. The things I can do. The things I’m about to do.

Somebody, when this is done, somebody please help me replace a way back.

They don’t hate the thunder. They fear the lightening that comes before it. And I can call it.

Drawing strength from my core, I fasten my hands on his wrists and yank his hands from my neck. Grappling in mid air, we spin like wrestlers. The clouds flicker; my army of electric soldiers lie in wait, jostling and bristling in the dark underbelly.

Thorn senses the change. He tried to grab my wrists and starts to spin us around. He’s going to launch me into the sky then come after me with all he has. I can feel it.

I can feel everything.

“Never going to happen,” I whisper, twisting my wrists, grabbing him and sinking my nails deep into the pale flesh of his inner forearms. “You’re not going anywhere.”

As we spin, the energy field swells. It’s happening.

I call to the night sky as the Hunter struggles. He sees the sparks shooting from my fingers; he feels them against his skin. His nostrils flare as they fill with the smell of his own burning flesh.

My body jerks as the sky warps with energy. Energy that I can harness.

The power inside me is so strong; it’s beautiful and terrible. As I nurture the storm, the last pieces of the puzzle slot into place. The last click.

Then…nothing.

Just deadly calm. No thunder, no lightning, no wind; just me.

Thorn grins his wicked grin.

Idiot. Next time, they had better send someone with a brain.

Letting go of his arms, I grab him by the collar and yank his face to within an inch of my own.

“It’s over.”

I clasp the violated body of Gregory Thorn, whom I would have liked, to my chest and whisper to the evil inside.

“For them all.”

I let go.

We hang in the air, side by side.

I glance up at the clouds then back at Thorn.

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty…”

I reach out my hand.

A bolt of lightening unwraps itself from the clouds and strikes the Hunter with stunning accuracy.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

His cry of pain should make my stomach churn, but it doesn’t and I don’t look away. I watch, closely, as the lightening holds him in its coils, charging his body with hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity. The air becomes singed and rank with the smell of burning bashrak flesh.

Again and again the lightening hits his body; Thorn’s body.

Enough.

It stops.

The lightening recoils into the clouds. Released from its grip, the Hunter drops like a stone. He hits the water with a splash.

I float back down to earth, where Luke waits for me.

“Is he…?”

I look to the shoreline. The Hunter’s body lies face down in the surf.

We wade through the shallows and, taking an arm each, drag the body up the beach. Luke nudges him over with the toe of his trainer.

I crouch over the corpse and put my fingers to his neck. I listen to his chest, just catching Luke’ wince as I lower my head. Red marks circle my throat; imprints of the bashrak’s hands. Luke looks away.

I kneel there for endless seconds. I have to be sure. Finally, I look up.

“Well?”

My face crumples.

“It’s over.”

Luke kneels beside me and holds me in his arms. Great, hulking, sobs shake my body and he tightens his grip.

“I heard about Agatha, and Humphrey. I couldn’t move, but I could hear…”

He strokes my hair, just like Humphrey did not so long ago.

“I’m so, so sorry Jelly.”

Luke whispers soothing nonsense words, just so that I will hear his voice and know that it’s over, that I’m safe. He holds me for a long time, until, exhausted, I stop. Standing on shaking legs, I stumble over to my family.

I force myself to bend over Molly and place two fingers to the base of her neck. I note the pallid cheeks. The complete stillness. The weak pulse.

Faint with relief, I hurry to check my mum and dad. They’re unconscious, but alive.

Luke is at my side.

“We’d better go. We need to get them home.”

We undo their bonds and lower them to the sand. I reach and wrap them in silver tentacles, lifting them high into the air. Closing my eyes, I elevate us to the same height. Tears leak from beneath my lashes and mix on my cheeks. Making no attempt to blink them back, I fly us across the water, over the village rooftops and into our back garden. With Luke’s help, I guide each member of my family through the kitchen, through the hall, up the stairs and into bed.

I hope they don’t remember. I hope they never know what I’ve become.