Chapter 18: Power of the Interimo

   “Do you believe me?” Anonni asked.

   “My soul…?” Rebecca cried.  She remembered Sam’s note.  It means we lose our soul…

   “Your death will happen a fair bit sooner,” Anonni confirmed gravely.  “But you’ve only had the locket for a matter of months, so you’ll only have lost less than ten years.”

   “Only?” Rebecca cried, freaking slightly.  “But what if, I was supposed to die at twenty!  I could drop dead any moment!”

   “Do you have any serious underlying health conditions?” Anonni asked her.

   “Well, no…”

   “Then you have nothing to worry about.”  Anonni stood up, and turned to the house.  “I know from experience that time is irrelevant.  Some people achieve more in one year than others do in their entire life.”

   “Why can’t we leave it with Edward?” Carrie asked, speaking for the first time since Anonni finished explaining.  “We won’t have to worry about the locket, and it’ll solve our problem of Edward.”

   “There are two good reasons why that is a horrific idea, young girl,” Anonni said slightly angrily.  “For one, it’s immoral, and secondly, the problem isn’t going away.  It will simply gather more and more souls until it has… completed whatever purpose it was designed for.  I’d rather not find out what that is.  And also, that Interimo is my ticket home.”

   “What, you can’t get home without it?” Rebecca enquired.

   “No.  The barrier between worlds can only be broken by the energy released when destroying an Interimo, and even then it’s only for a short amount of time,” Anonni explained.  “I have just enough energy to contact home, but I’ve recently used all that up to update my boss on the situation.  I could wait for someone from home to find one, but there were only nine created, two of which have been destroyed, one is here and The Cult of Strata controls one.  So that only leaves five which haven’t even been found yet, and to be frank I don’t think they’d waste it on me.”

   “That’s not our problem,” Carrie replied spitefully.

   “Of course not,” Anonni said.  “And nor do I need you.”

   “I’m not resting until the locket is destroyed, and the Knight is dead,” Rebecca said defiantly.  

   “Good.”  Anonni helped Rebecca to her feet, and found she was able to walk, if with a limp.  Carrie could too, though she was less than willing.

   “Now, we need to find Billy and Paul,” Anonni decided.  “Then retrieve the locket from Edward.  From how you’ve described him, he shouldn’t be any bother at all…”

 

The knife fell onto the grass elegantly.  After two clashes with a superior blade, the other would then join it, followed by its master falling onto the ground, crawling backwards from his mysterious attacker.

   The Knight advanced on Edward, holding its sword threateningly.  Billy leapt up, and ran to Paul, who was watching events, unable to move.

   “It’s going to kill him,” Billy said.  “Kill him like it killed my mother, and I can do nothing.”

   “Stop!” Edward pleaded.  “Please!  STOP!”  He shoved his hand into a pocket, and pulled out the locket.  “YOU DID THIS!!” he bellowed at it.  The Knight stopped, and pointed its head in the exact direction of the locket.  Edward suddenly screamed in pain, and dropped the locket, which had turned red.  Edward examined his hand, to find a massive burn on it.

   The Knight, ignoring Edward, leaned over to take the locket, which was ever growing redder.  Edward took the opportunity to escape by rolling out of the way, and then darted up the hill to his house as fast as he could.

   The Locket began shaking, and the grass around it suddenly caught fire.  The Knight outstretched its arm, oblivious to the heat, reaching closer and closer; soon it would be in its hand…

   Then, an enormous beam of light was blasted at the Knight, who was thrown into the air and landed several metres away with a crunch.  The light seemed to increase in intensity as the flames spread along the grass, along with a ferocious roar that got louder by the second.  Paul and Billy slowly shuffled backwards, not wanting to lose sight of the locket.  They couldn’t see it now; flames and blinding light surrounded it.  Would there be anything left?

   Billy gasped in pain, and fell onto his knees.  The second locket fell out of his jumper pocket onto the grass, also beginning to grow very hot.  Billy didn’t have time to notice that, however, for something else even more mysterious was about to happen.

 

   “What’s that?” Rebecca cried, shielding her eyes from the light that was now brighter than the sun.  Anonni pulled out his Interimo-detector, and as usual mixed around the contents, though much more hurriedly this time.

   “It can’t be…” he said, visibly shocked.

   “What is it?” Rebecca shouted over the noise.

   “I never thought this was possible on this scale…” Anonni gasped.  “How many souls has it gathered…?”

   “What do we do?” Rebecca shouted.  Anonni didn’t answer; he was too busy thinking.  Rebecca and Carrie stared at him in confusion.

   “This… is far too dangerous!” Anonni yelled.  “Get back to the forest, neither of you are able enough to defend yourselves!  I’ll find you later!”

   “What?  No!” Rebecca cried in protest.

   “DON’T argue!” Anonni retorted, fiercer then Rebecca had ever imagined him to be.  She nodded.

   “He’s right…” she said to Carrie.

   “Are you able to get there on your own?” he asked.

   “Yes…” Rebecca answered, limping while holding Carrie for support, who did the same to her.  Anonni turned and ran towards the light, not looking back.

 

   The ground seemed to shake beneath them, as the flames roared; as the locket, seeming becoming vaporised, gave out such a blinding light, and a noise that would resemble that of an atomic bomb.  But spots began appearing in the light, large grey spots.  They grew larger and larger, into a figure of what Billy recognised to be a person.

   “What… are they…?” he gasped.  Flames appeared at his feet, as the second locket’s temperature also rapidly increased.  He jumped backwards, though the flames did not seem to spread like the others had, and slowly began to die again.

   The Knight was on its feet again, but was also shielding its head with its hands, and was slowly backing away from the grey figures, which were gaining more and more details.  After several seconds, they now looked like moving clay statues, with every detail correct.  They all however, lacked eyeballs and any sign of expression.  They walked lifelessly at the Knight, who tried to strike them down with his sword.  The moment the tip hit the first figure, it was thrown with a gigantic force into the distance.  The figure then outstretched its hand, and thrust it into the Knight’s chest.  The Knight was thrown into the ground with such a force nobody could survive with all their bones intact.  The Knight was evidently not a normal being.

 

   The light was originating from the other side of the house.  Such a bright light… Anonni half expected the house to be blown apart by the intensity of it.  He felt almost fearful of going near it, and wanted to run as far from it as he could.  This was, without a doubt, the most powerful Interimo he had witnessed.

 

   The Knight began backing away.  The grey figures followed it, but slowly began fading away themselves.  The knight took no notice, and continued moving away.  However, Paul’s attention was taken by something even more disturbing.

   “Dad…?” he cried out.  The second last figure to emerge was indeed an exact replica of Sam Hutchinson.

   “Auntie Joice!” Billy exclaimed, as the figure directly behind Sam was a replica of her.  But they, like the other figures, were fading away.

   “This makes no sense!” Paul said.

   “We should go…” Billy said nervously, having noticed the centre sphere of raw power was continuing to expand.  If they stayed where they were, it would engulf them too. 

   “I…” Paul said, unable to finish.  “…Dad…”

   “Come on!” Billy shouted.  He bent down to pick up the second locket, knowing its importance.  He took off his jumper and used it to pick it up to avoid burning himself.  He then discovered that he needn’t have worried �" there was no trace of heat in it.

   “That’s impossible…”

   Billy looked up; the expanding ball of light was only a few metres away.  It was as though he stood right by an enormously powerful oven �" he’d probably be vaporised before the light reached him.  Ignoring whatever questions they had, the boys ran as far from it as they could get.  As they would later find out, they hadn’t needed to run, as it stopped expanding once all the figures had vanished, and began closing in on itself.