Chapter 19 The End of the Line
This train was one of those public carriage ones, so we picked a bunch of seats where nobody else was sitting and fell down into them. I winced at the feel of the hard wood on my back and ass. Then a thought hit me. "Why does he never get on the train?" I asked. "I mean he looked like he lost all sense back there and would have gone after us in daylight given the chance."
Harker mulled over my question for a while before he spoke. He had my full attention the whole time, but Jacob was staring out into the blackness, lost in thought. Then, when he was ready Harker spoke. "Well, the only thing that springs to mind is the many, many years of training." He pulled up. "No, not training, more like indoctrination." He smiled, happy with the word. "And not simply years, but decades, and maybe even centuries of it. All of that has seated so very deeply inside his mind that he just cannot violate the principles by which he lives, even with his mind in tatters."
"Still, careful you must be." Came a voice from the row behind. It was somehow familiar. How could that be. And how could we have let someone hear us? I looked around to see a familiar smiling face. It was my friend from the antique store back in our own time. I racked my brain for a moment, trying to recall his name, while Harker wore a confused look and Jacob still faced the window, possibly dozing.
"Ishmeil?" I asked. He nodded. It was strange. He was still tiny, and he was certainly not as young as he maybe should have been. Sure, the white hair that encircled his bald head was peppery black rather than wispy white, and he maybe had a few less wrinkles on his face, but I was finding it impossible to even do the math and figure out how old he should be.
"Ah, pretty girl should no waste time in worry about Ishmeil and such, no, no." He shook his head playfully. "No, even when safety you reach, then still missing vital ingredient you are, no?" His smile was so wide and playful. Yet somehow I couldn't find any dislike for his mockery, instead he brought my guard tumbling down. Harker, on the other hand, was as stiff as a board.
"Just what on earth?" Asked Harker.
"It's ok Qunicey, I know him. I think" I said, trying my best to sooth the situation. Just then Jacob returned to the real world and looked over, his eyes bulging out of his head.
"No. Freaking. Way." He exclaimed. I gestured for him to keep his voice down and nodded. He looked from me to Ishmeil and back again several times. "And he knows us?"
"Seems to." I said. The little guy came and sat in the empty seat by Jacob, a wide smile splitting his face.
"Oh, Ishmeil knows more than you think Ishmeil knows." He said in his funny accent. "Travel through time, causality, fate. Who is to say what is real, yes?" Now he had the full attention of our group. Harkers face was a mask of pure confusion.
"So you know these people somehow?" He asked, incredulous.
"We met him in our own time." Jacob whispered. "He sold us the stuff we needed to get here in the first place." He turned his attention to Ishmeil. "So how come a younger looking version of him knows us?" Suspicion clouded his voice now.
"All the wrong questions." Ishmeil said indignantly. "But very well. You see time is very fragile thing, and when play with it, then strange things may begin." All three of us were staring, mouths agape. "And yet, time, she is also very solid. She has own ideas of what should be. Fate? Causality? Destiny? Do you believe in space time?" He looked around but none of us spoke. "Science not the answer. No. Time does what time wants." I wished he would get to the point. It felt like he was trying to confuse us, but now his playful tone was gone. "Two days ago, Ishmeil looking through family relics in Manhatten. Find this." He withdrew a battered old steel flask which he carefully opened and showed us the contents. A luminous green sludge.
"Nitrotrinadium." Jacob whispered.
"Ishmeil find way to use this. Finds self in different place with different Ishmeil. He tells me to return to my time, but keeps sample of goo." He was holding the open flask directly under his chin, and the phosphorous glow illuminated his face. Then Ishmeil gets home, and has visit from another Ishmeil. Tells me to come here, now. Give sample to pretty girl."
I'm not going to lie, he had completely lost me, and from the looks on their faces he had lost the other two. He pulled a small tube from his bag and filled it with the substance and corked the tube tightly. Then he handed the tube to me and turned to leave.
"Wait." I said. "Stay with us."
"Oh, even though Ishmeil would love to, he knows he must not." He raised a hand and wiggled his fingers before turning and walking up the train and disappearing through the compartment door into the next. Jacob suddenly jumped up and ran after him. Several minutes later he returned with a very confused look on his face.
"He disappeared." He said in disbelief. "Not, like before my eyes or anything, but he just wasn't there. Looked all the way up the train and there was no sign of him at all. What the hell?"
I held up the tube. "We better keep this safe." I said.
Just then a conductor entered the compartment and all passengers turned to face him. "Attention" He read out at full volume. "Passengers transferring to the Pacific line at Grand Forks, there has been a de-railment at Devils Lake. Staff estimate the next train from Grand Forks heading West will be 24 hours late. Apologies for any inconvenience."
As he moved onward answering questions from other passengers we looked at each other with wide eyes. This must be the work of Howe. Now what were we going to do. It was still a good few hours until we arrived at Grand Forks, and the sun would be high in the sky, but the next train would have been before sunset and now we would be faced with waiting an entire day, leaving us stranded on a station all night, or trying to find some kind of cover.
It was during this time that I wanted time to slow and give me chance to think, when it actually seemed to speed up. Before I knew what was happening we were getting off and stepping onto the platform in Grand Forks, a milky sun hanging overhead casting pale shadows. Things were not good. All the time I had been wracking my brain for a plan the men had been discussing battle tactics. Harker confessed his bag of tricks was running dangerously low on supplies, and Jacob didn't know how much longer he could control the wolf inside of him.
We took a seat out in the sun, its warmth only just penetrating my clothing. Then I noticed him. It may have been the gentle tapping sound that drew my attention, or maybe the aura of foreboding, but whatever the reason I looked off into the shadows of the Eastbound platform and saw a figure hunched in the dark. He held a pipe which he gently tapped on the wall, the hollow tube creating a low echo. His gaze never left me. I looked around to see the platform was now totally clear. Not many people had got off the train here anyway, and those that had were now long gone, presumably in search of a guest house for the night, something we had discussed, but dismissed with the rationale of not wanting to put any civilians at risk.
I elbowed Jacob who followed my gaze, sitting bolt upright when he saw the figure. Harker must have done the same because he fell silent from his musings and became very still. Then a deep voice drifted across the tracks. "Well. Isn't this nice." A low guttural chuckle. "One would almost think the three travellers are waiting for something." A pause longer than eternity. "Waiting for their destiny." There was nothing any one of us could do. He was silent again, except for the gentle tap of the pipe. And that was how it went for the next few hours, as the sun made its way across the sky, finally falling low enough to cast long shadows across the station.
That was when the tapping stopped and the figure vanished. His mind game had worked. All three of us were completely out of sorts with no idea what we were going to do. We had not been able to come up with a plan, and now we were trapped in a situation where we would almost certainly be killed.
And then he was there, on our side. Standing tall, no pipe, no cane, no hat. His formerly immaculate suit crumpled and dirty, his hair wild. The lamplight cast a wicked shadow across his face, accentuating the evil grin. He was going to enjoy this. Jacob looked to me as the three of us stood and faced him. "Hide." He said, and I nodded, not wanting to get in the way. I found a corner and wedged myself into it, watching the whole thing unfold.
Now, I have read many books, and watched many movies, and when they have a big final confrontation the fight scene can last many pages or minutes, rolling back and forth, with the bad guy taking control before ultimately falling in a heroic action of bravery. This was absolutely nothing like that. This was over in a matter of moments. The two men stood side by side before Jacob exploded into wolf form, rushing the vampire who casually threw him to one side. The giant wolf crashed into the nearby wall and hit the floor, struggling to get back up.
The Vampire then closed the gap to the man in the blink of an eye, grabbing him by the throat, but the wolf was now back, leaping and biting at the vampire who this time caught the wolf in the jaw with a powerful fist, sending him sprawling on the floor. Harker had drawn his sword and held it before him as Howe squared up to him from a few feet away. "Finally." Hissed Howe. "I can put an end to your nonsense."
However, he would never get to land a blow, because Harker fell to the ground, hit from behind by an unseen figure, My heart fell, but then lifted as Howes head toppled to the ground followed by his body, a confused look in his eyes. I looked up and there where Howe had been was a man, tall, pale and solid as rock. The mountain looked down at me with no emotion at all. Then several black cloaked figures stepped out of the shadows, and one removed his hood. A pale face, skin almost translucent but dancing eyes filled with crimson. He spoke.
"Isabella. Isabella Swan." He said in a lilting voice, an Italian accent. Behind him were a boy and a girl with blonde hair, obviously twins, and the man mountain. "I see we arrived just in time." He held out a hand which I refused, climbing to my feet by myself.
"Who are you" I asked. He looked familiar but I could not place him.
"My name is Aro, and these are my members of the Volturi guard. We protect and govern the world of the... How should I say it?" He stroked his chin. "Vampires." He smiled, a self satisfied smile. "Our world is secret and this is how it must be. We cannot have rouges like this one threatening to reveal our existence to the world by going around attacking people and de railing trains." He tutted. "Now, since you are the only one of your group who has seen us, I trust you can keep this to yourself?"
I nodded, confused. "Why do you let me live?" I asked.
"Ahhh, you see I feel something important about you. And should we meet again, be it in a day, a week or a hundred years, it must be treated as a surprise so that all those not present here and now do not know of our meeting tonight." And with that he turned in a flourish, pulling up his hood. "And now I must bid you farewell Isabella Swan." He turned to look at me once more, flanked by the man mountain and the twins, and that is when it hit me where I had seen him. The painting in the Cullen house. Carlisle and his previous life. These knew him. I wanted to call them back and ask them a million questions but I dare not, and by the time I regained my senses they were gone, replaced by the groans of my companions.
So what the hell was I supposed to tell them?
