Neverquest – Part 133

Characters: Queen Isabella, Gena, Roxanne, Cara, Lucilla, Michelle, Mack, Jeff, Roy, Siarra, Kim

Location: The bell tower

Time: Day 5 – Shortly after dawn

“You’re not taking me back,” Gena said, putting her foot on Michelle’s throat. “I have waited too long for this day. Soon, the whole world will know my name. And so what if it isn’t your world? It’s my world. It’s what I deserve.”

Roxanne came up behind her. “What we deserve.”

“Yes. The time has come for us to live comfortably.”

“But it doesn’t have to be like this,” Michelle said. “You don’t have to hurt people to live a good life.”

“No… But that is one of the perks. Right, Bella?”

Still caught in the noose, Isabella glared at her and stuck out her tongue. “Right now, hurting you would be the best perk I could imagine.”

“Too bad you won’t live that long, sweetie.” Gena smiled and grinded her foot into Michelle’s skin. “The sun’s up. In a matter of seconds, that bell is going to ring and you’re going to hang for the whole kingdom to see. I do hope you’re not afraid of heights. …Or death.”

Isabella grimaced. She looked up at the bell, attached to her neck, and tugged on the rope again. “You know, this is no way to treat me. It’s not like I’m a homeless person.”

“Oh, Bella… When we first met two days ago, I knew I knew you from somewhere. You’re a stepper. You thrive on putting your foot down where you please. On toes, on faces—you’d step on anybody or anything to get what you want. You selfish bitch, how I marvel at you. In another life, you’d be my best friend.”

“I don’t make friends with roaches,” the princess spat. “And you deserve to be stepped on.”

“Shut up! You got a rope around your neck. You’re the hostage here.”

But Isabella only smiled and it was sickeningly sweet. “Your plan’s not going the way you wanted to, is it? Look around you. The tower is full of witnesses now. They know what you’re trying to do to me. And where’s Fallon? The sun’s been up for over thirty minutes now. She’s not ringing the bell. And do you know why?” She leaned forward until the rope reached its capacity. “Because they know I’m missing. They’re going to come looking for me and they’re going to find you here and you’re quickly going to become a new rug for my bathroom. Won’t that be fun!?” And she laughed. She actually laughed and Gena’s face began to boil with all that bottled up hatred that had been fermenting for too long.

“Stop smiling! Stop it. I hate you!”

Roxanne put a hand on Gena’s shoulder. “Relax. She can’t hurt us now.”

“She’s an ungrateful brat! She doesn’t realize all the good we can bring to her kingdom.”

“She does, and she doesn’t want it.”

“Then she deserves to die,” Gena said, stepping off Michelle’s neck. “If they won’t ring the bell, I will. Get ready to take the plunge, princess. I’ll see you in the afterlife.”

Isabella braced herself. Gena came at her strong, throwing her shoulder into Isabella’s chest. She backpedaled, nearly stumbling into the pit, but she managed to wrap her legs around Gena’s waist first. Without hands, Gena wasn’t able to keep her balance and she threw herself into Isabella. Their bodies clashed. Grappling face-to-face, they danced dangerously close to the edge as the rope began to wheel them around in a circle like a dog on a leash.

“This is my kingdom!” Gena roared. “You don’t deserve it, Bella. You don’t deserve this life on a silver platter.”

Isabella tightened the vice grip of her thighs. “I deserve everything I’ve gotten up until the past eight hours. And for those wonderful hours I had to spend with you, you’ll suffer in the next life. I hope you come back as a bug. Or even worse, a Man.”

“Shut up! Don’t ever wish such things upon me.”

“I got the perfect place under my foot for you,” Isabella said, touching one foot to the floor. She then pulled her other leg forward, dragging Gena with it. Gena cried out as she tripped over Isabella’s foot and found herself staring down into the dark cavity below.

“Roxy!” she screamed. “Save me.”

Michelle struggled to stand up. “No, don’t kill her. We need Gena alive.”

“You can scrape her off the bottom floor then,” Isabella said, twisting about on her heel to shake Gena off. Together, their bodies began to sink into oblivion.

By now, Roxanne had managed to rush forward and grabbed hold of Gena’s wrist. But without a hand, her robe began to slip away like grease. “I can’t hold you!”

“Don’t let go of me,” Gena said. “I’m not ready to die again.”

“I know. Just hang on.”

Roxanne tried to reach forward with her other hand, but Isabella was too quick. She blocked Roxanne’s path with her body and stuck out her tongue again.

“Time to say your farewells,” she taunted, pushing her weight down on Gena.

It wasn’t long before Michelle joined in as well. Together, she and Roxanne tried to fight off Isabella. But they couldn’t let Isabella fall or Gena would, too. And so they wrestled over each other, trying to pull Gena back as Isabella bounced up and down on her body to knock her down.

“Makes you wish you had this rope to save you, doesn’t it?” Isabella said. “Too bad all you’ll get is the cold ground to break your fall.”

Michelle coiled her fingers around Isabella’s arms. “You need to stop this! Gena’s the only one who can stop the virus affecting your world.”

“A virus?”

“Yes. She holds the secret to its existence.”

“I see…”

“So we need her alive to stop it.”

“Fascinating.”

They stared at each other for a minute before Michelle spoke up again.

“…So, get off of her!”

“…Wait.”

“What?”

“Do I look sick?”

“Well, um…”

“Here, check my tongue.” Once again, Isabella opened her big mouth and stuck out her tongue. “What do you suppose it’s saying?”

“That’s not funny!”

“Well, no, I don’t think it’s saying that. I think it’s saying, ‘Nyah, nyah-nyah, boo, boo. The necro’s going to fall and so are you.’” With that, Isabella began to bounce even harder on Gena’s back.

“Stop that!”

Gena began to crumble. She saw the lights, the fires of her past, burning through her mind. “All I wanted…was to be loved… All I needed… … Roxy… … why…?”

“Don’t you fall,” Roxanne called out, dropping to her knees to get a better hold on her friend. “Don’t you die on me, Gena. You’re all I have in this world.”

“There’s so much more I wanted to give you, Roxy…”

“You gave me the world, Gena. That’s enough for this lifetime.”

“But not nearly enough for the next.”

For a while now, Mack and Roy had been helping Siarra with her bounds. Using their teeth and small weapons, they eventually freed her—as well as Kim—and the girls quickly brushed away the loose strands of rope. Then they rose to their feet and were about to join in the struggle in the center of the room. That’s about the time they realized they had a problem.

“Wait,” Kim said. “Who are we supposed to help?”

“We made a promise to Michelle,” Siarra said. “Without Gena, we’ll never get home.”

“Home…? We are home.”

“Forget it…” She closed her eyes. “If you haven’t already.”

Back in the pit, a weakening Gena looked up at Roxanne and held out her imaginary hand. “There’s still one last thing I can give you, Roxy…”

“I just want you to live,” Roxanne said, but the threads of Gena’s clothing were slipping again. Grunting, she pushed Isabella away, but it was too late. The last thread was breaking away.

Feeling the weight finally lift from her chest, Gena smiled and knew herself. It was time for the fires to die. “This kingdom is yours now, Roxy… Listen to your heart, because the bell tolls for you.” And with that, she released herself from her robe. She fell straight through it, naked skin in the wind and darkness, floating like a feather into the abyss.

Roxanne stared down at her, holding the flapping remains of her robe in hand. Time seemed to stop, holding its breath. Roxanne held the robe close to her chest and felt it still beating. Still warm. Still alive.

“Gena…” she whispered.

Suddenly, before she could pull her thoughts from the darkness, a loud clang echoed through the tower. Hundreds of pigeons shot out from the rafters in a fury of white, but even their caw-caws couldn’t overwhelm the power of that ring, that freedom that broke the silence.

Isabella’s eyes widened and she felt the weight on her neck, pulling her back, drawing her into oblivion.