At World's End Read online

  The girl had a dubious and frowned look on her face, and she stared down at Zac for a moment before he realized this.

  “Who are you?” The girl asked, trying as much as possible to be polite to the stranger.

  Zac looked up at her, studying the wand which she was now pointing directly at him. It was a thin black stick, no longer than a thirty-centimeter ruler but seemed significantly less thick than that he had seen with Grandma.

  He got up to his feet, warily putting his eyes on the girl. He realized that he could barely see anything else in the shed, and the only sounds he could hear were the whooshing sounds of the wind outside.

  “I’m Zac,” he said, “I’m here for a visit.”

  The girl still had the sternest frown on her face.

  “I came to this place just yesterday,” said Zac.

  “This is not a place for visiting,” she said in a gruff voice. “Nobody is allowed to come here.”

  Zac raised his eyelids in surprise, wondering what to say.

  “Who are you?” He finally asked after a long pause.

  The girl remained standing there quietly and pointed her wand directly at Zac. She seemed unsure of what to say, as though she was looking for the right words to address Zac.

  “I’ve been trying to find somebody to tell me what the hell is going on here,” Zac said, staring at the girl’s eyes. “My grandparents won’t tell me a thing.”

  The girl’s eyes seemed to light up.

  “Those are your grandparents living down this road, the small farmhouse with the red roof?” She asked.

  Zac nodded with a smile. “Yes. That’s them.”

  The girl smiled as well. “I didn’t realize.” She stopped pointing her wand at Zac and instead, gave him her right hand.

  “I’m Valeria.”

  “Zac; it’s a pleasure to meet you, and thanks for saving me.”

  Both stared at each other for a moment as if acknowledging each other’s presence.

  “This is a dangerous place,” said Valeria. “Why did your grandparents allow you to come outside alone?”

  Zac shrugged. “There’s nothing to do in their house.”

  Valeria laughed, so loudly that for a second Zac thought the noise would invite the animals chasing at him to return.

  “What were those animals that were chasing me earlier?” Zac asked.

  “Those are barking ghosts,” Valeria said, a serious look developing on her face. “They are an extremely dangerous pack of invisible dogs. You are lucky I was here—they would have ripped you apart without you even seeing them.”

  Zac’s eyes widened.

  Valeria got closer to him. “That’s not the most serious problem in this place, though.”

  Zac remained motionless and silent.

  “I don’t know why you have come here now at this moment,” said Valeria, “but I don’t see how you’ll get out of here alive.”

  Chapter 11

  “What do you mean?” Zac asked. He was trying to make something of the serious expression that was developing on Valeria’s face, and her words were utterly cold and chilly, just like the snow dripping off Zac’s wet clothes.

  Valeria shook her head. “Nobody has told you where this is, right?”

  Zac shrugged and nodded at the same time.

  “Well,” said Valeria, “I’ll show you.”

  There was a loud sound of the gust of wind outside rising high up in the air and carrying with it slivers of snow. There was a sudden, terrific great wind that pounded snow on the wooden door and walls of the shed.

  “We shouldn’t stay long in here,” said Valeria, “I was actually walking towards the Western Wall. Would you like to come?”

  “Why not?” Responded Zac.

  Valeria reached for the door, reaching close enough to Zac for him to feel the hint of lavender on Valeria’s white top. She opened the door slowly and meticulously, sticking her head outside to survey the snowy outside as the strong winds subsided.

  “What did you do to those ‘dogs’?” Zac asked. He raised both his index fingers in a vertical motion when he said the word ‘dogs.’

  “I confused them,” said Valeria, sticking her head back into the shed. “There is a specific magic spell for that.”

  She looked at Zac more closely.

  “Where do you come from?” She asked. “Don’t you use magic?”

  Zac shrugged. “Where I’m from, people are not allowed to use magic until they are eighteen years of age.”

  “Oh my God,” said Valeria, raising her left hand to her mouth and her eyes bulging out from their sockets. “Don’t tell me you’re from the infamous kingdom of Atlantis.”

  Zac smiled.

  “It’s so very sad,” said Valeria, “what you’re missing, what you can do with magic.”

  “Can you show me?”

  Valeria let out a laugh. “Well,” she said, “you’re in good hands. And there are no restrictions on the use of magic here. No laws. In fact, I don’t think human beings would be able to live here without magic.”

  Zac could not understand. “Why?”

  Valeria smiled. “I’ll show you, don’t worry. Do you mind telling me why you came here?”

  “There’s a war back home,” Zac said. “My father sent me here until it is over.”

  Valeria smiled. “That’s understandable. Without magic, there’s nothing you’d be able to do.”

  She reached for the door once again. “Follow me. I’ll take you to the most interesting place in the South Pole. It might help answer some questions for you.”

  She pulled open the door, surveyed the area quickly, and jumped outside into the cold. Zac followed suit.

  They raced across the snow in the direction that Zac had come earlier. He now felt confident and happy racing through the snow as he was not alone, and he had at least found somebody to talk to.

  They ran for almost twenty minutes, Zac struggling to keep up with Valeria who obviously glided through the snow with greater ease. She had been in the South Pole for a long time, and had adapted to living in an icy environment.

  Even though there was snow everywhere, it seemed to get colder with every step they took. At some point, Valeria pointed towards her left, indicating loudly to Zac, “I think your grandparents' house is somewhere in that direction.”

  Zac could not tell because the entire landscape looked all the same to him. They might have been running straight for more than twenty minutes, but all he noticed in the changing landscape was the thickness of the snow covering in different parts of the area.

  Zac was starting to feel quite exhausted, and the harder the deep breaths he took, the colder he felt.

  The surrounding also seemed to change. The whiteness was slowly being consumed by a strange blackness, and Zac started noticing for the first time that there were large, black boulders concealing themselves in the thickness of the snow cover.

  The sound of the whooshing wind was even louder, and there was a sense of hazard tingling somewhere inside Zac.

  Are the invisible hounds nearby? He asked himself. What the hell is it with this place?

  “Where are you taking me?” He shouted to Valeria. She had already gained some ground ahead of him.

  She stopped where she was and turned around to Zac, waving at him and indicating to him to hurry up. When he caught up to her, he felt that he could not be able to bear the cold anymore.

  “W-why has it gotten so cold?” He asked Valeria.

  Valeria had a smile on her face. She did not seem to be so perturbed by the cold as was Zac.

  “We’re getting closer,” she said. The winds seemed to be blowing even stronger here, and Valeria had to speak up so that the stricken Zac could hear her.

  “I can’t believe how cold it has become,” said Zac, his teeth chattering non stop.

  Valeria started walking on, but more slowly. The strong winds were inhibiting them from moving quickly.

  Then Zac noticed it, at first rejecting
what he had seen, then settling on the horror of the reality:

  Before them, stretching on in endless darkness, there was a large void, like the crater of a volcanic mountain, so large that there were clouds hanging right above ground level.

  Zac noticed that Valeria had brought him to the edge of an enormous pit, and he realized why he started to feel much colder. Valeria had already gotten right to the edge of the pit, but Zac was struggling to catch up with her, partly because of the horror of where they were and partly because the winds were blowing so strong now that they were throwing up snow and rocky dust in Zac’s face.

  Zac tried to shout something to Valeria, but his words got sucked up in the strong winds and blew away into the swirling snow. By the time Zac got to Valeria’s location, he could barely conceal his shock.

  The bare emptiness of the place was astounding. Zac had gotten so used to the whiteness of his surrounding, the sudden appearance of the blackness of the void was difficult to take.

  Valeria could see the shock on Zac’s face. It amused her. The strong winds blowing were causing strange sounds to emanate from the cold darkness below.

  They were close enough to the edge, but Zac did not dare go any closer, noticing that the edges of the pit seemed to extend into the horizon in a circular manner.

  “Welcome to the end of the world,” Valeria said in a soft voice.

  Chapter 12

  The strong winds were rifling through Zac’s black hair, and this seemed to have no effect on his surprise. The daunting darkness before him was very intimidating, and the fact that anything was barely visible made it even more frightening.

  Zac looked at Valeria who was staring ahead and seemed to be taking in the strange scenery in a different appreciation. She was breathing heavily in delight, and there was a large smile plastered on her face.

  “What do you mean ‘the end of the world’?” Zac asked.

  “Exactly that,” replied Valeria, “can’t you see?”

  Zac looked straight ahead, but all he could see was darkness.

  “There’s nothing beyond here”, Valeria said, indicating to Zac the edge of the pit. “This is where the world we know stops.”

  “How come I’ve never heard of this before?” Zac asked, “Is this some sort of magic?”

  Valeria laughed.

  Zac again struggled to look through the darkness, but to no avail.

  “Why would my father send me here?” Zac asked aloud.

  “This is the safest place you can be,” Valeria said, turning to study Zac. “It actually makes perfect sense why your father sent you here. Nobody can get to you here.”

  Zac stared into the darkness of the void, several questions still racing through his head. Everything he had seen since his father asked him to travel here was out of the ordinary—things he had never before seen in his life.

  The coldness of the place was astounding. The howling of the wind below them seemed to be getting louder.

  “We’ll have to get back,” Valeria said. “We’re actually not allowed to come out this far—to the edge.”

  “Tell me something, then,” said Zac. “Is there land beyond this point—other life out there?”

  Valeria turned to look him squarely in the eye. “That’s a secret.”

  Zac frowned. “What’s so secret about that? Why won’t you just let me know?”

  “I have an ancient book that will answer all your questions,” said Valeria. “Let’s go back, and I’ll show you.”

  Zac nodded. He looked up at the sky and noticed that it was heavily clouded. Any light coming from the sky was stifled by the clouds like a blanket smothering a young baby to sleep.

  Valeria turned around and started walking slowly back in the direction they had come. Zac followed suit slowly, looking over at the dark edge one more time.

  As they started walking slowly back, this time the wind behind them—a very loud bellowing noise, made Zac stop dead in his tracks and turn around. Even Valeria was alarmed by the sudden bellowing clamor that seemed to be coming from the darkness below the edge, halting in her tracks as well.

  Zac’s curiosity had already made him take the first step back towards the edge, but he had not noticed that Valeria was suddenly the one on edge. Her eyes had almost swollen out of their sockets, and she was staring ominously into the space ahead of them.

  “Zac,” she started to say, then reached forward quickly and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Our lives are in danger.”

  Zac’s eyes also bulged when he realized just how serious Valeria was from the expression on her face.

  “Run!”

  Once again, Zac found himself running for dear life, stumbling along the rocky terrain before getting to the snow-covered sections of the ground. With the wind behind them, Zac felt more confident running faster and in tandem with Valeria.

  However, he did not understand what they were running away from—but judging from the frightened look on Valeria’s face, he did not want to stick around to find out.

  He was starting to understand his grandfather’s warning earlier when he had told Zac that the South Pole was not a particularly safe place. This was turning out to be the strangest “holiday” for Zac because he was spending most of it sprinting away from one hazard and into another.

  The bellowing sound behind them was accompanied by a compelling whooshing sound, and there was a disturbingly loud, cracking sound behind them that launched a large chunk of snow along with black rocks high into the air.

  Zac stole a glance behind him, and he was shocked to see that the ground they had been standing on earlier had formed into a depression, with a large crack all the way to the edge having been developed.

  As he was looking behind him while running forward, Zac again stumbled in the deepening snow cover of the ground and lost his balance.

  “Valeria!” He shouted as he felt his entire body lurch forward, his feet completely setting off the ground. He landed with a heavy thud into the rocky-cum-snow-covered ground.

  Valeria had come to a screeching halt and was starting to tumble back towards Zac desperately.

  While on the ground, Zac noticed that a large, white, steam-like haze was rising from below the edge into the air, so high it that it was dispersing the puffy clouds directly above it.

  The bellowing sound seemed to be getting louder, and in the process, a deep bass hum accompanied it. Consequently, tremors emanated on the rocky ground that manifested themselves in large visible cracks that stretched across the rocky terrain.

  Valeria grabbed Zac’s shoulders and pulled him up.

  “Move!” She shouted at him.

  Once on his feet, Zac started running again, but this time without looking back. He was already terrified enough of the ground developing rapid cracks that could consume them at any moment.

  He followed Valeria as they burst out onto the snowy terrain, the bellowing sounds growing even louder and the tremors posing a bigger threat.

  “What the hell is that?” Zac screamed at Valeria, but she was too busy running for her life to focus on giving a reply.

  Suddenly, there was a large, banging sound behind them, right on the rocks, and this time when Zac threw a glance behind him to see what they were fleeing from, he started hoping that he never did so.

  He saw a giant green hand slamming the ground from the edge, oozing black-greenish liquid from its enormous fingers.

  Chapter 13

  The large, green slimy monster stretched its gigantic hand over the rough terrain, boosting its heaving body up from the depths of the ground and its large, horned head appearing above ground.

  The monster had deep yellow eyes the size of basketballs, and his large pupils rolled to stare down at the fleeing youngsters, still supporting its weight over the edge of the land with its hand. It let out another loud bellow that sent shattering shockwaves throughout the place.

  “You two,” it shouted, much to the surprise and disbelief of Zac, “stop where you are!”
>
  But the fleeing youngsters made no inclination to stop, and instead, they scrambled even faster over the snow and disappeared into the distance.

  Zac was hysterical, screaming and running at the same time. Almost everything he had assumed he knew was shattering before him, and all he could think of at that point was running even faster.

  “Let’s head for your grandparent’s house,” Valeria shouted over the crunching sounds of their shoes in the snow. “It’s the closest place to us now.”

  “What the hell is that thing?” Zac shouted back, but his words seemed to disappear in the gale-force wind.

  They kept running until the familiar farmhouse came into view in the distance. Zac did not stop running until he was on the front porch of the house. Upon looking back, all they could see was the snow rising in the air—courtesy of the robust winds. They had left visible, scrambled footprints that stretched into the distant whiteness.

  Valeria knocked on the door, anxiously at first, and then she pounded on it. She was just as nervous as Zac.

  “That thing could talk,” Zac shouted at Valeria even though she was standing right in front of him. “What the hell was that?”

  “That’s what we’re all afraid of,” Valeria replied, knocking on the door again.

  “What kind of animal is that?” Zac could not stop the flow of questions gushing from his mouth like a burst pipe spewing its water haphazardly.

  Valeria knocked on the door again, suddenly realizing that there was probably nobody in the house to answer the door.

  “Zac,” Valeria started to say.

  “You have to tell me what the hell is going on here,” Zac said, his eyes wide and his voice delirious.

  “Zac,” Valeria said again, “are your grandparents in?”

  Zac stopped with his flurry of questions for a moment, realizing that they had been standing on the porch far longer than he would have wished to. Valeria had been knocking on the door long enough, yet they were still standing outside in the freezing cold.

  Were his grandparents not home?

  He reached for the door handle and pulled the door open. The eerie darkness of the hallway greeted them, and they quickly ushered themselves inside away from the cold.