Frauleinstein

Chapter XVI: Livin' on the Edge, Part II

Roddy and Zolfina had barely cleared the front doors when the earth began to shake. One of the few remaining original castle walls collapsed, falling into the building. Roddy and Zolfina continued to run as the building itself started to collapse. The massive complex and the grounds surrounding it crumpled and fell into the earth, swallowed up by the immense void beneath.

They were well down the road before Roddy felt it safe to turn and look back. What he saw shocked him. The building and all traces of the original castle were now gone, disappeared without a hint of their existence remaining as they slid into the cavern and the deep chasm below it. But the hillside leading to the mountain behind the building was also gone, having collapsed into the hole as well. The Earth had sealed itself, leaving behind nothing of the cavern or the experiments which had taken place within it.

Roddy waited a while before speaking. When the appropriate moment of silence had expired he turned to Zolfina.

"Well, it's still early. Do you have anything else you'd like to do today?"

Zolfina smiled. "I thought you might walk me back to town."

Yes, of course," Roddy agreed. He took Zolfina's hand, and they walked down the road together for some time without speaking.

"I was wondering," said Zolfina, breaking the silence. "You had a chance to shoot The Monster, and yet you did not. May I ask why?"

"Well I'm thinking now that it probably wouldn't have done any good anyway," Roddy told her. "But the real reason is that gun is over seventy years old! It would probably blow up in my hand if I ever actually fired it. I don't even keep bullets for it anymore."

"Huh," said Zolfina, nodding her head as she considered his answer. "Very sensible." They walked in silence for a while longer.

"I take it," said Roddy, breaking the silence this time. "That was not Valeria Engel?"

"No," Zolfina told him.

"Then who was it?" he wanted to know.

"A guy named Steve," Zolfina answered.

"A guy named Steve?" Roddy asked incredulously.

"Uh huh," replied Zolfina. "I knew him before."

"Really?" said Roddy. "How is that possible?"

"Life is like a book," Zolfina said with a shrug. "Or sometimes a series of books. In some stories, we play larger roles than others."

Roddy looked at Zolfina for a while. "I thought you were a gypsy, not a philosopher."

Zolfina shrugged. "A bit of both, I guess."

They walked silently for a while until Roddy spoke once again.

"I wonder if that old barn is still around here somewhere?"

Zolfina smiled, then laughed. She took Roddy's hand, and they continued down the road.

_____

+–+–+

(@ @)

  VVV

Hours had passed since the Earth had healed itself, filling the void which for so long had been otherwise filled with evil. The building was gone, the parking circle and grounds were similarly swallowed up.

The base of the old tower which had been used as a machine gun turret in World War 2 still remained, although it was further cracked and collapsed back toward the void. It wasn't until you reached the hill down into the valley, where the stones broken from the tower base rested these past seventy years, that the evidence of change stopped.

Across the valley, up the other side, into the woods, nothing had changed. Through the woods, the birds and animals had resumed their usual routines. Further still, the forest denizens were possibly even unaware that anything had ever happened. Slightly beyond that there was a meadow.

 At the center of the meadow, a filthy manicured hand shot up from the ground...

A/N: I hope that scared somebody! Please say it did.

But wait, that's not the end! You have to read the epilogue to find out what really happens...