Edge of End by Suren Hakobyan

got
out.
    “ Are you coming?” I asked
over my shoulder.
    She didn’t answer, got out of the car
and started walking at my side.
    We were on the road
leading to the beginning of the town again. We passed by several
houses when Elizabeth stopped abruptly.
    “ Look,” she whispered.
Instinctively I glanced back in awe. “No, there,” she indicated to
the left.
    There, at a dim walled house settled
about fifty steps away, I saw a person set on a broken bench, a
hood tossed over its head. It was seemingly an old woman wrapped in
a ragged and splotchy dress.
    I took a step towards her, but
Elizabeth reached for my arm.
    “ We don’t know what it
is,” she said in a whisper. “It may be something like the monster
in my house.”
    I nodded, but I couldn’t ignore and
just pass her either.
    “ Let’s take a peek,” I
said.
    Elizabeth swallowed, saying nothing in
return. As I picked up my pace, she was next to me.
    As we closed in, the woman’s hushed
voice reached me, singing under her breath.
     
    “ Where do bad folks go
when they die?
    No heaven awaits them, say
to it goodbye”
     
    She repeated those two phrases over
and over again.
    We came to a halt five steps from her.
Narrowing my eyes I tried hard to steal a look of her face, but her
head was tilted.
    “ I’m sorry,” that was
Elizabeth, “Could you help us, please?”
    “ Off you go,
woman.”
    Yes, it was an old woman’s hoarse
voice speaking from under the hood.
    “ She can talk,” I said
scornfully.
    “ As could that monster,”
Elizabeth remarked. Then she turned to the woman asking, “Where am
I supposed to go?”
    “ To your house,” she
replied.
    “ I have no house here,” I
said aloud trying to turn her attention on me.
    The old woman stopped muttering. I
hoped she would look up, but she remained still.
    “ You’re the newbie.” It
sounded as though she smiled under the hood as she said that.
“You’ve taken the wrong way to go, young man.”
    “ I want to get out of this
fuckin’ town,” I said. “What is out there in the desert? Is there
any place with normal people nearby?”
    “ There is only endless
sand. The one entering the town can’t be released
anymore.”
    “ I didn’t see any gate or
high walls around.” I looked at Elizabeth and she shrugged. “We are
not in a prison. What can hold me from leaving this damned
place?”
    “ The town itself will,”
she smirked raising her head. Both Elizabeth and I stared at her
wonderingly, now able to see her face.
    I guess, we both felt disappointed.
There was a wrinkled old face under the hood with narrow eyes and
large scar on her right cheek, but her lips… They just didn’t
exist–like they had been ripped off her leaving several yellow
teeth to dangle in her mouth.
    “ What?” she said. “Want a
fierce kiss, babe?” She laughed. I stared at her, perplexed, until
her mouth relaxed in a smile. To be honest, I couldn’t tell if she
grinned or not, there were no lips to hide her nasty
teeth.
    “ No, thank you,” I
regained myself. “I’d rather kiss her,” I said and looked at
Elizabeth and chortled.
    “ What did happen to you?”
Elizabeth asked.
    “ Chose the wrong man to
kiss, dear,” the old woman said quietly. “That son of a bitch was
cute, really cute, but monster lived behind that beauty, like every
other one in this town.”
    “ Are there other
residents? Where?” Elizabeth interrogated.
    “ You’re better not to
know,” she tilted her head hiding her ugly face. “Especially you,
newbie.”
    “ Why me? What is it about
me?” I found my voice shaking.
    “ You are not wanted here.
Homeless people should be off. The others envy you, I guess. You
have what they don’t.”
    “ What do I have? What are
you talking about?”
    “ I’m just saying–be on
guard, young man,” she muttered remotely. “You’ve got a power, but
you’re still weak. I can feel it. I could put my hand on you, you
wouldn’t fight me off, but, fortunately, my