Boom, boom, boom.
‘Something big is coming,’ Jim said. Beth agreed, but didn’t want to think about it right now. She couldn’t—she was close to the breaking point as it was. They all were.
Beth listened, beyond the booming of whatever approached, but could hear nothing inside the Heritage Centre. That was good in one respect. It meant no creatures were in here with them. But, if Aiden wasn’t responding, it meant he wasn’t here, he was dead, or he didn’t want to be found.
She hoped it was the latter.
‘Josh, you and I will look upstairs,’ Beth said, forcing herself to act. ‘Jim, take a seat on the steps. We’re going to need to do more running soon, and I need you to get your wind back.’
‘I’m fi—’
‘No!’ Beth snapped. ‘You aren’t fine, and we don’t have time to argue about it. Get yourself together. Keep an eye on Pete. But be ready to leave when we need to.’
Jim frowned, but he nodded reluctantly. Beth and Josh then thundered up the stairs, yelling out Aiden’s name.
The search was a short one.
As soon as they reached the hallway upstairs, they heard a door open to their left. Aiden’s head peeked out, a look of horror on his face.
‘I… I didn’t know it would be like this,’ he said in a whimpering voice. Anger surged through Beth. What the hell did you think it would be like? She couldn’t vocalise that right now, however. She needed his help.
‘Is there a way to stop it?’ she asked him as calmly and evenly as she could.
‘I didn’t mean for all this to happen,’ was his only reply.
Beth took a step forward. ‘That doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is stopping it. Now, tell me, do you know if we can? Can we close the door?’
Aiden was slow in responding, and Beth held her breath, waiting for his reply.
He nodded slowly. ‘I think so.’
Chapter 38
William kept himself hidden central to the mass of people moving back into town. The Order’s numbers had dropped en-route, with many of the grey-robed protectors giving their lives protecting him from the monstrosities that attacked. Their numbers were still strong, though, and William knew this town well.
He knew which backstreets would best keep them off the main roads, and William successfully led the group to the main street, where they huddled in a secluded alley. From the relative safety of the thruway, he saw that bitch Beth and her troublesome brother disappear inside of his home. The Heritage Centre.
And then he realised their plan.
Aiden!
The young man was born to study and learn, and was therefore perfect for William to have around as a tool to distil information from the sacred texts and scriptures. Aiden would also know how to stop the ritual and close the door.
Beth and Josh had likely figured that out, too.
Aiden was a believer, but this madness was testing even William, and he did not think the young man could hold his nerve through what needed be done. That was one of the reasons he was always kept at arms-length for some of the more hands-on matters.
However, William knew where they all were now. There would be no hiding.
Chapter 39
Josh felt a palpable sense of relief.
The change in his sister over such a short time was frightening. Beth’s skin had paled, her eyelids were distinctly purple, and there was now a hint of dark veins showing on her face—faint black lines beneath the skin that criss-crossed about the flesh. Josh was damn sure he wouldn’t give up on her, but he was terrified there would be no way to stop what was happening.
And it was his fault.
As much as Josh could say he wasn’t aware of the Order’s full aims, he knew that was just an excuse. He had simply been seduced by what they had promised: the praise they had lavished on him while they had called him ‘special,’ which was something he’d never considered himself before. He had also been seduced by a beautiful woman who knew all too well how to play him. In the end, Josh had known the whole thing was fucked up, but he had gone along with it anyway, ignoring his own conscience and intuition.
But Aiden’s words sparked a genuine hope that he could go somehow get redemption in the eyes of his sister.
He knew it might cost him his own life, but that was a payment he felt was probably fair.
Josh quickly ran over to Aiden, who shrunk back into the room from which he had just exited. However, giving Aiden no time to slam the door, Josh planted his foot to the base and stopped the door from closing. He then grabbed Aiden by the collar and pulled the cowering young man out into the hallway.
‘Listen to me, Aiden, and listen good,’ Josh snarled. ‘No games, and no fucking around. How do we stop it?’
‘The symbols within the seal of Moloch,’ he quickly said. ‘The seal is what keeps the door open. Destroy what is within and you close the door. Everything will revert back to how it was.’
Was that it? Could it really be so simple?
‘And everything returns to normal?’ Josh asked.
‘Well, the two worlds will separate.’
‘And people in the town will be safe?’
Aiden shook his head. ‘Only if they are within the seal. That is the point where the connection is, where the two places align and merge because of the ritual. That is the gate, and when it closes you have to be within it to come out of the other side. Everyone who isn’t inside will be trapped here.’
Josh thought back to when the initial change occurred, and how he felt that shockwave push out from the symbols the Order had put down.
‘But no one besides the dead sacrifices was inside before,’ Josh said, ‘and everyone in town still got pulled through.’
‘Because the seal was whole. That’s what keeps everything held together. Imagine a flat piece of paper, drawing with lice, that has a red spot in its centre. Now, that paper is taken and placed in a tray of water.’
‘And we are the lice?’ Josh asked as Beth walked over to them both.
Aiden nodded. ‘Yes. And the water is the other world. The paper will slowly become submerged as the water covers and engulfs it, which will submerge the lice as well. That flat paper is soon completely drowned in the water. The lice can scurry and swim around in their new environment. But, by breaking the seal, you are in effect tearing out the centre, the red spot, and yanking it free. The lice on that red spot go with it, back to their original environment and free of the water. But everything else, all those lives swimming and drowning, remain. You could wait until the ritual ends, though. It isn’t indefinitely long. The worlds will slowly separate. Then the paper is lifted out as one, and everything on it will come back too. But, by waiting…’ He looked to Beth.
‘We can’t wait,’ Beth stated. ‘Whatever is happening to me, whatever is growing in me, it's happening quick. I can feel it. It’s going to keep the doorway open permanently, right?’
Aiden nodded. ‘Yes. Have you seen that thing in the sky? The eye? The Master told us of it. That is Vao. It is something unknowable. Infinite. Its gaze is creation itself. It knows everything, but it is madness incarnate. The Master believes that it is Vao who created our reality, from a dream. We are but a mistake, a product of a wandering mind, that had evaded detection from most of the Great Ones thus far. Vao sees everything, but doesn’t really take note of everything. It would be like us looking down at a colony of ants. How much notice do you take of each individual ant? So, to draw Vao’s attention and undivided focus, we planned to create a new great being. One like Ashklaar—the creator of our Master—but this Great One would be born from a life native to our realm. And therefore, diverting its gaze, Vao would see through the gate into our realm. Into its own dream. The two would then permanently be joined.’
‘By the power of that thing simply looking at us?’ Josh asked, not bothering to hide the disbelief in his voice.
‘By the power of its conciseness. The first, original consciousness. One that has existed fo
rever. And, through its dreams, realities have been born. Our universe, and our galaxies, spread out from one such dream. Others have as well.’
‘That sounds like complete horseshit,’ Josh said.
Aiden shrugged. ‘It was told by the Master, he who communes with Ashklaar.’
‘Ashklaar? That thing up on the cliffs?’ Beth asked.
Aiden's eyes went wide. ‘You saw it? What was it like? How did you feel in its presence?’
‘Disgusted,’ Beth said. ‘I don’t know what to make of everything you’re saying, but it doesn’t matter. Horseshit or not, Josh, we can’t ignore what we are seeing.’
Josh knew she was right. ‘Agreed.’
Beth turned back to Aiden. ‘So, we need to destroy the symbols within the seal. How do we do that? Does it involve a sacrifice or something?’
Aiden frowned. ‘What? No. Why would you think that?’
Josh and Beth cast a glance at each other. ‘Are you kidding, Aiden?’ Josh said. ‘How could we not? Look at what started this whole thing. Every single thing you people do seems to involve death and flesh and blood.’
‘Oh,’ Aiden said, nodding slowly. ‘I guess you’re right. But no, you just need to destroy the markings. Kick away what joins the circles of Moloch. But we need to stay inside the outer marking of the seal if we are to return home.’
Josh grinned. ‘We?’ he asked. ‘You expect us to let you come along?’
Aiden’s eyes went wide in panic. ‘You have to!’ he shouted. ‘You can’t leave me here. I helped you!’
‘You helped create this hell, Aiden!’ Josh snapped back, and Aiden’s head dropped.
‘I did,’ he replied. ‘But so did you.’
That caused Josh to pause. The little fucker had a point. Josh turned to Beth for guidance. She looked bad now, and he could see small lumps smattered across her skin. The fucking booming and rumbling outside was becoming louder and louder, causing fresh panic to surge through him. The sounds were now happening rapidly, with virtually no time between each immense crash.
‘He comes with us,’ Beth said, looking around in a panic. Josh wasn’t about to argue. But he had one more question that needed answering.
‘And how do we stop what is happening to Beth? There has to be a way.'
But he didn’t get a reply, as they all heard Jim call from downstairs.
‘We’ve got company!’
Chapter 40
Jim came running up the stairs with Jess.
‘What is it?’ Beth asked.
She had a feeling it was something to do with the crashing noises getting closer and closer. Then, however, she heard voices downstairs, coming in from the back entrance, William Kent’s at the head.
‘Find them!’ he shouted.
Josh turned to Aiden and, with anger in his voice, quietly asked, ‘Didn’t you lock any of the doors in this place?’
Aiden hung his head again. ‘Until I heard you, I was too scared to come out of my room.’
‘We need to get out of here,’ Beth whispered. ‘Back to the clifftop.’ They quickly moved farther down the hallway. ‘Is there another way out?’
‘Pete?’ she heard Kent exclaim in surprise from downstairs. ‘Where are they?’
Pete’s response was woozy and mumbled. ‘In here… somewhere.’
She turned to Aiden as they moved. ‘Talk. Because they’ll kill you, too, when I tell them how you are helping us.’
He looked terrified. ‘The door at the end leads to the roof. There’s an external fire stairwell that will take us to street level.’
‘Well we can’t go back down there,’ Jim said, pointing to the stairs behind them. ‘From the sounds of it, there’s far too many of them’
Jim was right—Beth could hear the sound of multiple footsteps from downstairs. Footsteps that soon started to thunder up the stairs after them. The noise outside, however, those booming footfalls, was almost deafening now. Something massive was close.
The group broke through the door at the end of the corridor, where a flight of wooden steps in a narrow stairwell opened up flanked either side by concrete walls. They rushed up the steps to a metal escape door at the top. When they reached it, Beth noticed that the thundering noises—that now sounded on top of them—suddenly stopped. The group pushed the escape bar on the door and ran through and out into the open air. The door swung shut behind them, but—given it was an escape door with no external handles—there was no way to lock it from the outside. Beth and the others found themselves on a flat area of roof about five metres by five metres squared. The floor underfoot was exposed concrete that had a slight camber to it, running off towards rainwater collection gutters at either side. Ahead was a waist-high parapet, a section of which was cut out. Black metal escape stairs ran down out of view from this point, hugging the side of the building tightly. Either side of the flat roof, and behind them, was a vertical section of wall. This continued up about ten feet and met with a slate roof which ran down at an angle away from them.
It was clearly an escape route in the event of fire, and the way down was just ahead. However, the group was frozen to the spot. Jess barked savagely at what loomed above them.
A titan.
A nightmare given form. It was so large that, because of how close they were, Beth and the rest of them could not make out its full form, only what filled their view. Beth screamed. They all did.
They were looking up at the underside of… something. It was like the massive underside of an arachnid, with patches of dull whites and greys set in against the blacks of an outer, harder, armoured exoskeleton. Enormously thick legs layered with spines ran around the outer edges of the body, dropping down past the edges of the building and out of sight.
The underbelly of the titan, however, had massive ridges that ran together towards a huge, gaping hole. The abdomen area around the hole had thousands upon thousands of eyes covering it, ranging in size from as small as stones to the size of houses. All of the eyes were a cloudy yellow, each with multiple pupils inside. And that huge hole, that yawned and twitched, was wider than the building on which they stood. It was a mouth, but devoid of teeth of any kind, and the thick purple flesh inside curved up, like a dome, before disappearing into a dark void that hid the crest.
The smell that wafted down was awful—like a constant gust of rotted meat. And from the mouth, long and writhing tendrils fell, each attached to the inner walls of flesh. The wriggling tendrils also numbered in the thousands, and seemed to be able to drop, extend, and retract at will. They moved independently of each other, as if each one was alive and separately conscious of the terrible whole. The tentacles were a dark pink and lined with small teeth.
Other protrusions dropped from the yawning hole as well. These were bigger, wider, and fewer in number. The immense trunks were made of a thick and translucent skin that had veins visible beneath the surface. The ends of the huge tubes expanded and contracted, as if taking in air. Beth saw that the tendrils were lifting up captured prey from the ground. Some were unfortunate townspeople, while others were creatures native to this world. Each was stuffed into one of the long trunks, which in turn contracted around their prey, trapping them within their mass.
Beth could see a liquid inside that slowly dissolved whatever was within the appendages. The contraction of muscles also helped to mash the bodies, and the mess that remained flowed upwards, off into the wide void that blocked out the sky.
It was a hideous but awe-inspiring sight that left the group all frozen to the spot.
Soon, the door behind them burst open, and the pursuing cult—led by William Kent—spilled out onto the terrace. Beth noticed that Pete, still looking woozy, was among the group.
‘Get them!’ William ordered, but no sooner had he given the command than he and his followers all looked up to what blocked out the sky.
A number of the searching eyes on the underbelly fell onto them, and Beth suddenly felt like a bug in the sights of a predator.
; Masses of the tendrils started to descend towards them, writhing and curling hungrily.
Everyone scattered and fled. Given the danger, the members of the Order now seemed to care little for capturing Beth and her group, and instead ran in fear and panic. The problem, however, was that the roof they were on was small and crowded, and the door behind them could not be opened to escape through. They were all trapped up here.
Soon, the fleshy tendrils plucked up their first victim.
Pete.
He was snared about the waist and hoisted up, thrashing and shrieking as he went. One of the clear protrusions came to meet him and Pete was thrust inside as the disgusting tube swallowed him up. Despite running for her life while dodging the grasping tentacles, Beth couldn’t help but glance up to watch what was happening to Pete within the translucent tube. He was sucked up farther and farther, becoming little more than a dark smudge as he moved higher. A smudge that soon had a distinct red tint to it.
Another cultist was taken. Then another.
As Beth ran, a thought struck her.
This could be it. A way to ensure the plan of the Order—and the birthing of this new entity—was stopped.
She could sacrifice herself.
If she was dead, the doorway could never be made permanent, as she would not be able to birth the monster the Order wanted.
She turned and saw that Josh, Aiden, and Jim—who had Jess bundled up in his arms—had managed to make it to the escape stairs and were calling over to her.
Arms suddenly locked around her waist, and Beth was able to spin to see that William Kent had hold of her. He tightened his arms around her.
‘You’re coming with me,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Enough games.’
Beth, in turn, grabbed him around the back of the neck and linked her arms together. With his hold around her waist, they looked to be in a dancing position, except for the look of disdain they both had for each other. But Beth then smiled.
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