Paradise Lost Boxed Set

by R. E. Vance

  You see, when the gods left, they closed all their heavens and hells … but they did not destroy them. Instead they boarded them up like mansions one payment away from foreclosure.

  I fought the Avatar of Gravity, and the end result was that I was momentarily thrown into Heaven where I met my long-deceased wife who was at the time—and as far as I know still is—the sole occupant of the former reward given to good human souls. Talk about traveling in low season. How she got there is another long, painful story … let’s just say that my heart leapt with overwhelming joy to see my Bella again, but we both knew to stay in Heaven with her would mean leaving billions of humans and Others in the hands of a maniac—and neither of us could let that happen. My beautiful, wondrous Bella took one look at me and another look at the god-wannabe sorry-excuse-for-a-law-of-physics and told me to kick his ass.

  Then she blew me a kiss that was imbued with a thousand years of life—years that were not mine to own—and I was given the ability to burn time just like Others. Time I burned to kill the Avatar of Gravity.

  I knew what it was like to manifest my will and bring my imagination to life. It was awesome, terrifying and temporary. All my Green Lantern–esque constructs fizzled away as soon as I stopped burning time, living on only as a memory. Magic lasts only as long as the caster lets it. Sure, the results could be devastating or terrible, but it will always be temporary.

  Creation, on the other hand, was another story. You birthed something with Creation and once it was made, it would live on. It would grow and metamorphose into something else. Something that you perhaps did not intend. And seeing that now, I was beginning to realize what happened to the gods. They created us, imbued us with life and then let us go free. What we became was something even the gods could not predict, and looking around the old prison filled with angels, zombies, children and anomalies, I realized that was true of every life they created. Whether we were creatures of myth or constructs of the profane … what they created and who we were today were two different things.

  I friggin’ hate Creation Crystals. With the right knowledge, they can be used to store a specific kind of magic that, when released, is a hundred thousand times more powerful than what was put in. Think of them as the gods’ little amplifiers. When the world almost ended three weeks ago, Pan used a Crystal the size of a witch’s cauldron to steal thousands of years of time from his fellow Others. Oh, and he also used the damn thing to summon Tiamat, a hundred-storey-high kraken sent to end the world.

  And now Colel Cab was using a piece of Crystal a hundred times bigger than Pan’s for her own diabolical plans. Helle-friggin’-lujah.

  Michael and I had wondered how Pan was able to get the Crystal. They are very hard to come by—read: friggin’ impossible—with most of the stuff having been taken by the gods when they left. Of course, they seemed to have left behind just enough to fuel the ambitions of god wannabes—just typical, if you ask me. Evidently, Colel Cab found the mother lode, too. You’d think the gods would have had the foresight to not leave behind the mythical equivalent of a nuclear arsenal, which means either they were careless or apathetic. Either way, shame on them.

  “So,” I said, pointing at the chunk of troublesome rock, “you’re the one who gave Pan the piece he used to cause all that trouble with Tiamat.”

  “Pan?” Colel Cab said with genuine confusion. “Why would I give him anything?”

  “Chaos is your purpose, is it not?”

  “It is. And Pan’s little attempts at it were beneficial, but ultimately unnecessary. I will achieve my Creation with or without him. Although … his actions did necessitate the speedy completion of The Garden.”

  Shit, I thought. So if Colel Cab didn’t give Pan the Crystal, that meant someone else had some to pass around. Not good. Not good at all. “Where did you get your piece?” I asked.

  “You forget—I was a god. I am a god. The God. The Crystal is mine to use.”

  “Not an answer.”

  Colel Cab winked all three of her left eyes slyly at me. “Oh, but it is.”

  “Whatever. Crystal or no, your done.” As if on cue, several more explosions rang out on the surface. “Do you hear that? It’s something all gods face: a reckoning.”

  Another set of explosions, this time louder and much closer, rocked the place, sending dust streaming down. The children screamed and I took a second to look in their direction. “Don’t worry kids! You’ll be safe … just as soon as I deal with BugFace here.” I pointed the tip of my sword at Colel Cab. After I left the Army, I swore I’d never enjoy taking another life. But standing in this prison with all those terrorized children—pawns in Colel Cab’s pathetic bid for god-hood—I figured I’d make an exception.

  Killing her would be my pleasure.

  The prison rocked again, the explosion directly overhead now, and still Colel Cab did not move. Instead, she folded three sets of her arms and smiled. “Perfect,” she said.

  I’ll admit—that took me by surprise. “What’s perfect?” I asked.

  “This … attack.” She clicked her lips together. “When the humans learn of how the Others organized an assault on a prison lawfully built, they will go insane with anger … and with fear. And fear is opportunity. Those who are afraid will always seek me out. And with the Crystal, I shall turn their fear into dreams … dreams of me leading the world into an endless age of prosperity.”

  She clapped all eight of her hands together and moved her body in what I assumed passed as a dance of joy for cow-size insects. “I had thought it would take a decade, perhaps more, to accomplish my goals,” she said. “But you, Mr. Matthias—you have just handed me the world.”

  I growled in frustration. She was right. An assault like this would just serve to confirm the humans’ worst fears.

  But she was forgetting something essential. Something very, very important.

  “The children,” I barked. “Once they see the children, see how the Others came to save them, do you really think anyone will follow you?”

  “I do indeed. Except … I ask you one thing: what children?” She snapped her fingers and the two Occultists made that diamond shape with their hands again. Immediately, the anomalies surrounding us animated and started toward the children.

  “No!” I cried out and charged at the closest anomaly. I slashed at it, severing its claw arm that looked like it was a distorted toy clamper. The arm fell off, bubbling before it hit the ground.

  I pulled out my walkie-talkie and pushed hard on the speak button. “Brian! Brian! I’m at the bottom of the lighthouse. The kids are here and I need back up. Now!”

  Brian’s voice crackled in. “Jean? We’re kind of busy up here, too. There’s lots of … ahhh … monsters and stuff.”

  Somewhere above, I could feel the OtherMe moving. I could see what he could see, feel what he felt, just as if it were me experiencing it—and in a way, I suppose it was. When he heard the explosions on the prison grounds, when he saw the invading Others coming onto the prison’s shores, he felt no fear, nor did he doubt his skills in fending off the invaders. I would have been afraid … hell, I’d faced enough armies and entered enough battles to know that I always felt fear. Every time I ran once more into the fray, I always doubted if I would be strong enough or fast enough or smart enough to get the job done. But the OtherMe had none of those doubts. He was fierce, fearless—and way cooler than I’d ever be.

  But as strong as my connection was with him, he could not feel me. This was a one-way connection, and I knew that both Mr. Cain and Mr. Yew must have been wired to their own OtherMes in the same way. Their ideal selves were running around somewhere, completely unaware and unburdened by the knowledge that their real selves were down here.

  I knew OtherMe saw the invading Others as enemies. As I fought my way to the children down here in the prison, I could only hope that he also had my memories and my feelings. That when he saw Judith and Conner, Milton and Aau, General Shouf and Sinbad, he’d know enough of them to trust tha
t they were the side he should be fighting with, not against. Otherwise, they’d have their hands full—more than full—in dealing with, well, me.

  But as dangerous as I would be above, there were children’s lives at stake below.

  “Now, Brian!” I screamed out, dodging a massive limb that looked like the bones of a puppy’s paw as it swiped at me.

  As another explosion shook the old prison’s corrugated walls, the ijiraq Occultist took out his Shaman-style staff and hit me square on the back. I fell hard, the breath knocked out of me. Even in pain and danger I could feel the OtherMe and what he was doing, what he saw …

  ↔↑↔

  Aau, Conner, Sinbad and Judith made their way to the tower and OtherMe met them at the door. He stared at three of his friends and would not let them pass.

  “Jean?” Conner said. He had a shotgun in his hand that he lowered when he saw the person he believed to be me. “I thought you were in the basement of the tower! You said the children were down there.”

  Sinbad put her hand flat on the ground and closed her eyes. “Sarah … I feel her. She is there!”

  “Let’s go,” Conner said, walking to the entrance—but as soon as he came near, OtherMe grabbed the shotgun out of his hands and threw the weapon into the open door of the lighthouse. “Jean—what are you doing?” But before Conner could say anything else, OtherMe pushed him hard, causing him to fall hard on his back.

  “Human,” Aau barked. “Stand aside … the boy named Elliot requires my protection.”

  OtherMe shook his head and I could feel his confusion. He took a moment to look out at the sea, its water beating the rocks behind the lighthouse. “I … I can’t let you down there,” he said. “I was hired to protect this place. By being here, you’re breaking the law. You’re in violation …” His voice trailed off and for the briefest of moments, I could sense that OtherMe was experiencing doubt. He was no longer sure what his mission was or why he was here. I could feel him search his mind for some memory, some prompt from the past that would explain to him what he was supposed to do.

  “What is wrong with you?” Judith said, and even though I was several stories below the surface, currently engaged in mortal combat with an angel, my ghost of a mother-in-law’s judgmental tone still got to me.

  Sinbad pointed at OtherMe, her expression that of a child who just realized her mommy left the house and won’t be back for a long while. “That’s not Mr. Matthias,” she said, her voice tinted with fear and frustration. “He’s a ShouldNotBe.”

  Judith nodded like she understood exactly what Sinbad meant. Clearly, she thought the RealMe was a ShouldNotBe, as well. Mother-in-laws ... arrgh!

  “I …” OtherMe said, doubt growing in him. “I am me.” Not the best comeback, granted, but gimme a break; even my ideal self can’t be witty all the time.

  OtherMe banged his head with the heel of his palm twice. Hard. I felt it … but at the same time I didn’t. The pain was real, but it did not slow me down as I fought or make me dizzy. It was more like a memory of pain that I was being forced to relive right now. “I …” OtherMe started, then stopped again.

  All of a sudden, all the doubt left him—and he was whole and fearless and fierce once more.

  “You are here to help the prison in its day-to-day operations,” a sultry, inviting voice said.

  From the corner of OtherMe’s gaze, he saw—or rather, we saw—Evil-and-Cute as she approached, her hands held out in that damn diamond shape. I knew that gesture was her way of focusing her power and helping control the anomalies. I knew this because I simultaneously saw her make the gesture—and felt its effect. It was one of the powers Colel Cab granted to her, a power she had granted all of her Occultists.

  She smirked. “You are exactly where you’re supposed to be—unlike these unwanted guests.”

  Conner and Sinbad both noticeably gulped as Evil-and-Cute approached. From the way Aau snarled, I suspected he could smell her power. But Judith? My mother-in-law had no clue who this woman was or what she could do.

  “Who the hell are you?” Judith sniffed.

  “Your worst nightmare,” Evil-and-Cute sneered less ironically than you’d think possible for such a overused line. She touched her tiara with both her pointer fingers before lowering her hands into the diamond gesture.

  And that was when I felt the hold that Colel Cab and her Crystal dreams had on the anomalies and ideal-selves that she’d been responsible for creating. OtherMe, who only a second earlier was full of doubt, was suddenly overcome with an unwavering belief that these invaders, these people whom he knew and had real memories and affection for, were here to do harm. More than harm.

  They were here to kill.

  OtherMe did exactly what I would do when facing off against four enemies: he assessed who was the most dangerous and attacked that one first. In this case, that was Aau.

  OtherMe tackled the jackal-guard with all his force, throwing his body into the Egyptian Other on his back.

  ↔↓↔

  Down below, I—as in RealMe—knew that I wouldn’t be able to face off against all these creatures alone. There were seven anomalies and two Occultists. I was out-manned, out-gunned and out-classed (not very original, I know, but hey, if the cliché fits …). If I was going to rescue the children, I needed help. Right now, the only three people who could come to my aid were currently occupied with the ideal version of myself, as well as Evil-and-Cute, a being who seemed to be invulnerable to pain. The only friend I had nearby was Penemue … and he was pinned to a friggin’ wall.

  A wall in a room less than forty feet away from me. I looked over at the side room, its door still open, but Colel Cab was gone. So were Mr. Yew and Mr. Cain. I guessed she’d grabbed them whenever she’d decided to exit stage left. Only Miral was there, standing at the doorway, guarding it with her sword out.

  I tapped my chest. “Tink, I don’t know if I can do this,” I said. “It’s the Occultists—they’re controlling the anomalies, and I can’t get to the kids in time.”

  I felt a whoomp as Tink pulled herself out of my chest and hovered in front of my face. She looked behind me at the anomalies and the Occultists. Quickly, gestured that she could buy me a couple of minutes, but that I should hurry. I nodded and the little fairy flew off at the ijiraq like a bullet, a golden comet lighting the drab prison. She punched the creature right in the temple and it fell over. She immediately whipped around and shot straight up about twenty feet. Then, in Mighty Mouse–fashion, she dive-bombed the tiyanak and it, too, was knocked to the ground.

  Both the ijiraq and tiyanak were temporarily out of commission, stunned on the prison’s cold steel floor—which meant their limp hands couldn’t make those damn diamonds, causing the anomalies to stop walking.

  But that only lasted a few seconds before the tiyanak shook his head and hissed, “Colel Cab wants the Houlm.” They both stood up, focused on Tink and made the diamonds once more. Immediately the anomalies turned on Tink, each one of them intent on capturing her for their master.

  Apparently Miral wasn’t going to join them in Master-wants-Houlm mode, because she just stood at the door’s threshold, sword out, waiting for me to approach.

  If I was going to get Penemue, I needed to get through Miral first.

  Hellelujah!

  ↔↑↔

  Up above, I felt OtherMe and Aau fight—and not to brag, but boy, oh, boy, was I incredible. Just a couple days earlier, Aau’d thrown me into the alleyway and basically had his way with me before infecting me with his Eye—an experience that just about crippled me—so I’ll admit that a small part of the RealMe was cheering OtherMe on.

  OtherMe moved with a fluidity that was unmatched, countering Aau’s every strike like he could predict exactly where each would come from. Even in my prime, I couldn’t have touched OtherMe in a fight. Aau was going down, and from the expression of shock on the jackal-guard’s face, he knew it. And he was surprised. I should have been easy prey for him, but I was quite the oppos
ite. Conner and Sinbad went to Aau’s aid, but before they could get within five feet of me—ahhh, I mean OtherMe—Evil-and-Cute stepped in and did what she was oh-so-good at.

  Kicking ass.

  She punched Conner. He went down with a thud. With her other hand, she picked up Sinbad and tossed her thirty feet away. The little pirate warrior landed on the asphalt with a tumble, breaking out in a perfect somersault that would have made a Cirque du Soleil acrobat green with envy.

  She turned back and yelled, “That’s not fair!”

  Evil-and-Cute gave her an obnoxious shrug that was equal parts Too bad and What are you going to do about it?

  And just as soon as the fight had begun, it was between Aau and OtherMe. Aau lashed out and OtherMe ducked, getting in a southpaw right jab–left hook combo that sent the beast sprawling across the asphalt. OtherMe approached. From the way he walked, I knew exactly what he was going to do. I’d done it a hundred times before, when I knew I had my opponent. I slowed down and savored the kill. Apparently my ideal self was also an asshole who enjoyed the fight as much as my younger self once did.

  I was sick to my stomach. If OtherMe was everything I could become, I didn’t want to be that. Give me flawed, doubtful, afraid Jean any day.

  OtherMe took two more steps forward. He was going to drive Aau’s head into the side of the lighthouse and while the jackal-guard was stunned, he would break the ancient beast’s neck, snapping it at the top of the spine.