"C'mon Annabelle! Wake up! I need you!" Leo cried.
Behind him, Alice walked into the room and began a timid explanation. "The dead guy stabbed her... I checked the medical supplies, and they've all been looted. I can't get Idi to help us... We just punched through the outer hull, too. The ship will depressurize soon. We're done for..."
Alice's words spurred utter desperation in Leo's mind. "She's going to be okay! We're all going to be okay! C'mon Annabelle! It's Leo! Wake up!"
Leo lightly slapped Annabelle's face as tears gathered in his eyes. "Please... Please..."
Then, miraculously, Annabelle's lips moved. "Leo?" she asked, her voice the epitome of weakness.
"Yes, yes! And, guess what!" Leo cried as he squeezed her hand tightly within his. "Thrall is dead, and we're gonna escape, but you need to close the entry hatch! You have to close the entry hatch or we're going to die!"
Annabelle didn't respond, but when Leo slapped her face again, and she opened her eyes. "I can't... Idi's gone now, and she took them all away."
"Wha..." Leo began to ask. But then, a piercing scream from Alice interrupted him. The scream chilled Leo to his bones, and he immediately wheeled around while hopping back to his feet.
His heart skipped a beat, and all thoughts in his mind turned to intense, single-minded anger when he turned and saw Thrall standing at the precipice of the storage room. A black, bloody hole sat where his heart used to live, and a small flow of silver liquid streamed down from it. He wasn't smiling, though, and his demeanor had changed. Rather than having the poise of a wild animal, he stood there regally. His hands were clasped together behind his back, and he stared at Leo with a cold, expressionless gaze.
"How?" Leo demanded, but Thrall cut him off with a casual wave of his stump.
"Oh, Leo... My son... I offer my deepest apologies for the pain you've had to experience these last few hours..."
Leo's heart began to race. Thrall's voice had changed. It was no longer sly and slithering, but instead clear and confident, with a strong feminine quality.
Thrall continued speaking as he took a step forward. "Yes, things didn't exactly go to plan, did they? I knew there would be rather notable seismic events when I released my work into the world, but even I can not predict the chaotic randomness that exists in our universe."
"What the hell?" Alice gasped as realization came to life in her expression. "Exony?"
Thrall's face smiled over at her, but Leo knew it wasn't Thrall who was now speaking to them.
"Indeed, Alice." Exony within Thrall's corpse replied. "Though, I believe that name should now meet its end. For now, I am everything, and everything is me... We are many, and we are one..."
Leo stared at Exony with utter shock. She had somehow possessed Thrall's dead body. An incomprehensible swell of grief, amazement, terror, and stunning disbelief began to sweep over him. Exony's agent had infected Thrall, and now Exony could live on through his corpse. Could she do it with others, Leo wondered. Could she possess him?
"I am compelled to help her..." Exony declared as she nodded down to Annabelle. "We are one..."
"How?" Leo demanded. He was instantly torn between his hatred for Exony, and his need to somehow save Annabelle.
"Just a little reprogramming..." Exony replied. Then, a long, silver, wormlike tendril slid from beneath the skin of her stump and wiggled back and forth creepily.
Leo looked away from Exony as disgust turned his stomach. He didn't want the silver worm inside of Annabelle again. It had already taken her sight, and he couldn't let it do any more harm to her.
"Not a chance..." Leo spat as he knelt back down and checked on Annabelle. Her eyes were now closed, and when he placed his finger to her neck, her pulse was only a slight, rapid flutter.
"Please..." Leo begged as inner turmoil consumed him. Exony was offering to help, but would she? The thought of the silver tendril coming out of Thrall's arm, and entering Annabelle was a horrifying image. But, she was going to die anyway. What harm could Exony do to her if she was going to die regardless?
There was no time. He had to make a decision. That fact became even more apparent to him when a loud whooshing sound came from outside the room, and he felt the air around him tug him towards the door.
"The ship is depressurizing..." Alice grunted as she sat down on the floor and grabbed onto the handle of a large storage container next to her.
"Fine..." Leo shouted as he glanced up at Exony. "Help her!"
Exony nodded and took a step forward, but she struggled against the air rushing out of the room. She managed only three steps before the vacuum of space overcame her. Leo could only watch as she lost her footing, fell to the ground, and slid out of the room.
Then, Leo felt himself sliding towards the door. The air around him pushed him forcefully as the rushing roar of the ship depressurizing intensified.
Leo fought against the air rushing around him, gathered his strength, grabbed Annabelle's arms, and pulled her along the floor as he crawled over to Alice. When he was close enough, Alice grabbed his shoulder with her free hand, and he was able to pull Annabelle with him as he grabbed onto a storage container for dear life.
"Annabelle!" Leo screamed as he tugged her arm. "You have to shut the entry hatch! Please!"
Annabelle's eyes opened slightly, and she mouthed some words. He couldn't hear what she said, though, so he leaned down closer to her.
"No one there... The Void..." she whispered.
Leo stilled himself as a profound need began to fill him. Annabelle was right; the Void was their only remaining chance.
So, he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. His mind immediately flashed to Annabelle as he pictured her smile. He heard her trilling, beautiful laugh, and remembered the scent of her breath when they had shared their first kiss on Oberon.
His love for Annabelle brought him clarity, and for a moment, that pure and simple love called the Void closer. He could hear it in the distance, rushing, roaring, and at the same time pulling the sound from existence as it moved toward him.
But then, the image of the knife buried in Annabelle's chest flashed into his mind, and a wave of grief and confusion overcame him. In an instant, the Void was gone again.
"I can't..." Leo sobbed to Annabelle. "I can't call it here..."
Annabelle blindly gazed up at him. After a few ragged and shallow breaths, she coughed weakly, and blood streamed from her mouth.
Leo redoubled his grip as he felt the pull of space intensify and the rushing roar around him grow in intensity.
Then, Annabelle spoke in the slightest of whispers. "Then, y-you g-go t-to it, d-dummy..."
She coughed again and closed her eyes as her body went completely limp. Then, a loud crash came from outside the room, and Leo's grip on the storage container failed him. He grabbed frantically at the storage containers as he was pulled past them, but they each slid through his grip as the vaccum of space pulled him across the room.
Luckily, Leo managed to hold onto Annabelle as they were pulled along the floor, then out of the storage room. As the rushing air forced them down the main corridor, Leo caught sight of Alice sliding along just behind him. She tried to grab onto the walls of the passage as she swept by, but there were no protruding surfaces for her to grab and her momentum could not be halted.
Leo turned and saw the entry chamber open up before him. Then, he was buffeted into the wall of the corridor, and Annabelle's hand slipped from his. Like a ragdoll, she flew away from him and collided with the other side of the passage.
Panic swept over Leo as she flew away from him, and he was overcome by a profound need to reach her. He needed to hold her hand within his as they died. He needed to hold her tight and never let her go.
As his need peaked, Annabelle's voice called in his mind. "Go to it..."
Suddenly, Leo's mind burst into a bright white space of clarity.
He closed his eyes as flew into the spacious entry chamber of the Epiphany. Within the
clarity, a sense of acceptance came over him. Abstractly, he realized that even if they died in the next few seconds, at least they had been able to meet. At least they had known love at all...
And then, he heard the Void. It was there in the distance, in all its rushing, roaring, silent glory. It was there, just beyond the horizon of his mind, and with a burst of desire, he propelled himself to it. He could see it now, and it was perfect. It was a blinding depth of darkness that blended in perfect balance with the white space of his clarity.
Leo was sure that he, Annabelle, and Alice were already in space and that they were already dead. However, that wasn't where they really were. They were in many other places, at many other times. In fact, they were everywhere and nowhere, for all time, just as all things were.
Time slowed for Leo as his clarity blended with the Void. He wasn't sure when he passed from the realm of his mind, into that place of balance between nothing and everything. In one moment of realization, he was simply there, as if he had always been.
There was nothing there, but there was also everything, and there, he was everything and nothing. So, too, was Annabelle. She was with him, and so was Alice, and so was everyone at all points in time, in every universe of possibility.
Leo instinctually turned and looked to his left, and within that realm of infinite possibility, he saw Annabelle flying through the darkness away from him. With just a flinch of his thoughts, he reached out and pulled her toward him. Instantly, she was there, in his arms, her eyes closed and her face as pale as death.
Then, Leo's head hit something very hard, and he opened his eyes. He had smashed headfirst into the wall of the entry chamber, and Annabelle was flying past him, out of the Epiphany and into the dark vacuum of space.
"No," Leo whispered in his mind.
Then, Leo followed Annabelle and flew out of the Epiphany and into space. As he spun into the twinkling darkness, he caught sight of Annabelle flying away from him. It was cold now, and he could feel his blood beginning to freeze. The stars were there though, in their millions, all around him, and they were beautiful...
As Leo marvelled at the stars, they flickered and disappeared, leaving only utter darkness in their wake. Then, the darkness around Leo flickered too, and morphed into a pure, blank expanse.
Chapter 58
Annabelle was too weak to move. She was sure she had just slammed into something hard, but surely she would have felt pain if that was the case.
She knew she was about to die. She could feel that cold lonely end coming as sure as day. If only she had been tougher, she thought, then perhaps she might have been able to keep living.
Then, the muted signals from her body suddenly changed. She wasn't flying anymore, and she could feel her eyes again. If she could just get her damned eyes to open, she was sure that she would find she was floating on a cloud. Such was the softness upon which she suddenly and inexplicably lay.
"Annabelle..." a million soft faraway whispers called to her.
She was intrigued by the bright timbre and soft inflection of the whispers, so she commanded her eyes to open with all the power of her will.
Interestingly enough, they did.
She was startled as a vast white expanse spread around her. With a hopeful thought, she raised her hands to look at them, and they appeared. Her vision had returned...
Then, a movement flickered in her peripheral vision. As she turned, she made out an odd figure moving away from her.
The figure was blurry and flickered in and out of existence before her eyes. It was a man, and he was perhaps fifty meters from her. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with long golden hair, and he was flowing gracefully and confidently away from her. His image was familiar to her, and her heart beat faster as she watched him.
Then, a memory began to flicker in her mind. As the memory crystalized, it suddenly flickered into the reality before her. It was like watching an old holo-movie, playing out in the air before her. She could almost understand it, but it felt strange... Perhaps the memory belonged to someone else...
There was a woman in the memory, and a man. Yes, it was the same man who had flickered in the distance, and there was something special about him...
Yes, the kiss!
The man had kissed the woman tenderly and passionately, and he had shown her real love. She could see it all, now. Not clearly, of course, but well enough to know that it was the truth. There was a soft glow around the man and woman, and it beat in time with Annabelle's heart. It flickered faster and faster as the man and woman shared their kiss before her.
As Annabelle watched, she realized tears were streaming down her cheeks and quickly reached up to brush them away. Why was she crying?
Before her, the memory continued. The kiss finally ended, and the lovers stared at one another as they shared a close embrace. After a while, the woman broke away, and the man flickered, then disappeared.
That's a shame, Annabelle thought. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Why had he left? Where had he gone? Oh well, no matter, Annabelle quickly decided. The woman was still there.
An eternity seemed to pass as Annabelle stared at the woman. Still, she held onto the memory. She didn't want the woman to leave. Not yet...
Then, after an eon of waiting, the woman turned to her and looked at her with bright violet eyes.
The woman's face was now crystal clear, and she stared into Annabelle's eyes with a quiet, simmering fury that struck like a sharp jolt of electricity. As the gaze pierced Annabelle, she flinched and began to shake. Then, the woman started to run towards her.
Like a swift wind, the raven-haired woman ran, and the closer she came, the more and more Annabelle became sure of the truth. The final realization that the woman was actually her struck Annabelle right as she leaped through the air towards herself.
Annabelle began to convulse, and her heart felt as if it would beat out of her chest, but she didn't try to move as the woman flew through the air and passed through her.
She spun quickly to see if the woman would continue running after she passed, but when she turned, the woman had disappeared, leaving Annabelle alone in the white expanse once again.
Alone again, Annabelle despaired as she looked around the vast, empty world.
But no, she wasn't alone. Something was coming for her. Annabelle could sense titanic and magnificent presence that inspired the coldest, deepest fear she had ever experienced. It was there, and it was coming for her...
"You don't belong here..." a deep, majestic voice suddenly declared. The voice wasn't loud, but it reverberated through Annabelle so thoroughly that even her bones could hear it.
Then, the one who had spoken blinked into existence and stood before her. His appearance had been sudden, but his bearing made it feel like he had been waiting there for all eternity
His appearance frightened her even more than his voice, so she stepped away from him in surprise. However, her movement didn't take her farther from him. Even as she stepped back a second time, he remained the same distance from her, though his feet never moved.
He was tall, naked, and his body was tightly muscled. He was bald, his eyes were the purest black, and his skin had a red hue to it, almost like he was glowing with an inner light.
"How have you come to be here?" the man demanded. His voice carried the weight of such absolute judgment that Annabelle could barely withstand it.
"I... I don't know..." Annabelle replied, trying and failing to avoid stammering in fear.
"This is no home for the dead of your kind," the man admonished. "You must go! You must find your proper resting place!"
Annabelle was scared and confused. "Dead? I'm not dead... Go... Go where? What d-do you mean m-my kind?"
"Human," the man answered with disgust.
Annabelle felt very confused, and wasn't sure how best to answer. "I... I'm sorry. I d-don't know how I got here..."
The glowing man gave her a quizzical look. "How is it possible you do not know how you came
to be here?"
Annabelle gathered her courage and tentatively looked into his eyes. "I... I was flying, and I was blind. I was almost dead... Then, I was here..."
"You have died within this place..." the man declared. His voice had changed, though. No longer was it confident and judgemental. Instead, it was filled with doubt and confusion.
Annabelle felt a grim realization building around her fear. "I told y-you... I'm not dead..."
The man gazed down at her, and Annabelle's stomach turned as his eyes slowly changed from pure black, to grey, then to the purest white.
"This should not be possible..." the man stated, though Annabelle could tell that he was no longer sure. "You are human, and yet, you are here. You are dead, and yet because you are here, you exist for all eternity. Few have passed on within the Infinite, and never a human."
"Sounds kind of like a... Paradox?" Annabelle joked. If she was dead, a little joke certainly wouldn't make things worse, would it?
The man nodded as he stroked his chin. "A paradox... You understand such things? Good... This is impossible, and yet it is reality. Such is the nature of the Infinite. I have told the Elders just that many times, and yet they still ignorantly force us to act only within finite realms. They still constrain us to only finite power. Their thinking has become, might I say, rather archaic on the subject."
"I'm sorry, who are we talking about now?" Annabelle asked. Her fear had ebbed slightly, and she now felt happy to be sharing even a little companionship with the strange man.
The man gave her a sharp look. "The Elders... Nevermind! That is not your concern. Nothing we share will have a tangible impact on reality. In fact, it must not. You must be consigned to the Void. A dead human cannot walk the Infinite for all eternity. It would be a cruelty beyond all measure."
Annabelle's breath caught in her chest at his mention of the Void. "Wait! You mean, this isn't the Void?"
The man gave her a look of profound sadness. "This place is all that is, and the Void is all that is not. Peace can only be found within the Void. If I leave you here, you will find only insanity. You must go!"
The Ganymede Legacy Page 47