by JD Jones
Chapter Seven
Lah and Tos entered Alicia Cranston's apartment and immediately stood still in the darkness. They were comfortable in the dark. After all, their Alliance operated under a deal with Dark. Dark gave them substance and a place in the multiple planes of existence. Here, they blended with the shadows and surveyed the room for danger or whatever else might be there.
Just darkness. That was all they entered into. They stayed only partially manifested in the cool air of the apartment. A heater was running somewhere but a breeze from the outside was making itself felt in the small apartment. A window was open. Strange.
They saw Alicia's body lying against the bottom of the sofa where she had fallen on the floor. She appeared to be dead. Gol's sleeping pills must have worked as he had said. There was an acrid, metallic smell in the air both of them recognized. Sleeping pills should not have caused that.
Moving to the body the two members of the Alliance saw the ragged tear even in the dark of the room. Alicia was dead. That was certain. What was uncertain was the cause. Was it the pills Gol had administered or the huge, ragged hole in her side?
Tos looked to Lah who turned his head to look back at his brother. They both understood immediately what had happened. Gol had not stayed to make certain the seed had died. The seed had detected the death of its host and done the natural thing, saved itself.
Further survey of the body would show that the woman was devoid of blood. They were certain of that. Blood was the life force no one could create accept the Creator of Life. Every creature on every plane could reproduce the fluids of sexual energy which drove the activities of the living and replenished the stores of energy everyone needed to keep existing. They could also readily reproduce the energy of self, an awareness of existence which every living creature had. But only the Creator of Life could create blood. The one thing every living creature needed.
The seed of the woman, Gol's seed, had chewed its way out of the woman, consumed her blood and escaped. The seed now had a life force in the woman's blood, which meant the seed had begun taking from her before she had given up the energy of her life. Gol had to have been present when that happened. There was no way he could not have noticed the seed fighting to keep life. Now the seed possessed all it needed to live. Blood from the woman, fluid from Gol's initial ejaculation and it's own awareness, which it achieved as soon as it was deposited in the woman and began to nourish itself. Blood, Fluid and Spirit. The Seed was alive.
The seed had all the energies of life and was self sufficient. Except that it was not sanctioned. Only sanctioned seeds were allowed in each plane by the Creator. That which he had deals of physical limitations with. That was why they needed a human female host for their seeds. Only sanctioned life was allowed to exist in the human plane. They needed a female host to carry their seed to term and birth them into the world of the humans to give themselves physical bodies. All was going well before this. All was within the realm of the deal with the Creator of Life.
It was too late now. Gol's creation was loose. It was only a matter of time before the Creator of Life came to enact his vengeance upon those who had broken the deal in such a blatant and dangerous manner. The Creator of Life would also discover how they had subverted the intent of the deal He had with humanity to procreate. A new creation, Gol's seed given life before becoming human, would cause a disruption in the plane, a new species, and that would call attention to them. A seed designed to allow them to inhabit the body of a human child would have given them the ability to procreate and birth their own life forms in the plane of the earth in league with the already present deal the Creator of Life had with humanity. That had been the plan. Piggy back onto the human species and develop a spin off of super humans for themselves. A legal way to invade the human plane and establish dominance once again.
A new species, like Gol's seed would require the Creator of Life's stamp of approval before being allowed to inhabit the plane. That would not be forthcoming. The Creator of Life had banned the five brothers from the earth ever since they had tried to create their own species once before. They had slept with the daughters of men and birthed giants in the earth. Then the Creator of Life had gone on a rampaging mission aimed at annihilating the giants from the earth and purifying the blood lines they had tainted. He had raised up normal men, endowed them with great skill in the arts of battle and pushed the brothers of the Alliance from the earth one at a time.
This was going to be their return to the earth. The five brothers had waited for the time to be right, for men to accept them again. It had been a long time since mankind had embraced both the strength of the species plus the outrageousness of the things beyond their world. Now the battle was to be engaged even before the plan was fully in force.
Gol. He had brought this on them. He had lead them to disaster. Not only would they be banned from the earth but this time they would be sent to the Place of Chains for breaking a deal. Disaster.
There would have to be a fight. That was the only way they could salvage this situation. If they won the right to be here, then even the Creator of Life would acknowledge their right, despite the broken deal. It had to be war. War with the humans was the only way, now. They had no choice. They had the right to protect their seed. Anything that came against their seed was in danger of breaking their deal with their ability to procreate. They had not broken any deal planting their seed in the female hosts. It was not ethical. But it was not a deal breaker. The Creator could ask them to take them back but he would never order them to kill off their seed once planted in a host that willingly accepted them. And he could banish them to the Place of Chains and allow their seed to grow up without ever knowing their true potential.
They would have to go to war around their seeds. They would have to find the creation of Gol and bring it into the Alliance, subjecting it to their limitations, and then move on with creating a war to take a part of the earth away from the humans. Not a war of violence. It had to be the kind of war where the humans willingly gave up something for them to have for themselves. A war of deception. Once they were allowed to have it, it was theirs. The Creator of Life would recognize that deal and not send them to the Place of Chains for their deal breaking. He might sanction them and place incredible limitations on them but He would leave them be in the human plane. If they could possess a part of it. Any part.
Tos and Lah had to get back. The Alliance had to be made aware of these developments. They had to enact the contingency plan. The earth was full of desolate places. Humans were finicky. They only wanted what was easiest for them to control. Deserted places were deserted because humans had not found an easy way to live there yet. They would inhabit one of those and claim it for themselves. If humans did not chase them away within twenty four hours they could have the place to themselves. Not an ideal situation, to be sure. But the alternative was to be sent to the Place of Chains for eternity. Desolation was hands down preferable.
They left the woman lying on the floor in the dark. Instead of her energies coming into the plane of Dark, the seed of Gol had stolen it and made his escape. First the contingency plan. The desolate place. Then they would have to deal with the seed. The seed had to be stopped. There was no way of knowing what a powerful force like that was capable of. Such a situation scared even the Alliance.
Carol Bennings was still concerned about the father of her baby. She had wracked her brain ever since being made aware that her two boyfriends of late were not the father. There was no one else. No one night stands. No elicit meetings in the dark. No moments of wild abandoned. No one. Yet, here she was, pregnant with someone's baby.
She turned out the light and climbed under the covers in her bed. Another day had passed. They had all become one mesh of colors and sounds and places. Nothing made sense since the baby had been discovered. Even that was strange. One day, nothing. Then, a baby six months along was in her belly.
Nothing made sense any more. Not the baby. Not the fact she could not identify a father. Sh
e even thought about asking the doctor to provide some kind of proof that she had not been bought off by the real father to keep quiet. That was a desperate attempt to find meaning in this meaningless existence that had become her life.
She could not conceive of loving the baby inside her. It was a stranger violating her body and stealing her life. She did not know who the baby was. If he was part of her it was the missing knowledge of who the father was that made the unborn child seem less than human. Less than worthy of her love. A baby without a father was a bastard. That was what she was carrying. A bastard. And whoever the father was, he was a bastard too.
Carol's anger bubbled out and she cried frustrating tears into her pillow. It had become her normal way to fall asleep lately. At least for this last week or so. With an uneasy release, she allowed herself to slip away again. One more day done. Another one coming. Another day nurturing a bastard inside her. Anger was a hard friend.
He watched her biting the pillow and crying. Tears were good. They were a fluid often overlooked for the energies contained within them. He hoped they did not dry before she was asleep. He so wanted to partake of them before they were dry. Energy. He needed energy now. And he would get it.
Gol's seed was born into the air of that dark apartment knowing the difference between right and wrong as it chewed its way out of the woman who Gol had killed trying to get at him. It was not right for Gol, who had given him of his own life, to try and kill him later. He also recognized that he was being forced into fullness of life too soon. The nurturing was not completed inside the woman, yet. He needed more energy to complete the nurturing process.
His physical form would forever be altered by the state he was in when he first breathed air. He would never look like a human now, as had been the plan of the Alliance. He still required the life force to exist. He had gotten that from the woman's blood. It was wrong to partake of that without sanction from the Creator of Life but he had no choice. The option was death. His own desire to live would not allow him to accept death. He would mature with the proper nurturing to attain the ability to procreate.
Finding a mate might be a bit of a problem given his current physical body. Hairless. Short. Undeveloped in many aspects still but functioning. He had one chance at maybe growing and developing a little more. It was in the life force of the still unborn seeds of the Alliance.
He had used his considerable strength to gently force his way into her apartment. Her back door would need some attention for the next tenant. Carol was not going to have to fret long about her unborn, unknown child. The seed was here to take it from her. She didn't want it anyway. He needed it. It's life force would aid him in completing some of the nourishment process he needed to develop correctly. But the life force of the seed inside her was her blood. He would have to take that from her for his needs. It would be better if she gave it willingly, more powerful. But nevertheless, he would take it.
“We have to stay in the city for a while,” Kathy told John.
“I spent my life moving around so, spending a few days in a hotel won't be so bad for me.”
“Well, I've never been away more than a night at a time from this town. And that was visiting relatives. I'm looking forward to being in a hotel. I've only seen them on television programs.”
“You sound like a hick who is looking forward to going to the big city and seein' the sights,” John made fun of her with his best deep south drawl.
“Well, it ain't like you've ever been in a big city either, Buster.” Kathy laughed.
John winced when she used the monicker Marcie used to show him her disapproval. Kathy knew he disliked it but she enjoyed pushing him sometimes. Love had some crazy motives to it, he thought. The more he thought about it the more he reasoned that women had the best part of relationships. It took everything a man was to attract a woman and only a little bit of her to catch the man. He wondered how much more there was to the depths of a woman if a man ever got the chance to crawl inside and look around.
“Just make sure we pack plenty of clothes so we don't have to do laundry every day,” John added. “Laundry is bad enough in our own machines. It's torture in one of those laundromats.”
“Agreed,” Kathy smiled and threw another couple of shirts toward her suitcase for packing.
A silence filled the camper space except for the sounds of two people packing up their lives to go share them somewhere else. Each concentrated on their clothes and the quantity of good items they wanted to bring as opposed to the number of acceptable ones they would have to depend upon to lengthen the time before the need to do laundry.
“Think we will do any good with this?” Kathy made conversation.
“No idea.” John admitted the truth that he had come to assign to that question. “The idea is worth trying out, though. Bringing closure to families hurting over some tragedy they have endured is a good thing, if it can be accomplished. We can only try. Maybe we can help. Surely it can't hurt as long as we don't get anyone's hopes up. And telling them we are looking to get answers for you will keep them from getting too hopeful for themselves.”
“Maybe talking with someone who has been through similar tragedy will help them, too.” Kathy offered.
“I just hope that our relationship with the Mist will allow us to get enough added details to make a difference.”
“I think it will.” Kathy started. “I just hope we can find reasonable ways to apply what we learn from the Mist to the evidence we discover in a fashion that does not make the police suspicious about how we found it.”
“That's a major concern.” John admitted. “We will do no one any good if we are in jail because we know things we can not account for knowing. And telling them about the Mist is not an option.”
“We still have some hurdles to get over,” Kathy smiled. “But I have a good feeling about this.”
John smiled. He did not let on that there was a darkness forming in the back of his mind. He could not explain it. But something was wrong. Maybe not with their plan. Maybe not with the Mist. But somewhere something was wrong. He just didn't know what. He had called his mother but everything there was okay. Still, the thought lurked that something was wrong.
He had thought about asking Marcie about it but her answer to everything was more sex. Besides, he had nothing to really ask. What was he going to ask her? Hey Marcie, can you tell me what this dark thought in the back of my mind is? Not only did he not want her rummaging around in the back of his mind, but he did not want her having an excuse to hang around just to watch over him. She was too protective for her own good. And her protective advice always ended up with some scenario of him sharing fluids with her again. She was like a broken record.
Gol listened as Lah replayed what they had learned on their trip into the earth plane. All the alliance brotherhood listened. Their entire plan was in jeopardy, now. Gol's mistake had put everything at risk. Lah had also explained that it was time to seek out the contingency. Tos agreed as part of the team that had returned from the earth plane. The others acknowledged that they had indeed been wise to have developed a contingency beforehand. It would prove a worthwhile use of their energies. But moving into a physical plane in their present state of spiritual composition was going to be a hard existence.
They had been depending on the seeds for easing themselves into the earth plane. Even with the added energies from Joe and his mother, their reserves were still very low. They just didn't have the ability to add energy reserves to their Alliance without wholesale slaughter, which would not be a good idea. The humans were the sanctioned entities of this plane. The Alliance was under limitation by the Creator of Life Himself to stay away from the human plane. It would be a breach of their deal with the Creator of Life to be discovered here before they had a legitimate reason to be here.
They were five males. They could not draw on fluid sacrifices from the human plane. In their present condition no human woman would willingly give herself to them for that. One of the facto
rs that had aided their conquest of humans the first time had been their beauty and the attraction they held for the women of the human plane. When they had been banished from it, the Creator of Life had taken their beauty and given them rough, unbalanced features that would serve more to scare humans than to attract them.
It was a closed Alliance of the five brothers, there was also no additional energies coming inside with them. It was a bane of their existence. They had chosen it rather than the alternative of the Place of Chains back in that older day. It was their insistence on control of the Alliance that kept them small like they were. They could never be sure that whoever joined them would have the same appetite for getting back to the human plane. That was why they existed. Five brothers bound by history, birth and a desire to return to the glory they had once known.
That was the reason they had accepted the limited existence within their Alliance. Once they had walked the human plane in physical bodies. They had tasted of the freedoms humans enjoyed and took for granted. Spiritual existences had their good parts. But a physical existence had an immediacy about it that made every experience even more intense. It was that intensity that fueled their dreams and drove their manic desire to reenter that physical plane they once dominated.
Domination. That was another driving factor. They enjoyed supreme domination over the more fragile human form on the battle field in that long ago day. For many years they had served the people of their chosen country and rampaged over the battlefields slaying the more diminutive human warriors and making a name for themselves.
Giants they had been called. Known as far superior warriors. Feared by every kingdom. Kings had sent their messengers to make deals for their lives and lands instead of having to face the giant warriors and certain destruction. All across the land their names were heralded as the greatest warriors and the most feared soldiers anywhere. Their skills were sung in songs and their exploits were written in poems to be read around every village fire. It had been a good day for the brothers of the Alliance and they longed for it again. Maybe not the exact same existence but something that afforded them a close approximation of the fame and fortune they once knew.
It had been their joy to live among the humans in their plane until the Creator of Life had chosen Himself a people for His own plans. Then He had moved that people across the land wiping out everything that had not been part of the original plan of the Creator of Life. That had included Gol and his brothers and the people they had settled down with.
The Creator of Life had a pet peeve about things being mixed or impure. For a small amount of time, He would allow life to go forward in an impure state, but eventually, He always cleaned it up and vanquished anything not in the original plan for the plane. The day had come when The Creator of Life had decided that Gol and his brothers had gone too far in changing the Creator of Life's plan. Then He had sent His chosen people against the people of the Alliance. Though smaller and far less skilled in the art of war, the humans were given the victory because the Creator of Life delighted in showing off His own skills and abilities, which were unlimited. He had helped the humans vanquish Gol and his brothers from the human plane.
That was when they had formed the Alliance. Since then they had waited and planned their return. The next time they would fit in and become one of the humans. Then the Creator of Life would have to accept them in the plane. That would be their start. It was their destiny. It was their desire.
Now, everything was at risk again. But they could not, would not, relinquish their desire for the existence they had planned so hard to achieve. It was not ideal, by far, but to exist in a desolate place on the human plane would be preferable to continuing their spiritual imprisonment in the Alliance existence, shifting through planes like ghosts with no place to stay. The desolate place would be hard. But hard times had forced them to make the hard decisions before. They had survived then. They would survive now. And, someday, they would once again control the human plane.