“Good Lord, that door is alive!” Jasper said with astonishment.
A mouth formed beneath the eyes, and the door began to speak.
chAPTER twelve
The door spoke. “The lava slide vehicle is operational. Minor damage to tubes 6, 12, 18, 22, and structural integrity breaches in tubes 2 and 14. There has been no active transport in 17 years. Tectonic plate shifting has collapsed subsections 4, 16, 27, and 28. Immediate angelic repair required. End of line construction is pending under the polar ice caps. Determining alternate routes to bypass damaged lava slide sections. This will take a few moments. Please stand by…”
“A floating, glowing key that has bonded itself to me and now a talking door; makes me question everything I have ever learned in wood shop.” Jasper walked over to the computer console and scratched his head. “Stacy, why did the angels put a train station under my house?”
“She has a beautiful voice, that door. Sounds almost like my grandma. Notice her eyes kept changing color with the different portions of the status reports. She called it a lava slide, and from the sounds of it, I would say it is most definitely global. So the real question here is why would the angels construct a worldwide transportation system if they themselves can fly? What did they need it for and what did they haul?” Stacy moved to the center of the room where a five star lounge section was set up with a large oak coffee table piled high with books, drawings, and empty coffee mugs. “I imagine your house was built on top of it because the British government, or at least a long forgotten department of the ministry, had knowledge of the system with this opening right here in Jasper, Indiana. How many more houses have they built and where?” Stacy looked down over the items on the coffee table. “Jasper…the dates on these letters and scripts…all of this is timeworn, just waiting for you to graduate high school to begin the contest between good and evil again. We know evil broke the truce one year early, but we also know your aunt didn’t want you involved.” Stacy flopped down on the sofa. She closed her eyes, contemplating all the new information while Jasper took a walk around the room. He examined everything within the chamber, even stopping to knock on the wall. Most curious was the playpen on the far wall. Children were brought down here to play. More than likely it belonged to Jasper and Calvin.
The room wasn’t as vast as the manor above it. It was a domed room, completely made of iron with the exception of the talking door. The door had a face plate and a cable stretching out from its surface that connected to the computer console. The entire place was obviously mixed with a wide assortment of early computer technology. The door looked like it was made from pearl glass with two sections sliding open from its center: one going left, the other right. It was a very large doorway-at least 12 feet tall, with what appeared to be Roman pillars on either side. Jasper’s key glowed within the indentation made for it in the left pillar. Ancient architecture was bathed in the orange light of flowing lava. The lava swished around the outside of vehicle on the other side of the doors. It looked like a transparent pill capsule with no seating whatsoever. This vehicle was for standing only.
“Wow! This is a lot to take in.” Jasper needed to sit down with Stacy for a second. His mind was jumbled at the moment and was in need of a break.
Stacy opened her eyes when Jasper sat. She took hold of his hand and brought it to her lips for a short kiss. “We’ve got to figure out a way out of this room, or everything Lance did for us will have been in vain. The door’s status report sounded like it was giving out destination points, and judging from the computer cables I’m betting that computer has the angelic subway map inside it. We need to get that computer working and jettison away from here as fast as we can.” Stacy started to stand up, but Jasper pulled her back down.
“Stacy, look, it’s my key in that drawing.” Jasper picked up the drawing. “The title at the top reads ‘In God’s Time’ and that, by the way, is the biggest hourglass I have ever seen. Look at the size of the two angels holding it up in the air from the brackets protruding from both sides. My key is in the center of the hourglass base.”
“Jasper, there is writing on the backside of the drawing. Flip it over and give it a read.”
“It’s really faded, but it’s a girl’s handwriting. No guy can write like that. Maybe it’s my mom’s handwriting. You read it.” Jasper handed the drawing over to Stacy.
“This is the throne room on top of the Mount of Assembly where the Lord holds court with his human elders, created beings, and the angelic host. This is the timepiece of the Lord. God’s watch.”
“Wow. God has a watch?” Jasper picked up another pile of drawings that was resting upon a stack of old Bibles. “Look at this one, Stacy. New Jerusalem. High walls made out of precious stones of sapphire, emeralds, pearls, topaz, sardius. Streets made of gold and glass. Gates, 12 of them, made out of pearls. Three gates on each side of a perfect square, 12 foundations, and the first one was made out of pure jasper stone.”
The door spoke again. “Proximity Alert! Evil is approaching the adjoining entrance chamber. Fail-safes are activated. The lava slide transporter will power down upon their admission into this chamber. Please make your exodus immediately.”
Thwack! The hatch had just suffered an angry blow.
“LESTER!” said Jasper and Stacy in unison. They scrambled over to the computer console. Jasper reached out his finger and touched the surface of the monitor.
“It’s not a touchscreen, Jasper. Move over and let me sit down.”
“How was I to know that, there is no mouse?”
Thunder stood and began to bark in the direction of the iron hatch. Outside the two evil entities continued to strike the hatch with a fury of hate. Their rage wasn’t at all tempered by the two possessed persons watching from the doorway of the now-wrecked elevator cylinder. Lester and Ned said not a word. Their eyes, black as night, seemed to give commands to the entities by mere thought. Evil spirits were not permitted to cross or pass through the simplest things such as a salt line, a closed pearl gate, or iron of any configuration. Their powers were limited by the Holy Spirit in order for the angels to have the upper hand in confining their sorry lot to the various assigned prisons of each realm.
Lester continued to feed the demons their one instruction pertaining to Jasper and Stacy. It drove them mad. Slaughter, exterminate, massacre, slay, murder, and destroy them both. Ned echoed each thought as a wrathful reinforcement. Five minutes passed, and then ten more minutes, and the hatch became dented. The hinges began to unfasten. Soon they would wobble loose. Drool fell from the corner of Ned’s lips like a rabid dog ready to pounce. Inside the iron chamber room the door spoke for the last time. “Lava slide transport shutting down.” The orange light faded, and the room went dark.
chAPTER thirteen
Jasper’s homeroom teacher sat next to Aunt Debbie-Lynne. The hospital bed was at a slight incline. Aunt Debbie-Lynne fought to stay awake. She knew her fellow church members had been there in and out, watching over her, saying silent prayers and meditations for a quick recovery. She was embarrassed that she couldn’t stay awake long enough to tell a story or to listen to one. Everyone, including Ms. Tammy Sue Tate, understood that it wasn’t her fault; the medicine was to blame. The side effect of intense drowsiness was a welcomed event; rest was the best medicine of all, in Tammy Sue’s opinion.
“Don’t you worry about it, Debbie-Lynne. I’ll just keep talking and telling you stories until you fall into a deep sleep, and I’ll be right here when you wake up, I promise. Did I ever tell you the story of my first day at work on the job in Arizona? My boss told me that since I was from Michigan I would need to rotate the air in my tires because Arizona air had a different density than Michigan air, and if I didn’t, my tires would go flat. So I did. I believed him. He was even kind enough to tell me which gas station in town provided free air to its customers. So, like an idiot, I went there on my first day. I flattened all my tires and then filled them up again. His buddies were there to film it
on their smartphones and sent it to the Internet. Yup, it played on YouTube for over a week on the computers at work. That was a very embarrassing moment for sure, and worst of all, I called home to tell my parents how nice my new coworkers were to me on my first day. It initially rubbed me the wrong way, but I managed to get the last laugh during a weekend retreat. We were having a team building exercise in trust. The director had told us that after lunch we were going to practice a practical assignment using a Honda 3 stroke mini bike and my boss was up first, to lead the way, of course. I skipped out on lunch and instead went into the red barn in which this bike was kept. I found some tools and made sure the brakes were not going to engage when the handle was pulled back. This time I had the camera. The boss managed to smash into the side of the barn because he couldn’t stop the runaway bike, and the rest made for a screamingly funny YouTube video.” Tammy giggled.
“Oh, dear heart, you do have a mean streak. Funny, but wrong. Remind me never to cross you. I remember a trip to the mall on one early Saturday morning. The stores didn’t open up until 10:30 A.M., but the building was open at 10:00 A.M. for all those pesky walkers to take to the halls. I was waiting for the music store to open and forgot to have breakfast before leaving the house, so I purchased a KitKat bar at one of those overpriced vending machines; I didn’t have exact change so I put in a couple of dollar bills and took my candy and put my change in my purse. I walked over and sat down on the bench outside the store. There was a man there reading a paper all proper-like; he looked like a very mean man, a snob, and I could tell by the way he was dressed he was quite the social climber…yes, indeed. He said nothing, not even good morning. I was upset by this. I reached down and broke off one of the four pieces of my KitKat bar. The man turned his head and looked me right in the eyes and then, without even blinking, he had the audacity to reach over and break off the second piece of my candy bar for himself. I was so mad and taken aback that I was speechless. I huffed a little after letting the flushing redness drain from my cheeks, and I reached over and took the third piece. That horrible little man folded his paper down to his lap and extended his hand to take the last of my candy bar. I stretched over to his lap and grabbed his newspaper and smacked his hand. I scooped up that fourth piece and crunched it right in front of him. I was so outraged I left the mall. When I got to my car I opened my purse to take out my keys and sitting on the very top, next to my change, was my KitKat bar. That poor man must have thought I was a loon. I ate his candy and swatted him with his own paper. It was two years before I could visit that mall again. I hate to one-up you, but no one can beat that story.” Debbie-Lynne closed her eyes. That was it. She had exhausted herself to sleep. Just what Tammy had hoped would happen. She fell asleep on a happy thought.
Oh, Debbie-Lynne, why did you not tell Jasper the truth? She thought to herself. It is bad enough kids go through school dealing with labels-jock, nerd, burnout, greaser, emo, indie, geek, popular-but to hold back the truth when they are already dealing with an outsider school environment…it just wasn’t a good idea. A noise pulled her from her thoughts. Ms. Tammy Sue Tate was abruptly tense. She listened. Something was out of place, and there it was again…she stood from the chair, reaching around her back. Lifting up her blouse, she pulled out a 9mm Beretta pistol. She approached the window cautiously and looked outside…nothing. The full-length curtain room divider wiggled from its ceiling track. Maybe the wind…if the window was open, but it was not. She pointed her handgun in that direction and began to move ever so slowly. Just as she looked through to the other side, she was tapped from behind on her shoulder. She swung around, startled, and pushed her gun into the face of the intruder. “LANCE! What took you so long, and who hit you in the face?”
“Good evening, Agent Tate. You are looking rather weary these days, aren’t you? How is everything at the FBI? Does the director still have you inflating the tires on his auto time and again?” asked Lance in his most sarcastic English accent.
chAPTER fourteen
Jasper knew they were just about out of time. The chamber had gone dark, and the hatch wouldn’t be able to take much more. He turned on his flashlight app on his smartphone as, did Stacy with hers. He found his furry best friend by the light of his phone and bent down to pet him on the head. “Sorry, boy, you’ll have to be the one to save the day again, but I promise you won’t lose any amount of dignity over this transformation…MALOOF!” Thunder became a big brown hippo. “Hold your backside to that hatch, Thunder; don’t let them push it open.”
Thunder raced, well, stumbled over his newly found fat feet to the hatch and dropped down, holding his back to the hatch, pressing back with all four feet and using every bit of strength that he had.
“Good boy, Thunder, you just bought us some more time…good boy!” To Jasper’s amazement even the sound of the hatch pounding had been muffled. Maybe now they would have a chance to hear themselves think of a way out of this chamber.
Stacy used the keyboard on the booted computer. There was a box on the floor that contained a few old car batteries, with jumper cables that extended between the floor and the bottom of the table. “They installed a backup battery box just in case of a power outage. I doubt seriously that there is a lot of juice left in this battery array, so we’d better hurry before it shuts down.” The screen displayed images in monotone colors of green with a solid black background. Religious symbols floated across the screen. “I know these signs from my Bible study on Revelation, the last book in the Christian Bible.”
The screen went blank. A box appeared in the center of the screen requesting the four-digit passcode. They quickly input every relevant number: addresses, birthdates, last four of social security, and phone numbers. Nothing worked.
“Well, at least we know it’s not ‘Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight,’” Jasper said in frustration as he looked back over his shoulder to see how much Thunder was struggling to remain in one place.
“It certainly won’t be our other childhood password, ‘Creepy Cow Go Home’” Stacy said in a moment of amusement.
“I remember when you called me, all terrified you were going to be eaten by that cow.” Jasper shook his head.
“That cow followed me all the way down that dark road, stopping every time I’d stop and mooing each time I told it to go home. Thank God the fence separated us or he would have eaten me. Dumb stalker cow.” Stacy continued to enter number combinations as fast as she could. “Jasper, we’re going about this all wrong. We need to go back to the foundation, back to the link, that is, you. Lady Enlow, Abraham Lincoln, General Pritchard, Jefferson Davis…”
“Wait a minute, that’s it. The link is me and my personal identification number, which is the foundation stone verse. It was made of jasper. What was the chapter number and verse?” Jasper ran over to the coffee table and snatched up the closed Bible.
“Chapter 21 for sure…flip it open to the last book.” Stacy entered “21” as the first two digits and nervously waited on Jasper, fingers paused over the number pad just waiting to type the last two digits.
Jasper began to mumble part of the chapter out loud. Nineteen! It is verse Nineteen.”
Stacy entered “19” and the screen changed to a map overlay that was stretched out across a spinning globe of the earth. It was filled with numbered points, but only one had been named, number 9: Edinburgh, Scotland. The cursor blinked inside a box that was labeled on the screen as “Destination Code Number.” Stacy entered the code.
“Stacy, if this works, my new PIN for all things will be ‘2119.’ This is it…I know it.” Jasper and Stacy watched as a new box appeared and in it the word “ACCEPTED.”
“YES!” Jasper and Stacy shouted together.
On the other side of the room the pearl glass plated doors turned red and parted from left to right. The whole room was flooded in an orange lava bath of color.
“Holy raging red river rapids Batman! Just look at that rushing lava flow around that tube…who-wee, let’s go.”
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Together they darted to the other side of the chamber. Jasper slammed to a halt just outside the archway as Stacy glided to a stop inside the tube and drew a deep breath. This was the most amazing sight she had ever seen, and by all rights she should be dead, swallowed whole and melted in place by the mere heat of the lava that washed over the tube, but the vehicle was cool. Not an ounce of extra heat could be felt. No sciences could explain this…it was by far the best supernatural event she had ever witnessed.
Jasper now stood just inside the tube. He motioned to Stacy to stand clear to the other side. He sent his thoughts out to Thunder. He listened and counted the seconds between the strikes to the hatch. There were about four seconds between each pounding. He knew he had to time this part of the escape just as perfectly as he could. He looked to Stacy, and without hesitation said, “Put your trays in the upright position, time for takeoff. MALOOF!” Jasper spoke forcibly to Thunder and eagerly watched as he took his familiar form of a dog now sprinting to the tube from where he had just sat as a hippo against the chamber hatch. Jasper spoke again, “KEY! Key to me!” and the corporal key popped out of its slot in the column and zoomed into position over Jasper’s head inside the tube as the doors closed, and the vehicle shot away.
Outside the chamber, evil spoke the words: “Slaughter, exterminate, massacre, slay, murder, and destroy them both.” Each minute became more wrathful than the one before and the entities seethed with violence. Five minutes passed and then ten more minutes, and the hatch became dented. The hinges began to unfasten. Then it happened-the hatch fell to the floor inside the chamber and evil raced to penetrate.
Jasper: Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight (Jasper - Purple Flamingos Fly at Midnight Book 1) Page 10