The White Book

by George Shadow

  “The Booklords attacked, Samuel,” Rachel said.

  “Rachel, is that you?” Samuel turned towards the little girl’s voice and saw Hiroki’s body lying on the ground. “Ahab!” he exclaimed and ran to the body. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?!” he cried. Yoshito came to stand beside his kneeling figure.

  “Someone brought us all here with one of the books, Samuel,” Yoshito said. “You and I. And Ahab.”

  “Rachel did that, Azriel,” Samuel said. “Now, she’ll tell us why.”

  “True,” Aiden agreed. “I’m so sorry it turned out this way.”

  “And who are you?” Yoshito, a.k.a. Azriel, asked him.

  “We need to help those inside,” Rachel cut in, standing up with the book close to her bosom.

  “Hope we find survivors,” Aiden said.

  “There won’t be any,” Samuel said. “Those demons kill like crazy.”

  “We’ll still go,” Aiden said, pulling Rachel along with him. Azriel joined him and Samuel stood up.

  The former mall worker looked back at Ahab’s body before joining the others. “Those creatures will come back,” he said as they walked through the passage. “I hope we have a plan?”

  Rachel cleared her throat. “We need to draw ankhs on…”

  “Ankhs? That’s a good idea,” Samuel said. The staircase leading up to the mall was lifeless. So was the mall. “I told you there won’t be any living soul.”

  “Let’s protect ourselves, first,” Rachel said, brandishing a golden pen. “Found this near those bodies,” she sniffed, drawing ankhs on everybody’s arms. “Now, we’re safe from the Gray Ones.”

  “They killed all these people?” Azriel exclaimed, looking around. “What are we going to do?” He had tears in his eyes.

  “Azriel, hold yourself together,” Samuel reminded his friend. “You’ve seen this before. You know this is what happens when the demons show up. Be strong.”

  “I have forgotten how to, my friend,” Azriel said. “Never wanted to go through this again.” He frowned at the two kids whose escapades had finally brought this calamity back into his life. His eyes finally rested on Jehoash’s daughter. “What do you want from us, Rachel?”

  A forlorn Rachel looked at her shoes. “We need your help to…to…”

  “Help us end this,” Aiden said. “We have the book and no one to help us.”

  “But you have power, boy,” Azriel said. “What you two did back there have never been witnessed by the Sicarii Kabbalah Masada ever since the Romans destroyed the Mine.”

  “What of before that?” Rachel wanted to know. “Has such a thing been witnessed before the Romans destroyed the Mine?”

  “Yes,” Samuel said. He sat down on a chair close to gaming consoles. “I know someone who could help.”

  “And what’s his name?” Aiden asked.

  “Ben Haddad.”

  “Oh,” Rachel said. Trembling, she turned to Aiden, who frowned at her.

  “Okay, let’s go look for this guy out there,” Aiden urged.

  “Let’s – Let’s see if there’re survivors first,” Rachel began.

  “But…” Aiden began.

  “Fine by me,” Samuel said, getting up. “It will be fruitless, though.”

  The four survivors searched the large hall for signs of life. They saw nothing but whole families hugging one another while lying on the ground, or scattered around a father or a mother, or a particular sibling.

  “Nobody deserved this,” Rachel cried. She had tears in her eyes.

  “If only FC9 wasn’t this huge,” Aiden said. He hated it all. “We’ll use the elevators to check the rooms on every floor of this building.”

  “Waste of time,” Samuel said. “We know there’re no survivors. We need to leave now. The police will be here very soon. We shouldn’t be waiting around when they show up.”

  “Suite yourself,” Aiden said before Rachel tugged at his jacket. “What?”

  “We mustn’t forget the bigger picture, Aiden,” she whispered. “Let’s continue on our journey. These people are already dead.”

  Aiden had big eyes. “But you said we must…”

  “Listen to your friend, dude,” Samuel said. “Glad that you have the white book with you. We’ve been trying to find one of the books for years now before we lost our identity here in Japan. What you did here saved the Cause. Ben Haddad will definitely know how to stop the demons and initiate the ritual, so we must go to him now.”

  “Who’s this Ben Haddad?” Aiden asked. “The one we’ve heard about?”

  “And what’s your name again?”

  “Aiden,” Rachel said. “Without his help, we’ll all be dead by now.”

  “Good to hear,” Azriel said. “Now we have to go look for old Ben using the book.”

  “I think I need to get something from my room before we leave,” Samuel began. “A page of the white book was shared amongst us at the Mine, and that has been our means of travel ever since my friends destroyed theirs,” he explained to Rachel.

  “And how did they do that?” Aiden asked.

  “By shredding it. It’s paper, remember?”

  “Oh.”

  “We had to destroy the pieces so that we won’t think of using it again. This helped us evade the Booklords,” Azriel explained.

  “We decided to save my piece of paper in case we needed it in the future no matter the risk,” Samuel said. “So far, the Gray Ones haven’t bothered our time travels, though.”

  “Until you guys came into the picture,” Azriel pointed out.

  “So sorry about that,” Aiden stammered.

  The group left the hall. Rachel slowed down beside Aiden.

  “What’s going on?” he whispered to her. “Why did you change your mind on looking for survivors all of a sudden?”

  Rachel swallowed hard. “Aiden, Uncle Ben Haddad was a bad man back at the Mine.”

  “Okay,” Aiden whispered. “How did you know that?”

  “Father told me.”

  “But he can still help us, right?”

  “He wanted the books for himself back at the Mine,” Rachel whispered. “He will help only himself if we go along with this. What do we do now?”

  “We must escape then. And find Kimberley.”

  Sirens blared outside.

  “The cops,” Samuel said. “Forget my paper, we have to leave now.”

  The survivors of FC9 went round a corner. They walked into a group of military-styled folks garbed in covert black with weapons at the ready.

  “Not so fast, friend,” one of the operatives said. “Just raise your hands nice and easy.”

  “Identify yourselves,” an older fellow ordered.

  “Question is, who’re you guys?” Samuel began. “You don’t look like Japanese police to me.”

  “We’re not Japanese police,” the first man said. “We’re Sikama. Hey, where are you going?”

  “What?” Samuel turned to see Jehoash’s daughter scampering away with her friend. “They’re with the white book!” he yelled at his new colleagues before going after the kids with Azriel.

  “What? Stop them!” the commanding officer shouted, and his men surged forward. “Get them before we leave! Get them before the cops break into the city!”

  Aiden took the spiraling staircase two at a time, Rachel directly behind him. They entered a side room and quietly closed its door before footsteps came trudging down the staircase outside.

  “Got the pen?”

  “Yes,” Rachel whispered. She opened the white book and scribbled Kimberley’s name. “I hope we’re doing the right thing.”

  “They’re many now, Rachel,” Aiden whispered. “You know we can’t risk being with that group. Sooner or later, someone’s gonna want the book for himself and that will not help us.”

  “You’re right. Hold my hand.”

  Outside, Samuel saw a bright blue glow underneath a door and rushed to open this closed aperture before the light went out.
<
br />   The room had no occupant.

  Chapter 31: Sign of the Times

  “YOU killed them.”

  “I had to.”

  “Why?”

  “I have my reasons.”

  “I hate you.” Kimberley had tears in her eyes as she sat up on the floor. Khan, Avi, Dev, Raghav, Rudra and Diya. All dead. Gone. Like the wind. Killed by their own trusted friend. “Why did you kill them? You lived with them for years. You had an alternate memory, which you enjoyed with them.”

  Mariah said nothing as she knelt beside her old friend, the AR-15 at arm’s reach. “Those guys were a separate faction of Sikama that wanted the book for themselves and…”

  “How did you know that?” Kimberley demanded.

  “The ankh symbols everywhere, Kim,” Mariah replied. “This faction I talk of uses the ankh symbol to defend themselves against the Booklords, unlike the true Sikama, whose members use the sign of the cross. This group’s idea about how to carry out the ritual is a selfish one designed to grant powers from the third book only to their members. I noticed the ankh all over the walls here, and I–I had to do what I did.”

  “I still don’t believe you,” Kimberley said. “You might as well kill me, too.”

  “How can you say that, Kim? You’re my friend, remember?” Mariah placed her right hand on the other woman’s left shoulder. “We’ve gone through a lot together. I was just trying to protect you.”

  “By killing them?” Kimberley wore her anger on her face. “Who are you right now, Mariah?” She shrugged off the other woman’s hand.

  “Hey, I’m still the Oxana you knew back at Chernobyl, Kim. I haven’t changed.”

  “Make me believe you,” Kimberley challenged.

  “Okay.” Mariah coughed and stood up, hands outstretched towards her old friend. “Let me help you up. There’s something you need to see.”

  A curious Kimberley reached out and got up with Mariah’s help. “What is it?” she demanded. What would make her change her view of the Bookmaker standing opposite her?

  “Follow me.”

  Mariah picked up the AR-15 and opened Ikshita’s door. She stepped out into a quiet passage made more poignant by the events she partook of an hour ago.

  Kimberley stepped out as well and followed the Sicarii Kabbalah Masada through the spotless white passage.

  They went back to the underground station’s main hall. Mariah led Kimberley to an open laptop and brought up a recorded video from one of the hall’s security cameras.

  The Portwood sergeant refused to look at the body lying in a pool of blood on the floor beside the desk on which sat the laptop. The only body in the hall. Somehow, she knew it was Diya’s.

  “I have two things to show you,” Mariah began, playing the recording. “This video shows they never trusted you.”

  “How did you know where to look?” Kimberley wondered.

  “My alternate memory, dear. I had to put it to good use.”

  Another part of the station lit up on the laptop’s screen. Five distinct individuals were arguing about something, ignoring the robotic camera recording silently in the background.

  “How do we know she’s not an imposter?” Raghav asked the others. “How do we know she’s saying the truth?”

  “Good point,” Khan admitted. “What can we do to prove her sincerity?”

  “But we’ve been tracking her journey,” Diya began. “The system doesn’t lie.”

  “No system is perfect,” Avi said. “She might as well be a spy for the government.”

  Kimberley hissed and looked away. “This proves nothing,” she said. “It’s okay to doubt my identity in this situation. This only means that…”

  “They also agreed with the Second Theory,” Mariah cut in.

  “What?”

  “The Second Theory? None of the books are on Earth if no one can see the hidden Hebrew on the books’ pages?” Mariah explained. “Only one book is present on Earth if one can only see half of the hidden Hebrew on the available book’s pages?”

  “Aunt Shira and Mr. Hoyte said that as well.”

  “That those two said it doesn’t mean they believed it and intended working with that theory. This faction of the Sikama Order does exactly that.”

  “But that’s not true,” Kimberley refuted. “We concluded that irrespective of the theories, first or second…”

  “We?” Mariah hissed. “You really thought they were carrying you along, right?”

  “Well, they…”

  “Deceived you, dear. They made you feel at home in their midst.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Mariah brought up another video from the laptop. In it, Diya and Khan were discussing.

  “You don’t believe the First Theory about the books, right?” Diya asked.

  “No, I don’t,” Khan replied.

  “I don’t believe it, too.”

  “It is foolish to think that the missing Hebrew words on the white book’s page means that the black book is still on Earth. Only the dumbest person would agree with that notion.”

  “So, what should I take away from this video?” Kimberley asked her guide.

  “Don’t you see?” Mariah sounded frustrated. “The Sikama faction I told you about also thinks the First Theory is wrong.”

  “And why do you think they’re wrong about the First Theory?”

  “Simple. The Second Theory assumes that one of the books has left our world if only half of the hidden Hebrew words on the other book can be deciphered by the Bookmakers and Bookbearers of the Order. It doesn’t explain the fact that even if all the hidden Hebrew words were not visible, any one book must still be in the hands of a human to physically see that all the hidden Hebrew words were not visible.”

  Kimberley nodded. “You could be right.”

  “Of course, I am,” Mariah stressed. “This is why they will never succeed.”

  “If you think they’ll never succeed, why then did you kill them?”

  “They do get in the way all the time, Kim,” Mariah replied. “They would have killed me if they knew who I was before I became myself again. Thanks to you, that never happened.”

  Kimberley’s eyes had fresh tears. She was complicit in their deaths. “So, what do you think we should do now?”

  “We must forge ahead. Find the other book and perform the Ritual. I know someone who can help us.”

  “And who is this guy?”

  “His name is Benjamin Haddad,” Mariah revealed. “He will help us find the black book, perform the ritual and defeat the Gray Ones.” She unruffled a piece of paper.

  “How come you never directed us to this wonderful fellow back in Pripyat?”

  The Bookmaker cleared her throat. “Well, I was still trying to find out what you and the kids stood for back then,” she replied. “I needed to know whether you guys were affiliated with the Sikama or not, as well as which faction I could be dealing with at the time, so I diverted you to Kpakol in order to delay you and give me time to access the situation.”

  “I see,” Kimberley whispered. “That diversion almost got us killed. No need to ask after Kpakol’s whereabouts.”

  “I’m sorry for what happened, Kim,” Mariah apologized. “His death will not be in vain.”

  “What’s the paper for?” Kimberley wondered out loud.

  “Oh, it’s a piece of the white book I pried from Khan’s dead hand,” Mariah said. “We’ll use it to find the kids and the white book. Then we can look for Ben Haddad.”

  “And what happens to this place?”

  “Already set explosives around here.”

  “You what?” Kimberley stared at the other woman. “Mariah, that’s inhuman!”

  “Nothing is fair on Earth, Kim. You of all people should know that,” Mariah retorted. “Besides, blowing up this place will eliminate your little headache as well. Now, what’s his name?”

  “Carl Bain?”

  “Exactly.” Mariah picked up a pen lying on the d
ead Diya’s desk and prepared to scribble a name on the mystical piece of paper she had earlier brought out. “Now, hold my hand and…”

  “Mariah, something’s happening,” Kimberley observed, looking around. At the shifting images of the hall’s walls and equipment. At the unstable floor dizzying her out. “What’s happening?”

  “Someone must have written your name in one of the books,” Mariah said, grabbing Kimberley’s right hand. “It gets bumpy when that happens to me.”

  “I can’t see you!” Kimberley shouted before oblivion embraced her.

  * * *

  Carl Bain opened his eyes to sunlight streaming in from above. He looked down to see his battered body slowly fleshing out in a disturbingly horrible manner. Muscle fibers blackened by an unknown disaster were changing color, merging together and attaching back to brittle bone becoming white porcelain-like masterpieces right before his very eyes. Blood vessels and nerve threads ran down this biological transformation in various directions as they pierced origins and insertions in the course of this mysterious physiological exercise.

  The human minion moved his left upper limb and felt intense pain at his joints. He welcomed the appearance of new skin wrapping up this transformation since this major tissue eliminated the pain as it covered his entire body.

  Looking around for the first time, Carl Bain noted the devastation caused by the explosion he did not witness. This bomb had caused a gaping hole at the top of the structure through which sunlight spilled down to his supine body from above. He sat up and thanked his infernal masters for bringing him back to life.

  “Someone’s down here!” a voice called out from above him. “And he’s alive!”

  Carl Bain looked up and saw several police and fire service men looking down through the aperture above him.

  “Hey, mister, what happened here?” an officer called down to him.

  “I-I don’t know,” the American hustler replied.

  “Hang on down there,” the policeman said. “We’ll help you out. Hey! What’s happening?!”

  An officer screamed terribly and careened off the edge of the crater formed by the bomb blast, landing with a thud beside Mr. Bain. One by one, the dead bodies fell into the damaged structure underneath Rubbish Mountain, crashing to the floor all around the surprised naked thug, until no officer stood atop the gaping hole, or anywhere near the Sikama’s secret headquarters.