The Vapor

by Nathan Parks

  All the color drained from Metatron’s face. “Why are you telling me this, Michael? You know that I would not keep any of this secret.”

  “That is true, and I don’t expect you to . . . although I don’t expect that you will have time to tell anyone . . . and if you do, who then will believe you?”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Take it how you want. I do believe that you have shared with at least one Council member that you were not sure if you would stay any longer here in Scintillantes. So, who then would question if you seem to just vanish?”

  “Your time is drawing to a close, Michael. I don’t know everything; but I can promise you that I will find out what it is you are a part of and, in the end, you will answer for what you are doing and what you have done!”

  Michael laughed. “So stoic! So poetic! Sounds as if you are standing on a stage, performing for an audience. Sadly, today, that audience will no longer listen. Your curtain has closed, Enoch.”

  Metatron fumed at the use of his earthly name. “I would suggest you make your exit, Michael. I will not stand by any longer, watching as you pretend to be something you are not!”

  “Ha . . . coming from the once-mortal who was chosen to stand within the halls of that which he could never understand! Dumah, my friend, do you mind? A figure stepped out from behind a large sculpture near where they were standing.

  “TRAITOR!” Metatron shouted at Michael, as he recognized the Fallen warrior that now stood within arm’s reach. “You called me by my earthly name, and now I will call you by the name that has been rumored for far too long within the ages of time: Azrael, your time will come!”

  “Dumah, you can take him now. He is words only. Per rules of the Council, he is not armed. Metatron or Enoch . . . whichever name you want . . . you meddled in the places only meant for Eternals. Now, you will become trapped within the place originally meant for mortals but then became the darkness for immortals. It is a place where, no matter which side you are a part of, you will find torment.”

  Dumah unsheathed his sword. “Know that I do not care if blood is spilled here; so, do not attempt to resist me. I will take any reason to dismember you here!”

  ◆◆◆

  The early morning sun touched the snow-covered landscape. Everything looked clean and innocent. Tori sat with her knees up to her chin and her back against the headboard of her bed. Even though the outdoors seemed inviting, her soul was tormented. She was scared. She had slept fairly well; but as she woke up to the realization that she had no idea what the day would bring, she felt fear begin to sweep over her.

  There was a knock on the door, and then it opened just a bit. “Mind if I come in?”

  “You’re good.”

  Ann walked in with a tray of fresh fruit and two glasses of juice. Her smile did little to calm the teen's mind, but Tori was grateful for the company.

  “I figured your stomach would be in knots, so I didn’t think a heavy breakfast would look appetizing. So, I cut up some fresh fruit.” She sat down on the bed, cross-legged, in front of the young lady. The tray had fresh strawberries, melons, kiwi, and some heavy whipped cream to dip it all in.

  “I can’t do this, Ann.”

  “I know you feel that way, but that is why I wanted the chance to talk with you before everything got crazy.” Ann handed her a napkin and motioned for her to help herself. “I don’t talk a lot about my past, Tori. I would rather live in the here and now, and I would love nothing more than to forget all that I have gone through. The problem with that is that if I do forget what I have gone through, there is a chance I will never fully appreciate where I am today.”

  “That’s understandable.”

  “With that being said, I did want to share with you a story that I hope will ease your anxiety.”

  She nodded. “Ok. I will take anything right now.”

  “When Leah brought me here, it meant that everything that was a part of me before was gone. The old me was gone. I couldn’t return to who I once was. If I did, it would mean that I wouldn’t live very long. My old life was dead, just as those inside that life believe that I am dead.”

  “Wait . . . you have people who think you are dead?”

  Ann smiled. “Yes . . . and, in all honesty, I am. Ann is not the name I have gone by all my life. My old self . . . the person I once was . . . she died before I was brought here. In fact, when Leah brought me here, as she stated, they didn’t think I would live. It was only by a miracle my children and I are alive.

  “What I wanted to share with you is this: when I first got here, I was in a coma. I didn’t even know I was here . . . but I did.”

  “How so?”

  “This place . . . Eden . . . it is alive. It is unlike any place you have ever been to and ever will go again. It wrapped me up, even in my dark and devastated physical and mental state. While I was in a coma, I remember a vision or dream. I don’t know . . . maybe it was even real. It was Eden. She came to me.”

  “Really? You mean Eden is a real person?”

  “No, I think Eden is an idea or maybe even energy. I think Eden is whatever you need Eden to be for you.

  “Anyway, a lady, who told me she was Eden, came to me. I was sitting in a field of the most beautiful wildflowers, and I saw her coming toward me. When I saw her, my heart leaped as if I had seen an old friend for the first time in decades. I ran to her and hugged her. She was wearing a beautiful, baby blue dress; and she had thick, long-flowing, red hair.

  “She spoke to me and told me that I would become the mother of generations. She explained to me that motherhood would be a burden, also. She stated that I would find myself in a desolate area, looking for my children; but that in the end, the desolation would become green like the very field in which I was standing and that my children would thrive as the wildflowers that were bringing me joy at that moment.

  “I tell you this because I know you are worried . . . not just for yourself but for my children. I can’t thank you enough for that. That shows that you are a beautiful person inside. You carry the weight of evil within you, and yet that evil does not consume you. If it did, then my children’s wellbeing would be the last thing on your mind.

  “They will be ok. I know they will, because Eden has told me so . . . she promised.”

  Tori looked out of her window. “Funny how quickly life changes. If you had shared that story with me just days ago, I would have asked what drugs you were on . . . and then probably asked you where I could get some. Here I am though, sitting in a place that you claim is alive, being told I have the spawn of hell somewhere in my gut, and that in order to rescue me, we must use two young children and two angelic beings. Anytime someone wants to wake me up, they sure as hell can feel free to do so.”

  Ann reached out and took her hand. “Just know we have you. You are no longer alone.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Still doesn’t make any of this normal.”

  “Normal is funny, though. Normal is a figment of our imagination and the way that our brain is programmed to accept what we see around us. What is normal to someone who has grown up in one part of the world is not necessarily normal to someone on the opposite side. So, you take that and plant it within the universe of existence. To believe one thing is normal and reject another is a form of extreme self-centeredness. It means that we are in full understanding of ourselves and the universe at any given point.”

  Tori wrinkled her nose. “Wow, now that is pretty deep and out there, but it clicks in my head. I can understand that.”

  Ann picked up the tray that now had only a few things left on it. “I will see you downstairs in a few.”

  “Thank you for sharing with me your story. Maybe Eden will speak to me.”

  Ann smiled. “Maybe.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Lano and Lada, what are you going to do once you fall asleep?” their mother asked them as she knelt between the twins. They each were comfortably sitting in recliners. There were hear
t monitors attached to each of them as well as I.V. lines.

  “We follow her!” they both said with young enthusiasm as they pointed to Leah.

  “Good job! What if you see something scary?”

  “We still follow her,” Lada said as she wiggled around in the big chair.

  “Also, if we see something funny, we still stay with her.” Lano was not about to be undone by his sister’s answer.

  Ann laughed, “You both are right. Remember what we talked about. There may be all kinds of things you will see and experience, but you stay with these three.” She pointed to Leah, Zarius, and Tori.

  “Now, there may be some really scary things that could take place with Tori. Trust Ms. Leah and do as you are instructed. You also may find out that there are some really crazy things you can do while you are asleep. Don’t be scared about those things, ok?”

  “You mean,” Lada asked, “like when Lano pulled a booger from his nose and ate it?”

  “I did not!”

  “You did! I saw it; and that is crazy . . . right, Momma?”

  Her brother crossed his arms and pouted at his sister’s story as their mom attempted to not laugh. “Well, if it did happen, that is pretty crazy; but I’m talking about like crazy, super powers!”

  “WHAT?” They both had been surprised and had excited looks on their faces. “We get to be superheroes?”

  “Maybe . . . we are not sure, but again . . .”

  “We know!” they both said in unison. “Follow her.”

  Leah was watching all of this from her recliner as she was getting prepped for what surely would become one rough day beyond the curtain of reality. She wondered, now that she was a Vapor, would she have children? She also looked over at Tori who was reclined back with her eyes staring straight ahead at the ceiling.

  “I’m so sorry, Tori, that I didn’t offer you the chance that Ann had,” she whispered.

  Serenity was hooking up the I.V. to Leah’s arm and overheard the whisper. She reached out and touched her shoulder. “Leah, I have a lot of shit in my head; but I do want to say that although you may have turned your back on Tori earlier, right now you haven’t.”

  “Thanks, Serenity. I feel like I owe her this, and also . . .”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you for disobeying my orders on taking her to the hospital.”

  Serenity smiled a little bit. “I’m pretty good at disobeying your orders.”

  “Well, maybe it is because you and I are so much alike.”

  “Whoa! Don’t push it too far, Leah. Remember, I am in charge of all the stuff that is going to bring you back from the other side.”

  Leah just smiled and winked. “I’m in good hands, then.”

  “So, how does this work? Everyone says prayers or something over me, throw some holy water on me, and watch me twist like a pretzel?” Tori asked.

  Gene walked in as she was asking that question. He sat down on a rolling stool and slid between her and Leah’s recliners.

  “Nope. Kind of like vampires and werewolves, mankind has taken the truth and twisted it to seem more over-the-top. Now, don’t get me wrong; this will be no walk in the park, and we don’t know the outcome, but it isn’t like what you said at all.”

  He addressed everyone in the room but, most specifically, Leah, Zarius, and Tori, “You will find yourself drifting off to sleep. You then will feel as if you wake up; however, in reality, you will be caught between the threads of existence. Everything that happens there will be real. I mean everything!”

  He looked over at the twins and motioned for Ann to place headphones over their ears so that they could listen to music and not have to hear what he was about to say to the rest of them. Once he was assured that the young ones could not hear him, he spoke again. “It is hard to explain where you will be. Reality is a curtain; time is a measurement of that curtain. You will be outside both things. You will actually tap into the soul energy of Tori.

  “Everything that exists does so with threads interwoven within each other. The connection is sometimes hard to find, and others are so clear. It is that sense of kinship that you feel with someone right away whom you have never met . . . or even déjà vu. Everything is connected.

  “This could look like anything and everything. It may look familiar. It may look like something only familiar to Tori and, on some very rare occasions, you all may see different surroundings.”

  “Wait!” Zarius sat up. “How does that work if we are all supposed to be going after this thing?”

  “And all while keeping the twins safe?” Leah interjected.

  “Well, yeah . . . that, also,” Zarius finished.

  “Think of it as two people being in the same room. One of them is wearing glasses that are crystal clear, but the other has some oily liquid smeared on his. Same room but different view. The turns and twists, rooms and hallways . . . they are all the same but just look different to each person.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope that is very rare, because that doesn’t seem right at all.” Zarius shifted some in his seat.

  “The key to all of this will be an understanding that you are facing a demonic being that can divide himself into numerous entities. It will be like taking on several Overlords at once, but each part of him knows what the other is doing. He is a master of trickery and deception.”

  “I must say this sounds less and less like something I want to do!” Tori was starting to tremble.

  “Tori, if you do not do this, this being will shred your mind until you no longer recognize anyone; and no one will recognize you. Once he has devoured your very identity, he will then leave you as a shattered shell.”

  “Maybe this is a stupid question and I’m the only one who doesn’t know, but once we take Legion on, what do we do then?”

  “Our hope is that he will manifest himself outside of Tori and, in doing so, he can be restrained. Once manifested, I will restrain him; and we can figure out from there.”

  “And if he doesn’t manifest outside of Tori?”

  “That is when it gets trickier and, honestly, harder. You will have to gain control over him where you are and, in doing so, exile him to the Abyss.”

  “What if he doesn’t go?” Tori asked.

  “The ancient rites will not allow him the choice if he is beaten. He must surrender to the one who bested him.”

  “Oh . . . yeah, like I understood any of that.”

  “Basically if you all win against him, he has to do what you tell him to do,” Serenity stated as she turned down the lights.

  “Well, that was easy to understand.”

  “Each of you will need to put your headphones on. You will hear my voice in them, and I will be counting backward. I want you to relax, close your eyes, and breathe deeply.” Gene’s voice took on a smooth and even tone.

  Serenity made sure she was next to Tori. She placed her hand on Tori’s forehead so that she could feel that human connection. She could feel the trembling, and Tori’s pulse was racing. She reached down and gave the young lady’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and she heard the monitors for each of those in the recliners begin to even out.

  “They are all asleep,” she stated very matter-of-factly. “So, what now?”

  “All we can do is wait. This is not Zarius’ and Leah’s first rodeo with darkness . . . maybe their first in this fashion, but they are both well-seasoned warriors.”

  “Can I touch my children?” Ann asked.

  “Yes! In fact, I want you to! Hold their hand, caress their forehead! You never know when the love of a mother will chase the darkest of evil away.”

  Serenity checked the monitors and then walked over to Gene. “Can I ask you a question outside?”

  He nodded, and she followed him out into a hallway. “What is it?”

  “I have a question about what you said back there when dealing with Legion if he manifests himself.”

  “Ok, what is it?”

  “You said we would restrain him. How are we g
oing to do that? I didn’t see any equipment for that inside that room. I also know that if I was back at the Sanctum, there are many different weapons we could use to take him out, but again . . .”

  “You see nothing in there.”

  “Right.” She waited for an answer. His expression never changed. He just continued to look at her.

  “Well?”

  “I already answered you, Serenity.”

  Her eyes widened as she realized that he had answered her, using her words back to her. She covered her mouth, scared she would be too loud in her reaction, “You don’t have anything like that here!”