by Nathan Parks
“Ok,” Zarius spoke with strong compassion in his voice. “Imagine this being your everyday life. Where would he be?”
“He would be at the toy store.”
“Toy store?”
She nodded through her tears. “I would always go find a toy store. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so I never had any real toys to speak of. I was pretty much left on my own, so I would find my way to a store where I could find stuffed animals or dolls and pretend they were my brother. I would then act as if my brother and I were on a shopping spree with my parents. I did this until I was about 11. It helped me believe in my hope of having a family that was whole and complete.”
“We are going to a toy store?” The twins jumped up and down. They were ready to go now!
“I’m afraid if we find a toy store out here in the middle of existence while looking for a demon, it will not be one that any of us will have fun in,” Leah stated.
Her body was worn out. Her heart hurt for this young girl; her heart hurt for her former team. She felt sadness unlike she had felt in a long time . . . not the shadow of it but true, deep-piercing sadness.
Tori stood up and gave the children another quick hug. “I know where it is.”
“Where?” Leah asked.
“It is going to be in that burnt building you mentioned.”
“That building is half gone.”
“Remember, though, nothing is as it seems.” Zarius started walking in the direction from which Leah and the kids had come. “We aren’t looking for a literal toy store.”
“Tori said earlier, though, that the building was a place that kept her hopes and dreams protected.” Leah paused. “But her dreams and hopes stopped when she was 11 and she gave up. That is when she stopped protecting her memories.”
“Ah, now you are catching on! Now, catch up,” Zarius stated over his shoulder.
◆◆◆
The sky began to rumble overhead, and Zarius wondered how much turmoil they were about to face. He knew that Tori was fighting more of an inner battle than any of them understood; but at the same time, they all were about to experience it.
They all could see the charred remains of the little shack out in front of them. He was still in the lead, and he could feel Tori dropping further behind. He wondered if he would have to pick her up and carry her into the ruins.
“Zarius, wait,” Leah stopped him. “It has changed.”
“What has?”
“All of it.” She pointed toward the building. “It is more built up than when I woke up here; and look, there are old toys scattered in the yard. Those were definitely not there before.”
“Tori is losing the ability to hide her emotions and fears. I would bet money that these things were here before, but she had them hidden within her subconscious; and now, she is not able to do that so easily. She has begun to open herself up, so the things she had hidden are being exposed. It worries me what we will find inside.”
There was music from a jack-in-the-box playing somewhere inside, and a doll that was lying outside kept making noises, laughing and repeating the words, “Silence is golden; silence is golden; silence is golden.”
“I swear, mankind makes the creepiest things for their children to play with. Trust me, I have seen some dark things in my existence but toys that move and make noise . . . those scare me more than anything.”
“Agreed!” Zarius responded to Leah’s analysis.
He looked back and noticed that Tori and the children were several yards behind. The twins had begun to hold back, also; and he could see that their version of a “toy store” and the reality of what they were standing in front of was not the same. He wasn’t sure if they were holding Tori back, or if Tori was having to pull them forward.
He turned to Leah, who was now standing beside him. “I’m not sure how we are going to do this. There is no way they are going to be able to be worth a damn in this fight.”
“We don’t know that. Mortal history is chock full of the young, afraid, and unskilled rising to the height of heroics when faced with a challenge of overwhelming odds.”
“You should write that down and claim it,” he laughed.
The other three now stood beside them. Tori leaned up against Zarius’ tall frame. “Do I go in first?”
“I would imagine, but ‘first’ is relative. I mean, most likely, this is where Legion is, so he is first. You will lead the way; but we will be behind you . . . so, are you really first or are we all together?”
She rolled her eyes. “Ok, so that may have made me laugh when I was ten.”
“Oh, come on, it at least made you smile!”
“That is true.”
◆◆◆
Tori felt the building calling to her, pulling her in. She could feel it reaching out and teasing her with safety that it could no longer offer. It called her, and yet at the same time mocked her for her childhood foolishness of believing in something that could not be.
She stepped forward and, as she did, stepped on a small toy frog that squeaked. She jumped, and Lada shrieked.
“Sorry,” Tori apologized.
The building had most of its four walls now in place. There were segments that were burned through or had fallen; but for the most part, the whole building was now a complete structure in front of them. There were large gaping holes in what was left of the roof; and window frames were there, but there was no glass left within the windows themselves. The front door hung off one of its hinges, and it stood halfway open.
“I hated that music box!” she said angrily as she continued to slowly move toward the front door.
“Music box?” Leah questioned.
“Yeah, the one playing.”
Leah looked at Zarius and the children. They all had the same blank look on their faces as she did. “Tori, you hear a music box?”
She nodded. “You don’t?”
They all shook their heads.
“It is so loud! How do you not hear it?”
“Must be something that Legion is using to toy with you—no pun intended,” Zarius said. That got him a decent punch to the back of his arm from Leah.
The young teenager was watching the front door, but then something caught her attention at the window. A figure of a female appeared just inside its shadows. She could barely make the lady out. Tori took a quick glance at the rest of her team and realized that they showed no reaction to the lady. She figured she was probably the only one who could see her, just as she was the only one who could hear the music box. She stopped and turned around. “I have a feeling that this may be something I am going to have to first attempt myself.”
“Come again?” Leah shook her head. “There is no way that is going to happen!”
“Listen to me, Leah. This is me . . . about me. True, whatever happens here . . . sure, it could have some kind of an end-of-the-world type consequence on all of mankind . . . and even those who aren’t mankind. Right now, this moment, here . . . this is about me. I can see it now. I may not have realized I was welcoming him into my life and existence, but it doesn’t change the fact that I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to keep from being his victim.
“Today, I can’t be his victim anymore; I won't be! He is using my fears and anger against me. That is what has allowed him to dig so deep inside. I swept all the exposed areas of my life clean from what I thought could hurt me. The truth, though, is all I did was lock it all away in the recess of my soul. I didn’t clean anything out. I just gave it the appearance that I did. I see that now. So, he had a wide berth to sweep in, possess me, and then use me against myself as his security system.
“Sure, you all may have the experience, the brawn,” she looked at Zarius when she said this, “but I . . . well, I have me. It is me whom he is using. It is time I take back control of my life, my existence, and even my future. I have lived as a victim to my circumstances already for too many years . . . and come on, I am young! I sound like I should be in my 60s. I can either stay a
victim to all of this, let it eat at me, let him or some other creepy dark matter steal my joy and life, or today I can face him and all that has held me back.”
Neither of them could say anything. Leah stood there, shocked. This was not the young lady who had been rescued by her team; she was turning from a teenager into a warrior in front of them.
“Well, I . . . I . . . hell, I got nothing,” Zarius stammered. “You want us to just hang here?”
She nodded. “You can babysit,” she laughed as she pointed to the twins. As she did, she only saw the little girl. “Um, Lada, where is your brother?”
The little girl shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. He told me not to say.”
“Lada, you need to tell us!” Leah gritted her teeth. Yeah, she was a lot better with adults and ordering them to do things, not young children. “Where did your brother go?”
“He said that the singing lady told him it was ok to go with her. I told him Momma said to stay with Ms. Leah.”
“Singing lady? Did anyone else see a lady?”
Tori raised her hand a little to Zarius’ question. “I did, but she wasn’t singing.”
“What was she doing?”
“She was standing inside . . . OH MY GOD! NO!” Tori’s scream could have pierced eardrums. Nothing could hold her back. Zarius attempted to grab her, but she slipped past him as she ran full throttle toward the doorway.
“Tori! Tori! Wait! What are you doing?”
Leah looked toward the building. She could not see anything that should have caused that reaction.
“NO, please NO!” Tori’s screams continued. She was running toward the door, but her focus was on what she could see through the window. There, in the broken and burnt window was the lady once again, but this time she was not alone. She stood holding a crying Lano. One hand was over Lano’s mouth, and the other clutching the young boy. The lady was smiling but it was as if her smile literally went from one earlobe to the next; and rows of horrid, razor-sharp teeth were clearly visible.
The two Vapors watched as Tori vanished inside the house, neither of them able to see what she could see. “What do we do now?”
“Not on my watch. No more am I losing anyone!” Leah scooped up Lada and started running toward the door. She didn’t know what they would find inside; and she wasn’t sure how to fight while holding a child, but the thing she was sure of was that this was a team commitment.
She heard Zarius’ heavy footsteps behind her. “Maybe we should get the twins out of here,” she heard him say to her.
“Sure! That would be a great idea! If we only knew where BOTH WERE!”
“And there is that.”
Chapter Thirty
As Tori entered the one-room building, she felt her equilibrium begin to waver. The house around her began to move. She looked to her left to where the lady and Lano should have been. She caught a quick glimpse; but before she could move, two burnt walls came down from the ceiling, creating a hallway. She attempted to slide underneath it but was not fast enough. As she stood up, the floor spun in a counterclockwise direction; and she found herself facing a mirror.
She caught her balance as she fell against the mirror. As her body contacted the glass, the glass became liquid; and she fell through, screaming. She lay on the floor, her body covered with dark streaks from the soot and ash. She looked up, disoriented beyond belief. It seemed the room was backward; but the floor had spun her around, so it was as it seemed when she first walked in. She had fallen through the mirror, though, correct?
She got to her knees and looked in the mirror. There she could see the reflection of the front door that was to her left. It opened, and in rushed Zarius and Leah, carrying Lada. She turned her head quickly from the reflection in the mirror and looked at the front door to her left. It was still closed. She looked back, and there the three were. Lada was looking over Leah’s shoulder toward the mirror and waved.
Tori pounded on the mirror; but it appeared as if not only could the other two not see her, but they could not hear her. Lada was pointing, and Leah turned and looked; but there was no recognition that she saw Tori on the other side.
There was a knocking on the front door; and Tori turned, walked over, and flung it open. The fields outside were in flames, and lightning was flashing violently across the sky. A strong wind was roaring and creating fire devils across the landscape.
She looked down at her feet and saw a baby carrier. She could not see if there was anything inside, because it was covered with blankets; but she could hear crying come from underneath them. She grabbed the carrier and pulled it inside. As she did, the wind caught the door and slammed it shut.
The crying became louder, and she reached down and pulled back the blankets. Her hand went to her mouth and her face twisted in a strange contortion as she looked down and saw a rotting baby boy inside the carrier.
She pressed up against the mirror, attempting to get away from the baby carrier. Hands reached through the mirror and pulled her through. She kicked and screamed . . . fighting with all she had to get away from whomever it was who had grabbed her. The hands let go as she crawled several feet away on all fours and turned to get a look at who it was.
She was sobbing and shaking. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t breathe. As she looked up, she half expected to see Leah or Zarius. Instead, she saw a radiant woman with blue hair and a dress that seemed to flow like the wind. Her eyes were piercing but peaceful. Her face held the wisdom of the ages and the youth of life itself. She made Tori feel calm almost instantly . . . made her want to jump up and give the lady a hug. This was not what brought the biggest surprise, though. From out behind this image of peace and beauty peeked a small girl.
“Lada?”
The little girl held her finger to her lips as if to indicate to Tori not to speak and then giggled and gave a little finger wave to the teenager.
“It’s Eden!” the little girl whispered in a loud, child-like whisper.
Tori stumbled to her feet and looked at the figure in amazement. “You did come.”
“Oh, Tori, I have always been here, but this,” she said as she motioned around her, “has been so dark and burdensome to you. You created a place that you believed would bring you safety; but instead, it became the prison of your nightmares. You had to face all of this before you were able to break through and see me.”
“He has Lano. He has the other twin,” she quietly stated. “I can’t let him take her brother like mine was taken!”
“That is not your responsibility, Dear One. You cannot rescue those who are not yours to rescue. Your intentions are right but your heart is not. You rushed into Legion’s arms, as he knew you would, to rescue a little boy that you associated with your own brother . . . your own feelings of pain, guilt, and loneliness. In doing so, you placed yourself and others at risk.”
“No, I didn’t mean to do that!”
“I know you didn’t. Like I said, your intentions were good. Yes, the threads of your existence and Lano’s connect here at this moment and time, but his thread is not for you to follow. You are to follow your own.
“Legion is a part of you; and because of that, he knows your darkest secrets and fears. Everything you are seeing and experiencing is his manipulation of it all. You must stand against him. You must understand, as you stated before, you get to choose if you will be a victim or the victor today.”
Tori looked down at Lada and then back up at Eden. “Where are Leah and Zarius?”
“They are here . . . but not. Legion has created the twisting of the threads to make it where you are both in the same place but just different views.”
“How can Lada see me, then?”
Eden bent down and picked up the little girl. “She is special. Her innocence has allowed her to stand outside of what most understand. She doesn’t even realize it. To her, it is just the world as she sees it; but to others, it is strange, weird, abnormal. Tori, we must leave, but you . . . you must face him. He w
ill not leave you alone until you do.”
◆◆◆
“What is she looking at? Someone needs to tell me what in the world is going on!” Leah stammered as she watched Lada, standing in the middle of an empty building. They had rushed in to help Tori but had found nothing but the empty remains of the burned building. Leah had sat Lada down as they looked and called out for Tori.
Leah then turned and watched as Lada had reached her hand in the air as if she were holding the hand of an invisible entity. She did not seem afraid or scared but, instead, had a smile on her face.
Both she and Zarius watched as the little girl looked as if she was hiding behind something and then place her finger to her lips and whisper something. Then to the shock of both of them, she appeared to be picked up. It looked like she was sitting on something in mid-air. She never said anything that either of them could hear, and she appeared to be looking into the middle of the room. Neither Leah or Zarius moved as they watched her come back to the ground and put her feet under her. She then waved and turned around and came almost skipping back to them.