by David Beers
“What do we do?” Brinson asked after a moment, both still kneeling, stunned.
Rebecca didn’t have a clue, not truly. Only one thing came to her mind, the only real option.
“We’ve got to take her to the Nile.”
“Like this? We can’t,” Brinson said. “Look at her. Just look at her. She’s holding herself up, but that’s it. What are we going to do, walk her out to the river and tell her to fight the weapon? You think she’ll just wake up and listen to us?”
Brinson shook her head and stood up, then backed away a few steps. “Look, this girl might be powerful. She might be able to do everything your brother can. But I’m not going to your brother, especially not if she’s the one that’s supposed to stop him. I don’t care what you think, nor what some dead ghost thinks, if she’s the one that told you to come here. This girl can’t stop him. I’ve seen him. I’ve watched him kill hundreds, if not thousands, without so much as taking a single step. This girl will die, and we will too.”
Rebecca didn’t turn around to look at her. She stared at Nicki Sesam, the young lady that David had been so determined to kill. And now, looking at her, Rebecca didn’t understand why either. She was dazed at best, comatose at worst, and David moving forward like Corinth’s own legend—unstoppable.
“Listen,” Rebecca finally said, still not moving. “All I can do is tell you what’s going to happen if we fail. I can’t make you go. If she wasn’t like this right now, I couldn’t make her go either. But if she is like this, and she’s not improving, then I’m going to bring her with me. Because even if I’m the last person alive, I’m going to keep trying to stop him.”
Because Veritros would, Rebecca thought. Because if she’s still alive, then she’s still trying.
“No,” Brinson said. “I’m not going. I’m done. I’m done with him, with Corinth, with them all. I’m not going to die for any of this.”
A sad smile spread across Rebecca’s face. “That’s where you’re wrong. You’re going to die for it whether you want to or not. You can choose to believe or not, but you can’t change the arc of fate. You don’t have to come, though, Brinson. I won’t make you. I won’t even ask you. I’m taking her, though, because she might be able to stop my brother.”
A long time passed, and finally Rebecca stood up. She didn’t look at Brinson, only reached down to Nicki and took her hand. Rebecca pulled and the woman moved easily enough, capable of being led if not speaking.
Rebecca turned around, still holding Nicki’s hand, and looked at Brinson. “Thanks for saving us.”
She said nothing else and wasted no more time. She walked slowly down the hall so that Nicki could keep up.
Raylyn watched them go, her words ringing in her head.
I’m not going. I’m done. I’m done with him, with Corinth, with them all. I’m not going to die for any of this.
Lynda spoke to her, a voice that she hadn’t heard in what felt like lifetimes, though had actually only been a few short weeks.
Is that what it’s come to, Raylyn? You’re so scared that you’d rather sit everything out, even if it means you’re going to die?
The question replaced her own words, hovering in her mind like a dark cloud. Accusing her.
She listened as Hollowborne’s feet echoed in the hallway, leaving this place, taking the transport they’d come in. The only one that was here, for all Raylyn knew. Yet even that didn’t move her forward, knowing that she might be stranded in some foreign Ministry with no way out.
Because I’m scared.
I’m scared to death, scared that I might die.
And that’s okay! her mind shouted. It’s okay to be scared!
The sounds of Hollowborne’s feet were fading. Soon she would leave.
“I’m not going,” she said aloud. “I’m not facing him again.”
Her stubborn side spoke up, the one that Manor had given birth to—telling his story of how he ended up following the weapon.
What did you tell him? Manor? That you weren’t joining any more false notions. That if he wanted to die for such things, then that was fine. It was his choice, but you wouldn’t sacrifice your own soul so that he could follow around some false god. I’m not going to judge that, Raylyn. Perhaps some might, but you can live with that decision. This one here? I don’t think you can.
The voice paused as if hoping Raylyn might see reason. When none came, it continued.
This decision here isn’t made out of any true principle. The one with the Prophet and Manor, that one was. You’ve lived your life in deceit, and you won’t do it again for man or woman. Right now, this is different. This is you valuing your life over everything. You refused to join this Prophet, and now you’re refusing to help kill him.
“What can I even do?” she asked, her voice low. Raylyn’s eyes stared forward, seeing nothing, only listening to her internal monologue.
I don’t know, but you can stop standing here. You can go find Hollowborne and not sacrifice your soul to the god of cowardice, which is what you’re doing. Not choosing a side can be brave, and maybe it was back on that beach. Or maybe that was choosing a side, one that says you don’t have to bow to anyone. There’s a difference between that and saying the only thing you will ever bow to is yourself, especially when you’re a coward.
Raylyn closed her eyes. She nodded, seeing Lynda’s face. Because she hadn’t been a coward. She’d gone to her death, believing it was for Corinth. She’d been ready to walk away from her career, from perhaps even the True Faith, because she didn’t believe in what that Disciple was doing. If she’d been standing here right now, she would have made a different decision.
And what about Manor? He might serve a false god, but he isn’t a coward. He laid his life down for you, and now he’s probably dead because of it. You’re surrounded by lion-hearted people, and you’ve allowed your own heart to be cowed.
Raylyn opened her eyes, and as she stepped forward, her hands shook. She was terrified, but she couldn’t remain in this dead building anymore than she could have kept carrying that red coin around, knowing how false it had all been.
She walked quickly, hands trembling, tears in her eyes. The last time she’d faced the weapon, she wasn’t able to function; truth be told, even going to him now—her body was trying to stop her. She could hardly see the hallway in front of her.
“HOLLOWBORNE!” she shouted, her voice shaking as bad as her hands. “HOLLOWBORNE, WAIT!”
The echo of footfalls stopped, and Raylyn kept walking, heading toward a place she didn’t want to go, to a creature that scared her almost more than living.
Barley able to see, she found her way to Hollowborne, who stood in the hallway with Nicki at her side.
Her voice trembling, Raylyn said, “Tell me what she showed you. What Veritros showed you.”
“You’ll have to come with me. I don’t have time to waste talking about it here.”
Raylyn swallowed but her stubborn side didn’t speak up. It was silent, because the decision was made, just as it had been with the coin. She was going forward—terrified, but her soul intact.
Sixteen
Perhaps as much as anything else, it was the vision Rebecca Hollowborne saw that pitted her against her brother. There were other things, of course—the fact that a ghost was speaking to her--but even that might not have swayed Rebecca against David.
Their love was deep, perhaps always would be.
It was the vision that changed things. Years later, she would try to describe it to a woman named Raylyn Brinson, though she could never replicate it.
The vision was of the future.
Rebecca had stood on the bank of the Nile River, David floating high in the air above it.
The river boiled, steam rising, but Rebecca hadn’t been frightened of what it might do to her. The fear wasn’t from pain, but from …
Veritros had spoken.
Eternal darkness.
David’s eyes sparked to life, and gray static flowe
d from them, wrapping him in a thin, protective layer. She watched him disappear, until only an outline of static existed. He never once looked at her, his eyes staring down at the water beneath.
David descended, his feet touching the river first, sinking beneath the roiling water.
He disappeared, leaving Rebecca standing by herself. This wasn’t the first vision Veritros had shown her, she knew that waiting was a part of these things. Yet, something felt different about this one. Rebecca understood the significance of the Nile, for both the Unformed and every Prophet it chose.
The river continued boiling and Rebecca stared into it, wondering when her brother would reappear.
He won’t, the voice said. Ever.
The water bulged upward, all at once, as if a huge ball had been shoved beneath its surface, yet wasn’t able to push through to the top. The bulge was about ten feet in diameter, and Rebecca stepped back, fear immediately taking hold of her. It had come from nowhere, the water still boiling across it.
Is he okay? she wondered, forgetting completely that she occupied a vision, something not real.
Veritros didn’t answer her.
An orb erupted from beneath the water, directly under the bulge. Black and piercing, glowing; it illuminated everything around it, shining through the tossing and turning water without difficulty.
Rebecca took another step back.
For seconds, the shining black orb didn’t expand nor shrink. It merely sat beneath the water, the size of a cantaloupe.
Then it started growing slowly, but without pause.
Rebecca stood, watching, unable to pull her eyes away.
The black orb didn’t simply replace the space it took over, it consumed it. Without a mouth or any orifice at all, Rebecca saw it eating.
Everything around flowed into it, being ripped apart—the fabric of its existence shredding—and then absorbed.
Rebecca’s mouth opened as the horror of what was happening took hold. She wanted to scream, to let out some sound that could possibly describe the terror she saw.
It’s going to fucking eat us!
No sound came out, though.
The orb grew, blackness taking in more and more of the river, the water now being dragged into it. Rebecca watched as one side of the river reversed direction, even as the other side picked up speed. All of it being pulled to a single destination.
And that’s when Rebecca first felt the tug on herself.
She looked down and saw her hand raised, her fingers outstretched right toward the black orb. Her shirt fluttered in the air, though no wind existed. Wanting to go to the orb.
Rebecca turned to run, her feet slamming against the dirt beneath her.
She made it only 10 seconds or so before her clothing simply ripped off of her body, flying back toward the river. Rebecca struggled forward, still trying to put one foot in front of the other, yet her body was no longer moving. It was if some giant wind was forcing her backward, yet she felt nothing against her skin.
She turned her head to the left, wanting to see the black orb, but when she did, her flesh froze. There was no river, no bank. The structures that had been there were no more, and in their place? Nothing. Simple blackness that seemed to glow, beckoning her to come. To join. To let it feed.
Rebecca saw the truth. It was nothing. The world was being replaced with nothing, no space, no time—only consumption.
She tried to turn her face back in front of her, to continue running, but it wouldn’t move. She looked down, at her arm, and saw her skin rippling toward the blackness. Being pulled to it.
A tree rushed by Rebecca, nearly hitting her and killing her instantly. Its roots hung in the air, dirt trying to fall with gravity, but unable because of the strength of the orb’s pull. As the tree flew closer, it started ripping apart; first in giant chunks with splinters fraying everywhere, and then those pieces began to thin. Looking surreally like liquid, though retaining the same color of the tree.
Rebecca didn’t understand even as she watched the blackness eat the tree, a million pieces of watery green and brown.
NO, she thought.
And then she—along with everything around her—was sucked into it.
The pain was instant and tremendous … and then over.
There was no rest, though, not even a moment’s. Dead, but not gone, Rebecca had a view from above Earth. Far, far above, as though she was a satellite outside the atmosphere. She could see the illuminated black orb, appearing as if it might be in the center of the world. Consuming. Eating. Flesh, bone, steel, lava—all of it the same to that light.
And then the world was no more. Only the black nothingness; the only reason Rebecca could see it was because of the stars. They were now being pulled to it, long white streaks moving across the sky. All of it heading—space itself—being pulled to that blackness. Feeding insatiably.
And from a distance, Rebecca watched it all go. Every single bit. The entire universe was fed into that black substance, until there was no more universe. There was no more time. There was nothing.
She couldn’t fully understand it even as she looked on. How there could be nothing—not time, not space, not matter—but it was gone.
The Unformed had taken every single bit of it. David had described it to her before, saying it was like a white planet, but that’s not what she saw. She saw a universe that had once been, and now nothing existed in its stead. Not the Unformed. Not even time.
That, Veritros had told her, is what is coming. That is what your brother is bringing.
Rebecca didn’t know if she could explain it without showing it, but she tried. Humans may not be good at much, but if nothing else, they are exceptional at trying.
Raylyn leaned back in her chair, their transport flying through the air. Rebecca had finished speaking moments before and Raylyn stared up at the ceiling, seeing the universe as Rebecca had described it.
Her hands had stopped shaking, her eyes dried. She wasn’t calm, per se, simply lost in what had been described.
“It’s not coming to conquer us?” she asked.
Rebecca chuckled. “No. Humanity thinks so highly of itself that it believes a god might actually care. If one exists, it doesn’t care. The Unformed certainly doesn’t. It’s simply going to finish this whole experiment.”
“I just always thought we’d end up in chains, the weapon floating above us all, telling us to march harder, faster, building things like pyramids.”
“Only humans can think up something as pointless as a pyramid,” Rebecca said, sounding humored by the whole thing.
“So, what? We’re going to show up at the Nile River and fight him? And if we lose, then that comes true?”
Silence followed her question, stretching so long that Raylyn finally sat up and turned around. Rebecca was staring at Nicki, her eyes still gazing forward without any intelligence in them. Every once in a while, she blinked, but that was it. Everything was on autopilot.
“Yes,” Rebecca finally said. “If we lose, that’s it.”
Raylyn looked away, out the window, understanding coming to her. It’d been hours since she connected to the True Faith, her nanotech feeding her as much information as she could take in. Large scale revolts grew like weeds across the globe, whole cities falling again. Any order that the True Faith had reestablished was gone, mutiny ruling.
“No one’s coming,” she said.
Rebecca looked over to her. “What?”
“The black … Its moves were perfect. No one is going to the Nile River. Only us. Us three. The Ministries are burning, Rebecca. At least within the True Faith, all resources are being used to stop the rebellion. No one is coming to stop him.”
Rebecca turned, facing Raylyn’s chair completely. “No one is sending anything to the Nile?”
“No. I don’t have the clearance to see everything, but there seems to be a lot of confusion up top with the Priests.”
Rebecca’s eyes dropped to the floor, and she shook her head. �
��I’m not sure it would matter if they showed up. It didn’t with Veritros.”
“What do you mean?”
“They don’t tell you anything about her, do they?”
Raylyn was quiet for a second, thinking about how to best answer. The immediate answer that bubbled to the top of her mind had been a recitation of True Faith doctrine. With an effort, she stifled it, and went a bit deeper. “Basically, they tell us she’s a killer, and that Corinth stopped her. There … There isn’t much talk about the Black, about her either.”
“They make you fear It, and then they keep you from talking about It. If you fear It, you won’t join It when It comes. If you don’t talk about It, then you won’t worry about It.” Rebecca kept looking at the ground. “In Veritros’s time, the Ministries went to the Nile, and they launched everything they possibly could at her. It was a battle maybe unlike any to come before it, and in the end, they couldn’t harm a hair on her head.”
“Is your brother as strong as her?”
“He’s stronger.”
Raylyn saw a flash of Lynda’s hand being sliced from her body. She shut her eyes hard, trying to block it out. She regained some control after a moment and reopened them, looking toward Nicki.
“You think she can stop him? For real?”
“I don’t know.” Rebecca looked at the nearly comatose girl. “But there’s no one else.”
Nicki hadn’t gone anywhere this time. There was no black universe, nor any neon one. She had simply stopped listening. It wasn’t an active choice, but rather a passive one that slowly came over her as Rebecca spoke. She just … slipped away; she could still hear the words being spoken—only she paid them no attention.
Perhaps her mind was finally breaking, or maybe she had checked out of this life, but either way, the result was the same. Nicki had entered a state of nearly unbeing. She was alive, capable of movement, but she wasn’t taking any action in the world any longer.
All of these people wanted something from her; Nicki had thought she might be able to find a bit of peace in that neon world, if for nothing else than everyone being alone. Yet, she’d been refused residence, pushed back out into the world.