Demon Lights

by Michael M. Hughes

  “Thank you, brother,” Claire said. “Okay, Ray. Sit with your back straight, hands in your lap. Good. Now just listen to me, and follow along.”

  —

  It didn’t take long. Claire’s slow, singsong words led him deep almost immediately. I’ve led you into the Void, Ray. No one can reach you except for me. You are safe, surrounded by comforting darkness. You can go here anytime you need and nothing can touch you. Do you understand?

  Yes, he whispered. Claire’s voice was far away and hollow, as if it was coming through a long cavern.

  Good, she said. This is the safe house for all travelers. You must pass through the Void each time you travel, and return through it. It will shake off all parasites and break any unwanted connections.

  It was so utterly gray and empty. He couldn’t feel his boundaries, as if he had dissolved and stretched out into this eternal nothingness, infinitely small and immeasurably massive at the same time.

  The Void is the great realm outside of life and death, formless, shapeless, without beginning or end. But now I want you to think of Ellen. I want you to see her walking toward you, growing larger as she approaches in the darkness. Do you see her, Ray?

  He did. Yes. She was slowly materializing, as if walking into a patch of spotlight on the floor of a darkened stage. His heart leapt. She was wearing loose clothes, like hospital scrubs. Her hair was disheveled but she had never looked so beautiful. Ellen, he whispered. But she wasn’t looking at him. She couldn’t see him. She was looking right through him.

  Don’t try to talk to her. She can’t hear you. Push your feelings at her. She will feel you. Try.

  He pushed. An outpouring of emotion rolled off him like a wave.

  Ellen blinked.

  Keep doing it, Claire said from far, far away.

  He pushed again.

  And then Ellen’s face was right in front of his. It was blurry and ethereal, but her eyes were seeking him. A look of shock and fright, but then something else—familiarity. Could she see him? Was she seeing him? He pushed again with all his might. Ellen opened her mouth and started to speak, but her voice was silent.

  Talk to me, Ellen, I love you, I miss you, I am going to find you and take you away.

  And abruptly, she was pulled away, snapping into a pinpoint of light that faded into nothingness. In front of him now was a glowing white symbol, made up of angles and circles and strange shapes that shifted and mutated.

  Do you see her? Claire asked.

  No, Ray said. She’s gone. There’s stuff there—symbols. Shapes.

  A ward, Claire said. It guards her against intrusion.

  She saw me, Ray said.

  Yes. She did. You did well, Ray. That may give her hope, even if she only thinks it was a dream or a flight of fancy. Now let’s try the boy. See him emerging from the emptiness of the Void. He’s walking to you. Reach out to him like you did with Ellen.

  Oh my God, Ray said.

  William stood in front of him. The boy blinked, then stared at Ray as if shocked.

  William, Ray shouted. He pushed with all his might.

  William held up his fingers. Shh.

  Okay, Ray whispered.

  William traced a shape in the air before him and his mouth moved as if he were uttering words. Then Ray heard the jumbled words in his head, although William’s mouth was no longer moving.

  You’re alive. Where are you?

  I’m coming to get you, Ray whispered.

  Claire’s voice from a vast distance: Think it, don’t say it.

  Ray pushed his thoughts. It felt like squeezing them out through a ketchup bottle. In the Void they emerged like colored streams of light from the center of his forehead and melted into William’s head. I’m coming to get you and your mom. Soon.

  William nodded. Please hurry. Things are getting out of control. She is using us to do something bad. To let bad things in.

  I will. We are flying to you. In a helicopter.

  Please be careful. I am worried about Mom. She—

  William startled. Shapes were coalescing in front of him, glowing circles and sharp-angled polygons. Letters that looked like Hebrew and Arabic sparkled and flashed into existence. He waved his arms wildly, brushing them away, but they re-formed and grew brighter. William seemed caught in them, like a fly in a spider’s web.

  I’m coming. Soon. Please hold on.

  But William had vanished. The symbols radiated immense power, nearly blinding in their iridescence. And then they quickly shrank to a tiny point of light before fading into complete darkness.

  Ray. Claire again, her voice ghostly and resonant. Come back. Turn around and walk back through the heart of the Void. Feel its emptiness embracing you.

  He did. A sense of pure nothingness enveloped him. No thought, no feelings, no sensations. He could stay in here, in fact, in this abyss, where nothing could touch him and he had no form or boundaries. He was everything and nothing. Nothing could hurt him because there was nothing left to hurt.

  Come back, Ray, Claire insisted. Follow my voice.

  He followed.

  —

  “You did it,” Claire said. Vinod had returned and sat next to them. Mantu walked by, saw the expression on Ray’s face, and took a seat beside Claire.

  “Yeah,” Ray said. “That was intense. I’m still feeling weird.”

  “It will pass. It’s like a diver decompressing. The deeper and farther you go, the longer it takes to adjust.” She opened up a paper bag. “Here. Have some chocolate. It’s good for grounding your energy.”

  Ray took a bite of the chocolate bar. “I talked…well, I guess I should say I communicated with William.” He told them what the boy had said.

  “She’s trying to activate the artifact. Not surprising,” Claire said.

  Vinod nodded. “I think that is what all the others are doing. With the ones scattered around the planet. Opening all of them at the same time.”

  “God knows what will come through,” Claire said.

  They all stared at one another.

  “There were some rather interesting developments over the past few years,” Claire said. “Much of which I discounted. Now I wish I had paid more attention.”

  Mantu leaned closer. “Such as?”

  “Warnings from some of our seers. And messages from the elemental realms. Word about an upheaval that would drastically change the political, social, and economic systems. So much so that the earth would be unrecognizable.”

  “What do you mean by elemental realms?” Ray asked.

  “Undines, sylphs, salamanders, and gnomes,” Vinod answered.

  Ray sat back. “Gnomes? Like the little plaster guys people put in their gardens?”

  Claire rolled her eyes. “You should know better by now, Ray. The universe is full of entities, ranging throughout matter and the realm of the spirits. Elemental beings exist within the four classical elements—earth, air, fire, and water. They are more of a hive mind than individuals like us, acting under their kings, but they can still operate individually. And the seers—myself among them—were aware of alarms coming from all of them. We assumed it was part of what Jeremy called the endgame—what we saw unfold recently, with the dirty bombs, assassinations, and the purging of our brothers and sisters.”

  “But now you think it’s even bigger than that,” Mantu said.

  Claire nodded. “They felt it coming, the elementals and the spirits—whatever the dark brotherhood is preparing to unleash.”

  Mantu wiped his forehead. “Which means the planet itself is threatened. Not just humans.”

  “It has been written about in all the world’s mythologies. Kali Yuga, Ragnarok, Frashokereti, the Christian apocalypse, and so on. The end of the world. We’ve known unprecedented changes were coming—massive climate alterations and everything that brings, from economic collapse to mass extinctions. Everyone at the highest levels of world government has been preparing for the collapse, even while they spoke out of the other side of their m
ouths in public. Why do you think governments were building shelters deep in the earth and buying up land in remote places? The same reason Eleusis was built atop an aquifer. But what we didn’t know is that all these changes were being hastened by whatever Qlippothic forces are behind the artifact.”

  “Qlippothic?”

  “It’s a Cabalistic term,” Claire said. “When the universe was formed, giving rise to intelligences and spiritual beings, the broken ones came into being as well. They are negative entities, mirror images of the creative beings. Some call them demons.”

  “Like the thing I saw in Blackwater?”

  “Precisely.”

  Ray shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. “And the things I saw hiding behind the artifact, too. They’re from somewhere else. Another world or universe. They’re not just against us. Their consciousness felt so alien…like they’re anti-us.”

  “Like matter and antimatter,” Vinod said. “Each cancels the other out in a catastrophic explosion.”

  Ray shook his head. “But why would Lily do that? Wouldn’t it destroy her, too?”

  Claire nodded. “One would assume. But maybe she knows something we don’t. Only the gods know how long she has been working with the beings behind the artifacts. Maybe she has made some sort of deal. Or maybe she is being used by them the way she used Malaika. All we can do is speculate.”

  “May I comment, Sister Claire, please?” Vinod asked.

  “Of course, brother.”

  Vinod’s eyes seemed far away. “If the artifacts are a gateway, and these beings want to come through to visit us—might it be possible, Sister Claire, that she can go through hers to wherever they come from?”

  Claire was quiet. The only sound was the incessant turning of the rotors. “Perhaps, brother,” she said.

  Burnham walked into the cabin from the cockpit. “I’m going to string up some hammocks so y’all can get some shut-eye. I don’t like flying at night but we don’t have much choice if we want to get to our fuel supply tomorrow. And since I can’t get through on the radio, I suggest we reach out for contact. Sister Claire, can you help with that?”

  “Absolutely,” Claire said. “Let’s join hands.”

  —

  Claire, Vinod, and Burnham sat in a circle, hands linked, with Ray and Mantu watching. After a few minutes they became so still it seemed as if they were dead. Ray watched them closely but they didn’t appear to be breathing. The only sign of life was the faint throbbing of the artery in Claire’s neck and a twitch below Vinod’s eye.

  Then Claire began to murmur, so softly Ray couldn’t hear it above the engine noise. The others joined, their lips moving in synchrony.

  Ray felt his eyes closing. Was he just tired? His eyelids were so heavy he blinked and tried to keep them open. But it was no use. The drone of the engine was strangely soothing. With his eyes closed, he could hear what sounded like voices within the incessant thwup of the rotors. Claire’s voice, Vinod’s lilting and strangely mechanical cadence, and Burnham’s monotone. Chanting in a mix of syllables and words that turned to images in his head, like a TV with someone channel surfing.

  Brothers sisters hear us in our time of need

  Helicopter. Clouds. A piece of a map, zooming in to a small, square building and a large patch of concrete in a scrubby desert.

  Coming to you

  A clock, its hands moving rapidly.

  Jeremy and Eleusis gone

  Flames, the Telesterion flattened and spewing black smoke, bodies of the dead sprawled across the compound. Drones zooming above, unleashing torrents of white fire.

  Help us, brethren, we beseech thee

  A new face—a man, heavily bearded, eyes closed. His eyes open, he blinks rapidly, and he stares straight into Ray’s eyes. He’s wearing a baseball cap—L.A. Dodgers. Ray smells cigarette smoke and coffee on his breath.

  And music. Classical music. Piano and violin and—

  —

  “Ray.”

  It was Mantu. “Brother, you gotta learn to control that shit.”

  Ray wiped his eyes. He had that rising-to-the-surface feeling again. Claire and Vinod and Burnham were still sitting in their circle, but their eyes were open and they were no longer holding hands. They smiled at one another silently.

  “You got pulled into that, didn’t you?” Mantu asked.

  Ray blew out his breath. “Wow. Yeah, I guess I did.”

  Claire got up and sat next to him. “I suppose we should include you in our circle the next time,” she said. “You are more talented than you imagine, Ray. It usually takes years of training to make that sort of contact. And you just dropped right in.”

  “I’ll go sit in the cockpit the next time you do that,” Ray said. “I’ve had enough of this for the day.” He stood and shivered.

  Burnham helped Claire to her feet. “You’re a good leader, sister. I always thought you should have been next in line. Not Malaika.”

  Claire smiled. “Thank you, brother. Leadership never interested me. My first love was teaching. And working with our contacts on the inner planes.”

  “Well, I hate to break it to you,” Mantu said, “but as far as I see it, you are the leader now.”

  Claire’s smile vanished. “That remains to be seen. But right now I need some sleep. All of this inner work is taxing.”

  “Get some shut-eye,” Burnham said. “We’ll be landing in a few hours.”

  Chapter 5

  They set down somewhere in North Texas. Ray was amazed at the smoothness of the landing as Burnham lowered the monstrous aircraft onto a short strip of runway in the desert. It was early morning, the scrubby landscape lit in surreal pinks and oranges. A man on the ground waved them over to a tiny, square cinder-block building. It felt good to be back on solid ground, especially after a night with little sleep. The brother who greeted them was short and stout, with an enormous bushy beard, wearing a Dodgers baseball cap. His eyes lit up when he saw Claire.

  “Sister Claire,” he said, bowing his head. “It is an honor. My name is Sam.” He looked past them as Burnham climbed out of the copter. “Where are all the others?”

  “You’re looking at us,” Mantu said.

  “Oh, damn,” Sam said.

  “Much has changed, brother,” Claire said. “Let’s go inside.”

  —

  The airport was small and hadn’t been used in years, Sam told them, but served occasional Brotherhood flights. “But after the shit hit the fan, it was just me and three of my guys here. We were going to try to find somewhere safer, someplace with food and a good source of water, when we got the message from Jeremy about the mission. I’m glad you arrived because honestly we’re down to jars of peanut butter and some really awful freeze-dried stuff.”

  “And here we are,” Ray said. “Not quite what you expected.”

  “I had a dream last night. About something bad happening at Eleusis. I figured out pretty quickly it wasn’t just a dream. And I saw you,” Sam said, nodding at Ray. “You were bugged out, brother.”

  Claire smiled. “Ray inadvertently hitchhiked on our communication. But I’m glad it was received.”

  Sam nodded. “I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it is.”

  Everyone sat in uncomfortable silence.

  Burnham leaned back in his chair. “When was the last time you heard from Tango or Big Bear?”

  Sam shook his head. “After Jeremy sent us your itinerary, all our radios went dead. No idea what’s going on. Could have been an EMP or something, but I’m not an electronics expert. They might be lying low until you get there, trying to stay off the radar. I sure hope that’s the case.”

  Burnham sighed. “If we can make it to Big Bear we can get to our destination. A one-way ride. If not, we’ll have to find fuel somewhere else.”

  “That won’t be easy,” Sam said. “After the first dirty bombs, the military took over all civilian airports. Far as I know, they’re still in charge. You’re likely to b
e shot down on sight flying that big Russian monster out there. But with all the desertions and stuff—the last I saw the military was falling apart like everything else.”

  Konstantin stepped into the room from outside. “Anyone want to please drink with me?” He held up a cardboard box. “Vodka.”

  “Not me,” Burnham said. “I stopped drinking ten years ago. And I gotta go check up on the bird out there.”

  “I don’t know,” Claire said. “We need to retain our focus.”

  Konstantin plopped the box in the center of the table. “Long time in helicopter. I’m drinking.”

  Ray shook his head. “I remember the last time we drank together, Mantu. In that hidey-hole in Guatemala. It took me two days to shake that mescal hangover.”

  “Aww, come on,” Mantu said. “I think we all deserve a drink after what we’ve just been through. And it might numb the pain in my jaw.”

  “What we need is rest,” Claire said.

  Mantu leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Sister, with all due respect, we’re flying over what’s left of the U.S. to some frozen-ass compound in the middle of Bumfuck Yukon. To do the job of a trained team of strikers three times our size. Don’t we deserve a couple drinks before heading into that? I mean, look at us—you know what they call groups like us in movie trailers?”

  “Fucked,” Ray answered.

  Mantu chuckled. “Ragtag. A ragtag band of misfits.”

  “On a mission from God,” Vinod chimed in.

  Everyone laughed.

  “I’m in,” Sam said. “I haven’t had a drop of alcohol for as long as I can remember. That was the first thing that got looted in the little town near here—booze and smokes. And toilet paper. I have three stale cigarettes left, and I think I’m going to enjoy them all tonight.”

  “I’ve never seen anyone in the Brotherhood smoke,” Ray said.

  “It’s not really kosher,” Sam said. “But I have to do something to keep myself occupied. So let’s celebrate. Why the hell not.”

  “Well, all right,” Claire said. “I suppose one drink won’t hurt.”

  Konstantin set the box on the table and tore open the top. “Start with one,” he said.

  Burnham walked to the door. “I’ll be sleeping in the bird. And remember, Konstantin, we’re taking off at oh-four-hundred.”