by Dylan Peters
“He’s better than an angel, my child,” Ah’Rhea said. “These mystical animals are stronger and more important than I could possibly explain to you. Your world is better for having them, even though I know you have all suffered.”
“You keep talking like you’re not from earth,” Kay said. “Where are you from and what do you know about what happened here?”
“I’m afraid I know very little about what has happened here on earth,” Ah’Rhea said. “I come from a place called Ferren, but the people who live there are descendants of the earth.”
“Where is Ferren?” Kay asked.
Ah’Rhea raised her hand above her head. “Out among the stars.”
We were all silent, and the sun was beginning to set outside. The darkening sky reminded me that the mynahs were still out there. Yet the woman sitting before us seemed powerful, even in her afflicted state, and that gave Esteban’s an aura of safety, even if it was a false one. Maybe Ah’Rhea had answers, and maybe she could help me find my mother. Whatever she had to say, I knew we were all going to listen, and more importantly, I was ready to believe.
“The presence of creatures like Wisket on earth means one thing for certain,” Ah’Rhea said. “A mystical element that has been long gone from your world has somehow returned. With it comes chaos, yet with it also comes power and opportunity.”
“Is it magic?” Kay asked.
“Magic is a simplistic term used to explain something far more complex,” Ah’Rhea said. “But if it helps you to understand it, then yes, you could call it magic. Another simple way to think about it, that I feel comes truer to the mark, is that the soul of your planet has been awakened.”
“Was it the Demise that did that?” Jim asked.
“Possibly,” Ah’Rhea answered. “I can’t be sure.”
Ah’Rhea paused and looked at all of us in turn, almost as if she were evaluating whether or not we could be trusted. Then she pet the wild dog on the head and stared into his eyes for a long moment. Once she returned her attention to us, we were brimming with anticipation.
“I came here a short time ago to avoid a danger threatening to destroy my world,” she said. “Only I found myself stranded here. My world and my people are descendent of the ancient people of earth. My people and yours are brothers and sisters in the larger scope of the universe.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible,” Jim said.
“The history of earth you have been taught is incomplete,” Ah’Rhea said. “And in some regards is just plainly false. The truth is a history my world was built upon, a history your world has forgotten, but a history that we all share.”
“We want to hear it,” Anna said, speaking for us all.
Ah’Rhea smiled and began.
“Long ago, when the earth was young, four ancient beings created earth’s inhabitants. These ancient beings represented the elements of earth, wind, water, and fire, and separately they created many creatures: some big, some small, some intelligent, and some not so. However, they also wanted to create a creature with their combined forces. So one day, they gathered and set about the task of creating a creature together, and they called this creature human. They argued over how it should be done, and in the end, it was decided that the human’s body would be made of wind and fire, and its soul would be made of earth and water.”
“Earth and water make mud,” Jim said.
“Don’t interrupt,” Ah’Rhea said with a smirk. “Thusly, the four ancients created a human. Yet something was wrong. The body of this human could not interact with the world around it. A body made of fire and wind was terrible to gaze upon, and the other creatures of the earth fled from the human. And rightly so, as the human’s very touch would burn and rip their flesh. Even the vegetation of earth could not withstand the human’s touch. Everything the human came in contact with perished before it. It was a cursed and damned creature, forced into isolation by its very nature. The ancient beings had failed in their first combined attempt. Human, as they had created it, was not fit for the earth.
“So the ancients discussed their failure long and hard, and finally, sadly, they agreed to destroy the human. They killed their creation and buried it at the bottom of the deepest sea to forget about it forever. However, they were unable to deal with their failure and subsequently tried again to create a better human. On only their second attempt, they were successful. Earth and water made a much more pleasant exterior, with fire and wind churning the human’s soul to glory. This human would be the bastion of earth, and for a time the world existed harmoniously.
“Unfortunately, there was one thing that the four ancients had not accounted for, and that was the whims of Mother Earth, the greatest ancient of all ancient beings. She retrieved the body of the ancients’ fallen creation and again gave it life. Not only did Mother Earth reanimate the first human, but she also gave it electric power; the ability to wield lightning. You see, Mother Earth was angry that the other ancients had filled her with their creations without first obtaining her consent. She gave new life to the fallen creature out of hurt and vengeance. However, she made a terrible mistake. The first human had known nothing but fear, isolation, and self-deprecation, and so it used its new power for malice. Thus, the Great Tyrant was unleashed upon the world. The four ancients were no match for its new power and eventually were forced away.
“It was not until the leaders of earth pleaded with the Skyfather—the entity you know as the sun—to rid them of the Great Tyrant that earth’s fortune began to change. The Skyfather gave to the leaders of earth four incredible weapons with which to fight the Tyrant, and among those was the most powerful of all: the Everflame.
“Now, the story of the Everflame, and of the individuals who used it to vanquish the Great Tyrant is a long one. But I believe the Everflame has returned to this world, and I believe the changes you have seen are the effects.
“You see, during the struggle against the Tyrant, one of the ancients destroyed the Skyfather. Life in this universe would cease to exist without the power of the sun, so one young man, raised by bears and imbued with the power of the Everflame, used it to reignite that grand star, saving the earth from desolation. However, when the young man used the Everflame to reignite the sun, mysticism also vanished from the earth. The earth became the world you knew before your Demise occurred, a world without mysticism, without a soul.
“So, if you take these histories as truth, which I and my people have for more generations than can be counted, it is absolutely reasonable to believe that the Everflame has returned to earth. Your Wisket is proof of that returned mysticism.”
Jim stood up, wide-eyed and gave a short laugh. “I have so many questions, but I’m gonna table those because you seem like a very nice lady who has obviously been through a lot recently, and is probably still a little feverish. But—and this is a pretty big but I’m about to lay down—I don’t think what’s happening is because of some ancient magic every-flame thingy. I mean, I know some weird stuff has been going down, but come on.”
I didn’t share Jim’s skepticism, and I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. “I think I saw it though,” I said. “I saw the Everflame.”
“Oh, great,” Jim said sarcastically. “Creepy says he saw the every-flame. That’s wonderful.” Jim sat back down and shook his head.
“I did,” I said. “Last night I had a dream, but I don’t think it was a dream anymore. I mean, last night I thought I was having a dream, but now I think I was having… a memory.”
“I’m having a migraine,” Jim muttered.
I ignored Jim’s comment. He might not believe what Ah’Rhea had to say, but her story and my dream couldn’t be a coincidence.
“I was being dragged across the forest floor by a bear,” I continued. “It was dragging me toward a flame. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“You say you dreamed this?” Ah’Rhea asked, quite intrigued. “And this came to you last night?”
“Yes,” I said. “T
he bear had my pants in its mouth, and it was dragging me. I was scared, and I kept yelling at it not to hurt me, but I don’t think it intended to harm me. In fact, now that I think about it, it was dragging me away from mynahs in the trees. It even roared and made them fly away. Maybe the bear was trying to protect me.”
“Wait,” said Kay. “This was a dream, but you think it was a memory?”
“Yes,” I said, my heart leaping in my chest. “There were mynahs in the dream, but I hadn’t seen a mynah until after my dream last night, or at least I didn’t remember them. The only way my mind could have conjured them was from a memory I had forgotten.”
“So you think this was a memory of a bear dragging you?” Kay asked.
“Yes,” I said. “In the Null—”
“Arthur, No!” Anna yelled.
“—wood.” It was too late. In my excitement, I accidentally revealed my secret.
“You were in the Nullwood?” Jim asked menacingly, his brow furrowed and his fists clenched.
I nodded, absolutely terrified of what this would now mean for me.
“And you knew this?” Jim asked Anna.
She nodded bashfully.
Just then, the jarring sound of boots thundered against the wooden floor of the barroom, and they were quickly accompanied by a gravelly voice.
“I knew I shouldn’t have let you kids go off alone.”
“David,” Kay said in shock.
“Good thing I came to check on you,” David said. His arms were folded even though he held a gun in his right hand. “I’m taking you back to the school.” He looked at Ah’Rhea with her injured leg and then down at me. “All of you.”
5
“You’re not safe here,” David said. “The mynahs are attacking more frequently. You’ll be better off with us at the school.”
Of course, he was only saying that to Anna, Kay, and Jim. He regarded Ah’Rhea and me like stray dogs.
David had not shown up to Esteban’s alone. He and two of his lackeys came in a military-style Humvee they had driven over the Demise-scarred bridge from the mainland to the beach, fully intending to retrieve Kay, Jim, and Anna with force if necessary. The man and woman accompanying David looked like the two who I had first seen walking the street when I hid with Anna, but I wasn’t sure. They were armed with guns, and the message was clear. Don’t make us hurt you. None of us put up a fight with the exception of Anna, who was the one person who couldn’t put up much of a fight anyway.
I hated watching David pull her out of her chair. Anna struggled and screamed as much as she could. She called David every nasty name I had ever heard in my life. It had no effect on him at all. He was cold and did everything with a purpose. You could tell he believed his decisions were made in self-righteous virtue.
David was a large man, not as tall as Jim, but far more muscular. He had the kind of build that only comes from years of weight lifting, possibly with the aid of steroids. His biceps looked like they might burst the sleeves of his shirt, and the vein in his neck looked like it might explode too. He dressed like a man ready for war: green tee shirt, camouflage pants, heavy boots. His head was shaved clean to the scalp, but he had a long red beard. We probably couldn’t have stopped him and the others from taking us even if they hadn’t had guns.
David carried Anna to the Humvee and made Jim and I carry Ah’Rhea. Kay followed behind with Anna’s wheelchair, and once we were all aboard we started back toward the school. The sun was setting, and somehow it felt like the night would bring the death of the whole world.
The school was a place I knew from before the Demise, but it looked more like a prison now. There were barricades everywhere. Sentinels stood armed all along the fence, and David stopped the Humvee at two checkpoints before we were allowed up to the main entrance. Once we were brought inside the school, we were separated immediately. Ah’Rhea and I were tied in chairs in a classroom and warned not to attempt escape.
Night had fallen, and I could see nothing but darkness through the glass windows lining the wall to my right. Candlelight was all we had to see by and I was thankful we had at least been left with that. Ah’Rhea was too weak to even try escaping, but she seemed intent on preparing me to.
“They mean to kill us,” Ah’Rhea said as she faced me. She was hanging limply in her chair, merely five feet away. The infection in her leg had sapped the color from her face, and the rope around her midsection seemed to be the only thing keeping her upright. “Are you prepared for what you might have to do?”
“I don’t think I am.”
“Prepare yourself,” she said to me in response to my self-doubt. Though it was difficult for her to keep her head up, her stare fixated on me. “They’ve heard you’ve been in the Nullwood, and they’ve seen the mystical animals. That man with the red beard isn’t going to be merciful to us. He will do whatever he thinks will keep him safe. Right and wrong do not matter to him now.”
“I don’t know what you think I can do,” I said to Ah’Rhea, my voice shaking.
I knew she was right about David, and it terrified me. These survivors had killed everyone who had come out of the Nullwood, and there was no reason that I would be any different. Now that they had also seen Wisket and the wild dog, they might even think Ah’Rhea was a witch.
“Use your mind, Arthur,” she said intensely. “This is your world, your home. Are you not familiar with this place? Reach out with your mind and find a solution.”
I was familiar with this place, but being back in the school only brought me bad memories: memories of bullies and being picked on. It brought memories of shame, and memories of having to face the disappointment of my mother. I was familiar with this place, and I hated every square inch of it.
“Are you focusing at all?” Ah’Rhea asked.
Suddenly I could hear my mother’s words, reminding me to focus my frustrations. I remembered how she taught me to meditate in order to take all the negative energy I had and turn it around. It was how she helped me after I was expelled. It was how she showed me that she wasn’t giving up on me. It was how she showed me not to give up on myself.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, letting my chest rise and fall slowly. Then I felt a cold nose on my hand. I opened my eyes and Ah’Rhea’s wild dog was next to my chair. He stared at me intently with his big brown eyes, and I could feel something stir in my chest. I closed my eyes again and refocused.
Almost immediately, I was back in the Nullwood.
The sky was dark, and there were shadows circling above me, just underneath the clouds. The black branches reached so high I became dizzy staring up at them. I walked forward through the dark with my arms raised to keep the branches from hitting me in the face. My progress was slow and I could barely see where I was going, but after a while, I came into a clearing. Once I reached the center of the clearing, a flash of light forced me to cover my eyes. Peeking through my fingers, I was amazed to find I was surrounded by colorful swirling lights.
“What’s happening?” I heard Ah’Rhea ask.
Just as she finished speaking the world in my vision went black, and I fell as if the ground had suddenly opened beneath me. Thankfully, the fall was short, but as my feet hit the ground my body pitched forward and I rolled onto my back. I got to my feet and tried to look ahead, but there was nothing but darkness. So I turned to see what was behind me and suddenly found myself face to face with glowing red eyes.
“The bear,” I said aloud so Ah’Rhea could hear me. “The shadow bear with the red eyes.”
He stood in front of me like a wall of black fur, unmoving, and growling low and slow like the rumble of thunder. His red eyes were locked on me, waiting for me to make a move.
“Speak with him,” Ah’Rhea said. “Ask about the flame.”
“Take me to the flame,” I said to the bear. “Take me to the Everflame.”
The bear roared at me and I shuddered, whimpered, and backed away.
“What is happening?” Ah’Rhea asked again,
but I couldn’t answer her.
The bear roared again and took a step forward. Fear refused to let me hold my ground. Just like in my first dream, it was taking over, and I couldn’t stop it. I turned away from the roaring bear and sprinted into the trees. I ran through the Nullwood, dark branches smacking my arms and legs, and I could hear the bear behind me. He was snarling, and his massive paws pounded the floor of the dead forest. I didn’t stop running. I couldn’t stop running.
“Arthur!” Ah’Rhea yelled. “Arthur, tell me what’s happening!”
I couldn’t respond. I wasn’t in the room anymore, I was in the Nullwood, in the nightmare. I was running away from the shadow bear, and I was certain I was going to die. The branches were tearing at me, and my lungs were burning, but I was sure that if I stopped the bear would have me.
Suddenly, there it was before me: Through the trees, I could see the Everflame in the distance. It was small, flickering up ahead. I knew it would be my salvation if only I could reach it, if only I could keep running. I took one quick look behind me to see if the bear was—
Something blunt and hard bashed my jaw, and my eyes popped open. I was back in the classroom, and David was standing over me. My eyes were watering, and from the throbbing pain in my face, I knew he had just given me a right cross to wake me out of my vision.
“What kind of evil are you up to?” the large man snarled with a gun pointed at me.
The wild dog was gone, but there were other people in the room now. I turned to look at their pale and haunted faces. They didn’t look angry like David, but afraid, like trapped animals.
“You all saw him in a fit,” David said to the group of people. “Probably trying to conjure some devil magic.”
“The only devil in here is you,” Ah’Rhea said to David.
He ignored her barb and continued talking to the group of people that had come into the room with him.
“I told you we saw unnatural animals with them at the bar down on the beach,” David said, “and I heard the kid admit to coming out of the Nullwood. Now you’ve seen it yourself. He was in some sort of trance. Probably calling the mynahs to attack us so he can escape.”