The Ether

by Laurice Elehwany Molinari

  “I thought the idea was for it to barf us out?” Pax said.

  “Only after it turns around so it shoots us in the other direction,” Greer explained.

  Ada looked around. Being in the Leviathan’s mouth was like being inside a cavern — a cavern with a squishy, fleshy ceiling and floor.

  “It reeks like rotten fish in here,” Ada said pinching her nose.

  No one contradicted her.

  X cupped his mouth and said, “I might puke before the Leviathan does.”

  “So now what do we do?” Kane asked.

  “We wait,” Greer said. “We wait until we feel it turn around.”

  So they waited and waited, but the Leviathan never turned its body around. Vero grew impatient with each passing moment. Plus, it was no thrill sitting in the dark inside a creature’s disgusting mouth. The only relief came when the Leviathan opened its mouth and a wave of fresh air and light came through.

  “I can’t wait any longer. I’ve already wasted too much time,” Vero told the others. “I have to get out of here.”

  “It’ll just spit us back onto the rocks, and then we’re back to square one,” Greer said.

  Everyone took a moment to consider their predicament. Pax then broke the silence. “I’m gonna hate myself for saying this, but there is another way out to the other side.”

  “How?” Vero asked.

  “We could follow his stomach down through his digestive system and then . . . ”

  A look of horror crossed Ada’s face. “And then it passes us out . . . you mean, that end?” she demanded.

  Pax nodded.

  “No way!” Ada yelled. “I’ve done enough for you guys, but I have to draw the line somewhere! Some prayers go too far!”

  Greer winced. X and Kane had similar looks on their faces.

  “We’re already inside its mouth, so how much worse could it be?” Vero offered.

  “You know, I should be home right now relaxing on the sofa and watching TV. Instead, I’m here trying to help you! And now I’m about to be pooped out into a black ocean by some sea monster?” Ada punched Vero hard in his gut. He fell backward. The release made Ada feel better.

  “Thanks, I needed that,” Ada said. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Vero and the others flew past the Leviathan’s throat and into its massive stomach. They landed in the knee-deep, rancid, disgustingness. What little light they’d had within the Leviathan’s open mouth was extinguished once they entered its gut.

  “I hate you!” Ada yelled to Vero as the darkness set in.

  “Angels aren’t allowed to hate, Ada,” Vero shot back.

  “It’s creepy in here,” Ada said. “I can’t see.”

  “I don’t like this,” Pax said, echoing her sentiment.

  Vero could hear the panic in their voices. “It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s move together.” But then a huge rush of gastric juices knocked him down and completely submerged him. He came up sputtering and gagging.

  “Oh this is just perfect,” Vero said. “I can feel fish guts in my wings.”

  “And I can smell ’em,” X said.

  “Wait!” Kane shouted. “I just remembered something.” Kane clicked on a small LED flashlight attached to a keychain, and the beast’s belly lit up.

  “That’s so much better!” Ada said.

  “Yeah, now we can actually see the chewed fish guts and bloody fish carcasses,” Greer said.

  “That’s pretty powerful for such a small flashlight,” Vero remarked.

  “My mom worries about me coming home in the dark,” Kane admitted a bit sheepishly.

  Occasionally, a huge rush of water would knock them all down. The water carried them farther along as if they were on a slide at a water park. They could make more ground riding the waves than by flying.

  “Does this thing ever end?!” Kane yelled.

  “Do you think we’re getting any closer?” X asked.

  “Who knows?” Pax said.

  Something brushed against X’s leg. He looked down and his eyes went wide. X tried to scream, but no words came out. All he could do was point. Kane shined his light in X’s direction. A crocodile’s headless body floated past them.

  “A crocodile?” Kane yelled. “Man, that is just wrong.”

  “Do you know why Leviathan lives alone?” Pax asked, as they waded through the massive beast. “Because he ate his chum.”

  “Real funny, Pax. Remind me to throw up on you,” Ada said.

  “C’mon, Ada, sometimes being an angel is more than just a job, it’s a doody,” Greer smirked. “Get it? Doody?”

  “Not funny,” Ada said.

  “I agree. We really need to get to the bottom of this,” X chimed in.

  “Not you too, X!” Ada groaned.

  “Yeah, well, I can’t wait to finish this program so we can log out,” Kane added.

  Ada looked like she was going to be sick.

  Greer laughed, “C’mon, Ada. Would it hurt you to tell a joke just once?”

  “Get me out of this beast, and I’ll be the first one to tell a joke,” Ada retorted.

  Just then, an enormous wave rushed toward them. It was so high that it reached the top of the stomach roof. It was like a tsunami, taking everything in its path.

  “Hold your breath!” Vero yelled.

  The wave swept them farther down the stomach before it finally dropped them over a waterfall into a pool below. One by one, the angels poked their heads up through all the liquid muck. The water slowly receded and they were finally able to stand. Kane shined the flashlight at them while Vero took a head count.

  “We’re all here,” Vero announced.

  “Talk about catching a wave,” X said.

  “The good thing is, it pushed us a lot farther,” Pax noted, looking around.

  “The bad news is . . . ” Ada said as she pulled something blue and squishy out of her hair, “now I have whale blubber in my hair.”

  “You mean the Leviathan just snacked on a whale?” X asked.

  “That explains the huge wave,” Pax said.

  The angels continued on. The more they walked, the more the walls began to narrow.

  “Hopefully, we’ll be out soon,” Vero said as he sniffed the air with a wrinkled nose. “You guys smell that?”

  Ada looked at Vero, disgusted. “Eww, Vero!”

  “It’s not me! It’s the Leviathan. We’re in its bowels now!”

  The foul stench wafted through the whole place.

  “I need to get out of here!” Ada yelled. “I can’t take it any longer!” Ada grabbed the flashlight from Kane and plowed ahead.

  “Ada, come back!” Greer yelled.

  She wasn’t stopping, so the others ran after her. The odor grew more and more putrid the farther they went. As Vero covered his mouth and nose, he kept telling himself that the offending odor was a good thing. It meant that soon they would be out. Vero slipped in something, which he quickly tried to convince himself was only mud.

  Before he could get back up, some unseen force shot him out into the sea. He swam to the surface and saw land just a few feet away. Pax, Greer, Ada, Kane, and X popped up like fishing bobbers next to him.

  “Land ho!” Greer shouted.

  The angels swam to shore and plopped down on the beach, exhausted. They were covered with sea sludge, but at least the seawater had washed off the monster’s waste.

  True to her word, Ada raised her head and looked at the other angels. “Thank God that’s over,” she said. “I’m just happy everything came out okay in the end.”

  “I guess the girl has a sense of humor after all,” Greer smiled.

  28

  CHASING MALTURES

  Vero was the first to stand up on the rocky shore. A feeling of dread formed in the pit of his stomach as his eyes took in the sight before him.

  A forest — trees everywhere he looked. But they weren’t green, leafy trees . . . these trees were grotesque, gnarled. They were naked with no leaves to cover t
heir branches. Twisted trunks. Branches contorted like distorted limbs. And thick sheets of moss hung off the sickly trees like decayed flesh.

  “Out of the belly of the Leviathan and straight into hell,” Greer said, as she took in the landscape.

  “Stay together,” Vero said.

  Silvery moonlight provided enough light for the fledglings to navigate their way through the dead forest. Vero noticed it was eerily silent. There were only the sounds of their feet crashing through the underbrush. Vero’s eyes darted between the nearest diseased trees. He had the feeling they were being watched.

  Kane’s foot caught on a fallen branch. “Aahh!” he cried out as he face-planted. “This whole thing is a bad idea!” Kane sat up and tugged on his foot, wrenching it free from the branch.

  “Yeah, Vero, why do we have to do everything your way? You think you’re so much better than us!” Ada snarled.

  “We’re starting to fight. That means we’re close to the maltures’ territory,” Pax said. “Resist their influence! We need to be strong. We need to do this together.”

  “If we turn on one another,” Vero said, “we’re all doomed.”

  “It’s not easy,” Ada said. “I feel angry and scared. Everything is hopeless and so dark.”

  “No, it’s not. It just feels that way here. We’re approaching their side of the Ether, and it’s a world filled with hatred, deceit, and hopelessness. For demons and maltures, these feelings are the air they breathe. It’s their essence. But it’s not ours,” Vero said.

  Vero stood in front of Ada and grabbed her shoulders. He locked eyes with her and said, “Ada Brickner, you are an angel of light, full of love and goodness. That is your essence. Remember that, and nothing can harm you.”

  Vero looked over at the others. “That goes for all of us.”

  “Send forth your light and truth, let them guide me,” X recited.

  “Psalm 43,” said Ada.

  X nodded.

  The verse helped fortify them. Vero removed his hands from Ada’s shoulders and walked ahead of the others. As they journeyed deeper into the putrid forest, it became darker as the trees grew thicker. The wind howled as if it were the cries of a horrible beast.

  All kinds of crazy thoughts swirled around in Vero’s mind. He, too, felt the harmful influences surrounding them. Confusion and feelings of despair tormented him. Vero pressed his temples and repeated over and over, “Your Light. Your Truth, let them guide me.”

  Suddenly, Vero was attacked from behind. Someone — or something — jumped on his back and pounded his face into the ground over and over again. His nose smashed against a rock, and blood flowed down his face. Vero heard Ada shrieking. A malture!

  Vero craned his head and saw not a malture, but Kane! His eyes were wild with fury.

  “You think you’re so special! Well, you’re not!” Kane shouted.

  “Kane! Get off of him!” X yelled.

  But Kane couldn’t hear him. When Vero looked into his eyes, he knew Kane had checked out. Greer and X pulled Kane off of Vero, only to have Kane turn around and punch Greer in the mouth. He was like a caged animal who’d finally been set free. He shoved Greer up against a thick tree trunk and pinned her.

  “Do you think I’ve forgotten how you rubbed my face in that dirt? Do you think it’s over?”

  Greer looked terrified.

  “Well, now it’s payback time!” Kane shouted.

  Kane slammed Greer against a tree trunk. Vero, Pax, and X pulled him off of her.

  “Kane! Remember, his Light. His Truth. Let them guide you!” Vero shouted in his face.

  As X and Vero restrained him, Vero’s words seemed to have some positive effect. Kane calmed slightly as he noticed Vero’s bleeding nose. It looked as if he was coming back. Then, from out of the dark shadows, a thick black chain sailed through the air and lassoed Kane around his torso. The chain coiled itself the same way a snake snares its prey. Then it squeezed Kane until he could no longer move. The chain didn’t stop coiling until it had bound Kane up to and around his mouth. Kane lost the ability to speak. But what his mouth couldn’t say, his eyes conveyed clearly.

  His previous rage was replaced with raw fear. Vero and X were trying to free him from the shackle when Vero heard a stirring in the trees overhead. His heart thundering, Vero lifted his head toward the treetops. The blackened clawlike branches swayed ominously as the wind picked up. Goose bumps spread across his body. He could feel the hair on his arms stand on end. Yet no one was there.

  Greer screamed.

  Vero whirled around to see two sets of red eyes glowing through the thick moss that drooped from a knotty branch toward the ground. He stretched out his arms and pushed the others behind him as Blake and Duff walked through the moss. They looked exactly as they had appeared on earth — two teenage thugs with pimply faces and greasy hair.

  “We’ll be taking this guy as a souvenir,” Blake said, picking up the end of the chain and holding it like a leash. “He was such an easy target.”

  “No!” Vero shouted.

  With lecherous grins, Blake and Duff looked at the other angels and eagerly sized them up.

  “The rest of them should be easy to take down, too,” Duff said with a cruel laugh.

  “Don’t give in to them!” Vero cried.

  X cried out, “We are light!”

  Duff walked over to X.

  “Oh, we’ve got a tough guy here. Let me ask you something, X,” Duff said in a mocking tone. “The Light, the Light, where is your precious Light when you’re sitting in that wheelchair? Huh? When you can’t even raise your arms to give mommy a hug?”

  X’s face lost all color.

  “Why would you feel any loyalty toward someone who did that to you?” Duff asked as he bent down and picked up a rock. “Perhaps it’s because you have rocks in your head?” Duff slammed the rock against X’s skull, and X went down. He was out cold.

  “Leave him alone!” Greer shouted. She raced over to help X.

  In the blink of an eye, Duff rushed her and caught her in his grip. She winced and couldn’t escape his hold. He began stroking her face.

  “Oh, you may talk tough, sister. But how about you . . . how was that tenth birthday, Greer? If memory serves me correctly, you spent it locked in the closet of what? Foster family number five?”

  Greer began shaking.

  “Two whole days in a closet without any light. You thought darkness was your only companion. But we were there with you. We kept you company in that closet while your precious Light turned his back on you — just like he’s doing again today.”

  Duff punched Greer in the stomach. With the wind knocked out of her, she doubled over and sank to her knees.

  “Greer!” Vero yelled as he ran to her and put his hand on her back. She slumped the rest of the way to the ground, fighting for a breath.

  Ada began crying. Pax gripped her hand.

  “Oh, look how touching,” Blake said to Duff. Then he turned to Pax and said, “Is that bogus little gesture of support supposed to comfort your crybaby girlfriend?”

  “It’s not bogus. There is only Truth and Light here,” Pax said calmly.

  “It is bogus,” Blake said. “Because when I wrap you up in my chains — trust me, you’re gonna let go of her hand real fast.”

  Blake snapped off a twig and threw it at Ada and Pax. In midair the twig spun several times end over end, and then it transformed into a heavy, black chain.

  “Run!” Vero shouted.

  But the chain was too fast. With lightning speed, it coiled itself around Ada and Pax, tightly tying them together.

  Blake laughed as he looked at their hands, still clasped. “Guess I was wrong.”

  Vero had seen enough. He left Greer and charged at Blake. But when Vero angrily shoved him, Blake barely flinched.

  “You have unfinished business with me, not them!” Vero shouted.

  Blake got right up in Vero’s face and snarled, “And what unfinished business are you talkin
g about?”

  “Release your hold on Danny,” Vero said, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose.

  “Danny Konrad? A kid nobody cares about? His own mother and father don’t even care,” Blake smirked. “Isn’t he the same kid who loves beating the crap out of you? Who stole pretty little Davina away from you?”

  Vero grew enraged. The blood pumped to his face.

  “And how are you going to make us do that anyway?” Blake asked. “Are your friends really here to help you?” He laughed.

  Blake motioned to X who was still out cold on the ground. Blood trickled down his forehead from where the rock smashed his head. Greer was lying in the fetal position clutching her stomach. Kane, Ada, and Pax all struggled to break free of their chains.

  “Pathetic,” Duff scoffed.

  “If I were you, I’d get revenge on a guy like Danny,” Blake said. “It’s so much more satisfying.”

  Vero grabbed Blake by the shoulders and shook him. Blake laughed maniacally, unfazed and unthreatened. Next, Duff jumped in Vero’s face.

  “Your angelic efforts have all been in vain anyway, Vero,” Duff said. “You’re too late!”

  “That’s a lie!”

  “Think so? Then why don’t we all take a look, shall we?”

  In a dramatic gesture, Duff swept his hands apart, revealing a festering black light. The blackness grew wider the farther apart he spread his hands. Eventually, the dark mist clouded all of their vision. Then, in the cloudy darkness, Vero heard someone walking. Slowly, the darkness cleared. Although they were all standing in the same positions, their surroundings had changed. They were now on earth, standing in front of the abandoned house from Vero’s daydream. Only this wasn’t a dream. Danny was now walking toward them headed up the driveway. His face was consumed with anger, and he had a slingshot firmly in hand. He gave no indication that he could see any of them.

  Vero lunged toward Danny, but Blake and Duff grabbed Vero and held him down.

  “Easy there, hotshot. This is for viewing pleasure only,” Blake snarled. “We thought it would be fun for everyone to watch your little girlfriend die.”

  Vero tried to escape, but their hold on him was too strong.