“We will be ‘put down’? Like those rabid dogs?”
“In your present state, we cannot imagine any other alternative. This will be for the betterment of the omniverse. It does not have to be this way. The elder souls will teach you to control the violence, the anger that lives within you. Your souls, like all souls, have great worth. You would not, for example, put a child born with a disability to death. A soul may be, as you said, ‘retarded’ but this soul may still contribute greatly to the omniverse.”
“We might want to cut that part.” Alicia heard snickering behind the cameras. She tried not to lose the momentum of the interview. “Sariana, please tell us more about the war currently happening in your dimension.”
“A rebellion has occurred. This rebellion was led by your soul but we are failing. I come to you in an attempt to change this time line."
"Can our souls ascend at any time? Can't we just make this happen ourselves?"
"Of course. If you knew the way forward, you could ascend whenever you please."
"But we need a guide? Why have we not been sent these guides before?"
"There have been many highly enlightened souls among you, capable of seeing beyond the Human deception. Sadly, their words, their messages have been rendered incomprehensible.”
"Are you referring to Jesus Christ, Mohammed and other prophets?"
"Yes. These were remarkable ascended masters in your dimension. We suspect not of your soul group. We do not know of the origin of these souls nor do we know of their fate."
"Why, then haven't all Christians ascended dimensions by following the teachings of Jesus Christ? Likewise for Muslims...”
"Many of your sacred texts have been greatly altered by The Humans, others have simply been removed from your world. The lessons for ascension that do remain have been largely misinterpreted. You've not done well at learning this. You do not understand the story of Lucifer, for example."
"How did you travel to our dimension, Sariana?"
"I crossed and I simply entered this vessel. This is not knowledge for you to keep in this dimension."
"The body that you occupy is not your own. Isn't it true that the girl we're looking at right now died following a car accident here in Alabama?"
"I stepped into her body as her soul exited for another vessel. Yes."
"There are documents verifying this," Alicia told the director. "You need to call the local hospitals and show this documentation at this point in the piece. Okay. Cut for a second."
For the first time since the interview began, the bright lights went out and Alicia looked around the room. The entire staff stood dumbfounded. Alex stood with her arms crossed and looked away when Alicia’s gaze caught hers. Amber stood a few feet away biting her thumbnail. It all sounded like complete bullshit. Alicia knew that but the documents would give a glimmer of proof to another otherwise unbelievable story, she reasoned. Of course, there was much more to tell.
“Are we really sending this to L.A.?" Alex finally said.
"This is what you wanted, right?" she asked the entire room. "You wanted Princess Sariana. That's what you're getting."
"I thought we were going to be doing a piece about a cute little girl that’s lost her shit.”
"It's like I said at the onset of the piece, people. This is what she believes." Alicia took Sariana’s hand. “I believe her too.”
“Well, sure. You’re the fucking Queen of Lucifer.”
“I believe the Princess too,” Amber said quietly and shared a smile with Sariana.
“Okay. Support from the trailer park...”
“As well as support from the Physics chair at City College, New York,” Milan said.
“And endorsements from high ranking officials in the United States military,” Alicia pointed out. “Sariana’s story is currently under consideration by the President himself. All of which I will point out in this piece if you would just kindly shut the fuck up. I’m giving you an exclusive before this story breaks worldwide. By the way, I don’t need your approval to do this. Why are we even having this conversation?”
Alex became very serious. “What you’re doing is incredibly irresponsible. If we’re to believe her, that girl said that the voice we’ve been listening to is the voice of our creator. She’s claiming to be sent from Lucifer. Am I the only one here that can see the obvious? You’re asking us to broadcast Satan’s word ahead of Judgment Day.”
“Says the chick that blows interns in her boss’s office. What? You’re a religious zealot now?”
“Are you questioning my faith?”
“Yeah. I kinda am. Let me guess. Jesus found you in AA. Am I right?”
“That’s none of your business. The Bible tells us to beware of this very thing. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Who’s to say that she’s not the child of hell the Bible warns us to avoid?”
Amber spoke up. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect. That sounds a lot like the voice on the radio to me. It’s them that made the hole in the sky. The Princess hasn’t done any miracles.”
“She says she’s in a dead body! That wouldn’t be miracle enough for you?” Alex countered.
“Fair enough. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, that spirit is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You just heard the Princess say Jesus was real. That voice ain’t never said nothing about Jesus.” Alex was silent for a moment. “Don’t be coming to Alabama quoting the Bible, girl. I know a little somethin’ about that.”
With that, Alex stormed off. “I’m calling Standards and Legal.”
Alicia sighed, “Let’s take a quick break.”
“We must continue,” Sariana protested.
“We’ll only stop for a moment,” Alicia assured her. “Besides, I really have to check these texts.” Alicia’s phone had been vibrating throughout the interview. The General, true to his word, had his folks send her a flurry of photos from the blast site. As Alicia began opening the photos, Milan and Amber approached the set.
“You did so good, honey,” Amber said to Sariana.
“Thank you, Ms. Mitchell.”
“Call me Amber, baby. Ms. Mitchell is my mama.”
“Milan,” Alicia said. “Do me a solid, will you, and keep an eye on the Princess. I need to try to talk this nutjob out of blocking the story.”
“Will do. Do you want the gun?” Milan joked.
“I may come back for it, yeah,” Alicia said as she walked off after Alex. She opened each photo sent from Ground Zero and tried to commit the faces to memory. There were easily forty or fifty pictures so far and they just kept coming.
“Um... Princess,” Amber said demurely. “Do I call you Princess?”
“You can. Yes,” Sariana smiled. “You can call me whatever you like, Amber.”
“I like Princess. It sounds so regal,” she beamed. “I’ve never met a princess. ‘Cept Princess Pea in 4H... and she was a bitch.”
“I’m sorry.”
Amber became a bit shy. “Y’all have got me so confused.”
“It’s all right to be afraid, Amber.”
“Oh,” Amber was surprised. “It ain’t that. It’s just my boyfriend. He’s gonna get in the rain and now I don’t want to. Am I gonna be fighting him in a war? He’s been taking karate at the community center on Mondays and Fridays...”
“You won’t have to worry about that.”
“No. I suppose not. He ain’t that good anyways.”
What happened next is a bit of a blur. There are moments in life, important moments, in which the participants fail to recognize the significance of their movements. These are moments that, later, one might wish to painstakingly recall every decisive detail; a cue not taken, words left unsaid, expressions unrequited.
Sometimes there are moments which teach lessons later or serve only to right wrongs we cannot then understand. We will endure a lifetime sorting through the wreckage of missed innuendo in these moments, carefully rearranging the details so that they may better suit our sanity.
Milan would lose sleep, forever lost in a moment in which he had nothing to offer, short of needless apologies. Amber would find strength from this debacle but not in this moment. Graham Barry would later recall the significance of this flash in time as it would serve for the betterment of his soul. Everyone in the room that day, in fact, would have burned in their mind's eye the next sixty seconds. Except Alicia. For this was to be another moment in which she came to know the ire long ago cast in her soul; and rage is as impervious to details as it is blind.
All present agree that he appeared suddenly and without pronouncement. He looked tired and Milan immediately engaged him. Something had been weighing heavy on his mind.
"Hey, I wanted to apologize about the other day. I've really felt terrible about not returning. When I arrived at Ground Zero, I just... well, I got involved. Were you ever able to reach your family?"
Distracted, Alicia walked through the store to catch up with Alex. As determined as she was to stop her from placing a call to L.A., the photos of the injured from Ground Zero were her first priority. As she opened each photo on her phone, Alicia quickly scanned the room for matching faces. She heard the front door open and saw a familiar face on her screen. The caption read "falling debris, minor scrapes and bruises". Hal.
Milan would later recall the last thing he heard Sariana say. "Is this the failsafe?"
All at once, there was a great deal of shouting in the studio. Alicia trampled over equipment and display cases in time to see Hal grab Sariana and force her to her knees as he stood behind her. A pistol appeared in his right hand and he held it against her back. Alicia saw everything in slow motion. The bullet escaped from the chamber and passed through Sariana's body in a flash. She fell forward onto the studio floor as screams erupted from the crew. Initially stunned, Alicia now rushed to Sariana and held her still conscious body in her lap.
"Sariana!!!" she shouted. "Someone find a doctor!! Help!!"
Amber began shouting to the room for medical assistance as Hal looked on. A rush of emotions surged through Alicia. She was shocked, frightened and her heart raced.
"The message," Sariana managed. "You must get the message out."
"What?"
"Tell all of the souls. Start the rebellion."
"Oh, no. We're not done yet, Sariana. You stay with me." Tears began to well up in Alicia's eyes. "Somebody get a fucking doctor!!" The girl tried to smile at Alicia but was overtaken by a grimace. "Don't die! Sariana!! We've almost completed your mission, honey. Don't die!!"
"What do I do when I die, My Queen?"
"No! Baby, stay with me. It's all going to be okay. We're going to get you help."
"Please try to remember." Sariana now appeared very frightened. “I don’t know what to do when I die.”
"We're going to fix you up, honey, and then we're going to go see the Exalted One just like you wanted to do." Sariana began coughing up blood. "No, no, no. It's all going to be okay, Sariana."
"My education was not complete. It wasn’t supposed to be this way."
Alicia began crying and stroking Sariana's hair and face. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Baby, hold on. Please."
“I suppose I begin again.” A calm seemed to come over Sariana. "You will see me again. Remember?"
"I don't remember, Sariana. I'm sorry... but I don't think I do. I don't want to lose you."
Sariana took Alicia's hand. "You can do it, My Queen, and you will hold me as a child. Don't despair. Please tell your children that I did my best."
"Of course, you did! You did so well, Sariana. You did a good job, baby. You did so good. I love you, honey. Hold on."
Alicia felt Sariana's last breath escape from her body as her hand went limp. Through her tears, she saw blurs of faces staring at her and her dead companion. She saw Amber crying. Members of the crew finally jumped on Hal and held him to the ground. She held Sariana's body close and hugged her tightly.
"Somebody get the police!" someone shouted.
In that very moment, something snapped inside Alicia. She felt it. Her heart beat so loudly she suspected the onlookers could hear it. She felt blood surge in her brain and a well of adrenaline shot from deep within her. She gently laid Sariana's body on the cold studio floor and slowly stood, her clothes awash in Sariana's blood.
She locked eyes with Milan whose tearing eyes now gave way to fear as he saw the emptiness, the harsh, soullessness that seemed to emanate from Alicia's face. She approached him and calmly asked for the gun.
"Ms. Parker, no!" Amber shouted.
Milan didn't know what else to do. He felt practically hypnotized by her gaze. Milan was the only other person in the room who understood Alicia's motive. He knew that wasn't Hal barely struggling under the weight of four men. Milan didn't hesitate. He gave her the gun.
Alicia was dazed. She walked to the men holding down the shooter. "Let him go," she said. The men did not comply. She pointed the gun at the men. "I said release him!!!" she screamed.
The men hesitantly scattered and Hal tried to rise but before he could completely sit up, Alicia smashed the gun into his mouth, shattering his teeth and sending his head violently back to the floor, spraying blood on Alicia and the nearby onlookers who quickly dispersed. She sat on top of him as the Human moaned in agony and choked on his broken teeth.
Alicia removed the gun from his mouth and clutched it in her right hand as she grabbed a handful of his scalp with her left and slammed his head into the floor twice more. She stood as the man lay writhing on the ground, spitting up blood and shaking violently. The room had now grown silent.
She was soaked in blood. Alicia let out a long scream that was equal parts rage and wailing sorrow. It came from deep within her and she felt as if she were channeling a massive violent anger, galaxies large. She circled the man like a lion watching its prey in its final death throws. She stepped down hard on the man's throat. Hal was still alive but now his breathing became a loud wheeze.
Alicia now loudly addressed the studio as the police finally arrived at the scene. "Princess Sariana died for you!!! I command you to kneel before her body!!!" Amber was the first to comply and she held the dead girl's hand. She was followed by the few other employees but most just stared in silence. Alicia waved the gun at the crowd. "Kneel!!!" With the exception of the cops, guns drawn, everyone within earshot awkwardly knelt where they stood.
"Drop the gun, lady," one of the policemen shouted. "It doesn't have to end this way!"
Alicia instead grabbed the shooter's head by his hair and shouted in his ear. "Do you see?! Do you fucking see?! They worship her. You have failed!! You're a god-damned fool. You’ve wasted your soul!!" Alicia pulled his head closer to her own face. "I bring death and you’re the first soul I’ll seek. I will find you. You are now face to face with the woman that will extinguish your God-forsaken soul." Alicia dropped his skull to the ground, stood and pointed the gun at the man's head.
“Drop the gun!!! We will shoot!!”
The man struggled a smile, replete with broken teeth and he spat out blood. With that, he coughed his final words, "I’m... not... Human."
A chill ran up Alicia’s spine. She looked back at Sariana's dead body. Amber knelt above her in an ever-expanding pool of blood, holding the girl’s hand, her mascara smeared by tears. The sight of her grand-daughter’s lifeless corpse brought Alicia to tears again. The killer was one of her own; an ascended new soul, a death savant. The soul’s mission was now clear to her. Sariana was gone. Her soul had been exterminated. There would be no twilight sleep for this child she’d grown to love so dearly. Sariana’s soul wouldn’t be starting over in her home dimension. This beautiful daughter of her unborn child was never to be again.
She unleashed another
long and terrifying scream. The cops shouted orders she couldn’t hear. The onlookers trembled in fear for their own lives. Alicia felt as if her rage would tear her skin away. Centuries of hate coursed in her blood, devouring all remnants of fear and empathy. These were things collected in vain by a once ignorant soul and they were childish in this moment.
Her now furious soul fought through the pain. Killing this wretch wouldn’t bring Sariana back. No. This soul wouldn’t die. Alicia didn’t know how to kill it yet. It would be afforded the very opportunity of rebirth it had only a moment before eternally denied the girl. Regardless, the thought of sharing her dimension for another breath alongside Sariana’s murderer infuriated Alicia.
She knelt again to the murderer. “Then, send a message back,” Alicia whispered. “The Queen’s edict has changed. I have no interest in peace.” Alicia again pointed the gun at the man’s face. “Tell them the new, unholy souls of Lucifer are coming for them. This time... Human eradication is imminent. In fact... it is promised.”
Alicia emptied the clip into the man’s body, dropped the pistol and was immediately tazed by the police. She lay on the floor, her cheek pressed to the cold linoleum of the Dollar Store floor, her eyes locked with Sariana’s vacant gaze. They placed handcuffs on Alicia and stood up her up with a jerk. Milan saw an entirely new person being led outside. That giddy gleam in her eye from days before was now gone. The pretentious redhead had been thoroughly erased. Alicia had come to Alabama with lofty career aspirations. She would leave Queen.
CHAPTER SIX
Chaos accompanied the next several hours outside the Dollar Store. Milan had managed to slip away unnoticed. The commotion surrounding Alicia’s arrest and the collection of Hal and Sariana’s bodies gave him ample time to exit the studio. There were simply not enough officers on the scene. He began to fight the crowds and make his way back to Ground Zero.
Amber, meanwhile, stumbled, dazed into the wave of vagrant souls gathered outside in the streets, nearly all of whom were blissfully oblivious to what had just transpired inside. She made little effort to move. Rather, the crowd bumped and shoved her forward over the course of the several street blocks. She was confused and startled. Eventually, Amber found a curb and sat down.
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