by Karl Morgan
She was dressed in a magnificent gown with incredible jewelry. She was immediately followed by several others as she walked past their table. The woman stopped next to Lucius and tapped his shoulder. “Councilor Lucius, it is you. Please get up.”
He climbed to his feet and bowed to the woman. “Your imperial majesty, it is an honor to see you again.” The rest of the crowd still had their faces to the floor and could not see the woman or what was happening.
She leaned in and kissed his cheeks. “Thank you, Lucius, but I am surprised to see you out with another woman. I thought you were saving your heart for me.”
“Your Majesty, I can assure you these women are just new employees of the bureau. They mean nothing to me.”
She took his arm and replied, “Let me meet your friends then. And everyone can get up now. I’m just here for lunch.” The crowd climbed to their feet, bowed deeply and most took their seats to resume lunch. Octavian, Mary and Cassie remained standing. “Ah yes, I remember Octavian.” She offered her hand which he kissed. “Such a sweet young boy, thank you. And who are your lady friends, Lucius?”
“They are just two young slave girls I’ve taken under my wing, Majesty. They are called Mary and Cassie.”
“Slave girls? Isn’t that unusual in the Bureau?”
“No, Your Majesty, we use many for routine, non-confidential work.”
“I see,” she replied, frowning. “It is unfortunate that both are quite attractive. I suppose that keeps up morale in the office.” Lucius did not reply, but stood still with an odd distracted look on his face. “Lucius, did you hear me?” He did not answer. “Lucius!”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” he said finally. “I just couldn’t get over the coincidence.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pardon me for saying it, but you and Mary look very much alike.”
“So now I’m a slave girl?”
“No, ma’am, I never said that. It’s probably something in my eye.”
The woman took his hand and began to pull him away. “Lucius, I must talk to you about a personal matter. You can finish your lunch with your coworkers a little later.” Lucius, the woman and her entourage went inside the restaurant and disappeared.
Mary, Cassie and Octavian sat down at their table. “Who was that?” Cassie asked.
“She is the emperor’s sister, Princess Maggie. Cassie, did you see it too?”
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. That woman and Mary could be identical twins.”
“What?” Mary cried.
Octavian sighed and said, “It was uncanny. I mean, what are the odds of something like that?”
After a few hours of walking, Bill and his group came upon another ladder leading to the surface. Faith stood guard over the others while Bill slowly ascended the ladder to the small door between the tunnel and whatever lies above. In the back of his mind, Bill thought about the nest of enforcers and hoped he was not about to find another such mass of stinking, fetid creatures on the other side of this door. He pushed on the door and it creaked open a few inches. The air above smelled damp and dusty but there was no sound or light. He pushed it open and crawled out, closing the door behind him. He sat quietly for a few moments while his eyes adjusted to the darkness. It was a small room, about ten feet square, and a single staircase that led up to another door. He assumed this was some kind of basement under another building. Even though it was unlikely, he hoped his family would be on the other side of that door. He cracked open the door to the tunnel and said, “I’m in a small dark room, but there’s a stairway here leading up to another door. I’m going to check it out.”
Faith looked up at him and said, “Okay, but be careful.”
He smiled and closed the door again and headed for the stairs. Each of the wooden treads creaked under his weight and he slowed down to lessen the noise, fearful that some kind of monster could be listening on the other side of that door. He reached the small landing at the top of the stairs and stood in front of the door. The door was short, just over five feet high and the top was rounded. He took the handle and cracked the door open just enough to examine what was on the other side. It seemed to be an abandoned house. He pulled the door open and stepped out onto the wooden floor. He was in a small kitchen. The appliances were broken down and covered in dust. Filthy dishes were piled in the sink and crusted with old food and mold. The smell of dust and decay was overpowering. He crossed the room to look out a broken window. The outer environs of the large city were only blocks away, but the small hill the cottage sat upon was empty. He wondered what had happened to the people who had lived here. He went through an opening into a tiny dining room. The small table for two still held dishes from an abandoned dinner. The floor was covered with dirt, broken glass, and other debris. He moved quickly through the next opening into a living room. Everything was filth and broken down furniture. It was dark here, with heavy drapes covering the front windows. He went to the drapes and pulled them open. Now he knew why the house was abandoned. Starting less than one hundred feet from that house was a massive field of crosses stretching for miles ahead. Each held the skeleton or decomposing body of a person who had been crucified. Bill gasped for air and felt tears filling his eyes. He turned and tried to run away down a short hallway to another door. He pushed it open and then stopped and fell to his knees. A badly decomposed woman’s body lay on the bed, her dried blood having soaked the bed sheets. Only one foot in front of him laid a dead man whose head had been exploded by a bullet at close range. The pistol was still in his decomposing hand.
Suddenly, he flew through the roof and was rising above the broken home. He flapped his wings, screaming in anger as he rose higher and higher. The field of crosses seemed endless. In every direction except toward the city, the lines of crosses passed in silence from hill to hill. The cruelty and terror inflicted by his double in this reality was more than he could handle. He wanted desperately to kill that man here and now. His sorrow for the dead overwhelmed him and he fell out of the sky, crashing down on the dead front lawn of the small house. He was crying and retching at everything he had seen. What kind of a man was his double, and did he have such a beast inside of him too?
“Bill, it’s okay,” Faith said. He rolled over and looked up at her as she knelt next to him. “You did not do this. This is not your fault.”
“But it was me! That bastard is part of my soul too!”
“Bill, Faith is correct,” Dom interjected as he knelt next to him as well. “The person who did this is separate from you. He is from a different universe than you. You can’t be responsible for the actions of others in different realities. You are here to help. If our universes had not collided, all of this would still be happening here. Now that you are here, you can stop it, and keep this kind of horror away from your world.”
“Father, it is happening now,” Prudence said coldly.
“Yes, I know, darling. Bill, do you think you can summon the demon within one more time?”
“Why?”
Tom and J.C. were cuffed and taken from the dungeon and loaded on a bus with thirty other chained men. The bus left the prison compound and drove for some time on a lonely road. The massive city could be seen in the distance out the right side windows, but the other views showed only empty rolling fields. “What city is that, J.C.?” Tom asked.
“I really don’t know its name, but the emperor and his people live inside that glass dome in the center.”
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Tom replied. A look of terrible realization crossed his face. “This is another planet. How is that possible?”
“Tom, I’m not sure I should tell you, but it’s a bad sign that you’ve been separated from your wife.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your kidnapping along with your wife was not a random crime. They came looking for her. She is Bill’s daughter. This is the emperor’s way of getting revenge on him for his actions.”
“Why is t
hat especially bad for me?”
“Think, son. You are not related to Bill Watson. You are of no value as a lure or hostage for your father-in-law.”
“What are they going to do to us?”
“If we are really lucky, they’ll work us to death in a mine or on a farm somewhere.”
“And if we’re not?”
“You already know the answer to that. I’m sorry, but this is out of our control now.”
The bus pulled up to a gate in a tall fence topped with razor wire. A guard climbed on the bus and checked the manifest, patted the driver on the back and exited. The gate opened and the bus entered the compound. It drove along on a dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind it. The landscape was bleak and barren. Only the long line of the fence broke the desolation. As the bus reached the crest of a low hill, everyone gasped. The field of crosses was unfathomable. The stench of death filled their nostrils and many of the men began to retch and vomit on themselves. “But we didn’t do anything?” Tom gasped.
“Have faith son,” J.C. sighed without looking at him. He closed his eyes and began to pray under his breath.
The bus stopped on an open patch of land where thirty-two crosses lay on the ground. Fifty armed soldiers formed a circle around the bus after it stopped. Tom could see dozens of men gasping for their breath on nearby crosses. Further away, dead bodies in all states of decomposition hung silently. Tom was now sobbing uncontrollably at his fate.
A slight man in a black uniform climbed onto the bus and said, “By the grace of our beloved emperor, Gaius Claudius Caesar, you are all sentenced to death by crucifixion. May our gracious emperor have mercy on your souls?” He grabbed the first man and pulled him from the bus where two guards held him tight. “Albert Engelhard, you are found guilty of sedition.” The guards led him to the first cross. They held him down on it as a third pounded a spike through his left hand. He was screaming in agony as they moved onto the right hand and then his legs. A group of guards picked up the cross and slid it into the hole dug for it. Albert was still screaming and crying as they moved on to the next man.
“Father, do you hear me?” J.C. said under his breath.
“Yes, son, I do,” whispered a voice in his head.
Tom had fallen silent and looked as though he was already dead as man after man endured the same miserable fate. At last, the guard hauled J.C. off the bus. As he stood outside, he looked over to Tom and mouthed the words, “It will be okay.”
The lead guard said, “J.C. Emmanuel, you are found guilty of looking like an enemy of the emperor.” They pushed him onto the cross and smashed the spike through his hand, but he did not scream. Over the din of cries from other men, Tom thought he heard him telling his guards that he forgave them.
Tom could not watch and closed his eyes tightly, hoping for a heart attack or some other quick death. He heard his father-in-law’s voice in his ear saying, “Don’t worry, Tom. I’m on my way.” He opened his eyes and looked around but he was alone. He glanced out the window to see J.C.’s cross dropped into its hole. He saw him smile. How was it possible for a man to be happy when he was about to die, he wondered.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him out of his seat, pulling him to the front of the bus and down onto the dirt. Tom was pushed into the hands of two guards who held him upright. “Thomas Anderson, you are found guilty of having no practical value.” The guards pulled him to the ground while another came forward with a spike and hammer. The sadistic guard was smiling and drooling with glee at his task. But something else had Tom’s attention. A huge winged beast was headed toward them. The guard placed the spike against Tom’s hand and raised the hammer to strike. He swung downward.
The demon grabbed the man’s arm and wrenched it off his body, tossing it far away. Blood spurted out of the wound as the guard screamed in agony. The beast swung again, decapitating the guard in a single swipe of its claws. The guards ran in every direction, but the beast was faster. In seconds, they were all dead. The beast went to the bus with the driver still inside, trying to start the motor. The beast picked up the bus, held it over its head screaming, and then hurled it out of sight, and then fell to its knees, crying and shaking in anger.
Tom sat up, not knowing what to think. “None of this is real,” he said out loud. As he watched, the demon morphed into a human. Tom shook his head and then crawled toward the man. He touched the man on his shoulder and said, “Thank you.”
Bill turned to see his son-in-law and hugged him. “Thank God you’re okay.”
“Dad, what just happened?”
“No time for that now. We have to help these other men.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that,” another voice said. They turned their heads to see Dom Emmanuel, Faith and Prudence standing a few feet away. “Good job, Bill, although the violence was a bit excessive, don’t you think?”
“You remember who my father is, don’t you?”
“Point taken, Son,” the man said. Then he turned to the crosses and raised his arms slowly. As he did, the crosses began to sink into the ground until the men’s feet were at ground level. The spikes began to dissolve and their injuries faded away until two hundred men, most of who had been crucified the day before, stood on the ground, healed and unsure how or why they were still alive. Then he walked over to J.C. and hugged him. “My God, you’re from the other reality, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Father.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, Joshua. I wish I could find my son.”
“We’ll look for him too, Father.”
“I can’t allow that, son.”
“Why? I need to help Bill find his family and stop the emperor.”
“Joshua, you were always the good one, forgiving to a fault, and not vengeful like your father. I’m afraid that your talents are not suited to stopping Gaius Claudius Caesar. Faith is more like me in that regard.”
“You want me to run away?”
Dom put his hands on J.C.’s shoulders and replied, “No, not at all. I want you to take Tom and these men to your world where they’ll be safe. If the emperor finds they did not die, he will just hunt them down and crucify them again. Then I want you to return to me here and help me guide Bill, his sister, and Faith, but from a safe distance. Once Prudence and I explain how Bill rescued us, you’ll understand.”
J.C. smiled and said, “I am no one to argue with you, Father. I just want to help.”
Dom patted him on the back and walked back over to Bill. “You and Faith should find your way into the city. I will take everyone else to the door to your world that your friends are guarding.”
“We’ll try to make you proud.”
“You already have,” Dom answered as he and the rest slowly faded away.
When they were alone, Faith said, “Let’s get out of this terrible place.”
“Faith, I did my part. Now it’s your turn to fix this horror.”
She smiled and replied, “Okay, close your eyes and add your strength to mine.” He complied and was filled with a sense of warmth and happiness. Majestic music filled his head and his heart began to soar. Finally, he thought he could hear birds chirping and smell wildflowers. “Okay, open them up!”
He opened his eyes to see a massive park where the fields of crosses had been. There were tall trees everywhere and broad expanses of grass, punctuated by neat lines of tombstones. Where the bus had stopped was a large pond with a floating fountain and several swans. “You do great work, Faith,” he noted as he kissed her on the cheek.
Cassie, Mary, and Octavian were still seated at the sidewalk café, having just finished their lunch. Lucius was inside with the princess and her entourage. The vehicle that brought the princess pulled up to the curb again after having been washed and waxed. Mary felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Princess Maggie standing behind her with Lucius by her side. “Stand up, slave girl!” Mary stood immediately. “Now, turn around and let’s have a look at you.” Mary t
urned slowly as the princess stared at her. “Lucius, I guess I just don’t see the resemblance.”
“Majesty, it’s nothing, perhaps it was something with the lighting at that moment,” he struggled for words.
“Perhaps you should work in my household. What do you think, slave?”
“Anything that pleases your Majesty.”
“Well, you are a pretty thing, and I would hate to rob Lucius and the other men of a pretty face.”
“I don’t know if this slave is sufficiently skilled for your staff, milady,” Lucius said. “I would not want a poor performer to detract from our friendship. Don’t you agree, Mary?” Mary did not respond as a strange shadow in the street distracted her. “Mary?”
The bus from the crucifixion site slammed roof first down onto the princess’s vehicle. The concussion wave pushed outward knocking the people and tables on the sidewalk toward the wall where the princess crashed into Mary’s body. The princess’s bodyguards pulled away the tables and guests, digging frantically for their liege. The princess was in bad shape under the pile. Her arms were broken and she groaned in pain. Mary opened her eyes and found the face of the princess an inch from her own. The two did not simply look alike. They were exact duplicates in every detail. The look of pain and anguish on her face was horrible. Mary took her arms where the bones jutted from her flesh and held them tightly and then closed her eyes. Light filled her body and moved down her arms and into the princess’s body.
The last of the rubble was pulled away and the bodyguards lifted the princess whose arms were healed. The princess looked around at the destruction. No one in either vehicle had survived. The restaurant was in shambles. Ambulances and squad cars filled the street. Several police led the princess to another vehicle, but she stopped them, pulling herself from their hands and headed back to Mary. She knelt next to her and smiled. Then she lightly kissed her lips and said, “Thank you.” Mary smiled and nodded. “You and your friend are mine now.” The princess told the officers to load Mary and Cassie into another squad car to take everyone back to the palace. As she was being led away, Mary looked back to see Lucius and Octavian watching her and shaking their heads.