by Karl Morgan
“Mary,” J.C. interjected, “you also have to remember that Jonas is not an angel.” Jonas laughed out loud and pulled the door open.
This version of Lou’s looked very much the same as the one in Utah, but was at least three times the size. Hundreds of bikers and others were jammed inside eating and drinking, laughing and dancing. The music was loud and the crowd noise overwhelming. The same older woman named Cora was working behind the bar, but now she had four other female bartenders helping out. Ten servers squeezed through the crowd with trays of drinks and platters of food. The servers and bartenders all wore black bustiers, leather miniskirts and wore costume devil horns. At least fifty men were pressed up to the bar shouting and hooting as Maggie danced on top of it. She held a drink in each hand and was thoroughly enjoying the attention. She also wore a pair of the devil horns she had commandeered from one of the servers. Several of the men at the bar were waving paper currency at her and she danced over to each and bent over so they could push it into her bra. When she caught sight of Mary, she set her drinks down and waved at her to join the fun.
Mary tried to turn to leave, but Jonas held her tight. “I’m not doing that,” she scowled.
“Oh yes you are,” Jonas said as he hoisted her over his shoulder and headed through the crowd. “Mary, this is all part of the plan. You have to stay on her good side if we ever want to see Bill again or help his family.” Mary looked back to J.C. for aid, but he only smiled. When they approached the bar, a couple of the bikers lifted Mary onto the bar next to Maggie. Maggie threw her arms around Mary and kissed her on the lips, causing the men nearby to hoot and cheer.
Maggie pressed her mouth near Mary’s ear and said, “I know you’re not like me, but please try to act like you’re having fun. I really like you.”
Mary put her arms around Maggie and kissed her again passionately. The men began to scream and jump up and down. “Bestie, you and I are going to have the time of our lives!” They both began to dance and the audience was going wild. More and more men pressed against the bar cheering.
Jonas led J.C. to a booth far from the bar where Lou and Dom were seated.
“We’re here, Dad, now what do we do?” Jonas asked.
“I think we have to let them both go back through the portal,” Lou replied.
“I think you’re right, Brother,” Dom agreed.
“I think that’s a really bad idea, Dad,” J.C. said. “Bill is lost somewhere and now at least we have Mary back here with us. Who knows what they’ll do to her in the other reality.”
“The two membranes will move apart soon,” Dom replied. “When that begins, we need to seal the portals immediately. We need as many resources in that reality as possible to finish this thing before that happens.”
“My brother is right. In fact, I have agreed to go to the other reality to help find the other version of me.”
“No, you can’t do that,” Jonas warned. “You realize that if you do and we seal the portals, Dom and his side will rule this reality completely. The balance will end. Isn’t that equally dangerous?”
“We have also decided that the other Dom will move to this reality at the same time. If we have to separate the realms, the combination of this reality ruled by Heaven and the other ruled by Hell should be enough to maintain the balance in the overall multiverse,” Dom explained.
“Should be?” Jonas quizzed. “Somehow that’s not very reassuring.”
“Frankly, we’re not sure what else we can do,” Lou sighed. “Do either of you have any better ideas?” J.C. and Jonas looked at each other blankly and then lowered their heads.
“I have a better idea,” a female voice said, causing them all to look. Mary was standing next to the table. One of the bikers stood behind her carrying the passed-out Maggie, who snored loudly.
“Well?” Lou said.
“You both said that Bill and I were created to stop all of this. You have to let us finish the job. It’s not worth destroying all of existence for our lives.”
“But we don’t know where Bill is or whether he is still alive,” Dom replied. “You would be all alone.”
“Bill is still alive. I can feel him. In fact, I can feel all the versions of Bill and me in all the planes of existence.”
“How is that even possible?” Dom asked.
“Dom and Lou, can the three of us go somewhere private to speak? I don’t want everyone to hear what I’m going to say, and especially not Princess Maggie.”
“Mary, J.C. and I will take Maggie back to her hotel room. Will you be long?” Jonas asked.
“I’ll be in my bed in the hotel room before you two get her there,” Mary smiled. Dom, Lou and Mary disappeared.
Chapter 12
After Bill returned to Mexico City with One, Sandi, and the other Bills, he headed north again with Seventeen. The rest remained in Mexico to start rebuilding civilization. Before they left, Bill told the others that he would come back and help them return to their own realities once the reign of evil had ended. As he crossed the vast desert separating him from Las Vegas, he started to have doubts and thought his trip to find Dom Emmanuel was probably a waste of time. If Dom or Lou still survived, they would have stopped the desolation of this Earth. He longed for his life back in San Diego, but quickly realized that life was over. The city lay in ruins and terrorists were likely running wild, trying to make his planet like this one. He glanced over to the other demon flying to his left and asked, “Seventeen, were you married where you came from?”
“Now that there are only two of us, I think it’s okay if we call each other Bill. And yes, I was married to Audrey and Sandi was my daughter too.”
“Isn’t it amazing how many similarities we all share?”
“Not really, Bill.”
“I’m confused.”
“Bill, you know I’m a scientist, and I have to tell you that all of this demon and angel stuff seemed like an illusion to me, but here I am flying five hundred feet over the Sonoran Desert with giant bat wings of my own.”
Bill chuckled, “An illusion, that’s funny.”
“How do you mean?”
“We’ll talk about that later, okay?”
“Ever since you showed up in the hotel lobby with One, I’ve been trying to figure this out. I’m probably a long way from an answer, but just listen and let me get this off my chest.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I thought it odd that we’d be so alike and yet somehow different too. I also wondered why all of membranes of the multiverse were alike. It seemed too homogeneous to have been caused by random events or evolution. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks! The membranes aren’t similar, they are the same.”
“Isn’t that just semantics?” Bill asked.
“No, I don’t mean it that way. I mean they are literally the same. You and I are not two separate people who look and act like Bill Watson or Stewart. We are the same exact person. It makes perfect sense.” Seventeen looked over at Bill and saw he was struggling to understand. When he looked ahead again, he could see the city less than five miles ahead of them. “Bill, I think we’re there. Look.”
“My God, the city has been wiped out!” Bill gasped.
“What are we looking for down there?”
“The Bellagio Hotel.”
“Let’s land and take a look around. I think we should try to look like normal people in case anyone survived,” Seventeen suggested.
A minute later, they were human again and walking north on the Strip. It was brutally hot. Without irrigation, the vegetation had dried and withered away, allowing the city to be reabsorbed into the relentless desert. “We should walk in the middle of the street,” Bill said. “It’s the only place not buried by the sand.” The few hotels that had not been smashed stood as broken testaments to the once beautiful oasis. Most of the glass was broken out and the wind howled through the empty hulks.
After an hour of walking, they approached the entrance to the Bellagio. The fountains had d
ried up and the structure had collapsed or been smashed to the ground. “What are we looking for here, Bill?” Seventeen asked.
“The main elevators in the lobby,” Bill replied.
“Where do you suggest we go, Bill? There aren’t any floors anymore.”
They climbed over the rubble and found themselves just inside the main entrance. The chandeliers had fallen and littered the ground with broken glass and metal. The sun was at the zenith and a few buzzards circled high above. Rows of slot machines stood in the stillness, but the chairs had been tipped over and a number of bleached skeletons littered the floor. Bill saw the familiar bank of elevators and hurried toward them. Just as they reached them, loud growling began to sound behind them. They spun around to see two massive beasts staring at them with red eyes and long fangs. The monsters kept their heads down and moved forward slowly. Seventeen had backed behind Bill. “We have to get out of here, Bill!”
“Zelda? Chachis? Is that you?” Bill asked. The beasts shrank until they became two small dogs who hurried over and begged to be picked up. They were yipping happily and dancing on their hind legs. Each Bill picked up one and the dogs eagerly licked their faces. “I’ve missed you so much, Chachis!”
“Bill, how did you know those things were our dogs?”
“I guess you were right after all. It stands to reason that if we are the same person, then we would have the same dogs.”
Seventeen scratched Zelda behind the ears and looked quizzically back at Bill. “I’m still confused. How could these dogs end up in Las Vega and our daughter in Mexico City? I never took my dogs here and my Sandi lived in Montana. Maybe my theory is wrong.”
“Don’t discount it so quickly, Bill. We have to remember free will. Do you remember how One told us he had been divorced?” Seventeen nodded. “Well, don’t you see, we may be the same, but we made different choices. I don’t know what you went through before all of this started, but you were a scientist while I was an accountant. One got divorced, yet we were both still married.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but then why are we the same? I mean if everyone in each membrane made free choices throughout the history of human existence, what are the odds that you and I, or our families would exist in all these versions of Earth? That’s got to be almost impossible!”
“Well, you’re the scientist, not me, but perhaps the person we’re here to find can answer the question.” Bill set the white dog down and squatted next to her. He looked up at Seventeen and said, “On my world, my dogs went to Las Vegas with the man I’m hoping to find here.”
“Bill, I hate to remind you, although it seems obvious. Las Vegas has been obliterated. There’s no one alive to be found.”
He smiled at Seventeen and turned his attention to his dog, which was now sitting next to him. “Chachis, find Dom!” She yipped and ran into a massive pile of rubble ten feet from them. Zelda squirmed and Seventeen set her down. She ran into the same pile. “Let’s get to work, Bill.”
Both men began to pull away the debris. After the first few minutes, they both morphed back into demonic form to protect their hands from broken glass and sharp pieces of metal. The sun was moving toward the horizon and rain clouds were forming overhead as they pulled away the last pieces of lumber and drywall, revealing a broken down wooden door. They grabbed the door, wrenched it off its hinges and tossed it aside. The single private elevator car stood before them with the two dogs already sitting inside waiting for them. Bill walked in and petted the dogs and then turned to wave Seventeen inside just as the few large raindrops began to splash around them.
Seventeen smirked at Bill and chuckled, “You really are nuts. Bill, there’s no elevator shaft! There’s no electricity! I’m surprised the car itself is still in good condition, but honestly, that thing isn’t going anywhere. You can see that, right?”
“Bill, you have to have faith. You said it yourself only a few hours ago. You are a scientist, and yet you are now standing there with bat-like wings and the body of a demon. Which is crazier: flying from Mexico City to Vegas with your own wings or riding in an elevator car to nowhere?”
Seventeen was instantly human again. Rain now poured down on his head and he looked completely lost and alone. He looked behind and around the area and saw nothing but destruction and death through the veil of pouring rain. He turned back to the elevator car and noticed the lights had come on inside. He sighed heavily, stepped inside and the doors closed.
Mary, Dom and Lou were sitting at an ocean-front café in the middle of a small city. It was morning, and the sun was rising quickly in the sky. A waiter in a white shirt and black trousers came up to their table and said, “Bom dia.”
“Bom dia. Tres cafes com leite, por favor.”
“Sim, senhorita,” the man said and moved away.
“Madeira is an interesting choice of venues, Mary,” Dom chuckled.
“What did you want to talk to us about, Daughter?” Lou asked.
“Ever since I met Bill, I’ve been feeling different. I thought it was just the demon inside me, but then something changed. I think it must have happened when Bill was exiled from Maggie’s reality.” She took their hands and looked out to watch the waves roll up on the pebbly beach.
“Why are we here, Mary? What did you want to tell us?” Dom asked.
“I just wanted to be far from Maggie. She makes me very uncomfortable, even though I know she really is me,” she replied. The waiter returned with their coffees, added the hot milk and then walked away. “When she first kissed me, I kind of freaked out. Then I realized it was just me kissing myself, and since I knew this was all part of the plan, I just gave into it.”
“Well, she may look just like you, but I hardly think she is you,” Lou argued.
“I used to feel that way too, but now I know better. Please bear with me. When Bill and I were together, I started to feel like I knew what he was thinking. When he jumped out of his car and ran toward those terrorists in the Imperial Valley, I thought he had lost his mind. But then these images moved across my consciousness and I knew what he was planning to do, and that’s when I ran after him to help.”
“Interesting,” Lou noted.
“But it was just random flashes of things, you know. I didn’t hear him talking to me or anything precise. It was just bits and pieces; at least it was until he was exiled.”
“Then what happened, dearest?” Dom asked.
“Suddenly, I felt images from two Bill Watsons, if that makes any sense. An hour later, I could feel dozens of him thinking. Now, it must be hundreds of him inside my head. And while they are all Bill to me, each is a little bit different.” Dom and Lou exchanged worried glances. “At first I thought I was going mad. Somehow my mind was devolving into some kind of psychotic jumble. I was afraid I would be a totally incoherent maniac!”
“We will take care of you Mary. We promise,” Lou said.
She began to laugh and the two men looked even more concerned. She took a sip of coffee and continued, “I’m okay, I swear that I’m okay now. I figured it out. Now I don’t know whether anyone can understand it or if it’s just Bill and me because of our special genealogy.”
“Well?” Dom asked.
“I can sense all the Bill Watsons in the multiverse! Isn’t that amazing? And even though they are basically the same, I can tell the differences. What do you think of that?”
“It’s okay, dear, we understand. You’re just confused,” Dom began.
“Wait just a minute,” she interjected. “You two don’t believe me, do you?”
“Mary, it just isn’t logical that they would all be the same or even exist for that matter,” Dom explained. “You have to imagine that each membrane of the multiverse is evolving, the beings are making choices, and random acts of nature are occurring every second over billions of years. It isn’t possible for you and Bill to exist pretty much the way you are in each of them.”
“Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you two, but that is
n’t true!” She took another sip of coffee.
Dom lowered his head, patted her hand and whispered, “Mary dearest, don’t you think Lou and I know a little more than you?”
She giggled and patted their hands, saying, “Of course I know you do, but something has changed and you’ve both forgotten.”
“What do you mean by that?” Lou shouted with his eyes glowing red. Black clouds began to form on the horizon and move toward them.
“Lou. . .” Dom said.
“Sorry, I lost control for a second,” he said and the clouds began to dissipate.
“First of all, I apologize if I hurt your feelings. That was not my intention, but you have to remember that you two planned Bill and me to be the way we are. Maggie and I are identical in many ways, and I have to assume that Bill and the emperor are alike as well. It also wouldn’t surprise me if there was a Dom and Lou in that reality as well.”
“Lou and I have both met that Dom, and I have to say I was amazed that he was so much like me.”
“Don’t you see, you two aren’t similar, you are the same being! Just like Maggie and I are precisely the same person, and that’s probably true for you and the other Dom!”
“But if we were the same, why would we be somewhat different and even have separate forms?” Dom asked.
She leaned into them and whispered, “Because the multiverse we’re in isn’t real! Someone has created the illusion that this is the true multiverse to weaken you two so that he can ultimately rule everything!”
Dom and Lou looked at each other and wondered if that could be true.
Proctor, the white enforcer, kneeled before the demon king, begging for his life. “Please Master; please forgive Proctor for being a fool.” The demon grabbed Proctor and bit off his head, and then spit out the head and tossed the body into a fire pit where it was quickly consumed by flame.
Nearby, a brood of enforcer females rustled about in a large mound. One delivered an infant and it grew almost immediately into an adult. Proctor looked around and saw the demon motioning to him with a crooked finger. “Please have mercy on Proctor, Master?” he begged. Proctor slithered along the floor with his hands clenched in prayer. “Master knows Proctor made a mistake, but how many times will Master take revenge on a loyal servant.”