The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  As traditional wedding music played, I stood in the back of the church wondering who was going to walk me down the aisle or was I supposed to walk by myself. Suddenly the Raiders guarding Zeid pushed him forward. He stumbled. They pulled him up and brought him to the back of the church where I waited for my signal to walk forward.

  It was obvious. Zeid would walk me down the aisle. Then he was to hand his future bride, the one that was supposed to be his destiny, over to another man. Not a man. A monster.

  It was brilliant planning on Abbadon’s part. More pain. The perfect torture for both of us. And I would give Abbadon that. I would give him all the pain I could find inside myself, and I knew that Zeid was doing the same thing.

  We were feeding him. I hooked my hand onto Zeid’s arm, and we began the slow walk down the aisle towards the empty space where my groom should have been waiting.

  When would he show himself? For our plan to work, he had to be present. The more pain and terror and sorrow we fed him, the more we hoped he would reveal himself to suck up more. The walls were ringing with terror. It was so bad I had trouble walking. If Zeid hadn’t been holding me up, my knees would have buckled, and I would have fallen.

  But together we walked. The music played. We took those shuffle-down-the aisle little steps, and then smaller ones, letting our fear build. We tapped into the fear of the Raiders. We pulled the horror that was built into the cathedral out of the ceiling where it had been trapped, and attached it to the sound of the organ.

  Fear and terror wove through the cathedral, making it harder and harder to function, and still, Abbadon did not appear. Finally, I realized what he was waiting for. He wanted my choice now. Before he showed himself.

  And now I knew what it had to be. It had to be yes. Zeid glanced at me and then looked away. Yes, he was telling me, it has to be yes. And you have to mean it. For all the wrong reasons, because that is what he wants. He wants a bride steeped in terror. He wants to control her. He wants to win with evil.

  So I said, “Yes. Yes, Abbadon, I will marry you.” And I meant it. I would marry him. I would stay in his Castle and live a life filled with pain and terror. It was the only way.

  As we got closer to the altar, I could see Anne’s eyes brimming over with her own pain. Pain for me, pain for herself and for the man she thought she had loved.

  I knew the Priscillas had somehow gotten to her and told her the plan because for the briefest of seconds she smiled and then pushed out her pain. It was like a tsunami of pain pushing out into the church, washing over everyone, grabbing them into the undertow.

  Zeid and I matched it. I could feel Aki and Garth doing the same. Only the robot men and women walking beside me stayed neutral. That included Tarla and Niko. They couldn’t let the slightest whisper of emotion give them away.

  Five feet away and still no groom. I yelled so loud that I knew it could be heard outside if anyone was listening. Yelled it with my entire being. “Yes. Yes. Yes, I will marry you, Abbadon.”

  It was our last hope. I meant it. I let him see that I meant it.

  And then the purple curtain behind the altar opened, and two men walked out.

  One was a man who looked like Abbadon, and one was a man we had never seen before, dressed as a priest. Ready to marry us.

  The two of them walked towards the front of the altar. The priest stood behind Anne and Abbadon, arms hidden inside the sleeves of his robe, his face a mask.

  Abbadon smiled at me, and I saw the sadness in his eyes. How could Abbadon be sad? Everything we knew about Abbadon told us he could not experience sadness. Were we wrong about what he wanted and who he was? Or was the man waiting to marry me not Abbadon?

  We had to know. It was time. I reached up and pushed the blue star hanging around my neck. The 4D version of the world appeared in front of me.

  There was so much more to see than what we could see with 3D vision. The strands of terror and fear that we felt were visible. Energy throbbed from the Raiders, and I could see the constraints that held them captive.

  In spite of where we were, there was beauty behind all the fear Abbadon was producing and feeding on.

  And I saw what we were looking for. I saw the true being called Abbadon, and I knew that the weapon we had in reserve could be used to defeat him. If we used it correctly.

  In the meantime, I had to project doubt and fear, but inside I had more than hope. I had the knowledge that it could work.

  Abbadon Fifty-Six

  I remembered the first time Beru told me about Abbadon. She said that no one was sure what Abbadon looked like, and if they had seen him, they didn’t live long. I prayed that was true. I hoped that I wouldn’t live long with him, but I would live as long as possible to save everyone I loved.

  Before I let go of Zeid’s arm to go to my future husband, I whispered that I loved him. Perhaps we would find each other again in another lifetime. Zeid was doing everything that he could to not keep me from leaving him. His heart was breaking, and he allowed that pain to feed Abbadon too. He did it for me. He was letting me go to save Erda. He would return, and someday he would be King, but without me by his side.

  But first, we had to free the people that Abbadon had captured. We knew that Abbadon would not let them go. He would use them to produce the pain and terror he needed to survive. However, I knew how to stop him. I knew how to keep him from continuing to destroy Erda, but to do that I had to stay and be his wife.

  We didn’t try to hide how terrible it was for us to part. I backed away from Zeid holding his hand and looking deeply into his eyes so I would have that memory with me as I lived in Abbadon’s Castle. Then I turned and walked to my husband, Abbadon.

  And as I walked, I turned on the weapon we had kept in reserve, the one that would free Abbadon’s people and make me his prisoner. I passed the man we called Abbadon and walked up to the man disguised as a priest. Standing inches away from his face, a face that hid what I knew to be something other than a man, and said, “I love you Abbadon. I accept you as my husband.” I pulled every ounce of love I had ever felt out of my body and projected it onto him. He began to tremble.

  Then from every corner, every stone, every crack in the Cathedral love vibrated forth, projected by Niko, Aki, Anne, Garth, Tarla, and Zeid. It swept through the church destroying every fiber of evil that had thrived there.

  Abbadon stared at me as I held his eyes, giving him love, calling him husband. By now his hands had escaped his robes, and I caught them, pulling him closer, whispering that I loved him. I had to mean it.

  The next wave of love slammed into him, as Ruta and his trees sent love across his Kingdom. The Priscillas had enlisted all their insect friends, and they too sent out love.

  Beneath our feet, every Ginete and Whistle Pig that Pita and Teddy could find sent waves of love through the earth. The ground trembled beneath our feet.

  Behind me, I could hear the Raiders moan and then in their own voices cry out in joy. Somehow they understood what we were doing, and many of them pushed past their anger at what he had done to them and joined in the sending out of waves, and waves, of love.

  Outside the Castle, thunder cracked, and slashes of lightning flashed down into the earth. Rain began to pelt the land. I knew it was pushing the tendrils of evil down to the ground where they would continue until they were purified.

  While we held the being we knew as Abbadon captured in the web of unrelenting, unbiased, and unconditional love he was powerless, so Niko opened our channel. It was heaven to hear everyone’s voice in my head again. I would miss those voices when they were gone.

  “It’s time for you to leave,” I said. “Anne is the portal open?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Anne leaning into the man we had thought to be Abbadon. He had his arms around her, sobbing. He was free.

 
“I am staying here, too,” Anne said. “But I’m opening the portal for you. It’s okay. Our past selves went to the future, and so there will be more years for the future to know me.”

  Garth stepped to his sister and put his arm around her too. “I am staying too with you Anne.”

  More love swelled into the cathedral, and the being we called Abbadon remained captured in its beam.

  “Go now,” Anne said.

  Behind me, I knew Tarla was hugging her grown children goodbye.

  “Zeid, you will be a great King. Now take these people and go home,” I said in my most queenly command voice. Because now I was Queen of Abbadon’s Kingdom, and it was the greatest gift I could give to Zeid. My love and his freedom.

  With our channel open, I could say goodbye to everyone, even those not in the church with us.

  “Goodbye Ruta, thank you for being my great friend. Take care of Beru for me.”

  To Teddy, I said, “I love you forever Teddy Bear, will you make sure the Priscillas are safe with you back home?”

  Hooking my arm into Abbadon’s, I turned to face my friends in the church one last time. I let the love I felt for them, and all of the ones I loved back in the future Zerenity, flow out and encase my new husband and me.

  Now that he was in this weakened state, I could hold him in that bubble of love for the rest of his life. I would use the love I felt for Zeid, and the team that had taught me so much, to fuel that love. I knew it would never run out.

  Although none of us knew how what we had done in this timeline would affect our future, I had to hold onto the hope that everyone would return safely and find a restored Erda. Maybe even the people who had died would have returned, and Ruta would find his mother. And maybe mine.

  The vision of my father and mother reuniting fueled my love again.

  I turned to the man we had thought to be Abbadon. His eyes were filled with tears, and he said, “Thank you for releasing me. I am in your debt forever.”

  I shook my head. “It wasn’t me. It was all of us. All I ask is that you make Anne happy.”

  He bowed and said, “That is an easy promise to keep.”

  Within minutes the five of us were alone in the church. The channel was closed again. I knew it was because the team had made it to the portal and were no longer in the past with us. Abbadon was caught in the web of love we had woven for him. It was time for us to begin our new life. A life lived in the past so that we could protect the future.

  Abbadon Fifty-Seven

  As the five of us started walking down the aisle of the cathedral, I was strangely happy. I had fulfilled my destiny. Zeid was fulfilling his. The little girl Hannah who had such big dreams in the Earth dimension, and then discovered that she was a princess in another one, had grown up.

  I had never wanted to be a Queen, but I had accepted that future. Not Queen of Zerenity but the Queen of Abbadon’s Kingdom. Dreams of what I could do flooded through me. Now that love had released everyone from Abbadon’s grip it could be beautiful. I hoped that the love I felt for that future would soften the sorrow I felt for no longer being with my friends that I loved more than life itself.

  “That’s obvious, because you gave up the life you dreamed of having for them,” Anne said.

  I had forgotten that Anne and Garth could also read my mind.

  “You stayed, too.”

  “I stayed because I love this man. And Garth stayed because he loves me. Besides, now he can find that girl that he loved before. So we stayed for love, but not the love you have to give.”

  Still holding Abbadon’s hand, I hugged all three of them, thinking that it would be bearable because they were there.

  “Thank you for staying here with me,” I said.

  “And me!” said a tiny voice. The same words I had heard once before when the speaker peeked out of my pocket a few days after I first returned to Erda.

  Flying down the aisle straight at my hair was Pris, trailed by Cil and La.

  Although I was overjoyed at seeing them, I whispered, “No, you were supposed to go home.”

  As Pris pulled at my hair, and Cil and La wiped the tears off my face, La answered for the three of them.

  “We are home. You are our home.”

  There was so much love circling us that I wasn’t afraid of letting go of Abbadon’s hand. I patted his hand so he would know that I loved him too, and I gathered my three friends in my arms smothering them with kisses. “You weren’t supposed to stay, but now that you are here, I am so happy.”

  As I spoke those words, a massive boom shook the cathedral. And then another. All of us clutched each other to stay upright. We had Abbadon in the middle of our circle, keeping him up. Even I was amazed that we had all moved to protect him. Love had healed our hearts too.

  Another huge boom, a flash of light, and then a voice.

  “You lost, brother.”

  A column of light shot through the ceiling to the floor in front of us. Abbadon began to tremble even more.

  Inside the beam, I could see something move. The voice came from the light.

  “You lost, brother. And look what your choice did to you. It turned you into a monster. You chose evil. You bet that evil would win. And yet, look at you now. Protected by people who should hate you, and yet they have defeated you with love. You lost, and now it is time to return.”

  “No, no,” Abbadon said, his voice so weak it was hard to hear him. “I can’t go back. I will be punished.”

  “Have you not learned anything?” the light asked, throwing out sparks that lit every corner of the church.

  “Love defeated you. Do you think we would give up the power of love to punish you? Then we will have chosen the dark side as you did. No, you will punish yourself until you let go of your evil ways.”

  The being inside the light turned to face us as we held onto Abbadon. Softening its voice, it said, “Thank you. But you have to let him go now. We’ll take care of him.”

  The light moved over all of us, and I could feel my grip on Abbadon loosening. Within a few seconds, Abbadon and the column of light disappeared.

  It was over.

  I felt empty and elated at the same time. I was free! Abbadon was gone. I was no longer his wife. Happiness should have been flooding over me, but instead, I started to cry. I wanted to be brave, but Anne knew what was bothering me.

  “I’m sorry, Kara Beth. Now you are free, but you are here in the past. And we can’t open the time portal for you. We were careful to lock it on the other side, just in case something went wrong.”

  I nodded, holding my head up, dashing the tears off my face. I had given up that life. I would have to find a new one here, in the past.

  “Perhaps I can help you with that,” said a voice from the back of the church. The church doors had remained open after everyone had gone, and now an old man stood in the entrance. As he walked forward to us, I went to meet him.

  I remembered the old man that Aki and Niko had told us about. “Are you the man who helped my friends Aki and Niko escape Abbadon?”

  “That I am,” the old man said.

  I reached out and gathered him into my arms. “Thank you,” I said.

  The Priscillas started to laugh, and I turned to them, wondering what could be so funny. Pris just kept giggling, and even my sternest look didn’t stop her.

  “What’s up with you?” I said.

  “Oh Kara Beth, in spite of all the things you just did, you are still dense. Don’t you know who that is?”

  As I said, “No,” I turned to look again and then felt like a complete idiot. Actually, it felt kinda good being an idiot again. No longer the person who had to hold a monster in the grip of love, I was just an ordinary girl, a little clumsy and a bit dense.

  Standing in fro
nt of me was my friend from Earth and Erda. Leif stood there with a smile on his beautiful face, holding his favorite staff.

  “Would you like to go home with me? Sarah is probably missing me.”

  I cried again, this time with tears of happiness. “Are you taking all of us?”

  “No,” Anne said, looking at her brother.

  “We still want to stay here. We love it here. We’ll take care of the past so you can return to a beautiful future.”

  We hugged one last time. I couldn’t wait to see their future selves again. I wondered what they would remember.

  The Priscillas had already attached themselves to my dress assuring me that they were coming with me. I touched Leif’s shoulder as he raised his staff, tapped it on the floor, a blue haze rose around us, and then we were gone.

  Abbadon Fifty-Eight

  If I had time to think before the blue haze swept us away, I would have thought we would return to the portal outside the Castle. But I was wrong. When the haze cleared, we were in the woods somewhere. For all I knew we hadn’t traveled in time at all because the woods looked the same as any other woods.

  I still had on my wedding dress which didn’t quite fit into a woods venue. Leif was standing a few feet away. He appeared to be knocking on the air. He looked over his shoulder, eyes twinkling, and continued to knock. Perhaps I had gone crazy?

  A few seconds later Sarah’s head popped out of nowhere right where Leif had been knocking.

  “Oh you are here!” she said, stepping into Leif’s arms. Now I could see all of her and behind her was a slit in the air revealing what looked like a room of some kind.

  Yes, I was going crazy. I couldn’t move. Frozen in place, I began to think I had dreamed the whole thing. That is until I felt Sarah’s arms around me holding me tight and whispering, “Welcome home, Kara Beth.”