The Behemoth moved smoothly and precisely, as if invisible anchors weighed it down. It rotated away from Angela and leaned toward a large, flat stone that rested against the edge of the woods. Sleeping on the surface of the rock was her son.
Feeling returned to her limbs. Alex was in her sights. Yet, she held back, knowing full well that, if the Behemoth found her now, it would destroy her.
She watched helplessly as the beast reached toward her son, with Rick’s blood still dripping from its hand. The Behemoth smeared the warm red liquid all over the boy’s body as if he were a paper towel. Yet, it seemed gentle enough.
However, knowing how quickly the beast’s tenderness could become lethal, Angela stirred and started to push her way toward the clearing. She would not sit idle and witness her son meet the same fate as Rick.
In her haste, she misplaced one of her steps and her foot broke through a brittle stick of wood.
Angela’s courage dwindled when the Behemoth turned its head in her direction. She froze.
It was impossible to know just how visible she had made herself. There were only a few slender trees between her and the clearing, but maybe that was enough to remain hidden in the dark. Adding to the uncertainty was the strange stillness in the beast’s expression. Its stare seemed able to observe everything all at once like an insect. Angela was afraid she had been swallowed, like everything else, into the pits of its eyes. The beast’s stoicism was torture. She had no idea what it was thinking, or even if it had thoughts at all. Was it waiting for another noise, or just biding its time before it charged her?
Then, without any warning, the Behemoth took to the forest. It galloped back through the tunnel and within seconds had disappeared altogether. Angela was shocked to see just how quickly it could move.
She waited until the sound of its crushing stride had faded completely before she started toward the clearing again.
Once she stepped out from the cover of the trees, she paused, testing to see if it was a trap. But, the Behemoth didn’t return and the woods remained still.
She made her way to Alex as quickly, and as quietly, as possible.
His eyes were closed.
He wasn’t moving.
Then, when she was only a few feet away, she saw his chest rise and fall, and rise again. A shock of joy weakened her knees, but she managed to press onward.
Angela fell on the rock next to him, with her hands held just above his body. They hovered there; quivering with dread that, if she tried to touch him, she would discover he wasn’t real. How could he be? How could this nightmare end with the two of them reunited? Eventually, even that fear could not hold her back, and she grabbed hold of him. Her hands were treated to the warmth of his skin and the soft fabric of the shirt she had dressed him in. She cradled the back of his head as she pulled him tightly to herself. Tears came, though not the ones she was used to. These rolling beads were not born of sorrow like the rest. They were forged from the disbelief that her love could be so wholly restored.
“Alex... Alex...” She repeated his name until he began to awaken.
His sleepy arms stretched out lazily into the night as if he had just been napping in his own bed. Angela, however, needed to hear his voice.
“Alex, you’re okay. Right? You’re okay?” she pleaded.
“Mom?”
“Yes!” she exclaimed. He had spoken. Angela couldn’t remember hearing anything so simply beautiful. She melted into a full-blown weep.
“Mom, are you okay?”
She cleaned up her sniffles and kissed his forehead before answering.
“Yes, sweetie. I am now.” She cradled his face in her hands and examined his features as if afraid they might slip away. Alex remained calm and subdued, even in the presence of Angela’s near hysteria.
Once she had had her fill of him, she forced her mind back into the reality of their situation. The beast was still somewhere in the woods, and it was only a matter of time before it returned.
“Come on, we have to go,” she said, lifting both of them to their feet.
“Where?”
“Home.”
“I can’t,” he said, regretfully.
“What do you mean? Of course you can.” Angela grabbed hold of his arm and jogged toward the field.
Alex pulled free of her.
“No!” he yelled. “I can’t go.”
“Alex! Please, you have to be quiet. We don’t have time. This is serious and not up for discussion. We’re going home. That’s an order, okay? Over and out.”
“No.” He stood defiantly against her.
“What’s wrong?”
“He needs me.”
“Who needs you?”
“The forest man. He asked me to stay with him.”
A sick feeling grew in Angela’s stomach. What lies had the beast been telling her son?
“You mean the Behemoth?” she scorned. “You can’t trust it, Alex. Don’t listen to anything it says.”
“He’s just lonely, mom. He’s been here for a really long time and all his friends are gone. He’s sad. Like when I was sick. He just doesn’t want to be alone, I think.”
Could it be that simple? Was the Behemoth just some ancient lonely thing, the last remnant of a secret, mythical species? Angela had to admit, in some strange way, it made sense. How else would a beast like that relate to a group of churchgoers but as their god?
“Whatever it told you,” Angela pleaded, “it’s not what it says it is. It’s just pretending – trying to trick you. But it’s dangerous, Alex. It hurt lots of people, even Clara.”
“It didn’t burn them up, though.”
“No... No, it didn’t burn them.”
“The forest man said you did.”
Angela was rendered speechless. It was no use lying, Alex knew her too well for that. She shook her head, not in denial of the charge, but in refusal that she was as monstrous as the beast.
“I thought it had taken you,” she finally muttered. “So, I did something terrible, something really bad. But, I thought I’d never see you again. I know you can’t understand that. Please, just come with me, honey, and we’ll run from here. We’ll run and leave it all behind us.”
“I told you, mom, I can’t.”
“You have to!” Angela screamed, and lifted him off the ground. There was only so much negotiation she could take at this point, and she was not about to just leave him behind.
With Alex secure in her arms, her aching legs carried them through the field. She pushed herself beyond exhaustion, beyond the complaints of her muscles, or the protest of her wounds. All this she did simply to maintain a slow, but steady, pace.
The trees tore open behind them.
Angela turned and saw the Behemoth stampeding toward her. Its soaring stature grew as it approached, giving Angela a subtle case of vertigo. In no time, it was standing directly above her, gazing down.
Its rough lips peeled back like horizontal curtains to reveal its dagger teeth. The beast’s mouth snapped open, and its head descended to swallow her whole.
Soon, all she could see was the reach of glistening bones as its jaws closed in around her. Overwhelmed by the tunnel of teeth, and the odd, strawberry scent of its breath, Angela fell backwards.
Before the beast could enjoy its first sampling however, Alex stood up between the encroaching mouth and his mother. The Behemoth suddenly stopped, sheathing its teeth.
The beast headed back to the seclusion of its temple. It was almost like Alex had power over it.
Angela started to breathe again and managed to sit up.
“See?” Alex asked rhetorically. “Just like I said. I can’t go.”
Angela’s voice had lost its courage, trapping her thoughts in her head. She wanted to tell Alex that leaving him was impossible. She could never let him go. But her mouth wouldn’t cooperate.
“Bye, mom. I love you,” he said simply, like he was heading for the school bus. He flipped around and followed the beast back
to the clearing.
Of all the ways she had lost Alex during the past two days, none had hurt more than this one. She stood up to get a better view as he receded into the forest. He was a stubborn child, Angela knew that, but this was more than defiance. Alex truly believed he belonged here with the abhorrent creature. Angela became convinced there must be a spell laced around the trees, or maybe a hypnotic charm lingering in the air. Something had laid claim to her son, but she was not going to give him up without a fight.
She slowly turned and looked upon the grand fire of the church. Although it had lost some of its gusto, it still had a bounty of fury to spread, and Angela was looking for a bit of fury.
CHAPTER 49
It had been a long time since Alex had a proper father. Rick had started off well enough, but as time stretched, and the baby became a boy who could talk, and ask, and need, it became clear Rick was never really there, even when he was there. So when the forest man swept Alex up and brought him to the clearing, and offered him a home, he was more than ready to accept the friendly giant.
In some primal way, Alex just wanted to be kept safe. The world had shown him time and time again just how dangerous it could be, and although he knew Angela loved him, he also knew she could no longer protect him. She had tried valiantly, but she had failed. The forest man, on the other hand, had given him refuge, and could promise safety from all the foulness of the earth. For once, Alex felt truly secure.
In return, the beast was provided with what it desired most – companionship. The boy, it had discovered, was deeply in tune with its own frequency. Unlike the other insects, who could only receive messages, Alex was able to hear, and indeed message back. Throughout the beast’s lonesome centuries of existence, it had rarely come across another living thing it could talk to. Rick had been a promising pupil, but was nothing more than a class clown compared to Alex.
And the boy offered insight of his own. He could tell the Behemoth’s thoughts were poisoned by isolation. The beast had grown cold and angry. When it found the people of St. Paul’s United Church, who had been begging week after week for God to show up, it answered their prayers out of sheer desperation. They offered praise and it accepted.
In the end, the beast had lost its precious congregation, but it had found something infinitely more valuable. There was a time, it could faintly recall, when there were other beasts much like itself, moving through the secret cracks in the world. Alex reminded the Behemoth of this forgotten time, a time without loneliness.
As the beast slept in its elongated temple, a fluid exchange of disjointed thoughts emptied from its head into Alex’s. The charge that linked their minds hummed through the air and deepened Alex’s understanding of his slumbering companion.
The boy spread himself across his rock using his hands as a pillow. He fixed his sight on the moon and listened as the Behemoth recounted tales of a molten earth, where the storms were fierce, but the inhabitants fiercer. The details of this foreign age were communicated to Alex through the language of emotion, which, although not the most specific language, was perfectly understandable. He was guided through a time before life was solidified, when existence flowed like water from one being to the next. Each body was shared equally between them all, like communal conduits. Some creatures had necks stretching up into the clouds, while others were no bigger than a thumbnail. There were no teeth for biting or claws for scratching. No existing thing was valued any more or less than the next. The only fear they knew was of fire’s hunger. Flames poured over the surface of the earth like rivers, but as long as they kept away from them, life had no pain. That all changed when some of the beings decided to settle into their form, and grew possessive of their physical state. In order to defend against the others, they taught their bodies to become hard, and gave themselves shells and tails armed with lethal clubs. Their bones grew jagged and broke free from the fleshy nubs of their fingertips. Mouths contorted into grinders to reduce their enemies into meat. The weak were crushed and the strong inflated to untenable sizes. Then, the world split and ice suffocated the flames that had been stirring. Few survived, but all were alone. Other eras with other creatures came and went, but none quite so magnificent as what had been lost.
The Behemoth, born from this world of giants, became a voyeur of sorts and Alex was treated to spectacular memories of ferocious dinosaurs, drifting landscapes and even primitive man. With the beast, he plunged into the ocean’s depths, then turned skywards and discovered obscure creatures soaring through hills of clouds. All of this the beast considered commonplace, but to Alex, it was like riding on the wings of a god.
Adrenalin from Alex’s fantastical journey brought life to his body and warded away any notion of sleep. His newly acquired perspective not only on his life, but on the life of the entire earth, ignited a studious appetite.
He sprang from his rock and tasted the wood splinters on the ground. They were rough against his tongue and left flakes of bark and dirt in the crevices of his teeth – the same dirt that was once the fragile flesh of a bird’s eye. He dug his fingers into the bodies of plants, allowing their roots to hug his digits like tickling caterpillars. Everything had been so marvelously transformed. The interweaving of existence had unified him with the moon itself. It was a most brilliant revelation.
With his face pressed against the side of the wood temple, Alex began to hum an old lullaby from his past to thank the beast for its generosity. The slumbering creature seemed pleased by the delicate timbre of his voice.
However, the gentle tune could not last forever. Once it reached its end and the night returned to its silence, a faint rumble could be heard.
Alex lifted his head and checked all around him; the sound was so faint that it could have been coming from anywhere.
He jumped onto his rock – the ancient history of which he now had an intense appreciation for – and scanned the surrounding shadows of the field.
A small, glowing dot had separated from the church’s robust fire and was moving across the vastness. It maintained a steady speed, like the approach of a calm and purposeful firefly. As it neared, the rumble became more distinct and Alex recognized it as the growl of a car engine. The flickering dot grew bigger, and soon the boy realized it was not headlights shining in the night; it was a formidable fireball cutting through the earth toward the clearing – a meteor destined for impact.
Angela’s car had once again defied the odds of its age. For its tenacity, she was eternally grateful. After she had coaxed the vehicle to life, she opened the hood and stuffed it full of burning planks of wood from the church. She used the cover from her back seat to protect her hands from the heat while she worked. If the beast would not allow Alex to return to her, then it had to be destroyed, and fire was the only way she knew how.
Now, she was barreling through the field at full speed, tearing up dirt as she roared toward her destination with the mouth of her car filled with all the fire it could carry. The flames blew wildly across her windshield. She had become a captain of her very own torpedo, with her crosshairs set on the beast’s temple.
Her hands were so tight on the wheel, she could almost feel it bending, though the rising heat might have had something to do with that.
Alex leapt from his rock and ran toward the slumbering giant. He kicked and pounded against the side of the temple.
“Hey! Wake up!” he cried, “You have to get out of there!” His fists were bloody by the time he had given up trying to wake the beast. There was no way of stopping the approaching apocalypse, so he stepped away from the temple and hoped he could at least hold onto the dreams the forest man had gifted him.
Angela had neglected the gearshift and the engine was screaming by the time it met the slope of the clearing.
Mere seconds before impact, the light from the flames invaded the darkness of the temple, revealing the Behemoth curled up into a ball at its base. It was surprisingly compact, almost like a puppy, flopped on top of itself.
De
spite this, Angela’s foot remained planted on the gas.
The front of the car smashed into the structure. It would have cut the temple down if not for the considerable mass of the Behemoth.
The burning planks shot forth from the hood like golden, projectile vomit over the beast. The old wood of the structure caught fire quickly, and the flames raced to the top. In the blink of an eye, the Behemoth’s temple had become a cage of blazing timber.
The beast rose, trembling, into the inferno. There was nowhere to escape; the fire had already taken hold of its limbs. Its skin sizzled and popped unnaturally in the heat, while pockets of steam bubbled forth from its belly and face. It remembered the earth as it once was, that melting hell, filled with rivers of fire and clouds of ash, and so it screamed. It released a strident shriek towards the moon – a lament to echo through the eons. It thrashed in vain, swinging its burning arms from side to side in a beautiful, but desperate dance.
Angela lifted her face from the air bag in time to see the entire temple come crashing down on the beast. The ceiling of flames flattened the creature and sent it hurdling toward her. She managed to jump out just before the burning mass of flesh and wood exploded through the windshield and filled the car.
She crawled across the ground on all fours until she could no longer feel the heat gnawing at her legs. Once she was at a safe distance, she turned to see if the beast was still in flames. Indeed it was, trapped under the rubble of its own burning monolith.
Angela watched until she was certain only its bones were left.
Guided by the light of the fire, she searched the clearing for Alex. She found him laying a good distance from the fallen tower. He was unconscious, but breathing.
She scooped him up, held him firmly against her bosom, and again ventured into the field.
In the east, the dawn was rising.
CHAPTER 50
Worship Me Page 27