Water's Threshold

by Jillian Jacobs

  “Not comfort, strength. Come.”

  “It won’t be enough.”

  “Daughter, my beating heart, let me give you this last gift.”

  With each step, Maya attempted to solidify her purpose in her mind and heart.

  Golden arms that shimmered from the light through the window enveloped her body. Maya closed her eyes and let Mother’s warmth seep in. A vision appeared behind her closed lids.

  An arid seabed. At the center, a solitary tree rises from the dust. Defiant, unwilling to fall. White bark faded from the sun. An intricate puzzle created by cracks crisscrossing the dry earth. Wind stirs and fish bones appear at her feet.

  A single tear’s wet glide dripped and broke through the mirage.

  Maya opened her eyes. Mother had disappeared and left her holding empty space. Empty arms.

  Maya snapped open the lock on the patio door, and then glanced down at track on the floor—stupid thresholds.

  Sliding open the door, she stepped outside and headed for the forest. Never once looking back.

  Chapter 44

  The solution in the Erlenmeyer flask turned green. Odd. Terran lifted the flask and swirled it around. Why did it change color? Is residue left on the glass?

  When the liquid in the graduated cylinder turned brown, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight.

  Someone was behind him.

  He turned.

  Mother stood in the open doorway with a bushel of carrots in her arms.

  He shook his head. “Very funny.”

  She placed them on a chair by the door. “I thought to lighten the mood since I’ve come to tell you the time has come, Terran. Quint is here.”

  “Now? Maya, she—”

  “She is heading for the river.”

  Acid fear churned in his gut. “What?”

  “It was her choice.”

  “We get to make choices now?” Why was Mother in his lab and not protecting Maya? Where are my truck keys? He unplugged the heating mantle. What else? He glanced around the lab. He wasn’t ready.

  “Terran, you are ready. Power lies within. Use the Earth. Harness its energy. Gather the force of your gifts and unleash them.”

  “Right, gather, unleash. Thanks. Excuse me.” He tore off his lab coat, threw down his safety glasses, and stepped outside. Mind open, he allowed his senses free rein across the forest floor. Maya tried blocking him, but he jumped her hurdles. Mental roadblocks wouldn’t work. Not today.

  Hopping into his Raptor, he followed their connection through the trees. Their thread remained strong and guided him to her location. He slipped the truck into 4-wheel drive and bounced along until leveling off on a dirt path heading toward the river.

  Here. The search ended here. Braking hard, he slammed the truck in Park and jumped out.

  Screened behind a copse of evergreens, Maya stood by the river.

  “Maya, What are you doing?”

  “Go back.” Visible now as she’d moved to the gap between two bushy branches.

  Her eyes went wide and she waved wildly. Her terror vibrated along their connection. She rushed forward, but plastered against an invisible wall and fell back. Her mouth formed words, but he couldn’t hear.

  A void crashed between them. Pain burst in his head, hammering like a thousand nails into his brain.

  Quint had arrived.

  The fight for control of his body was no longer a question of when, but of surviving the day. Terran kneeled on the ground and he clawed his fingers deep into the earth, drawing strength, using his elemental connection to maintain control over his mind.

  Quint strove for dominion, like a farcical circus trainer with a whip, lashing for control again and again.

  But Terran was king of this forest and refused Quint even a portion of his mind.

  Do not acknowledge. Refuse his will.

  With a roar, Terran stood and released a strong wind gust against the barrier erected between him and Maya. The wall shattered to black dust.

  Maya misted and her voice ripped through his mind, “Run!”

  Chapter 45

  Applause sounded from behind a thicket of bushes. Quint appeared, cleverly masked in the form of a teenage girl, wearing skinny jeans and pink and white striped top.

  Maya’s mist turned to flakes and snowed to the ground. She reformed, but remained frozen in place.

  Quint-girl had similarities to Maya—tall, blonde hair—such an unfortunate waste of young life. Evidence her teen body was incapable of containing Quint’s evil essence was obvious as deterioration had begun. Her skin hung on her bones like an oversized cloak. Full black eyes raged as she snarled with rotted teeth.

  Maya’s faint power tried to break through Quint’s barrier to seam with his.

  “It’s over. I win.” The poor teen’s voice sounded as if she’d been chewing glass. “As if there was any other choice. I alone evolved into this existence. I deserve the prize of immortality. What will you do with forever, but waste it on ridiculous endeavors. You fight to rebuild this planet, but your efforts are futile. Destruction and mayhem rule, because greed always wins.”

  Terran planted his feet in a wide stance. “Then why do you desire to become human? You hate them, yet you are desperate to live among them. You have not won. I remain standing. I will not allow you to use me.”

  Quint stepped closer to Maya, but kept his gaze on Terran. “I wish there were time to use you over and over until I’ve filled your every cavity with my black seed. I’m a bit impatient and will have to set aside that fantasy, although, my fantasy of destroying your Elemental friends will soon come to fruition. Once they’re erased, I will rule, as is my right.”

  “Fantasy is the only part of that speech you got right. You won’t survive the day.”

  “Terran, I had thought you so clever, but you carry a fatal flaw, compassion. You would never have survived as an Elemental. I see mad scientist in your future—an entertaining direction. Perhaps I’ll continue down that path, and get my dear friend, Schwarz to join in the fun.”

  “I’m done listening to you drone on about how superior you are. Back it up, Blondie.” Terran calmed his fury, breathed deep of the surrounding air, and soaked up the purity of the forest. Fire burned deep in his belly. Earth beckoned, rumbling at his feet, ready to bend to his will. Everything coalesced to the surface of a pin. In this moment, he and Quint sat perched atop.

  “Ah, yes, let’s do discuss your penchant for blondes. I’d hoped you would appreciate my costume. I picked her out of the schoolyard just for you.” The sneering and jeering from the young girl was, no doubt, incongruent with the beauty she’d once been. “To be honest, she’s starting to chafe, perhaps I’d fit better in a Maya suit.”

  At the threat, Terran’s Elemental nature went primeval. The air around him heated and swirled in a fury.

  Quint laughed and clapped his hands. “All four gifts, what fun I shall have.” Then the giddy schoolgirl mask slipped, and a cloying evil pulsed in the confined space.

  Recess over.

  “You’ve made the oldest mistake in the book, Terran. Did you think I wasn’t watching, waiting for the perfect moment? You’ve shown your single ace. But I carry the Dead Man’s hand and the fifth card is the Queen of hearts.”

  Maya’s body shot up and floated in the air. Her back was bent in an unnatural manner.

  Terran formed a fireball in his hand and shot the flaming mass at Quint.

  The force knocked him down, and his clothes went up in flames.

  A rank stench of burnt human flesh filled the air as the teen’s skin melted. Quint’s voice screeched inside Terran’s head, “How dare you strike a girl.” The flames blanked out and left a charred mess.

  Maya broke through Quint’s grip and plunged to the ground. She quickly rose to her knees and, with a strong water gush, blasted Quint into the river. She maintained her narrow stream and followed.

  As the earth rumbled and cracked at his feet, Terran stumbled t
o the ground.

  Focus.

  Control.

  Wind whipped through the air, and the river churned and flooded the bank.

  As he rose from the ground, a horror-filled scene froze his heart in his chest.

  Quint had beat back the river’s current and wrapped his arms around Maya from behind, squeezing, seeping his darkness under her skin.

  Terran transformed into a flaming vortex and spun to save her.

  Muddy water poured from Maya’s nose and mouth. Her eyes full black as she raised one hand and smiled with tears shining in her eyes “This is my choice.”

  What choice?

  She transformed and wrapped Quint in a foggy embrace. They passed through his fiery funnel in a flash of black and blue.

  What is she doing?

  She couldn’t defeat Quint on her own. Terran’s smoky form flowed with them, following their path to the river.

  As Maya pulled Quint deeper into the water, Terran could only watch in horror when Quint lifted his head and winked.

  Quint was letting her win.

  “Maya, let him go. We must do this together.” Terran reformed to his human state. As he entered the river, water splashed and churned around him.

  Maya’s eyes were hollow shells, black streaks coursed under her skin. “I cannot remain.” She dived with Quint in her arms.

  “Maya, No—” Terran plunged beneath the surface but only one blonde appeared. The other had dispersed, fading into the cold blue surrounding them.

  Their elemental link faded—their connection like the frayed edges of a whittled-down string. Fiber after fiber snapped in two, leaving only a single thread, thin and swaying with the current. “Goodbye, Terran.”

  “Maya. Wait!” He circled through the water, but an empty vacuum flooded his heart. She’d disappeared from his radar.

  Where did she go? Is this her choice? To leave him? To die?

  The river rose in swells, tossing his tormented soul through each crashing wave. Rage burned. Firing his need for vengeance. For punishment. For power to erase Quint from the earth.

  Terran shot out of the water—desperate to destroy the creature that had harmed his mate.

  A black blanket covered the river and sank down, covering and eradicating the water’s existence from the earth.

  Barren, dry, dust.

  Quint growled, “Your siren sings no more.”

  Terran stepped on black sand where the water once ran freely. Not a drop remained. Not a drop. His Maya. Gone.

  Gather. Unleash.

  Terran sank to his knees, he fisted his hands, and he pounded into the dirt over and over. Then he heard it—water rushing to fill the emptiness.

  The river still flowed.

  Quint’s power was not all encompassing or far-reaching.

  Gather. Unleash.

  His defeat will come at your hand.

  He stood before Quint. “You are temporary. An aberration. The earth will continue without you, and I will not fall to your will.”

  Quint-girl circled him, bones visible through flapping, charred flesh hanging off her bones. Ebony claws grabbed Terran’s hair and yanked him to his knees. Her black eyes blinked and her wilted tongue wet dead, gray lips.

  Gather. Unleash. For Earth. For Maya. For love erased.

  “Let’s end this.” Terran grabbed Quint’s head and locked their mouths together. Eyes closed, Terran released the reins, freeing his Elemental nature.

  Earth, fire, water, and air streamed around and through his body. Swirling past his heart and up his throat. Four elements fused into a golden orb and blocked Quint’s dark matter from diluting his soul.

  Terran envisioned the earth spinning through space as a blue-and-white circle. He wrapped his arms around the sphere and joined its rotation around the sun. Encompassing, nurturing, containing life. Glowing bright with power waiting to be contained and used against darkness.

  Terran opened his eyes and blinked against the sun’s glare and heat. He spread his arms wide, conducting the magnetic field surrounding the earth. Raking his hands through that warbled field, he gathered the earth’s harvest in his hands. A current sizzled from his fingers through his veins and power swirled in his hand. A glowing indigo-and-white sphere coalesced into a violet seed. He swallowed the gift and it germinated in his body.

  Awareness returned to the earthly struggle raging on the dry riverbed. The seed bloomed and violet branches sprouted and twined around his body and arms.

  Quint’s scream was muffled as he tried to break free from Terran’s vine-like grip.

  Earth’s power rose.

  One shot.

  His aim must be true. A deep breath pulled the purple branches to his core—his heart. Intense heat created a pulsing violet bullet in his chest.

  Focus, pinpoint.

  Terran opened his mouth wider over Quint’s and pulled the trigger. The bullet fired out of his mouth and shot straight through Quint’s face.

  Terran blinked but white dots danced before his eyes. He no longer held Quint.

  Energy waning, Terran tumbled face first onto the ground. He dug his hands into the dirt at his sides, and he rubbed the earth over his eyes.

  Then, damn it, he ate it. After he swallowed, his vision cleared.

  Quint stumbled along the shore, like a blind hunchback, and when he turned, the empty hole in his face matched the one in his chest. His neck led to ears and a thin hairline, but no face in-between.

  Time to finish him off. Sparks of static electricity built as Terran ran his hands over the earth’s surface. Dust swirled and carried him to where Quint had collapsed near a tree.

  With his foot, Terran kicked Quint’s body over. “Roots, bind him.” The ground around the tree groaned and trembled as roots surfaced and wrapped around Quint’s form.

  “Wind, deliver him.” Air swirled, spinning Quint higher and higher through the air. “Fire, rocket him,” flames shot through the air and carried Quint up past Earth’s atmosphere into space. “Don’t come back.”

  Terran wiped at the mud pouring from his eyes and nose. “Asshole made me eat dirt.” Power fading. Limbs heavy, eyes gritty, mouth lined with gravel, he crumbled to the ground

  Maya. Where is Maya?

  Spent. Empty. A vision of her face before she’d dispersed into the water appeared before his eyes. Her voice once more echoed through in his mind, “This is my choice.” He had to find her. He struggled to his knees only to fall again. Elbow after elbow, he crawled his way to a tree and used its coarse bark to pull up.

  “Maya!” His scream startled the birds from the trees.

  His head fell back as tears poured from his eyes. Hot rage and a heavy sense of emptiness filled his heart. “It’s you that did this to me.” With his fist, he jabbed the tree. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want this Elemental life.” He kicked and punched until the tree fell. He started on another, yelling, crying, and screaming out in anger and pain.

  The skin on his hands was ragged and brown muck oozed from the wounds.

  How can I be earth without water?

  As he collapsed, his head bounced against a tree. As he fell into the welcome arms of oblivion a single thought surfaced—he’d fought off Quint’s darkness and yet, his world had still turned black.

  Chapter 46

  “She’s not dead.”

  Each word dropped like a boulder against Terran’s aching head. Was he hearing voices or speaking a futile wish? “What?”

  The familiar voice repeated, “She’s not dead.”

  Terran rose on an elbow and looked at the familiar surroundings of his barn. His dirt pit was new, deeper.

  Nodin sat Indian-style at his side. The fingers of one hand held his place in a volume of Being and Nothingness by Sartre.

  Terran scrubbed a hand over his face. “How long have I been out?”

  “Three days.”

  Three days, three years, three minutes, what did time matter at this point? He sank back down in his dirt c
offin and closed his eyes.

  “What happened?” Nodin nudged him with his book.

  “Wait. She’s not dead, you said that, right?” Terran shot back up and shook Nodin’s knee. “Maya’s not gone?” Air finally reached his lungs, and he breathed in the barn’s subtle nuances—wet hay and fresh tilled earth.

  “Mother delivered Maya to a safe place before Quint could destroy her spirit.”

  “Spirit?”

  “Soul, psyche, life force—whatever you chose to call it. Terran, your yellow lily lives.”

  Terran peered into Nodin’s eyes searching for the truth. As the words sunk in, he rested his forehead against the dirt. My yellow lily lives. His heart thumped, kick-starting the stalled beat. He clenched his jaw, refusing to cry in front of Nodin.

  Nodin flicked his ear. “Osho’s Discourses says, ‘Life is always moving into the unknown, and you are afraid. You want life to go according to your mind, according to the known, but life cannot follow you. It always moves into the unknown. That is why we are afraid of life, and whenever we get any chance we try to fix it because with the fixed, prediction is possible.’”

  He raised a palm. “Don’t, Nodin, please, not now.” With each breath, dust particles filtered through his nose. He brushed his cheek against the cool earth, giving himself a moment to focus on the reality of his environment.

  Maya was alive. He was alive. That was enough to decipher.

  Nodin shuffled beside him. “How did you do it?”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “Recuperating on her island.”

  Terran grunted, “Sure, she gets to lay on a warm sandy beach while I’m stuck in the dirt, literally.”

  Nodin tapped his book against his knee.

  Terran returned his focus to Nodin’s question. “Sorry, I’m a bit distracted. I’m not sure how it all came together. I’ll have to write it all out, each facet. I should take my blood pressure then perhaps test my blood—”

  “Terran,” Nodin interrupted with a shake of his head.

  “Sorry. Give me a moment…” He crushed a dirt clod between his forefinger and thumb, concentrating on the coarse feel as the clump crumbled in his hand. The earth, his gifts, he’d used them all to defeat Quint. “Mother said to gather and unleash, so that’s where I focused my energy. I gathered the earth’s magnetic field within my core, where it meshed with my elemental powers. Everything coalesced and fired from my body, leaving a void in Quint’s face.”