by J. D. Lander
“What can I do to help you? There must be something we can do.”
“I have called all of my angels to return to assault the purple light on the mountaintop. The attack must be coordinated to weaken the architect enough to withdraw his energy from Earth. His energy right now is spread across the galaxy and back to wherever he came from. I hope for all of our sake that this will be enough. If it is not, you must close all gateways between our worlds. The door to Heaven, you must destroy.”
“Can I join the angels in their attack? I must be able to go beyond what they can manage.”
“If you do and fail, your light could go out forever. This would end your infant world and the souls inside. There must be architects left to fight back.”
“Your kindness is the only reason that I still exist. Although I am weak, I am an architect and will defend you. We will need the angels that are of both our lights. They are strong and may think unlike the other angels in their attack.”
“Your heart is much stronger than your judgment, my young architect. Be careful in your decisions, as you must think of preservation at times over perseverance.”
The white room went dark and Adam found himself kneeling against the bed in Connor’s room. Although the Architect hadn’t told him which mountain the purple light had arrived on, Adam knew, as if he had received a map in his mind. He was also left with another location, that of Jacob. Connor’s location, however, still remained a mystery. Was it withheld to avoid distraction? He left Connor’s house in a hurry and headed on foot, to preserve energy, toward the town’s police station.
The night sky was now dark, but the bright artificial lights around the police station put every hidden corner on display. Adam could sense Jacob inside, and he briefly read Jacob’s mind for the story he had created for his new embodiment. Then he held out his hand and created a wallet stuffed with business cards and money. Using his abilities again burned, but this time only his hand. The wallet also contained the driver’s license of Jacob’s imaginary father. Adam summoned energy from within himself to make his appearance match the license. This time his skin itself burned over his entire body. Once he made himself visible, a pang in his stomach caused him to lean forward for a moment before proceeding into view, heading toward the police station door.
CHAPTER 17
The Shudder
While Adam had been away, his world did not remain the same. Initially everything seemed normal, but then came a shudder, as if something had collided into their world. Adam’s family did not seem to be stirred. Alice, however, had noticed they did not display a large range of emotions. She wondered if emotions were shown in a different way on their old planet, or perhaps in their former bodies they made different facial expressions.
Adam referred to his parents as mother and father. His older brother he called brother. Alice figured their language did not translate well on human tongues. However, Adam’s younger sister, who appeared much like a younger version of Alice, he called Jenny. She was nine years old and had the mind of an artist. Her ability to create living things meant that her imagination was not stifled, as many young children experience. Adam’s planet was also her planet to make beautiful. Her favorite things to create were flowers. Wild animals and insects still frightened her.
Jenny was the first to come to Alice when she sensed something was wrong. “My flowers are dead, Alice!” she sobbed into her hands.
“Which flowers are dead?”
“The ones at the edge of the meadow. I wanted to see them in the sunset, but when I got there they had all turned gray and crumbled!”
Alice rushed outside to go see for herself, letting the door slam behind her. Before she made it off the porch, she stopped. The setting sun’s light was usually too weak to make it through the trees. On this night, however, there weren’t enough trees in the way. Adam’s mother ran up the porch steps to them. “Get everyone inside!”
Alice rushed and spread the word for everyone to get inside. When everyone was safe inside, they all looked out the windows. Adam’s parents and older brother stood at the lake’s edge. The world had shrunk and now ended at the opposite side of the lake. Alice knew this meant that it was only a matter of time before everything was destroyed, including them. They were suddenly trapped inside what felt like a shrinking box.
Alice looked around the room and was met with frightened, helpless faces. Everyone held onto each other to provide comfort. She stepped out of the house and onto the porch. She heard Jenny’s footsteps behind her. The darkness had spread to the middle of the lake and was advancing. They watched as the rest of Adam’s family raised their hands and shot out blue light, like sparklers over the water, stopping the world from shrinking. Jenny grabbed Alice’s hand and pulled her down the steps.
Alice looked behind her and could barely make out the faces in the window. They made it to the lake’s edge. She looked at Adam’s mom. Tears were streaming down her face. She spoke another language to her husband. Adam’s brother barked back something she didn’t recognize as English. Alice fiddled with the key around her neck. Adam’s mom looked at it.
“If there was ever a reason for that key to be here, the time is now to use it!” Adam’s mother yelled.
Alice ran back up to the house and opened the door. The first soul after her to cross over into Adam’s world was standing there. She handed her the key.
“Open the door and send everyone through. We don’t know what will happen to those who stay.” The woman looked worried and fumbled over her feet to get to the basement door. Everyone followed behind, like sand in a funnel, down the basement steps. Alice ran back to the lakeside, now out of breath. As she approached, the blue light flickered on and off for a second. Alice couldn’t locate anyone on the shore except for Adam’s mother and Jenny. Adam’s mother looked over at Jenny and whispered something. The blue light went out. Then Jenny and Alice were standing alone on the shore of the lake lake.
The darkness seemed to be completely stalled for a moment. Then it started progressing again. Jenny raised her small and fragile hands, as if ready to push back the wall of darkness. Her blue light glowed with youth and sparked sporadically. The darkness slowed again but continued to creep forward.
“Alice, you have to help me!” Jenny whined. Her heels dug into the soil as if she was being pushed backward.
Alice stood, watching with blank eyes for a moment. Tears built in the corners of her eyes as she felt the abandonment set in.
“I don’t know how, Jenny,” she whispered.
“You do know how. You are helping him create this world. The rules aren’t set yet. For you, there are no rules. Just believe, Alice! Believe!”
Jenny took a hand and reached out for Alice. Alice raised her other hand and her mind started rewinding as green and blue light burst from her palms like an explosion. She felt the darkness push back. Mentally she found herself back in the woods in her blood-covered blue dress. She felt defeat in her heart, just like on that day. Most people only experience feeling the end of their life once, but not her. No, she was going to experience it twice, she believed. Jenny groaned as she struggled and now required both hands to fend off the darkness. Alice gathered her strength and pushed forward with both palms. She could feel the darkness aggressively push back, like an unstoppable crushing wall.
“Part of this is our creation! Its not all yours to take, Adam!” Alice screamed and shoved with all her might.
Sparks from Alice’s light jumped and skipped across the wall of darkness, like a pebble continually breaking the lake’s surface. Her hands moved forward, and Jenny almost lost her balance. They had for the first time pushed with success and caused a retreat.
CHAPTER 18
Red was never my favorite Color
When the Devil stepped through Connor’s entryway, thudding his hoofed extremity, he reached out with his long and hairy fingers to merely touch Connor’s stiff shoulder. Connor felt a chill run down his spine into the tips of his toes. He
grabbed the Devil’s arm to remove it from his shoulder and was met with resistance. The Devil’s other hand grabbed him and he struggled to break free banging into the wall. Somehow he ended up on the floor. Next his vision became blurry but in reality everything broke into little square pieces, like pixels, and simply blew away, as if being carried off by the wind. Only a black void remained where everything had been, with the exception of the Devil. He still stood, touching his shoulder, emitting his violent red light like a candle below a curtain, daring it to dance with its flame.
The black void did not last long enough for Connor to comprehend what was happening. The sudden pressure under his feet felt like he jumped from a first story window onto firm pavement below. He felt his legs stiffen and his arms swing out to catch his balance. Like strokes of a paintbrush hurrying themselves onto a canvas, their location formed around them.
Connor looked around to find himself surrounded completely by gray rock. At certain spots the rock seemed to be darker, wet, weeping water slowly. The floor had a thin covering of beige sand-like dirt. The only entrance to the cave was a half-foot tall opening at the floor, where dim light struggled to make its way in. The Devil, bearing a torch as if he had been holding it the whole time, waved the light around to show him there was no escape. “I’ve been around a long time,” he sneered, proud, his stark white teeth contrasting his blood-colored skin. “I’ve never been fond of man-made jail cells. A cave is so simple, so impossible to escape. There is no key, no point of weakness in here to help you.” He seemed almost mesmerized by his own words, with his volume trailing as he finished his thought.
“Why did you take me?” Connor said, his tone demanding though his confidence wavered.
“Because I was excluded!” The Devil pushed his face close to Connor’s so he could feel his breath and peer directly into his eyes. “I wasn’t like the other angels. I was beautiful! I could think for myself! The Architect, as you call him, he had all the power. He was creating things. Things we had never seen! Then one day, he created a human, a human! What was a human?!” He chuckled to himself, with his back now turned to Connor. “He could have created more like me, as I was his newest angel. ‘Help the human,’ he said. ‘Protect the human,’ he said, ‘but don’t let it see you.’ I was strong, I was silver, and I was things the human could never be!”
“I held my tongue and watched the human grow. He was so proud. Then the human was lonely and needed someone. What about my loneliness? The other angels were useless drones! I volunteered. I said let it be me!” The Devil flailed his arms as he spoke, almost recreating his desperation. “But no…” He hung his head.
“He created another human. I was bored. Bored of watching them! Nothing was harming them. One day, I decided to play a trick on them. I made myself visible but not as you see me now. I spoke to them.” He smiled. “It was them who disobeyed him!” He slammed his fist into the wall, which gave way like papier-mâché. His fist emerged, unharmed but dusty.”
“I made the Architect very unhappy as I refused to be lonely ever again. Then one day, now this was before Heaven, he decided to take away my beauty. You think I chose this form? No —this was picked for me! My wings were gone. My silver skin… I had become nothing but an animal to him. My mischief only worsened after that until one day, he ordered my energy … well, think of it as recycling.”
“He made me too smart. I ran fast on my hoofed feet. He hadn’t the energy to come find me himself. Those angels you think will save you, won’t. They are neither kind nor compassionate. I’ve outsmarted them forever. Well, the ones I haven’t killed…” He turned his attention back to Connor. “I can absorb their energy and with each one I become even stronger. This cave I created, it’s not a party trick. I earned the right to do this! I can even cloak myself from the angels. Their GPS doesn’t work on me anymore. Those poor lost little birds.”
“So why do you need me?” Connor finally spoke.
“I can’t kill you directly, but I can keep you here until you die. Once you die, I can absorb your energy, and let’s just say there is a place I want to go. I’ve been very patient, and I don’t mind waiting. Unless you want to speed things up.” He tossed a razor blade on the dirt with no sound, just a little cloud of dust. Connor felt uncomfortable seeing the razor lying there. “This torch is causing too much smoke in here, and we don’t need me causing any complications, do we?” A large candle appeared at Connor’s feet. The light was not nearly as bright. The Devil now seemed like a predator lurking in the shadows, pacing all around him. Connor picked up the blade and considered what would happen if he used it on the Devil.
“You must have thought about it before? C’mon? I’m right, aren’t I? A gay boy in a small town with only one friend, only one friend to talk to. Did you tell her? Or were you too embarrassed? Was she such a good friend, or did you just make her feel good, knowing you would always be there…”
“Or was it what people said that made you think about it — was it the word fag, or perhaps your classmates mocking your lisp? Oh, you didn’t think you had one? They could hear it. It was like nails on a chalkboard to them!”
“STOPPP!!! You’re making this up!” Connor screamed, kneeling onto the ground. He could feel the cold rock below him. He placed his hands over his ears to block the words coming from the Devil, but somehow the words were in his mind.
“Your parents, they never really loved you. Maybe once, when you were small, but I know. I know your father sits at the dinner table and wishes you wouldn’t speak. Always asking him about work…Annoying, such an annoying boy, he thinks to himself.” The Devil hovered over Connor and spoke down to him, making sure he felt his presence. “Your mother, she always keeps quiet, but in her minds she wishes she could be proud of you. There’s nothing to be proud of in a lazy child with no drive to live. Sad really. You start out as the pride and joy of a family, then become an embarrassment. Will they make you move out when they find out? Send you away, maybe? I can see you now at one of those conversion camps! Praying to the Architect for change! But where was he Connor, where was he in your darkest hours?”
Connor leaned forward onto his palms and let the dangling tears escape his cheeks. His fist clenched the razor, and blood oozed from between his fingers. The pain helped him to hold onto his humanity for a moment. The truth remained; he was alone. He had been abandoned, and the situation he now found himself in was a direct result of that. For so long in his life he had struggled with depression, and he did feel there was no one to talk to. Even Alice remained in the dark. He wondered if Adam had ever spoken of their romance, or if it still remained a secret from even Alice.
“You know, I can take you there with me. I can take you to see Alice. The Architect, your chances with him look very slim, especially with all the trouble you have caused. My only hope for you is purgatory, and I’ve heard very bad things. I can take you to Adam’s world. I can guarantee you will see Alice. I know how to get us there. Your friend, Adam, is being selfish! He is creating this beautiful world with your friend and keeping it from you! They laugh all day in pure joy while you sit here. And no, Connor, they do not talk about you…”
“You can get me there?” Connor looked up to meet the Devil’s gaze.
“All you have to do is take your life. When you die, I will use your energy to find our way to Adam’s world. Think about it. You, free from judgment, reunited with your friends, and I, free from the Architect. I would finally be happy with no reason to cause mischief. Don’t you see? We are both alike. Out-casted errors that the Architect made and now wants to take back! We need to determine our own fate and take back our lives! Free of pain and suffering, filled with days of laughter and sun.”
The idea sounded so intoxicating to Connor. He could leave the pain he struggled with behind and no longer wonder about his future. His world seemed so difficult to live in. Connor lifted the blade and pressed it against his wrist. The cold metal felt soothing against his skin. Just a few moments of pain, he
thought to himself.
“No, no, I won’t do it!” Connor shook his head back and forth like a child. He threw the blade against the wall and a metal tink resounded throughout the cave.
“Well, I guess you aren’t as much fun as I imagined. Before I go, I will say my proper goodbyes.” The Devil kicked straight into Connor’s back and knocked him completely to the floor. He circled around before kicking him in his stomach. Connor felt the breath leave his chest like a deflating balloon. He gasped for air as he turned onto his back. Before he knew what was happening, the Devil grabbed his shirt collar and lifted him up. Connor felt his feet leave the ground as he dangled in the Devil’s grip. “You will help me get there. You can starve here in pain or end it quickly.” The Devil’s breath smelled of sulfur and rotting corpse.
Then, it happened again. Connor’s eyes glowed blue like they did in the equipment shed back at the school. Once again, the blue light sensed danger as if it were a living thing. Its instinct to survive gave him great power. The Devil sensed this and threw him into the cold rock wall, causing Connor to bust his lip. Connor began to flicker blue, like a candle on an outdoor table with a breeze so gentle it could not end the flame. Then the blue light stayed steady, as if composing itself, and dampened the red light in the cave being emitted from the Devil. Connor felt more powerful than ever. The Devil reached for him. Connor stepped back but not far enough. The Devil’s hands went through him as if his body did not occupy that space, much like a ghost not of this worldly plane. Connor had no idea how he had become seemingly immaterial but knew the blue light was responsible. Not knowing how long he would remain in this form, he immediately ran for the wall with the dim light showing at its base and charged through it. There was nothing but darkness that began when he should have impacted the wall. His legs kept moving, as his running stride had not broken. After what felt like forever, but had really only been a single minute, he emerged to the dark night sky on the other side. The Devil emerged, momentarily, behind him.