The Architect

by J. D. Lander

  Connor weaved through the woods with such light feet. Nothing obstructed his path, though he heard the Devil’s hooves crunching through the forest. Connor began to yell for help as he ran, the only logical thing you can do when the Devil himself chases you. He knew he needed help, and another human’s presence would alert the Architect of his distress if the Devil chose to continue using his abilities. Connor’s blue light shot into the sky like a spotlight, unobstructed by the trees. Then, he saw it — a purple light not that far in the distance. Above him, suddenly, a swarm of angels emerged. The Devil was gaining on him as he grew tired. Then he heard the Devil’s voice in his mind, not unlike in the cave. “That purple light means you have bigger problems than me. You should have taken the deal!”

  Before Connor knew what was happening, an angel swooped down and buried his arms under Connor’s, leaving Connor’s body dangling as they made their way back above the tree line. Connor looked down passed his feet, below into the dark forest. He imagined the Devil watching them, stirring like an animal in captivity. They landed by themselves in a small clearing. There was an older angel waiting for them. Connor took his first step, and his blue light shut off, like a power outage had occurred. In his second step he tumbled to the ground, lacking whatever strength he had gained in his luminosity. All the pain from the damage to his body the Devil had inflicted came back, seemingly worse than he remembered it. He rose to his feet with the help of the elder angel. They walked, the elder angel supporting him, through the tree line to see his friends standing in the distance with surprised looks on their faces.

  CHAPTER 19

  The Mountaintop

  Adam and Jacob exited the police station into the chilly night air. Jacob had been questioned and simply told them he wandered into the house to find out what was going on inside after seeing the police cars. He convinced them he believed someone was in danger, and he wanted to help. After walking about twenty feet out of the police station, Adam suddenly keeled over in pain onto the pavement. Adam recognized the source of the pain as it subsided. The pain was like the barrier he pushed through to break the time stream, but instead it shoved through him. He knew something was wrong but knew if he used energy to leave, he may not be able to come back until he regained his strength. By then it may be too late for the Architect. Mary and Neil were waiting for them in the parking lot. The four of them headed to the mountain. The pain Adam felt from using his abilities was now gone, and somehow he had regained so much strength he felt almost intoxicated.

  They did not have to travel far, only to the other side of the town. They landed on the mountain in a clearing, just south of the purple light. They took a moment to study the light, as it seemed to radiate into the sky like a spotlight, obscuring the stars. They stood silently as they watched thousands of glowing green angels emerge from the clouds and shoot down into the purple light like missiles. The purple light seemed to fade as the green merged with it. Screams could be heard as the green light disappeared and only the purple remained. A twig snapped behind them. The angel John emerged, supporting Connor as they walked toward them.

  “Where was he?” Jacob asked with relief. John ignored his question as he passed Connor over to him. Connor seemed to perk up and support more of his own weight. Before anyone could say anything, the Architect, unbeknownst to everyone except Adam and John, appeared before them in the flesh, an ominous sign. The death of the angels meant his energy had increased enough to appear. He slowly reached out, took John’s hand, and looked into his eyes. The Architect inhaled, and something in the world changed. His head turned and he seemed to study Connor for a moment before disappearing.

  John squatted down to the ground, looked up into the stars, and pushed off the ground as if it were a launching pad. He shot into the sky like a rocket, faster than anything any of them had ever witnessed. The wind created by the force of his launch caused them all to struggle for a moment to catch their balance. His green trail continued straight up, as if he was fleeing to another world as fast as he was capable. As John flew through space, his velocity kept increasing exponentially with nothing to slow him down.

  “I can’t let this happen,” Adam stated with fear. Then he walked over to Jacob and gently whispered into his ear. Connor, becoming more alert, pushed off Jacob and reached for Adam’s shirt. He locked eyes with Adam. How could someone who caused him so much pain be so deep? “You will make it through this,” Adam reassured him.

  Adam took a deep breath and his blue light burned around him like an inferno. Jacob and Neil grabbed Connor’s arms as he tried to advance toward Adam in an attempt to stop him. Connor struggled in their grip as Adam ran up the mountainside, weaving through the trees until he was far in the distance. Connor felt lightheaded from his momentary exertion and leaned into Jacob.

  Once he reached the top of the mountain, Adam stopped to take in his surroundings. He found himself in a large open area surrounded by charred fallen trees, some still crackling with streams of smoke escaping into the night air. The ground felt soft as he stepped. No snapping twigs or rocks met his feet. He looked down to find his sneakers coated with black from the ash he now stood in. Ahead of him, he saw what the purple light was coming from.

  She stood there, about 200 feet away, surrounded by a violet purple light and smoldering ground, in the center of the clearing. Her eyes were completely white, devoid of a soul, as she turned toward him. Her hair was stark white and fell down her back all the way to the ground, mixing with the ashes. Her skin gave away her age, appearing like old leather car seats, cracked and worn. Adam felt chills run down his spine as his confidence scattered like a group of rabbits being approached. He was so busy studying her appearance, he almost overlooked the fact that she was completely naked.

  The sky above him was still flooding with angels shooting themselves at her like bullets from darkness. When the angels reached a point about 50 feet from her, where the purple light’s sharp edges reached, they disintegrated in a flash of green and purple with a crackling noise like fireworks. She did not look up at them to acknowledge the attack, she remained unfazed.

  Adam collected his thoughts for a moment. He drew confidence from those he loved and wished to protect. This fight was his duty as an Architect. He took a step forward, which seemed silent in the ashes.

  The purple architect’s white eyes immediately locked onto his. Without a word, she slowly started walking toward him, her hair dragging behind her. Angels began to land next to Adam and charge toward her from the front, as if trying to block her advance, but they too soon disappeared in a flash of green and purple light, some accompanied by a blood curdling scream. With each burst of light and crackle, the loudness caused a thud in his chest. The speed of the attack advanced so rapidly he was unsure which beats in his chest were his heart.

  There was no way to get near her without risking immediate death, and her distance was only 100 feet away. Adam called forth his blue light like a force field around himself. He focused with his mind and formed a ball of blue light in his right hand. He threw the ball directly at her. Upon impact with the purple light the ball of blue flame spread over it, appearing to burn a hole, before the purple light flickered off for a moment. He truly was stronger than the angels, something he had never tested. In the moment of a flicker, an angel had made its way through the purple light. Just as his sword was about to make contact with her, her arm moved with such speed no mortal eye could detect the motion. She grabbed his sword and with her touch, he exploded in a flash of green light.

  Adam continued to throw balls of blue flame at her purple light, but it kept quickly regenerating. Soon the regeneration of her light slowed down, and multiple angels made it through to her. While she was distracted by the others, one stabbed her through the back with his sword. She grabbed the sword as she had done before, and soon she was alone again, surrounded by her purple light. She continued her approach toward Adam. The angels were sparse now, with only very few arriving intermittently.


  There was nothing left for Adam to do but continue the fight himself. He manifested a blue flamed sword and rushed toward her. Her purple light had no effect on him. He slashed her arm as he rushed past her with a speed he only imagined could have matched hers. Dark black blood trickled down her arm. She turned around and faced him.

  With his next blink, her eyes were in his face, closer than anyone had ever stood. He felt her breath for a moment before she grabbed hold of his wrist that held the sword. An immense burning pain traveled through his arm, and he collapsed to the ground. “What do you want??!!!” he yelled out in pain. She said nothing as she squeezed his wrist harder. The pain increased to an unbearable amount before he found himself covered in purple flames. Unlike his light, this light burned like real fire. He let his body completely drop to the ground and began to roll, feeling the ashes around penetrate his sloughing skin. He could not open his eyes due to the flames covering his entire body. She watched, expressionless, as the flames devoured his body for mere seconds before only ashes remained.

  Jacob and Connor had been watching the sky above the mountaintop intently since Adam had left them. As they sat in the grass, Connor rested on Jacob but kept his eyes open, ensuring he did not miss any hints of who was winning. They had watched the purple light flicker and become consumed by blue before remaining solid. They had watched as the angels assault slowed. The purple light remained solid before their eyes with no sign of flickering. No more angels descended from the sky. Mary and Neil had stood at their flanks the entire time, acting as their guardians. After a few minutes of the purple light remaining solid, they headed to the mountaintop without saying a word. There they discovered some remaining angels hiding in the tree line, observing an old woman surrounded by purple light.

  “The attack on the purple light was called off by the Architect. Adam was the only one to have any impact on the purple light before he…” Neil stopped abruptly as he reported back to Jacob. Connor collapsed to his knees and began to sob, his hands clenching the earth. Jacob examined his hands and waited to see if he too would disappear. “The Architect has another plan. We must all be patient.”

  The old angel John finally reached his destination, the origin planet of the purple architect. The purple trail of light through the universe was not hard to follow. He was given all of the Architect’s unused energy with the orders to fly into the planet with such force his impact would cause a huge crater the size of Texas on the planet’s surface. In order for the planet to not be completely torn apart, the purple architect would need to put a huge amount of energy into holding the planet together, forcing her to give up her extension and ability to manifest on Earth.

  Without hesitation, John collided with the red, dusty planet in a colossal impact, causing a blinding flash of green light to spread across the planet. Dust and fragments of the planet flew into the atmosphere. The angels in the tree line back on Earth watched as the woman seemed to be sucked from Earth into space, as if a vacuum existed above her. Many people on Earth on the cusp of death took their last breaths in that moment, lending their energy to the Architect so he could save the world. The stars twinkled in the sky as if nothing had occurred in the moments before.

  CHAPTER 20

  Change

  The darkness suddenly stopped pushing back against Alice’s trembling palms. She placed her quivering hands at her sides and breathed slowly to catch her breath. Looking around, she realized she was standing alone. Had Jenny also vanished? “Adam!” Jenny screamed from behind her. She turned to see Adam flickering in the grass by the house, unconscious, void of any color but blue and barely holding on. They both arrived at his side and the expression on Jenny’s face looked pale and unhopeful. Her eyes looked tired, as if her energy had withered and she was barely alive. Alice wondered what she herself looked like. Jenny placed her hands on Adam and Alice followed. They both had almost no energy to give. Slowly, trickles of light came from their hands and Adam stopped flickering. His color returned in muted tones. Adam remained unconscious, which made it very difficult for them to carry him inside. In their minds they were carrying him, but for the most part they dragged him until they arrived at the house.

  Adam lay in bed for two weeks without opening his eyes. The color in his skin returned so gradually, the girls were unsure of exactly when it returned completely. Jenny often sat by his bedside and watched his chest rise and fall in a rhythm. She questioned whether he knew the current state of the world he had created with so much pride and care.

  Adam’s world that once had expanded rapidly far into the distance, beyond the sight of those who gazed outward from the porch, now was simply the acre with the house and the edge of the lake. For some reason, the lake never drained into the darkness. The bubble they seemed to be living in remained intact, although much smaller. The others had all fled through the door in the basement. The key was still in the lock when Alice retrieved it. Her curiosity begged her to open the door and peer inside, but Adam’s fragile state grounded her mind in a way not much else had in the past.

  The house contained no real medical supplies. They weren’t sure if medical supplies would even help an architect. Jenny and Alice returned to full strength fairly quickly. Instead of spending their days creating new life in their world, they gave some of their energy to Adam. Questions entered their mind daily. What if Adam stayed like this forever? Would they all have to pass through the door eventually? After two weeks had passed and Adam had not so much as stirred, they decided they needed to contact the Architect for help. To accomplish this task, they needed to contact someone on Earth. They needed Connor.

  With Adam gone, a boundary seemed to break down between Connor and Jacob as their sadness diminished. After Adam sacrificed himself, Jacob was free to carry out his own life, which meant he no longer spent all of his time on missions for the Architect. Mary and Neil continued the work alone most of the time without complaint.

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  The arrival of Connor home without any explanation baffled his parents. He had been a child that always obeyed the rules and rarely caused trouble. There were times he tested his boundaries as any kid does, but he was a quick learner. His parents didn’t really need to do much parenting once he reached middle school. He was self-sufficient, didn’t need help with homework, and didn’t have existential life questions that begged answering.

  The problem with not requiring much parenting is that when the time comes for parenting, neither child nor adult has enough practice for it to be effective. The situation can linger in their minds for weeks, wondering if what they said or what actions they took were the right ones. Darcy and Connor found themselves in this precise predicament.

  Connor approached the front door feeling chilly as a slight shudder went through his body. He wanted to tell himself it was the cold, but he knew he was nervous. What kind of explanation could he give for his absence? His situation had been one no one would believe, and he himself wouldn’t have believed it earlier this year. Drugs seemed like the only viable explanation. He would be forced to ruin his reputation, his parent’s opinion of him, in order to not end up in a Psychiatric ward. Trying a drug and getting lost in the woods would make a simple yet damning story.

  Darcy sat on the couch with a moist tissue crumpled in her hand. This tissue box was now empty on the side table, but she did not get up to throw it away. Instead, she sat and stared at her hands, wondering when her skin had changed to show signs of aging. Her eyes had been teary since Connor had gone missing.

  She remembered the day in haunting detail. Connor had come into the kitchen for a drink while she was preparing dinner. The avocado green cutting board lay on the counter, holding the freshly cut chicken breasts. The smell of garlic hovered in the air as the aromatic sizzled in the sauce pot, drenched in olive oil. She knew chicken Parmesan was Connor’s favorite meal and was excited to make it for him. Her excitement didn’t show, though, as she sipped her red wine between tasks.
Connor always seemed so distant but so stable to her.

  His footsteps on the stairs were heavy as always. Instead of helping with dinner, he had gone upstairs for his daily nap. She wondered, as she stirred the tomato sauce, what made him so tired all the time. Nothing seemed unusual to her until about an hour later. The chicken was sizzling on the stove when she heard Connor’s door creak open. She thought it odd that he would open it so slowly.

  The noises that came next were the ones that lingered with her and cut her, like a paper cut in her mind, when she thought of them. Footsteps, like someone in heavy boots made of metal, seemed to enter Connor’s room. She froze in the moment, her mind frantic to find an explanation. Worry didn’t consume her until she heard Connor’s footsteps creep away ever so lightly on the wood floor in his cotton socks. Then came the noises of a struggle; thudding, furniture being knocked into, and a fall that made the house shudder.

  Darcy ran up the steps knowing that her son was in danger. Her heart was in her throat and the pain felt unbearable. A mother doesn’t need to see anything or even hear anything to know when her child is in danger. This situation was real. The steps took her breath away as she ran down the dim hall. Connor’s door seemed so far away at the end of the hall, but she dug her heals into the floor and pushed off to get there in time to help him. The door was wide open.

  She sped into the room’s center in frantic search of Connor. She spun around, screaming his name. Her hands almost ripped his closet door off its hinges as she tore it open. The window, locked, resisted as her fingertips slipped from its edges as she attempted to open it. Dropping to the floor, she even checked under the bed. She ran through the house, screaming her son’s name. Her fingers were sweaty and shaking as she dialed 911. “9-1-1, what is your emergency?” Darcy, panting into the phone, was speechless.