The Spaces in Between

by Chase Henderson

  So that is not to say God is not a passive force either. God has set up the Universes to influence mortals to developing and creating in a certain way. Only through God can mortals create, but no mortal or wish is denied. They just get lost and mixed up by the short sightedness of mortals. For example the most classic history of this:

  “God, I would like to be a living creature so that can feel a multitude of Earthly delights.”

  “Sure.”

  “I would like all the sustenance I need provided.”

  “Well, that one was almost a given.”

  “I’d like a wife…one that is not any sheep that wanders too close.”

  “I’d thought you’d never ask.”

  “Um, this wife is defective she has free will too. Could we try this again?”

  “…alright.”

  “Ew, gross I don’t want to see you make her! Let’s try this again.”

  “Ok.”

  “Yes, this is good, but shouldn’t I…well I don’t know… earn all this?”

  “If you feel you must, but that’s not really necessary…”

  “We need to be cast out of here and have to experience death and suffering. However give us all the mental facilities to survive and secretly give my wife free will. Also you are good so we need someone else to blame for all our troubles.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Wow, suffering really sucks. I’d like a way to get back in your good graces, but make sure it’s a real pain in the ass.”

  “All you have to do is ask.”

  This is an annotated version of the Adam, Lilith, and Eve story, but accurately describes the ultimate flaw in human nature. No matter how greedy the person if you keep handing them millions of dollars they eventually think they need to do something to earn it. Hence the eccentricities of most celebrities especially those that champion the environment or space aliens.

  And all that nonsense about God creating mortals in his own image? That’s referring to the limitless creator deal again. Residing in every living thing is a spark of the Divine. A piece of God that he places in each soul. Sometimes people want to give these divine sparks back in fact in many religions that is the ultimate goal. This is not really a bad fate at all though.

  Cameron was no longer a tiny divine spark, but he also did not cease to exist. Like a droplet of water in the ocean. It was no longer merely a droplet, but part of a much greater thing. So now was Cameron and it made him finally feel at peace.

  Except deep within this water droplet there was another voice. One that did not want to be here at all.

  “Cameron!” Sakamoto Ryoma bellowed from within. When they had first merged the voice had slowly faded, but now it was loud and clear again. “We’ve gotten very far off track! This must be fun for you, but I’m getting nothing from this! We have to get the Ark!”

  “Cameron! Cameron!”

  The water droplet then remembered something. At one time it had a body. That body was named Cameron amongst a number of other things. And it realized that all the things that it had given up could be taken back. I have a free will!

  I am embodiment of the divine mother as well as the divine father!

  I am in touch with my lower and higher selves.

  I am capable of both wrath and mercy.

  My memories and emotions are mine and mine alone!

  “My name is Cameron Styles,” he said. “And I’m addicting to being an immortal being trapped in a mortal shell! And this is Sakamoto Ryoma. I guess you could call him my sponsor. He’s quite dead though.” Cameron was now standing in a sea of white light dressed as his Pirate King self. He felt alive and rejuvenated. Like he did when he first accidentally brought himself to the Astral.

  “Thank you for that great vote of confidence,” Ryoma said from beside him.

  Before that mortal guilt could kick in that made Cameron think he had to earn things he decided to make one more request. “Also I’d really like to have the Ark. Could you take me to that?” Unfortunately, that guilt had already kicked partially in.

  32

  Cameron and Ryoma passed from a land of perpetual light to a land of perpetual darkness. It took nearly a minute until Cameron realized that he wasn’t in some kind of transit, but was actually there. He knew that he was not in Creation, but also far from God now in the Ain. That’s Hebrew for nothing. This was worse than space. This was an emptiness that Cameron had never felt before. A true separation from God.

  Even as far away as the bottom of Creation God’s light still shone just through many filters. But here deep in Ain there was nothing. Not even a glimmer of God’s light. Except in…

  Cameron.

  He stopped restraining his aura and it flared around his body in a brilliant white flame. By the light of God that shone from within Cameron, a light that had been recently restored by being in the Presence, he could see it. A small golden pyramid floating in the Ain. He grabbed the pyramid, which easily fit in the palm of his hand as it if were made just for him. He turned the pyramid around in his hands intrigued by the millions of tiny scripts etched on it.

  They were so small that Cameron could not actually see them, but he knew they were there. He could feel them as his thumb brushed over a side of the pyramid. He was sure that if he could see the script he could spot the Mehmet talisman, or even the Anchor. This was the back-up copy of creation. The template that all new Universes are built upon. It vibrated within his grasp. He could almost hear the music beyond the spheres through it.

  The silent arc of the Caduceus coming down on Cameron’s head brought him out of the pyramid’s trance and the music was lost to him. Ryoma moved between them before the point of the spear landed and deflected it across the base of his blade. The revolver in Ryoma’s left hand barked fire and vaporized Tsuen’s midsection.

  Tsuen floated back and his abdomen reformed in seconds. He swung the doctor’s emblem over his head in a wicked arc that deflected two more reports from Ryoma’s gun and then took both of the renaissance samurai’s hands clean off. Cameron quickly shoved the Ark into his inner coat pocket and drew the newly restored flintlock pistol from his belt. He pushed Ryoma aside and fired.

  The droplet of antimatter arced across nothing with the speed of sound. Before reaching Tsuen the droplet struck something and annihilated. Nearly a score of little gray men were vaporized in the attack, and the outlines of thousands of tiny grey men were visible in the brilliant flash. Now that Cameron had noticed Lam they couldn’t dim themselves away.

  Something wasn’t right. The blast should have nuked more than a hundred, but it was in fact collapsing upon itself. Lam was eating it. The new and true avatar of Lam was Makoto Tsuen and unlike Harvey they were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect him. Scores of shriveled gray men poured through the nothing at Cameron and Ryoma. He dropped the flintlock pistol and his hand darted for the eye patch.

  Before they could restrain him he quickly gestured at Ryoma. A protective bubble formed around him and Lam could only hope to siphon power from it until it collapsed. Tiny hands jerked Cameron into a crucified position and he could already feel his newly found strength draining out of him. Another gray man rifled through Cameron’s coat. His tiny mouth struggled into a smile when he wretched the Ark from the inner pocket.

  Cameron tried to rock his body, but it couldn’t budge under the weight of Lam. The pyramid now rested in the palm of Tsuen. Outside of his body the arm was now whole again and not mechanical at all.

  “They’re only using you!” Cameron cried. “They plan to topple the entire Multiverse with that-” tiny fists being shoved into his mouth until his jaw could no longer budge silenced Cameron.

  “We are more than the one you called Makoto Tsuen,” Lam replied using Tsuen’s mouth. “He willingly gave us body and soul at the mere promise we would destroy you. He was a suitable host for us to reach this. We will not merely topple the Multiverse. We plan to create our own Universes where all life is already our servants.
The potential in each of these Universes is certainly worth the small investment of our own power.

  “Once we’ve drained these Universes we’ll move on to those made by the Creator. And once the Creator and we are the only things left in existence and nonexistence – we’ll attack him. We know that it is most likely folly, but as you say ‘whatever’.”

  Cameron was in full concentration of funneling all of his power into his face and it began to grow red. The eye in his left socket began to stir.

  “Oh, we can see it in your eyes. ‘But won’t God stop you.’ Was it not in His plan that you could get the Ark? Not only that, but lead us to it? Perhaps this is all an elaborate suicide like that comic from your Earth. Was it called Sandman?” There was a jolt in Cameron’s brain like an acupuncture needle just when straight through his eye. “Yes, it was Sandman.”

  The needle feeling cut straight through Cameron’s left eye. Jostled fully awake now, and not a moment too soon, his right eye glanced to the side. It could see that the bubble around Sakamoto Ryoma was collapsing like a plastic bottle on an open flame.

  His left eye flung open.

  Its glare cut through the eye patch. Through all the shriveled gray men holding him and cut a line down the center of their ranks until it struck Tsuen. The hand holding the Ark was severed at the wrist and an autopsy cut from between Tsuen’s eyes down to his groin opened. Blood poured from the wound and floated in droplets around him.

  The Ark flew through the nothing and landed back in the Pirate King’s hand. “I didn’t think that Ownership spell would actually work, but it did.” He turned his hand and winked with his left eye towards Ryoma. There was a camera flash and the extensions of Lam around Ryoma’s bubble dissolved.”

  Sakamoto Ryoma! Cameron shouted in Ryoma’s mind. Get behind me!

  The Pirate King extended his left arm to the ground steadying it with his right. He grimaced and his left hand tightened into a claw. A double circle of intricate sigils poured out from his palm and encircled both Ryoma and him. A pot of soil appeared at the Pirate King’s feet. He pulled the Watcher’s sword from his coat and plunged it into the soil. He uttered a guttural phrase.

  The Watcher appeared in the form of a black dog. Its presence dimmed those lights cast by Tsuen and the Pirate King’s presence. Not afraid to take loses when they are so close Lam poured over the Watcher to smother it. Within a minute the lights reignited, but in that moment Cameron took the sword from the pot and carved a sigil on his chest.

  Makoto Tsuen finally steadied himself again. The wound on him was still present, but he had been able to stop the bleeding. Like a cup on the verge of overflowing the blood bubbled to the brim, but never went over. The rhlung flowed down his arm and a bolt of energy crashed through Cameron’s circles before it lost all momentum. The Pirate King fell to his knees and screamed an incantation into the Ain.

  Almost immediately Cameron could feel the great devourer pour into him. His right eye turned red to match the left and Cameron’s visage darkened. Ryoma began to back away. Cthulu feasted upon the power radiating from the spark within Cameron, and once it had eaten through this barrier would be free from the Pirate King’s control. Black tentacles whipped from the Pirate King’s midsection, ripped through the legions of gray men, and grabbed Tsuen.

  The former Lemurian was ripped to shreds, and the pieces were shoveled into a great maw the opened in Cameron’s chest. The tentacles lashed out again and continued shoveling the gray men into the maw. Given the time all of Lam could be devoured, but time was something that the Pirate King currently lacked.

  He screamed Aleister Crowley’s barbarous words until his black visage shattered like obsidian, and the spark within him had ignited into a fire that Cthulu could not approach. Cameron turned to Lam and made a blowing kiss gesture. The white fire within him poured out his lips and tore through Lam’s ranks in the form of an angel with a flaming sword.

  Cameron stumbled and grasped his abdomen like he had indigestion for a moment. He grabbed Ryoma and tugged on the silver chord behind him three times.

  33

  Cameron’s eye now red jerked open in the Physical. Sananda who was sipping tea in the lotus position jumped with a start.

  “Given up already?”

  Cameron lifted the pyramid straight into the air with gusto, and Ryoma faded into view beside him. Lord Sananda’s jaw dropped.

  “Jesus Christ! You went through lifetimes' worth of enlightenment and found a way to undo them!” Cameron peered quizzically at him. “What? It’s just an expression. If anyone can say it should be me.” Sananda then caught a whiff of the thing teeming inside Cameron and a chill ran up his spine. His expression darkened. “And you’ve damned us all in the process.”

  Cameron quickly drew the flask from his inner coat pocket, peeled the anchor from it, and tossed it to Sananda. “Here take these guys with you. I’m going to turn on time again. Lam is heading back down here. Is being forced back down here since they lost their soul. I can feel it. I’ve got a trap set on Earth to get rid of both of those problems. I just got to get The Soulforge there.”

  Cameron paused a moment with his eye open. The Soulforge roared to life and began to soar through the Astral. He traced a symbol into the air, and he could feel time start back up again. “If you hurry now you can give me some back-up. I’m not sure if I can make it to Earth on my own.” Cameron clenched his abdomen as another contraction shuddered through his body.

  “If there is anything I should do it’s arrest you for theft, and the attempted murder of everything.”

  “Well that would happen if you arrested me right now. You don’t have time to banish something this big.” He clenched his stomach and arched his back in a way that reminded Sananda of a pregnant woman. “And this.” Cameron held up the Ark. “Was a gift. So do what you gotta do.”

  Sananda turned into a blue ball that reminded Cameron of Glenda the Good Witch then flew off.

  “Cam,” Ryoma started.

  “Since when have we been that familiar?” Cameron shot back, but Ryoma ignored him. “I don’t think this is the appropriate time for talking.”

  “Considering you’ve given us a window of about five minutes to stop all things from being devoured or Lam just taking the Ark off your corpse, I think this is our last opportunity to talk.”

  “About?”

  “You keep saying that ghosts with a soul simply don’t exist. Then what does that make me?”

  Cameron was silent.

  “Why did you protect me from Lam instead of protecting yourself? Is it because once all my power is siphoned off there’s nothing left? That’s it, isn’t it? What am I then?”

  “You’re Sakamoto Ryoma.” Cameron didn’t turn to face him.

  “I remember being Sakamoto Ryoma, but I’m not now, am I? You seem to know what it is I am. Why didn’t we meet my wife in Heaven? Why did none of the Tree have to do with me?”

  “Because you’re wife is quite happy in Heaven and seeing you might have been…upsetting.”

  “Quite happy! Like with another man?” Ryoma loosened his katana with the flick of his thumb.

  Cameron turned around. “Well what do you think?”

  Ryoma’s katana blade went right through Cameron’s head, but didn’t affect him any. “Kusotare!”

  “Yes, very good now just focus that on our enemies and there might still be a Heaven for her after today.” Ryoma glared at Cameron. He shrugged and turned around. “Shouldn’t we be seeing Earth by now?” In fact he couldn’t see anything, but black. Even the stars seemed to be missing. “Shit. Shit! Shit!” Cameron quickly drew the flintlock from his belt and fired an anti-matter droplet off the deck. He willed it to pass through the globe surrounding the deck and it immediately annihilated.

  Tiny men scattered and bounced off the globe protecting the ship. For a moment Cameron could see Earth before it was blotted out again. The ship suddenly came to a stop while the engines continued to roar. Cameron tried to loa
d the flintlock quickly like Ryoma would, but ended up with just his clumsy fingers again.

  Two more blasts from the gun scattered more of Lam off the hull, but he was still only traveling a snail’s pace.

  “I’ll give it a try now,” Ryoma said sullenly. “Send my wife my regards.”

  “Not quite yet,” Cameron said. His stomach turned to stone. Cameron clearly remembered that sensation when he was walking as a woman at the top of the tree. “I- I’ve got something I could try.” He put his hands before him in the prayer position. White flames engulfed him and he struggled to pull them apart. There was now a small gap between his hands and the cloud of Lam parted slightly. He struggled more, there was a snap, and his arms went like a cross. Lam was scattered in all directions, and the engines carried The Soulforge further.

  “I didn’t think you still had anything like that in you,” Ryoma said.

  “I didn’t. I had to kinda liquidate it from the ship,” Cameron said, “I think that might have been life support.” The devourer in Cameron’s abdomen had eaten through his energy supply until it hit the reserves. He drew more power from the ship in order to satiate it, and it began to break apart under the strain.

  And so did Cameron. Two black tentacles whipped through the air and eviscerated the line of Lam in pursuit as well as the globe and rear of the ship. Come on baby. Just a little further.

  34

  “We’ve got visual confirmation of The Soulforge,” a Lieutenant on the deck of Witness informed Lord Sananda at the helm.

  “Lock on with our entire h-bomb and maser payload, and await further command.”

  “Sir? The Soulforge is in re-entry. We would damage the planet at this range. Probably wipe out the whole Eastern Hemisphere. Would it not be better to call for reinforcements to apprehend planetside?”