by J M Hart
Sophia put her hand on his shoulder. It was soft and delicate, cool on his hot, bare skin.
“She’s gone, Shaun.”
He shook off her hand. “No, I won’t give up. In the past ten years she never gave up on me.” Tears dripped off his chin.
“It’s okay,” Tim said. “I’ll do it. I promise I won’t stop till you say. It was my turn anyway. Do it, Shaun.” Tim knelt on the opposite side and slowly, as if unrolling dough, slid his hands onto Rachel’s chest. The tips of his fingers gently nudged Shaun’s away.
Jade’s face was flushed. She was more than a little freaked out. “Shaun, move, damn it!”
Shaun couldn’t move. A soft blanket was draped around him. He had an image of Rachel as he remembered her, but she had turned into the woman who lay beside him now. He saw, as if looking through a keyhole, everything moving away from him. Jade pulled back her hand and slapped him in the face. Whack! Rachel’s image was gone, replaced with a burning sensation on his cheek.
“You fake,” Jade screamed. “You don’t care about her. If you cared, you would fight her fight. She guided you here for a reason, she needed your help. So what the fuck are you waiting for? Get up and put those stones in order and finish this.”
Something snapped and Shaun’s face burned, his fists clenched. He wanted to punch her. “You bitch.” He stood as Tim kept up the compressions. “A swift kick in the face would shut you up and send you back to wherever you came from. How dare you, who the fuck do you think you are?” The desire to hit her was compelling, growing, boiling up inside him. He should beat her like he had wanted to beat his drunken father for letting his mother die and killing Rachel. Rachel, he didn’t kill Rachel. She was here. I killed her. I couldn’t keep her safe. The shadows of doubt were prowling around Shaun’s head. I’m just like my father. He couldn’t keep the one he loved from dying and I couldn’t keep Rachel from dying. For the first time in Shaun’s life he felt sorrow for his dad. He now understood. It must have been hell for him to live without her. The guilt his father must have felt. Shaun looked at Tim. He looked exhausted, pumping away on Rachel’s lifeless body. “Let her go,” Shaun said. His voice was shaky and barely audible. He cleared his throat and said a little louder, “Let her go, she’s not there. You can stop.” He got down on his knees and kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear. “I love you. I’ll finish this. I will see you in my dreams.”
Tim looked up and said, “Not yet. You go. I know what I’m doing.”
Jade flung her arms across her face, ready to block his blows as he reached out for her. He pulled her arms down and pulled her close to him. Her nostrils flared, he could feel her breath; his own tasted sour. His cheeks were salty, sticky with sweat and tears as he hugged Jade and said into her ear, “Thank you.”
Shaun hadn’t even noticed Kevin until his friend vomited. It splashed on his runners and was sucked weirdly backwards by the growing vortex. Soon they weren’t going to be able to resist its pull. The guy looked like he was going to drop.
Jade helped Kevin down and propped him up against the step. She grabbed his face and stared into his eyes, checked his ears and head. “You look concussed.”
The vortex had stretched above the statue and was building momentum. It was the biggest, darkest cloud Shaun had ever seen. This was going to be the mother of all storms.
“Shaun, let’s do it,” Sophia said, climbing the steps, and she jumped. No — she flew from the pull of the vortex up onto the third tier and tumbled and somersaulted to a stop at the base of the golden statue.
At the top of the last tier he could see the devastation. The second half of the cave was disappearing into nothingness. He concentrated on the stones, not knowing what to do with them. Sophia was in his peripheral vision. “Please, hurry,” she said. Her hair and clothes were flapping all over the place. It was incredible that her small frame hadn’t been sucked into the darkness like everything else. Sophia urged him on gently. She was always gentle. Rachel was fiery and forceful, absolutely amazing, fun, beautiful, full of life. He wished he had jumped from the Jeep that night and stayed with her. He hadn’t known she survived. He had been nothing but a little kid. Shaun glanced into Sophia’s soulful eyes and her eyes very slightly squinted, and at that moment they both knew, as if cymbals had clashed, that things were about to change forever.
Sophia called, “Jade! Jade! Jade, tell Kevin. Tell Kevin to get ready, we need a way out.”
“What?” Jade yelled back, running halfway up the stairs.
Shaun, seeking protection, sat with his back against the dazzling statue, thinking that it was really just a coffin. All its magnetic propulsion had changed into a tiny hum. Casey and Sophia gathered around him as if Shaun was the last burning flame. They huddled over him, guarding the stones and him from the vortex. Shaun tossed the stones on the ground between his legs. He didn’t know what to do. He had never given any thought to patterns and formations. He picked them up again, closed his hands around them, and tossed the gems, watching them tumble and roll on the dirt like he was some high roller in a casino. But he wasn’t, he was just some punk kid with a shitty life. The image of playing a game with Alex came into his mind.
Shaun scooped up the gems and got to his feet, stretching to his full height, completely exposed to the vortex, allowing the energy to drag him across the floor. What is the world going to be like without Rachel, anyway? Maybe this is humanity’s destiny and who am I to get in the way? He felt light as a feather as he glided across, to the edge, closer to the point of no return. The sound was deafening, his mind went silent, and that’s when he saw Jade leaning over the statue, touching the tablet now set in its chest, and saw her bracelet and the Emerald Tablet come to life. A radiance of white-blue light came from the bracelet, the markings lifting from it, spiraling into a 3D hologram, entwining together as the hologram traveled around the tablet. Alex appeared in Shaun’s silent mind. He watched as Alex showed him the last game he had taught him at Casey’s house in England and Shaun saw the order in which he had laid them before he began. That must be the pattern … well, it’s a pattern, he thought. All of a sudden, a wave of clarity rushed over him and he felt hope. Rachel lived to correct the mistake his father had made. She wanted to heal the world. He had to destroy the vile creatures that escaped that day; he had to eliminate the dark angels and close the doorway.
Shaun realized he had foolishly allowed himself to be dragged nearly to the edge of the swirling black hole. Spellbound, he saw Rachel’s dark, long curls in the outer rim of the whirlpool, like leaves down a drain, swirling and swirling. Shaun was sinking.
Maybe none of this is real; maybe I have a brain tumor, just like Mom, and I’m delusional. For a second, he nearly believed it was Rachel. He felt like he was in a rip. His mom had suffered. She had taught him to swim before he could walk, and surf as soon as he could stand. Always warning him about the undertow and rips. Your board goes where your eyes go, she had said. He started to panic, his eyes glued to the slipstream of evil. He pulled back, away from the darkness. Not now, oh, please God, not now. I know what to do. I can do this, I know my purpose. He fought to gain control of his mind and body: he pulled and inched away, shuffling like a crab back towards Sophia and Casey. His chest, back and arms felt like his skin was being ripped off as if it were a shirt and his jeans were giving him the biggest wedgie ever.
Casey held onto the statue, while Sophia, Jade and Kevin made a human chain. Kevin held out his hand. Shaun took hold. They made a human shield around him, protecting him. Quickly, he ran his hand over the cold breastplate of Thoth and began laying the stones. There was no force field now. The 3D hologram of glittering letters swirled and danced and twisted above the statue, blocking the negative vacuum.
I hear you little buddy. One more game, Alex. Shaun got to work on placing the stones. Starting in the bottom circle of the middle column — the suspended thirteen circles that looked like a reflection of all that was below it — he placed the first ston
e, Metatron’s cube. Moving up to the next circle, he placed the octahedron and he kept moving up, placing the merkaba in the circle Rachel had called harmony. Swiftly, he positioned the remaining stones on the outer columns, leaving the top three in the shape of a triangle till last. He was moving back and forth, right to left, up and down, checking the order. Shaun stopped as if he had all the time in the world, reviewing his handiwork. He focused intently on the last three spheres, not quite sure which one went where. The noise around him intensified. Think, damn it. The sphere that Jade said reminded her of swirling gases — the formation of stars —definitely belonged at the top right, he decided, and the other at top left. He held it tight, rubbing it like an Aladdin’s lamp between his hands. He held it up to his mouth and kissed it like he had done as a kid and placed it at the pinnacle of the Emerald Tablet’s design. Shaun looked over his shoulder to where Rachel lay. Tim had kept his word. They weren’t the only souls he could see. An angel, twelve feet high, stood over Casey, Sophia, Kevin and Jade.
The walls of the cave disappeared and were replaced with the blackness that was moving in on them. The noise was so great his own thoughts sounded like they were a long way away. Shaun looked at the Emerald Tablet; still it had not come to life. Kevin, Casey, Sophia and Jade stared at him with anticipation as the stones locked into place, but again nothing happened. Shaun reached down into his pocket and pulled out the last of his memories of the first day he met Rachel: a black onyx stone, and placed it face down between the top three spheres. The Emerald Tablet of Thoth radiated blinding light, while, above, the last bellowing horn cut unnervingly through the dense energy. A brilliant shaft of light was cast down from the sky, towards the Emerald Tablet.
The circles and gemstones turned to liquid light that flowed along each pathway, crisscrossing between the circles in a predetermined formation. Sophia pulled the group back as the light joined forces with the Earth circle and Metatron’s cube, the hexahedron. All the gemstones were oscillating, and the light was returning, rising up the pathways to the pinnacle.
“We have to go!” Sophia screamed. No one moved. They stood united, rooted to the spot. She yanked on Casey’s and Jade’s hands and leant towards Kevin, shouting, “You’re up, Kevin!”
“What!”
“She said you’re on, K.”
“You have to get us out of here.” Sophia glanced in the direction she last saw Father McDonald and began to cry. His life was her life, she couldn’t remember being without him. She closed her eyes and felt his spirit all around her, and she turned. He was with her. He would always be with her. The lock and key, the emerald-green tablet, had been returned to Thoth. Go, Sophia, she heard him say in her mind. Go now!
*
His five friends looked like warriors. He imagined Kevin couldn’t concentrate with the high piercing scream. The light and the darkness was clashing, making it impossible to focus. Tim smiled, Jade reached out and took Kevin’s hand and yelled something, and that’s when Tim saw the vibrant colors, the rippling wall that had come to life under Kevin’s persuasion. There wasn’t too much of a harmonious hum, or the sound of the tear in the universe as the doorway opened. There was only the battle, the vortex losing control.
Jade and Sophia stepped forward into Kevin’s gleaming curtain of light and were absorbed into the gentle flowing wall, free from the darkness.
Casey corralled Shaun. He must have been afraid he might run back to die with Rachel. But before they entered, Shaun turned back to Tim. It was too late to say or do anything as Casey pushed him into the soothing wall. Tim remembered how it had cooled his sunburn and healed his broken leg.
“Come on,” Kevin yelled.
Reluctantly, he stopped the compressions. “I’m right behind you.” He jumped up, ran. The black hole was imploding and the ceiling vanished. The column of light passed through the third center circle and grew so bright it was becoming hard to keep his eyes open.
“It’s just us,” Kevin yelled to Tim. “You go and I will close it behind us.”
They both went to jump, but Tim stopped. He could see Shaun on his knees behind the sea of animated color. Sophia put her hand on Shaun’s shoulder as if to console him. Tim turned back for Rachel; he wasn’t going to leave her. He hadn’t performed CPR for the last twenty minutes for nothing. Focus, Tim, it could still work. His original idea could still work. There is no reason why not.
Tim sprinted to where Rachel lay. He quickly dragged her into a sitting position, put his head under her arm, and lifted her over his shoulder. He had underestimated her weight and staggered slightly. He was close to the wall and could see Kevin about to step back through. The light ascended to the Emerald Tablet’s second last circle. Tim no longer felt Rachel’s weight, or felt his own limbs for that matter. The light penetrated and vaporized every dark corner of the chamber, pushing him into the air as flashes of brilliant light exploded in a fireworks display that moved across his eyelids. But just before he closed his eyes, he had seen the horrors of the underworld trying to escape from the vortex, screeching and howling in pain in the all-consuming light.
Tim closed his eyes tight, imagined his legs were still there, and walked blindly with Rachel over his shoulder, in what he hoped was the direction of the world Jade called Athanasia, the parallel world.
*
A sonic boom pulsated through the membrane as the cave exploded. Sophia, sheltered from the blast, couldn’t help reacting and covered her eyes. The wall sparkled and bowed, arching under the force, creating a cocoon protecting them. Light, color and sound rippled and flashed like a cosmic storm. The cave disappeared. Tim and Rachel were propelled by the blast through the closing doorway. The darkness consumed everything, the evil falling into oblivion as the vortex of dark matter collapsed in on itself and a final atomic explosion erupted: the birth of a star.
Sophia sent a thought message to everyone to turn away from the wall, to walk into the luscious forest before them, and not to look back. Above them, outside the membrane, a darkened sky filled with streaks of silver and golden sparks of light like a magnificent meteor shower. The dark angels fell from the sky consumed by the light. They watched in awe.
Sophia sent out another guiding message, gently urging them on. We need to move forward into the future. Don’t look back. There is no existence beyond this moment. We have to step into the future.
They all knew what each other was thinking. There wasn’t a thought amongst them that was hidden; there was no space between them. Kevin wanted to turn back for Tim. Shaun wanted to run back for Rachel, but he believed this time she was truly gone and he was glad that she wasn’t alone. Tim had been with her to the end. Sophia longed for Father McDonald’s comforting prayer. There were other thoughts, some of which Kevin had imagined sounded like Tim and Rachel. Shaun heard them, too, and he couldn’t contain himself any longer. He started to cry, wanting so very badly to turn around.
Don’t turn, he heard Sophia think.
Had they made it through? Shaun wondered. How could they have survived the blast?
Tim was mesmerized by Rachel’s fluttering eyelids. Her beautiful, emerald- green eyes were opening and looking up at him. She was confused and dazed.
Tim helped her to her feet. Kevin had so much belief that he heard Tim’s thoughts, he wanted to turn back and see if what he was hearing was real. Rachel went to look over his shoulder. Tim grabbed her face to stop her. He had heard Sophia tell them not to look back and quickly covered Rachel’s eyes. Her lashes tickled his palm. He remembered how he felt after seeing his leg broken one minute and healed the next. He wondered what Rachel might be feeling. He walked on.
Kevin could hear them both inside his mind. Rachel felt very strange and confused as she too had heard Sophia’s words inside her head. Facing into the forest she opened her eyes and saw Sophia, Casey, Kevin and Jade, plus her handsome knight in shining armor, Shaun. Rachel hugged Tim and the sides of their faces were lit by the exploding light as she whispered in his ear
, “I never doubted you for a minute.” She let go of his hand and drew the air into her lungs. She felt so fresh and alive and started walking towards Shaun.
Shaun had stepped forward with a heavy heart into the future. He could feel Rachel was still with him, her spirit strong, when suddenly he thought he felt her touch, a soft hand interlocking with his. He knew it was Rachel, but how could it be? He didn’t want to look to his side in case it wasn’t her. He rubbed where the bullet in his back had been. Tim had continued CPR right up till the last minute, but how — ? Then he heard Tim’s thought: I don’t remember you telling me to stop, so I brought her with me.
This must be what a mental breakdown is like, Shaun thought. It was all too much. The hand squeezing his was soft. He had to look, he had to. It was Rachel.
“You and Tim kept my heart pumping,” she said, not realizing all she needed to do was think it and they all would know what she wanted to say. “You kept my body alive and my soul reclaimed it. Shaun, you told me the first day we met, you would come back for me. Not once did I doubt you.”
Epilogue
Become the creator.
The seven friends walked through the majestic rainforest. Kevin had tried to open a doorway home, again and again, but it just wasn’t happening.
“Let’s just sit for a while,” Sophia said.
Kevin sat amongst the fluorescent green leaves watching the tiny blue insects.
Each time they stopped, he would look beyond the surrounding membrane, and his eyes would feast upon the universe as if they were a part of it, as if they were floating amongst the Milky Way.
“What do you think is happening out there?” Jade asked.
They all sat around and seriously gave it thought. It was like listening to multiple radio frequencies and Kevin was learning to dull out the others’ voices in order to hear his own thoughts. “Maybe there are still some rescue teams helping people somewhere. People have to pick themselves up. They have to pull themselves together and get through this.”