Chapter 18
Leviathan
Maren slumped herself against a stone. It felt cool and slick. The dankness of the island was really starting to bother her and she wished she had a hair band.
Tina and Mitch rose from a huddle they had formed and walked over to Maren. Mitch nodded at Tina, who knelt down and forced a smile. The morning sun was finally poking its way up over the horizon after a sleepless night.
"Maren, does Jeremy know where the plane fell?"
"I don't know." Maren sifted the sand between her fingers and then caressed a small orange shell.
"Okay, well I don't know what Jeremy's said to you, and I know he's a sweet talker, but we're in serious trouble."
Maren took in a deep breath. The thick air clung to her lungs. "It's complicated." She set the small shell back on the sand and swept the sand over it.
Mitch, who had been pacing back and forth, now crouched beside Tina, his brows low, jaw set. "He knows where the plane is, and you and him have some deal worked out where he'll ration the supplies for us until the situation gets desperate. Then it's every man for himself. Only you and him mean to be the last ones standing."
"Mitch!" Maren gasped. "How could you think that!"
Tina and Mitch stood up and turned their backs to Maren, regrouping. Maren laid her head in her hands. "Keep it together," she whispered. Jeremy would return soon enough and take everyone back to New York. Only, he had been gone for a while. And what happened to Frisky! A sob caught in Maren's throat. But she knew she couldn't cry, not while the sanity of the group rested on the validity of her meager excuses. And she'd already admitted the island wasn't a resort. Perhaps things were already unwinding, spiraling out of control. "Jeremy!" she called out, rising to her feet. She walked into the thicket and Mitch and Tina gave each other a look, then followed.
Maren stuck her foot in the rock bed, and began to climb the mountain. Mitch and Tina watched her suspiciously from below. Still, she kept climbing, finding the nooks and crannies with her slender hands and feet. When she'd made it up ten feet, she stopped to catch her breath and turned to the jungle. A monkey looked out across from her, two coconuts in its outstretched hands. It slammed them together and Maren shuddered. She climbed faster. Now she was twenty feet up, thirty feet up.
"Hey!" called Tina. She and Mitch started to climb up after her.
At the top, about a hundred feet up, Maren saw now how the rocky terrain leveled off, then descended into a pool at the mountain's center. She looked down. It was a steep, slippery drop. At last, Tina and Mitch had caught up to her. They too looked down.
"Frisky was covered in mud, maybe she slipped from here," said Mitch, eyeing the strange tracks in the mud.
Maren shook off the thought of Frisky falling down the side of the mountain and looked out across the jungle. She could see now that they were on a small circular island, several miles long from one end to the other. The pool of green water was directly in the center, as though it were intentional. "Jeremy!" she called out.
Mitch and Tina began to call too.
Then they heard a huge splash.
Maren twisted around and saw ripples spread out across the pool. The pool became still again. "Did you hear that?" Maren looked at Mitch and Tina, both standing stupefied on the rock.
"Is there a shark in there? That was pretty big."
"Aren't there crocodiles this far south? We're somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle—on some island." Tina cleared a spot on the tan rock and sat down, her eyes still on the pool.
Another great splash sent a spurt of water high into the air.
Maren jumped back. "That was way bigger than a crocodile."
"It looked like a fin," said Mitch, now squinting in the morning sun. Slowly, a massive dark shape ascended the depths of the water. A cloud passed from overhead as the morning sun hit the pool at an angle, and specks of iridescent green scales glimmered on the dark shape in the water. Something as large as a submarine was fast surfacing. The shape was morphing horizontally, and tips of what looked like wings crested on either side of the pool.
Tina screamed and Mitch let out something of a groan, and Maren immediately turned and ran, having seen all she needed to see. "Move, now!" The pool was sloshing wildly.
All three scrambled down the side of the mountain, with Maren in the lead. When they were about twenty feet from the bottom, Mitch went to stick his sneaker in a crevice, but it was too bulbous and couldn't fit. He slipped and fell onto Tina, who fell onto Maren, and they landed with three thuds on a large slab of stone below. Maren got up. She felt a sharp stabbing pain in her collar bone that traveled up through her shoulder, and winced. She and Tina dragged an unconscious Mitch around the side of the mountain they had not yet seen. As they made their way around, they came to the mouth of a cave carved out of the mountain. They crawled in and huddled against the rock wall. The cave continued into darkness with no visible end.
"What was that!?" Tina's body was shaking all over. She looked down and saw blood coming out from a gash above her knee.
"Quiet!" Maren watched the area outside of the cave. Birds were fluttering about above the trees.
Maren rested Mitch's head in her lap and smacked at his face. "Get up, Mitch. You have to wake up."
Mitch strained to open his eyes. "My head," he moaned.
"I think you have a concussion. Just try to stay awake." Maren gave him a slight shake and watched the area outside of the cave in suspense. After what felt like an eternity, she relaxed her tense muscles. "I think it went away."
"Let's get out of here!" said Tina, ready to spring.
"Wait!" Maren poked her head out from the cave. "Did you hear that?"
"Please just let it be gone," Tina squeezed her eyes shut.
"It's Jeremy!" Maren could hear his voice calling out to her. He was close.
Mitch's eyes opened wide and he sat bolt upright and yanked Maren backwards. "Don't risk going out there!"
"I have to!" Maren wriggled free from Mitch and limped out of the cave opening. Tina had started sobbing loudly and Mitch fell on her, covering her mouth with his hand.
"Jeremy!" said Maren in a low whisper. "Jeremy, psst! Over here!"
Jeremy was only ten feet below her and a little off to the right. "What's going on?" he called up. "You look scratched up."
"Ssh!" Maren pointed above her and spun her finger around. Then she waved him over to the cave.
Jeremy tilted his head up and shielded his brow with his hand. "What?"
She waved him in more frantically.
When Jeremy came to the entrance, she ran back into the cave and he followed. "What's going on?" asked Jeremy.
"Take us out of here."
"Maren, is everyone okay?"
"Now!" Maren pulled him to the back of the cave where Tina and Mitch huddled together.
"You have blood on you—what's happened?"
"There's some sort of monster here—I'll explain later!" Maren waved her arms about.
"Okay," said Jeremy slowly, and they moved close to Tina and Mitch. Jeremy wrapped his arms around the three of him, and Mitch eyed him with disgust. And then Jeremy crossed over into the Haze, and was surrounded by three limp bodies. The bodies peacefully bobbed up and down on light purple Haze clouds, but Jeremy knew better. They were dying. He hooked his arm around Mitch's and his other around Maren and Tina, and was about to begin his journey through the Haze, when he looked up and saw Lyrna racing towards him, hissing.
"Out!" she yelled.
"What? Lyrna help me get them to New York, I have to hurry!"
Lyrna viciously swiped at him.
And then he knew. Far behind Lyrna, weaving in and out of the folds in space, loomed scores of demons. There were dark, smoky creatures with red glowing eyes and skeletal hands. Others were dense clouds of red speckled with black scales and horns. Jeremy gasped and kicked back out of the Haze, and they landed back in the cave. Maren, Mitch, and Tina, were quietly moaning whi
le they came to. Jeremy created an orb of blue light into his palm and held it up. He cursed and paced back and forth with the orb while Maren sat up.
"Jeremy, take us back," Maren rubbed her head. "We have to get out—"
"I haven't made this clear to you! There were demons on Watico. And just now I saw them—the Haze is infested with demons, Maren! They're looking for me!" Jeremy shot a blue spark up at the ceiling of the cave. Pieces of rock rained down.
"Jeremy, idiot!" Maren slapped at his legs and he stumbled back. "You'll kill us!"
"What is that?" Mitch had become conscious and was facing the wall. "Why is there...?" He turned to Jeremy and saw the blue light stretch up from his palm. He scrambled to his feet and held his hands up. "How the hell are you doing that?"
"Jeremy, get us out of here! There's a monster outside!" said Maren.
"We have to figure something else out." Jeremy moved closer to the rock wall where Mitch had landed. "Hey, look at this." He held his blue light up to the wall. Writing was etched into it:
Leviathan est God's. Leviathan est Diabolus. Cain's latebras est notus.
Maren inched her way closer. She ran her fingers along the wall. "Latin. Leviathan is God's. Leviathan is Satan's. Cain's hideout is known?" She glanced at Jeremy. "Isn't that... Mantel?"
A deafening shriek from outside the cave pierced their conversation, and they heard a flapping sound like huge sails catching a wind. As they strained to see out the cave's entrance, a sudden cone of flame immolated a nearby tree, reducing it to ash in seconds. Then there was a low roar, and the rock shook. Leviathan landed near the cave's entrance, kicking up a wave of dirt and stones, smashing nearby trees. The dragon was fifty feet long from head to tail, an intricate pattern of green scales encasing its serpent-like body. Its wings were leathery and transparent, the veins visible in the sun. Massive talons dug into the ground. Maren locked eyes with the creature, which seemed to ignore the darkness of the cave. Its head was crocodilian and crowned with horns, but the eyes revealed unmistakable intelligence.
"Quisnam dico mihi?" Its voice rumbled through the island, vibrating the stone walls.
"Who calls me," Maren whispered.
"Porta dormit."
"The gate sleeps." Maren turned to Jeremy and shook her head. "Please take us out of here!"
"Incredible." Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair, mesmerized.
"It's coming this way!" yelled Tina. Leviathan coiled like a cat preparing to pounce.
"In here!" Mitch had found a small tunnel to a cavern below. They ran towards the back of the cave. Leviathan leapt and landed in the entrance of the cave, and it folded its wings as it struggled to walk closer. The cave was too narrow, and Leviathan snarled as it compressed itself. Tina and Maren quickly squeezed through the tunnel and slid down. Mitch stepped aside. "You next," he called to Jeremy.
Jeremy looked down. He could just fit; Mitch was too wide. "But―"
"Just go!"
Leviathan roared and black smoke polluted the cave. Jeremy groped in front of him for Mitch, but couldn't make contact. He jumped in the tunnel and squirmed his way down, pushing against the rock in his descent. Mitch was lost in the black. He could hear him gagging. There was a flash of light, an incredible wave of heat, and then silence.
Jeremy landed at the bottom of the passageway, and rolled to distribute the impact, but the rock was unforgiving. His face was covered in soot, possibly Mitch's ashes. He spit and smacked at his face and hair. Maren was staring at him. Her mouth was open.
"Mitch?" she managed.
Tina cupped her hand over her mouth. "No."
Jeremy heard a crash above him. The cavern shook. Sunlight poured in through the hole that Jeremy, Maren, and Tina had just entered. Now it was eclipsed by something black. Leviathan snorted and pressed its nostril against the opening. Jeremy, Maren, and Tina ran to the back of the cavern. A phosphorescent moss growing on the walls shed a dim light, revealing stalactites and busy centipedes, but there was no exit.
"Jeremy, take us to the Haze!"
Jeremy gripped the back of the cave wall and slipped into the Haze. A cloud of pink swirled around him as a deer galloped past. It pulled along an old man with milky eyes, who was pointing behind Jeremy. Jeremy shuddered. He followed the man's finger and saw a regiment of demons flying towards him in the distance in tight formation. It wasn't safe here either. Jeremy kicked back and fell on the cavern floor. Smoke was already pouring in. Jeremy turned to Maren. "You need to get out!" Jeremy cupped his hands and pooled energy into a ball, knowing it needed to be dense enough to bother a reptile the size of a whale. I can kill it, he thought. Just as flames began spilling out of the tunnel, he unleashed the orb, and guided it up the tunnel, forcing it through the fire. When it was inside the creature's nasal cavity, he detonated it. Leviathan shrieked and stumbled back, and light flooded the cavern.
Jeremy jumped into the tunnel, trying to ignore the incredibly hot rock. He tried to climb using just his feet, but the rubber soles on his shoes were melting at an alarming rate. Jeremy closed his eyes and faced both his palms at forty-five degree angles towards the rock. Gathering as much energy as he could muster, he blasted against the tunnel, rocketing upwards. As he shot into the upper level, he was greeted by a wall of fire.
Just as he began to feel his eyebrows singe, he slipped into the Haze, keeping enough awareness on the other side to feel when the fire subsided. As the demons closed in on him, he again crossed the threshold, reappearing ten feet away from the blast. Jeremy could sense that the beast's energies momentarily entered their nadir. He admired the damage his orb had done from inside the beast's nose; much of the long left nostril was missing and he could see the soft, inner tissue. The beast was snorting blood. He had opened a window to the brain. He also saw the mark of a previous battle: against the backdrop of the sun, Leviathan's silhouette revealed that a horn was missing, cut from the left side of the crown. As he was thinking these triumphant thoughts, he entered into a coughing fit. Even if I kill it, the smoke might kill me shortly after.
Jeremy risked slipping back into the Haze for a few seconds to bypass the dragon plugging up the cave's exit. When he materialized in the other plane, he was surrounded by a snarling circle of demons, and an arm's length from capture. He thought better of his strategy, and hastily slipped back to Earth, miscalculating his entrance and popping out right behind Leviathan. Right then, he coughed, and the creature whipped its massive tail and sliced his thigh with a cruel barb, cutting down to the bone. Blood gushed from the wound. The pain was unbearable and Jeremy blacked out.
He came to as a claw the size of a grand piano was descending on him, and rolled to the left in the nick of time as the claw tore the ground. He stumbled to his feet, and as Leviathan turned to face him, Jeremy could smell the rancid breath of death.
Then the air twitched and a great light flooded the sky, brighter than the sun. A figure stepped forth from behind the air, and Leviathan shrieked. The figure hovered in the sky, shimmering with light, and the air grew thick with static. Jeremy and Leviathan stood awestruck. The figure lifted its hand up and unleashed a beam of light which divided into a million threads with the symmetry of a snowflake. The strands wove together while they expanded, and then contracted precisely around Leviathan, passing through all else with no friction. The sea dragon leapt and sputtered a few flames at the net which closed around him in mid jump, and then hurled its bundle across the sky and into the ocean on the far side of the island, causing the waters to surge towards the beach. The net emerged seconds later from the sea and disintegrated into the sky.
The mysterious man, shining like the dawn, floated down to the rock where Jeremy was crouching, landing softly in front of him. Jeremy threw his hand up to shield his face, and the light dimmed to a soft glow. There before him was a young man with pale skin, blonde curly hair, and thick parted lips. His eyes were wide and his nose had a small twist at the center. His nostrils flared and the air around him was cl
eansed of the smoke, dust, and heavy energy of the battle. Jeremy was humiliated by the purity of this being, and the horrible wound on his leg began to tingle and heal right before his eyes.
Jeremy heard soft footsteps from the cave's entrance, and turned to see Maren cautiously leaving the cave, soot on her face streaked with tears. When she saw Jeremy, she ran to him and they embraced. Then they turned to the luminous stranger.
"I am the angel Gabriel," he announced in a tone as clear as a bell. He studied Maren. "You are highly favored." Time was elongated, and Jeremy and Maren were transfixed by the holy face. The angel paused and his eyes shone, glazed with light. As he turned to Jeremy, his lips pressed together subtly and his brow lowered.
"The beast thrives on pride and envy. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Know your place, Apollyon. When you make the two into one, the inner like the outer, the outer like the inner, the upper like the lower, the lower like the upper, and male and female into child, then you will enter the Kingdom." Gabriel held his hand out and Jeremy took it lightly in his own, and as their skin met Jeremy felt all his fear and anger dissipate, and he dwelled in peace. Jeremy's soul relaxed into realms deeper than the Haze, beyond time, and he touched something that was everything, and saw that all phenomena were sacraments, were cognitions of the One. Then Gabriel disappeared, and Jeremy wept and longed to feel the One, but It was shrouded now.
He felt Maren squeeze his arm, but he pushed her back and entered the Haze. "Wait!" he cried. But the angel Gabriel wasn't there. Lyrna, three feet away, growled and leapt onto him. He fell back on the sand of the island.
Jeremy Chikalto and Leviathan Island (Book II of The Hazy Souls) Page 19