Heaven's Eyes

by Jason A Anderson

  “It’s not so much a thing you see as a place you go,” Sayed corrected him. “It’s a vault that holds all of... well, exactly what it sounds like. The unholiest of objects are hidden away there. Some seem banal enough, a grimoire of Celtic fire chants, the nose ring of the Eldar Beast.”

  Joshua nodded, thinking they sounded abstract enough to be harmless.

  “Then there are those items that are tainted with corruption to such a degree that they require their own holding cell within the Reliquary. You’ve heard of the Scepter of Kaffre’?”

  Joshua almost missed a step at the mention of the infamous tool of pain and destruction. “Of course,” he said. “We’re going to see that?”

  This caused Sayed to smirk.

  “No, I doubt either of us could withstand the corruption that emanates from that particular object. We are, however, going to pay a visit to the outer locks, simply as a precaution.”

  Joshua had so many questions he wanted to ask, but his friend grew silent as they passed down brightly lit halls and corridors, each seeming to be less occupied than the last by workers until they found a long, foreboding hall before them, devoid of anyone else. Wide enough for more than twenty men to walk shoulder-to-shoulder, it still felt cramped and stifling as the two men walked its length.

  What Joshua took to be a shimmering at the far end, turned out to be a very tall waterfall, of sorts. No water ever looked like this... unless it was fetid and a constant cascade of decayed detritus.

  The disquieting feeling coming from the falling energy could only be one thing: Void energy.

  Sayed noticed the look of discomfort on his friend’s face. “Are you alright?” he asked.

  Joshua tried to take a cleansing breath, but rather than smooth and deep, it came in ragged chunks.

  “I don’t think I can stay here for very long,” he answered.

  Solemnly, Sayed nodded. “We’ll be quick. I have to check.” Then he turned and gestured to the fall of energy.

  The desire to run so filled Joshua that it took all of his self-control not to spin and bolt away. Instead, he strengthened his resolve and clenched his jaw against the life-flight as a black seam appeared in the center of the fall.

  The sudden urge to be sick fell over Joshua in a wave as the seam widened and a black, grime-encrusted gate was revealed. He swallowed back the bile and tried to concentrate on what he was seeing. A massive metal slab stretched above them and to their right and left, its surface engraved with strange runes and sigils, some Heraldic, others not anything he had ever seen before. It didn’t look like any space had been spared of some marking or other.

  “This is the Vault door,” Sayed said, and Joshua detected an uneasy edge in his friend’s voice that made him feel a little less foolish at his own desire to flee.

  “Big door,” he said through clenched teeth.

  He flinched when, a moment later, Sayed put a supporting hand on his shoulder.

  “In order for anything that the Realm has planned to work, they would need items from beyond this door. As you can see, it’s been blessed against any unauthorized outside access.”

  Unable to contain himself, Joshua spat, “You call that blessed?”

  With a nod, Sayed continued, “Heavily. Even so, the corruption of the unholy items sealed behind this door is so strong that even the door itself has become tainted. Were it not so blessed and marked, neither of us would be able to come anywhere near it.”

  “I’m okay with that.”

  Nodding, Sayed said, “Agreed. Let’s go. I just had to show you, to put your concerns to rest. The only way anything from this Unholy Reliquary could fall into the hands of anyone from the Realm of Lost Souls would be for someone with the authority to do so from within. And that isn’t going to happen.”

  A simple nod was all Joshua could muster. He had to get away from that door and the waterfall of Void energy that protected it.

  Without delay, Sayed led him from the chamber, back down the myriad of corridors. The longer they walked in silence, the more workers such as themselves they passed and the more relaxed Joshua became.

  “How could you stand that?” Joshua finally asked as they emerged into the main Chronologist Hall.

  Sayed paused before he replied. “I’m not sure why it effects Chronologists differently. Possibly because we work with the eternities so regularly that the items in the Reliquary have less influence over us. Don’t get me wrong, I avoid that place as much as I possibly can.”

  “I can certainly see why,” Joshua agreed, breathing steadily once again. The experience had left him shaken, but not cowed, and he felt stronger for it. “Could you send that data we looked at to my place? I’d like to read through it.”

  Sayed’s teasing smirk returned and he said, “Sure. You could use some practice reading Heraldic.”

  Rolling his eyes, Joshua said, “After today, never mind, then,” and headed for the exit.

  Laughing, Sayed waved his friend goodbye.

  As he walked down the same quiet corridor from which he’d arrived, Joshua now felt the muffled silence almost deafening.

  Chapter 14

  “Awkward Restore”

  The air was cool in the viewing room of Whelkins Funeral Home, long and narrow. The soothing cream paint on the walls and thick pale blue carpet absorbed all ambient noise, embracing the room as comfortably quiet as a room containing a dead body in a decorated box could.

  Though the official viewing for Kevin Kearns wasn’t scheduled to start for another hour, several people had already arrived and milled around at the back of the viewing hall and the entry foyer. Voices were pitched low, almost whispers, making conversations sound as if drifting in from the aether.

  “I heard that he fell into the thresher.”

  Half-a-dozen employees had positioned themselves around the foyer and viewing hall, standing silent, only smiling or interacting when directly approached.

  “That would explain the closed casket.”

  The sound of the refrigeration unit for the public drinking fountain hummed lightly.

  “Last I read, his family wasn’t disclosing the cause of death.”

  On one of the side alcoves, set back from the foyer to allow greater privacy, waited a small family: father, mother, toddler and newborn. With a infant’s unerring timing, the baby girl stretched in her blanket and began to wail. The frazzled mother quickly stood and disappeared into the Quiet Room.

  “My buddy works for the coroner’s office. He says there weren’t any parts left larger than my fist.”

  “That’s horrible!”

  “I hate to sound morbid--”

  “Too late!”

  The heavy double-doors burst open, driven by the pounding wind and backlit by the brilliant flashes of lightning arcing through the night sky.

  One of the ever-attentive mortuary assistants hurried over to the elderly couple and helped them in from the splattering rain, drenching the south end of the valley.

  “But if that’s the case, what’s in the casket?”

  “Lance!”

  “I told you I wasn’t trying to sound morbid.”

  “But you did anyway.”

  Before more grizzly speculation could take place, sudden racket echoed from the viewing room. At the same moment, all of the lights throughout the funeral home slowly flickered off, then on, then off, then on. Several women screamed, more than one man called out in alarm, underscored by the sound of furniture being bumped around.

  At the front of the room, the pale blue casket with the silver Kevin Kearns nameplate embossed on it, rocked precariously from side to side.

  As the visitors in the foyer tried to crowd into the viewing room and before the funeral home employees could get to the front, the lights went out again. This time no one s
creamed. The entire room held its collective breath as the only sounds were the racket from the storm outside and the bumping around at the front of the room. It was punctuated by a loud crash and the lights slowly faded back up.

  The podium where the coffin had rested was empty. Only the pure white cloth originally beneath the coffin remained.

  A pregnant silence fell through the room, broken only by the distant rumble from outside.

  After a few seconds, before anyone in the room could move, the shuffling sound of movement came from behind the podium.

  The deceased’s grieving wife screamed when the naked form of her dead husband climbed to his feet, restored to his condition before the accident.

  The man shook his head, like he needed to clear water from his ears. He froze as he caught sight of the people in the room, caught in various states of alarm. A quick glance down revealed his lack of clothing. Without asking permission, he grabbed the white cloth from the podium and wrapped it around his waist.

  The widow’s eyes grew even wider, her jaw slacking further, when the man that used to be her departed sweetheart babbled for a few moments in a language no one in the room had ever heard before, then lunged for a side door and vanished into the stormy night.

  In the ensuing panic, the bulbs of both floor lamps near the main doors leading to the foyer burst, emitting showers of sparks and plunged the funeral home into absolute darkness.

  Chapter 15

  “No Longer Enough”

  Levahn stood at the small window, looking out at the grimy alley outside his apartment. The spoiled vegetable smell that permeated the smoggy air beyond his front door didn’t bother him so much. Even the slightly brownish overcast sky seemed in keeping with his moods most of the time. But at moments like this one, immediately following his wife and sister’s visits, he felt an unusual longing in his heart.

  At the moment, he was acutely aware of the limitations of being placed in the Lower Glory. He itched to be able to touch and hold Amberleigh. The lack of the ability to make physical contact with anyone else in the Lower Glory almost left him feeling like he may as well be consigned to the Abyss. He had known when he stood in Judgement, that his life had not been exemplary. Being sent to the Lower Glory came as no surprise and he was grateful that Amberleigh could at least come and visit him In life, he’d never been what he would describe as “baby hungry”, but he could tell by the way that Amberleigh’s face lit up when holding Kenah’s little one, that she longed for a child of their own.

  Suddenly disgusted with himself, he turned away from the window, letting his gaze travel across the cluttered, unkempt apartment. It only took a couple steps to be in the center of the cramped space.

  In the past, Kenah and Amberleigh had come on their own, but with the baby and Kiah with them today, an unusual feeling began to creep through Levahn’s heart. A mix of jealousy and the unfamiliar sensation of wanting something better. He hadn’t ever wanted to push himself to live a worthwhile life in mortality. As it was, he still had no idea what drew a woman like Amberleigh to him.

  As the unfamiliar emotions bled through every part of his body, he began searching his mind for a way to improve his lot. If Amberleigh wanted children strongly enough, she wouldn’t wait an eternity. That meant he had to improve his lot in the Afterlife as soon as possible. And the only way he could think to do that quickly, would be to prove himself now, the way he hadn’t in Mortality.

  An idea began to form...

  Chapter 16

  “Rousting a Rogue”

  Clovis stopped at the entrance to “Dracula’s Castle” and looked around him. The park was steeped in shadow tonight. Without a significant amount of moonlight and no power to the facility, the rogue anticipated little, if any, problems from security. Anxious to get out of the smelly homeless host’s clothing, he slipped through the narrow gap in the park ride’s entrance and made his way along the tracks, using his hearing and memory to guide him until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. In silence he passed mummies, witches, a swamp monster, a haunted library, and a vampire warren, to emerge into a mad doctor’s lair. In the working days of the amusement park, this collection of macabre scenes lit up with a rainbow of stylistic hues designed to frighten the most avid horror fan. Now, only the doctor’s office had any light, illuminated by a couple of flood lights, extension cords disappearing into the darkness.

  Bathed in the harsh whiteness of the floods, three fresh corpses lay, each on a rusted-out gurney, shrouded beneath its own white sheet. He had taken special care when prepping them and carving each with its own stylistic runes and sigils, despite the fact that he had no idea what the curves and flourishes meant.

  Satisfied that the bodies hadn’t been disturbed, he re-covered them.

  At the entrance to “Dracula’s Castle”, Security Guard Wally Baker paused at the gap in the entrance doors. On a night like tonight, the deep shadows could play tricks on the eyes, but he was certain that he had seen someone enter the old attraction. Never one to jump at shadows, however, he decided not to radio the other security officers making their rounds through the old park.

  With a nod to himself, he slipped through the narrow gap into the darkness.

  Clovis opened the dirty old icebox that he had scavenged from elsewhere in the park. It didn’t get freezing cold anymore, but chilled down enough to keep his sandwich and beer from spoiling.

  With a contented sigh he sat in a folding chair and munched and drank.

  As he neared the end of his meal, his host’s acute hearing picked up on something moving up the tracks. He hesitated, listening harder. So hard, in fact, that he jumped in surprise when a man’s voice commanded from the dark, “Hold it right there!”

  In a flurry of motion, Clovis dropped the sandwich and threw the beer bottle in the direction of the voice. He heard a satisfying grunt of impact. The bodies provided a bit of cover as he bolted out the far end of the “doctor’s lair” and fled down the dark tunnel.

  Baker hurried into the flood light, still wiping beer off his uniform. He paused when he saw the three shapes under the red-stained sheets. Cautiously, he approached the closest one and pulled back the covering. A man’s face, eyes wide open, stared up at him. Horrified, the security officer stumbled back, caught his heel on an extension cord and hit the ground hard. His hands shaking, he grabbed his radio and put it to his lips.

  “This is Baker. I’m at “Dracula’s Castle”. We have a situation here. I need everyone to get here as fast as you can.” His voice trembled as he called for backup.

  Alone in the dark, Baker couldn’t take his eyes from the carnage before him.

  Chapter 17

  “Friendly Chat”

  Paradise, the Afterlife

  Kiah stood back as Pol hefted the axe over his head and then brought it down. It landed with a resounding “crack!” and split the chunk of wood in half. The firewood fell to each side of the tree trunk now being used as a chopping block.

  “If I could tell you more, Kiah, I would,” Pol was saying as he reached down and hefted up both pieces of firewood and set them aside on the neat stack. The supply of chopped wood almost ran the entire length of the cabin wall. From the look of partially prepared wood beside the chopping block, it might reach the wall’s end before Pol finished.

  Kiah sat back in the padded porch swing that had been relocated to hang near the wood pile, presumably so that Pol’s wife, Collette, could watch him work. The former SoulChaser knew that Pol used the wood chopping as a release of pent-up energy. Hence the long stack of firewood.

  “So that’s all, just that there’s some sort of conflict brewing between the Eternals and the Realm,” Kiah clarified. “Talk about vague.”

  Pol nodded and set a fresh piece of cut wood end-up on the block. “No kidding. I mentioned it to Joshua, but he didn’t seem too worried about it.”
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br />   “If I know him, he’ll take it to his higher-ups, if only as a precaution. From there, who knows if anything more will come of it. I don’t presume to know the inner workings of the Eternals or the Order.”

  Pausing, Pol turned his attention on Kiah.

  “You’re their newest recruit. Is there anyone you could talk to?”

  Kiah almost answered automatically, but then paused as he mulled over the deeper implications of the question. At last, not coming up with any better alternatives, he shook his head. “I think you’ve done all you can.”

  Pol sighed, went back to the chopping block and made short work of the newest pieces of firewood.

  The crunching sounds of Collette walking preceded her around the front of the large cabin. In her hands she held a tray with three glasses full of pink lemonade and ice. A large glass pitcher held the remaining beverage.

  “I thought you could use a break,” Collette said, smiling at her husband as he took a glass.

  Smiling back, Pol teased, “Right on time, as usual.”

  Her smirk took on a glint of wry humor and she said, “We have a guest. Don’t get used to it.”

  Pol chuckled as Collette passed a glass to Kiah, then set the tray on the vacated chopping block and took her own.

  Kiah downed a swig of the refreshing liquid as Collette sat on the swing next to him.

  “So, Pol told you what that girl said to him on his last retrieval?” his hostess asked.

  Kiah nodded, for the moment forgetting his drink. “I told him that mentioning it to Joshua was the right decision. He’s following protocol, which is important.”

  “There’s nothing that you could do to help?”

  Collette’s insistence amused Kiah. He knew her as a diehard spitfire and could see what attracted Pol to her.

  “Joshua and Kenah use to constantly remind me to follow protocols. ‘This is a house of order’, Joshua is fond of saying. So, in this case, I think Pol has done exactly as he should. It’s up to those above him to decide what to do with that information.”