Ascension: Invocation (9 page)

“We simply will it to be so. You will understand this in time.”

“It would take a colossal amount of energy to make something like this happen,” Charles said to Graham. “Even the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful atom-smasher ever assembled couldn't replicate this.”

“This is correct,” the voice answered.

“How?” Charles stammered. “Just how?”

“You will know in time but understand now that each of you possess the energy required for such an event of your own. You must simply experience your grand awakening.”

Graham noticed that his phone bank was jammed up with callers. He put one on the air. “Hi, caller, go ahead...”

“What are y'all talkin' about?”

“The hole in the sky,” Graham answered.

“Hole in the sky? What hole in the sky?”

“You can't see it? Where are you?”

“I'm in Atlanta. I'm lookin' up at the sky right now, and I don't see anything.”

“Can we only see the door here in Tuscumbia?” Charles asked.

“This is correct,” the voice answered.

“Line two, hello...”

It was a little boy. “I'm scared.”

“Do not be frightened,” a female voice answered.

“Mommy?”

“What the fuck?” Graham mouthed to Charles.

“Hello, honey. Everything is okay. “

“Are you in heaven?”

“Yes, and you will see Mommy very soon!”

“I'm going to die?”

“No, sweetie, you aren't going to die.”

An older man now came on the line with the boy, “What's going on?”

“Hi, Phil.”

“Who? Who is this?”

“It's me, Phil.”

“Marianne? My wife died last year. Who the hell is this? This isn't funny!”

“Andy, are you still there?”

“Yes,” the little boy answered.

“Tonight when you go to bed, honey, say your prayers and kiss your blue rhino for me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I'll see you soon.”

“Marianne?” the man said, his voice cracking.

“Yes, Phil?”

“I'm confused. What's happening? Where are you?”

“Our worlds will soon join. Be patient and you will see me soon, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I love you both”

CHAPTER THREE

"It's kind of
nice out here," Alicia said as the SUV sped down the winding, two lane road into the Alabama countryside.

"Yeah," Brady agreed. "I've always wanted to live in a place like this. Out in the country, y'know?" The SUV engine whined into high gear as they made their way up an incline. The radio quietly provided a soundtrack as Alicia peered out the passenger side window, taking in the stone laden creek and pine trees. "Do a little fishing," Brady continued. "I bet they have good hunting out here. What do they hunt here? Deer? Oh, maybe wi- "

"Holy shit! Fuck! Stop! Stop!!" Alicia screamed.

Brady slammed on the brakes, and the SUV screeched to a halt. He and Alicia felt their seat belts tighten as random equipment flew forward from the backseat. Alicia's coffee landed on the floorboard and soaked her shoes. "Shit," she said and bent down to open the glove compartment to search for napkins. Brady stared through the windshield at the girl in front of them. She stood with right her arm outstretched indicating "stop" and now let it fall to her side. Her piercing, green eyes hardly acknowledged him. Her brown hair danced in the slight breeze as she took her eyes away from Brady to read something in left her hand. Alicia sat back up from cleaning her shoes with a handful of brown, coffee-soaked napkins. The girl's eyes met Alicia's and a cast of relief flashed across her face. She walked to the passenger side window with great purpose.

"What... the... hell?" Alicia said to Brady between her teeth as she rolled down her window.

"Alicia?" asked the girl, her green eyes aglow.

"Yes."

"We must speak."

"I can see that. What the hell are you doing in the middle of the road?! We could have killed you..."

"May I enter your vehicle?"

Alicia looked at Brady. He was still dumbfounded from the near-accident. Alicia threw her hands up. "Yeah. Okay. Sure! Why not?"

The girl got in the backseat as Alicia punched Brady in the arm and woke him from his stupor. "Ow! What?!"

"You must keep driving," the girl said as she closed the door. Brady and Alicia sat motionless for a moment. "Now!"

"Well," said Alicia. "Go... I guess."

"Where am I going?" he asked.

"Drive forward at top speed," said the girl. "Do not stop again and please do not panic."

"Do what? What do you mean? Panic?"

"Just go!" Brady threw the truck into gear and sped up to forty miles per hour. "Go faster," the girl demanded, not taking her eyes away from the electronic device she held in her hand. She punched the touch-screen and scrolled frantically as Alicia looked her over from the passenger seat.

"Look, young lady...” Brady began to protest in the rear-view mirror.

"Faster!" she shouted.

Against his better judgment, Brady sped up now to eighty miles per hour. The landscape sped by them as he struggled to maintain control of the SUV in the winding turns. Alicia reattached her seat belt. Suddenly, they felt something slam into the front of their vehicle. The right side of the truck rose twice. They had hit something.

"Shit! What was that?!" Alicia shouted.

"I don't know! I didn't see anything!" he shouted back as he began to stop the truck.

"Don't stop. Keep driving," the girl said. "It might not be dead."

"Oh, what the fuck kind of psycho are you?!" Brady yelled at her. "We're turning around."

"That's not a good idea," the girl warned.

He found a gravel shoulder and repositioned the SUV. The girl in the backseat checked her monitor. She shook her device feverishly, pressed the screen twice and waited for a response. She aimed it toward the front windshield. A sharp tone sounded and she sunk back in her seat, seemingly more relaxed. Ahead of them, something lay in the road. It wasn't moving. Apparently, it was some sort of large armadillo. Brady stopped the truck. "At least it wasn't human," he said.

"Should we move it to the side of the road?" Alicia asked.

"No! Absolutely not." the girl insisted. “Leave it alone.”

"All right, now you just shut the hell up, do you understand?" Alicia pointed her finger at the girl. "The adults are talking now. Do you hear me?"

The girl shrugged. “It’s a bad idea. That’s all I’m saying.”

"How am I supposed to move it without touching it?" asked Brady. "Hand me that mic stand."

The girl grabbed the folded boom mic to her left and reluctantly handed it to Brady. The girls watched as he slowly made his way to the corpse in the road. As he moved closer, Brady realized that this was not any kind of animal that he recognized. It didn't seem to be breathing. He extended the metal rod and inched nearer.

"Hold your ears," said the backseat girl as she covered her own.

No sooner could Alicia say a word did Brady prod the animal and the creature unleashed a scream so powerful that it shattered every window in the SUV and the nearby farmhouse. Alicia winced, held her ears and clinched her teeth tight. Her head rattled from the shriek. Brady was thrown to the side of the road. He desperately masked his ears, writhing in agony. The girl in the backseat shielded hers as well as she let herself out of the vehicle and walked toward the wailing beast. She unsheathed a blade from her pocket. The girl cupped her ears, knife in hand, as she made her way to the creature. Finally, she held her breath and let her ears go as she cut into the creature's neck and skillfully removed its vocal cords and tossed them aside as one might silence a car horn. The scream ceased and the creature grew four times its original size, knocking the girl into a ditch. It was then erased from view. Like a satellite signal being lost, it crackled, blinked and faded. The girl shook her head, picked herself up as quickly as she could and rushed to Brady to help him to his feet. She walked him back to the truck.

"You should drive," she told Alicia.

"I can't hear," Brady said.

"Can you hear? Do you have paper?" the girl asked Alica.

"Yes."

"Write. Tell him that he will not be able to hear for several hours. His hearing will return. It's likely that he will not have an erection for at least one year, and he may have issues with acne for the remainder of his life."

Alicia paused. “What?”

“He was just exposed to roughly one hundred seventy five decibels, unprotected. He’ll experience sensorineural hearing loss. It’s not likely that there has been any death of tissue. However, the sheer pressure of the sound waves will cause some neurological damage, albeit reversible. How do your ovaries feel? ”

“What?”

“You can hear me, right?”

"Yeah. Yes. I think I'll just write about the hearing part," Alicia said as she wrote Brady a note. "What the fuck was that?"

The girl immediately began sweeping the glass out of the seats with assignment binders that lay scattered about the truck. "Triclopod. It followed me here... somehow," said the girl. "It was the only one. Don't worry. We need to keep going, though. That wasn’t supposed to happen."

"What was that?!" Brady shouted. "It looked like a man-sized roach with a face! That was fucked up! I can't hear!"

Alicia shoved her note at him: "She says you won't hear for a few hours. You'll be okay. I should drive. Some kind of Alabama bug." The girl directed Brady to the backseat where she had been sitting and gently placed him amidst the remaining broken glass and strewn equipment. She helped him with his seat belt, and once he was comfortable, she shut the door. Alicia had not moved from the passenger seat. The girl stood at the door and spoke to her from the broken window. "Ma’am, we should go."

Alicia glared at the girl and crossed her arms. "Triclopod?"

"Yes," she sensed that Alicia was pissed. The young woman took a deep breath, smiled and said, “I suppose now would be a good time.”

“For what?”

The girl looked Alicia square in the eye and spoke confidently, “Quasihemidemisemiquaver.”

Alicia stared blankly back at her.

Sariana blinked, cleared her throat and said louder, “Quasihemidemisemiquaver.”

Still nothing.

“You want a quarter? What?”

The girl felt a cold sweat come over her and she suddenly turned pale. “Oh. Shit.”

“What? What’s oh shit?”

A revelation struck her like an avalanche. They were here. Nervously, she surveyed the landscape. Now she was seeing spots. The girl felt as though she might vomit. Alicia noticed this immediately.

“Are you okay? You’re not having a seizure are you?”

Static.

She was losing her grip.

“Look, what’s your damage, kid? Seriously, what’s going on here? I think I need to call an ambulance for you two...”

The girl was visibly flustered and tried to concentrate. "No. Umm... okay. Listen, I promise that I'll try to explain everything if you just drive."

"Hey, you guys... What's going on?!" Brady shouted from the backseat.

With that, Alicia angrily opened the door. Shards of glass fell from her clothes to the smoldering asphalt. She shook the remaining pieces from her outfit as she walked to the driver's side of the SUV. The birds, suddenly hushed by the scream of another world’s monster, now began to tentatively chirp once again. Their timid song was now the lone noise in the Alabama countryside, amidst the crunching glass beneath Alicia’s feet. She entered the opposite side of the truck and slammed the door. More shards of glass broke loose from the window frame and landed in her lap. Alicia rolled her eyes and started the truck.

"What? You don't have your license yet?" Alicia snarled at the girl, who now had a somewhat manic look about her.

"I don't know what you mean."

"You can't drive yourself? I mean, you can rip the throat out of a giant fucking bug, but you can't drive a car?"

"No. I don't think I can."

Alicia engaged the brake and threw the truck in gear. She covered her face with both hands and inhaled deeply. Her brain needed a moment to process the last few minutes. She wrung her hands and exhaled. "Where are we going?" Alicia asked as she tried to pick the glass remnants out of her skirt.

The girl shook herself out of her daze. "Um... we need to go where you broadcast."

"You want to go the studio?"

"Yes. I mean, I think we should anyway."

"Why?"

The girl quickly scrolled through her electronic device and turned up the volume on the radio. "We need to tell everyone to stay inside, away from the elemental rain."

Alicia turned down the radio. "Was that bug a result of the rain?"

"Sort of." The girl double checked the frequency and, again turned up the radio.

"Listen," Alicia said as turned the radio off. "I need you to focus. What kind of information do you have? If you have something that you need to tell me..." She noticed the girl getting a bit teary-eyed. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. It’s all... it’s just unexpected. I’m just a little freaked out."

"What's freaking you out? The bug?"

"Yeah. The triclopod. I'm stressed, okay?"

Alicia saw that the girl was trembling now. She slowly put the truck back in park. Alicia was truly at a loss. She didn’t know much about comforting anyone. Alicia turned in her seat to face the girl and softly took her hand. All at once, the girl began to cry.

"Hey, is everything all right?!" Brady shouted from the backseat.

Alicia mouthed "Shut... The... Fuck... Up". He understood. "Honey... what's your name?"             

"Sariana."

"Sara, I understand that you feel you have something important that you need to tell the people...”

"Yes," the girl’s voice cracked as she nodded.

"But, sweetie, I need to get the full story before I can help you do that. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I understand. I know. I do," she said between sniffles. Finally, Sariana broke down. She couldn’t help it. The moment was just too much and nothing was right.

The girl began to sob and Alicia hesitantly took Sariana in her arms. The girl quickly grabbed her tight. Alicia held her breath and Sariana began to cry harder. For Alicia’s part, it was awkward but she did her best to participate in the embrace and let her get it all out. After a minute or so, Sariana finally let go.

She nervously smiled and laughed as she wiped her nose with her sleeve. Alicia politely smiled as well and tried to ambiguously dab the snot and tears away from her shirt. Sariana, meanwhile, reached into her pocket and removed her monitor. She pressed the screen twice and brushed away her tears. Sariana took a deep sniff and spoke to Alicia while referring to her notes.

"Okay. Wow. This is so weird. I don’t know how this happened," Sariana said. “Maybe we can try... something else.” She cleared her throat, inhaled deeply and read from her screen. "The visitors here today, they are not here to enlighten you. You are reinforcements in a war. Nothing more. All souls on Earth have been bred for war from creation. They're here to collect you as soldiers. They have designed you as the most vicious souls in the omniverse. This is why you are always at war with your own kind. You're attack dogs. Your souls will be sent to slaughter if you follow them. This is all you were ever meant for. You can stop this now if you avoid the rain. We will need as many of you for the rebellion as possible. Everyone must stay inside. Spread the message.”