"Please..." Annabelle begged.
"Have no fear..." the man commanded as he floated closer to her and placed his hand upon her forehead.
She tried to move away from him, but she couldn't. No matter where she turned or how many times she stepped away from him, his hand was still upon her.
Then, the man smiled down at her. "The infinite is all, and all shall be. The Void is not your end; it is only a new beginning..."
When he stopped speaking, a blinding stream of darkness shot from the palm of his hand and into Annabelle's forehead. There was no way for her to resist, and like the wind blowing away a few dry leaves, the dark light began to carry her away.
Chapter 59
Petrifying fear overwhelmed Alice as the darkness enveloped her, then morphed into a pure, blank eternity. As it changed, it unleashed a momentous roar unlike anything she had ever heard.
The sound was alien to her, but it reminded her of being in Origin Council captivity. It was similar to the clicking whir that their medical robots had made when they slowly cut away pieces of her, only amplified and multiplied by an infinite factor.
Instinctually, she tried to get away, but the vacuum of space had carried her too far, too fast, and there was no way for her to avoid sliding into the vast expanse.
As Alice passed into the boundless blankness, the cacophonous roar peaked in volume to the point where she felt her head might explode.
Then, in an instant, all was silent.
She was no longer flying, and her feet were back on solid ground. The cacophonous roar was gone, too, and a severe, dead silence had taken its place.
Alice's heart slowed, and her fear faded as she looked around at the vast, endless expanse.
She slowly turned around, searching carefully for anything that might exist in that blank world, but the only thing she could see was white. The ground was white, and the sky, and the horizon. It was all the same, and she had no idea where one ended, and another began.
"Hello?" Alice tentatively called into the blankness.
"What?" a familiar voice answered behind her.
With fluid, deadly grace, she spun around and prepared to strike at the speaker. When she saw who it was, however, she dropped her guard and pulled him into a grateful embrace.
"Leo!" she shouted as relief coursed through her.
Leo returned her embrace, but quickly broke it and took a step away from her. "We can't waste any time! Annabelle is here somewhere! We have to find her!"
Leo turned and began walking away, and Alice quickly followed him. She was aware of the intense urgency he was feeling and was willing to indulge it even though she was sure that Annabelle was already dead.
Alice thought back on her memory of walking into the storage room and seeing Annabelle laying there with that horrible, giant knife stuck into her chest, and that beast of a man standing over her.
It had been easy for her to quietly sneak up on the man and wrap her arms around his neck. For that, she felt no guilt. For Annabelle, however, she did.
Annabelle had been left alone and blinded to fend for herself against Thrall's minions. Miraculously, she had still found a way to save them. Without the Epiphany tearing through the floor, they would have been tortured and killed by Thrall. Unfortunately, Annabelle had been rewarded for her heroism with a knife to the chest.
Regret filled Alice as she doggedly followed Leo. If she hadn't allowed Annabelle to join them on their crazy journey, she would still be alive. She would probably be back on Osiris and no worse for the wear.
Actually, maybe she would be, Alice reminded herself as she struggled to keep up with Leo. Thrall had taken over Osiris, after all.
Shivers crawled up Alice's spine when she thought about Osiris and the terrible hell that Thrall could turn it into under his tyrannical dominion. The thought of so many people subjected to the psychopathic desires of Thrall was a disaster of such a disturbing magnitude that Alice could hardly bear it.
At least she had killed him, she reminded herself. Thrall was dead, and that was worth something...
"Annabelle!" Leo called as he broke into a run.
The keening lilt to Leo's voice struck Alice and cut her to the core. Then, unexpectedly, a reassuring thought came to her.
Perhaps if Annabelle had been left on Osiris, she would've met a worse fate than she had under Alice's care. If she had been left there, she might have died without ever knowing the feeling of being loved as Leo loved her. She would never have seen the adoring look that Leo gave her when she laughed, and never basked in the warmth of being truly, completely, unabashedly wanted.
Alice knew that feeling, and she knew she would trade anything for even a second of it. She would pay any price for a second of Shonn, staring into her eyes...
"Leo!" Alice called as she sprinted to catch up to him.
Leo looked around wildly as he began to slow down. "She's here somewhere... I can feel it!"
"Where?" Alice implored. "Where do you feel her?"
Suddenly, Leo stopped and closed his eyes. Alice stopped and stood next to him, observing as his lips silently mouthed unknown words.
"Where is she? Alice urged. "Find her, Leo!"
"She's everywhere... All around me," Leo replied, his voice breaking with emotion.
Then, he opened his eyes and looked at Alice dead in her eyes. His look was as clear to her as her own thoughts, and her heart broke for him in that moment. His eyes were those of a man completely broken.
"She's here..." he revealed, as he pressed his right hand to his heart. Tears fell freely from his eyes, and his lips quivered as he made the gesture.
Alice said nothing as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"She's gone..." Leo sobbed.
Then, Leo closed his eyes, tucked his chin to his chest, and shrunk into a crouch.
"You know..." Leo sobbed as he pulled his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "Annabelle told me that the universe is just one giant cosmic joke... She said that's why she was happy all the time; because she always looked for the punchline..."
He opened his mournful, teary eyes and gazed up at Alice. "Well, I guess the joke is on us this time. I lived a couple of hundred years on the run. I never had a home, and never a family. I was always scared that if I got too close to someone, the Council would find them and kill them, or use them to get to me. I had to kill just to survive..."
Leo chuckled grimly as tears streamed freely from his eyes.
"I lived like that for so long, but now I know the truth... I didn't kill to stay alive. All those years weren't my life. They were my death, and within it, I never felt an ounce of real love for anyone or anything. There's a good punchline for you, Annabelle."
Alice listened intently as Leo continued.
"A long time ago, I promised myself that I would never get close to anyone. But, you know what? Back on Osiris, the moment I first saw Annabelle, I knew how much of an idiot I was for making that promise. "
Leo slowly reached up and wiped the tears from his cheeks. "When I saw her, and when she saw me, I didn't feel any fear. I didn't think about what would happen if I got close to her. Maybe that was selfish, but whatever it was that came with her when she entered my life, it's more powerful than any fear or any worry. The moment I met her was when my life began. That was when I woke up for the first time."
Leo fell silent, and Alice could form no words to reply to him. He had loved Annabelle, truly and completely. And perhaps, she had loved him too. But now, she was gone.
But was she?
The question came to Alice suddenly, and she didn't let it go. They were standing within a place that could... What? Was it a different dimension? Truthfully, she had no idea where they were, but she had seen what Leo could do. If he could bring them to that place, he could find Annabelle, or at least what remained of her. And, if the miracle of Leo's abilities was possible, then perhaps he could share one last miraculous moment with her before she was truly gone...<
br />
Alice knelt next to Leo and gently nudged him. "Leo. You can still find her! I know you can! You brought us here, Leo! You can do anything! Use your gift! You have to see her again! You have to say goodbye! You have to!"
Her words were a wistful imagining of what might be possible, and she felt guilty even saying them. Still, she knew that if he didn't do absolutely everything in his power to preserve and protect the love that he had for Annabelle, he would live the rest of his life under the oppressive blanket of regret that she knew all too well.
Leo looked up to her, and she thought she saw a glimmer of hope flash across his face.
"She's gone, and I know it... So, what can I do?"
Alice pressed her hand against Leo's chest. "You felt her in your heart... So, maybe you should look there." The idea came out of her mouth automatically, before it had even fully formed in her mind.
Leo nodded. "She's in my heart, and she always will be..."
When he finished speaking, he closed his eyes and promptly disappeared.
It took just milliseconds for him to vanish, but Alice saw it clearly. It was like he had been pulled into himself, over and over, getting smaller each time until he was gone.
Alice knelt there in stunned, but hopeful shock. What had Leo just done? Where had he gone?
Chapter 60
As Alice knelt in stunned silence, a blinding ray of darkness suddenly flashed above her. It drew her eyes like a moth to a flame, and when she saw it, it was carved into her vision so indelibly that she felt it might be all she would see for the rest of her life.
As it flew away from her, it slowly dimmed. She watched it go in a trance-like state, forgetting to blink as she took in its glorious darkness. The sight of it sparked hope within Alice, though she didn't know why.
After what seemed to be hours, it finally faded and disappeared in the distance. She breathed a deep sigh of relief when it was gone, then looked around the vast expanse that surrounded her.
"Leo?" she called, but there was no answer.
Alice's mind cleared as the time ticked by, and eventually, she began to follow the dark light. It was unexpected, but she finally felt gloriously free of the crippling guilt that had dragged her down during the past eight years.
Alice basked in her newfound peace, and gently glided forth for a time that felt like an eternity to her. Then, she saw something strange emerge in the distance.
It was just a blurry blot at first, but as she drew closer, she could see that it was a person. They were too far away to recognize, except they were clearly walking toward her. As she drew closer, the figure became clearer. Her heart quickened, and her breath left her when the first impressions of their appearance became clear.
Alice quickened her pace. It was a man, and his graceful stride was familiar.
"Shonn?!" she called out to him.
"Yes! It's me!" he shouted back.
She could see his face now. It was him, the love of her life. Her spirits leaped with joy when he smiled at her, and she ran into his arms, expecting to be wrapped in his warm, loving embrace.
The instant Alice's hands touched him, however, he disintegrated into a cloud of black dust. Disgust and horror replaced her jubilation as, instead of falling into his welcoming arms, she passed through him and he came apart around her.
As Alice inhaled a sharp breath of disgust, black particles flew into her open mouth, and she retched violently at their charred, bitter taste and dry texture. More particles of Shonn's remains flew into her nose, and she was instantly drowned in the sour-sweet scent of his desiccated flesh.
Overwhelmed by her disgust, she collapsed on the ground and tried to wipe away the black dust that had covered her face while she retched uncontrollably.
"Fuck!" Alice screamed, pouring every ounce of anger, guilt, and regret into the word.
She was not alone in that place with her sorrows, though, for when she wiped her eyelids, a crowd of other sad people appeared before her.
Men, women, and children; there were thousands of them surrounding her, and they all looked down at her with the same sad gaze. Alice instantly locked her eyes on a small boy who stood close to her. He stared back with anger, but also pity in his eyes, and a sad smile across his face.
As Alice turned to the others, they looked at her the same way. They all held the same expression, and they all knew the same terrible truth. They were the victims of Ganymede, and she had killed them.
"Our love was taken from us..." a quiet but terrifying voice said to her.
She turned her eyes back to the boy and saw that he had stepped closer to her.
"Our love was taken from us..." he repeated.
"No..." Alice whispered. "It will endure. You will always be remembered..."
She didn't know where the words came from, but as they left her mouth, the profound truth of them hit her like a blow to the chest.
"Enough... This place is not a playground for your sorrows," a woman suddenly stated behind her. The voice was unlike any Alice had ever heard, and it seemed to carry the weight of fate itself. Shock shot through Alice as the voice penetrated her mind.
Alice quickly sprung to her feet as the thousands of people who surrounded her blinked out of existence. When she turned to face the woman who had spoken, she took in the sight of a creature which stole her very breath.
The speaker was tall, at least a foot taller than Alice. She was also naked, and her skin was imbued with a soft purple glow that seemed to pulsate in rhythm with Alice's rapidly beating heart.
"How have you come to be here?" the woman demanded, and Alice knew she had to reply with only the truth.
"Leo... Leo brought me..." Alice answered as she silently prayed the woman would not hear the fear she felt. "We were going to die, and it was the only thing he could do to save us..."
The woman's demeanor suddenly softened into light curiosity. "Leo? Is that the creature you were with? Is he the one who walks the Infinite with the ease of a true born Arcturan, but stinks with the blood of a human?"
"Yes, I suppose so," Alice whispered. The trauma from her past had quickly receded from her thoughts in the face of the majestic woman, and any guilt she had uncovered was quickly retreating from her mind. "I suppose that's one way to describe him..."
The woman laughed at Alice's response. It was a hearty belly laugh that still managed to sound divine. "'One way to describe him...' You are a human, but you speak as if you were an Arcturan Elder. How curious!"
"I'm sorry," Alice whispered as her curiosity began to grow. "What is this place? Where are we?"
The woman gave Alice a confused look. "We are everywhere... Now and then... Forever..."
"The Void?" Alice quietly interjected.
The woman shook her head and laughed lightly. "Hardly. This place is not the absence of anything. It is the opposite, in fact. All exists here."
A shiver crawled up Alice's spine. If they weren't within the Void, then where were they? "Well, if all exists here, then nothing must exist here as well, right?"
The woman threw her hands up in exasperation. "No, nothing is not something. Nothing is the absence of anything. It is its necessary opposite. One thing cannot exist if its opposite does not exist as well. Nothing is not here, not where we stand. Few dare to go there, and those who do can rarely return. Our Elders will travel there when their lives should end, and some find that place in their dreams, for they become what they embrace..."
Amazement and wonder spread within Alice. She was speaking to an Arcturan, an alien being, and learning from them. The woman she was talking to could hold answers to Leo's gift, and many other cosmic mysteries. She could very well be making the first alien contact in human history...
Alice's eyes lit up as she replied. "So, it's somewhere else... Then, I guess Leo hasn't been there. I don't think so, at least, but he has brought it to him a few times. He has called it, as he would say..."
"YOU LIE!" the woman suddenly screamed, and though Alice trie
d to step away from her, the space between them remained the same.
"I'm not lying," Alice protested. "I'm sorry if I offended you. It's just... He has taken guns out of existence, and a man's hand... I asked him about it, and he said he called the Void. Those were the words that he used..."
The woman snorted dismissively and crossed her arms. "A Voidcaller, and an adept of the Infinite... And, one that stinks of human blood? That is impossible! That is heresy!"
"All things exist here..." Alice whispered in reply.
Doubt suddenly entered the woman's expression, and the calm superiority she had exuded melted away. She now looked at Alice with an expression that almost looked like respect, and when she spoke, her voice was less confident.
"A human lecturing a trueborn Arcturan on the tenets of the true path? I suppose it was an eventuality, though one so unlikely I should feel lucky to have realized it. You are right, I suppose, though most among us would not be as enlightened in their response to your profanity as I am..."
The woman didn't take a step, but still, she moved a bit closer to Alice.
"We have become weak, I'm afraid. Our Elders pass into the Void, and few will assume their mantle. We live in an age of decadence. We are over-confident in our presupposition that we are the pinnacle of life in this galaxy. We travel here in our dreams, those of us who still remember how, to make the Infinite our playground, and nothing more. Many stay here forever. They entomb themselves and never awaken from their long slumber as they roam this place. In our superiority, I fear, lies our doom, though few would accept that truth if it were spoken aloud."
Alice listened carefully, logging every word and trying to make sense of it. She was sure that she was receiving a fantastic insight into an advanced alien race, and she needed to remember everything...
The woman looked at Alice cautiously as she stopped speaking, then seemed to take a moment of inner thought before continuing.
The Ganymede Legacy Page 48
