by Noah Layton
‘You… You do?’
‘Definitely,’ Arifa said, dropping down from her bar and sauntering up to James. Even though he had taken her just hours ago, rough and passionately, he still couldn’t take his eyes off her perfect, sun-kissed body, the tone resting effortlessly on her skin even without the blessing of the sky in so long. ‘Do you find that… Strange?’
‘I’m getting used to the idea…’ James said, his voice taking on a low husk. ‘Maybe having the souls of the gods within me is helping a little with that idea, but its still a little strange. This isn’t how relationships work on… My world, I guess you’d call it.’
‘I found your world to be a strange one ever since I arrived upon it. You people take years, sometimes decades, to mate with a person before going through this absurd ceremony where you commit to each other till you’re both dead, and then after all of that half of those rituals end up dying anyway, mostly because one or both of the people decides to mate with somebody else.
‘Like all the goddesses, I and the people upon my world are immortal. We grow to maturity, as I did, and we live our lives freely; we mate with whoever we so desire, even with the endless life that we possess.’
‘I would’ve thought eternity would be pretty lonely,’ James replied.
‘Not if you’re surrounded by the people of your own kind. And not if they provide all the warm comforts that my people do. We live in cosy huts and treehouses, communities the size of small towns that never go to war and never fight.’
‘Must have been tough in this place, then, being by yourself.’
‘Being here was just a blip on the radar of my life. I had all the comforts I needed, save for my people… God, I do miss them…’
James bit the inside of his mouth, frowning. ‘Is there any way to make it back to them? To your dimension? Elena doesn’t seem that interested, but your people sound pretty cool. We should pay a visit to them.’
‘We will, once all of this is over… If it ends at all, that is.’
‘You don’t think it’ll end?’
‘I think it’ll end, I just don’t know how. Alerian is dead, and you’ve met Ascevious in his ethereal form. Small parts of them still live within you. They’re not dangerous in their form within you, but Ascevious is out there, right now. He has killed the one person until now who could stop him, apart from you, and he has begun to kill people in your world, the one we have all sworn to protect.’
James and Arifa looked at each other for a moment, before looking about the huge room.
‘Elena thinks this is all down to choices,’ James said. ‘That I have free will over all of this. That it all comes down to my decisions…’
‘What do you think?’
‘I don’t know what to think. It could be me. It could all just be happening for no reason. Or all of this could be happening because someone or something is orchestrating it. I mean, a few days ago I wasn’t even sure if God was real, never mind gods and goddesses, and now I come to find out that there are hundreds of them, not just from this world but from hundreds of different dimensions parallel to this one.’
‘My people believe in… Laziness.’
They both laughed briefly before hearing the light press of footsteps nearby.
‘You two are up bright and early,’ Elena said, appearing in her underwear from the cushion fortress. ‘We need to get back to Earth.’
James reached into the pocket of his jeans and retrieved his phone, checking the time. 2:33 in the morning.
‘Now would be a safer time to leave than any. I don’t know what the security guards will have done with the horn but they definitely won’t be around it right now. Let’s get moving.’
Chapter Nineteen
Behemoth
‘Ready?’
‘Yep.’
‘Okay… 3, 2, 1…’
Just as the library bathroom had fallen away to reveal Arifa’s dimension, so now did the this dimension fall away to reveal Earth again. James had been wondering where they would land ever since they had made the decision to head back; the guards or somebody else would have found the horn and shifted it to who knows where.
To his surprise, though, James found the familiar sight of the bathroom swarming up around himself and the goddesses. A sharp crack sounded out as they reappeared in the darkness of the unlit room.
Using his phone to cast a light about the room, James realised the source. It was the trash basket.
‘Security guards find an ancient artefact that literally contains another dimension,’ he said, kneeling down and picking up the horn, ‘and they throw it in the freaking garbage. Go figure.’
Clothed and replenished, the three of them, led by James, made their way out into the library corridor. The building was open 24 hours, but there would only be a single clerk somewhere in the place seeing as self-service hours had started long ago.
Making their way down the stairs quietly, James saw the aisles of books still on their sides, with yellow tape cordoning the area off. Another twang of regret coursed through him as they hurried on, making it out of the building and onto campus without so much as a hiccup.
Leaving the college and heading downtown, James decided to take the long way back to his apartment. He had initially been apprehensive about walking around in public together with the girls, but after having them both at the same time an even greater confidence had filled him. He moved down the sidewalk with purpose and direction, the axe still hidden in the bag over his shoulder, Elena on one arm and Arifa on the other.
More than a few people shot looks their way, but he didn’t care. Every time somebody looks at a couple there’s a subconscious calculation made in their head about who the more attractive person is, or whether they’re good enough for each other, or whether anybody is punching way above their weight.
But now, as they owned the sidewalk and walked past bars and fast-food diners and all-night electrical stores, James found himself being looked up and down by every girl making her way through the night, every vixen and sexy group of girls who were drinking their way through the city. Every single one of them shot him a look up and down, either with a desirous eye or a lucid stare.
That dreamlike state didn’t last long, though.
‘Oh, shit…’
Arifa said it, dragging the three of them to a stop outside of the tenth electrical store that they passed. Every other citizen of the city, moving through the night, had been heading to whatever dive bar or midnight lover’s apartment they had their minds set on, but an uncharacteristic crowd had formed outside of this one.
Pushing through the crowd of citizens stood staring into the front window of the store, James, Elena and Arifa zoned in on one of the multitude of screens, where a news reporter stood outside of the gates to Central Park. Citizens of the city were running past the reporter like a clip from a disaster movie – they were moving in such massive swathes that they bumped into the cameraman several times, turning the scene into something out of a found-footage movie.
‘-park has been evacuated due to what police are referring to as a level 5 state of emergency. Officers were dispatched to the scene when violence broke out shortly after 2:45am. Various eyewitnesses report claims of a rabid animal in the park that had attacked several citizens…’
The frame cut to an interview with a man with bloodshot eyes and sweat trickling down his face.
‘I saw it, I saw it! Me and my buddy were just heading through the park when we saw this thing at the end of this path. It was fuckin’ huge, like the size of a house, and it was eating people…’
‘What the fuck…?’ James muttered to himself.
‘It’s him,’ Arifa said. ‘It’s Ascevious.’
‘Ascevious is a giant monster?’
‘No,’ Elena replied quickly, ‘he has unleashed one of his minions.’
‘When I think minion I think a little smaller, like a servant. This definitely isn’t that, is it?’
‘Definitely not,’
Arifa said. ‘It sounds like a behemoth.’
‘A what?’
‘I’ll explain on the way,’ Elena said. ‘Right now we must get to this place.’
James suggested that they take a cab, but both Elena shot him a look of disbelief.
‘One of those car-things that we rode in before? This is an emergency, master.’
‘What’s up?’ Arifa asked.
‘The master wishes for us to get to the location in one of those.’ Elena pointed to the closest cab that was passing.
‘Where’s the fun in that?’ Arifa asked.
‘Fun?’ James replied. ‘Where’s the fun in this?’
‘The fight, of course,’ Arifa replied casually. ‘But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun getting there.’
Elena and Arifa both looked at James, smiling, before looking up to the tops of the buildings that surrounded them.
‘Okay,’ James agreed, looking up to the rooftops. ‘Maybe you’re right about this.’
Minutes later, they had ascended window ledges and fire escapes, leaping from higher place to higher place before finally arriving on a six-story apartment block. James led his goddesses towards the park in the direction of the creature, but they were moving entirely of their own volition.
Alongside him as James leaped from rooftop to rooftop, he couldn’t resist turning to see the girls soaring through the sky against the backdrop of the city lights.
Even if we are moving towards some terrifying fucking monster, James thought, This is one of the most amazing scenes I’ve ever been a part of. It’s like being in a movie…
The three of them were silhouettes against the night, leaping above the citizens of the city, heading into the heart of darkness at the centre of it all.
The lines of skyscrapers suddenly dropped off, giving way to the street below and the gigantic mass of greenery and trees that was Central Park. James knew what it represented – man trying to control nature and use at its behest, an endless supply of oxygen to the citizens of the city.
Everybody knew not to go in there at night, but the worst that you could expect were addicts and muggers.
Not a creature from another dimension that was eating people.
Surveying the park from seven stories up they could see nothing of note within the park, but the edges were scattered with police ushering people away from the main exits.
‘We can go through the main entrances easily,’ Elena said. ‘I’ll put my powers to work on one of those officers.’
‘No,’ James said resolutely. ‘They’re getting people out of the park. If we interfere with that we could get somebody killed. There are darker parts with high fences further along, over there. Let’s jump the railing and get inside.’
Descending to the alley by the building, they hurried down the opposite sidewalk to a quieter spot out of sight of the streetlights. They leaped over with no interference or problems, moving into the darkness of the park.
‘One of the only things that goes right for me over the past few days,’ James said, checking the axe was still secured over his back in the guitar bag. ‘And it’s the thing that brings me closer to potentially getting killed. Just my luck.’
‘We’re gonna be fine,’ Arifa said, turning over her shoulder and winking at him. ‘Let’s find this thing.’
As they moved deeper into the darkness of the park, James was reminded instantly of the forest back inside Elena’s caged dimension. A silence resided over the park, even out in the real world, or whatever that was in James’s mind. Despite being outside in a world with wind and rain and snow, there was none; on this Autumn night, all was quiet… Except for the screams and yells exploding out towards them a few hundred yards ahead.
The three of them rushed on towards the monster, James feeling the confidence begin to fill him as they approached the screams, which quickly vanished and made way for ground-shaking stomps that boomed out every so often, combined with gnarled crunches.
James tried to tell himself that it was nothing but the crunching of trees as it had been with the embris, but even if it that was the case it still meant that there was something breaking the trees in the first place.
And if that was the case, it would be something enormous.
‘Oh, my…’ Elena said quietly, looking through the trees. ‘It’s there… Do you see it?’
‘Where?’
‘Right…’ Arifa appeared over James’s shoulder and pointed straight ahead. ‘There.’
Like a first ultrasound, James wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking at, but the moment he set eyes on it a chill of fear struck him hard.
The shape that Arifa was pointing at he initially thought was another tree trunk, or several clumped together, but now that he zoned in upon it he realised what he was looking at. It was a huge figure, perhaps twelve feet tall, burly and covered in fat with huge, chunky limbs. The skin that covered this new monstrosity was a dull shade of grey and green; it moved slowly, breathing heavily as it stooped over something… Something that had once been a someone.
As they approached it, coming to a distance of only thirty yards, James saw the blood and the body parts splayed over the ground.
Killing a monster or even an animal was one thing – usually there were no hard feelings if the thing was trying to kill you in the first place – but a person? James had never seen a body in real life before, never mind one chopped up into a myriad of different pieces.
And never mind several being eaten by a monster from another dimension.
‘What the hell is it?’ James asked, retrieving his bag and removing his axe.
‘Behemoth,’ Arifa said casually. ‘We have them in my world, although we hardly ever run into them. Big, fat, stupid, angry – and they love to eat, if that wasn’t evident. Anything, really, hence the size. They’re huge, but I’ve never seen one this size before.’
‘Just our luck,’ James said. ‘So how do we take this thing down?’
‘We cannot reason with it,’ Arifa said. ‘I’d suggest we get its attention somehow.’
‘I can do that,’ Elena said, raising her hands and moving them rhythmically as if she was massaging a small, invisible globe. Flames suddenly lit up their faces, though, as a ball of fire appeared in her hands. ‘I’ve been aching to get back to this ever since you got me out of my cage, I just never had the opportunity…’
James and Arifa watched as she brought her hand back before launching the fireball at the behemoth.
Flames showered the creatures back, but considering the extent of the fat that covered its body, it only realised after a few seconds that anything had happened at all.
It grunted, turning and scrambling madly for its back with huge, stomping footsteps. It fell forward into the nearby body of water, rolling over frantically, steam rushing upwards, before staggering out and exposing its face in the light.
There was nothing human about it. Two large, black, dead eyes looked over at them, its mouth jagged with misshapen teeth as it glared back at them. At first there was ambivalence in its expression, but that quickly descended entirely into total, insane rage.
‘Okay…’ James said, tightening his grasp on his axe. ‘… Now what do we do?’
‘I don’t know, I didn’t think that far ahead,’ Arifa shrugged.
James and Elena shot her a look, but she quickly smiled.
‘I’m fucking with you. Time for a chase.’
Arifa leaped forwards on all fours, making herself known by hopping into the air and waving her limps about with frantic gracefulness.
‘This way, you big asshole! CHASE ME!’
The behemoth couldn’t understand a word; to him, there was nothing but a twenty-something girl with cat ears running off to his right, and that was enough to send him stomping after her.
With a gnarled, incoherent yell the monster stomped after her, picking up a surprising pace in the process and flattening grass and body parts as it hurried after her.
Arifa was se
veral steps ahead; forcing momentum from her legs, she leaped into the nearest tree and onto a branch, and thus began the monster’s pursuit of her through the park.
James and Elena took off in pursuit of the behemoth, their strides and speed matching that of the creature.
‘Where the hell is she leading it?’ James said.
‘I have no idea,’ Elena said quickly. ‘… I see her, it’s gaining on her!’
‘Distract it!’
Without hesitation Elena summoned another fireball and launched it at the behemoth, hitting it in the back again. With no water to put it out it scrambled for its back again, yelling out. The flames weren’t catching, but the embers were still scolding it. It turned its attention from the cat goddess leaping through the trees and back to them.
Now what?
Despite the stupidity, it was learning. Instead of stampeding at them, it turned to the closest tree and sank its huge clawed hands into the trunk, pulling upwards.
The brief notion of there’s no way flashed through James’s mind, but much like the fire on the behemoth’s back it was quickly extinguished. That familiar sound of splintering wood hit them as the tree was pulled entirely from its roots, ripped up from the ground, and hurled straight in their direction.
It moved like a javelin, speeding at them fast.
Elena’s wings tore through her clothes in a reactionary movement. She reached for James but he was too busy diving in the opposite direction; with no choice she rose into the air, the tree missing her by mere inches.
The ends of the branches struck James as the huge trunk cut past them, striking him on the shoulder. Landing heavily on the grass, he groaned as he tried to regain his composure. He reached for the axe, his fingertips touching the edge of the handle, but for some reason it kept vibrating away from him.
Wait… Why is it vibrating?
‘JAMES!!!’
He looked up just in time to see the behemoth reach down and grab him, wrapping a huge, clawed, oversized hand around his entire body and lift him up.
