The Vapor

by Nathan Parks

  “If you think I let them go in blindly, let me assure you that I did not. Leah is aware. She knows that there is no way that Legion will manifest himself. He, even in his weakened state, believes himself unconquerable.”

  “What about Ann?”

  “She knows. We have a way of pulling the twins out if we need to, if things go south fast.”

  “You should have told everyone.”

  “Maybe, but I didn’t.”

  ◆◆◆

  Leah could feel herself waking up. She opened her eyes and was startled by two pairs of eyes looking down at her. “Momma said to follow you.”

  She sat up and looked around. The sky was dark with streaks of orange and red, and she was lying next to the charred remnants of a one-room building that still smelled of smoke and ash. She could not see Zarius or Tori, but she had enough wits about her to remember that her real self was asleep in a recliner in Eden.

  “Take my hands, both of you,” she almost barked. She winced because she had to remember she was dealing with children and not hardened warriors.

  She knelt down in front of them. “Listen, I want you to tell me about anything weird that you may see, anything strange you are feeling. Do you understand what I am saying?”

  They both nodded. Continuing to hold their hands, they began to walk. She had no idea where to. She needed to find the other two before going too far.

  The small, smoldering building was in the middle of a field. There was a tree that had large scars in the trunk of it and no leaves, which stood about ten yards away from the house.

  The coloring on everything was . . . well, strange and dark. The tree itself seemed to have hues of purples and gray, and the grass that was under their feet had grays and greens. She didn’t recognize any of it, so she knew that this must be the threads that were connected to images and moments within Tori’s mind. This, of course, didn’t mean anything. The shack itself could be a metaphor for an empty shell of a memory or could truly be a shack.

  She had to find Zarius and Tori.

  ◆◆◆

  “Tori, can you hear me?”

  Tori opened her eyes and found herself sitting up with her back against a large rock formation. She looked to her right; and she saw Zarius several feet away, standing up and looking at her. Her mind was foggy, and her body felt drained. “What happened? Is it over?”

  He walked over and reached out his hand to help her stand up. “No, My Dear Friend, I don’t believe it has even begun. This is the in-between . . . that part that Gene was saying is like an energy network of threads. Do you recognize any of this?”

  She looked around at the rocks against which she had been leaning and up at the dark-colored sky. “Should I?”

  “I don’t know. Try to think abstract . . . like if your life and thoughts were placed out as images but not clear images.”

  “Well, that helps, because all I see is a field in front of me, and woods with rocks behind me. Sure, Zarius, looks like home away from home within my brain.”

  “Ok, so yeah, guess that was an unfair question. Do you see Leah or the twins?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t see anyone or really anything. Yay, go, team Demon Slayers, for not even being on the right playing field!”

  “Shhh . . ..” Zarius motioned for Tori to be quiet. “Did you hear that?”

  She shook her head.

  “I thought I heard children laughing. It may have been the twins.”

  They both listened, and then Tori could hear it. She motioned out into the field. The grass within the field was about waist level, but there were places where it appeared the grass had been cut short.

  “Sounds like it is coming from out in the field. Maybe the twins are playing in the taller grass.”

  Zarius stood on his tiptoes, trying to see if he could spot them but was unable to.

  “I don’t know. Leah should be with them; and if she is, we would be able to see her, at least.”

  “I guess we could start walking that way. We do have to find them; and unless you have a better idea, that way is just as good as any.”

  There was a hot breeze blowing across the field. They felt it on their skin as they stepped away from the rock formations and the tree coverage. It felt as if every bit of moisture was being wicked from their skin with each step.

  Off to their left, they heard children’s laughter again and saw some of the grass moving as if something was running through it. They still had no visual of the twins or of Leah.

  “That has to be them,” Tori said as she quickened her pace toward the movement and sound.

  “Tori, wait,” he stopped her. “So, nothing looks familiar to you?”

  “I already told you that it doesn’t.”

  “I know you did, but this just doesn’t seem right. Something seems off. I don’t like that we can’t see Leah if that is the twins.”

  There was the laughter again. This time it sounded closer, and they could see movement again in the grass. The movement looked as if it was advancing towards them.

  “You have heard Legion talk inside your head, right?”

  She nodded. There was a knot forming in her stomach as he said that. She felt clammy and as if she was about to faint at the thought of the voices that had been so crystal clear.

  “Did they ever sound like children?”

  Her face went white. “Are you saying that . . .”

  “Stop! Just answer my question.”

  “Maybe. They always sounded different. I do remember a little girl, I think.”

  “So, listen to me really closely, Tori. Are you listening?”

  “Yes.”

  “While we are doing this, I need you to be focused on what I say; and I need you to try your best to not let your emotions feed into your mindset. You got me? It is important! A good soldier has emotion but does his best to keep those emotions walled up until after the battle.”

  “I’m not a soldier, though, Zarius. I’m a teenager.”

  “Today . . . at this moment, you are both.”

  She began shaking. She was trying to keep control of her body but she couldn’t. She felt stomach acid singe her throat.

  Zarius looked on the horizon and saw lightning flash across the sky. He then looked over at his partner. “Well, you may not recognize any of this place, but this place sure does recognize you!” He pointed to the lightning. “As soon as you started shaking, that lightning started flashing over on the horizon.”

  “Fantastic! So maybe if I puke, it will start raining on us?”

  “Can we do me a favor and not test that theory?”

  “Tori, come play with us!”

  She screamed and jumped back. A boy and a girl’s voices rang out. It sounded as if she could reach out and touch them, but she could see no one.

  “Legion! Listen, I am Zarius, former Guardian of Etz Chaim. I demand you come out of the shadows and face us!”

  Childish squeals of glee rang out. “Silly Boy, we want to play with the girl.”

  “She is under my protection!”

  “We just want to play games!”

  The grass moved near them, and Tori grabbed Zarius’ arm as she caught sight of the heads of two small children. “Zarius, right there!” she pointed to her left.

  Two young children emerged from the grass. As they did, Tori screamed and jumped behind Zarius. “Those are NOT the twins!”

  The little girl had just eye sockets where her eyes should have been, and her sibling was missing half of his scalp. Their fingers were twice as long as a normal adult, and they each had four feet. “Play with us, Tori!”

  Their voices began to change from playful, childlike voices to a deep feral voice. “We are a part of you! You are a part of us!”

  Zarius was not one to freeze when it came to battle, but he found himself like granite. These were kids! Sure, they were demonic and horrid but still kids.

  “Get it together, Zarius! They are projections of what he wants you to see,�
�� he chastised himself as he stood there.

  “Hey, so you want to play?” He reached into his pocket. He felt the cold metal cubes. “I love playing games. Let’s play a game!”

  “We love games,” they growled in unison.

  “I have two dice. You both agree on a number from 2 to 12. If I roll your number, I win; and if I don’t, you win!”

  “What do we win?” the voice kept hovering between childlike and a cruel horror flick.

  “If you win, then Tori gets to go play with you.”

  “Wait . . . what?” Tori looked at him in disbelief.

  He turned and looked at her. “Trust me,” he mouthed in her direction. He looked back at the children. “Do you want to play?”

  “Yes! We choose the number 12!”

  He began to roll the dice around in his closed fist. “Are you sure? Once I roll, you can’t change your answer.”

  The dice bounced around in his hand. Their feel against his skin allowed him to start focusing on the dice and not on all the fears and anxiety that seem to be attacking his mind.

  “We want 12!”

  He overturned his hand and allowed the dice to fall toward the ground. Just as he hoped, both children looked down; and for a moment their attention was diverted from him and Tori. Without hesitation and without allowing the thought of their being just children clouding his mind, he reached back and pulled out a large-bladed knife. The blade was curved, and he had trained for years to strike fast and accurately with it.

  Before the dice could hit the ground, there were two young heads on the grass, looking up at both of them. Zarius felt the hot blood splatter across his face and hands. The two little bodies crumpled to the ground. For a moment the children's eyes fluttered, and then the remains turned to ash. Tori burst into screams and tears. He grabbed her and held her tight against his chest. He said nothing but allowed her to sob. She was right, she wasn’t a soldier; she was a teenager.

  “They were not real, Tori. You need to understand that. They were segments of Legion. His games have just begun.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Both, Lano and Lada heard the screams coming from close by. Each of them held tighter to Leah’s hand. “What was that?” they both asked.

  “It is ok. That sounded like Tori. Maybe she is screaming to help us find them.”

  “Momma says to never scream unless you are in trouble. That way when you do scream, people will know you are being honest,” Lano stated nonchalantly.

  “That is a good idea, and maybe we can tell that to Tori when we find her and Zarius.”

  “Ok,” he smiled.

  Inside, Leah was feeling frustrated. The Alliance leader in her yelled at her to run to the screams, but she had no idea into what she would be leading the children. She knew that Ann allowed them to go with her because she trusted Leah, but when does trust given become trust broken?

  There was always the chance of her giving the signal for the twins to wake up, but they also had just begun. If they did need them, as Gene thought they would, then it would be useless to keep going if she woke them up.

  She listened for a moment and did not hear any other noises. “Well, I guess there is always the choice of drawing attention to us. I just hope it isn’t unwanted attention!”

  “Zarius!” she yelled out. “Tori!”

  The children thought it was their turn to also help, so they joined in with their small yells, “Zarius! Tori!”

  Leah sighed a heavy sigh of relief when, a moment later, she saw her two lost companions walk toward them. She pointed them out to the twins, and they both took off running in that direction. Leah figured she did not have even close to the energy as both of them. She decided to walk.

  There were plenty of hugs to go around, and Leah couldn’t help but notice the red eyes that Tori had from crying. There were also a few spots of blood splatter on Zarius’ face that he had missed wiping off. She motioned for him to walk with her.

  “You missed a few splatters on your face.”

  He used his sleeve to get them off. “Yeah, so that happened!”

  “What did?”

  “Demonic twins that he formed himself into. I could go my whole life without having to take a blade to any children, again, no matter how demonic and horrid they are.”

  “So, what now?”

  He crossed his arms across his chest and just looked at her. “I was hoping you would tell me. We can’t just sit here waiting to be picked off by pieces of that thing.”

  “Well, your guess is as good as mine. I agree with you about not waiting, but the only thing I can think of is calling him out.”

  “Sure! Why not do that? I mean he could appear before us like a summoned genie, or we could have an army of rotting children.”

  “Any idea where we are within Tori’s spiritual world?”

  He shook his head. “I could guess. This field seems to stretch on forever. If you go back the way we came, you will run into thick forest that is too thick for us to even think about going into and rock formations that are unclimbable . . . at least without anything to climb with.”

  Leah looked around and took it all in. She felt she should be able to decipher this; and in doing so, it may help them to figure out a way to draw Legion out into the open.

  “Just let me think out loud for a moment.”

  “Okay”

  “The fields are endless because no matter how much she has been through, she finds hope. The coloring here is because, even though there is hope, that hope is dying. The color palette of her life is changing. It was most likely bright and beautiful at one point, but it has grown dreary.”

  “The patches of cut grass?”

  “Again, she has attempted to bounce back each time in her life, but after a while the proverbial plot of land will not grow back after being cut down so many times.

  “I saw a burnt building. That very well could be a metaphor for a small area within her hope in which she protected thoughts and memories; but after a while, like the grass, it was finally destroyed and abandoned.”

  “Sounds right to me,” Tori quipped as she walked up into their conversation. “When my mother left, I tried to maintain control. I would go through a daily ritual of remembering all the things we used to do together. They were memories that I could hold onto, and they would get me through my day. After time passed and she stopped contacting me, I began to realize that those memories would not keep me forever. I had to move on.”

  Leah turned to her. “Tori, when you feel Legion’s presence coming on strong, what are you thinking? What are you feeling?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “No, you do; and I’m sorry to push you, but you must go there . . . wherever that is that you are avoiding. You must take your mind there right now.”

  “Because that is where he is going to be most concentrated!” Zarius spoke up.

  “Exactly!”

  Tori didn’t want to. She just wanted to go back to Eden. She wanted to pretend that none of this was real. She didn’t want to feel as if she had no control anymore. She just wanted to be . . . she wanted to be herself. “I can’t.”

  “Come on, Tori! We will go wherever you go!” Both of the children stood on either side of her. In their faces was innocence but also strength . . . supernatural strength. She knelt between them, and they each hugged her. She felt healing strength and courage begin to flow through their bodies and into her heart and soul.

  Tori looked up at the other two. “He used those twins earlier because my mother had a baby boy after me. He died during birth. I believe it was his death that caused my family to break apart.

  “She used to blame me for it, even though I wasn’t even anywhere near the hospital. She would tell me that as a toddler I was impossible. My mother told me that it was because I caused her so much stress that her body couldn’t handle giving birth to him.

  “My father had always wanted a boy; it devastated him, and that is when he started drinking s
o heavily.”

  Tori began to break down as she recalled her past. “I began to make believe that my mother truly loved me. Later, she did in her own twisted way; but I made up a version of my mother in my head that never really existed. All I wanted was parents who would see me as their world. If I could have brought my brother back to life, I would have; but I couldn’t. I also could never live up to being enough for the two people who should have loved me unconditionally!”

  “So where would Legion be, Tori?”

  “Here in this version of who I am? I don’t know.”