by Tobias Wade
“I am not,” Noah said. He didn’t waste his chance and was already almost out the door. He didn’t know where he was actually being led though, and the lack of conviction in his voice seemed to fuel Brandon’s suspicions further.
“You’re not taking anything without sharing it with my boy,” Teresa said.
As soon as Noah made it outside the office, he tried to shut the door to lock the pair of them inside. Teresa had gotten in the way however, so instead Noah turned and sprinted toward the stairs as Professor Salice was instructing.
“You’ll understand when you get there,” the professor promised. “These keys will open the final door leading to the road from death.”
The Mortuary was in chaos. Noah had never realized how many demons operated the school until this moment when they were all running wild. Imps were swarming along the ground, biting and scratching at the legs of panicked students. A Lava Salamander had climbed onto the central tree and was spitting sticky molten gobs at the harpies, and those that missed were starting fires all over the place. The harpies in turn were trying their best to lift demons and hurl them outside the school. The entranceway was dominated by the roaring Manticore whose barbed tail was being pinned down by a pair of Gobblers, their fleshy bodies melting into puddles like glue to hold the enraged beast down.
Noah was vaguely aware of Brandon and Teresa closely pursuing him, but there was so much going on that they were the least of his worries. He made it a few steps down the first helical stairway, but swiftly had to retreat and choose the other one as a patrol of zombies came marching up from the lower floors with Professor Wilst at the lead. This reversal allowed Brandon to close the distance on Noah even more tightly, so that he was only barely out of arms reach as Noah raced down the second flight of stairs.
Undead moans echoed through the stairway, and it quickly became apparent that Brandon had used his skull to peel off a pair of the zombies from the troop to join in his pursuit. His ability had advanced considerably throughout the semester, and the corpses were bounding down the stairs with a ravenous impetus that put the class’ initial shambling to shame. Professor Salice was urging Noah on with every step though, and Noah had no time to question anything about this mad dash.
Past the second floor and its marching zombies, past the screeching owl and the frightened animals on the third, through the demonic fourth floor echoing with Visoloth’s word of freedom. Onward to the fifth floor and its whispering room, all the way to the iron doors crossed with chains. At Salice’s instruction, Noah plunged the largest key, ornate and gilded with gold, into the ponderous padlock and heaved to turn it. The chains slithered sinuously back like snakes, and just as Brandon and his zombies came thundering down the last stairs, the iron door swung open which led to the road from death.
The zombies staggered to a halt, throwing up their arms to shield their eyes against the searing light. A dozen or more bright beams crossed the path horizontally, with another dozen vertical beams criss-crossing in a regular pattern. Noah squinted to peer through them and could just barely make out the descending stairway vanish into the darkness beyond.
“Is it another door?” Noah asked. “I don’t understand.”
Before Salice could answer, more footsteps sounded pounding down the stairs above them. A moment later and Walter and Jamie had appeared, stopping short a little higher up the tree. Brandon raised his skull prompting the zombies to shuffle into position to defend him as the corpses braced for impact.
“Aha!” Jamie shouted. “I knew something was up when I saw you chasing Noah. Why can’t you leave him alone?”
“Where’s the treasure?” Brandon demanded. “Is it on the other side of the light?”
“Life is the only treasure!” Professor Salice cut through the tense standoff. “And there’s no life to be had, so everyone needs to calm down. Not for you, not for the graduating students, not for the other schools or the furthest monasteries and temples in the highest mountains of the spirit world. The Matriarch has lied to you. Everyone has lied to you. There is no going back.”
“Professor?” Jamie asked, mystified.
“Every way has been blocked,” Salice continued. “The Matriarch doesn’t serve her students, she serves the Trans Dimensional Department. Together they have created the Soul Net you see before you now.”
“I don’t understand,” Noah said. “Why would she bother teaching people how to come back to life if it’s impossible?”
“She’s a peddler of false hope,” Professor Salice said. “Six years of education, all to give students a sense of false confidence that they are ready for the journey home. The moment a soul passes into the net however, they belong to her. Trapped forever between life and death. In this way does the department seek to control both worlds, allowing only those they choose to return to life while filtering out all who would resist them. That’s why I made it my mission to summon the Rasmacht and destroy The Matriarch, so that I could be rid of her net and free the souls she has been keeping from their fate.”
“But what makes you so sure?” Teresa pressed. “How did you know about all this?”
“Because this is not the first time I’ve tried to be rid of her,” Professor Salice said. “The Purges all those years ago were not a response to the evil of demons, as the T.D.D. would have you believe. They were a demonstration of the good that resides within all souls. The demons rose up to destroy the first soul net, giving up their freedom in mass to accomplish their task. I myself was killed during that violent time, and it has taken me a lifetime to relearn everything that I once knew. The net is back though, and there aren’t enough free demons left in the world to destroy it again.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” Salice continued, his voice heavy with weariness. “I thought that I could use you and your family to be rid of her, but in doing so I resorted to the same lies and secrecy that have plagued her tormented reign. I should have trusted you and been honest from the beginning, but I feared that my plan would be discovered before it was ready and I would lose my chance to be rid of the witch. I have no power in here, so you must be the one to summon the Rasmacht and destroy The Matriarch now.”
Echos of the conflict above filtered through the stairway in the silence after his words. Noah could never remember feeling so small and helpless, even when he was surrounded by demons in the heart of the nether.
“I can’t possibly,” Noah said. “I don’t even know how to start.”
“You’ve already started,” Professor Salice said, “and you won’t be alone. Your friends here all carry the same secret, and now it is their charge to bear as well.”
“I’m not his friend,” Brandon said, sneering.
“You have a soul, don’t you?” Professor Salice snapped. “In the face of such evil, all souls must be united. I fear that the demons alone will not be able to tear this school down, but at the very least they will be able to disrupt the resurrection ceremony that was planned for the end of the year. You will have time to prepare yourselves for what must be done, but know that the longer you wait, the more helpless souls will be ensnared as they cross the path nature intended.
“Now I must swear you all to secrecy, for the moment The Matriarch discovers what you have learned she will doubtlessly trap you as she has done with me. Noah, it would be best if you locked yourself back into her office and return me to her drawer before she realizes you escaped. She will not dispose of you as long as she thinks she can benefit from your Chainer soul. Brandon, you must return the skull as well. It is not worth risking her suspicion until you are ready to be rid of her completely.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Brandon asked. “It sounds like she’s won and you’ve lost, and I’m not going to be on the side of a loser. And I’m definitely not giving up my skull.”
“You will do as you’re told,” Teresa scolded him, much to Noah’s satisfaction. He’d never heard her use such a tone with him, and Brandon seemed as shocked as he was.
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�But mother—” he protested, his voice taking on a particularly obnoxious, nasal whine.
“No excuses. This is far more important than anything you can do with your toys. I’ll make sure Nepon Vasolich gets you a new skull, or something even better. We’re all going to work together to stop The Matriarch though, and I’m not going to hear another word about it.”
At least as shocking as anything else Noah had seen today was Brandon’s slump capitulation. “Yes, mother,” he consented, shuffling his feet.
“Go now, before she returns,” Professor Salice said. “A darkness will befall this school after the demons are driven out, and you will all be told many lies about them. You must remember that a soul burns in the heart of all beings, great and small, but no matter how clouded the mind or the spirit may become, no falsehood can ever tarnish the divine in you. The Matriarch is not the first to try and poison the well of life, nor will she be the last, but though individual leaves may wither and die, the eternal vine will always remain. Not always in the same shape, not always as we wish it to be, but this too shall be endured.”
There was no victory or cherished treasure in the heavy hearts which ascended the stairs once more. The upper levels were as wild as ever and the tree itself burned in many places, but Brandon’s zombies helped to push through all the way back to The Matriarch’s office. Through the stained glass they saw the mighty bulk of the Daymare rearing into the air with its hundreds of flailing legs, battling against a seething host of undead specters. The Matriarch was nowhere to be seen, and it was likely she was part of this battle. This gave Noah ample chance to slip back inside her office without being seen.
Brandon seemed more upset to give up his skull than at any revelation, and he fled the moment he relinquished his prize. Jamie hugged Teresa and thanked her for helping. Teresa seemed so taken aback by this that she was at a complete loss for words, but after a few seconds she relaxed and loosely held Jamie back. Teresa quickly excused herself to dart after her son with a thousand apologies and promises on her lips.
“I’m closing you in now,” Jamie said to Noah after she’d gone. “Just play along with what The Matriarch wants and please don’t do anything stupid to make us worry.”
“Yeah, leave that for us,” Walter added, grinning. “I’m more worried about Brandon than you though. I don’t trust him for a second.”
“I’ll be okay. It’s getting quieter out there. You need to go.”
Noah waited until after the office door was closed before he said to Salice, “I know what you said, but I want to take the blood diamond with me. The Matriarch might think it was only lost in the confusion.”
“It is not a sacrifice for me to remain,” Professor Salice said. “Stopping The Matriarch is more important to me than my freedom, and I will not jeopardize you again.”
“I’m frightened.” Noah hadn’t wanted to say it in front of his friends, but now that he was alone it came rushing out unbidden. “I don’t understand any of it, not really. I don’t understand anything more about death than when I was alive. Every time I think I’m starting to, it all gets mixed up again. I can’t summon the Rasmacht without your help.”
“When you say ‘I’, who are you referring to?” the Professor asked.
“I’m me. I’m Noah,” he replied, confused.
“Noah. The name of the seventy-five year old man who died last year. That Noah? Or what about the one who lived before that? Or the hundred other lives before? Are they not also you? And how many times do you think they all were afraid? How many times do you think they could not possibly go further than they were?
“It is a common mistake to think our current perspective is who we are. We think ourselves limited by the tiniest sliver of what our recent memory has done. You are not this thin slice of life, this forced perspective of reality that you are familiar with. You are not your mind, or the habits it has acquired, or the things it’s done. I believe that you will access those other lives just as you learned to speak demonic, and I believe you will find a way for everyone to live again. You are life itself, Noah, and through you all things are possible.”
The next half hour waiting for The Matriarch to return was agony for Noah. He was forced to listen to the roiling chaos and battle outside his door while being helpless to aid the wounded or block the aggressor. Even more difficult were the words he forced himself to say when the door finally opened and The Matriarch reappeared at last.
“I’m so sorry,” Noah blurted out at once. “I never should have gotten in the way of you chasing Visoloth. It was those demon books telling me what to do, and I was listening to them for so long and I got so confused—”
“Hush, child, all is forgiven” The Matriarch replied, the sweetness in her voice turned poison. Her star-lit robes were immaculate despite the battle she’d returned from, and every curl on her head was exactly in its place. Noah stiffened as she crossed the room toward him, but he did nothing to resist as she put her arms around him and drew him close.
“The demons are all gone now, and there’s nothing left to be afraid of. Of course, it would have been better to dispose of them before they learned of their freedom, but perhaps this way is for the best. The people of Teraville would have given me quite a fuss if I’d tried to force away their precious servants, but at least now everyone realized that those nasty things cannot be trusted.”
Noah cursed himself silently, realizing for the first time the full extent of the damage he’d done. The Matriarch drew away from him but left her hands on his shoulders, her smile fixed upon her face. “If you truly repent for what you’ve done, then I will not send you away from The Mortuary. This is your home, and you are my apprentice. Someday you will have learned everything I have to teach, and perhaps you will be the one to run this school. Would you like that? To help all those lost souls find their way back to life?”
“Yes ma’am,” Noah said, doing everything within his power to keep the anger from his face and voice. “There’s nothing I’d like more.”
The Matriarch stared deeply into Noah’s eyes. For a moment he thought he saw the diamonds in her eyes flash once more, their gaze penetrating the deepest parts of him. Her eyes darted to her desk, then back at Noah, her smile cracking at the edges. Casually, she released him and strolled to her desk, looking inside the top drawer. She stared down for a long moment before withdrawing her satin gloves and putting them on, one meticulous finger at a time.
“The school is a mess, and we don’t have any more demons to clean it up,” she sighed. “Let’s hope a good war brings in enough souls to do the job for us, eh?”
Noah wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to agree with her, or whether she was joking. She held her fixed smile a few moments longer before chuckling to herself, and Noah forced a similar sound to come from somewhere inside him.
“Ah well, at least we have the whole summer to clean it up,” The Matriarch added. She mimed filling an invisible glass and raised it as if toasting. “To a demon free school, and a new semester.”
Noah mimed his own glass and clinked with her in the air. “To eternal life,” he replied.
Book 2
Keep reading with book 2 of the “School of Rebirth and Reincarnation” series.
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About the Author
Former neuroscience researcher, born again novelist. During my studies it struck me as odd that I could learn so much about behavior without understanding the intricacies of human nature. I realized that I learned more about what it means to be human from reading stories than I ever had from my text books, and I was i
nspired to write.
I spent several years selling scripts in Los Angeles, but was ultimately frustrated with my lack of control over my projects. A general stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise my creative pursuits led me to starting my own publishing house to do things my own way.
I now work full time as a novelist and publisher with Haunted House Publishing.
