House of Cabal Volume One: Eden

by Wesley McCraw

Everett, with his Trinity Link experiment, was picking up where they left off.

  III

  Everett, seeing the spiders spreading across the ceiling, backed away to the door of the observation room. The spiders hadn’t been aggressive all the years he had lived in the house. Times were changing. They also had never descended to the first floor before.

  He glanced at Rod and Chuck through the glass. He couldn’t leave the room until it was time. They were still talking.

  “You’ve hidden for what, fifteen years? It’s no wonder you’re reluctant, but everyone has a past. My readers want to know the real you. I know it takes courage, but people respect vulnerability. Trust me; people envy those involved with moral deviation. People want a life filled with excitements, with extremes, otherwise, why would they read my books?"

  Rod sat back in his chair. “That’s the heart of it.”

  In the observation room, a spider dropped onto Everett’s chair and then jumped to the floor. Everett didn’t like how they jumped. Why couldn’t they just crawl like regular spiders? Though he wasn’t prone to arachnophobia in general, the Eden Spiders unnerved him because of the collective intelligence they often displayed. He once observed them upstairs, moving in unison like a flock of birds.

  "Your story is next, Everett. You’re the work. You matter to me. The House of Cabal is a fascinating mystery. If you have some of the answers, that’s huge. But right now it’s not about the House of Cabal; it’s about you. My goal is to know the real Everett Grimes.”

  As Chuck continued to talk, the spider on the floor leapt to the crack at the door frame. Everett opened the door just enough to let the spider into the gap. And then closed it again.

  Chuck saw the door move out of the corner of his eye. “Are we alone?”

  “Not in this house.”

  A bouquet of legs sticking out of the crack twitched for a few moments. “Sorry, little guy. I can’t have Chuck seeing you.”

  “Would you like me to start the tape now?”

  "Not just yet." Rod snapped his fingers.

  That was Everett’s cue. He exited the observation room with the briefcase, making sure that none of the spiders escaped with him.

  Chuck, in a hypnotic trance, stared off into space.

  “Are there any spiders on me?” Everett spun around for Rod to look.

  “None that I can see.”

  “They got into the observation room.”

  “That is a good thing. They are doing their job.”

  “I hope so.”

  “The research talked about this.”

  Everett popped the two locks, opened the case, and removed a syringe filled with a pearl-white serum derived from the white bugs.

  “They sense what we’re about to do,” Rod said. “The webbing will protect us and amplify the effects of the regression.”

  “If the research isn’t all insane.” Everett was nervous. It had been a long time since he had felt nervous about anything. It was all just theory until they witnessed it working for themselves. “It said the webbing will protect us from angels. What does that even mean?”

  “It means what it means. The research has been right about everything else. Have faith.”

  Rod rolled up Chuck’s sleeve. Chuck didn’t seem to notice, still staring off into space.

  Everett injected the serum into the crook of Chuck’s arm. “Hopefully, you’ll thank me later.”

  He put the syringe back into the case. “I’m going to put this in the other room so this whole place doesn’t fill up with webbing. Chuck will freak if he sees any of the Eden Spiders when he wakes up.”

  Everett, expecting the spiders to have taken over while he was gone, opened the door to the observation room. They had yet to advance any farther than the ceiling. He sat in his chair. They nested above him and could drop down at any moment. He had to trust that they were there to help. According to the research files, without the spiders, the regression wouldn’t work.

  Muffled on the other side of the glass, Rod continued Chuck’s hypnotic preparation.

  “It’s time to cross the first threshold. Let my voice take you back in time, back to the night everything changed.”

  “I’m ready,” Chuck said in a daze.

  Rod snapped his fingers again. Both men fell into a deep hypnotic trance.

  Everett came back out and sat at the table with them. This was a momentous moment, and he took it in. He looked at Rod, his only friend who was still alive and sane, and then at Chuck, the biographer he hoped would set him free.

  “I’m here with you in the gray. Nod if you can hear me.”

  Chuck slowly nodded.

  Everett stared at his own finger tips, at the swirling ridges of the pads of his right hand’s ring and middle fingers. “Press play and record.”

  Chuck pressed play and record. The click sound of the buttons triggered Everett to join the two men in the hypnotic regression. With that, the Trinity Link was formed.

  Once linked, Everett began. “You look down at yourself. There is no yourself to look down at, just gray void.”

  IV

  On September 2nd, 2015, after the second regression ended and Everett revealed himself to Chuck, Rod gave a sigh that turned into a rough cough that didn’t readily stop.

  “You okay?” Everett looked like a concerned son as he put a hand on Rod’s shoulder.

  Chuck, his legs suddenly weak, sat back down in his chair. “I need you to start from the beginning. I need to understand.”

  “Okay,” Everett said.

  “I need this to make sense before I go insane.”

  “Okay. I’ll do my best.” Everett sat at the table. “After the estate, after it fell into the ocean, I crashed at Rod’s place for a while. I couldn’t go back to my old life. He was the only person I was sure wasn’t part of the estate. There were these House of Cabal actors who pretended to be my friends. I couldn’t trust anyone. Together Rod and I found this place. Tracked it down with some detective work.

  “Lane and Kyle, these two actors still loyal to the House of Cabal, they told me this mansion was mine. I’ve tried to find what answers I could, but a lot is still a mystery. So much was lost when the House of Cabal fell. And then last year Rod was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I realized then and there that the world had to know what happened, what the House of Cabal had been doing.”

  “Why? What had they been doing?”

  “I don’t have the right to keep their research a secret. The House of Cabal had discovered miracles. They could cure every disease, every virus. Even repair genetic defects. And that was just the beginning. The stuff they were researching… It will revolutionize medicine. But maybe more than that. It could revolutionize everything. A new epoch. So together, Rod and I came up with a plan.”

  “Your biography.”

  “That’s part of it. A straightforward biography might get people to start asking questions, but I want this over. Part of what the House of Cabal did was explore the brain and how memory works. One of their studies involved a lucid regressive state formed when three people enter hypnotic regression together. They called it the Trinity Link. Rod played the role of the conduit, you were the witness, and I was the body of Christ.”

  “What?” Chuck said sharply. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll show you. Come with me.”

  “Well…” Rod took a raspy breath while glaring a Chuck. “Go with him. What are you waiting for?”

  Chuck reluctantly followed Everett into the hallway, through a door, and into the dim observation room. A single chair faced a window that viewed the dining room.

  Rod drank water at the dining table. The lights were bright so that the mirror remained opaque on one side.

  “You were watching us?”

  “The House of Cabal used this place during the construction of the estate. They interviewed people here. Maybe interrogated them.” Everett squatted and lifted a trapdoor to reveal a ladder descending into cold darknes
s.

  “What’s down there?” Chuck hugged himself, the fear of the unknown chilling him.

  “An abandoned laboratory. The computers have been destroyed, but there are research notes. Huge filing cabinets of them. And some of the biological experiments are still alive.”

  “I’m not going down there.”

  Chuck noticed cobwebs and looked up to the mass of webbing that covered the ceiling. Metallic blue spiders, averaging five inches in diameter, clung to the webs. Chuck didn’t know how many. They were everywhere. He backed into the hall. That wasn’t far enough. He backed into the dining room, shaking.

  “What the hell are those things?!”

  Everett calmly closed the door. “They’re Eden Spiders. I’m still trying to understand the research.”

  “Eden Spiders?”

  “They aren’t dangerous. I’ve lived with them for years.”

  Chuck wasn’t going to just take Everett’s word for it. “I’m not going back in there, Everett. Don’t even ask.”

  “The Eden Spiders are connected to the Trinity Link. It was an experiment. The webbing supposedly amplifies the power of the brain to see remote locations. The real breakthrough came when they discovered that the scientific observer, the person watching, also amplified the effect. Rod acts as the conduit, and you act as the observer.”

  “You said something about the body of Christ. That that’s what you are.”

  “That’s their term, not mine. It comes from the idea that the communion wafer literally transforms into the body of Christ once it’s ingested. The Trinity Link isn’t religious. It’s just, during the regression, I’m supposed to go through some sort of transformation that removes me from linear time. In theory I merge with my former selves. I know it sounds insane; I only understand parts of it. The research notes become more and more theoretical as they go on.”

  “Time travel?”

  “Not exactly. One theory postulates that we slip into a parallel dimension similar to our own.”

  “That’s science fiction.”

  “Who cares what they think might be happening? All that’s theoretical. We’ve experienced it for ourselves. After we explore my past using the link and discover the secrets of the estate, you’ll write the book. Rod will pass away, and the biography will be published. My connection to the estate will be severed.”

  “It’s my gift,” Rod said.

  “The public will think I’m dead.”

  “Let me get this straight. You’re doing this so you can fake your own death? All so you can avoid the media spotlight? Even if I ignore the transubstantiation stuff, none of this makes any sense.”

  “You’ll have my memory. You’ll have a life worth telling, and Rod will be my dead body. The estate and its secrets will no longer be my burden.”

  Rod leaned forward over the table. “Everett isn’t selfish! He’s doing this to help the world. He—”

  “Stop. Chuck is right. I’m doing this to disappear. This is just too freaking big for one person. I don’t age. Take a moment to understand what that means. If the government or some other organization found out… They would perform tests, keep me locked up, maybe worse. When the truth of the estate is revealed to the world, I can only assume it will cause a revolution. Unless I take steps to separate myself from that revolution before it starts, my life will be consumed by it.”

  “Then why reveal yourself to me?”

  Rod laughed dryly. “That’s a good question.”

  “You didn’t exactly give me a choice. You discovered Rod’s identity on your own by staying in the regression. We were supposed to wake up and skip that part, but you kept us under somehow. But I think it’s for the best, I really do. I can trust you. People say you only care about writing bestsellers, about making money. That’s not what I’ve seen. You were there for me. I picked you because you could handle the media circus once all this becomes public, but you’re more than that now. You will do what you think is right; I just need to let you in on all our plans.”

  While Everett talked, Chuck was distracted by the young man’s beauty. In the Trinity Link, it was easy to pretend Everett was some idealized version of reality, but here he was, standing in front of him in real life. It wasn’t fantasy. Some of what Everett was saying had to be true.

  Chuck shook his head. “This is insane. You haven’t aged a day.”

  “I know this is hard to process. I’m asking a lot. I had years taking all this in. Piecing it all together. Come with me. Maybe this will help. If you don’t want to go down to the lab, I can show you something else.”

  V

  Rod was obviously exhausted. He took more pills and put a wet hand towel to his forehead. They left him to rest.

  Chuck checked his phone. Oddly, Meredith hadn’t called. He called her and no one answered.

  “The main thing you need to understand is the white bug. The House of Cabal discovered an insect believed to be a remnant of the Garden of Eden.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “Very serious.”

  “I thought you said the Trinity Link wasn’t religious.”

  “The bugs contain a substance called The Antioxidant. It slows down the aging process and cures illness, among other, stranger properties. I wish I had more to go on than their damn research notes, but from what I understand, there were actually two bugs genetically combined in the lab, one found in the Brazilian rainforest, the other in an Iraqi desert. They were raised in the same orange grove you drove through to get here. In fact they’re still there in the oranges, hiding in plain sight. They clear up the skin, aid in muscle growth, rev up the libido, all sorts of benefits. Just think of what that could mean for the world. And that’s just the white bug.”

  As they talked, they made their way down musty hallways and through a series of progressively larger rooms until they reached a part of the mansion Chuck hadn’t seen before: a private library with rows and rows of empty bookshelves.

  “And Rod knows about this? Couldn’t he just go down to the orchard right now and cure himself?”

  “He could. But he won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  Everett wandered up and down the aisles of the empty library as if he were searching for something.

  Chuck ran a finger along a shelf and blew the accumulated dust from his finger.

  After a few moments of thought, Everett spoke again. “Rod has made peace with death. And a person can’t be the conduit if they have The Antioxidant in their system. There has to be an anchor, or the Trinity Link won’t work. Besides, there are side effects.”

  “If even half of what you’re saying about the bug is true, that’s amazing, to put it mildly, but what are we doing here? What did you want to show me?”

  They headed up a narrow flight of stairs tucked away at the back of the room. “More testing is needed. You understand? It’s all experimental. Much of it could have horrible consequences.”

  The second floor was even emptier than the first, besides a spider infestation worse than in the interrogation room. Chuck wondered why they had come upstairs at all. Webbing covered everything. How was this better than going down into the laboratory?

  “Don’t get near the walls. The spiders aren’t dangerous. But just be careful. They might have been affected by the Trinity Link.”

  “So you’ve been eating bugs? The ones in the orchard?”

  “I use a refined version, yes. It’s derived from the bugs, but it’s not the same.”

  “But if someone eats the bugs, will they really live forever?”

  They entered a long rectangular room with a high ceiling and expansive windows facing north. Construction of the room seemed to have been abandoned mid-project. Naked light bulbs hung from cords, the studs in the walls were exposed, and sections of plaster littered the floor. Webs coated everything here too, though there were few spiders.

  “Lane and Kyle. They’ve been living off the bugs for years. They haven’t aged either. They have a s
hack out in the orchard. But I suggest you let them be.”

  “You said the conduit can’t have the bug in their system. How about me? What about the witness?”

  Everett seemed to ignore the question. “When it’s light outside, you can see the red brick road from here, the one that leads up to the estate. The estate is gone now of course, fallen into the ocean, but I have to stay here so I remember what happened.” Everett put a fist to his chest and made a slight cough from the dust.

  “What do you mean?”

  Everett coughed harder, this time into his hand. “The Antioxidant affects my relationship to time. I don’t age. But I also don’t process memory like a normal person. Traumatic memories no longer register properly. It’s like my brain is trying to protect itself from accumulating too many bad memories. Lane and Kyle’s symptoms are even worse than mine. They hardly remember anything about what happened.”

  “I saw pictures. There were bodies washing up on the shore for months. What happened? Or should I wait to see it for myself in the regression?”

  “I’m actually not sure what happened. I mean I saw it, but I’m not sure what caused it. I decided I had to leave. The estate was too much. They knew things about me, things no one could possibly know. Anyway, I wanted one last look and so I climbed up onto this bluff. I saw the House of Cabal collapse and fall into the ocean. Hundreds of people died. I think my leaving might have triggered it somehow. But there was something more. You won’t believe it, not unless I show you. You have to see it for yourself.”

  Chuck grabbed Everett’s far shoulder and turned him so that they faced each other. “I’m sorry you had to see all that, but I should go soon. My wife will be worried as it is. She’s not answering her phone.” He wanted out of the house, away from this insanity, if only until he regained his footing.

  “Try her again.”

  “Okay. Just a second.” He called his wife again. “Still no answer.”

  Everett nodded and led Chuck back down the stairs.

  “The Trinity Link is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the timeline.”

  Chuck agreed but remained quiet, wanting Everett to keep explaining.