''Okay, let's go in the park, I gathered some more people there.''
He stopped by a store to buy a pack of cigarettes.
''What it's like out there?''
''Fuckin' nightmare. Chaos. But, that's what everybody wanted, right? You came because you fell in love with that world, and you wanted to meet its creator, and find out more about it, but instead, you found out that that world is real, and you got to be a part of it.''
''Yeah, I guess you're right. I felt so furious and desperate because I was afraid that it's going to slip out of my hands. And it would, if you haven't come along. Thank you. I don't even know your name.''
''My name is Cleitus.''
''Cleitus. Thank you.''
''It's okay. I knew that I'll found those of you that really want this, still around, looking for a way, it's only fair that you get rewarded.''
There's three more of them in the park. Elves and the guy in the 'Patriots' shirt. Please God, let this work.
''Okay. Everybody take each other's hands, and let's close the circuit. I'm going to let my energy flow through you. Close your eyes and count to three. When you open them, you won't be here anymore. One…''
Two…
Chapter twenty five
Flashed forward
Bittered by love
Wings of a dove
Now on wings of fiery dragon !
Forsaken with fools
Cast down her jewels
To the waters of slippery salmon !
Out of despair
She whispers a prayer
In wormwood tears bathed !
Reigned by hate
Betrayed by her fate
The priestess of Hekate !
Nifty, isn't it? I wrote it.
''Hekate doesn't rhyme with bathed.''
''Who is there?!''
One of them! How did she find me? Promptly, I opened the drawer and gripped the handle of the pistol, but she made me drop it, without any visible motion. She pinned my knees to the ground and my hands to my body. How did she become so strong?!
''Who are you?!''
''Don't you remember me? I'm one of your 'chosen'.''
''What do you want from me?''
''I want answers to many questions you instilled in me. First, there's not any invisible EM pulse coming this way, is there? And, don't lie to me, I will be able to see it in your eyes.''
I can feel her grip around my neck, even though she's not touching me. She is angry, and stronger than me.
''No… I invented that.''
''Why?''
''I needed to give you a strong motif to fight, the will that pushes you on.''
''Why?!'', I hear bitterness and rage in her voice, I have to think of a convincing lie fast, or she will have her revenge on me.
''I know why'', she said: ''You inserted in us the idea of achievable goal, by sending one of us on, and leaving the rest stranded, and powerless, although, you could have easily lifted us all from the cursed fourth level, but you didn't, because you didn't want to waste your energy on us. Your plan was all along to appear in the convenient moment to those who succeed in ascension, kill us, and harvest our energy.''
''Please…''
Her grip got stronger.
''Don't lie. One thing I don't understand. There's nothing special about level thirteen, what stopped you from entering it, and going further?''
''You're clever, you connected all the dots pretty well so far, what do you think why I never entered the thirteenth realm?''
''Answer me, or I will hurt you.''
''As long as Man knew himself, he knew of existence of other worlds, he entered and exited them. For thousands of years. And the powerful ones kept existence of those worlds a myth. Nothing has changed today. Virtually, every person of importance in today's world is multi dimensional. Not like me, but truly powerful. I am a small fish in this wide ocean, small enough not to attract attention from big predators, but if I would cross the line, and that line is level thirteen for many years already, I would make myself visible.''
''And you though that under the right circumstances, that is, if many of us succeed and you kill us all, you might become a big fish.''
''Touché. So what do we do now?''
''Now you will tell me what else is out there, everything you know.''
''I don't really know much, I've only heard stories. Stories of disembodied powerful entities that the Great Men battled. Someone once told me that on very high levels people change radically, physically, and in mind, some even say that those disembodied entities are humans on very high levels.''
''What's on the last level?''
''Stories say that the last few levels are the realms of Archons. And the last realm is the realm of Metatron, their leader, the most powerful of all.''
''God?''
''Maybe Metatron is God, I don't know.''
She mused for a couple of moments, then she picked up my pistol.
''I gained my access to other worlds by killing a man, decades ago. If you do this, you will be no better than me.''
''Maybe this will be poetic justice then. In this last moments I want you to feel dispair and horror that I felt for hours, after you left me in fear, bereft of any hope. Your blood won't be the first on my hands, old man.''
''Wait-''
_
Chapter twenty six
Rabbithead's sister
World has changed radically. Wide branches of tall trees have closed above me. I can't see the sky. It should be daytime still, I think. I hope sun is still out there, hidden from my eyes. Lempo, Jove and Emily are here, waiting for me in front of the building.
''Hey, you're all here!''
''Jove and I followed you all the way, then Emily joined us, and now you, finally. There was no way we could tell you we're here, we can see people from dimensions bellow, but they can't see us.''
Oh, shit.
''You followed me all the way?''
''Yeah, we waited for you down here, Emily appeared first, than us three followed you to the next building, and then you finally came down, it's so good to be able to talk to you man!''
If they waited in front of the building, then they didn't see me in a quickie with Emily. Good.
''Good to see you guys. Fifth dimension… looks scary.''
''It fuckin' is, man, place is swarmin' with gwangis!'', said hockey clad Jove.
''What's a 'gwangi'?'', asked Emily.
''It's a word we use for dinosaurs'', also, we use that word for any stop-motion creature that was animated by Ray Harryhausen, or anything that looks like the work of Ray Harryhausen.
''Let's go to the park so you can see iguanodons'', said Lempo, and I followed him.
Him and Emily went little ahead of Jove and me.
''She kinda looks like Rabbithead's sister'', said Jove.
Why did he say that? Rabbithead is this dope pusher that Jove buys hemp from, and he has a sister that Jove and I once voted the best looking female that we ever saw in real life, couple of points above Goldzahn's - producer's - wife. While Goldzahn's wife is an expensive whore, Rabithead's sister is a normal girl that shares her brother's spliffs with everyday dorks like Jove and me. An incredibly attractive normal girl that shares her brother's spliffs with everyday dorks like Jove and me. And although, back there on the roof, Emily and I, maybe, got into something, Rabbithead's sister is still… well, Rabbithead's sister.
''She looks nothing like Rabbithead's sister, where'd you get that idea from?''
''I don't know… She reminds me of her, a little.''
''Every girl with blond hair and blue eyes reminds you of Rabbithead's sister?''
''No, of course not.''
''Well what then? Nothing else on Emily resembles her. We voted Rabbithead's sister a ten, remember? Emily's a… not ten.''
Feels utterly barbaric to rate a girl you just had sex with.
Wait a minute.
''Jove, were you on the rooftop back there watching me bone Emily
?''
''What?! Nah, man.''
''Were you?!''
''No!''
''Why are you smiling?''
''I'm not smiling.''
I knew it. That fuckin' vandal, fuckin' Somali pirate. You know what? I don't care. Why would I have to stress about absurd human inventions like Shame, when everything that's happening is fuckin' insane. Shame is an abstract concept. It's not material, it exists only in the minds of people and nowhere else. I don't care if the whole world, all seven billions of them watched. I wonder did Lempo watch too. Fuck it, I don't care!
''Cleit! Iguanodon! Do you see it?! And another one over there!''
Wow. Gwangis.
''I see them, Lempo.''
''Are they dangerous?'', said Emily.
''No. They're a… vegetarians.''
''Herbivores'', said Lempo.
''Yeah, that.''
''Shit! Shit! Fuckin' shit!''
Something's happened to Jove.
''What is it, Jove?!''
''I tripped over a corpse, I fuckin' touched the unholy thing!''
''Where?!''
''In the grass! I went there to take a piss and I tripped on something, I almost fell down and when I looked at it I saw jeans! Somebody's legs in jeans!''
''OK, just calm down, I'm going there to take a look.''
Shit, indeed. There's a half of someone's body here, from waist down, jeans and red 'allstars'. And blood. Lempo and Emily are here now, looking down at it.
''I guess that not only herbivores come here.''
''Tyrannosaur, probably, did this'', said Lempo.
''It's that guy from the park!'', said Emily: ''The one that absorbed the tulip's energy, he had red 'allstars', remember?''
Shit, she's right.
''It is him.''
I did not need to see this.
''We should bury the remains. It's the only thing we can do for him now.''
''With what?!'', Lempo disagreed: ''We can't waste time, Cleit, especially not here, where it's dangerous, or we'll finish like him. It means nothing to him anyway, he's dead.''
''Lempo's right'', said Emily.
''We agreed we're coming here to explore.''
''Well, that kinda loses importance when you find severed half of a man. We have to go on, at least to the level nine, we can't go back until we get there, and gain the ability of multidimensionality. We need to follow Laslo.''
''And where is he?''
''On the next level, where else would we follow him?''
''How the fuck would I know, he might of gone home.''
''He didn't. He ascended to the next level by killing a dinosaur. We need to do the same, now, without hesitation. Those iguanodons are a gift from the sky for us, and we need to take it.''
''You would kill a creature that did nothing wrong to you?''
''And what have those jellyfishes done to us?''
''Jellyfishes don't have eyes!''
''Cleit is right'', said Jove, praise Jesus, he sided with me: ''We should go to the city, spread around and each of us should look for a big black gwangi. If we survive encounter with him, we'll gain a mammoth amount of energy, and we just might go directly to the ninth level.''
Tension. Lempo spoke first.
''OK. We should go separate ways, then.''
''If I succeed, I'll go back for the others, from the convention, they will not make it without help.''
Lempo left first. Emily stared at me. She opened her mouth like she wants to say something to me, but she didn't, and she walked away too.
''Strange girl. She told me, back there on the rooftop, how she never smiles, because she doesn't know how. She told me how she practiced smiling in front of the mirror, and that every smile she made, seemed fake to her. But, you already know that, 'cause you've been there the whole time, haven't you?''
''I couldn't help myself. If it's any comfort to you, who knows what else was watching from some higher dimension.''
I laughed. His brain works in mysterious ways.
''We should do something about that corpse, Jove. If we just leave it there, it's bad fuckin' karma, man.''
''We can get some shovels on our way back here, or we can take some gasoline and burn the remains. That is, if we survive, of course.''
Chapter twenty seven
Breakdown
Live in PCC park
I see him, but not now, I behold him, but not near, a star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise out of Israel, He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, fire…
''Fire…''
Fire, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and of scholars...
''Certainty, joy, peace…''
''Are you okay?''
''Sweet and total renunciation, total submission…''
''Calm down…''
''DON'T LAY YOUR HAND ON ME!''
''JESUS CHRIST! MY EYES!''
I'm sorry…
''I'm sorry…''
I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm…
Chapter twenty eight
Worst possible fuckin' karma
''Cleit! Stop writhing, Cleit, move your hands, let me see.''
''IT HURTS, MY FACE IS FUCKIN' BURNING!''
''There's nothing on your face, man, it looks normal, Cleit, look at me man.''
''I can't Jove, I can't see anything, all is black, she fried my fuckin' eyes in my fuckin' skull!''
I couldn't let his arms, or he would scratch his eyes out.
''She didn't, Cleit, your eyes look fine, it's probably temporary, shock, it will pass. I will let go your arms, but you have to stop digging your fingers in your eyes.''
''Where is she? The girl that blasted the bolt to my face, where is everybody?''
''She ran into the woods, they went after her.''
''Go, go after them! You can let go of me, go see what's happening with them!''
I released his hands. He gripped one with the other. Thank god.
Maniacs in The Fourth Dimension Page 8
