“Baby, is there anything we can do to stop her?” Natalie cried to her phantom son.
The phantom thought for a moment, and an idea suddenly scurried across his young, dead eyes. “You could take away her door!” he shouted as he pointed in the direction of the Holy Water.
“What will that do?” Natalie asked.
“She can’t stay if she doesn’t have her door,” the little boy explained.
It was the only explanation Natalie needed. She lunged out and grabbed the gun Satan had dropped, then ran to the Holy Water fountain and began to unload.
Katie whirled when she sensed her doorway closing and screamed out as she got off of Han and lunged across the stage toward Natalie, but it was too late. When the final bullet split the top of the fountain and spilled the water out onto the floor, Katie vanished into thin air.
Han watched, his face and arms bloodied and broken, then let his head fall back and rest on the ground. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Natalie smiled at her little boy.
The boy smiled back until he sensed more danger. He turned with a terror-stricken face and looked away, across the altar, past Han, and into the smoke.
Natalie moved her eyes to follow his line of sight and peered into the smoke and flames. At first she saw nothing, but then, as a waft of smoke momentarily cleared out of the way, she saw Charlie Marlow sneaking up behind Cipher, pulling the crucifix back like a giant scythe, ready to cut his prey in two.
24
“No!” Natalie screamed as she ran toward Cipher’s father, holding the gun out in front of her. She’d never fired a gun before, and she was hardly a marksman; her target, Charlie Marlow, was several meters away. She had no choice though and she held her breath, closed her left eye, and aimed.
Charlie’s back exploded with bullets as three out of the five shots Natalie fired hit their mark. He dropped to his knees, the massive crucifix falling to his side.
Cipher turned just in time to see his father’s collapse. “Dad!” he shouted as he, too, dropped to his knees and slid to a halt next to Charlie. He dropped his machineguns and reached out to the phantom sympathetically, touching the wounds, and then looking his father in the eye. “Dad? Are you okay?” he asked.
“It hurts,” Charlie replied, feigning agony while secretly thrilled at his son’s gullibility. Charlie still had his gun in his back pocket, and he began to slowly reach for it with his son at point-blank range.
“Dad, I just want to tell you something.”
“What is it, son?”
“I wanted to tell you that I pretended I gave a shit about you, but it was only so I could get close enough to you to do this without you vanishing!” Cipher said before smiling and pulling the trigger of the handgun he held below Charlie’s chin.
Charlie’s head came clean off and ripped into two, twirling in a bloody spiral before landing on the ground like a halved melon.
Cipher stood up and kicked the gun out of Charlie’s hand before kicking the headless phantom in the groin, then stepping to the larger half of the head that remained on the ground. “Take that, you fucking son-of-a-bitch! Enjoy eternity with no head, you goddamned prick! Fuck you!” he said, taunting the furious eye of the disembodied head; what little remained of Charlie vanished.
Natalie tended to Han, but there was little she could do. Both of his forearms were broken, and the arms were useless.
Cipher stepped up onto the altar and regarded his friend’s circumstance. “You’ve looked better. What the hell happened? Where’s Satan?”
“I’m here,” said Satan, reappearing on the altar. She stood, but her torso had nearly been cleaved in two, and she wobbled in an effort to keep from falling over.
“You’ve looked better too,” Cipher said in dismay.
“I can’t die, but I must admit, I’d rather like to at the moment,” Satan replied.
“Natalie, there’s nothing you can do for me,” Han said weakly. “Finish chaining the sequence.”
Natalie agreed and stood up, then finished punching in the necessary codes.
Cipher surveyed the disaster that was unfolding all around them. Tear gas and smoke had completely filled the inside of the cathedral; all of their eyes and lungs burned with it, and the flames were growing hotter as the pews caught fire, along with the rafters above them. “We’ve got to set this thing off now, before the roof comes crashing in on us or we burn—or worse.”
“Okay, it’s ready!” Natalie exclaimed.
“Are you sure this is gonna work?” Cipher asked, addressing Satan.
Satan shook her head. “No.”
“What?” Han asked in a faint but exacerbated voice.
“I don’t know. I’m not omniscient, nor am I all-knowing. Neither is God. This is Natalie’s idea,” Satan replied. “We have to trust her.”
They all turned and urgently regarded Natalie. “Are you sure?” Cipher asked.
“Yes. The numbers are right.”
“If you’re wrong, that thing we’re setting off won’t just wipe out the city. It’ll take out the continent. It might ignite the entire atmosphere. This could be extinction we’re talking about here. You have to be 100 percent sure, Natalie!” Cipher urgently warned her.
“Cipher, you said you believe in yourself, and you asked us all to believe in ourselves too. Well, I do believe in myself. I believe in my science, my logic, my reasoning, and I can tell you this bomb will burst a hole through our dimension and send all of its explosive power through that hole and right up at God!”
There was a short moment of silence. All that could be heard was the snapping of wood as it popped in the flames and the beating of each and every one of their hearts in their ears as they prepared for the biggest leap of faith they’d ever have to take in their lives.
“Okay. Let’s fire it up,” Cipher said.
25
“I’m setting the time for ten seconds,” Natalie informed them.
“Is that enough time? Won’t we need to brace ourselves behind something?” Cipher asked.
“No. Like I said, this thing will release so much force that it’ll cut right through to God’s dimension,” Natalie explained. “We shouldn’t see anything in our dimension at all.”
“That seems a little anticlimactic,” Han said as Cipher helped him to his feet.
“Sorry. No fireworks display tonight. Not all endings to all stories come with explosions. Besides, that’s so been done,” Natalie observed. “Okay, I’m arming it. Now!” She stepped away from the bomb once it was armed and stood with Han and Cipher.
Her little boy nuzzled up in front of her and put his head to her stomach. “I’m scared,” the little boy said.
“Don’t be scared, honey. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You know, I was thinking of a name for you.”
“Really?” the little boy said excitedly, smiling as he looked up into his mother’s eyes.
“Yes. How do you feel about—”
The bomb ignited with a flash of light that made the night sky brighten so much that it rivaled day.
26
The force of the impact blew the fire right out of the cathedral, knocking out the doors and windows and sending a fireball down the steps and into the mass of police cars and officers who tried to duck behind and under their cars to escape it.
Cipher found himself blown right out of the cathedral, out one of the side windows and onto the green lawn. He opened his eyes, then shut them again immediately; the brightness of the pillar in front of him was too much for his eyes to take. He opened them again, this time squinting as he stood to his feet.
Natalie had been right—at least partially. Although there would be fireworks after all, the thermonuclear weapon had not detonated in the conventional sense. Rather, it had, just as Natalie predicted, ripped a column in the fabric of their dimension and sent its overwhelming destructive power into Heaven. The column was almost perfectly white and shot upward into the sky—into Heaven—and it revealed God.<
br />
“Holy shit,” Cipher whispered to himself as he regarded God’s true form. He had not been expecting it, and there were no words to describe how awe inspiring the moment was.
A creature, so massive in its proportions that it took up most of the sky, bluish and glowing like a jellyfish, was suckling at the Earth. The column, however, was sending wave after wave of destructive energy into its body, causing it to gesticulate wildly with pain.
“What is this?” Cipher whispered to himself.
“It’s God,” said Satan as she appeared nearby. “This is how he appears on the Fourth Plane,” Satan explained. “This is His true form.”
“This is what He looks like?” Cipher asked.
Satan nodded.
“But I’ve seen Him. I’ve spoken to Him. What was that?”
“That’s how He appears on the Second Plane. He chooses a form that humans can comprehend, but this is how He truly is—a giant, disgusting leech.”
“Ow,” Han moaned, not far away in the darkness.
Cipher turned to see Han crumpled at the bottom of the small decline of the lawn. He ran to him and helped him to his feet.
“I’m in so much fucking pain right now.”
“Hang in there, man. Look! Good news.”
Han looked up and saw the light show for the first time. “What the fuck?”
“It’s God. He’s dying,” Cipher replied with a smile.
“I’m sorry,” Natalie said as she too appeared, helped along by her little boy as she limped toward the others. “I didn’t...uh, I guess I didn’t calculate everything quite right.”
“I’d say you did a pretty good job,” Cipher replied. Satan gestured for Cipher to turn around, and when he did, he saw the police and several dozen bystanders looking straight up into the sky at the spectacle above. “They can see?” he exclaimed, astonished.
“It has opened their third eye,” Satan said with faint surprise. “An unexpected side effect.”
“But how?” Natalie asked.
“Remember, regular people don’t see into the ghost world only because they develop the ability not to see,” Satan hypothesized. “Apparently the ability to be willfully ignorant has limits.”
Natalie quickly became concerned as she watched the massive creature writhe about in pain as the column continued to shoot destructive energy into it. “I had no idea that God would be so big,” she said. “I’m not sure we’ve got enough power to kill Him.”
“But you said nothing could survive a 2,012-megaton blast!” Han reminded her.
“I know what I said, but I didn’t know the living thing we were talking about was the size of the sky,” Natalie explained. “It must be four times the size of the moon.”
“Oh shit. Not again,” Cipher whispered to himself as he bowed his head. “It has to die. It has to.”
“He might. Right, Natalie?” Han asked desperately. “It still might be enough to kill Him?”
Natalie scanned the sky and watched the massive body writhe in agony. The impact of their column was causing enormous damage, but it only appeared to account for less than 10 percent of the creature’s overall dimensions. “It looks like it might be a survivable wound,” Natalie reported, dejectedly.
“No!” Han wailed, dropping to his knees. “Father Hurley died for nothing if God survives this.”
“I’m sorry, Han. I wish I could be sure,” Natalie replied.
“There is one way to increase the chances,” Satan interjected as she watched God writhe. She let her face drop down and her eyes fall upon Cipher. “You still have God’s blood on your hand from when you stabbed Him with the Spear of Destiny.”
There was a long pause as Cipher silently comprehended the extent of what Satan was asking of him.
“Wait...what does that mean?” Han asked.
“It means I can finish Him off,” Cipher replied.
“How?” Natalie asked.
Cipher turned to the gleaming column of white. “I’ll have to pay Him a visit.”
27
“No! You’ll die!” Natalie protested. “The column is a temporary warping of our dimension! Your mortal body won’t be able to survive that!”
“Then I guess I’m not going to survive,” Cipher said as he began walking determinedly toward the column.
“No! No!” Han shouted as he jumped in front of Cipher to block his progress. “Look, man, I got two broken arms, but I don’t care! I will kick the living shit out of you to keep you from going in there if I have to!”
“Step aside,” Cipher said.
“No! Fuck you! I’m not letting you die for this. Hold on. God might still die, man. Even Natalie doesn’t know for sure if the wound is lethal! Right, Natalie?”
“Right,” Natalie assented without reservation. “Don’t do it, Cipher. It’s suicide.”
“I’m not letting my best friend become a ghost. I need you, man!” Han yelled, beginning to break down. “I need you. You can’t leave me here. You just can’t.”
Cipher waited for a moment and watched his friend with sympathy. He put his arm on his shoulder and patted it lightly. “Han, you don’t need anybody but yourself, and I’m not really leaving, am I? I’ll be dead, but if I kill Him, I’ll be free...and so will you when you die.”
“Don’t do it, Cipher. It’s suicide,” Han said, trying to pull himself together.
“I’m sorry, buddy, but I can’t let that fucker live a moment longer.” Cipher walked past his friend and hopped over the ledge of the window, over the broken glass, up the altar, stopping a meter away from the column. He turned to look back at his friends, then smiled. He turned back to the column, took one last breath of air as a mortal man, and then stepped into the column.
28
Cipher dropped to his knees and called out in agony. He looked down to see his torso in shreds. Some of his body seemed to almost be floating away from him like smoke, attached to him only by tiny threads.
“Did you forget what happened to you the last time?” God asked in a labored voice. “I only started the job, but now I’ll finish it.”
“I was thinking of saying the same thing.” Cipher stood to his feet and began to march across the perfect whiteness of Heaven toward God, who stood doubled over, clutching a wound that seeped black blood.
“Wait!” God shouted in a booming voice so powerful that it stopped Cipher in his tracks.
The voice was still formidable, but Cipher sensed weakness and desperation behind it. “God begs for mercy?” Cipher asked. “Ironic.”
“You have no idea what you are doing, Cipher. It’s true. I’m vulnerable. You could kill me. But you don’t understand the consequences of doing so.”
“So, enlighten me,” Cipher said, seething.
“You think of me as a villain. To you, all I do is take. You think I’m parasitic, but you don’t see the whole picture. There is more to it than that.” God sighed and let Himself fall back into a sitting position. He clutched His wound to keep the black blood from jetting out. “You see me as a leech or a vampire, sucking blood, but it’s more accurate to think of me like a heart, pumping blood, pumping energy, through the system.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve always been here, Cipher. It’s true that I consume souls—it’s how I live—but I also give life. Think about it. Those people down there need me. Without me, their lives wouldn’t have any meaning or purpose. Their belief is what makes them do good things. Their belief helps them get up every day and keep working, accepting the trials and tribulations in life that are necessary—accepting the self-sacrifice required so that they can work and provide for their children. Imagine the horror that life on Earth would become if I were gone. Imagine what it would be like for all those people, knowing there is nothing else out there for them. People would stop functioning—stop caring for their loved ones. People wouldn’t multiply anymore. Why would they? Cipher, these people need something to believe in.”
“You’re
right,” Cipher replied. “They need to start believing in themselves.” Cipher crossed toward God and bared his teeth.
“Don’t do this, Cipher. If you kill me, it will mean the death of the human race.”
“I’m setting the human race free. What they do with that freedom will be up to them,” Cipher retorted before plunging his fist into God’s wound and digging deep.
God screamed out in agony as Cipher pulled and twisted until he’d reached right up to God’s brain and crushed it in his hand. God slumped back onto the white ground, and Cipher was left with his arm crammed up to the shoulder inside the fallen deity.
Cipher pulled his arm free, having to tug at some points to get it out. Once he was free, he sat back beside his fallen adversary and rested. He was alone in a white world of nothingness, sitting next to a gigantic, limp body. “Okay...so now what?”
“Now you come with me,” Father Hurley said.
29
From Earth, God’s death had appeared far more dramatic. The damage the gigantic, planet-sized body on the Fourth Plane had endured was so severe that it was now hanging limply in the sky, its blue color quickly fading to nothing. Much more spectacular was the shower of white, gleaming souls that were raining down upon the world like a brilliant shower of sparks.
“That son-of-a-bitch did it,” Han said.
Phantoms were touching down on Earth, appearing to their loved ones all over the planet, the worlds of the living and the dead fused into one.
“It’s a ghost world now,” Natalie said breathlessly.
“Little brother!” Katie shouted out to Han.
Han turned in horror and backpedaled to escape, but he quickly stopped when he saw that Katie was now different than she had been before. The black eyes were gone, replaced by the same kind eyes he remembered from his childhood. “Han!” she shouted out again, smiling.
The God Killers Page 19
