by E. S. Mercer
“Why does every version of you speak to me in riddles?” I asked. “Why can’t I just get a straight answer?” She looked around, visibly disturbed by our surroundings. It pained her to see this possible outcome and demanded we find a much more peaceful place. So, with a smile and a flick of her wrist, we left the destruction behind, finding ourselves sitting on an old run down pier at the Heaven City Port.
“I have always been in love with the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks,” she announced, dipping her toes in the water. “It calms me.”
She grabbed ahold of my hand and pulled it to her heart. “I created you, in a moment of panic, hoping to transfer my consciousness before the magic took hold. But, without understanding the true nature of my power, I was not successful and became fractured between your body and a different plane. I see now that it left room for you to become something much greater than I had hoped.
She shifted herself so she could face me. “You became a very different version of me, embracing humanity like I never could. I was satisfied with not knowing who I truly was, becoming distracted by love. You used it as a basis of strength and the need to understand more. I was ok with ignorance, where you weren’t.”
“I thought you loved Gabriel,” I said, kicking the water.
“Oh, I do,” she sighed, “more than life itself.” She let go of my hand. “I am not belittling his position in my life. What I am merely saying is, that he was enough for me. He was all I needed and I lost perspective of why I came here. You, somehow never lost sight of that, and although you couldn’t remember why, you found it necessary to try and figure things out.”
“And now you have come to take back what is yours and I will be lost forever,” I said hopelessly.
“Oh no,” she said, stroking my arm. “No, you will never be lost.”
“I still don’t understand why we can’t work together, fighting side by side,” I said, slightly irritated by the thought.
“We can,” she replied. “Just sharing the same body. And yours is the one that will sustain us.”
“Mine?” I asked. “What about yours?”
“Mine turned to stone a long time ago,” she replied. “It is of no use to either of us.” “But your baby,” I cried. “What happened to the baby?” “She’s safe,” my other self-replied. “She will be safe inside you.” “So, I’m pregnant with your baby?” I asked, quite confused.
“Yes and yours,” she answered, rubbing my belly. “One born of the light and one of the dark.”
“How?” I asked as she stood up. “I don’t understand.”
“You will,” she replied, pulling me up with her.
“I am you,” I kept repeating to myself, as I stood up to join her. “I have always been you.”
“And I, you,” she said, holding out her other hands. “We are only stronger, together.” “Will I remember who I am?” I questioned, pulling away and getting very nervous. I know she had said we would be in my body, but I wasn’t convinced I would still be me. I mean I understood that I was her, but that part of me that felt separate from it all, really needed to feel as if she would still exist.
She cradled each side of my face with her warm hands and kissed the tip of my nose. “Of course, you are still a part of me. I promise you will not lose that part of yourself that identifies as Anessa, you will just become so much more.”
So, trusting in the idea that I could still exist and be who I needed to be, I placed my hands in hers and allowed her to pull me into her warm embrace. I was terrified of losing my identity, but I knew that wasn’t all there was to me and I couldn’t let my fear endanger us all. But it didn’t stop me from getting anxious when I felt myself begin melt into her soft skin, as the molecules of her existence began to cancel out mine, absorbing me like a drop in a puddle.
“I’m scared,” I cried, feeling a tear escape down my cheek. “Terrified.” “I know, me too,” she said, holding on tighter. “Me too.”
Then, the moment the tear reached my top lip, a bright light flashed, shoving me into a momentary darkness.
Chapter IX
My eyes flew open as I heard screaming and crashing metal fade in and out of ear shot, echoing off building walls and slamming me in the face with the worst vibrations I had ever felt. However, when I tried to focus on where the sounds were coming from, I noticed I was looking at things upside down. It was then I realized I was hanging over a man’s shoulders and being bounced up and down while he ran as fast as he could.
“Where am I?” I asked, pushing up against his back. “What is going on?”
He heard me calling out, so he stopped running to put me down and answer me.
“You’re alive?” Leviathan asked. “Impossible. You were dead.”
“Levi?” I asked, rubbing my eyes as I looked up at the other body slung over his other shoulder, “Is this real?”
“Yes,” he replied, pulling me out of the way of a falling wall. “It’s very real.”
“What happened?” I asked, watching him put the other body down. “Who is that?” “It’s mother,” he replied, placing her on the ground and brushing the hair out of her face. “Father nearly killed her when he thought you were dead. If it wasn’t for Abraxas helping me escape with both of you, I don’t know if we would have made it.”
He went on to explain that when I transported myself to the possible future, my body went lifeless and our Father went on a rampage, killing anyone in his path, including Noita. He said the angrier Hyperion got, the stronger he got, until the sky started to glow red and the ground beneath us started to break apart, escalating the destruction he had already set in motion with the merging of the realms.
“As I was leaving, I swear I saw Samiel entering the Castle with a strange woman and the entire Praesidion Guard following him,” he said, lifting our mother back up. “I’ve been trying to get back to the Manor ever since.”
“And what about Abraxas, is he ok?” I asked, helping him adjust her.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I didn’t look back to check.” *****
Elaina made her way out to the Veranda to look beyond the Manor gates, where she could see that everything within eye sight was being laid to waste. On the horizon, the sky had become scorched by the pulsating arrival and disappearance of realms, known and unknown, as tiny black holes were left in their place. Clouds of fire that could not be extinguished by the black rain now escaping their grasp, moved quickly in her direction.
She could feel herself becoming overwhelmed with desperation and hopelessness, knowing that every attempt they made inside to wake me failed. Even Gabriel, who had mysteriously healed and woken up, couldn’t break the stone that imprisoned the one she had hoped would save them.
She nearly collapsed to her knees in tears when she heard a scream from inside the Manor. She turned to run in when she saw Samiel, stoic and almost robotic in his mannerisms, walk out the front door and walk passed her without ever batting an eye. Lilith, smacked into her, running after him while begging him to stop.
Elaina didn’t stick around to find out what his problem was, running towards the direction where she heard wailing and arguing and blame being thrown in every single direction.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked pushing through the crowd. “What is all this arguing about?” No one answered, still arguing, pushing and blocking her view. “Enough,” she bellowed, in a commanding voice, “someone tell me what is going on!”
“This,” Alistair, said, pulling Elaina into the center of the room.
“What is it?” she asked, staring at a pile of gray sand.
Gabriel, who had been kneeling next to it, grab a handful and stood up to answer her. “Evangeline,” he choked.
“What, how?” she asked, grabbing his wrist. “Did your father do this?”
“I, it, she…” he tried to say. “Samiel ordered for her body to be taken off the table, and when we stood her up, she just turned to dust,” Raphael added, trying to console his sister. For a woma
n who acted as if she hated me, she sure took it hard.
“We don’t know that she is actually dead,” Elaina offered, ordering nonessential personnel to leave. “Maybe Anessa is safe. Maybe this was just a ploy to get Samiel in here for something. We don’t know.”
“It was her,” Gabriel muttered. “That was the real her.” *****
Leviathan and I weren’t getting anywhere fast with the rioting, destruction and mayhem that filled the city. Streets which should have looked familiar, were now rerouted by new buildings and places I didn’t recognize. And between fighting off the Praetorian Guard or dodging new obstructions in our way, I realized I needed to wake our mother up to make the trip easier on Leviathan.
“You keep watch while I wake her,” I said, confidently. “It will only take a minute.” But, it didn’t exactly work as I had planned it. I placed my hand on either side of her face, and let the glow, I now understood as energy to flow through my hands into her skull, causing her eyes to flutter. I grinned as I anticipated seeing the blue in her eyes gleam back at me, but when they opened, I saw something very different and familiar.
“Arabella,” I declared, loudly enough for Leviathan to hear me. “What are you doing here?” “I needed to speak to you,” she said, catching a glimpse of Leviathan leaping over an abandoned car and waiving her hand to freeze time. “We didn’t quite finish our conversation.”
“You can freeze time?” I asked, looking over at Leviathan who was now hovering, mid-air.
“I can do a lot of things,” she replied, pulling down her hair, “except wear your hair like your mother does.”
“How?” I asked as she stood just gawking at me.
“Welcome back!” she finally said, clasping her hands. “Glad to see you are you again.”
“And does that make me a worthy opponent?” I taunted.
“Depends on what you do with your freedom,” she replied. “If you actually act like the powerful being you are, then yes.” I focused on her the same way she did me, trying to figure out how she was even here to have this conversation. Realizing we couldn’t have a real conversation until I got my answers, she reached up and grabbed either side of my face.
I gasped for air as her cold hands forced that same painful surge of darkness through my entire body. It burned, like acid had been shot into my veins and nearly knocked me off my feet. The pain got worse as she started to show me things I wasn’t prepared to know.
But in the end, I started to put everything into perspective. “I knew your father was up to something,” she said, verbalizing the rest of the story as she walked over to flick at Leviathan’s feet. “so, I left a little piece of myself behind to do what I wouldn’t be able to. I merged my consciousness with my sisters, moments before he obliterated me.”
She looked up at me and chuckled. “Kinda like you did.”
“Yes, but I did it to help others,” I replied. “No, you did it to save yourself,” she barked. “You are the Una Vis for crying out loud. You could have left this body so many times and created another one and you could have stopped all of this.”
“I didn’t know,” I replied, “I had no idea.”
“Exactly,” she said, standing up. “You never do, do you?”
The look on her face scared me a bit, so I backed away. “What are you talking about?” “Originally, I started out wanting to destroy everything Hyperion and Samiel stood for,” she replied. “I was angry with Hyperion for taking my life and at Samiel for being too weak to stop him.”
She ran her fingers through her hair confidently. “I made sure my sister knew exactly Hyperion made and then fed off the contempt she had for him because of it.”
A statement that didn’t make complete sense until she explained herself. You see, Arabella was originally created to be Hyperion’s mate. In his vanity, he created an exact replica of himself, only changing a few physical attributes so that in the end she complemented him. He made her as beautiful as he saw himself and made her equally as powerful. He felt that I, the Una Vis, had failed when creating Samiel, so he took it upon himself to create what he would see as his equal.
Thing is, there was a beauty and innocence to Samiel that Arabella couldn’t resist. He had a thirst for life where Hyperion had a hunger for power. Hyperion wanted to rule the world and she just wanted to live in it. Soon she fell into the arms of his brother and he was left alone.
At first, Hyperion was angry and took away her knowledge of the power she possessed. But then, he realized, instead of getting angry, he could just make another version of her. So, he cloned her and made Seraphine; however, this time, he refused to tell her of the power she possessed, making her reliant on him and his.
“Then, your father decides that she isn’t enough for him and comes after me,” Arabella continued. “Forcing me to carry his child.”
“Gabriel,” I said, feeling her anguish.
“Oh,” she chuckled. “So, you know?”
“Yes and I am so sorry,” I said, “For all of it.”
“You should be,” she growled, walking away. I paused for a moment, trying to understand what she meant by that, and then it hit me; she was right -I did this. In the end, it was all because of me. I was the Una Vis, the most powerful entity in the universe and instead of showing my sons' the error of their ways, I allowed them to continue, with only threats of change. And then allowing myself to be distracted by a life I coveted into fruition, I let it all completely get out of control.
“You said originally you wanted to destroy what they stood for?” Finally going after her. “What did you mean by that?” “Exactly that,” she said, turning back around. “Hyperion took pride in only creating perfection and beauty, so I corrupted his only son just to show him how wrong he was!” She became more intense as she spoke. “But then, I realized, if I could do that, then I had the power to do anything I wanted. So, I became the darkness. I had no need for my sister’s body any longer and grew until I consumed the world; in between realms and time becoming the evil he bestowed upon me.
“So then why are you in Seraphine’s body now?” I asked. “If you don’t need her, then why possess her?”
“Why not?” she asked, pointing towards the sky. “Does it matter? All of this is about to end anyway and we will have nothing to fight over.” She saw my reaction and explained how she had done something no one else could, she had united them against me. After centuries of them fighting against each other, they now had a common goal. Destroy me before I could destroy them.
I found myself growing angry as I took a forceful step towards her, fist balled up behind me. “You do realize that I only exist because of them?” she asked, clicking her tongue at me, gazing faced the blistered sky. “And they only exist because of you.”
She glanced down at me. “I only fed what was already inside them,” she said looking down at me, “and all the hatred and jealousy they felt for each other nurtured me. Which means you will never be able to destroy me. I am just as much a part of you as you are me. And I am everywhere.”
She snapped her fingers, allowing time to resume and leaving my mother’s body, while Leviathan, who had fallen to the ground, picked himself up and lunged at her.
“No, she is herself again,” I cried, standing in between them. “Arabella is gone.”
“Gone? Gone were?” he asked, looking behind him. “How?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but we need to get back to the Manor. I know what must be done.” *****
Ryan, Michael and Ramiel did their best to try and make it across town, but were quickly boxed in by the Praetorian Guard and the Praesidon Guard Lilith had left behind to fight them. She may have followed Samiel to join Hyperion but she didn’t trust either one of them at this point, leaving her brothers and a small squadron to protect what little bit of the realm had found its way to Heaven City.
The brothers and Ryan were joined by Ksenia and her Gypsies who did what they could to evacuate the mortals that got caught in th
e middle, but soon they became overrun, forcing Ryan to go back to the Manor to beg for reinforcements.
“The Guards are slaughtering everyone in their path,” Ryan, announced to the Conclave as he tended to his wounds. “Ksenia is doing her best to evacuate the city, but it’s not good enough!”
“And we don’t have the manpower to send anyone,” his father replied. “What Guard we do have on our side are needed here to protect this place. And with Evangeline gone…”
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Ryan growled. “Who, which one?”
“The original,” his mother announced, coming into the room. “We don’t know what happened.”
“And Anessa?” he asked, gritting his teeth? “Any word?”
“We thought you would know best how to answer that,” she replied. “But I take it you never made it.” “Before what?” he asked. “Mother, what happened?” “All I know, is that before the phones went out, your father was told that Hyperion’s castle had been destroyed. I have no idea if she was still in it.”
“I can’t, she can’t…” he stuttered, trying to complete a sentence. “She wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye.”
“She would if she didn’t have a choice,” his mother replied. “If she had to shed her vessel to escape him, she wouldn’t have had the time.”
“She wouldn’t have gone without saving us first,” Ryan argued, choking back tears. “She would have fixed this first.”
“I don’t know, you might be right,” Elaina agreed. “At least I hope so.” *****
Ramiel chose yet again to stay behind, asking his brother to head back to the Manor and make sure Ryan arrived safely. It had been too long since they had heard anything and they desperately needed reinforcements.
“And if something happens between now and then, please know that I love you all,” Ramiel added, showing some emotion. “And it was an honor to be your brother.”
“The honor was ours,” Michael replied, hugging his little brother, “but I assure you, nothing will happen. I will be back soon with reinforcements.” Michael finished reassuring his brother and confiscated the first motorcycle he could find, racing through yards and blown out buildings until he reached the gates at the entrance of the Manor grounds. A gate I was struggling to open.
