Encompassing

by Richard Lord

  Angela whirls and looks at Solstice, “He told me to stop you at all costs!”

  Solstice doesn’t look surprised and Illumna looks at her sister and suppresses a giggle.

  Angela continues, “He”, she says while raising her voice even more, “”Gave a very compelling argument as to why.”

  Brady looks over at Renfield to gauge his reaction, but there is none. He turns back to Angela, “Okay, what was the reason?”

  “He said that she has the ability to end everything and he would need us soon. When we saw you two at the nightclub, we assumed you two were there on purpose to let us know it was time to act. Instead you and I are married and living in this house!” She begins to cry. Brady moves to her. Angela makes motions with her hands that she wants him to stay away from her. He backs away and looks at Renfield.

  Renfield nods. Then addressing everyone says, “Okay for the purpose of this conversation and with respect to Angela she’s right. It was also a different timeline. One in which I had not yet succeeded in stopping Solstice. We’re past that now.”

  Angela screams at Renfield, “You know the fucking future, asshole! You explained it to us! That’s why we did all the things we did. It’s why the damned ‘zombies’ even exist because you taught the engineers how to make them based off Solstices own work.”

  Brady looks extremely accusingly at Renfield. “Is that true?”

  “What they are doing now? I don’t know. I and the girls are learning what they did to change the technology.” Renfield answers.

  “That is not what I am asking!” Brady yells.

  “Technically it is, but I see your point. Yes, Angela is without a doubt telling you the truth.” Renfield responds.

  Brady shoots a look at Renfield, but makes the decision to focus on Angela instead of bashing Renfield’s head in. He looks at Solstice who seems very calm about her father plotting against her. As Brady stares at her, Solstice turns to him and says, “Well, I get the logic.”

  Brady looks at Illumna. His mind is flooded with thoughts exclaimed with the thought of taking her, Brian and Angela and getting as far away from this madness as he can. Illumna responds, “I agree with Solstice. Dad had to have a back-up plan in case he failed again. So he clicked to an earlier time and began recruiting. Some of whom were under your command, Grandfather. Aren’t you responsible for not noticing and stopping discourse in your own team. As Commander, sir?”

  Brady begins to think he is in the mouth of madness, when Christina speaks up. “I think I get it. I don’t like it, but he had to deal with one threat at a time. At that time the threat was Solstice.” Sara, who has remained silent looks to Christina and nods.

  Brady looks back at Angela, “What do you want to do?”

  Angela is rigid and says nothing for a while and then looks at Brady. Then she speaks slowly, “I understand , but either way it’s his fault for spending a night with Christina and having Solstice that all of this is happening.”

  Brady considers the thought and looks at Renfield with his head over Angela’s and blinks at Renfield in a begging fashion. He understands reality. He then speaks to Angela, “Nothing is anyone’s fault. All hasn’t gone wrong, yet.” He continues to hug her for comfort, but doesn’t know what to say next and he eyes Renfield and shakes his head to indicate that Renfield, of all people, shouldn’t say a word.

  Illumna says it for Renfield, “On a Mobius strip there is no end and no beginning. There is no inside and there is no outside. You’re just there and you deal with it to keep it together. Isn’t that why Escher chose to put ants on it. Workers keeping the strip together. Isn’t that what we are?”

  Angela stops crying and composes herself. She pulls free of Brady and says to Renfield, “You are blessed. I still think you are the curse, but you have a smart daughter and I get her point.” She looks back at Brady, “I want to leave here, please.”

  Brady hugs Angela again and waits a few moments and then says, “I know my family. They will forgive you if you can forgive them. You said what was in your heart and I think all of us are glad you did. I don’t think anyone here views you or me any better or less for it. If you want to leave…We’ll go.”

  Solstice casually takes a bite from her apple.

  Angela looks at Brady for a long time. Then she again pushes away from him. She walks to Solstice and holds out her arms. Solstice accepts the hug as Angela whispers in her ear, “I have to stop this madness.” She pushes the blade she’s had up her sleeve deep into Solstices midsection, twists and pull as hard as she can upwards cutting through as much tissue as she can before Solstice can click to safety or Renfield can click to stop her.

  Renfield moves to Solstice, grabs her and clicks. Illumna clicks and appears behind Angela and snaps her neck quickly. She turns to her Grandfather. “Your choice in wives is as bad as our choice of fathers.” As she says that Brady just stares in shock, a million disagreeing thoughts going through his mind at once.

  Sara jumps up to ease his fall as she notices him going slack. As he goes to the ground she has her hand on his jugular the entire time. She turns and shouts, “I think he’s having a heart attack!” She puts her hand over her father’s heart as if she could feel if she is correct and realizes her action is in vain. Not knowing what to do her mind races. She yells to Illumna, “At least get the body out of here!”

  Illumna turns never having heard her mother raise her voice. She clicks. Soon she reappears next to her grandfather. She begins to punch him in the chest and finds her rhythm. The emotions in her head swell and she punches harder and harder. Sara looks at her oddly.

  Christina yells, “Calm down, Illumna!”

  Illumna yells back, “I’m trying to force his heart back to rhythm. It’s a rare medic trick, but it can work!”

  Brady, stops looking so taught and looks up at Sara. “My wife?” Illumna clicks away.

  Sara responds. “Thank the universe you are still in it, Dad!”

  Brady looks up and gazes into Sara’s eyes, “YOU!” He says accusatory, “You brought that monster into this world!” As he speaks he quickly reaches down, pulls his service pistol, puts it to his own daughter’s head, pauses for the slightest moment and pulls the trigger. Sara ceases to be.

  Christina screams at him, “That’s my daughter!” Her eyes light with the fiercest of looks. She picks up the steak knife next to her plate and plunges at him driving the blade deeply and swiftly through the heart Illumna had just revived. As she stands, blood everywhere she looks around and realizes she is alone. So much madness and she is alone to view the body of her own daughter. Lifeless. And worse, the face of the man who made her and murdered her. Her mind screams to nothing, but screams nonetheless.

  Illumna appears and looks at her mother’s lifeless body and her grandfather’s. She can’t process it. She grabs Christina and clicks.

  Christina, Illumna, Renfield_1, and Solstice lay in nothing. But they are aware Solstice is dying. Illumna knows she has to update her father so she thinks all the insanity of the current situation to him.

  Renfield _2 comments in her mind, “I think for once, he can’t hear you.”

  Illumna thinks back at Renfield_2, “How am I here?”

  Renfiled_2 responds, “You were unable to focus on where you were clicking to and ended up here. This is the place of nothing.” Renfield_2 concentrates so hard it sounds like a scream in their ears. Then they are all back in the kitchen at Renfield’s house.

  Christina sees Renfield is kneeling over Solstice in the area of the few tiles Solstice had pointed out after the talk with Sara, her daughter. Christina begins to move toward Renfield but Illumna clicks in front of her instantly and demands, “Stay away! He’s thinking very hard right now.” Her voice softens and she turns to her grandmother, “I suppose I will be seeing you soon Grandmother.”

  Christina gives Illumna an odd look. “What does that mean?” In all of the madness she struggles to make sense of Illumna’s last statement.

&nb
sp; CHAPTER 75

  “I came to know the cliff. My cousin taught me to fear it and appreciate it. I am greater because she taught me both sides of that coin.” – from the book of Brian

  “It’s interesting to finally meet you, Mr.?” He pauses awaiting a response he knows he won’t receive.

  “Well I suppose that doesn’t matter yet. I’ve heard you talk a lot?” The detective quietly asked while reading the file in his hand.

  “Yup” The subject replies while reading the file in the Detective’s hand.

  The Detective notes the attempt, but was sure to hold the file very far from normal view and purposefully held out of direct view.

  “Not what I expected.” Detective Brady says lightly at the response.

  “Uh huh.” Renfield replies. Then he continues, “The Old Testament is the foundation for the three major religions of the world today. Yet, strangely, most people have not read it. They don’t understand the foundations because they swear by a few sentences in that Testament, or the New Testament or the spin offs. They do not consider the whole. There are debates about the translations, specific quotes, etc., but rarely is it considered as a whole. Sad, because when considered that way, it’s actually fairly direct. In Genesis ‘God’ creates the world. In some versions ‘God’ refers to himself as we, in other translations, ‘God’ refers to himself as I. The final book of the New Testament opens early with ‘God’ saying, ‘I am the alpha and the omega. Consider that if the books are a whole, called the Bible, than surely it is possible that could be ‘we’ since it was more often translated that way in translations of Genesis, which begins as the beginning. ‘God’ goes on to say, ‘I am the one who is, who always was, and who is yet to be. So, let’s consider that because that is the same thing that minor religions, in today’s time postulate. Native Americans believed in the ‘oneness’, despite their polytheism, they were very direct about the concept of there being but one thing that was everything. Buddha made several references to the concept of a whole. Many other religions teach the same concept. Ad infinitum, you’ll find there is not much difference between the core of most polytheistic and monotheistic religions. How is it that people on different continents evolve to believe the same concepts? Perhaps life, when pondered long enough is immutably true. If you throw a rock in the air a thousand times and it keeps coming back down to the ground, would you not consider that gravity may be a truth? Perhaps our perception as individuals, for the sake of solving that truth has gotten in the way of the ability to focus on that reality. Maybe the lack of focus on that reality is what helps us solve what the ‘one’, ourselves, are.”

  Renfield continues, “As in physics there is relativity so someone in a plane will age slower than someone crossing a street because of the speed they are moving. In fact, the faster something moves the longer it actually physically becomes. If you measured a plane on the ground, at a standstill, it might measure 750 feet. At top speeds, around 575 miles per hour, it would literally measure much longer. The same is even true when you drive on a highway. There is much to consider about our perspectives in life. Life does not move at the same speed for everyone. Therefore, our preconceived notions of time being the same for all things is based only on our observation of things that we are relative to. Our own star is whipping through the universe at an insane speed, but galactically it seems slow, planetary view makes it seem not to move at all. Just as if you are a being on a planet, you are incapable of noticing that the planet you are on is spinning at a rate of 1,000 miles per hour to complete a full rotation in 24 hours. Pace and action are not the same for all things. At the quantum level we see that effect clearly. My perspective tries to see yours. Yours simply doesn’t understand mine. Perspective: It’s all about the angles. So important to always remember. ”

  Detective Brady leans back in his chair. Brady combs his chin with his hand and stares at Adam Renfield. “Well”, he taps the report in his hand, “that part checks out. You do talk a lot.”

  Renfield nods, “I’m hoping to clarify things. I simply don’t want any misunderstanding this time.”