by John Corwin
"Daydreams don't work?" I asked, unable to keep the pain from my voice.
"I don't know how else to explain it. I used to put myself into a trance with meditation so I could switch on that part of my mind." Timothy shrugged. "Now I can do it without having to think about it."
"How long does it take to make something?" David asked.
"It used to take me a long time. Now I can do it in twenty minutes."
"What about a car or a tank?" I asked.
"I could make a tank, sure." The vampire looked adoringly at the raptor where it stood across the parking deck from us for safety. "But it wouldn't fire rounds. Whatever you make is basically just animated aetherplasm."
"Ah, makes sense," David said. "The aether condenses into a shape, and you simply pull the strings with your mind."
Timothy nodded. "Something like that."
We went inside the pharmacy. My father dug around until he found some pills and bottled water. I gulped down the medicine and hoped it worked fast.
David swept the counter clear of prescription bags. "Lie down on the counter. I'm going to treat the wound." David directed the vampire to pull supplies from the shelves. Once everything was gathered, the vampire helped me onto the counter.
Timothy drooled, his eyes gazing long and hard at the blood soaking my shirt. David slammed the butt of the gun into the back of the vampire's head, and Timothy went down in a heap.
My father shrugged. "Can't have him running around loose while I stitch you up."
A happy numbness crept over my entire body. I smiled back. "Vampires are mean."
"Indeed they are," David said, threading a hooked needle. "Hopefully, this won't hurt a bit."
I closed my eyes, and felt myself slipping in and out of consciousness. Aside from a tugging sensation on my skin, I didn't feel much else except a dark warmth.
I open my eyes and see three orbs rotating in the air above me, one of brilliant white, another dark ultraviolet, and the third a dull gray. "Make the choice," they seem to whisper. "Choose." They repeat the words over and over again, but I don't know what to do, or how to choose. I try to respond but my mouth won't open.
My eyelids fluttered. I lay on a hard surface. Hands gripped me and helped me rise to a sitting position. I was in the pharmacy, I remembered. I felt pressure in my back, and tried to reach around to see what was there.
My father intercepted my hand and shook his head. "I sewed you up, but it won't take much to tear it back open. I used some medical tape as well, but you need to take it easy. No more heroics."
"Heroics?" I asked in a drunken voice.
"You saved my life."
"Oh," I said in a dull voice. My lips didn't seem to respond well to commands. I looked down and saw drool hanging halfway to the floor.
"It's not the first time you've saved my life," David said. I saw him move to pat me on the back and stop himself.
I remembered the strange dream with floating orbs. I felt too tired to speak, but forced out the words anyway. "I'm supposed to make a choice."
He tilted his head. "A choice?"
I told him about the vision I'd had upon first entering the Gloom and the one I'd had while he was patching me up. The painkillers made it hard to talk, but easier to remember.
"You're the Cataclyst," he said. "We've all been waiting a long time for this."
"How do I know which is the right choice?"
"You're a brave man. A good man. I think you'll know when the time is right." He rested a hand on my shoulder. "Can you walk?"
It was an effort just to nod, but I steeled myself. "I think so."
"Good." David reached down and grabbed Timothy by the foot with one hand, then guided me out of the pharmacy with his other arm while dragging the unconscious vampire unceremoniously behind.
"What are you?" I asked, the question slipping out.
"I hate to disappoint you, son, but I'm one of the bad guys."
I might have felt a shock of surprise if I hadn't been so doped up. Instead, I felt strangely calm. "Oh. I guess people think that about demon spawn."
"Yeah." He looked back at Timothy and smiled when the vampire's head bounced off the curb. "Technically, I'm not really demon spawn."
"Oh." My mind fumbled over this new information and failed to come up with a response. I'm so stoned right now.
My father laughed. "I could probably tell you I'm Satan himself right now and you'd have the same response."
I tried to raise an eyebrow and only managed to cross my eyes. "Maybe." I tried to clear the clutter from my head and failed. "Are you Satan?"
"Nope. Far as I know there isn't anyone by that name in the demon realm." We reached the sidewalk in front of Chuck's Sporting Goods. David jerked Timothy up over the curb and dropped his leg. My father regarded me for a long moment. "Maybe you're not ready for the truth, but I think you've earned it."
I tried to smile, or maybe I just imagined trying to smile. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." David directed me toward the store entrance. "You're funny when you're high." He looked down at the vampire. "I don't feel like lugging him around inside. Maybe we can find something to tie him up."
We went inside and looked around.
I heard running footsteps and looked back to see Timothy sprinting with a staggered gait across the parking deck. My father didn't seem too concerned with the escape.
"Let's get our gear," he said.
"But—"
"Don't worry about him right now. Besides, I can't keep tabs on him and you at the same time."
"Oh."
He pursed his lips. "Probably should have killed him."
Any other time, his remark would have bothered me, but I chuckled instead.
I didn't do much shopping because it was hard enough for me to stay upright much less pick out trendy sports underwear. David grabbed some fresh clothes for me, and I just followed him around as he filled a shopping cart with equipment. He tossed in a grappling hook, flares, something that looked like a spear gun, and a wide variety of other items, including metal weight plates and rope. I wondered if the items would go missing in the real world, or if it was all replicated here.
"We should have just stolen a car," I mumbled.
"I never could find one with the keys in it," he said.
We headed through an emergency exit in the back of the building since it was shorter than going back through the parking deck. The alarm wailed for a moment before fading to silence. We crossed the road and made our way to the Phipps Plaza parking deck. I knew I should be concerned about an angry vampire on his raptor, but kept forgetting to be vigilant.
One constant on my mind was Elyssa. I really wished she was here. She'd know exactly how to escape from this mess. I could see her so clearly—her long black hair, fair skin, full lips, violet eyes. I knew every curve of her body. So clear was her image that I could literally see my girlfriend standing in front of me, the hilts of her signature sai swords poking diagonally up from sheathes on her back.
"Did you do that?" David asked me, looking at my imaginary Elyssa.
"Do what?" I asked.
"Make your girlfriend."
"Huh?" I reached out and touched Elyssa. She felt cold and waxy. I recoiled in disgust—the first genuine emotion I recalled since taking the pills. A shock of pain ran down my back. Apparently, the drugs were wearing off, and my girlfriend melted before my eyes. "No, Elyssa."
The melting stopped, and her skin began to reform.
"Whoa."
David chuckled. "Do you have the munchies? Should I get you some cheesy poofs?"
"Wow. I made my girlfriend in the Gloom." I reached out to touch her, remembered how icky the doppelganger felt, and pulled back my hand. "Wait 'til I tell her."
"She's a beautiful woman." He regarded her for a moment. "Maybe we should keep going."
I nodded and thought of Elyssa walking along side me. Her limbs jerked robotically. I imagined her grace and how she moved in real lif
e, and the replica began to walk more naturally. "This isn't so tough," I said, and wiped my mouth. "I wonder if I can make her fight."
She and I had sparred plenty of times, so it wasn't difficult to direct the fake Elyssa into a flurry of quick moves. Her swords flashed and whirled. She spun, ducked, and did a forward flip, finishing with a stylish three-point landing, one sword raised high behind her.
"Having fun?" David said as he negotiated a tall curb with the laden shopping cart.
"This is so cool."
We walked back down the ramp into the Grotto way station, my replicated girlfriend walking by my side. Once we reached the bottom, David set up some battery-operated lanterns on tripods around the center of the ring where the Obsidian Arch loomed, and began unfurling the rope.
"I wish I knew the odds of a Gloom fracture forming."
I'd only seen them form on a couple of occasions, though that had been when Darkwater, a company owned by Jeremiah Conroy, had been experimenting with the smaller arches located in the hidden control room behind the stables. "I wonder if any of the other arches in the control room look different," I said.
"We should check," David said, and grabbed a flashlight.
I directed the clone of my girlfriend to follow us, and we went behind the stables. The illusion hiding the control room door in the real world wasn't there, so we simply went inside. The arches sat in their usual places, though something about each one seemed different. A large world map occupied the front wall above a platform. A pedestal sat in the center, and on it, a gray orb the size of my head.
"The modulus," I said, walking over to it. "Arch operators use it to activate the Obsidian Arch."
"I wonder if it's operational." David examined the orb. "Do you know how to work it?"
"I've used one before," I said. I approached the orb, and held a hand over it. A faint glow emanated from the surface, and the modulus rose from the pedestal. The stars on the map, each one indicating the location of an Obsidian Arch glowed faintly. Spinning the orb highlighted each star in turn. I selected the arch in the La Casona way station, located in Bogota Colombia, and flicked the modulus with a finger. The star pulsed in time with the star in the Grotto way station, indicating it was awaiting confirmation from La Casona. I highly doubted anyone was there to confirm unless the arches miraculously led back to the real world.
"Interesting," David said. "What now?"
I thought hard for a moment, fighting the haze in my mind, and remembered what a helpful arch operator had once told me. "If I place my palm on the modulus and raise it, it'll force the connection."
"I wonder what would happen," he said.
A nervous knot formed in my stomach. "No telling. Maybe nothing."
"Only one way to find out."
I nodded, put my palm on the modulus, and raised my hand. A klaxon sounded in the main way station chamber. I heard a deep rumbling hum and felt a rush of excitement. "It might be working." As if in answer, a thin beam of light arched between the selected stars on the map, forming a shimmering tunnel.
"Let's take a look."
We walked into the main chamber and saw a ghostly gray flickering in the center of the towering Obsidian Arch. An image of the destination way station formed in the portal—that of a large industrial warehouse since the La Casona arch wasn't underground like this one.
"Think it's safe to use?" my father asked.
I scrunched my forehead. "It looks like it, but what's the point if it only takes us to another location inside the Gloom?" I looked at fake Elyssa and considered sending her through, but decided it would be better to keep her around for protection should the need arise.
David folded his arms across his chest. "True." A sigh. "I guess all the smaller arches work the same way."
"Yeah, most likely." I couldn't deny I'd held some small hope of a miracle connection to the mortal realm. There were two different types of the smaller black arches. One version required the traveler to press corresponding numbered buttons on the world map. I called the other kind omniarches since they could open a portal anywhere without a destination arch. As far as I knew they wouldn't take a person to another dimension or realm, though I'd encountered some strange anomalies with them and accidentally ended up in places that most definitely weren't in Eden. Those arches required the user to magically close the silver circle around them and form a crystal clear image of the desired destination. Risking travel through one in the Gloom didn't appeal to me.
I explained the workings of the omniarches to my father. "Shelton, Adam, and I once accidentally created some kind of feedback loop by opening two omniarch portals next to each other. It sent us all over the place, including what looked like another realm." I remembered the strange siren beings singing an arch into creation. "But we could end up killing ourselves trying that experiment."
"You should test the omniarches anyway," he suggested. "Maybe we'll get lucky."
I grimaced. "Or end up trapped in some hellhole for eternity."
He chuckled. "I think this place qualifies already."
We went back inside the control room. I deactivated the Obsidian Arch so the klaxon would stop blaring. My stomach rumbled. "I think I'm getting the munchies." The pain in my back flared like hot metal pressed against my flesh. "I might need another painkiller too."
"We'll need to be careful with those. I want you ready to go if a Gloom fracture opens."
"I agree."
"Let's eat, and then we'll test the omniarches."
We went back into the main chamber and raided our satchel of provisions. I was so famished, the pasty granola bars tasted like heaven. I looked around for my clone of Elyssa and found a puddle of goop where I'd left her standing. "Oh, no."
"Can you remake her?"
I imagined her rising from the puddle and reforming. Nothing happened. After a few minutes, I gave up. "I don't understand why I can't do it now."
"The painkillers must have put you into a trancelike doze," David said. "It probably allowed you to use that lucid dream state to imagine her into being."
I nodded and winced as the skin on my back stretched with the movement. "I guess I can try it again after I take another pill."
My father finished off a bag of potato chips and sat cross-legged, eyes closed for a long moment. I almost asked him what he was doing, but figured he needed sleep as much as I did. As the food settled in my stomach, weariness crept into my muscles. It had been a long, trying day. We hadn't slept for probably close to twenty-four hours. I might be able to go into a dreamlike trance without any drugs.
I heard a clicking noise and looked up in time to see Gloria Richardson and her rider, Timothy, enter the circle of light. He raised a gun and aimed it at me.
"Let's finish this," the vampire said.
"Yes, let's," said David. He looked up with an evil leer on his face. A horrific screeching noise sounded from the darkness.
Timothy's eyes went wide. He looked around frantically. Something with more legs than I could count blurred into the light, tearing Timothy from his perch. The raptor went still as a statue as the vampire lost his concentration.
The creature on top of him looked like a huge spider, albeit with a lot more legs, and bristling with spiky black hair. Gunfire erupted, the muzzle flashing between the vampire and the spider thing. The bullets had no effect on the creature.
David rose, his face clouding with anger. "I've had enough of you, vampire."
"Please let me go," Timothy wheezed. "I'll leave you alone."
"Yes, you'll leave us alone," my father said with a sneer.
The spider monster opened jagged pincers and, with a savage chomp, took off the vampire's head.
Chapter 15
Blood spurted from the neck of the decapitated vampire. I cried out in surprise, flinched away, and groaned in pain as agony seared my back. The world faded for a moment and I felt faint. I looked away from the gore, breathing heavily. "You killed him."
"He was a nuisance," David
said.
I looked up at my father and found a cold expression on his face. "We could have tied him up or knocked him out. Hell, we could have tossed the vampire through the arch."
My father touched a hand to his chin. "I didn't think of using him as our lab rat." He shrugged. "Oh well, the bastard deserved it."
I heard a scuttling noise, and looked over to see the spider thing dragging the corpse into the darkness, thick black blood trailing behind it.
"What is that thing?"
"One of the lower spawn of Haedaemos—a crawler." He booted Timothy's head into the darkness. It made a meaty sound as it rolled away. "The demon name for them is a bit harder to pronounce with a human tongue."
I tried not to think about how casually he'd kicked Timothy's head like a moldy head of lettuce. "Haedaemos?"
"It's what Daemos call the motherland." He placed a hand over his heart in a mocking salute. "The demon realm."
"Every time you speak of the demon realm you say 'we' or 'our' as if you're not part of the mortal realm."
"Because I'm not." He regarded the still form of Gloria Richardson as the raptor began to melt away. David took a seat across from me. "I said earlier you deserved some of the truth, even if you're not ready for it."
"Then tell me." I looked around the room. "We have plenty of time without Timothy chasing us down."
"I have…a problem. A serious condition." He took out a massive jar of cheesy poofs and flipped off the lid. He removed one of the orange balls into and gazed at it adoringly before tossing it into his mouth and crunching it. "I am addicted to cheesy poofs."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't deflect. Tell me."
He popped a couple more into his mouth, closing his eyes and moaning as they crunched. "I was not born in the mortal realm. I wasn't even born as demon spawn—as Daemos." Gripping a bottled water, he took a long drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Our king—I guess that's the human equivalent—saw the Seraphim invasion of the mortal realm as a threat to him. Since we can't exist for long in the mortal realm without a corporeal body, he sent agents to possess humans so they could fight the Seraphim and drive them from the world."
