The Leviathan Trial

by Oliver Madison

  Cynthia and Kitty paused their fight and watched in suspense on opposite sides of the table as their chances for survival hung by a literal thread. Cynthia’s lover and proxy took her place in this trial, grazing the back of his hairy knuckles against the noose, promising the pressure was tight and that the line was secured. Levi did the same. They stared each other down one last time before beginning. With that, they both scooted along the narrow wooden beam below. It creaked the moment they took their first steps.

  They were already off to a rough start.

  For a moment, Dante had immediate regret. Cynthia imagined a worst-case scenario. She stood in fear from the thought of both men falling. That would be far worse than Levi winning. Because if that happened, there was no chance in hell of her mustering the strength needed to reel up their lifeless bodies. Her armpits drenched her shirt with sweat, and even more poured from her face.

  She was not the only one. Dante perspired as he blew out nervous puffs to calm himself. He weighed nearly a hundred pounds heavier than the scrappy kid creeping towards him. Fear of the rickety beam snapping consumed him.

  It bent and squeaked as they joined closer and closer towards the center. Dust descended from the beam like dirty snowflakes as they dragged their feet. Dante gulped as he took a full swing at Levi, only to have his opponent dodge by jerking his head back. He nearly lost his balance right there. One slip would have meant death by hanging. Dante decided to be more careful. Luckily, the rubber grooved soles of his combat boots had excellent traction. He could prevent most accidental slipping. Every time one of them attempted to reach out for the clip of keys strapped around the other’s belt, they needed to hold their arms out to the side and regain balance.

  Too much time was going by. They were being too cautious. Cynthia never stopped checking her watch.

  Sixteen minutes until death.

  “Dante! Hurry the hell up and kill him!” she screamed in a panic.

  “Shut up, woman!” Dante barked back, keeping his head frozen and eyes locked on Levi’s keys. “Can’t you see I’m trying to focus!”

  Levi remained unsettlingly quiet. “You got nothing to say, Mr. Public Speaker!” taunted Dante nervously. “Better get out your last words while you still can!” He swiped at Levi’s waist again and missed the keys.

  Levi closed his eyes in a Zen-like state. He held his arms out to the side, as if holding the hands of ghosts. Dante watched curiously. “Father,” Levi mumbled to himself. “I call unto you in the name of the Great Leviathan, mighty serpent of the sea. Thank you for your bounty for we are not yet deserving. I stand proud and pray you acknowledge and accept my sins and fallen graces. For I have already done so.”

  “The hell is he saying?” spat Dante, calling out to Cynthia. He was sure the kid had lost it.

  “It’s our family’s prayer,” she responded, crying. “Ignore him, Dante! Kill him! We’re running out of time!” she begged.

  Levi continued the prayer of the Leviathan. “My actions are my own, and in the end, I will defy your whim and power, as it is in your creation that you provided us the will to do so. We challenge you, Lord, to hurl every rock, flame, and beast in our path so that we may grow stronger with each healed wound from the passing day.”

  Levi’s voice boomed louder and louder as he neared the end. “I shall fight tooth and nail to the bitter end until my blood runs dry and my bones turn to dust. Time devours all—my flesh, my family, and name. But our actions are eternal. As long as we have the will to grow, even you shall fear what I will become.”

  The confidence in Levi’s words terrified Dante more than anything he had ever seen from him.

  Levi finished with, “In the name of the Great Leviathan. Amen!”

  “Feel better now, kid?” Dante attempted to goad Levi with a wide smile. “You done saying your prayers now? You’re gonna die just like the rest of your brothers and sisters. You’re nothing on your own. Look around you, boy. You’re all alone.”

  Finally, Levi opened his eyes and spoke. “That’s where you’re wrong.” He stopped defending himself and stood comfortably and confidently. He wished he could have stood this tall during his father’s evaluations. Levi stepped a few feet backwards on the beam, connecting his heels and toes. “You may share responsibility for many of the Lancasters’ deaths, but as long as I breathe, you could never defeat my family,” Levi announced. “We’re more unified than you will ever know! They’re always with me. So, I’m never alone!”

  He took something out of his pocket. It was the picture that Helena received from her locked drawer. It was a crumpled photo of their family—all thirteen of them.

  Father Benedict.

  Zara.

  Allister.

  Troy.

  Eden.

  Pearl.

  Mauve.

  Sion.

  Hiroshi.

  Helena.

  Blake.

  Cynthia.

  Levi.

  They posed in their suits and dresses, genuinely gleeful in the backyard. They embraced one another, smiling as they gathered for a photo earlier this year. It was the first picture they took as a complete family, with their newest little sister—Helena. Even now, Levi swore he could even feel their warm glow. Just as they all held hands at the dinner table, he was one with their presence now. He could picture them, he and his siblings, interlocking their fingers in a twelve-person chain.

  Dante was done listening. He lunged ahead, ready to shove Levi off the edge. Unfortunately, in his attempt to push Levi, the two grabbed hold of each other. And just like that, they both lost their balance. Time seemed to move slowly as they plunged to their deaths. It looked as if they were doing backstrokes in midair or grasping at a railing that was not there.

  It was the end.

  Or at least for one of them.

  An invisible force cracked through the air.

  It was the blast of a shotgun. As Levi processed the sound, he noticed that Dante’s descent had abruptly stopped, while Levi kept on falling. Levi slammed into the wooden dining table. He scraped his knees and busted his lip, but somehow, he was alive. At first, he wondered if he did not tie his noose tightly enough and it unraveled. No, that was not it. Part of it was still around his neck. As he tugged on the rope, he realized it had been severed by shotgun pellets. As he glanced to the side, he had his answer. There was his family. Or rather, what remained of it.

  Helena.

  Blake.

  Pearl, holding her signature twelve-gauge shotgun.

  Dante’s neck did not break on the fall. His face turned beet red as he tugged on the rope, gargling and suffocating. It looked as though his eyes would pop out. His fingernails slid against the knot around his neck, but to no avail. He glared furiously at Levi and the others.

  The trial was over.

  A verdict had been reached.

  “You lose, Dante!” declared Levi, rubbing his sore throat. With his other hand, he pointed. “Begone!”

  At that, Pearl readied her weapon, preparing to execute the dangling target that struggled to flail free from its binding.

  She took aim at Dante.

  And fired.

  Instantly, the struggling came to an end.

  CHAPTER 27

  FINAL VERDICT

  Helena ran and climbed up onto the table to hug Levi, rubbing her head into his chest. Blake wasted no time approaching the hanging corpse that was once Dante. At this point, it resembled the hooked remains of a skinned cow in a slaughterhouse. Blake removed the ring of keys that belonged to his siblings, inspecting them thoroughly to assure they had everything they needed.

  “You did well,” Levi told Helena.

  “You too,” she sighed, patting him on the head.

  In truth, the whole plan was her idea. Her family could play possum, much like the one she cared for months back. When Helena showed the family photo to Pearl back in the kitchen, her eldest sister was consumed with regret to the point that she nearly took her own li
fe. On the back of the picture, each sibling wrote their own message to their newest little sister. Each of them vowed to love, raise, and protect her.

  Or die trying.

  Helena tugged and tugged on Pearl’s shotgun. She pointed it away from Pearl’s head and redirected it to the flesh between her thumb and index finger. From then on, the two promised to find the impossible third option—a way for them all to live. Pearl then laid low and Helena would have the others fake their deaths as well until the true source of evil in their home would reveal itself.

  From the head of the table, Cynthia was mortified. Dante was her lover and last line of the defense—the thirteenth child. The true Lancaster heir. Now, his limp corpse swayed like the hypnotic pendulum of their grandfather clock.

  His time was up.

  He lost. And by association, so did Cynthia.

  “…How?” was the only word Cynthia could muster at first. Her jaw was agape. She gripped the tablecloth, yanking it and sending the place settings and silverware jangling to the floor. “How are you alive?” She pointed at Pearl, Blake, and Helena. “…I saw you die!” she squeaked, darting her finger directly to a wide-eyed Helena. “You’re heartrates all flatlined…”

  “We don’t play by anyone’s rules, but our own,” stated Levi. He used what remained of his strength to unfasten the noose around his neck, throwing it to the ground angrily. “You should have known that from the start,” he huffed. “You should have known I would have done anything to save as much of our family as humanly possible—no matter the cost!”

  “Pearl was broken…” gasped Cynthia, recalling her descent into madness.

  “And Helena fixed me…” Pearl responded solemnly.

  Levi made his love for his family noticeably clear. He never wanted to hurt Helena. It killed him on the inside to harm her the way that he did. But if it meant saving her life, then it left him with no other option. On the surveillance camera, Cynthia was convinced she saw Levi viciously stab through Helena’s heart. In actuality, he was piercing through her hand that laid over it. He cried at the pain he was forced to inflict on his little sister as he carved out the flesh between her thumb and index finger. It was the location where the children determined their trackers were located the night the Leviathan Trial first began. With no vitals to read a pulse on, other than a dismembered piece of dead flesh, the signal assumed Helena had flatlined.

  Same for Pearl and Blake.

  When she received the final message from Helena of her plans, Pearl used her shotgun to get the job done. In all honesty, Levi had no idea if Pearl would truly come back to her senses or not. It was a gambit.

  Fifty-fifty.

  He bet on the side of family. When Pearl saw the lengths that Levi was willing to go to preserve their family, she had no choice but to help. Even with a bandaged hand, Pearl was a prodigy marksman.

  Blake had it the worst. He had to tear his own hand open with nothing but the force of his bite. Gnawing and ripping. Because the trackers were the size of a grain of rice, Blake had to take big bites to make certain that he removed it. His incisors tore through skin and flesh as he pretended to vomit blood. He did this as he read the tiny fine print written on the paper notes labeled ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ that Levi transcribed for him on the cups they drank from. They were instructions for Blake to trust Levi and to play along with the farce that would lead to the removal of their trackers and to play dead after drinking. Levi never poisoned either of their cups. Their act was solely to put on a show for Cynthia, who spied on them from the shadows. They needed her to come forward with the masked Leviathan. Blake swallowed his pride during that moment, respecting the decision made by his only sibling to ever achieve a perfect score from their father.

  Minutes later, when they were sure the true masterminds were no longer watching, all four Lancasters bandaged their wounds, tightly wrapping them to prevent excess blood loss. They would then wait for Levi’s signal for his final confrontation. As excruciating as it all was, it was essential for their survival. As stated in their family prayer, in time, their wounds would heal.

  “Of course,” exhaled Cynthia. She was done fighting and slumped her posture. She regained composure, drooping her head in defeat. She may have been one of the smartest Lancasters, but intelligence and perseverance did not go hand in hand. Cynthia was at peace with this, ready to accept her fate. “Perhaps I should have had more faith in our family…”

  She was prepared for this outcome as well. True genius included a contingency plan. Just as Cynthia lost faith in her siblings after Benedict diminished the value of trust within one’s family, she knew she should not have trusted in Dante to liberate her from the Lancaster legacy either. ‘Trust is the foundation of failure,’ she thought sighing. The phrase echoed in her mind. ‘Trust is the foundation of failure.’ Cynthia uncurled her fingers, revealing something in her palm that resembled a calculator, some small flat device with switches, dials, and knobs. With the press of a button, multiple blasts went off in the distant reaches of Lancaster Manor—explosives that Dante had set around the mansion yesterday. Some were placed in the underground bunker when he had his run-in with Levi, Kitty, and Helena. One was in Cynthia’s room. A few were strategically set in the library so they could catch fire more easily, using the books as tinder. Cynthia prayed it would not have to come to this—not with her still in the house. ‘Trust is the foundation of failure…’

  It was her endgame, a last resort if things went awry. Originally, the explosives were meant to destroy evidence and cover her tracks once she and Dante would have escaped with everything they needed.

  “We have to get out of here!” commanded Blake, pointing out the obvious. Now that they had all twelve keys, they could finally depart Lancaster Manor once and for all.

  Helena tried tugging at Levi, begging him to come along with her and escape. Unfortunately, Levi’s unrelenting love for his family was getting the better of him one last time. He made Helena stay put while he rushed for Cynthia who still sat comfortably at the head of the table, unfazed as the rumbling earthquake of a collapsing room reverberated violently in the background. There was even an orange flash that would lighten and darken the walls down the hallway. When the fire alarm went off, Levi knew they were running out of time. He tried to bring Cynthia along. She responded by slapping him.

  “Even after all you’ve done, I still love you as one of my own,” Levi pleaded. “If you promise to do everything you can to help make this right when we get out, we can still forgive you!” He changed his mind, realizing he could not deliver on that promise. “I will forgive you!” he specified. That much he could keep.

  “It’s not too late, Cynthia,” prayed Pearl. “Let us redeem ourselves together! I too have sins to repent!”

  “I’m staying!” she insisted. Cynthia sipped on a glass of wine that she poured for herself. “You think I’ll walk free after all this? Just get out of here,” she laughed sadly. “You win. You’re the Great Leviathan, brother. Enjoy your prize.” She put down her drink, stood up, and touched Levi’s chest. “Live!” Cynthia urged.

  With that, she walked towards the rising flames she created. They were growing and rising down the hall. Levi could not stop his sister as she strutted on her way. She hesitated just once as she came across the ripped demon mask of the Great Leviathan that laid on the floor. Cynthia smiled as she picked it up gingerly, locking eyes with it. She brushed it off and placed the torn mask over her face.

  Half beautiful and intelligent girl.

  Half devil.

  One side, lipstick and mascara.

  The other, fangs and a single horn.

  She gave one final smirk as she continued on to her execution. The flames down the hall flickered and roared as some of the support beams came crumbling around her, spreading more fire and glowing ash. Levi never stopped begging his sister to reconsider, to come back with them. He knew it was a futile effort. There was no convincing her. Not anymore. Cynthia stepped forward i
nto the inferno confidently, never missing a beat. She faded into a blazing silhouette.

  Then, she disappeared completely.

  She never once screamed.

  And as it turned out, she had one final eulogy prepared for herself as well. Maybe it was for an alibi. Maybe it was just the perfectionist in her, knowing that a project was never complete until all outcomes were accounted for. Father Benedict’s voice morphed into something deeper and more terrifying as it was distorted from the damaged speakers. It sounded as if it came from someone else completely. Perhaps, Leviathan himself.

  ‘My tech whiz is efficient. Always found in front of a screen.

  If intelligence was all that mattered, surely you would be queen.

  Connected to technology. Detached from human form.

  Has a brain, but no soul. There is nothing about you that is warm.

  When it comes to your devices, you are analytical and cold.

  Venture out of your safe space. Become loving, trusting, bold.

  My tech wiz, on my throne is where you stood.

  In the end you were talented, but too smart for your own good.’

  At that, the volume from the intercoms died.

  All twelve eulogies have played.

  There would be no more announcements. No further updates.

  However, none of that mattered. The house was quickly catching fire. Flames climbed up the curtains and grew as it fed on the stairs and furniture. Clouds of smoke flooded the room. Soon, it would become more of a threat than the chlorine gas. The speakers melted as well, oozing with plastic and dripping from the side of the walls. The house was bleeding. Dying. It seemed to moan and groan with agony and parts of the ceiling creaked and fell. The portraits in the great dining hall were turning to soot and ashes as the faces of Father Benedict and his twelve children were eaten away. Levi and the others had to escape before the whole mansion would collapse on itself in a great hellfire.