Ascension: Invocation (22 page)

“We must go. We’re not safe here.” Alicia was shaking and speechless. “Please. Follow me.”

A gang of personnel began to gather near the conference room as medical teams attempted to revive the fallen soldiers. Alicia managed to stand and began to follow Sariana to the back of the building, past the radio studios and toward the back door. They were stopped by two soldiers entering the building. Sariana held her blade at the ready.

“Don’t let them leave.” It was General Ramsey approaching from behind.

“We have to go,” Sariana shouted above the chaos.

“You just killed a man. You’re not going anywhere!”

“That man was going to kill me,” Alicia protested.

“Until we get this sorted out, you can’t just walk out of here.”

“You said we weren’t under arrest.” Alicia knew that was a stupid thing to say.

“Yeah, well, you are now. Take them into custody. Upstairs.”



The girls were placed in an office stacked with boxes of promotional items for the radio stations. Bumper stickers, coffee mugs and trinkets of all sorts littered the floor. The room smelled of old fast food wrappers and a lone, dying air freshener in the corner, still battling the odor with its final gasps of life. Alicia sat in one of the wing-back chairs while Sariana paced the room in her blood soaked sun dress. Two guards stood outside the door. It was too high to safely jump out of the window. Sariana had already checked.

“Look, why don’t you just sit down? You were protecting me. This wasn’t premeditated.” Alicia could tell that Sariana was barely listening. “Maybe they’ll assist. You made your case.”

“We’re wasting time.”

“They have procedures. There are laws.”

“More procedures!!” Sariana was trembling and near tears.

Alicia felt bad about yelling at her before. At least now, though, they had a plan B. Should the military choose to ignore Sariana’s message, they’d simply return to the studio. Alicia would put the girl on the air and the pair would lay it all on the line. They’d do it right this time. The people could draw their own conclusions.

In an effort to calm Sariana down, Alicia thought she might make some light of their situation. “So, is that your signature move or something?”

“What?”

“The throat cutting thing. You’ve done that twice. Once with the monster and then with the Human guy.”

“No. It just seemed... efficient.”

“It’s pretty bad-ass,” Alicia grinned. “You’re kind of a tough broad, y’know?”

Sariana rolled her eyes and smiled only slightly. It was high praise coming from Alicia and, in any other moment, Sariana would have been quite moved. Her grandmother, after all, was the very definition of a ‘tough broad’ in her world. But Sariana’s nerves were getting the better of her. The Humans could be anywhere. She didn’t understand how Alicia could be so calm. The fact was, the Grand Queen didn’t fully understand how dire her situation really was; Alicia was, nevertheless, equally on-edge. She was just better trained at disguising her anxiety.

“You should change your clothes. You’re covered in blood... again.” Alicia stood up and sorted through a box of t-shirts. She found a 2X black shirt that read “I’M A PRIZE PIG” in large pink letters alongside a gaudy station logo. It would have to do for the moment, she thought. Alicia tossed the shirt to Sariana. “Here. Why don’t you put this on?” Without hesitation, Sariana began to undress. Alicia quickly turned her back to the girl.

“So... modesty isn’t a ‘thing’ in the sixth dimension, I take it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Never mind.” Something had been troubling Alicia since the incident downstairs. It was the first time in her life that she had come face to face with her mortality. She was well accustomed to death. The newsroom had long ago made her numb. Sure, certain footage made her cringe more than others. But, overall, Alicia didn’t turn away from even the goriest demise. Watching someone die only a few feet away from her, however, was another thing entirely. “Sariana... those men who were killed downstairs. What happened to them?”

“They were shot.”

Alicia turned around and Sariana looked ridiculous. In her oversize shirt, she appeared better prepared for a sleepover than the end of the world. Her crumpled, blood-stained dress had been tossed in the waste bin. “I mean, what happened to... their souls?”

Since her arrival, Sariana had been ill-prepared to act as tutor. After all, if everything had gone according to plan, Alicia’s awakening should have caused a chain reaction of sorts. Sariana’s primary directive was to arrive and switch the Queen “on.” She had very much looked forward to watching her grandmother, a woman of such great renown, enlighten the masses and ignite the Luciferian rebellion. Sariana had dreamt of this since she was a child. Instead, she was Alicia’s mentor and guardian, it seemed. As she looked into her grandmother’s eyes, sincere and naïve of her place in creation, Sariana felt such great compassion and love for the woman. She took Alicia’s hands and spoke softly.

“You’re not going to do the thing again, are you?” Alicia asked.

“No.”

“Because... I’d like a heads up if that’s ever going to...”

“It’s all right.”

Alicia began to wonder if she was going to like the girl’s answer to her question. Or it could be worse. “You’re going to say that I’m not prepared to understand the answer, aren’t you?”

“No. I think you can. Inside you is an energy. It has a sound. Each soul emits a unique frequency; one that is distinctly its own.” Sariana touched her forehead. “When this vessel expires and that energy is expelled, your soul, your frequency is drawn to its ipseity; your singular soul group. You like music, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“There is a reason. Imagine a chord. All of the notes at once vibrating, producing tones in harmony. This is your soul group. Many soul groups converge and you might imagine that they create a symphony.”

“Okay.”

“Perhaps you’ve heard a piece of music that speaks to you. That composer channeled your song. These souls fit together.”

“What about songs I hate?”

“This composer is, perhaps, not of your... chord. Just as certain chords do not sound well together but are still part of the cacophony of music. Each soul plays a role to create this symphony, when they are sounded in their predestined order.”

“What does our soul group sound like?”

Sariana hesitated. “You will be able to hear this when you ascend.”

“What? Is it bad?” Alicia knew the answer. “It’s bad, isn’t it? Of course it is. We’re fucking evil. It’s a speed metal song, I bet.”

“No...”

“Oh God. It’s not a boy band or some terrible dubstep thing, is it? Wait. You said that we’re idiots. Does every other soul group have a beautiful, complex symphony and our song is Old MacDonald Had a Farm or something?”

“I never said that you were idiots.”

“You kind of did...”

“We’re getting off track.”

“I’m sorry but you want me to march into battle and I don’t think that I can do that to the Sanford & Son theme song.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is not a song that you have ever heard before. This really shouldn’t worry you.”

“Okay,” she said. But it did worry Alicia.

“Because the third dimension is one of learning, you do not remain with your soul group. You, instead, enter a new vessel and continue the learning process.”

“Reincarnation.”

“It is the way of all new souls.”

“I don’t get to take a break?”

“I’m sorry?”

“What if I don’t want to go back to studying right away? Can my soul just take a vacation for a while? See the universe?”

“It will occur to you that time is irrelevant as it is infinite. There is no need for a vacation. You won’t wish it so.”

“I think I might...”

Sariana sighed. “You just won’t, my Queen.”

“Why can’t I remember these past lives?”

“It is all one life and you will recall all of your experiences and lessons upon ascension. However, in this world, the Humans have predestined you to be born again with amnesia; forgetting your past lessons so that you may practice your sole destiny in infinite redundancy, until they have been satisfied with your learning.”

“So, those men. They just begin again?”

“They do. Yes.”

“Why didn’t they just die? I thought we invented death? Isn’t that the whole problem?”

“Why would you wish death upon your own? You cannot know this yet. This is an ability your souls will manifest upon ascension.”

“But we’ve been practicing the whole time?”

“Yes. In the third dimension, most soul groups have spent their time enlightening their collective spirits. They have worked diligently toward a goal of self and group actualization.”

“But our time in the third dimension has just been spent blowing stuff up?”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Wow. We really are idiots.”

“And this is what we must tell people.”

“Yeah. That’s going to go over great.”

“We must tell them that it is not too late. Your souls may still be enlightened. This does not have to be your primary destiny.”

“So, what is the failsafe?”

Sariana quickly turned away and began biting her thumbnail. “This should not be of your concern.”



“I’ve got men having breakdowns all over the place. Pretty soon, I’m not sure how much of a staff we’ll have left.”

General Ramsey was recapping the incident with Milan, Charles and a number of other staffers in an office just down the hall from the girls. None of the men involved had survived. As the fog continued to roll across the Earth, reports of bedlam and general descents into madness were becoming quite common. The sheer anxiety of it all was taking its toll, without question.

“I think what we’re seeing is mass pandemonium,” Milan noted. “As we’re approaching whatever conclusion to this phenomenon, your troops are becoming more and more on edge.”

“Yes. We see this all the time on the battlefield. Anytime you lead up to any one major event, soldiers are always losing their shit. It’s natural. We probably put Newbury back in the field too soon. He was on light duty. I’m just short staffed.”

“Was there a prior incident?”

“No. No. He was wounded in a scuffle with some civilians. He was smacked in the head pretty hard with a baseball bat while one of them was trying to get across the perimeter.”

“He was okay?”

“Obviously not. That blow clearly knocked a few screws loose.”

Milan asked the grounds’ medic if he could see the X-Ray of the dead soldier’s prior wound. This was a massive head injury.

“When did this happen?” he asked her.

“That was just a few days ago”

“Should he have survived this?”

“You wouldn’t think so. I mean, check this out,” the doctor said as she raised the X-Ray to the light. “Look at that impact. It’s severe, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s like he got hit with a Mack truck but when we hooked him up, there was no blood constriction, and no internal bleeding that we could tell.” She frowned. “We missed something, though. Probably swelling in the brain. Caused him to snap. I just don't have all of the tools I need here.”

Two soldiers arrived with Alicia and Sariana. “Have a seat, please,” the General directed them to a few chairs near the front of the room. “Ms. Parker, what exactly did Sergeant Newbury say to you before he attacked you and the other men?”

“He implied that he was Human. He talked a lot about death. He said that I was a problem.”

“The story Sariana tells of the ‘Human’ ascension. This wasn’t on television, correct?” Charles asked.

“No. Sariana didn’t make mention of that. The only people she’s told were in that room downstairs.”

“She did, however, state on television that you were the Queen of the Luciferians...” Charles noted.

They knew. Alicia couldn’t imagine ever being comfortable with this ‘title’. Regardless of what she’d witnessed and Sariana’s assurances notwithstanding, she still found it quite inconceivable. “Yes. Yes she did,” she said as confidently as she could.

“We’re just trying to reconcile what, if any, of his ramblings were genuine,” General Ramsey explained.

“I can promise you, General, that this was a spirit... a soul... from another dimension. Just like Sariana.”

“Sariana,” Milan said. “You said that the body you presently occupy is a ‘vessel’. This is what gives your soul mobility in this dimension. When crossing dimensions, do you have to always utilize a dead body?”

“In your third dimension, yes,” Sariana answered. “This is the vessel your soul group has imagined. Of course, conversely we could occupy the vessel of a just-born infant but this presents obvious... issues.”

The medical doctor stood and tentatively approached Sariana with her stethoscope. “May I?” she asked her.

“Yes,” Sariana agreed as the doctor began to take her pulse and look for general signs of life in the girl.