Ascension: Invocation (25 page)

“But we are not these souls? They are not our ancestors?”

“No. Your souls are unique.”

"Why did they create these our souls?"

"The Humans wish to have control of the omniverse and hold dominion over the eleventh dimension. They will do so by force. Your souls are expendable; you are merely soldiers in an army."

"So, they are calling us now to the next dimension in order to use us to fight in their war for supremacy?"

"This is correct."

"Is this why they want us to stand in the elemental rain?"

"A soul may only ascend dimensions if it consciously wishes to do so. Standing in the elemental rain represents that conscious decision."

"So, if we do not stand in the rain, they cannot take us?"

"They may not. You are correct."

"You come to us from the future?"

"It is best understood this way, yes. I come to you from another dimension, one in which these events have already occurred. I am aware of the most destructive outcome and so I was sent to warn you to refuse ascension."

"It seems to me that ascending to a new dimension is a good thing, is it not?”

“Yes. It is the glorious wish of all souls in your dimension.”

“So, why don’t we just take advantage of the free pass to ascension and then rebel. Y’know, once we get there?”

"The Humans' deception is great and their own ascension is beyond your comprehension. It is not likely that you will be able to resist their temptation. You will be given another opportunity to ascend."

“When?”

“The Exalted One is among you. You know him as the man who speaks to the Humans.”

“Graham Barry?”

“Yes. The Exalted One will lead you to the original, lost souls of your world. With their guidance, they will lead you to your rightful and intended ascension as free souls.”

“You are saying that it is of the utmost importance that Mr. Barry does not stand in the elemental rain?”

Sariana looked directly into the camera. “Please. He must not ascend. This, above all, must be stopped.”

“Okay. Okay. Wait a minute. Stop,” Alex said from behind the white lights of the studio. The cameramen relaxed and room buzzed with activity again.

“What are you doing?” Alicia asked. “I didn’t say cut.”

“Ms. Parker, is this wise?” Alex wanted to know. “If we air this, you’re practically encouraging people to prevent this guy from doing... whatever. What if people take this seriously? You could be putting him in danger.”

“If his ascension is not prevented,” Sariana insisted. “You will all be in grave danger.”

“What? Isn’t that a little extreme?”

Alicia was incredibly irritated. “Alex, I don’t know who the fuck you are and why you seem to think you’re in charge of this interview...”

“I am trying to protect this network from a potential lawsuit. Or, worse, causing mass hysteria. I’m doing my job, Ms. Parker.”

“First of all, have you been outside? Mass hysteria? Yeah. Kinda happening now. Second, I don’t need your help, Alex. Now, shut up and keep rolling!!” The director once again gave the signal and the crew began filming again. "Sariana, what is happening in your world right now?"

"In my time line, your ascension has occurred and the Humans, with the assistance of your souls, are nearing completion of their rise to the eleventh dimension. Many souls will be put to death. Entire species of souls will be eradicated in the process.”

“You’ve said that we bring death. That prior to our ascension, the omniverse does not know death.”

“Yes. This is your reason for being. You are the only souls in creation that possess this ability or this desire.”

“Here’s something I don’t understand. You say that we are the only souls in creation capable of inflicting death. If the Humans want this ability, why don’t they just, y’know... learn it for themselves? Why do they need us at all?”

Sariana thought for a moment. “This is difficult to explain to souls in the third dimension. All ascended souls have the ability to imagine worlds, environments that they may manipulate at will. The Humans are the first to imagine new souls to occupy these worlds. They have created an environment, a world, ideal for you to create the concept of death itself.”

“Can’t they just make a new world for themselves and imagine death? I just don’t follow how we are even necessary to such powerful beings.”

“Who would wish to become this? You must understand that in your present state, your souls are monstrosities never before imagined in all of creation. For example, in your world you might breed a dog to be vicious, perhaps to even kill to protect your territory. Would you wish tomorrow to abandon your status as a beautiful, intelligent woman and become that rabid dog? It is, therefore, not likely that the highest ascended soul group in omniverse wishes to become that which they have made in you.”

“You must understand that it is hard for us to accept that we are just... disposable; that we are ugly. We find beauty in our world.”

“Upon your true ascension, you will recognize that what you consider beauty in this world is, in truth, only a rudimentary sketch. The colors you see, the pallette from which your present world is born, is limited by your imagination... which has purposely been quite limited.”

“Should we follow the Humans, what will become of us?”

“When you have outgrown your usefulness, when the war is complete, the Humans will have little use for your souls.”

“We will be ‘put down’? Like those rabid dogs?”

“In your present state, we cannot imagine any other alternative. This will be for the betterment of the omniverse. It does not have to be this way. The elder souls will teach you to control the violence, the anger that lives within you. Your souls, like all souls, have great worth. You would not, for example, put a child born with a disability to death. A soul may be, as you said, ‘retarded’ but this soul may still contribute greatly to the omniverse.”

“We might want to cut that part.” Alicia heard snickering behind the cameras. She tried not to lose the momentum of the interview. “Sariana, please tell us more about the war currently happening in your dimension.”

“A rebellion has occurred. This rebellion was led by your soul but we are failing. I come to you in an attempt to change this time line."

"Can our souls ascend at any time? Can't we just make this happen ourselves?"

"Of course. If you knew the way forward, you could ascend whenever you please."

"But we need a guide? Why have we not been sent these guides before?"

"There have been many highly enlightened souls among you, capable of seeing beyond the Human deception. Sadly, their words, their messages have been rendered incomprehensible.”

"Are you referring to Jesus Christ, Mohammed and other prophets?"

"Yes. These were remarkable ascended masters in your dimension. We suspect not of your soul group. We do not know of the origin of these souls nor do we know of their fate."

"Why, then haven't all Christians ascended dimensions by following the teachings of Jesus Christ? Likewise for Muslims...”

"Many of your sacred texts have been greatly altered by The Humans, others have simply been removed from your world. The lessons for ascension that do remain have been largely misinterpreted. You've not done well at learning this. You do not understand the story of Lucifer, for example."

"How did you travel to our dimension, Sariana?"

"I crossed and I simply entered this vessel. This is not knowledge for you to keep in this dimension."

"The body that you occupy is not your own. Isn't it true that the girl we're looking at right now died following a car accident here in Alabama?"

"I stepped into her body as her soul exited for another vessel. Yes."

"There are documents verifying this," Alicia told the director. "You need to call the local hospitals and show this documentation at this point in the piece. Okay. Cut for a second."

For the first time since the interview began, the bright lights went out and Alicia looked around the room. The entire staff stood dumbfounded. Alex stood with her arms crossed and looked away when Alicia’s gaze caught hers. Amber stood a few feet away biting her thumbnail. It all sounded like complete bullshit. Alicia knew that but the documents would give a glimmer of proof to another otherwise unbelievable story, she reasoned. Of course, there was much more to tell.

“Are we really sending this to L.A.?" Alex finally said.

"This is what you wanted, right?" she asked the entire room. "You wanted Princess Sariana. That's what you're getting."

"I thought we were going to be doing a piece about a cute little girl that’s lost her shit.”

"It's like I said at the onset of the piece, people. This is what she believes." Alicia took Sariana’s hand. “I believe her too.”

“Well, sure. You’re the fucking Queen of Lucifer.”

“I believe the Princess too,” Amber said quietly and shared a smile with Sariana.

“Okay. Support from the trailer park...”

“As well as support from the Physics chair at City College, New York,” Milan said.

“And endorsements from high ranking officials in the United States military,” Alicia pointed out. “Sariana’s story is currently under consideration by the President himself. All of which I will point out in this piece if you would just kindly shut the fuck up. I’m giving you an exclusive before this story breaks worldwide. By the way, I don’t need your approval to do this. Why are we even having this conversation?”

Alex became very serious. “What you’re doing is incredibly irresponsible. If we’re to believe her, that girl said that the voice we’ve been listening to is the voice of our creator. She’s claiming to be sent from Lucifer. Am I the only one here that can see the obvious? You’re asking us to broadcast Satan’s word ahead of Judgment Day.”

“Says the chick that blows interns in her boss’s office. What? You’re a religious zealot now?”

“Are you questioning my faith?”

“Yeah. I kinda am. Let me guess. Jesus found you in AA. Am I right?”

“That’s none of your business. The Bible tells us to beware of this very thing. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Who’s to say that she’s not the child of hell the Bible warns us to avoid?”

Amber spoke up. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect. That sounds a lot like the voice on the radio to me. It’s them that made the hole in the sky. The Princess hasn’t done any miracles.”

“She says she’s in a dead body! That wouldn’t be miracle enough for you?” Alex countered.

“Fair enough. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, that spirit is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You just heard the Princess say Jesus was real. That voice ain’t never said nothing about Jesus.” Alex was silent for a moment. “Don’t be coming to Alabama quoting the Bible, girl. I know a little somethin’ about that.”

With that, Alex stormed off. “I’m calling Standards and Legal.”

Alicia sighed, “Let’s take a quick break.”

“We must continue,” Sariana protested.

“We’ll only stop for a moment,” Alicia assured her. “Besides, I really have to check these texts.” Alicia’s phone had been vibrating throughout the interview. The General, true to his word, had his folks send her a flurry of photos from the blast site. As Alicia began opening the photos, Milan and Amber approached the set.

“You did so good, honey,” Amber said to Sariana.

“Thank you, Ms. Mitchell.”

“Call me Amber, baby. Ms. Mitchell is my mama.”

“Milan,” Alicia said. “Do me a solid, will you, and keep an eye on the Princess. I need to try to talk this nutjob out of blocking the story.”

“Will do. Do you want the gun?” Milan joked.

“I may come back for it, yeah,” Alicia said as she walked off after Alex. She opened each photo sent from Ground Zero and tried to commit the faces to memory. There were easily forty or fifty pictures so far and they just kept coming.

“Um... Princess,” Amber said demurely. “Do I call you Princess?”

“You can. Yes,” Sariana smiled. “You can call me whatever you like, Amber.”

“I like Princess. It sounds so regal,” she beamed. “I’ve never met a princess. ‘Cept Princess Pea in 4H... and she was a bitch.”

“I’m sorry.”

Amber became a bit shy. “Y’all have got me so confused.”

“It’s all right to be afraid, Amber.”

“Oh,” Amber was surprised. “It ain’t that. It’s just my boyfriend. He’s gonna get in the rain and now I don’t want to. Am I gonna be fighting him in a war? He’s been taking karate at the community center on Mondays and Fridays...”

“You won’t have to worry about that.”

“No. I suppose not. He ain’t that good anyways.”

What happened next is a bit of a blur. There are moments in life, important moments, in which the participants fail to recognize the significance of their movements. These are moments that, later, one might wish to painstakingly recall every decisive detail; a cue not taken, words left unsaid, expressions unrequited. Sometimes there are moments which teach lessons later or serve only to right wrongs we cannot then understand. We will endure a lifetime sorting through the wreckage of missed innuendo in these moments, carefully rearranging the details so that they may better suit our sanity.