Horizon, Soul Guardians Book 3 (15 page)

“
Kara! Thank god.” David’s
worried expression faded into one of intense relief. He rushed up
to Kara and wrapped his arms around her. He squeezed her
tenderly.

While she enjoyed being held by David,
she pushed him back gently. “David, what happened? What is this
place?”

David shook his head. “I have no
freaking idea,” he said warily. “Never been here
before.”

“
Why didn’t we make the
leap to the elevators?” Kara looked around again, hoping to see the
disapproving glare of one of the primates. But there was only fog,
spread out as far as the eye could see.

“
Something must have
happened to disrupt our transition.” David’s face was tense. “I
don’t know where we are, but I know we’re not in Horizon.” David
turned to Kara. “Is this the Netherworld?”

“
No.” Kara shrugged as she
remembered the demon realm. Evil lurked in the shadows there, and
voices had called out to her. She’d had an eerie feeling of
malevolence following her in the Netherworld. She shook off the
memory. “Trust me, the demon realm is foul—really foul. This … this
feels … empty.”

“
Well, it’s not exactly
helping our cause.” David paced, his face pulled tight. “If there’s
a way in—there’s got to be a way out. We just have to find
it.”

Kara nodded. “You’re right. We landed
here somehow. There has to be a way out of this miserable fog.” She
whirled around on the spot. “Where do we start? Everywhere looks
the same.”

David glanced ahead. “Let’s go this
way.” He pointed straight ahead. “Looks like the fog is clearing
up. It might lead us somewhere.”

Kara followed David closely, for fear
of losing him in the thick mist.

A dark figure materialized before
them.

Kara tensed and brandished her weapon.
She watched David doing the same in the corner of her eye. They
stood together, side-by-side, and waited.

The fog lifted, and the silhouette of
a tall man glided towards them. He wore a long black robe that
rippled behind him as he neared. A rope belt was tied around his
waist, from which dangled a set of keys. She could hear the slight
clang of them as he neared, but no footsteps. It was as though he
floated. A hood kept his face in shadow, and when he got closer,
Kara saw that he had no face. Kara shivered involuntarily—it looked
demonic to her.

David stepped forward and waved his
blade, a smile on his lips. “I wouldn’t come any closer—monk—unless
you’re looking to meet your maker.”

The being stood still, as though it
was studying them. After a moment it spoke. “I am the Keeper,” said
the creature, and Kara wondered how it could form a voice without a
mouth to articulate words. The voice was hoarse and high pitched.
Kara thought perhaps the Keeper was female. A very ugly female, she
thought.

David cocked his head, but didn’t
lower his blade. “Keeper? Never heard of you. What kind of demon
are you, Keeper? Keeper of souls? Keeper of little
children?”

The Keeper shook its head. “I am not a
demon, but a supernatural entity, like you.”

“
You’re nothing like us.”
David glared at the creature. “Where are we, Keeper? And don’t try
any of your demon tricks.”

The Keeper raised its arms before
them. White skeletal hands appeared beneath rolls of sleeves. Thin
translucent skin was stretched over the bones. “You are in the
eighth plane. And I am its Keeper.”

Kara leaned closer and grabbed a fist
full of David’s jacket. She whispered in his ear. “What’s the
eighth plane?” David shook his head and shrugged. Fear nipped the
back of Kara’s mind. But there was no time or place for fear. Her
priority was to get the crucial information to the Legion, before
Asmodeus attacked.

Uncertainty spread over David’s face.
“We’ve never heard of the eighth plane. Tell me, Keeper. How did we
get here?”

The Keeper tilted its head to the
side. “Just like all the other spirits before you … your
supernatural bodies passed through the veil … and entered the
eighth plane.”

Kara didn’t like that answer, and she
was in no mood for more riddles. She thought she might have better
luck with this creature than David did.

“
Okay, so tell me.
What
is
the
eighth plane, Keeper?” asked Kara.

The Keeper folded its skeletal hands
calmly before it. “The eighth plane is a realm for spirits that
have lost their way. It is a place of refuge, a gathering. It is
nowhere and everywhere at once.”

It was Kara’s time to step forward.
She shook her head. “Wait a minute. So you’re saying our spirits
got lost? We got lost on the way back to Horizon?”

“
Yes.” The Keeper bowed its
head lightly, and Kara thought it looked sad for a moment.
“Unfortunately, your spirits couldn’t reach Horizon. And so they
have passed through the veil to the eighth plane.”

“
But how is that even
possible?” David asked, and Kara could hear the frustration in his
voice. She felt her own irritation rise. “Spirits can’t get lost.
There’s no such thing as the eighth plane. You’re lying. You’re
trying to trick us, demon! Tell us where we really are … are we in
some demon realm?”

The Keeper stood quietly for a moment
before answering. Kara noticed its fingers twitch, and she wondered
if it was getting nervous. Only liars get nervous.

“
I am not trying to trick
you,” continued the Keeper. “I am no demon trickster … but the
Keeper of the eighth plane. I’m afraid the doorways to Horizon have
been closed.”

Kara flinched. This
couldn’t be happening—not when the Legion’s survival depended on
them. She took a step forward toward the Keeper. She pointed to the
creature with a trembling finger. “What do you mean by
closed
? How can they be
closed? That’s impossible!”

“
There is an imbalance in
the planes.” The Keeper looked up into the endless fog, and Kara
wondered where his eyes would be on that milky face.

“
Something is happening in
our spirit world at this very moment. This anomaly somehow has
caused a fracture in the planes. That is why your bodies have come
here … to the eighth plane.”

Panic ate through Kara, like acid
eating through metal. “What anomaly? What fractured the planes?”
Her father’s image echoed in her mind. She tightened her grip on
her blade.

“
Only something of great
power could tear a hole in the veil,” answered the Keeper. “We are
… unsure of its origin … we do not know where the source of this
power comes from, but we are certain of the damage it has caused to
our world.”

Kara exchanged a look with David. She
could tell by the look he gave her that they both agreed as to
where this source came from, and who the source was. They had
already wasted too much time speaking to the faceless Keeper. They
needed to get out, and fast.

“
There’ll be more damage
soon if you don’t send us back quickly,” pressed Kara. “We need to
leave, and we need to leave right now. We have to warn
them!”

The Keeper shook its head sadly. “I am
sorry, but I cannot.”

Kara’s temper rose, and before David
could interject, she cut him off. “You must! You don’t understand.
There is going to be a huge war. Angels are going to be killed. You
have to send us back—now!”

“
I’m sorry,” repeated the
Keeper, its voice gentle. “Once your spirit has entered the eighth
plane, it can never go back. It will remain here …
forever.”

Chapter 12

On stage

“
T
his can’t be happening!” Kara hit her head in frustration and
stomped her feet. “There’s got to be a way, there has to be! We
can’t stay here—we need to get back to Horizon, this
instant!”

“
I am truly, sorry.” The
Keeper lowered its head. It seemed to reflect for a moment. “You
will find the eighth plane quite agreeable. This is merely a small
portion of the plane. It can be … quite beautiful, in its own
way.”

Kara grabbed David’s arm and turned
him around. “David. We can’t stay here! We have to warn the
Legion.” She fought to control her trembling, and squeezed his arm
harder than she wanted.

David raked his fingers in his hair
and yelled out in frustration. “Keeper. Tells us how to get out!
There’s a way in, so there must be a way out.”

The Keeper just shook its head and
didn’t answer. Its face was expressionless and Kara wondered if it
were laughing at them right now, hidden behind its white mask of a
face. Perhaps this was a trickster demon who played with their
emotions and deliberately kept their escape a secret.

Demon or not, she couldn’t stay here
and let her soul wither away while Horizon died. She had to do
something. She was desperate.

With desperation, come desperate
actions. Kara held her blade with trembling hands. She walked up to
the Keeper and pointed her blade towards its face. “Tells us how to
leave, or it’s going to get ugly.” She sighed loudly. “I’m not
going to ask you again.”

The Keeper took a step back, its body
twisted in an unnatural way. It lifted its skeletal arms in a plea.
“You cannot be serious. I am only a messenger. I do not make the
rules. Please put down your weapon.”

“
I don’t care who makes the
rules!” Kara moved toward the creature, she wasn’t sure what she
was about to do, but she had to do something. “You know how to get
out of here—tell us! Tell us now, or I’m going to cut you up!” She
mimicked the movement with her arm.

The Keeper retreated. It tripped on
its own robe, and nearly fell. It caught itself just in time and
straightened. “Please! I am no threat. Please don’t hurt me. I’m
defenseless. I am only the messenger—”

With her anger about to explode, Kara
grabbed the Keeper’s arm and yanked it forward—

The arm came apart.

Kara stared stupidly at a plastic
skeletal arm. It looked like Max, the mascot skeleton from her high
school’s biology class. Kara pursed her lips into a thin line. She
turned to the Keeper, grabbed a handful of its robe, and kicked it
in the stomach.

Two tiny men spilled out from under
the cloth. They hit the ground and rolled to a stop. Scrambling,
they got to their feet and backed away from Kara, the whites of
their eyes showing. They wore simple overalls with white shirts.
The taller one had red curly hair that framed his pointy face. The
other was balding, with wisps of light brown hair floating off his
head. They were middle aged, with neatly trimmed beards. Both were
terrified. If Kara hadn’t been so angry, she would have laughed.
Instead, she growled like an animal.

“
What is the meaning of
this?” She hissed and threw the robe to the ground. “You better
start explaining yourselves … or I will cut your little bodies into
tiny little pieces!”

One of the small men flashed his
teeth. He rubbed his hands together nervously. “W—we were just
having a little fun, that is all. We never dreamed angels could get
so … so violent.” He forced a smile again. His voice was
unnaturally high for a man his age, and Kara was sure this was the
one who had done the talking.

“
Yes. Please forgive us,”
said the other man who looked as though he was about to cry. “We
get bored you see, and we just wanted to have a little fun. It’s
just a show.”

Kara heard David snort. Kara raised
her eyebrows. She wasn’t impressed. This was no laughing matter.
She stood staring down at the tiny men, irritated to be part of
this charade.

“
What show? And no more
funny business.”

“
Yes ma’am.” Both men bowed
at the same time. After a moment, they lifted their arms in the air
and shouted. “Okay, boys and girls. Show’s over! Pack it
up!”

The ground shook beneath Kara’s feet
and loud noises rang in her ears like cracks of thunder. The fog
dissipated. Giant white panels on wheels were pushed away by tiny
men and women in denim overalls. The endless heavens of the eighth
plane were transformed into a crowded warehouse. Kara recognized
the three large smoke machines that were being hauled away. She
blinked into massive spotlights. With a click, they turned off. She
stood staring around her. This was a set, she realized, with props
and smoke machines. This was what the little men had meant by a
show. Kara and David had just been part of one. She pursed her
lips. It only made her angrier.

“
Hey! Wait a minute.” Kara
went for the little man with the red hair and grabbed his arm. She
pulled him around to face her. “For your own good, I’m willing to
forget the fact that you just wasted our time with your ridiculous
show—but you better tell me the truth now. What is this place? What
are we doing here?”

The little man scratched
the back of his neck. “Well, it’s as we told you before … when we
were in character. This
is
the eighth plane. And unfortunately, no one is
allowed to leave.”

“
Not allowed to leave?”
David was becoming irritated, too. “Who says? Who’s in charge
here?” His blues eyes flashed dangerously.