Daniel nods. “Adam has the science part down. He is not as schooled in the spiritual side of this equation. One that I am very familiar with.”
Daniel looks at each of us. “Let me try and explain. I think each of you has experienced divine interventions recently. Interventions that are not completely explainable through science alone. Well, that is because science is only half of the equation. ”
We each glance at each other. We have experienced some crazy shi….stuff within the past few months, let alone the battle we were thrown into in the Aoikigahara forest two days ago. Now, we have lost two of our own to another universe.
Possessing supernatural abilities, encountering paranormal events, and experiencing celestial entities; all of these things have become transparent to us. To the rest of mankind, these phenomenon are still opaque and taboo. Anyone experiencing what we have would need to admit at some point that we are not just dealing with scientifically provable events here. I agree with all of that. Still, how can Daniel be so sure that we are dealing with a realm that could be a true Heaven or Hell?
All eyes are on Daniel, waiting for him to justify his speculation . “In the forest, you encountered beings that passed through the wormhole, yes? Giants beings and other things, am I right?”
We all nod.
The giant, it attacked Nate,
and then came after me. Ezra brought it down trying to save me. I look at Daniel, “One attacked Nate, and then came after me in the forest.”
Daniel
’s face quirks. “Are you sure it attacked you?”
I think back on the events in the forest when I saw the giant. I recall it charging Nate,
and then coming for me again before I respond. “It charged Nate, and the force threw him across the meadow we were in. Then, it came after me. Ezra killed it.”
Daniel lowered his face into his hands and shook his head from side to side. I don’t understand his response. I feel like I should defend Ezra’s actions. “He was protecting me from it.”
Daniel pulls his hands away and looks at me. “Did you consider that it might have been trying to protect you?”
I respond to him angrily, “Protect us! The thing charged Nate. I
t could have killed him and me.”
Daniel sighs loudly. “Yes, it could have killed Nate easily. A giant of its size and stature could have obliterated him. Instead, it charged him with only enough force to clear him from the meadow, the battle. Why do you think that is?”
No matter how much I wanted to fight him on this, he had a valid point. Nate could have easily been killed if it had malevolent intentions.
Daniel
says, “They aren’t the enemy. I believe what you encountered was Nephilim.”
I had heard that word before. “Nephilim. That is biblical.”
Daniel, “Nephilim, Hebrew for ‘the fallen’, fallen from where though? Beyond the veil of our universe? Within Andromeda or another realm we haven’t unveiled yet?”
It isn’t the first time, or first person to provoke my thoughts about what exists out there that is not of this world. Places that have been prophesied but never revealed to us as existing without a shadow of a doubt.
Xander throws his hands up in the air. “How are we supposed to know who is here to help us if we don’t know if they are attacking or protecting us?”
Daniel, “Faith, and I’m not talking about just the religious kind. The kind of faith that comes from a reliance on your spirit, your soul. You have to trust it. The other beings you experienced in the forest, some of them appeared to be human, but they were not.”
Jake interrupts, “Shape shifters.”
Daniel looks at Jake. “In order to not appear as a threat and adapt to those around them. That is there defense to be able to walk among us. There are other beings though that are not shifters. They are more like occupiers.”
Siobhan, “Occupiers. Like take over a human vessel type thing?”
Her comment makes me think of the files Ezra was sifting through one night in the back in Florida. The files detailed the victims of recent abductions centered around what we later realized was Sam Crest. When the abducted resurfaced days later, they began to show signs of what one might think to be demonic possession. The files detailed psychological evaluations turning up nothing and families turning to their faith to try and help the victims. The files described the victims speaking in tongues and contorting their bodies into unnatural, inhuman positions. Ezra said that all of the victims said one particular phrase in all of the accounts in an ancient language; “We are coming.”
My voice sounds dry and crackly when I formulate one word from my thoughts. “Possession.”
Everyone looks at me, shocked from my word choice. Everyone except Sebastian, Balthazar, and Daniel who look at me with an understanding that I have seen things that the others on our team have not yet.
“I saw some of the abduction files Ezra was reading over one night. These ‘occupiers’ said they were going to come for us through the abducted vessels.”
Daniel nods. “The Copulas have been the conduit, the beacon leading them to us.”
“I think the beings after Nate and Ezra are the same ones that ‘occupied’ those victims in the files.”
Daniel
continues, “I think you are right. These beings beyond our universe exist as souls, ghosts, apparitions; physical bodies aren’t necessary. But here, in our world, bodies are necessary for them to adapt and hide among us. They need to possess our bodies to dwell in our world.”
“They are evil then, using us as hosts. Like a demon would use a body to possess.”
Daniel closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yes, they are.”
Jake interjects, “But, you aren’t talking horns and tails.”
Daniel, “No, not horns and tails. However, that was a very inventive depiction of them by artists over the centuries. Same for angels I might add; the halo and wings. Demons were depicted with horns and tails to reflect their savage and animal-like nature. Angels were depicted with halos and wings, showing their guardian-like qualities toward humanity and the unworldly abilities they possessed, like the ability to fly. They did not have wings, but this appearance of them in images depicted their ability to levitate very well.”
Guardians. Humanity. Abilities. Celestial beings.
“Are we the angels?” I say it before I think.
Again, everyone’s gaze moves from Daniel to me. I wait for one of them to call me out on it and say that I am full of it for thinking that. At least that would make me second guess what my intuition is saying. None of them do though. Crap!
Daniel clears his throat. “We are guardians, soldiers, just as they were. Could they have been the guardians to place the veil, the sheath, between our universe and others? Now the veil has been breached by us, a seal broken, there is no barrier. Now, Michael Sanderson’s obsession to learn more about what is out there beyond us by orchestrating the events leading up to the intersection, has given what is beyond our universe an open invitation to enter it.”
Xander
asks, “You mean Sam opening the wormhole for the Sondians in that forest?”
Daniel nods.
“And Ezra and Nate.”
Balthazar
adds, “Now that the veil has been parted, our world risks invasion.”
Daniel looks at me now. “We are the guardians, the angels, that have been purposed to maintain that seal. It is our destiny.”
The truth he speaks is hard to swallow and the gulp I take leaves a hint of something metallic on my tongue; strange.
I try and make the connection, that all beings beyond the veil are not evil.
“My mother, she came to me at the cabin. It was her soul. She came from beyond the veil I know it.”
I look at Sebastian. “Your wife, Dobria, her soul came to you.” Then at Monica. “Did your mother come to you?”
Finally, I look at Xander. “Your parents and grandmother. Their souls are all there, somewhere beyond this veil.”
Monica nods and looks down at her hands intertwined in her lap as she confesses. “My mother has come to me in dreams more often since the intersection.”
I look at Sebastian and he nods. “Dobria has been coming to me as well.”
“I think they can help us. They can be our support from the other side.”
Daniel asks, “Yes, they are the good beyond the veil, but which one?”
“Which one?”
Daniel looks at Sebastian, then Balthazar. “Andromeda is only one opening beyond our universe, beyond the veil. One opening that bears unthinkable, parasitic beings eager to devour us and take our world for their own.”
Daniel looks at each of the guardians. “How could our loved ones souls dwell in a realm lik
e that?” Daniel shakes his head. “I think there is another universe and its veil has thinned to our universe as well. Another universe that holds the souls of those that have passed and were good, righteous. Heaven or not, what if that realm holds the answers for our world’s salvation? For mankind’s salvation?”
Daniel rests his eyes on
me now. “And what if that realm has answers of why we have been purposed with this legacy?”
I close my eyes for a moment to take in the grandness of what is reeling in my mind. How Andromeda could be the metaphoric hell that Ezra contemplated the night he told me what I was; a Dobrian guardian. How a metaphoric heaven may exist somewhere else beyond us and how these two realms are at war for our world and mankind. Suddenly behind my closed eyes I see Nate. The image of him quickly shifts into a feeling; fear and panic. My heart jumps when I inhale and smell him, feel him all around me. Then, his whisper falls on my ear.
“Ezra, I can’t breathe! My throat, it is closing!”
Oh my God!
My eyes snap open and the room spins out of control; vertigo. I plant both hands on the table in front of me for support and pinch my eyes closed to stop the spinning motion. That’s when I see the image of Nate, holding his throat, gasping. “Xander! He can’t breathe!”
I hear chairs screeching, feet moving quickly, and Elisha’s voice, “Jesca?”
Xander’s strong hands are on my shoulders and he is pulling me up from my chair as I grab a fistful of his shirt. His voice is urgent. “Jes, open your eyes! Look at me!”
I feel Xander grab hold of my face with both of his hands. He yells now, “Jesca, who can’t breathe?”
I can’t open my eyes. If I do I might lose what I am seeing and feeling, I might lose Nate. I whimper past the fiery burn filling my esophagus. I hear a wheezing sound coming from my throat when I inhale and exhale now. “I can see him…and feel…what he... is feeling… I think he is going...to d
ie! Oh my God… where is Ezra? Why can’t I see Ezra too?”
I feel the tension in Xander’s hands as he brushes my hair away from my face. His voice strains. “Let me in your head
, Jes!”
I growl between wheezes, “No!... I can’t!...It is too risky!...I can’t lose you too!”
I think about me getting lost in Corinna’s head and Xander having to come after me. I know he is strong, but this is different. If I let him in, he may start experiencing what I am, and then he would be lost in here with me. I can’t risk him this time.
Xander grabs
hold of my shoulders tightly and growls at me, “Damn it, Jes! Please, I need you to let me in!”
Sebastian is at my ear urgently pleading with me. “Jesca, let Xander in. You can’t handle saving Nate alone. Your connection with him is vulnerable and you are dying along with him! You need to let him help now!”
Wheezing and my body trembling, I slowly let my mental wall dissolve to let Xander in. I feel his presence in my head instantly, just as I had when he brought me out of Corinna’s mind.
With Xander in my head now, I focus on Nate and his surroundings, knowing that Xander will find him faster in my head if I do. Everything appears blurry, accept for a wooded park-like patch in the distance. It only is visible for a moment, then disappears into the fog. Then two silhouettes take shape. They are facing each other and one of the silhouettes’ hands are resting on the other’s shoulders. It has to be Nate and Ezra, I can feel their presence.
I hear Xander in my head, “Jes, I can see them!”
As soon as he says those words, the fog lifts around Nate and Ezra and their f
orms begin to become more vivid. Feeling Xander at my side now, I turn to see him standing next to me. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like the only thing separating Nate and Ezra from Xander and I is a thick fog. It isn’t that simple though, nothing is anymore.
Suddenly, Nate collapses to the ground. Without a second thought,
I lunge forward through the mist landing on my knees next to him. My voice squeaks as I wheeze, “Nate...I’m here... Xander...and I... are here!” Wait, he is not responding to me. Why isn’t he responding to my voice?
I look at Ezra, kneeling beside Nate now, hand on his back. I squeak urgently, “Ezra...can you...hear me?”
He doesn’t even flinch. I reach my hand toward Nate to touch him and get his attention, but Xander stops my advance. I turn to him angrily and yank my hand away. He grabs both my hands and forces me to turn to him as he kneels next to me. “They can’t hear us! Reaching out to him is like reaching for thin air, Jes!”