part0022

An orange wave pulsed out of the rift. Roni braced herself, expecting time to slow and sound to cease. But the light dissipated like water soaked up into a sponge. Sister Mary, Sister Claudia, and Roni exchanged confused gazes.

A distant sound grew like the winding up of a helicopter blade. Thrum thrum thrum . As the sound grew louder, it bounced off the walls doubling the noise.

Continuing her steady rhythmic chanting, Sister Mary said, “I am here. Your vessel. Hear my voice. Let it be your lighthouse.”

Another orange wave pulsed. Roni could not help but flinch. This time, however, four smokeball creatures shot out of the rift, each one making that strong thrum as they broke into this universe.

The creatures pivoted in the air and went straight for Elliot’s protection dome. As Roni watched the maneuver, her eyes were drawn away by a dark spot forming in the middle of the rift. The spot did not move with the cloudy swirls of the rift. Instead it grew. It was a black, smoky thing — with touches of purple.

As the helicopter thrumming continued, Roni’s stomach sank. Sister Mary broke into ecstatic laughter.

Roni put it all together — the smoke, the thrumming, the emergence of those creatures — and she took one step toward Gram. Sister Claudia latched onto Roni’s arm and held her back. In that same moment, the creatures busted through.

Thrum thrum thrum . Each sound spat a new smoke creature from the rift. They shot out like bullets machine-gunning through the air.

Roni dropped to the floor, taking Sister Claudia with her. The rifters rattled overhead as they kept coming in a steady stream of purple-black smoke. The roar of their entrance rivaled any giant machine mankind had made. Sifting through the rhythmic crescendo, Roni could hear Sister Mary’s gleeful cries.

Something metal wrapped around Roni’s wrist — Gram’s chain. She glanced up and snatched a peak. Her grandmother’s face betrayed the desperation in her heart. Roni scrambled across the floor, but Sister Claudia latched to her foot.

Roni tried to kick loose. The nun’s grip was tight. She flashed a vicious grin promising never to let go. Gram pulled harder on the chain. Roni wondered if Gram might do Sister Claudia’s work for her — dislocate Roni’s arm and cause serious injury.

Sister Claudia repositioned her legs to give her more leverage. “Open your mouth. Let the Angels in.”

As she leaned back, the strain on Roni’s leg worsened. One of these two women would soon rip Roni apart.

Not going to happen, Roni thought.

She let go of the chain. The sudden change in force sent Sister Claudia tumbling backward. Roni hit the floor hard on her tailbone and cried out. She rolled onto her stomach, popped to her knees, and raced across the floor. She could hear Sister Claudia growling as the nun recovered. The air had become thick with purple-black smoke, and Roni feared breathing in too deeply. Up ahead, she saw Gram’s chain.

“I’m going to destroy you,” Sister Claudia said, her voice louder, closer, more animalistic than Roni dared imagine.

Roni had the urge to glance back, to see if her ears misjudged the distance, but she kept her focus on that chain. So close.

Something touched her — a finger grazing her back. Roni vaulted forward. Her hand grabbed the end of the chain and she rolled up upon it like a scroll trying to tie itself. “Now, Gram! Now!”

The chain snapped taut and zipped against the ground as Gram pulled hard. Like a flapping fish, Roni tumbled as Gram reeled her in toward the protection of Elliot’s dome. The chain spun Roni around. Skidding on her back, ignoring the burn of her tearing skin, she saw Sister Claudia stand full upright. The nun sprinted after her with a face glowing with green anger.

Roni passed through into the dome, and all the rage of Sister Claudia, all the maniacal chanting of Sister Mary, all the jackhammering thrums of the rifters pouring into the room — all of it muted. Roni heard her own hard breathing and little more. She felt the fire in her shoulder and the pulsing aches in her hips. Sweat covered her body, stinging her lips with saltiness.

As Gram spooled her chain up her sleeve, Roni crawled over and hugged the old woman. Gram did not hesitate to return the touch. Roni pressed her face into her grandmother’s safe bosom and the strength of Gram’s arms around her found the right amount of pressure to exert. The embrace lasted only seconds but it would take two libraries full of books to express it in words between them.

“Look,” Gram whispered.

Roni followed her gaze. Sister Mary and Sister Claudia crouched on the floor, their arms around each other. They no longer looked joyous or ecstatic or even maniacal. They looked alarmed.

Both had bruises on their faces. Sister Mary’s right cheek bled from an open gash. Sister Claudia’s tunic had been torn. Tears wet her cheeks.

“How have we failed you?” Sister Mary cried out.

“Please, forgive us.” Sister Claudia covered her face and lowered her head.

Roni tightened her grip on Gram’s arm. “Can you save them?”

Gram shook her head. “They have those creatures inside them. The dome filters out all bio-signatures but ours. If we permit them into the dome, we will let the creature’s biological signature in as well. The dome won’t work for us anymore. All those things will flood in here.” Gram clutched the crucifix around her neck. “I will send my prayers for them.”

Roni held back shouting that she had Maria inside her. Since the dome continued to work, Maria could not be one of the rifters. But she knew the argument already — Maria, whatever she was, came partially from the real Maria. Of course, she wasn’t a rifter. Of course, the dome would hold.

Without warning, a swarm of rifters paused in the air. Using that same silent communication Roni had seen before, they turned toward the nuns. Though the creatures lacked eyes or mouths or any visible sign of a face, Roni swore they looked upon the Sisters with malevolent glee.

Like angry wasps, the creatures dove in on the nuns. Sister Mary gyrated as one hit after another pummeled her body. Sister Claudia remained prone on the ground, shuddering under the endless attacks. The screams of both nuns vibrated through the air as their flesh tore from their bodies. Blood splashed into the air but the swarm of purple-black smoke soaked it up before it could return to the floor. Their cries worsened as their muscles tore. Soon though, they lacked throats with which to make any sound. Seconds later, bones and glistening flesh were all that remained of the two women.

Watching as the smoke creatures changed course to pile up against the dome, Roni turned towards Gram. “Now what do we do?”

Though safe for the moment, Roni understood that soon the dome would crumble. Elliot had lowered his forehead to his cane — all his strength and concentration poured into keeping that dome together. But the air glowed purple from the mass of the creatures surrounding them. The numerous rifters blocked out the sunlight. They had become a brick wall made of purple-black smoke, and soon Elliot’s strength would fail.

“I am so sorry, ladies,” he said, his voice weak and strained. “I can only hold on a little longer.”

Roni watched the creatures pushing against each other, writhing in their attempts to break through. She imagined the pain that would come. She did not want to die, of course. But most of all, she did not want to die the way the nuns had.

A crack formed halfway up the dome. While Roni knew the dome had been made only of energy, that there was no glass or solid surface of any kind to actually crack, Elliot’s weakening condition manifested in this manner. Or perhaps she was wrong — she had limited knowledge about the Parallel Society. Perhaps the dome he had created this time actually was made of a solid substance. After all, she could hear the cracking as she watched the splits spider outward in different directions.

Wisps of purplish smoke seeped through. Roni and Gram skirted backward, pressing up against one of the two stone walls making the corner. When Elliot’s hand slipped down his cane, the crack widened — still not large enough for an entire rifter to slip through, but plenty of their probing, smoky tendrils found ways in.

Gram put her arm around Roni’s shoulder and clasped her head with the other hand. She pulled Roni’s face down to her breast and held her tight. “I’m sorry for all you’ve had to suffer through. Your mother and father had so many secrets, and it was never fair for you to be burdened with that mystery. I’m sorry you never got to understand about your lost time. I can only offer you my arms and my prayers. I hope the Lord can forgive us all our trespasses and I pray we shall be sent to His loving bosom.”

Under any other circumstance, Roni would have been offended by Gram’s words. But here, as Elliot dropped to his knees and the dome ripped into pieces, she found Gram’s warmth comforting.

A storm of rifters slammed downward into the dome.

A loud bang like modern demolition.

Roni’s head popped up in time to see the wall next to her break open. The stones shot outward, thrusting the smoke creatures aside. A large stone golem ducked its way in. Sully stood at the open hole in the wall.