The last thing Big R saw before he went blind were orange, smoke-like creatures, resembling wisps of flame. They emerged from the center of the second sun and swooped down upon the earth like the wind. There were millions of them, and everything they touched caught on fire. Their faces—their howling faces—looked almost human…eyes, noses and mouths of flame. Their laughter crackled along with the inferno.
Big R wondered what they were, and then, as his hair singed, decided he was grateful not to know.
OTHER WORLDS
THAN THESE
The Rising
Day Thirty-Two
Aurora, Colorado
And then, the burning ember that was once Earth fizzled, as if snuffed out by solar winds…
THE END
The Labyrinth
Day One
The City Between Worlds
Robert Lewis, Bob to his friends, and Cyber-Bob to his online buddies, opened his eyes, amazed that he could still see. Indeed, amazed he still had eyes. He remembered them popping, running down his charred face as the second sun burned everything in Aurora—humans, zombies, plants, and insects alike. The last thing he’d seen were the walls of his parents’ home, turning to ash.
Bob looked around. He was in an empty room carved out of gray, stone blocks. A pale half-moon shining through the room’s lone window provided his only source of light. The air was damp and cold.
“This is Heaven?” His voice echoed off the walls. Bob considered himself a Christian—a Catholic. He was open-minded and respected other beliefs, as long as people did the same for him. He disagreed with some of the church’s dogma, but Bob knew his Bible, and he didn’t remember Heaven being described like this. His personal vision of the perfect afterlife had always involved a really big library with comfortable chairs and fireplaces and an endless supply of books, both for reading and writing (he enjoyed both).
He went to the window. A thick layer of gray clouds floated so far below that he almost mistook them for mountaintops. Bob glanced up at the moon, hanging alone in the darkness, with no stars to keep it company. Not even the flashing lights of a passing airplane.
Then the moon blinked.
Gasping, Bob leapt backward and collided with something else. Something in the room, that hadn’t been there before.
A… person?
It was shaped like a human. Tall. Bob couldn’t tell if it had legs, because it wore a long, flowing black shroud. Its face and hands were milk-white, and its eyes and mouth were black, empty holes.
“Robert Lewis of Earth, early Twenty-First Century?” Its voice was like an echo with no sound at first. The lips did not move.
Bob tried to speak, and found he couldn’t. All he managed was a strangled sigh.
“That is a yes?”
Bob nodded.
“And on your Earth, were the dead coming back to life, possessed by a race of beings known as the Siqqusim?”
“Um…” Bob shrugged.
The creature took a step backward, and though Bob heard its footsteps ring out on the stone floor, he realized that it was actually floating several inches above it.
He swallowed. So what’s making the footstep sound?
“Yes or no, Mr. Lewis?”
Bob nodded again.
“Does the term ‘Hamelin’s Revenge’ mean anything to you?”
Frowning, Bob shook his head. It didn’t ring any bells.
The thing smiled. “Good. Then I have obtained the right version of you. Welcome to the Labyrinth. You were expecting Heaven, and you may see it yet. But there is something you must do before you pass on. Follow me.”
The creature rotated in mid-air, floating towards the door.
Bob finally worked up enough saliva to shout,
“Hey!”
His companion turned. “Yes?”
“What is this? Who are you?”
“This is nowhere and everywhere. This is the inbetween—the black space amidst the stars, the backdoor of reality. As for me, do I not look familiar?”
Bob considered this. The being did look familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“I get the feeling I’ve met you before.”
“You have. All of you have. In your dreams.”
A sense of relief washed over Bob, and his posture slackened. “That’s it! I’m dreaming. I’m still back in Aurora, and the Earth didn’t burn up!”
The other floated out the doorway. “No, I’m afraid your Earth was incinerated, as were countless other Earths, by the Teraphim.”
“W-who?”
“The three brothers: Ob of the Siqqusim, Ab of the Elilum, and Api of the Teraphim.”
“This is a dream,” Bob replied, “so it’s okay if I don’t understand a thing you just said, right?”
“It matters not.” The creature led him down a long staircase, which led to another door.
“We now enter the Labyrinth,” the mime-thing said.Bob followed his companion through a confusing, maze-like series of hallways with closed doors on all sides. They seemed to walk for a long time.
“Where are we going?”
“You are going to a different Earth. Your father played in a musical duo. Lewis and Walker, correct?”
“Yeah, but how—?”
“That is what this incarnation of Kevin Jensen is listening to right now. He has just buried his friend. Tomorrow, he will attempt to rescue other friends from a cult. It has gone disastrously wrong infinite times before. We are sending you in to tip the balance.”
“Can I wake up now?”
The thing ignored him. “You must obtain the cult’s copy of the Daemonolateria. Use it to stop Leviathan and Behemoth, and to halt the rains.”
Bob stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Look. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what this is about. You’re not making any fucking sense!”
The creature whirled around, and its voice boomed inside his head.
“THE THIRTEEN HAVE BEEN LOOSED
ACROSS TIME AND SPACE. ALL EARTHS, ALL
PLANETS, INDEED—THE VERY FABRIC OF EXISTENCE IS THREATENED. REALITIES ARE COLLAPSING IN ON ONE ANOTHER. DEATH IS LIFE
AND LIFE IS DEATH. ALL ARE IN DANGER OF
BECOMING NOTHING. YOU WILL DO THIS, OR
YOU WILL BE LEFT HERE TO WANDER FOR ALL
ETERNITY!”
Bob fell to his knees and clutched the sides of his head. It hurt. The voice physically and mentally hurt.
“Please,” he sobbed, curling into a ball. “I don’t understand. I just want my old life back.”
The creature hovered over him. When it spoke again, its voice was softer.
“Your old life is gone, devoured by the Siqqusim, Elilum, and Teraphim.”
“The zombies?”
“Indeed. The first group is led by Ob. He, along with his brothers, is one of thirteen beings that existed long before the Morningstar’s fall. Your kind named them demons without truly understanding what they were. There are thirteen total. Meeble and Kat and Shtar, Behemoth and Leviathan and Kandara, Nodens and Purturabo…”
Bob interrupted the litany of names. “What does this have to do with me?”
“There are other worlds than the one you came from…other planets and other Earths. The Thirteen were scattered across the realities and planes of existence. The Siqqusim have been released from one such dimension, a place called the Void. Ob intends to gather the other Thirteen, building an army, and declare war on Heaven itself.”
“So there really is a God?”
“Yes, but humanity has always misunderstood His existence. Perhaps, if you succeed, you will stand in His presence and understand for yourself.”