The Armageddon Effect Read online

  Colors?

  Lucent colors were new; first the amulet and now everything. The impressions were vivid, not hazy and indistinct as they had always been before. Was my mind learning, adjusting? Or was I more in-tune to the experience and picking up detail?

  Street lamps cast a faint electronic amber onto the pavement below them. Gray clouds drifted far above. Here and there turbulent purple jets playfully twisted, some faint, some bright; others rotated violently, like enraged dust devils.

  I willed my gaping mouth to shut. Above the hilltops, downtown buildings came into full view. The city was wrapped in a slow rotation of sparks and long streamers. The light was dense around the buildings; a rainbow spaghetti of twisting strands grappled dark stone. Thick turbulent eddies flashed through the streets. I hesitated to get closer. The thoughts were strong and compelling. I sensed there was a danger of getting lost in them.

  It’s a vortex of thoughts. Extraordinary.

  I drifted across the hills to a pulsing reddish whirlpool over a large building. I reached out a spectral hand to touch the red current.

  –Arm yourself. Fight them. Be ready, They deceive.–

  –Trust no one, kill them all.–

  I sucked my breath in. My hand twitched, ready to draw a handgun.

  Yes, I must prepare, the day is near. It’s me or them. I have to kill them all.

  –You are a friend, loved and trusted.–

  More of the red light washed over my hand. The thoughts felt urgent.

  –Act now, don’t hesitate.–

  Yes, yes, of course.

  Something gave my body a powerful yank and I shot higher into the sky. I thrashed about with my hands to regain flight control, but my lift was not affected by spreading or closing my arms.

  Wait. I have to go back.

  The earth fell away below my feet, like tail camera videos on NASA launches. A golden glow surrounded me, just visible in my peripheral vision. The whispered desires vanished.

  The Colorado Springs thought vortex faded as I leveled off high above the city. Stratus clouds drifted below me. I was pulled north.

  Ahead, the entire horizon glowed.

  Could that be Denver? It must be; the vortex is gigantic.

  Dark landscape, murky and mysterious, wavered below like a mirage. Occasional hot spots of colorful spirals scampered about. Muted explosions of light appeared like nighttime aerial carpet bombs. Above me, there was nothing. No stars, just the deepening half-light.

  Where did the stars go?

  But the thought was swept away by the exhilaration of flying.

  Something dark, like a black smudge against the twilight, rose from the ground far below me, then another. My gut tightened. I gazed at the oily blobs, and I knew they were from the vision. Like ominous black smoking rubber, they moved fast and gave chase.

  Too slow.

  They fell behind, lost in the deepening crepuscular haze. The dark forms emitted a sick, repugnant vibe. Exposed and vulnerable, I pulled my arms in fighting close. The hairs on my neck prickled.

  I lost sight of them. Ahead loomed an immense swirling spiral of light and color.

  A vast prismatic hurricane spun slowly, with a bright, pulsing center. Patterns and detonations burst in the spinning whirlpool like berserk fireworks. There were several intricate repeating sequences of color and texture; some intense, pure. Brilliant crystalline lattices melted into dull, muddied slurries. Light spouted from the ground in beacons and twisters. Twilight fled from the multicolored spectrum, a moving chromatic explosion of thought.

  I heard mewing, like a baby’s cry, and felt a sharp pain in my lower back, then intense relief. The strong smell of blood whisked away to be replaced by lavender.

  The impressions were abrupt and chameleon.

  –Be my lover.–

 

  My face burned on the right side.

  A powerful numbness seeped into my spine. I was sluggish, distant, blurred.

  –Come with me, please, I need you. Love me now.–

  A slithering sound echoed, like a snake sliding over leaves.

  “Danger.” The whisper came from a million miles away.

  The golden globe around me grew bright, and my mind cleared.

  I moved deeper into the city’s vortex. The forms of light below did not move away with the rotation. They followed, closer or farther from me based on my response to them. The ground became a patchwork of something else, vaguely solid stuff surrounded by a hazy something. I couldn’t resolve it.

  Ahead, a large radiant beacon pulsed with iridescent flames of gold and violet like the hemispheric expansion of nuclear fireballs. The intensity was blinding.

  –Hate them. Kill them.–

  The repugnant and tortured thought flooded my mind. A boiling moat of sludge and tentacles surrounded the beacon.

  A thudding bass beat echoed. Tribal. Boom-boom-pause, boom-boom-pause. Metal on metal rung in staccato. Screams and shrieks followed howls of madness.

  Golden flames consumed reddish, clawing tentacles. Thousands of them, attached to abominable black squid that slid and lurched towards the beacon’s shield. I felt a painful pressure in my mind. Clawed whispers tore at my psyche like after-images of bright flashes on bare retina. I knew the evil thoughts targeted the beacon.

  A feeling grew, a presence, malignant and age-old. It lurked deep below the surface of that demonic moat. Hate radiated from it with waves of ancient terror and overpowering lust.

  I drew closer to the beacon like a kite reeled in through a heavy crosswind.

  Violent compressions and expansions of air buffeted my golden cocoon. The writhing red tendrils launched themselves at the beacon in a savage barrage. My skin crawled. Their hideous strength was pure distilled horror.

  A lighthouse of radiance, the beacon created a whirlpool as well. It rotated fast and powerful. The patchwork ground gave way to distinct areas of well-lit terrain near the light sources. Farther from a source, the ground dissolved into twilight murkiness. Dark shapes scurried among the shadows like wraiths.

  As I moved over the moat, a foul, oily film enveloped the cocoon with a putrid stench of festering pus. A thick grotesque tentacle erupted from the surface, rising with alarming speed. It sensed me.

  I felt a sizzling burn across the top of my brain, like a whip striking quivering flesh.

  –Be us.–

  The image of a dark-haired woman pushed into my mind. She smelled of rich caramel. My soul shuddered and desire woke, something not me, yet always me. It whispered. Power.

  No. I clamped hard on the thought and pushed it back.

  –Come, psi child.–

  She purred and slowly licked voluptuous red lips. The hairs on my leg stiffened with the goosebumps on my spine. A car siren and a thousand hideous screams flared like a spotlight in my eye. Burning. The smell of rancid butter suffocated my senses, and the image faded with a shriek of pain. My cocoon blazed even brighter as I took a ragged breath.

  Below me, smoking eddies of black vapor writhed along the surface of the outstretched tentacle. It was getting closer.

 

  Emotion-filled images burst midbrain.

  ,

  .

  The thoughts were primordial and lethal. Foul sludge covered my tongue.

  My mind’s eye rolled back in my head with a shudder. I couldn’t stop the spasm in my eyelids. I lurched to the brutal rhythm of whips, irresistibly aroused.

  –Suffer and be redeemed,– a wicked voice chuckled.

  –He likes it,– a second hoarse voice laughed.

  –All the psi children do. – The wicked voice dripped delight.

  I crossed the beacon’s boundary and the tentacle exploded in black, smoking plasma, inches from my foot. I wiped spittle from my chin.

  The dread images were gone and I trembled.

  Dear God, what was that.
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  Violated, and soiled. I felt shame.

  Inside the boundary now, the dark horrors fled.

  Feelings whispered to me.

 

 

  They drifted through my mind like fresh gentle rain. Everything felt more substantial, like the sun’s rays of heat, and light that splashes among retreating shadows of the night. Everything was solid, familiar, and safe.

  I glanced beyond the shimmering barrier. In all directions, a writhing sea of abomination assaulted the shield with thundering pythonic blows.

  This is a battlefield.

  A tall form loomed ahead – humanoid; arms, legs, torso, larger than me. I couldn’t get a sense of how much larger, nor how far away it was. There was no sense of gender at all. Milky gold and creamed violet swirled among burning rays of brilliant gold around the being. The colors formed a robe of pearly vapor.

  I raised my arm to shield my eyes.

  Vague forms appeared at my feet. Texture jumped into my vision like a focused microscope. The surface became a lush garden of flowers and rock-laid paths. Sculptures dotted the landscape.

  The humanoid stood in a ring of intricately carved standing stones. A sense of familiarity tugged at my subconscious. I floated slightly above the grass; torrents of compassion crashed over me like ocean waves pounding a rocky shore. Golden motes appeared in the air and plunged into the being in wavering auroral sheets. I felt them. The rarefied compassion of billions upon billions of entities coalesced to a single source. The humanoid.

  Unlike the soft rays of a warm sun on a glorious afternoon, compassion radiated from the being like the continual starburst of a supernova. Searing. Fiercely alive. A million sunburns in half a second. My self-awareness evaporated like water in a fierce fire.

  It’s shielding me.

  Distant sounds crackled with the roar of a thousand rockets throttled up to full burn.

  I let go. Fear, anxiety, doubt, all slipped away like a scarf tossed in a gale. I felt a deep calm and a boundless connection to cosmic mercy.

  My fingertips tingled as my resonance shifted, realigning with the being’s energy. Waves of compassion pulsed from my head to my toes. I floated in closer. My hands glowed in rhythm with the potent radiance. My mind expanded and filled a vast expanse. A child’s youthful giggle burst nearby. Lavender and grace tickled my nose. I was giddy. Everything made sense. Life was compassion as its only purpose. There was nothing else.

  I cried. Tears of joy? Or was it sadness, heaven lost?

  My soul healed in the radiance of compassion.

  Something pulled me back. Urgent. In an instant, I flew back towards Colorado Springs. The radiance, Denver, everything swooshed away in a heartbeat. Like a stretched spring recoiling, I shot through the vast twilight. In moments, my home appeared and whoosh, I was back in my chair at the computer.

  Aw, Damn!

  I clenched abdominal muscles and bounded out of the chair, racing for the toilet.

  Later, as I sat back down at the computer, I mused, Next time best take care of the biological stuff in advance. I’d had OBEs before, many times, but nothing like that. It was so vivid with color and sound. I was there.

  Thoughts tumbled in my mind like drunken dominos. Karmic cycles, reincarnation, the universal struggle of light and dark, compassion and hate, we desire and suffer for it. Was that what I witnessed? Why me? Why now?

  Cold rational logic kicked in; the eternal skeptic, my shield against madness.

  Sure, sure, I’d had a god vision or something. Nothing to see here, Officer.

  I felt different. Confident. Stronger. My mind was clear. It puzzled me that I felt no fear. That moat, the horror all seemed far away. The out-of-body experience lingered, especially the overwhelming feeling of compassion. Subtle. My hands glowed a faint gold as I stroked Phats’ fuzzy neck.

  “So. Have I lost my mind completely, Phats?” He just purred and nuzzled my hand.

  “Do you think I was really in Denver or was that environment there to make the journey seem more sensible?”

  Purrrrr.

  I moved my fingers to scratch under his chin. “We’ll deal with that hellish moat later, okay?”

  Phats had closed his eyes, sleeping. Terrors always slipped away when I scratched the cats.

  Getting up, I put him on the sofa, then went to the kitchen and fired up a pot of jasmine tea. The water boiled merrily when it came to me. Do we construct our reality? How easy would it be to allow it to change? Could I even do that? What happens when experience doesn’t fit what I think should be?

  Puzzled. How do our minds build our mental worlds? Back down at the computer, cupping the tea cup for warmth, I should have been worried, frightened even. So much had occurred. Yet I felt rational, refreshed, and calm. The moat or what it represented was horrifying, but the power of compassion was so much more compelling. It gave me hope.

  Near the keyboard, the red-onyx dragon medallion reflected crimson from the overhead lights.

  “So what’s with you?” I touched it with my hand and the tingle of power surprised me.

  # # #

  I had fallen asleep in my chair, still holding the roughly carved medallion.

  Oh, crap. It’s a work day.

  Fog hung close in the air. The Caddy’s deep-throated vibration soothed the spirit. The car powered up Highway 24 and into the mountains. Sharp curves whipped by as I snaked up the canyon. Misty cliffs transformed into dew-dripped meadows. The skies cleared. The wind caressed my face and fresh mountain air flooded my sleepy lungs.

  Calm. That’s what I was. My mind was quiet, and life rushed in. Compassion opened a doorway. I’d stepped from isolated experience into a vast expanse of new awareness, and in that moment between seeing and being, my soul was breathless with anticipation.

  As the car rumbled up the road, I felt a whole-body wellness unlike anything I’d experienced. Woodland Park came into view, and the mood faded.

  I heard the sound of crushed ice-pack and pulled into the parking lot of the software company. Light snow covered my oil-stained parking spot. I tapped the brakes, and the car slid to the curb with a slippery bump.

  A light breeze puffed snowflakes into small swirls against my shuffling feet.

  Coffee. I must have the elixir.

  My muscles protested with dull throbs as I rushed upstairs. There were several others at work since many lived nearby. The staff of eight was typical for start-ups. There were three desks in the developer’s office. My belly brushed across the top of my desk and I squeezed into my leather chair.

  Maybe I should cut back on these fresh donuts.

  Sipping creamed and sugared coffee, donut in my other hand, I admired my new business cards. Lane Sudler, in bold type, Software Developer, they said. It had taken months to get the cards. Trial period they’d said. All good.

  I surveyed my kingdom: large color monitor, lightning fast with high-end graphics, super-developer station, spacious desk, an almost private office.

  –That bitch went out with him!–

  –I look fat in this skirt.–

  I sucked in my gut.

  “What skirt?”

  A burst of static shattered my head, and I pressed thumbs to my temples. The static receded to a dull hum. I glanced around.

  Those thoughts weren’t mine. How is that possible?

  Only Jim, the database guy, and Shade, the dick-head graphics guy were in the room.

  What the hell.

  Had my head turned into a receiver? When I picked up a signal, it blasted through the noise, loud and uncluttered, then faded away in static and jumbled echoes.

  Our offices coexisted with several in the two-story building complex. Maybe the thoughts came from the other ones. Pensive, I waited for more while surfing the Internet. Nothing.

  I need to get to work.

  The Internet didn’t provide any new information.

  That was definitely telepathy.

  Over the years, I had d
abbled in books on the paranormal. Everything from Kirlian photography to Kabbalic mysticism, but nothing seemed to fit the experience.

  What about last night? It started as an out-of-body experience, OBE, but then what happened?

  I flipped through the web pages. They all attributed OBE experiences to a physical phenomenon. Researchers touted near-surface seismic shifts as one source. The resultant extremely low frequency waves affected the brain. Other experiments had shown that people respond with near-death visions complete with white lights and tunnels when the brain is struck by strong oscillating magnetic fields at particular frequencies.

  Is Woodland Park an earthquake zone?

  I checked. No, it’s not.

  My face flushed as my irritation increased. The events persisted in my mind. What about the powerful feelings of oneness and compassion? Not to mention the jack-in to radio thought-land. This can’t be a seismic event.

  A soft aura came from my hands.

  “My hands are glowing,” I said. No one noticed.

  I felt a tingle of heat in my fingertips and remembered reading healers felt heat in their hands.

  “Kirlian photography showed strong electromagnetic fields around hands during healing,” I murmured.

  Can I affect real things, here and now?

  I pointed a finger at my business cards. Concentrated and whispered, “Move,” while trying not to draw attention. Pfft. Nothing. So much for telekinesis.

  Pleasurable tingles coursed down my neck, and other parts of my body responded.

  –Lotus Bloom, wow that was so sexy.–

  I blushed.

  Whoa, hold on now.

  “Aw Damn, not again,”

  The signals came in waves and I focused hard on blocking them. In moments, my mind was quiet.

  Okay Dammit, that was definitely telepathy.

  “Dude, you okay?” Jim asked.

  “Huh, what?” I turned.

  Jim stared at me, eyebrows raised, like I was having a psychotic break.

  “Well, you were carrying on about some skirt earlier,” he said. “Something you want to tell us?”

  He and Shade were both grinning.

  “No, not really. Glad I could provide some humor.” I snorted.