The Armageddon Effect Read online

  –Hide, pass quickly–

  I tensed as water splashed over us. We dove under the surface. The cool liquid refreshed the senses. My shoulder tingled. Fresh skin replaced seared astral flesh as we rushed toward a shimmering vertical plane of light that glistened ahead. We went through, and I stumbled onto a stone-cobbled street.

  We were dry, and facing away from a dark storefront window. The hum in the air felt alive and my mind filled with harmony as if my soul inhaled a potent vapor.

  Across the street, a marble fountain’s frothy sprays glittered like crystal in the middle of a stone square. The water sprang from an amphora snuggled in the arms of a muscled centaur.

  Tall trees lined walkways that led to the fountain from all directions. Around the trees, a row of two-story buildings stood serenely. Behind them, tall skyscrapers of opaline blue reached to the sky like guardians. Adults and laughing children filled grassy areas amid the trees.

  The diffuse-white sky muted shadows.

  “Where are we?” I said. My head swiveled to take in the view.

  “This is Sanctuary,” she said. “It’s a bit difficult to explain. I have a place we can rest. We must hurry.” And with a twirl of her gray plaid skirt, she headed off down a side street.

  Rows of identical houses extended as far as the eye could see. In the distance the houses shimmered, like a mirage in the desert. Out of the corner of my eye, a tall man materialized a few feet away, stepped backwards, surprised, and vanished.

  The woman took long steps as we hustled down the paved stone avenue. We stopped in front of an ordinary-looking two-story home with a wide front door. I couldn’t shake the feeling it was all illusion.

  “We mustn’t stay outside. You are not attuned and will stand out. They will notice you,” she said.

  “Who?” I asked.

  She pulled out a small silver coin and pressed it to the door, which swung open in response.

  “Well, are you coming in?” she said.

  “Yes. Sorry. It’s a lot to take in.” I walked into the house.

  Inside the hallway, two double-wide doorways led into tidy rooms. It smelled of honeysuckle. Empty shelves filled the study on the right. A spacious living room opened on the left.

  “Would you like something to drink? I have tea,” she said, as she turned and disappeared around a corner.

  “Uh, sure,” I mumbled.

  Does my dream state body need fluids? What the heck, may as well go with it.

  I pushed the oak coffee table with my toe, noting the plush leather sofa’s color matched the hardwood floor. How odd it is to feel something in the astral. Maybe I still slept in my bed, and this was one heck of a dream. No, this was an OBE. But I hadn’t started it. I was pulled into it while sleeping.

  Can anyone or anything pull me into an astral state while I’m asleep?

  I frowned.

  She came back with two cups, a tea kettle, and cookies on a tray. Sitting next to me, she poured the tea.

  “I just realized, I don’t know your name.”

  She laughed. “Yes, things have been pretty hectic. My name is Deidra Milani.” She offered her delicate hand, and I shook it.

  Motes of cinnamon tickled my nose.

  “I suppose you have a lot of questions?” Her eyes sparkled in amusement.

  “That would be an understatement. My name is Lane Sudler.”

  “I know who you are,” she said.

  Tea was what I needed. The tea’s warmth with a dash of milk, honey, and cinnamon settled my nerves. Just like I made it myself.

  “Well. First, let’s give you some background on things,” she said. She looked towards the door and frowned.

  “If a rabbit walked out with a pocket watch, I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” I responded.

  Diedra looked at me and raised an eyebrow. After sipping her tea, she said, “We believe you made a pledge to a primal thought entity, an egregor, and in doing so, aligned yourself with this being.” She hesitated for a moment.

  “You’ve become an instrument of action for that being.”

  I know she’s holding something back, but what?

  “Whoa. I didn’t make any pledges to anyone or anything!”

  Had I said, or done anything that was a pledge?

  Then I remembered the life-training program in Denver. At the culmination of that event, I stood on stage and stated my goal in life. With a shock of realization, I remembered my heartfelt statement to the several hundred people in the audience, people who had endured the same rigorous emotional training. To this group, I pledged to be a source of compassion in the world. It had been a powerful moment in my life, a breakthrough event. I’d rarely felt compassion for anyone.

  A knot grew in my gut. That had to be it. I had chosen compassion and pledged myself to be compassion in the world as a way of life. Now it turns out to be a real entity, something Diedra called a primal or egregor. I frowned.

  Diedra watched my face. Her lips upturned in a slight smile, yet her eyes were sad.

  Okay, no worries. I’ll just go home, recant the pledge, and apologize to the big guy. It was all a mistake, sorry about that, gotta go now, see ya around. I don’t need to encourage horrifying entities to pursue me while I sleep. Right?

  Diedra laughed. “It’s like Pandora’s Box. Once opened, you cannot close it. You lived it, experienced it. You exposed your heart, and your heart knows, whether your intellectual conscious-self faces it or not. Your new enemies know who you represent as well. They are relentless.”

  A distant look entered her eyes.

  “Hiding would be extremely dangerous for you. You can be easily influenced by astral energies now, even killed or driven insane,” she finished.

  The room felt icy, and a chill crept into my bones. I was grateful for the warm cup of tea.

  “I’m just a software developer,” I said.

  Who exactly is Diedra?

  Is she some random person drawn into this, or a cosmic recruiter for the Compassion primal with some hidden agenda?

  “You have more strength than you know, Lane. You’re moral, valorous, and seek the truth in things,” she said.

  That sounded pretty good, but I don’t believe any of it. Besides, how would she know?

  My eyebrows knit together in thought. Cautious.

  “So how do you fit into this?” I asked.

  “Much like you are now.” She left it at that. I bit my tongue. I wanted to ask more, a lot more, but my mind reeled from trying to process the information.

  Just how much real danger is there? Everything I’ve experienced so far has been in my mind, including this conversation.

  “So the Compassion primal summoned you as well?”

  She shook her head slightly. “No. It was different for me. Being summoned by a primal is, well, astonishing, and unprecedented.”

  We sat in silence. The tea had the amazing effect of making all this seem rational. I laughed, then quickly stopped. “Sorry.” Rational had left the building a long time ago.

  Her eyebrows skewed up at the laughter, and she offered a clinical smile.

  “So what now?” I blurted out.

  “We need to prepare you,” she said, while watching me over her teacup. “I will need some things to help protect your home.”

  With that, she stood and headed to the adjacent study. The shelves brimmed with asymmetric metallic shapes, dissected spheres, assorted rods, silver-bound books, and cylinders. In one corner, swirls of black runes flowed over the surface of a waist-high copper tube. She selected two metal-bound books.

  What the hell? Those shelves were empty.

  “I have some things you should read. Just place the book under your pillow or near your head.”

  “I place the book near my head to read it? Wait. How can I take something from this place and have it be real when I wake?” I said.

  “You will see,” she replied. Diedra filled a shopping bag with the books and several small boxes.

 
I recalled something she had said. She had referred to herself as we.

  “Are there others like you?”

  “Only a handful are like me.” She frowned. “Few would help you.” With a deep sigh, she pushed a loose black wave of hair behind her ear.

  “Lane. One more thing. Have you been feeling strange or emotional?”

  “Yes! Going down to the restaurant, I was terrified of a shadow on the ground. I couldn’t move, and it choked me.”

  Diedra nodded. “You are sensitized to thoughts now, especially people’s emotions. And Lane. There are Beings. They manipulate intense emotions and are wicked. When they are near you, it can be overpowering and seductive. These creatures are lethal. Use your new power. Compassion flows through you as a living force. Call on that strength, when needed.”

  While not completely sure what call-on-that-strength meant, I said, “Okay, will do.”

  “We should head back and prepare,” she said.

  Nodding, I got up and headed towards the front door.

  “Not that way. Follow me please.” She turned and headed down the hall away from the front door. Diedra opened a small side door. I hadn’t seen it from the entry. She went down a short set of stairs into a brick-walled basement. Hidden sconces lit a circular stone pool in the center of the room. The pool emitted a suffused blue-white glow. An assortment of carved jars, wooden boxes, and clay pots filled wall shelves. A work table nestled in a corner with melted candles. Dull metal symbols covered the stone pool’s lip.

  Diedra touched three of the symbols. Each letter turned silver and gave off heat that caused the air to waver. When the third symbol was touched, a pleasant hum resonated in the room and the symbols all turned orange. The pool color turned orange like hidden track lighting glowed just below the surface.

  “Ready?” Diedra asked as she looked over to me. Her eyes smoldered with the pool’s tint.

  “Yes,” I replied with less enthusiasm than I intended. Standing on the pool lip, she held the shopping bag in one hand and extended the other to me.

  “Come. Hold my hand. We must jump into the pool together. Wait until the travel words are spoken,” she said.

  Nodding, I grabbed her hand and stood on the pool’s edge. She sang several tones in a rhythmic cadence. The water rippled as the tones echoed off the brick. The fluid became phosphorescent and moved in a slow circle, like currents in the ocean.

  “Once on the other side, you have to stay focused. Don’t let your thoughts drift.”

  I nodded.

  “Jump.”

  We both leaped into the pool. I held my nose with my free hand, only to find there was no splash as I entered the water. The liquid didn’t feel like water at all.

  We appeared above a familiar hurricane spiral.

  The Denver vortex.

  Sound. A distant waterfall vibrated the astral-ether. It grew louder. Images flashed in my mind.

  –An old man cried crimson tears–

  –A bloody knife plunged again and again into shredded flesh–

  –High-velocity bullets cut a crowd of people in half–

  –I’m going too fast. Steve, look out–

  My head swam. Something hit me hard behind the right ear.

  Deidra yelled as she shook me. “Pay attention! Focus on a mantra, song, or a symbol. Discipline your thoughts, or you will be controlled by others.” Worry marred the soft lines of her face.

  She pulled the small letter opener from her belt. The blade sprang to life with its cold-blue flame. Light enveloped us and the sounds in my mind vanished. I looked around. Ethereal streamers filled the astral. Unlike below in the vortex, they went in every direction, but most of them floated upward.

  I looked up. Above us, a thick layer of boiling luminescence spread as far as I could see. There was something about it, an allure I couldn’t shake.

  “What is that layer?” I asked.

  Deidra didn’t look up. “People spend a lot of time on thoughts of desire, especially sexual desire. That is where those thoughts go, and I don’t mean love, but raw lust and sexual craving.”

  She looked deep into my eyes, concerned. “Lane. You are easily influenced. Your strength and focus will grow with practice. Be patient. There are real dangers in the astral and not just from the shadow primals. Especially for someone who is untrained and opened.”

  She pointed up, “And that is one of them.

  “Come on. We have to protect your house,” she said.

  I followed her. Yeah, I was curious, but it could wait. We moved quickly, and before long were hovering, high above my house.

  The Colorado Springs vortex spun slowly around us. “We must fly down to your house, but stay in the shelter of the sword.” She started down towards my home.

  I pulled my arms to my sides to mimic her descent. When we neared the house, dark, oily bubbles rose from the ground. Tendrils sprouted from them and quickly licked out to seize me. They stopped inches from the shield, then withdrew. The blobs shuddered, like evil jello, and sat there. I sensed they were waiting for something. We entered the house from the roof and dropped into my living room on the first floor.

  “Wait here. The house walls will not stop those creatures for long. I’ll place some wards.”

  Putting the shopping bag down, Deidra withdrew one of the boxes, opened it, and grabbed sticks of colored chalk. She wrote a large flowing symbol on each wall. She whispered something, and each symbol flickered with a sandalwood color.

  She moved outside and after fifteen minutes returned. “Your home is now protected from everything except the most powerful of beings. Use the travel runes over your bay window if the house wards go dark. You will be back in my house basement. However, you can only use that way once.”

  With that, she glided over to the bay window and wrote a rune on the bottom and each side of the window. These runes were orange outlined in smoky silver. It was the same color as the ones on the circular pool in her basement.

  “Those runes, they are for travel?” I asked.

  “Yes. When you are ready, I will show you how to make them.”

  I followed her up into my bedroom and was surprised when I saw my sleeping form hugging a pillow. Phats and Monk were stretched out at the foot of the bed. Phats raised a sleepy eye to me and blinked a few times. Then he lost interest, yawned, and went back to sleep.

  “Return to your body now, Lane, and we will meet again soon. Sleep and rest, you are safe. I will stay outside until dawn, just in case.” And with that, she placed the two books on my nightstand and passed through my bedroom wall.

  Sleep. Sure. It’s just another dream. The night terrors are always outside. Right?

  I didn’t feel as sure about that anymore.

  # # #

  The alarm clock chimed incessantly. I reached over and slapped at the snooze button. The clock spun back and landed on two thin slabs of silver-banded metal the size of a candy-bar cell phone.

  The cats lifted furry heads and watched as my legs swung out over the floor.

  Are the metal slabs the books Diedra gave me?

  Five silver bands marked the lower half of the black objects. Each band gleamed like a power indicator. The metal felt cold. They reminded me of worry stones you could rub your fingers over for relaxation.

  The frightening events of the night seemed like a dream. But I knew it wasn’t. The metal slab in my hand was real enough.

  It was Saturday, no work today.

  Time for some coffee.

  I slipped into a pair of comfy slippers with white floppy rabbit ears and shuffled down the carpeted stairs to the kitchen. The house soon smelled of brewing java.

  Coffee in one hand and metal slab in the other, I settled onto the plush sofa in the living room and glanced around, remembering Diedra had marked on the walls. Nothing visible. I leaned back and inhaled the ambiance of the room while sipping the warm coffee.

  I placed one of the metal slabs next to my ear.

  Hello?

>   As I rested my head on the overstuffed sofa, my mind twitched with an irritating itch.

  –Identified, human reader … Syncing ... completed ... Auto mode initiated … Starting translation, beginning feed, quiet mode initiated–

  Huh? Who said that?

  Dust particles near the bay window sparkled in the still air. The slab felt warmer, and my ears began to ring. Disorientation grew and a headache throbbed deep in my skull. I didn’t suffer from migraines, but this was a doozy. I stretched out on the couch. The new position relieved the pressure in my head.

  Images began to form of their own volition. Suddenly, I just knew stuff. The astral wasn’t a space. It had no true spatial dimension like our three-dimensional world. It was a thought space, an interactive realm where shifting mental patterns mingled with energetic manifestations of beings from other energy regions. Emotions and ideas manifested as visual artifacts like ribbons or pools, and interacted with our projection into the area.

  I lay in stunned silence as my mind sped up.

  These energies were not measurable from a space-time bound observer because the causal interaction of space and time does not exist in this energy region.

  I knew what that meant.

  The thoughts continued to flow into my mind. Time was fluid in the astral. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but never constant.

  My mind was on rails, pouring ideas and data into my consciousness at a dizzy rate. The data rushed in. The books are machines. Alive?

  Can you record?

  –recording function activated–

  I recorded my thoughts and interactions with the device over the next few hours.

  [Appendix: Recording 1]

  I sat back and wrapped my mind around all the information. According to the book, thoughts manifest in the astral and have impact on people and other astral beings. The intensities are based on the thought source and your susceptibility to what the thought was about.

  People are influenced in our real world by thoughts, especially when thoughts aggregate in the form of vortexes.

  Egregors form dense vortexes in the astral. The vortex size is related to the impact of the egregor. People’s behavior can be modified or controlled by any vortex of sufficient impact.