The Armageddon Effect Page 5

  The book called this “psychic entrainment.”

  The furry boys were up and making a racket in the kitchen. They mewed at my insensitivity. Their food dishes were not topped off. I rolled my eyes. They both looked at me when I came in. The quiet alpha, Monk, raised his paw and swiped the air while mewing. More aggressive, to me anyway, Phats meowed loudly until I had complied with his request.

  “Okay, guys, calm down.” I reached for their still half-full bowls. The second pot of coffee brewed up as the cats dove into the wet food treat. Sipping the coffee, I headed back into the living room.

  Still massaging my temples, I decided to read a bit more, and lay down on the couch again. After another hour, I decided to give the device and my head a rest for a bit.

  [Appendix: Recording 2]

  I stood up too fast, stumbled over the coffee table, and crashed to the floor. My head spun. Disoriented. Several loud bangs ricocheted off the inside walls of my head. The door. Someone knocked at the door.

  Stumbling over to the door, I slid back two dead bolts, unhooked the chain, and swung it open. Two young girls in their early teens beamed at me. On the porch. Pink and black uniforms I didn’t recognize. Brownies? Girl Scouts? Zombies from the Apocalypse? I had no clue. Their cute teen smiles and fresh cherub-faces disarmed my annoyance.

  I tried to smile through the massive head throb.

  “Would you like to buy some cookies?” they asked in perfect, uncanny unison.

  Something. Their eyes. Thoughts tumbled around my throbbing head. “Sure. Sure. One moment.” I nodded weakly and turned to get my wallet.

  “May we come in?” both girls asked, again, in eerie unison. The question sounded like a demand.

  An alarm went off in my blurred brain. I could see the headline. “Guy in pajamas with two teen girls in his living room. More on the six o’clock evening news.” That could go horribly wrong.

  A warmth smoldered on my right thigh. Perplexed, I reached into my pajama pocket and pulled out the now hot metallic book. The bands around the device blazed golden light. Why are the cats hissing? Rising hairs on the back of my neck caused me to turn back and look towards the door.

  Violent, citrine energy bathed the two girls in a riot of fiery color as the entire door frame burst into crackling lightning and flame. A heavy smell of ozone and burnt fat filled the room. Their solid black eyes glared, and where energy touched them, oily black smoke spewed forth from their torn flesh. They tried to push into the room as their faces broke into snarls of serrated, horrific teeth.

  What?

  A golden beam burst from the book device and flared around them. Electric flashes engulfed the door in a continuous barrage of light and thunder. I stood there gaping, the vision before me incomprehensible. Paralysis flowed over me like syrup, incapacitating muscles with fear and revulsion.

  No. No. This can’t happen. Not real.

  My eyes widened. My mind locked up. Catatonic. A black crack appeared in the wall of energy. It widened. I couldn’t breathe. My arms trembled. They were coming through, into the house. Real. It’s real. A child’s scream turned into a gurgling choking laugh as a strong wet odor of iron turned putrid, sickly-sweet. Over the reverberating noise, I heard voices.

  “We’ve been waiting for you, psi child,” a harsh voice whispered.

  “You’ve been slippery, yes, very slippery,” a child said.

  “Your Jin master is gone, my lovely, and can’t help you now,” the harsh voice teased.

  “So sad, yes, but we knew they would try, yes, and fail.” The child giggled.

  “They are clumsy and weak. They will soon have problems when the Jal discover the betrayal, and giving humans weapons, especially a psi child? Shame, shame,” the harsh voice crowed.

  Part of the flaming wall flickered into black.

  “Your puny Jin trinkets will not stop us for long, psi child,” the harsh voice said.

  “Oh look, its little ward is failing, yes,” the child chided.

  Hysterical giggles rose to a high pitch. My ears ached and I pressed my right hand against the sudden wetness there. Looking down, I saw blood covered my fingers. Dread swam in my mind.

  –Touch me, touch me now.–

  Gibbering thoughts and evil visions of sadistic cruelty bubbled from hidden sources. I felt a whiplash across the inside of my eye. Tears poured down my cheek as tainted fetid breath caressed my lips.

  –Taste me.–

  Foul blackness swirled into my mind like ink poured into water. They were in my head!

  –Do you remember now, psi child? Yes? Do you know who we are? Yes? Not yet? So sad,– the child said.

  –The Jin never told him, how delicious,– the harsh voice panted.

  –Come now, Lej’jin, you must remember something, yes,– the child cooed.

  –You waste your time, Goga, let’s finish him,– harsh voice grumbled.

  –Patience, Raza, yes, he would be so much sweeter,– Goga fretted

  Pushing against the thoughts, I focused on the door, willing more power from the device. The crack widened again, and a black scaly tentacle thrust into the room. Puffs of thick, viscous smoke twisted around the coiling palpus, like drunken lovers. Popping sounds matched the wet smacking of sucking orifices as the feeler slithered closer, leaving a trail of slimy mucus. Smaller, rope-like tendrils unfolded from the tentacle and writhed, seeking. I felt its contempt, vile and malignant.

  Do something, Lane.

  The fear held me like a vise.

  Stubborn determination set my jaw.

  A dark repugnant thought fought its way into my consciousness.

  – Soon, psi child, very soon, we will feast on your pain,– Raza said.

  I pulled courage from force of will.

  Like hell you will.

  There must be a way to stop you.

  The fleshy tentacle slid like a questing tongue. Closer.

  The wards were failing and the golden wall wavered as dark patches rippled over it.

  “Remember compassion.” The whisper tingled through my body. “Fight.”

  I closed my eyes against the aberrations before me and recalled the vision of the compassion egregor.

  Help me.

  The terror lessened. My eyes opened to a darkened room as sparkles of golden radiance appeared in the air and flowed into my body like falling stars. The beam from the device grew to a blinding intensity, and the electric smell grew stronger. Thunder rocked the doorway, and the black crack shattered. The explosion blasted the two entities into bloody bits of spray that splattered over the porch. Some grisly chunks sailed out into the yard beyond.

  My horror grew as one meaty chunk of eye socket, with eye intact, regarded me as it slid slowly down the brick porch entry wall. Malevolent hate poured from that baleful bloody eye. My mouth hung limp as all the gore and body parts seeped into whatever surface they had stuck to.

  My limbs trembled and shook. Bone cold, I dropped to the floor, my eyes glued on the savage scene until the last bloody piece vanished.

  I scuttled backward until my back slammed into the sofa.

  The postman delivered the mail, looked in my direction, and continued up the street.

  I threw up.

  I stumbled to the bathroom. Tingles on my face and neck registered the splash of water. I towel-dried my head and regarded the image in the mirror. Bloodshot blue eyes stared from a damp face in a wet tangle of matted brown hair.

  I look like roadkill.

  I walked to the front door and looked outside. The day was sunny, bright, and cheery. Bird songs competed with honks and skids on the soft breeze. Not a sign of any demonic body parts anywhere. Slamming the door, I headed to the kitchen for more coffee.

  Need something with punch. My hands didn’t stop shaking until after the third Irish coffee.

  My mind climbed up from its dive into fevered surrealism. The book device still warmed my loose pocket.

  When did I put it back?

  As I held
the device, my mind formed the image of the entity.

  –interactive mode engaged ... query ... Soulstealers, an entity manifested using psionic energies. Dark mystics, the Kaa’zak, often use them. Soulstealers appear as children or young adults. The entity has distinctive solid black eyes in human form, otherwise they appear as black amorphic ooze. If sufficiently energized they can enter protected structures. They often request entry or ward removal prior to attacking an individual in a building or home. They prefer to attack in hidden or secluded areas and are lethal to sentient lifeforms.–

  Soulstealers! That’s just great. What the hell was going on?

  Drops of sweat beaded on my forehead. Hell just might be involved.

  The sun beamed into the well-lit room, vibrant and full of golden vigor.

  Why were those things after me?

  Damn. I used to have an almost normal life, like, two days ago. Everything just got flipped upside down.

  Are vortexes strong enough to control large groups of people?

  –Query … Yes, entities, organizations, and individuals are able to create vortexes strong enough to drive the behavior of entire cultures and races. Symbols, songs, and repetition are used to reinforce and entrain the behavior.—

  So more people driving the vortex, the stronger it gets?

  –Query … Yes–

  The full impact of that revelation sent chills up my neck. Those caught in thought vortexes would be completely oblivious to the effect, and it was additive. More people meant a more powerful vortex. Those who fought would suffer social stigma, abuse, and even violence.

  I’ve gotten myself smack dab in the middle of some psionic war zone. Oh yeah, and there is no walking away. Losing meant death, or insanity. I’m not sure, given the foe, if it would even end there.

  SUUL’JIN TECH

  Beads of prismatic color refracted off microscopic deformations of the window glass. Rainbows danced over my outstretched bunny-clad feet.

  “They gazed in wonder at a glittering pebble on the beach when all about lay a vast undiscovered ocean,” Isaac Newton once noted.

  Yeah, that was this new psychic world; unknown, para-weird and dangerous. Worst of all, I couldn’t walk away. It was full speed ahead or you’re toast, a ghost on highway dead.

  Confident. I’m not sure where it came from, but I liked it.

  There was only one thing to do: Find out more about the astral world, build some psionic defenses, attack if possible, and gather information about this frightening realm. It’s clear they, whoever they are, could come at me anytime, day or night.

  Monk and Phats minced over invisible spots of monster ichor and joined me on the couch.

  Scratching Phats with one hand, I penned the events in my journal.

  On reflection, I’d numbed myself to events around me and never reacted to anything.

  Emotions? Terrifying. Traitorous. A distraction. I’d shoved the knowledge I did that so far into my subconscious, I’d even stopped thinking it odd. As I had that epiphany, it vanished.

  Lej’jin. The name stirred something dark and powerful. I recoiled and yet was mesmerized at the same time. The feeling spoke to me. Power justifies the means. There is no place for compassion. Let strength prevail. The power tempted. But no. Compassion brought one closer to oneness, nirvana. Wasn’t that another venue of power? A reflection of need to be “something”? Just. Whole. Noble. Why did that need exist at all? What am I trying to prove?

  My hand massaged the back of my neck.

  The enigmatic Diedra. Ally? Where is she then?

  Soulstealers. Cold gripped my chest. How could they know me unless Lej’jin was real? Those malignant entities had been in my nightmares for weeks, maybe all my life. Did I truly destroy them? They must be dead now, maybe, after being blasted by a golden beam from a rectangular slab of metal I’d thought was a telepathic book.

  Guess not.

  “What do you think, fellas? Sound reasonable to you?”

  Purrrrr.

  “Yep, that’s what I thought too. That reminds me.”

  Feeling in my pocket, I pulled out the slab of metal, the book, and regarded it intently.

  “What is it?”

  –Interactive mode ... query ... This device is a Shadow Tech, Advanced Scout Psionic Focus Module PFM-4-B–

  “Aha! What does it do?”

  –The PFM focuses user thought energy and creates a manifestation of thought energy into space-time—

  So the golden beam from the device was an amped-up release of energy caused by my thoughts.

  “Why did the device shoot at the Soulstealers?” I said to thin air.

  –Device settings are on automatic engagement of shadow primal manifestations, if energy is available–

  A hundred new questions popped up every time the device answered one.

  “Anything else?”

  –Do you wish the non-restricted specification data?–

  “No, thanks, just anything else in general.”

  –Shadow Tech is the operational name for devices used by the Disavowed Psionic Military Units of the Suul’jin–

  Now we’re getting somewhere.

  “Who are the Suul’jin?”

  –The Jin ascended after shedding their desire for material manifestation ... the Suul’jin split from the Jin and became the Disavowed, the Suul.–

  My forehead throbbed.

  I’m going to need a Ph.D. to follow all this.

  I got up from the couch and headed upstairs to the bedroom. On the bed stand was the other device. It warmed when pressed to my temple.

  What is this?

  A familiar voice sounded in my head:

  –Identified, human reader. Syncing ... completed ... interactive mode initiated ... query ... This device is a Shadow Tech, Advanced Scout Psionic Protection Field PPF-1-D–

  Okay, so that makes sense. I have a weapon and a shield. Outstanding!

  I smiled. She wanted me to discover this on my own.

  Clever Diedra.

  With both devices in hand, I sat on the edge of the bed and concentrated.

  Show me a directory of functions.

  A room-sized hologram appeared in front of me with white spheres in an irregular lattice. Thin beams of light connected every sphere with the others. The beams vibrated and were made of even smaller threads of prismatic color. Sound filled the room, harmonies and slow techno beats. The spheres changed color and intensity with each beat.

  –Entrainment loop activated … feedback session engaged—

  This is the directory?

  –Query … Yes, data is stored as patterns in holopsytronic networks. The patterns and their locations are the same.—

  How do I find something?

  –Query … Think your question and you will know the answer.—

  Wait, the pattern and its location are the same?

  –Query … Yes, retrieval of data is near instantaneous.–

  Is there anything else I should know?

  –Query … Biointerface is recommended for the PPF-1-D and PFM-4-B.—

  Biointerface?

  –Query … Place each unit over your preferred body location and activate.—

  Ouch, I’ll pass, thanks.

  My stomach growled, so I grabbed the phone and ordered some takeout from The Golden Lobster, the best seafood in town bar none. They favored Middle East dishes that bordered on the divine, and they delivered. The lobster thermidor came to mind, and to be honest, fattening, toothsome sauces and glazes were an addiction. I don’t admit that often.

  Forty-five minutes later, a knock at the door announced its arrival. I opened the door and peered intently at a young man holding a large container, wrapped in plastic. I stared into his eyes.

  Cough. “Your food, sir?”

  “Ah, right.”

  “Here’s the bill, sir. If you will just sign here, your account is in our files.” He pointed to the receipt.

  “Right, umm, thank you,” I stammer
ed, took the slip of paper and affixed my signature while trying to subdue the -stranger, danger- thoughts.

  Within moments, the creamy lobster sauce dripped from my chin. Perfection. Savory flavors replaced fear.

  Meow.

  “No.”

  Meowww.

  “I said no.” I pushed Phats onto the floor where he landed with a disgruntled thump.

  Monk was giving me the silent-pleading-eye-of-need.

  “No way, you two!” They didn’t need the fish. The chicken they ate was healthier.

  What next? Options presented themselves and a lot of them revolved around Diedra. Should the window portal be used? If she wasn’t home, how would I get back?

  “Scoot over, Phats.”

  KAA’ZAK TESSERACT CUBE - SHADOW REALM:

  MEETING BETWEEN STRUCTANT YAZ AND COHERANT AZAZIAH

  [Sparks of dull red flitted about malachite pillars in irregular patterns. Through shrouded veils, a dark clouded sky reflected umbral light from distant buildings. Tall, cowled figures stood close to an obsidian table with a floating black crystal above its smooth surface.]

  Azaziah: The Disavowed have manifested.

  Yaz: We must destroy the focus.

  Azaziah: We believe Lej’jin wields it.

  Yaz: Lej’jin! Traitor-born. Is he Empowered?

  Azaziah: We don’t believe so.

  Yaz: Then it shouldn’t be a problem.

  Azaziah: Kai’rii, Lej’jin’s bodyslave, has reincarnated.

  Yaz: Find her. She will be our greatest weapon.

  Azaziah: Should we activate the extinction protocol?

  Yaz: I will consult with the Jal.

  Azaziah: The Heritorac is not be ready to execute.

  Yaz: That would not be optimal.

  Azaziah: Agreed.

  Yaz: Raise the extraction level for now.

  Azaziah: As you instruct.

  There’s more.

  Yaz: Yes?

  Azaziah: Compassion has enabled the psi child.

  Yaz: Impossible.

  Azaziah: Zoraz and Hogoa observed the meld.

  Yaz: We must ensure an ascendancy event is avoided.