Beyond Perdition, page 16
Was that the gate? Was that the way of out of the world of the Dead and into the world of the Living?’
Hope propelled Mason forward, through the opaque swathes of smoke and the putrid stench of the landfill, past the men on the garbage hills and the long tongues of fire until at last, he stood at the gate’s base, looking up at its ornate build and the feverish colour display within.
He gripped the grimoire to his chest, held his breath as if he were entering a body of water and stepped through...
CHAPTER 11
A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
1
Miss Harlington was at least 86 years old. Her real age was mired in controversy, lost to the annals of time, as some of the other parishioners liked to joke. She was known to have celebrated her birthday twice each year in ‘respective emulation’ of the Monarchy and three times if she was visited by family. The true number of her years was therefore incalculable and unless one used the deeply entrenched lines on her leathery skin as a means of establishing her longevity, then her age was merely speculative and that was that.
She had still retained her faculties. She still spoke with the eloquence of the educated, not condescendingly but authoritatively on matters ranging from the Sciences to Theology. She had been married three times, outlived all her husbands but now, as a triple widow, she spent her time perfecting her skills on the organ. At first, it had been an intellectual pursuit, a kind of challenge to see if she could synchronize her thoughts with the movements of her ageing limbs but then, it had become something more.
It had become a way to express herself in a manner which words did not allow. She would often tell people who were willing to listen, that if man was ever to experience Extra-Terrestrial visitations then communication could be achieved either one of two ways: Mathematically, through the intricacy of algebraic equations, geometrical shapes and trigonometrical theorems or musically, through the creative use of notes, rhythms and tempo evoking emotion in all who listened.
These conclusions gave Miss Harlington an air of divinity, but never coupled with arrogance; that was the key, that was the allure. Today, as Daniel crossed the oaken pews of his church, he listened to Miss Harlingon’s renditions of the classical 15th-century hymns and imagined he could see the resounding notes bouncing off the eaves and alcoves of the Gothic hall.
He had nearly finished stocking the pews with the song sheets and copies of the King James translation of the New Testament when the nine a.m. bells tolled. The belfry to the west side of the church was only ever in operation on Sundays or during marriages or funerals.
The dull twang which emanated from Charlotte’s cracked casing (Charlotte was the central bell) echoed through the church competing with the ivories of the organ. There was still two hours to the beginning of service but five people had already taken their seats and were knelt in reverence before a stone crucifix just beyond the altar. The communion table had been laid out, the wine chalice and sliced bread covered by silk cloth.
Daniel did not immediately recognise those gathered; for a start, their heads were bowed but as he neared one of the men, seated four pews from the front, he noticed something which took him aback, the man’s face. The skin was hard and cracked like a dry valley floor, deep tessellating wrinkles and what appeared to be varicose veins running down from a malformed forehead to a jutting jaw. Maggots, perfectly white against the sandy flesh, crawled in and out of the man’s nasal cavity, ear holes and mouth. It was as if they were feeding on a corpse and yet the undulations of his chest indicated life.
‘Sir’ Daniel said timidly, ‘Sir?’
The organ music stopped leaving only tonal remnants ricocheting around the church’s vast interior. When all had settled, the man looked up, The maggots glistened as they emerged from between the man’s opened lips.
‘You sent me here’ Daniel ‘and now you must join me.’
Daniel awoke, throwing the scratchy sheets, the imprisoning gauze from his sweat-swathed body. A thick film like an enveloping nebulous cloud obscured his vision only to slowly dissipate as clarity came in fits and starts. He was in a small room, its walls of hewn grey stone, perhaps breeze blocks. A maze of iron pipes ran in a capillary-like formation from floor to ceiling. Pressure valves and cracked perspex dials acned the rust caked tubing. Sprouting of moss had formed on the ceiling alongside a mottling of black mould.
There was a dampness to the air, a fetid stench which all old buildings possessed (the belfry of his local church possessed such a smell.) On one bed, a man lay, his body and face covered by a white sheet, like a burial shroud.
‘Excuse me’ whispered Daniel, in contrast to strong voice projection of his pulpit sermons. The man slowly sat up like Frankenstein’s monster rising from the gurney. As the cloth fell from his face, he was revealed to have long auburn hair which he’d left to cascade freely over his face. A beard added to the dishevelment and yet there was a sublime quality to his features almost like the unkempt look was deliberate. His forehead was marred by a series of scabs, some small, others a little larger. As he sat up, he brushed the hair from his face and Daniel could see on his hands large holes as if something had pierced or bored through both the flesh and bone leaving gaping openings, perfectly rounded.
‘Ah, Daniel, did you sleep well?’
Daniel was taken aback by the gentleness in the stranger’s voice. It was suffused with a familiarity, a cordiality which instantly dispelled fear.
‘Yes, but where am I and who, who are you?’
The stranger smiled but did not answer immediately. It was as if he were waiting for Daniel to recognise him.
‘Who do you think I am?’
‘How should I know, I’ve never seen you in my life.’
‘Perhaps that’s why you’re here Daniel, perhaps if you had seen me, if you had known me, you wouldn’t be in this place.’
‘This is all a bit cryptic; you need to be straight with me and tell where I am.’
‘You are in the bowels of the silo of Sheol, a great tower built during the formation of Hell.’
‘So, what are you saying, I’m in Hell?’
‘A part of it, yes but my Father has seen in you something he wants to use, a talent you wasted on Earth.’
‘And who’s your father?’
The stranger looked up, ‘I understand why you don’t recognise me, you don’t know my Father and yet, whilst you were in the land of the Living you claimed to be his Ambassador on Earth, his Representative in the World. Was that a lie Daniel?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about?’
‘Then listen if you have ears. Look at me again, who do you see?’
Daniel moved to the edge of the bed and stared intently at the stranger.
‘Jesus?’
‘The same.’
‘This doesn’t make sense, first, you tell me I’m in Hell, then you say you’re Jesus. If that was true what are you doing down here?’
‘For three days the Son of Man descended into the realms of Hades...’
‘Hold on a minute. You’re referring to the Harrowing of Hell, the time when Jesus, yourself, entered Hell to bring Salvation to the Prophets of old. Is that what you’re telling me?’
‘Exactly, and you are the final Soul.’
‘I’m sorry but that doesn’t make sense either. The Harrowing is a past historical event, it’s happened, how can I be involved with it?’
‘There is a lot you don’t understand, but I shall try and enlighten you. This realm is spiritual, outside of time and space. What you experience here may not yet have come to pass in the physical. A day is a thousand years and a thousand years, a day.’
‘Okay, okay, let me get this figured out here. I’m in Hell but you’re here because…what? You have a higher purpose for me?’
‘You could say that. This day will be a day of education, a day of preparation. Earth is in its final days, the principalities of Heaven and Hell wage war and somewhere in all that, you, Daniel, you are destined to bring about the End.’
Daniel could feel himself trembling, a mix of confusion and annoyance twisting his innards.
‘I’m still not understanding this, if I’m going to be used then why am I in Hell and how do I get back?’
‘The silo is built of many levels designed by the original Fallen to recapture the knowledge lost in the destruction of Eden. Satan has employed the greatest minds to one purpose, total understanding of the Universe. It is thought, that with such divine wisdom, Hell can triumph in the Great War, the Demons can regain their place in the Heavens and Lucifer his throne in Elysium. This place is governed by the second Nero revealed as the true Anti-Christ. It is under his watchful eyes that the Fallen gather the data and information they need for the final takeover.’
‘So where do I fit in?’
‘You were born with great skills of leadership, with enough charisma to fill a thousand churches and yet your sermons are misguided and egotistical. My Father still wants to utilise your ability but first, you must equip yourself with knowledge only availed to those that have crossed to the other side, do you understand what I’m saying, Daniel?’
‘I think so, it’s just a lot to take in.’
‘Today you will learn all you need to know, then it will be up to you to lead the final defence.’
Daniel nodded despite himself. He stood up and looked around.
‘Okay, well I guess I’m following you then.’
‘For once that is true, come let’s make haste.’
A doorway only now revealed between the warren-like piping led out of the small dorm. They were in a corridor, its walls made of the same grey breeze block. More pipes threaded their way through the passage.
‘We are still in the foundations of the silo. We must make our way to the upper floors; from there we can surface to Earth.’
‘So it’s true, Hell is under the Earth?’
‘In a manner of speaking, yes.’
2
They reached a raised portcullis and entered into another passage, this one led up a flight of stairs. Jesus led the way. Daniel found himself lost in thought. He was following a man who claimed to be Christ, through a corridor supposedly in Hell... he was certain, at least for a moment, that this was all a bad dream and soon Loretta would enter and wake him up.
They arrived at the top of the stairs, pushed open a steel door and entered a luminous white passage, clean and reflective like the ivory keys on the church organ. The walls were so incandescent there was no need for additional lighting, just the celestial white bathed the environment. Daniel was reminded of the futuristic innards of some spacecraft and instantly thought of holograms and grey-faced aliens with metallic probes. He couldn’t help but smile as they continued on. Jesus stopped at a square in the wall to the right, a single indistinct slab. He pressed his hands into its centre and stood back. The walls moved but they did not slide from right to left or left to right, instead, the white tiling spun on some invisible axis, turning three-dimensionally like the sides of a Rubik’s cube. Eventually, the movements created a temporary gap through which they stepped through.
The room they were now stood in was vast. In its centre stood a monolithic construction, its shape akin (at least in Daniel’s mind) to the ancient pillars of Stonehenge in the United Kingdom; great black slabs, featureless dominoes rose from the ground buzzing like active generators.
‘This is the server room’ Jesus explained, ‘the motherboards and processors within these servers have been designed to store the data from the silo’s three quantum computers. Imagine if you will, a trillion terabytes a second running through the circuit board. The Analysts call it the threads of the Universe, those infinitely long aggregation of code and assimilation of data which defines our sphere of existence. Every theory ever created can be proven or discredited in seconds by the data handled by these servers.’
Daniel noticed the strange grooves in the black plastic casings. The buzzing was coming from a series of external fans which blew air into the external circuitry.
‘Come this is just the beginning,’ Jesus announced, ushering Daniel through the assembly of servers and into another room.
This one was smaller by comparison. Its walls patterned in what appeared to be glowing mathematical equations, reams of numerals and algebraic signs.
‘When Einstein wrote his infamous four papers, he was tapping into the vast well of knowledge contained within this hub room. The equations here vary, from the true nature of light to the conception and eventual destruction of the Universe. The Greeks and other great minds since have all visited this room telepathically through vision or hallucinations but they have each been given partial insight into Universal Truths. As you stand here, you are witness to all the cognition ever extracted from the Tree of Knowledge. No human brain can comprehend its vastness but look here.’
Jesus pointed at the centre of the room, at three computers configured in a triangle. Sat at the computers were reptilian beings with extended craniums and interlocking tails. They feverishly input data with keypads adding to the equations on the surrounding walls. Their heads throbbed noticeably as information passed between their cerebral circuitry in some form of silent communication.
‘The Analysts, under Satan’s employ, are here to discover all Truths under Heaven and Earth. They work tirelessly day in and day out to figure all of this’. He spread his hands out wide, ‘to make sense of all of this and summarise it in the ultimate text, the Codex Creation.’
Daniel felt as if he had a million questions as if his mind was bursting with curiosity and yet he remained dumbfounded just trying to take it all in.
Jesus spoke pointing sequentially at the walled equations and formulas.
‘The room is split into four quadrants (excluding the floor the ceiling) with the first side of the cube recording the technologies of the Ancients: those Beings who existed before the Great Flood, in the time of the Nephilim where Celestial knowledge converged with Earthly thinking. The legend of Atlantis, of an advanced underwater civilisation, is not far off from the truth. There was a time that man shared divine knowledge, a time where the science fiction concepts were actualised in the form of matter-teleportation, molecular reconfiguration and the like. It is only now, with the cyclic nature of history, that we are rediscovering the lost Truths. If you could decode the formulas in this quadrant you could understand advanced particle physics far beyond the minds of modern man.
The second quadrant pertains to the astronomical, and charts the boundaries of our universe. It is a record of the findings of the observation tower atop the silo that has managed to quantify space, calculating its size, although, due to expansion this is constantly changing.
The third quadrant is relayed messages from the second Terra Nova, a duplicate Earth located in the furthest west wing of the Universe. It is a secondary planet containing ten billion more humans who, working on an alternate timeline and with different influences have made many new and exciting discoveries. Their transcript is being transmitted here and translated in the universal language of Mathematics.
The fourth quadrant is knowledge pertaining to the realms of the Spiritual. You see, many that now inhabit Hell were once Heavenly Seraphims who shared in the knowledge of God. There are those that, after their banishment from Elysium, have sought to recollect the ideologies and thinking of the Divine. It is here that we learn the secrets of Heaven.’
Daniel shook his head. A migraine was forming between the eyes causing him to squint.
‘This is all just too much.’ he said as they crossed out of the room and ascended yet another flight of stairs.
‘You’re not expected to understand all this, not whilst you still inhabit a human body anyway. What my Father wanted of me was to show you that what we pertain to know on Earth is just a fraction of the knowledge contained in the Universe. If you can consciously tap into the equations of this room, then I can assist you in understanding their contents and utilizing them in the final battle.’
‘So how can I tap into them?’
‘Meditation was first created when a monk, in a moment of transcendental bliss entered an altered state of consciousness. Little did he know that he was in this very room, looking at one of the four quadrants of Universal knowledge, depicting and deciphering the great Truths; it has come to be known as enlightenment by those trying to replicate that experience but the truth is, actual mediation is just a returning to this place, just focusing on the strings of formula, on the interconnecting Universal threads which compose our existence. You can do this if you really try if you separate yourself from what’s going on around you and focus internally. My Spirit will guide you and you, in turn, will guide the Trinity.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘You will find out soon enough’ Jesus responded cryptically.
The walls of the passage they had now entered were covered with telescreens positioned like windows peering out of the silo. They displayed alternate galaxies, planetary bodies and constellations.
‘The eyes of the Universe’ Jesus explained, ‘To stare at these is to look out at all existence. From here one can adjust the display and hone into individual stars wherever they may be in the vastness of space. Nothing is out of reach, past, present or future. Solar systems and galaxies can be viewed with just a touch of the screens. Satan first believed it would allow him to relocate Heaven but God hid it from his sight. Only I know its true location. Up here is the transferral beam, an ancient technology that will allow me to transport you back to the world of the Living. It is there that your work will begin.’
They moved into a room a similar size to the one containing the four quadrants but this had a domed ceiling like the roof of an observatory. A vertical shaft of light illuminated the centre of the room with light in its purest form, its colours divided, its particles magnified. It looked more like a kaleidoscopic display than anything else.
