Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace (Book III of The Hazy Souls) (23 page)

She smiled. “I'd love to marry you.”

“Here's our judge.” Jeremy drew a
rudimentary figure in a robe on the cave wall. It was holding a
book.

Maren bit her lip. “Cajjez Jeremy Chikalto,
do you take Maren Nononia to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have
and to hold, 'til death do you part?”

“I do.” Jeremy smiled and
held Maren's hands. “And do you, Gardener of the
Maze
—
Cultivator
of the Baby Sprout
—
Maren Nononia
—
take Cajjez Jeremy Chikalto as your lawfully wedded husband,
to have and to hold, 'til death do you part?”

“I do.”

“We may now...?

“—
kiss each other.” Maren
smiled and leaned in. She locked lips with Jeremy and they held
tight, savoring the moment. Maren drew back with wide eyes. “Oh,”
she said, holding her belly.

“Oh?”

“I think I just had a contraction.” Maren
looked down at her belly and then back at Jeremy.

A great crash came from the heavens and the
wind whipped violently through the cave. They ran to the mouth of
the cave and looked beyond the edge of the cliff at the wasteland
below. Lightning came down from the smoky clouds, and an angel
landed on the molten ground. Jeremy pulled Maren close to him.
Another bolt, and a second angel appeared. The angels faced each
other and held out their palms. A red, swirling mass formed between
them. The sky split open and the red mass smoked and groaned as it
birthed its way into the dimension.

Maren's breathing became labored. “Does
time... unfold... in chronological order... in a dream?”

“Maren, what is that?” Jeremy grabbed hold
of Maren. “I'm getting you out of here.” He zipped out of the cave
with Maren in his arms. He sped to the next mountain over, away
from the thing, and they landed softly in a dense thicket of dead
bushes.

The air in the distance swirled into a
vortex and in its center was the large red mass. The sky lit up and
the vortex closed, leaving the large red mass hanging like murder.
“How big is that? We must be miles away. What the hell is that,”
said Jeremy. He sat down beside Maren and clasped her hand. “How
are you? Talk to me.”

Maren winced and writhed in pain.

“Maren, do you need me to do something?”

A few seconds later, and Maren sat upright.
“The contractions are getting stronger. I'm fine now. I can't talk
through them. I need you to be ready to get this baby.”

“But that thing...?' Jeremy looked back and
saw the red mass swoop across the deadlands.

“Jeremy! You have to get this baby. Here
comes another contraction.” Maren started to breath heavily out of
her mouth.

Jeremy looked down the
mountain and could see the great beast rising up. It was a red
dragon the size of a mountain with seven necks and seven heads,
each having ten horns, fast approaching their mountain. Everywhere
it went the skies rained blood, and the smell of iron was
nauseating. Smoke poured from every pore of its lizard body. Jeremy
grabbed Maren and tore through space to another mountain. Maren was
screaming. He veered right and flew to the peak. “I'm sorry! Maren,
listen to me
—
can
you birth this baby by yourself? It's coming back.” Jeremy nibbled
at his fingernails. “Can you do this? I have to lead it away from
you. Can you do this?!”

“Yes, I
think
—
aaah!”
Maren curled up in the fetal position. “I'll be okay. Just thinking
about... the new city, prepared like a bride....” She
screamed.

Jeremy kissed her
forehead. It was all he could do. The Antichrist was coming towards
them like a hurricane, and it began to drizzle blood all around
them. Jeremy flashed through the air, towards one of the heads,
which was the size of a small town. He flew towards the snake
pupil, and discharged a bolt of lightning into the black mass. The
dragon didn't even blink. Then all seven heads roared and great
waves of thunder pulverized the air. Jeremy's head split in
unimaginable pain, and his body was tossed aside like a rag doll.
He healed quickly.
Maren
.

Jeremy dashed back to her, and she was still
laying on her back taking in huge gulps of air. “Are you okay?”

“I survived that noise, if that's what you
mean. Aaah...” She winced in pain. She managed to point her finger
behind Jeremy, and he spun around to see the largest of the seven
heads thundering towards them. It opened its great mouth like a
whale, and the head of a man emerged from the throat on a long,
scaly neck. The head glowed a soft yellow and his mouth was open in
an “O.” His eyes were wide and white with no pupils. The neck grew
longer and longer as the head careened towards the mountain
peak.

“I can't do this by myself,” Jeremy
whispered and he closed his eyes and lifted his hands, willing his
demons forward. They came forth in a black storm and swarmed all
over the extended neck, attaching themselves like leeches on a
snake, and the head drew back, back inside the dragon's mouth, and
the demons went with it, and disappeared into the black hole. The
blood-rain stopped.

Jeremy flashed to the far side of the
dragon, away from Maren. He unleashed a storm of lightning bolts
along the red dragon's mountain of a back, then concentrated them
all on a single spot, and finally punctured a scale. Foul red blood
sprayed from the scale, but the dragon ignored him. Jeremy jumped
into the wound, wading in the rancid flesh, and began to burn it
with a white fire, but the mountain didn't flinch. The head had
again emerged from the dragon's throat, and the demons were gone.
It extended towards Maren.

Jeremy flashed to Maren
and found her hiding behind a boulder. Her body was feverish and
Jeremy shook her. Time was slowing down and speeding up, going
backwards and forwards. The sky rained moon rocks, blood and hail,
and lightning flashed. Jeremy made his energy around Maren into an
impenetrable diamond. The crib of the Earth rocked violently.
Maren's eyes were wide and she spoke these words:
“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and
there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament ... There
appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun,
and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve
stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and
pained to be delivered.”

Jeremy gripped her by the shoulders. “It's
coming again, Maren!”

She continued, “A huge red dragon, with
seven heads and ten horns.... The dragon stood before the woman
about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth....”
Maren's breathing became labored.

“But that doesn't happen, right?!” Jeremy
turned to see that the head had slithered over to join them,
through Jeremy's shield, and was glowing a soft yellow. The white
eyes were empty, but the mouth grinned as it drew closer to Maren,
ignoring Jeremy.

Jeremy lunged forward to the face and pushed
against it with all his might. The faced laughed and Jeremy's heels
broke the stone beneath him as it pushed him back. Jeremy reached
out with his will and felt his demons inside the dragon. Every
demon raged inside the beast, and the face frowned. Seven massive
heads now bore down on Jeremy, who was ant-like below them. He drew
his energy tighter and harder around Maren, him, and the head, hard
like the point in the beginning of the universe, the first diamond.
The dragon heads blasted a primordial fire at his shield, but could
not breach Jeremy's diamond. The mouth on the face made an 'O' in
surprise.

Jeremy blinked, and in
that second, a memory came forward. He was back in the hellscape
and his demons' mouths were opened like an 'O.' A rush of sludge
filled Jeremy's mouth and he knew the key to escaping death. Jeremy
opened his eyes, reached into the Antichrist's mouth, and ripped
the snake tongue from its base. The Beast reeled and rolled its
eyes back, then opened up its throat to retch. Jeremy grabbed his
key from his pocket and pushed his fist right into the face's
mouth. He guided the key down the long throat on a thread of light.
The face writhed and twisted, and Jeremy pushed the thread further
in like a feeding tube. Maren shrieked behind
him
—
and the world
coalesced into a blind rage. Jeremy's key reached the pit of the
dragon's stomach
—
the bottom of the red mountain, which began to warble and
disintegrated into a river of flesh and blood like a volcano.
Jeremy released the head, and blasted it into the river.

Jeremy turned to Maren, and they both
wept.

Jeremy reached down and cradled the two
babies, a boy and a girl. “Twins,” he cried.

A great whiteness flooded their vision. Time
hung like a dew drop, full of potential, in the early morning
hours. Jeremy smiled across a meadow at Maren, as their children
crawled after a ball on the grass. Now Mateo hugged the girl in his
arms, and he pointed to a picture in a book. Jeremy held the back
of his son along the bike path; he released him and cheered as his
boy cycled into a great new world.

###

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Jeremy Chikalto and the Hazy Souls

(Book I of The Hazy Souls)

2011

Jeremy Chikalto and Leviathan Island

(Book II of The Hazy Souls)

2012

Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace

(Book III of The Hazy Souls)

2014

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