Section Thirteen

Beyond the Edge of Darkness

Entry #0105: Demons in the Smog 

The dark bat-winged gargoyle creatures and the smog behind them were gradually approaching, their screeches growing louder. 

Sheila called out, "Listen, Giant Rock is a psychic conduit of sorts. I used to be part of a Wiccan coven and we came here for rituals quite often, particularly various lunar rituals, especially around the solstices and equinoxes. Various pagan groups have also used this sacred locality. That's why we chose this mystical location. I've been told that even extraterrestrials were drawn here and were mesmerized by its energy, which is why many people have had UFO sightings here." 

Chad said, "Okay, great history lesson. Now let's get cracking." 

Sheila continued, "The traditional number of individuals to circle the rock would be thirteen, but we only have five, so we have two spread out around the rock for the ritual I have in mind." 

She explained the ritual to us, and we were as prepared as we were going to get.

As instructed, we all visualized a large band of light surrounding us and the large rock at the center. Then Sheila spoke out as loud as she could the words of invocation, and essentially the ritual involved her calling upon the Great Christos, the Great Goddess, a few other celestial beings, and in particular four of the great archangels, and she called their names near the end of the invocation, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel. 

I must admit, I did feel some kind of enlightening energy all around me and within it as well. 

But then, interrupting our focus and psychic connection, the dark demonic entities had arrived with the dark smog at their backs. We grabbed the weapons at our feet, and swung and brandished them at the malevolent creatures above our heads. There were a dozen bipedal demons running at us as well that we fought against, warding them off the best we could. With a shotgun Chad began shooting at them, Travis and I had shovels, Jezz had a baseball bat, Sheila had a pitchfork, and Monica had a hoe. Farm implements can be dangerous weapons, in most cases. We fought vigorously, and as much as we could strike them, it only stopped them briefly, because they kept coming at us, their taloned claws striking us, scratching at us and sometimes drawing blood. 

Then we saw something eerie up in the sky above our heads, several hundred feet up -- an ominous creature manifesting. Recalling the demonic image of Abaddon I had seen earlier, the huge creature above us was very similar to this, raising its four arms, and growling profusely as fire shot out of its mouth. It had four horns on its head and its eyes were glowing red. It was definitely Abaddon! 

Sheila shouted, "I call upon the Archangel Michael, warrior and protector of the children of Earth! I beseech thee to protect us now and to attack thine enemy, Abaddon!" 

It didn't take long for us to see a large golden haired being attired in glistening white armor with wings of silver behind him, and he wielded a mighty golden broadsword. Abaddon wielded a sword of red flames. We witnessed the two celestial beings fighting it out, and the two blades crashed together like thunder, and blue lightening bolts flashed outward from their impact. 

We mere mortals continued to fight the smaller demons around us with our makeshift weapons. At times when I swung my shovel, the blade went right through the creature’s torso as if it were smoke, because they could transfer back-and-forth between physical and nonphysical, and this happened regularly now as these creatures cackled sinisterly as we brandished our futile weapons.  

Monica called to me, "I think we need a better plan than this." 

I called back, "No shit!" 

I realized that when the rift was slowly opening, we had been simply at the edge of darkness. But now we were plunging headlong beyond the edge of darkness. 

I began to feel hopelessness.

 Entry #0106: Using the Light as a Weapon

 Sheila called out to us, "I think we have the same advantage they do. They can manifest physically in this particular plane at will, so perhaps we can manifest our weapons as well, since the frequency has changed now has become more malleable to our thoughts, at least I’m pretty sure this is the case. Try focusing on the thought that our weapons are versatile in this plane of existence."

 We tried this, but once again all we could do was ward them off or stun them mildly, but they continued to act as wispy smoke that our weapons couldn’t penetrate. Evidently Sheila’s theory didn’t work. We were subject to psychic laws we didn't understand. We couldn’t keep this up forever. Michael and Abaddon were busy above our heads, so we had to do something on our own. 

Then suddenly I had an idea. I recalled Jezz’s last dream about fighting the dark entity with white light. I ran closer to Jezz and called out, "I've got an idea!" 

Swinging her bat around, Jezz replied, "What?" 

Then I called out to everyone, with cupped hands, "Listen! Meet me in the room beneath the rock! Right now!" 

We all ran to the big rock, down the rock stairway, through the wooden door, and closed it. We all had scratches and blood on ourselves as we panted, holding our makeshift weapons. 

Chad said, "We can’t hide here for long, but I admit we do need a breather." 

I said, "That's not the point. I’ve got an idea." Then I turned to Jezz and said, "Remember your dream? Fighting the dark entity with the white light? Tell everyone about it! We’ve gotta try that!" 

She smiled and nodded, "Oh yeah! You’re right, Starky! Okay listen, everyone." 

So, as briefly as she could, she explained her psychic dream, and that we should act accordingly and focus hard on projecting the white light at these demons. She said the frequency of the plane we existed in had changed enough to where we should be able to manifest visible white light, and that these physical weapons proved to be useless. Weapons of a higher vibration were necessary in this plane. 

Suddenly a couple of demons jutted their butt-ugly heads and bodies through the rock walls, screeching at us. Immediately, we saw Jezz stretching her arms out and shooting light out at one of them, and it backed away. Sheila followed suit, and her beam of light backed off another demon. 

I cried, "It works!" 

Monica remarked, "Obviously, the change in frequency we’re in right now allows us to use and see the light. That’s wonderful! And to our benefit!" 

Chad ordered, "Okay, everyone outside! We know what to do now!" 

Dropping our useless weapons, we left the little room and got back outside. 

Beneath the Giant Rock, old pic

 Entry: #0107: The Battle of Light and Darkness

 As both Sheila and Monica had indicated, I realized the frequency of reality had changed in this strange altered plane of existence, to where this white light we used was strong and real, not just something of the imagination or conjured by visualization techniques.

 Keeping in a cluster now, not spread out as we had been before, we stretched our arms out and from our hands began shooting white light at the running or flying demons around us, which caught them off guard now as they backed away, but the winged creatures always tried to fly in closer, slashing their sharp talons at us. The demons on foot were easier for us to zap and keep at bay, if not push them away.

 We continued the onslaught of white light, but there was still several dozens of the creatures that continued to attack us. Some of the demons even tried shooting beams of dark energy at us, just like in Jezz’s dream. So it was white light against dark energy.  

I stood there sweating profusely, arms stretched out, shooting light upward, as a demon over my head shot a beam of dark energy toward me, then I remembered that the darkness is simply the absence of light. With a tremendous force of will, I pushed a massive amount of light at the demon, which surrounded him completely. It screeched and then it exploded in orange flames, then disappeared in a few seconds. 

"YEAH!" I yelled, then laughed triumphantly. 

Everyone felt hope and continued their onslaught of white light. 

I called out to everyone, "Darkness is the absence of light! It has no power of its own! These demons might as well be bluffing! Let's get ‘em! " 

The dark energy seemed strong, but now the white light was proving to be stronger, as one demon after another was surrounded with light and exploded into flames. That’s what I would call spontaneous demonic combustion! 

The stubborn demons kept attacking us, trying to surround us with black light, but we kept breaking through with our white light. Unfortunately, it seemed the dark beams were pushing us to the ground, and we mere humans seemed to be weakening, as our light beams seemed to dwindle and lose their strength. And so the demons around us cackled sinisterly. 

At one point I glanced upward, catching sight of Abaddon with his sword of red flames apparently whacking the hell out of Michael as the shimmering archangel stepped backwards. Suddenly I realized these demons were getting their power from their chief demon.  

Most of us were on our knees now, futilely shooting our beams of light at the dark ugly creatures. 

I called out to everyone, "The demons get their strength from Abaddon, and he's defeating Michael! Let's shift our light directly at Abaddon!" 

I sure hoped this would work, because we were quickly running out of ideas, and so far it was turning into a losing battle.

Entry #0108: The Last Onslaught of Light

 We gained new strength, stood up straight and tall, stretched our arms out and aimed our light beams directly at Abaddon above our heads. The huge demon bellowed, and being interrupted, Michael began thrashing the hell out of him with his golden sword of light, and the demons around us seemed to be faltering and weakening around us.

 As they desperately shot their beams of dark energy at us, they tried to distract us away from Abaddon.

 Sheila called out, "No matter what, stay focused on Abaddon!"

 So we kept our focus on shooting our beams of light at Abaddon, trying to ignore the other demons as much as possible.

 As Michael fought one-handed against Abaddon now, with his other hand he shot a beam of light down upon the ground around Giant Rock, essentially in the place where we had initiated our simple circle of light that started the ritual. Suddenly a huge ring of light ascended from the ground and rose upward over our head. The circle grew larger and began to swirl around above the heads of the two celestial beings like a luminous hurricane in the sky. Then the dark smog was being swiftly sucked into its center as if this maelstrom was a black hole, but it was more of a white hole sucking in the surrounding darkness. Then we saw the demons being drawn upward, squirming and flailing their arms and screeching, as they were being sucked up into the center of this huge white hole that filled the sky. The dark smog that covered the ground was being sucked into it from miles around, and I began to see a glimmer of sunlight shining through now. Even Abaddon was groaning and flailing about as Michael pounded into the sinister demon with his lightning flashing sword.

 Finally this large demon was being drawn upward and was finally sucked into the center of the white hole, disappearing. We saw large clouds of dark smog whooshing from all directions and being drawn up into the center of this white hole, until it was finally all gone. Soon the celestial maelstrom seemed to dissipate, fade and vanish, leaving the bright blue sky. A glorious golden light surrounded Michael as he smiled down at us, then he seemed to fade and disappear.

 There was no more dark smog around us, no more dark demons, no more Abaddon, no more fighting. There was just silence and peace, and a bright blue sky above our heads with a bright sun beating down on us and across the whole desert landscape. The scene was glorious! If this was some kind of Armageddon war of sorts, we had won, and we thwarted the possibility of an apocalypse.

 Then we noticed several other people scattered around the area, and among them was Billy from the West Coast Merchandise Outlet in Victorville; he was crouched down on the ground and whimpering. So all the people that had disappeared in the desert vicinity had been safely delivered back to the earth plane. Thank God!

 Entry #0109: Heading back to Mulvern

 We all embraced one another, glad it was all over.

 After Monica and I hugged and kissed briefly, she said she had to talk to Sheila. So the two psychic women discussed something for a few minutes. I had a feeling they could be good friends.

 As we all stood around, Sheila announced, "Listen, everyone. The rift has been closed, completely. Everything has been restored back the way it was. In the last few days there has been confusion as to what plane of reality we’ve been existing in since the rift had been tearing through the cohesive fabric that keeps the planes aligned and in balance. Although some kind of fragmentation did occur, this has been repaired. There's no question that the earth plane had been restored to its normal frequency now, at least in the localities that it has been affected. We can breathe easy now."

 Monica added, "We can celebrate now!"

 We all clapped and laughed about that.

 In spite of her good news, I wondered if half of the downtown Mulvern area was still in ruins. We would soon find out.

 Now that our cell phones were working again, Chad called a friend who also had a van and asked him to come out to Giant Rock to pick up several people. After nearly forty minutes, the van arrived and let the people on board, then took off.

 After that, the rest of us returned to our vehicles and headed back into the west toward Mulvern. The three women in my vehicle were talking profusely about everything that had taken place while I drove, while we all ate snacks and drank pop or bottled water.

  Finally I interrupted them, asking, "Monica, I gotta ask you, are you here for good now, or do you have to go back down below?"

 "I drove up here in a hurry. I could stay a few days, but when I go back down I’m going to get all packed up and be right back here."

 "Thank God!"

 Then it occurred to me that since the fragmented planes had ceased and the rift was closed, my yellow cabin must have been restored, with Leo Stroud there, safe and sound, I supposed. And I wanted him to meet my girlfriend from the city down below.

 We met back at Café 247 on the eastside of Mulvern, and Chad told everyone we would tentatively have some kind of celebration this coming weekend and he would give details beforehand. Then everyone got in their individual cars and more or less headed for their homes. Monica got in her vehicle and followed me westward through the downtown area, and surprisingly we observed that everything was completely intact, as if that tornado from hell had never devastated the area. I even noticed that Fanny's Thrift Shop was still there like it always had been. Perhaps some cosmic reset button had been pushed, shifting everything back to normal, by the “Big Guns” most likely. Possibly the alternate reality or weird timeline that the rift created was erased and the original timeline had been restored. It was as if the whole damn calamity had never happened. None of this made a lot of sense, at least not from the standpoint of cold hard science. In fact, this whole experience defied science.

 Anyway, Monica followed me up the slope toward my cabin.

Entry #0110: Back to Normal

 The brightly painted yellow cabin was still intact, thankfully, not a decrepit abandoned shack like I had left it last. I told her about that, and she thought that was totally weird. In fact, while we stood on the porch, arm in arm, looking down the slope at the sleepy town of Mulvern below, I told her the whole account, basically filling in the gaps between times when I had talked to her on the phone.

 We went inside, and since Leo was not upstairs, I figured he was down in the bunker. So we went down there, and sure enough, he was there sleeping in one of the bunk beds.

 I rudely woke him up by shouting, "The bunker’s on fire!"

 He jerked up with a start, probably not sure what I was actually saying as he grunted, "Huh?"

 "Did you sleep this whole time?"

 "You know me. I could probably sleep through World War III."

 I chuckled, "You damn near did!"

 After I introduced him to Monica, I explained to him everything that happened while he was down here, sacked out in Area 57.

 "Shit, and I missed all the excitement."

 "For the last few days you did nothing but sleep?"

 "Not exactly. I laid low, doing my usual computer work, sometimes took a break to play my game, and a lot of sleep, and munching on bunker snacks down here, mainly to avoid you so you wouldn’t talk me into going off on your crazy supernatural escapades -- which apparently I successfully avoided."

 "You sure did. You completely avoided a separate alternate reality that me and the others got stuck in."

 Leo sighed, shaking his head, "As usual, I find your crazy account hard to believe."

 I smiled, "You should've been there -- if anything to convince you."

 Monica added, "I was a witness, I saw it all, too."

 Leo snorted, "Like I mentioned once before, there are such things as mass-delusions that people share -- which it seems like your whole gang experienced." Then he snickered.

 I sighed in exasperation, "You’re just a closed-minded skeptic." 

Monica took my arm and said to me, "Just forget it. It doesn't matter whether he believes us or not."

 I just shrugged.

 Then Leo got up from his bunk, saying, "I think I overslept. I'd better check on my clients, they’re probably trying to reach me. I left my phone on voicemail." He looked at his cell phone. "Damn! I’ve got about twenty messages!"

 I chuckled, "Sounds like you’ll be busy for a while."

 Leo groaned, "Unfortunately."

 So we followed him down the hall and into the station of operations.

 Stopping at the desk and looking around, Leo hollered, "Okay, where's my laptop?"

 Cluelessly, I replied, "I don't know."

 Leo growled, "It was right here on your desk, right next to your computer. That's where I left it last."

 "Are you sure, Leo?"

 "Yes! I was playing my game, Medieval Realms, and put it on pause to take a nap. I left it right here."

 I said, "I've been gone for quite a while, a day or so. I have no idea what happened here."

 He accused, "I know you. Before you decided to wake me up, you thought you’d play some silly reality shift prank on me."

 "No I didn't, Leo. Maybe your mind is playing tricks on you. Is it possible you left it upstairs?"

 "I haven't been upstairs for a few days."

 I shrugged and replied, "I don't know what to tell you."

 And we were all just as puzzled as Leo was.

 Except that three days later his laptop reappeared in the passenger seat of his Range Rover. Weird, huh?

 Entry #0111: The Freaky Dream

 Leo had to get ready and return to St. Louis pretty soon, but during his last couple of days here, he was content to sleep down in the bunker while Monica and I stayed in my bed in the cabin. The next few days nothing supernaturally intense happened, just ordinary life in general, plus, just me and Monica being together and catching up on lost time. But the day after Leo left, something weird happened.

 That night I had the freakiest dream, at least I thought it was a dream, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps I was in some alternate reality, in a different frequency from the ordinary earth plane. I found myself walking through dismal, rounded out tunnels through the earth. It seemed as if some kind of machine had burrowed through the hard ground below the Earth's surface, and somehow I knew this was the case. The tunnel curved this way and that, and there were other tunnels extending off from this one. Then I began hearing whispers around a corner, strange whispers from eerie high-pitched voices, speaking not English or any identifiable language. Then as I almost reached around the corner, the whispering stopped. I peaked around it, seeing two short freaky figures with large heads. Then one of them jumped at me, shoving his face into mine, with a big bulbous grey head on a skinny neck and two large almond-shaped black eyes!  It screeched something shrill at me -- which woke me up suddenly as I bolted upward in bed in a cold sweat. I even awakened Monica beside me.

 I hollered, "Holy shit! What the hell was that?!"

 The End

Until the next eerie account of…

The Chronicles of Area 57!