The PRL Event: Darker Resurrection 18
The suck has ceased.
The soul that caused this mess has not been returned and the sun must set one more day on Earth before the great balance sufficiently adjusts, forever altering the population of the afterlife. The suck has stopped prematurely; there is no new balance and the old one has not been restored. Something has happened.
Alia had traveled with Gertrude and Yuri to Eakran’s house and when they arrived at the spot where it was supposed to be, they were both shocked to see nothing. They parked on the road and walked to the front of the street where the house was supposed to be and they looked around.
“This is where Giovanni asked me to come,” Alia said. “Have you ever been to his house before?” she asked Yuri.
“No, we usually meet near the hospital where he works.”
“What’s that light?” Gertrude asked and they all looked in the direction of a glow that formed in space, like light pouring through a window. It was a strange sight and the three gathered around it. When they stood in front of it, they could see inside of an impressive home and Giovanni was there waving. He opened a door and the three could see into a house that was very modern in its decor. Giovanni greeted them humbly then led them into a foyer and closed the door behind them.
“Is this house invisible?” Alia asked and Giovanni explained the complex cloaking technology that kept it hidden.
“I had the same reaction when I saw it,” Giovanni said.
“Is he here?” Yuri asked.
“I am,” Eakran said as he entered the room. He was still very professionally dressed like he had recently left the office. “Let’s talk in the living room,” he said and he led the group into the spacious room that had a TV the size of a wall, and extremely comfortable furniture.
“Yuri,” Eakran said, still standing as everyone sat, “you accomplished your mission. I see that you were a good choice to throw my weight behind.” Eakran was suddenly very grave. “I have had the opportunity to think and what I did to you was unfair.”
Yuri looked to Alia and they were both confused. Gertrude did not seem to be paying any attention, but she knew where Giovanni was at all times inside the room.
“I know what I have been, but recent experiences have made me reconsider my methods. I could have offered you your awesome powers without forcing them on you. For that I should apologize. How can we be proper partners if we don’t acknowledge one another’s humanity?”
Eakran smiled at Yuri who was unsettled, and then at Alia who glared at him.
“You only see the humanity in people who can make you money?” Alia asked. “What about all the people you torture in that basement?”
“Progress requires sacrifice,” Eakran said and he looked down at his feet. “I know the pain I have caused, I understand it much better now, we are all in possession of a life force that moves us, but the work I do in the basement has provided miracles for some. Like Giovanni here.”
“What about Dr. Moss?” Alia asked.
“I recognize that I have made mistakes,” Eakran said. “Can I redeem myself? You know I have only ever cared for you Alia.”
“I don’t think you understand the word care,” Alia said. “You never cared for me doctor. You’ve always just been fascinated. I’ve never had any humanity to you.”
Eakran shook his head, “That’s not fair. You were always special to me.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Alia said and she changed the topic. “Something is happening and we want to know if you have anything to do with it. Did you resurrect a dead person?”
Eakran shook his head. “I did not, but someone supposedly has. The resurrection is on the way here now, I will study it with my assistant to confirm it.”
“I can confirm it for you,” Alia said. “You have to kill it, him, whoever it is. They have to go back. Their presence here is causing problems.”
“I could not kill my good friend.” Eakran said and the look of diligent concern that he had disappeared.
“You don’t understand,” Alia explained, “this is not a choice. It has to happen.”
Suddenly everything that was alive in the room, excluding Alia and Eakran, stopped still.
“What’s happening?” Eakran asked looking at the still fish in his aquarium. The picture on the TV screen had stopped too and the only noises they hear are the ones they make.
“Gertrude,” Alia said and she touched her. Both she and Yuri were as still as statues. “What did you do?”
“Me?” Eakran said, “this is not me.” He rushed to the front door of the home and Alia was close behind him.
They walk out of the house and the world on the empty road is frozen. Alia notices Vita and Wendy across the street frozen still and then she sees John yelling at a woman and her male companion.
“Maria!” Eakran calls.
Alia had met Maria briefly before she left the IBF, and she calls to her as well.
“Don’t fight him!” Alia says to John and she runs to stand under the spot where he hovers. She orders him down to the ground and he obeys reluctantly.
Eakran stands next to Maria but he looks at the man with her like he is a celebrity. The man looks at Eakran and smiles, but it is strained.
“I was very sad at news of your death,” Eakran says to Darker who looks very happy to see him.
“That’s the spirit Alia,” John says pointing out Darker. “We can send him back together.”
“What’s going on, why is everything still?” Alia asks and John looks to Maria. “Did you do this?”
Maria nods, “I don’t know how.”
“You stopped time?” Eakran asks, full of wonder. “This is an incredible upgrade for you. You’re just coming into your control of people and now you’ve developed the capacity to stop time.”
“Undo this!” John yelled frantically. “Who are you people? How has humanity developed the capacity for such consequential feats?”
The question hits very hard for everyone who can hear it, and they stand for a brief moment, collectively in awe of the events that have brought them all to this point, none of them, not even the Druinte of the most technologically advanced civilization in the known universe, can fathom the gravity of the predicament in which they find themselves, though it is clear that they have stumbled into uncharted territory that they must reverse.
“This is not the Druinte technology, Maria,” Eakran says, the first to break the silence. “I have to admit that this is completely out of my depth.”
“How do you feel Maria?” Alia asks patiently.
“Fine, I feel normal.” Maria is starting to panic and Darker puts a hand on her back as she calms herself. “Now I’m not so good.”
“What happened right before this happened?” Eakran asks.
“I don’t know… I can’t…” Maria stammers.
“She yelled at everyone to stop,” John says. “She said stop really loudly and everything stopped.”
“Then say go,” Darker says gently.
“Wait!” Alia says before Maria can try. “When you say go, then the clock starts again.” Alia looks to John. “No souls have actually been lost yet, right? The voice said two days a day ago so if that man goes back where he was right now, and then Maria says go, then all the souls will be safe where they were.”
“What are you talking about?” Maria asks.
“It’s what I was saying, Maria,” Darker says. “I have to kill myself. I can’t stay here. If I do, others will be unfairly impacted.”
“But you’ve only just arrived,” Eakran says, grabbing Darker’s shoulder firmly.
“He shouldn’t have to die,” Maria says to Alia. “It makes no sense, he was given a special opportunity…”
“This isn’t natural,” Alia says, but she doesn’t like the feeling of those words in her mouth. Plenty of people have said the same about her behavior over her life and she has never been one to impose the misconception of normalcy on anyone. “I don’t know, John,” she says and she hangs her head. “I don’t think I can ask this man to kill himself.”
“We came all this way to restore the balance…” John says desperately before he trails off. He looks around at Alia, then Maria, then Eakran, then Darker. “I cannot fathom the consequences of your continued existence in this physical realm, but know that there will be consequences. If I was brought here at your resurrection, then powerful things are aware of your existence, and they will know where to find you in the event of cataclysm. I guarantee you that they have more powerful tools than myself, and they are ruthless. Pray you never encounter them.”
John grabs Alia’s hand and kisses it, then hugs her, then he wraps himself in his wings and disappears into thin air. Everyone continues to discuss their predicament as though John had never been there.
“So you won’t kill yourself?” Maria asks Darker.
Darker shakes his head, and then Maria screams the word go with all of the force that she can muster.
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