The PRL Event: Darker Resurrection 9
The lights are off and everyone is huddled and afraid. The house of light and mirth that the church had been in the forenoon is replaced by panicked darkness this afternoon. Something strange had appeared outside, a frightening vision of an angel that made most of the congregation who had stayed for the after service meal afraid for their lives. The thing was like a person with arms and legs, but it had blue skin and all white eyes, and large white wings on its back. It hovered over the grounds of the church, the whooshing sound of its wings flapping the air and disturbed the after service meal. Yuri had jumped to confront it, flaunting his powers that resembled the abilities of Alia’s old friend Kevin, the magician, who could make real his imagination. But Yuri tumbled from the sky after he came face to face with it, and Alia rushed to his side to help him after he was on the ground. The majority of the congregation that witnessed the sight panicked, and Vita corralled them back inside the church while Alia dealt with the mysterious manifestation. Gertrude stood back, waiting for Alia’s instructions.
So we are here now, Alia standing over the unconscious Yuri, staring up at the winged person hovering over her.
“Come get him, Gertrude,” Alia’s says, never taking her eyes from the winged person.
Gertrude grabs Yuri with her transformed arms, the longer and stronger, green arms that are a feature of her Crude form. She takes him inside of the church with Vita before returning outside to stand guard for Alia.
“Standby for transmission,” the person says and then the mouth hangs open. “Imbalances can be tolerated, but natural laws have been violated and will be corrected.”
Alia does not know this, but the same message was delivered around the globe in the many languages that exist, at seemingly random locations, though the messenger was not necessarily a winged person in all instances. Sometimes it was a form like the grim reaper, or a giant murder of crows that spoke the same words.
“What does that mean?” Alia yells up at the winged person. When there is no response, Alia screams, “What do you want?!” and her eyes explode with white star light that shines bright even in the daytime.
The person seems to brace against the light and its solid white eyes display emotion for the first time; surprise at the display.
“Anomalous being detected, refocus all efforts to this location!” the winged person says and Alia does not know this but every other messenger, the winged people, the murders of crows, disappears. This results in the transformation of the winged person before Alia’s eyes. He retains his blue skin, and his features become more defined. He appears to be shirtless with a cloth covering him that is the same color blue as his skin. He smiles at Alia.
“You are not like your counterparts, if you are who I think you are,” the man says, still idling in the air. “Come speak with me, maybe you can help me and I can avoid the goose chase,” the man raises a hand and Alia begins to rise from the ground. The man flies away from the church and Alia floats along behind him. She senses Gertrude’s panic at her sudden levitation and she calms her mind, reassuring her that she will return with more information.
They don’t fly for long before the man stops in midair and Alia floats behind him, and then he lifts both hands before him and thrusts, like he is pushing against the space in front of him, and then a rectangle of reality seems to slide back, showing a world that looks very similar to the real one, but with splotches of neon colors that seem to stain the terrain. The man flies through and Alia is pulled along and as she passes into this place, her brown skin becomes golden. The blue skin of the winged man is now amorphous, and streaks of dark gray swirl around his black form. His white wings are now a dangerous shade of orange that look almost electric.
They land on what appears to be a rooftop, but the house appears to be completely overgrown with orange and green vines that are soft on Alia’s golden skin.
“You beings can never leave well enough alone,” he says, “it’s not enough that you get to shape your realities, you have to cheat the natural order as well. Why would anything want to exist forever in the same state when there are so many other things to be?”
Alia does not know how to respond, but the man is talking to her with such familiarity and he is obviously capable of astounding things so she would rather not seem nervous or intimidated.
“We want what we know,” Alia offers.
“Ah, that is it, isn’t it?” the man says, “You all can only remember what you are on the physical plane, it is easiest that way. What better way is there to play one’s part in a mysterious metaphysical plan than to play it ignorant of the bigger picture? The explanation is complicated and I think takes all the beauty out of everything.”
He smiles at Alia and Alia returns it, suddenly at ease with the psychedelic experience in which she finds herself.
“I shouldn’t be wasting time,” the man continues, “I appear for urgent reasons only and it appears that you humans have finally overstepped your bounds. I am hardly ever used anymore, it seemed that beings of the physical realm had learned their lesson and accepted death as an inescapable eventuality, a natural course of their lives, and they stopped resisting the transition. But what did you all do? It’s one thing to dwell between this realm and the physical one as many of your souls seems to do, it is of no consequence to the great balance of matter because most souls will exist among these realms for most of their existence. A soul called to the great balance doesn’t have a choice, though, it is governed by higher rules than you all can impose on your reality. I don’t know how it was done, but a soul was taken from the great balance and must be returned before existence as we all know it is affected.”
Alia nods. What else can she do?
“You are Mou? The living Aje? The Alpha Nehanda?” the man asks.
“I’m Alia,” she says.
“I have many names, but call me Pomp. I am surprised to meet you, you are often my adversary in other parallels of existence. Will you help me? I cannot express enough how serious it is that this soul be allowed to depart this physical plane.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Alia says. It’s impossible to say no, though she can’t imagine how she can assist this otherworldly being.
“Good. I appeared as I did because I had no idea where to start, but I was sent here because the spirit was brought to this planet. It seems you humans have done the unthinkable, if you resurrected a body to its state before death and cure it of its maladies, it can retrieve the soul, even from the great balance. So who among you would be capable of fully resurrecting a dead body?”
Alia has ideas.
Alia emerges through a door in front of the church. The door is similar to the one that opened onto the neon realm, and she leaves it on her own, Pomp is not with her. Gertrude and Vita are standing in front of the church confused, until Alia appears seemingly out of nowhere in front of them.
“What happened?” Vita asks. “Why didn’t you tell us you were leaving the kitchen?”
Alia stares at Vita with confusion, and then she looks to Gertrude who appears to be annoyed and waiting for answers as well.
“You can’t leave Yuri alone with us,” Vita says. “Neither of us like him.”
“But you guys know where I was,” Alia says. “I was with that angel man that we saw.”
Vita shakes her head and Gertrude looks angry but doesn’t look Alia in the eyes.
“You walked over with us and then you got up and left. That Laura lady is a bitch, and we’re ready to leave. We just wanted to be more considerate than you and let you know before we did.”
Alia doesn’t understand and she tries again to explain, but neither Gertrude nor Vita are interested. They leave Alia alone, and then walk to Gertrude’s house, and as she watches, Yuri taps her on the shoulder.
“I ate your chicken,” Yuri says playfully. He is very handsome in his Sunday best that he had borrowed from the man Jamar that he is staying with while he is in town. He wears a light brown vest, that matches his pants, over a light blue shirt with a skinny tie that drifts in the lazy breeze when it picks up. He had spent most of the morning sermon at Laura’s house, dressing and then changing, looking for the right outfit that he hoped Alia would like.
“You remember the angel man, right?” Alia asks.
“No, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But I’m like an angel,” Yuri says hoping to get a smile out of Alia, but she turns her attentions away from the church.
“You’re just gonna leave?” Yuri calls after her. “I thought we were gonna talk!”
“I’ll find you later,” Alia yells as she races towards Clay’s house.
Yuri sighs and shrugs his shoulders. He regrets ever talking to her as a person, it made it impossible to do what he knows he should do, which was to knock her unconscious and take her to Eakran against her will. But now he can’t imagine making her angry with him. They could be soul mates.
Over the next few days, Alia searches the solar futures for the blue angel and comes up short. She isn’t able to contact Ivan or Clay, though she can sense that they are together and protecting one another, no need for her assistance but unable to lend their own, and Vita and Gertrude can’t help because they don’t remember the manifestation of the winged man. No one at the church save Alia remembers the man, and she does not know this, but all of the messengers that make up Pomp that manifested around the globe were forgotten by everyone who saw them. Alia wants to understand because Pomp has not appeared since their conversation, and it seemed that they were about to embark on something important.
She sits in the backyard where Clay normally lifts weights and she stares into the sun, until a figure flies in front of the light and lands before her. If not for the wings, Alia would not have recognized Pomp. He has brown skin now that matches Alia’s, and honestly he could be her brother. They have similar facial features now and he wears jeans with no shirt.
“Sorry, my new friend, I have been working to secure this body. What do you think?”
“Why does no one remember you?” Alia asks.
“Why would I let them?” Pomp asks dismissively. “So where can we find this soul?”
“Honestly,” Alia says, “I have no idea, but maybe this doctor I used to know can tell me.”
Yuri emerges from the backdoor of Clay’s house and Alia looks back to see him staring in amazement.
“That your brother?” Yuri says when he is close.
Alia shakes her head no, but Pomp answers.
“Yes I am!” he says enthusiastically. “We are earthling siblings.”
Alia shakes her head out of annoyance and then she says to Yuri, “We need to see Eakran.”
Yuri doesn’t believe his ears. Vita had shot him when he first proposed going to Eakran. Maybe this new brother has words for Eakran for the treatment of his sister and he is obviously an extraordinary man with wings.
Yuri nods in disbelief.
“Take me to the last place you saw him,” Alia says. “I want Crude and Vita to go with us.” Part of her is excited to see Eakran again, with her friends she was not afraid of confrontation.
Then she hears a familiar voice deep in her mind, only this time it is further away than she remembers it felt the last time, and when Alia goes to the mental plane expecting to see the spirit Tendayi, she is surprised to see a shadow of the women.
“Wendy needs you, we all do! Something is very wrong!”
It can’t be coincidence, the appearance of the winged man and now Tendayi sending a Leia Organa type distress message asking for help. It must be time to be amazing, Alia thinks.
PRL Serials 