‘Go ahead,’ said Green, and Black went forward into the water and stood next to the goddess. She was about his height. Up close she was flawless. There were no more women like her. Beneath the smell of powder and perfume he caught the unexpected reek of alcohol on her breath.
‘Cognac,’ explained Green. ‘To keep warm.’
Cheekily Black reached up and kissed her cheek. She raised a languid hand and brushed her skin as if an insect had landed on it. He turned to Green and grinned. He had never done anything so audacious in his life and he loved it. Strange. Strange, to be actually part of the scenery. All his life the world had paraded in front of him on his TV screen, and him sick with wanting to join in. He got out of the water and his eyes were drawn to a group of youths. They were his age, and despite the bitter cold, they were eating ice cream. Vaguely he remembered the taste of the ice lolly his mother had briefly slipped into his mouth one hot summer day, and conspiratorially whispered, ‘Ice cream. It’s lovely, isn’t it?’
He stared longingly at the carefree gestures and movements their lithe, adolescent bodies made. Two held hands, lovers obviously. He watched them pensively. Mesmerized by them, he even forgot about the Archons and their dark manipulations of humanity. ‘You know how you let me taste the watermelon in the desert. Do you think you could let me feel what it would be like to kiss a girl?’
‘Of course, but find a girl you want to kiss first.’
‘That won’t be too hard.’
Green chuckled and Black pulled his gaze away from the shy lovers. He spotted a blonde girl in the crowd. Her hair was worn in a long, thick plait down her back. She was hurrying away from the crowd. As he watched, a dark alleyway swallowed her. He knew the back of that head!
‘Wait one minute,’ he called to Green, and ran after her. He saw her pull open a tall, wooden door and slip into its dim interior. He passed through the door. On the other side was a foyer with a lift. She was waiting for the lift with her back to him.
He was walking toward her when Green said from behind him, ‘You are only walking through the pages written long ago. This girl lives and will live in the top floor apartment of this building all her life. She died a grandmother three years ago. The girl you are looking for is not here. You will not have to look for her. She has very nearly found you.’
Black turned around. ‘Tell me again about that girl. Who is she? What is her name?’
‘She is a bright shaman, who has been irretrievably corrupted. Her name will depend on which personality you meet first.’
‘What do you mean which personality?’
‘She suffered horrific abuse for many months when she was a child, until her tender mind found an escape by splitting off into different parts, of which she has no knowledge. There are numerous people, animals, and creatures inside her.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘I never joke about such matters.’
‘But that’s sickening. I had no idea such ghastly things happened, or could even be done. Why did they do that to her?’
‘Fear and pain are a good way to introduce knowledge, even higher knowledge. And, of course, to direct her different alters without her knowledge.’
‘Do they still treat her badly?’
‘She is kept drugged at all times.’
‘Wow. Poor kid.’
‘Yes, she suffered the unthinkable, but she is not the only one. There are many like her serving the dark ones.’
‘Why do they want her to meet me?’
‘Like Joan of Arc or Hitler, certain people, places, times, and events have greater impact on the future than others, and that attracts the interest of time travelers from the affected futures who seek to influence the outcome of their timelines. The dark hierarchy know that you are the trigger that could inspire and alter the frequency of the human race and bring back the lost light. It is their intention to either limit your impact or subvert it to their cause. The girl is part of the taint. It will be a big story. You will make headlines across the world.’
‘I will?’
‘You will,’ he confirmed mysteriously.
‘Is there no way for me to avoid meeting her?’
‘Certain things may not be changed - they are contracts and challenges that you agreed to undertake before you took on this lifetime - but all you have to do when you come face to face with her is to turn your back on her. That is your free-will choice, which she cannot violate. The moment you do that she will become powerless, and be unable to contact you again. But if you don’t she will establish a connection that can never be broken.’
‘Are you sure there is no catch? What can be easier than simply turning away from her the moment we meet?’
‘Well, we will see how successful you are. Your involvement, after all, has been very carefully planned by many. Like I said before, even those which you might think are accidents of fate are not: your abandonment, the woman who found you, the fact that your body rejects animal products which forces you to be a vegetarian.’
‘How does me being vegetarian make me suitable?’
‘The greatest law of the physical universe is the law of causality. Even gravity may easily be bent and manipulated, but never the law of cause and effect. If you had attempted to battle the dark ones carrying this burden of having extinguished life for enjoyment or survival they would have used it against you. You have to enter pure, with no past actions to reap. Likewise, your skin color is no accident.’
‘What’s so special about being black, the most persecuted race in the world?’
‘You are not black. You are melanin. Melanin is a dark pigment that absorbs and conducts light. Its granules clustered around nuclear DNA act as a Faraday cage that conducts electric fields away from the nucleus, which then acts as a natural barrier to any alien procedures that utilize light and high electromagnetic fields to “tinker” with humanity. It is the reason why most abductees are white. No time travelers may tamper with you.’ Green paused. ‘For that matter even the impulse that makes The Matrix your favorite movie is not by chance.’
‘Why?’
‘Remember the final fight scene after Neo gets shot by the Agents, and they walk away in the corridor?’
‘Of course.’
‘He gets up. They turn around, reload, and he speaks just one word, the word of power. He simply says - ’
‘No.’
‘Exactly,’ approved Green. ‘Everybody is Neo and that moment captures what each and every human should do. That level of courage, willpower and personal responsibility is all that is necessary to change this world. Bullets that stop mid-air and superhuman feats are possible after that. Humans don’t have to occupy Wall Street or protest against global warming or picket large corporations. All they have to do is stop doing what they are already doing to fuel the beast. Say no to all that is wrong - that extricates them from this prison. When your time comes, remember that word.’ Green stopped suddenly. ‘Ah, it would appear that the girl was a meticulous calculation. She has already found you.’
‘What, here? How?’
But it was already too late. Green was gone and the kaleidoscope around him was swirling and changing fast.
And the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men and found them fair.
- Genesis 6:2
Black found himself standing in a bright, white room with no walls, the space simply stretching farther than the eye could see. There was no source of light that he could discern either. The girl stood facing him, no more than his age. Her narrow shoulders were squared with some inner courage, but she was so thin and bone white, she looked breakable. Her eyes were deep blue, and fringed by stubby eyelashes that were the softest brown, perhaps even caramel. And her long, fair hair had been neatly trained into a thick plait that curved down the side of her neck and over the front of her body. She wore a pink top with a large sequined butterfly on it, tan slacks and white trainers.
A minute before he would have thought it impossible, but he was
aroused by this waif. Something about her. Her doll-like perfection exuded a sexual energy that he found irresistible. Though it pained him to do so, he began to turn away from what he did not understand, but recognized as the truth - a strong desire to remain with her.
‘Stay. Please don’t run away. I won’t hurt you. I’ve been looking for you and your friend for such a long time.’ Her accent was softy American.
A voice inside his head whispered, A tiny thing like that. What danger could she be? The temptation to look at that softly red mouth again was incredible, but he didn’t turn back. ‘Why have you been looking for me?’
‘I don’t know why. I might have been told. There are people looking for you.’
‘Who?’
She walked up to him hesitantly. He could feel her energy: warm waves. Friendly. Harmless. He closed his eyes and felt himself powerfully and inexplicably drawn to her. The temptation to turn was so strong he had to force himself to fight it. Those blue, blue eyes. Like the ocean. Unfathomable depths. Calling him. He clenched his fists.
‘Just people. I think they expect me to lead them to you, and you to lead them to your friend.’
‘How did you find me?’
‘I followed you.’
‘Do they know where you are now?’
‘No. They’d like to, but they can’t follow me here.’
‘You won’t tell them, will you?’
‘Of course not. They’re not very nice.’ He heard her take another step toward him. ‘I think they want you dead.’
‘Why?’
Without turning around he could feel her frown. ‘I don’t know. They never tell me. But it is something to do with light.’
‘Light?’
‘The kind you can’t see. Human light. When there is too much light, it is harder for them to carry on with their plans.’
He felt a tickling sensation at the back of his neck. He knew he should leave, but he could not bring himself to break the connection. Not yet. A few minutes more. What harm?
‘You know I can’t help myself. You’re like a magnet pulling me to you.’
He turned around then. She was exactly a head shorter than him and her eyes were bluer than he remembered, and so very close that he could see the intricate patterns inside her irises. She bit her lip and blinked. They were connected at some level he did not understand. He could not turn away from her. He knew that now. He dropped his eyes. To his horror they fell on her chest. He jerked them away hastily. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Winter.’
‘Just Winter?’
‘Mmmm..’ she said, nodding. ‘What’s yours?’
‘Black Jack.’
She laughed. ‘For real?’
She had small, even teeth. When she laughed she was unbelievably beautiful. In spite of himself, Black smiled. Shy. His stomach in knots. Wanting her.
‘Why are you dressed up?’
Black shot his French cuffs, not like James Bond this time, but self-consciously. ‘I was on a movie set with my friend.’
‘And what’s your friend’s name?’
‘He doesn’t have a name humans can understand, but I call him Green.’
‘Do you think I could meet him too?’
‘I don’t see why not. He said all you need to see him is to purify your heart.’
She said a strange thing then. ‘But I have no heart. It was taken away a long time ago by a wizard, and put into a jar. ’
‘I don’t believe it. No one can live without a heart.’
‘But I saw him do it with my own eyes.’
‘It must have been a trick.’
The girl looked perplexed. ‘If I did have a heart, how would I purify it?’
‘I don’t know; I’ll ask Green for you.’
‘Yes, I should like you to. Where is he now?’
‘I don’t know where he goes when he is not with me. Where do you live?’
‘In America mostly.’
‘Mostly?’
‘Well, I kind of come and go. Everybody does, don’t they? Don’t you?’
‘Not me. I’m stuck in one place all the time.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t say.’
‘I won’t tell them.’
‘What if they torture it out of you?’
She looked genuinely surprised. ‘What a strange thing to say! Nobody will hurt me while Daddy is around.’
Black was pleased to know that this alter at least had never been tortured. ‘Where in America are you?’
‘In a building called the Black Hole.’
‘Will I be able to come and visit you there?’
‘No, it’s not a nice place. Every day people are given drugs and put to work.’
‘Don’t you go to school, then?’
‘No.’
‘What kind of work do you do?’
‘Things… For Daddy.’
‘Have you never been to school?’
‘No.’
‘Don’t you want to?’
‘I’m not allowed to want things.’
Black looked around the odd place they were in. ‘Do you know where we are?’
‘I think it is some kind of construct built by Green to protect your real whereabouts.’
‘How is it you can travel anywhere you want?’
‘Anyone can, but no one is taught how to. I have to go now, though. Can we meet here again?’
He paused. A silly pause. As if it was possible to turn his back on her anymore. He could no more turn his back on her than he could onGreen.
‘I have no other friends,’ she said, her voice a forlorn cry.
Black found that he could not bear to disappoint her. ‘You know how to find me.’
‘I think you look really handsome in that get-up,’ she said, so softly he almost didn’t hear her; then she was gone.
For their beauty is bitter, and their delight is depraved.
Their pleasure is in deception.
- Apocryphon of John BG56; 3-7
The Snow Queen was playing on Dakota’s TV when the door suddenly opened and Schooner Klaus entered her living room. As she had never had a visitor in all the time she had lived in the Black Hole, she was very surprised to see him, but she stood and greeted him automatically. ‘Hello, Dr. Klaus.’
He smiled. It did not reach his eyes. With his right hand he motioned for her to sit.
She obeyed immediately and with her hands clasped under her chin she looked up at him expectantly. He looked around him. She had a fleeting impression - he’s wary of me. Why? Shhh… Not your place to ask.
‘Nice place you have here,’ he commented.
‘It’s not mine.’
‘No, of course not,’ he agreed. ‘But it is customary to call a place one’s own while one is occupying it.’
She tilted her head to one side, considering the idea that she should refer to the place as hers. It had never occurred to her.
‘Anyway,’ he was saying, ‘I’ve brought you a little something.’ He took a lollipop out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and put it into her unresisting mouth. It never crossed her mind to refuse. He stood over her and watched her suck the sweet. Soon she felt floaty. Totally compliant. Good feeling. She smiled warmly at her guest. Nevertheless, the persistent thought - no matter what, don’t tell him about the brown woman and the colorful beads she has entrusted into your keeping.
Schooner Klaus leaned forward. When her head started to slip sideway he caught it in his hands and laid her back on the sofa. Then he performed the necessary codes and actions to call forth Winter.
‘Daddy?’
‘How are you?’
‘Very good, but I’ve missed you very much, Daddy.’
‘Of course you have. Now, be a good girl.’ He patted her knee. ‘And tell me about the boy.’
‘The boy?’
‘Yes, the boy.’
‘I think he is shy and lonely. But he is also very powerful…although I cannot say wh
y because it is only an impression and strange because he is about my age. His name is Black Jack. Which is quite funny because he’s black.’
Schooner Klaus stared at her with surprise. ‘Black, did you say?’
‘Yes, with cornrows on his head that end in colorful beads. They are quite beautiful.’
Schooner Klaus narrowed his eyes dangerously. He had never before heard her offer an opinion on anything. It was another sign that the mind control was breaking down. He must remind her ‘do not wish’ alters about the grave consequences of wanting.
‘Did you do your job?’
‘Yes, I think he likes me.’
‘Likes you?’ Schooner Klaus’s tone was scathing. ‘Is that the best you can do?’
Tears gathered in Winter’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She had done wrong. She had disappointed Daddy. ‘I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry.’
‘Sorry? What good is that to me?’ He stood up and walked away from her, his back ramrod straight with fury. When he turned back, his eyes were black ice. ‘Here is what you will do. You will do whatever is necessary so that you can come back to me and report that he is head over heels in love with you. That there is nothing he will not do for you. He would stand in front of an oncoming train in your place. Do you understand what is expected of you?’
Winter sniffed and nodded miserably.
‘And stop that sniveling right now,’ he hissed.
‘You will do everything in your power to make him fall irretrievably in love with you. First you must bring forth his protective instinct. Make him pity you. And when he has had your flesh then you will teach him to love what shames him. What he cannot find anywhere else but from you. Make him enjoy hurting you so much that he becomes an addict, unable to function without such depths of perversion. Taunt him to go further and further until one day he goes so far that you are irreparably damaged. That is the day you will have succeeded in your task. Do you remember your goddess training?’
Winter nodded. Her face was blank.
‘Good. Do not fail.’
‘I won’t. I’ll be good, Daddy. I promise.’
‘All right then. Come here.’ Instantly she leaped up and ran to him. She sat on his lap and, lifting her tear-stained face up to him, kissed him passionately on the mouth. He opened his mouth and let her kiss him deeply.