Drumheller

Chapter sixteen - the flickering

Kathy dropped her gun. The black, feathered wings disappeared and that strange aura around her dissipated "Steph!" Kathy shouts, quickly hoisting Steph's unconscious body onto one of the booth chairs "oh shit...oh shit Steph I'm so sorry. I don't know how to use that thing, I'm not trained!" no answer from Steph. Kathy was about to try to see if she still had those white eyes before Ziz suddenly appeared again, on top of Steph "Gah!!" he shouts, causing Kathy to finch "Ziz! Dear god you scared me" "what happened?! Something happened! It was weird!" Ziz says, flapping his wings in clear distress. Kathy did her best to calm Ziz down.
It took a bit, but Ziz finally was able to sit still after he had learned that Steph had just been unconscious and was still breathing. The two of them sat in the slightly disturbed café "well...I could probably tell my boss some...thief broke the windows. I can just...put the tables and the chairs back so it looks like nothing happened" Kathy says, looking around the café "I'm not off in another hour, though, so I'm in no hurry to clean all this up" "this is a nice café. I like the black berries" Ziz said, making Kathy chuckle "yeah you're quite the berry lover, aren't you?"
The two of them helped each other pick up the tables and reposition them "it was really weird..." Ziz recalled after Kathy asked what he thought had happened "this weird butterfly appeared, and...well, you know how I'm connected to Steph, right?" this was met with a nod "well, something happened that made Steph and I...connected even more, somehow. I saw everything Steph could see, and everything felt...weirdly better somehow. Is that any better of an explanation?" Ziz asked, dusting the tables with his wings. Kathy shrugs "I certainly wasn't there when it happened...but Steph had these big, feathered black wings, and her eyes became those white eyes that you, Pam, and Chaos have. Not only that but you had an energy about you, one that felt powerful, and I guess that intimidated me enough to...taser Steph. Trust me, I meant it with all good intentions" Kathy says, chuckling. Ziz nods "I know...and it must have helped. Do you think Adrian would know what happened?" he asks, looking up at Kathy after the last table is stood back up. Kathy nods "we can tell him tomorrow. Do you have any way of getting Steph back to the hotel?" she asks, only for Ziz to shake his head "I can only help her if she's awake...I'm sorry" "alright, that's fine. She can rest here for now, and when she wakes up, you can help her get back to her place, alright?"
The sun rose on Drumheller the next day. Kathy had to talk to the police about a thief that didn't exist. Fortunately, Steph must have woken up because she wasn't at the café when Kathy checked on it the following morning "there's been a rise in crime lately" the officer said. It was the same one who was at the community centre the previous night "and you say you didn't catch his face?" "no, sorry" Kathy lied. She felt bad for hiding the truth, but at least she was hiding it for a good reason
Eric and Steph dropped by the café that morning. Steph seemed like she was back to her normal self, which was a relief to Kathy "I got a few things I wanna ask Adrian" Eric says, sipping his coffee "about what comes next" "didn't he say he'll explain what we might be doing with Chaos? Today will probably be the day when we finally figure out how we're going to get rid of him" Steph says, her hands warming on the mug of the espresso. Kathy, while also having a few questions of her own about Chaos, was curious about how Pam was holding up. Steph had tried her best to explain what had happened to her when she saw Pam as the shadow wolf, and simply knowing this made her think about how it obviously conflicts with her religion.
Pam was busy setting up chairs in the gym when Kathy arrived "hey Pam" Kathy greeted with Pam giving a small nod of acknowledgement, before going back to setting up the chairs "so...you're a werewolf?" "I don't really like talking about it, but I suppose so" Pam says, not looking up at Kathy "a demon that can banish demons, apparently"
"I'm sure you don't know much about what this means for your religion?"
"no. I'd go to the church and ask the priest there...but..."
"but?"
"but...I don't know. I'm slowly getting used to the whole thing. I don't know if I'm comfortable with it all right now, but..." Pam sits on her chair when she finishes pulling the chairs into a circle "...it's not...doing anything bad to me. I can still think for myself and keep myself from sinning. And Gabe said that I looked cool, so...I suppose I could live with it until I have some way of controlling it"
Slowly, the rest of the group arrived. Adrian sat at the front centre of the group, leaning forwards as if to look like a leader, which looked genuine enough that everyone saw Adrian as a leader now. Jacob kept his ominous look to him by simply hovering around the group circle but not sitting in one of the chairs "now" Adrian starts, clasping his hands "I think the first thing I want to explain...is the whole story. I understand that this group is tied with Chaos and Life enough to say that there's no point in trying to hide anything, so...I want to start this story a little more than 14 billion years ago
"before the universe existed, all that existed was an infinite darkness. A writhing...chaotic...ever shifting void of dark matter. Chaos lived here. What he did to pass the time in his void is unknown to everyone, but Chaos was happy. Unknown to him, however, was a small light, festering, building pressure and density more and more. Before Chaos could investigate the dot, it exploded into our universe in an event known as The Big Bang. Life, our new draconic character, lived here. She created a world of peace and, well, life. Space was a colourful field, where anything could travel anywhere and flourish.
"Things were good...but Chaos wasn't happy someone took his domain away from him. He attacked Life and her universe, ambushing her. This caused Chaos to dilute her universe, turning it into a black abyss, killing nearly anything exposed to its vacuum. Life, to prevent the destruction of her creation, used the last of her power to seal Chaos away into a different dimension, locking the key away in the form of a deer. Life locked herself and Chaos into this vessel for millions of years...until...well" Adrian looked up at Jacob "let's just say that the vessel was killed. Chaos jumped on this chance and attached himself to the first anchor...and he's been traveling the world since, looking for anchors to capture and use to slowly leak back into this universe. And once he does...he'll unleash one more attack, sending the entire universe into eternal and unending darkness, finally allowing Chaos his domain after all these years"
Everyone listened carefully. Pam seemed to be thinking "so like...the garden of Eden, before the devil caused the fall of life" she says "what happened to Life after the deer was killed?" "Life...well, we don't know. She could be anywhere. She talks to us a lot, me and Jacob, giving us orders. Now that I think of it, we haven't heard a thing from her since we arrived in Drumheller" Adrian says, looking up at Jacob. Jacob shrugs and nods, confirming him "what happens now?" Steph asked, in which Adrian nods "I was just about to get to that. First, I wanted to ask Kathy something"
Kathy suddenly sits up, surprised she wanted to be asked something "what happened in your café last night?" Adrian asked, clasping his hands and leaning forwards, facing her. Kathy looks over at Steph, then back to Adrian "why?" "well...at around 10:30 last night, there was a massive surge in power resonating straight from your café. I was tempted to go see what was going on before I realised it had surpassed me, challenging even the Overseers' power, somewhere in the ballpark of Chaos and Life themselves. Jacob slept through it all, and he doesn't believe me" "yeah, because it didn't happen" Jacob piped up "there's only two Overseers in the universe straight below Life and Chaos. Besides, if someone or something was challenging something as big a title as that, then we'd have heard about it"
Kathy saw Steph shift in her seat out of the corner of her eye "what do you mean by power?" Kathy asks, turning her attention back to Adrian. Adrian thinks for a bit "well...in simple terms. Something appeared in your café last night that had the same raw power output as Life and Chaos...but it wasn't Life or Chaos, which is something completely foreign" he explains. Kathy looks at Steph, who gives her a look of "might as well tell them"
Kathy goes along to tell them about what happened last night, about what she saw Steph go through. Steph followed up her story with her side of the story, which Kathy was interested in listening to "I don't really know what it felt...but it certainly felt weird" Steph added, leaning on her elbows on her knees "do you guys know what happened?"
Steph was met with silence from Adrian and Jacob. It took a good minute for them to start talking again "...well-" "that butterfly was probably Life" Jacob says, interrupting Adrian "which confirms a few things. One-" "Chaos lied, Life is alive" Adrian re-interrupted Jacob "and two, we could potentially use this against Chaos" "I barely even knew what happened during the whole thing, how the heck am I supposed to do it again?" Steph says, sitting up "I felt like I was balancing on a tightrope" "well do you know how it was caused?"
"the butterfly did it"
"And the taser took you out of it?"
Ziz appeared on Steph's shoulder "I could see out of Steph! As if we were, like, sharing a body!" he says, flapping his wings. Adrian looks to Jacob, who looks to Ziz "that could mean a few things..." Adrian says, before Gabe spoke up "what if the two of them, like...fused? Like...Dragon Ball Z style" he said, looking around the group. Adrian nods "yeah...that could be it!" "you are all talking about this as if I knew how to fuse with something in the first place" Steph points out.
The group eventually decided to move on "so...right now, we have only one other way of shooing away Chaos that doesn't involve killing anyone" Adrian says, clasping his hands "you see, Chaos is quite territorial. If we actually fight him, and win, we can drive him away" "we have to actually fight him?" Eric asks, nervously looking to Adrian "like...from what we saw last night, that thing is a monster! You think we'd have that kinda power to do something like that?" "I don't" Adrian says "actually I think there's nearly zero chance we can defeat him...but it's worth a shot" "so, Chaos lives in this alternate prison dimension. How do we get there?"
"we'd most likely need to manually create a tear in space-time manually" Adrian looks to Jacob "Jacob and I actually have some experience with universe traveling as a matter of fact, so we should know what we're doing" Jacob laughs "after that whole experience, you said you never wanted to do it again" he says "I think you barfed a few times too"
"that was literally like...years ago"
"exactly! Tell me one fact about the multiverse that stuck with you"
Adrian, after a moment of silence, glares at his brother "fuck you"
"what he means is that we need a place in space-time thin enough to create a temporary portal to Chaos' domain" Jacob explained "this could be a spiritual-influenced place, a place of connection, a culturally influenced place, or..." "a water tower" Steph suddenly said after looking up from thinking. Everyone looked to Steph "that butterfly showed me the water tower before ripping a hole in the sky. That must be the place"
Everyone was silent, before Jacob nods "a water tower could be a place" he says "it's a landmark, and landmarks are typically good places where space-time is thin enough to break through" "then...are we doing this?" Steph asked, to a slight murmur around the group. Kathy could see everyone was nervous, but she'd be lying if she wasn't nervous as well. There's a lot to be nervous about this. Jacob then nods "then we're doing it tonight. Midnight. Everyone meets around the water tower. Does that sound like a plan?" before anyone can speak, Jacob nods again "good. I have some business I have to take care of now. c'mon Adrian" Jacob takes Adrian's hand, pulling him out of the chair, making him stumble
Eric met up with Kathy at the library at the end of the meeting "multiverse, huh?" Eric said, browsing for books beside her "makes you think about any other universe secret that we haven't learned yet" "almost makes me want to ask Jacob more about this whole thing. Crazy to think that two weeks ago I was thinking of quitting my job and moving away to pursue something in the arts" Kathy pulls out a large book from the shelf titled Basics of String Theory "and now...I'm trying to get myself familiar with String Theory and the Multiverse" "the arts?" Eric asked, interested "you're into that sorta stuff?"
"a little. I kind of wanted to be someone in theatre, but I'm the last person to act any kinda character. Maybe I'll move closer to the coast, like Vancouver or something, and take some kind of class in the whole matter"
Eric raises his eyebrows "I never thought you were a theatre person. I'm more into ornithology because my dad was. I actually live in Calgary but I came to Drumheller to study the birds here" he chuckles "and you are right about how it's kinda crazy that we've been...thrusted into this situation. Saving the world, no, saving the universe is quite the daunting task for someone who sits around and looks at birds, heh" Kathy nods, before smiling "I wonder if Adrian or Jacob are taking interns with this whole...Anchor hunting thing they got going on" she says, opening the string theory book. Eric smirks "why, you wanna become a contract killer for hire?" "well- no! I didn't mean that!" Kathy chuckles "I just meant...I don't know, this whole thing with the multiverse and how Life and Chaos work. I think it's a lot more interesting than some of the things I've tried. I'd rather be something more than a café waitress"
Eric takes a bit, but nods, understanding "well...I think I should get ready for tonight. I'll meet you at the water tower" he says, turning to walk away. Kathy sighs, looking down at the book she's holding, before heading to the checkout stand