SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Eternal Darkness: Origins
Part One
Resurrection of the Mad Goddess
Disclaimers: Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. the tragic unavailability of death wedges), my army of robots is *still* not finished, therefore I have *still* not taken over the world, and, consequently, I *still* don't own Eternal Darkness or any other copyrights in this fic. You know, building a killer robot army looks *so* much easier in the movies...
Author's notes: I sincerely apologize for Chapter 6. That was what we authors like to call a 'gap-bridger', made so that I could get on to the next part which I actually know how to write. Again, I apologize for the discombobulatedness of Chapter 6, and promise that all chapters from here on in will be much better written and a lot less disjointed. Thank you. Bows
Chapter 7Dr. Lindsey, I Presume?
I think I'm beginning to understand now.
_Why do you try to understand?_
Because I want to know. Besides, I believe she is beginning to understand as well.
_She will not even begin to know it__Not until it is too late to change anything_
Are you sure?
_Why are you questioning me?__Do you not trust me?_
It's just...I think she will realize sooner than you think.
_We shall see_
The front door to Roivas Manor was locked.
Jenny let out a breath in frustration and pounded on the door. There was no way out of the house now, short of breaking a window.
This was not her day. First, she got stuck behind the fireplace–and she still wasn't sure how she had gotten out of there–and now she was locked in the house.
She took a look around the room. Somehow nothing in there seemed sturdy enough to shatter the window. She looked around, trying to think of some other way out. There had to be an upstairs window somewhere that would open.
Quiet, soft piano music began to slowly fill the house. It seemed to come from every room, in every direction. Intrigued, Jen walked away from the door and tried to locate the source of the music.
The tune was familiar, a classical piece that she had heard in a concert hall. Mentally she searched for a name to match it. Canon in D, that was it. Although, the way it was being played, it sounded like an elegy. It wasn't that the notes were different, it was just being played with so much sadness...
The only piano in the house was in the dining room. She opened the dining room door and was greeted with an unexpected sight.
Sitting at the piano, playing as though this happened every day, was an etherial young woman. She sat up perfectly straight and seemed to be absorbed in the music, never looking up nor indicating that she was aware of anything else. And she, too, was familiar.
"Anna Roivas?" Jen whispered. "What are you doing here?"
The ghost started, surprised, and her insubstantial fingers slipped through the keys of the piano as though they were empty air. She looked up, but did not say anything.
At a loss for words, Jen turned to the piano the spirit of Anna had been playing. "I didn't know ghosts could touch physical things. I thought you just went through them."
"We can." Her voice sounded almost the same as it had when she was alive. Almost, Jen thought, except how closely it matched the music she had been playing–lonely, and mournful. "But only if we focus on it. If we're distracted or we're doing something else--" She passed her hand through the piano keys again in demonstration, "then we just slip through."
"You are Anna, right?" Jen asked.
"I am."
"Then why are you here?"
Anna got up from the piano. "I'm here to make sure that you're still safe, alive, and sane."
"Me? Why?"
"Haven't you noticed?" Anna looked her in the eye, and once again she shuddered. "Haven't you noticed what's been happening to you? Your loss of awareness? Those times when you felt that you were somewhere–or someone–other than you really were?"
Jen thought once again of her loss of consciousness after she had read from the page, the strange, dreamy feeling that had come over her... "What do those have to do with anything?"
Anna motioned for her to follow, moving toward the door. "You are in danger, Jenny. You're in far more danger than you realize. We need to get you back home as soon as possible."
Room service pizza, over-fried french fries and what seemed like a gallon of soda.
Food for thought, mused Alex, digging in to her pizza. And she was in serious need of some time for thought. And, since she really didn't feel she could show herself in public anymore without having something happen, it had seemed safest to just go back to her hotel room.
She looked at the ceiling, mulling over recent events. Why had her father appeared as a ghost? She had thought that only those who had some connections to the Tome and the fight against the Ancients appeared as ghosts.
How had her parents died, anyway? Grandfather had always been very vague on that topic. He had told her only that her parents had been murdered in their own home, and that the police had never found the responsible party. Maybe they had discovered the Tome; after all, they too were members of the Roivas family.
Besides, the police had never found the one responsible for her grandfather's death either, and she knew very well who that was. It was entirely possible that her parents had been killed at the hands of the Ancients...
Her TV clicked on, which immediately struck her as odd. The remote was on the other side of the room. A dry, humorless voice commented, "Interesting."
She rolled her eyes, not even feeling the need to look up. A moment ago she would have welcomed any company, even his; now she was too confused and too irritated to talk to anyone, especially him. "Go away, Pious."
The centurion's ghost sat down on her bed and clicked the remote a few times, flipping through the channels. It looked so out of place it was almost comical. "Is this what you do all day?"
"What are you doing here now?" Alex muttered through a mouthful of pizza.
Pious did not respond, tapping the Channel button in a steady rhythm.
Alex put down her pizza and turned to him in irritation. "Pious, get off my bed and stop flipping channels."
"Is there something wrong with me sitting here?" Pious shot back.
"Yes. Get off the bed and answer me."
Pious still didn't move–not, she considered, that she had really expected him to. Instead, he turned off the TV. "You realize that you left her out there, Alex. You left her all alone, with nowhere to go."
"So?" She didn't look at him. "She can think for herself. She's got to have something better to do all day than follow me around."
"Actually," Pious corrected her, "she doesn't. If you're not there, she might as well not exist."
Alex paused, then turned to him. "What do you mean? Why is that?"
"Why, I will not say. But you, Alex, are her sole reason for existence. Why else would she follow you?"
She didn't answer him. "Then why are you here if she's out there?"
Pious hesitated, if only for an instant.
"Do you not know?" She continued. "Does it even matter to you? Why did you even come back?"
The ghost stood up, finally facing her. "I'm here for no reason that you would understand." He said, curtly, turning on his heel and walking through the locked door.
Alex was about to turn the TV back on when it hit her. Any other time that Pious had tired of talking to her, he had simply vanished. This time, he had actually walked away.
Trying to ignore the sensation of something being wrong, Alex got up and flipped on the TV.
The flight had been blissfully uneventful, other than a few amusing technical difficulties during the in-flight movie. Colin was glad for it. It gave him some time to just think about all this.
The past few days had gone by in such a blur. Even so, it seemed like it should have been far more than just a few days. It felt unreal. Like it should have been happening weeks ago, not days ago. And now, here he was, flying off to Florida, possibly flying off to Cambodia soon, if he had anything to say about it. If he had known about this two weeks ago...he smiled to himself. If he had known about this two weeks ago, he probably would have packed up his things and moved.
He barely even noticed the time that passed as he got off the plane, picked up his luggage at the baggage claim, left the airport, and got on the train to Jacksonville. He was begginning to wonder if this was a good idea. After all, he and Jenny were both in different states, and if Alex came home and found both of them gone, she might assume the worst. That, and, if something happened, it would take him too much time to get back home.
He sighed, dropped his suitcase by his seat, and stared out the window. His head was starting to hurt again, though not nearly as badly as it had when he was talking on the phone with Jenny. He was feeling a bit nauseous, too, and dizzy to boot.
It's probably just the heat. He thought, pulling out a book.
//Why are you here, Colin?//
He started. Someone's voice was whispering to him–whispering at the very edge of his hearing. It wasn't a normal voice, either. It was a voice you wouldn't expect *anyone* to use, let alone a human. He tried to ignore it, for fear of attracting attention.
//Why are you going this way, Colin? You're not supposed to be here. Go home. Turn around and go home.//
He wanted to stand up all of a sudden. He couldn't explain why.
//Get up. Now. Get off the train. Go home.//
Why? It was taking every ounce of resolve he possessed to stay in his seat.
//Alex will be waiting for you.//
His legs were moving without his consent, lifting him up from his seat and making him walk.
//Alex will be there. Alone. Vulnerable.//
Stop it. He was heading for the door between cars now, walking slowly, his book still clutched in his hand. His free hand reached for the emergency release handle.
Stop it!
He forced himself to walk back to the seat and sit down, but his body ached with the resistance, and he had to grip the armrests to keep from getting up again.
//Get up. Turn around. Go back.//
No...
"Why am I in danger? I haven't seen anyone here but you and me." Jenny inquired, following Anna's ghost back into the foyer.
"You haven't seen them, no." Anna corrected her. "But Beyond...that is a different story."
"Beyond? You can see Beyond?"
"We cannot see Beyond, not unless we had that ability during our lifetimes. But when the Ancients are active–when they are tampering with human lives–we will know." Anna drifted effortlessly through the door. Jenny heard the click of a lock, then saw the knob turning, but the door didn't open. Anna reappeared through it, looking discouraged. "It's not locked from the outside."
"If it's not locked, then why won't it open?" Jenny gave the door another tug. "Do you see any Magickal markings?"
"No." Anna replied. "At least I don't *see* any. But..." She looked around. "This whole place just doesn't feel right. It's hard to explain."
Jen was silent for a moment, feeling very awkward. She was at a loss for what to say. Every time she looked at Anna, she couldn't help remembering the chapter page, and what had happened to her while she was alive. She kept getting the image in her mind of the living, human Anna, dangling by her neck from the Ulyaoth Guardian's tendrils.
"You seem distracted." Anna commented. "Is something wrong?"
"No. It's nothing." She paused. She was beginning to feel cold again. "Anna, what exactly is Beyond? What is it that's threatening me?"
"I cannot tell exactly what it is. All I can feel is the presence of something." She looked away, looking apologetic. "And I'm afraid that something is following you, Jenny."
"Following me? What would be following me?" She was shivering again.
"I don't know..." Anna passed her hand through the door a few times. "I don't understand it. This whole place just feels too Magickal."
"How can you tell?"
"Normally, passing through solid objects is easy. It's like moving through air. But look at the door." Again she put an arm through it in demonstration. "It's like trying to swim in molasses."
Jen shuddered from the cold. Anna's voice seemed far away suddenly. She recognized the sensation. It had happened after she had read the page, before she lost awareness.
Anna whirled around to face her. "Jenny, something's wrong."
The girl nodded in reply. The cold was growing worse, and she clutched at her body in attempt to stay warm. She felt nauseous again.
"Jenny?" Anna looked at her curiously. "What is wrong?" Then she let out a gasp of surprise. "Oh no."
"Oh no what?" The last time Jen had lost consciousness, she had managed to get out from behind the fireplace, where she had been trapped before. Perhaps if she let it happen again, she'd be able to get out of Roivas Manor...
"No." Anna cut her off, as though she could read her mind. "No. Jen, don't let go. You don't know what'll happen. It'll put you in even more danger. Jen, you have to fight it!"
Anna's warning was faint and vague in Jen's ears. All she could hear was that familiar whispering...
Colin checked the address again. The address was correct, and by all accounts this was where Dr. Lindsey's house should be. But still, it didn't look right. He was standing before a medium-sized two-story house with a nicely painted porch and a few potted banana shrubs lining the brick walkway to the porch. The whole house was tucked away behind a fence of tall, leafy trees. Somehow, to Colin, this didn't look like a place where an archeologist should live. It was too neat, too under control.
The threatening rumble of thunder interrupted his train of thought, and Colin looked up, surprised. The sky was iron-gray with no hint of daylight breaking the clouds. It would only be a matter of time before it started pouring down rain.
Colin knocked precisely three times on the door. Within a few seconds, the door opened, and a girl who couldn't have been any older than he was stood in the doorway. She was wearing slack jeans and a floppy white T-shirt, and her hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail.
"Hi." She greeted him, looking at him quizzically. "And, you would be...?"
"My name's Colin, Colin Perne. I spoke to you on the phone a few days ago, I believe?"
"Oh yeah..." The girl nodded, shaking his hand. "My name's Julie. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasure's all mine. Is Dr. Lindsey at home?"
"Oddly enough, yes. He just came back this morning. Let me go get him." She disappeared into the house.
A few minutes later, Julie reappeared, holding open the door. "He'll be down in just a minute. Come in, don't just stand out there. It's going to start raining soon, don't you know?"
"I could tell." Colin stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. Inside, the house was immaculate. Almost everything seemed to shine–he could've sworn that he saw his reflection in the walls. "How does he keep this place so nice?"
"Oh, *he* doesn't." Julie smiled. "I do."
"Are you his wife?"
The girl snorted, as though she was trying not to laugh. "Only in my wildest dreams. I just work here. I keep the place as clean as it is. And, since you seem to be so pleased with it, maybe I can talk him into giving me a pay raise–oh, here he comes now."
Edwin Lindsey, who was walking down the stairs at that moment, hadn't changed much in the twenty years it had been since his chapter in the Tome took place. His beard had been replaced by heavy stubble, as though he had shaved it off once but was now having second thoughts about that decision, and his moustache was completely gone. He was, however, remarkably well-kept, with a few graying hairs as the only testaments to his fifty-plus years.
"Hey Julie." He greeted her, then turned to Colin. "And, you are?"
"Oh. My name's Colin Perne. Am I speaking to Dr. Lindsey?"
"That you are." He too shook Colin's hand. "Julie told me you called for me earlier?"
"Yes, I did." He lowered his voice. "I trust you met Ellia recently?"
Lindsey nodded, then turned back to Julie. "Jule, if you could go upstairs for a minute? This is kind of private."
"Sure." The girl agreed, heading up the stairs. "Call me if you need me." With that, she disappeared into one of the rooms and shut the door.
"So." The archeologist turned back to Colin. "What's going on with the Tome? Ellia didn't give me any details."
"It's kind of complicated. I'm not entirely sure I understand it yet." The boy walked over to the kitchen and pulled out a chair. "May I sit down?"
"Go ahead."
"Thanks. Anyway, basically what happened is, on the last page of the Tome, there was supposed to be this message–more like a warning–from the creator of the Tome, Minerva. While she was making it, she got a vision of the Ancients rising again after they had been defeated at each other's hands. Am I making sense?"
"Yeah, of course. Although I'll want to know more about Minerva after you're done. I didn't know anyone made the Tome."
"Of course. So, after we heard about that, Minerva told us that the only way the Ancients could truly be destroyed was to destroy their Essences. However, the only one who possesses the power to destroy an Ancient's Essence is another Ancient, and the only Ancient who isn't likely to kill us is Mantorok. Remember him?"
Lindsey rolled his eyes and smiled mirthlessly. "Of course. But only vaguely, mind you. It's easy to forget that sort of thing." He added sarcastically.
Colin chuckled. "So, basically, you and Ellia are the only ones who know exactly where Mantorok's temple is. And we need to get to Mantorok's temple. So..."
Lindsey gave him a critical look. "So, I'm supposed to go back to that deathtrap of a temple just like that?"
"I'm afraid so. Sorry."
Lindsey didn't look very happy about it. "Listen, Colin, I don't know if you read that book at all, but the last time I was there, I nearly got myself killed in a hundred different ways. Razor traps, poison gas, undead monsters, having my 'employer' try to shoot me, dysentery...The list goes on."
"Dr. Lindsey, please--" He was about to argue, but all of a sudden, the ache in his body came back, even worse than before. He doubled over, biting his lip to fight back a cry. Again he felt the irresistible need to move, to get up and leave, to go back home.
"You okay?" Lindsey asked him, giving him a curious look.
Colin nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay...I...I'll be right back." He said quickly, taking off for the bathroom.
He barely had the strength to lock the door before the pain became too much. He clutched desperately at the porcelain vanity, breathing hard, trying to ignore the voice, the same inhuman voice that had spoken to him on the train.
//Go back home, Colin.//
I won't.
//You must go back. Alex is there. She is alone. The time is right.//
What are you talking about?
//You must go back, so that which has been determined since the birth of the universe may come to pass.//
I won't go back. I've come too far to go back now.
"Why not?"
Colin looked up in surprise. The voice in his mind had been replaced by his own voice, coming from the mouth of his reflection in the mirror.
"What?" He asked, shocked. The pain had dulled, but only a little
"I said, why not? Is it too much to ask that you go back home?"
Now that he was speaking to what resembled a human being and not to an imposing, disembodied voice, Colin felt quite a bit more confident. "Well, equally to the point, why should I listen to you? Why should I be taking orders from a reflection?"
The mirror image laughed. Colin swallowed hard, knowing he'd made a mistake, because it was not at all a nice laugh.
"A reflection? Colin, really. If I was just a reflection, would I even be speaking to you?" The reflection let go of the vanity in the mirror and stood up straight. "No, Colin, I'm not a reflection. If you saw who I really am, right here, right now..." He gave that unpleasant chuckle again. "You'd be dead."
"Then what are you?"
The reflection didn't respond at first. Then, he reached out directly in front of him with his hands together.
"Watch." He said simply.
He pulled his hands apart, and the world around him parted like a curtain.
Colin jerked backward in surprise. Beyond the curtain that he had pulled apart lay a vast, inestimable void, with a thousand different shades of black playing across the emptiness. Voices without any visible source bounded and echoed across the darkness.
"Do you see?" His reflection mocked him. The ache had returned now, worse than before. He struggled to stay on his feet, pain shooting like quicksilver through every nerve of his body. The voice was back, and this time it was laughing at him...He gasped for air and knew that he had screamed.
Involuntarily he felt himself get up, turn the handle of the bathroom door, walk over to the door of Dr. Lindsey's home.
Stop it! He was trying to think clearly in spite of the pain. Stop it! Let go of me!
Dr. Lindsey had walked up to him, concern in his eyes. "What's wrong, Colin? What happened?"
Colin opened his mouth to speak, but the words died before they even left his vocal chords. Instead, he slumped backward, sliding down the wall as he sank to the ground, consciousness leaving him.
Jen blinked hard. The numbness and the coldness had gone, replaced by a rather painful bump on the back of her head.
She was on her back on the floor, and Anna Roivas had her pinned down by the arms.
"What is wrong with you?" Anna was shouting at her, looking angry. "You don't know what will happen if you allow it to take over you! Have you no sense?"
Jenny got to her feet, passing through Anna as though she wasn't even there. It was like walking through a shower of cold water. "Look, Anna. Last time this happened to me, I was trapped behind the fireplace in the dining room. When I woke up, I was here. In the foyer. I don't know how I got out of there, but I did. Maybe if I do it again, I can get out of here."
Anna sighed and got up herself. "You don't understand in the slightest, do you? There is something Beyond that is following you. For all you know, whatever it is could be using these...*incidents* to gain control of you. Is that worth getting out of the house?"
"That's easy for you to say." Jen gave the door another tug. "You're a ghost. You don't have to eat or anything and you can leave whenever you want. Somehow I don't think Alex left anything in the pantry. I don't think she intended to come back." When Anna didn't reply, Jen turned to the ghost and leaned on the door. "Makes things a bit more complicated, doesn't it?"
"Of course." Anna said, with a sardonic edge to her voice. "I never would've thought of the fact that you needed to eat." She folded her arms and stared Jen in the eye. "Look, we'll probably get out of here in a day or two at the most. If all else fails, we can break a window. I just don't think that's a good idea because it'll draw too much attention."
"Couldn't we just open the window?"
Anna shook her head. "The windows down here don't open, and Alex locked the second floor door. Even if I could get through and open an upstairs window, you couldn't get through the door." In response to Jenny's grim look, Anna replied, "We'll get out of here soon enough. And you shouldn't have to resort to your little episodes." She turned around and started up the stairs. "I'll see if I can find the spare key. I'll be back soon." With that, she disappeared through the door.
Jen shrugged to herself. I don't remember Anna being that sarcastic. She thought, looking up at the second floor door.
Her train of thought was cut off, however, by the sudden, unexpected presence of two Guardians, standing perfectly still, turned to 'face' her.
Jen tried to back away, remembering only a second later that she was already leaning against the door. The Guardians weren't moving, only staring at her in the same sightless way that they had at the gates of Ehn'gah.
Jenny tried to think fast. She had been able to drive the Guardians away at the gates to Ehn'gah, and these were the same type of Guardian. Time to see if she could do it again.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the voice that came out of her mouth was not her own. She heard, instead, a man's voice that she did not recognize speaking to the Guardians.
"Now is not the time to act, Guardians. The girl is under the watch of the Roivas ghost. We cannot act without being suspect. Leave, now, before she returns."
The Guardians obeyed, disappearing without a noise. Jenny clapped a hand over her mouth in amazement. Why had she spoken in a different voice? Who's voice was replacing her own? And why did the Guardians obey her?
Thoroughly confused, her questions swarming around her head like gnats, Jen sat down on the floor, hoping that Anna hadn't heard the voice as well.
It was while she was on the Metro that it hit her. She needed a name.
Alex's double had been searching for the past few hours for her counterpart, to no avail. It seemed almost futile to look anymore, and she had hopped on the metro and had been riding for the past hour, doing nothing but sitting and thinking.
And it had just occurred to her that she had no name.
It was interesting. She'd never thought of herself by any name. She'd never thought of herself by anything.
She tried a few names in her mind. Nothing sounded quite right to her. The only name that even seemed to fit was Alex–and she couldn't really use that.
She leaned back in her seat and looked out the window at the streaming lights of the tunnel, trying to think of what name she would like. If she was going to make herself a name, she wanted something unusual. Something exotic. Something unique.
But still, it bothered her that she had never had a name. If she had never been given a name, was she meant to have one in the first place?
Was I even meant to have a name? She thought to herself.
_No__I never gave you a name_
The voice. She hadn't heard it for so long now. She hadn't noticed how much she missed it's constant whispering in her ear. By why was it telling her she couldn't have a name?
Why can't I have a name?
_There is no reason for you to have a name__That is why I never gave you one_
Can't I make one for myself?
_Why?_
I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, not having a name.
Again the voice fell silent.
End Chapter 7