The smileys, with one last burst of power, pushed the cart into the river completely. Water overtook it quickly and started pulling it downstream.
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Levi saw splashing and a hand emerge from the water, it kicked his legs into overdrive. He raised his gun to start firing on the smileys but froze. The hand was blueish, he would have been convinced it was lifeless had its fingers not been moving. The hand grabbed one of the smileys ankles, yanking it hard enough to topple it over, falling into the sand. Another hand followed, grabbing the other ankle. The water bubbled, split. The hands owner came up. The nearly rotten arms were attached to a fish. Jet black scales, matching its eyes. Jagged and broken teeth. Two human arms jetting out of either side of its body. It dragged the smiley into the river, drowning it. Levi watched, a deer caught in the headlights. Heart pounding. Head throbbing.
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Another set of putrid hands came up, grabbing and pulling the other smiley into the murky depths. Three more sets, thirty boney fingers. Veiny blue hands, skinny arms missing chunks of flesh. More popped up, too many to count. Each set another black fish. They crawled out of the water and onto the beach. Dragging their gasping bodies towards Levi. Some had different length arms, others had theirs in different spots on their body. None of them the same, all equally darkly twisted. Deformed. Digging their gnarled fingers into the sand and pulling. Dragging.
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Levi stood there, couldn't move. Couldn't process what he was seeing. They grew closer. Just fast enough to be a threat. Levi pulled out his gun, fired, bang. He didn't even aim, it was just a fear response. A desperate bid for power. His hand shook. They grew closer. He couldn't tell if he hit any of them, not that it would have mattered. They outnumbered him ten to one, maybe more. An army between him and the river. He could just spot the corner of the cart, now almost fully sunk, still drifting downstream. He couldn't see Nerthus. He couldn't see her white gown. He convinced himself she couldn't have been in the cart, he would have seen her white gown in the water, would have seen her float up, would have heard her scream. They were all lies to ease the uncertainty and he believed them. The fish were nearly on top of him. He finally turned heel and ran as fast as his legs would take him. Blindly rushing into the forest beyond the cabin.
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Hopping over fallen, rotten logs, age had caught up to them. Ducking under low hanging branches, Levi ran. Flashes, streaks of vibrant oranges, deep reds and the fading greens finally letting go. That's a beautiful part of a panic fueled fight for survival, it keeps the mind quiet, focused. Like sunlight through a magnifying glass. It's another reason Levi clung so tightly to the puzzling situation he found himself in, the mystery. It let him cope, silence the thoughts of the traumatic events that have unfolded. It was his car radio, his static.
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He thought of escaping the nightmare, waking up. Going back home. Laying in bed. But as he tried and the fight or flight response died down, so did his pace and peace. In the middle of the forest, no end or beginning in sight, the ache to solve the puzzle remained clear but his mind jumped back. Home. He couldn't picture it. He couldn't remember anything before waking up on that bench in the alleyway. The earlier memories became less and less clear. His thoughts returned to the terrifying idea that he didn't exist before that. That the world didn't exist before that.
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An existential dread smothered him, pulled him under the waves of tension, a strain to his feeble grip on even breath but the mystery was a lifeguard and it pulled him up for air because looking up, there it was right in front of him. A light in the darkness, a sign. The tree with an “X” carved into the bark.
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“Out of everywhere I could have ended up in this forest, how did I end up here? Where I needed to be? Where I always need to be?” Levi asked himself. Hoping his subconscious would answer back, reassure him of his own free will, make him believe he was real before and he'll be real after. But his mind was his, no one else's, so it can't respond. He thinks, so he is, or so he thinks.
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Levi examined the tree. Looking for where to go next. He circled it, couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Looked at the base, picked through the leaves and brush, nothing. He looked further past, deeper into the forest before something stuck out. A hundred or so feet away there was another tree, something else carved into it. Sharp angles, unnatural. The soft underbelly of the the tree exposed, nearly white, stark contrast from the brown bark. He walked to it.
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This one had an arrow, pointing left, stenciled into the bark. Levi traced his finger on the carving. Wondered where it was taking him. Who left these clues? He wanted to question it more but he didn't have the energy to face it. He blindly followed it and it led to yet another tree with yet another arrow. Breadcrumbs. He kept following. The sounds of the forest were relaxing. The light breeze nipped at his hands, his lips. The leaves rustled, the smell of oak and cold. Birds chirped. He was at ease. Had he not been certain he was in hell he could have mistaken this for a nice walk through the woods but he was painfully aware that a cold front didn't mean summer was gone forever. That turning his back to a sunset didn't mean the moon wouldn't rise. He followed the arrows.
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The arrows took Levi every which way, seemingly random. Deeper into the forest, the fray. He felt safer here. The canopy of the trees kept the sunlight at bay, basking the forest floor in a cooling shade. He walked and he walked. Footprints in moss. The arrows gave Levi a sense of peace. Direct direction but the longer we walked, the more things began to change. The sounds of the forest dampened before disappearing completely. He even had trouble hearing his own footsteps. The distance between the arrows grew, making the trek to the next unsettling. Doubting. If he took a wrong turn or missed the next one. He kept walking, pushing past it all. Determined. Scared.
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A couple hours past, of walking and worrying. He came through to a small clearing with a majestic lake in the background. It's water ripples like crystals reflecting from the sun. He came up the next tree, the next sign but it wasn't just another arrow. Carved into the bark next to it was a steep line that dipped and rose like a shark tooth. But Levi recognized the image almost immediately, like he had seen it before. He didn't pick up on that. The etching was the entrance to a cave. He looked in the direction the arrow pointed and sure enough, in the distance, was a small cave tucked into the side of a hill. Not much bigger than any other door. Levi didn't want to go in but he was already so deep into the rabbit hole. It had to end soon.
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He stood at the blackened maw of the cave. Its insides completely hidden from prying eyes. The absolute light of the outside world and the total eclipse of darkness of the cave overlapped here, this doorway into the unknown. It felt final, significant. No turning back, once past the threshold it was too late. Levi stepped through it. Not ready but with no alternative. The darkness enveloped him.
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The entrance of the cave was bigger than the inside. It bottlenecked swiftly. Past the overlap was a small, tightly fit winding tunnel. A water drip kept the quiet away. The wind howled in solidarity. Levi could open his arms up and touch both sides of the tunnel. He tried to use his UV flashlight but it didn't help much. The purple rays couldn't cut through the pure underground darkness. The solid rocks held the shadows closely, like a cheating poker player with his cards. He mostly navigated by feeling the rocky mossy walls. Cold and wet. Careful steps in the darkness. Until his eyes adjusted enough to see muted colors.
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He squeezed his way through the tunnel, the light behind him fading into obscurity. Meeting the darkness and soaking in, lost. Levi's eyes grew accustomed to the absence of light but only barely. There wasn't much to see, vague shapes of rocks and roots. Levi didn't know what he was doing, why he was doing it. He got caught up, focused on the distraction of the mystery. He didn't know what he'd find but it couldn't be good. It just felt like what he was supposed to do. He pushed forward, twisting and turning. Addicted to the sense of belonging.
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The tunnel ended abruptly. Levi didn't notice he was walking through a doorway until his hands left the rocky surfaces guiding him. Falling to the wayside. The unanticipated loss of instruction, like your grip slipping off of the pool ladder. His first instinct was to flail, gasp for air. Little rays of light broke through cracks in the ceiling, his eyes had to focus again to the shift in brightness, now clear. The tunnel led to a massive cavern. Trees grew through the solid rock flooring and straight up through the rocky ceiling. Rows and rows of tree trucks, their leaves far out of sight above ground. It was like the cavern, the stone, formed around them. Enclosing them, short of the canopies. It was an underground forest, soaked in a bluish glow, the few strands of light that broke made little pockets of lights.
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A brighter point caught Levi's attention ahead. In the back of the room was a bigger crack in the ceiling, bathing a white statue in bright light. The wall behind it, a pale blue. It moved. Levi was puzzled, stepped forward. Focused. The long walk. The closer he got, the more he could make out. The statue was made of marble, tall, white. The back wall wasn't a wall at all, it looked like water. Might as well have been endlessly tall and wide, forbidding. Like a window into Caldron Lake.
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He reached the statue. It was as tall as he was. The back half was a mountain. A claw coming over. Behind that was unfinished. Unpolished and untouched marble. A bare canvas. The mountain came down to trees and rivers and that met with a town. Levi's eyes grew wide. It was Bright Falls. All of it encapsulated in marble, a miniature version of the town. The twin headed wolf statue. The diner. The streets, the buildings. That's when he saw it. The bench he had woken up on was there, too and a man laid on it. It was him! It was small but clear. He could trace the path he took. Everything was here. The Raven’s home, the bookstore, even the strange hardware store. In the miniature it wasn't done either, it was just a square piece of marble. That's why it felt so out of place in person. Next to laid a small, plastic army man. Levi picked it up, he recognized it. He used to play with these as a kid. His face became flushed with heat, "Josef?" Levi said under his breath that now grew erratic. His eyes came back up to the sculpture. The bridge was there, the river, the cabin and the cart. Nerthus laying in the back. Everything that happened laid out here, frozen in time.
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The smallest details were there. The breadcrumb carvings. The “X”s on the trees. The one on the wall in the hardware store except broken off, laid next to it, a perfectly matched hole on the side of the building for it to fit in. Levi crouched down, overwhelmed. Trying to piece it all together. That's when he saw the base of the statue, the last foot of the marble. A series of carvings, a mural. The events that have unfolded in pictures, like a storybook. He put his hand on it, followed it. It circled around the statue. He got to a part that was missing, broken off. He dumped his backpack out in a panic. Picking one the jagged pieces of marble he found with the odd, out of place store chiseled in. It fit perfectly in the spot. He circled around, following the story, reliving it, but behind the statue the mural ended. No more cravings but there was a hole, he ignored it. In a frenzied state his mind raced, wondering if it was unfinished. Wondering how the story ends.
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He rushed around to the last side. More of the story was here. Another broken spot. Right at the corner. A sigh of relief. Again, the piece he had with the “X” tree fit in. The cave was there. What followed afterwards were the things that haven't happened yet. A man, Levi, sculpting. It depicted the two headed wolf emerging from the mountains and eating the sun. The smileys falling, fading. Replaced by purer, darker beings. The dark presence splitting from the wolf, tendrils of dark spreading like a virus on everything the darkness touched. The wolf growing. The end of the world. And underneath that, cut in, “Sculpted by Levi Rem”. The relief was replaced by fear, impending doom.
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Memories rushed back. This cavern, he was stuck here for god knows how long. Working, sculpting. The before was still a blur. This was his big bang. The dark presence invaded his mind, taking control, making him sculpt the future with his hands, in its image. But some semblance of himself remained, under siege but holding out. He sculpted his escape into the story with clues to lead him back here, to stop it, or the dark presence made him drop the breadcrumbs to bring him back here to create the middle of the plot, bridge the gap and finish the story. Give it power. He didn't know which.
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He stood up, tried to calm himself. Not knowing what to do next. How to stop it. He turned around, faced the wall of water. Stepped up. It looked like a gigantic aquarium. The water went on and on in every direction. This wasn't a lake, it was an ocean and he was somewhere deep in the middle. It was peaceful but it's what wasn't there that made it unsettling. There were no fish, no life, no surface and no bed. A bottomless pit. He could see a black mass in the water, far far away but he couldn't make out what it was. He stepped forward again, reached out to brace himself on the glass but his hand went into the water. He jumped back in shock. Shook his wet hand off. There wasn't any glass, the water was being held back by some unseen force. Suspended.
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Levi kept taking steps back, marveling and terrified at the sight. Bumping right into the statue. He turned around. This was the blank side, no mural, the unfinished wolf and mountains. But he remembered at the base, the hole. He crouched down. It was jagged, not clean cut. Etched below it in tiny letters, “Shoot.” He leaned in, peaked inside. He squinted, the hole was the cave entrance, inside was the cave he was in now. The naked trees were there and the statue stood in the far back. There was even a little figure of a man standing next to it. He didn't have time to fully appreciate the craftsmanship. Put it together. He was interrupted, his attention demanded elsewhere, behind him, to the sound of rushing water.
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He turned his head sharply, expecting the floodgates have been opened, soon to be lost in the impressive power of rushing water but it wasn't. The invisible barrier stood strong, the water held back but it was moving, flowing past, like a cyclone but other movement caught his eye, directed his attention. The black mass that floated deep within was moving, barreling toward him at a breakneck speed. He still couldn't fully tell what it was so far away. Its body moved like a fish, a flag flapping in the wind but as he looked it's figure changed rapidly. One minute, it looked like a man. The next, a beast. The next, unfathomable. It was coming fast. Levi held his breath. Whatever it was, it brought something terrible with it. He could feel it. This wasn't a lake or an ocean, it was hell flooded and this was a demon.
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The gears in Levi's head spun, sparks flew, the pieces of the puzzle snapping into place. He thought, maybe, if he destroyed the statue he could prevent its foresight. The rushing water behind him roared louder, the black mass closer. Levi ran back, braced himself against the ground and pushed the statue as hard as he could but it wouldn't budge. Unmovable. He kept pushing, giving it his all but no luck. The strain and bending caused his revolver to slip and fall. “Shoot.” The message. He picked up the revolver, the water’s howl deafening. He put the barrel inside the marble cave and pulled the trigger. Click. Panic. Click, click. It was empty. He checked behind him. The black mass was nearly at the wall, the overlap. He could see it clearer.
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The sea monster wasn't marine at all, it was a wolf. The wolf with two heads and it was coming at him like a torpedo but its shape kept changing. A black cloud, tentacles but most frightening, it changed into a man, into Levi. Blackened eyes, all pupils. He almost didn't see it, it morphed quickly but it was him. At least looked like him, stolen his face. It was like a dream. You know one thing but see another, faces are meaningless in a dream, so are shapes, figures. It never makes full sense, things constantly shift and change. The mass was seconds away from piercing the overlap and Levi knew in his gut that when it did, it was over.
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Frantically, he only had one last idea. Desperation set in. He kneeled down and shot his hand into the marble cave in the statue. The cavern shook violently as he did, the ceiling started crumbling. He pushed his arm deeper and through the darkness at the head of the room, a giant hand appeared, his hand. Materialized into this reality. He pushed as hard as he could, the giant hand followed suit and shot straight like a missile, a bullet train. The black mass behind him inches from the surface of the water. Everything happened at the snap of a finger. A blink of an eye. The hand collided with the statue, earthquake, decimating it, pushing it and Levi back, sending everything into the water, breaking the barrier between the two worlds. The water flooded into the cavern, the rocks and the trees and the marble exploded into the water.
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Two worlds, dimensions. The present and the future rubbed shoulders. Against the rules set. At the point where Levi's hands, one now and one later met, is the point everything was swept away in the waters of creation and destruction. Into the dark place. Twisted and tangled. A string of ideas with knots tied and untied. A vortex opened, swallowing everything. The black mass, the shifting monster, dissipated. The statue sank like an anchor into the dark waters. The fabric of reality spun into nothingness, a black hole, all at that one, tiny point of contact and as Levi swirled with it all in the current powerless, his mind was unburdened because he was unknowing of any of it. His eyes closed. Dark. There once was something and then only a loud gasp for air.
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