By: M Monroe Casey
Click.
The first location of the new project appeared on the Windowsill. The beautiful and large white stone cathedral stood as a beacon in the western half’s city square in Merida, Mexico and its legendary windows lit up in the night. With a small spotlight on each piece of artwork, literally illuminating them, it provided a certain level of beauty unrivaled in the region or even the continent. The massive structure stood with meters upon meters of beautiful stained glass boasting depictions of local culture, religion and life and Monica panned the surface with the Windowsill like an upclose scout. This newly discovered feature of the window to other worlds, brought upon the time that Cal slithered off searching for a new sleeping hollow without even leaving a note, let her zoom in and move the screen to her desire. The impressed Arizonan looked at the intricate detail until a noise was heard and she began to investigate. Pushing the down keys on the remote, she was able to find the source of the audible distractor as they were mid-monologue.
“We shall soon beautify all… All…”
“But… how shall we do it… how?”
Intrigued, Monica Dancer began to traverse the wall with her magical eyeglass to see a single dark-robed being pacing back and forth. Alone in the atrium of the main hall, they stepped back and forth, muttering. Each step echoed in the otherwise still air, repeating words in a way that made them seem almost unbalanced in their own conversation, seemingly unaware of the prying eye of one hut-dwelling young lady.
“It all… It all will be made like us… us…”
“Yes… That… we will do it… that…”
Stopping their pacing almost instantly, the robed individual then muttered once more.
“I sense something… Someone is here… here…”
“Yes… prying eyes… I feel them… Prying eyes…”
With a gut dropping feeling, Monica gasped as the head of the robed individual abruptly turned and stared directly at her. Looking at the Windowsill’s direct gaze, its eyes and skin were unlike anything she had ever seen before. They seemed to be made of literal stained glass, just like the great art pieces that surrounded them, with a variety of hues in pressed purple and pink shades highlighting these unique features in their face, no hair atop its smooth head. Behind those cosmetics, she didn’t trust a single part of what they were saying nor did she believe in what they were planning. With a chuckle heard and a mouthed ‘hello there…” from this glassy being, she quickly left the room.
Click.
Quickly getting off Mt. Couch, Monica walked into the kitchen where CJ was having her morning white-chocolate mocha. One that she retrieves from a local coffee shop in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota on Earth. With her drink, retrieved from New Brighton at a place off Silver Lake Road and Fourteenth Street Northwest, she’s in her happy place. In one of their few arguments about which is better, Monica regulars another. Monica usually gets hers from a place on North Central Ave and West Turney Ave in Phoenix, Arizona, also daily and despite their heated disagreement on the topic, their love remains strong as always. As Monica walked up, CJ’s face lit up as it usually does when she sees her beloved. The passed out cobra, Cal, sat on her lap. Reading the concerned face as Monica sat with her on the two-seater couch by the window, she asked her what was wrong.
“Hey! All good?”
“Yeah… I was just using the Windowsill on the newest project in Merida and when I found that cathedral you told me about, I heard a voice…”
“Yeah?”
“And when I found out who it was… they like looked at me? They were made of creepy glass… Do you know what that was about?”
“Yes… So, you know Baleigh and her Star Goddess form?”
“Yeah… Like when her fingers went all sparkly in Wisco?”
“Yeah… that’s one way to say it… but yeah, she is not the only Goddess in the Cosmos. They are a few more and I think you met another today. I heard there was another in Mexico and with what happened in Stevens Point, I think they are getting ready for a power play… that can be the only explanation…”
A confused Monica replied, “Does that mean that Baleigh can sense when we are using the Windowsill on her?”
“Not sure and I don’t know if that ‘Stained Glass Goddess’ is all bad or good… Legends say that these Goddesses war almost constantly but it’s hard to say because that kiddo totes doesn’t seem like the warring type.”
“Like for sure. I heard them say they wanted to ‘beautify’ all, should we warn Bales?”
“We could…”
“Could be a good excuse to say hi…” Monica pondered.
“It could… Plus, we can like play dolls with KJ… that kiddo is adorable…” CJ equally pondered.
“Ummm… CJ? If we go, can we take a bus through the mountains to Vancouver after and get a seafood platter by the water?”
“Daaahhhh!!!!! OMG! YES! LET’S GO! NOW!”
With a high level of enthusiasm, the annoyed angst-ridden teenage snake slithered off her lap, and CJ stood up. With the promise of a seafood platter, the blonde young woman literally ran and grabbed her travel fleece hooded sweatshirt and with its teal accents, it matched her already worn sunshine yellow pants. Monica’s red fleece sweatshirt and jeans complimented her almost too well as the two of them opened and closed their front door. Refusing to open portals in the house, they looked over to the endless oceanic waves to their right and the feeding Tadala on their left. As the thousands-of-meter-long necked behemoth crunched upon the recycled planet core in the replenishing time rift, its black scales provided the accent of color in the otherwise endless golden and blue landscape. Holding hands with her right and Monica’s left, the golden hoop above her forehead glowed as a portal under their feet opened, lips locking within their eternal love.
Ending the kiss for now, they looked at surbana around them, Calgary edition. The portal brought them to these familiar streets, in the fifth month of the Arizonan calendar, with a light drizzle in the air. Opening up their front gate, they continued walking hand-in-hand. Hands interlocked all the way up to the front door of the Luisa’s house as Monica knocked on its metal finish.
Scene Two
Answering the door, Baleigh’s mother greeted them both with a slightly confused look on this particularly drizzly school-night in May.
“Hello? May I help you?”
“Hi, Ms. Luisa! I’m CJ and this is my partner, Monica. Is Baleigh home?”
“Ummm… Hi. First off, do I know you?”
“I’m her friend from the card store and I told her I was bringing over my partner so she can meet her. Did she not tell you that?”
“Not surprisingly, no, but that young lady is a quiet soul with me. I can see what she is doing. Hey, KJ?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
“Can you tell Baleigh that CJ and Monica are here?”
“Sure!”
As the brunette woman in her forties opened the door, the two otherworldly powerhouses graciously entered their home, avoiding that aforementioned slight drizzle coming from the heavens above. Walking towards the kitchen in the back of the house, they proceeded. Shoes off, their white socks slid on the smooth dark hardwood as a familiar face turned the corner. Slightly older now, but growing at her accelerated teenage rate, the 15-year-old Baleigh looked CJ right in her eyes and smiled.
“CJ! And you must be Monica!”
Replying in unison, the three of them hugged it out in the kitchen.
“Hi!”
Removing both her arms from around the couple, the teenager had them grab their boots once more then beckoned them to the backyard, so they could talk more privately. Although with how engrossed in her show, How to Stop a Storm, that KJ was, it wouldn’t have even mattered if they sat right next to her and talked. The direct sequel program to OD on the C and Annandale, it was one of the few things that could truly capture KJ’s attention for that long.
“So, you must be the one who used that ‘looking-glass’ at Stevens Point… I could feel ‘prying eyes’ but something in my gut told me, I just had a guardian angel coach. Hahaha.”
“Yeah… that was me,” laughed Monica. In the back of her mind, the word coach sparked something. A certain sense of purpose that she hasn’t really felt since the pre-Castle Johnson shenanigans. A feeling that was now UnMuted in her.
“Nice to finally meet you, Monica. So, what’s up, CJ? Why did you come to lovely Alberta? I haven’t seen you since that alleyway…”
“I would love to tell you but first off, like where are Hamza and Erickson? Do they live in the house with you?”
“No… My mom hates puppets and I figure I better keep it all still hush-hush. Haha, they are staying in the new workshop. Come on, I’ll show you. Promise you won’t try to take them, I… will… fight… you…”
“Yeah… I promise… I’m not Rashid. Hahahaha, but I can’t say the same for Monica here…”
With a scowl, she replied to her beloved.
“Woah!”
Walking out the backgate of the slowly-growing-green-grass yard and into the gray concrete alleyway, they started walking east down the alleyway. With a smile on her face and the pink sparkles returning to her freshly painted charcoal nails, the three of them were swept away in a burst of wind and immense power. Standing in the fields of slowly-swaying-purple Soul Scanner plants, they looked upon a one-room workshop ahead. Barely poking out of the nestling of small hills surrounding it, the metal building was modest but gave Baleigh everything she could need. As the three of them walked towards the front door, they could see through the window that Hamza and Erickson were sparring inside. Swinging their staffs back and forth, they met each other’s blows and reciprocated each hit. Stepping into the workshop, they looked around before taking a step. As their eyes scanned left to right they saw two beds for the inhabitants, a wall of tools and a workbench. On the workbench was a flier that Monica read as she walked past towards the other two at the power tool wall. She then asked a question that put the Star Goddess silent.
“That Spring Dance seems pretty fun, Baleigh, I bet you got all the people asking in lines to be your date? You must be so excited!”
While Baleigh fumbled the question at hand, no one was there to hit the button on the remote as the Windowsill began recording in a small beachside condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the same moment as the three of them talked.
Sitting in their in-home hospital beds, the situation has gone from bad to worse for Gerald and Sam. The two sat in beds next to each other and while nothing could be physically seen wrong with them, they each remained in their comatose state. Each like this for now their eighth and final night in a row. Alone in the room they shared, the sixty-five year old man and the forty-five year old woman had one in common, a marking on the left side of each of their necks that no earthly tool left. Each had a pinwheel imprinted there but Gerald’s was four shades of blue while Sam had orange and red in hers.
Throughout the moments they remained there, they began even more unresponsive yet even more beautiful. Their facial features symmetrized, their hair shined and their skin glowed. One outside feature at a time, it perfected them yet the more this happened, the deeper the comatose and the more internal failure occurred. Organs shut down one at a time as the magic reaped its revenge on their once defiant souls. Unable to watch the previous Vessels of Beauty slip away completely and then literally dematerialize in a live moment, Monica proceeded to continue talking with CJ and Baleigh in her workshop.
Scene Three
“Yeah, I’ve been turning people down for days… ha-ha… but… so, why are you here?”
First looking at each other in the wake of the sudden topic change, one of them then answered.
“Well… we believe there is another Goddess out there on earth. I don’t know how friendly they are so you might be in danger in case there is some sort of powerplay,” responded a slightly concerned Monica.
Baleigh sighed and smiled in her response, “well… I’m a Goddess too… that means we are sort of equals… right?”
Answering the youngest Goddess now, CJ answered.
“Maybe but Baleigh, you like just got your sparkly powers like a few months ago… this is an entity that might have been training for this exact moment for thousands of years…”
“Well… if you are so concerned by it, why don’t you go and stop it? You obviously seem to have some high level of power…”
Fielding this question without hesitation, Monica answered.
“Because CJ is on a different level than you, no offense. She is above basically everyone. Because she’s so cute and amazing and lovely and beautiful and fun and silly and smart… ummm… where was I?”
Laughing at the usual level-headed one, CJ picked up her thought train from there.
“So… yeah… thanks Mon… but there is a hierarchy in the Cosmos as a whole. Tadala and I are on the top, wooohoooo!” High-fiving Monica immediately after she says who’s on top, they both laugh to the annoyance of Baleigh.
“Yes. I gathered that you, CJ, are the top of the hierarchy and I get you, Monica, love her. A LOT. But please answer the question! Who’s next?”
Collecting herself, Monica began to answer.
“Sorry… so, in the Cosmos, it then comes the Six Goddesses. Your power level should mostly be on par with each other but there might be some slight changes with each one of you, hence the danger. You are one and so is that Stained Glass character. A few souls exist in various worlds with immense powers like Lord Jadix and Bone King. Then, comes the ‘Tools of the Goddesses,’ they are made from materials from the various worlds in the Cosmos and will generally be used to help them achieve their goals. You have two living with you… like right there.”
As they both pointed towards the sparring 2.057 meter puppets in the corner, Baleigh’s offended stare took them both off guard.
“Tools? You’re no different than Rashid was… I bet you would take them and sell them off like Sionwonie anyday… How could I be so stupid?”
The sparkle began to grow on her finger as her hand made the finger-gun shape. The quick-to-emotion CJ responded as Baleigh calmed down in the explanation.
“No… no… we don’t think that. That’s just their name and actually, Smooth Stone the axe, was a tool himself. He didn’t even know the hierarchy, unaware that itself was being used by another…”
“Okay… fine… we’ll discuss how to change that name later… so, there are four other Goddesses like me and this Stained Glass? What are they and why can’t you get involved, CJ?”
“Yes, there are four more and I think the Stained Glass is the Goddess of Beauty. You all deal with the different facets of something incredible is all I understand. The records are lost that describe this but this is just what I know. Those records were destroyed in SOMEONE’S Castle Johnson book fight… Cough cough… Veronica… but anyways, I can’t get involved because being at the highest level, if I ‘step down’ then it almost works as an invitation for another to reach my level of power and I ask you, would you like Smooth Stone the ability to axe you a question through a portal randomly, whenever?”
“No… not really, Ms. CJ and fair enough… ummm… Ms. Monica, are you okay?”
With a scowl at her beloved, Monica responded.
“It wasn’t Veronica’s fault, Jimmie and Timmie told her that she could ‘throw pretty good for a girl,’ and of all people, I assumed you would appreciate her standing up for herself and women everywhere!”
“Babe! I was kidding… You know I like your sister!”
Collecting the couple’s derailment and bringing it back on course again, Baleigh’s glance brought her back to the flier on the table and then back to the two of them. With a knot in her stomach, she lowered her head and closed eyes. The social situation was no better than Iowa or her old times in Calgary and this just added to her list of issues now. With the change of pressure coming to the area, the couple nodded to each other and knew exactly what to do.
As the two otherworldly guardians hugged their young mentee, the three of them sat in a group hug as the other two stopped sparring to join. Two giant puppets, two lovers and a Goddess. Bonds grew stronger than any magic shared amongst them but as they shared that lovely moment, the ancient cathedral in Merida provided the host to a less happy one. A crying young woman sat in the third left-side pew of the church while a few rows back on the right, a scowling young man sat. Both had their foreheads resting on the polished wood in front of them, as they muttered in unison to the abandoned silence.
“Now… merge… make the Stained Glass… Now… merge… make the Stained Glass…” over and over again.
Scene Four
With tears in all four eyes for different reasons, the two of them stood up and walked to the front of the sanctuary. Even with every bit of Roberto’s moral fiber resisting the movement of his legs, it proved futile to the magic at work. The Goddess of Beauty chose Nathaly and him and no bit of witchcraft, laws or societal pressure can change what has come to pass now. They now stood face to face and held outstretched hands, assuming the position of a traditional wedding. Faces facing each other alone, they muttered the phrase over and over again as her once brown eyes began to change to various hues of orange and red stained glass. Pinwheels formed in them now. In the air around, the temperature began to rise all around them with every word.
“Unity makes everything beautiful… Unity makes everything beautiful…”
The man on the left began to question what they were doing though as his grip loosened. The Goddess markings on their necks may have marched him down there but that entity didn’t control every part of him just yet.
“We don’t have to do this, Nathaly…”
“Yes Roberto, we do… you saw what happened to the last two who openly defied this… They were in our care and they literally faded away… We are now the Vessels… This is our… destiny so just accept it… Beauty itself chose us…”
“We don’t have to destroy everything… You do realize this plan is insane, right? If the Goddess does this, the death toll will be in the trillions…”
Pulling one hand away from the bonding happening, she clenched his left hand tighter as the temperature dropped down ever so slightly.
“If the Goddess does this?! We are the Goddess, Roberto! You promised to be always there for me when my esposo left me… Don’t back out of this like everything else… please… Help me…”
“I can’t help you ‘beautify it all’… This is not what I agreed to when I became your friend… I’m sorry Nathaly…”
Pulling back both hands from their position, she fell to her knees as the tears crashed down even heavier now.
“But… but… you only NEED me… I know you think you can but you can’t get her back… You just need me and you… All of it… us…”
“It just doesn’t seem right…”
“But you promised…” With the Goddess assuming almost full control, the willing Vessel provided the perfect bait to his wavering feelings.
“To… kill trillions?”
“You said to ‘not worry because we will always be together’… yes? You said you would walk through a hurricane or fight an army to see me smile… Well… it’s time to prove your word’s worth…”
“I’m sorry Nathaly…”
Ro… ber…To… I…need your… help… now… Not later… NOW! PLEASE! HELP ME…”
Stopping for a second, the whole of Merida began to feel the effect of the heat surge as Roberto looked upon her crying face. As it was hiding behind unkempt brunette hair, a feeling swelled up in him. She was right. Deep down, he always knew that he needed to commit to something he wanted and that’s just what he was going to do. With a change of air pressure and a surge of heat that overtook the entirety of the Yuctan, he reached down and grabbed her hands. Pulling her up, he lightly kissed her forehead and then smiled a devious smile as his once brown eyes began to become ocean, seafoam, sky and royal blue, all pressed stained glass in the shapes of pinwheels. Four eyes of six shades in total marked disaster for all of those who now stood in their way. Holding hands even tighter and assuming their previous position, they both uttered the phrase for the final repetition needed as their hands literally fused together.
“Unity makes everything beautiful…”
In a flash of dark purple light that overtook the recording Windowsill, they were gone and in their place, a singular figure stood. Its hooded head sat lowered and its rainbow shaded skin peaked through the cover of the robe in the hallowed space. Stepping forward, with a slight stumble and an initial slowness, they proceeded. Down the few stone steps to the aisle ahead, Stained Glass looked around in its kaleidoscope vision devised from their two different shaded eyes. Two souls, one body and one mouth muttering.
“Now… it’s time… With each step, we’ll make this planet… and then… it all… perfectly… beautiful…”
With each step, a rainbow glass footprint was left behind but these remnants didn’t stay a Mexican size nine for long. This ever expanding and shifting glass now crawled across the marble floors in every direction, suffocating whatever surface it covered in its multi-shaded splendor. The centimeters of expansion quickly grew into meters as Nathaly and Roberto’s smiles remained on their new shared face. Smiles at their new favorite best friend activity and before they even reached the far end of the sanctuary, the fifteen meter ceilings received its own artistic coating.
After six more footprints were left, they reached the outside and stood on the front steps, looking at the busy city square at their feet. Their creeping menace already overtook the cathedral behind and was setting its goal on the world around now. The sky above began to turn blood red in the heat they were emitting and the hot winds blew upon the quickly emptying and screaming landscape ahead. A soft chuckle exhaled from their body.
Mid-chuckle, Stained Glass quickly and quizzically looked up to see a swirling maelstrom of clouds form and before they could react to what was coming, a massive blast of pink starlight collided with their artistic body.
Scene Five
Sliding Stained Glass back a few centimeters, the source of the starlight attack made herself visible then. Wearing a light blue blouse and green pants, her infamously nice brunette hair in a ponytail, Baleigh Luisa landed only a few meters away from her adversary. As the living legend herself behind the recent ponytail trends at Stevens Point Area Senior High School, or SPASH to their friends, she has arrived with her usual high magnitude of attitude. A serious look on her face as she stood a few meters from her adversary.
“Oh… TU… eres… Baleigh…”
“Yeah… I’m THAT Baleigh… What do you want?”
“Nada… es… perfecto… not… yet…”
“What?” Asking the question, she immediately got her answer as Stained Glass stepped forward towards her and the Mexican size nine footprints then immediately did their thing too. As her starlight erupted in an assault again, it was met by the open-palmed hand of her enemy, blocking the blast completely. Ricocheting off her palm, the energy beams fired off in every direction in a multitude of colors. Then with a battle cry, the Star Goddess charged.
Leading with a rainbow flame burst that Baleigh blocked with her own starlight, they traded blows back and forth in that square. It was a barrage of colorful powers and each one was making no headway towards victory for either side. Raising both hands in the air, clenching both of those fists and then dropping them to the ground, Stained Glass created a storm of tiny glass pellets in the air. Pointing their hands at the young one, the glass began to follow. As she sought to sandblast Baleigh down, she responded by loading up the finger guns and then crossed her two legs and spun like her dance teacher of the second grade taught her. With hair swinging up mid-twirl, she unleashed a full circle of starlight, shattering the airborne assault and slamming into Stained Glass at the same time. Knocking back a meter this time, a look of anger sat upon the ancient deity’s face as they collected composure once more. A disoriented and tired Baleigh fell to her knees then and screamed out to her adversary as the expanding artwork neared the edge of the couple city-block-wide square now. She could feel she was losing this fight.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?”
“All… must be… hermosa… Nathaly deserves it… Our world shall return… Over yours…”
“Who and WHAT?
The same mouth then muttered back in a slightly different voice.
“Gracias… Roberto… Let’s finish this…”
The original voice answered as Baleigh stood to her feet, “Siempre… Always para you… mi amiga…”
With another blast of starlight, it’s met by the same hand, blocked once more. Their adversary went back to muttering as Baleigh began to load a blast on the other hand.
“For Nathaly…”
“Para Roberto…”
As her left-handed blast was then also blocked by a hand of glass, Baleigh stopped for a second as some movement caught her eye. Two giant friends came in with staffs swinging from stage left and as she was letting out a scream of fear, it proved to be too late.
“NO!”
Watching as Stained Glass reached out and grabbed both Hamza and Erickson on their shoulders in mid-air, they were overtaken by the artistic coating instantly. Frozen beautiful rainbow statues landed, titled but didn’t fall, in that empty and desolate square. Without a chuckle and maintaining the somber feelings of the moment, they looked back at the petrified face of Baleigh, tears swelling in her brown eyes.
“All… will be… beautiful… Including tu y tu familia… you can thank me later and you will understand in time… but for now… descansa…”
Still in shock after watching her almost-children frozen solid in front of her, Baleigh didn’t even attempt to block the giant swinging glass hand as it slapped her across the backside of the head. Collapsing in the square, her eyes were slowly closing as the glass all around began its movement towards her, ready to coat her living form permanently into the very landscape of her defeat.
“I guess… Stevens Point… was a fluke… I’m…,” she coughs hard as the glass reaches her pinkie toes, “so… sorry…”
As her eyes closed, she was gone from Mexico instantly. Now, standing at the dead end of a canyon with a mint green sky in this new landscape, she knew she wasn’t quite on earth anymore. Something in her gut told her that she wasn’t quite dead either. She must be somewhere in-between but it appears she wasn’t alone there. Forty-seven meters ahead, a ghostly figure stood but their familiar voice resounded in the emptiness around like they were immediately next to her.
“Well… well.. hello Baleigh… remember… me?”
Scene Six
“…Rashid?”
Stepping forward, the disgraced Journey Shaman’s vengeance was literally radiating from his form in this unique place. His tattered sweatshirt and sweatpants from their previous meeting were still on but a thicker and unkempt beard now grew from his chin.
“Where are we?”
“This… Don’t concern yourself with this place… You’re the mighty Star Goddess, you’ll never find yourself here… right?
“What are you talking about? What happened to you?”
“That… Don’t concern yourself with that… what happened to me is nothing… You’re the mighty Star Goddess, I’m JUST A PAWN TO YOU… Tossed away like the trash you hate…. but it seems that you aren’t quite unstoppable… since… here… we are… I wish I could have just taken him then… I could do so… much… better…”
As he sputtered out that last line, the aura around him changed shades. A burning hot red of revenge changed to a softer blue as his mood changed.
“Why couldn’t you have just taken Hamza then?”
“The lighting… wasn’t… right… The stage wasn’t set… not… yet… but we are all someone’s puppets anyway… but you are just a child… you’ll never get it… the hierarchy breaks us all… but… you could never… hope to understand…” The aura began to shift to red once more. “But I do know what you really want… you want them to love you and accept you… but… I can help you retire… I can do it ALL if I just had…”
“What?” A cautious Baleigh loaded up a finger gun but no sparkles in this limbo world. She resorted to a scowl instead as he responded.
“Your power…”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a sapping stone. Erickson warned her a while back that some beings in the Cosmos might be interested in doing just this. Some might try to drain her living essence for its power while others might try to strip it when she is defeated. These sapping stones might be the worst of all, it would remove the power from her conscious molecules. Every single bit, one by one, in a very painful way.
“You can’t have it…”
“I wasn’t asking… I already tried to reason with you before…” The single focus was shown in his eyes even more as Rashid took two steps towards her. A crazed smile to match.
“Reason with me? You tried to ABDUCT my friends!”
“You CAN’T hope to understand… what the universe’s journeys need… Doom is crashing towards us all and you can’t stop it… I can… Help me help you… so… JUST SURRENDER ALREADY… Your powers don’t work here anyways…” Rashid took two more steps as she backed up closer to the steep canyon walls around them.
Stopping her backward retreat, Baleigh quickly closed her eyes with a quick exhale and inhale and opened them with fierce determination as she responded.
“You keep saying that I couldn’t hope to understand… How do you know that? Do you just assume you are the only one who can help people?”
“I’m a Journey Shaman… who better to speak… for the voiceless than… me?”
“Well… maybe… just maybe… I can do it better than you… and you may be a Journey Shaman but I am BALEIGH SOFIA LUISA… and this power is mine… NOT… YOURS. SO, YOU CAN JUST TRY AND TAKE IT… FROM MY… FASHIONABLE… DEAD… BODY.”
“You stupid child! You can’t stop what is coming… It is falling and will not stop… Crowopolis is coming… you can’t stop the bloodshed… but I can… and… I will… save… them ALL!” Rashid charged at her, sapping stone raised. With a battle cry, he continued his sandal fueled rush in the not-so-empty cannon as thousands of tiny eyes blinked in anticipation.
Inhaling and exhaling twice more, Baleigh reached down and picked up a forest green stone, bracing herself for the attack. In a place within Baleigh’s own mind, she was outside of the gaze of the Windowsill. So, as a nervous Monica back in the hut now, watched on as the expanding glass back in Mexico now reached her dusty knee caps, she only knew part of the dangers at play.
Scene Seven
Using her gymnastics skills in the off-season, Baleigh flipped backwards and landed her feet upon the white rock wall as Rashid barreled in. His brown beard waving in the wind as the insanity filled his vision. Kicking off the wall with her full leg muscle and a battle cry in the rebounding canyon, she launched like a projectile from a catapult with her war stone raised as the forest green clouds moved much slower underneath their unique mint green sky. Unable to see the full picture of the events unfolding, Monica looked upon the teenager’s face and could only see the utter distress. The burning glass has now reached her stomach. A concerned CJ paced behind Mt. Couch.
“Should I get involved? This is getting really bad…”
“But… C… if you do… it will open up Ascension… we can’t allow that…”
“But… we are the ones who encouraged Baleigh… we could have sent her to death… She needs me!”
Getting off Mt. Couch and walking the few steps around, Monica grabbed CJ’s hand to console her as the deadly coating reached her neck, avoiding her arms and hands for now. Inside the mind of Baleigh, she and Rashid stone-fought for their one-person-exclusive freedom.
Swinging her stone to block his, Rashid was making no moves against the quick and powerful young woman. Even without her star powers, Baleigh proved to be a worthy adversary as the critters living in the canyon began to come out of their caves to witness it all. Pausing for a second while she sat stomach on the ground, she then swung her stone to the back of Rashid’s right knee as he buckled instantly and stumbled forward. Grabbing a hold of his right shoulder, she pulled herself up and pushed him to the ground in a single fluid motion. Holding her left arm, he yanked her off and then kicked her left hand, knocking the stone away. As her weapon slid through the dust pile, he charged with his own. CJ and Monica paced and debated more while the glass has now covered her whole body except her two arms now.
“I need to get involved Mon… I must…”
“C…”
As the creeping menace overtook half of the Merida city borders in its expansion, Stained Glass sat in their glass throne back in the cathedral. Artwork on the walls surrounded them, depicting other glass beings and a whole apparent culture lost to time and yet, in their Hall of Honor, they waited. The Goddess code dictates they can’t use powers to directly strip another of their power but there is nothing that states a Goddess can’t steal them from another’s lifeless body. Sitting and waiting in their Hall, an incoming Goddess mental link tried to reach them as they sat still for the sign it was over. Looking at the names there, they saw the other three and groaned. Not feeling it and refusing to answer Divinity, Let There Be… and OMG, the emotional distance that was usually there was still maintained.
“Hmmm… wonder where Face es… probably playing around like usual pero we are clearly busy…”
Sitting and waiting for the beautification to continue as her right arm was now covered, it moved down past her left elbow now as Baleigh still continued the attempt to free herself from this mental prison. Dodging to the left with the canyon wall on the right and the sapping stone coming down from above, she then grabbed his wrist and slid underneath his arm. Running up the wall. Vaulting off his shoulders, she heaved him into the nearby wall and as Rashid’s ghost went headfirst into the marble, she landed on her feet. Turning around in a grown human anger, he charged once more, while the glass reached her final well-moisturized hand.
Grabbing his two arms once more, she slid through his legs and began running up the wall that he just crashed into. Vaulting over him again but grabbing his shoulders from the other side, she gripped and heaved him back into the wall that he just came from. The back of his head hit the wall hard and Rashid was now slowing down as Baleigh landed on her feet once more. On the outside, it now has moved down towards the chipped nail of the pointer finger, which was apparently saved for last. Seconds remained for her and she had to make them count while CJ, Monica and Stained Glass watched on in anticipation.
“I’m… going now…” As CJ walked towards the outside door with their “no portals in the house rule,” Monica screamed out in joy.
“CJ… LOOK!” Turning around, her sunshine shaded hair twisting abruptly, CJ joined her love to watch on the Windowsill a glowing light from her last remaining fingernail. This light wasn’t the usual starlight though and with a milk-white glow from her finger, the glass began to retreat.
Stopping in the canyon while the stumbling Rashid raised his stone once more in an aggressive assault, she sought to end this fight. Trust-falling back to the dust below, she caught herself and launched herself up once more, feet landing into his chest. Buckling her knees once and then lightly pushing off, she did it once more and then with the third buckling, the concerned looks of Rashid is all she could see as she unleashed her full gymnast strength into his chest. As Rashid dropped the stone in the force of her kick, she launched him like an empty bag of sweet potatoes from a confetti cannon, crashing him into the nearest wall. Catching herself in a one-knee-on-the-ground-pre-one-hundred-meter-dash form, she burst forward like the All-Alberta track star she was and grabbed the stone in mid-air.
While Rashid was still in the process of leaving his imprint in the wall, she winced in every second she held it before smashing the stone on the canyon floor, cracking it in two. Picking up each half, she slapped them together on his shoulders. Sucking him up into the essence of the stone, he was gone instantly as she stood alone in that canyon’s dust and divots. Pocketing both stones, she looked to the edge of the canyon, where her own body was nearly covered by the deafening artwork. Rushing forward, she quickly was at her own side and felt the burning glass as she leaned down to console herself, “I… I…I… just wish… I can heal it all…”
“Mon… NO WAY!!!!!! YES!!!!!!”
The milky white light began to shine brighter and brighter as it overtook the Windowsill and the glassy coating over Baleigh faded away in fear. As it faded, a light cloud of rainbow glitter ascended to the sky above. The once bright sun of the day and heat from the beautification began to change and the expansion ceased instantly throughout the land.
A cold wind filled the area and in the once empty red sky, the eye of swirling white clouds provided host to a bright moon and stars above. With a growing moonlight on both her pointer finger nails now, she stood up in a hurry. Two halves of a sapping stone now sat in her pocket and a fierce look to match was in her eyes. The day has instantly turned into night in that square but it was not just any night there. The stars across the Cosmos now gleamed above for their champion has returned.
Scene Eight
Running across the artscape, Baleigh reached Hamza first. Placing her moonlight finger on his shoulder, the glass fled off his form. As he dropped to the ground in a complete and utter shock, she freed Erickson soon after. The three of them then shared a collective look amongst them at the cathedral only a few hundred meters ahead. Tears of joy formed in her eyes as she spoke to them both.
“I’m so proud of both of you… I have always been… Here…”
Grabbing Hamza’s left and Erickson’s right, she began to transfer her moonlight to their hands. Traveling like tiny crackles of lightning, it danced across her hands to theirs, infusing in each of their pointer fingers.
“Thank… you…” muttered Hamza.
“Go around the area, find others and free them. Fitting you for two to free people… aye?”
“Quite so… you’ll be okay without us, Baleigh?” Said the concerned Erickson.
Cracking her knuckles, she responded as she let her hair down and swung it back and forth. “Oh yeah… This is personal. They messed with you two and threatened Dumes and KJ. It’s… on…”
Stepping a few feet forward towards the cathedral, the milk-white moonlight grew on her left hand pointer and on her right, her hot-pink starlight. She was ready for battle and taking a singular look back at her teammates, she sighed. Looking ahead at the Hall of Honor, she took another step while Erickson and Hamza rushed off in different directions. Stopping for another moment, she briefly went into her backpack and grabbed her secret weapon. A dark blue sweatshirt in the now chilly night. With that and her still green pants on, she continued as her smooth brown hair bounced up and down with charcoal shaded war boots making contact with the glass-turned-glitter below. The cobblestone underneath was instantly freed as she proceeded in her timing, her footwear never touching glass.
With a diva strut across that square, she reached the doors of the cathedral. Holding up her moonlight finger, it melted the covering as another gymnast kick connected into it. Bursting the old feeble wood off its hinges, she walked in, glitterizing the entire twelve meter ceiling atrium almost instantly. Moving onward, she rushed into the sanctuary and instantly unleashed a blast of starlight towards the throne, unable to see its emptiness first. The glass, closer to the mother source, wasn’t instantly fading now though. Instead, it grated like the cheddar cheese of last week’s at home pizza night. As a soft cloud of rainbow glitter filled the air around her, she looked for her adversary.
“Where are YOU?”
The cloud thickened in the sheer amount of glass being removed and now requiring ventilation from the beautiful nuisance, she fired starlight in three directions above. Creating holes, she looked to see a slowly descending hooded figure from the rafters. In an instant, the light of the room was gone and in its place, a spotlight on her and another being ahead. Slowly lowering themselves to the ground like a true diva in their very own spotlight, Stained Glass chuckled and taunted Baleigh.
“Tu… that nuevo power seems to be quite the annoyance… pero dos wishes used now…”
“It’s over Stained Glass, I can just turn your precious glass to glitter… You won’t win…”
“Oh… that’s so, young Goddess?”
The spotlight seemed to radiate its own power as an uneasy feeling grew in Baleigh but she decided it was now or never to get even.
“Yes? I just said you won’t win?”
With a smirk, Stained Glass replied. “Then… fight us again. See what happens…”
Watching with Monica, CJ muttered back to the Windowsill. “No, Baleigh… DON’T!”
“C?”
“Stained Glass isn’t on a team alone…”
In mid-charge, the bright white spotlight followed the 15-year-old as it always should. Stained Glasses’ own spotlight remained stagnant as they waited, floating in mid-air. Before she could reach the glassy one though, a thick blast of blood red light then mercilessly bombarded from above upon the Star Goddess.
Scene Nine
Leaping to the left in the last second, Baleigh continued her charge as the living spotlight followed her. With each jump in any direction, it followed and the blood red light grew stronger as she went along. Reaching a few slowly glittering pews closer to Stained Glass, the light fired once more. Taking a chance to look behind as she narrowly escaped, Baleigh saw a hole in the floor from where it landed. This mysterious light fried the floor like it was a broken egg at breakfast and the hole left behind reached through the basement to the bedrock below the cathedral. The lights raged from above as Baleigh fired starlight at the floating one in front and randomly into the sky towards a hidden rafter enemy above.
“C… which Goddess is doing that?”
Stopping for a second, CJ held up a finger motioning for her beloved to wait a few minutes. Walking outside as the war raged on the Windowsill, CJ went for answers. Using her abilities to open a portal in their timeless world, she used that magic to travel a few minutes prior to the infamous Castle Johnson book fight. Quickly running into the fight and then grabbing the “History of the Cosmos” book before Veronica could heave it, she was back home. With the book now safely in her possession, she opened up and began answering the questions of their “hour.”
“…Lighting.”
Running her hand through her own fresh-off-a-shower brunette masterpiece, Monica responded. “Lighting? That means there are three of them in that cathedral on the Yucatan, right now?!”
Also playing with her hair, CJ twirled her long braided blonde hair. “Yeah… but I wonder where the other three are.”
“What are they Goddesses of?”
Opening up the book that was written specifically for her and Tadala’s existence, CJ answered her beloved.
“Acting, Design and Accessories.”
“Accessories! Awww… that’s so cute! Like cute bows and stuff?”
“Yeah… But she is anything but cute… Accessories is the worst of all… Brutal, maniacal and insane…”
Firing from above, the light narrowly catches Baleigh’s boot, melting off the heel instantly. The swiss-cheese floor in the cathedral is making it harder and harder for her to find ways to dodge the unfortunate fate of being flattened by her own spotlight as her star and moon energy both continue to deplete. Narrowly escaping each beam blast from above, pieces of glasses fly in from every direction at the same time but with her hooded sweatshirt from reclaimed fabrics on, Baleigh at least came prepared for the glass storm this time. Standing on top of a brown wooden pew near the middle, a few islands and connecting bridges of the previous floor remain as CJ continues to read their book more to answer the queries presented by Monica.
“Are they all on earth?” Monica ponders.
“It doesn’t say but if you are wondering how they arrived, they all can travel worlds like she does. Each one also has a ‘sign of entry to an area’ or like a way that you know they are coming. My guess is the spotlights are one, those clouds are Baleigh’s and Stained Glass had that intense heat…”
“Woah… So, it’s two versus one? That doesn’t seem very fair…”
“Yeah… but I wouldn’t discount our friend too much… That kid has some serious moxie…”
“Moxie? How old are you…”
Laughing at her comment, CJ turned to the Windowsill and held her lover’s hand tightly as Baleigh fought back against the two assailants. Squatting down and dodging a particularly large piece of glass flying by, Baleigh Luisa noticed something as she then hand-stood herself onto a pew and prepared a flip to one of the few remaining islands.
The aggressive light from above finally hit a piece of that glass and it was truly something to behold. Immediately rebounding off the glass and firing off in every direction like a prism, it sparked a thought as she flipped. Heavily lasering the rock walls, she dropped her chest down on the wooden bench she just landed on and noticed something else. Feeling the wood and not the rainbow death from before, she knew exactly what she had to do now. Pushing up, she climbed to her feet and on both of her pointer fingers, the starlight was gone and now only moonlight remained.
Taking a few quick breaths, the light quickly danced to her other eight fingers. With ten fingers of light now, she crossed her arms downwards and clenched her fingers into a fist while the spotlight reached directly above her. With the growing destruction above, she closed her eyes and focused her breath. Like they were really there, she could see them all. Her Mom, Dad, Heldum, KJ, Sionwonie, CJ, Monica and all the others were all there with her. Smiling and opening her eyes, Baleigh unclenched her fists, focused her full power in the healing of her hands and planted them on the pew as the hate fueled energy fired from above.
“NO!!!!!” Monica yelled at the Windowsill.
In a massive shockwave of moonlight, the rest of the glass covering the room faded away in an instant. With a shield of glassy rainbow glitter around her now, the red light rebounded in every possible direction off of every last molecule of glitter that she just created. As this chaotic firing of red light unleashed, the floor wasn’t just the only part of the structure that was instantly punched with holes. Light slammed hard into Stained Glass while Baleigh remained unharmed in her moonlighted fortress coating. Feeling a losing fight from their supposed teammate though, the Goddess of Lighting was gone in a flash and the spotlights faded from both of them. In her absence, the moonlight from the outside returned through the holes now all around. Stained Glass muttered to themselves as they slowly and painfully stood back up after being hit particularly hard by that rebounding assault.
“Weak boned simpletons… Partnerships are for the weak… We will win this… all… alone…”
With a growing cloud of sharp attack glass above their head, Baleigh smirked as the last of her power remaining at the moment was then moved into her left hand. Using her right to steady it, she loaded up starlight and fired before Stained Glass could move it towards the tired Star Goddess. Not noticing the glass still shining back at themselves, it was only a matter of seconds before the starlight rebounded on it too. Hitting off the hundreds of pieces, the pink power instantly slammed into the Beautiful One like the bars of a cage dropping with extreme prejudice. Being hit by a second massive rebounding attack in only a matter of minutes, Stained Glass was on their knees, panting and Baleigh slowly and exhaustedly moved closer to them. Their dual voices returned as they muttered their angry words.
“Nathaly… se failed…”
“No… No… se can’t…”
“yo promise…” Stained Glass spit up glass pellets onto her boots as she approached. “It’s… not… over…”
“Yeah… sure… this is for Hamza and Erickson…”
With a slap across the face from Baleigh this time, Stained Glass collapsed on the singular pillar of remaining flooring as the canyons-looking-down-to-bedrock continued on around them. Before she could reach down to pick Stained Glass up and help them out, their unforgettable eyes opened back up and blinked once. As a quick and intense wave of heat overtook the region briefly, they were gone in a cackling laugh as Baleigh was left alone in the wake of the carnage.
Crashing down in that moment, she barely caught herself from falling off the pillar and into the chasms all around. The structure seemed to have enough of their Goddess feud too as it began to crack and lean inwards. Unable to move another muscle in the danger, a singular wooden savior leapt in from the left. Grabbing Baleigh and helping her out of the collapsing building, Hamza carried her to safety, yet again.
Slowly getting up to her feet, Baleigh looked at her two friends and then back at the rubble of the once-magnificent cathedral and shook her head. Pausing her high level of self-confidence for a second, Baleigh looked at the tallest one in the area.
“Wait… Erickson… what time is it?”
“It’s 17:00. Why?”
“Local time?”
“Yeah?”
“THE… SPRING… DANCE!!! I GOTTA GO… AND I LOVE YOU TWO! BYE!”
In a whoosh of wind, Baleigh disappeared instantly from the Mexican landscape as Monica hit the button on the remote to follow Baleigh’s journey. Landing back on her Calgary suburban alleyway once more, Monica eagerly watched her favorite Canadian prepare for something that she herself remembered fondly. The blue house on the left and the red on the right offered some familiarity to her tired mind. Entering the back gate of her own silver house in a hurry, Baleigh finally had an idea of tonight’s outfit. It took her a while but she got it and it was all thanks to one very strong and very mean, but also very fashionable, opponent.
Scene Ten
Standing in front of her full-body mirror, Baleigh Sofia Luisa looked back at the blossoming young Goddess in the reflection. A gut-wrenching feeling in stomach sat as she nervously thought about the night ahead. Kyle and Tiff would both be there and no matter how bad she feared it, she had to go. Cousins to each other and friends to her, Naj and Jack already bought the tickets and it was time to do what she feared most. Tonight she had to be a “girly girl,” deal with her peers and with her crush. All at the same time. Her shoulder length curled brunette hair hosted a small collection of various shaded blue, red and orange flowers as she lightly shook it side to side.
Rainbow swirls decorated the knee-high dress with its two shoulder straps as she grabbed her phone, wallet and small purse and softly hummed a song. Heading for the door, her overly-emotional mother cried not-so-softly as her oldest prepared for her first high school dance. Technically second of her freshman year but she was unavailable in the fall, given the fact that she was busy with stopping an evil megalomaniac and an alien murder axe during Autumn Fest. Putting on a light blue jacket, Baleigh wandered towards her silver flats near the metallic door.
Walking through the door, the unusually cool air filled her lungs as she turned to the left and walked east to the school. In the light mist of rain in the air, she could almost see some dancing figures in the empty street ahead. A young woman, two children and an all-too-familiar Journey Shaman danced in the impending darkness. Immediately apprehensive of the man who has tried to take both her friends and her powers on two separate occasions and leave her for dead both times, she then felt at ease in an instant. Much like the moment that she met CJ, she saw the smile in eyes and noticed something different than every other moment they ever had together.
“… Rashid?”
Stopping for a second, he looked at her and didn’t recognize the young woman, eerily similar to his own daughter, walking down the street. Her flats softly landed on the concrete as she neared her red brick school. Waving at her though and then continuing to dance, the four of them ended up in front of her as she walked through his watery form. Like the foggy ghost he was, he disappeared instantly as her living form continued on. In a flabbergasted moment and then a quick smile at his ear-to-ear smile, she walked only a few more steps forward and around the last corner she needed to traverse on that short journey.
Passing the green, yellow and blue streamers lacing on the railing of the festively decorated staircase, she almost reached her destination as the nerves in her whole body only grew. Shaking off a light drizzle’s worth of water from her dress and hair first, she used her right hand to wave at Naj and Jack Santana through the window as the daisy painted nails of her left hand then grabbed the handle of the second door and pulled.
The End
Castle Johnson Publishings 