Chapter 28 - Airline to Heaven

It was so much harder to breath now on his own. Not just because of the putrid sulfur smell and ash raining down; Lane's sister was gone. He was alone. While the ground still shook and the storm above raged on, there was a bitter stillness when something so valuable was stolen right in front of him. Sheet lightning blanketed the sky. Deafening thunder cracked above Lane as he stood upon the beach. Both his sister and the Deer Woman had vanished.

"What have you done?" A sad, deflated voice asked.

Jude Abidalli.

Lane remembered he was still too angry to mourn. Unbuckling his belt and pulling it free from the loops around his waist, the solitary twin approached Jude.

Exhausted, chilled to the bone, and mad as hell, Lane walked the perpetrator through his rights, "Jude Abidalli, under the authority of Revised Code of Washington State Law, chapter 9A section 04.060, I'm placing you under arrest for the murder of your wife and daughter. Anything you say or do from this moment on will be recorded and offered to the court to be used against you. You have the right to an attorney. If you can't afford-"

"You think you have the power to--?' Jude interrupted but was silenced just as quickly. The lone twin used his belt to bind the former camp director's hands together behind his back.

Lane continued, "You have the right to shut the fuck up. Now, on your feet. Move!" Holding Jude by the improvised handcuffs, Lane pulled the perpetrator to his feet.

"My head," Groaned a familiar voice.

Lane looked away from Jude, glancing down at the sand where Alice lay. She remained naked, except where covered in wet sand.

"Alice? Are you okay? Can you stand?" Lane asked.

She nodded weakly, "I think, maybe? Everything is so muddled."

Lane forced Jude back down onto the ground to tend to Alice. He quickly examined the nude girl, a familiar scene and yet thankfully different than when they'd first met. Offering her a hand up, he tried to reassure her, "Everything is going to be okay. We--" Lane flinched, "I'm going to get us out of here." The boy peeled off his vest, and offered his wet shirt to Alice.

As she gingerly took the only available garment to cover herself with, Jude began to chuckle. His chuckle quickly turned to manic cackling.

"Are you blind?" He howled, still laughing, "Did you think I was lying? The game had already been won before you stepped foot on this beach, Roswell. Look with your own eyes, witness the end of everything."

Almost as if he'd choreographed his maniacal little speech, the unmistakable sonic boom of a first-stage eruption shook the earth. A plume of smoke and ash jettisoned itself up into the air. Lightning bolts streaked down from the dark storm clouds and touched down upon the thrashing lake.

Alice gasped.

Lane set his jaw. He reached into his jacket for The Journal. Perhaps there was some kind of incantation, some obscure spell he had overlooked that happened to be powerful enough to stop a volcano. Or, barring that, something to buy him and Alice enough time to... No. There wouldn't be enough time to escape. Lane simply couldn't accept loss. Not now. A torrent of sweat ran down from his brow. He was only skimming the contents of the book now. He knew, in his heart, there was nothing in his arsenal that could stop the destruction that was coming.

They had to run.

"Come on," Lane urged Alice, "We can reach the parking lot before-"

Another quake rattled the surrounding woods. Whole trees snapped and clattered to the forest floor. The earth was hit with such force Lane and Alice both toppled over onto the sand. Mere meters away from where they all sat, a fissure opened in the ground.

Alice offered the only sensible reaction to the earth splitting open and the fury of mother nature raging above and below. She screamed.

Then, Mother Nature herself rose from the grave.

To Lane's surprise, relief, and terrified heart, Mother Nature wore a familiar face. The curves of her body, honey-brown skin, and her million-watt smile were all too familiar. It was the smile he'd grown up with. Suddenly, that welcome rush of confidence that Lane could stand against a volcano rushed through his blood.

As the nine-foot-tall entity towered over them, Lane asked, "Are you alright?"

The creature that resembled so much of his sister turned to smile and nodded, "We are, Lane, thank you for your concern."

Lane rose to his feet and offered a tear-filled smile, "Is it too late to stop Mount St. Helen from erupting? If it reaches stage three--"

"The devastation will be immeasurable," Spoke the Deer Woman with Luna's voice. She turned her antlered head toward the volcano still spewing out ash into the sky. "Fortunately, as difficult as creation may be, it is not too late to relieve the pressure building beneath the mountain."

Lane held his breath. He'd wait until the job was done until he'd release a sigh of relief. He took a timid step beside the Deer Woman that had bonded with his twin and asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Luna's sweet voice led a choir of all the women who had served the Deer Woman before as she reached out her massive hand to hold Lane's, "Be here, with us."

Lane nodded and accepted the hand of this new entity his sister had become. As he grabbed hold of the Deer Woman, he felt an indescribable wave of energy surge through his body. He could feel the sand beneath his toes and the earth that stretched far beneath the sand. His mind traveled further down until at last, he came upon the magma building up beneath Mount St. Helen. He felt the insufferable heat radiating out from the lava building up its wrath. Then there was movement, a shift in the soil above the surface. Lane could feel Luna's thoughts, the command the Deer Woman held over the earth.

The pressure continued to build. The earth still shook. Ash finally began to rain down upon Lane, Alice, Jude, and the Deer Woman. Through his uncanny connection, Lane could see through the earth as sinkholes formed. Massive vents began to tear open around the base of Mount St. Helen. In the distance, Lane could visibly see, even hear the steam rise from the veins where the magma had been concentrating.

Looking up to the sky, Lane watched as the dark storm cloud began to twist into slow spirals above the mountain. Western winds blew steadily at first, then a sudden squall lifted the darkness in its entirety. That pillar of ash, that tower of impending destruction and rage was lifted up higher into the atmosphere, stretched into a thin wisp, and finally choked out until it was no more.

Sunlight broke free of the night that had lasted much longer than it should have.

Lane opened his eyes and gazed upon the impossible sight of the woman his sister had become; a goddess adorned in antlers, dressed only in a crown of sunlight, and dressed in moss and soil.

"That..." Alice started, "That was incredible."

Luna, The Deer Woman, turned to address Alice and nodded, "Thank you. Such is all life and creation; we are incredible."

Lane still held onto his sister's hand, or at least the small part of her hand his mortal fingers managed to grasp, "What happens now, between you and... the Deer Woman?"

Luna offered another sun-kissed smile, "We have our work upon these woods that must be tended to." She leaned forward and touched Lane's cheek, "We know you're worried about us, but all will be as it should in time, Lane Guster Woods; friend, brother, and partner." She glanced over to Jude and sneered, "I believe you have work that has yet to be concluded." In a voice much more similar to Luna, they added, "Throw the book at him."

Jude sat still as the horror of his failure weighed down upon his shoulders. That weight was too much to bear as he began to weep uncontrollably.

The entity looked lastly upon a stunned Alice and knelt down beside the naked girl; "We are so sorry for the horrors you endured while you were with us. We don't possess the power to erase the wickedness your eyes have seen, nor what your mortal body felt while you were with us. If you ask of us, we will offer whatever comfort we can provide for your pain."

Alice remained silent, transfixed on the gold and sea-foam green eyes staring back at her.

Lane touched his hand to Alice's shoulder, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to what you needed from me. I didn't know..."

"It's... It's going to take years, probably decades' worth of therapy and booze, but, I think I've had my fill of dwelling on the past. This whole thing is still too much to wrap my head around, but I'll get it handled. I think not letting the world end was a good enough start for me, for now. Thanks." Alice still marveled at the creature before her; reality and fantasy unable to hold the same space in her mind despite what her senses relayed.

The Deer Woman nodded and rose to her full height, "We too will get our situation, 'Handled.' Go in peace and love. We shall return to you in time, Lane." With those final cryptic words, the forest spirit raised her hands to the sky. The earth parted once more. Soil, rocks, and roots rose up from the newly created fissure to encase the entity. As quickly as she'd appeared, the goddess returned to the earth.

Lane stood alone as his sister disappeared for the second time that day.

Lane listened to the wind blow through the trees. Morning birds sang. The violent churning waters of Spirit Lake had finally settled into the clear blue glass he saw when they first arrived at Trillion Pines.

"What happens now?" Alice asked, reaching out to Lane for a hand up.

Taking the girl by the hand and lifting her up from the sand, Lane listed their immediate needs out on his fingers, "First, I have a friend that needs a proper burial. Second, we're gonna need a strong cup of coffee and breakfast. Third, I'm going to make a call to have the authorities deal with that clown--" Lane jabbed his thumb at Jude still sobbing into his hands.

"Really? You're gonna have Jude arrested for... What? Summoning a demigod to blow up Mount St. Helen? Who in their right mind will believe that!" Alice groaned.

"No, they won't," Lane admitted, "But, Washington State still has a pretty clear and definitive set of laws against murder. I'm certain that, once examined, the bodies he buried beside his cabin will provide a solid conviction. Not to mention the others who he put in harms way."

Alice shifted uncomfortably, "Can we, um, perhaps add finding clothes to your list?" Lane still held Alice's hand. He offered up his now dried vest to wrap around her waist. She accepted the garment, blushing, and grinned, "Thanks."

Lane nodded again, and reached out to Jude, grabbed him by the leather restraint, and pulled the broken man up to his feet; "It's going to be a busy day. Let's not waste it."