“The end of the world.”
“Okay,” Maria agreed. “You’ve got my attention, at least. Let’s hear what you have to say. Should we go somewhere more secluded or are you comfortable here?”
Levi glanced out the window and checked the parking lot. While his attention was diverted, Maria reached down and quickly turned on her digital voice recorder, which was sitting in the console’s cup-holder. She sat back up and smiled as Levi turned back to her.
“We should be okay here,” he said. “I’m sure it will put you more at ease.”
“Whatever you prefer.”
He took a deep breath and exhaled. “Much of what the human race thinks it knows is actually wrong. The history of our planet—of our past—is full of inaccuracies. This is especially true of our religions. The primary texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Shinto, Satanism, Wicca, and all of the others are fundamentally flawed. They’ve been tampered with and rewritten by man so much over the years that much of them are now filled with falsehoods. It takes many years of study and searching to learn the real truths.”
“And that’s what it means to be Amish?”
He snorted. “No. We’re just another Christian denomination—and we’re just as flawed. Perhaps more so. I no longer believe what they believe, because I’ve seen the bigger picture. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, one of his sons.”
“I remember that from the times I went to church with my Christian friends. I thought the mantra was, ‘His only son’?”
“So do a billion other people, Maria. And they are wrong. All of them. That’s my point. The Bible isn’t the inspired word of God. Nor is the Koran or the Torah or any of the other holy books. They are the words of man. Of many men. Edited and changed to reflect their will, not His. To truly know God and to seek His will, you’ve got to look beyond the Bible. Read between the lines. The book we know today as the Bible is not the complete text. It’s not the inspired word of God. It is made up of a number of scrolls and tablets that men decided should be in it. Men, not God. But there are other texts, and they are just as valid. Texts from the same time that give us
“You’re talking about the devil?”
Levi shook his head. “Which devil? There are more than one. Do you mean Lucifer, the Morningstar? Or maybe Satan? The old serpent? The dragon? The Beast? All of these appear in the Bible, and we’re told to believe that they are the same entity—but they aren’t. In any case, I’m not speaking about any of them. I’m talking about the Thirteen. They are far worse than any devil.”
A car alarm blared across the parking lot. Maria jumped. After a minute, it faded.
“To create this universe,” Levi continued, “God destroyed a universe that existed before ours. Think about it— the act of Creation must have required an unimaginable amount of energy. Where did He get it?”
Maria shrugged.
“He tore down the old universe and used its material as building blocks for our own. The old universe ceased to exist down to its last atom—except for the Thirteen. Somehow, they escaped the destruction. And they’ve been the enemies of God and all of His creations ever since.”
“Demons?” Maria asked. She tried not to sound skeptical. Levi obviously believed what he was saying, and it seemed important to him.
“Not demons.” Levi shuddered. “Although mankind has often mistaken them for demons. And gods. Entire— incorrect—mythologies have been created around them by foolish people who didn’t know the true nature of what they were worshipping. No, the Thirteen are much worse than demons. They have nothing to do with Hell’s legions. And each one of them is more terrifying than the next. Kandara, Lord of the Djinn. Ob, the Obot, who commands the Siqqusim. His brothers, Ab and Api. Leviathan, Lord of the Great Deep. Behemoth. And others—all terrible. But the greatest among the Thirteen is one who can’t be named. Simply speaking its real name out loud causes unimaginable destruction. It is the reason mankind has such an unreasonable fear of the dark, for this thing is darkness incarnate. It sits in the heart of the Labyrinth and infects world after world.”
“Hold up,” Maria interrupted. “The Labyrinth? As in the minotaur and King Minos?”
“No,” Levi said, “although I guess it could be the source of that old myth. The Labyrinth is sort of a dimensional shortcut between different worlds and realities. It weaves through time and space—nowhere and yet everywhere all at once. It connects to everything via a series of dimensional ‘doors.’ This is how the Thirteen travel between worlds. How they traverse the dimensions. And how some humans have traveled, as well. Normally, the only time we see the Labyrinth is when our spirit has departed our body. But there are ways to pass through it while still alive. You just have to know how to open one of the doorways. That’s what Nelson LeHorn did.”
“He traveled to another dimension?”
Levi shrugged. “Possibly. Another dimension. Another Earth.”
“An alternate reality?”
“Exactly. There are many different Earths—mirror versions of our own world with alternate versions of ourselves. On one of them, you might be just like you are now. On another, maybe you’re the first female president of the United States.”
“Freaky. You’re talking about string theory, right?”
“String theory?”
“Yeah, you know. Different dimensions stacked up against each other like membranes?”
“Is that what the scientists call it?”
Maria nodded.
Levi smirked. “They have no idea. And even if they did figure it out, they wouldn’t know how to stop what’s
