NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 162

Further on down the road, the path is blocked by a black house. The door swings open as the serpent approaches. We enter without hesitation. Everything is dark. I flick a light on. It reveals the room's only furniture, a table at dead centre with something large on top of it. I follow the serpent there. There's a black book with gold writing imprinted: The book of Xaxu.

"Xaxu," I say with a tone of familiarity. "That's the first witch from my dream, right?"

"The firstborn."

"What's this about?"

"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"About us? About creation?"

"In black and white."

"What about all the other truths? The ones those men told?"

"Tell me, Mary. Who nourishes a child since its conception?"

"Its mother."

"And who feels that child's pain throughout its life?"

"Again; the mother."

"And in death? Who will split the veil in two when their child cries out for help?"

"I don't understand what the veil is. You people speak in too many riddles."

"Death," it hisses the response. "If possible, who will return from the grave to save the child?"

"All your questions have the same answer," I reply. "It's the mother."

"Yet the father feels he has a right to tell the child's story?"

"I get the feeling we're no longer talking about a human family."

"Xaxu's mother has a story to tell; the true story everyone wants hidden."

"It's in this book? The book of Xaxu?"

"Yes," it says simply. "Would you like to read it?"

"Yes," I whisper with longing.

"Then open it up and see what it says."

The cover has a throne sitting beneath a symbol. There are steps on either side leading up to it. A staff wrapped in copper wire leans against the left step; a black veil is draped over the right one. And on that throne is a large red serpent. Its tail points to the symbol above and its head towards the right, as if daring me to turn the page. I do. Then it begins.

"Chapter one," I read aloud then continue with the opening words. "Who among you truly has the recipe for the elixir that will set all of humanity free?"

Then the book slams itself shut.