Eclipse

Chapter 14

Place: Hospital

Time: Evening Hours

Finally our stomachs were full after being starved since roughly lunch. I still wanted water but the vegetables helped quite a bit.  The bathrooms were disgusting in the hell world like everything else we've encountered.  

Not once did we encounter any other creatures or strange occurrences in the facility while we took our much needed break, it was as if time had stopped and everything had stagnated. 

We talked quite a bit, finding out more and more of each other. Retelling stories of my time in middle school with Jeremy.  It seems that Tamara was semi aware of the story I recalled, because she confided in me that she also liked anime, though she did enjoy romance comedies rather than the two that Jeremy and I liked.  It was nice to know that I wasn't to much of a geek. 

There was one thing that neither of has had addressed yet. The two pieces of the book that I found. I pulled them out of my backpack and placed them on the table in front of us. 

The title was "The Books of Hell, Heaven and Earth".  Coincidently, that was the order that I found the pieces.  The book of Hell was the first section and the book of Heaven was the second section. The book of Hell contained the front cover and part of the back binding, while the Book of Heaven only had a title page and the back bindings which meant that the Book of Earth was the last for us to find. 

"What's your opinion on Heaven and Hell" I asked Tamara. 

"I actually practice Paganism." She started it. 

The small revelation shocked me a little, although I think it was my biased that assumed that everyone practiced some sort of main stream religion. 

"While I don't actively practice any rituals or anything, I like the idea of worshiping the earth. We all live on it, and if we kill it, we basically kill ourselves." She finished. 

"I'm am an atheist." I said. "But the events today call into question my belief or lack there of. "

I looked at the books and started turning the pages slowly. 

"So what do these books have to do with Heaven and Hell?" I asked out loud. 

There were symbols and what looked like mathematical equations along with geometrical shapes on each page. I could clearly tell that each book was subdivided into sections, but I had no clue was each section was about. 

The structure appeared to be describe how to do something but without understanding the advanced structure, there was no way for me to tell what it was. 

Inside the Book of Hell, the shapes were all sharp and pointed, Triangles, squares, pyramids and the like, contrast to the book of Heaven which contained very round shapes and structures. Circles, cylinders, ovals, and spheres. 

"I have no idea what this is telling us" Tamara stated. "I'm actually pretty good at geometry, but I don't feel that this is anything that any human on earth has come across yet."

"The shapes all look like something we know and understand but the equations around them are all using variables with no understanding of what those variables are." She finished. 

"I wonder what the Book of Earth will be like once we get it. Maybe, since it's Earth  it will be in a readable format since we live on Earth. " I chuckled a little.  "I feel like I'm talking about aliens or something"

Tamara joined in my laughing. 

"Let's get going, this mystery isn't going to unravel itself." She said. 

"Your right. Let's go to to the tower that connects Heaven and Hell, or however the note read." 

I placed the books back into my backpack and pulled out the box with the doll pieces. All the items were in the box together, the last thing to do was to bring it to its partner in the lobby. 

Finding our way back to the ground floor was easy enough without someone or something sending us off into seemingly random directions. The hospital was just a hospital in the end and we were able to follow the signs that led us back down. 

The ground floor still had about an inch or two of water in it from the deluge of rain outside that had all but stopped at this point. All manor of items floated around from pencils and pens to paper, clip boards and the random body part. We waded to the front desk where the original doll lay in wait for its twin. 

"Stop for a minute" I said to Tamara. 

I was slightly panicking at what might happen when we bring the pieces together. I remembered what happened in that other world I was sent to, those police officers I killed. 

"I have a bad feeling that we are going to get transported back with real people. Hid your weapons." I said. 

Tamara had left the scythe back in the operating room since Jeremy wasn't going to use it anymore. Thinking that was seemed a little callous but it was the hard truth.  She put her guns in my back pack and I found some sheets to wrap my sword in for the time being. 

While doing so, she pulled out the box and looked at me. I gave her a slight nod and we moved into the office. The box begin to shake. She opened the lid and allowed the pieces out. She floated in front of us and merged together to become a full doll. The other doll stood rose up as if by magic and floated over to its brother. They embraced and a white light pieced the hall and heavens. 

When the light subsided, we found ourselves surrounded by people. Hundreds of them with all manor of injuries, odd slashes, cuts, bruises and missing limbs.  There were police throughout the area helping to bring people in. I saw a monster or two in the lobby and the doors to the front were wrecked and broken.  

It seems that we had returned to the real world but the hellscape we were in had managed to spill over into this one. 

"Lets get out of here slowly but quickly." She said. 

We walked to the exit without to much incident, a few stares here and there but otherwise, nothing spectacular. Although, my fear was confirmed as we exited. I heard on one of the radio's of the police and hospital staff that they needed backup in the cafeteria, a kid with a sword had killed several officers and a monster was on the loose. 

Time as it seemed, was different in the other world. I wasn't sure what to make of that yet. 

I looked at a clock on the way out. 6pm. 

The sky was an impenetrable blanket of black ominous cloud looming overhead. The odd droplet of water fell upon our heads and rumble of thunder reverberated through the city keeping us on edge. 

The downtown city streets lay before us, dark and chilling. Cars were abandoned in the middle of the street. A few pedestrians were walking the sidewalk and a hurried and frighted fashion but most were indoors inside the many businesses hoping for shelter. 

This was indeed our world, our place of existence, yet it was changed. Patches of buildings were no longer filled in by stone but rusted metal sheets instead. Monsters lay in the street filled with bullet holes. Large potholes filled with slimly substances were spread about. A few fires raged from underground vents giving off an odd green colored smoke. The smell was awful. 

This was our city, but hell had spilled over into it.