Final chapter

End of the book

They all met in the library again in the morning. “Ok so we’re going to do this,” said Tom breaking the silence.

“Yep,” responded Lisa.

“Everybody know what we need to do?” asked Lil. There were murmurs of confirmation and nods from everyone. “Ok so meditate while holding onto your object and focus on getting to god’s room about 30 minute before we did originally.”

They all focused in the circle and about 15 minutes of having their eyes closed they heard a voice, not commanding but not very soft either, coming from the center of the circle. “I knew you would be coming soon.”

Alice opened her eyes calmly without so much as a twinge of fear. There was a calmness in the room like there hadn’t been before when they were there. God had long black curly hair and his beard was the same. He seemed very middle eastern. And his eyes looked like they just stared right into the soul. “I can see you already killed me and now there is a problem with the timeline. Am I right?”

“Yes, but how did you know that?” asked Lisa.

“This isn’t the first time this has happened. It happened before when I first became a god.”

“There were others before you?” asked Alice.

“Yes, I don’t even know how many. Hundreds, thousands the crystal doesn’t tell me.”

“I’m sorry, crystal?” asked Caterina.

“Yes, there has to be something constant that held the world and time together before us.”

“You mean the crazy crystal ideas are correct? Crystals have power over our emotional state and the spirit world,” asked asked James in disbelief.

“Ha I knew it! Crystals can control everything!” yelled Tom.

“Yes and no,” god answered. “They only have whatever power over you that you give them. But it does help stabilise the spirit world. There is only one crystal though that has complete power over both the spirit and physical world. That crystal allows humans to become gods.”

“So I was still half right,” said Tom less enthusiastically.

“Half right doesn’t count,” said James. Mia and Cat smiled at this this argument.

“I still don’t believe it,” said Elijah.

“Fine look to my left,” said god raising his left hand. A portal opened and inside it was dark except a large crystal the almost glowed a pale rainbow. Alice could hear a small voice in her head as soon as the portal opened. It whispered for her to come closer and tempted her with promises of power. “You all can hear it right? What it's telling you is probably what it originally told me when I first saw it. Promises of power but I will tell you what touching it will do. Yes it will give you powers but you will never get that voice out of your head. And you can not say no to dying. When it's time for you to die you will die either from being killed or it will cause so much pain that it kills you,” warned god.

“Well do we have a choice?” asked Elijah

“Yes, you have to choose how many of you will be gods.”

After a long silence Alice spoke up. “We’ll need to talk about it for a bit.”

“Ok but you have 15 minutes to decide.”

“We’ll get it all finished up by then,” Alice said.

Alice turned toward the others. They all huddled in a small circle. Tom started the conversation with, “I don’t know about the rest of you but I wouldn’t mind having near infinite power,” he said with a smile.

Serena then said, “I wouldn’t be able deal with that much responsibility,” her head pointed toward the ground

“Babe, come on we could be the first lesbian gods,” complained Caterina.

“No I can’t. It’s too much.” She looked up for just a moment and her eyes were fearful. Her head kept shifting.

Cat saw this and knew it couldn’t happen. “Ok, we don’t have to. I guess we’re out.” She said putting her arm around Cat and kissing her forehead.

“So that’s one who is becoming a god and two who aren’t. Anyone else who wants to be a god?” asked Alice looking around the circle.

After a pause James raised his hand and said, “I’ll go. Into the portal that is.”

“If James is going to be a god so am I,” said Jamahl.

Alice looked at Mason and he looked like he was trying to figure something out. “Mason, is something wrong?”

“No I’m ok. Just thinking of where to go,” after a brief pause he said, “Ya I’ll go with Cat and Serena. What’s your choice Alice?” inquired Mason.

“I think I’ll be a god,” responded Alice. “Don’t want you guys killing each other.”

“Then I should probably go with you,” said Jun.

“If Jun’s going then I’m going too.” announced Elijah.

“What will the people on earth be doing anyway?” asked Serena.

“Well where do you think prophets come from?” asked god. “Gods can use humans to communicate but it’s easier if you actually know them and know how they’ll react.”

“Oh that sounds more like it’s down my alley.” said Mia

“I would help on earth but Lilith is just such a cool name for a god.”

“Of course that’s the reason you become a god,” stated Tom.

“And that leaves Lisa. What’s your choice?” Alice asks.

“I don’t know. Can I see the two groups so far?” asked Elizabeth.

“Sure,” answered Alice. “gods to the left, prophets on the right.” Jun, Alice, Tom, Elijah, Lilith, Jamahl, and James all go to the left, while Caterina, Mason, Serena, and Mia all go to the right.

“Well I think I’ll go with the gods. It’s makes more sense to go over there.” said Lisa, answering a question that wasn’t asked.

“How?” asked Jamahl.

“Mathematics?” Elizabeth answered shrugging.

“Ok,” said Jamahl after a questioning pause and glance.

“Well I guess that means we're ready to go.” stated Alice.

“Knew it wouldn’t take too long,” god commented.

“Wait so you were human once right?”

“Yes, I think we already established that.”

“Alright so what was your human name and were there any other gods that we killed?”

“There were other gods you killed on this journey. There was Lucifer and Lilith. And I did have a name,” after a pause, thinking about it, god said, “It was Allah. Any final questions.”

“So Satan was a god?” asked Tom.

“Yes his title was the Adversary of Man. Later humans made him my enemy because if the one who made everything is good and controls the heavens then the one who controls the underworld is then evil.”

“Oh.”

“If there are no more questions then it’s time to be on your way. Gods remember that you have to erase everyone’s memory of you and of the time situation.”

As each of the gods-to-be went through the portal Allah hugged each of them. When Alice walked through she noticed the cave had no exits, just walls surrounding them, and the voice was much louder than before. It was egging her on to touch the crystal.

“Hey how did you become a god when there was no way to get in or out,” asked Jun.

“Before I became a god there was a cave and people came from all over the earth to become a god. The locals saw a problem with it so one morning they collapsed the cave hoping it would stop gods from being born. It’s a lot better now. There used to be hundreds and that made quite a mess of the world with wars and everything.” and with that he closed the portal.

It would have been pitch black if not for the glowing crystal.

“So who touches it first?” asked Lilith.

“I think that Alice should,” said Elijah. “She did lead us here. She should have the honor of being the first god.”

There was a murmur of agreement and Alice reached out for the crystal, but before she felt the smooth surface she just woke up on the ground and the voice sounded as loud as her internal monologue. It said, “sit up and meditate,” and so she did.

“Alice are you okay?” asked Jamahl

“Yes, now the next one must touch the crystal.”

“Umm… the moment you touched it you fell to the ground and the sat straight up and started meditating. It isn’t exactly reassuring to see that,” noted Tom.

“Well it’s not exactly like we have a choice at this point,” Alice opened her eyes and saw Tom open his to argue then his eyes went wide and looked around and closed his mouth again.

“I’m next,” said Tom a little sadness creeping into his voice.

One by one they each touched the crystal. Alice, Tom, Jamahl, Lilith, Jun, Elijah, James, and finally Elizabeth.

After everything was settled we were told our powers and titles by the crystal. The voice radiated around the cavern as it spoke. Alice was named the Light, leader of the Heavens. She was to be feared but above all praised. Tom was to be the Advisory, leader of the Underworld and Punisher of Man. His inheritance was to be feared more than anything by men, women, children, angels, and demons. Jamahl was to be the Keeper of Knowledge, he brought knowledge to the world or ideas that the people could understand. Then there was Lilith, the Weigher of Souls and the Great Judge. She was to be revered by humans as a symbol of justice and fairness. Then there was Elizabeth, the Keeper of Memories. Humans may think of her as keeper of memories they lost but that isn’t completely true, she also arranges memories so people don't know what happens before it happens on the timeline. Elijah was to be called the Apollo because he was the creator of music and art. He would be praised my every artist and musician. Meanwhile Jun was called the Artemis for her ability to give courage to stand against societal norms and be praised by anyone fighting for a cause they believe in. And finally was James, the Keeper of Time. He would rarely be celebrated if at all but he may have one of the most inportant jobs of any god.

Elizabeth changed the memories of Caterina, Mason, Serena, and Mia. Instead of them trying to kill god, and killing angels, and all that they experienced they would now remember a large rehabilitation center run by a wealthy man full of people who were damaged and studied meditation to repair themselves. They had strong bonds to many of the people there but they had the strongest ties to each other. They left after they were strong and mentally healthy. Living together helped to stay sane and happy and kept the feeling of love and understanding. When they left they all started to get odd dreams about people they felt they had met at the center but only they know they never met them. They would show wondrous images and power. They were told to spread the word that there were new gods to worship. Even when they meditated they had images of these people. They wrote these books and here is where we have to end the book.