Page 5 of The Godhead Complex
“Well, I guess it’s decided then. Alaska has the votes,” Sadina’s mom said with failed enthusiasm.
“What if we took the top two and we all voted again to see if—” Dominic suggested but Sadina’s mom cut him off.
“This isn’t a swimmers’ champion bracket like Midsummer Day on the island. These are the majority rules. We are going to Alaska.”
Even though her vote for Alaska won the majority, Sadina hated how they’d reached their solution. Why did Isaac’s vote, Jackie's vote, and Miyoko’s vote feel like betrayal?
Sadina watched as Old Man Frypan pulled out his Book of Newt and Jackie stared deep into the fire. Isaac finished cleaning up dinner with Roxy and everyone but Minho looked heavy from the responsibility of choosing what path lay next.
“Alaska it is.” Minho tossed a handful of brush onto the fire and it seemed to sizzle and clap with approval.
“You okay?” Trish asked Sadina.
“Yeah,” she replied without thinking.
“Are you lying to me?” Trish shot back.
Sadina stopped to think. Trish was right, she knew her better than anyone. “Why do I feel like this is the last time we’ll all be together? That not everyone will go to Alaska?” She waited for Trish to make the face she always did when Sadina was being extra dramatic, but it didn’t come.
“I know what you mean,” she replied instead. “I kind of had the same feeling.”
She stood alone on her balcony and watched in wonder as the full pallet of colors from the Aurora Borealis filled the sky like never before. The milky-green of the northern lights had never left, coating the town in a fog-like feel. But tonight, the sky lit up to reflect all the colors of the rainbow. Bright blues, oranges, and purples appeared as ribbons after so many years without them. Pinks hung low, pulling at the purples, and if Alexandra looked closely enough, she could even see a swirl of red racing above as if to announce something more. Could it be?Yes. It was time.
Alaska was ready for the Evolution.
Alexandra was ready.
And this moment she embraced before her was all too perfect. The lights danced in the sky, named lifetimes ago after Aurora, the Roman Goddess of Dawn and the God, Boreas, of the north winds. It was nearly midnight, but to Alexandra it was the dawn of a new day. The Evolution. She took in a deep breath full of cold Alaskan air and imagined the ancients-of-old and how they must have been shocked upon seeing the lights for the first time. Alexandra had the luxury of time and knowledge that they had lacked. Unlike them, she didn’t need to create any fairy tales to tell the people of Alaska about Gods and chariots, she’d simply tell them the truth. The sky was no place for Gods. The only Gods needed on Earth were stationed on the Earth. Scientists. Academics. And those who were blessed with the infinite knowledge of the world—like her.
Even without ever viewing this many colors of the Aurora Borealis before, it took Alexandra only one look at the sky’s brilliance for her mind to flood with information. Instant facts about the event—and it was truly anevent. The solar winds were more active than ever. Coronal Mass Ejections operated independently from solar flares and blasted particles millions of miles toward space and into the magnetic field of anything in its way. They were blessed with particles that danced with oxygen from the lower atmosphere and produced green flowing curtains of light. Bright blues struck the massive display in places where magnetic winds mixed with nitrogen, and the rare purple lights woven from hydrogen molecules in the atmosphere.
To see such magnificence and not understand it would be a . . . sin.
Yes, a sin.
She took note of the emerald swaths that spread farther and stronger than the other colors, just like she would soon be the strongest voice of the Godhead. A green no longer murky but one that held bright life within it. How she wished Nicholas and Mikhail could see her triumph over Alaska like the lights that floated in front of her.
In a way, Nicholaswasthere to see it. She turned and opened her balcony curtains just enough so that Nicholas’ severed head, in its sealed glass box, could take in the view. With the eyelids removed, Nicholas’ eyes bulged out to remind her of his outrageous expressions when he presumed to have read minds. The color of his face and the frayed skin of his neck made her stomach twist, thinking how much pressure Mannus must have used to release each muscle, tendon, and bone from its place.
She found humor in the fact that part of the Godhead was literally just a head now. Nicholas, always the scholar, would’ve appreciated the play on words. “As soon as they find the rest of you, you’re out of here.”
She set the glass box on the table. She didn’t think discovering Nicholas’ body should have taken so long, but with all the traveling he did and all of his secret trips, no one had even noticed the weeks without him. No one missed him. She certainly didn’t miss him hovering over her thoughts. The freedom that Nicholas’ death afforded her went beyond the ability to finally execute her plans, it freed her mind from his intrusiveness. Even now, she looked forward to the day she’d be fully and finally freed from him once and for all and not have to stare at hisdecayingface. But she needed to keep what remained, just long enough for Mikhail to know thatshewas in control now.
She was the One above all. The Goddess of the new Dawn.
Bright, colorful streaks swirled prominently above, brighter than ever before, and below Alexandra’s balcony the Pilgrims came out in flocks to look up at the night sky. People pointed upward, arms skinny from a weak harvest season and their mustard yellow cloaks dirty from everyday life. But this moment allowed them hope. And she, Goddess Romanov, would be the one to deliver on that hope.
A knock at the door made her ears buzz. She shook the noise from her head and quickly shuffled to place a cloth cover over the glass box holding Nicholas’ head. “What is it?”
Flint swung the door open as if the rapture was upon them, out of breath like a flight of stairs could kill him. He’d never have survived in the times of the Maze. Sometimes Alexandra thought of sending Flint down there just for a week or three to prove it.
“Well, what is it? You’re fluffing and puffing like the world’s on fire.”
“The lights. The skylights!” Flint pointed to the balcony as if Alexandra didn’t have her own eyeballs.
“Yes. Of course the lights are back.” Alexandra moved the covered head of Nicholas closer to the balcony so he could watch her change the world. She smirked. How many times had Nicholas begged her to be patient. Begged her not to be brash. “The lights are a sign of the Evolution. Everything is evolving, Flint. This is just the beginning.”
“People are crying in the streets. Talking of sacrifices.”
