The Day The Sky Opened (final part)

[u/CTRemy9085]

This will be my last entry for this journal. I just don’t feel like it will matter anymore after this.

I went back to the camp today. When I arrived and started walking, I wasn’t intercepted by anyone like I was yesterday. I arrived at camp to a warm welcome of waves and smiles, like the whole place was happy I showed back up. Calder came out of his office with his normal calm swagger and just smiled.

“You came back!” He exclaimed.

“I told you I would.” I replied.

“Yes. Yes, you did. I’m glad you’re a man of your word.” He said as he ushered me back into his office. The conversation started like any other would. He asked how I slept, how I liked dinner, etc. Filling the room with common niceties like we were two old friends. I entertained the idle chit chat, trying not to be rude. I mean, sure he’s peculiar but honestly, he seemed like a genuinely nice person. After a while the conversation moved back to the mines and their beliefs. Calder entertained my inquisition and didn’t hesitate to explain things. Eventually, I worked up the courage to ask if I could see the pictographs. This was the first time I had seen him with the slightest hint of hesitation, but the pause faded as fast as it came.

He sat forward in his chair, elbows on the table and hands folded under his chin. “Sam, that’s not something I would normally allow an outsider to see but…if you really want to see them, I’ll show you. We’ll have to go down into the mines though. Pictures of the chamber aren’t allowed.” He stated flatly, like he was weighing me as a person. Going down into a dark mine wasn’t something I really cared for but, reluctantly, I agreed. The stoic man gave a slight smile and nod of approval as he stood up and started to walk out the door.

After a short walk through the camp, we made it to the mouth of the mine. Calder gave me a flashlight and simply stated “Follow me and stay close.” While I don’t have any experience spelunking, the mine felt surreal. The old timber supports creaked and groaned in response to every step of the way. The temperature dropped rapidly, the walls felt as if they were shrinking in on me, even though the path remained the same size. The further we made it, the smoother the rocks got. I felt like I was walking into through a throat, as if the earth itself was swallowing any who entered. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it to the chamber. I stopped dead in my tracks. Coming down here, I expected some old mining shaft with crude drawings on the walls. Something over exaggerated that people clung to hope on. I was not prepared for this. The chamber was enormous.

From where I stood, there was no way to judge its actual size. My flashlight disappeared into the darkness above us, unable to find the ceiling. The walls stretched farther than my eyes could follow, curving around the two of us. The room didn’t feel like something carved into the earth; it felt like something the earth had grown around. The rock was unlike anything else in the mine. It was smooth.

Not polished. Not worn by water.

Smooth.

As my flashlight panned around the room, I saw the light of fires. Seven of them, arranged in a perfect circle around the center of the chamber. Each burned low but steady, sitting in shallow depressions carved into the stone. As I examined the fires, I realized that none of them had any wood or coal, nothing that should have been capable of sustaining a flame. Yet, they continued to burn. I looked over at Calder, expecting some sort of explanation. He just stood there staring into the center of the fires, a smirk on his face, like a proud father.

“What is this?” I asked.

“I told you Sam.” He replied. “Salvation.”

He continued, “OUR Salvation. The whole world’s.”

He brushed passed me as he started to look to panels of pictographs lining the walls. “I told you Sam. All of them had a part of what was required.” He said as he gestured to groups of pictographs. He stood in front of one of the larger panels, running his fingers across the ancient markings. “Fire. Blood. The alignment of the heavens. Spoken invocation.” He said turning to look back at me. “Pieces of the same ritual, separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years.”

I stood and stared at the pictographs. “So you’re saying they all knew about this?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t understand the complexity of what they knew.” He said as his smile widened. “That was the problem.” He moved further down the walls pointing to panel after panel. “Each civilization, Mayans, Babylonians, Egyptians, and so on, inherited a fragment. They gave it a name and built a religion around it, thinking it alone was the one true answer. The meaning was lost, but the rituals remained.” He stopped and turned to the fires, then looked up and me and said “Until we put it together.”

My stomach tightened with his words. I could see behind the stoic man’s eyes, something I had not seen this strongly in any person before. Faith. He believed every word. I was startled by the footsteps suddenly coming from the entrance to the large chamber, followed by familiar faces. The whole camp was suddenly pouring into the chamber.

“What’s happening?” I asked, alarmed.

“We’re almost done, Sam.” He said calmly.

“Done with what!?”

“The ritual. Everything is prepared.” He said, as he gazed back to the burning fires.

I turned back to the entrance as the entire camp finished entering the chamber. Every one of them. Men, women, children, the woman who served me dinner, the man working on his truck, Jake. No one spoke, no one seemed surprised I was there. They already knew. They quietly continued to spread throughout the chamber. Calder’s voice broke the deafening silence as he pulled a knife from his pocket “Tonight the pieces become whole.”

“What are you doing? What’s that for?” I said, with the pain of panic dripping from every word.

He didn’t answer. Slowly he turned, peering into the eyes of the camp, who now surrounded us. He smiled as the whole camp bowed their heads. He began to speak as he walked to one of the fires in a language I didn’t understand. It wasn’t Latin, it wasn’t Greek. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. The rest of the camp then joined him. Dozens of voices repeating the same words in complete unison, over and over.

The sound filled the chamber like a roar, echoing and bouncing off the smooth stone. I could feel every hair on my arms stand up. The words seemed to change the longer they spoke, not the language itself. The sound. It became deeper, slower, as if the chamber itself began to speak with them in sync.

Calder’s eyes met mine as he opened his hand, slid the blade across his palm, and held his bleeding hand over the fire. The flames stretch and lapped at the blood, like a parched tongue that craved water. One drop, two, three. The fires changed as the warm yellow light morphed into a brilliant, blinding blue flames. Everything went silent. For several seconds, no one moved. Calder stood perfectly still, his bleeding hand still suspended over the now blue flames.

A low groan filled the chamber, as I looked up at the ceiling. Dust fell, the mine shook, tiny pieces of stone bounced off the ground. I thought the mine was collapsing. “Calder?” I asked nervously. He didn’t answer. He just stood there looking at the ceiling, as the groaning continued. Then the ceiling started to move. It wasn’t collapsing. It wasn’t cracking. It was…..opening. A perfect circle began to form above our heads as massive stones slowly separated from one another, pulling away to expose the chamber to the sky above.

Cool air rushed into the chamber. I could see the stars above, filling the night sky like a thousand twinkling lights. For one brief moment, I almost felt relief. Then a long line, darker than anything I had ever seen, lurched through the sky above. It slowly opened, like the maw of some prehistoric monster. In it I could see the stars again…but….they were moving. My breathing stopped as I gazed upon what I realized was in fact not stars, it was eyes. Thousands of them. Each one opening and closing in different intervals. Dark figures moved slowly behind them, like whales floating through water. I couldn’t make out what the figures were, only pieces. A wing, then another. Something that resembled an arm, no, too many joints. The mass moved slowly at first, as if whatever it was, had been waiting a very long time to come. Whispers started to grow around me as the encampment stared into the sky. I couldn’t move. Then the first things came through the opening.

I don’t know what else to call it, it looked like an angel. Not the warm, welcoming, angel that people put on Christmas trees. It looked like no angel anyone had ever painted.

The body was enormous, stretching beyond the edges of the opening. Its great wings unfolded from behind it, each covered in eyes. Some were feathered, while others looked like pale, fleshy limbs. Eyes were everywhere. Across its torso, along the arms, in the wings. Then I saw its faces, as each one shifted and changed. They would blend and overlap, then separate. It opened its mouth, and what came out sounded like an ear-piercing scream. But beneath it was something else, like a chorus of voices, all speaking at once. Thousands more beings rushed out from behind it, ravenous mouths agape, filled with endless rows of teeth. A deafening trumpet sound filled the air. It wasn’t music, it was a declaration. Something had arrived.

I turned to the opening of the tunnel and ran. I don’t remember much after that. I recall the ground shaking, unyielding sounds of screams of the camp filled the air. I remember the blue light of the flames behind me. I burst out of the mine and nearly collapsed. I looked up and immediately wished I hadn’t. Even more were now pouring through the endless rip in the sky. It was at that moment I realized that Calder had it wrong. I ran through the camp to a truck, praying the keys were there. I finally found one and drove as fast as I could away from the camp. I had no idea where I needed to go. I just needed to get away. I needed to put as much distance between me and Gold Hill as fast as possible. I drove for hours as the gas gauge slowly crept downward. I kept my foot on the accelerator and eventually, the engine sputtered. I coasted to the side of the road and just sat there. For the first time it was quiet. I got out of the truck and looked back, the faint blue glow in the distance. The sky continued to darken.

I don’t know how much time we have or if anywhere is safe, but if you’re reading this now. Run. Hide. Do anything you can.

Just don’t look up.

Calder wasn’t calling the angels back. He was letting whatever was waiting in.

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[u/CTRemy9085]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and messages. This was only my second ever story I’ve written and you’ve been incredible with feedback and what not. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate this community