Chapter 9 - “Circular Roots: Part 1”

Druvy arrived at his family’s mansion after school that evening, already dreading the meeting where he’d be confronted by his informed father of his attempt to interact with a member of the paranormal studies club. Kenneth Darwinson had already responded to the last encounter, leading to a severe punishment and near expulsion from the university for the club members, which would all but assuredly have altered their lives for the worse.

He was driven to his home as usual by one of the two bodyguards that worked for the family. Alaria didn’t speak much to Druvy on the ride home, only responding to conversations if he started them. She was generally cold and distant, focused solely on the work at hand of transporting him safely to the home where she would see him during the evening only during her security rounds around the home. She was one of many people in the home that lived as an island, in sight but acting in isolation, coming into orbit for mandatory business purposes.

Even Druvy’s father seemed to treat him as a business asset of the family, despite his lack of contribution so far to any causes. When Druvy was younger, his father was an intense catalyst in his life, forcing him to experience everything under the sun that might improve him physically, mentally or spiritually. From sports to extra study classes, to lengthy excursions in foreign lands and long stays under instruction of masters of certain crafts. Wealth gave him the opportunity of an exposed worldview but this overexposure conflicted with Druvy’s apathetic attitude to anything that he wasn’t interested in, becoming addicted to watching television instead and then eventually social media and his smartphone. With a world of diverse opportunities, he opted for a plugged in lifestyle where he could craft his own path and personality without the interference of his father.

Kenneth Darwinson had his own intense childhood, where his father had put him on a particularly brutal path where survival despite the obstacles was the goal. Unlike his son, Kenneth saw the challenges as something to overcome that would one day make him a stronger human than his father in every aspect, not living out of spite or hate but for the love of competition, even against his own blood.

He had spent months in a jungle outpost, learning from military commandos on how to make it through a night with limited resources, under attack by swaths of mosquitoes and with the most dangerous animals on the planet lurking amongst the shadowy plantlife. He’d meditated with monks in isolated caves, he’d been mercilessly pounded into a bloody pulp by martial arts masters and taken exam after exam to gauge the absorption of scientific knowledge taught to him by accomplished professors. Whatever money could buy and whatever experience money could bring him, his father wasted no expense as his legacy would be stained if son couldn’t measure up to the family name. And so father Darwinson did for his son as well but unsuccessfully so far.

The Darwinson bloodline wasn’t rich in royalty or distinguished with nobility but instead was a relatively new rising force in the last century, starting with Druvy’s grandfather, a multi-faceted entrepreneur with a hand in many different baskets such as real estate, oil and general investment. He was a shock to other wealthy persons of the time, increasing his social capital at an astonishing rate that most of the others couldn’t quite understand. They hired private investigators and searched every rumor mill to see how someone could grow their wealth so independently from all the others but it was a credit to his cunning business acumen alone. He’d started his family in his late twenties, marrying a woman from a high-status family that dealt with precious minerals and metals, and found a purpose greater than his own success and wanted nothing more than to secure their security and freedom from any outside forces.

It was in this pursuit of transcendent prosperity that he would become polluted by greed and driven to the darker corners of his own mind. Before his push to compete with other filthy rich individuals, his morality was unremarkable, no saint but no terrific sinner either. It became obvious to him how easily the financially well off could manipulate the lives of those without stability and so he exploited his renters with extortion level rent raises; he threatened his debtors into signing contracts with high interest rates that would keep them hooked on his line and at his mercy; he cut deals and brokered backstabbing deals that betrayed all those involved, leaving him the victor in the political games. His reputation withstood the high pressure tests and he kept the trails of his corruption so well hidden, that those who dared to question or tried to out influence the Darwinson businesses were left famished and remained ignorant.

Where mortal beings were unsuccessful in touching the sacrosanct family, wicked spirits hidden in dimensional rifts were drawn to the family like maggots to a rancid piece of meat. Morally average people are typically visited by tame specters that are more bothersome than the traumatic beasts that feed off of the tainted energy that comes from men with great sin. The more often that grandfather Darwinson dipped his fingers into the wounds of those affected by his growing and great deception, the more drawn into his family life were these soul sucking creatures of another realm.

Their effects on his life manifested in bad health; he’d often become so ill that he was left heavily fatigued and with a much longer than normal recovery. When the best doctors that money could buy couldn’t provide the relief that he desperately searched for, he turned to alternative treatments and he even asked for help from people he had considered his business rivals. Several of these prominent, wealthy men in his network of associates had confessed to turning to dark places, where deals could be made with beings wielding strange powers thought unattainable by humans. He’d followed the advice of the others and tracked down the type of person who could help him, a man who regularly carried out grand rituals that briefly bridged the gap between dimensions. This accomplished mystic had found the means to communicate the desires of others to these abnormal beings and a bounty would be decided to satisfy the deal.

On the first occasion that the elder Darwinson made contact, the mystic from an eastern nation, residing in a remote mountain village had prepared the ceremony by drawing intricate markings on a wide, brick floor, throwing an assortment of herbs and animal remains on top of it all. The man said several phrases with an unnatural rhythm and made peculiar motions with hands and body that would sync with the spiritual wave frequencies of this dimension and of theirs. Once the energies were aligned, a being slowly phased into the physical reality that they knew.

It had white bumpy skin that stretched over its entire bulking body, its size much larger than a typical human but with the same amount of limbs. There were black slits on its face that nearly resembled eyes, a large bony protrusion above them that resembled a long gone neanderthal's eyebrow ridge. Its mouth was agape, showing enormous rounded teeth all throughout a widelipped grin, the expression undecipherable by the amazed eventual grandfather, now middle-aged man unprepared for the incoming changes to his family's life.

Its mouth opened further and communicated with sound unlike any natural sound made by humans, primates, cats, birds or otherwise. The accompanying mystic was able to point to the ailing man beside him and motion with his hands some type of command. The albino abomination nodded its head and stroked its chin with long talon-like fingers, then speaking once more.

“It requires quite a bit of energy before it will honor your request.” The man said to grandfather Darwinson. Then the strange beast tossed a nearly spherical rock with an obsidian blackness that had a shimmering effect throughout the surface. The man caught it and handed it over to grandfather Darwinson, instructing him, “Two human lives and you will be cured of your inhuman affliction.”

“What kind of deal is that? What’s the good of having my health if I’m thrown in jail? Can’t it take an ox or a rhinoceros or something?” He pleaded.

“The deal is the deal. Otherwise your sickness will return again and again until you die from natural causes as your body can no longer hold on.” The beast had slowly faded away just as smoothly as he appeared.

“It’s gone? How’s it going to know if I even complete the condition?”

“The stone carries its will and absorbs the energy of our world. Its ultimate wish is to assimilate so that it may feed at will on lifeforms in this dimension.”

“That’s a heavy price to pay and with an unfortunate result for the world. What makes us special to them?”

“It’s not that we are special, some might say it’s quite the opposite. The being you saw before you was a bottom feeder in its dimension, a weakling scrounger searching to grow in strength so it might survive and fare better among the more powerful creatures it competes for against for survival.”

“If the gap between us and them is so far then why can’t it just invade on its own? It must be strong enough.”

“All life vibrates with specific wavelengths. If a being like that were to make the transition here before its wavelength more closely resembled ours then the resulting dissonance would cause widespread destruction and even the creature itself would dissipate in the chaos. If it does cross over, most people would never even know unless it personally attacked them. Instead, a giant ripple would move through our world and potentially onwards, however far it needs to go to reach a harmonious balance. Those in tune with their spiritual energy and elevated vibrations will feel the shift but would be unable to interfere.”

“And all it needs is two more humans…”

“Not exactly. Throughout history, it’s extraordinarily rare for one to crossover as the price they must pay is quite high. I assume they only make these trades because the tradeoff is a stable enough transition of energy that it can consume an optimal amount. I also don’t believe death exists in their world the same way it does in ours, making them very patient.”

“And when it does come to this world, there will be a massacre.”

“Yes, most likely in another’s lifetime.”

“So why would you help them bring about an apocalypse?”

“There is nothing I pursue with greater purpose than the evolution of the human race. Interacting with these higher energy beings brings us closer to our real potential.”

“Without the direct consent of those that will be consumed.”

“There are far more humans doing worse things to their own people. Consider why you’re asking me for help.”

“You’re in no place to judge a man like myself. Anyone in my position would act accordingly for the sake of survival. I keep my family fed and safe from the very people that would rip us to pieces like cannibals.”

“We both serve a purpose that we feel justified in doing. You benefit my cause as I benefit yours. We shall see in the long run who has a greater sin.”

Grandfather Darwinson gazed down at the physical remainder of the otherworldly encounter, balancing the value of his life’s longevity against the lives of people who would be devoured by a horror surpassing their imagination. A few months later, a terrible fire would engulf two of Edward Darwinson’s employees in a reported workplace incident. One of the employees was determined to be at fault, leaving a lit cigarette near some gas canisters by the only exit of the room. His wife was not even aware that he smoked at all, never seeing him do so in all their years together. It appeared he began the habit just in time for Edward Darwinson to be cured.