Steve Alten - The Mayan Resurrection

Water is life. Our shuttles had two more months of food but only a few days’ supply of water. If this alien source was even semicompatible with our bodies, then what choice did we have but to drink it?

So now we had air and water, fertile soil to plant our crops, and a dome above our heads that shielded us from the deadly ultraviolet rays of the alien sun. But we still could not access any of the dwellings.

Wild rumors spread that an alien race was harbored inside, waiting to slaughter us as we slept. Others, like me, believed the city had been abandoned long ago and that we only lacked the necessary knowledge to access the habitat.

And so, at the foot of these mammoth, futuristic structures, we cut down trees and fashioned log cabins. Planted our crops and set up our science labs. Erected schools and hospitals, a courthouse and a house of worship. There was a peace and sense of well-being on our new home world that never existed on the old. We were one people-a tribe of survivors. There would be no haves and have-nots. Equality ruled the day.

At least, for the moment.

We voted, naming our growing community New Eden. In honor of our leader, Devlin Mabus, his mother was given the privilege of choosing a name for our planet. To our surprise, she selected an old Mayan name, a name derived from the Creation Myth recorded in the Popol Vuh.

Xibalba.

Then Xibalba is really a planet, not an Underworld? And how am I to get there? And this woman who named it, who was she? And why would she choose such an evil name for a planet?

She was a widow, her husband, billionaire Lucien Mabus, having died years earlier. She was in her early fifties but looked far younger, still a ravishing beauty. She wore bizarre violet contact lenses, had cocoa-skin and long, flowing ebony hair. Apparently, Lilith’s maternal ancestors hailed from Mesoamerica and Lilith! You say her name was Lilith?

Lilith Eve Mabus.

She’s the one-the one I’ve been communicating with all these years within the nexus.

You’re girlfriend’s Hunahpu?

Yes. Father? Father, are you still there?

Jacob, it is Lilith Mabus who will one day become the Abomination.

No… no, that’s impossible! Lilith can’t be the Abomination, she… she wasn’t born on the same day as us, she showed me her birth certificate! Dad, it’s not her!

‘It’s her, Jacob. She’s deceived you, and through you, she now knows about me. It’s been your communication with Lilith in your present that forewarned her. It’s the reason the Abomination and her demon seed were waiting for me when I finally arrived on Xibalba as Michael Gabriel.

… all my fault. I have to do something. I have to stop her now.

Jacob, wait! Stifling Lilith’s actions in your time could adversely affect man’s future. Remember, it’s the wormhole that gives us a chance to change things, to save humanity. It was Lucien Mabus who pioneered space tourism, providing the ships that made the journey to Mars possible. Destroy Lilith in your time period and there may not be a Mars option, which means the second holocaust will wipe out all of mankind. The time loop must be preserved, then broken at the correct interval, in my time, not in yours.

Then what am I supposed to do?

I don’t know, but you and your brother must stay away from Lilith at all costs.

Belle Glade, Florida 7:40 p.m.

Quenton Morehead lies naked in bed, watching the enchantress remove a bottle of aromatic oil from the pocket of her robe, along with several lengths of rope. His eyes widen as she slips out of her clothes, pouring the oil over her naked breasts.

‘Yes, whore, I like that.’

‘You’ll enjoy this even more.’ Using the lengths of rope, she secures his ankles and wrists to the oak bedposts. ‘Whores like a captive audience.’

She turns off the lights, then slowly snakes her way up the old man’s frame.

Quenton quivers with delight, moaning with pleasure as she slides her fingers down his distended belly to his groin. She licks his neck, teasing his knotty Adam’s apple with her tongue as she grinds her moist pubic region into his pelvis. ‘You’re right, you know,’ she coos. ‘I really owe you so much. Now lie back and close your eyes.’

‘But I want to see you.’

‘It’s better in the dark. Remember back when I was a child and you’d come to me in the darkness. Now I’m coming to you. Close your eyes.’

The old man obeys, a serene smile on his face – as Lilith removes the razor blade from behind her ear, placing it between her teeth.

The teenager slides down his frail body, fondling his inner thigh, pinching, tickling him as she rubs her lips across his dark skin… gently slicing open his flesh.

Returning to his neck, she teases open his carotid artery, swirling the warm pulsating liquid down his hairy chest as her free hand strokes his erect organ.

Pleasure and pain. With every groan, more blood. With each squeeze, a new cut.

By the time her mouth works its way to his groin, the Reverend’s body has become a heaving patchwork of crimson.

Quenton climaxes, then drifts off to sleep, the drugs taking effect, the old man never realizing the hot beads of moisture drenching the bedsheets are his life.

Longboat Key, Florida 11:08 p.m.

The sand is cold, the driving wind coming off the Gulf penetrating Dominique’s sweater. She pulls her collar up over her ears. ‘Enough games, Jacob. Yes or no, do you know who murdered your Aunt Evelyn?’

‘Her name is Lilith. We’ve been communicating since we were young children.’

Dominique covers her mouth in shock. ‘Communicating how?’

‘Through a higher plane of quantum existence we call the nexus.’

‘She’s Hunahpu?’

‘Yes. And yes, she’s the Abomination, at least she may be someday.’

Dominique feels the blood drain from her face. ‘All these years… all my warnings, all Evelyn’s warnings, and you’ve been communicating with the very person who tortures your father, who might destroy us all. How could you, of all people, be so blind?’

‘Love is blind.’

‘Love? You love this… this thing?’

‘She’s not a thing, Mother, she’s a human being born in a hurricane. She comes from a broken home, she’s been abused physically and sexually. She needed my help, and I was there. She’s a child of God as much as you or I.’

‘And now she’s a dangerous child. She murdered Evelyn.’

‘She’s angry at me. She’s become psychotic.’

‘I’d say she passed psychotic. Now what are we supposed to do?’

He paces along a dune, his mind racing. ‘Lilith knows where we live and who we are. We can run now, but she’s growing stronger every day. Eventually she’ll have no trouble tracking me down using her Hunahpu abilities. She also has at least one ally,-who’s-also Hunahpu.’

‘We have allies, too. We’ll send Salt and Pepper after her.’

‘We can’t do that. Lilith’s presence in the near future is entwined around mankind’s survival. If we derail her now, we’ll upset an entire chain of events. The key is to avoid her until Manny and I leave for Xibalba. ’

‘You know where Xibalba is?’

He points to the heavens. ‘Somewhere out there. According to the Mayan prophecy, Manny and I won’t travel to Xibalba until our twentieth year. Avoiding Lilith for six years will be next to impossible, unless…’ His eyes widen as another option takes shape within in his mind.

Belle Glade, Florida November 5, 2027 7:25 p.m.

Lilith Eve Robinson sits at the kitchen table weeping, her tears aided by the irritation of the soap.

Detective Teak Colson hands her a tissue. ‘I know you’re upset, but I need to ask you a few more questions. You say you came home around eleven?’