HAPPY HALLOWEEN REVOLTERS!

...The Hallows presents its Main Attraction...


Ritual Possessions II: By the Devil's Hand


2011

"...and now for more channel 5 news..." the TV broadcasted.

"...local county prison riot leaves one prisoner missing and unaccounted for..."

"...the worst of the worst, Roscoe McCallister serial killer and death sentenced has possibly escaped prison grounds..."

"...full description and picture coming up after the break..."

"...stay tuned..."

"...channel 5 news..."

Maria threw the remote at the TV. She could not believe that they went to commercial. What if this guy knocked on her door during the commercial break?

"Thanks Channel 5, because of you I could very well be part of the body count now!" Maria yelled at the TV.

Her son Leeds came into the room with their dinner. He had helped her move in during the weekend while he wasn't teaching. He lived in Connecticut. The only place he could find a decent teaching job. Leeds was doing his mother a big favor, but the weekend was drawing to a close, and he would have to leave after dinner.

"I'm sorry he left you, Mom. Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

"I'm sure. You go, you have your own life and responsibilities. I will be okay, Leeds."

Maria kissed her only son goodbye and went back into her lake house. It was dark and lonely, just as she expected. Maria was so fed up with residual anger from the fight earlier that she could not just sit back down in front of the television. She walked around her new house. A lot of the furniture was already here.

In the study sat a journal that was once carried out of this very study by a college kid and never brought back. Yet here it was on the desk, like it had just been leafed through. It was open to the only page that needed to be seen. Maria walked over and read it,

Aug 16th
If you are wondering why the ink is red, it is because last night I killed my brother, Zachariah. And I am now writing with his blood in my new journal. But of course, you know this already according to the last couple of entries. I told father that he was planning to turn us in and he caught him running away, caught him right in the head with his axe. The only problem now is what to do about father. He has become paranoid, sometimes he even acts like he thinks he is invisible. I'm going to have to kill him. Astaroth said I could use him, but eventually have to kill him. All I have to do is trick him into putting down that axe. Perhaps, I will catch him while he's chopping wood down by the beach.

"I love ghost stories," she proclaimed to herself and kept looking through the study's bookshelves for more.

She left the journal on the desk, and the thought never passed through her mind...that the journal entry was actually written in red...

The next book she took out was another journal, but not nearly as old as Zachariah's. The realtor told her about the murders here. He just didn't tell her about all of them. Her name was Agatha, and her diary was full, beginning to end, life to death... Maria sat down in the study and started Agatha's memoir's. It took Maria away from her abandoned existence, just what she needed.

1942

Agatha sat in her father's study. He was away at war. He had been for more than a year now. World War II had spread all across the world after Pearl Harbor. Agatha could take care of herself thought. It was her father she was worried about. Agatha lost her mother to breast cancer when she was just twelve years old. After that it was just her and her father.

Agatha once had a boyfriend. She spent over ten years being with him, but she could never marry him because of the guilt she had over her father. She didn't want to make him feel completely alone. Well after the boyfriend had enough he dumped her, leaving one day and never saying goodbye. Agatha never got any closure. After that her relationship with her father became even stronger for she thought every other man in existence was a creep. It was not long before WWII started and eventually took her father.

Now she had to fend for herself. She had a lot of time on her hands. That is how this diary first started. She began to write down every aspect of every day. It was maddening. She grew and cooked her own food and she was not good at it. Agatha eventually became malnourished and a closet case. Her diary entries turned into rambles.

Eventually, the diary turned into strictly dialogue, as if she was talking to something through the paper book. Agatha clearly had lost her mind. The diary seemed to talk back to her, from the entries and her remarks. Agatha was being conditioned, brainwashed. Whatever it was... convinced her that her father was the reason for her lover leaving. It was the demon in the book who got Agatha to stab her father in the heart when he returned from defeating the Nazis in WWII.

She went out to the lake where her father used to chop wood. She cut open the veins on her arms and walked into the water. The lake turned red and she died in that watery tomb, never to be found.

* * *

2011

Maria put the diary down. One question she could not shake from her thoughts. How did the diary get finished if she was dead in the lake. What she's trying to say is...

"Who wrote she's dead in the lake if she's dead in the lake!" Maria yelled to Leeds on the phone after explaining the diary to him.

"I don't know, Mom. Why don't you go down to the lake and have a look for yourself?"

"Because it's Halloween, Leeds. Don't be an idiot. The water's freezing."

"Here I thought it was April 1st."

"If it was real the realtor, by law had to tell me about it."

"Didn't he tell you about a murder-"

"It was two years ago, these 3 college kids went mad after their other friend committed suicide."

"Mom, I think you bought a murder-house."

"Ohhh, I don't want to be here anymore."

"Want me to come back and get you?"

"No...I'll be okay, Leedsy, you're sweet, but I'll let you go," Maria hung up the phone.

Leeds put his cell phone away and kept driving. He was worried about his mom. She was never this dramatic, or this clingy for that matter. All of this was unlike her. Leeds got off the highway and turned around.

Maria actually went down to the lake. She walked over to the chopping block. It all seemed renovated. She looked at the lake. The reflection of the lake's surface revealed the renovation's lies. It showed her the knife in the stump with blood on it and the still-beating heart on the ground.

Maria stumbled back and tripped over what she thought was the heart. But everything was back to normal and she got to her feet. Suddenly, a giant white blur burst forth from the lake. It hovered in the air. It was Agatha's dead body. Only she was alive and all white, except for her hands, which were covered in dripping blood.

The blood dripped down and onto Maria's forehead. She wiped it with her hand and spread it over the right side of her face. Agatha screamed above her. Maria could feel her pain. She was not afraid. She screamed with the tortured spirit. And in their communion it took Maria.

Maria woke up with her own hands soaked in blood. She looked around. Her hands were holding an axe. It was now on the floor, completely red. Maria looked next to the axe and there lay her ex-boyfriend's dead body. The door opened.

Maria looked up. She had to have been dreaming. It was Leeds. "My god," he exclaimed, "Mom what have you done."

He covers the body with sheets and drags it out back. He pulls the body down the path towards the lake.

"How did this happen?"

"I...I....I don't ...know...."

Leeds goes back and gets a shovel. "We have to bury him under the lake!"

"What?"

Leeds took Maria under the red lake where Agatha's tomb was. She lay on her back, in a pure white dress waving in the water, and her veins kept the lake red. Maria went over to her as Leeds fell into the background. Maria looked over the body. She looked at her face....right in her closed eyes...

Agatha stirred awake and opened her eyes, catching contact with Maria. Maria screamed and she was back beside the lake. The lake was not red. Leeds was gone. Maria ran back inside to the study. She rifled through the different diaries. Each time she opened one it had the same ending as the others. Her son was right.

This was a murder-house.

She had to get out before it over took her. The door blew open and a dark wind shut all the lights off with a scream. Maria covered her ears. "AGATHA!" she screamed.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"NOT...AGATHA..." the demon whispered greatly.

Maria cried out and ran for the back door. The lights came back on and the back door in the kitchen slammed shut and locked itself. The knives came out of the butcher block and flew up stabbing the ceiling.

"Be gone, wretched thing!" Leeds yelled out as he entered through the front.

"Oh, Leeds!" Maria ran to her boy. She hugged him and he felt odd. Leeds laughed. The demon scurried out of the house scared. Maria let go of Leeds.

"What's wrong, mom?" he asked.

"We have to get out of here."

"No." Leeds unexpectedly denied.

"I cannot allow that."

Maria tried to run away, but every time she ran into a different room, Leeds was standing there waiting for her. Finally, she collapsed.

"What is all this?" she confessed in tears.

"Kill me and find out." answered Leeds.

He got down next to her and handed her the axe. She lifted it up. Leeds looked at her. His eyes were red. There were horns poking out of his forehead while he laughed. Maria screamed and plunged the axe into his side.

She awoke under the water in a pure white dress. Opening her mouth to scream choked her with lake water. Maria coughed up the red water next to the body. She was now in the kitchen and the axe was still stuck in the body. Maria pulled it out and flipped it over. It was not Leeds. Thank God. It was just Maria's ex-boyfriend. Is this real?

"Yes it is."

"You're the devil."

"Now that's record time. Congratulations, Maria, no more games, except for the big one."

"Game?"

"For your soul."

"Why me?"

"Your in my house."

"Please let me go."

"If you kill your son when he returns. I will leave you alone."

"Never."

"If you do not kill your son, I will let Agatha possess you."

"This can't be happening."

"And If you let my Lilith possess you...I will let your son go unharmed."

"Who is Lilith?"

Suddenly a snake wrapped around Maria ankle.

"She is my Queen..."

"...and those are your three." Leeds opened the door and caught himself disappearing before his very eyes. Maria fainted.

When she woke up she was in her bed. Leeds was looking over her. "Is this real, Leeds?" She put her hand on his face. He had been crying. "This is real, mom. This is real," he insisted.

The bed swallowed her up and Maria fell into the bowels of the house's unfinished basement. It was swollen with red flares, as if fires were down each and every hallway. Maria looked around for him, but Leeds was gone. A voice came from below. "Have you made your choice?" it bellowed out. Maria screamed and tried not to answer.

It shook her in the room and she cried out for Leeds. But he was not there. In reality, he was still looking over her lying on the bed as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

"I will not kill my boy!" she yelled. Agatha rose from the dead lake and climbed after her as the snake came from the other side.

The devil stood before her and offered his hand.

Maria grabbed it and was saved from ghosts and demons. She was taken to hell, as she unknowingly accepted the fourth and final choice. Her soul for her son's freedom. She sat down next to King Lucifer and begged for eternity to return to her place by her son's side. The devil told Maria there was a way to get back, save Agatha's soul, and have all her questions about the house answered.

"What must I do?"

* * *

Maria woke up. She had been in a coma for 3 years. Her boy was long gone. She was being taken care of by privately hired hospice. Maria walked into the study and looked at the diary on the table. The one she had left there. When she picked it up. It was not Agatha's name that was on it but her own. Maria looked at the date.

2011

She was back in time before the devil had taken her. Leeds was staring over her. Maria opened her eyes. "Tell me what I do, Mom" Leeds asks simply.

Maria got up and left the house. Leeds followed her out. "We should go!" he begged, over at his car as she walked for the lake. When Leeds got over there he found his mother pulling an axe from the lake. He approached her and she lifted the axe to swing it. Leeds screamed as the axe came down on him. How could his own mother do this?

The axe is caught by the handle and Agatha is shot in the gut. The man who saved Leeds from his mother takes the axe. He puts his gun away as Leeds crawls next to his mother bleeding on the floor. He does not say thank you, he does not blame him for shooting her.

Roscoe McCallister holds the forsaken axe in his hand and Maria finishes her mission, only to be tricked again. The serial killer breaks Leeds in half as he drives the sharp edge of the axe down the kid's spine. The tool of evil has been placed in the machines hand. . . The Devil's plan all along. And now, for that... Agatha, Maria, and Leeds join together as their souls ascend to Paradise.

But for those who conspire with the Devil there is only Purgatory, and all three of their spirits were forced to return to the house on the lake. And the devil laughed, as he collected 3 more souls to do his bidding.

"You said all my questions about this house, you would answer..."

I will next Halloween.

...The Hallows Presents...


Hollow Barn


The time was still. There was no movement. Just a picture painted into a frame of real life. Starting from the corners it was cumbersome darkness. Storm clouds both exposing and reinforcing the black night sky. And yet, there is one break in the night and it is the thin crescent moon. The lunar squint presses the moment in so it cannot go on.
The ridge was the property of a family farm. The gate was busted. The crops were dead. And there, in the center, right under the slightest moonlight, was the old barn. The roof was broken in long ago. The wood it was built with was rotted out. The doors unhinged but still serving a purpose.

Before the barn, after the darkest hour of the night, knelt two young children. The girl held her little brother in her arms. They were both so young and so unsure. After a night of things too horrible to believe, they now were placed outside this wretched barn with that god forsaken atrocity inside.
The poor girl wanted to go inside. She wanted to say good-bye to her. But it was just too upsetting to even imagine, let alone see for yourself. Now Oscar was all she had. Their parents were dead.

Their father had fought gallantly against the intruders. But they were too many and too powerful; and Cynthia had to watch her father get killed in her mother's arms. How she regrets to envy that moment.
She knew she had to go in the barn. They did not show the poor children what they did to the mother, but they did light her on fire before sending her back out to them. Cynthia's mother ran to the barn.

How could she go in there? When really she knew exactly what she was going to see. There were so many reasons not to go in. But what if she was still alive? Somebody had to look for themselves, until then it was still not real. Their father was dead. This was the time in between her parents dying, and Cynthia wanted to make it last forever.

The barn door swung ever slightly in the moonlight. Oscar clung to Cynthia's side, it did not matter to her for she would never let go of him. Her little brother was just coming into awareness. He had learned to speak a couple years ago and was learning to read now, but right now she could have been cradling him like a baby in her arms.

The barn door opened.

Footsteps brought it outside. Cynthia's face went pale and Oscar ran from her arms.

Cynthia knew she had to be dead. The cold touch of his mother proved that notion to be true for young Oscar.

Cynthia now had to choose. . .

Alive and alone..

or

HAPPY OCTOBER! Month of Chills and Thrills!

...The Hallows Presents...


Gruesome Killer in the Promised Land


The road was short once he got off the highway. He was at the top of the Pocono Mountains heading to the Promised Land Lodge and Resort. This rural route road took him through the slums of the mountains, the boondocks, hillbilly heaven, before the forest swallowed it up as it peaked at the top of the mountain. Calvin crossed over a tiny bridge dividing the lake, up the hill and he could finally see the Lodge.

Calvin got to his room and went to the Meet and Greet Dinner for the convention. He did not want to be here. He had never come to one of these alone before. Usually Lisa was here with him. How many nights he wished she was his wife instead of Natalie. Over ten years now, Calvin blamed Natalie for this empty bed in his room. He blamed himself for everything else. And worked hard to overcome the guilt that comes from his kids' eyes.

Perhaps this was good for him. Something kept him from inviting anyone else to come, and Calvin had a very big family. Why wouldn't he? He was rich and his last name was Carnegie. Calvin could have invited any of his cousins, nephews, or nieces. But instead he went alone, even when one of his oldest nephews lived not 20 miles away...in the mountains...

A conscious choice, Instead he went alone. And took this as a chance at a retreat from his entire life. Calvin went to the prestigious Kendrix Ballroom for a drink after dinner. Many of his colleagues were at the bar as well. None were there that he actually knew. It was to no surprise, he was the only agent who got enough awards to be invited in all the Connecticut branch. He sat down next to a beautiful woman in her forty's and ordered his drink. They talked the night away, but before falling to temptation she revealed to be married. As she walked out Calvin muttered, "Had to be a brunette."

Calvin was now the last one sitting at the bar in the ballroom. The bartender topped him off after that and they got to talking. Gibbons told him all about the history of this place as he held his bottle of whiskey.

It was a casino and ski resort in the fifty's; a luxurious mountain getaway for the rich and powerful. There was a big fire that destroyed the casino, after that Edgar Wallace Kendrix built this ballroom in its place. In the eighties the ski mountain shut down. Now all that is left is the hotel and scenic beauty. When Calvin asked him why the ski mountain shut down, Gibbons tried to not answer. It was not until late in the night, when they were both drunk and Calvin brought it up again.

"Turns out," Gibbons whispered, "Some of the locals are nut-job recluses. And at least once a year there was an incident the ski mountain had to cover up."

"Incident?" Calvin squinted.

"Kidnappings, assault, rape,...murder..."

"My lord."

"Some people..." Gibbons looked around, "...like myself...Believe the casino fire was just another incident."

"Did anything ever happen? Families informed? Did the Authorities find them?"

"They-"

"Time to close up Gibbons!" ordered the Ballroom Manager.

The manager escorted Calvin out and apologized for Gibbon's ghost stories. Calvin returned to his room and thought about his drive up here and what Gibbon's had said about the natives.

Maybe he should leave?

* * *

Calvin slept through the night and after finishing his morning meetings went to the pool for the afternoon. The indoor pool was beautiful. If there wasn't a hot tub, the over-chlorinated water would have been a problem. After another lonely dinner, Calvin joined his fellow agents in the ballroom for another night.

Gibbons was not there, but the brunette was back. This time in a very tight and very short red dress. He watched her get drunk and flirt with other agents all night. That is until he crossed paths with her outside the bathrooms.

"I see you found your wedding ring," Calvin commented resentfully.

"Yes.." she smiled, "...but I seem to have lost my panties."

Calvin put down his empty whiskey glass on a shelf and pressed her up against the wall. He slid his hand up her thigh and under that tight red dress. Calvin kissed her neck and pulled her skirt up. He turned her around and unbeknownst to them a stranger crossed the bridge into the Lodge. He dragged a sparking ax grinding against the road.

The valet saw him coming up the field when he finished parking a car. He approached him in the dark of the night and did not expect what was next. The ax was lifted and swung into the chest of the valet. He never got a look at his face. The only fortunate one.

The Gruesome Killer walked around the back of the hotel. He entered unnoticed by anyone, lurking in the hotel hallways like a shadow. He entered the kitchen and walked through. It was almost 3 in the morning. Most of the staff was off. The dishwasher put his jacket on and opened the door to the ax dragging killer. Before the dishwasher was carved out like a pumpkin he looked straight into the eyes of the Gruesome Killer.

Calvin finished with her in the bathroom of the ballroom. He did not have the guts to bring her back to his room or go back to hers. The Killer walked amongst them. She returned to her room and he returned to the bar. Who knows where the murderous fiend was. Just as he walked in the door, Gibbons was starting his shift. Calvin smiled and called out. Gibbons finished putting his smock on and waved. Calvin's smile twisted and was turned upside down. The ax of the killer swung out from behind the bar in the back of Gibbons while he was waving.

Calvin could see the tip of it peeking out his chest. The few others who were left in the ballroom screamed and ran out. Calvin tripped over a table as he ran. He tried to get out but he had to see this murderer's face. The Gruesome Killer turned around before Gibbon's corpse. Calvin could see everything.

He was draped in dark flannel and a down jacket almost torn to shreds. It was all covered in dried mud and blood, along with his steel-toe boots and black jeans. He dragged his ax and looked at Calvin. The last one still in the ballroom.

Calvin could now see his face.

The Gruesome Killer had a beard with a scar through it and his left eye, which looked fake. He also had a snub nose, like that of a pig's. Half of his face was mostly normal, except for the scarring. The other half looked like it was burnt or deformed somehow. It emerged from his weird pig-nose all across his cheek to his forehead and chin.

Calvin didn't think it was human. Why did it not speak?

He got to his feet as the Killer threw tables over to get to him. Calvin ran out of the ballroom and tried locking the glass doors. He ran up the stairs to call the cops as the glass doors were blown in. The stairs led directly to the lobby.


Calvin got to the front desk. "Call the police!" he yelled.

"We're trying, he must have cut the lines."

"What about cell phones?"

"You can try, but there is no service tower up here. That is why we do not offer wi-fi in the rooms."

"THERE IS A MURDERER ON HIS WAY UP HERE!"

"What are we suppose to do?" argued the graveyard shift front desk managers.

"We have to warn everyone!" demanded Calvin. "Pull the fire alarm!"

"Everyone is sleeping, sir."

"That would drench everything."

"This is crazy!" Calvin screamed as the ax came around the corner for his head. Calvin ducked out of the way just in time and crawled to safety. The two managers jumped out from behind the the front desk and escaped out of the lobby to their cars. Now it was just the Gruesome Killer and Calvin.

Calvin ran through the lobby. He had to choose where to go. Back downstairs, outside to the courtyard, or up to the rooms. He ran up the stairs, but not to the rooms. The Killer followed him and him alone. Calvin was beginning to take it personally.

The Gruesome Killer walked up the stairs. Calvin watched him from the fourth floor. The brunette female agent rushes out of her room with her luggage. She was no longer wearing the red dress.

"I'm getting the fuck out of here!"

"Wait! Don't!" The girl panics and shoves Calvin off of her, down the stairs. The fleeing female takes the old fashion elevator down. The Killer leaves the stairwell to stop the elevator. He opens the door and the girl is pinned in a box of death.

The Gruesome Killer hacks her to pieces with his ax.

Calvin wakes up to the gargling screams of the dying girl. He gets to his feet. His ankle is throbbing, he must have twisted it falling down the stairs. There was no time for that now. He had to rely on adrenaline to cover the pain of running on his ankle.

He got up the stairs, back to the top. He stood next to the spa. The clanking of the ax on every step brought him back to Calvin. But finally he had an idea to escape this madness and get back to his family.

Calvin brought the Gruesome Killer to the top observation deck of the Promised Land Lodge. When the killer got through the door to the outside, Calvin tried to slip by and lock the door. The psychopath dropped his ax and caught the door with both of his enormous hands. His arms and shoulders were over-towering the rest of his 6-foot-tall body as he squeezed the steel and pulled it open.

Calvin put all his weight into closing the door but it was useless. The killer was too strong. So he let go and pushed forward. The momentum shifted and threw the Gruesome Killer off balance. Calvin ran out and the freak giant got to his feet and chased him. The door closed behind them. Calvin closed his eyes as he heard the door lock itself upon closing.

He was now stuck out on the observation deck with the Gruesome Killer. He grabbed the railing and peered over. If only there was a way to get him over the ledge. Calvin ran back around to the door. There he was on the other side. In between them lay the ax. They both made a move for it. Calvin put his feet on it and then jumped on his shoulders as the Gruesome Killer bent down to pick it up. Calvin scraped at his neck and face to hold on. His fingers slipped as his deformed skin fell off.

It was make-up. Calvin fell back to the floor and the murderer turned around, standing over him. The moonlight caught his face. It was changed. The Gruesome Killer in the Promised Lands was a lie. He picked his ax back up. Calvin could not believe it. All this time, Calvin thought it was a monster. The Killer lifted the ax over his head. When really it was the only thing worse.

The ax came down like a sentencing gavel. Calvin took the blow to his chest. His heart was slit in two, his chest plate cracked in half. The Killer left the ax in his Uncle Calvin. He climbed over the edge of the observation deck and jumped off. The sun had risen. The bloodshed was finally over. Police lights pulled in under the morning dew.

The law was retrieved by the night managers...the only two who got away... They would later find out it was a massacre. The Gruesome Killings in the Promised Land did not just happen in the kitchen, ballroom, and observation deck. In each and every room, the guests were brutally ax murdered. The police looked everywhere for survivors but never found any. If they had showed up only 5 minutes earlier, Calvin would have been one.

Thriller Month Here On The Factory!

.....The Hallows Presents.....


The Last Intervention


All-knowing and all-seeing are only reserved for One. He stands outside of life so there is an outside. He is the border, He is the exception, He is it all. Even a part of each and everything in and out of existence. Our lives and our freedoms come from His withdrawal. For millennia He has had to watch His creation and play a delicate game of fate and chaos. He played for Good, where all things come from.

There were many sacrifices He had and would still endure. For God was only bound by man. Their free will and curiosity, their essential difference between the rest of the animal kingdom, their advanced level of self-awareness constricted His influence on them directly.

There was no stopping Him though. And finally, even His own judgment over took Him. God would have to watch today as a poor orphaned infant be run down by an unsuspecting bus. He knew it was coming. He could not let this happen. For once he was not okay with denying a soul the joy of living a human lifetime. This baby deserved to grow up, watch Nickelodeon, play little league, fall in love, make mistakes, and eventually create his own life. So God did the unthinkable. He used his awesome power and took the form of a human on earth.

The Grey Beggar reached for the baby in the basket on the street. Right as the bus turned the corner the Beggar saved the child from the crushed basket under the rolling bus tire. The Grey Beggar took the baby to the nearest orphanage. He had to be quick. Taking on this form was completely irrational and irresponsible for the Master of the Universe. He must obey the laws of man as a human being. If he is hurt here he is hurt as Alpha and Omega. If put into a coma he would be trapped in this form forever. If killed...The entire universe and anything from here to infinity would unravel and become nonexistent.

The Grey Beggar brought the baby to the doorsteps and did a classic orphan drop. When he turned the corner down the street he was walking in front of someone. The Grey Beggar turned down the alley as he prepared to ascend back into Eternity. The man who followed him down there was covered in darkness and holding a dagger.

God wrestled with this man holding the petty knife. He knew He could snap him in half. He knew this poor schmuck had a family with three little girls who relied on him for food. He crushed his hand and the man dropped the dagger. God turned around in disappointment. He would never return again to this place.

The dagger is swept up across the floor. He knows this, and does nothing about it. It plunges into His back and punctures the back wall of his heart. Blood runs crooked into His body, draining His arteries and veins. His organs fail and the Grey Beggar bleeds out. By now the Beggar is on the floor with several stab wounds in His back.

God dies as man and Eternity is destroyed. The fabric of time and space held on to Eternity and Infinity. Without them it was falling apart at the seams. It started on earth as tornado storms, earthquakes, and hurricanes. But then time-cracks would propel and shuffle people into different ages. Some were killed, and some were lost in between eras. God was not able to hold it all together anymore.

Soon the stretches and the fractures would tear the world apart. But in death there was only nothing. No floating out in white abyss. There was just crushed minds and killed hearts. The soul was extinguished. Without God life came to an end.

But if God is everything...isn't he also the absence of himself?

Nothing ever ends.

The Risen Dead

Scott wanted to puke. The blood was all over him. Stacy was just to his left on the floor. Who knows where the others were. Their plan had gone horribly wrong. Scott looked into Stacy's eyes. Their hands stretched under the motionless1 bodies; just a fingertip out of reach. For some reason he knew...

This was the end for them.

It had been 4 years to the day, October 19th, 2012, only the two of them had survived that long in the entire family of Matsukos. All their brothers and sisters were eventually killed, and then killed again. Even their poor children had all been infected. That is all that can be said on the matter. Scott and Stacy still lived on with all this. At least Scott did...

The dead walked over them and did not notice. Two warm bodies in a sea of lifeless bone and flesh, as the horde moved upstream. Stacy looked up. His teddy bear swiped softly across her face. "SCOTTY!" she screamed out for her son. Scott watched helplessly as they all turned in on her and devoured his wife one handful at a time. She was gone in less than a minute.

His baby boy turned around with his dead zombie eyes and found his father. His teddy bear was carried across the dead mounds, smearing Stay's blood like a paintbrush. Junior was coming straight for daddy. He moaned and pointed at Scott. He had to run. But as soon as he moved they would all be on him. There was the door. It was either that or the window.

Little Scotty Matsukos Junior dug for his father on the floor, and when his fingers touched Scott's skin he shot up into the air, picking up his son and running through the door and out of the apartment. Junior nipped at his neck. He heard a dog barking upstairs. It was Clark and his American bulldog, Polo. Scott ran up the stairs two at a time. Polo barked again like a siren. Then an actual siren as they popped the door to the roof open.

When he got to the rooftop, Clark was up there along with Marcus, his daughter Hanna, Archy, and Castor. Why Castor? Out of the fifteen of them who rushed this building, why did he get to be one of the six who survived? This bastard lives when his wife had to die. And yet, deep down, Scott knew this was all bullshit. She wanted to die. Ever since Scotty turned, and they could not bear to kill him, Stacy had given up. Now here he was. The only member of his family left, as his own zombie boy wrestled slowly in his arms.

Scott let him go and reloaded his 9mm pistol. He knew what he had to do this time. He shot his son in the head and freed his soul from the horrid purgatory that is the Undead. The next bullet was for his own head as he fell to his knees.

"Don't do it, Scott."

The group stood before him. They all knew what he was, no one had to say it out loud, but I will. He was our leader. Now see if you can guess who I was... Anyway, Scott didn't kill himself because he was the leader. He was the one who got us all here. He was the one who kept us alive all this time. Most of the time, I always thought, 'what if he's just doin' this for his wife and family?' Now I knew, he did it for more than that.

He did it for more than just caring about other people, he did it because when you know no one else will, heroes choose to take it on themselves. Scott did it because he was born to be a leader. And that is why he did not kill himself that night.

* * *

Archy finally had his laptop. The whole point of storming that zombi-infested apartment building, his old apartment building. He could get onto the internet. The best thing that ever happened to manking2. It was taking him the better part of two days to do it, but he reassured us that he definitely could. I believed him, along with Scott and the rest of us, all except Castor. He constantly made his opinion clear, that's for sure.

The convoy drove down the small town road, empty houses, open road, zombie free...

This ragtag group of weathered and reinforced post-apocalyptic age steel armored cars, vans, and SUV's barreled through town like true road warriors. The dirt and tarnished trim of these vehicles made them all look the same sad grey color.

"STOP!" Archy yelled, his red baseball cap flies off his head as he opens the sliding van door and jumps out. "I GOT SOMETHIN'!!!!!"

He runs through the street and weaves through a break in the fence. The old metal fence is dark and the points go tall into the air, trying to stab the clouds. The convoy pulled over and set up a perimeter. It was what they all had feared. Archy had ran into a cemetery.

And suddenly the ground was rising with the claws of the dead. Scott yelled out and the team split in half. Castor and Marcus got back in the cars as Scott and Clark ran with Hanna and Polo for Archy. Polo got to Archy first and barked for the others to find them. Scott arrived with his 9mm, Clark with his ninja blade, and Hanna with her father's shotgun.

Castor and Marcus ran down the zombies flocking to the graveyard from the town. It was one of the funnest jobs zombie maintenance could offer. That is when you've lost all sensitivity towards these things. Playing with dead bodies is like playing in dead leaves nowadays.

They all circled around Archy as he accessed the web. He could not believe it... Google3 was up and running! Even Facebook4 was online for God sake. There were 20 survivor group invitations on his account. People were rebuilding society through social networking. It was unbelievable.

Now every question, every curiosity, could be answered. Where it all began...What happened exactly? Is there a cure? What do we do? Archy typed them all in one by one. A list of the top questions to ask if ever given the opportunity, made by Scott, chosen by every member of the group.

All I will say, for you must already know by now, is this... In late 2012, some doctor in the middle east went against every man-made, universe-made, and god-made law in existence. He cloned a human. The clone that came out of the experiment was a monster. It attacked its original self and together they ate the entire lab. From their the plague spread across all of Eurasia and Africa.

When the rest of the world thought that it came over on planes and boats, the truth is that radical nihilists from dying eastern countries weaponized it in a gaseous state, like smallpox, and launched them in random rogue missiles that landed on the east coast of North America. Terrorism gave the finally death-stroke to the race of man. That is all.

Archy and Hanna feverishly wrote down everything they could. Scott stopped them. He looked at the screen, quickly scrolled. He handed them his gun, told them to cover, and continued running through all the news and info.

Archy watched him. "Are you memorizing all of that?"

"Trying to."

"That's some Navy Seal shit..."

"I never told you I was a CIA Agent?"

"I thought you were a dentist."

"......right......"

"Ummmmm! We're in trouble!" screamed Hanna. The zombies had them surrounded. Polo barked as the closed in. Castor and Marcus busted through, running them down and throwing them away. The car doors opened and they ran to get in, but the horde was growing to thick again. As he pulled away to make another loop, Marcus' car ran over a tombstone and it tore his axle up bad. The car spun out of control. It toppled over and broke it's frame, collapsing into a heap. Castor drove up next to them and called out, "THE KEYS! TOSS ME THE KEYS TO YOUR YACHT, OLD MAN!"

Marcus coughed and awoke, he looked around, his legs were crushed. He was dying. "Tell my daughter that I love her, and that I didn't die like one of these demons." Marcus through him the keys and died in the drivers seat. Castor caught the keys, closed his door and peeled out. The car left the cemetery and the rest of the group. Castor had finally gotten what he wanted, now he was gone.

Scott was trapped along with Archy and Clark as they both consoled Hanna who was crying in their arms. Scott was now holding the shotgun. Keeping the Undead at bay. He had no escape plan this time. They were surrounded. There were a hundred zombies between them and the other cars.

Clark told Polo to run. And the poor dog obeyed his master. He ran through the crowd of brain-eaters as they barely tried to go after him. Polo slipped away unnoticed. Clark took solace in that. Just as Archy took solace in finally getting onto the web, and Scott took solace in finally finding out what caused all this. It was only Hanna he would die with no hope left in her heart. If it wasn't for Castor...

Suddenly his car was back and they were all climbing in the doors. Hanna got in the front seat. She looked over at the self-obsessed asshole, "Thanks," she said in a flirty voice, "Thanks for coming back."

"I only came back for you, Sweetheart," Castor said with a sly grin, staring into the road ahead.

Scott sat in the back, uneasy. Archy sat between them with his laptop, discovering all the data Scott had saved in the short time they were online. Clark stared out the window. He whistled once, there was a bark. Polo came running out of the cemetery. He jumped into the car on Clark's lap. He rubbed his faithful dog. His best friend. His only surviving family. He noticed something behind his ear. It was a wound. Worse than that, it was clearly infected...A zombie bite. Clark would not tell them about Polo until it was necessary. He picked up a notebook and a pen and started writing that day.5 For he knew eventually...everyone would die like Polo...

1 the word "dead" can no longer be used to imply lifeless bodies
2 it is believed that the author intentionally misspelled the word "Mankind"
3 & 4 Two cultural references from the early 2000's, an internet search engine and a social network
5 This is just one entry from Dead Rising, his book on the entire account of the Zombie Apocalypse

Happy Shocktober! Month of Thrillers

The Revolution Factory is back from hiatus and better than ever.

Titles Include:
Dead Rising
The Last Intervention
Gruesome Killer in the Promised Land
Hollow Barn

Ending with Ritual Possessions II: By the Devil's Hand on Halloween

And Starting with...


Full Moon Fever


Daniel walked out of his beautiful country house as dusk approached. He looked around, it was already getting dark, autumn was truly here. The summer was over; a summer he would never forget. Dan scratched his beard and wondered where his wife was. They had been up here the entire weekend and not once were they apart.

"Judy!" he called out.

But there was no answer. The woods were quiet; more importantly, they surrounded the entire house. Daniel was beginning to grow worried. This was unlike his wife. He walked over to the retired outhouse. Boy, this house was old. Although their beautiful country house was completely renovated, the nostalgia of the outhouse kept its irrelevant existence alive. He opened the unhinged door. A fool's hope. Where was she?

Daniel walked past the outside and across the grassy yard into the trees. He thought he heard something. The sun scratched the horizon gradually. A twig snaps out of sight. Daniel is now in a full sprint, convinced his Judy was in trouble. He vowed to her so many years ago, that he would never let anything bad happen to her. Daniel had kept this promise for ten years. He would never make it to eleven. There in the brush stood a wolf. It was not acting right. It faced Daniel like it knew him. Blood dripped from its mouth.

A car pulled into the driveway of the country house. It parked and Judy got out and closed the door. Daniel stared at the wolf. Judy walked by and greeted him. Daniel looked up through the trees above the wolf. It was nighttime. That was quick. Even for the fall.

"Hey Honey" Judy reiterated.

Daniel stood still, unmoved like the wolf that was staring him down.

"DAN!" A hip-check shook him free. He was still standing in the backyard. The wolf was gone, and the sun was still setting.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing..." Daniel stammered, "Let's go inside."

"I got everything for dinner."

"Perfect."

"Our guests should be arriving in a couple hours..."

* * *

"It doesn't matter what kind of state the economy is in if we don't have a president that can do anything about it!"

"Henry!" his wife nudged the stoutly man.

Daniel laughed along with Judy and together they shared in an intimate look unseen by the rest of their guests as they sat at both ends of the dinner table.

"That's so wrong. You have no idea what you're talking about, you jackass" contested the other side of the table.

"Now, Reg" Daniel tried to moderate, "Everybody has their own opinion."

"Which is what makes this country so great."

"My point exactly, Sue" Daniel continued, "Henry you're lucky you have such a patient wife with that mouth of yours."

Susan blushed for both of them.

Judy desperately searched for a new topic to discuss as they reached the end of their meal. Talking about politics always got their friends out of sorts. She needed something light enough for everyone to agree on. In fact, she needed something that involved no taking of sides, some sort of anecdote. And in that instant she thought of it...

"This is the last night of the full moon."

"Whoop-di-doo, Judy" scoffed Henry.

"It's interesting because this year and this month, in-particularly... the moon is the closer to the earth than it has ever been."

"Why is that?"

"Scientists believe-"

"Oh who cares, we should go look at it!" interrupted Rita, Reggie's girlfriend.

The dinner party grabbed their cups of wine and rushed outside into the twilight.

"Wow, that's amazing! It's so bright."

"I can see everything."

Reggie started coughing.

"Look at the moon shadow."

"This is unbelievable," whispered Judy to Daniel who was holding her.

"I hope our kids are seeing this." Sue walked away and pulled her cellphone out to call them.

Reggie fell to his knees and grabbed his chest. Rita rushed to his side. Henry laughed. He could not control himself. Reggie looked up, unable to talk as he still coughed. Some friend. Judy and Daniel ran to Reggie and asked if they should call an ambulance.

Just then, simultaneously, Sue came running back screaming bloody insanity and an unknown pick-up truck came barreling down the driveway. As Sue got closer Judy approached her. She could not hear what she was saying. Poor Sue still had the phone to her ear. Then, finally they could all hear her as she kept repeating the same two words, "They're dead."

The truck crashed into their cars parked in the drive and the driver fell out. "You must run!" He screamed. "They are coming!"

"Who!?" yelled Daniel.

"GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF ME!" panicked Sue. Judy grabbed her and tried to pull her phone away from her ear. Sue was screaming and writhing around like something was crawling into her brain. They both fell over and Judy got the phone away from her. There was blood all over her ear.

Honking and high-beams came out of the trees as cars plowed through the forest. The driver of the pick-up pulled a hand gun out and shot Henry five times in the chest, before emptying the clip into his own head.

A howl in the distance.

Daniel got Reggie and Rita into the house. Judy tried her hardest to get Sue up. But she was crying like an infant on the ground, clutching her ear. Judy looked again and the blood was gone. The lights from the crashing cars revealed the truth. Just then Judy was grabbed. She screamed and batted her arms before she realized it was her husband, Daniel. He rushed her into the house as the cars that escaped the forest ran over Henry and Sue, and crashed into the side of their house.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING OUT THERE!" yelled Judy.

Rita was sitting with her husband who was lying on the couch. He had stopped coughing but was still breathing heavily and sweating profusely. Judy looked around, trying to make sense of all this. Daniel was busy looking out the window. "I think that's all of them," he tried to reassure.

"Why are they coming after us?"

"I don't think they are," Daniel worried, "I think they're just from the highway."

Reggie fell over and began to cough again. This time blood shot out of his mouth onto the carpet. Judy was too distracted to care. She looked deeply into her husbands eyes as he still talked. She could not hear what he was saying. All she could do was watch his pupils swell and implode.

"What is wrong with your eyes?" Judy gasped as she held her husbands face tightly.

Daniel tried to get to Reggie and Rita on the floor. Reggie was screaming through his coughs. He turned to cough away from Rita and then ran back outside. Daniel broke free from Judy and followed him through the kitchen into the backyard. Reggie's blood-soaked shirt lay torn up on the floor. When Daniel got outside he found Reggie crouched in the moonlight. He was deformed, drenched in blood.

"Reggie don't do it!" ordered Daniel.

Reggie tore Henry's chest with his teeth and dug into his intestines. Daniel could not bare to watch. He ran back inside and locked the doors. When he returned to Judy she was standing over Rita with a pair of scissors. They dripped red on the already stained carpet. Daniel slowly approached the other side of the couch. Rita's body lay still on the floor, her eyes completely carved out.

Judy sank to the floor. Daniel grabbed the scissors and threw them away. He picked a blanket to cover her with and consoled her on the ground. She cried and cried. She rocked back and forth, grasping at her knees. And She repeated over and over, "Her eyes."

Daniel made a fire in the fireplace and lit it. He brought Judy over to it to warm her. The light from the fire did more good for both of them that Daniel would ever know. It cleared their heads of the fog. Judy fell asleep in Daniel's arms. He wanted to stay there forever. But he knew that he couldn't. Reggie was still outside, and still his friend, no matter what madness had taken him.

When Daniel tried to get up, he awoke Judy. "What happened?" she asked before she saw Rita dead on the floor. Judy ran to her best friend since college. She cried over her and yelled, "WHO DID THIS!"

Daniel left his wife to make a torch. He wrapped blankets soaked into lighter-fluid around a baseball bat and dipped it into the fire. The torch caught on fire in a mighty blaze. Daniel kicked open the back door and looked for Reggie.

The moon was right upon him. It pulsed and his pupils ran. Daniel opened his mouth and felt consumed. He looked around in new sight. That is when he saw the blue flame from his torch. And beyond it the outhouse. . .

Daniel walked through the ruined forest of crying fools and broken rear view mirrors. He searched for Reggie. His friend had been chosen by the madness of the moon to become one of his primal champions. Reggie crawled on all fours like a dog. His snout was broken and enlarged. His teeth were crooked and bloodstained. His hair was unkempt and everywhere. His eyes were small and beady. Daniel saw the wolf.

He held the torch up. It was attracted to the moon and almost lifted out of Daniel's fingers. He lost grip of the torch and it went out, disappearing from his hands. Daniel fell over and the wolf was gone. Reggie ran past Daniel and scratched at his arms. Daniel quickly got to his feet. All he could see was darkness. He could not get back to the house. Reggie then tackled Daniel and bit into his shoulder. Daniel screamed and kicked Reggie off.

He got back to his feet and stumbled for the treeline. Daniel got back to the outhouse and rushed towards the house. There standing at the doorway was Judy. Turning back to the trees revealed Reggie to be gone. Daniel wanted to grab his wife, get in the car, and drive to safety. Judy said something Daniel could not hear from the yard. He tried to run, but he could barely drag himself any further. When Daniel got up to the base of the door he saw something behind Judy.

That is when he finally heard what she was saying...

"I killed her."

The wolf stood up behind Judy, in her shadow.

"You." Daniel spoke.

The wolf went to devour Judy. Daniel summoned the rest of his strength and pushed his wife out of the way. The wolf came down with the strength of a man on Daniel's neck. Its teeth tore open his skin. Daniel told Judy to run but she stood there watching. Daniel kept the claws away from him as best he could, but he was already torn up bad. He wrestled this wolf to the death trying to save his wife. Daniel kept looking up at her who was in a trance, not moving as blood splashed his face.

Out from the forest came Reggie, his entire body was still transforming, now mutated into what could only be called a werewolf. With the full moon behind him, Reggie attacked Judy. Daniel let go of the wolf he was fighting to help Judy. And once he did it immediately burrowed into the wound on his neck. The pain was excruciating, he could struggled to get to his feet. Daniel had no choice but to watch his wife get turned into a pile of flesh and broken bone.

When he came-to he was the Moonwolf and holding his dead wife in his arms. Daniel could not get his head clear. What did he do? What now?

Twelve bells chimed from the grandfather clock in the living room of their beautiful country house. It chimed twelve times for no one to hear.

COMING THIS FALL:

More chapters of your summer favorites...

&

Find out what happens to the super hero DarkFlood when the 2 Suns prophecy comes true and all of Earth needs saving.

Travel down the Mountain Road and discover for yourself the ancient rituals of MountainTop, and what exactly is waiting for the Gunslinger at the end of his quest.

Also keep your eyes open for more Spontaneous Shorts and the Upcoming Brand New Series...

The Daily Bystander

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE


...not two weeks ago...


Jason sat in front of the old TV set Jack and Randolph had in the living room. It wasn't much. This place was not big enough for three. They could not stay here. Somehow, that was made evident that fateful day when DarkFlood saved the kid from the fire. Since then, Dr. Randolph has checked up on him and made friends with the boys father, Lazarus the cab driver.

Jack, on the other hand, had gotten into the habit of hanging out in the bodega across the street with Jason. They both hung out with Moses, primarily on the pretense of his own name. That is how they got to know each other. Not only his first name, but surname too.

Days after the fire, Jason would ask Moses, "Hey what's your last name?" To clarify ethnicity, but what they would get would be a whole new bag of questions.

"Moses Stonethrower."

Jason's jaw dropped. Jack remembered that specifically. It sounded like a cartoon, or that is what Jason said.

"It sounds like some cartoon character." the boy laughed. Jack slapped him over the back of the head. "Ow! What'd ya do that for?"

"That was incredibly disrespectful. Even if it's true..." Jack explained. You see, their plan all along was to get out into the local community and make sure no signs or rumors were being pointed back at them for DarkFlood. They were covering their tracks. Watching those witnesses from the fire as best they can.

But right now, they were all in the apartment. Dr. Randolph at his desk running some scans; Jack and Jason watching TV. Jack sat behind Jason on the couch. "I think it's another one."

"YES! We got one!"

From the boob-tube....

"This is Channel 1 with breaking news." Dave Atkins the anchorman interrupted.

"There has been yet another video today," Yolanda Waters, the co-anchor continued, "Of a masked avenger appearing out of thin air with a boy in his hands."

"Moments later, as you can see by this cellphone camera video footage, the man disappears not to be seen again."

"Presumably back into the fire to save anyone else trapped."

"This all happened in our very own China Town."

"It seems that super heroes are no longer just in the comic books anymore, Dave."

"There are only a couple of reports taken from the fire, none of which witness the caped crusader..."

"Only the owner of the cellphone video could lend a hand in this mystery, "He said his name was DarkFlood."

The news report ended and Jason turned to see Jack reactions to hearing his name on TV. He looked pissed off. This was a slippery slope, that much he knew. He also knew one other thing, "The hillbilly was the leak."
"How do you know?"
"He's the only one I told that name too."

Now Jack was officially out there, out there in the known public, in society. Soon they would track him down and eventually they would find his family. Jack looked over at Randolph who was now standing and staring at the TV with his glasses off. His attempts to go back to his past could no longer be ignored. Either way, now their safety and well-being were at stake. It did not matter if he was Philip or Jack now. One thing was for certain...

"We have to go back to Oklahoma..."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR


...just a couple of weeks ago...


Turner Sans lights a cigarette with a golden Zippo lighter. Flicks it shut and slides the Zippo back into his vest pocket. DarkFlood stands before him, arms crossed, face drawn on by the alleyway shadow. He finishes hearing what this joker has to say, and gives him his already predetermined answer, "You make an interesting offer, Mr. Sans. But I must decline."

"This will not be the last you hear from me."

"My answer will always be the same."

"The time will come when are roles shall be reversed."

DarkFlood had nothing else to say to him. He wanted to check on the kid. He knew he would be able to as Jack Hanover without causing a scene as DarkFlood. A quick teleport to the apartment and back finally shook this southern hack off his back and returned to the fire, now finally put out.

The kid still rested on the floor, along with his father, Dr. Randolph, Jason, and Moses who had a boy of his own now huddled amongst all of them. The boy who Jack saved from the fire was okay, just still in shock. He continuously gasped for air, as if he was still suffocating in that bathroom. Poor boy was deeply traumatized.

Jack came back over. His wounds were healed. He had stopped sweating. All his tells were wiped clean. He got to Randolph and Jason and asked what happened. They played along well and nobody was the wiser. DarkFlood's identity remained concealed...

For now...

Jack got down next to Dr. Randolph, he was still not at ease. Dr. Randolph knew they needed to help more, knew Jack needed to help more. With DarkFlood now gone, he must come up with a solution anyway. Randolph looked around, "Ah..." he speaks up, "This is my colleague Dr. Hanover," He leans over to the boy's dad, Lazarus, and reinforces Jack's existence, "He is a specialist."

"Specialist of what?" squawked Turner Sans, back from the alley.

"Neurosis."

"In English?"

"I am a brain doctor." bluntly put Jack as he spent no more time with this bullshit. He put his hand over the boys head and could feel the hyperventilating lungs charged with fear. He absorbed that fear and his lungs tensed briefly before returning to normal. The kid breathed easy once again and opened his eyes freely. "Dad..." he said as he raced his hand under the chin of his father, Lazarus. That was all he said and did before he passed out.

"Thank you," Lazarus said to both of them. Jack shook his head and got up, ready to leave with Jason. Dr. Randolph remained.

"If it is okay with you, I would like to follow up with your boy."

"I don't have insurance."

"I will work pro bono just until I am sure he is okay."

"You got yourself a deal, Doc."

Jack walked away with Jason as Randolph finalized a follow-up visit and caught up to them. Jack and Randolph immediately began discussing the fire. "They had cameras, Jack."

"I had no choice."

"I know. We seem to have covered our tracks though. Creating a complete identity for you as a Doctor."

"There's one loose end."

"Who?"

"That hillbilly... He caught me in the alleyway, and could put the two together. He told me something unbelievable, Randolph. I will debrief you about that later though...We have much more to discuss."

"Where did the hillbilly go?" replied Dr. Randolph.

"Was he one of the ones who took a picture?" retorted Jack.

Jason walked ahead feverishly, he had no questions. He only had one thing on his mind...

"I can't wait to see the news tonight."

Dr. Randolph had more pressing matters in his head. He insisted, "You powers are growing. I noticed you are using more than one at a time now..."

"The training has helped me tremendously. I owe your grandfather a lot."

Jason had almost completely forgotten about what had happens just days ago. In the heat of all this action a suitable distraction from all the despair and grief was born. But now it all came rushing back. And for a second the kid blamed Jack. But that also rushed away when he thought about the man that took him in.

The man that is called DarkFlood.

A living superhero.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE


...just a couple weeks ago...


"...Jason..."

"Jason, you're okay..."

Jack and Dr. Randolph tried to console the poor kid after losing his grandfather. After all, he had no other family. His parents were still over in China. When he was only a couple of months old he was sent to America with his Grandfather for a chance at a new life, a better life. Now, at age 15 his Grandfather was dead, and poor Jason was alone.

Jack stood over the kid. He knew what had to be done. Jack would look after him like his own. And one day get him back to his family in China. . .

Dr. Randolph would later put in papers to legally adopt Jason. But for now, Jack took him back to the dojo, one last time, to collect all his stuff and take care of Sensei's remaining affairs. Jack walked slowly through the dojo. He put his bare feet on the mat and stared at the mirrored wall. It felt hollow in here without the Sensei. Dark and dry, the atmosphere was. Jack wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. That is when he saw it. A chest before the wall of weapons and gear that has never been there before. It stands out from the wall, placed there to be noticed.

Could it be? Did Sensei predict his own demise?

Jason was inside his room packing all his belongings and clothes. Jack approached the giant chest. It unlatched easily and so he opened its lid. Inside, were stacks of scrolls, rolled together with gold binding. He took them out along with a black katana blade. The katana had a golden emblem on its handle, just like the one from the Triad's High Dragon Leader. Except this one was not of a dragon, but a great wave washing over the Great Wall of China.

The scrolls were almost too many to carry, let alone read right there on the spot. Jack grabbed a gym bag from the floor and placed the scrolls and blade inside, along with some of the weapons and gear on the wall when Jason walked out of his room. He stopped and watched Jack finish packing the bag next to the open chest.

"What's that?"

"It appears as though your Grandfather left us his last will and testament. We shall go over it together when we get back to the apartment."

But Jack and Jason would be caught by Dr. Randolph on their way back. Clouds gathered above them. The temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Jack asked Randolph what was wrong. It was clear after Dr. Randolph brought them around the corner, what was going on. The corner market was up in flames. The store was located at the bottom of a tenement house, but next to it was a sixty story skyscraper that was beginning to catch fire.

"Jack, you have to help them."

Jack looked at the Doc, as a fire engine came roaring down the block. "That's what fire fighters are paid to do." The clouds dropped and the pressure in the air grew thin. "Besides," Jack continued, "it's about to rain anyways."

Just then, the sky opened up and thunder blasted the sky. Rain poured heavy on the city, but that did not stop the fire from reaching the skyscraper. The fire had found new food, food that burned quicker. On the street, people screamed as they ran away of the fire and the firemen ran into the building.

"MY SON!" yelled a guy in the smothering rain standing next to them. Jack watched Jason's heart break. Still, for him, the burden of losing his grandfather was all too much to bear. It was too soon. And Jason's mind was directly tapping into the father's fever to save his son. Jack could tell all of this from the kid's eyes and expressions.

Randolph said what Jack was already thinking when the last fire fighter ran into the burning building. "If he can't do something, you must..."

Jack's temptation's flickered. This was not his fight. He is a crime fighter, not a hero. The men rushing into that inferno without any super human healing abilities are the heroes. That is when Jack knew Randolph was right. He teleported and was back in a couple of seconds, now in full DarkFlood gear.

Before disappearing into the shadows of the storm, Jack made one last remark, "If I'm gonna do this... I'm gonna do it right." And DarkFlood entered the fiery wreckage of the crumbling building. Dr. Randolph consoled the father.

"Relax, my friend, your son is in good hands. What is your name?"

"I am Lazarus."

"That is a loaded name."

"I don't understand what you mean?" the foreigner said. He looked like he was from the Middle East. Perhaps Israeli with that name. But his accent put him on the other side of Judeo-Christian background.

"I drive a cab. Me and my son live on the twenty first floor."

Dr. Randolph wished there was a way for DarkFlood to hear this. Instead the caped crime fighter tumbled through the residential floors of the burning building. It was cleared out for the most part. After climbing as far up as where the firefighter's were, DarkFlood jumped ahead to the highest floors and searched for trapped people. When he found someone, Jack would sneak up on them and teleport them to safety, never revealing himself. That is, until he found Lazarus' son on the twenty first floor.

Jack teleported down yet another floor after clearing the one he was on. According to his count, he was down to the twenty first floor. He swept the first couple of apartments and they were empty. When he entered apartment 2121, the fire blew a hole through the wall, knocking Jack to his feet. He crawled under the cinder and drywall burning to ashes on top of him. Lightning carved the horizon out the broken window closest to Jack. He used it for air.

DarkFlood climbed around the fire as it ate through the remaining rooms. He kicked the bathroom door in and found a kid hiding in a bathtub full of water. He could not have been older than five or six. Smart kid. DarkFlood stood before him, frozen, watching above his head...the crack on the ceiling.

The fire breached the roof of the bathroom and it came hurdling down towards the kid and DarkFlood.

Dr. Randolph watched on with other passers-by. "What is going on here?" asked an approaching man with an apron on.

"Just whut we needed...another Muhammad." scoffed a dark, southern stranger, chewing on a lit cigarette.

"I am not Islamic, I am Haitian-American and my name is Moses. I own the store across the street."

Dr. Randolph's head jumped upon hearing yet another odd name.

"Who asked?"

"His boy is trapped in the fire and none of the fire fighters can seem to get to him." put Jason blatantly.

Dr. Randolph nudged him out of anger as Lazarus sunk his head in utter despair. He tried once again to run into the building. It took Dr. Randolph, Jason, the Haitian deli clerk, the racist southerner, and two others to hold him back.

In a tussle to the ground, the Haitian and the Southerner ended up fighting each other as Randolph pinned down Lazarus.

"Get off me!" screams the Haitian as he pushes the hick off and gets back to his feet.

The southerner pats the dirt off his vest and points his finger at the Haitian, "Touch me again, shine, And I kill ya." The rain stops just as quickly as it started and the clouds part. And there, in the gleaming sunlight of the thunderstorm's afterglow, comes an event that would forever go down in history, as the genesis of the Super Hero. . .

The Haitian and the redneck run back at each other, but right before they collide, DarkFlood appears holding Lazarus' son in his arms.

They all stop and behold the sight of a caped and masked stranger appearing out of thin air. He stands with the boys body laying limp in his arms before the emerging sunlight. He lays the boy down on the floor and lets his father tend to him. The rest awe at DarkFlood. Some take their cellphones out and take pictures. Some even take video of DarkFlood. Not many before he disappears once again. . .

Back into the blazing inferno.

Dr. Randolph and Lazarus try to get his son to breathe. Nothing seems to be working. Dr. Randolph screams for Jack. DarkFlood reappears above them and kneels down before the boy dying on the floor. He holds him with both hands and closes his eyes. The shock and the burns and the smothered lungs are absorbed by Jack, he bleeds under his suit. His disguise hides it well. The kid wakes up and DarkFlood vanishes again.

Later, when the coast is clear. Jack reappears in the alley and takes off his DarkFlood gear. The southerner walks out of the shadow and flicks his cigarette into a puddle. The rain has stopped. "I got you."
Jack looks up, startled.
"Don't run. I just want to talk."
Jack decides to hear him out and not teleport away immediately.

"My name is Turner Sans and I have a very unique set of skills. I can help you. I'm sorry, I didn't catch yur name . . . . . ."

"....DarkFlood."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO


...one month ago...


They were taken from the room with one light, taken away from Sensei's remains. As Jack walked still bound and gagged, he took his observations in great detail. They appeared to be in the boiler room of a building. After that they were brought to an elevator and taken to the top floor. This building was over a hundred stories high. They got off at floor 169 and brought to the master suite.

Once inside, Jack found the Dragon Leaders waiting. The entire outer wall of the suite was glass. One giant window revealed Manhattan in all its infinite glory behind the Triad Crime-bosses. There were seven of them, along with over twenty armed guards. They sat amongst the guards in over-stylized chairs and couches. In a crescent they awaited the prisoner's arrival with an empty sacrificial altar.

Jack had no doubt in his mind. This was kill or be killed.

Dr. Randolph and the kid were brought to the altar along with Jack.

"Mr. Hnvr...please....do...smthing..." the kid cried under his gag.

Even Randolph tried nudging Jack to do something. But Jack was too busy concentrating. He was placed at the center of the altar. Randolph and the kid were placed on both sides of him. They were forced on their knees and the bounds and gag were taken off of Jack. Bad mistake. The Dragon Leaders must have wanted an explanation first.

They would never get one.

Jack grabbed the kid and Randolph and teleported out of the room. All the men in the room gasped. The guards held their guns up at no target. Jack teleported back into the room for a split second before leaving again. He left in the suite, a massive orb of light that exploded, knocking all in the suite to the floor, and shattering the giant window to a million pieces.

The man holding the silver pistol with the golden dragon was the High Dragon Leader, the head of the Triads. He put his hand over his brow when a profile silhouette appeared before him. A cape waves in the sporadic winds. The blinding light of the explosion fades and there stands DarkFlood.

The guards open fire on him. Stone armor comes up under the Kevlar vest, and the bullets that do get through are absorbed. They empty their clips and the room, except for the winds, gets quiet. DarkFlood turns invisible, hiding behind his camouflage and teleports. When he reappears behind the High Dragon Leader, Jack is still invisible.

He is learning to use more than one power at a time.

DarkFlood slips the silver pistol with the golden dragon emblem on its handle into his utility belt. He teleports 6 times. Jack reappears in the center of the room, on the sacrificial altar before the High Dragon Leader. He drops the 6 hearts of the Dragon Leaders on the altar.

The remaining Triads open fire on DarkFlood as he vanishes behind his cape. They all gather in front of the High Dragon Leader as he now fears for his life. He pulls a samurai sword with another golden dragon on its handle off the wall and watches DarkFlood finish off his men.

DarkFlood pulls his army knife out and teleports in between the guards, ripping their throats out with his blade and tricking them into firing on each other until they are all dead. All except for the High Dragon Leader and his samurai sword...

Jack shoots a pulse blast out at the High Dragon and he cuts it in half with the samurai sword.

Impossible.

How could he know Flood Technique?

"The same way I knew your Sensei..." answered the High Dragon.

"How did you-"

"The Flood is much more powerful than your Sensei taught you..." interrupted the High Dragon.

"It wont matter in one second!"

Jack drew his gun and the High Dragon tried to do the same. Only his silver gun with the golden dragon emblem on its handle was not in his hand but in Jack's. He fired the gun once. Before the bullet went into the High Dragon's head, the High Dragon used his telepathic power to transfer a part of his own psyche into Jack's head. Jack would not be aware of this for some time to come. The High Dragon would have to regain his strength first. But to Jack, the head crime-boss was dead. The Triads were no more. DarkFlood dropped the silver pistol and cleaned the crime scene of any proof that him or his friends were there.

Jack teleported back to his apartment where Dr. Randolph was tending to the kid. He was hysterical. Jack felt responsible for the death of his grandfather. Jack also knew what it felt like to lose one's grandfather. And so Jack decided to take the kid in and watch over him. Which meant he would finally have to learn his name...

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE


"Remember all that I have taught you, DarkFlood..."


...one month ago...


The damp Triad holding room shines one ceiling light on Jack, Dr. Randolph, Sensei, and his grandson. The room was stale and hot. Everyone was sweating over their bounds and gags. Sensei was preoccupied with making sure his grandson was okay. He had no time for instructions. Jack looked over at Dr. Randolph. He twisted out of his muffle and yelled, "What are you waiting for!?" Jack knew what he had to do. But when he checked with his Sensei, he realized...

This was not the time to reveal his power.

Randolph kept flipping out. Jack was trying to figure out what the Triads had planned. The last he had left it they were thriving in a hood now vacant of any other gang. They should be thanking Jack, if anything, not punishing him. Maybe they thought because Jack killed every other crime family in Chinatown, they better strike first or risk being next on Jack's list.

He could not risk the lives of his friends. He must do something before they come back in. He knew the next time a Triad walked through that door, someone would die. It was up to Jack whether or not it would be one of his friends of one of the guards. Jack still could not believe this was happening.

Jack was under the impression that the gangs of the kingpins that he assassinated would come for him before long. Never in his wildest dreams, did he imagine the Triads being responsible for the early termination of DarkFlood. Jack could not sit idly by and let this happen. And yet something was keeping him from releasing his super human abilities.

"They will take us away."

"Away where?" Jack asked the old Chinese man.

"They will take us before the Dragon Leaders for our execution."

"...." Jack put it together, "...You want me to unleash my fury then?"

Sensei nodded his head. He closed his eyes and exhaled. He was tired. Jack looked deep in the old man's eyes. All of the long exciting years of the quiet Sensei's life had finally caught up with him. As if he was already defeated, or accepted something Jack did not know. He continued talking to his student, "Then we will have put an end to all of this..."

"...Once and for all..."

Jack took inventory of all his abilities. First there was his ability to heal rapidly. Or as Dr. Randolph deemed it, "Catalization." Next there was the Flood Martial Arts technique that Sensei taught him. Next was his camouflage. After that was the tumors in his body responsible for his super strength and reactive stone armor. And last was his pulse blasts from his palms. Combined his almost had a full outfit of useful wartime abilities. If used together, both the defensive powers of armor and healing, and the offensive powers of super strength and pulse blasts would make Jack unstoppable.

Right now he could not use them. He must save up all his power for the showdown Sensei had foretold. Jack sat in his seat and began to gather the energy and fury from within. This would be his biggest triumph yet. Once he laid the Triads to waste, Chinatown would be free of crime. Jack remembered his fight at the Slaughterhouse, it would be nothing compared to this. Sensei watched on and Randolph and Sensei's grandson began to comprehend what was happening.

The door unlocked. The echo of the key pivoting within the door echoes in the small dark room. The door swings open and in walk five men dressed in black suits and red ties. They are armed with SMG's, tiny machine guns that make almost no noise; except for one. One walks a silver pistol with a golden dragon on its handle over to Sensei and fires it through his head.

The blast knocks the old dead-man's chair to the floor.

His brains slide across the blood to the side of Jack's boot. Sensei is dead. His grandson cries, strapped to his chair. Randolph screams for Jack to do something. But he just sits there, in awe. His mentor is dead. First his Grandfather, now Sensei. All he could do now, is follow through with Sensei's last requests.

To put an end to all of this once and for all. . .

Chapter 4: Hickory Hill

The Gunslinger looked up at the hill. It was covered in brown grass and breaching the sky. There were few trees alone along the hilltop. Charlie admired his new rifle. Little did he know, it was a beacon for all of those he crossed paths with. A beacon of Porter's Lake royalty. . .

"Do you know what this place is?" he asked Charlie.

Charlie looked up the hill. He followed the stone tabs up to a house made of thin wood planks, and a charcoal colored roof. There was nothing else but the house on Hickory Hill. Charlie finally answered the Gunslinger...

"A sanctuary."

"That's right. We shall replenish our supplies and continue on to the Run."

"So you do know the road?" Charlie figured out.

"I have been studying this mountain and its inhabitants for years."

"Gunslingers think they rule the world."

The Gunslinger stopped walking up the stone tablets and approached Charlie harshly. Charlie stumbled back and blurted out, "That is what they said!" The Gunslinger stopped.

"That is what who said?"

"The men I met inside the house on Hickory Hill."

Charlie thought he would have asked more questions, not just turn around and briskly walk up the hill to the house. Then he realized...The Gunslinger meant to kill whoever was in that house.

"NO!" he screamed after him. "IT WAS YEARS AGO!"

The Gunslinger did not break his gate. He pulled his guns and raised them up along with his heel. The Gunslinger kicked the door in and before those inside could pull their guns they were defeated. He turned around and looked at Charlie, keeping his guns pointed at the men.

"Are these them?"

Charlie looked at each and every one of there faces. He thought back to that time. He could remember it so clearly, the manner in which they talked of the Gunslingers always kept it fresh on his memory. Coming into company with one he could not help but mention it. Now he was the center of a line-up hold-up.

Charlie remembered the first guy. How his brow dropped just over his nose. He remembered his personality resembled it. He was frumpy and odd. He kept to himself and laughed at the other men. He had to be eight feet tall.

The other two guys looked like every other outlaw or cowboy that comes through here, dirty and drunk. They talked too much and made fools of their kind. Charlie tried to remember specific physical features. 'One guy', he recalled, "had what he thought was makeup over his eyelid, but after careful examination he realized it was gunpowder. Someone had fire a revolver at such close range to his eyes that the blast got under the skin of his lids.' Charlie tried to identify the last guy in the bar that day. He opened his eyes back up from thinking.

Charlie looked around and saw the three of them. It did not matter at this point. Two of the same and one generic outlaw rounding out the trio...

"That's them."

The Gunslinger rolled to the center of the room and open fired. Charlie freaked out, arming his rifle but thinking about fleeing for cover until the Gunslinger does his work. The Gunslinger killed the two outlaws, both with two shots each to the chest and head. He picked them apart.

The giant was left.

It threw its gun at the back of the Gunslinger's head and rocked him off his feet. He stumbled forward as his caught himself on his gun-hands and rolled back around. He fired off his remaining four rounds into the body of the giant, but it barely slowed him down. It kicked him before he could get back to his feet, and launched the Gunslinger into the wall across from the doorway.

Charlie stood with his rifle cocked and loaded and watched the Gunslinger tangle with the giant. It grabs at him writhing on the floor and Charlie swallows his fears. He pulls the trigger and it goes wide right and the giant continues to try to pick up the Gunslinger. He reloads. Charlie holds the gun up again and this time drags his eye-line down the barrel of the gun.

He lines his eye up with the barrel and the head of the giant and pulls the trigger. The bullet blows the giant brains out all over the ceiling as he dies and lifelessly pins down the Gunslinger beneath him.

Charlie does not know whether or not to help him out. Twenty minutes ago he was about to kill him over a saying. Was this man a hero or a maniac? What gives Gunslinger's the right to take lives without consequence?

Charlie put down the rifle and pulled the dead giant off of the Gunslinger. When they got back up, the Gunslinger thanked him and brushed the dirt off his coat and vest. "Gather ammo and food and lets get outta here."

"Another place wasted. You leave a desolate trail for a man, Gunslinger."

"Then ask yourself, Charles..." the Gunslinger said, "Why are you following it?"

Charlie stood on the road as he said that, frozen stiff. He looked ahead as the Gunslinger walked further down the hill, further down the road. 'This was the last time', he said to himself, 'that he would doubt following the Gunslinger.' Either Charlie left now and parted ways forever, or he sticks this out and commits completely.

He stood on the road and looked ahead at the Gunslinger.