The Fourth World

[Eternity]

In the distance I see a sliver of light crack the darkness. Was it a dream? A nightmare? Or simply an illusion conjured up by a mind struggling to cope with its prolonged isolation?  I wasn't sure because I'd never been left to starve before. Slowly the light doubled in size before me and as it did, I squinted in pain, struggling to adjust to it for a few moments. Now I knew it was real.

I watched a silhouette emerge from the light and take the form of a pretty little blonde girl, no more than seven or eight years old I guessed. She approached me slowly, almost apprehensively..

Was she afraid of me?

Why would she be afraid of me?

I'd never hurt her, I'd never hurt anyone.

I was not my father...

She placed a straw in the open bottle of water she was carrying and brought it up to my lips. I tilted my head forward and started to suck up the liquid quickly, lubricating my throat enough to speak in a voice much raspier than my own.

Warren: Thank you.

Her blue eyes shimmered as she smiled at me.

I coughed to shake the residual dryness from my throat.

Warren: What's your name?

Girl: Charity.

Warren: That's a pretty name. My name is Warren...

Charity: I know who you are.

Warren: You do?

Charity nods.

Charity: Mmmhmm, you're my new big brother...

I wanted to tell her that I wasn't. I wanted to tell her that I had no intention of staying here. I wanted to ask for her help to get out of here and go home. I thought about offering to take her with me, but before I could say anything, the room was flooded with a purple light as i saw Eternity lead three more girls into the room. 

You watched Charity smile as she skipped over to me to collect her reward, a banana. who rewarded her with a banana. You saw Charity flip the banana upside down before she unzipped it and started to devour it, and you heard Warren's stomach rumble, betraying the resolve of his latest protest against his captivity.

You see all four girls then sat in a row, cross-legged on the floor. Charity with her banana, her raven haired sister with Warren's Joker In The Pack briefcase, her brunette sister with Warren's IWF Hero of the Year Award 2015 and her red haired sister with a cut throat razor.

You see me then approach Warren squatting down before him and holding his gaze.

How long has it been?

Do you even know? Do you even care? It's easier said than done, isn't it? Suppressing every natural instinct and every natural compulsion to feed, to feast, to devour and consume...

You see me then tear open Warren's shirt, exposing his shrunken chest and exposed ribs, it was obvious he had lost considerable mass and definition over weeks of starvation.

Look at yourself Kidd, look at how your body continues to betray you. Feeding itself even when you won't. Fighting to survive even when you shouldn't have to. Your mind might be ready to die Warren, but your body isn't. It's a struggle I know all too well.

Do you know how many times I've died in my dreams?

Do you know how many times I've lived in my nightmares?

Do you know how many times I've wanted things to be different? How many times I've wanted out of here, to lead another life, to go back to the way things were? To feel my father's embrace, to hear his voice? To know somebody out there still cares?

Do you?

Because if you do, please tell me. I've lost count. I've lost so much. I've watched the world slip away more than once. I've flown, I've fallen, and everything in between. Always in between. Stuck in between worlds. From first to third, but there is another, a fourth just beyond reach. Beyond the cages. Beyond the ladders. Cells within cells. Billions, multiplying, always multiplying. Spreading, consuming, surviving.

The cogs of the machine keep turning, it's in the nature of the beast to endure and to conquer and to consume for as long as it is here. For as long as it lives, and it will live for as long as it can, with or without our consent. We never asked for any of this, and yet here we are, forced to make the best in this world.

No rest, no sleep, no mercy, no concern for the children of this world.

Neglected as they are by their fathers.

My children, my child, my brother Warren.

A tale of abandonment, familiar and sad, echoed across both sides, told by you, retold by Jessie.  Both denied, living on in hope, guided by faith, yearning to live again the life you left behind once already. If only you could. If only for a moment. If only it was that simple.

But it never is, and it never will be again for you Kidd.

Forsaken by his father, his God, his friends, his lovers and his family - and still he waits. Consumed by the fantasy that all of this will come to an end soon. Waiting for Daddy to strike down upon me and deliver him from this...

He's not coming for you, he's not ever coming back.

Mine never did, so what the hell makes you so special?

You see me then collect the razor from the redhead before turning my attention back to Warren.

God didn't save me, and he will not save you. He will not save any of you from extinction.

When will you learn?

When will you understand?

You see me then start to shave Warren's several months of beard growth.

Not yet it seems so whilst we all sit here and wait for God's deliverance, let's at least make you look presentable. No need to face Judgement Day looking anything other than your best is there?  So tell me, how many times have you thought about Daddy dearest bursting in here and dropping me on my head with a Spike Impailer or hitting me in the gut with the Thunderstruck?

Now you see Warren smile.

Warren: I've lost count...

HUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

There you are! I knew you were still in there somewhere. You can take the Kidd out of Kane but you can't take the Kane out of the Kidd. Such violent imagery, such anger, tainted blood and a tortured soul buried for so long. Together we will give you back your real face. Your true face. Decorated in your father's greatest sin.

A forsaken son, a sun forged anew from the old. Scrapped steel. Stolen. Embraced. A new face no longer crafted in his image. Born and reborn in the twilight hours of a new dawn, risen from the ashes of extinction. A new day, the first day of a whole new world, a world where you shall know me as your end. The end of your innocence, but not yours alone.

No, never alone.

I will always be here, with you, with them, seven billion of them marching in my embrace once again.

You see my eyes suddenly light up.

Seven billion of us, each of us a survivor, made up of billions more, cells within cells. Cells without cells. Souls both imprisoned and free as they have ever been. Life goes on. The circle in constant rotation, spinning on the axis of eternity, stitched in leather and burnished in some golden promise, whether lain across the shoulder of the fortunate or strapped around the waist of a waste.

Neither are safe, neither are immune.

Good women and fair maidens, all come to know Death.

And they shall know me, both again and for the first time. The half become whole. The first become the second. A pair within three walls, I could have been the fourth, but they are not my friends nor my enemies. They are nothing but inadequate shelter. A house of gold with scraps of competition.

I am not the fourth, not yet. But soon. Soon they will come to know me, not as a wall, but as a door. Open, inviting. Come on in, stay for tea. Come one, come all, September has long since ended and I am awake. Come one, come all, come again, come on.

Death is a host to all on this eve of extinction.

All of you. Tell me your stories. Tales of lives already lived, that is why I am here, to mark an end to that life, that climb, that struggle and that view from the top of the world. Stories we've all heard before, and stories we will hear again, acted out for an eternity on the stage. Something to keep you occupied, something to keep the madness at bay. 

The things we do to keep ourselves sane.

Costumed rather than consumed - such is the tale told by Jessica Reed.

Acted rather than lived - such is the life of Crystal Millar.

Excused rather than accepted - such is the conviction of Paige Garcia.

Each a lie in its own way and in my way, on the road to truth which lies ahead of us all, the road to an eternal and everlasting truth, paved in gold atop the bones of maidens in the shadow of a large house. A house I make home again.

The home that has been denied to us both, Kidd, by your father and by my daughter, with or without our friends.With or without our sisters, brothers, birds or bees. We will be reborn not only as liberated souls, freed from every convention, but also as pioneers.

Left to make a mark on ths world whilst waiting for the next.

That is the legacy my father left for me.

And that is the legacy I will leave to each of you, my brothers, my sisters and my children.

You see me then stop shaving warren abruptly, leaving him with an almost Hugh Jackman "Wolverine" look to him. You see me cock my head to the side and clap my hands.

THERE! MUCH BETTER! LESS JUDAS, MORE JESUS, I'M IN LOVE!

Not bad for my first time in fifteen years, all things considered.

This is the man you could be if you just gave us a chance.

The man of my dreams and everybody else's nightmares.