The Scarlet Fire

Why Me?

Early the next morning out in the countryside, Ghost Rider's Hellcycle starts to sputter. 

Up over the hill, the sun begins to rise over the horizon, casting a crimson flush over the green valley. The sun is the Ghost Rider's Achilles heel. 

Ghost Rider stumbles off of the motorcycle and crawls along the ground. The flickering Hellfire coursing over his skull snuffs out as Y/N's body begins regenerating from the inside out. 

First the muscles and ligaments, then the inner corium, and finally the epidermal layer. Y/N trembles, desperately reaching for something, before finally touching a tree.  

Not just any tree but the old oak tree on Crowley Hill. Still visible in the trunk of the tree are the words: 

Always & Forever

The memory burns from his touch and then a shovel is thrust in the earth beside him as Y/N looks up to see Caretaker. The mysterious old man from the cemetery. 

"Nice goin', bonehead."

He spits a stream of tobacco juice as Y/N passes out. 

Inside the news station later in the morning, Zooey steps over to the bank of video monitors where Stuart is editing their Y/N Blaze segment together. 

"Oh, good. You're here. Tell me what you think about this --"

"What do I think? I think that I was a fool to believe that Y/N Blaze could ever change. 'Always and Forever?' What a joke. He couldn't even make it to breakfast."

Stuart blinks. 

"I meant the segment."

A beat.

"Right..."

Zooey's cell phone rings as she flips it open:

Into the phone. "Zooey Kern...oh, hi, Mike...our flight's not until five, why?"

Stuart looks over as she smiles. 

"Yeah, it is a good thing we're still here...okay, we're on it...thanks!"

She hangs up and turns to Stuart. 

"A story's breaking here in Dallas. The Boss wants us to run with it."

Stuart grins. 

"Hell-o Prime Time..."

Outside Caretaker's shack, Y/N's blurry world begins to focus to reveal the craggy, scowling face of Caretaker staring down at him. 

"AHH!"

Y/N scoots back from the old man. 

"Don't thank me all at once."

Y/N looks around to see that he's laying on the back porch of a shack with the sprawling graveyard before him. 

"Why am I in a graveyard...?"

Caretaker spits a stream of tobacco juice. 

"First come. First served."

Y/N just stares.

"That was a joke, kid."

"Right..."

Y/N starts to get up but grimaces with pain. He may have been invincible last night as the Ghost Rider, but this morning as Y/N Blaze he's feeling it. Big time.

"What happened to me last night? I feel like I got hit by a truck."

Caretaker chuckles. 

"Did I say something funny?"