Us and Them

Snap Back

   "Dude, what the fuck?" Pete grumbled, rolling out of bed as someone pounded on the door to his room. This had been the third time someone had done it that night and now it was four in the morning. He threw the door open and got a fist square in the nose. His eyes watered as he staggered backward from the doorway, blood running out of his nose and hitting the cheap linoleum in dark red droplets. The intruder pushed past him and into the room, Patrick turning on a light at the sound of the commotion.

"Dallon? What's going on?" Patrick asked, more out of concern than anything. It's been some time since they'd seen each other.

But Dallon's eyes were hollow, the blue had disappeared from them and been replaced with the same glowing yellow Patrick's did whenever he was around music. But the room was completely silent.

"Before you go any further, I want you to ask yourself if the war is worth the loss. Is this Torchbearer really someone you would lay down your life for? The Sacred Municipality of DEMA only strives for cohesion with the outer lands. Our city only wants to provide structure and meaning to the mundane cruelty that is life. If you value life, you will abandon the Torchbearer's reckless ways and rise above your emotions. The only conclusion to this continued conflict is death." Dallon's voice was deep and warbled, like a demon out of a nineties horror movie had possessed him. Then, his eyes rolled back and he fell face first onto the floor. His skin was pale and he didn't react to what would probably be a painful moment.

"Oh...okay then..." Patrick looked at Pete nervously, then to the body of their friend in the middle of their room.

"This is a problem for tomorrow." Pete decided, sniffing as he'd finally curbed the bleeding. "I'm going back to sleep. We'll deal with...whatever this is in the morning."

"You don't think we should check and see if he's breathing?"

"I'm sure he's fine. But if he is alive when I wake up, I'm kicking him in the balls for punching me."

                                       •••

   The five had gathered in Pete and Patrick's room, Andy crouched down and looking calculatedly at Dallon's body. Black smears of what looked like grease paint were around the lifeless man's throat, almost as if someone had taken their hands and dragged them across both sides.

   "Maybe he was right, well, whoever was using him as a meat suit walkie-talkie was. I mean," Pete looked at Josh. He knew this was going to hurt. "we've seen nothing but trouble since you've shown up in our lives. Andy's dead because of that."

   The Prophet shot a blazing look at Pete, rising to his feet. This only made Pete dig in. "And you! Mister High and Mighty with his hidden army, you seemed to be quite comfortable watching the world burn around you while you and your desert buddies sat back on your asses. So our leadership is some forest guy and some KISS cosplaying motherfucker who thinks he has all the answers."

   "First of all," Andy started, jabbing a finger at the other. "You guys just sat around and let Patrick suffer. Completely content with playing fugitive and fighting someone you called your friend rather than trying to figure out what the fuck was wrong with him. If you had it handled from the start you would've already been winning this fight in the first place!"

   "Maybe it isn't about winning. Maybe, it's about playing the long game until these fuckers are buried under the feet of the people they dicked around. And," Pete looked at Josh. "Maybe it's also about keeping your bullshit problems on that side of the damn delta. Trench isn't any of our problem. You guys have it shitty there with some totalitarian government, that sucks, but don't bring it over here!"

   "God, enough! Shut up both of you!" Patrick snapped. He took a breath before looking at Andy and Pete. "This whole thing is no one person's fault. Pete, the Torchbearer warned you of what having him stick around would bring. He took care of me and made sure we made it out in one piece whenever the Vixens showed up. Matter of fact, we let him get taken to Vegas. Andy, we really do appreciate the help that you have given us. You and CC risked your asses to bring down Brendon and close a chapter there. Infighting won't bring Hurley back, he knew what he was doing and he did it for us on his own. The least we can do is make his death count for something."

Josh had a silent guilt written across his face as he spectated the conversation, Joe looked at his hands as if he had been feeling a certain way about the situation as well. A thick silence sat over the room, then Dallon's body twitched and he gulped in a breath. He rolled over onto his back, blue eyes wrought with fear. Everyone except Andy jumped, the Prophet looking down at the terrified man as if he'd seen it coming.

   "Welcome back." He said simply, as if Dallon had just walked in through the door. The war had now moved to a new front none of them were prepared for. This was no longer man against man, but god against man. And that in and of itself was terrifying.

                                        •••

   "The presence that took over me was unlike anything else I'd ever felt. It was like someone had taken fear, put it in a vial, and stuck me with it. It's already terrifying enough being in the backseat of your own existence, but adding that on top made feel like I'd rather be dead." Dallon explained, his hands wrapped around a styrofoam cup filled with water.

   "Now, the Torchbearer only ever told me about the Bishops possessing the dead. How is it that they're taking control over completely normal, living people?" Andy asked, looking to Josh.

   "They must've found a way to amplify their psychokinesis beyond using NEDs. There are other methods of gaining the power. For example, Keons bonded with a dragon named Trash instead, which gave Clancy a way to obtain help from a NED. But not even bonding with the dragon made Keons able to control the living. And not even the Vixens are that advanced to help the Bishops figure that out, there's no way."

   "Then how do you explain Patrick's aggression when music is played? How did they perfect a type of brainwashing that conditions someone despite their resistance?"

   Josh didn't have an answer. He had all of the pieces except one, which was who was the link between the worlds. Who discovered DEMA and signed a deal with them for power and control over a land foreign and unimportant to the Bishops?