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#8

'Secret Houses & Fallen Angels' - Part One

By Joshua David Krenz

 

Dr. Gordon strode through the House of Secrets joined by Jason Rusch.

"Strange as it sounds, I knew these walls well."

The dark mahogany-or was it light oak?--walls shifted as Dr. Gordon, the former Eclipso traveled down the halls. A rug lined the cold wooden floors, traveling the length of the hallway. Still, its baroque colors did nothing to help the muted room. Instead, the drab colors and medieval design drained the feeling from the entire house.

"You must be careful, evil lurks at every corner. I hear the Juris reside here now. Haunting the halls, searching out those with dark secrets in their hearts. Some secrets will be purged... others will be punished. They say to be trapped in the House of Secrets is to live out your secret eternally."

"Sounds pretty crappy," Jason mumbled through a mouthful of bread.

"Still," Dr. Gordon continued, "that's not why we're here. The Stranger brought us here for something else entirely."

The two approached a window, one of the few windows in the House. Landmarks were few and far between, and signs of the outside were even scarcer. Confusion is the House's deadliest weapon, capable of disorienting even the most grounded of individuals. Things were perpetually shifting in the House, no pattern or reason-simply chaos. Very few people could navigate these rooms alone, even knowing where they were going. Getting lost would be fatal, the dark corners of the building would swallow you whole. Wrong turns were not an option.

"The trick is to know where you are going. That way, you can't get lost."

The two looked out the lone window onto a vast and imaginative landscape. The Dreaming, a gathering of minds into a collective world of thoughts, ideas, and unreality. It is a world as much as any other, but simultaneously it is not.

"What is it?" asked Jason, finishing off the last bite of a baguette.

"A place that should not exist. It is a collection of the imaginative, a place where resting souls frolic. There are only a few entrances. The House of Abel, where we now reside. The House of Cain, where the Phantom Stranger travels as we speak. Finally there are two gates that sleepers travel through in order to get here...the Gate of Ivory and the Gate of Horn. One admits lies, the other allows through only truths."

"You sure know a lot about this for a scientist."

"I spent too much time walking these halls. I thought I was alone with Eclipso, but the House of Secrets is always occupied with visitors. Even now people that we will never meet walk these same rooms. Kierkegaard says that faith requires an amount of doubt. They are opposites, but cannot survive without the other being present. That's the Dreaming... a world that denies reality, but cannot cut the ties. Without reality there is no Dreaming."

In the distance sits a large castle, the center of the Dreaming. Guarded by three mystical beasts, the post now stands empty. Abandoned by its owner once again, the stonework now radiates emptiness and darkness.

"So what's that?" asked Jason.

"That... is where we will be traveling, as soon as the Stranger returns from his mission."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere, once in time.

The Old Man Legba cackles to himself as he dances around a pot of boiling water. In his hand sits a glass orb, gifted to him by a foolish white man, unaware of the power of the glass.

" Mawu and Mami Wata be praised!" the Old Man laughs as he shakes a gnarled stick in the air.

Legba grips the ball firmly in his hand and careful draws a bone knife from his waist. Holding his orb-hand steady, Legba drags the knife across his wrist-opening up the veins to bleed down across the glass. Quickly, the blood drenched orb is thrust into the boiling water. Legba screams as the hot water sears his flesh, antagonizing the open wound. The roar turns into a chant, as Legba regains his composure. After a minute of singing he removes his hand-now mutilated and scarred from the boiling water-and looks into the orb. It is filled with red smoke.

The smoke clears away, inside the glass orb sits Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, frail and trapped.

" Ahh, Hypnos-God of Sleep. You are no longer worshiped, and now forgotten! You shall serve me well."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was empty without Sue, but clarity had started returning to him.

Once again, Ralph Dibny was brought back home, alive and alone. His memories slowly returning, he shuffles through the thoughts of the last year. The suffering brought upon others in an attempt to make things right. What crimes had he and Ray committed in the name of justice?

Something had changed, but most people hadn't noticed. The few that caught on to the joke got swept under the rug, went insane, or simply tried to deal. Not knowing what had happened was probably for the best, in the end. The horrible things that Ralph could remember were enough to deal with, understanding the scope would probably shatter his elastic skull.

He sits alone now, having returned from the depths of space. Perched upon the edge of a dock, spanned out in front of the Manhattan night's skyline. His form sometimes fails to hold shape from years of Gingold use, but he no longer cries for his dead wife. He still mourns her, but his body is incapable of producing any more tears.

Two figures slowly approach him from behind. Old friends, with good intentions.

"Lovely, isn't it?" Hal Jordan asked as he sat took a seat next to the Elongated Man.

"I prefer the West Coast, personally," said Arthur Curry, cringing as he wiped engine oil away from his hands, taking the opposite side of Ralph.

"Ever notice..." Ralph started, "that all the stories take place in New York ? I wonder why that is."

"They don't all take place there, just a lot of them," responded Hal.

"Sure, but there are more stories in New York than anywhere else. New York is big, but the world is bigger. You would think that the world as a whole, which is much larger than New York , would be a much better place to tell the story."

The three gazed at the skyline for a moment.

"It took us some time to find you, Ralph. You know how to disappear with the best of them," said Arthur, cleaning the final bits of grease off of his hands.

After another moment of watching, Ralph finally turned and looked Hal in the eyes. "I have made a terrible mistake."

"We know, but you weren't of the right mind."

"No, that is not an excuse. I must work to atone."

"Then we will help you."

"At the end of our travels we are alone. At the end of this journey, with what I must do, I will be alone."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"There have been a series of attacks, Ralph," Arthur spoke through a mouthful of rice. The three men, dressed in basic street clothes eat Indian food on a sidewalk, a few feet away from the rolling cart sidewalk vendor who sold it to them. "At first I thought they started in Sub Diego, with the Sea Devils. It seems, however, that similar attacks have been happening all across the world for the past few months."

"Still," added Hal, "we cannot verify the interconnectedness of the events. Some of them don't even come close to resembling each other."

"The information is there..."

"You just need me to put it together for you," finished Ralph Dibny.

"We work as a team," said Hal, "like before, but smaller."

"No," Ralph shook his head, "not like before at all."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It takes serious balls to sit at my table," Lee said, floating side by side with the Phantom Stranger. "I know you, Stranger. I know your kind and what you want from me. I tell you this not as an insult, but as a matter of fact-you are wasting your time."

"Then why are you walking with me right now?"

"Curiosity, I suppose. A human trait."

The air in Bete Noir was always cold, always wet, and always tasted of rot. It was unavoidable, and to be expected. Around midnight the temperature always spiked for some unexplained reason, a way of reminding everyone that they were living in Hell on Earth. Bugs buzzed in the air, swarming around lights and dive-bombing pedestrians. Locals knew to always look down and keep your faces covered. Partially to keep the bugs away, but more to keep other locals away.

They were six-blocks away from Furor's, Fallen Angel's base of operations. Dolf, the barkeeper had told Lee about the man sitting at her table. When Dolf walked her over to her favorite seat he thought that the guest had already left, however Lee knew better. When a man like the Phantom Stranger doesn't want to be bothered by others he has ways of disappearing. Even though Dolf couldn't see the Stranger it didn't mean he wasn't sitting right where Dolf had left him.

In the shadows, demons moved silently. To normal eyes they looked like men, but Lee saw them differently.

"Something is going on," she whispered through clenched teeth.

"I know," said the Stranger. "That is why I have come here."

Tightly wrapping her crimson cloak around her, the Fallen Angel disappeared into the darkness. A moment later she emerged clenching a transient in her fist. With a quick push, Lee tossed the man to the filthy street below. With serpent-like fluidity the man rolled into a crouch.

"Hello, Liandra," the man said through clenched teeth, flashing her a snake-like smile.

"Benny."

Benny, still on his haunches, quickly glances up at the Stranger.

"Who is he?"

Lee waits for a moment before answering. "A guest, a visitor to our grim community."

"Sounds like a victim to me!"

The Phantom Stranger looked down at the scaly man bundled on the floor. "Tell me, Serpent of Eden, what plans are held for this city tonight?"

The grin cut away from Benny's face for a brief second.

"Answer him!" Lee yelled, with a swift kick that landed firmly under Benny's chin. Knocked back by the blow, Benny sprawled across the ground. Before he could regain his composure, Lee's foot rested firmly across his throat. "I would answer quickly, Benny, before your throat collapses from the pressure."

Benny chuckled for a second, then Lee increased the pressure. His limbs flailed like ropes as he screamed. Finally, Benny gave in.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you!"

Lee released the pressure, but didn't lift the foot.

"Freedom," Benny gasped. "We've been promised freedom."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Phantom Stranger and Lee continued down the street, both cloaked by shadows.

"So tell me, Stranger, how did you know that Bete Noir would be a target tonight?"

"Up ahead," the Stranger replied, "is an old church. It sits atop an old burial site. Voodoo and black magic."

The Fallen Angel stops dead in her tracks, throwing back her cowl.

"Answer me, Stranger! I'm not playing games."

The Phantom Stranger continued along his path. "Bete Noir is biblical Enoch, the city built by Cain."

"What does that matter to me?"

"The House of Mysteries, Cain's house, is one of the entrances into the Dreaming."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An all but abandoned church sits in the center of Bete Noir. The city was not built around the site, instead it was drawn towards the city's center. The unknown bonds between objects, much like gravity, force power to interact a certain way. Simply looking at the church would give the viewer no clue that it held such power, but no one doubted why it would be positioned where it was.

The demons had abandoned their human forms and now moved as shapeless shadows through the night. Some took the time to feast on recently buried bodies, rending rotten flesh from mutilated bone. They cackled as they perched on headstones and balanced from trees, constantly changing form.

Once, the shedim were proud of their shapelessness. Forever free of form they plagued the world, constantly in a state of physical chaos. Soon, however, their eternally shifting bodies proved to betray them, cursing the shedim with change. Trapped by unpredictability, the shedim now try to hide among the humans, possessing those with evil in their heart and weakness in their character.

"What brings them here, Stranger?" asked Angel, leaning against the outer fence.

"The same thing that brings us. There is great power buried here, as soon as we cross this threshold we are no longer on earth."

"Tell me, why should I leave?"

Without looking towards her, the Phantom Stranger answered. "If they succeed in their task, the world will end. Along with Bete Noir."

The Phantom Stranger phased through the fence and crossed the threshold.

Next Issue: More with the Phantom Stranger and Fallen Angel, and Elongated Man begins to piece together clues that have been dropped since the inception of DC Infinity!