Blood

I spent hours trying to think of some way to get out of there. Kyle was right about the chains. They were seemingly unbreakable. And I couldn't pry the spike they were attached to from the ground. It s in there pretty good. After a while, a sickening realization began to sink in. The only way I could put an end to whatever the High Blood was planning. I drew my sword and stared at it for a long time.

“What are you doing?” Kyle asked me. I guess he had an idea of what was going through my head.

“You said they need me alive, right?” I asked.

His eyes widened in fear. H knew exactly what I was thinking. The destiny Ben saw for me. I would have to sacrifice myself to protect the people I care about. If I allowed the High Blood to execute their plan, I had no doubt it would end badly. People would get hurt. People that I love. But they needed me alive to pull it off. That was a variable I could easily remove.

“You can't,” Kyle said.

“What else can I do right now?” I asked him.

“I don't know!” he said. “But not this! This is crazy!”

“I know,” I said. “But I don't see a whole lot of choices here.”

“What about Seraph!?” Kyle demanded. His eyes began flashing red. “What about her?”

“I don't know,” I said. “If I'm out of the picture, the Panopticon wouldn't have any more reason to hold her hostage. She'd go free.”

“You don't know that!” Kyle said. “And could you imagine what they'll do to her? What they tried to do to Tony?”

“Maybe that's better,” I said. “Maybe she should forget all this...”

“Are you listening to yourself!?” Kyle demanded.

“Enough,” I said. “I have to do this.”

“No you don't!” Kyle said.

“I said enough!” I snapped at him.

He took a step back. His eyes returned to their normal color. I could see his fear in them.

“Don't do this,” he said softly.

“I have no choice,” I said.

I raised my sword. As I did, I saw Burner materialize before me. He was clearer than before. I could almost make out his features. He appeared to be wearing some kind of armor that I couldn't place, and he seemed to have messy hair.

“Master,” he said. “This isn't right.”

“Take care of Tony,” I said to him. “Protect him for me.”

“If that is what you wish,” Burner replied.

I pointed the blade of the sword toward my heart. I knew it would hurt. I wasn't expecting to get it right. I was sure I'd screw it up, and end up bleeding out slowly instead of ending it all quickly. I took a deep breathe and closed my eyes, bracing myself for the pain.

“I wouldn't if I were you, mate,” came a voice.

I opened my eyes. I was no longer chained to the floor of that strange room. I wasn't quite sure where I was. The skies were red, with black and gray clouds scattered throughout it. I stood near the end of a rocky cliff, overlooking a vast void, stretching as far as my eyes could see.

“Nice view, eh?” came the voice again.

I looked beside me. A young man was sitting at the edge, with his legs dangling casually off the edge. He had mousy brown hair, and pale skin, and was dressed in jeans, a shirt, and a tight coat, all black. At his side lay a jagged shortsword, with a hand guard. He looked up at me, with a smile on his face. Is eyes were bright green.

“Ben?” I asked. “But... how...?”

“I've been here a while,” he said. “Come on, put that thing down and have a seat.”

I lowered my sword and sat next to him, confused.

“I thought you died,” I said to him.

“That's what I heard, too,” Ben replied. “Not sure I believe it though.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Let's not waste time on questions you already know the answer to,” he told me. “As much as I'd love to reminisce, we've got something important to talk about right now.”

“Something important?” I asked. I was beginning to feel lightheaded.

“Yes,” he said. “Like the fact that you were about to impale yourself on my old sword.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Not a good idea,” he said. “You need to stay alive. You've got a road ahead of you still.”

“But if I stay alive, the High Blood will be able to do their plan,” I said.

“Is that a bad thing?” Ben chuckled.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I can see destiny, remember?” he replied. “And this whole thing might not be as bad as it seems.”

“Destiny doesn't always play itself straight,” I said. “And the High Blood can do some horrible things with what's in that book.”

“Who told you that, exactly?” Ben asked. “The Red Cap? The Black Joker?”

I didn't say anything.

“I feel betrayed,” he said, jokingly. “Who are you gonna trust? Them, or me?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I guess I haven't been thinking clearly.”

“I don't blame you,” he said. “This whole thing is screwy.”

We both laughed. I think the sky lightened up a bit.

“I'll admit, though,” Ben said. “I can't see everything. Just small pieces of a grand picture. I don't know anything for sure.”

“So what should I do?” I asked.

“You should do what you do best,” he said. “Live. Survive. No matter how much pain weighs you down, don't let it break you. I know that whatever happens next will hurt you. More than anything you've experienced before. But if you die now, everything will go to shit. You've got to press on, like the stubborn bastard you are.”

“Daniel?” Kyle's voice sounded, breaking through everything I was seeing.

I was back in the room, standing with my sword's tip placed to my chest, and my leg still bound in chain. I lowered the blade, breathing deeply. Where had I gone? Had I been in that room all along, stuck in some kind of waking dream?

“Change your mind?” Kyle asked nervously.

“Yeah,” I said. “Someone talked me out of it...”

“Who?” he asked.

“Benjamin Malkator,” I replied.

“What?” Kyle asked. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I said.

It was then that the High Blood began entering the chamber. I couldn't count them, but I'm sure there were at least a hundred of them. And I'm sure that that was only a fraction of the High Blood's numbers. They all stood a distance from us, on the other side of the circular indentation. Reout was the only one to step forward.

“Took you guys a while,” I said.

“I needed time to recover after what your little pet did to me,” Reout said.

“You had it coming,” I said. “So, what is all this?”

“You'll see,” she said, drawing her knife. “So, will cooperate, or do you plan to make this difficult?”

I shoved my sword back into its sheath and looked her straight in the eyes.

“Do your worst,” I said.

She looked very annoyed by that. Of course. She was hoping I'd struggle. Too bad for her.

“Fine, then,” she said.

She slit her palm on her knife, and approached the circle. She allowed some of her blood to drip down into it. She then turned back to me, and handed me the knife.

“If you're so cooperative, then give us some of your blood,” she said.

I brushed her knife aside, and drew my sword instead. Didn't wanna catch anything from her.

“If my blood's all you need, then what was the point of keeping me alive?” I asked, cutting into my palm enough to draw blood.

“Blood is only one of two things we need for this,” she said, taking my sword and flicking some of my blood into the circle with hers. “We could have easily gotten the blood from your corpse. Your hatred, on the other side... we can only get that fro you while you're alive.”

“Well, I assure you,” I said. “I've got plenty of that to go around.”

“Good,” she said.

She turned back to the circle and took a bag out of her pocket. She opened it up and began sprinkling various sands of different colors in the circle, while chanting. As she did, I saw some runes surrounding the circle begin to light up. I hadn't noticed them before, but now they glowed with a crimson light. The other Blood vessel's in the room began chanting along with her, syncing up their voices perfectly. I saw the blood in the circle begin to expand and mix together, until the indentation was completely full of it.

“Now,” Reout said, turning to me. “This is where your hatred comes in. I need you to hate me. Hate my creator. Dig into your soul and allow your loathing to consume you.”

“Daniel?” Kyle asked. “Why are you going through with this?”

“Don't worry,” I told him, recalling Ben's words. “This will all work out.”

I remembered Red Daniel. Everything I could about him. His cocky, flirtatious demeanor, that hid a much more sinister personally. A psychotic asshole who enjoyed killing, causing misery wherever he could. A man who got off on pain, whether he was inflicting it or receiving it. His past, which he had told me all about. The sins he's committed in his past. What he did to Seraph. What he did to the Board. What he did to those people before my final confrontation with him. It was wrong, and the very though of it sickened me.

I so so caught up in my thoughts that I almost didn't notice the red light emanating from my body. My hatred was actually becoming some kind of energy, surrounding me in a vortex of crimson light. It remained for a little while before leaving me, and being soaked up in the ool of blood. The chanting died down slowly, and the light stopped coming from me. The runes on the ground faded away, leaving only the pool of blood, and an eerie silence.

“So what now?” I asked. “What did that do exactly?”

“It should have worked!” Reout snapped. “Where is he!?”

She turned on me, gripping the knife tightly.

“You did this, didn't you!?” She demanded. “You disturbed the ritual somehow! What did you do!?”

She raised the knife, prepared to attack with it. I summoned Burner back to me and took a defensive stance. But before either of us could make a move, something I wasn't expecting happened; An arm shot up out of the pool of blood. Everyone stopped and stared in stunned silence and the hand pressed itself to the floor and began pushing down, lifting the shoulders and head of a man from the blood. It shouldn't have been possible, since it was only an inch or two deep, but there was a human body slowly emerging from the circle. And, I realized with a jolt of horror, it was a body I recognized. As it rose fully out and stood up straight, I could see that it was none other than my own body.

The blood began sliding off of the body, like water, slowly exposing the man's blood red, shoulder length hair, along with his other features. There was no mistaking him. Kyle could see it too, as he was the first of us to speak.

“Red Daniel,” he gasped.

“Master!” Reout exclaimed delightedly.

Red Daniel opened his eyes and observed us to a moment with a confused expression, taking us in slowly. Then he cracked a wide smile and looked me in the eyes.

“Danny Boy!” he said. “What a pleasure to see you again! And in new duds! Love the look!”

He made to stick his thumbs in his pockets, only to stop when his hands met his hips.

“I am not wearing pants,” he commented, apparently just noticing.

“You aren't wearing much of anything,” I informed him.

“and now I know what Daniel's Junk looks like,” Kyle said. “Anyone got brain bleach?”

“Could you please cover up our genitals?” I asked. “People are staring.”

“Staring?” he asked, turning around and finally noticing the res of the High Blood standing around watching us. “Oh! Hey!”

He scanned the crowd and singled out a young girl in the front row.

“You!” he said, pointing to her.

“Me?” she asked nervously.

“Yes, you!” Red Daniel replied. “Give me your pants!”

“M-my pants?” she asked, visibly flustered. “Couldn't you ask for-”

“A guy's pants?” Red Daniel finished for her. “No. Fuck that. I want the skinny jeans. Gimme.”

The girl awkwardly removed her pants. I thought I saw a camera flash somewhere behind her as she did. Some people...

She tossed the pants over to Red, who managed to squeeze into them.

“Ouch!” he gasp, as he tried to pull up the fly. “Zipped my pubes! I need to manscape. Such a chore...”

“TMI, dude,” Kyle said.

“Says the guy who was looking at my junk earlier,” Red replied, fixing the zipper and buttoning up his new slacks.

“Explain!” I said, getting annoyed. “What is all this!? How are you alive!?”

“Well, it's a little complicated,” Red said, grinning smugly.

I pointed Burner at him and allowed the blade to ignite. He took a step back, fear flashing across his face.

“Explain,” I repeated.

Red Daniel closed his eyes, seeming to get his thoughts together.

“This may take me awhile,” he said. “This little ritual here is used to bring people back from the dead. It's a little tricky though. You need several things, but there's three big items involved that are most important for it to work. You already know two of them, I'm sure. The Blood and the Hatred of the man who killed me. That would be you.”

“go on,” I said.

“The last thing,” he said, “Is just a small shred of the dead guys consciousness.”

“Your consciousness?” I asked. “But how...”

It hit me before I could finish the question.

“Reout's blood!” I said, but I realized it was even more than that. “The High Blood's blood! You've been there this whole time!”

“Bingo!” ed Daniel said. “It all happened the night you killed me.”

“But how!?” I demanded.

“Believe me,” Red Daniel said. “I really did wanna die that night. And I guess my body did. But Things didn't quite play out like I was hoping. Instead, I sort of... became the Red Cap...”

“How the fuck does that work!?” I demanded.

“Well, I only took a piece of my Red Cap to this universe with me,” he said. “She was weak. Strong enough to empower me and stop me from offing myself, but not much more than that. I performed as much debauchery as I could to strengthen her, but it wasn't enough. Her consciousness was weaker than mine. And I'm not sure ow, but for some reason, in my dying moments, my consciousness elclipsed hers.”

It was starting to make some sense to me. He had replaced his Red Cap when I killed him. That explained why he was able to corrupt the Sentinal's blood during my fight with him.

“I killed my Red Cap, Daniel,” he said glumly. “I didn't mean to, but I killed her. And now I've taken her place...”

He took a deep breath before continuing.

“I became connected to all of the Vessel's I helped create,” he said. “But it was all so new to me, and I was weak. I couldn't do what my predecessor did. I had trouble speaking to them, or controlling them. Only a few could really hear me, and the best I could do was influence their actions slightly. So, I gave them the idea to find the Bleeding Crest and bring me back.”

“And that's why the True Redness and Abdalin were afraid of that book,” I said. “They new what could happen with you getting your body back and leading the High Blood.”

“Um... Master?” Reout interjected.

Red Daniel turned his attention to her.

“It's nice to see you again,” she said, giving a respectful curtsy.

“Ah, yes,” Red Daniel said, smiling at her. “Ms. Rodriguez. I like what you've done around here. Gathering new recruits, tipping the war in our favor. Well done.”

“Thank you, Master,” she said.

“And have you been a good girl in my absence?” He asked.

I scoffed and muttered “As if...”

Red Daniel gave me a questioning expression.

“You sound bitter,” he said. “What did she do, exactly?”

“She pulled the same shit you did with Seraph,” I said.

“Come again?” he said, quirking one of his eyebrows.

“That right-hand skank of yours molested my girlfriend!” I snapped.

“Is this true?” Red Daniel asked Reout.

“Yes sir,” Reout said. “He was being uncooperative, so I took measure's to-”

She stopped speaking as panic took over her expression. She stood completely still, as if frozen in place, before her body literally exploded, and shards of blood red crystal fell to the ground around us. When I looked over at Red Daniel, I could see nothing but rage and contempt on his face. He had crystallized Reout's blood inside of her body and then caused it to explode. I didn't even know that could happen. With a deep breath, he turned to address the High Blood.

“I want to make one thing very clear,” he said. “Daniel Ferris, and those close to him, are not to be touched. Am I understood?”

A nervous silence followed. Red Daniel spoke again, this time his voice stern and raised.

“I said; Am. I. Understood!?”

They all took a step back, and they all said some variation of “Yes, sir,” in quiet timid voices. I could really see it now. The ability to put that much power into his voice. The ability to strike so much fear in the hearts of his followers. Red Daniel wasn't joking. He really was the Red Cap.

He really was a Fear.

“Now, what's today's date?” he asked.

Someone piped up with “February 14^th, 2016.”

“Well, then why are you all here!?” Red demanded. “Go out! Party! Throw an orgy or something! It's Valentine's day! Get outta here!”

The Blood Vessel's began clearing out, nd Red Daniel approached mine and Kyle's shackles. He formed a crystal key from his blood and unlocked us.

“Sorry about all this,” Red Daniel said. “And... about... you know... what I did to Seraph. Dick move on my part.”

“Yeah, I'm still pretty pissed about-,” I stopped mid-sentence as a thought occurred to me. “Did you just... express guilt?”

Red Daniel shrugged.

“Got any plans tonight?” he asked me.

My thought's went back to Ben. He said something about an ally, and that I'd need his help. I didn't wanna believe that this was what he was referring to, but it made sense. It swallowed my pride and looked my counterpart in the eyes.

“Seraph's been kidnapped by the Panopticon,” I said. “We need to save her.”

Red Daniel smiled.

“Okay,” he said. “Count me in. Just let me get cleaned up first. I am literally covered in blood right now, and while that's normally just another Sunday night for me, we've got places to be, and I need to look presentable.”

“Good idea,” I said.

“You two just wait here,” he said. “Hang out. Update your... do you still have that blog?”

“Started a new one,” I said.

“Oooooo,” he said. “I'll have to get caught up. But first, clothes. You boys just make yourself at home on...”

He looked around a bit.

“Where the hell are we?” he asked.

“No clue,” I said.

“Right, well, I'm gonna look around, see if I can find some clothes,” he said. “And maybe a shower. May take a while.”

He left the room, and I started writing this post. So yeah, Red Daniel's alive again. Fortunately, he's on our side. I think? I dunno....

Hang in there, Seraph. We'll be there soon.