The Emerald Eye in the City of Night

The Emerald Eye is asleep.

Somewhere deep beneath the City of Night, layers of sediment, and rock, the fossils yet to be mined and more, a great cavern exists. Within it, legends tell a great behemoth named Apex slumbers. For as long as stories have been told, from the days of rudimentary fires and drawings on cave walls to the great poets and orators standing behind lecterns today; everything from earthquakes, tremors, erosion, and all manner of natural disasters were playfully blamed on Apex.

But nobody really believed it was anything more than a legend. ✟✞✟✞✟ You wake up drenched in sweat in an unfamiliar room. Someone’s sleeping beside you. Who is she? You don’t remember. Her body rises and falls in cadence with her breathing. Her eyelids flutter rapidly and you hope she’s having a better dream than the one you woke from.

Jessica.

The memories slowly filter back, as does the eternal ache in your stomach and mind.

The Laguna Beach House in Emerald Bay.

Emerald.

You laugh at the coincidence. She chose the place, a quaint little breezy seaside resort. She felt it would be good for you. Clear your mind to get some fresh sea air. After all, your boat sat in its dock in Winter’s Port most of the summer.

She was right.

You missed the ocean.

No.

You missed how it felt like an ocean crashing into your veins, subsiding over you, the rivers and tributaries abuzz with electricity.

Relief. Hunger. Pain. Begin again.

How long do you think you can go?

Until your heart stops beating?

Until you drop dead, needle in your arm?

“What are you thinking about?”

You’re snapped out of thought and turn to see Jessica rolling onto her side and facing you. She’s smiling warmer than you deserve, and you weakly muster one in return. The room is still dim, maybe she won’t notice.

She always does with you, though.

“You. Us.”

You’re such a fucking liar. ✟✞✟✞✟ The citizens in the City of Night would feel the tremors of Apex sleeping intermittently. Low rumbles that shook and loosened the earth. Fear and panic then set in, and people were unsure how to react. They hid in shelters and doorways waiting for it to pass. The vibrations were always explained as earthquakes because nobody believed the legend.

Deep within his cavern, Apex was restless. Deep uneven breaths bellowed out of pointed twin nostrils. Small trails of smoke snaked out of them as well, dissipating into the cavern’s viscous darkness. The behemoth shifted onto one side and people top side felt the effects. However, they couldn’t hear the distinct clinking of gold colliding and rushing in different directions. As Apex dreamt uneasily his eyes fluttered and blinked swiftly beneath their lids.

In his dream, there was a revelation to Apex.

Something great was there for the taking in the City of Night.

Something worth waking for after waiting for so long.

Five stars danced in his head, over and over.

Not a dream, but a vision.

The Emerald Eye opens. ✟✞✟✞✟ You and Jessica are out to dinner at American Beauty, a steakhouse in Venice Beach. She insisted it was only a 90-minute drive. You think a Boston girl would understand that driving north through the heart of Los Angeles might be a little bit different; three and half hours later you’re right, but say nothing.

You think the waiter is remarkably handsome for a young man, he has the physique of a bodybuilder, six-foot-six and as wide as a barn, but seems to have two brain cells locked in an eternal battle for superiority. Neither is winning. He’s well-meaning though, like an untrained Golden Retriever puppy. You notice every time he goes to the back, another waiter, a brown-haired man to your waiter’s blond, pops up and stares.

They were talking about you.

When you make eye contact, they avert theirs and pretend to go back to work. You chuckle. Jessica smiles at this. You reach across the table and put your hand on top of hers.

This is nice, isn’t it Donovan?

Do you think you deserve this?

You don’t.

Love is for better men than you.

Happy endings are for those who earn them.

There is only one thing in the world that can give you your happy ending.

You’re briefly interrupted as the waiter approaches, his friend tags behind him.

“Hey man, we uh, we thought we recognized you. Are you that wrestler, Father Don?”

You smile. “I am.”

“Oh shit, that’s totally righteous man!” The two men high-five, it echoes loudly through the rather quiet restaurant and heads jolt upward from their plates at several tables. They didn’t take any notice. You and Jessica laugh.

You sign a napkin for each of them and shake their hands. You even oblige to a selfie with them. Nobody else here gives a fuck who you are Donovan.

You still don’t matter.

Your concentration is interrupted as Jessica squeezes your hand.

“How was the grand opening?” ✞✟✞✟✞ The morning of November 20th, you found yourself in front of the mirror, ironing out your Sunday best with your bare hands after you’ve put it on. You’ve been dreading the day for months, but Mother Superior insisted that you were the face of the movement, therefore you needed to lead the way.

You rehearsed the speech a hundred times or more, but were still convinced you would misspeak once standing in front of everyone. This wasn’t preaching, it wasn’t from the heart. The Sisters of Absolution wrote the speech and demanded you learn it, and with your Mother’s backing you couldn’t put in a word of resistance.

You’ve always been so powerless.

What do you want, Donovan?

It went off without a hitch of course, your confidence returned as soon as the words began leaving your mouth. Thousands cheered you. The resort was completely sold out through the new year and reservations of more ‘pilgrims’ as Mother has begun calling them, were coming in by the hundreds every day.

The beach was packed with His Word and Light’s most devoted servants tanning under his glorious rays, delighting in his abundant sands. They flocked to the daily worship events, and the entire audience singing full throat could be heard across the whole of Footprints. They raved about your sermons, your charisma, and the way you spoke directly to their very souls.

You were the inspiration in so many of their lives. All you needed to do was speak to them.

You couldn’t care less.

You couldn’t wait to get out of Winter’s Port and back to Jessica, back to wrestling.

The success in wrestling, preaching, and the church, the love of a woman who cares about you, the adoration of your peers, fans, and more.

It’s never enough to fill the hole.

Not when you’re chasing the dragon. ✞✟✞✟✞ “I’m so glad to hear the restaurant is so good,” Mother Superior smiles serenely as she speaks on the telephone.

“My recommendations never disappoint,” she insists. “I knew the two of you would love it.”

She stands and wanders gingerly around her room as she listens intently. Mother Superior lifts a photo off her dresser of her son and smiles gently, before something on the other end of the line changes the tone.

“That doesn’t matter,” she hisses. “Do what I’ve asked.”

She hangs up the call, tossing her phone onto her bed.

Sighing deeply, she does the same to herself and slowly drifts off to sleep.

A mother’s love is exhausting. ✞✟✞✟✞ Apex is awake. He slithers serpentine, scraping his massive belly across vast treasure stores. He breathes heavily now, the vibrations growing more concerning on the surface of the City of Night. He is singularly motivated, and knows his dreams are a reality and Five Star could be his. For once, he has decided that the behemoth will come for the gold, rather than wait for the fool adventurer.

He feels a determination in his gut that he has not felt in countless moons. He has rested for so long. Apex manifested briefly as Kuroyama, the Alias King, vanquishing all comers returning his gold to the hoard, and falling back to slumber, but now, once again, he hungers.

Apex is determined to satiate that hunger, one star at a time.

“Woe to the vanquished,” he whispers in his foreign tongue, sending another tremor through the City of Night. Buildings sway with this one, heavier than they’ve felt in years.

“Woe to the vanquished.” ✞✟✞✟✞ You’ve really got to piss.

“I’ll be back in a minute, I’ve got to use the bathroom.”

You’re exhausted from talking about the church. You feel like it’s the only thing you do lately. Talk about the church, support the church, and talk for the church, it never ends.

You are the Church, Donovan.

The Priest-King of Christianity.

Or have you forgotten?

Is this what a crisis of faith and conscience feels like?

You’re lost in your thoughts as you step to the urinal, unzip your fly, and begin going about your business.

You never hear the two men enter behind you. Never feel either of them standing just off each shoulder.

Instead of staring at white bathroom tile, it’s the inside of a sack and you can feel the sensation of cold steel at the small of your back.

“Come with us, Father,” do you recognize the brusque Japanese accent, even though it has been tarnished by time and whiskey? You’re unsure.

Your mind races to think about Jessica. Will she see you leaving? No. They’ll take you through the back. They’re smarter than that. You realize you left your phone at the table. There’s no way to get in contact with anybody.

You are at their mercy.

You are lost. ✞✟✞✟✞ Apex picks up speed. The furnace tucked deep in his gullet fires on, the louvers open. If the workers were in the coal mines of Apex’s bowels, they would be shoveling night and day to keep him running. Only three and a half stars for the effort, not the five Apex desires.

The City of Night can feel the temperature shift on the surface. The humidity begins to rise almost immediately.

Sweltering.

Oppressive.

The streets began to tremble and rumble. Water mains burst, spewing their contents into the air with the velocity of pressure. Some buildings begin to buckle and list, one falling into the next in a domino effect of debris, destruction, and death. Screams arise from the streets, and the citizens in the City of Night begin scrambling for shelter, any sort of cover. The center of the city erupts as buildings collapse and a massive sinkhole forms.

The cavern is open.

Apex corkscrews magnificently into the sky, blocking out the eternal full moon and scouring the city below with the unceasing Emerald Eye. His belly glows red, the furnace primed, only needing the essential ingredient of oxygen for ignition.

Somewhere in the wreckage of the city below is his prey, The Revelator. The Holy Man who holds the power and gold of the Five Stars. The power and gold that Apex craves.

The Revelator steps forth from His Word and L̷̢̐e̵͇͌̉ͅg̶̣̞̝̓̃̄i̸̛̹̼͐̑ơ̴͎̖͚n̴̬̔̐͜͝ donned in crimson and white, Five Star strapped around his waist, glowing gold and emanating a warm hum. He stares skyward, using the Lord’s Sight, and spots Apex circling overhead.

The God’s Eye and Emerald Eye lock in the City of Night. ✞✟✞✟✞ You awake from the dream confused, swollen, and unable to move. You can feel the jute rope digging into your ribs, arms stretched around the chair and behind your back. Your ankles are shackled to a large chain, which is hooked to a massive eyelet in the center of the concrete floor.

You recognize this room.

A lightbulb swings freely from a wire above, you can slightly feel the emanating heat each time it swings near your head before momentum pulls it away.

Your forearms hurt. So does the space between your fingers and toes.

Phantom pain?

Your head is reeling. The jackhammering within is almost unbearable. Anything for two aspirin and a glass of water. Your eyes are unable to focus, but they try real hard as you hear two pairs of footsteps entering the room.

They begin speaking in Japanese, laughing at something you don’t understand. You’re sure you recognize one of the voices, but the bag is quickly thrown over your head again, plunging you into the darkness whence you came.

The only friend you’ve ever truly known. ✞✟✞✟✞ Apex soars through the sky effortlessly, some of the City of Night’s citizens, those brave enough, peek out of their apartment windows, or from beneath what little cover they’ve been able to achieve.

They’ve all been proven wrong.

The legend is real.

The most dangerous threat to Five Star yet, and as The Revelator stands among the city’s wreckage, he watches his foe swirl, swoop, and dance overhead. From seemingly thin air, The Revelator’s holy magick produces The God’s Eye, the famed and prodigious staff that he believes can defeat Apex.

Apex roars and bellows, the heat of a hundred suns pouring forth from his maw, setting the skyline alight. Flames lick and rise toward the eternal full moon as the City of Night burns. The Revelator swears he can hear the famed dragon laughing as he continues his assault.

The Revelator thumps The God’s Eye into the earth, it reverberates outward, catching Apex off guard. The dragon’s flight falters momentarily, but the massive wings beat the air around them into a fury and he’s once again on the ascent.

The Emerald Eye turns and fixes on The Revelator.

A snort that resembles a derisive laugh comes from deep within Apex as he changes his trajectory and heads straight for his true target.

The Revelator and Apex smile. ✞✟✞✟✞ “You have my permission to do whatever you deem necessary,” Mother Superior smiles as she sips from a glass of 2020 Pétrus Merlot.

“The poor boy has found himself off the wagon again, getting into those nasty injectables,” she tut-tuts. “We simply have to dry him out, get him right again. We both know he can’t lead in that condition.”

“Yes, of course,” she agrees. “What we discussed, everything that happens after December 14th is in your hands. He needs a keen eye on him while they’re touring Japan. He will not be allowed back home until he gets clean.”

She sips from the glass once more and then shakes it in the air. Violent Purple appears at her side and fills it to the brim. Her head’s down, hair shorn, no longer the color of her namesake. She is required to keep the horror she feels inside to herself. She knows what she was forced to help the Sisters do to him, but she’s got to push it down deep, way down in the hole. Just like Donovan.

“Okeydokey Kel,” she smiles. “It’s been wonderful speaking with you. I hope you and the boys have a good time with Donovan in Japan. Take care now!” ✞✟✞✟✞ You’ve been transported again. The two Japanese men are holding you by the arms, leading your still-bagged head across, what feels like concrete or pavement. You’re not really sure. Your head is still pounding something fierce, huh Don?

They’re still saying things you can’t understand. Not because it’s easier, but because they don’t want you to know. Plant that seed in your brain as you're pushed along, watch it grow, and bloom into paranoia and doubt.

Are they going to kill you?

Are they just going to leave you here?

What did you do to deserve this?

You’ve always known.

They stop abruptly, you’re nearly tripping over your own feet.

The bag is removed and you’re blinded by spotlights.

You shield your eyes and try to focus. The world slowly comes back and the very blood in your veins freeze when you see the silhouette of his gas mask.

The Man. ✞✟✞✟✞ The Emerald Eye of Apex transfixes The Revelator as the two stand a hundred yards apart on a barren plot of land south of the City of Night. Smoke rises like tendrils from Apex’s flared nostrils, while The Revelator’s Eye of God emits a calm golden glow. Five Star hums heavier than before at his waist

“Kuroyama!” The Revelator shouts, using Apex’s most recent name. “I respect your challenge for Five Star. I respect the power and might that you possess, but I cannot let you destroy the City of Night. I ask you to return to your cavern or face the Eye of God’s holy justice.”

The dragon laughs. The Revelator was sure of it. Apex takes one step forward, then another. The ground pulsates with each step, but The Revelator doesn’t budge. He uncoils his elongated body, shows off his true wingspan, and glares down at The Revelator.

“Puny preacher, hand over the gold and I will spare the City of Night and your life.”

The Revelator shakes his head defiantly. “I’m afraid I cannot do that, my friend. I have too much respect for Five Star, myself, and you. If you want Five Star for yourself, you must take it honorably.”

Apex’s belly begins to glow white hot. His head rears back and the Revelator can see the fire rushing up his long neck, ready to rain hellfire down.

The Revelator’s faith in His Word and L̷̢̐e̵͇͌̉ͅg̶̣̞̝̓̃̄i̸̛̹̼͐̑ơ̴͎̖͚n̴̬̔̐͜͝ is strong and as he prays with the Eye of God in his hands, the belt and staff glow in harmony. A storm of clouds forms overhead and rain begins to fall around the crashing of thunder,and cracks of lightning. The Revelator smacks the Eye of God against the earth once more and the swirling clouds part.

A singular bolt of lightning crashes from the heavens.

The Emerald Eye sees no more. ✞✟✞✟✞ You hear the strained vocals of Richard Ashcroft. “Now the drugs don’t work, they just make you worse, But I know I’ll see your face again.” The bag is removed from your head. You feel your legs swept out from under you, knees thwacking the concrete floor. The Man stands above you, no doubt grinning behind that hideous mask.

“It’s good to see you again, Donaven.” His voice is modulated. Stepping in to flank The Man confirms your suspicions on one of the men’s voices. Your handler Koji Tamura, and alongside him his feared right hand, Touma ‘Iron’ Murakami.

You’re Jesus on the cross. Eventually. It’s what you’ve always wanted. Rob Williams couldn’t give you what you truly desire. Real nails, you want to feel the sacrifice.

The Man bends down to your height.

“I want you to listen to me real well Father,” the mocking tone of the last word briefly raises your blood to a boil. “Koji and Touma are going to be taking good care of you in Japan when PRIME heads that way. You’ll be traveling with them directly after Colossus. No going home. No seeing your little girlfriend. Understood?”

You want to spit at him. You know better.

“Good. Furthermore, we’ve heard you’re back on that nasty little heroin kick. Why would you do such a thing? You’ve worked so hard!”

You sneer. They all know why and laugh at you.

“As an old friend, I’m compelled to motivate you, Don. I have your best interests at heart. You know that, right?”

Fuck you.

“Unfortunately, I fear this is the last time we’ll have the privilege of sharing the same space, and I’m sorry it’s been so long, but I’m a busy man, you’re in good hands. I just don’t have time for crumbs.”

He grabs your chin and pulls it close to his face. His free hand slowly lifts the mask. Your eyes go wild as his grin stretches wide. The Man wasn’t The Man at all.

You choke the words out. “K-Kel-Kellen?”

He drops your chin, you fall harmlessly to the floor. He chuckles. The others laugh.

The heel of his boot finds the back of your neck.

Cold, familiar.

“We made a pact twenty years ago,” Kellen Kinkade, your former teammate and confidant snorts and hocks the result on your face. “You need to honor that.”

You feel betrayed. The words are bubbling on your tongue, but you can’t bring yourself to say them.

“His Word and Light? Hokey bullshit. We both know this. You belong to me. You belong to Asylum.”

They bring you back to your knees and force you to meet Kinkade's eye.

All this time spent lying to you.

Just like everybody else you've ever known.

You recite a prayer in your mind.

Kinkade looks you over a final time and the words coming out of his mouth shake you to your core. The Pavlovian response baked in so long ago, buried thereafter, now rears its ugly head again.

God has forsaken you.

The Jersey Devil slides the mask back over his face.

“We are One,” he says.

You reply and collapse.

“We are Legion.”