Vermilion Widow, Issue #005

Issue #005 – – – – – controlled by Bill Treadwell – – – – – Credits 12

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Cassandra said.  “Who are you?”  She expanded her gesture to Hourglass too.  “”Who are both of you?”
“Straight to the point,” the short man said, chuckling.  “I like her.”
“I thought you would,” Hourglass nodded.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” the man said. “But understand this, young lady – nobody knows the full story here.  I’m sure of that.  Some grand event is taking place, wider and broader and more vast than you can imagine.”
“Okay,”  Cassandra said.  “So fill me in with what you have.”

“My name is Jorge Hernandez Benito, I was born in America, as were my parents.  My grandparents were Cuban.  They came to America just after the Second World War, shortly before the famous battle between Gran Destructivos and La Bestia Noche destroyed the home country.  We thought this place, at least, would be free of the darkness that seemed to be creeping over the world.  Sadly, as you probably have seen, it was not.  It simply took longer to reach America than some other places.  Perhaps ironically, it has gripped Helix City – once a place of shining virtue the world admired – with even more ferocity than elsewhere.”

Cassandra could tell this was a man who, once he got started on a story, liked to tell it at his own pace.  She decided it was better to let him run with it and ask questions afterwards.

“When my parents died I spent some time on the wild side,” Jorge said.  “I wasted what little they had left me drinking too much and spending too  much time in bars and nightclubs.  I gambled.  I knew many women.”  He smiled when Cassandra cocked an eyebrow and he patted his generous belly.  “I was not always this shape.”
“One night, I got into a fight.  I cannot remember why, or even whose fault it was.  But this man, he had many friends and I was alone.  They had a dangerous look about them and I felt sure they meant to do more than just beat me, so I ran.  They chased me out of the rear entrance of the club and through the streets.  I managed to stay ahead of them, but I was getting tired so when I saw the stairs down to a basement I dashed down and tried the handle.  It was unlocked.  I slipped inside and I hid.”
“This is an origin story,” Hourglass smirked, “You get to hear a lot of them when you hang around with super-types.”
Jorge nodded: “In the darkness of that strange and musty cellar I found an item.  What you might call an artefact.  It changed everything.”
“You gained super-powers?  What can you do?” Cassandra was fascinated.
“I can sense things, mostly.  Mystical things.  Strange things.  Magical things.  I can glimpse beyond the curtain of reality to the things that lurk beyond it.  This is why I am now called The All-Seeing Eye.”
“Are you really All-Seeing?” Cassandra breathed.
Hourglass laughed.  “He wishes!”

“That was an interesting story,” Cassandra said.  “But it hasn’t really explained very much.”
“I know, there’s a lot to tell.”  Jorge agreed.  “Over the last couple of years my powers have begun to reveal things to me.  Things that few other people even suspect, let alone know.  This reality around us – it is fake.  Nothing is supposed to be like this.  The darkness, the evil that seems to be rising on every side – it’s a construction.  It has been made, by something or someone.  It has a purpose.  We are but actors in it.”
“I’m not an actor,” Cassandra assured him.
“You are.  But you are one of the special ones.  You still have some connections to the original reality.  I do not know why some have this and some do not, but there are others like you.  I have taken to calling you Misfits, because commonly you feel that you do not fit into the world as it is.”
“I do feel like that,” Cassandra agreed.

“So tell me about your revolution,” Cassandra prompted him.
“It is not my revolution,” Jorge said.  “I am but a bit player.  But I have felt other forces at work.  Whatever has turned our world dark is not without its own enemies.  There are allies, though we cannot seem to communicate with them.  Some great battle is being fought still.  It may seem that these mighty powers will decide the end of this story, that beside them we humans are dwarfed.  But that is not the case.  The real battle is being fought right here, by those who will take up arms.”
“How do you know who to trust?”
“I don’t,” Jorge said.  “Though perhaps my powers make me better able to judge than most.  My instincts told me to trust Hourglass when she fled into Viktor’s bar to escape the Bullies.  My instincts tell me to trust you.”
“But when I met Hourglass she was with a street gang!” Cassandra pointed out.
“There was an Abnormal with that gang,” Hourglass explained.  “The All-Seeing Eye here found him and sent me to find out if he was recruitable.  I was trying to feel him out by hanging with the gang when you showed up and quite a lot of people got dead in a hurry.”
“Sorry about that,” Cassandra said.
Hourglass shrugged: “Shit happens.”

“Okay, I have more questions,” Cassandra told them.  “How come I only remember being a cop?”
“In this reality, that is all you have been.  But this reality did not unfold in the way time and space are supposed to.  I believe it was simply created, whole and complete.  Which is why there are things that don’t seem quite right, things that don’t fit.  It’s why some of you have slipped through the cracks.  No intelligence, no matter how vast, can properly simulate the entirety of evolution, time and space.  There have been mistakes.  I believe these mistakes represent our best opportunity to put things right.”
“If I kick in with you guys, where do I stay?  I can’t go back to the police if they’ll detect my powers.”
“Your choice,” Jorge said.  “I can help you avoid detection if you wish to continue with the cops while you explore the truth.  Or if you want to make a clean break, we can help you hide and give you a place to stay.”
“Here, at Viktor’s?” She asked.
Jorge laughed: “No.  Not here.  This is a very special place.  You wouldn’t want to stay here all the time.”  She was going to ask him to explain what he meant by that, but she could somehow see from the set of his jaw that he wasn’t willing to share any more about that right now.

“Okay then,” Cassandra said.  “Last question.”
“What?” Hourglass and The All-Seeing Eye asked together.
“Is there a good cocktail available in this dive?  Chasing Hourglass through the city streets was thirsty work.”
Hourglass laughed: “A girl after my own heart.”
“Then, get me to a cashpoint.  I have a feeling I need to drain my bank account as quickly as possible.”