’It is 1200 BC I am standing in the halls of my father. In the halls of Olympus. I grow weary of the gods, my brothers and sisters they have sent me on another mission. Another trial. It was pointless. The mortals meant no one harm. They were growing, evolving. One of them insulted a sibling so I was sent to intervene. I have become something of a servant.

No longer do I feel pride being held as equals with them. Their petty squabbling, toying with humanity as they are things to be played with. They who worship and adore us. We should be guiding them, encouraging them. Not holding them back.

Mortals breath, love and dream as I once did. They grow old while I, stand still, watching. Weeping in isolation. Listening to the pettiness of the immortals reliving past slights. I grow tired of this world. One I strived so long to be apart of.

Oblivious, to the god somewhere a song started to play one that was muffled by the effects of the plant that was latched onto the son of Zues, a vine lodged in his ear. His normally deep green eyes were glossed over. Putting him in a state of complacency. “Excellent work, now get me in there.” someone said behind him. They didn’t matter. Hercules wasn’t there.

’It is Winter 900 BC it is cold. Snow kisses my bare chest as I stand before another burned down village. A creature had attacked the small village. This is the third village it destroyed leaving no survivors only flame and destruction. I feel the warm breath of the creature breathing down my neck and I react. I punch at him with all my might.’

The sound of brick giving way once again can be heard as Hercules opened up another hole next to the one he previously made. Dr. Cama happy with the results opened up an old book in his hands and recited some words that made the plant shift and grow more on the Prince of power. Hercules stepped into the building and offered a hand to the man that had tortured him. His hands tightened around the vile Doctors and pulled him into the building.

“Now... Where would it be?” he asked knowing no one around him would respond unless an order was given.

He didn’t expect an answer. No, not from any of three figures following him, Dr. Cama glanced behind him, once more smiling at his work, as slipshod as it was. The two shuffling bodies of prison guards were barely able to keep up. The rafflesia-like flowering growth sprouting from the side of each of their heads was dazzling, even as vines wrapped around the upper third of their bodies.

By this point, the plant had mostly devoured their cerebral tissue and much of the fat and muscle in their bodies, leaving them little more than skin and bones, capable only of basic motor function. All higher thought had been eradicated quickly by the plant.

It was a shame, really. Dr. Cama had been hoping they’d last longer. After all, he needed medical assistants. Fortunately he’d tweaked the plant he’d used on Hercules. It would focus all its attention on his brain first, leaving his body - Cama’s prize - in exquisite condition for as log as possible.

“Ah, this way,” Dr. Cama said, his gaze landing on a rusty placard that pointed to the old operating room. “So convenient, these decrepit, abandoned asylums. Hopefully they left their tools behind.”

-----------------------------

Rex left the Widow Roosevelt’s home. He’d delivered the groceries she’d needed and had stayed to pray over her. She’d been in bed with the flu and her daughter wouldn’t be in town until the next day, so Rex had checked in on her at Father Lorenzo’s request.

He walked down the sidewalk, turning up the color of his long peacoat against the wind. It was his last errand of the day but now he had so many more hours left before bed and nobody to spend them with. A thought crossed his mind. I could call Gloria-- No. She wouldn’t pick up. He wasn’t ready.

Rex suddenly didn’t want to go home. Normally he would’ve headed to a bar. This time, he just stopped, took a breath, and stared up into the overcast sky with closed eyes. “Please, Father, grant me a distraction, a task, that I might be useful to you and your kingdom. Lead me to where I can assist another.”

It wasn’t a fancy prayer. It wasn’t even the first time he’d prayed it. It was the first time his mind had slipped to magic while praying, thinking of other ways he could help.

Suddenly, he felt an impulse to turn around and start walking in the other direction. With nothing better to do, he turned and began a new course.

’It is Spring, 1100 BC, I am standing in a grove. The sound of lush green trees swaying in the wind as a group of dryads bathe under a waterfall. I am naked, covered in blood. Not mine, a boars. One that laid waste to the forest that this hidden oasis was protected by. My ‘sister’ asked me to help her. I obliged. It was disappointing the creature and it’s family couldn’t be relocated. However their trails started leading into a village at the end of the woods.’

Hercules waited for an order looking down at his hand. It wasn’t bloodied like he thought it was. The prince of power blinked once and the vine that wrapped around his head entering his ear adjusted as the muffled sound of music got louder for a second. His eyes that were once glossed over turned green for a moment before they returned to their previous state. The smell of dust, urine and rot could be smelt briefly before Hercules’s mind was brought back to a simpler time.

“Ah perfect!” the vile doctor said giddy as he strolled into the operating room giving another look at the chiseled figure behind him. “Don't’ dawdle. There is work to be done! Oh have I thought of so many different possibilities with you.” the plant was effective at keeping it’s host docile. “I wonder what you are seeing. I myself can’t understand the effects of the plant other than what my notes tell me. I hear it’s peaceful. Shame too. You set my research back a decade and all those experiments... lost. If it wasn’t for my benefactors I would have never figured out how to do this!”

’It is summer, 1248 BC, the day of my ascension. I am standing next to my father in the halls of Olympus overlooking the world below. I am... happier than I have ever been something I strived so long for. For my father to be proud of me. He puts his massive hand on my back and pats it a few times before he tells me he always believed in me. Always knew I could do it. I cry for the first time in front of my father. I catch a few tears streaking down his face as we overlook the world we are sworn to protect. They are tears of joy.’

It wasn’t long before the feeling faded. The impulse died away and Rex came to a stop on a corner. “Is this the place?” he asked aloud. Pedestrians were everywhere, traffic was busy, life was hustling and bustling. Rex frowned. Was that it?

He stood and observed for several minutes and his frown only deepend. There was nothing going on here out of the ordinary. It was a typical day in NYC. “What is it I’m supposed to do? Is this where I’m supposed to be?”Rex closed his eyes. His hand reached up to clutch the crucifix hanging from the cord around his neck. He reached out with his mind, almost like when he called fire and….felt like something was listening. Waiting to answer.

No.

It wasn’t a word. Just a feeling. This wasn’t the place. “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” he quoted, the scripture coming to him. It was one he’d read many times when first starting the 12 step program. This time, he focused on that distant place. “Father, lead me to where I can help one the most.”

The feeling came back, the feeling to start walking in a direction.

The music continued to play as Dr. Cama removed his phone from his pocket and hummed along with the beat. “It is time to build again. Something far greater than I have could have hoped for. I must thank them. Must thank them.” he said to himself studying a few of the blades that had been left out. A few of the them were rusted and old but that should be fine. He had made do with worse.

Stopping his humming he looked to the two walking cadavers and then the plants that had now weaved so many roots throughout their body. They’d start rotting soon. Maybe he should transfer the plants? Would they grow larger in a new vessel the way a potted plant would? Did he have to trim the roots? That was all part of the scientific process though and why it was so exciting!

“Now!” the evil doctor said, “You two search for anyone on the grounds and bring them to me! We must continue on with the experiments.” At once the two controlled mortals walked out the door of the operating room to find anyone who lurked in the building. It was Halloween in an abandoned asylum. Surely there would be teenagers foolish enough to traverse these grounds.

“You, bring me several cots and someone find me access to the P.A. system. I’ll need to drown out the screams. So distracting.” Hercules the next one to receive orders tense up nodded once and walked through a wall ignoring the doorway. He had a mission.

’It is fall 1262 BC I am standing in the forge of my half-brother. The intense heat from the volcano draws all moisture from the air. My mouth is parched and my head heavy. I am tired but still able to work. All for my weapon. Forged by the smith himself. Truly an honor. He requests I find the appropriate metals somewhere in this active volcano for they will help forge the club I have been promised. A weapon worthy to be wielded by the strongest.’

“Ah here it is!” the doctor shouted as he found a port to connect to his mobile device.

In the room, and in the halls music started to play loudly. ’I put a spell on you.....Because you’re mine!!! they fell on deaf ears from the victims of Dr. Cama’s most recent experiments. Even the god heard nothing but the muffled melodies.

This time Rex wasn’t surprised when the feeling to move vanished. He did not understand why it left him, but he at least recognized the pattern. “Guide my steps, O Father,” he prayed again, feeling glimmers of power responding. “Lead me to them.”

He began walking, an itch developing in his feet. He made it down three streets before the feeling vanished. Rex simply prayed again. Then again. Then a third time. Whenever the urge vanished, he’d stop and pray again. Each time he felt the urge to move in the same direction he had been. That, more than anything, convinced him this wasn’t just in his head.

He walked for a long time through the streets, passing people of all types and backgrounds. Various races, cultural backgrounds, dispositions, and even species mixed and milled around him, but Rex didn’t stop. Someone out there needed him, he would not be delayed, even if the feeling to walk didn’t always account for obstacles. He often had to find ways around buildings or cross streets or other shortcuts to stay on the path, constantly having to fall back to pray to keep that compass sense alive.

It was dark by the time Rex arrived at the asylum, several hours later. “This cannot be the place,” he said doubtfully. The impulse was still there though. Rex prayed again and the feeling only grew stronger. He walked up and down the block but with every footstep, the feeling remained the same. The asylum beckoned. He stepped up to the door and put his hand on the knob.

It swung open easily. Darkness was all there was.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” he said softly, reaching out for fire.

A fist-sized ball of fire and light appeared at about knee height, a yard or so in front of him, washing the walls and floor in orange-yellow light. Rex pulled his collar up more against a phantom wind and stepped into the decrepit building, the fireball maintaining its distance in front of him, shining its light to reveal the floor and paths before him.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”

’I perspire from the heat, ignoring my certain doom should I fall into the pits below where the air is distorted by fiery liquid below. A small bridge is the only way across and it looks so weak the mere footsteps I make would shatter it. I am tasked by a god, so I move forward holding my arms out as to keep balance.

In the outside world a homeless youth watches as a large man with a flower latched on to his head holds his arms outright as if on a tightrope. The young man dirty with grime blinks and does a double take wondering what else was in the drugs he had consumed an hour ago. “Yo. You guys seeing this?” he asked to his cohorts who also consumed the same drug. Two more kids poke their heads out from the room they were sleeping in unaware that while there was a god walking among them there were also demons. The undead.

“Where is that music coming from?” another asked as soft footsteps were drawn out from the music masking the will of the vile Doctor.

’I stop shortly for a moment, feeling an intense evil aura behind me. A bloodlust. I know I cannot stop though. There were rocks on the other side of the bridge, weapons. Potentially some for my weapon. I know I don’t have time to stop but I have to something was willing me to do so.’

Hercules turned and his glossed over eyes faded for a second to reveal the world around him. The true world. He was looking at three young teens. Two boys and a girl. They looked disheveled and confused. Now the god was confused. He looked back around and felt something tightening around his head. Something moved before him and then he was back in the volcano again. His eyes glossed back over and he continued onward.

’The ancient rock formation starts to crumble under my weight. I will have to find a new way back should I make it. No... I will make it. For I am a son of Zeus, a demit-god in all but power. I seek that power. I run, feeling the smoke billowing into my lungs and I leap. Allowing my strength and will to carry me forward.

The three teens watched in awe as the giant man looked back to them, turned and ran followed by a leap that would make them question everything they had just seen. “What are in these drugs man?” one asked as the furthest one back was grabbed by another flower hat wielding corpse. “What’s happening!” she shouted as one of the men grabbed her and started to pull her away. The other two that were with the woman looked confused but knew what they were seeing was real. They had to help her. “Get off of her!!!”

All the while the music played, “Because you’re mineeeee!!!!”

Firelight flicked off walls and items as Rex walked into the asylum, holding the darkness at bay with burning tongues of flame. Rex shivered reflexively and put his hands in his pockets. The building felt cold, even with his peacoat on and a fireball proceeding him. Somehow the smell of antiseptics still lingered, despite the building having to have been abandoned in the 50s. Now the smell just mixed with death.

Rex breathed in and he detected rot. “Madre de dios,” he breathed out, nearly choking before he steeled himself. He didn’t like this. A decrepit building at night. He could already see signs of many squatters having passed through. He walked by man-made nests and rooms where graffiti artists had gone haywire.

“Is this why I’m here?” he prayed.

No.

“As I thought,” he said, continuing into the depths of the building.

Then he heard the music. He heard the screams.

He didn’t need to pray this time. He took off at full speed toward the sounds of terror.

The prince of power glowed in the halls of the abandoned asylum, when he landed one of his feet ended up going through the floor. It was obvious to all that entered that it wasn’t in the best shape. Hercules however was oblivious his glossed over eyes only what the flower latched to his head wanted him to see.

’The ground under me buckles as I land. It seems a lot of parts of this volcano are unstable. Good, it means I must move with purpose.” pulling his foot from the floor Hercules pressed onward searching for things that weren’t there in a world that no longer was.

The screaming continued, “Let go of me!” the two men shouted as they tried to knock the flowered zombies off of her. They didn’t make a sound as they moved but had their job. Collect. The first flowered corpse was pushed back and toppled over a wheelchair bending it’s neck in an impossible position. “Oh my god! You killed him?” the girls shouted in alarm which turned to horror as the corpse pulled itself up broken neck and all. “Run!” the other boy shouted as they all started running.

“Help!” one of the teens yelled as they ran down one of the hallways.

Somewhere in the asylum Hercules hefted a cot and heard the words. His eyes returned to normal for a moment before glossing over again. His hand crushed the metal on the cot and looked up.

Deep in the medical procedure room Dr. Cama continued on with his prep work eyeing the book of spells before him singing along under his breath, “You better stop the things you’re doing, I said watch out! I ain’t lyin!!!!!”

If there was nothing else Rex specialized in, it was making his way through dangerous buildings.

The fireball led the way as Rex dashed up stairs and careened down hallways. He was getting deeper and deeper into the place and the screams were getting louder and more numerous. Rex wasn’t someone who watched many horror movies, but he felt like he was in the beginning of one, especially as the angry light of his fire swarmed over the dirt encrusted walls and abandoned equipment and tools.

It was not long until the screams seemed to be nearly upon him. Double doors at the end of the hallway burst open and a trio of people charged out of the gloom.

“Help us!” one of the guys screamed and Rex was able to tell they were teenagers, albeit aged by terrible decisions.

“There’s a monster! He tried to kill us!” the girl added as they zeroed in on Rex.

“Zombies! Zombies!” the third teen shouted.

Before Rex had time to do more than blink, they were on him, grabbing his arms and clutching him while still half-running. “We have to go!” one shouted.

None of them paid any attention to the fireball, even when one brushed an arm against it and got burned. Their terror and whatever they’d been up to was overtaking everything.

“Quiet!” he stage-whispered harshly. He planted his feet and arrested the teens’ momentum. “Tell me what you are running from.”

The first guy stared up with wide bloodshot eyes. “Monsters, man! They tried to kill us! Swamp creatures or something!””

The other guy chimed in. “It almost killed Stacy!”

At that moment, Rex stared at the teens. He read their fear like a book of horrors. He did not need to pray. He believed. This was why he was there.

He leaned down so he was on their level and he grabbed two of their shoulders. “I will take care of this,” he said, flickers of firelight dancing in his eyes. “Do you know the church on Broad Street?”[/color]

One of the kids nodded quickly. “Go there. Tell Father Lorenzo that Rex sent you. I will be along soon. Now go!” he said forcibly.

He gave the kids a push and after seeing them vanished into the hallway that he’d just come from, he turned and he started making his way toward the darkness they’d left. “Guide my steps, O Father.”

The prince of power oblivious to the setting around him hefted the medical cot with one arm and started to head back the way he came. This time slower than when he left. His steps were careful and calculated as if he was walking back over a tightrope. The bed swayed in front of him as he moved.

Across the asylum the other two corpses controlled by the flowers stirred and righted themselves up. It seems there was another host now available. Good. They needed to spread, to grow. The doors opened and glossed over eyes witnessed the stranger walking in where the other three potential hosts left. One of the bodies reached out and stumbled forward the neck still bent awkwardly.

The groaned as they moved. Unable to speak for the roots already destroyed the vocal cords. Vines shifted under the flesh ready to spore again. If only the commands allowed it. They however were just sent to collect others for ‘research’ this one seemed suitable. They seemed to possess magic as well. It would help with the growth.

The giant controlled by his plant walked back into the hallway with the bed in his hand.

He heard the shuffling first. Heavy, uncertain steps thudding on the ancient, filthy tiles. Clanks as stiff legs and knees banged into metal chairs.

Then the creatures came into view as Rex rounded a corner.

“God in Heaven!” Rex breathed as the shambling creatures were birthed by the darkness into his firelight.


He could see uniform pants and work shirts beneath a swarming mass of vinery and plant parts. The rafflesias on their heads gleamed in the light of his fireball even as the vines appeared blackened by the same light. One of the heads was bent at a horrifying angle.

These were surely the monsters the children had witnessed. “Stop!” Rex thundered, standing tall in the middle of the hallways with his hand outstretched as if to halt them with his mind. The fireball burned in front of his knees. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I command you to stop, you things of darkness!”

A glimmer of phantom flames flickered around his hand, matching the embers that were beginning to glow in his eyes.

The creatures did not halt, even before ethe might of the fire. All flowers feared it’s power however, they were tasked with collecting subjects. Hosts. The two corpses paused for a moment not sure which one to attack first so they both did. Slowly walking towards the man who had disrupted their mission.

The low glow of green started to get brighter as the sound of metal scraping on the ground. By now Hercules had found another bed and was wielding one in each arm. The flower that was attached to his head was almost disappointed the lesser creatures that it’s siblings were hosted on got the other job. This host was so much more.... capable.

’The task was complete. All I had to do was return to my half-brother with the stones in hand. They are large, and awkward to hold. The sound they make makes them seem metallic but I know that not to be true. They are rocks. The path I took somehow healed itself making me question if the volcano where the smith resided was alive as well. It’s possible. There are even more ancient beings than my father and the other gods. I see a flame. One that seems to be alive as well. This is truly a mysterious place.”

Hercules walked into the hallway dragging the beds and bumping into chairs randomly spread throughout the abandoned asylum guided on his mission that had passed thousands of years ago. The flower on his head glinted in the dim green light that the host emitted. Each vine wrapping around the limbs and torso. Soon it would be big enough to seed. Such magic, such energy it could feed several siblings.

The fire before them was ignored, as was the man wielding the flames. The siblings could take care of it. They were tasked with finding the hosts.

Lights kicked on in the operating room as Dr. Cama danced around the room with a rusted scalpel, “I ain’t gonna take none of your foolin around! I ain’t gonna take none of your putting me down. I put a spell on you! Because you’re mine!”

The plant-ridden horrors did not stop at Rex’s command. Not for long, anyways. There was an eerie moment where he could feel them assessing him, despite heads not aimed in his direction, and the man repressed a shudder.

Then the creatures pressed forward, their motions jerky and unnatural, like marionettes. They were slow and clumsy-looking, yet they just added to the horror.They looked human. They had been human. They might still be human. There was more involved.

The sickly green light just beginning to glow in the hallway added to his resolve. The creatures were nearing arm’s reach. More of their features could be seen. Appearing black in the firelight, rivulets of liquid were slowly oozing down the sides of their heads, emerging from where the plants were growing. Lumps and bulges appeared all over their face and presumably elsewhere, as if something had burrowed under their skin. and was still spreading. Dark veins stood out starkly on pallid skin. Leaves of the flowers suddenly startled rustling, quivering, as if in anticipation.

The two split apart to evade the fire. They started to circle around. “You will not get those children,” Rex swore. He left the fire burning in midair and then he tackled the person on his left, his full weight and power slamming the creature into a reception area counter.

’The fire calls from the darkness. It always called. Ever since Prometheus first stole the fire from Olympus mortals have sought the flame. It was comforting, safe. A protection. I never needed such protection. For whenever I was in darkness I found the way. However this flame feels different. It's a different kind of calling. I approach it slowly having been burned before. I am cautious for even gods fear the ones who can weild the flames. It could be hers.’

The glowing got brighter as Hercules approached the flames and the other infected. They were fighting now. One was tackled. It mattered not. Even the flame seemed not to bother the oozing flower that was weaving through holes that it had made for it’s roots on the god. The body was stubborn every hole it made the flesh seemed to fight back trying to heal itself.

Hercules walked up to the flame and stared at it his glossed over eyes turned green for a moment as he stared at it, studying it. The captive prince of power lowered the beds he was carrying and watched ignoring the fight between Rex of the Inferno and the two other creatures.

’I forget my mission. The flame dances before me. I lose focus. Wondering is it him or her who calls. Beckons me to step into it.’