EDITOR’S NOTE: This arc takes place before Ghost Rider #1

TWO-LANE HIGHWAY

Part VIII: …We All Fall Down

By John Wick

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
-John F. Kennedy

Nearly two weeks had passed since Blackheart had abducted her. In that time Emma Blaze had watched the demon murder her brother, torture and kill innocent people, watched helplessly as her father burst into flames revealing a skull beneath his flesh, and when the building crumbled… she had saw her last hopes of having a family crumble into ash. Her mind was fractured, her soul touched by evil, and yet society expected her to live the life of a normal child.

The psychiatrist the social worker had assigned to the case seemed nice enough. She arrived dressed in a dull black suit and pushed her glasses up to fit the bridge of her nose a little better. Looking down at the girl sitting before her she gave a weak smile and held out a stuffed animal. ‘No change’ she scribbled on her note pad.

“Emma, don’t you want to play with the bear? Look it just wants some love.” The psychiatrist began to make the bear dance around on the desk before the girl. Emma simply stared through it. It had been nearly a week since that strange man had dropped her off saying he was a friend of the deceased father of the child. He made it clear that no harm should come to the girl. He informed the hospital that he was in no way suitable to care for her, a statement social services agreed with, however the young girl sitting before Dr. Vale seemed to be a conundrum that confounded her every approach.

The Child sat motionless for the entire length of the session. It weighed heavily upon Dr. Vale’s mind that she had yet to break through the tough defensive wall the youngster built. Once more she gave a weak smile to the young girl and nodded towards the door. “You’ve been very good today Emma, please go back to your room now and play with the other children.” The young girl slowly stood from her seat and walked towards the egress. The door closed behind her with a sharp *Bang*. It was the only sound testifying the child’s existence. Dr. Vale looked down at her many notes and shook her head. ‘PTSD Suspected, Repressed memories, Social withdrawal, cause unknown.’

Dr. Vale stood from her chair and smoothed her skirt against her hips. She closed her notebook and walked to the opposite side of the room. With a delicate finger she pressed a button concealed behind the shelf of a bookcase and a secret compartment opened up from beneath one of the shelves. She placed her notebook inside and pulled out a 12″ LP. Gripping the Vinyl by its edges she laid it on her gramophone and softly dropped the needle against the first groove on the LP’s black surface. The familiar scratchy tone of blank airtime began to fill the room. Then, with a voice like an angel, Ella Fitzgerald began to sing.

Dr. Vale leaned back into her leather chair and reached into her purse. Pulling out an orange childproof bottle she threw three pink pills into her mouth and swallowed them hard without any water. The world seemed to melt and every physical object before her merged into one fuzzy mass. It took only a matter of minutes, but soon, Dr. Vale was sleeping very soundly in her office.

The cold night air bit deeply into the soul of the man outside the bar. The only warmth that found its way into his body came from the alcohol he had been drinking religiously and from the cigarette that was pressed tightly between his lips. Inhaling deeply Jack Murdock let the thick smoke fill his lungs to capacity and held it until he felt like they would burst. Quietly he exhaled a thick plume of white smoke filling the night air with its white poison. For the moment the world felt like it had stopped spinning and that meant only one thing; it was time for more whisky. Jack looked at the faces of the men who sat outside on their bikes with their women. He watched several of them as they drank beer and swore at each other. Jack took his cigarette and extinguished it on his leather coat.

“That’s a good way to ruin a nice hide,” a female voice whispered softly from behind him. “And I prefer to be the one ruining hides around here.” She finished with a smile.

Jack turned around and saw a beautiful woman standing before him. She wore a leather skirt that came up just above her knees and a halter-top that exposed a very tight stomach. Her hands were planted on her hips, her right index finger lightly tapping the shiny material of her skirt. Jack raised his gaze towards her face, only stopping momentarily to take in her breasts, and was greeted with a face that screamed ‘power’ as the woman looked him over raising one eyebrow.

“That’s a new record,” she said calmly. “It usually takes a full sixty seconds before a man realizes I have a face and stops staring at my tits.”

Jack tried to hold back his laugh, but he couldn’t help letting a little chuckle escape his lips. This woman was obviously used to the normal man. Hell she probably expected him to be embarrassed by her comment on what was obviously the truth.

“Sister,” he said, “I’m far from usual. Why don’t you go find someone else to play with tonight? I’ve been through far too much and seen more than you can imagine. A pair of tits, even ones as nice as yours, aren’t going to distract me from my mission.”

The woman felt her heart beat a little faster. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had the nerve to speak his mind in her presence. “And what mission would that be?” she asked coyly.

“First, to take a Goddamn leak. Then I’m going to fill myself up again on whatever whisky they got left in there.”

“Well,” the woman said. “I think you can handle the first part of your mission on your own, that is of course unless you need someone to hold it for you?” She paused her speech, looking at him for a moment. Jack didn’t respond. “I didn’t think so. In that case I’ll help you with the second part of your mission. You go… ‘Take a leak’ as you so charmingly put it and when you’re through, I’ll buy you a drink.”

“Suit yourself,” Jack said coldly as he walked back into the bar. The woman followed close behind, her face devoid of expression… inside she was smiling.

The van swerved to the right narrowly avoiding the driver who had suddenly stopped. Frank thrust his arm out the window and let his middle finger fly along with a few choice expletives.

“Watch your driving, Frankie! People don’t want to see a one-eyed field reporter on the eight o’clock news! Got it? “Kerry Weis said as she jabbed Frank hard with her elbow. Kerry started reapplying her eyeliner and ignored the very angry cameraman sitting next to her.

“Sorry Ms. Weis, It appears that New York City Traffic don’t give a shit about your ‘exclusive.’ No one else is even covering this are you sure it ain’t just a hoax? That girl on channel 2 is just the type to set you up for something like this.”

“Frankie, do you even know the meaning of the word ‘exclusive’? It means I am the only one who knows about it and the only one who is going to get the glory for reporting this story. There’s a chance its false but the kid on the other side of the phone sounded too fucked up for that to be the case. Think of it this way Frankie, if it turns out to be real I’ll finally get a shot at the desk and that means you wont have to cart me around any more.”

Frank spit out the side of his window and pressed the accelerator even harder as he created his own lane in the thick city traffic.

“That’s what I thought,” Kerry said.

Pain pushed though every fiber of his being. Skin continually split open huge lesions formed and then healed. Blisters formed and then disintegrated into ash. If it weren’t for the hellfire that burned around his head, the chamber the Ghost Rider was in would have been pitch-black.

The demon shook his head from side to side slowly and tried to sit up. He found that doing so only caused a new lesion to open across his lower back spilling fourth a torrent of hellfire. The last thing he remembered was grappling with Blackheart. Then suddenly everything exploded in a brilliant flash and his world went dark.

“You should rest,” a voice called out near the demon. The sound of the voice was like a freight train inside his skull and he quickly turned to see who it belonged to only to find an empty room. Perplexed and in a great deal of pain, Ghost Rider did the only thing he could. He stood up and began searching for an exit.

“You really need to rest. If you expect to be of any use to the world at large you must replenish your energy.”

Ghost Rider turned to his left but found that the voice once more had no body.

“Show yourself,” Ghost Rider called into the darkness. The tone of his voice giving the distinct impression that to do otherwise would incur a wrath even the devil, himself would fear. “I have no time for games.”

“Oh, you have time, Spirit of Vengeance. You have time because I say you have time. And until I am satisfied about your condition you aren’t going anywhere.”

Emma sat on the bed in the corner of the dull gray room. The other girls played with one another and each seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Emma continued to sit and stare motionless into space. One of the taller girls noticed her sitting quietly in the corner and began walking towards her, pushing a few kids out of the way as she approached. The larger girl crossed her arms and looked at Emma with obvious disdain.

“You’re in my bed,” she said coldly to the young girl. Emma continued to stare through the bully who now seemed to grow even angrier at being ignored.

“I said you’re in my bed you freak! What’s the matter… does baby miss her mommy and daddy?” mocked the larger girl. At the mention of her mother and father Emma’s eyes grew a little wider and filled with a sensation she was not accustomed to.

Feeling a little braver, after receiving no response from the quite child on the bed the larger girl uncrossed her arms and reached out to push Emma off the mattress. Emma reached out with lightning quick reflexes when the older girl’s arm was within six inches of her body. With very little effort she squeezed hard and bent the bully’s arm backwards breaking it between the wrist and the elbow. The girl immediately let out a howl of pain and began crying as loud as she could. One of the children who had seen what happened immediately ran out the door and down the hallway.

The other children looked at the howling girl with horror and shock. Her bone had punctured through her skin and was exposed to the open air. Emma looked at the girl and for the firs time in what seemed like ages, she let a smile spread across her lips.

Ghost Rider suppressed the growl of pain he felt growing in his throat. The explosion that had leveled an entire building had caused massive damage to his form and he was not happy about feeling pain.

“As I’ve told you there is no use trying to escape this place Spirit. You aren’t even in the real world at the moment.”

“Show yourself or die!” commanded the angered demon.

From the shadows of the chamber stepped forth a woman of average height. She was dressed in fine silken robes and a deep red fire burned forth from behind her eyes.

“You!” Ghost Rider said coldly. Without another word he leapt at the woman who stood before him and a split second before he connected she gripped his torn leather jacket from behind and hurtled him through the air into the concrete wall behind her.

“Your strength and power mean nothing here Spirit. This place is not bound by the laws of physics and I am no physical here than you are.”

Ghost Rider rose from the ground shaking his head, dislodging chunks of concrete from his jacket. “We’ll see about that.” He replied coldly.

“Have it your way,” the woman replied.

The Ghost Rider crouched down ready to leap again and suddenly found he was pinned against the wall by an invisible assailant. Blue flames suddenly engulfed his entire body causing intense pain to overload every nerve cell in his body. The woman walked closer to the writhing Spirit of Vengeance and leaned in close. “This is exactly why we need to talk Spirit. You act without thinking. It’s that kind of action that will kill Emma Blaze. Now I need you to listen very carefully…”

Jack took a seat at the bar and downed two shots of whiskey. The woman standing next to him smiled and gave him a wink. “You’re going to be a handful aren’t you?” she asked coyly.

“Honey… If you knew anything about me you’d know that I’m more than a handful.”

The woman let out a small laugh and extended her hand. “Name’s Sally,” she said raising one eyebrow and giving him a wink.

Jack sat and motioned to the bartender that he needed another glass of whisky.

“Don’t suppose there’s any chance I might get your name?”

“Look Sister, I don’t know what your game is but I’m not here looking for a date, and I’m not here looking to buy a night of sex, I’m just here to drink until everything I remember, see, and think is so numb that I don’t care anymore about the world or my place in it.”

“Honey, there’s no better way to do that than to let me buy you a drink and we’ll talk a little more. Who knows by the time the night is over you might just change your mind about a few things.”

“If you’re still buying, you can say anything you want.”

“I know you’re in there, Blaze. You need to find your way out. If you don’t the future of your child may be in grave danger.”

“SILENCE!” screamed Ghost Rider as he lashed out through the pain he felt. The momentary scream of anger shattered his assailant’s concentration just long enough for him to thrust his arm forward into her chest.

The female looked down at the hand buried inside of her and let forth a loud laugh.

“I told you Demon…. You have no power here.”

An incredible shot of pain forced itself from her chest and into the Ghost Rider’s arm. Suddenly he felt as if his own chest were being impaled. Angry red Hellfire spit out from between clenched teeth like regurgitated blood causing his body to spasm and his hand to eject itself from the woman’s body.

“Demon, you are about to face a very important choice. Your need for vengeance is pure and true. It consumes you like the hellfire that burns throughout your body. It is the very essence of your being. But you exist only because of your host. Should something so traumatic happen that the host cannot handle it his own mind will deteriorate. It will reject reality as we know it. If that happens then you will be useless with him.”

This time Ghost Rider let out a laugh. “Your lies mean nothing to me. I cannot be destroyed!”

“I never said you’d be destroyed. I said you’d be useless. When Blaze is asleep, when he is in a coma no matter the state his subconscious nevertheless is functioning. It allows you to physically walk in this world. If his psyche is shattered you will most certainly not be destroyed… oh no… you’ll live on… but you’ll be a burning mass of hellfire without a cause or purpose. You won’t be able to move. You’ll live in the back of a tortured and tormented mind until the host dies.”

Red fire burned brighter in Ghost Rider’s eyes. “Why have you brought me here?”

“I didn’t bring you here. He did.”

A flash of John Blaze pierced its way into the demon’s mind. It sent a bolt of pain through him that he didn’t understand.

“Don’t worry sweetie, you’ll understand soon enough. If you strive for vengeance you may be forced to kill someone the host cares for deeply. If you do that then you’ll condemn yourself. You’re about to find out that like all things in life, and the un-life, Justice and vengeance is a two-lane highway.”

Kerry Weis arrived on the scene with her heart pounding in her chest. Her cameraman had managed to get her through traffic with a minimal delay. She vowed to get him a raise if this story proved fruitful. Running up the steps of the institution she grabbed her microphone and pushed her way inside. Screams could be heard from the upper floors and she ran as fast as she could with camera in tow. Kerry reached the doorway to the main dormitory where the screams could be heard. In all her years of reporting, nothing prepared her for the sight before her eyes. Three young girls were writing on the floor with various ribs protruding from their chests, still alive and very much in pain. Every single adult in the room appeared to be dead. Every adult save one. A young official looking woman was strapped to a chair with a look of horror on her face. The name badge on her chest read ‘Dr. Vale”.

“I’ve been expecting you,” a small voice came from behind the bed. Kerry saw a young girl holding a Raggedy-Ann doll in her arms. To her surprise the child didn’t seemed phased by anything that was happening in the room.

“Honey we’ve got to get you out of here.” Kerry said in a rushed tone. Frank, the camera man rushed to grab the child’s arm and suddenly let out a howl of extreme pain.

“I don’t think we have to go anywhere yet.” The child said laughing. “I think its time you did your job. Server your purpose and you might just keep that pretty face of yours.”

The young girl walked to the bound DR Vale and placed her hand on the woman’s cheek. Kerry watched as the flesh from the DR’s check began to liquefy. The child maneuvered the flesh from the cheek to the DR’s shoulder attaching it permanently there. Kerry turned to run but found that two younger children with glowing blue eyes stood before her.

“Do you want to play?” two voices asked in unison. “Naughty ladies shouldn’t leave when its play time. It’s not polite.”

The young girl took a step towards the reporter and ripped an arm off the doll. “Unless you want to end up like Doctor Lady or like dolly here you’re going to do what I tell you.”

Jack was beginning to warm up to the fact that alcohol had been pouring nearly nonstop into his system for the past three hours. The fact that a beautiful voluptuous woman was supplying the drinks didn’t hurt either. The idea of running off to have a night of hard sex with this woman was beginning to look pretty good to the man who had lost everything.

“…so darling, you finally ready to show me how it’s done?” Jack shook off his thoughts and realized he hadn’t been paying attention to anything Sally had been saying for the past ten minutes.

Jack placed his hands on her knee and leaned in close. “Well if you think you can handle it I just might show you a thing or two,” he said in his comfortably numb voice. Jack moved his hands up her thigh and reached his way towards her left breast suddenly the woman let out a sound of minor discomfort as he squeezed a little too hard.

Sally slapped his hand away angrily. “What the hell did you do that for?” she said. Jack’s face was pale and blank.

“Shit…” he said in a monotone voice. Quickly he got up threw a couple of bills on the bar and ran outside to his bike. Sally looked up in the direction he had been staring to see the image of Kerry Weis before one of social service’s homes. Behind the reporter he saw a child on a bed playing with a broken doll and even further in the background she saw a doctor… or what looked like a doctor who had been badly mutilated.

A bolt of blue light shot through the room and crashed into the female before Ghost Rider. The woman fell to the ground screaming in pain. Suddenly the Spirit of Vengeance felt the magical energy that had held him captive weaken. From the far end of the darkness a blue vortex opened and the face of the mercenary Drake shown through its swirling matter.

“Spirit. You’re a hard one to find! It’s time we left this place.”

“First I must.”

“First nothing. You’re in the mind of Blaze. If you destroy anything here you destroy the man. Its time to go.”

The demon glowed a vibrant red and looked at the fallen woman clutching her chest. “You had better hope we never meet again.” He said as he stepped into the blue light.

As the vortex closed the woman on the ground let out a scream… “NO! He’s not ready…”

Within a matter of moments the vortex was closed and all that was left was darkness and the woman trying to heal her wounds.

Drake stood before the Ghost Rider in the midst of ash and rubble.

“Nice trick,” the mercenary said.

“And what trick would that be?”

“Pulling me and yourself into Blaze’s mind. Bending space and time to surround us in hellfire to protect us from the blast. I have heard of beings capable of such power but none have been thought to walk this realm for a millennia. “

“I did no such thing,” Ghost Rider said as he dusted off his coat. “I was held prisoner until your arrival.”

“Interesting, I wonder if the possibility of…”

Ghost Rider let out an agonizing cry of pain and held his head between his hands.

“What is it?” Drake asked concerned.

“Something is happening. Something unlike anything I’ve felt before. And its coming from over there!”

Before Drake could look Ghost Rider formed his hellfire bike and sped off into the cold night heading east.

“Okay, guess I’ll just follow you in the dark then, eh?” Drake said as he focused his thoughts on where the spirit of vengeance was heading. Pushing the boundaries of his mind he received a series of images he did not understand, yet the urgency of them was undeniable.

A flash of Jack on a cold highway headed towards a social service’s institution flashed in his head. A flash of Ghost Rider headed to the same place also burned across his mind. A flash of a woman holding a whisky and picking up Jack’s wallet. A flash of a reporter looking nervous. And finally a flash of young Emma Blaze laying dead in the arms of the Spirit of Vengeance burned to the very core of his soul.

“What have you done?” Drake asked to the image of the demon.

The real question is… “What have YOU … done!” a female voice called out from behind him.

Drake turned around and stared in shock at the woman before his eyes.

Only one word escaped his lips. “Angel.”

PENCIL OF VENGEANCE

It’s been quite a while people. And the only thing I can say to that is sometimes life deals you a bad hand and you have to play it out. I apologize for the result that being that this issue is massively overdue. However without going into detail there was no avoiding it. I had to sort of find myself again and in the end I found that I am a person who can and still does want to write.

I made a promise to someone to keep writing no matter what and I am now going to devote myself once more to that end. It’s taken a while to find my voice and for it to appear again on paper but here it is, for better or worse. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this issue of Ghost Rider. Please send me some feedback to let me know what you think. It’s a little different than previous issues so feedback would help.

Hope you all have a great time. And look forward to the next issue of Ghost Rider… where Angel, Drake, Jack, Emma and the Spirit of Vengeance will be reunited once more. Who’s to say what will happen. Perhaps the vision Drake received is correct. Perhaps not. All things in this world function in two modes. Good and evil, love and hate, pleasure and loss, and yes even a highway has two lanes.

Until next time…

-JW 03/06/04