Breathe.

Exhale.

Breathe.

Exhale.

The eyes of LH Harrison open as he sees before him a house. A brick house. One story. Windows along the front of it with curtains concealing the details within. Surrounding the small, perfectly trimmed yard is a white picket fence that comes up to Harrison’s waist. The front door is a white oak one. The screen door is before it with some of the screen ripped at the top right corner.

One imperfection on an otherwise perfect image.

LH Harrison walks towards the gate and opens it with a small push. His steps feel heavy as he begins walking towards the front door. The rip in the door begins to drive him mad. Such a serene and perfect image only to be tarnished by the rip in the mesh.

Harrison arrives at the door. His eyes don’t leave the location of the rip. He reaches up and begins to tug on it. He pulls it towards the other side as if that’s going to fix it. With one good jerk, he pulls it over to match the opposite side.

The problem is that it ripped clean off.

The tear he was trying to repair now is a massive hole as he drops the mesh that he accidentally tore off. Harrison’s eyes dart from side to side as he tries to figure out how to fix it. But before LH could think on it too much, he hears it.

That… that laugh.

Harrison flings the door open and opens the large wooden door. He’s hit by wave of musical notes sliding into one ear canal and through the other. The song… it’s familiar.




As his theme song begins to fill the space, Harrison’s eyes can’t help but follow the sound of that laughter. As he stands in the long hallway, he walks down and opens the first door on his left. Within the room, there is his whole entire family.

His parents. His daughters. His wife…

Himself.

LH Harrison walks into the scene and looks on as his family is sitting around on the furniture pieces of LH’s parent’s living room.

LH walks over and to his mother. He places his hand on her leg, but his fingers don’t collide with a source. They fall through the space.

A ghost.

An apparition.

A spectral entity.

LH brings his fingertips to his face. He clenches his fists and pulls them down by his side. The confused expression on his face is only furthered as he realizes that he can’t hear anything. His mother’s voice… gone. His father’s voice gone. His wife and children… same. He can’t hear even the Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” playing in the background. The Christmas tree is well lit. This was the last Christmas before he joined the XWF.

The last Christmas this normal family had together. LH turns and looks at his aging mother. The woman who would die of a heart attack after learning of his kidnapping by Cain’s biggest fan-club member. A delusional man that would turn out to be his best friend once his family was gone. His mother always had a twinkle in her eye. That night was no exception as she looked on at the younger LH with his wife leaning on his chest. His two daughters are sitting on small chairs watching the movie.

The spirit’s eyes begin to water. His two beautiful daughters, Eva and Grace. He remembered them on this night especially as Grace had gotten gum stuck in her hair. Her sister decided the best way to get it out was to cut it. Thus the bangs of Grace were lopsided. Harrison stifles a laugh at the sight. He chokes on his sobs. A strange brew of happiness and woe. His eyes look up to see the one person he felt guilty to see.

His father is perched across the room laying back in his armchair, mouth-agate, as his snores would probably wake a dead man. Harrison bites his lip. He sees his father’s chest move in the rhythm that would produce those deafening snores. Another tear builds up as the sound is not there. What he wouldn’t give to hear that snore just one last time…

His glowing green eyes switch from that target to the one that saddened him the most. Jessica Davis. His wife. Her beautiful face leans on the chest of his younger self. Her gorgeous black hair is draped down the sides of her face as she looks up at LH and whispers something in his ear.

Bahahamahaha!

LH stops dead in his tracks… that laugh.

His eyes focus on Jessica and his former self. She whispers something else in his ear and LH begins to laugh… but it’s that deranged cackle.

BAHAHAMAHAHA!

The past LH begins laughing. His eyes are shut as he’s leaning back on the couch holding his gut. He stands up and continues his maniacal laugh. Ghost LH looks on in horror. The deranged laughter halts and the body stamps up straight. The head turns to stare at the spirit. The expression is foreign to LH but it looks empty. The former LH lunges forward and presses apparition LH into the wall.

Don’t fight it. Don’t you dare fight it. You know what happens. You know why it happenssssss. Itsssss all your fault! All OUR fault!

Past LH’s face begins to shift. He shakes his head and suddenly the mask is there. The full attire.

Hysteria.

The maniacal delirium erupts from his throat as he places his hands on the spirit’s eyes.

Sssssssssssssssh! Let me show you our handiwork!

He removes his hands and the bodies are gone. Just blood stains being dragged out of the room. The voice begins to laugh in an uproar. The Christmas tree erupts in flames. The fire quickly shoots to the furniture. The flames spread into the room engulfing everything. Hysteria backs away as the flames begin to cover his body. The flaming man runs at him as the flames begin to burn away the mask to reveal…



AHHHHHHH!


BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

The sounds on the machine begin to go haywire as the hospital machine has come to life. Muffled screams and moans emanate from the mouth of the heavily bandaged face of LH Harrison. The only thing revealed through the bandages are his eyes. His weak fingers reach up for the bandages and begin pulling them off. Two nurses run into the room and pull his hands away as he pleads for them to help him. He begins throwing off the nurses as his strength begins to return. He gets to a sitting position and the nurses yank him back down. A doctor comes in with a large needle and he sticks it in his neck.

A loud grunt from LH as he continues to fight. His vision slowly becomes slurred and blurry. He tries to fight some more, but he falls back. His strength is gone. He falls into another deep sleep.


Nothing but blackness. Harrison looks left and right. Nothing for as far as he can see. A single spotlight appears 10 yards in front of him. As a frigid breeze fills the space, that masked figure comes into picture under the spotlight.

Harrrrissssoonnn. It seems our time has become sparse. The mask is done with you. Our mission… your mission. It’s complete. There’s no need for us to be together. Hysteria is moving on.

Moving on to where?!

Bahahamahaha! Now why would I tell you that? Just know this… the finale will go out with a BANG!



Blurred vision. The eyes slowly blink to try and return the vision back to normal. Harrison sits up and feels his face. Wait, the bandages are gone. He looks to his left and sees a mirror. His eyes move to his face and it’s normal. He breathes out a sigh of relief as he begins perusing the confinement encasing him. The room is small with one window and one doorway. He has the room to himself. He hears what appears to be laughter and his eyes glance up to see the small television on. The View is on. No wonder he kept having nightmares.

He groans and lays back. Nearly on command, the door opens and in walks Viktor Crumswell, his best friend and follower since that time where he was kidnapped by this man. The large man plops down in the chair beside his chair and offers LH a honey bun. LH flashes him a ‘You kidding?’ glance before shaking his head.

How are you feeling?

I’m tired. What the hell is going on?

You got your ass kicked. By a dude wearing makeup.

Yeah well… you got your ass kicked by a dude who got his ass kicked by a dude wearing makeup. And you had backup.

Fighting was never really my forte. You get paid for a living to do it. He takes a huge bite out of the honey bun with some glaze coating his round cheeks. Harrison shakes his head and looks at the TV.

You really killed all of those people?

What people?

At that robbery.

Yeah.

Why?

They had to pay their due.

Due? For what?

Listen, Viktor. I appreciate you being here. I really do. BUT, there’s something you need to realize about that robbery…

What?

It didn’t happen on January 21, 2015 as I reported.

The stunned Viktor looks on in confusion. He goes to take another bite of his honey bun, but suddenly doesn’t seem interested. A rare feat for him.

What do you mean? When did it happen?

On January 21…. 2025.

The stunned Viktor doesn’t seem to be comprehending all of it. Harrison sighs.

You see I got this trinket that allows me to bend time. I got it from this girl in… well that’s of no matter. The important part is that I got the device. Instead of going backwards and screwing up timelines and coming back to discover the US in a World War or something equally dumb, I went to the future. How do you mess up something that hasn’t happened yet? In the future, Christianity is dead. Everyone is cutting deals for better lives. Even the cops. The ones who died either threatened my life or their contracts had ran out. That’s why I let the kid go. He hadn’t made a contract.

Viktor leans back and crosses his arms to the best of his ability over his robust chest. He seems to contemplate what he’d been told as he scratches the bald spot on his head.

Who did they make a contract with?

The same guy I did. The Higher Power.

You still believe that?

Harrison’s mouth curls up at the end. A weird expression flashes across his face.

What would you lead you to believe that I didn’t?

Well this guy now wearing your old mask for one.

Harrison begins to grip the sheets tight. Viktor notices this and raises an eyebrow. LH releases them. A wave of confusion, relief, and… anger crash over him. He longed for the mask. The power. Yet it now had found a new home.

Don’t worry Vik. Whoever is running around with my mask on… they’ll pay. With their life.

A yellow glow comes over Harrison’s eyes before he blinks it away.