Who We All Fear: Chapter 4 – The Saint in Black

Chapter 4 – The Saint in Black

From among the many sinful in Meridian, few are repentant and virtuous. My attention is brought to the Severe family, which is one of the oldest families in Meridian who helped build and maintain it for centuries. The family is in dire straits since the parents have been in a coma ever since they were almost killed and five of the six children have given themselves to their sinful ways. Timeo Severe, the youngest son, is the only one who cares for his parents besides the hired help and co-workers of the parents. Today is the birthday of his mother, Amelie, and he is the only one in their large, empty house that sits just outside of Meridian.

Timeo makes a small cake, lights some candles, and sings Happy Birthday to his mother who is unconscious in bed with his father. Despite this, Timeo still talks to them as if they heard him and then the power goes out because of the heavy thunderstorm outside, the loss of power souring the already gloomy mood. Unable to keep up the act any longer, Timeo puts his hands on his face as he holds back tears.

“I’m sorry I can’t get my siblings to ever come over to see you. My brothers and sisters are greedy bastards who took their inheritance from you before you’re even dead and are spending it on whores and parties. If I wasn’t so weak, I could’ve fought off those scum that jumped us and made you like this,” Timeo says as his sadness starts to give way to anger. “I’m tired of crying. Tired of all the days that I’m the only one here who cares for you. Despite all your years of caring for others, no one cares in return. Despite what you taught me and my siblings, I’m the only one who took your wisdom to heart. I’m tired of it. Tired of it all and I’ll…I’ll make them pay.”

The storm gets worse as Timeo puts on a long black jacket, a black hoodie, and a gray scarf to hide his appearance. He’s in such a rush to punish his siblings that he doesn’t care that he’s still wearing his black suit, tie, dress pants, and nice shoes as he heads out. All his siblings happen to be in one place tonight since they’re holding an expensive party filled with drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes. They posted it on social media for their rich friends to see and unintentionally gave Timeo their exact location. Being the only good son, his siblings have distanced themselves from him by not involving themselves with him nor keeping in contact.

“They’ll be spending what they have left on expensive medical bills rather than blowing it on the pleasures of the world,” Timeo thinks to himself.

Because of the weather and craze of the party, Timeo can sneak into the party and use the crowd as cover to enter the party room. It’s only when he makes it inside does he sticks out and attracts attention to himself. Everyone looks at him as if he’s supposed to be part of the entertainment while two guards stand in front of him, making sure he doesn’t do anything. Timeo stares at his siblings with a look that can kill as the violence within him builds until it boils over. Just as one of the guards touches him, he yells out, breaks the man’s arms, and then knocks him out with his hands.

The next guard tries to fight Timeo, but he grabs him by the neck and repeatedly punches him in the face until this next guard is knocked out as well. With their minds clouded by their vices, Timeo’s siblings clap at this display, however, some of them take this display as a challenge as they step up to fight him.

“Do you really think you can challenge the Severe family-” one of Timeo’s brothers says before Timeo immediately starts going after him.

Timeo punches his brother in the stomach, the throat, and then one final punch to the face, putting him down for the night. His sister throws a kick at him and he counters by grabbing her leg, breaking it, breaking her arm after she throws a punch, and then putting her through a glass table. Another sister attacks him from behind by smashing a wine bottle against his head, and he in turn, grabs her by the neck, drags her across a wooden table, knocking over every bottle of expensive liquor, and throws her against the wall, her head hitting it and knocking her out cold. His oldest brother runs up and starts drunkenly punching Timeo, hardly giving him a chance to do anything other than hold his arms up to defend himself.

“Do you think you’re tough? Think you can just beat up my brothers and sisters and get away with it?!” the oldest brother says.

Looking for a way to counterattack, Timeo looks around the room until he sees a nearby fancy chair made of steel. He takes hits from his brother to reach it before he takes it and meets his attack with his own and begins ruthlessly beating his brother with it. Another sister tries to intervene, but Timeo also sees her and counters her attack with a kick. He alternates his attention between both siblings until the chair breaks over his brother and he knocks out his sister with a kick after breaking both her legs. One last brother remains who is drunk out of his mind and has been cheering, laughing, and clapping while this fight has been going on until he realizes he is next.

With his hands up, the last brother says, “Woah, woah! I was cheering for you this entire time! How much money would you like for your prize? Any amount is good!”

Before his brother can flaunt his wealth any longer, Timeo grabs him by the neck and relentlessly beats his face in until he breaks all his brother’s teeth. Timeo had something to say to each of his siblings. He’s prepared to scold them for years and thought of various ways of explaining it to them, but at this point, he just screams in such an unnatural and frightening way that it doesn’t even seem like his scream is his own as he screams so loud that it makes everyone in the room’s ears ring. After collecting himself, Timeo walks out of the room with his bloodied and bruised hands in his pockets. The beating he gave his siblings satiated a need for violence in him, and yet, he feels emptier than ever.

As Timeo walks back home with a hollow mind and soul, he comes across a dead homeless man in the rainy streets of the city. No one pays attention to him and most walk around him and some walk over. Seeing this fills Timeo with pity as he calls a family friend from the hospital to bring an ambulance to take care of the man’s body.

Timeo pushes aside people who walk over the homeless man’s body and says, “Show some respect for the dead!”

He stays with the body until the ambulance arrives, takes him, and attempts to revitalize him while taking him to the hospital and are surprised to find that he comes back to life with little effort, something that they’ll tell Timeo later after the man is taken to the hospital and given a room paid for by Timeo. Meanwhile, Timeo stops by the alley where his parents were put into a coma by criminals since he is passing by it. He stands around in silence, remembering the event, how his parents fought back, and how he’s the only one in his family who has been caring for them. Part of him wishes the same criminals who put his family into a coma would reappear as if beating them would change things while another part feels as if he’s become a thug by beating up his siblings.

“Timeo,” I say.

“Hmm? Who's there?” he asks.

“Don’t you know? You helped me while I was dead on the street.”

“I did?”

“When you help the least of my brothers, you help me.”

Immediately recognizing who I am, Timeo prostrates himself.

“My Lord, I am a sinful man who doesn’t deserve to hear your voice.”

“You may be sinful, but you are a good and faithful son. Your treatment of your siblings was just to an extent and your caring for the homeless was a rare act of virtue in Meridian.”

“I’m sorry for what I did. I let my emotions and demons get to me.”

“What I am giving you is a gift, not a punishment or penance, even though you will use it to both punish and bring people to repent and do penance.”

The darkness of the surrounding area enters Timeo, turning his skin a dark gray, and one of his eyes turns pure black and the other black and gray. Shadows dress him in a cloak and scarf, giving him the appearance of a ghost, or rather, a reaper.

Looking at himself in a nearby puddle, Timeo says, “What am I? What is this?”

“The blessing of justice. You will be a dark avenger who brings my justice to the sinful and repentant souls to my mercy,” I say.

“Why me?”

“This has been my purpose for you ever since the start, and now, you will fulfill it at its appropriate time.”

“So…I’m a superhuman now. How do I use my powers?”

“I shall show you.” Timeo’s body becomes one with the darkness around him. He travels as fast as the wind through the city while no one sees him. “Remember this sensation so you may do the same in the future. You can travel in the dark and light like this since both are like mercy and justice, two sides of the same coin.”

“This is amazing! Where are we going?”

“To enact justice on the guilty and to rescue someone dear to me.”

I bring Timeo to one of the most high-end skyscrapers in the city and take him to the deepest depths where some of the most depraved acts in the city are committed. In one cell is a woman who has been here for some time for wanting to expose corruption in my Church. She lies barely conscious and half starved to death in rags of filth after being abused for so long.

“Is she who we’re here to rescue? Can she enter the darkness with me?” Timeo asks.

“She can’t. You’ll have to fight your way out to do that, which is easily said and done if you rely on me,” I say. “Observe.”

Two men enter the cell and look at the woman in disgust.

“This one is all shriveled up and useless,” one says.

“Yeah. Not even the ones who like the dead inside ones want her.”

“Do we serve her up to the cannibals or give her to the freaks in the ghettos?”

“I’ve heard enough of this,” Timeo says.

“So have I,” I say.

I demonstrate to Timeo the power he now wields by manipulating the shadows to form tools of punishment and justice based on the sinner they are used on. For example, these two are cut from the crotch to the top of their head with shadows forming chainsaws.

“Woah!” Timeo says.

“They deserved it. Such degenerates like them are beyond repentance,” I say.

Timeo takes the woman in his arms and says, “Okay. Now what?”

“Now, we bring judgment to the rest of them on our way to the surface.”

The damnation of many souls and the freeing of the innocent from their cells happen as Timeo makes his way through the underground tower of sin. From the shadows, the punishment of the guilty manifests in various ways such as people being eaten by demons in the shadows, torn to shreds by hundreds of arms, sliced to bits by scythes, shot to bits, being drowned by water that is suspended in air, drowned in alcohol, burning alive, crushed, suffocated, drugged until their blood pours out of their skin, mouth, and eyes, and more. To finish this, when Timeo reaches the ground floor with the innocent people behind him, those who knew about the evil deeds happening below have nooses wrapped around their necks from the dark before they are thrown outside and hung from the building as if it were a macabre Christmas tree.

Looking back on what he’s done with my help, Timeo says, “This…this power is beyond incredible.”

While I fly Timeo to the top of the building with the woman in his arms, I say, “Yes. Be careful with it and you will change the city for decades to come. Now, to make your presence known. Pick a hero name while I do so.”

I draw everyone who is around the building to look at the hanging bodies and prisoners escaping from it and make more traffic head this way. They look at the sight in horror and confusion. Even the police, heroes, and vigilantes are too afraid to do anything. Their eyes are then drawn to the top of the building where they see Timeo wrapped in darkness and terrifying like one of the many gothic statues that hang on its buildings.

“Hear me, people of Meridian,” I say with Timeo. “Your sinful ways have brought the wrath of the divine and every villain will be punished as these have. Enter the building, if you dare, to see the depravity that your leaders have been up to with the other criminal scum of its lower ranks and what they’ve done to people who oppose them. If you wish to avoid the same fate, fear God, be virtuous, or I will be coming for you. I am justice made manifest, the saint in black, the wrath of the divine.”

Taking over, Timeo says, “I, am L’Obscurité and you will know the true value of fear.”

He then laughs as the crowd scatters out of fear while I make him fly out of the area and to a safe location. We’re now in the garden at a monastery where close friends of mine reside. Inside, we can hear arguing.

“Why can’t we go after my aunt now? We managed to do so much yesterday in so little time,” Ishbel says.

“Yes, but that was with God’s constant intercession and He’s been silent today,” Jordyn says.

“We’ll find a way to get her. The few connections remaining out there should know something,” Allona adds.

“God will find a way to get us to her. I’m sure of it,” Jerod says.

Timeo knocks on the garden door startling the people inside. They grab their guns, carefully open the door, and are shocked to see Timeo, especially Ishbel who gets in front of them.

“That’s my aunt!” she says. “Who are you and why do you have her? Where did you find her?”

“Saving her is my gift to you from a mutual friend,” I say through Timeo. “Here, take her and nurse her back to health. She’ll be fine after a month of rest and proper help.”

Ishbel takes her aunt into her arms before Timeo flies away.

“Did you sense the virtue of those people and the sins of their past?” I ask.

“Yes, I did. I also saw the impact you had on them,” Timeo says.

“Remember them and the people we brought judgment upon. Those people may have been scum yesterday, but I have redeemed them and made them better than most in this city.”

“I see. So, I won’t just be rescuing and killing people.”

“No, because it is better that people be redeemed and live than executed and damned. It is a shame that most deserve death here, but your efforts can change that.”

“I won’t disappoint you, Lord.”

“I know you won’t.”

I bring Timeo back to his home where he rejoins his parents and tells them everything that’s happened. After kissing them goodnight, they suddenly wake up for the first time in a while. Overjoyed by this, he thanks me on his knees and calls the friends of the family to let them know. Their friends come over and celebrate the occasion with a proper birthday for Timeo’s mother. Now that the proper pieces are in place, I withdraw my wrath from Meridian while not keeping out of it entirely as my faithful servants will do my will.

There is no event or thought that escapes my notice. The guilty will be punished and the repentant and innocent will obtain their redemption and be avenged. Under my ever-watchful gaze, this will always be so. With fear always in their hearts, the sinful will stay away from evil and receive my mercy while the wretched who persist in it will find themselves damned sooner than they think, a fate as sure as the day and night.

 

The End