More than our Masks: Chapter 1 – Opening Up to Compassion

Chapter 1 – Opening Up to Compassion

I set bouquets at the graves of a friend and his trusted associate, kneel by them, and touch them. On my friend’s gravestone is the inscription, “A strong protector of Meridian, just like the rest of his noble Ellory bloodline”.

“I hope the inscription is to your liking, Raymond. You may not like how I’m handling things nowadays, but rest assured that justice is being served. Pray for me so that I gain the wisdom needed for my God-given vocations,” I say.

“Coming out here every week isn’t going to help,” Kane Mundr says from behind me.

“If you do come out here, at least have us watch over you, father. The people of Meridian don’t look favorably upon you,” Raziel says.

“Let them talk. We did the right thing.”

“Speaking of which, I told you two to go ahead of me into the undercity,” I say.

“I know, but we were concerned about you.”

“I’m fine. I need time to get over what happened last week and carry on. That’s all. Now, go. You know that others need more help than I.”

“Yes, father.”

Kane and Raziel head out, and I leave the grave after a few more seconds of silence and prayer. I then go to my parents’ grave and spend some time there as well.

“I’m not the same kind of healer that either of you was. Still, I hope to be just as virtuous as you both are and that I’m making you proud,” I say.

Four people who were close to me died because of my powers. They may not be completely under my control, but I could’ve still…no. I gotta stop thinking about that. It’s time to go to work. Transforming into my dark hero form, L’Obscurité, a long hat forms on my head, a cloak jacket and scarf cover my body, a bullet hole appears on the center of my forehead, and my face becomes an unrecognizable shadow of itself with only a set of sharp black eyes and terrifying, permanent smile on it. My body then becomes one with the light and dark as I travel through it to reach the undercity. In my travels, I can’t help but stop and listen in on the conversation happening between construction workers in the tunnels.

“Do you think they’ll actually go after L’Obscurité? He has saved the city and hundreds of people in it, and brought hundreds of criminals to justice.”

“But he was also helping that guy, Raziel, people said, set the city on fire and killed all those cops and heroes.”

“Don’t people say that Raziel and he can’t control his powers, and that people just get what’s coming to them? That fire that burned the city was harmless to some people and objects, while burning others to ash.”

“Even then, they’re still responsible for the people they allow their powers to hurt.”

Don’t let it bother you. Just walk away from the conversation.

“Regardless, I don’t think the city will bother L’Obscurité. They already have their hands full repairing the damage from that day, and there are people like Timeo Severe, his wife Darcy Travail, Klinge Geben, and Lancetto Affare in support of him.”

“Yeah, having the four most powerful families in the city supporting you can help, but that won’t mean anything if the country outlaws you. Besides them, some of the common men still support him because of everything he’s done, while others hate him.”

“Do your sons still have that L’Obscurité merch?”

Yes, but they may want to sell it later since the stores have stopped selling merchandise based on him. Selling outlawed hero merch to the right buyers can get you enough money to retire on, after all.”

I finally feel empowered to move on after hearing that conversation. I never liked the city selling merchandise based on my hero identity, but at least I’m glad to know some people still support me. The tunnels where the workers are located were abandoned by the city years ago and are prone to collapsing at any moment. They’re only getting attention because Raziel’s fires have revealed a hidden threat beneath the surface that I’m focusing on. No criminal organization, no matter how powerful, wanted to hide under the city because of how dangerous it was, but a secret, sixth family manages to.

This sixth family draws their power from the demonic and shows no interest in wealth or power. Their only desire is to drag others down to Hell with them. Personally, they influenced my siblings and turned my older brother against me, resulting in the deaths of my other siblings and parents. They will pay for every sin they’ve committed as well as the sins of their ancestors. I will ensure that every hero and cop killed by my dark power did not die in vain and that the city becomes even better and safer than before.

As I venture deeper into the undercity, I discover buildings from the nineteen hundreds, the eighteen hundreds, and even the seventeen hundreds, dating back to when the city was first established. Strangely, not all of these structures are in ruins; people live in them and carry on with their lives like anyone else. However, all of them bear mutations, with horns protruding from their faces and bodies, arms, and legs. Each is guilty of leading a life steeped in sin and the corruption of the innocent. All face the sentence of death. I can feel my very essence tremble in anticipation of their executions, yet I pray and maintain control. There’s a more effective way to remove them than simply slaughtering them on sight. Moreover, I observe that the leaders of the sixth family guide their individuals they follow to their death. Yet, without these leaders, they would be directionless and easier to take down, so I bide my time and sift through their memories to uncover the locations of these leaders.

After learning the location of a group of leaders that are about to do something horribly disgusting, I head out to stop them. Going to the area, I find them going to ritualistically rape a nun to force her to have a child, just like they did with the other nuns and innocent women of all ages down here. They purposefully have children here that way so that the child that comes out will be an easier target of sin and demonically possessed. The children who are harder to corrupt and the women who can resist are killed, eaten alive, and the leaders wear their skinned remains and decorate the ritual rooms such as this one. The skinned remains of innocent people, heroes, and vigilantes call out for justice to me, but before I can act, I feel my powers hold me back and sense a familiar yet foreign presence.

A shot strikes one of the leaders in the arm, halting the ritual before it can commence, as the leaders glance into the hallway to see who interrupted them. It was a woman with red hair, wearing a simple black and white mask featuring angel wings on the light grey side and black wings on the dark side, along with a dark blue bulletproof jacket, black cargo pants, and black boots. Exploring her memories, I discover that her name is Polina Yelizaveta, a police officer by day and a vigilante by night when justice calls for it.

She enters the disgusting room and says, “Stop this!”

The leaders in the room look at her like predators look at prey, with their mouths watering and their senses telling them to pounce on her. The leader who was shot was hardly affected by it as their demonic powers quickly heal their wound and press them on to attack Poline. Before they can, Polina’s voice resounds and touches their souls and mine as well.

“This isn’t you,” her voice echoes. “Who are you even? Do you know? Have you thought about it beyond what you do? Do you really want this life that you have?”

The questions she poses give me pause to consider how I’m living, but for the leaders, they’re suffering from a mental breakdown as they clutch their heads, scream, and writhe on the floor until they pass out. With them out cold and seeing that Polina is an ally, I turn my attention to the nun, and thankfully, my touch heals her wounds and exorcises the dark magic done to her body.

“Will she be okay?” Polina asks.

“She will. I need to bring her somewhere safe so she can get some rest,” I say. “Are you not going to try to arrest me for my crimes, officer?”

“I don’t see a reason to, even though my higher-ups would at least have me try. As far as I can see, we’re on the same side with the same goals, L’Obscurité, or should I say, Timeo Severe?”

I reveal part of my real face, but keep it a hazy image, so that it stays safe from prying eyes.

“You figured out who I am, but I see in your memories that it happened on the day that you got your powers.”

“Yes. I obtained them and learned your secret one day while you were helping us, cops, arrest and take down some criminals. Your dark powers touched me, and I obtained the power to see the good in people’s souls, the weakness within them, and why they deserve mercy.”

“I appreciate you keeping my secret safe. I see you can also knock them out through sheer mental willpower. What of the people who don’t deserve mercy?”

“My powers can make them bleed out from the inside, give them heart attacks, and other internal conditions that kill their organs, but I have to have a line of sight for them to work.”

“What about these people? Why do they deserve to live? You saw what they were about to do, and their bodies and this room are dressed in the skin, bones, and blood of their victims.”

“They’re under the influence of the higher leaders, their demons, and they’ve been indoctrinated since birth to be this way. They need to be given a second chance so that they may know the real truth. I’ll explain more once we get that nun to safety.”

“I was about to say the same thing. I’ll be back in a second.”

I take the nun into the light and dark and whisk her away to the surface. There, I disguise my appearance and voice with a mind-altering shadow to look like one of the construction workers, tell the others that I've found a woman underground who needs help, and have them call an ambulance. Once they do, I head back down to Polina and tell her that the nun is safe and we should continue our conversation in a less wretched room. She agrees, and we go to a closed-off hole in the tunnels far from the underground city.

Polina continues our conversation by saying that, “The people here have been abandoned by the surface and ages past who have forgotten about them, and only have the demonic sixth family as their influence. They haven’t the faintest clue about the love and mercy of God and deserve to know it so that there’s a chance they may be saved. Don’t your powers allow you to see that in their memories?”

“I can’t see all their memories at once. Even then, my powers do what they will on their own. I am merely a conduit for the Divine’s will,” I say.

“I know, but you can still hold back justice for mercy’s sake. Can’t you?”

“I can. Still, the blood of the innocent calls out for justice.”

“Justice will come. Just allow me to sever the demonic influences over the people in the undercity before doing so. It’s why I’m down here. I thought there was a good chance you’d be down here because of who and what are down here, and you didn’t want to cause more trouble on the surface.”

“Your guess was right. Are you sure you want to work with me and my apprentices despite disagreeing with our methods?”

“I know better than most that you weren’t guilty of the deaths caused by Raziel’s fire and your dark powers. You merely let your powers do what they had to. Stop beating yourself up over it,” Polina says as she hugs me. “It’s okay.”

I put one arm over her and returned her hug.

“Thank you. I’ll allow you to go with your plan, but the tides of justice can’t be held back for long.”

“I know. Give me some time, and I’m sure some will be saved, at least. We may also be able to repair your reputation on the surface by helping the people down here.”

“I hope so.”

Polina and I go off on our hunt for the heads of the leaders of the sixth family. Here’s hoping that severing the heads will free those under them and repair the damage I’ve done to others.