[justify][i][b][color=ADD8E6][h1]"And in the evening the outlook is cloudy with a chance of rapture.”[/h1][/color][/b][/i]

And thus after ninety years of ghosting her every invitation Beleth had a front-row seat to Beth’s very last show, playing for one night only: The Death and Rebirth of Bethany Lavaeux.

Bloody.

Heaving.

Violent.

As all births were want to be, with his third-eye Beleth saw the trillions of years behind preparing this ritual, stretching forward in time then twisting backwards until the heart of it beat like a drum beneath their very feet. He saw Narcissus scattered during his battle with the war maiden Christina. He saw Keith running for his life. He saw Mire, and Colossus, and Soran. 

He saw the end of an era and the birth of a new one.

He didn’t bother to answer Bethany when she asked him about his motives, because it didn’t really matter, Beth as he knew it would be dead in a matter of moments and any answer he gave her would only raise more questions at this junction. There was no solace for her in death; she had committed too many sins to die quick. Her only peace of mind would come if she could accept that in dying she was to become part of a greater whole, and when she refused to accept that for an answer, she dumped a dead possum across his carefully arranged fortune table until his brow furrowed with frustration and his already bloodshot eyes bulged for a brief moment.

[color=f7941d]“Well now, there’s no need to be dramatic about it.”[/color]

Then she was gone, the thing that had been Beth stared at him with lust in its eyes, licking its hungry lips. Dangling one bony leg over the other like a pair of rusty hinges laid over each other and saying without speaking that it was curious beyond words about what a man who walked around in a three-piece suit and a giant stuffed teddy bear head might look like beneath the cover of night. Horrible was his answer; Skinless, raw, and red. Shared in the lidless blink of his bulging white eyes before Narcissus drew his next breath and became intoxicated with something else then something else again, swirling in half-remembered sensations until he was gone too, and Beleth realized with no small frustration that this was going to take a while…

***

Like most celebrities, there had been no shortage of rumors about Bethany’s involvement with the occult during her long and lurid career. Unlike most celebrities there was a somber air of truth about them. Where other A-listers flirted with the headlines amidst stories of cryptid sightings and new age sciences she dealt in human trafficking, mysterious disappearances, and in grand conspiracy. Beleth had not told her to do so. Rather, at some point she had deduced the true nature of her life’s great benefactor for herself and had made moves to follow in his footsteps, whether she believed this would someday wind up with her standing by his side like a lovestruck puppy or some instinctual part of her could feel the bars of her life’s cage closing in around her with every passing year was something even she did not know for certain.

All that could be said was that without ever having any children of her own the Leveaux Family was very large and the evil they had brought into this world was very real, they gathered now, standing on the beach praying in their robed whispers as the ocean heaved a great monolith out from the deep blue.

The non-believers, those who had gathered from the beach and the resort and its surrounding town, could not stand the sight of it and so began to devolve into the madness that had defined humanity’s time in this fragile cosmos up to this moment. But not the trueborn. As the sound of blood pleasure echoed through the air all around them the faithful remained penitent until finally their ascendant goddess was reborn in all of her glory, a coiled beehive of honey blonde hair atop her head, twirling with a song in her throat and her arms wide open. That one of their own had died to see her reborn did not register in the least. And as one they began to chant over the din of chaos, a loud penitent chorus that drowned out the chaos around them, that spoke to the very core of human nature and quelled the beastly instincts that had driven them into madness in the first place. And it went:

[b]OOH EEH OOH AH AAH TING TANG WALLA-WALLA BING BANG![/b]

Louder, and louder, and louder still until the walls of her chateau rattled. Until Beleth could feel it sinking its claws between the wrinkles of what remained of his gray matter, bulging at his temples and behind his eyes with every gross brainy throb until his fist slammed down on the table.

[color=f7941d][b]“Enough!”[/b][/color]

The meat, bones, and viscera of some distant endangered island ancestor of the opossum shot from his table. Humans caught in its path collapsed in heaps riddled with a thousand small and not-so-small holes where the gore had passed through them. Any material that reached the dually named Apparatus struck with so much force that they quite literally atomized on contact, doing no damage to the casket or the body within, and that which missed splattered against the walls of her home. All at once the world seemed very much smaller now. Bethany was standing on a stage before Beleth, the mighty Apparatus beside her the size of an obedient dog, her family on their knees like many small children set to watch a play staring up with wide eyes and in a voice of forced calm he said two words: [color=f7941d]“Sit down.”[/color]

And, some distant part of Bethany that still lived on inside of Narcissus listened.

***

[color=f7941d]“If I had it my way, you would still be rotting in the deepest pit of hell, Theo. But it is not my choice. I am but the messenger for something greater than us both,"[/color] Beleth went back to shuffling his deck. [color=f7941d]“You may have heard of him, or maybe not, my boss is Beramode Aurelius Pendragon—King of the Night, and he has heard of you. Before you ask, I don’t know why he’s interested in you. You don’t ask a man like Beramode things like why. You ask what you can do for him and what he will do for you in return, in this case, he went through all the trouble of bringing you back to life so he could send you on a journey…”[/color]

[color=f7941d]“And I am your guide.”[/color]

It was during this speech that Beleth laid down the first card, a smooth vantablack rectangle with round edges, with an abstract assortment of monochromatic color as if several cut-outs from the same sheet had been arranged to form an image. An image that seemed to move whenever the eye was not looking directly at it. Upon this first card there were white stars. Just a few of them sitting against a wide canvas of perfectly black space staring up at him like little eyes that winked closed when he wasn’t looking and added new ones when he was: [color=000000][i]The Night[/i][/color].

He placed that card closest to him.

[color=f7941d]“Here he is, waiting for you at the end of the road.”[/color]

He placed another card right beside that one. A lone gunman with his mouth covered by a bandana and the brim of his hat pulled low, standing idle before a kneeling man in a blindfold and flirting with the hammer of his gun every time Narcissus was not looking directly at him, his eyes could not be seen but the audience would know without knowing they were bloodshot: [color=f26522][i]The Executioner[/i][/color].

Placed just beneath The Night, tucked up against its right-hand corner.

[color=f7941d]“This is me.”[/color]

And a third one, a jester with a wide r grin, jingle bells hanging from the ears of his hat and the tip of his shoes. He was pranced proudly as he approached the long winding trail ahead of him unaware of the mocking crowds beside him, unlike a normal jester, he wore an odd out of place blue suit. How appropriate for [color=ADD8E6][i]The Fool[/i][/color].

It slid into place right in front of Narcissus.

[color=f7941d]“Would you look at that, it’s you, your road is long and treacherous.”[/color]

The first card of the first layer was upside down, facing towards Beleth, a bold knight cut in sharp pinks with flowing hair. A woman with her sword drawn against the darkness. [color=ec008c][i]The Paladin[/i][/color] was always ready to stand against evil, wherever it may manifest next, with bright beams of light radiating from her sword and nary a shade of black on the front of her card.

But not entirely missing either.

[color=f7941d]“Now that would be interesting, unfortunately, she’s busy as far as I can tell. Another time?”[/color]

The second card showed an oriental dragon with its long body twisting around a mountain’s peak. Thunderclouds were clutched beneath its claws and fire thundered out from the inside of its maw. [color=00a651][i]The Dragon[/i][/color] all but spoke for itself and even Beleth seemed to have pity in his voice before he said.

[color=f7941d]“I do not think you are ready for this one quite yet, let’s see what awaits you a step below.”[/color]

The second layer had three cards all facing Narcissus. [color=662d91][i]The King[/i][/color] haughty upon his throne. [color=ed1c24][i]The Beast[/i][/color] tromping down the street with pride in its eyes, unaware of the damage it caused. And [color=0054a6][i]The Quiet[/i][/color] lake sitting there with nary a ripple as tiny flower petals surfed across the reflection of a wide blue moon.

[color=f7941d]“My oh my, they’re all so eager to meet you, I’m almost jealous. But they’ll have to wait.”[/color]

The first card was green, an old skull stuck in the muddy ground with worms crawling through it, the dying leaves stirring occasionally in an unseen wind when Narcissus blinked and an eerie silence carrying into the room around them on behalf of [color=00a651][i]The Forest[/i][/color].

Even Beleth was at a loss for words.

[color=f7941d]“. . .”[/color]

The next two cards fell together, pink and gold, [color=FFD700][i]The Prince[/i][/color] may have been young but his grandiose ambitions could be seen playing out in the long shadow he reflected upon the wall in front of him. Adventure, women, fortune. Beside and beneath him was [color=ec008c][i]The Liar[/i][/color], or maybe it ought to be liars, judging by the number of masks hanging on the wall. Each one wearing a different expression with a hesitant hand reaching out for them  from below that retreated any time Narcissus looked at him.

[color=f7941d]“Isn’t that cute, they drew themselves together. [i]I hate young love.[/i]”[/color]

With a snort he wrenched them apart and hung them upside down.

[color=f7941d]“They’ll learn their lesson, but not from you, moving on.”[/color]

[color=C0C0C0][i]The Pariah[/i][/color] crouched silver and cowardly in an alley while [color=662d91][i]The Hound[/i][/color] stalked down muddy streets. Each one cast their hateful gaze towards Narcissus, one born of fear and one born of rage, but were waved away with a gloved hand before he mused long and quiet. Looking first at the cards and then at his guest and then back again before he finally drew a line starting with [color=00a651][i]The Forest[/i][/color] up to [color=ed1c24][i]The Beast[/i][/color] and ending with an inevitable clash with [color=00a651][i]The Dragon[/i][/color].

[color=f7941d]”For the crime of over consumption I sentence you to walk the path of [i]Nature’s Wrath[/i], Narcissus. Should you make it back in one piece then perhaps my master will be willing to tell you of his greater purpose, or maybe not, fail on your journey and hell will seem merciful compared to what I have in store for you.”[/color] Somewhere inside the hollow teddy bear helmet cracked lips audibly peeled away from moldy teeth as, for the first time in ninety years, Beleth smiled. [color=f7941d]“Are you ready for your journey, Theo? I will give you an hour to prepare but when the clock strikes midnight the stars will take you away whether you want to go or not. I do not think you the cowardly sort though. I think you very much want to go.”[/color][/justify]