Ghost Rider #2

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Ghost Rider #2
The Long, Hard Road Part 2

Written by Mike Bowen
Edited by Daniel Dyer

Johnny Blaze sat in a elegantly furnished office, glancing at various works of art on the wall and what he took for a beaming ray of sunlight coming through a sky light in the roof. The man across from him had just finished a long-winded speech that he was having trouble comprehending. It was filled with references to the future, the past and everything in between. The last line of the offer struck Blaze the hardest.

“Face it Blaze, in two years your wife Clara will commit suicide over your death,” Mephisto said. “I am giving you the chance to prevent that. Blaze wasn’t sure if he just heard right. It took him a few moments to process the information before finally speaking.

“Did the Devil just offer me a chance to return to Earth?” he stammered.

“Technically I am not your Devil,” Mephisto answered with a wide smile. “Each level of hell is ruled by a certain demon. All are different. Your ‘Devil’ is a conglomeration of all of us, and a little bit of fairy tale mixed in. But yes, I did just offer you a chance of getting out of here.”

Blaze seemed to mull it over for a few minutes, before asking for the details of the deal.

“You will be marked, well more specifically your soul will be mark, so that when the time comes I will claim you again,” Mephisto said. “The process is quite painful, but I would assume you would be OK with that?”

What did he have to lose, Blaze thought to himself. He was already in hell, why not take the offer to return to Earth. “Sure,” Blaze said. “Why not? I¹m going to end up here anyways right?”

“Excellent choice Mr. Blaze,” a delighted Mephisto cackled. “I knew you would see the logic behind it. Please follow me to where the procedure will take place.”

Mephisto led the way from the office, down a long, dark hallway that was lined with flaming torches to a room that contained only a surgical table and a tray of surgeons tools. The sight of the tools brought a shudder to Blaze and he noticeably shrunk back from the table.

“Come now, Mr. Blaze,” Mephisto said. “We made a deal. Sure it might hurt for a moment, but just think, you will be back on Earth with your beloved wife in no time.”

Johnny grimaced. “I’m not backing out of anything, I just didn’t figure it required surgery to bond my soul to this hell.”

Mephisto smiled, his black teeth gleaming in the torchlight. “And I told you that it would be painful, hence the surgical procedures. Now if you would just take a seat over on the table, I will return shortly to oversee the process.”

Blaze’s shoulders sank as he ambled over to the cold, metal table and sat on the edge.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Mephisto made his way out another portal in the room, walking down another torch-lit hallway before finding Blackheart waiting for him.

“So, you have found a worthy vessel to get rid of your rival am I right, father?” the demon asked.

“I have,” Mephisto answered. “I have kept Zarathos imprisoned in that medallion for a millennia, ever since I cast him down for stealing souls meant for me. Now I have finally found a soul worthy enough to carry it back to Earth. And if my theories are correct, I have finally found a way for Zarathos to pay me back for all of those souls he stole.”

Blackheart had a puzzled look on his face. “But why use the human, father?” he asked. “Wouldn’t I or another be more suited to banishing Zarathos to Earth and bringing back souls for your army?”

Mephisto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Because, son, I don’t think you could handle the job,” he stated flatly. “And I wouldn’t trust any of your brethren with it either. Now be gone, so I can make sure the bonding process goes as planned.”

The flickering torchlight cast a myriad of shadows over Blackheart’s face, but his anger and growing disdain for his father was plain to see. The demon’s red eyes narrowed and his lips curled over his long fangs. “As you command father,” he spat in an incredulous tone. “But rest assured, one of these days I will prove my worth to you and how wrong you are to put such stock in this human.”

Mephisto dismissed him with a wave of his hand and left the chamber. The rough-hewn stones clicked slightly under his feet as he marched on towards a large iron door with a sharp orange light issuing from underneath it. From the shadows a small demon armed with a crude pike emerged with his weapon ready.

“Stand down,” Mephisto ordered and the demon cowered under his master’s watchful eye. Mephisto reached beneath the collar of his suit and produced an incredibly small jeweled key. He grasped it between his thumb and index finger and gently inserted it into an almost invisible key hole. The door gave a loud, grinding click and swung slowly inward. The demon-lord emerged into a brightly lit chamber that was bare except for a large stone chest that sat in the center of the floor. He stepped up and kneeled beside it and ran his fingers over the ancient runes and glyphs carved into it. A few flicks of his fingers and an invisible lock clicked and the lid cracked slightly, issuing a hiss of acrid steam from within. Mephisto slowly raised the lid of the chest to reveal that it didn’t contain treasure, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. The inside of the chest was lined with a red velvet-like substance and laying in the bottom was a small metal disk, carved with a v-shaped pattern. He regarded it for a minute before taking it in his right hand. “It is time, old one, that you serve me,” he whispered. “Today you begin your service to me. It has taken me a long time to find out how to do it effectively, but trust me when I say that I found it.” He brought the medallion up to his eye, the orange light of the room making it shine with an unearthly light. Then with a flick of his wrist he slammed the medallion down on the stone floor with a loud ping and a spark. It rolled across the room before coming to rest in the far corner. The demon slowly strode over and picked up the steaming medallion, now bearing a small crack running almost the entire length of its backside. Mephisto smiled slightly and slipped the medallion in his pocket and exited the room.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

When Mephisto returned to the make-shift operating room, Blaze was already strapped to the table and a demon with a shock of white hair was prodding his bare chest and belly with his gnarled fingers.

“I think he is just about ready Master,” the demon spoke in a harsh, grinding voice. “Are we ready to begin the procedure?”

Mephisto studied Blaze for a moment. The man did not move. He did not whine or protest the pain he was about to receive. Blaze knew he was about to be in excruciating pain, but he never moved a muscle. This was his chance to get out of here and back to Clara.

“I believe you are right,” Mephisto answered, fingering the medallion in his pocket. He slowly closed his fingers around it and brought it forth into the light. “This,” he brought the medallion over Blaze’s face so the man could see it, “is what will bind your soul to me. When your time comes, this will make sure your soul is returned to me. Are you ready?”

Blaze didn’t answer, too many things were racing through his mind. Finally, as if his spirit had finally relented hh nodded and whispered “Yes,” through clenched teeth.

Mephisto nodded to the “surgeon” and the old demon started picking through the instruments on the tray, whistling an eerie tune through his serrated teeth. He picked up tool after tool and discarded each after a small whistle-filled observation. This went on for almost an hour, as the tray almost never seemed to empty.

Blaze’s eyes flicked back and forth, flinching each time the doctor tossed one of the metal instruments to the floor with a clang. He tried to lean up and see what was going on, but the leather strap that ran across his forehead was keeping him still. There was nothing he could do, the strap was rubbing his forehead raw and the incessant whistling was driving him insane. Just when he was about burst the whistling abruptly stopped.

“Ahhhh, here it is,” the doctor wheezed.

Blaze tried again vainly to crane his neck to see what the demon had. When the doctor finally turned and the item caught the light, Blaze’s heart sank. In the demon’s hand was a rust-covered dull blade, just slightly longer than his hand.

“Is there something the matter, Mr. Blaze?” Mephisto cackled. “Reconsidering our deal, perhaps?”

Blaze squeezed his eyes tight to try and hold back the thought of the pain that would be heaped upon him soon. “Just do what you have to do to get me out of here,” Blaze spoke angrily.

The burst of white-hot pain reached his brain in a matter of seconds as the doctor¹s knife pierced his stomach centimeters above his navel. He continued to cut a incision almost to the base of his ribcage before stopping. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” the doctor wheezed to Blaze, who wasn’t listening. The pain was almost unbearable, but what came next almost made him vomit.

The doctor inserted his hand into the incision and started to move his internal organs around. He then felt the cold, hard metal of the medallion being inserted near his spinal cord and finally passed out.

Mephisto watched the entire process with a slight smile on his face. The time has finally come to make Zarathos his slave and this man was the perfect vessel to contain him.

The doctor began whistling the same tune again as he started to crudely sew up the incision in Blaze¹s chest. It took several minutes, but when the procedure was finally done the demon wiped his blood covered hands on Blaze’s pants and looked at his master. “The process is complete, master,” he said. “Is there anything else that you need me for?”

Mephisto shook his head. “Be gone,” he commanded. As the doctor left the chamber, Mephisto bent over and whispered into Blaze¹s ear. “You are finally mine,” he said. “Do you hear me, Zarathos? I will use you to repay me that which you have taken and use you up and throw you away. I’ve won. Do you here me? I’ve won.” He stepped back from Blaze and slowly closed his eyes. He waved a hand over the prone man’s body and with a blinding flash of light Blaze disappeared, leaving only a smoking operating table smelling of sulfur. “Go forth, Mr. Blaze,” Mephisto said to the empty room. “You are now my spirit of vengeance and you will serve me until the end.”

To be continued.