CHAPTER FORTY

New York City

"I love you too. Goodbye, son." Lazarus stood up and let DarkFlood take his boy away to sanctuary.

"What am I?" Lazarus asked Moses.

"Supposedly you're going to become like me, special..." Moses took his gloves off and showed Lazarus his stone crusted hands.

"My God," Lazarus gasped, stepping back. Then DarkFlood reappeared, and Moses continued their conversation.

"Are you going to bring back your wife?"

"I can't. He can't. At least I don't think so."

"Then what good is he?"

"I'm right here, ya know."

"We shall find out."

They looked at Lazarus standing both between them and behind them, going from behind the scenes to in the spotlight. They watched as he curiously stared back. It was not long until he began to scratch and claw at his chest. He ripped his clothes open and screamed in agony, "IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"

"He's feeling the fires of hell," Moses whispered.

Lazarus' chest burst on fire as did his eyes and hair like Hades himself. He cried out the loudest scream to cross the world in every ear of humanity, in every soul, living or dead. And Lazarus awoke on the floor with new eyes and a new tongue. He saw the world like no one before him had ever seen it before, what could only be explained as a parallel paradise; a heavenly city amongst them.

He cried white fire tears as he saw his dead wife coming towards him. She was illuminated in the same white fire, along with all of the city of the dead. He was of the same bane as Philip, except his marriage was always on steady and happy grounds. Philip was not so lucky but loved his late wife all the same. He wished he could see her as Lazarus could see his wife, but that gift would never be meant for him.

Every person he had lost in his long life came to reunite with Laz. Within a day he was a legend amongst the phantoms. The man who could see the beyond. The only one to ever cross the realms of the living and the dead.

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Philip and Moses spent the night chasing down what they thought were people transforming, but in reality the only reason the President made the address was because he was getting well informed updates from across the nation of a handful of people doing remarkable things. The fires and looting in Manhattan were just scared people reacting to the President's address.

Among the many records of the first super-humans, One girl in Seattle was found swimming in a frozen lake without having to come up for air. A kid outside of Chicago picked his family's SUV up and ran it to the hospital when his mother tried committing suicide in their garage. A husband and wife in Miami were arrested after robbing a bank at gunpoint all while sitting in a van outside and using their minds. The President knew DarkFlood was right. He had to act now, and so he did, without Philip.

Lazarus would never sleep again, dreams were the land of the dead, and he was already living it. He stood outside on the riot-torn city streets and didn't even notice the collapse of society. He was in a different world entirely, until DarkFlood and Moses returned to him.

"We need you, now!" Moses yelled as DarkFlood grabbed both their arms and teleported away. Lazarus came-to back in Harlem, Moses was dragging him over to a women on the ground in shredded clothing and ash spots all over her still body. "This one right here," Moses nudged him.

"Now it's time to see the extent of your ability, Lazarus." DarkFlood was already knelt down beside her as she took her last breath. Lazarus got down next to her on the other side, and Moses stood over her. Lazarus grabbed her hand with his and raised it to his chest. He leaned over her and she stared back at him, smiling. "You'll be okay. She'll be okay."

DarkFlood and Moses were not as optimistic, for what they saw could not be the same thing. She was gone, and yet Lazarus rubbed her cheek and talked to her in a tongue no one could perceive. Philip and Moses watched Lazarus as he summoned her spirit back to her body. But that was not really what was happening, only what they theorized was happening. He was actually talking with the dead girl, giving her the choice to come back or move on.

"I can't leave my family."

That is all they heard in Lazarus' raising seance, before the girl woke up. She opened her eyes and saw DarkFlood next to her. "I knew you would save me." She muttered as he carried her away back home. DarkFlood returned to them and thanked Lazarus.

"I can’t believe I just did that.” Laz admitted, “I saved her without even thinking.”

“It came to you by instinct because its always been inside you, Laz. These powers are not being gifted to you like mine were. These powers are being unlocked from inside each and every one of you.”

“Thank you, DarkFlood, for showing me the way."

He continued with them until the break of dawn down the streets of New York City, DarkFlood took them through borough after borough until the wave was over and the police restored order to the masses, temporarily, with the help of the military. The President continued his public service announcements to keep everyone feeling safe. They reacted exactly like Philip predicted, fear and terror, rage and fury, the American way.

"Why don't we just go there together now, the three of us," Moses suggested.

"Not yet," DarkFlood dismissed, "There is still one more..."