I get up and I’m staggering. I’m covered in bites. He was biting me the whole time. I go up the stair. I’m in the room above the living room. I can’t hear him talking. I can’t hear him moving around. But after he tells me the story of calling up this silent contact and uttering this word, I’m sitting, in the room upstairs, crying, bleeding, sore, and I’m picturing him, down the stair, on the couch, with the phone up to his ear, sitting there, listening to his alter ego, listening to the voice of silence. I walk over to the cupboard. There’s an outfit hanging up in there. I get dressed and I wait for him in the clothes he has chosen for me, with my eye bruised shut, and with cuts on my thighs. After what feels like an eternity he comes up the stair and he takes me by the hand and he explains what the future has in store for me.

*

Storms toss the kingdom of Hibernia.

The sun and moon rise and fall together.

Neutrino and The Anomaly return to their secret Control Station in the mountain fortress of The Cave Hill.

The future of The Forever Family is in doubt.

Neutrino is alone in the Control Room. He scans absent-mindedly across the surveillance channels. Visions of flood and famine. Whole populations displaced.

He can barely muster a shrug.

In the bowels of the complex The Anomaly paces The Cryogenic Vault.

In his hand he holds a smooth silver cylinder: The Armageddon Artefact.

I was given this by my mother, he says to himself. His voice echoes across The Cryogenic Vault.

I have it within my power, he announces, to bring all this to an end.

To bring all this to an end or once more to join the fray. To battle in good faith, father against son, brother against brother, father against father.

Ah! But have I the heart?

Take heart, a voice says. A voice from out of the air.

Take heart, my son. Take all this with you, all sorrow and foreknowledge of parting, all fate and fortune, and do battle regardless.

For that is what is written. And what is written is The Eternal Warrior.

Is it you? he asks of the air.

No response.

Then: It Is I.

It is I?

No answer.

Outside the elements thunder. Lightning turns the air purple.

The Anomaly steps toward The Crucible. The time has come.

The voice of the silence now speaks. It speaks through The Anomaly in actions.

He takes The Armageddon Artefact and inserts it into The Crucible, which opens like flesh to receive it.

The pod of The Crucible lights up. There is the sound of an amplified heartbeat.

The door slides to one side.

There is nothing there!

Ye Gods, The Anomaly cries. Why have you betrayed me?