I slept so hard it was almost dreamless. It all begins with the fear. The storm above me roars and bellows like a beast all its own. The lightning awakens the sky into day as some kind of humanoid thing walks in the center of it all. Its eyes fix onto me and a thin hand with spindly fingers extends outward with it pointing at me. The storm intensifies and it vanishes. Leaving me to jolt awake on the floor and sit up. Panting hard and trying to get back onto my bed, roll back over, and go to sleep.

  Eventually I manage to do it.

  Loredana gets Jolyne and I up bright and early, "Buongiorno, my friends! Let's go! Get up!" I roll over and Sacred Heart appears.

  "Muda." it says, gently shaking me awake, "Mudaaaa."

  "Ugh... can we not?" I groan, "I want to sleep in after the hell that was Gracend..." I stretch and scooch myself out of the bed. The sheets warmth and the softness of the mattress call back to me like a lover.

  "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Loredana smiles and moves off to do the same to Jolyne... only...

  "ORA!" a bright blue fist rockets her way and just barely gets blocked by a timely intervention from Brocas Helm. Jolyne groans and the door sms shut. As I wander towards our bathroom all I can think about is what came over me yesterday. The strength was almost intoxicating.

  Now I see my hair in its unkempt state. Golden maned and with bleary eyes that're reddish-brown rather than the warm brown I remember them being. My body's developing more muscles too to keep up with the exercise.

  My skin is a little paler, my nails a little longer, and my canines are fangs. This wasn't a normal occurrence. I tilt my head to the side, looking at my three dotted birthmark on my ear. The dots are getting darker. I tilt my head to the other side seeing my hair flow with the motion. A mane like a lion and a face fierce like one. I grab my clothes and put them on. My shirt a pretty normal bck color but I find myself reaching for my more... elegant attire.

  Just because I want to. Not because of appearances or some kind of lie I'm giving to the world. My mother gave her life for me and well, deciding who I want to be and what I want to do is kind of my top priority. But nobody said it'd be boring. Mack smiles as Jolyne and I shuffle out of our rooms. His smile widens when we sit down. The breakfast rush is about to be in full swing but he hands us hairnets and aprons.

  "Get in the back an' help me with the restaurant. Y'all gotta earn your keep with me. Loredana mighta letcha crash here, but I got my own code." he flinches and a spurt of blood comes out of his hand, "Jesus, Banana Boat! Easy with the knives!"

  "Day Ooooooo!" Banana Boat comes running out with the same cut on his hand. He turns and starts cleaning and bandaging the wound. Mack sighs and when it comes to kitchen duty I'm stuck washing the dishes.

  Mother and I used to help with the outreach programs that the church would run. Getting more members that saw me and learned the truth about the world and the Holy Messenger. But now that I know that everything was wrong...?

  Or at least what I believed in, my status as a holy savior, and the blood of my own mother on my hands bolstered my ideas of never believing again. I stack the dishes where they're supposed to go as Jolyne grumbles and cleans the greasetrap.

  "Seriously... sometimes Mack pisses me off..." she groans, "I mean come on, we're already fighting monsters like Vampires and stuff. Now we're washing dishes and fryers."

  "Menial work is how we show we care sometimes." I answer, "Even though my father never liked me participating."

  "Huh." Jolyne still stays focused on what she's doing. Her eyes full of intensity despite the fact that she didn't want to do this, "So what was it like in there?"

  "I'd say it was..." I look down at the murky and sudsy water almost remembering the fact that so many people wanted and needed to be saved. How many times I dunked them, "I don't want to talk about it right now, Jolyne."

  The memories snarl at me and bay like wolves but I still don't want to see them. They're too much right now.

  "Sorry. I probably pushed too hard." she blurts, "I mean sometimes it feels like I do, you know?" she helps me dry them as I wash them. We're a good team despite the history unspoken between our families.

  Loredana helps run the tables. Her boots cck on the floor like a statement of who she is what she's there to do. Brocas Helm shines proudly on her hip despite that. Her outfit is a more passionate red and I wish I could be as effortlessly confident and assured as she is.

  She gnces over at us and smiles with a happy wave. She's also one of the nicest people around. How can someone with so many scars, strength, and speed be so kind? Was it morals or was it just because she did something terrible in the past that she has yet to make up for? It reminds me of a conversation I had with Father Pucci once when he was reorganizing the church long after service.

  "Dio, what do you think about power?" he sits down at a pew and I join him.

  "Well, I think it requires a steady head, father. Community too." I looked up at the stained gss and Father Pucci nods.

  "Sometimes it comes with demonstrating said power on those that will hurt the people you love." I continue, "But are you a good person when you use it? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

  "Power is just power, my son. As we were created by the hand of God to serve as masters over his creation, power is just one means of wielding our purpose." he smiles just a little, "Power is a human concept, morality is what is structured to give it meaning. It all cycles back to power both good and evil."

  Loredana seems to use her power for the good of the people. Or for the good of her own purpose beyond the power. Her stand gives her the power to sever souls from their essential pieces. Yet because of the Rhinestone Mask specifically made for Elvis's bones...

  The masks ended up having regenerative properties. As the rush slows down to a walk and then to a sneaking, and finally a crawl I get out a piece of paper and begin to write down all I know about the masks the His Holy Messenger Church makes. Loredana sits next to me, watching as I draw and write with Sacred Heart rewinding the mask down to its normal form. What was added was some kind of blue volcanic gss in the eyeholes probably to make some sort of restorative property.

  My sketch is rudimentary but it'll do.

  She leans against her arms, "You're really good." she says but I don't really hear her. Still in the storm of thoughts before I hear her snap. Her sly grin widens as I blink.

  "Oh, Loredana. I'm sorry." I start, "I was so sucked into drawing the Rhinestone Mask that... well, I didn't hear you."

  "That's quite alright, so what did you find out?" her earth and sky eyes pin down the journal and pick it up.

  "See, this is why I needed someone from the inside." she expins with her fingers twisting a golden-braided bck tassel of her hair, "Getting it out of a willing congregant would be easier said than done."

  "So is that why you took me in?" my mood dampens to a soft sadness. Loredana sighs and pats my arm.

  "Daniel, I saw an angry young man who was in pain. I'd help you even if you were here to kill me." her voice is soft and gentle like I never made her mad in the first pce, "Call me naive or call me any other kind of thing, I'll still help my fellow man."

  "So you just help people because they need it? You wield your power for them?" I press my questions in harder just because I'm almost curious. Loredana smiles.

  "Of course. Why not? It's as your Christ did. Healing all who came to him or he came across, and staying with the undesirables in society." she shrugs and nudges me, "Besides, you're also a savior type like he is."

  "I am?" I've never actually heard that from someone who genuinely knows me so this was completely new. She stands up and takes my journal.

  "Ah, that's enough doom and gloom. How about we take a walk?" I stand up and we end up leaving the restaurant. With the muggy river air weighing down the world and the heat breathing down on both of us I wonder how the hell Loredana can even stand it in her duelist's attire.

  Her hand rests on the hilt of her sword still on guard despite the fact that we're completely safe where we are. Her eyes scan the area but she seems rexed enough. As we walk we see people of all kinds just living their lives.

  "You've never really just experienced this, have you?" she asks.

  I shake my head and she chuckles, "Then this is what is worth fighting for." she bances on the curb with a carefree smile. Hair billowing in the heavy breath of the wind. That's when the dark clouds growl out a heavy roll of thunder.

  My muscles tense and Sacred Heart pops out when a fsh of lightning spears the clouds. I cp my hands over my ears and let out a yell of, "Nooo!" the rain begins to fall. Softly at first before falling faster. There's a fwump and Loredana wraps her free arm around my shoulders.

  "It's alright, Daniel. I never knew you were terrified of storms." she smiles, "Then lets go back and hang out inside."

  "N-no! I... I'll face my fear." with a shaking step I realize just why its doing this. Something familiar is wandering around with the storm. Freak weather events have been happening for as long as I could remember and Father Pucci would be antsy.

  The storm starts to get worse. The rain turns to torrents dumping on the street and already causing the storm drains to fill up. The wind shes and the thunder rattles. The lightning turns the dark clouds into daylight.

  The rain stings my skin at how fast its pelting me. The wind rips and roars but I dig my hands into the ground. My heartbeat pounds as Loredana still keeps her arm around me just barely holding on. Waves of water rush down the streets with debris and signs, mud and force all course through the city streets.

  The wind roars and the rain shes down on me as whatever is at the center of it walks towards us. Sacred Heart appears in front of me and the wind bends around it. The odd stand wanders up the street deafened by the rain and the noise. Loredana's mouth moves but I can't even hear her as she stabs Brocas Helm into the asphalt to give her some traction from the water. The fury of the storm calms as the Stand stops and regards us silent as ever.

  It points at me like it did in my dream. Clenched tightly in its other hand's spindly grip is a pulsating cross-shaped mass of flesh. Loredana's sword points at it and she grimaces almost in pain as the Stand gently stalks towards me. Undaunted by the sword pointed at it the stand moves with the reverence of a saint.

  Its hand loosens and the mass of flesh hangs down from it with a weird swinging motion. But before I could take it I hear a loud, "ORA!"

  A length of string whips around its arm and yanks it backward only to snatch clouds and mist in return. Jolyne stands there soaked to the bone from the rain and a little beat up from the wind. What it wanted was to give me this flesh. It was almost entrancing.

  I knew it. I knew the flesh in its hand. The same cold darkness spirals out of it like a miasma of power. The power to conquer the world and make it bow under my feet. The power to make my dream of freedom a reality.

  Then I feel an arm around me. Two of them actually. Holding onto me is... I turn slightly and see Loredana's arm tightly wound around my waist and her sword cutting into my hand. Jolyne's string holding me back as well.

  What did I do? The trance broken faster than I could blink but from what I can see... Loredana's hurt. Jolyne's barely keeping me bound. At my rage Sacred Heart appears and the other one backs off. It stares almost cowed by the presence of my guardian. It gres down at the other one and its power spreads out. Slowly, ever so slowly the storm stand starts to move backwards.

  The rain flies upward back into the clouds as they rush back to let the sun break through. Sacred Heart closes the distance and in moments the Stand is hit with a flurry of hits, "MUDA!" at the final hit it scrambles backward like it was a videotape.

  "Loredana? Are you okay?!" I gasp and she smiles up at me.

  "Whatever that was, it made you go berserk..." she pushes off me and studies my face, "However, it wasn't you, so..."

  "Like hell it was! What the fuck?!" Jolyne yells at me, "Seriously, what the hell are you?" her green eyes are full of disappointment and fear. All deserved honestly. I didn't know who I was myself. All I knew was that at any moment Daniel could vanish and Dio could take control.

  Or I already was Dio.

  "Jolyne, whatever that was is something part of him." Loredana comes to my rescue but I cut her off.

  "No. I deserve it." I decide, "Whatever I am is important to that thing. Whatever it has was part of me at some point."

  Or it was part of what I came from.

  The soft words of Father Pucci echo back to me, "You are beyond reproach." I close my eyes and bask in the sunlight with the darkness running away like it always does. My friend pats my shoulder.

  "Let's go." she says. Loredana was quick to forgive and forget. But something about Jolyne tells me it's easier said than done with her.

  I nod and Jolyne gives me a wide berth while Loredana sticks by my side. All I could do was think about what the hell that mass of flesh was. Why did that Stand feel so familiar? For the rest of the day it was all I could think about.

  So my mind drifts back to the hymns I used to sing. Were You There pys in my mind just to ease the pain. Jolyne had mostly left me alone and I felt bad. It wasn't my first time screwing up a friendship. Well, it was the first legitimate one.

  My mind wanders more as I clean the tables...

  That was until Loredana came in with a client. She was a weaselly woman who seemed more concerned with price than anything else. The woman kept counting her coins over and over and over.

  She wore something that almost looks like fur but its synthetic. Thanks, enhanced senses. Her sweater is a turtleneck and her nametag reads Matilda Wainwright. Her chestnut hair is slick and frames her face in a sleek almost shell.

  Her looks remind me of a squirrel.

  "Miss Wainwright, it's alright." Loredana sighs, "I don't need exact change."

  "No no no. There must be some kind of mistake with the payment..." the woman mumbles, "Ah! Here, exactly one hundred dolrs and ninety-nine cents!"

  She dumps the coins on a table in rolls of paper.

  "There're problems at the MoSH, Daniel." Loredana expins and I nod. I had no idea what a 'MoSH' was but from what I heard it was an unbeliever's haven to spread their evil falsehoods about God's creation.

  "Is she the owner?" I ask.

  "Well no." the woman looks up at me, "I'm the handler."

  "Handler?" I never thought it was a zoo, "What, is it an animal?" my sarcasm is met with a sigh.

  "It's worse than that uh..." Miss Wainwright pauses and Jolyne cuts in.

  "His name is Dio." she gives me a snide smile when I fix her with a gre. Of course that slight crawls under my skin and settles there.

  "Well, Dio. (That's Italian for God.) I want to be the first to say that the MoSH is the first pce to actually have a living and statue exhibit in one." She has an odd way of saying things in two voices. Not ventriloquism but... it was some kind of weird thing.

  "It might just be a lead on what these masks can do." Loredana whispers in my ear just to keep me in the loop about our real goal.

  "The thing is about her, the living exhibit, is that she is normally docile and cordial to our normal guests. But as of right now... she's agitated." she expins, "She normally just wanders around and talks to people but she's morose and... frankly just pilrs back into her statue form."

  "So you want us to cheer her up?" I tilt my head a little and smile, "Well, seems easy enough."

  "Not really." Miss Wainwright shakes her head, "Take a look at these."

  Photos spy out on the table depicting strange images on the walls of the museum's iconic pink marbled mansion. The men there all probably asleep while it was done. The full art was of some army of humans sughtering others like her.

  Her fury seemed silent but Loredana, Jolyne, and I all look at each other.

  "Of course the one hundred dolrs and ninety-nine cents is the upfront fee." Loredana continues, "My associates and I will have her right as rain in no time!" Even though Jolyne and I are at odds we can both agree on this.

  We might not make it out unscathed.