by Barry Reese
All for me, Jennifer mused. Sometimes that just seems so weird... I’m not sure I like it, to be honest. The young mage pulled on a robe and stepped out of the room, moving through the darkened flat with easy familiarity. John had left about a month ago, eager to find some way to get through the Barrier, but she still expected to find him crashed out drunk on the couch every time she came through. I miss him, she realized. He was a link to the outside. To the rest of my life. To my brother Andy. Now I’m stuck here with two psycho lesbians... and Topaz. Can’t forget her. Living dead girl.
“Where is he?”
Jennifer paused in the doorway to the living room. There was a figure there, sitting in a chair and facing her. The odor of rotting flesh and wet earth reached her nostrils and she resisted the urge to gag. “Who the hell are you?” she asked, preparing an illumination spell.
“Don’t. Don’t look at me. Not yet.”
Jennifer paused as the voice, so scratchy and tired sounding, finally began to sink in. With a tremor in her own words, she asked, “Dan?”
“Where’s Gideon?”
Jennifer took one step forward and felt her toes splash down in something warm and wet. She pulled her foot back quickly and looked down. Through the soft light of the moon, she saw something dark... blood. “Gaea help me,” she whispered.
Dan rose from his chair and Jennifer noted how oddly he stood. Like a marionette with broken strings...
“I’ve been looking for him, Jen. We need each other.”
“Gideon... He said you were dead.”
Dan moved quickly toward her, his face coming into a beam of moonlight. His cheeks were sunken and yellowed and his eyes... they were sunken so deeply that he looked skeletal.
“Jen?”
Jennifer jumped at the sudden sound, looking over to see a naked Suspira watching her with concern. She looked all about her, but saw no sign of Dan or of the blood. “He was here. I know it.”
Suspira moved closer. “Who was? I heard you talking to someone but I don’t see—”
Jennifer waved her away and moved into the living room. She knelt down and ran her fingers over the carpet. There were indentions there, left behind by a man she’d thought lost forever. “This is incredibly fucked up.”
***
John Galahad felt it in the depths of his soul. He lit a cigarette and held his hand around it, protecting it from the wind. He was here at this out-of-the-way English pub for a reason—to drink himself and the demons that lurked within into oblivion. But it hadn’t worked out that way. He couldn’t bear to become drunk again...
Because when he got drunk he saw him.
Daniel Higgins. His half-brother.
John’s mind wandered over the broken and twisted family tree that he called his own. John had two siblings—Daniel and Stella—but both of them had been taken and hidden while John himself was a youngster. Their mother, Naomi, feared that the family curse would come to haunt them all and had sought to save the eldest—John—by brokering a deal with the devil. Stupidity runs in the family, John thought.
The “deal” had meant that the curse would skip John... Naomi had hoped that this would break the entire cycle but she’d been wrong. It had merely moved on to her other children, though John himself would eventually spend time with Gideon, as well.
Dan, for his part, had become the unlucky recipient of the family curse. Normally it affected only the first-born child in each generation, but with John immune to it, that left Stella... but her life had been unexpectedly ended. That left Daniel to become Babylon. He’d handled it as well as possible, but in the end it had left him dead and buried.
Or had it?
John tossed the unfinished cigarette to the ground and smashed it beneath a boot. A few angry-looking trolls were hanging out nearby and they gave him a nasty glare. Their noses were especially sensitive to pollution and nothing cheesed them off like smoking.
“Scary stuff, huh? I mean, trolls. Really.”
John didn’t look at the man who spoke beside him. He didn’t need to. He wasn’t really there, anyway. “You’re here at the wrong time, pal. I’m not even halfway drunk.”
“I’m no hallucination, John. You know that.”
“Go away.”
“You really want that? Or you want me to tell you how Roxanne and the kids are doing?”
John’s jaw clenched hard. He didn’t like thinking about the wife and kids he’d left behind. The ones he’d never see again because of this Barrier. “You’re not real.”
“She misses you, John. She cries herself to sleep every night, wondering if you’re alive. And the kids—”
“Shut up!” John swung a fist at the man beside him and he felt it connect—hard. Something wet sloughed off onto his hand and he turned to see Dan rotting there, clutching at a chunk of his face that now hung loosely. “Jesus.”
“No. He doesn’t care much for me these days. Neither does Lucifer. It’s not like either Heaven or Hell can have Gideon’s soul anyway... did you know it extends to all of his line, too? We’re all just floating in the void. Anybody who tells you anything different is lying.”
John stared at the undead thing before him, his mouth suddenly dry. “Why are you doing this? Why are you haunting me?”
Daniel stared at him with sunken eyes. “Gideon’s been revived again. Catalyst sensed his spirit out in the Void and brought him back. But you know that he can’t stay on this plane without a mortal host...”
“And Jennifer’s out because of her relationship to Gaea,” John murmured. “So you want me to do it? No way...” His eyes narrowed suddenly. “My kids...”
“No. They’re safe. For some reason, Gideon can’t get out past the Barrier either. That’s why I’m here.”
“Are you... really alive?”
Dan smiled ruefully. His skin took on a more natural cast, though it still looked “off” somehow. “No. I’m dead. My spirit was recalled back to this world. This body... It was waiting for me. Magic. I wish they’d made it look a little healthier, though. I’m scared of what Stacy would say if she saw me like this.”
“She’s in London, you know.”
Dan nodded. “I need to find Gideon. Somehow he’s reached out to me and brought me back.”
“He can do that?”
“His armor was forged in Hell itself, John. He doesn’t tap into half his natural abilities.”
John heard something faint in the distance, a familiar roaring sound that both frightened him and left him excited. “You hear that?”
“A motorcycle. It sounded like my old bike.” Dan vanished without another word, leaving John Galahad to stare after his long-lost brother... and shed a tear.
***
Daniel Higgins’s motorcycle lay crumpled on the side of the road, the cosmic spirit of retribution not far from its side. The cosmic energy that danced about Babylon’s armor was dim and nearly gone, but there was still power in his limbs and they propelled him forward, toward a small stream that burbled nearby.
He felt pain in all his bones, pain that penetrated deeper as well. It burned and gnawed and cut at his soul, reminding him of the sorrow he had felt when his beloved Magdalena had burned...
Gideon’s mind went over the past, remembering his forbidden love that had resulted in the birth of a child. It had started them all down a path filled with death and destruction.
“So much heartache because of me,” Gideon whispered, his voice sounding alien and strange. Without a human host, he was slowly breaking down and returning to the Void. It was by sheer force of will—plus the knowledge of magicks gifted to him by Jennifer—that held him here and now. “Naomi. Dan. Jennifer. So many suffered...”
“And what about all the ones you saved? All the ones you avenged?”
Gideon fell over onto his back, staring up at Dan’s sickly face. “Daniel?”
“Don’t act all surprised. Your spirit called out to mine... You wanted me here.”
“I’m sorry... I can try to send you back..
.”
Dan knelt down beside him and took Gideon’s hand in his own. “Shut up. You’ve got to save your strength.”
“The curse...”
“Still exists, yeah. So even if you go back to the Void and waste away for a few years, eventually the Barrier’s coming down and you’re back to where you started. That’s why you need me. I’m the perfect ‘out’ for the curse.” Gideon turned to face the young man before him. “Bond with me. We’re still linked and the magic of the Barrier will help make it possible. I’m dead. That means that you can stay in me forever... or until we get so sick of one another we want to break it off.”
Gideon looked away. “Why... ? After all the heartache you suffered during our time together. You have finally found peace. You...” A groan of pain escaped him, giving full sign to his agony.
Dan squeezed his hand. “I’m ready for this. Despite it all, you were the best thing that happened to me. You gave me strength. You gave me a purpose. Let me give those same things back to you.”
A flame suddenly sparked, traveling from Gideon’s form to that of Dan Higgins. The two men ignited together, fusing their spirits into one.
The mystic motorcycle revved back to life, rising slowly into an upright position. It rolled forward and stopped at the feet of its master, who stood regarding it for a long moment. There was no sign of emotion save for the crackling of cosmic fire, which danced about Babylon’s skull.
“I’m going to take you for a ride later on,” he whispered. “But for now... it’s time to fly.”
***
Neil Gow staggered from the pub, one arm slung around the shoulders of his new best pal... a stocky female hobgoblin named Lonni. Both drunkards swayed unsteadily, and Neil felt vomit begin to rise in his throat. “Gah. I feel bloody awful. What was in that last drink you gave me?”
“Formaldehyde. Good, eh?”
Neil blanched but said nothing. He had suddenly lost all concern about his aching belly...
There, storming down the street past him, was a visage from his past. Many months ago, he’d been among the first to witness the sight before him... His tales of an armored and glowing figure had been dismissed by his friends at first, but later reports had surfaced about Babylon, an ally of the New Olympians. Neil had been pleased at his friends’ apologies, but the shock of the moment had haunted him for many nights.
And there he was again.
Babylon flew past, glancing at Neil and his companion. He nodded once and then whirled about a corner and was gone.
“This town just gets stranger and stranger,” Neil muttered.
The hobgoblin shrugged. “I’ve seen weirder.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN
THE THIRD BOOK OF BABYLON
WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST READ???
An Explanation
by Barry Reese
I don’t blame you for being confused—or for doubting my sanity.
Where the heck is “The First Book of Babylon” and why do I feel like I’ve been dumped right in the middle of a story?
Because you were!
You see, there is no “First Book of Babylon”—I just made it up.
When I was a kid, one of the great joys as a young comic book fan was jumping into a long-running series and trying to see if you could get swept up in its continuity. There were always editor’s notes to past storylines and the longer you kept with it, the more you felt like you understood what was going on... and that was exciting!
Today, though, most periodical comics are “written for the trade” and have dispensed with things like the editor’s note. The very concept of a “long-running series” is kind of moot, too, given that DC and Marvel tend to renumber their titles every couple of years.
The modern equivalent of jumping onboard a long-running series is picking up a random trade paperwork... and that’s what I wanted to try and capture here. You just read a collection of “issues” (chapters) of a series that’s been around for years and will continue long past this one. There are characters, villains, and storylines referenced here that are totally new to you. There are even references to a “crossover event” that you only get to see one side of! If you want the other portions of the event, you’d have to shell out more money to buy THAT book... which, of course, doesn’t really exist, either!
This is by far the strangest thing I’ve written... it was meant to be a weird little goof that’s set within the confines of my shared universe populated by Lazarus Gray, The Gravedigger, and The Peregrine. The events referenced here are “real” within the context of that universe, so you may see Babylon pop up here or there... or maybe The New Olympians will see a guest appearance somewhere.
Who knows?
The future, True Believers, is wide open.
Barry Reese
08/04/17
About The Author
Barry Reese has carved out a reputation as one of the leading members of the New Pulp Movement. He’s written for Marvel Comics, Moonstone Books, Pro Se Press, Airship 27 and more. He’s best known for his shared universe of pulp adventurers - it includes The Peregrine, Gravedigger and Lazarus Gray. He is an English teacher by day and is married to artist Cari Reese.
1) See the story “Black Mass” from The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One. ↵
2) Bloodshot was horribly mutilated in The First Book of Babylon. He eventually got better. ↵
3) Leonid first appeared in The Peregrine Omnibus Volume One and his daughter made her debut in Volume Two of that same series. ↵
4) Byron is, of course, Jennifer’s tutor in the ways of Atlantean magic! ↵
5) Fisher was a seemingly immortal protector and guide for the members of the Black family line. We first saw him shortly after Daniel became Babylon’s host but he hasn’t been seen in years. ↵