I could feel the wind howling in the dark stormy sky. My heart leaped with each flash of bright white lightning. I looked down over the edge. I could see the small cars racing across the streets of my hometown. I suddenly had a gut wrenching feeling that was slowly rising up my body from my stomach upwards. The cool, winter air rushed my senses. My heart was racing, my blood was pumping, and I could feel the adrenaline that was fueling my anticipation. And I finally took a leap of faith. I embraced the destructive winds of the sky as I plummeted from atop the Empire State Building. My mind was racing, thinking about what would happen when I hit the ground. And when I thought that all was lost, I closed my eyes and heard a faint voice rasping, "Join us brother, join us in death." I didn't understand what was happening and I shielded my eyes right before the white bright light consumed my other senses. And for a moment, I thought that I was free, for the darkness of peace had finally been mine. But I was entirely wrong.
In the darkness, a zombie-like body formed and slowly walked toward me. It held a scythe in one hand and in the other held what looked like a black ring with strange shapes on it. It continued to walk closer and closer until I could see its figure more carefully. Its black heart pulsed menacingly as if it were once alive but now just pumped to circulate some sort of black ooze throughout its body. It wore chains around its neck and arms as if it were something that should not have awakened, nonetheless escaped. I slowly backed away and tried to shout for help, but it seemed like I was in a vacuum. And then the same bright flash appeared before I died shone again.
This time, I could feel the comforting rays of light bouncing off my body and filling me with hope and desire and strength. When the light finally faded, I could see a strange looking animal-sort of being clutching a luminescent ring in its long branch like fingers. As soon as the being of light appeared, the zombie creature faced it and glared with empty void eyes as to suggest the darkness it possessed. The light creature too spread its wings to prepare for an obvious battle. Then they stopped and looked at me. It seemed as if the two beings of darkness and light were asking me to choose between the two: everlasting darkness and peace, or the exhilaration of living life again. In the back of my mind, I could see one more figure although transparent to the obviously powerful beings of life and death. He was a regular man with one expression, exhaustion. He wore a dark gray colored rag as he held yet one more ring. It glowed faintly with no obvious color or tint. He beckoned for me to choose him in my mind. I had no other choice; I had to remain neutral in the seemingly eventual battle of dark and light. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, the expressionless man placed a dull, gray ring in my hand. The man opened his mouth to speak and the monotone words flowed smoothly out of his mouth, "John Stacy, you do not feel the urge to fight in the war of colors. Welcome to the Dark Lanterns."