Notes: This segment was stubborn! It knew what it wanted and refused to be finished until I complied. For those unaware, I split up chapter 6. The last scene is now in this chapter, but it's been drastically altered, so please read it again.
Chapter Seven
"October 6th, 4:00 A.M.
"I still wasn't fully sure about all of the details surrounding the altered reality I had been living in since my first fateful meeting with Yami Marik. Some was fact, some was fiction, just as Tony had told me. It was enough to make me still question the reality I had found myself in now.
"And yet, somehow I knew that this time everything was really happening. Tony was alive. So was Ishizu Ishtar. And Tony placed a call to Ron Updyke to let me hear that he was still among the living as well. I think it was the first time I've been glad to hear his voice.
"The attack on Ron hadn't been real, but Miss Emily's was, as was what had happened when I tried to save her. She was currently resting in a hospital room, expected to make a full recovery.
"And now that I was sure I knew how to topple Yami Marik's reign over Chicago, the main problem I had was finding him. But I was also sure I knew where he was. This was a score that had become personal for me, so I prepared to set out for our showdown."
Kolchak walked in determination down the hospital corridors, followed by both Tony and Ishizu. Somewhere out there was Yami Marik, ready and waiting for their final confrontation. And at last Kolchak had the solution; Ishizu had confirmed it, but he had already been fairly certain that he was right.
"There's one thing I still don't get," he said as they stopped outside the hospital doors in the chill autumn air. "Well, actually there's a lot of things I still don't get, but first and foremost—Tony, how can you be in as good of condition as you are?" He looked to his editor. "Yami Marik's other victims who are still alive are in comas or the psych ward."
Tony looked away, glaring at the wall. This was a subject he really did not care to get into. But, he supposed, it was information that Kolchak might need to know. Not that he needed any more proof of Yami Marik's evil.
"He shook me up pretty bad, I'll admit that," he said to a tree, his tone gruff. He turned back to face Kolchak. "But it was a lot worse to wake up and see that you didn't know up from down. I thought at first that I was still in a delusion of my own!"
Ishizu nodded. "When you came back to the waiting room and you couldn't see or hear me, I realized that you must be suffering from one of Yami Marik's induced hallucinations," she said. "Then Mr. Vincenzo followed you in, screaming at you to listen to him. He told me that you had been in his room but had not even seemed to realize that he was awake. This confirmed my fears. We followed you from the hospital to the museum, trying and failing to get through to you."
Kolchak shook his head in disbelief. "You were hanging around me all the time since then?" he said.
"For the most part, yeah," Tony said. "We lost track of you a few times."
Kolchak regarded him, amazed. "And you actually believed what Miss Ishtar told you was the explanation, instead of thinking that we were certifiably insane?"
Tony glowered. "Don't think that didn't cross my mind too," he said. "But I came to believe her because I'd been through the same thing."
"I must have been acting completely off-the-wall," Kolchak frowned.
"Oh, you were, trust me," Tony said. "I watched you being pushed to the point of going out of your mind! I screamed and yelled and fought to get you to listen to me, but nothing worked."
Kolchak looked away. "I'm sorry, Tony."
"The blame rests at Yami Marik's feet," Ishizu spoke. "He set it up this way; he wanted to torment both of you. Most likely, that is why Mr. Vincenzo revived with relatively few issues compared to the other victims. Yami Marik wanted him aware enough for something far worse."
"Why?" Kolchak exclaimed, whirling to face her. "His problem was with me. Why did he drag Tony into it?"
"The more people he can torture, Mr. Kolchak, the better." Ishizu met his gaze, her eyes calm yet filled with sadness.
"And I'm going to see that it stops here," Kolchak vowed. Filled with a new burst of determination and righteous anger, he started towards the parking lot.
"Kolchak, you're crazy!" Tony yelled. He headed after the reporter. "You can't go face him again, all by yourself!"
Kolchak grinned. "I won't be alone, Tony. I'll tell you what—I'll go take care of our psychotic creep problem and then I'll come right back here so you won't have to worry."
"I won't be here," Tony retorted. "I'm going home, which is what you should be doing."
"All in good time, Tony. All in good time." Kolchak slid into the yellow convertible, fishing for his keys. "You'll take care of him, won't you, Ishizu?"
She nodded. "If it's possible," she said with a trace of a smile. But she sobered almost immediately. "Mr. Kolchak, please be careful," she implored.
Kolchak waved with one hand while starting the car with the other. Tony and Ishizu stepped aside as he began to back out of the parking space. As he drove towards the exit, Ishizu turned to face Tony.
"May I drive you home, Mr. Vincenzo?" she queried.
"Like heck I'm going home," Tony growled. "I'm following that idiot."
xxxx
The autumn leaves tumbled down the street, blown by the chill breeze, as Kolchak drove past the darkened houses. Just as before, the road appeared completely deserted. But also as before, it was not. Yami Marik was standing silhouetted under the glow from a streetlamp.
"Well, well, so you've come," he sneered. "You figured out that I'd be waiting for you here, where we first met."
Kolchak parked the Mustang and got out. "That's right, I've come," he said. "I never would have pegged you for the sentimental type, Yami Marik."
Yami Marik grinned. "I like memorializing scenes of important torment."
"Oh yeah, this 'torment' obsession you've got. We really have to get you psychological help. I wonder if it would help at all. Somehow I think you're too far gone." Kolchak stood his ground. "I, for one, have had quite enough of your mind games."
"And I haven't had near enough," Yami Marik returned.
Kolchak ignored that. "You know, when Ishizu told me about you I started idly wondering what kind of dark game you were going to play with me," he said. "I thought I'd know when it began and I could tell myself over and over that it was all in my head. Now I've come to see that I didn't have a prayer. You were playing the game with me all along!"
Yami Marik walked forward, flinging his cape back over his shoulder. "And if it weren't for your pesky editor, you still wouldn't know," he said. "Yes, my hold over you was broken once you entered that chapel, but you had no idea of that. And I could have reinstated my control once you left."
"Well, thank goodness for that pesky editor," Kolchak returned. "Tony came through for me, just like he always has when I really need him."
"Oh really?" Yami Marik sneered. "I saw some very interesting things rolling around in your mind when I peeked. You've blamed him for the majority of your problems."
Kolchak flinched. Once again his deepest feelings had been laid bare before a being of the darkest evil. The first time, he had been informed of his thoughts by Robert Palmer, who had made a pact with the devil himself.
"Kolchak!"
Kolchak nearly started out of his mind. He turned with a shocked start, staring in utter disbelief as Tony slammed the door of his car and hurried towards him. "Tony?" He gaped, bewildered. "What are you doing here?"
"Nevermind that!" Tony snapped. "What's happening here?"
"I'll answer that," Yami Marik declared. "Carl and I were just visiting, weren't we, Carl?"
"No," Kolchak retorted. "And don't call me 'Carl.' You haven't earned the right to address me so familiarly."
Yami Marik's expression was worse than the most deranged Halloween mask. "And he has?" he returned, indicating Tony.
"What is this?" Tony yelled. "What does it matter what I call him?"
Kolchak glanced to the bewildered man, anxious to get off the topic Yami Marik was attempting to start. "I thought you were going home," he said. "Didn't Ishizu take you?"
"She offered to take me. So what?" Tony shot back.
"And you didn't accept?" Kolchak blinked. "Why?"
"I'm not that bad off. I can drive. Look, Kolchak, enough about my driving." Tony pointed at Yami Marik. "If you're still thinking that you can beat that, you'd better get moving!"
Yami Marik leered at him. "Maybe you should get moving," he said. "Unless, of course, you want to be here when I completely destroy the reporter who has brought you so much aggravation."
"You already tried that!" Tony snapped. "It didn't work. Why don't you leave him alone?"
"Or maybe I should take you instead," Yami Marik mused. "You wouldn't care, would you, Carl?"
Kolchak stiffened. "You're crazy!" he said. "I don't want anything to happen to him!"
"Even with the blame you place on him for your misfortunes?" Yami Marik smirked.
Tony turned to look at Kolchak with questioning eyes. Kolchak rocked back, momentarily stunned by this new approach. Yami Marik was trying to turn them against each other.
"Now look here," he exclaimed, "my thoughts on Tony Vincenzo—or anyone or anything else, for that matter—are none of your business!" He shot a glance at Tony out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe it's true, I have blamed him. But what do you care? No, nevermind, don't answer that."
Yami Marik responded by sticking out his tongue. "You know that it's really your own fault in the end, too," he said. "Your sensational, unbelievable stories, the fact that the police both hate your guts and think you're insane, and your pathetic existence in general. Tony isn't responsible for any of that. You've built your own coffin and nailed yourself into it!" He burst into hysterical cackles. "I made you come to realize that in my world of delusional reality!"
Tony stared. Every moment that he watched this madman, his disturbed feelings increased. "Kolchak, don't listen to him," he said. "I know you've blamed me. It doesn't matter."
This time Kolchak was not going to take Yami Marik's bait. "Don't worry," he said. "I've heard more than enough of his yakking."
He waved a hand at Yami Marik. "Alright, alright!" he said. "I realized that. But I already knew it anyway. If you've got that out of your system, I'd like to go ahead and rid the world of you now."
Yami Marik pretended not to hear. "Of course," he mused, "Tony's blamed you for his problems, too. Sometimes he wishes he didn't have to deal with you. But in the end he's just a softie." Tony stiffened. Veins popped out across Yami Marik's face. "It's too bad for you that I'm not!"
"It's too bad for everyone that you're not," Kolchak retorted.
Yami Marik paused, his gaze turning thoughtful. "I still don't understand what made you suddenly believe Tony in the church," he said. "You were so wonderfully tainted by my illusions for a while after he came."
Kolchak broke into a grin. "And that," he said, "is now going to be your undoing, Yami Marik. Tony said something that made everything fall into place. He said that no punishment in this world would be good enough for you. And he was right."
Yami Marik frowned, his features twisted in a grotesque manner. "What do you mean?" Suspicion laced his voice.
"It's going to take punishment from a very different place to even get you to leave," Kolchak said. "And without further ado, I'm going to call on that power now. This moment has been dragged out long enough!" He drew a large flashlight out of the car and switched it on, pointed directly at Yami Marik.
The wretch snarled, turning his head away as he tried to shield himself from the light. Nevertheless, he was undeterred. "You failed with that before," he said.
"Only because of two things," Kolchak retorted. "I wasn't in the best of moods that other time. And I didn't fully get what Ishizu was trying to tell me. She said to have faith in the light. But she didn't literally mean faith in this light here." He indicated the flashlight. "This is just a visual aid. I have to drop Someone a line for a little help here."
Dark energy crackled at Yami Marik's fingertips. "You won't have a chance to call upon anything or anyone," he said. "I'll thrust you back into your nightmares and this time you won't have anyone to help you out!" Without warning he blasted.
Tony ran forward. "Carl!" Panic and frustration filled his voice. When was that moron ever going to learn?
Kolchak barely dove out of the way in time. He dropped to the street and rolled, still clutching the flashlight. "In the name of God, cease and desist!" he yelled. "You were created from anger and hatred, so that's the only place you belong!"
Yami Marik tried to blast at him again, but nothing happened. The energy had been extinguished. "Shut up!" he roared, shaking his fists. "There's anger and hatred here. Surely you're aware of that. This is a cruel, selfish world, perfect for me to roam wild in!"
Kolchak jumped up and ran as Yami Marik began to pursue him. "You're right," he called back. "But there's other things here too. And you know it! You try to take away everything decent and replace it with more of what's wrong. And it's going to end now."
He looked over at Tony. "Run across the street and into those bushes!" he yelled.
Tony gawked. "What are you talking about, Kolchak?"
"Just do it! And catch these!" Kolchak flung a plastic bag towards his editor, who caught it in utter perplexity. "Set them up wherever you can! Now!"
Suddenly he was gone. Tony stared after him, then down at the bag. "Carl . . . !" he cried. But it was no use. And Yami Marik was turning to come at him. For once following Kolchak's advice, he fled across the street.
Yami Marik strolled after him with deliberate, easy-going steps. "Pathetic," he said. "You're actually going to do whatever it is he wants? You know he's insane. You know he drives you to the same point. And you know you've wished to be rid of him. I'd take care of that for free! And if you join forces with me I could see that you go places. You've already become aware of how I can manipulate situations. I could influence people to make you very powerful indeed."
"I should have my head examined for doing this," Tony said as he ran through the brush, digging through the plastic bag for its contents. With shaking hands he placed them on various branches. "But if I joined up with you I really would be nuts!"
"Anyway," Kolchak spoke up from the other side of the street, "you're too much of a softie to really want anything to happen to me. Right, Tony?"
Tony muttered under his breath. "I'm never going to live that one down," he complained.
"Oh, don't feel bad, Tony," Kolchak said. "Anyway, I think now we're ready to blast this creep away."
"Blast him away?" Tony echoed. "Kolchak, what the heck are we doing?"
Yami Marik gritted his teeth, turning around and around as he searched for the vanishing reporter. Though he had appeared unconcerned at first, now he felt uneasy. "Where did you go?" he demanded. "Come out and face me!" He sneered, but it was forced. "You're a coward! You're running away and leaving Vincenzo to my mercy!"
"Not on your life. Sure, maybe I've blamed Vincenzo for a thing or two, and maybe he frustrates me to no end, but I'm too much of an old softie to want anything to happen to him. Which you already know, Yami Marik!"
Yami Marik snarled.
"You send people to a place called the Shadow Realm," Kolchak said, from somewhere behind him now. Yami Marik whirled, only to still find nothing. His face contorted in rage. "I think that's exactly where you should take up residence."
Several lights came on from all different directions, surrounding and blinding Yami Marik. Kolchak rose from where he had been crouched in his car, turning on the headlights.
"You can survive in the light, even though you hate it," he said, standing in the Mustang. "But you can't stay where a higher power has been invoked. And I'm betting that God isn't that crazy about you hanging around, either. Not only will you cease and desist from further tormenting the good people of Chicago, but you will be bound in the Shadow Realm, where you can't torture anyone anywhere else in the world either!"
Yami Marik let out an inhuman roar of anger. Dark clouds rose from the ground, enveloping him in their midst. When they faded, he was gone.
Kolchak slumped back with a silent, grateful prayer. Sighing in relief, he pressed the button on his remote control. The lights he and Tony had swiftly and sloppily implemented on either side of the street blinked off.
"Kolchak!"
He looked up as Tony emerged from the brush, making his way to the car.
"Tony!" Kolchak called, waving the remote control above his head. "What did you think of that?"
"Nevermind what I thought!" Tony snapped. "What happened?"
"Nothing short of a modern-day miracle, Tony," Kolchak proclaimed.
"Where did that thing go?" Tony gestured at the street ahead of them.
"Hopefully someplace where he'll never bother us again," Kolchak said.
"Kolchak, what were you thinking?" Tony roared. "You could have been killed! We both could have been killed!"
"But we weren't," Kolchak replied. His eyes twinkled in understanding. "Tony, you never did go home, did you. You followed me here to check up on me. You were worried!"
"That's ridiculous!" Tony growled. "I took a wrong turn."
"And a convenient one at that." Kolchak crossed his arms. "So, what do you think about my wild stories now?"
"They're still wild stories," Tony said. "Just because something was screwy with this guy doesn't mean that everything you've been telling me is true. As far as I'm concerned, what happened to us was some advanced kind of hypnosis, perfectly scientific."
"Perhaps," Kolchak said. "But as for what happened here, can you explain that away with science too?"
Tony looked away with a defeated mumble.
Kolchak gave a knowing nod. "Tony, I predict that you and I are going to have a long talk."
