When the Collar Falls

Reverend Ezekiel GravesEzekiel Graves, Promo

Reverend Ezekiel Graves sits cross-legged in the corner of the cage, fingers tracing the ridges of the collar that rests in his lap. A hush lingers. Then he speaks….

“When I was a boy, I used to sit beside my sister on the steps of the Cornerstone Chapel.

She thought Heaven was a garden.

Said angels whispered in the breeze and the sun never set on the righteous.

She believed in mercy.”

His eyes raise, locking on Caido.

“But mercy doesn’t bloom in the soil you poisoned, Caido.

It doesn’t live in the hearts of cowards dressed as prophets.

You with your masks, your curses, your tired crowns of folklore. Caido you hide in smoke and shadows, preaching legacy while your house burns behind you.

You preach of dragons, but you’ve never known fire. Just the choking dust of dreams turned to ash

And I’ve come to wipe the soot from the sky.”

Graves stands slowly. The collar slips from his hands and lands with a metallic thud. His voice grows.

“This cage? This isn’t confinement. It’s containment. It’s the Lord’s last mercy wrapped in rusted steel and cold forgiveness.

Because when that door opens…

When the hinges scream and the storm breaks loose…

You’ll see why men fear God.

You’ll understand why Heaven is not your reward, but your punishment.

Because Heaven isn’t for the wicked to rest.

Heaven is where the fire never stops, where the echo of every sin cries out, unanswered.

And you?

You’ll be the sermon and you’ll be the scripture rewritten in bruises and bone.”

Graves grips the chain links beside him, voice lowering again, intimate and cold.

“You took something pure, Caído.

Maybe not with your hands…but with your poison, your lies and your sway.

You call yourself legacy, but all you’ve built is a trail of dead believers.

And I was one of them once.

I believed in you and that…that is why I won’t let you walk out of here the same.”

Graves steps forward right to the center of the cage with his hands raised.

“You see this cage as your sanctuary?

You should get on your knees and thank God for every second you’re locked inside.

Because out there?

Out there, I don’t need permission.

Out there, I ain’t bound by bell or doctrine.

Out there, there’s no Nero to hold me back. No Muerte to stand in the way.

Only you.

And the wrath that’s been waiting to be born.”

He picks up the collar and dusts it off.

“I wear this not to hide but to hold back.

But when it falls, when I lay it down like the last seal before judgment…

There’s no sanctuary left for you.

Only reckoning.

Only Ezekiel Graves.

And you’ll pray for this cage.

Because the second it opens…Heaven becomes your hell.”