[Many weeks prior.]
[Itch. Scratch.]
[Itch. Scratch.]
[As the toxins filter through his system, Felix Foley lays curled up in the fetal position, his mind anywhere but here.]
[Fernicus stands grinning, leaning over him as he awakens.]
“In a spot of bother, you worthless piece of shit?”
[Felix grumbles.]
“You’d think with the number of lumps I put on your head, you’d be used to taking a beating by now, boy. Yet there you are… curled up in a ball like a fucking bitch.”
[Foley looks up, his eyes red and sore.]
“You won’t keep me down, Nox.”
[His father laughs sturdily at him.]
“You’ll be wherever you’re told to be. Don’t forget who’s in charge here. You’re the subordinate, the victim, the little boy in a man’s world. You’re in no position to make demands. You’ve been beaten like a little boy by Tombstone for months after he killed your brother and I. You’ve been prancing around with that so called best friend of yours, all the while unaware that he was just as bad as he always claimed to be.”
[Felix lowers his head in shame.]
“You’re a joke, Felix. You’re the punchline in this divine comedy. You know what you need to do, don’t you?”
“What’s that, pop? You always were one for sage advice with a firm fist.”
[Whack.]
[That’s that firm fist he was talking about.]
[Fernicus laughs.]
“How’s that for some advice then?”
[Foley spits out blood.]
“About as helpful as you’ve always been.”
[The Puppetmaster though, much to his father’s surprise, starts crawling back to his feet.]
“What men like you and Nox don’t seem to understand is that I thrive on being knocked down.”
[His father hits him again, dropping him to his knees.]
[Foley laughs.]
“You can punish me. You can gas me. You can beat me to within an inch of my life, but until the lights go out… I’m not stopping.”
[He rises again.]
[Another punch knocks him back down.]
“I can’t stop. I won’t stop. I won’t quit.”
[He gets back up again.]
[His father, angry, is beginning to fade away as he does.]
“I can see life in vivid colour, dad. I see the black in your heart. I see the red in my eyes, the anger in my heart. I see the green in Nox’ envy and the fear in Tombstone’s purple. You people think you know me. You people think I’m weak and pathetic, but I’m not. I’m anything but.”
[Fernicus is now gone.]
[Foley stumbles backwards into the wall.]
“If you so badly want to take me down a trip of memory lane, Nox, you can go right head.”
[His smiles, his teeth covered in blood.]
“But I lived it.”
[He spits out the blood.]
“And I survived it.”
[He grimaces.]