I used to have nightmares about being in an enclosure, sealed off from the rest of the world while it filled with smoke.
Blindingly it stung my eyes. It caused me to choke as I struggled to breathe. Eventually, I would curl up in the corner as my eyes started to close, but I always would snap awake in my bed feeling powerless.
Until the day I decided to build my suit, a built-in oxygen filter, and respirator unless someone was able to strip me, I would never feel helpless again.
Soon I began taking my power back not just from the smoke but building a power base behind other gases. Ones that would allow me to instill dread in others while mine stoked a fire in me.
Now we have the Death Chamber, an enclosure where the denizens of Deathrow will meet.
But what are the fears that made them?
Escher is easy, his dismay is being without control. Everything has to fit into his neat little box.
Tuga, your fear is failure, because you’ve already failed your family many times. It’s why you let the Demon in, isn’t it?
Grey, your distress is being defined. It’s why you’ll always sit upon a fence neither alive nor dead, nothing ever be black or white for you, just gray.
Thorpe, your consternation is commitment. You don’t want to be chained down, so you’ll always keep breaking those chains, no true friends, no actual confidants, and no trustees.
Redgrave, your anxiety is being exposed. Oh, how I love to watch you dance around the subject of your life before Deathrow is something especially when Thorpe is around.
You’ve all built walls to protect yourselves from those fears.
But what happens when I let my fire out to incinerate those walls?
When Escher’s little box of control is left nothing but ash, and you have nothing within your reach that you have power over?
Tuga, when the smoke overtakes your insides, evicting the demon from within you, leading you to the grave beside the rest of your family, will you then find peace in your failure?
Grey, what happens when that fence you sit upon is not, but embers and you’re forced to choose a side or be consumed by the inferno swirling around you?
CJ, will you trust me to undo your chains and lead you away from the blaze, knowing I could toss you to the inferno at any moment?
As for Jasper, when his facade is burnt away, exposing him to the light as the man he really is, what happens next?
What will you all do?
You’ll choke on the smoke as the Death Chamber becomes just a fear-filled fiery tomb feasting upon the feeble-minded fucks who dare stand against me.
Because I’m the only one of us who’s used his fear to make himself stronger, creating a firestorm to burn you all to the ground and control over the smoke that follows it.
So, breathe deep, and find solace in your fears, because I’ll make sure you’re all powerless to them.