There’s something about being unconscious that people tend to forget. The longer you’re unconscious the worse it is! I remember watching some really old movies and the action heroes would get knocked out for hours, wake up with no consequences. My grandmother use to ruin the movies by telling me that he’d have a concussion or brain swelling and that the longer you’re under, the worse the injury to your brain is. Maybe this is my brain injury, me knowing that I have a brain injury...
I am sitting on a horse that is standing in mid air above the earth. The horse is wearing roller skates. Why I don’t know! My brain hurts! It’s a battle between my subconscious, unconscious and my vision quest and it’s all weird. As I sit on the horse, who tells me his name is Walter, I see a flock of question marks swirling towards me. They slowly form into the form of a man with a question mark for a head. Beside him a series of black bones knit into the form of a man. I kinda recognised these guys from my boat dream. Then a woman with spider legs and red burning holes for eyes lowers down from a rainbow above me
“Hello Daniel” said the question mark man
“Hi” I said as we all now sat around roulette table, where Walter was the croupier
“This is all pretty weird huh?” I joked placing a bet
“It’s your mind Daniel” said the black man
“So this is all in my head?”
“Sort of” said the question mark “We’re here to help but you’re driving the story”
“Okay then what’s going on?”
“What is going on?” echoed the woman as she flipped through a deck of cards
“We’re on an Indian casino in my mind by the looks of things” said Daniel “I’d like some straight answers...and don’t make a gay joke either!”
“The Winding Way cares not for race, sexuality or age” said the black man
“Okay what’s that” I asked “The Winding Way”
“It is the path of magic”
“I don’t know magic” I said bluntly
“Yes Daniel” said the question mark “Yes you do. Your ancestors had strong magical ties; your peoples have strong magical ties. When Black Crow united the tribes the magic became stronger and finally, perfectly ended up as you”
“No my powers are mimicry...aren’t they”
“You are a deep well spring of magic” said the woman “You are only using a bit of your potential”
“So you’re saying like for example I could shoot all the Iron Soldiers into space?”
“Not yet, but soon” said the black man “But that will lead you off the Winding Way, like it did my friend” He patted the question mark on the shoulder
“So I’m some sort of chosen one”
“Of sorts” said the question mark “Whether you choose to be or not is up to you”
“Enough of the cryptic double talk!” we were now in a cage on a plain white landscape “I’d like some straight answers please”
“Daniel we can only...” the question mark started when I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the side of the cage
“Just tell me what you want! Please! This vision quest is almost too hard to understand. And if this is my subconscious why are we having a conversation”
“The brain is a powerful and strange organ” said the woman as put her hand on my shoulder
“I’ve done everything my...I don’t know” I burst into tears “I don’t know what to do? The Great Spirit called me to New York to find a ring. I’ve done that! Now what? Do I go home? Whose ring is this anyways?”
The trio looked at each other and had a hushed conversation. The black man and the woman spider turned into raindrops and I sat on a park bench next to a man. He was about forty five, black hair with grey at the edges, a moustache and wore a black and blue trench coat
“My name is Stephen Strange” he extended his hand
“Daniel Warstar”
“I use to be the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension”
“And you’re in my head?”
“Yes, because you are progressing along the Winding Way to potentially holding my former position”
“Sorcerer Supreme?”
“Yes”
“Why aren’t you still?”
“Well one, I’m dead. And two I abused my power and took revenge on a man who helped killed my friend; I also tried to kill the man responsible but failed. The title and the powers passed from me to an enemy of mine who did do some good with it before it left him and has lain dormant. Now there’s a chance that you might be it”
“Well thanks but no thanks. I get teased enough about being gay by my brother than to be a magician as well”
“Well it’s not guaranteed Daniel. There are two other candidates. A woman in Indakistan and a boy in New Latveria. But I see great things for you”
“So you came back from the dead to invade my mind to tell me I may have a shot at a title I don’t really want”
“When you put it like that, yes”
“So whose is this?” I held up the ring
“That belongs to a very old man. He had a hand in killing my friend. But it is yours now to do with as you wish”
“And what do I do now?”
“Daniel I am here to help you but not to tell you what to do. You will do what you do best, help people. Whether you become Sorcerer Supreme is not up to me or to you. But you should seek out a man called Craig Hollis”
“Where is he?”
“Daniel” Stephen looked down his nose at me “What I can do is give you a crash course in spell casting”
And for what seemed like months Stephen and I practised magic, in my head
I came too. My eyes took a while to focus on the four figures in front of me; I thought I might be still concussed. There were four demons over me...wait a minute! I know that bastard! There were four Daredevil’s standing over me looking down at me. They were bickering about something about this all being wrong. And to make matters worse I caught a glimpse of Aaron the death room coming back online as this buzz saw moved into position behind them
Out of the dream world and into the death room!
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