The Bride Wore Black Leather

faces.”
    “What?” said the Sun King. “I don’t understand. What are you talking about? Why would I do such a thing?”
    “Because you’re the good guy,” I said. “And they’re not.”
    And I raised my gift one last time and reached out with my mind, to find the Entities from Beyond, the Aquarians, or whatever the hell they really were. It took everything I had left, every last bit of hoarded strength. Blood coursed down my face, from my eyes and my nose. It ran from my ears, and spilled from my slack lips. I could feel things bleeding and breaking inside me, important things. I’d pushed myself and my gift further than I ever had before. Too far. No coming back from this. But after everything I’d done, after my lack of faith in those who’d loved me most, how could I not? It needed doing, so I did it. That’s always been my job. My legs started to buckle, and Cathy and Suzie moved quickly in on either side to hold me up. They were both speaking to me, saying urgent things, but I couldn’t hear them. I pushed past all the pain, refusing to be beaten by my own weakness, and concentrated on my gift. And I found my way to the Entities from Beyond and the world where they lived.
    And once I’d done that, the greater power in St. Jude’s rose and bound all of us, everyone in the church, together; and used us as a focus to open a door between the Nightside and the other place. I couldn’t have done it on my own, but I wasn’t alone. My good friends were with me. In St. Jude’s, where prayers are answered, and miracles can happen.
    The gateway lay before us, a great circle cut in the air itself, through which the other reality could be seen. Don’t ask me where it was. Outside; that’s all I can tell you. Not simply another world but another reality. A harsh light blasted into the church through the gateway, thick and foul and somehow spoiled. Far worse than the few drops of light that had spilled through before, pulled through by the Sun King’s presence. This was an alien light, from an alien place, never meant for human eyes. And through that light, that gateway, I could see the other place, so alien as to be almost beyond human comprehension. Think of a whole world, a whole universe, made up of insects crawling over a ball of dung, forever and ever. That’s as close as I can some to describing what I saw there.
    The Sun King cried out, in horror and disgust, as the Entities took him over and spoke through him.
    “Yes. This is what we are. This is what we do. We use up worlds, consuming them entirely. And then we move on, to the next. Because we’re always hungry. This world, this reality, is all used up. We need . . . a new ball of dung. Your world. Your reality. So we made this man into a weapon, to open the door for us. To let our light shine over the Nightside and make it our feeding ground. And after we are done here . . . your world is such a fine, rich, fecund place. Who knows how long we can make it last? A population like yours will feed us for generations. We are not the Entities from Beyond. We are not Aquarians. If you must have a name for us . . . call us Shiva Rising.”
    The Sun King took off his tinted glasses with a trembling hand and let them drop to the floor, so he could look at us clearly. I’d never seen such misery in a man’s eyes.
    “Send them away,” I said, through numb, unfeeling lips. “You brought them in; only you can send them back.”
    “But then . . . I wouldn’t be the Sun King any more,” he said, in his own voice. “Only ordinary, everyday Harry Webb.”
    Dr. Benway moved forward to stand with me, holding the Sun King’s gaze with her own. “That was enough for both of us, once.”
    “Harry Webb was my friend,” said Julien Advent, moving forward on my other side. “I’ve missed him. I could always depend on him, to do the right thing.”
    “I was a drug addict, before I met you,” said the Sun King. “I thought . . . I’d found something better. But it was just another kind of addiction. Still, I know how to fight that.”
    Shiva Rising’s voice filled the whole church, too huge a thing to be channelled through one man.
    You cannot stop us! You cannot reject us, Sun King! We made you! We own you!
    “Is that true, Harry?” said Dr. Benway.
    The Sun King slowly turned his head to look at me. “I was wrong. I only saw what I wanted to see. But I . . . am still the good guy. So kill me, John Taylor. Do the hard but