Windowknocker's 'Dark Testament' [ prelude ]

[Druidess]

‘Veni, Aeternus eternus spiritus .. Veni’

Risen from the fire and from the ashes anew, the immortal, everlasting spirit, Kane lofts overhead the prone anatomy of a fallen Calaway in late 2003., Cir. 2008

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Since I began to share its vast artistic contributions and the novel series’s history here at KaneFanatics.com since this past July 2008, I’ve been often asked (by new generation Kane & ‘taker fans especially) about the possibility of making any of the Windowknocker stories available somewhere on the web for you all to be able to read somehow. I’ve certainly been thinking a lot about wanting to do just that, so then you’re probably wondering how come I haven’t yet? It’s as I informed Kandy: These stories were never ‘online fan/web/fiction’ to begin with. The Windowknocker launched in a era just prior to the internet and therefore, these are real books. They were actually printed and in circulation throughout PNT (the fanclub) at one point and time. In other words, in order to make the Windowknocker available for web viewing, I was going to have to first transfer them directly from their original paper scripts to Word doc, and from there to the web here so that you all would be able to read it.

....I doubt very much that I have to inform anyone just how tedious that process is.

Because of this, I felt that it might be best to start by sharing some of the Windowknocker’s ‘Dark Testament’. The Dark Testament was the series’ 3rd & also final full-length issue and was released in 2001. Unlike the Windowknocker’s previous releases, the majority of the DT novel was, and is already, transcribed to Word doc. It just makes it a lot easier for me at the moment ...Notwithstanding, the ‘Dark Testament’ (If you’ve read KF.com’s ‘History of the Windowknocker’) marked the first real time that original Kane and WWE’s Kane finally would have a true and honest working relationship with each other as opposed to any of the former novels.

I’ll be presenting the ‘Dark Testament’ here, and depending on my availability, I will aim to include a new chapter once or 2X a week. Because I’m dealing with a lot of new fans and faces, your feedback is always a joy to me so I would hope that you will want to tell me what you think of it, if you have any questions, etc.

With that said, I really need to necessitate here that if you are a new reader that is unfamiliar with the Windowknocker stories, I highly recommend taking some time to read throuigh the series’ ‘History of the Windowknocker’ for a in-depth and detailed look at the chronicles. I have to say this because the Windowknocker is 15 years old now and getting lost in what the story is all about is easy.

~Druidess

[Druidess]

'Mysterious ‘man’ in the fire’

7-year old, Kane stares long and lonely out his room at the asylum, still convinced (and looking for) the stranger (Kandle) that had saved him from the fatal fire.

Artist note, My 8-year old daughter, Jewel --who is now 17-- did that child’s art in the bottom corner there representing Kane’s doodling of the man that he swears had saved his life. ....Just a small snippet preview of some things you can expect to read in ‘Dark Testament’

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The road before them was black and dark, fractured only by moonlight cutting through the phantoms of trees.

‘How had they come to this point?’

How to explain it at all was a much better question. Far too many times Paul wasn’t even sure himself, even though it had cast a long, long shadow across so much of his life; stories told by his own father the very day he handed him this old, plain brass urn and told him all these wild, crazy, nonsense fables ...or so they sure seemed to be at least to an 11-year old, Paul Bearer.

Still the epitaph of each memory pooled and echoed from the recesses of his thoughts, to his son, Kane, and to those doctors there at the asylum that couldn’t --WOULDN’T believe the boy! Even he hadn’t believed his son. The doctor looked sympathetic, but serious when he looked at the young boy. Little Kane had scribbled yet another picture of the mysterious man ...the strange man of the fire. ‘He had appeared there,’ Kane said. Surrounded and engulfed in flames, the figure stood tall, rising above the immediate danger sheltering and protecting Kane’s body from their threat of death.

“There was no man in the fire, Kane.” Dr. Forbes just shook his head. “The firemen seen no man. Now let’s think correctly, okay? We’re here to help you, remember? It’s impossible isn’t it now, Kane?”

The child’s doodle relaxed in the falling of his arm. “But..but I saw him. He was there... He was! And ..and he saved me an--”

“Kane ...Hmmmm?”

“Y-yes sir.” Kane looked completely shattered. He didn’t agree with Dr. Forbes’ logical conclusions at all but still gave what he knew the doctor wanted to hear from him, “It was just my imagination.”

The drawing fell from his small hand to the floor. As Kane walked slowly away, the doctor picked it up. Grinning with a shake of his head over at the nurse beside him, he crumpled the artwork up and pitched it into the waste can.

“Smoke inhalation damage.” He concluded in an instant. “It’s obvious.”

Poor little, scarred Kane, his legs drawn up to his chest and starring out across what seemed like eternity out there beyond the windowpane of his room at the asylum; still seeing the memory of the fire alive in his fixed gaze. The room was alive with fiery arms reaching, waving towards him. Closer .. Closer! He could feel the heat of it; could feel the searing burn of its grip. Kane could hear the sirens screaming in the distance, but they were going to be too late!

“I’m going to die .. I’m going to die! .....Mom! Mom!”

Then ‘he’ appeared. Just appeared right there in the thick of the flames and smoke. The figure looked down at Kane with silent consideration before he picked him up and held him close. The strange man was like a shield. As the fire feast on everything around them, they seemingly do not, CANNOT, touch the boy anymore.

Strolling through the flames as though they were non-existent, the mysterious savior sets the child down in the driveway as his focus shifts for just a moment to the blazing funeral parlor. Its front porch suddenly caves and crashes into ruin.

He vanishes.

As the memory replays, it is immediately replaced with the faint voice of Dr. Forbes. He was on the phone in the adjacent room now informing his father, Paul Bearer, that his son had an ‘imaginary playmate’.

“...Named ‘Kane’ no less.” The doctor spoke. “Just like his. We believe he may be suffering from trauma. ..why, with his mother and all. We feel that we may need to change his medication.” ~ Excerpt from 'Dark Testament'., 1999