8.

The difference clearly is night and day.

Such a difference in all that Johnny Birch is. Instead of being quick to debate, quick to disrespect, quick to question and oppose everything, he is showing respect. He has come into contact with the night-time version, more or less of what Ra is. There are as many differences between the two as there are similarities but of course there is a reason why Johnny is in the situation he is in and Khonsu has as much to do with it as Ra does. The universe really is a heck of a thing.

An instruction had come to get up, but John has yet to get up, and as the entity before him continues to speak, John coughs into a handkerchief.

'Luck appears to be with you for your journey is nearing an end. Many get to travel; few get to see it end so soon. A foretold prophecy may just see it's way to an end.'

'Luck? With me? You call any of this ... lucky' ... ah yes, Johnny Birch is back, at least in personality and manner, as he reveals splatters of crimson against a crinkled white background of a fresh handkerchief ... 'You may as well get it over with now and end my life.'

'End your life? ... I will do no such thing. Have you not, after all, had a revelation? Though if it is death you seek ... well, I believe someone else has an opinion ... someone else may have something to say.'

There is movement behind Khonsu, it slowly but surely reveals itself. What, for a moment, appeared ominous, now very much pleases Johnny.

'Jason ...' he exclaims with glee, and rushes to embrace his friend, the only true friend he had ever known ... 'I thought you were ...'

'... Dead? I am dead ... no thanks to you ...'

The embrace had not been returned and this attitude?

'Jason, what's ...'

'It was all take with you, wasn't it?'

'You what?' Johnny takes a couple steps back, lost as lost can be.

'That's right, you heard me.'

The push comes and John is on the ground. There is no way he is in any shape to fight. A sickness and a journey, tolls have been taken. No fight could be hoped for, whether or not it's against a dead man.

'When I needed you most, where were you?'

'You could come to me at any time Jason, you know that ...'

'Not good enough John ... Johnny ... my family are gone ... I'm dust ... and here you are ... what? ... what is it you are doing? ... some kind of soul searching? ... Well, if it's forgiveness you're after before you kick the bucket ... you ain't gonna get it from me ...'

There is a kick to the torso and even while dealing with the pain of such a thing Johnny realizes that this is not Jason, not a true Jason at least. For one thing Jason is dead, he is gone, and despite the phone call Johnny had received, he had later been notified of Jason's departure. Even if Jason had some kind of pent-up aggression against Johnny, which John is sure he hadn't, then acting as he is in this moment goes against everything Jason ever was.

Johnny coughed up some more of the red stuff, then embraced himself and turned onto his back, his body wracked with pain. The physical pain he feels is excruciating to the point he is sure he is going to die out in this place, a desert far from life though among life of the oddest kind.

'Alright ... death ... take me now ... I'm ready.'

'Not so easy my friend, there is no clicking your heels together three times and thinking that there is no place like home ... there is a reason all this is happening, and you know this don't you? I know, I sure do.'

Not just one voice had spoken to Johnny but two, one after the other. The first belongs to Jason and despite all that is, he expected that, even if he didn't quite understand. The change occurred during the brief pause in the words spoken. The second voice belongs to John himself, but he did not speak it, not while lying on a floor of sand.

A separate entity had spoken. What had been Jason now is an alternate version of John.

'I'm in purgatory now, right? I must be dead somewhere ... alone ... all by myself ... and my soul has to endure an eternity of pain ...'

'You know this is not what is ...' his other self says. 'You know what you have to do now.'

'No, I don't actually ...'

It hurts to speak, every ounce of him hurts and it is worsening by the second. The camel, as loyal as it has been, if that can be said, only watches on. If it could talk then it would even tell Johnny to, be a better you. Khonsu steps forward, stamps his cane into the sand.

'Johnny Birch ... close your eyes ...'

Johnny complies, both versions comply.

'... count backwards from five.'

'Five ... four ... three ...' numbers spoken in stereo. 'Two ... one ...' a singular voice.

When eyes are opened again, there is change, huge change, change that will need a few moments to understand. It may never be fully understood, for now, there are the basics. A day light has come. The desert is gone. The camel is gone. Everything about what was a moment or so ago is gone. Where Johnny so happens to be is somewhere he vaguely remembers.

To top of this, he is not on the higher end of mid-life. He is a child again, a child with a football under his arm. This is the day he confiscates the very ball he had brought to school; this is the day he first met Jason. Holy hell, a realization hits. The bar, the watering hole on an extremely hot day was not the first time he had come across an entity calling itself Ra. Ra had come on this day too.

Johnny hadn't got much time to consider this, for it all quickly fades, everything he knew or thought he knew is slipping away. He is belonging to this moment more and more by the second as if everything from after that day is being wiped away.

It had not been an angel with whom Johnny had wrestled with, his life had become a conflict onto itself. Now, here in this moment ... conflict no longer lives, and it is up to him to ensure it stays that way. What better way to begin than to react, or not react, or react with certain decorum to a certain presence of a football.

In the sky, a single Falcon swoops on by, its war cry satisfied that all is well.