The Darkness Within

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.
—Thomas Carlyle

The duality of human nature is composed of two opposite forces at constant war between themselves. The ages old war still rages to this day. It has gone by many names, but the essence is still the same. The darkness within man's soul wars against the light of his reason and the society he has created. The base, animalistic instincts claw at the edges of his supposedly evolved mind, whispering deep longings for violence, for anger, for the thrill of doing something that has been deemed wrong. But what happens when the light is too weak to hold back the darkness? What happens when the heart is so cold, so warped, so mangled and blackened by evil that nothing can penetrate the abyss within? What kind of man, or monster, rather, allows himself to become this way?

Lex Luthor knew that he was different from a very young age. He was sickly and pale, and weak, while the other children were full of life and vigor and health. He often spent his days indoors, pouring over vast tomes of science and the biographies of great men who shaped the history of the earth, while other children frolicked in the sunshine, running to and fro after soccer balls and other assorted recreations. But Lex didn't seem to care that the other children thought he was a freak, what with his abnormally bald head and odd habits. Truth be told, he took great pleasure from the fact that they felt uncomfortable and unnerved around him; it gave him a great feeling of power to know that he could cause fear in his fellow classmates. Little did he or his peers know that these small little details would be the seeds of something more, of Lex's desire for more knowledge, more money, more fame, more material possessions, more prestige, more power, and more…land.

"Land," his father said, "it's the one thing they're not making any more of." Those words, that simple phrase, would soon grow to become the basis for Lex's ultimate goal: to rule the world. It sounded trite and cliché, but nevertheless, he wanted control, wanted power, and land was the way to do it. And so his scheming began. First, he would have to build an empire, or at least find a way to access enough funds to meet his goals. And as though a sign from Lady Fortune, the first letter from Gertrude arrived. She was old and senile, and trusting to the point of being gullible. But above all, she was fantastically wealthy. He wrote back immediately, his mind already at work as to his next step, until a totally unexpected and earth shattering event occurred: Superman disappeared.

It was as though Lex's wildest fantasies were at long last coming true. No longer would he be defeated and thwarted time and time again by the big blue buffoon in tights. No more need for elaborate traps laced with Kryptonite that no matter how deadly they seemed, were ultimately overcome by the Menace in Tights. Now Lex could appeal his parole, with no fear of any damning testimony from the Caped Wonder. Soon, he would be a free man. And what would he do with this newfound freedom? Why, what any good, reformed man would do: get married to 'the love of his life'.

Love. Lex snorted at the idea. What a load of steaming horse manure. Love was nothing more than a hormonal response at its most basic and fundamental nature. Love, no matter what Walt Disney and his minions preached, did not make the world go round, and was not the end all, be all solution to things. If that were so, then why were there wars, poverty, sickness, and death? If love really did conquer all, then why did Alexander the Great take over the known world with bloodshed and sweat, instead of flowers and kisses? Love was nothing more than a fantasy held onto by desperate people in denial who were too scared to see reality. Fortunately, he was not one of those people.

Gertrude couldn't have died fast enough. The moment the last breath left her lungs, he tugged off his ring and threw it into the glass where she kept her dentures. The house, the stock options, the bank accounts, the cars, the clothes, the cash, and most importantly, the yacht, they were all his to do as he pleased. First up was to get rid of all the pesky hangers on and family who would want some of that hard earned money, and then it was off to North Pole for a little house warming visit to the now vacant crystal palace of one long gone superhero.

The knowledge contained in those deceivingly plain crystals was astounding. Truly, the Kryptonians in their prime must have been a premier people. But how deliciously sweet was the idea that these great and noble people, with all their knowledge, had been brought down by their own blind arrogance, and apparently this same arrogance was passed down to the Last Son of the doomed planet. To think that Superman would just leave these wonderful crystals lying around in a completely unguarded place was laughably ignorant and smug. He naturally must have thought that the severe conditions were enough to keep mere mortals out of his Olympus. But Lex Luthor was no mere mortal, and it was high time that the world remembered him.

And then just like the falling 777, it all came crashing down. Superman returned, suddenly, literally out of the blue. Not only did he return to earth, but he instantly resumed his crime fighting duties, going about his worldly trips as though he'd never left. But this time, it would be different, Lex promised himself. This time he had advanced alien technology that would protect him from anything that might stand in his way. So let the Man of Steel do his worst. It would be all in vain, once New Krypton was created, and Lex made king of his newly forged empire.

"See anything familiar?" Lex taunted haughtily.

His beady, dull, muddy brown eyes danced malevolently as the Kryptonian approached him, walking up to meet him atop the stone steps with slow, powerfully deliberate strides. But halfway up the stairs, to his complete and utter delight, Lex saw that the Kryptonite was taking its effect. Tiny beads of sweat trickled down the handsome brow. Oh, how he would soon enjoy pounding that angular and beautiful face into a mashed pulp of unrecognizable horror! With one hard punch to the solar plexus, he sent the taller man tumbling down the steps in a undignified heap of boots and cape.

"Didn't your father ever tell you to look before you leap?" Lex growled with mounting rage as he brutally kicked his mortal enemy, again, and again, and again.

Superman struggled in vain to free himself, but the combined effects of the Kryptonite, lack of sunlight, and the torturous beating he received at the hands of Lex's goons clearly was tacking a serious toll. He wheezed and gasped, like a sickly child having a particularly nasty asthma attack would if they were without an inhaler. With a satisfied smirk, Lex casually pulled out that perfectly sharp shard of Kryptonite, and shoved it hard, into Superman's back, right where it would be most difficult to reach, and just to make his death that much slower and more painful, Lex broke off the end of the shank, leaving the bulk of it to poison Superman from the inside out, just like he, Lex Luthor, was poisoned, from the inside of his soul out to his wrinkled and sunken face. Oh, the delicious irony!

"So long, Superman," Lex called calmly, as he watched the hero plummet to his death hundreds of feet below and into the toxic water below.

Lex Luthor was not at war within himself. He knew that there was no such thing as good and evil, instead, there was only power, and those too weak to seek it. Fortunately, he was not a weak man. After all, he had just defeated Superman.

Or had he? The earth rumbled, the ground shook, and great fissures darted throughout the foundations of the abomination of an island he created. It couldn't be. There was no way Superman could have survived that fall, and even if he had, the Kryptonite had weakened him enough that he surely would have drowned! But despite what he thought, Lex had underestimated the very thing he didn't believe in: love. The love for mankind, for Lois, it was these things that flowed through Superman's veins as his muscles strained and burned under the immense weight of the island. He flew up, up, up, an up, higher and higher, into thinner, and thinner, and thinner air, until, there was nothing left at all except for the endless blanket of stars and black space. With one last gasp, he gently pushed New Krypton away from him and out into the abyss, to float away to regions unknown, where it would no longer be a threat to anyone. It was this last, comforting thought that flittered through the haze of his mind as he slowly fell backwards, his supple back arching gracefully as he collapsed into the atmosphere, where he burned like a falling star as he re-entered the planet that he had long called home. He was at last at peace. He was home, where he belonged, where he was wanted, and even though he would never be one of them, he was at last home. It had only taken five years to figure it out. As his eyes closed and darkness overcame him, he saw a bright light. It was the light of the sun, once again come to greet him and welcome him home.