Gabriel - Post Chapter One (Patreon)

Knees cracking against the ground, pain pulsed through him as he was doubled over, hand on the wall before him in an effort to try and ground himself.  It wasn’t often that Gabriel was taken down. Especially by something so lesser. But today, his heart had been beating erratically and sweat and coated his brow in a winter chill.  So when the goblin appeared and blasted him in the back, he had gone down with some surprise.  Goblins had very little in the way of magic. Not like this. They had numbers and brute force. But this one was different. It salivated, its teeth gnashing together as it stalked unsteadily forward.

Turning, Gabriel took care of it with a single swing of his sword, separating the thing's head from its body.

The eyes continued to blink, even though it was dead. The glass stuck in its gums falling out onto the cobblestones and turning to dust.  Slowly, Gabriel pushed himself to his feet, breathing heavily.  The skin on his hands cracked open and instead of blood, silver light dripped sluggishly from his wounds.

Kicking the body aside, he sighed.  His body collapsed against the stone ground as he looked up at the night sky. The stars were rare at this point. Rarely did they come out to shine anymore.  He wondered if the Knowing had officially abandoned them.

“Are you okay?”

The voice sounded as if it came through a thick fog of water.  It was small and full of hopeful curiosity. Turning, he spied the pale form of a girl, peeking out from around the other side of the wall. His gut twisted into guilt. Of course she was here now.

“Hello, Miss,” he said softly. “I am alright. Are… are you?”

Her eyes flicked towards the goblin lying on the ground and the lifeblood slinking from its open wounds.  “I was afraid they were going to see me,” she said.  “I’m glad you came along when you did.”

But he hadn’t. The girl before him was his greatest failure. Dead and gone long before she should have been. Gabriel hadn’t been able to save her. He had failed to deliver her to her brother before her last breath filled her chest.

“You look like you might be hurt, Mr. I thought big people didn’t get hurt.”

Gabriel looked down at himself. The grace was minimal at this point. Barely coursing through his veins.  After the ball, it had all but dissipated. And he had given the last of it that he could spare to the grave that sat out in the sea of dead, waiting for retribution.

“We can get hurt,” he muttered.  “We can be devastated.”

The hand that slipped within his was small.  It felt odd. Bones that had never really formed. Breakable. They should have been dust by now.

“Are you sad, Mr?” she asked.

Gabriel blinked down at her gaunt face. The puckered lips and the curled ends of her washed out hair.  She looked like her brother.  “I am angry.”

“Why?”

“Because someone hurt someone I love.”

Milo had taken away the one good thing in Gabriel’s life. The one thing he had looked forward to. And now the fates had put a mockery in his way in the guise of the girl he couldn’t ever save. The sister to the man that had ruined his life.

“I’m sorry.  Sometimes people do bad things and I don’t understand it.”

“Yes,” he agreed, trying not to squeeze her hand. She was already dead. She could not be leverage against the man he truly wanted to kill.  “Can I escort you somewhere?” he asked. “To your brother, perhaps?” Maybe she would know where the wretch had been hiding.  Maybe this wasn’t a mockery after all but a gift.

But the girl shook her head. “No, thank you.”

“I really think you should go home. You are too young to be wandering.”

“I was too young to die too,” she said innocently. “But you still allowed it. Why couldn’t you save me?”

The words were a shot through his chest, spreading his ribs open and splaying his heart to the world.

“Did you not save me because you weren’t worthy?” she asked. “Because the Fallen are nothing more than distorted reflections of something pure? Because that’s what you are, right Gabriel? Nothing. Just an echo of the good that you used to be.” She tipped her head to the side. “Do you think that’s why the Night Market died? Because you couldn’t save it? Because you just weren’t good enough?”

Gabriel ripped his hand from hers, staring down at the anguished face. The tears seeping from her as sobs wracked her small body.

“Why did you kill me,” she hissed. “You aren’t capable of loving anyone. You are nothing more than the trash tossed from the heavens. The market died because of you.”

“You will hold your tongue,” he said, drawing his sword.

“Or what?” she asked. “You’ll kill me again? Do it! Do it, beast! Filth! Mangy excuse for something pure and brave. Coward–”

The sword came out and she lunged for him, her fingers elongating into curled talons that ripped through the front of his shirt. Gabriel lashed out, sinking the sword into her chest. He looked at her as the light faded from her face. Again.

“The Knowing was right to abandon you.” But it was no longer Ever that stared at him. But the market themselves.

The guttural wail of rage that ripped from Gabriel’s lungs tore through the alley, grace rippling outwards and sending the dirt and debris scattering.

Before him, there was nothing. No bodies. No market. Not even the goblin from earlier.

Instead, Gabriel knelt in the filth, silver dripping from his eyes as he stared up at the heavens, his chest rising and failing in pain.  But the heavens had turned their back on him long ago. And they certainly were not going to answer tonight.