Apollyon's Saint The Collection: Books One through Ten Page 3

  Chapter Three

  The old church bell rang signaling the days service. Gabriel looked up at the ceiling of his truck with groggy eyes. It took some convincing for him to sit up and see the days horrors. The once empty parking lot was now full of vehicles. Looking on Gabriel once again saw the blood on the people of Axal.

  Dressed in their church clothes covered in blood. Even the youngest of the children had small amounts of blood on them. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary. To them it was just another beautiful church morning. Gabriel was frightened, how could he join such people.

  The last of them made their way into the church, Gabriel could see rays of heat transmitting for the entrance. He watched as the priest came to the door. There was more blood on him than anyone there. His hands dripping, his clerical robes drenched in blood.

  The priests eyes locked with Gabriel's. The gaze was smug and unwelcoming. The priest grabbed the double doors and quickly shut them. Sealing the heat rays inside. It was clear he would find no sanctuary there and even if he did it looked more like a slaughter house than a place of god.

  Gabriel's truck roared to life and he left the parking lot. Everyone he saw had some degree of blood on them. At a stop light he saw kids playing in a yard. They were jumping in and out of a blood filled kiddie pool. He looked back at the light and a man he knew from school was waiting to go. There seemed to be no blood until he raised his hand to wave hello to Gabriel and his hands were covered.

  Green light, Gabriel stepped on the gas and headed through the downtown. One of the local married women was walking. Normally she was very attractive but as Gabriel glanced at her cleavage there was blood running down between her breasts and into the dress. On her neck was a strange dragon symbol that he had never seen before. It was not a tattoo but more of a branding.

  He drove around the town looking for one person that did not have blood. The meter on his gas gauge burned down quickly and it was clear no one was free of blood. At the gas station he got out and swiped his card and started to fill his tank. There was a high school kid in a jeep wrangler.

  “Hey buddy, hows it goin today?” The kid said in his best Axal redneck voice.

  “Hi” Gabriel said as he tried not to dwell on the blood.

  This kid was clearly not yet affected by the typical rudeness of the town. It was a strange surprise and one Gabriel was not use to. Almost as if the kid was moments away from snapping and strangulating Gabriel. Hospitality could only be a sign of insanity in Axal.

  The sight of blood was becoming more annoying than horrifying to Gabriel. Once again the old house in the woods seemed like a more friendly place than Axal. It never took long for the town to remind him that he was not welcome. Gabriel wanted to go back to that cellar to see if anything remained of his pornographic and horrific tale from the night.

  Parking in his normal spot, the house seemed harmless in the light of day. Going inside he went into the living room and to his surprise the endless smell of chloroform was gone. Food or water did not appeal to him but he forced himself to make a bowl of grain cereal. Sitting down on the couch he brought the spoon to his lips. Crunching the cereal around in his mouth for a second made him feel sick.

  Curdled chunks of grain came spitting out of his mouth and back into the bowl. Running to the toilet he dumped the bowl and flushed it. Could he no longer eat, or drink and if so what did it all mean? Old vampire movies ran through his head where human food would make them sick. Was he a bloody, pornographic, ghost seeing blood sucker?

  After thinking about it for awhile he knew he had to go back to the cellar. He grabbed the flashlight which was now his only form of defense against whatever it was down there. Making his way along the path, he thought of the murder mysteries his mom would watch. The dumb women who always headed off to the old creepy building.

  They would pretend as though they did not know that the old factory would be the last place the entered. But the whole time you knew they were as good as dead and dumb for continuing on and not getting the hell out of the area.

  Now Gabriel was the dumb murdered person in the movie that his mother would yell out loud how dumb they were. “DON'T GO IN THERE!” She would shout at the TV as though they were listening. He tried to hold back a laugh as everything seemed so played out. He just needed a fog machine off in the tree's.

  In the light of the day the forest was peaceful. It did not seem as though there was hidden danger ahead. The open meadow where the house once stood had butterfly’s and birds flying around. It looked like a good place to have a picnic rather than the grounds of a murder mystery. But in his mind he could hear his mom yelling at the TV.

  Walking around the old foundation there were no signs of the home anymore. Not even the lumber, just a old foundation. Maybe the old wood in his home now was once used here and for some strange reason they moved it. Maybe the the previous owners were horrifically aroused nightly by the young woman and had no choice but to move it.

  None of it really made any sense. But the cellar was still there calling out to him. But the sun and gorgeous meadow was hard to leave. Looking at the door he was again scared. Thinking of the woman gored down there. He grabbed the door and slung it open with a bang.

  He stood back and did not look in. As if something might jump out from the dark hole at any moment. Walking back around the foundation he ignored the open cellar once more. As though he was letting whatever demons to air out. On one section of the foundation there was the name Ratcliff carved in. It must have been whoever built the house.

  With a gulp of the saliva in his mouth he headed back to the cellar. Standing a few feet in front of the opening he shined his light inside. This time if there were gored remains he could easily turn and flee for his life. Maybe let out a scream to add to the theatrics.

  The old mattress was still there, and the smell of chloroform. He slowly inched closer waiting for the punch line movie moment. His shotgun was right where he left it just before he prepared to crush his morals and have sex with the dead woman.

  He shined the light around inspecting everything inside. It still seemed creepy but there was no monster inside. Stepping down he retrieved his shotgun. Once inside he no longer wanted to look around and inspect anything. He just wanted his gun and to seal that place up for good.

  Just as he started up the steps he saw a old particle of clothing. Dirt covered the stained and torn cloth. He tugged as he pulled it from the floor. The dust from it filled the cellar making the light trick his mind into seeing shadowy figures. He took the clothing and hurried out. Quickly he shut the cellar door and walked a few feet away.

  In his hand was an old dress, the same one the woman was wearing last night. It looked old and torn now, like who ever the woman was that wore it had it ripped off.

  “Quite gorgeous, wasn't she?” A creepy yet familiar voice broke the sound of birds singing, startling Gabriel. The mentor who did not return his calls had came back for him. Swinging the gun around Gabriel turned to him. Apollyon was standing in his kings attire and his hands in the air as to surrender.

  “DONT SHOOT, hahaha” Apollyon said as he laughed.

  “What's going on, what's happening to me?” Gabriel demanded.

  “As I said it will all reveal itself in time, something you have lots of.” Apollyon said still chuckling at the confused horror on Gabriel's face.

  “I on the other hand am always short on time, so much to see and do its blissfully tiresome.”

  “So you are just going to vanish on me again leaving me to stumble around with ghosts and people covered in blood?” Gabriel said as Apollyon's laughter continued, it was all like a joke to him.

  “Follow me, I will show you something” Apollyon said as he walked into the woods. Gabriel had no choice but be in his company.

  “What am I now, Apollyon?” Gabriel said with a beggars tone of voice.

  “You are the savior of swine, the light for roaches, the host of the plague” Apollyon said laughing
harder.

  “You are, you?”

  “I know I am me, but why can't I eat, why the blood, or the ghost?”

  “WHY?!..... It is all I have got since the dawn of your kind. WHY, because you are what you are and now you are mine. There really is nothing more I can say but follow me and you might see....WHY!” Apollyon said in a angry and annoyed toned. It was clear that he had a short fuse and little patients.

  They followed a trail leading up a cliff. Gabriel had many questions but it was clear he would not receive any answer of use. He could only follow the angle of lunatics on their path to answers, or destruction. No small talk, nothing, what could he really say that Apollyon had not heard.

  An Iron fence and gate to a small graveyard was coming in view at the top of the cliff. The trail was not very steep but the view from the cliff was amazing. The spiked iron fence was overgrown and the gate looked like it had not been opened in centuries.

  Apollyon flipped open a gargoyle style gate henge and pulled it open. There were eight small grave stones and in the middle of them one large one. Apollyon stood at the large one.

  “Daniel Ratcliff, what a specimen of divine grace he was!” Apollyon said looking at Daniel's gravestone.

  “He was one of the first men to start his home in this area. I remember him well, his lunatic rage was something I see lots of. But each time I witness it it's like the first, and I NEVER forget.” Apollyon said as he placed his hand on the stone.

  Gabriel looked around at the stones, the others were all names of women but none with the last name Ratcliff. Their time periods of life and death were spanned out but one thing they all had in common was dying young. Gabriel looked back at Daniel's gravestone to see the date. He was born in 1898 and died in 1973.

  “Only the greats can live such a long life” Apollyon said smiling.

  “So who are the woman buried around him?” Gabriel asked.

  “Well one of them you almost enjoyed the pleasures of last night.” Apollyon said with a smirk.

  “So how did she die?”

  “Stab wounds, she bled to death as Daniel ravished her. He was almost surgical with a knife and some chloroform. A doctor of mans secret desires, an artist of sin” Apollyon said as he continued to rub the cold stone.

  “They were still alive just as he spread my seed of life, but minutes or sometimes hours later they would bleed their last drop of blood prematurely ceasing any hope of one of my children being born.” Apollyon said as he removed his hand from the stone and paused for a moment.

  “It was his only real mistake, the children of mine he could have had would have been a sight to see.” Apollyon said.

  “So how did he obtain so many young woman?” Gabriel asked with disgust on his face and in his stomach.

  “He would travel a lot searching for a young orphan woman of the ripe age to fill his desire. The world viewed him as a hero, he was so nice to open his house in the woods to bastard woman. Giving them a chance at the life they could never have in the confines of a whore house”

  “So how did he manage to get away with it, so many poor woman” Gabriel said grimacing.

  “POOR WOMAN?!” Apollyon shouted and it echoed off the cliffs.

  “That POOR woman you saw last night would lay in bed many nights fondling herself to the thoughts of him” Apollyon said as he looked off in the distance.

  “She loved his affection for a few magical years in that home. Daniel simply mixed her desires with his and created a masterpiece if I ever saw one” Apollyon said. Gabriel felt almost sick, like any moment he could throw up on Daniel's tombstone.

  “You know so little, everything you think is real is a LIE! It is my lie Gabriel and you are such a blind fool. Even when I show you, you still don't see. Daniel loved these women and was kind enough to give them a proper life and death!” Apollyon said with a stern voice.

  “Okay, okay I get it but why am I seeing ghosts and blood?” Gabriel asked.

  “Blind, blind, blind! You do not see blood or a ghost. What you are seeing is a tiny, tiny glimpse of what I can see. You see sins, the sins shed upon the earth!” Apollyon said as he lurked behind Gabriel.

  “So then why am I seeing sin?” Gabriel asked. But no one was listening not even the corpses below his feet. He turned around and Apollyon was gone. Gabriel read the small gravestone's. Emma Blackworth, My affectionate one. Tina Hayfield, My shimmering star. Crista Myers, My daughter of sunshine.

  The last traces of food in Gabriel's system shot up his throat and onto Crista's resting place. He had seen enough as he turned and left out the open gate. As he walked off he heard the gate creak shut. Gabriel dreaded walking that path and he knew he had to pass the old foundation that once held such madness.

  The meadow where the house once was came into view and they were standing there waiting for him. He almost imagined such a scene before he got there but even his imagination was ill prepared.

  Four women lined one side of a tall dark haired man, four women lined the other side. They all wore dresses, some from a different time period and the man was in a black suit and bow tie. They were facing Gabriel with their arms open as to embrace him with smiles.

  Gabriel raised the shotgun and fired two shots in their direction as to scare them off. The woman all started to remove their dresses to intensify the disgusting game before him. Then the better half of his conscience kicked in and he ran through the woods around the meadow. He could hear their laughter fade as he headed for his house. Their laughs faded for awhile but then picked up once more as if they had caught up to him. He was just outside his house and the now clothed women lined the windows inside his home.

  Was this what he would have to deal with, if so he no longer wanted any part. The women stopped laughing and started to beckon him inside. Without the disgusting details this would be a heavenly home for any man. But knowing what Daniel did broke the moral boundaries of an alcoholic from Marlov's.

  “GET OUT OF MY HOME!” Gabriel demanded. The women in the windows now had a sad and horrified look on their face.

  “You dont want us?” They asked in sequence.

  “NO GET OUT OF HERE, GO BACK TO WHATEVER CORNER OF HELL YOU CAME FROM!” Gabriel shouted.

  “If you ever want me, or us again just look in the cellar.” The one woman who Gabriel seen the night before said with a smile. They turned and walked away from his window's.

  “APOLLYON!”

  “APOLLTON!” Gabriel shouted through the woods.

  He wasn't coming and Gabriel's suicidal tendency’s where back in full stride. This time he was not going to fail. No excuse, not leaving it to chance he stormed inside. The air was filled with a mix of perfumes. It was a reminder to Gabriel's senses that the girls had really been in his home. He ran up the steps, possibly the same ones worn down from their feet years ago.

  He cracked open the shotgun and popped the empty shells out on his bedroom floor. With a plump plump sound he dropped in two loaded rounds from his dresser. With an angry crack he cocked the shotgun closed. Then he grabbed the box of loaded rounds, no way would he make that mistake again. He ran back down the steps and headed out the door and into his truck.

  Death was an urgent matter now but he was not about to die in that house or on those grounds to have a afterlife with these dead women. Although some religions are based upon such beliefs that they would actually be rewarded with such women. Just another sickening fact of the world Gabriel was in.

  The truck roared down the highway at high speeds. It was his chariot of death, his mighty steed that he would ride to the underworld. It was taking him back to Axal to an abandoned train yard he played at as a kid.

  Cars raced by him with bloody occupants. Now it was just as normal to him as no blood. What did it matter to him anyways it would soon end and if not then the comfort of still trying to die showed he still cared.

  The town was full of people on main street, there were road closed signs and parked cars lined the streets. There w
as a parade about to go through town. Gabriel was sure it would be a bloody one if he stayed around to watch. Though suicide by cop was something not far from his thoughts.

  Why cause such a scene though and put lives at risk. Even if they were covered in blood they were obviously oblivious to it. Not only that but Gabriel was not for big scenes. He parked the truck since for now the path to sure death was blocked. He pushed the shotgun down under the seat and tried to blend in from inside his truck.

  While resting his head on the driver side door he felt a feminine tapping on the truck door. He turned around to look and to his surprise it was the eater of men. No not Apollyon, but Ashley who now looked less threatening than usual even though she did have blood on her neck and cleavage.

  “Hi Gabriel!” She shouted as though they were friends. With her was another piece of town trash, or ass depending on how you looked at it. Her name was Kaitlyen and she was very skinny. She had on short shorts that struggled to define her butt. She also wore a white wife beater that was short enough to show her tramp stamp at her waist and pierced belly button. She too had some blood on her just like every single person he saw in Axal.

  They could easily be mistaken for hookers and it was good the town cop was most likely napping somewhere or he would be in trouble.

  “Hi...” Gabriel said in a unenthusiastic tone. Ashley grabbed for the door and pulled it open. Kaitlyen glared in annoyance. She always acted stuck up, as if the world was lacking clones of her eloquence.

  “Your coming with us!” Ashley said in a excited voice. As though the towns parade would somehow be any different than it had been over the past twenty years. Ashley reached her hand out and grabbed Gabriel's hand.

  A shock hit him like the force of the lightning in that station. He was no longer in his truck but standing outside near the lot where young couples would make out among other things. It was night time and Gabriel could hear the sounds of frogs in the distance. There was a minivan parked just feet away from him.

  Gabriel had no clue what was going on, but he just went with it since struggling would not work. He looked inside the van. There was a teen boy in the front passenger seat. In the back was another teen boy and a youthful version of Ashley.

  She was wearing shorts and a pink top, leaning back in the seat teasing one of the boys with her legs. Even as a teen she seemed to know what she was doing. They were passing around a bottle of peppermint vodka. It had to be repulsing but teenagers will drink cough medicine if they have to. With each swig they would cough and laugh.

  “Man where did you get this shit James?” The boy in the front asked.

  “It was a bottle in the back of my dad's cabinet and I figured he would never notice.” James said.

  “It is disgusting I don't think I can handle any more of that shit!” Ashley said. Gabriel looked on and thought what the fuck is this the virgin ghost of Ashley's past. He chuckled to himself since he did not think such a thing could possibly exist. The two boy were older than Ashley, they looked liked seniors or freshman in college and she looked like an eighth grader.

  “I am going to have to go home soon or my mom is going to kick my ass!” Ashley said. James grabbed the bottle from the boy in the front and put it in front of Ashley.

  “Come on beautiful, have a few more drinks with us” James said in a demanding tone. Reluctantly Ashley took one last drink and barley swallowed any. Some heavy metal was playing but Gabriel could not make out the screaming of the lyrics.

  “Okay guys seriously now I have to go. Can you please take me home now?” Ashley said. James face turned beat red.

  “You tell us you want to hang out and drink with us and now you just want to leave?” James said in an annoyed voice.

  “I am really sorry, I wish I could stay with you guys” Ashley said in her most convincing voice. It was clear she was not having fun with these guys and just wanted to get home. She handed the bottle back to James and it slipped from her hand and hit the floor of the van spilling all over the carpet.

  “You stupid little fucking bitch! My dad is going to kill me!” James yelled.

  “Fuck this bitch” James said to his friend. He grabbed Ashley by the hair and dragged her to the bench seat in the very back. His friend in the front seat followed suit and grabbed her legs.

  “Hey you little fucks!” Gabriel pleaded as he tried to get in. Ashley was screaming and crying as they pulled at her clothes like a pack of wolves. Gabriel pounded on the windows but none of his attempts slowed them. Gabriel turned and picked up a big rock. He slammed into the window but it didn't break or even crack. He picked it up and threw it again. It wasn't going to break and he could not get in. Gabriel was enraged and pounding on the van once again. Inside Ashley was now crying and the two pricks who contributed to the monster she became as a adult took turns on her.

  “You like that you cunt!” James shouted. Gabriel couldn't help her and it was because in this realm he did not even exist and if he did he was elsewhere in Axal. Gabriel walked away from the van covering his ears. Her cries were to much and tears started to run down Gabriel's face. The stress of the days sexual violence was to much for him to handle. She might have been many thing's but no girl or woman ever deserved such abuse. It wasn't long and the rape came to an end. The boys were putting on there clothes.

  “You asked for this, you should not have been teasing us all night!” James said in a mellow voice as if to bring understanding to his childish mind.

  “Get your clothes and get the fuck out I don't want to see your face again!” The other boy demanded as he slid open the door. Ashley half nude jumped out of the van. She walked over to a bench and sat down with tears running down her face. Gabriel walked up to her and sat down.

  “It wasn't your fault Ashley, I am so sorry!” Gabriel said as he too was crying. He tried to hug her but just as he got close enough she vanished and he was now in a unknown house falling over onto a couch. There was a muscular man with a truckers tan pounding on a bedroom door.

  “Ashley, open the fucking door!” The man shouted.

  “Don't make me break this door down!” He said.

  “I want a divorce!” Ashley's distraught voice shouted from behind the door. Gabriel did not want to see any more of any of this. He walked to the door leading out of the house and turned the knob.

  It just kept spinning and spinning. CRACK! He heard the bedroom door smash open. Gabriel did not want to look.

  “You want to take everything I worked for you bitch? Huh do you!” The man yelled. Gabriel could hear the mans hands as they collided with her. She was screaming and crying.

  “STOP!” she pleaded. Then he could hear her gagging and choking.

  Gabriel got up and ran to the room. He still had not recovered from the first attack on her. The man was strangling her on the bed. Gabriel ran up and wound up a kick aimed at the back of his head. Just as it landed he was tossed back into his truck and Ashley reach out to take his hand.

  “Lets GOOO!” Ashley excitingly said to Gabriel. Gabriel pulled his hand away momentarily confused.

  “Sor...Sorry Ashley I really have to go!” Gabriel said as he shut his door. Ashley had a sad expression on her face as if she actually cared about him.

  Gabriel started the truck and pulled away from his parking spot. He jumped on a back street and after switching from a few streets he was on the backside of Axal and just outside of the train yard. Finally it hit him, the blood on everyone was their sin's. They all had them even if it was a consequence of the sin's done to them.

  His power was not so much a power but a curse. He could see their sins and a touch of the flesh would take him on a trip through their baggage. What a shitty thing to have he thought. This world has to much sadness and sin. People try to hide it but they all have some even if it's simply genetic.

  Parking his truck he grabbed the shotgun and ammo. There was no one around since it was a desolate section of town. Gabriel, gun in hand got out of the truck and didn't bothe
r to shut the door. No last goodbye to the old truck that guided him to the gates of hell.

  His pace was a fast walk of a pissed off person. He was heading for the old grain elevator that was used to load trains. It was a good four story's high. Once inside Gabriel threw his shotgun up at a stairwell just above him. The city did not tear the old building down but they cut off the lower portion of the steps to keep kids from climbing it.

  Gabriel opened his box of shells and stuffed his pockets full. Some fell to the dusty floor. Once his pockets were full he tossed the box on the ground. He climbed up on one of the support beams to the structure and climbed it as though it was a slippery ladder.

  He pulled himself onto a crossbeam that was just above the steps that hung a few feet away. Leaping across he clung to the steps as they struggled to support him. Grabbing the gun he returned to the same pace. Skipping every other step as he winded his way up. Birds flew out of their nests at the top and flew out into the sky.

  At the end of the steps was a walkway that lead a few directions. One was to the outside balcony where he once used to get stoned with his friends. He stepped out on the balcony and there was the best view of Axal. That is if any view of Axal could be good.

  Pulling himself up on the handrail he sat on the top rail with his back facing the ground below. He swung the shotgun around to his head like a professional suicide artist and set it under his chin. He squeezed the trigger and this time...BOOOOM. Gabriel's limp body plummeted to the ground below.

  His body hit the ground and bounced with a bone cracking sound. Most of the bones in his body were shattered and the bird shot remove most of his jaw and pieces of hair and flesh was what remained. Could it be over, was he free from the world that had been tormenting him?

  Throughout the whole thing Gabriel was completely conscious as he hoped it would be. But his body was laid to rest and he was still conscious, free from any pain. His senses were shut off and he could not smell anything or move his face. He was just laying there, a mangled piece of flesh and bone. Laying down next to him was Apollyon, clapping his hands.

  “Well done, you finally manned up and bit the bullet. This really is an important step in our long relationship” Apollyon said with his typical laugh. The clapping stopped and he pressed his face right up to the remains of Gabriel's face. He was angry with a satanic look on his face. After all it was his face that the expression came from. He looked into Gabriel's eyes.

  “You really thought you can escape that easily?” He paused for a moment

  “You had a choice and I gave you your desires. There is no leaving or turning back now. So many souls were lost to have the chance I gave you!” Apollyon pulled his face away and stood over Gabriel with the grail in his hand.

  “Remember drinking from this?” He threw the grail down on Gabriel.

  “There was once a great crusade for that cup, it was all rather pointless since then even I was unaware of its resting place. I followed them and watched as they interrogated and slayed people who knew nothing of it. Sang real, some thought it to be a actual grail, some thought it was a blood line. Both turned out to be correct and in the right hands the power is even beyond your understanding Gabriel and you are the only one to drink from, and of it.” Apollyon said in a cryptic tone.

  He turned away from Gabriel as though he was leaving and then he stopped.

  “I should just dig a deep pit and throw you in it for all eternity. My patience with you really is starting to fade. Ha, but for some reason I like your presence though it defiles, the defile I stand for.” Apollyon took a few steps away and turned to Gabriel.

  “You are the first...... Immortal man, I tried others before you. Even ones that stood as great leaders of my legion. Vlad, the man you call Jack the Ripper, even Hitler. All the stories of vampires, and immortality but nothing worked. That was until I added sang real to my collective works. Then it was a waiting game to find the right man. It really was wasted using it on you but I had no choice. Time was pressing..” Apollyon stopped for a moment as though he already had given too much information.

  “Now I am going to show you something.” Apollyon reached out and touched a shattered limb of Gabriel's. That familiar electric shock, and now he was pieced back together and sitting in his old apartment. A version of himself from another time was just about to leave for work. His wife Christy passed by and headed right for the past version of Gabriel. Christy was not yet pregnant and there was no signs of baby items around the apartment. It must have been the time period before she got pregnant. Christy gave Gabriel a kiss.

  “I love you, be careful at work.” Christy said.

  “I love you too, see you when I get home.” The past version of Gabriel said as he walked out the door. The door closed, and Gabriel's eyes welled up with tears. Christy sat down on the couch and started watching TV.

  “Touching isn't it?” Apollyon sarcastically said with a smile.

  “Please sit” Apollyon said. Gabriel sat down and his eyes did not leave Christy.

  “She was so precious, can I touch her?” Gabriel asked.

  “Touching her would only be disappointing. She is a smoke screen of the past and nothing more” Apollyon said. The old clock on the wall rapidly jumped ahead two hours and then returned to normal. NOCK NOCK NOCK, someone was at the door. Christy jumped off the couch with a smile and pounced to the door and opened it.

  “ANTONIO!” She shouted.

  “What the fuck is this?” Gabriel said. Apollyon just laughed and watched. Christy tugged at the mans shirt and pulled him in the house. He kicked the door closed with his foot.

  “Hey sexy.” Antonio said. Gabriel had seen this man in passing in the town but nothing more.

  “This is not real!” Gabriel said.

  Christy pulled the man into her and Gabriel's room. Their wedding pictures lined the walls. She pulled Antonio on top of her as she fell into the bed. Antonio removed his shirt. Gabriel turned to Apollyon

  “This bullshit, you, the master of lies!” Gabriel shouted and swung his fist at Apollyon.

  Apollyon caught Gabriel's hand in his and twisted it backwards forcing Gabriel down.

  “It doesn't hurt you fuck!” Gabriel shouted at Apollyon. Apollyon's eyes burned with flames and his patented satanic look came across his face.

  “Were you referring to your hand. Or to the fact that your wife was a whore and the unborn child you thought was yours WAS MINE!” Apollyon shouted back.

  “LIES!” Gabriel shouted back. Apollyon pushed Gabriel face first to the floor with ease and put his lips right up to his ear.

  “The first man I actually tell the truth too and you call me a LIAR! I am the master of lies, but this Gabriel is no LIE. This was your reality, you just refused to see it!” Apollyon finished talking and kept Gabriel pressed down to the floor. Now Christy and Antonio were moaning and groaning from the room. Tears once again filled Gabriel's eyes.

  “Listen to them, she couldn't wait for you to walk out that door!” Apollyon said. With that same electric shock Gabriel was now flying along side Christy and his car racing along the mountain road. Gabriel knew what this was and what he was about to see.

  Christy was a few months along now and that day they had been fishing at one of the nearby mountain lakes. It was a day that Gabriel could not forget no matter how hard he tried. Christy was driving and the past version of Gabriel was in and out of sleep on there way home. They both were happy, and had a very good day.

  The past Gabriel's eyes were closed and he was attempting to sleep. Gabriel was unwillingly floating alongside the car. Apollyon Appeared as a shadowy figure on the road just ahead of them. Christy screamed and turned the wheel that smashed the drivers side of the car into the rock face.

  Gabriel never saw the accident since it all happened so fast at the time. He only remembered waking up in the hospital. The car came to a violent halt. The driver side was crushed into the wall beyond recognition. They said Christy died instantly and they wer
e right. There was no way she could have survived.

  Gabriel looked on, the past version of him was groggily coming too. Apollyon walked around from the front of the car. He reached through the busted window and grabbed the Gabriel from the pasts head and smashed it into the dash. He then opened the door and pulled him from the car. Apollyon turned to Gabriel now and waved.

  Gabriel woke up laying in the train station. The shotgun was smashed to bits at his side. His clothes were torn and bloody but he was back to his uninjured state. He was upset but what did it matter? He was trapped and now the only thing he could do is find out why.

  Why him, why did Apollyon kill his wife and lead him on this crash course. Gabriel was suicidal but not a deranged killer and as far as he knew he had not indulged in any of the major sins. So what was the point in picking an otherwise normal person.

  Apollyon had the answers but Gabriel did not call for him. If he had to spend the rest of eternity lost without Apollyon then it was all the better for him. Gabriel made a vow that once he had the answers he was seeking, he would spend the rest of eternity searching for a way to destroy the destroyer.