Apollyon's Saint The Collection: Books One through Ten

by Zachary Koukol

  Chapter Elevn

  Gabriel was jolted into darkness again and it came as a relief. The pain of that moment was gone and Gabriel was just hoping to be free of her nightmares. Unfortunately it would not be so and he found himself sitting in the bed in the semi as bob drove down the road. The cuff's were wrapped around the handle to the push out vent just above their pillows.

  Tiffany sat in the front seat looking off into the country side. She had on low cut shorts and a tank top exposing the bruise’s on her skin. She looked completely different from the girl who first got into the truck. Just a hollow shell of a life being fueled by drugs. Her hair was a mess, and the skin on her face now sucked into her cheek bones. Gabriel had a hard time even recognizing her as they drove through the darkness.

  “So like I was telling you we need money if we want to score some more.” Bob was once again preaching toxin into her ears. They pulled into a truck stop and Bob slowed down almost to a halt as he searched the cab of each truck. “Hey there is one, see how he has a red light on....Hey girl you better be listening to me. We are out of ice and I won't get paid for another week.” Desperation was spewing from his withdrawing lips. “Yeah, I hear you I just wish there was a better way.”

  “Well remember that truck because once we park you are going over to it. Just knock on the cab and tell him thirty for a blow job and sixty for anything. Oh and make sure you take a condom I don't want to be getting the he bee Jeeves from you!” Tiffany remained silent staring out the window. Gabriel knew what was going on. Bob was going to whore out Tiffany in order to get more drugs.

  They backed into a spot and Tiffany got up from her seat and got a condom from the bag and put it in her back pocket. She got ready to open the door when Bob grabbed her hand. “No kiss, come on don't be like that.” Tiffany leaned over and gave him a lackluster kiss. She closed her eye's not in love but disgrace. She scratched her arm as she kissed him. She wiggled about as her skin crawled.

  It was just another daunting site to Gabriel. Truth of the matter is that all over the world this madness is taking place. Women being violated and being forced into relationships. Some for money, drugs, security, and even religion. This was a small spec of sand in the ocean of woman’s oppression. It was unbearable to witness but millions of women are suffering like Tiffany.

  Gabriel had love in his heart for all women. It was not the lust of sexual desires or power. But caring for them, and wishing they all could be treated with love and respect. The world he was trying to save was one where most of them were not treated with love and respect. But forced into slavery, some against their will. Others by choice even to the point of denial. If you don't love yourself and the man you are with then you too are a victim of this slavery. Life is so short and full of love, you just need to remove the chains and find it.

  Tiffany stepped out of the truck and Gabriel followed her. It was nice being free of the toxic and claustrophobic place that she was calling home. Her fathers abuse did not even compare to what Bob was doing to the poor woman. But they were very much linked, had her father been loving she would most likely not be in this nightmare. He was as much responsible, if not more than Bob. Bob hung his head out the window. “Don't be kissing them men either!” Bob shouted out at her.

  She was staggering as she walked and every few yards she would itch her body frantically. The withdraws of the poison and disgusting desires of the monster she was with was taking its tool. She was a bruised and broken skeleton that lacked any hygiene. The violent night breeze carried her foul sent to Gabriel's nostrils. She was not the beautiful monster that Gabriel was with in the graveyard. But a craving fiend of the truck stops night sky.

  It was very cold out and Gabriel had more clothes on and was struggling in the cold wind. But Tiffany seemed more affected by her crawling skin than the cold night. She made it to one of the truck's with a red light glowing in the cab. It was not the same one that Bob pointed out but it did not really matter. She was about to give her body to a man, not for love or her own pleasure. But for money so that they could support their addiction.

  Tiffany balled up a weak and boney fist and pounded on the side of the truck. After pounding on it and waiting for a response she repeatedly pounded. After a few moments a old man with a long grey beard came into view in the drivers window. He rolled it down and spit a huge luge out onto the ground.

  “What is it!” The man sad in a grumpy and tired tone.

  “Thirty for a BJ and sixty for whatever you want.” Tiffany said looking at the ground and not at the man.

  “Well hop on in girl” The man said still tired.

  Gabriel had seen enough, he was beyond nauseous and the fresh air felt stuffy. The lot was starting to spin and he felt like he was about to fall over. He sat down on the bumper of a truck next to the old man's. He could hear the door to the truck close signaling another moment of abuse.

  “Get me out of here!” Gabriel shouted and struggled not to vomit. The poison of hate that branded Tiffany's life was seeping into his mind and placing a dark haze over it and the toxins had drained into his guts. He knew the world was this way, but never actually felt the abuse so vividly. What happened to Ashley was unbearable but this was on a different level. Gabriel was jolted into darkness that carried his nausea with it. He was not sure if he was going through time again or if he fainted.

  He opened his eye's expecting to see the lot of filth, but instead he was back on the bench in the cemetery. He pulled his hand away from Tiffany's leg and was lost for words. The brushing of Tiffany's leg had brought on a grimace in her face. It was clear she did not want to be touched by a man and to her Gabriel was another abuser.

  “I am really sorry, I just want you to know it's not your fault Tiffany.” Gabriel said. After the words came from his lips he regretted it because now he had to explain how he knew her name.

  “You don't know me, and how do you know my name. Are you some kind of a whacko stalker, because I have enough of those in my life!” Gabriel could not hold back he had to tell her what he was feeling. “What your father did to your hand was wrong, it was not your fault. That man in the truck who defiled you was a pervert and you deserved so much better. You being here today is evidence of how strong and beautiful you are.” Gabriel cut himself off before he could say more.

  Sadness and confusion was on Tiffany's face, it was as though Gabriel was a ghost from her past. “How do you know that stuff, no one knows that!” Tiffany was sad and angry. Gabriel got up from the bench and was about to walk away. Tiffany jumped from the seat dropping the poems of one of the world's few geniuses of literature. She balled up her fists and pounded them into Gabriel chest. The force was weak and felt like a broken woman desperate for love. Gabriel wrapped his arm's around her and held her in his arms as she broke down into him.

  Gabriel wanted to show her the love and compassion that she never had. He wanted his arms and grasp to remove her endless suffering. Finally she let go of her defense and just cried into his arms. They remained like this for a few moments and Gabriel had not held a woman with such love since holding his wife.

  Oddly her sadness and tears were feeding Gabriel's heart and ending the nausea. This woman saw him as a complete stranger but he was able to brake through to her and lower the defenses. If he could do that with everyone then maybe there was hope. If he could just stop the zombie plague of hate and Cain's rage, then maybe there could be an end to their suffering.

  Looking over Tiffany's shoulder he could see his madman nemesis. Not Apollyon but Cain, grinning from ear to ear at what he was seeing. Gabriel let go of his warm embrace for Tiffany but still held onto her arms. The hope and love that Gabriel was feeling for the stranger had now turned cold and the nausea was coming back.

  Tiffany was looking down at the ground as tear's ran from her face onto the ground. Cain was now standing next to Tiffany. Cain placed his arm around Tiffany still smiling at Gabriel. “Ohhh, you didn't show him the best part!” Cain said in a mo
cking voice.

  “What is that?” Gabriel asked confused.

  “Touch her arm one more time, see what lays behind those beautiful eyes!” Cain was still smiling.

  “No please don't, I don't want you to see it!” Tiffany said as she tried to get free from Cain's grasp. It was to no avail, Cain tightened his grip as to hold her hostage. “I said I would show you, NOW DO IT!” Cain shouted at Gabriel. Gabriel didn't want to know what was going to happen next but he chose to see what sin possessed this beautiful monster. Gabriel's hand was shaking as he reached out to touch Cain's terrified hostage.

  “Please don't!” Tiffany pleaded again. It was to late Gabriel was jolted into darkness as her screams repeated in the endless dark. Gabriel was once again sitting on top the bunk of the Semi. The sun was rising and Tiffany was sitting in the passenger seat. She now had even worse bruises all over her body than before. Sores from the poisons trying to escape her body lined the wilting flesh.

  She was in her underwear and white tank top with stain's. Tears ran down her face as she played with a tire thumper. They are used to hit the tire's and check for air pressure. It was made out of wood and was fashioned much like the club Cain used on Able. Dark like the tree of life but lacking the beautiful texture.

  Gabriel looked down from the bunk and could see the nightmare image of Bob sleeping in his underwear. The stench and site of him was that of a slumbering warthog. Gabriel looked back at Tiffany as she still twirled the tire thumper in her hands. Then the twirling stopped along with the tear's. Tiffany got up from the seat with Cain's rage on her face.

  “Wait!” Gabriel shouted, still not wanting to accept the fact that he could not change the past. Tiffany lunged on top of the wild beast and raised the club up above her head and smashed it down into Bob's skull. Gabriel heard the cracking thud just as he did with Cain and Able. Then a bloodcurdling scream from Bob.

  When Gabriel watched Cain kill Able he felt such sadness for Able. This time though he could only feel sadness for Tiffany. She really had been built into a monster of our sick and twisted society. Tiffany Continued to smash Bob's head with the club until it was nothing more than a flesh and blood mass in the bunk. Blood covered everything, including Tiffany.

  Gabriel looked at the blood on Tiffany as he did the blood on Mitch. They should have been free of their sin, but wore the sin of the world. Tiffany was no more a murderer than Mitch was. But both of them killed and felt the same rage and anger as Cain. Leading Gabriel to the same moral grounds that he always stood on. Trying to judge mankind in the flesh blood was simply impossible without seeing the nightmares they overcame in life.

  Tiffany stood up and shut the curtains to the back of the truck. She turned on a light in the back and pulled down one of her bags from the top bunk and laid it down next to Bob. Unzipping the bag she revealed a 9mm pistol with multiple clips laying next to it. She removed the clips from the bag and stuffed them on the sides of her underwear. Tears and blood streamed down her face as she picked up the gun and cocked it.

  Gabriel watched as she raised it to her temple shaking. Gabriel saw her pain from the sins of others and running down her bloody face. He wanted her to be free from the madmen in her life. Gabriel closed his eye's hoping she would pull the trigger and end her suffering. His ears yearned to hear the sound of the gun going off.

  After a few moment's he saw the light of the sun burst into the back of the cab. Tiffany had opened the curtains and stood there for a moment looking at the sunrise. Gabriel jumped down from the bunk and stood behind Tiffany praying it would be the last time the sun shined on her miserable life. But then she sat down in the passenger seat and opened the door.

  Gabriel was confused, he did not know if she was turning herself in or if she decide to die outside of the truck. He followed her out the door as she walked into the middle of a truck stop lot. The sun glowed off her withered body covered in blood. She walked down the lot towards the truck stop. There was a overweight trucker with two bags of food heading back to his truck.

  When the man saw Tiffany he was not sure if he should run or help her. Then she raised the 9mm from her side and opened fire. Gabriel's heart jumped as his hope for our world died with each shot. The first two shots missed the man who turned and ran. The next one hit him in the back dropping him. The woman Gabriel learned to love was now a grim reaper in underwear and a tank top.

  She walked over to the large man trying to claw his way away from her. She placed the gun behind his head and pulled the trigger again. Gabriel was hit with the blood and derbies from the asphalt that sprayed the parking lot. Tiffany had become the machine of death that she was designed from birth to be. Gabriel now knew that it was to late for her to be forgiven by him or god.

  He followed her into the truck stop as he saw people running out the back door through the glass outside. By the time he and Tiffany made it into the truck stop it was empty. Gabriel stayed inside the main area of the truck stop as Tiffany checked each bathroom. No shots were fired and she walked back to where Gabriel was standing.

  Tiffany looked out the window and smiled as the people fled the truck stop. She raised the gun and shot out the window's of the truck stop letting in the cool morning breeze. She walked over and removed a pop from one of the coolers and took a drink and then placed it back in the same spot. Walking back to the cashier counter she looked up at the camera and smiled. Then she placed the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

  Her body crashed into the floor with violent anger for the earth below. Her pain was over and Gabriel was crying tears of sorrow and anger. The world never gave her a chance, she would never see a happy day. A happy day was just one more to remember the pain and suffering of her life. Looking at her lifeless body Gabriel wished he could pick up the gun and end it like she had. But he knew this was just the start of his nightmare journey of life. Darkness fell upon him jolting him back into a society of nothing but insanity.