Realm Wraith

by T. R. Briar

  He felt his heart slow, then freeze, as she came into view. Immense sorrow welled up inside him. He knew it was her, but she did not recognize him now. She writhed about, reaching without awareness in random directions, as strangled gurgles escaped from her sewn lips. The skin on her legs was torn, as if pecked at by hungry beaks.

  “Miranda,” he gasped, reaching out to take her hand. She let out a frantic screech and scrambled away from him.

  “Is that really her?” Apolleta asked.

  Rayne collapsed against one of the skeletal trees, struggling to keep his emotions in check, but it was a losing battle. “I just wanted to help her,” he said. “Why did she have to give up?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Gabriel scoffed. “She was weak. She didn’t even try to survive. That is what separates us from her.”

  With a howl of fury, Rayne lurched forward and grabbed Gabriel, shoving him back into another tree. Their feet crunched over the ground, crushing the bone-like brush that littered the forest.

  “You shut your damn mouth!” he screamed. His eyes felt like they were on fire, a sharp contrast to the cold of the rest of his body, but he didn’t care. Gabriel’s yellow eyes filled with fear. “She did the best she could! She faced this world for five years with nobody to help her! You’re the only weak one here! Pathetic coward, running away from your sins!”

  A sudden breeze whipped by them both, sending the trees into an uproar of clacking and clattering bone. Rayne’s vision blurred as a rapidly thickening fog wafted through the trees. Apolleta vanished from sight within the rising mist, and Rayne could only see Gabriel now, as he continued to pin him against the tree.

  “Let me go!” Gabriel yelled. “That thing is back! We have to go, now!”

  “What thing?” he heard Apolleta call above the breeze. Rayne did not loosen his grip on Gabriel’s body.

  “Maybe I should just let it eat you,” he growled. “It’s more than you deserve.”

  “F-forget it,” Gabriel stammered. “I’m outta here! You can stay here to die if you want, but I’m leaving!”

  In that instant, a screaming serpent head burst from the fog, constricting Gabriel’s body. He wrestled against it while crying out, trying to pull himself out of the forest to another world, but failing.

  “I can’t—what’s going on? Help me!” he screamed.

  Rayne backed away, only to hear a threatening hiss behind him, and turned to face yet another pair of deathly pits.

  “Rayne? Gabriel? Where are you? What’s going on? I can’t see anything!” Apolleta’s scream came from somewhere unknown and unseen. Rayne tried to run toward it, limping through the thick mist hiding everything from him, fighting to stay on his feet despite the heaviness in the air that pressed down on his shoulders. But after running for what seemed forever, he found himself right back by Gabriel, still gripped by a serpent oppressor.

  A small gurgle made him turn around, forgetting his fear for an instant. Miranda’s soul lay stretched out on the ground, gazing towards him. The wretched being had no idea of the danger around her, too entrenched in pain and misery as it was. Rayne looked at her, stirred with deep pity.

  “Forget about that bitch, you idiot!” he heard Gabriel scream, still struggling. “Get me out of here before this thing eats me!”

  He was right, Rayne realized. He turned to try to pull Gabriel free, but then he became aware of another serpent close by, hovering so close to him he could feel its breath against his neck. It opened its mouth, revealing long pointed fangs dripping with drool, large enough to swallow Rayne’s own head. He stared at it, frozen. But his thoughts turned to Miranda, still lying there. The snake hissed and whipped around, and with lightning quickness it seized her in its jaws, enveloping her body and swallowing her whole before Rayne could even react.

  “No!” he screamed, falling to his knees. The snake turned to him, and for an instant, it almost appeared to grin at him, a cold, twisted grin. Its form then burst into nothing more than fog, vanishing from eyes clouded with grief, and the rest of the fog dissipated as well. The serpent neck coiled around Gabriel shattered into miasma, dropping him to the hard ground.

  “Th-thank god,” he gasped. “I thought I was a goner.”

  Off in the distance Rayne could see Apolleta stumbling towards them.

  “What was that? What happened?” she demanded. “Are you two all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Gabriel answered. Rayne just sat there on his knees. Silent. Stunned.

  “Rayne?” He heard her voice, but it was distant to him, not real. He lifted his head and stared at her.

  “What?”

  “What happened? Are you OK?”

  “It ate her,” he whispered. “I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t save her.”

  Apolleta gasped. Gabriel on the other hand, stuck his nose up and snorted.

  “So what? Who the fuck cares! She was dead! Gone! She didn’t even recognize you anymore! I could have been eaten and all you can think about is that weak piece of human garbage?! You need to get your priorities straight!”

  Rayne jumped to his feet, and his hand found itself wrapped around Gabriel’s throat. “You shut your fucking mouth!” he roared. “You didn’t know her! You didn’t know how much she suffered! You’re the weak coward who’s too damned stupid to understand!”

  “I am a man who knows how to survive! I’m not some eyeless, barely human freak who gives up the moment things get difficult!”

  “Oh yeah?!” Rayne’s fury consumed him, and he couldn’t think straight. “You want to know what it’s like to be eyeless?! Then how about this?!”

  His hand charged forward, and in one swift motion he dug his fingers into Gabriel’s left socket, scooping out the decaying, useless eye with ease. He held it up in front of the now screaming man, crushing it before him.

  “How do you like that?” he hissed.

  Apolleta screamed. “Rayne, what the hell is wrong with you?!”

  Awareness dawned on him, and he took in the screaming figure in front of him, now with only one eye, the other just a black socket rimmed with orange colored pus. He gasped, horrified at what he had just done.

  “Oh god,” he stammered.

  “You fucking monster!” Gabriel screamed. “You’re going to pay for that! You’re dead, you hear me? Dead!”

  He vanished from the woods. Rayne stood alone with Apolleta and the skeletal beings in the trees, the remains of Gabriel’s eye still dripping in his hand.

  “Why did I do that?” he gasped in disbelief, sinking back down to his knees.

  “This place is crazy,” Apolleta said, grief stricken. “Look what it’s doing to you. Look what it did to Miranda. I can’t take this anymore; it’s gotta stop.” She backed away from Rayne as she spoke, afraid to stand near him.

  Rayne stayed on his knees, staring forward in a daze, looking at the remains of that decrepit eye smashed over his palm. He felt calm now, but empty. As if everything he did now was meaningless.

  “I don’t want any of this. I can’t end up like her,” he heard Apolleta’s voice continue, and he looked at her. She backed away further, debating whether or not to run away from Rayne, still in a maddened state of shock. She tripped over a white root behind her, falling onto her bottom at the base of another tree.

  “Then tell me what you did,” he said. “Tell me, or become like Miranda.”

  Her face was wracked with terror and confusion. But after a moment, her expression softened.

  “I killed a man,” she stammered. “He raped my sister and got her pregnant. She kept the baby, and her husband walked out on her. I wanted to look out for her, but I wanted to make that son of a bitch pay. So I hunted him down. I planned it all out. I bought drugs from a street dealer. I stole his gun. I tracked the bastard down to his shitty little apartment and I shot him. Left the drugs and the gun there. The police fingered the dealer, they threw his dumb ass in jail, and I got away scott free. But one of the dealer’s boys musta known.”


  “That’s why he shot you.”

  She glared at Rayne. “I did what I had to do, just like you did. At least, that’s what I told myself. The police weren’t gonna ever arrest the son of a bitch ‘cause my sister was too scared to testify. He was gonna rape more women, and because of me, that drug dealer’s behind bars for the rest of his life. I was convinced it was the right thing but, deep down, I knew. I took another man’s life, and I sent an innocent man to prison.”

  “But he was a drug dealer. That’s not really innocent.” Rayne wasn’t sure what to think.

  I see, Kaledris’s voice inside Rayne’s mind made him remember her presence, still blended into his own thoughts. She’s out of balance. She knows she wronged someone, and for that she’s punishing herself. Mortals dwell in the hell they make for themselves.

  Realization crossed Rayne’s eyes, though he couldn’t tell if it was his own notion, or Kaledris’s wisdom mixing into his thoughts. He looked at Apolleta. “That’s it,” he said. “Miranda never faced what she did. She let the lie fester, and refused to forgive herself. That’s what you’re doing. You never faced what you did.”

  “Then there’s no choice. I have to go to the police, and tell them what I’ve done.”

  “Won’t you go to jail? What about your sister? And won’t that drug dealer be out on the street again if you clear his name?”

  “I know. She’ll be lost without me, I realize that, but, all actions have consequences. I don’t regret killing that bastard. But framing another man—I need to face that. I think if I admit to it, and accept what happens after, I’ll be redeemed. I won’t ever come back here.”

  “You really think so?”

  “It’s going to be hard. My life is over. This life. But it’s only one lifetime. And at least the man I killed is gonna stay dead. He’s probably here right now.”

  She’ll be returned to the cycle of life and death, Kaledris told Rayne, trying to ease his confusion. Perhaps in her next life, she won’t make such mistakes.

  “What if you’re wrong?” he asked. “What if you turn yourself in, and go to jail for the rest of your life, and still come here?”

  “I don’t know. But I can’t sit here and do nothing,” Apolleta stood up. “I gotta be alone, so I can think about this. My life is gonna be ruined if I go through with it, but it’s better than the alternative.” She stared at Rayne. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a monster. You’re a little creepy, and you are damn scary when you’re mad. But, if I were in your shoes, I’d have ripped both of his eyes out.”

  “All actions have consequences,” Rayne sighed. “He’s going to see to it that I go down in flames. My bargain with Tomordred will be broken. He’ll come for me.” He wiped the remains of Gabriel’s eye on the ground, feeling disgusted. “If you can find redemption, you’re lucky. You won’t be here to see any of that. I don’t have a lot of time now.”

  She began to fade, pulling herself away from the forest to somewhere else. “Then I hope I won’t see you around. Goodbye, Rayne. And thank you.”

  She disappeared, leaving Rayne alone in the forest, among lost souls and that ever-pervasive presence in his mind.

  You’re far too soft, Kaledris mocked him. Caring so much about the fate of one mortal. You barely even knew that woman. Why do you cling to such sentiments?

  “I don’t know,” Rayne said, forgetting he just had to think to be understood. “It keeps me grounded, I think. Compassion is a human trait, so maybe that’s hard for you to understand.”

  He felt her laughing, amused at his words. So, what will you do now?

  “I don’t know that, either. If I keep coming back here, I’m dead. If I can’t remember what I did wrong, I can’t escape. And I’ll end up like—like Miranda.”

  You love her, don’t you?

  “I—” Rayne stammered, confused. He closed his eyes as intense sorrow choked him, making it hard to speak. “I don’t know. We got along so well, and over time, as I got to know her I just felt something so overwhelming. I don’t know if it was pity, or want, or something deeper. I couldn’t bear seeing her suffer. I wanted to help her.”

  So you’re more upset with yourself, for not doing as you intended, than you are over her fate?

  “What? No! I—” Thoughts whirled in Rayne’s mind as he tried to put his feelings into words.

  Don’t despair, Rayne. After all, you did promise her.

  “Stop reading my thoughts like that, it’s incredibly rude. And I didn’t do anything in the end. That—that thing ate her.” He spat those words in disgust.

  But she got what she desired. Take comfort in that.

  He stared at the grey ground, tinted blue from the scattered lights. He wondered to himself, about the thought that had been nagging him for quite some time now.

  Can you escape from the Abyss? Kaledris echoed his question, her voice light and cheerful. Certainly. But you wouldn’t like it.

  “You know my thoughts. You know my mind better than I do right now. Can you tell me what I’ve done wrong? How I can redeem myself?”

  No.

  “What?” he looked around, angry. “Why not?”

  Because it’s not that simple. And besides, she chuckled. I have no obligation to help you.

  “Right.”

  Are you going to seek out that mortal? You can’t stop him from what he intends to do. Not now.

  “You don’t know that for sure. I can at least try; I have to.”

  It will only bring suffering.

  He could still sense Gabriel in the Abyss, but despite what Kaledris had said, he wasn’t just going to let him go. He focused his mind, trying to keep his priorities straight. If he wanted to survive, then he had to stop Gabriel from spreading Tomordred’s secrets. He was close; Rayne could almost taste his presence. The familiar numbness gripped him, and he slipped away from the goddess’s hold on his mind, feeling welcome solitude as he left her realm behind him. He drew nearer and nearer to his target.

  A sudden flare of searing pain ripped through his soul, as if he had warped right into a mountain of fire. He screamed, bending over in agony. The air froze around him as he fought back against the agonizing heat, but it only gave him a brief respite, and the fire bore down around him again. His flesh burned away, only to heal so it could burn away again, increasing the intense pain.

  “Can’t stay here, can’t stay,” he gasped.

  He retreated, and found himself floating once more in a star filled void, above a swirling galaxy of dazzling celestial light. Such wonderments meant nothing to him now, failing to permeate the rage that dominated his mind. Wherever Gabriel was, he could not follow. Frustrated, he kicked his feet, though it did little in this empty space.

  * * *

  Days passed. Rayne stayed silent, despite David’s repeated attempts to make him open up. He spent his free time looking for work, though he didn’t have his heart in it anymore. Going back to a dreary legal job seemed like a nightmare. Still, he kept up the effort. He had to bring in money somehow.

  The moment he’d awakened after that night in Kaledris’s forest, he’d tried to track down Gabriel, but even if he was still in England, Rayne had no way to find him now. Attempts to feel out his soul here in the waking world failed him, and he couldn’t sense him in the Abyss either. Gabriel simply had no presence. And Rayne wondered, for a brief moment, if he’d worked out some bargain to free his soul from punishment. Did the Abyss even work that way? It didn’t seem to fit with what he’d come to understand.

  He couldn’t find Apolleta either. So he looked online, and sure enough, he found a small news blurb about an L.A. woman turning herself in for murder. The drug dealer formerly charged with the crime was released, but was apparently arrested shortly after for an unrelated drug charge. Rayne understood. Apolleta had done what she said she would, and faced her crime. He knew he would not see her again, not in that place. It brought little comfort to him now.

  Another day passed, and Rayne hol
ed up in the study, looking over potential firms to send his resume. But after a few hours he had a better idea, and pulled the book on demons from its resting place on the bookshelf, undisturbed since the night he and Miranda had poured over its contents together. He plopped it down on the desk and pulled out a blank notepad and a pen from a drawer, and with a careless toss he pushed the desk chair out of the way, rolled up his wheelchair, and began to write.

  Several hours passed, and the sound of the front door opening and closing did little to change Rayne’s focus. After a few more minutes the study door creaked open, and David poked his head in.

  “Rayne?” he asked. “Can we talk?”

  Rayne lowered his pen and looked up. “Speak.”

  David walked into the room, and pulled the folding chair away from the wall, plunking it down on the other side of the desk and sitting himself down.

  “Miranda’s funeral is in two weeks,” he said. “I thought you’d like to know. All of the hospital staff is to be there, and I thought I’d extend an invitation, since you were close with her.”

  “All right.” Rayne said.

  “Listen, Rayne. I’m right here. If you need to talk about this, you can. You don’t have to suffer alone.”

  “I know. I just haven’t much to say.”

  “About what you said the other night. About seeing Hell.”

  “What about it?”

  “I know you were angry. I don’t blame you for that. I just wanted you to know I understand how you feel.”

  “That’s cute that you think so.”

  David sighed. “Should have seen that coming. So, you’re still angry. All right. You’ve been through a lot. We all have. Look, I know what it feels like to lose something important. I know that despair. I know the betrayal of someone I thought I knew, when they gave in to darker impulses, unwilling to come to me for help. I thought I’d never forgive the one who drove them to it. I hated myself for not doing everything I could, for not acting when I had the chance, to stop it all from happening.”