Apollyon's Saint The Beginning

by Zachary Koukol

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 was 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 i
t 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!”