A yellow hue of light illuminated the beige walls of Maya’s bedroom window. Beau couldn’t see anything other than two hanging frames on her wall and a chalkboard calendar. But then, he saw her.
She was brushing her damp hair, wearing a white tank top with a design Beau could not make out from his distance. Though even with the space between them, Beau was enveloped in her warmth. Her cheekbones were high, her eyes sad. He couldn’t even imagine what she was going through, all of the thoughts in her head… the thoughts he had given her.
A faraway rustling ruffled the bushes. Beau crouched down behind a tree and spectated, expecting it to be a racoon or a squirrel, some puny creature that meant no harm.
But Beau was wrong.
Red eyes glowed from beneath the fern, aiming directly at Maya’s house. A figure emerged, crawling out with hidden calculation. Her pale skin absorbed the moonlight, irradiating her devilish features. Her hair was the shade of blood, tangled in loose curls. She smirked, moving out of the bush and creeping closer to Maya’s lawn.
Without hesitation, Beau’s grace carried him briskly through the wood, planting him directly in front of Marina. He coiled his fingers around her neck, and she let him with content.
“I was wondering when we’d finally meet.” She smiled.
He hoisted her body up higher, tightening his grip around her throat. “What are you doing here?” Beau asked, sharply.
“Oh you can’t be that stupid, Beau.”
“Your darkness will never rule.” A white hue radiated from beneath Beau’s grasp, the scent of burning flesh filled the air.
Marina withered in pain, her face turning purple. She gurgled, digging her pointed nails into his wrist. Blood trickled down his forearm, burning his skin with fire.
She fell out of his grasp and scurried back, rubbing the thin skin on her neck. “I follow orders.”
“Of a menace.”
“Of a king.” Marina countered, coughing out blood.
Beau narrowed his eyes, bewildered at the fact anyone could view Lucifer as a king, a ruler of anything other than the damned. Murderers, adulterers, the greedy and the envious… the fallen.
Beau almost pitied them, their souls and what broken promises he bestowed upon the fallen. He wondered what Lucifer did to wrap Marina around his finger, that she would enslave her entire existence to serve him.
“You can be redeemed, Marina.” Beau let out, eyeing her carefully. “Maya has the power to free your soul. You don’t need to do this.”
Marina’s low, sinister laugh carried with the winds. She stabilized herself upwards, spitting on the ground.
“And what makes you think I want redemption?” She stepped closer to Beau. “I am perfectly content in hell.”
As fast as lightning, she grabbed Beau’s arm, burning hell fire into his tattoo. The black lines glowed crimson, flashing red from beneath his skin. Beau whined in pain, sinking his knees to the ground. He felt his grace paralyzing by the second, freezing him in place.
“What…” Beau said through strained breaths. “What did he promise you…”
Marina released Beau and kicked him over, digging her pointed heels into his side. “Power.”
She marched through the wood, crossing the road. Beau couldn’t move, he could only watch. He trembled, his eyes glossy. Marina would kill her in cold blood. She was so close. Everything would be over; the mission, Heaven, the war, his time with her… She can’t fight. She doesn’t have God’s grace in her, not yet. She’ll die, she’ll die, she’ll –
A beam of light rippled in the air, sending Marina flying back onto the pavement. Her body shook violently, her skin smoking with grey embers. Beau’s eyes grew wide, staring at Maya’s house in disbelief. A glint of golden shimmer sliced the air, impossible to detect unless one possessed divine vision. A holy barrier… Impenetrable from the outside.
His eyes flickered to the road, and Marina’s body was gone. Fuck, Beau mouthed, digging his nails into the soil for support. The hell fire was almost out of his veins, dripping off his skin like liquid. It burned, but Beau didn’t care. Something else caught his attention.
At the top of Maya’s roof, a shadow stood, dressed in white linen. Even through the silence of the night, his presence spoke volumes. He peered down at Beau from a distance, his grey eyes intense and sharp. With a single nod, he stretched out his glowing white wings and turned away, flying into the moonlight and disappearing in the clouds.
Gabriel.
Chapter 20
Kleaton’s Gate, One Month Later
I was back in the forest, a shaded wood of darkness and despair. I’d been here for so many nights in a row that I felt the weight of my presence from my previous visit; the familiar feeling of my body sinking into that tar-like mud, drowning my corpse. I looked to my left and spotted the dark figure approaching, trudging at me with lightning speed. The figure pushed me to the soil and kicked my abdomen, securing me in a place of defeat. My eyes squinted to the ink-stained moon, adjusting to the figure standing above me. And with the tiniest glint of light, I saw movement behind the figure – something stretching out wide. I saw… I saw wings – Black wings.
◆◆◆
I awoke in a blanket of sweat, clinging to every part of my body like glue. I couldn’t silence my panting, my esophagus begging for air. Beads of perspiration stained my forehead, dampening the loose locks of hair around my face. I huffed for more oxygen, wrapping my arms around my middle… knowing damn well it was a dream. Yet, I still felt it – I still saw it. The muscular build of the figure, its dark wings stretched out wide. Its… familiarity, though not at all.
Another nightmare.
I lost track of every vicious dream I’ve had since I left Beau’s apartment. When I first started having them again, I was a wreck… and I had every reason to be. Though after a while, I almost welcomed the grim fears and patronizing thoughts.
I hadn’t talked to Mags, Tommy, anyone for that matter in a little under a month. My brain waves were out of whack; one second I was fine, dealing with the fact that everything in my life turned upside down and the next, I was in a ball of heaping sadness, wailing on the ground. Tommy rang my phone every day for the first two weeks, but everything stopped after a while and I didn’t care to ask why. Mags… Mags tried to poison me. No, she wouldn’t do that. Beau was making it up. She’s your best friend! But, someone did. And frankly, I wouldn’t have put it past the new Mags. She went completely ghost after Fondos, but that I expected and that… I was too afraid to explore.
Then there was Beau.
I hadn’t spoken to Beau since I left his apartment… since he told me everything. Every night for the past month I’ve had nightmares. Some were the same as before, but others became more graphic… more familiar. Black wings, dark and deadly, rippled through my psyche. Those dreams screamed danger. After I met Beau, the nightmares came to a halt. But now, for some reason unbeknownst to my knowledge, they were back in full force. As if the nightmares weren’t bad enough, some invisible figment of my imagination woke me up, repeating my name over and over like clockwork. I owe my deteriorating mental health to Beau being a psychopath.
I tried my very best to push out everything Beau said to me that night. It was almost impossible to believe that I, Maya Brixton, a nineteen-year-old girl from Kleaton’s Gate was the key to stopping a war between Heaven and hell? Beau Gabriel, an angel from Heaven, was cast down to Earth to protect my mom before she died? None of it – none of it made sense. It couldn’t make sense.
I looked at the alarm clock: 10:03pm. Nothing thrilled me more than staying in bed. I had hardly moved from under my sheets for the last little while. I didn’t feel the need to. Everything around me was distorted; reality and fiction intertwined to a new wave of fucked up.
I couldn’t bring myself to communicate with any other human being. What if they turned out to be a zombie? Or a wizard? Hell, if angels existed, wouldn’t every other mythical creature in fairyland exist too? G
od, I wish I could talk to my best friend about this. But I couldn’t. Because not only did she did she try and poison me… allegedly, according to Beau, she was being controlled by a demon. Ha! Ha-ha.
Mags fell off the face of the universe, not like I cared anyway. But I did, and I couldn’t help that I did. What if Beau was really telling the truth and she was under the influence of Siles? What if Mags was still Mags, just buried underneath this… Snap out of it! Do you hear yourself?
My head and heart took a major beating trying to rationalize the incomprehensible. But there was nothing to figure out; none of it was real. Beau was delusional and I had to accept that I fell for a complete and utter psychopath. Some things really are too good to be true.
My door creaked opened slowly and my dad walked in with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “You hungry?” he asked softly.
I hadn’t talked to my dad all that much either since coming back from Beau’s. It made it easier that he was always at work but I rarely ate meals with him. I would just order in late at night to avoid communication. I was aware of how bad it sounded, but I didn’t feel like explaining the last month of crazy to him. I lost my best friend and I lost… well, it doesn’t matter anymore.
I forced a smile, sitting up from underneath my covers. He was trying. “Just leave it there.” I pointed to my bedside table.
My dad stood in silence at the door, staring at the family photo of him, my mom and I. “You know,” he pressed his lips together. “Your mom was always good at this. Anytime you got into trouble at school, I’d always send her to talk to your teachers because she was just… so incredible with people.”
Here we go. I knew I was about to get a lecture about being antisocial and distant. As much as I didn’t want to hear it, I gave my dad a chance. Those cookies smell really good.
He paced cautiously around my room for a few moments then finally took a seat at the edge of my bed.
“I know I’m not your mom, Maya. I know I’m always at the office and I’m not around all the time. But,” he paused. “I want you to know that you can let me in. I may not have the best advice and we can’t, you know, paint our nails and gossip about boys.”
I laughed. That, was genuine.
He smiled. “But – I still love you. I love you, and I’m here for you. If you allow me to be.” He squeezed my hand tightly.
I felt even worse than before, guilty even. I realized that I was isolating the people who cared about me, but nothing felt right anymore. Nonetheless, someone who loved me was sitting right here, waiting for an explanation. He was right, my mom was always the one who comforted me. She was my anchor, my rock. My dad fell off the train when she passed away, we both did. But he was trying now, and I saw that.
I held back the urge to cry. “I love you, dad. I’ll be okay.” Did I believe that? “I’ve gone through worse.” Maybe not.
Thump. Thump. I turned to my dad. “Did you hear that?”
Thump. He scrunched his eyebrows, searching the room. “I think it’s coming from outside.”
My dad reached over my bed and pulled the curtains open. I leaned over and scanned the road; a red car was parked in front of our house.
Thump. Through the darkness, I could make out the periphery of a familiar profile.
My dad looked at me in bewilderment. “Is that Tommy?”
I swallowed hard, remembering that I hadn’t responded to any of his texts or calls for weeks. He motioned for me to come outside several times, continuing to throw pebbles at my window.
“Ah, Christ Maya, just go out there before the kid breaks the glass.” My dad scoffed.
I threw on a black hoodie and some sweat shorts, snagging a cookie before following my dad downstairs.
“I’ll be listening.” My dad joked.
I shook my head, taking a bite. “Did you really heat up store-bought cookies?” I laughed, shutting the front door.
Tommy was standing in my lawn wearing a decrepit white t-shirt covered in stains and grey sweatpants. His brown hair was a mess on his head and he looked to have lost an unhealthy amount of weight.
I approached him slowly, eying him carefully. “Tom –”
He grabbed my hand and rushed me into his car, breathing heavily. Quickly locking the door, he checked his backseat and all his mirrors at least three times.
What the hell was going on? “Tommy, hey,” I placed my hand over his forearm. “Hey, relax. What’s wrong?”
Tommy’s eyes were bloodshot and beady; he looked like he hadn’t slept in centuries. “Where –” he stuttered. “Where have you been, Maya? I tried calling you for days… weeks, I tried.” He was shaking.
Chills crawled up my spine, creeping their way to the nape of my neck. A horrible gut feeling latched itself to my insides, painting my body with fear.
I slowly moved my hand towards the door handle. “Tommy, you’re freaking me out.” My dad is right there, he can hear me scream.
Tommy’s teeth chattered. “Braum… Braum is fucked, Maya. He’s fucked! Marina’s fucked, everything is so fucked!” he slammed his hand on the steering wheel repeatedly. “I’m not crazy, I saw the body. I saw – I saw it, with my eyes, Maya.” He sobbed. His visage was inscrutable.
Anxiety hit me like a truck. I didn’t know whether Tommy had taken drugs or if he was drunk. I didn’t smell any alcohol on him, and Tommy never experimented with drugs when we were together but maybe things had changed. Everything he was saying wasn’t making sense yet here he sat, engulfed in a full-fledged panic attack.
My palms sweat as I carefully reached out to him, placing my hands over his. “Tommy, breathe. Tell me what’s going on, breathe.”
He swallowed hard and wiped snot from his nose. He turned to face me with weak eyes. His back was hunched as he shook ceaselessly.
“Braum went out about a month ago, on your birthday actually. He went to Pinkie’s and Ky and I didn’t want to go so he just left.” He took a pause and rubbed his eyes, evidently holding back tears. “I don’t know what happened there, Maya, but he came back a different fuckin’ person.”
I sat in silence, allowing him to regain composure.
“Me and Ky, we – we didn’t talk to him for days. And you know Braum, Maya, he bunks with us any chance he gets.”
I nodded. Even when I was dating Tommy, Braum hated being at home because of his dad. I didn’t know too much about the situation; Tommy thought it was best to keep me out of it. All he said was that his dad was abusive and Braum wanted out.
“We went to his house and his car was there, everything looked fine and – and then,” Tommy began to shake again. His eyes welled up with tears and he buried his face in his hands.
I rubbed his back, holding in the uneasiness that loomed over me. “And then what, Tommy?”
He sobbed uncontrollably. “We saw Mike, Maya. He was dead, hanging from the ceiling fan. His body, oh God, Maya it was a fuckin’ bloodbath.”
My stomach sank. I felt the cookie that I just ate rise up to my mouth, prying its way to come out. “He…” I choked on my words. “His dad killed himself?”
Tommy turned to me instantly, a trail of snot dripping from his nose. “No! Braum killed Mike! He fuckin’ killed Mike, him – him and his fucking girlfriend, Marina!” he spat. “Something’s wrong with him, Maya, he’s not him.”
For a second, I watched Tommy’s feral expression without emotion. Though, time began to slow down and I lost my train of thought. I had no words. Braum was a bad guy and his abuse was no secret to me, but I’d never take it as far to pin him as a murderer.
“The worst part, when Ky and I went back to his house, the body was gone. Braum didn’t know what the fuck we were talking about but he did, he knew! Him and Marina, they laughed at us. Ky – he hasn’t come out of his house in weeks! I haven’t slept, I haven’t eaten, I haven’t – he’s a liar, Maya. He’s a liar. He’s not him, he’s a different person. Ever since that night, ever since her –” he stuttered.
The ai
r around us was hot and heavy. Tommy sat in silence, breathing in spurts. He sat up and turned to me slowly; dried tears stamped his cheeks. “Ever since he met Marina. Maya, this girl, she’s… there’s something wrong with her.”
Questions flooded my brain, stampeding from every direction. Yet, I knew this feeling all too well. I could see the defeat in Tommy’s eyes, the confusion and the pain. He was telling the truth, or he believed it anyway.
“I’m not crazy,” he whispered, sombre.
And I believed him. For whatever reason, I believed him. I didn’t know the whole story, only what Tommy just told me. But I had felt the frustration once before… the uneasiness, the confusion. I had seen the deviant behaviour and the unidentifiable; the way your best friend could turn into a complete monster, could hurt everyone around them, and could hurt you.
I had seen it before, because I’d seen it in…
Mags.
Chapter 21
Kleaton’s Gate, One Month Earlier
Beau unlocked his front door and shut it quietly behind him. He retrieved Mags’ cupcake box from his car and held it in his hands, calculating his thoughts. Maya was asleep in his room, completely unconscious. It left Beau puzzled; he had never seen anyone spaz out like that before.
He placed the remnants of Mags’ cupcake on his kitchen counter and dug through the remains carefully. Something isn’t right.
In the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a small grey particle underneath the crumbs. Beau picked it up and analyzed it closely. His eyes opened wide when he realized what it was.
“Death cap mushroom.” A low voice whispered.
Beau turned around quickly, irritated. “Gabriel! Get the hell out of here, she’ll see you!”
Gabriel plucked the poison particle out of Beau’s hands in one swift motion. “If this doesn’t kill her first.”
The Gates of Gabriel Page 12
