CHAPTER 57: SCREAMS, GRUNTS AND WINGS

SCREAMS, GRUNTS AND WINGS.

The affair they have embarked on has not been a peaceful one and time is running out. They had a plan which they expected to lead them straight to the edge of the underworld but just like life things have not gone smoothly.

Samuel closes his eyes and lets his mind stroll through the events that have happened and allows it speculate on what could be.

Right from the market there were already vampires waiting and watching them, someone already knew they would go there. It was either a calculated guess or someone from the group is betraying them but he knows all of them too well, none of them would do that.

Then again, when they flew over The Wild Lands they were attacked and they lost their pegasus, Obadiah is going to be pissed about that, and they had to travel the rest of the way on foot.

Someone is after them.

It is most likely Alucard himself but the vampire whom Samuel killed, his mind revealed something else, another man behind the scenes maybe.

Samuel inhales deeply and breathes out , he focuses all of his mental strength on the face of one man and suddenly the rest of the world becomes plain and empty like a piece of paper.

Samuel opens his eyes and finds Gabriel standing in front of him. He wears a long sleeve grey shirt and black jeans, "What's up man?" he says, "Not good bro but we are getting there," Samuel answers.

A cushion suddenly appears with a table carrying a bottle of Bourbon and two glass cups.

"Want to sit?" Gabriel asks and Samuel makes a face, "Bro, bourbon. We both know it is nothing compared to the real world," "I can agree on that," he says as Samuel pours into their glasses and they sit.

"You may be right. Someone might have planned this or we could just be very unlucky," Samuel says, "Yeah. I mean, what are the odds that I die and a demon comes chasing after me for my treasure," "Zero really," Samuel takes a sip.

He hears a sharp and quick tap and turns to see Gabriel lighting up a joint, "What?" Gabriel asks, "Nothing, you just look like you chilling," Samuel says, "Bro, I'm dead and restless. Trust me, I ain't chilling" Gabriel says.

"The worst of it is that a fucking reaper won't let me be," he says, "Of course, it's their job" Samuel says.

Gabriel passes Samuel the joint and reaches for his glass, "How is she?" he asks, "Not good. She is alive but she is afraid and she has been through a lot. She fell into the Sea of stars and got transported into Modu's world," Samuel says.

Gabriel begins to cough, "What?" "Don't worry she is fine now. By some luck or fate, Poseidon found her and located us," "Thank goodness," Gabriel says.

Samuel lets out a small laugh and looks at his brother, "Looks like you haven't gotten over her even in death," Samuel says, "I died in front of her. There isn't getting over that Sammy," Gabriel says.

"Gabe, I need to tell you something. I'm not sure I am strong enough to defeat Alucard," Samuel says before dragging in the smoke and passing the joint back to Gabriel.

He blows out, "This link is weakening me," "I know, I saw what happened with McAllister," Gabriel says, "You know what we have to do. We have to break the link. That is the only way you will survive this. I will cross over before that fucking cunt of a demon even set eyes on my gate.

And you better avenge me fucker," Gabriel says.

"If I was the one that got killed, would you break the link," Samuel says as he passes a serious look to Gabriel. Gabriel pauses for a minute and looks away before he answers, "Of course I would. If that was the only way," he says.

Samuel smiles and shakes his head, he takes a sip of the bourbon.

"When we take out Alucard everything will be over. We will get through this shit," he says.

"You are already going through shit, I mean see the way you dress. You tossed all them suits out uh," "Man I still look fresher than your dead ass," "Hell naw," the brothers laugh and Samuel gradually fades into thin air, leaving his smile as the last thing Gabriel sees before returning to the harsh reality of his death.

Gabriel looks into the emptiness of the white space with the glass of liquor in his hand and the joint on the other hand. He smiles as he remembers when such a thing was real, when he could relax on a comfy chair and not care about a thing in the world but how high he could get while Samuel looked after the business.

Now, all he holds are a mirage to remind him of the life he left behind. He never thought about it before he just lived, those little moments felt so insignificant and knowing he was going to live for hundreds and thousands of years did not help.

But now here he sits, realizing how precious those moments were. Those little insignificant moments that should have been fleeting to his memory but they aren't.

He sips the glass of bourbon in his hand and it is tasteless against his tongue. He drags a puff of smoke and it has no burning sensation or thickness, it feels like the thin and plain air one breathes, going down his lungs.

Even as Samuel weakens he can feel the little sense of life fleeing from him as every near death encounter only draws him closer to the threshold of the living and the dead.

He should have crossed it by now but he doesn't want to. He wants to live not just because of his brother or Rachael, he wants to live because deep down he now experiences the fear of death.

In his lifetime he has faced death situations but since he became a full grown sphinx he has always known that in order to kill him you would have to kill his soul which has always been his trump card against his enemies but for the first time in his life he knows his soul his vulnerable and there is little he can do to fend of the enemies in the spirit realm.

A soft wind blows through the white space and a piece of his skin fades away, time is running out for him.

Even with Samuel's effort he may not make it.

A strange laughter fills his head and little droplets of rain begin to fall. He looks to the ground to see the droplets are black and they begin to give the white room a new color mixed with black. The laughter gets louder and Gabriel's face changes to one of concern as he stands up from the cushion.

The glass and the joint disappears and the white skies gradually begin to change to a shade of gray.

Black stripes begin to form on the walls and the ground slowly cracks open, "No, damn it" he mumbles.

"Oh yes," a voice says and Gabriel sharply turns around to see Tuyul sitting on a chair with the glass and joint in his hand. He sips and he smokes, forming an "O" that goes over Gabriel's head.

"Demon," Gabriel says, he turns away and runs for it.

Tuyul laughs, "There is no escaping me," he says.

Tuyul turns into a giant, his light green body becomes black and his laughter gets louder. He swells like a balloon and bursts into countless number of ravens and warthogs. The ravens fly in all directions, diving into the black spots of rain that now stained the floor and walls.

All the dark spots lead back to the target, Gabriel.

Beaks and grunts surround him as the creatures torment him, tearing and pricking at him while he tries to outrun them.

Metal sounds being dragged against the floor joins in the melody of screams, grunts and wings that fills the room. The air becomes cold and a thin layer of ice begins to grow around.

Gabriel can't see the source of the metal noise but he knows a reaper is present. Chains push through the horde of ravens and tries to grab him but he manages to dodge, enduring the pain that surges through his body as he keeps running.

He reaches a door and opens to enter a hallway with many doors. He blocks the door and locks it while he rest his back against the door. Barging noises follow suite and the chains break through the door.

Gabriel runs from door to door, opening and entering another strange place, looking for the next door to escape but the chains follow him still, from door to door like children on Halloween, without a trick or the treat but the cold stale feeling of death's call.

The spirit realm is large and the doors are yours to open with your imagination but it is also the domain to so many creatures who understand the strange nature of this world, a disadvantage to one who does not belong to the spirit realm.

Even though he was once a sphinx who knew the realm he has become a human soul and has lost the endowment of his kind, so he must run in fear if he is to stay alive.

He runs through a strange building, looking for doors that would lead away from the chains but the chains aren't the only things he must run from. Another door breaks open and warthogs come charging toward Gabriel who finds another door to pass through.

He runs through an office. Papers are littered on the floor and a cup of pens dangle on the silver table.

"I will get you," Tuyul's voice echoes around the room.

He runs as Tuyul's voice keeps on saying, "I will get you, I will get you, I will get you,"

Every step Gabriel takes feels like a torture as the voice gets deeper and closer.

"You will go to your safest place, where your brother is.

But he won't be there and you will fall into the hole of the spirit realm," Tuyul says in a deep voice.

Gabriel runs through a white room and opens one of the doors on a white hallway of doors.

He finds himself on a train with passengers who gasp and panic as he runs towards the next door.

He enters a room and immediately recognizes it as the club, Clouds.

It's empty.

The club gets darks and the lights at the bar flicker.

"I will get you," Tuyul's voice echoes around the room.

Gabriel runs to the club's exit.

As soon as he steps out of the door he sees himself falling, falling through the sky and through his memories.

Pictures of a forgotten life and a life led glows around him.

It suddenly comes to a stop when a skinny hand grips his hand and Gabriel's stares into the flaming eyes of a grim reaper. "Now I've got you," its ghastly voice says.

Flapping wings come from behind them and Gabriel asks himself in the stillness of the situation as it unfolds, "Where do I go? With him or the demon?".

If he lives he will lose his treasure but if he lets the reaper take him, his treasure will never be recovered.

He weighs his options and chooses but Tuyul will not let him show his decision as the ravens charge at the reaper, tearing its grip on Gabriel while the army of birds swallow them whole.

Gabriel screams as his vision and his mind goes blank, he finds himself slipping into the darkness with Tuyul's laughter as the last thing he hears.