Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6) (9 page)

“Asshole,” she spat, and the smug smile on Terzini’s lips collapsed.  His brow wrinkled and he leaned forward suddenly.  Anger flashed across his features.

“I am a god on Earth, Melissa,” he hissed.  “You should feel honored for the privilege of my company.”

“A god on Earth?” she could not believe what she was hearing.  The moment was surreal.  Terzini was delusional. 

“Yes, I am a god.  And my contribution to the world will be monumental.”

“You are not a god, except for in
your
mind,” she said levelly.  “Speaking of your mind, maybe these robots should run some tests on you,” she continued, but was interrupted by the sound of Terzini’s nasally voice.

“That’s enough!” he yelled, his anger more than a fleeting flash on his features now.
  He sprung to his feet and gestured animatedly.  “You will not speak to me that way!  I will be the supreme ruler of this world in a matter of days,” he began another demented train of thought, but became distracted by a ringing in his pants pocket.  He lowered his gaze to it and slipped his phone out.

“What is it?” he huffed at whomever waited on the line.  But his demeanor changed quickly.  “Oh, uh-huh, okay,
did they have their phones on them?” he questioned then paused briefly for an answer before asking, “What are the member numbers of the missing men?” she heard him ask then nod.

When he ended his call, Terzini looked at her.  His anger was replaced by a manner of complete self-satisfaction. 

“It seems someone has killed two of my men charged with guarding the main road leading into Taft.  You know, All Angels Road, the road that picks up near a farmhouse across the lake?”

Melissa did not answer.  She did not dare speak.  She held her breath.

“It looks like your foolish lover-boy Gabriel is driving himself toward his death, quite literally, I must say,” he finished arrogantly then folded his arms across his narrow chest and sat down.

Melissa felt her heart leap from her chest and lodge in her throat.  The thought of Gabriel heading to the house she now stood in would be
a certain death sentence.  She was thrilled to hear he was alive, if he truly was alive, and was coming to save her, but did not want him anywhere near Terzini’s lair. 

“He won’t come here!  He’s too smart, too smart for you to catch!” she
raged.

“Too smart for me, are you kidding?”  Terzini scoffed.  “You’re the one who needs to be tested by my members!” he countered and so
unded like a willful eight year-old arguing with a sibling.

Wearing a full-blown frown on his unattractive face, Terzini stood again
.  He yanked his phone from his pocket and dialed a number. 

“Hell
o, who am I speaking to?” he asked the person whose number he’d dialed.  “No it’s not,” he said to the person on the other end and sounded like an eight year-old again.  “Oh come now, Gabriel, do you honestly think I am that dumb, that I don’t recognize your voice?” he lectured then paused. 

Melissa sighed silently, relief flooding every cell in her body.  Gabriel was alive and had
the dead member’s phone.  Wherever he was, he was not close by. He was safe.  Hope existed.  But the sound of Terzini’s voice ripped her from her relived reverie. 

“I have someone here you might want to talk to,” he said into the receiver and thrust his phone at
her.

With the phone at her ear, the temptation to ta
lk with the man she loved was too great to resist.  “Gabriel, is it really you?” she asked.

“Melissa!” Gabriel’s smooth voice
sounded from the other end and goose bumps arose on her arms.  It was Gabriel!  He was really alive!  “Thank God you’re alive,” he said and echoed her exact feelings.  “Are you okay?  Have they hurt you?”

“I’m okay
,” she said and her voice wavered, the barrier holding her emotions at bay breaking.

“I will see you soon,” Gabriel promised her and the conviction in his voice was
profound.  “I promise you.  We will live happily ever after, the wedding, everything.  It will,” he started, but Terzini’s counting interrupted him.

“Three, two, one,” Terzini said then wrenched the phone from her hand.  “Time’s up Gabriel and Melissa,” h
e sneered and ended the call.  He crinkled his nose nastily. 

“What?
  Why?” Melissa felt herself fall to pieces.  Her voice was unusually strident as she shouted at him for an explanation. 

He ignored her in favor of placing another call.

“Do you have it?” he asked the person on the other end.  After the person responded, he said, “Good. Pick him up and bring him in, alive if possible.  Only kill him if there is no other choice, do you understand?” She heard him conclude the call and felt her knees give way from beneath her.

“
Oh now, now, no need to get so dramatic.  You were great!” he praised her.  “You were so helpful!”

“Helpful,” she rasped venomously.

“Yes, helpful,” he repeated smugly.  “You amused me.  It was a hoot to see your pathetic face light up then watch it darken when I pulled the phone from you.  Gabriel is likely dancing some dim-witted happy-dance wherever he is just waiting for them ignorantly.”  He looked at her with complacency that was immeasurable. 

Melissa began to weep.

“Don’t cry!” Terzini whined and waved his hand agitatedly.  “Your makeup will run and you will be ugly.  I don’t want to look at ugly Melissa again.  You will have to be washed and dressed all over, and I will be forced to wait.  Ugliness and waiting are my two least favorite things!” 

If he
had stomped his foot on the floor and pitched his voice an octave higher, Melissa would have sworn she were with a pouting child.  But pouting children did not murder people, they did not plot the capture and assassination of the man she loved.

“You should be happy, Melissa. 
You entertained me for a few moments.  And look at the bright side, now there will be a reunion, though it won’t be a long one.”  Terzini tapped his finger against his chin then laughed a sick, depraved laugh that made her insides twist.  “Take her away,” he addressed one of his minions.  “She’s made a mess of herself and I can’t bear to look at her,” he mumbled then added.  “Keep her until Gabriel is brought in.” To her, he added, “Once Gabriel is here, I will put both of you out of your misery.”

Melissa locked eyes with Terzini and felt as if every cell in her body had merged to
form a sizable, sinuous serpent spiraled tightly and set to strike.  In the instant she gazed into the shallow depths of his soulless eyes, that serpent sprung forth.  “I can’t wait to see you die,” she heard herself say in a voice that was foreign to her own ears.  She meant every word.  “And I
will
see you die.”

Terzini held her gaze for a fleeting moment and she swore she saw something flicker in his eyes.  She did not know what it was, whether it was fear or doubt, or something else entirely.  But she’d seen something other than the arrogance he wore like armor
before his deadened stare returned.  

“Get her out of her
e.  I can’t look at her any longer,” he said and sounded less convinced than he had earlier. 

Solid hands
snatched Melissa’s arms and she was towed out of Terzini’s sitting area.  Tears of shame and rage burned down her cheeks.  But she harbored hope.  As faint as her hope was, she held fast to it, hungering after it as ravenously as a starving person would crave sustenance.  Gabriel had not been brought in yet.  He was still out there, alive.  His life was of more value to her than her own.  Weddings, parties and future plans no longer mattered.  All that mattered to Melissa was that Gabriel lived to end Terzini’s reign, and that a dark ending would befall the darkest man she’d ever met.

Chapter 7

Rain had just begun to fall and sprayed from overhead in a fine mist as Gabriel depressed the
end
button of the phone he’d taken from one of the members he’d killed.  The air had grown thick and humid and his clothes clung to his body as he replaced it to his pants pocket.  When he twisted, the exposed skin of his arm met with spiny barbs that scraped up his forearm and drew blood.  He did not react, though.  He was simply too happy.  And while happiness seemed utterly absurd given the circumstances, it had encroached suddenly. 

Gabriel glanced around the darkened
space away from the shoulder of the road.  He stood on the side of the street near a thicket of forsythia that had become entangled with another thorny, hostile looking bush he’d had the misfortune of brushing against seconds earlier.  But he was unbothered by the prickly bush that seemed committed to tear both his clothes and skin, and he was not bothered by the drizzle and mugginess.  The members he had killed earlier did not faze him either.  Melissa was alive.  She was with Terzini, but she was alive, a fact that sent his heart rate soaring along with his spirits.  He turned to Yoshi who stood just a few feet from him, felt the barbs of the bush prick his buttocks, and exclaimed breathlessly, “She’s alive!  Yoshi, Melissa is alive!”

A broad smile stretched across Yoshi’s face.  “I know.  I heard.  I told you she
would be,” Yoshi said and could not mask the emotion in his voice.  “And we will bring her home.”

Gabriel wanted nothing more than to believe his friend, wanted to believe that there would be a happ
y ending for all of them, but while Melissa was alive at the moment, he did not know how long that moment would last.

“That scumbag Terzini has her as his prisoner, though,” Gabriel said
bitterly and his mind began churning images of her shackled and locked behind iron bars.  “We have to figure out how to get her out of there before we bring her home.”

Beneath his skin, Gabriel felt as if a fire had begun to burn.  Hissing and crackling just below the surface, he felt the flames of his wrath brim dangerously.  First, Melissa had been taken by a Hunter, and now she was being held captive by the monster’s creator, a man hell-bent on exterminating the human species.  Her life meant nothing to Terzini.  She was little more than collateral damage to him.  That thought, that the woman he loved would be viewed as some inconsequential casualty
of minor importance, generated a great tempest of fury that caused his insides to shake. He would have his moment with Terzini.  He would see the madman fall.

“
Hey, Gabriel,” Yoshi tapped his arm and snapped his attention back to the present.  “We will get to her,” his friend began saying, but Gabriel stopped listening.  The weak whine of motorcycle engines droned in the distance.

“Motorcycles,” Gabriel muttered.

“What?” Yoshi said and screwed up his features for a split-second before realization smoothed them. 

“Motorcycles, you hear them?  They’
re getting closer,” Gabriel said quietly.

The sound was faint at first, but with every second that passed, it grew louder.  Gabriel felt the heat of hate that had blistered inside of him moments earlier grow cold.  His insides froze and his blood crystallized. 
His hand fell to his side, grazing the spiky bramble before landing against his thigh.  His arm bumped against the phone in his pocket and suddenly, the sound of motorcycles gelled. 

“The phones
, Yoshi,” he called.  “It’s the phones!  They know where we are!”

Gabriel dug into his pocket frantically and tore the phone from it.  He immediately threw it hard against a large boulder that edged the juncture where pavement met dirt.  Plastic splintered in several directions and the bulk of the phone dropped to the
leaf-littered ground below.  Yoshi followed suit and they both scrambled toward the motorcycles that had belonged to the members he’d killed. 

“We’ve got to go!” Gabriel said.  “They’re coming for us!”

Yoshi straddled the bike nearest him and started it, as did Gabriel.  He turned the key that had been left in the ignition and the engine whirred to life.  Yoshi tore off ahead of him, and they rode into the woods, hopefully out of sight. 

The farther they went, the more heavily forested the land became. 
The feeble light of the bike’s headlamp did little more than reflect the milky mist that existed like a spectral presence, suspended everywhere, yet nowhere in particular.  The thicker the woods grew, the thicker the fog blanketing it became.  It clung resolutely to branches overhead as well as the intertwined vines that crept from the forest floor up tree trunks, disorienting and dizzying Gabriel as he tried to flee the sound of the enemy’s posse.  Still, he and Yoshi dodged low-hanging limbs and twigs that jutted, winding and weaving their way through a riotous labyrinth of flora as they raced dangerously fast toward an unknown safe haven.

Branches and twigs lashed at Gabriel’s head, arms and legs and he was thankful that both he and Yoshi had happened upon the members’ helmets.  Otherwise, one of them could have lost an eye. 

The worry of injury quickly escalated when Gabriel saw Yoshi’s brake lights appear ahead followed by his friend going into a full slide.  With his heart thundering in his ears Gabriel stomped down on the brake lever and clutched his front brakes tightly, as well.

“Yoshi!” Gabriel called out in a whisper. 

He saw that the bike Yoshi had been riding rested on its side, still running, but did not see Yoshi.  The sound of leaves rustling made every hair on Gabriel’s body rise like quills. 

“Yoshi!” he said again.
 

Yoshi replied
, saying something that was barely audible.  It had sounded like “river” but Gabriel was not sure.  And he still could not see him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Never better,” Yoshi groaned and Gabriel heard the engine of the motorcycle cease. 

“What happened? 
Did something catch in the wheels and make you wipe out?” he questioned worriedly as his eyes struggled against the darkness and fog to examine the condition of Yoshi’s bike.  “We have to go!”

Yoshi materialized from the murkiness and stood before him.  He stood completely still, and Gabriel understood why his friend had stopped abruptly.  The distinct sound of moving water, the gentle hiss and rustle of it rolling over land and rock
, revealed that water lay ahead. 

“Dammit!”
Gabriel growled through his teeth as he climbed from the motorcycle.  He walked toward the sound, sidestepping creepers and vines that slunk along the ground.  But the twisting vines and undergrowth quickly gave way to more pebbly terrain underfoot.  Suddenly, a wide chasm loomed before him, dark and ominous.  He strained his eyes and saw it, saw the deep gulf created by a formidable flow of water.  The current within it resembled blackened blood and was swift as it raced over logs and rocks. 

“We’ll never be able to cross that river on our bikes!”
he said desperately.  He scanned the woods and saw that headlamps approached in the distance.  From the other side of the riverbank, as well as the direction they’d just come from, headlights drew nearer.  He realized they were trapped. 

Frustration mounted inside of Gabriel and began to bunch the muscles of his neck. 

“What the hell do we do now?” Yoshi asked.

Gabriel
ran a hand through his hair while his mind spun like tires in mud, spinning and burrowing fruitlessly.  “Shit!  I don’t know!  We need to go that way,” he gestured to the other side of the river. 

The sound of motorcycle engines grew considerably louder and Gabriel felt sweat trickle between his shoulder blades.  “We’re screwed,” he gritted his teeth and spat.

“No,” Yoshi said and caused him to spin and face is friend.

“How do you figure that?” he replied testily.

“They don’t know I’m with you.  They’re after you, but they don’t know I’m here,” Yoshi said as if Gabriel were supposed to understand what he meant.

“Yeah, so, what good does that do?” he asked and was growing increasingly
annoyed with every second that passed that they weren’t even attempting to flee.

Yoshi ignored his obvious annoyance and walked with his automatic rifle slung across his back, pushing the motorcycle he’d ridden into the river.  Gabriel watched as the current swept it away instantly, carrying it in a blackened tide to god-only-knew-where.  Yoshi stood alongside him and position
ed his weapon in his hands.  “I will hide in the woods and when they come for you, I will pick them off from behind,” Yoshi said, his voice barely audible over the rush of water.

Gabriel turned his eyes skyward and felt the first of many fat raindrops pelt his face.  “What if they shoot me before you even get the chance to pick them off?  What if the
y shoot me on sight?”