The Dark Path (24 page)

Until he remembered Gabriel’s other words: Vain was coming for him. He had to escape for the assassin’s sake or Vain would surely perish, perhaps worse. Summoning what little energy he could muster, Sebastian knelt on the white floor and began focusing his power once more.

Free or dead….

* * * *

Vain awoke in a musty room of a cheap motel that asked no questions from those who paid up-front. His guns slid smoothly into his hands when he heard the soft knocking on the front door. Moving silently across the floor, Vain glanced quickly into the peephole situated in the centre of the door.

On the other side of the entry stood a man around twenty years of age with shoulder length blonde hair, surrounding a face that struck him as bewilderingly beautiful. Not just beautiful in the sense of physical beauty, rather his face seemed to radiate peace and physical harmony. Even the cold heart of the assassin wasn’t left untouched by the power of the young man’s gaze; he looked straight through the door and into Vain’s soul. The assassin briefly felt something akin to shame, almost as if his sins had been laid bare before him for this stranger to view.

Shaking himself from this strange mood, Vain rasped through the door, “What do you want?”

“I bring a message, Dark Man,” responded the young man in a musical voice. “I hope you are prepared to hear it.”

“A message from whom?” asked Vain.

“That is hard to explain through a door, Dark Man. Won’t you let me in? I can assure you I am not your enemy.”

“Well, that makes me all tingly inside,” grunted Vain. “But somehow I don’t feel like receiving any messages today, especially from the recruiting officer for the gay Mardi-Gras.”

“I don’t understand this term ‘gay’,” the young man’s voice mused from behind Vain. The assassin jumped around in shock and cocked his weapons towards where the messenger now stood in the centre of the room. “It has been used against me several times now and I am beginning to think it may be offensive.”

“It depends on your point of view,” said Vain steadily, trying to slow his unusually fast heartbeat. “If you like chewing on cock and getting jammed in the ass, I guess it’s a pretty fair term. If you don’t, it simply means you’re just a big ol’ freaky pretty boy who looks and sounds like he’s a poo-puncher.”

If Vain had been expecting an angry response from the young man, he was disappointed by the reaction his unexpected companion conveyed.

“Ah, yes,” the young man said, sitting on the edge of the bed, a soft plume of dust rising from the mattress. “If I understand you rightly, what you mean is an attraction to the same sex. I seem to recall the ancient Greeks used to indulge in such practices; it seemed far more acceptable at the time.

“You will have to forgive me Dark Man, but returning to flesh after such a long time has left my memory rather jumbled to say the least. However, let me assure you I am not going to–how did you say?–‘punch your poo’.”

“Who the hell are you?” growled Vain incredulously.

“As I said,” pronounced the young man serenely. “I am a messenger. A messenger and a guide. I am here to help you save the Avun-Riah. My name is Gabriel.”

“What’s the message?” asked Vain, his pistols still pointed at the young man’s heart.

Gabriel stared silently at Vain for a moment, his expression impossible to read. “My message is this:
Put aside your anger and your lust for vengeance. Only with a pure heart can you forgive yourself and your enemies. In the end you will find that the weapons of the enemy are useless, and only by embracing him can you hope to defeat him. This is the one true way you can ensure the survival of the Avun-Riah and in turn all life as you know it
.”

Vain absorbed the words and said nothing. When he did speak, his words were filled with scorn. “What the fuck are you talking about? ‘Embrace my enemy’! Sure! Right after I rip out his heart and shit in the hole!”

Gabriel shrugged. “I am charged only with bringing the message, not ensuring you believe it. But when the hour has come for you to decide, remember those words or else all is lost.”

“Who is this message from?” asked Vain, moving slowly towards the young man on the bed.

Gabriel sat silently again, but finally he shrugged and said quietly, “These are the words of the one you know as God.”

“Ah, well of course they are,” muttered Vain. “Everybody else is at this bloody party, it’s about time God turned up to poke his nose in. And who the hell are you, some sort of fucking angel I suppose?”

“In a manner of speaking... yes.” Gabriel smiled. “Although it is not what you think. I am not like a person flying around the clouds with feathery wings and a halo.”

“Really? Well you fooled me,” Vain sneered dryly. 

“Your sarcasm is not needed, Dark Man,” Gabriel advised.

“No it’s not, but I like to chuck it in there anyway. It adds effect for when I do this.” Vain fired both handguns directly into Gabriel’s torso. The bullets flew towards the younger man, but suddenly slowed before stopping about an inch in front of his chest.

“Why did you do that?” asked Gabriel evenly. “I would have thought by now you would realize how useless your weapons are in this encounter.”

Vain flung the worthless guns aside and snarled, “I just had to make sure. But don’t worry; I’ve got something else for you and your boyfriend Empeth.”

“Empeth?” began Gabriel quizzically. “He is our enemy. Not–”

His words were ripped away as Vain unleashed the power he had silently been gathering within himself with the aid of the
Glimloche
. Flames of ebony ripped from Vain’s fingers and into Gabriel, flinging him from the bed and pinning him easily against the wall.

“You... must... stop!” gasped Gabriel, struggling against his bonds. “You... know not... what you are... doing!”

“I know exactly what I’m doing, asshole,” snarled Vain. “I’m getting rid of one enemy before I go after your friends. But don’t worry; I’m not going follow your stupid message. I won’t embrace you, just kill you.”

Suddenly, white flames exploded from Gabriel’s chest and pushed back against Vain’s dark blaze. The two forces struggled momentarily for supremacy, but finally Gabriel let out a roar of power that crushed the
Glimloche
’s fire and flung Vain violently back against the far wall.

Gabriel came to stand over the Dark Man’s crumpled form, snuffing his own power and extending his hand to the assassin. Vain stared at the offering blankly, pushing it aside and climbing to his feet on his own.

“Some weapon that turned out to be,” he muttered softly, brushing the crushed plaster from his right shoulder where he’d connected with the motel wall.

“I am fortunate that you are unskilled in the use of the
Glimloche
,” said Gabriel calmly, although his eyes betrayed his alarm. “Otherwise I might not be around to assist you in your search for the boy. I hope you believe me now when I tell you again that I am here to assist you. If I were your enemy, you would be dead now.”

Vain nodded hesitantly. “If you want to assist me,” said the assassin warily, “you’d better teach me how to control this damn
Glimloche
. For a moment there I thought the two of us would end up like toast.”

Gabriel grinned before sitting once more on the end of the bed to begin the next part of his duty.

The last duty he would ever perform.

* * * *

Vain ran terrified up the craggy road, stumbling occasionally on the cracked and broken surface.

Everything around him lay dead. Not a scrap of life could be seen as he made his way clumsily up the shattered mountainside and away from whatever chased him. His limbs leaden and slow, his movements uncoordinated and awkward, a far cry from his usual sleekness.

Huge black rocks lay strewn before him, and he clambered slowly around and over them. Dark clouds loomed seemingly just above his head, leaving the air grey and colorless. His own skin bereft of life, even the blood that dripped from his scraped hands fell black upon the dead earth below him.

“Why do you run from me?” whispered a cold voice from behind him. Vain glanced around furtively, but saw nothing.

“You cannot escape me, you know,” hissed the voice, this time from his right. Vain cried out in unaccustomed panic and leapt forward, continuing his clumsy climb up the broken road. Looking ahead, the vast emptiness continued, stretching eternally onward and he wondered how he had come to this place. The mountain stretched upwards forever, the thin black strip of road winding steeply towards a peak that would never materialize.

And who or what was chasing him, sucking his resolve and making him feel such terror?

Vain was no stranger to fear, perhaps the greatest ally he had. When controlled, it gave strength and focus to its user, keeping him alive when he might otherwise fail. But this
...
this wasn’t the fear he felt accustomed to. Like a blaze flaring uncontrollably in a room full of dry wood, it swept all of his skills aside and left him naked and vulnerable to his enemy.

Who could instill fear like this into the Dark Man?

“You know who I am, assassin. Why do you not acknowledge me?” whispered the voice in his left ear, so close he could feel the breath of the speaker upon his neck.

“I do not know you!” screamed Vain as he swung around to empty air. “Leave me alone!!”

“Never,” taunted the voice calmly from just ahead of where Vain now cowered.

The Dark Man gazed into the cold eyes of the man standing before him and cringed. Evil seemed to ooze from his pores, and Vain tried unsuccessfully to stand and face him. Falling to his knees once more, the assassin searched inside himself for the fearlessness he once found so familiar, the calm confidence in his own abilities that made him such a deadly hunter of men.

But there was nothing.

“You see,” spat the man before him. “Without me you’re nothing but a scared, weak, little man. And yet you still try to escape me. Why? Why deny yourself the power I bring you?”

“What power?” cried Vain.

“The power of death!” roared the man. “Look before you. This is your path in life. Your recent decisions have corrupted your power, tearing it to shreds and leaving you weak. You feel you have been evil. Well, maybe that is true, but everyone walks their own path in life, yours is simply darker than most. If you try to stray from this path it will shatter completely and leave you with nothing. You will never return to the life you lived before, accept it and walk with me down the Dark Path. You can be sure I will never leave you.”

“But
...
but who are you?” whispered the assassin.

“I am Vain,” whispered the man coldly. “And we are together on this Dark Path. Now and forever. You cannot escape me, no matter how hard you try.”

The Dark Man wailed into the cloud filled skies, the twin to his soul roaring with laughter.

* * * *

Vain awoke with a start, cold sweat pouring from his forehead. The dream slipped from his grasp even as he reached for it, and he found his memory of it receding. The one thing he knew though, he would never be free from it, not until he ceased to exist.