The Dark Path (28 page)

Sebastian sat quietly on the floor of his prison. The news that Empeth had unwittingly imparted to him spawned a momentary feeling of triumph. Vain remained alive, and he had done something to make Empeth very angry. And, he sensed, very possibly scared as well.

“You would probably know more about him than I,” said the boy finally in a soft voice. “I don’t know anything about him having any powers.”

“Then how is it that the Velearstk are gone. They are either destroyed or have been sent somewhere that my powers cannot find. How has he done this?”

“I do not know,” Sebastian responded quietly.

“It doesn’t matter now anyway,” sneered Empeth venomously. “The time is soon coming and you will die. Your blood will flow and our Lord will be released. Nothing can stop that now.”

“Just like nothing could stop the Velearstk,” mused Sebastian, more to himself than Empeth. He suddenly felt his entire essence shredded at the atomic level and flung to all four corners of the cell before being quickly re-assembled back to where he had originally sat. The entire incident took seconds, but had seemed like an eternity. Sebastian gasped, tears welling in his eyes. The pain had been worse than anything that had come before, and even now that he was whole again he endured a deep sense of violation, not against his body, but against his soul. He felt somehow dirtier.

“That is just a taste of what’s in store for you for the rest of eternity boy. Once the ceremony is complete I will ask that you become my charge for your eternal damnation. And I promise today will feel like a walk through a meadow of daisies in comparison. You will beg me to end your torment, but it will never end. And you will call me master.”

“I won’t,” wept Sebastian piteously.

“It wasn’t a question boy,” chuckled Empeth, before disappearing from the cell.

Sebastian swallowed his fears along with his pain, and tried again to summon the feeling of triumph knowing that his enemy seemed afraid. It did not help much, but it lifted his spirits enough for him to again return his focus to escaping.

Everything he had tried so far had failed. But he would not stop, could never stop.

“Hello Squirrel,” said a cold voice. Squirrel spun around to find the Dark Man stretched out upon his bed, his heavy booted feet crossed, and his arms folded behind his head. Standing beside him was a young blonde man with the most beautiful face Squirrel had ever seen.

“How did you get in here?” asked Squirrel, surprise momentarily overriding his caution.

Vain merely shrugged and draped his cold gaze over the quivering drunk. Squirrel nodded, the silent point made:
Don’t ask
.

“We need information Squirrel,” said the Dark Man evenly.  “There is a house, I’ll write the address down for you before we leave. I need to know everything about it.”

“What do you mean, ‘everything’?” asked the little man tremulously.

“I mean everything. Schematics. History. Hidden areas. Guards. Camera systems. Entrances and exits. Everything.”

“W-well that will take some time sir,” stammered Squirrel.

“How long?” asked the Dark Man.

“A week at least.”

Vain looked over at his companion who shook his head softly and raised three fingers. “You have three days,” said Vain, rising smoothly from the bed and writing the address on a piece of paper before passing it to Squirrel. Reaching into his pocket he produced a thick wad of cash and threw it to the stunned informant. “For expenses,” he said.

Quickly flicking through the stack and finding more than five thousand dollars there, the little man looked back to thank the Dark Man only to find the two men had vanished. Shivers ran down the little drunk’s spine and he quickly crossed himself. Nobody, not even the Dark Man, could disappear like that and it confirmed what he had always feared–

The Dark Man was not human.

The young man with him could not have been more different. Whereas Vain always instilled an uncontrollable fear in whomever he met, gazing into his companion’s eyes Squirrel had felt a warmth and comfort he hadn’t known in years. The two were like yin and yang–light and dark. And yet they had displayed the same level of power and strength of purpose. To the uninformed, they might well have been brothers.

Squirrel looked at the address and swallowed heavily. The house the Dark Man had been talking about had fed many of the rumors Squirrel had been hearing around the city the last couple of weeks. Stories of women–mainly prostitutes–entering the house never to be seen again. Things had gotten so bad that one of the toughest pimps in the city had gathered a small army of thugs and snuck into the place, intent on teaching a lesson to whoever lived there.

Only the pimp had made it out, from the twenty-three who had gone in, and he escaped little better than a vegetable, chattering and screaming incoherence or dribbling inanely, while clawing his face.

Just one sentence he said had made any sense, and it had sent a silent fear flowing through the underworld of New York. “Hell hath cometh to the city of evil.”

And now the two most powerful individuals the most informed street weasel had ever met were entering that Hell.

Squirrel felt sorry for Hell.

* * * *

Vain shook away the numbness that still clung to him after the teleportation. He doubted he would ever get used to such a thing and he cursed the need for it. Unfortunately, it had become a necessary precaution. If the Souls of Sordarrah were to discover the assassin had returned to the city, they might move the boy to another location, and Vain would never find him before it was too late.

They were back in the Dark Man’s apartment, Gabriel sitting quietly in a chair regarding him silently. The blonde angel had not wanted to return to Vain’s abode, but the assassin had been insistent. Where better to hide than in the most obvious place? They would never think him stupid enough to return to his apartment after what had happened the last time. At least Vain hoped so.

Three days. The time frame he had given Squirrel; three days until he and Gabriel entered the fortress house on the hill in Brooklyn Heights. Vain had the feeling these would be the longest three days of his life.

Gabriel had wanted to go to the house immediately, but long experience taught Vain to be cautious. Squirrel would find out everything available about the house, and Vain knew this could prove invaluable for when they laid siege to it. All they could do now was wait until the time came to collect that information.

Something still bothered him, however. The memory of what Gabriel had said kept recurring in his mind.

“I will not be there when that happens.” 

The more the assassin pondered it, the more it seemed Gabriel had been sad, not afraid, when he had spoken of their impending struggle. Vain wondered what it could be that would make them separate. Gabriel had been so certain, that at first Vain had thought he would simply leave Sebastian’s rescue to the assassin, but now it appeared their parting might be something much more forceful, and the Dark Man found himself saddened by the thought.

A strange feeling for the assassin–one he was unaccustomed to.

Over their time together, Vain had grown used to the peaceful presence of the man–the
archangel
. It bolstered his confidence having the angel near him. This was an odd concept for the assassin, always having been used to solitude, but the thought of once more returning to the loneliness he had previously preferred now left him with a feeling of loss.

Shaking aside the morbid thoughts, Vain turned to his silent companion, determined to get some answers. “What is waiting for us at that house?” he asked.

“Victory or death,” answered Gabriel introspectively.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. We will either save the Avun-Riah or we will perish.”

Vain sighed with frustration. This was like trying to get answers from a tire iron. He decided to change the course of his questioning. “You mean
I’ll
perish, you’ll just go back to being a wispy fairy thing floating around the universe again.”

“No, Dark Man, I won’t,” said Gabriel sadly.

“But you can’t die; you’re an angel!” stormed the assassin.

“I
can
die; almost everything in this universe can die. Once the will to live is gone, there is nothing left.”

“Are you sick of being immortal? Does possessing unlimited power have its drawbacks?”

“Sometimes... but not in the ways you imagine.” Gabriel sighed. “Do you want to know what the meaning of life is?” he asked suddenly.

Vain looked at him cautiously, unsure of how to proceed. “Sure... I guess,” he managed finally.

“When you look around, what do you see?”

“I don’t know.... What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. What is it that you see as you walk through your life?” queried Gabriel.

“Buildings, people...  just everyday life, I guess.”

“Precisely!” exclaimed Gabriel. “You see life.
Everything
is going on around you.”

“I don’t understand,” said Vain slowly.

“The meaning of life is to
live
. To suck the very marrow out of every moment that you exist in this dimension or any other. To give everything you have to live the best life that you can. Not through selfishness, but rather through thoughtfulness and generosity. Do you understand?”

“So you’re saying that the meaning of life is to help each other?” asked Vain skeptically.

“In part,” said Gabriel. “But the main thing is to help yourself first, and to understand what it is that you have. When you look around you should not see what is wrong with your life, but what is
right
about it. Whether you believe in God or not is immaterial. All that is important is that you look upon every breath you take, and every vision that greets your eyes with joy, and when you deal with others you should try to impart some small piece of this joy into their lives. Whether it derives from something simple like a smile, or more importantly: life instead of death.”

“Are you trying to convert me?” asked Vain coldly. “You might as well give up now, because your God gave up on me on the day he took my daughter and wife. Tore away their lives like so much scrap paper, so I think you’d better save your speeches for somebody who wants to be saved. I chose my path on that day and I will follow it to the end, no matter where it leads me.”

Gabriel sat silently, peering intently at the Dark Man. “Do you realize that you just called them
your
wife and daughter?” he asked softly. “I thought you had destroyed Martin Roberts when you took over his body. If that were the case why do you care about his family?”

“I....” began Vain, but then he stopped, contemplating what he had just said. He rose slowly to his feet. “Damn you! You’re just trying to confuse me like that black bastard, Priest. Just remember one thing, angel-boy, remember how he ended up.”

“I know,” said Gabriel with a deep look of sorrow upon his face. “He lost his soul trying to protect you and the Avun-Riah. Do you think
he
knew the meaning of life?”

With a frustrated curse, Vain withdrew from the apartment and out into the night.

* * * *

Vain stormed down the street, his mind lost in a torrent of senseless rage. He paid no heed to his direction; his thoughts were consumed with what Gabriel had tried to tell him. The worst part of it all was that Vain could see the sense in what the supposed angel had been saying. He grasped the meaning in the philosophy, but it only served to emphasize the wrongs that Vain had committed in his own life.