Chapter 15.2: Gatekeeper

The vampires walked down the trail, and Savannah stumbled along, like a newborn baby giraffe.

Gabriel and Carlos were trying to get her to slow down but it was near impossible. She was too tired to fly and still hungry, but she was moving along like something was chasing her. The air wasn't heavy any longer, as the wind picked up, breathing new life into the mud pits.

The heat rose into the air, and the small hairs all over their bodies rose along with it. Something was there, it was waiting for them. Savannah finally stopped, wobbling in place, covered her face, unable to deal with it.

"I can't," she whispered. "I should have just stayed."

The ground shook with such force they all fell onto their backs, getting a front-row seat to the geysers of hot mud that shot up into the air. When the mud started to fall back down, it pushed them all up into the air, the hot steam propelling them further.

Gabriel splayed out his palms and pushed black ice out, moving his body towards Savannah, and catching her by her right arm. They tumbled to the ground, Gabriel breaking their fall.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled, freezing the steam below them, so they fell through several layers of ice instead of smacking straight into the ground.

Carlos was not so lucky.

His arms and legs were broken, the bottom half of his jaw was pushed up into his head, protruding his nose from his face, the upper mandible curved so far over it was visible. His neck was torn from the force, muscles loose like spaghetti, his blood the thin, watery sauce.

A mound of steam came out of the mud pits, circling all of them, and Savannah ran, well, wobbled, but it grabbed her. It circled her body, from the feet up, winding around, its transparent tentacles gripping her body.

First was her skin, her very fragile skin, and the pores all over her body opened up, flowers in full bloom, making her sweat until there was nothing left to give. Next, her skin was shriveling, wrinkles, then paper, aging in seconds. Last were her eyes, now raisins, and she didn't scream, she let out a soft whimper as her body was mummified, her brown hair the last bit of Savannah Washington.

Gabriel tried to stay calm and reminded himself he had the home advantage as a woman was dehydrated in front of him.

That whatever this creature was he could freeze its steam, or else it would have killed him long ago. The vile thing knew it, so next, it went for Carlos, whose legs were thankfully healing but the rest of his body was an unholy mess, one of his broken arms twisted too far around on his back, the other on his head.

Gabriel wasn't sure how he could stop it, so he tried some of his old tricks, but his ability was different than before, and the results were much different than anticipated. He stuck out his finger-gun, running towards it, and his ice pellets shot out, freezing the steam in various places, but it snaked around Carlos.

He got right up to it, and froze it solid, encasing Carlos right with it.

Gabriel, one not to panic under pressure, was now doubting himself.

The wind picked up again, blowing dirt and stray ice in his face, steam pushing him to his knees. Gabriel feared the worst, that next he would be cooked alive but instead it furled and darkened into a column in front of his feet, a tall figure looking down upon him.

The man smelled of embers and ash, his body translucent. A white cape, with a long cross on the back of it, and a white garment with a black belt covered his chainmail. In his hand he held a sword half the size of his body, on his face he displayed a look of utter disdain, the same face Gio and Fiorino had when they looked upon Carlos and Gabriel.

An undesirable was in their midst.

Silently, he picked up his sword and brought it straight down over Gabriel's head. Gabriel put his hands over his head, freezing the top of his hands, the outer parts of his arms, as the knight struck him over and over again.

Whatever part he tried to strike, Gabriel covered himself in thick ice, and eventually, Gabriel had almost frozen himself solid, save for his face and feet.

"Your unholy presence is not needed here," the knight said, his voice crackling like fire.

"Let us leave," Gabriel shouted.

"You need to go back into your cage," the knight said, circling him. "How did you escape?"

"I never left! I've always been here!"

" Lies. I felt your presence come out of the earth itself. You lie. "

Gabriel pieced together that he meant Savannah, and that this man was trying to kill her or throw her back in. He tried to reason with him, his cause noble, but his means unjust.

"I'm not a bad person," Gabriel said.

"You are not a person."

The knight was not one to be reasoned with.

The smell of embers and ash became stronger, the wind faster, and fire sprouted forth from the knight's feet. His screams, the screams of his own death, his pain, spread across the trail, and Gabriel was no longer in control.

Fire was a very difficult injury for any undead creature to heal from.

Gabriel didn't need to breathe any longer. He had taken his last breath long ago, but the anxiety of it all, as the flames enclosed around him, made him hyperventilate. He groaned as the back of his vibrated, pushing his body to its limits.

The ground cracked and split as it froze, but it melted immediately, the heat of the flames overpowering his. Gabriel's black ice kept pushing, to no avail, yet every time it melted, black fizzles would spurt out.

It was not a time to try something new, but it was better than dying.

Pushing out his feet, tearing his frozen body out of the frozen shell, he lost his arms.

He ran into the flames, freezing his feet and legs over and over again continuously. It melted, and the black sparks went off, mixing in with the flames, turning them black and blue.

The knight was silent and did not waver, he was resolute in his stance and belief. That he would defend various gates until death, protecting the land of the living from the unnatural such as him.

Gabriel, the unnatural, blood gushing out of his forearms, turned his biceps forward, the black flames no longer excruciatingly painful but breathtakingly exciting, stumbled forward, the blood spurting out, and freezing as it landed.

They froze, then exploded on impact, sparks of blue hitting the knight, and he screamed in agony as Gabriel continued, slowly, mumbling incoherently.

He had S-Syndrome, overuse of his ability, and blood was pouring out his ears, nose, and mouth. Gabriel was hallucinating, little dots in his vision, the world spinning, and it felt like the inside of his head was on fire.

All the knight saw were monsters in his last moments.

Gabriel's forearms slid through the dirt, returning to its home, rolling through the dirt, and they locked right into place, the crackling of bones and rocks dancing along with the sounds of the flames.

The knight wasn't going to give in. He had fought until his last breath, and then some, and would not stop here. The wind rushed faster, tearing through Gabriel's skin, slicing his arms and face, and he screamed. Immediately he froze the blood that seeped out, then it flung into the air, spinning, exploding into the air, blackish-blue sparks making the knight scream in agony.

Something leathery and flimsy rolled over him, and he looked up to see what it was. It was Savannah, her wrinkled body holding onto him, her mummified body rasping and screeching, long brown hair whipping in his face.

The knight was terrified, and he hid inside himself, morphing his body back into steam, writhing along with the dirt, making his escape, but it was too late.

Carlos was all fixed up, and the heat had melted his shell. He stood up, angry, and Gabriel was afraid, he had never seen Carlos this angry before. His red eyes shone bright, and Gabriel could feel the pressure of his anger yards away, pushing down on him, making him fall to the ground.

Carlos bit down, hard, into his thumb.

Studying the magic book long ago that Gio had given him had finally come to use. He rubbed his hands, then spread his palms out, across from each other, the blood stretching out, sticky like gum, and he separated his hands as the pillar of steam raced towards him.

Rego Sumnus.

The blood jutted out, like a net, entrapping him, and the knight let out a hollow scream, his mortal shape came forth again.

Carlos clasped his hands together and for the first time, he took pleasure in hurting someone else.

Inri.

The net curled around the knight's temporal form and released. He stood, frozen in time, and Gabriel shuddered because something did not feel right. Carlos's hands were still clasped, and he walked closer to the knight, wanting to be right as possible as he could get the best tickets possible.

As close as possible he could be without endangering himself, Carlos looked into his eyes, baring his fangs, hissing as he claimed his victory.

Carlos unclasped his hands, and the knight cried, as an invisible force tied his hands behind his back. He pleaded for his mother and shook his head while unable to move, another unnatural force came to whisk him away. A small pyre appeared below him, and he shouted his innocence, he was framed, the king had lied, he would never renounce the Lord.

He burst into flames, reliving his death, dying one last time.

Gabriel looked away as he heard him scream, the fires burning him from the bottom up, and he did not feel like a good person anymore.