Hunted by Darkness

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Gabriel

It had been almost twenty-four hours since Helena burst into his room, alarmed by his cries for help. Her alarm became shock when she saw Sarah on the bed, and even more shock when she saw him standing up. He would be shocked at that too if there wasn’t thick, dark blood sipping between his fingers as he pressed into Sarah’s side. How had she started bleeding? She seemed fine when he saw her at first. What did she do?

He had been so engrossed in kissing her, in the excitement of it, in the joy of having her so close once more, he didn’t notice she was dying.

Helena rushed over and quickly set two fingers on her left shoulder and two fingers on the outside of her right hip. She cursed under her breath.

‘What happened?’ she asked as she moved her fingers through different points in her body. ‘I can’t feel anything coming in or out… It doesn’t matter, go down to the second floor and look for Mr Vogel. Shout his name if you need to. Run!’

He looked down, his hands covered in blood, before looking up at the woman again, a frown on his face.

‘I’ll handle it, but if we don’t get him here fast, there will be no blood left to stop!’

‘Don’t die,’ he whispered in her ear, an echo behind his voice.

He ran out of the room, feeling surprisingly able for somebody who, for the past few days, hadn’t even been able to go to the toilet by himself, but he’d rather not think about that. He didn’t bother with the lifts, afraid he would have to wait and lose precious time. He took the stairs, two or three steps at a time, instead. Damn, he jumped the last four to the ground.

The door to the second floor swung shut behind him. As he stepped barefoot on the carpet, the fabric scratching at his soles, he froze. He didn’t know where do go. He ran through the central corridor, not seeing anything other than door after door after door and no signs indicating they might be an office. He wouldn’t have a choice but to follow Helena’s choice.

‘Vogel!’

He ran farther and shouted again, hoping he wouldn’t have to run around the whole floor.

‘Vogel!’ he shouted louder.

He came to the third corridor before screaming again when finally a man with blond hair neatly combed back, rushed out of a room, his eyes shaded into darkness. His look lightened as he saw him properly.

‘Gabriel? How…?’ he paused. ‘Oh, stupid, stupid girl. Where is she?’

‘In my room.’

The man ran the way he had come, Gabriel following closely behind.

‘Helena is with her,’ he told him.

‘That won’t be enough,’ Mr Vogel pulled a phone out of his pocket and stopped only long enough to pick a name out of his contacts. Gabriel could hear the phone ringing as they took the steps two by two on the way up as well. Vogel must feel the same about lifts as he did. 

He heard a voice, distant, answering the call.

‘I need you in Mr Flannagan’s room. Get Elsebeth,’ Gabriel frowned at that name, ‘get anybody you can find. Now.’

Vogel hung up without further ceremony before accelerating. Gabriel was lagging behind when Vogel made it to the fifth floor, and the door had almost closed by the time he got there. The tall man, he was slightly taller than himself, was already standing over Sarah when he walked in. His hands made similar shapes to Helena’s and were now resting on opposite points than hers.

‘Did you ask her to do this?’ Vogel asked, a growl in his voice.

Gabriel stared at her, lying so inanimate on the bed, the blood now covering most of her t-shirt and soaking the mattress under her.

‘Did you ask her to save you?’ he shouted at him.

‘Me? No!’ he shook his head, ‘I didn’t even know she could!’

Vogel looked down at Sarah again, but by the tension on the man’s jaw he could tell he didn’t believe it.

The door burst open, and Karen and Elsebeth ran in. Karen went straight to the bed and immediately fell in line with the intricate movements and positions Helena and Vogel where using. Elsebeth stopped, frozen, right in front of him. Her hand touched the part of his body where he had been hurt, pushing and prodding, astounded. She followed the paths the sickness had taken before, now showing only a slight pinkness. Elsebeth looked into his eyes and lifted a hand to his face, but Gabriel grabbed her wrist first.

‘We need your help here, Beth,’ Vogel said before he could say anything.

Elsebeth looked at Gabriel again before moving but finally decided to do as she was told. Karen and Vogel where at Sarah’s right and Elsebeth and Helena to her left. He followed the ballet of their hands, touching Sarah with only two fingers of each of their hands. It reminded him of certain images of Jesus. Who knew, maybe he had been one of them. It would make sense, after all. It would explain almost everything.

The points they chose to press their fingers into the flesh didn’t seem random. A few times, either Vogel or Elsebeth had corrected one of the others in the positioning of their hands or the pressure they were applying.

‘Lower your left hand half a centimetre, Karen, I need more flow.’

Gabriel moved to the feet of the bed and grabbed the plastic handles, his knuckles turning white. Sarah’s face was paper white, purple circles under her eyes. A line of shiny black blood ran along the line of her lips.

‘Is there anything I can do?’ he asked.

Nobody said anything until Elsebeth lifted her eyes to meet his, a frown on her perfectly symmetrical face.

‘I don’t even know how you’re still…’

‘Miss Morgan decided to transfer all her life energy unto Mr Flannagan here, although I would like to think she didn’t know quite what she was doing.’

Gabriel bit down on his own feelings. There should be sweetness in the thought that she had sacrificed herself for him, and yet, all he could do was be angry at her. It should have been him. All he wanted was to keep her safe, and he was the one who had hurt her the most.

As he watched her eerie stillness, he wondered how had she even known what to do. He hadn’t been awake a lot, but when he had been, he remembered Helena and Elsebeth fussing over him, using similar techniques as they were using now. Their energy flowed into him, giving him some relief.

He also remembered the tightness of Elsebeth mouth and the frown on her brow when she talked to him, the occasional shine on the surface of her eyes. He knew he was going to die and that all her power wasn’t able to save him.

Weak, and even with their treatments, still in pain, he had resigned himself to his destiny. When he opened his eyes and found Sarah watching over him, he thought it was the Universe telling him it was time and allowing him to see her one last time. He never expected to open his eyes again, but then her force vibrated through him like a tornado, flooding his system, pushing the pain away into the darkness where it came from.

‘I… I’ll give it back to her…’ he said.

‘That’s very noble of you, Mr Flannagan,’ Vogel said, moving his left hand to her temple while Karen moved her right hand to Sarah’s knee in perfect unison, ‘but unfortunately, that’s not how it works, or I would have made you do it immediately.’

The implications of what the man was saying didn’t escape him, but he didn’t care. If he saved Sarah, that would be all that mattered at the end.

‘I think Mr Flannagan might be more comfortable waiting in the next room.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Helena, take him to the next room and keep him informed of our… progress,’ Elsebeth said.

Gabriel frowned at her, but she didn’t meet his eyes.

‘Fine, I’ll go, I’d rather Helena continues with what she is doing.’

‘Very wise of you, Mr Flannagan, very wise,’ Vogel said

Gabriel left the room, biting down the frustration and despair.

For now, just for now, he would leave her to them, but in that corridor, as he slid down to the floor, his back pressed to the wall, Gabriel made a promise. If she survived this, he would never let her get hurt again.

But she had to survive first.