Hunted by Darkness

Kiss Death Away

Sarah

She had been in the hospital for at least four days now, and she still hadn’t seen Gabriel. She also hadn’t had a proper change of clothes. Sure they had given her clean pyjamas, but she was dying to wear a decent pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Even leggings would do. Damian hadn’t been back either, and although she and Karen had become friendly, there was no getting information out of her.

Or past her, really. She had tried a couple of times to sneak out and check the other room next to hers since Damian had mentioned that’s where Gabriel was, but Karen had proved a barrier that she couldn’t cross.

She had been a prisoner in her own house to now being a prisoner in this… this place. Thinking back, she wasn’t that locked up in her house, albeit it was full of monsters.

She only called them monsters in her own head. It sounded childish if said out loud. It also didn’t reflect the paralyzing terror she had experienced. Not the one sleeping in her own home, afraid they would come in under the door, nor the one she felt being surrounded by them in the dark. She had fought, and it had been as big a surprise to her as it had been to anybody else.

Deep inside, all she wanted to do was run and curl into a corner where they wouldn’t be able to find her. But of course, she wasn’t alone, and there had been nowhere to run to. She didn’t want to die. That was, after all, the bottom line, survival. Because nothing else but a primal need for life could have forced that strength out of her. It was as if she was watching herself from outside her body. Yet the pain hadn’t felt as if it was inflicted on somebody else. It had felt present and real and tangible and f*****g painful, all in all. Even now there was nothing there, she couldn’t help touching the spot where she had been stabbed, and where she would have been killed had it not been for Gabriel. The fact that he was alive at all was a miracle.

She let herself fall back onto her bed. If it had been the other way around, he would have been sitting right there, watching her until she woke up. A couple of times she had woken up half expecting to find him there, a spark in his grey eyes, a lock of red hair tumbling over his forehead, his large frame, leaning over. She missed his smell of cinnamon and cedarwood that lingered around him and the sound of his voice. It was just not right. The more she thought about it, the clearer it became. The situation was unacceptable. In no hospital in the world, except in extraordinary circumstances, would she be kept from visiting a friend.

Something shook inside her chest, vibrated with her breath. It felt red and swelling, and it felt strong. She got off her bed and decided there was no way Karen was going to stop her. Not this time. She was going to see Gabriel. She had been reasonable, she had asked and asked and been very patient, they couldn’t deny that. There was no reason, no reason at all, for them to stop them seeing him.

Except if there was no him to see. What if he had died and they were simply lying not to upset her? What if he had died right there and then, alone, in the dark. Tears welled up in her eyes. She closed her fists, her nails digging into her palm, before getting off the bed and crossing the room. She knew Karen would be there before she finished to open the door, but she didn’t care. She was going to find out, and whatever that rhythm was in her chest, she was going to follow it there.

‘We’ve talked about this bef…’ Karen’s voice came as she opened the door.

‘Yes, we have, but I am tired of it and I want to see him. Now.’

A spark crackled in her hair, the vibration in her chest expanded to the rest of her torso.

‘Mr Vogel has given clear instructions that…’

‘Even if I was a child, which I am not, Mr Vogel is not my father or my guardian or, ultimately, my boss!’

‘Ms Vogel…’

‘Ms. Vogel? Who is Ms Vogel?’ she asked impatiently. Her hands started to shake.

‘She is Mr Flannagan’s Healer, doctor, you know what I mean.’

Something told her Karen wanted to let her through, but she was not allowed to.

‘I’ve been here four days, now, and I’ve asked to see him every day. This is ridiculous. I don’t know where I am, I don’t have my phone or my clothes. Am I a prisoner, Karen?’

The lights flickered.

‘I don’t…’ Karen took a step back.

The paintings on the blue walls rattled against the plasterboard.

‘Ok, ok… I’ll bring you to him…’

‘Really?’ Sarah was surprised.

‘Yes, before you bring the building down. But you have to make it quick. You need to get back before lunchtime.’

Sarah followed Karen through the empty corridors.

‘I thought Gabriel was next door.’

‘They moved him after you tried to sneak in the second time.’

Something burst in her chest and, in sync, a light bulb burst above their heads.

‘You need to calm. Down.’ Karen whispered.

Sarah bit down, and her teeth grated together unpleasantly. Still, Karen was right, there was no need to attract attention. She was surprised to see they left the lifts behind. Karen walked purposefully, but quickly and they soon found themselves in front of double doors giving out onto stairs. They walked up two flights and came out to a floor that looked exactly the same as hers. There were no specific signs like you would find in regular hospitals, indicating the departments located there. These were just rooms and more rooms.

She followed Karen through the corridors until they stopped in front of one of many grey doors. Karen pushed her to the right of the door, making sure she was away from the threshold and knocked. Sarah stood silently, her skin tingling from head to toe. She could still feel the soft reverberation inside her body, but she felt something else too. There was similar, yet different, vibration outside her body, coming from inside the room, and from Karen.

Karen vibrated like a leaf shaking in the wind, soft and flexible. The vibrations from inside the room were different. One was surprisingly familiar. It was solid, but feeble at the minute, like a man that had been strong but starved for a long time. It was Gabriel. She realized she had felt his energy before, although it had been much more vital, like a bear running through a forest. The other echo she felt was something different, much bigger, like the waves of an ocean, powerful and enveloping, constant like the universe. Water that could create or destroy. Karen pushed her a bit farther.

‘Come in,’ a voice called. It was a woman, she could tell that much.

She saw Karen opening the door. Her profile reflected the light from outside the room, but she didn’t go in.

‘What is it, Karen?’ the voice asked. Her voice had a familiar timbre, sweet and sheltering.

‘Miss Morgan keeps asking to visit Mr Flannagan, Ms Vogel. I just… don’t know what to tell her anymore.’

The ocean got nearer to the door, she could feel it, and Sarah took two steps back instinctively.

‘Miss Morgan will have to learn she doesn’t get to make demands. She’s unleashed enough trouble as it is.’

Her voice came closer, but she couldn’t see her.

‘That little girl needs to know her place.’

Although the woman’s voice remained calm and soft, there was an edge of acidity in it that might have eaten through a piece of reinforced steel.

‘I’ll talk to my brother,’ the voice said before the door slammed shut in Karen’s face.

Her brother? She’s Damian’s sister?

Karen took a deep breath and turned around, ushering her back the way they went all while keeping quiet.

‘I don’t want to go,’ she said once they were at a safe distance. ‘I’ll talk to her, I don’t care!’

‘Have you lost your mind? Ms Vogel will crush you like a bug. And me! She is already difficult as it is… Let’s get you back to your room before we… and by we I mean I, get into any more trouble!’

Her escapade hadn’t made her any less frustrated, but the woman’s words did calm her down. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder who exactly was that woman and why she was so intent in stopping her from seeing Gabriel.

She tried a book, but she couldn’t concentrate on the words. After reading the same sentence fifteen times, she gave up and threw the book across the room. It just missed the picture frame on the wall by half an inch before falling to the floor with a thump. What was she going to do? The image of Gabriel standing outside her window, giving her a way out, came clearly to her mind. There was little light to reflect on his skin, but she could still see the outline of his shoulders and the curl of his hair. He didn’t let her rot in her house. She wouldn’t either. Still, she had to find his room. She had forgotten every turn she had taken with Karen.

A soft knock on the door warned her of Damian’s arrival. He walked in, his clipboard under his arm and a hand in his pocket. Damian looked around as if he was surveying his lands and soon zoned in on the book, now lying on the floor.

‘Did the book escaped your grasp, Miss Morgan?’

Sarah felt the blood on her cheeks as he gave her the book.

‘I’m told you have been harassing Karen to see Gabriel,’ he said.

His tone, his eyes, were sharp on her skin. They cut her like a shard of ice, both cold and burning and made Sarah gasp. Damian had been charming and comforting to her till now. She knew well enough she hadn’t been entirely fair to Karen, but they weren’t reasonable either.

‘Karen didn’t give you up, if you are worried about that, Miss Morgan, but little goes on in this place that I don’t know about. For instance, there is a burst light bulb outside. These surges of power don’t go unnoticed, you must know this, and are not recommendable in your condition.’

‘My condition? What do you mean?’

Without any warning, Damian harshly lifted her t-shirt to reveal the skin where she had been partially stabbed. Where the skin had been pale and soft before, now it was heavily bruised, and a ten-centimetre black line appeared in the centre of the purple skin. In her annoyance, she hadn’t noticed, but now she realized she had been feeling pain in that area for some time.

‘It is not a whim of my conscience when I say you should rest,’ his tone was unyielding.

Sarah shrunk back into her pillow.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

Damian watched her, his eyes in a cold stare. Slowly, though, warmth came back to them, as if he had stepped next to a radiator, and his expression softened. He sighed.

‘Please, do rest, it is imperative that you recover,’ he smiled, brightening the room. ‘I would also recommend you stay out of my sister’s way. She is… temperamental,’ he added.

Somehow that warning didn’t reassure her about Gabriel. Who was she? She wanted to ask questions, a lot of questions, but she couldn’t shake the image of Damian’s anger from her mind.

He sat at the edge of the bed and pulled down her shirt, his knuckles grazing her skin. She shivered at the touch, and his eyes darted to hers as he pulled the blanket over her abdomen. A flash illuminated his eyes. Heat shot to her cheeks in response. Prisoner of his gaze, she couldn’t look away, but it only lasted a split second. Damian pulled away as he stood up.

Even when he left the room, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not this moment, so short she could have just imagined it. And not his reprimand before.

And he hadn’t even raised his voice, nor were his words aggressive. Yet he had gone through such a drastic change of expression she felt as if she had lost something. Something important. Thinking about it, it hadn’t just been in her head. As Damian had calmed down, the pressure around her had seemed to dissolve. It was a familiar sensation, though she couldn’t remember feeling that before. But the more she thought about it, the more confusing it became.

After a while, she gave up and decided to read instead. Somehow, she felt calmer and was able to immerse herself in the story.

She had only read once chapter when it came to her. It was that reverberation she had felt before, the one in Karen and the one in Gabriel. Damian’s was different. His energy was enveloping like the Earth. It was physical as if she could have stretched a hand and touched it. It took the whole room when he came in.

She hadn’t noticed before. Only now, because of his change of mood, she had picked up on it. It was difficult to notice something as foreign when she was completely immersed in it. It was, also, comforting, like a hug, or at least it had been before he became angry. Now, not only could she see the man perfectly detailed in her mind; she could also feel his energy. The more she tried to detail her mental picture, the clearer his energy became, so much so that now she could feel it in the building. She knew, without needing to see, that he was on her floor, not far, maybe two or three doors away. But then, if she could find Damian like this, she could find Gabriel too.

The idea alone made her sweat. She was terrified to get caught, especially after the telling off she had just received. She didn’t want to relive that experience. Yet, she couldn’t forget the idea.

Not knowing how to get there, it would have been easy to convince herself there was no way around it. She would get caught, and that was that, but now that she knew she could find him, things were far more tangible and it was more difficult to make excuses.

Gabriel’s face at her window kept staring at her.

The added plus is that now she was also familiar with the echoes of Karen, Ms Vogel and Damian, so it would be easier to avoid them. Still risky, though.

Her foot nervously bounced up and down on the mattress as her mind raced through the possibilities.

She lifted her shirt to look at her bruising again. The angry purple covered the front of her abdomen and climbed towards her left side, while the black scarring was a thin, rough to the touch, line. She could only imagine how Gabriel’s wound would be. The spike of blackness had gone through him like a sword. It could have been her, she thought.

She had been terribly confused for weeks now, but this seemed to be the easiest decision to make. She was going on a mission.

She waited long after Karen took her tray away before she tried to make her way outside. There was no point trying to locate Gabriel just yet, she knew on which floor he was, so she would make her way there first. It concerned her that, since she could feel other people, they could feel her too, a sure way to get caught. Still, no pain, no gain, right?

Right.

She slowly made her way towards the stairs in the dimly lit corridors. Even if it was nicer, it still reminded her of the hospital. The same strange quiet, the same half-lights. She stopped at every corner, at every door, to make sure there was nobody around, to make sure she couldn’t hear any sounds, before moving farther. The door out onto the stairs squeaked ever so slightly, and she couldn’t help but hold her breath as she opened it and closed it behind her. Going up the should be safer, but she still paid attention to every vibration and every sound.

Out on Gabriel’s floor, she didn’t even remember if they had gone left or right here. Sarah took a deep breath and started looking for Gabriel. She didn’t miss a sharp pain on her side, but she decided to ignore it. Gabriel’s energy would still be faint like she had felt it earlier, yet somehow she located it much quicker this time. There were no other echoes or vibrations to hide his, which meant he was alone. She sighed in relief, she had feared, not quite admitting it to herself, that somebody would be there, that that woman, Ms Vogel, would be sitting at his bedside day and night. It was a ridiculous idea though, but Damian said he was very badly injured… she didn’t know what to think.

She followed the weak beacon to a door that looked exactly like every other door, except that now, feeling his palpitating life at the other side of the door, she was afraid of what she would find. The image of that other man’s collapsed face paralyzed her. The pain on her side felt a bit sharper now, and it made her nauseous. If that was the effects of the small wound she had received, how much worse would Gabriel feel? She braced herself as she opened the door and almost jumped inside before she lost her courage.

The lights were off, but the curtains were open. Enough moonlight came in to illuminate his profile. His face seemed intact, but as she got closer, she noticed his hair was stuck to his skull with sweat. She wondered if he had been unconscious all this time or if he had had any lucid moments.

Sarah went around the bed and into the bathroom. Finding a face towel, she soaked it in cold water and wrung it before going back to the room and cleaning Gabriel’s face of sweat. She gently pushed the hair off his forehead and dabbed his face with the cold fabric hoping it would help. He was strangely still, his breath very slow, too slow for actual sleep, yet he seemed so peaceful. She dabbed at his neck as well. His face was turned slightly towards her, allowing her to reach his nape, where the freshness of the towel would help the most. As she slowly moved her hand out, his eyes fluttered open. She couldn’t see their colour, but she was glad to see he recognized her.

His lips moved, but no words came out. She went back to the bathroom for some water. He was still not moving, so she lifted the cup to his lips and helped him drink.

‘Are you… how are you feeling?’

‘I’m… great,’ he tried to smile, but his lips barely curled. He took a rasping breath, and her eyes filled with tears.

‘I’m so sorry…’

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ his voice came out with a wiz.

‘I… why did you have to jump in front of me?’

‘Call me stupid, but I didn’t want you to die…’

‘Yeah, well, I don’t want you to die either!’

A tear rolled down her cheek, and more were threatening to follow that path.

His breath sounded more and more difficult.

‘Switch… on… the light, please,’ he paused, trying to breathe and Sarah’s heart went to lodge itself in her throat, hiding there with concern. ‘I want to see you.’

He sounded like an old man with lung cancer, pulling an oxygen tank around for survival, except that there was nothing to help him breathe here and Sarah was starting to panic. Still, she did what he asked and found a floor lamp at the corner. When she turned to face Gabriel her breath caught in her throat, together with her heart. More tears rolled down now her cheeks. His face looked gaunt, though he had not lost any of the body mass he had before. His complexion had turned green and yellow in places, except were gritty black veins climbed over his cheek. With a shaky hand, she followed the dark sooty lines from his face down his throat. A bed sheet had covered his torso until now. She lifted it carefully, pulling it back and couldn’t avoid a gasp of horror. The smell of rot and putrefaction suddenly slapped her. Most of his body was covered in black and purple bruising, but the wound itself was as if something had taken a bite out of him. The porous, coal-like substance was on his skin… or was it his skin? Had the touch of those monsters transformed him in this hideous, dead thing she was looking at. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but there was flesh missing there as if somebody had shaved several centimetres of it and had left a crater. From the black mass, veins branched out and disappeared under the bed sheet towards his legs, while in the other direction, they extended towards his face and his shoulders.

‘Don’t cry,’ he said. ‘It’s ok, I don’t mind…’

‘What do you mean, you don’t mind?’ she looked at him, afraid of what he was going to say, ‘You don’t mind what?’

She could barely see the grey in his eyes with that little light, but she still recognised his warmth, and she could still smell the wooden undertones of his skin under all the decaying scents she had uncovered.

He looked back at her, straight in the eyes, their energy weaker every second. She lifted a hand, unable to contain herself, her fingertips softly trailing across his cheek, avoiding the rough, mineral touch of the scarred tendrils on his face.

‘Dying.’

He gasped once more, then again, now with a gurgle. He was drowning. He didn’t panic, though, he just looked into her eyes as his muscles and organs ran out of oxygen. She started shaking but couldn’t do anything. She just knew she didn’t want him to die. How could he be alright with this! Was he going to leave her too? She started sobbing and couldn’t control the spasms as the light went out of his eyes. She had to find help, she had to call somebody, Damian, Ms Vogel, whoever, somebody.

Her voice screamed in her mind yet she couldn’t move her feet, she couldn’t make a sound, she couldn’t even take her hand off his face because through them she could still feel the last threads of his energy, still solid as it slowly disappeared. But it was still there, and she held on to it.

His eyes closed slowly.

Sobbing or not, she would not let it go. She brought her other hand to his face too and searched for more threads she could grasp. She wasn’t going to let it dissipate. As long as she could feel it, she wouldn’t accept he was dead. She focused on it, trying to experience it thoroughly before it all disappeared. She revelled on the solidity of it and closed her eyes, feeling now the strength of distant trees and the imperviousness of rocks on cliffs. She became aware of a different vibration, coming from inside her. She couldn’t define it, it was too close to her, but it stretched out through her body and went to touch the echoes of Gabriel’s living force as if they were holding hands. As they touched, she thought Gabriel’s vibration had become slightly stronger, but the difference, if it was there at all, was so minimal she could be imagining it. Still, her energy grew larger and faster, and now it seemed a bit stronger again. Slowly, it gained weight, and now it was tougher, there was no doubt. But would that make any difference? He wasn’t breathing, his heart wasn’t beating, she could tell through the touch.

Was his skin less green now? She didn’t let go. She wouldn’t.

‘Not now, not ever,’ she whispered over and over again.

Was that black vein receding?

For the first time, she took her eyes off his face. The black wound looked smaller, even the tentacles that were reaching up to his shoulders and face seemed shorter. Seeing it made her determination grow, and with it, the echoes inside her became louder, turning into screams of power that reached down deep into Gabriel and linked into his own force. The unnatural wounds on his abdomen reduced and the flesh closed, bruised as it was, but no longer sank in. As it closed, Gabriel gasped, and heaved, and sat up, her hands falling away from his now more natural skin. Gabriel gasped for air, his eyes wide open, his chest moving up and down, still heavily bruised. He looked down at his abdomen, breathing fast, and turned towards her. She had stopped crying, though she hadn’t noticed, but now she couldn’t stop the sobs coming back. Gabriel turned towards her and pulled her towards against chest, and she let herself sink into the warmth of his body, her shoulders shaking as he put his arms around her until her crying quietened.

‘I thought you were dead…’ she said into his chest.

He pulled her away from him and looked at her, the light back behind them.

‘I did, just for a second, then I heard your voice… It was dark there,’ he swallowed hard.

Sarah smiled softly, staring into his eyes, drinking in the life in them, wrapping herself in the shroud of his energy, stable and broad as the world.

With light fingers, she drew a line on his cheek where the scarring had been eating at him before. His look was questioning into hers as she pushed herself up onto the tip of her toes, getting so close she could feel his breath on her skin, the warmth of his mouth on her lips.

A spark ran through her skin as their mouths connected. Gabriel received her kiss immobile at first, but she felt his body temperature rising, her hands flat on his bare chest. His arms wrap tighter around her and he capture her lower lip with a deep inhale. He tasted of nature and the woods and when his lips parted, she let him in too. He grabbed at her body, as if he was unable to fit enough of her into him, and she gasped. His kiss deepened and her knees trembled as they lost strength.

Her mind became full of clouds, as heat flooded her.

As he pulled her against him again, pain shot through her. A spear penetrated her body, from her head to her feet and her knees buckled.

Gabriel, his face red and his brow knotted, watched her pulling away from him. Looking down at her abdomen, her top stuck to her body with a dark stain. She touched it, bewildered, and her hand came back covered in black, warm blood.

Something was pushing in all directions inside her as Gabriel, still weak, knelt down, pulled by her weight.

Her lungs were being squished inside her body, and it was harder and harder to breathe. Had Gabriel felt like this just a few seconds before? She gasped for air and realized that, unlike him, she did mind dying. Still, it was too late, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Gabriel had been talking to her or maybe screaming at her, but she couldn’t hear him. Now, just before she met that darkness, a terror so overpowering she couldn’t think, all she could hear was his voice crying for help.