Frozen Embers by D. S. Novis (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📖

his fall softened by the rotund belly of the unconscious Mad Dog.

 

                                                                    *

 

Gabriel got quickly to his feet and put his shirt back on. His mind was suddenly full of a thousand panicked voices yelling. So many frantic thoughts made it nearly impossible to discern one from another. If there was someone in the apartment then they would have definitely heard Gabriel land. He could turn and fly away. But was Ms Clark back yet? Was she in trouble? Okay okay calm down.

He turned out the lights and then edged softly over to his door. He put his ear up against the cold wood. Nothing. This didn’t put to rest the fear that was now grabbing at his heart like an ice cold iron fist. Instead it seemed to make it wrench harder.

 

He put his hand on the door knob and turned it slowly, feeling the inner mechanism creek in a way he'd never noticed before. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The lights were all out, apart from one. At the end of the long corridor flickered am orange light. It lit Gabriel’s living room. It must be coming from the fire place. Gabriel had never seen it on before. In truth he didn't think it worked. 

His feet began to walk him down the corridor, the yelling voices in his brain now silent. When he reached the doorway a strange sight hit Gabriel’s eyes. Someone was sitting in Gabriel’s large leather armchair. Gabriel could see the top of a man's head over the back of the chair. They faced away from Gabriel, staring transfixed into the heart of the fire.

Two long metallic chains hung down from either side of the armchair. The chains coiled like snakes on the carpet. Each end was secured tightly to two mens necks.

Gabriel's mind not willing to believe his eyes it pinched them shut. This scene was so odd, so bizarre that his brain simply refused to compute it as real. He opened his eyes again the same image presented itself before him. A man holding onto two chains attached to two men. 

One of the chained men lay lazily, almost comfortably on the floor to the right of the armchair. The second man was hunched over to the left of the armchair, staring fixedly up at the occupant of the chair.

Both were extremely skinny and frail. They looked shabby and unkempt. They wore rags for trousers that were stained with what appeared revoltingly to be dry blood. Neither wore shirts. Large parts of their hair were missing and bold pink and purple scars, glittering in the firelight, covered their bodies. They both panted fast like they were out of breath. Gabriel could see their bony rib cages rise and fall, silhouetted in the fire. Such peculiar appearances made it hard to estimate their age but at a guess Gabriel would have said thirty years old.

Gabriel's brain clambered to give him some inclination of what he should do. However, there was not a single shred in the archives of his mind that he could use as a point of reference. No lesson in life had ever taught him his move for this situation. All Gabriel's useless, con-fuddled head could do at such a vital moment in his life was wonder how on Earth these men weren't stopped by Tony the doorman on the way into the building.

Gabriel took a step into the room. As he did so one of the chained men raised his nose to the ceiling and sniffed the air. The man clenched his eyes shut and took in a deep breath that stretched the vile scars on his chest.

Then, making Gabriel’s heart skip, the man shot his head towards Gabriel. The man scrambled to his feet and sped towards Gabriel like a rabid animal. The speed shocked Gabriel to the point where all he could do was stand there blankly, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

The man was mere inches away from Gabriel when the chain tightened and he was tugged backwards by his neck. He fell to the floor hard on his back. Only momentarily down he got back up to his feet and advanced on Gabriel again.

Bounding forward he came again until the chain was taught. Both hands scratched out franticly towards Gabriel, snapping rotten yellow stained teeth as though desperate to sink them into Gabriel’s flesh. Slobber dangled from the edges of his cracked lips.

 

Close up, Gabriel noticed several things about the man that he hadn’t at first sight. The two chained men had very close resemblance to each other. Gabriel thought they looked like brothers. Another thing he noticed was a tattoo on their chests. It was a paw print of some kind, possibly a bear.

Gabriel could now see his scars in detail. Some were thick and shallow looking like they had been carved with human finger nails. Whereas others, more  abundant, were thin and deep. These were almost certainly etched by the claws of an animal.

“Down!” shouted the man in the armchair.

Gabriel recognised the voice at once. There came a huge tug from the end of the chains and the skinny man went flying back to the armchair. He clutched his neck as he landed and began to whimper. He didn’t rush Gabriel again. Both just sat there obediently, staring at the man in the armchair.

“Hello Gabriel.” said the man as he rose from his feet and turned to face Gabriel.

“Oh, it’s you.” Gabriel said back with a cool voice. “What was your name again? Oreo, wasn’t it?”

“Ornias.” returned the man coldly.

It was the man from the roof of the bank, the accomplice to Philatanus. He stood there holding onto the two chained men. 

“Ah yes, that’s it. Why are you here?” Gabriel asked.

“I think you know exactly why I’m here.” Ornias stared at Gabriel. “I’m here for payback. You were the reason my friend died.”

“That wasn’t my fault. Besides, he deserved what he got from that man.” Gabriel said calmly.

“That man?” Ornias repeated, confused. “Everyone in the Immortal world knows who Hunter is." He regarded Gabriel for a long moment. "You really don’t know what you are, do you?"

Gabriel looked back into the dark shadow that was Ornias' face and found he could not answer.

"Yes," Ornias continued. "I thought you seemed strange on that roof. Was that the first time you've ever shot?"

"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked. 

"I'll take that as a yes. I'm very honored that I was there to witness your first time." He let out a hearty laugh. "I wasn't expecting on playing the role of teacher tonight. When we grow our wings we call it shooting."

"How did you find me?" Gabriel asked, cutting through Ornias' sniggering.

"Well I couldn't very well return home after leaving Philatanus alone on that rooftop. So I decided it would be easier to kill you than Hunter. I was debating where to start looking for you when I saw you on the news. There you were, headline news. Mr Indestructible. They showed your name, age, school and parents, more than enough to find you. Then I come here. No one was in so I made myself at home, looked around the place. I have to say it is very nice. However I have found absolutely no sign in your apartment that you know what you are. You have no clue that you are an angel, do you?”

There was a long silence.

“An angel?” Gabriel asked and took a step back. Of course that had been what he’d thought, he had sprouted white wings for crying out loud, but hearing it said by someone else made it seem real. He was an angel. Gabriel the angel.

“So that makes you a-”

“Demon. You are correct.” Ornias finished Gabriel’s question for him. Ornias gave a sickening smile. White pearls that glowed from out of the shadows.

“An angel lost in the Mortal world. How very intruiging. I would love to hear the story behind this. Unfortunately, I've got a job to do. And apparently this will be easier than what I thought. I probably didn’t even need to bring my boys here with me.”

Gabriel eyed the men in chains. “Who- what are they?”

“These,” Ornias gestured to both the men “are my faithful servants. They are my children. I brought them here today to avenge my fallen comrade.”

“You didn’t seem like you were much of a comrade when you were flying off as fast as your wings could carry you.”

Ornias gave Gabriel a fierce look. “Yes, well, I plan to make it up for him now.”

Gabriel looked the skinny men up and down. They looked like they’d drop any minute.

“No offence but your... hitmen look like they’ll die from hunger before they get a punch in.” Gabriel said.

Ornias walked over to the window and looked out onto the streets of London below. For a long time he said nothing.

“Have you ever heard the legend of the werewolf, Gabriel?”

Gabriel was taken aback by this odd question.

“Men that turn into wolves when a full moon comes out. Yes I know of them. The moon light transforms them.” Gabriel said confusedly. Then his eyes flickered to the tattoos on the skinny mens chests and a sense of foreboding dread filled Gabriel.

“You are almost right, Gabriel. Yes the werewolf is a man that turns into a beast. But no, it has nothing to do with moon light. It makes no difference as to whether the moon is out or not. It is ancient magic. On the night of a full moon, at midnight, a man with the werewolf gene or virus will be transformed. They rip and tear their way through anything in their path, besides their masters of course.”

Gabriel gulped hard. An image of a giant full moon he’d seen whilst above the clouds came into his head. He looked down at his wristwatch. The time read 11:58 PM. Gabriel’s mind buzzed. Could his body heal again? It had done before.

Then, as though in response to Gabriel’s thought Ornias said “Mr Indestructible.” and chuckled lightly “Angels are resilient vermin and seem to stick to life like a turd to a shoe. But a foolproof method of extermination is werewolf venom."

Ornias turned back around and walked until he faced directly opposite Gabriel.

“Less than a minute now, Gabriel." Ornias then looked at Gabriel's face with mild interest. "Curious. You do strike a remarkable resemblance to Hunter. A mystery that, sadly I doubt, we'll ever find out the answers behind. My boys are dying to taste real angel flesh.” Ornais said through a locked jaw and a wide smile.

Ornias started to laugh. A cold and evil sound. This was short lived however. Something had happened to Ornias. He let out a sound like a screeching bat. He stumbled forward in pain and span on the spot. A knife was sticking out of his back. Ornias dropped the chains. They hit the ground with a loud metallic clang.

“Run Gabriel!”

It was Ms. Clark. She had snuck in completely unnoticed by anyone. It occurred to Gabriel that no evidence of fear or shock was visible on her face.

Ornias sent a punch at Ms Clark. It hit her in the chest with a sickening crunch. A rib or two was definitely broken.

“No!” Gabriel screamed and started forward.

Ms Clark clutched her stomach with her left hand and with her right swung an upper cut with way more force than a woman of her stature, age or condition should physically be able to. Gabriel doubted even he could have punched with that much power. Ornias was raised several inches off of the ground and slammed to the floor heavily. Ornias was not out yet though. He climbed back to his feet with pure venom in his eyes.  

Gabriel took a step forward to help but Ms Clark held out her hand.

"Run Gabriel. Now." She said painfully.

At that moment Gabriel's wristwatch let out a high pitch beep. It was midnight. In the distance Gabriel could make out the sound of Big Ben clang.