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

The two skinny men’s faces momentarily went to a smile. Their smiled were short lived however, replaced immediately by expressions of extreme anguish.

Both men clutched their chests like they were experiencing simultaneous heart attacks. Bones cracked and snapped inside their skins as they began to mutate. They fell to their knees under the burden of the torture. The skin on their backs tore open like it was being sliced by unseen knives. But from the gashes came no blood. Thick black fur sprouted out, longer and longer, greasy and oily. It was like a beast had grown from within them and was now expanding, outgrowing the flesh of the human bodies they used to occupy. They reached their hands up to their heads and ripped their scalp clean off with their nails. They peeled off the skin on their faces off like Halloween masks. What lay beneath was a hairy, monstrous dog like face. Like ink being spilt into once clear water, their blue eyes turned the darkest of black. Two gigantic pupils that seemed to suck in what little light there was in the room. Long snouts stuck out of their faces, crinkled in pain and fury. Pointed pink ears protruded from the side of their heads like horns. Their yellow teeth began to elongate, growing into long, sharp fangs that dripped with venom and saliva.

Fear reeked Gabriel’s entire body.

The werewolves stood there, panting fast and drooling. They were a good two feet taller than Gabriel. Beneath the hair there were large, powerful muscles that they had certainly not had as humans. Their nails had been replaced by razor sharp claws.

Gabriel stepped backwards slowly. His heartbeat pounded in his head. The werewolves let out an almighty howl.

As though this was the starting pistol Gabriel had been waited for, he bolted from the spot like a grey hound out of a stall. If Gabriel had had time to think through the situation the best route of escape for him would have been the window. He had wings, the werewolves did not. Simple.

However, as he was new to the world of angels' his human habits materialized first and he ran to the door.

Ornias had locked it behind him when he had broken in. Gabriel was trapped. He turned back to see a werewolf diving towards him. Reflexively, he threw himself sideways just in time and the wolf went crashing through the door like a bullet through paper.

Gabriel seized his chance and scrambled through the splintered door frame.

He sprinted down the corridor as pounding paws hit the ground behind him. Snapping jaws nipped his heals. In a small, almost unconscious corner of Gabriel's mind it occurred to him that he was running faster than he ever had done before, by a long shot. Was this part of his body adjusting to being an angel?

The corridor was long and passed by in a blur. But it wouldn't go on forever. He stopped dead, swung around on the spot and like a prized boxer sunk a powerful fist into the nose of one of the wolves and its nose crippled beneath his blow. It was sent hurtling backwards. It shocked Gabriel to see how strong the punch had been. His body was more alive than it had ever felt. It was power beyond any he had ever felt. Strength and might radiated through his veins. A latent energy had awoken inside him.

The unexpected feeling of limitless capabilities caught Gabriel momentarily off guard and in that second of inaction the second wolf slipped through Gabriel's defenses, smashing into his chest with the force of a truck. The wolf crushed him as all of its weight pinned him to the ground. All air was extinguished from Gabriel's lungs.

Gabriel threw up his hands instinctively, grabbing a hold of the werewolf’s face. A monsoon of spit and deadly venom rained down on Gabriel. The poison burned hot where it hit his bare skin.

The wolf’s pointed teeth snapped aggressively at Gabriel. Gabriel looked around everywhere but saw nothing of use. All that was in the narrow corridor was a fire extinguisher and an elevator door at the very end. No use at all. Or were they?

An idea struck Gabriel like a lightning bolt. He pulled up his foot until it was on the monster’s bare chest. With one powerful kick he sent the wolf soaring into the air. It cracked into the ceiling before falling down to the floor with a crash. Dust and tiny pebbles of rubble dropped from the ceiling. Again, Gabriel hadn’t expected that much power.

He tore the fire extinguisher from its holdings and sprinted to the elevator door.

Gabriel looked back down the corridor. The wolf that he’d punched leapt over its brother and was heading towards Gabriel like a charging bull. Gabriel pulled off the safety tab on the extinguisher and squirting in all directions. White foam and mist covered all sides of him until he was completely consumed by it. Gabriel pushed himself flat against the wall of the hallway as the wolf dived teeth and claws first into the mist. 

The wolf whooshed past, blasting through the elevator doors like a cannon ball. The startled wolf fell down the elevator shaft and out of sight. At that moment Gabriel felt something wrap tightly around his left leg. Close to tugging it clean off of his hip, it pulled him with extreme strength into the open hole. He just about managed to cling on to the floor at the opening of the elevator. The heavy chain around the wolf’s neck had got tangled around Gabriel’s leg.

The wolf dangled below, the chain still wrapped tightly around his neck like a noose. Gabriel tried frantically to get the chains off his ankle. He could feel the beast writhing below as it struggled to detach itself. It yanked forcibly on the chains. The wolf was strong but somehow Gabriel was even stronger, holding on immovably from the edge like an anchor. Even when the wolf gave a humungous final tug, so hard that it caused Gabriel's ankle to make a loud snap, Gabriel did not budge.

The chain went still then.

Gabriel looked down the elevator shaft. The wolf swung limp below Gabriel now, thrashing no more. It began to shrink in size, its facial characteristics turning back to the frail, heavily scarred man once more. The fur had fell from his body like leaves from an Autumn tree. What remained was a skinny naked man that dangled pathetically from the chain.

The human head was smaller than that of the beast. So small was it now that it was able to slipped easily out of its metallic noose. The lifeless body fell down the shaft, bumping onto the corner edge of the elevator in the way down, before hitting the ground with a soft crunch. Foolishly, childishly, a feeling of guilt clutched at Gabriel in the subsequent silence.

Gabriel pulled himself up onto the floor of his corridor and sat untangling the knot on the chain. The snap he had heard had been his ankle breaking. However, it had already begun to heal itself so by the time he had unravelled the chains it was almost fully recovered. He touched it gingerly and noted how hot it felt.

Climbing carefully up he looked down the hall. The mist had fallen to the ground leaving a creamy residue on the carpet. Gabriel's heart dropped and it was only after a few moments that he realized why.

The other werewolf had vanished.

Apparently the hairy hitman had forgotten its main objective and wondered off in search of new prey. Standing frozen, he heard a distant, horrifically distant, howl followed by fait shrill screams. The wolf had found people.

Gabriel's breath staggered out of his mouth. They were on the fifteenth floor. The wolf couldn't be on the ground floor by now could it? He had to contain the wolf in the building. He would have to beat the werewolf to the ground. But how?

He looked down the dark elevator shaft. He 'shot' almost with out thinking this time. The sight of his white, feathery wings calmed him in a way he couldn't explain.

He jumped.

Wind rushed past his ears as he built speed. Avoiding the elevator by half a foot he opened his wings like a parachute. He landed, next to the ex-wolf, with a massive explosion. He did land on on his feet this time. Small victory. He would have to learn to be more graceful with his landings.

Jumping out of the crater he’d made, he ran over to the elevator doors and forced them open.

He was now in the lobby. People were rushing about frantically like a disturbed bees nest.

Gabriel pushed his way against the current of people.

The wolf was in the hotel’s restaurant. Gabriel forced his way through the petrified men, women and children that were dashing for safety.

Then he spotted it. The werewolf was on top of a table, clawing down at a terrified Tony the Doorman trapped down a side the wolf was too big to fit into.

“Oi!” Gabriel shouted.

Oi? This was Gabriel's plan? Yell at it like it was a child who'd been caught stealing sweets? Still, it seemed to work as the wolf turned its head towards Gabriel. An intense anger flooded into the wolf's pitch black eyes as it remembered its primary target. It jumped down from the table, whose relieved legs returned from curved to upright at the unload of the immense weight, and crouched down, poising to strike.

“Run!” shouted Gabriel to Tony the Doorman. Though it was extremely good advice Gabriel thought, the man did not run. He stayed in his make-do fortress and assumed the fetal position.

Gabriel and the wolf locked eyes. The two stared at each other for a long moment, a bizarre blend of fairy tale and wild west stand off. Angel against werewolf.

Then, like it had been signaled to do so, the wolf made towards Gabriel with murderous intent.

Adrenaline seemed to pulse through his veins like fire. Searing heat and power. Like before in the hospital, his hands began to burn. He looked down at them and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The fire was not merely metaphorical, there was real fire being pushed through his veins.

His arteries were alight with an intense orange tinge, giving his skin a translucent papery look. Almost forgetting about the werewolf hurtling towards him at that very moment, he examined his hands closely.

Embers were being pumped though his vessels, looking like molten lava under his skin. He clenched his fists. He could feel the energy building up in his fingers until it was ready to burst. He looked up and the wolf was flying towards Gabriel, almost in slow motion, claws extended and fangs bared.

Gabriel closed his eyes.

He acted as though he’d been expecting this energy to arrive into his fist the whole time. He forced as much internal energy into his hands as he could. Then, without opening his eyes, he swung.

A ton of muscle and fur collided with a hundred and fifty pounds of flesh. His fist made contact with an explosion tantamount to a volcanic eruption. Gabriel and the wolf were thrown apart flying through the restaurant.

 It flew over the restaurant's bar. It smashed into bottles of Vodka and Brandy and fell behind the countertop, out of sight. Gabriel had crash landed into a table, crumpling it beneath him.

Where had that come from? Would Gabriel ever stop finding new talents?

The punch had taken everything out of him. He felt like he’d just run a hundred marathons. His hands were cooling down and the hot pain was subsiding. He tried to get to his feet but simply could not muster enough energy. He kneeled, panting, and prayed that the wolf was dead.

It was not.

I was climbing shakily to its feet, confused and disorientated. It leapt over the bar with diminished strength. Still it had more than Gabriel. It limped towards him, gaining speed. It was clearly injured, drenched in blood and alcohol, but determined to