The Fallen 4

by Thomas E. Sniegoski

  Gabriel thought it might have been one of the Nephilim, or maybe even a deer, but he smelled it ever so slightly in the air and recognized it for what it was.

  He smelled one of his own kind.

  Ignoring the electrical tingle of the magickal barrier, Gabriel surged toward the scent, only to see a small, brown shape running away.

  “Wait!” he barked excitedly. Gabriel hadn’t encountered another dog in these parts before, and was already thinking that he or she might have been lost, or maybe even abandoned. The thought of having canine company filled him with excitement, and he wondered if Aaron would even allow it. But that was something to consider at another time. First he wanted to be certain that the stray was okay.

  Gabriel barked again, catching sight of the small dog as it ran farther from the school property.

  “I mean you no harm!” Gabriel barked, in close pursuit. “I just want to talk with you!”

  He caught a glimpse of the dog’s back end as it ducked beneath the thick hanging leaves of a bush. Gabriel followed without hesitation. The branches were low to the ground, and he had to crawl on his belly for a bit before emerging into a clearing.

  The other dog had stopped in the middle of the open area and seemed to be waiting for him.

  “Hello,” Gabriel said, attempting to keep his excitement level down so as not to scare the little dog away.

  The dog did not move. He stared at Gabriel with dull, black eyes.

  Cautiously the Lab moved closer, his tail wagging furiously. He’d met many other breeds over the years, and was certain that he’d never encountered another dog like this. His fur was so short that it was practically nonexistent. As Gabriel crept closer, he wondered if the dog had any fur at all. That was when he noticed that the animal’s eyes didn’t move as he approached.

  Gabriel’s hackles suddenly rose. Something wasn’t right.

  Then he caught sight of something long and thick attached to the dog’s back end, thicker than a tail, and trailing down into the dirt behind him.

  Gabriel growled and slowly backed away from the strange dog. The dark flesh around Gabriel’s muzzle peeled back to reveal ferocious teeth, ready to rip and tear if necessary.

  But still the other dog did not react, and Gabriel began to wonder if this was a dog at all.

  Just as that doubt entered his mind, the ground beneath his paws began to tremble. Something huge and stinking of rot and death erupted from beneath the dirt and leaves.

  Something that tried to eat Gabriel in one big bite.

  Gabriel barked wildly, just barely avoiding the snap of massive jaws.

  It wasn’t a dog at all that he had tried to befriend, but some strange type of dog-shaped lure that grew out of the top of a monster’s head. Gabriel found it amazing that the false dog, the lure, was somehow able to mimic the smell of another dog. The monster itself sort of resembled the toads that Gabriel used to find on his walks with Aaron through the woods back in Lynn. Only, this one was much bigger and uglier, and was now crawling from its hole to attack again.

  Gabriel turned to dart beneath the bushes and return to the school and the protection of Lorelei’s magickal barriers.

  But the toad-thing had other ideas.

  Even though Gabriel was fast, the monster was quicker. Something hard dropped from the air, striking the Lab’s back, pushing him to the ground. Flailing in the dirt, Gabriel caught a glimpse of the doglike protrusion, now nothing more than a fleshy mass, being drawn back on its thick, muscular stalk.

  Gabriel climbed to his feet again, but the toad would have none of it, whipping him again with the fleshy appendage. Gabriel lay there, cowering as the toad-thing dragged its body closer.

  Then anger replaced fear as Gabriel realized he had no one to blame but himself. Aaron had warned him about going outside Lorelei’s magickal barrier, but the Lab had let his excitement get the better of him.

  And now he was going to pay the price for his stupidity.

  He would end up in the belly of this beast, and Aaron would never know what had happened to him.

  Gabriel could smell the horrible stink of the monster’s flesh and hear the hiss of its labored breath, the rapid-fire beating of its heart as it propelled its lumpy body at him, mouth agape to engulf him. Gabriel jumped to his feet, but he couldn’t evade the attack.

  The toad bit down on Gabriel, drawing the dog into its enormous mouth. It tossed back its misshapen head in an attempt to swallow him down, but Gabriel was not in the mood to be eaten this day.

  Heavenly fire suddenly coursed through his body. Gabriel was burning. Inside the monster’s mouth he was burning away the darkness of the beast.

  Unable to contain the holy fire, the toad expelled the dog in a stream of sizzling digestive juices, roaring its displeasure. It brought its whiplike appendage down upon its enemy once more in an attempt to extinguish the divine flames.

  But Gabriel would have none of it. The fire now gave him the strength to fight back. He attacked the thick, muscular tendril and tore away the fleshy hunting lure.

  The toad cried out in sudden pain, rearing its grotesque mass away in an attempt to flee. But Gabriel could not let this horrible thing continue to live and feed upon some other unsuspecting dog or person.

  Gabriel sprang at the monster, his body leaving a burning trail of brush behind him. He sank his teeth into the beast’s accursed flesh. The taste was horrible, which made his fury all the more intense, and he bit and tore and ripped away huge pieces of the toad, filling his mouth with ash.

  The monster dropped back into its hole, and that was where it died, its body quivering ever so slightly as Gabriel’s heavenly fire consumed it.

  Gabriel emerged from the hole as the divine fire within him began to dwindle, until there was no trace of it at all.

  But he knew that it was still there inside him, waiting to be called upon again.

  And as Gabriel left the burning corpse and headed back to the school and his family, he realized that it was not only the world around him that had changed—he had changed as well.

  * * *

  Aaron slipped the clean T-shirt over his head, catching a quick glimpse of himself in the mirror atop the old, broken bureau.

  He stopped for a moment and stared at the person looking back at him.

  He didn’t recognize himself.

  Where was the nineteen-year-old kid with the dark eyes and serious expression? He’d been replaced by someone who looked much older, and who actually had reason to wear such a serious expression. His hair was longer than usual, but who had time for a haircut when he was always out trying to save the world? Running his fingers through his dark hair, he thought that if there was ever another calm moment, he would ask Vilma to trim it for him.

  He heard the sound of nails on the hardwood floor, and looked to see Gabriel standing in the doorway.

  “Hey,” Aaron said. “I was wondering where you’d gotten to. Why’d you let me sleep so long?”

  “I was out sniffing around,” he answered, somewhat agitated. “I must have lost track of time.”

  “Are you all right?” He approached Gabriel, suddenly concerned for his friend.

  “Yeah,” the dog answered. “I was just out sniffing.… Nothing happened.” He abruptly turned and started down the corridor.

  “Are you sure nothing happened?” Aaron asked, following.

  Before the dog could answer, there came a strange humming sound in the air.

  Aaron stopped, his hands covering his ears reflexively as his face twisted in discomfort. “What the hell is that?”

  The sound seemed to permeate his skull, causing his brain to itch. In fact, he could feel his entire body tingling from the strange vibration that now filled the atmosphere. He could see that he wasn’t the only one, that Gabriel was experiencing the painful sound—sensation—as well.

  “I didn’t do it,” Gabriel said, ears flattening against his head.

  “No, I wouldn’t think you did,” Aaron said,
continuing down the hall to the stairs that would take him outside. “About that other stuff we were talking about… are you sure you’re all right?” Aaron probed.

  “Fine,” Gabriel answered, descending the steps beside him. “Things have just been crazy lately, and I guess it’s starting to affect me.”

  Aaron reached out to pat his dog’s side affectionately.

  “Don’t make me start worrying about you, too,” Aaron told his friend as they reached the exit.

  Outside, the strange humming was even more prominent, and Aaron suddenly knew the cause.

  “Over here,” he said, already at a trot. Gabriel tagged along behind.

  At the front of the property Aaron found the source of the odd sound. The giant sword of the Abomination of Desolation, which had once been the Instrument, vibrated wildly as it protruded from the ground.

  “It’s never done that before,” Gabriel said.

  “No, it hasn’t,” Aaron agreed, finding himself drawn to the enormous weapon.

  He was not more than two feet away and reaching out to touch the trembling blade, when Lorelei cut into his mind.

  “This isn’t a test of the Emergency Broadcast System,” Lorelei joked inside his brain. From the look on Gabriel’s face, he’d heard Lorelei’s voice too.

  “Could you all please come to the science lab?” she asked. “I’ve got something I think you should see.”

  The message broke off, and Aaron heard only the vibrating hum of the giant sword, and felt a slight tickling sensation in his nostril. He reached up to touch beneath his nose, and wiped away a trickle of blood. This was often a side effect of Lorelei’s psychic messages.

  “Shall we go see what she’s got?” he asked his dog.

  “Yeah, before she calls back.”

  Aaron and Gabriel met up with Vilma at the science building. She held the door for them as they approached.

  “You’re awake,” she said to Aaron with a sexy smile. He always found her smiles sexy, even when they weren’t supposed to be.

  “No thanks to you,” he answered.

  “Don’t tell me that you didn’t need it.”

  “Fine, I won’t.”

  She followed them inside, and he purposely slowed so that they could walk side by side.

  “Any idea what Lorelei wants?” Aaron asked.

  Vilma shook her head. “Don’t have a clue. I haven’t seen her all day, but I bet it has something to do with the sword out there vibrating like mad.”

  The door creaked open behind them, and they all turned to see Melissa.

  “Good! I thought I’d be late,” she said, hurrying to catch up. “What’s up with the Instrument?” she then asked, following them in.

  Aaron wondered where Cameron was, but was distracted by what was happening as they entered the science lab.

  Since accepting that he was Nephilim, and learning about the creatures hidden in the shadows, Aaron had seen some pretty amazing things. So it was always impressive when he actually witnessed something that gave him pause.

  “What is going on?” he asked.

  Dusty sat cross-legged atop one of the black-topped lab tables, seemingly deep in the grip of some magickal trance. Floating in the air in front of him, slowly turning in orbit, was a globe, probably used at some point to teach about the solar system.

  Verchiel was already present and stood off to the side, watching with cold, unimpressed eyes.

  “What’s he doing?” Aaron whispered as Lorelei came over, leaning heavily upon her cane. It broke his heart to see her this way. The Archon magick that she insisted on using to help them was slowly eating away at her. Milton the mouse sat upon her shoulder, his tiny black nose twitching excitedly.

  “Was in the process of teaching him some of the basic magickal principles,” she explained, eyes still locked on Dusty and the globe spinning before him.

  “This looks a little bit more than basic,” Vilma said.

  “Exactly,” Lorelei agreed. “It was almost as if I weren’t teaching him anymore but the magick was. It was like he was picking up some sort of signal from somewhere and…”

  “The sword,” Aaron said.

  Lorelei looked at him.

  “The sword is vibrating like crazy out there.”

  “I knew he had a connection to the sword, but I never expected anything like this,” she said.

  “How long has he been like this?” Gabriel asked, slowly padding closer to the lab table and turning his stare to the floating globe.

  “Not very long,” Lorelei said. “I called out just as soon as I saw the globe rise into the air.”

  “What do you think he’s doing?” Melissa chimed in.

  “I think the magick I’ve shown Dusty has helped him process information being broadcasted by the sword. Remember, he was the Instrument’s bearer before…”

  Small pinpricks of light began to illuminate specific sections on the globe’s surface.

  “Evil is spreading,” Dusty said, his voice oddly magnified. Aaron had to wonder if he was totally in control, or if the sword was somehow speaking through him.

  “As the daylight dims, the darkness spreads.”

  The dots of light now merged with other dots, covering entire landmasses.

  “And spreads, and spreads, and… ,” Dusty continued.

  What had once been areas of light then turned to dark, and Aaron watched with growing unease as the representation of the world was gradually swallowed up by blackness.

  “Until the dying of the light… all light… and there is only shadow. But even that will not sustain its hunger.”

  Tendrils of darkness snaked out from the shiny black surface.

  “And when the light of the world is extinguished, the shadow will move on, climbing higher and higher toward the ultimate source of light.…”

  Aaron was suddenly gripped with an overwhelming feeling of dread, as he understood what Dusty was saying.

  “To satisfy its voraciousness, the shadow will reach to the sky, and one by one the stars will go out, until its hunger is so great that it will feed upon Heaven itself. Then the black of nothing will hold indomitable sway over all.”

  As Dusty said this, the darkness began to spread from the globe, to the air around it, to the lab tables.

  To lay claim to everything.

  Aaron was just about to act—to do what, he really wasn’t sure—when Dusty moaned. His face twisted as if in pain, and the snaking veins of shadow were pulled back into the globe, until it looked as it should.

  The globe dropped to the ground with a heavy metal thud, and bounced, just missing Gabriel, who dashed away. Dented, but still intact, the sphere rolled about on the floor. Everyone stood, speechless.

  Dusty unfolded himself from the position he’d taken to work his spell, and Lorelei attended to him, making sure that he was all right.

  “I’m good,” he told her. “A little shaky, but good.”

  He climbed down off the table with her help.

  “I know I’m mostly blind, but even I can see that something’s up,” Dusty said nervously. “What exactly did I do?”

  Verchiel broke his silence.

  “You were kind enough to show us that earth will be swallowed by evil, that evil then spreading to Heaven itself. I cannot express how happy I am to know not to waste any futile attempts to postpone an irreversible outcome,” the angel said with a snarl.

  “That’s not true,” Dusty said. “It’s not an irreversible outcome.… It’s only a possibility,” he explained.

  Aaron was curious. “What do you mean, only a possibility?”

  Dusty took a moment to get his thoughts together.

  “The Instrument, the sword, shows me multiple outcomes, the strongest being the most likely. But there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of possibilities.”

  “So there’s still a chance that we can stop this evil from spreading,” Aaron said.

  Dusty considered that. “Yeah, I think so.”

  �
�You’re all mad,” Verchiel chimed in again. The little angel of sunshine. “You saw the outcome.”

  “I saw a possible outcome,” Aaron retorted.

  “Darkness will overtake the world, and beyond. You’ve been out there, boy,” Verchiel said. “You’ve seen what we’re up against.”

  “No evil that we haven’t beaten,” Aaron said defiantly.

  Verchiel smiled then, a cold and humorless smile. “You actually believe that you can keep this from happening?” he asked. “Have you looked around you, Aaron Corbet? Have you noticed how many there are of us and how many there are of them?”

  “What was it you said to me?” Vilma suddenly asked the angel. “You either fight or die? Well, we’re choosing to fight.”

  Verchiel’s wings emerged and began to flap languidly.

  “You’re absolutely insane,” he said. “Admirable… but insane. Now I understand how you beat me and my Powers. You’re too damn stubborn to recognize your defeat.”

  “Nobody’s defeated yet,” Aaron said, not letting Verchiel’s words dissuade him. “And I think that might be part of our problem.”

  Aaron squatted next to the globe on the floor. “Lorelei, or in this case Dusty, showed us where the evil will appear. Normally we would wait until it surfaced and then deal with it.”

  He laid his hand upon the globe and slowly rolled it around.

  “I think it might be time to do things differently,” Aaron declared. “A more proactive approach might serve our purpose better.”

  Aaron looked up from the globe.

  “We’re going to find this evil and destroy it before it can make its move,” he said.

  “Before?” Verchiel questioned.

  “That’s right,” Aaron replied. He looked over to Dusty and Lorelei. “We can do that, right?” he asked. “There’s a spell that can show us where these pockets of evil are, right?”

  Dusty looked to Lorelei. “You’re better at this than I am.”

  “Yeah,” she said, stroking Milton’s head on her shoulder as she considered Aaron’s question. “They kinda stick out like a sore thumb. I’m sure we can rig some sort of spell to find the bigger pockets first, and then go from there.”