Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  Once he was gone, Claire said, “Cute. But what would Gabriel think?”

  I tried peering into the room to see the art teacher, but all I saw was a single row of desks. We started walking to the cafeteria. “I don’t care what Gabriel thinks.”

  “He likes you.”

  I groaned. “No, he doesn’t. He just likes picking on me. He’s like a brother to me.” At one point in time, that was true. Now…now it might’ve been a lie.

  He was like a brother to me.

  You couldn’t make out with your brother, unless you were on Game of Thrones, then all bets were off. And as for my dream, well, I preferred not to think about it.

  Chapter Two – Gabriel

  As Kass walked away, I couldn’t help but stare at her butt. She had a nice one. Firm. I’d know—I’d touched it before. A few times. Some of them were on accident, some of them not-so-accidental.

  When she was out of sight, I looked at Max as I finished off the first sandwich at a record time. The red-headed kid was totally enthralled in his science book. What. A. Nerd. What a geek. I wasn’t even sure what to call him, because I’d never seen someone like him—a teenager, who not only fought Demons in his spare time, but also read science journals.

  Yuck.

  “So, my man Max,” I said, tapping the table. “When you going to seal the deal with your girl Claire?” Okay, that kind of came out wrong.

  But it didn’t matter, because Max had no idea what I just said. “What does seal the deal mean?”

  “When you going to ask her out? Take her on a date? Make her fall so madly and deeply in love with you that she can’t imagine her life without you in it. You know, normal boy stuff.” Holy crap. When did I start sounding so…old? Normal boy stuff. Who said that?

  Honestly, I wasn’t feeling so much myself lately. Not after watching Kass die.

  It was…the single worst moment in my life.

  Never had I felt so helpless. Never had I wanted to kill something so much. Forget purifying. I wanted to kill that Original, and I did, after something snapped. Something took me over, made me say some weird, psycho babble, and then…and then I killed her. I killed an Original.

  I killed an Original.

  It just didn’t sound right.

  If anyone here was the special snowflake of the group, it was Kass, not me. I wasn’t the special one. I was just Gabriel. A relatively normal guy who knew how to purify with a pencil. Nothing special here. No old soul here.

  Just me.

  Just…me.

  Max actually closed his book and set it on the table. No bookmarks needed; he’d remember what page he left off on. “I’m not smooth like you, Gabriel. I don’t know how to do that kind of thing.”

  Was he asking me for advice?

  Well, back in my heyday, I did date a lot of girls, after my first girlfriend tried to feed me to her pet Nightwalkers. That was super fun, a day I’d never forget.

  “Well, there are lots of ways to do it.” I started eating the other sandwich, even though my stomach felt a little strange. Feeling strange never stopped me from finishing a meal. Food and I, we were close. Almost as close as Kass and I. “I don’t know Claire as well as you. Do you know what she likes?”

  “Uh…” Max was at a loss for words, especially when Claire and Kass appeared behind him.

  Claire moved to sit across from him, unrolling her bagged lunch. A flattened wrap with some baked chips. How disgustingly healthy. “What who likes?” she asked, looking from Max to Gabriel.

  Kass smiled knowingly, staring at me from across the table. We sat by the wrong person. She should be next to me, and Claire should be next to Max, not the other way around. “I’m sure,” Kass said after resuming her demolition of the fries and nuggets, “that Gabriel was just giving Max some important advice.”

  Max nodded to himself, insanely focused on his granola.

  “Advice about what?” Claire wouldn’t let it go, clueless as she was.

  I set the second sandwich down. A sharp pain jabbed in my gut. It felt like I was being impaled. Ridiculous, I knew, because I knew I wasn’t being stabbed by anything. I moved a hand to my stomach, feeling the sudden urge to vomit.

  Kass swallowed her mouthful, leaning closer to me as she whispered, “Are you all right? You don’t look so good.”

  “I always…” My face scrunched. The pain was like nothing I’d ever felt before, physically. “…look good.” I didn’t sound too convincing. Sweat pooled on my forehead, and I stood, feeling wobbly. My legs didn’t work well, though, and I fell. My chest felt so heavy, like there was a ton of bricks sitting on top of me. I couldn’t breathe.

  I vaguely heard Kass shouting for me as she ran to my side. The cafeteria got quiet as everyone watched. I liked being the center of attention, but not like this. Was this what dying felt like? Was I going to die?

  The principal was on his knees beside me, trying to talk to me, taking out his phone.

  Was this the end?

  Chapter Three – Michael

  On the way to the hospital, I cursed over and over again. The stupid kids couldn’t eat their own lunches, even when I packed them the same thing. If Kass would’ve eaten it, like I had intended for the last few days, my work here could’ve been done. I could’ve returned to the Order with Gabriel in tow, and a new world could’ve been born.

  But no. Nothing could ever go right, could it?

  It shouldn’t surprise me. Kass didn’t know when to die, or how to stay dead. Who knew if the poison would’ve actually done the job, or if she’d walk it off like she walked off everything else?

  I was at a stoplight, and after debating on what to do, I reached for my phone. When the ringing stopped, I instantly said, “I’m on my way to the hospital. Something happened at school with Gabriel.”

  “Something happened? What happened?” Liz’s voice was frantic. “Is Max all right? And Kass?”

  “As far as I know, it’s just Gabriel. I don’t know what happened yet. All I know is that an ambulance took him there.” I started moving once the light turned green.

  It was a moment before Liz whispered, “I’ll come back. I’m only thirty minutes away.”

  I thought about arguing, but after today’s failure, I could use some womanly company. Was it wrong for me to lie to everyone? Maybe. But it was wrong for the world to despise someone who went against their superior simply because they didn’t believe in the same thing? What if both sides were right? What if there was no wrong?

  Such existential questions I wouldn’t have the answers to, perhaps ever.

  After saying goodbye and exchanging words of love, I hung up. I pulled into the hospital’s parking lot twenty minutes later, forced to park in the boondocks of the area because of all the cars. Who knew hospitals were so busy all the time?

  I rushed into the Emergency Room entrance and told the receptionist who I was the guardian of. Lower-cased guardian. They didn’t have to know anything about the Council or Purifiers. I cut a few people off in order to do so, but I didn’t care.

  I only cared about making sure Gabriel was all right.

  Without him, without his real awakening, the world would never be born anew.

  I heard what happened. I saw the unnatural angle Kass’s neck was. A wound like that no one could recover from. I saw Gabriel transform into something of legend, something that the Order had been searching for for millennia. It was only a glimpse; it didn’t last long, for somehow Kass didn’t stay dead, but the boy was, without a doubt, the herald.

  The Beast reborn.

  The second coming, not of Christ, but of something much worse.

  Kass’s presence, though, seemed to ease him. She seemed to make him act like a normal teenager. How infuriating.

  As I was led to his room, I met with a doctor wearing nothing but white. “Excuse me,” I said. “I’m Michael, Gabriel’s guardian. What’s going on?” From here, all I could see was the curtain divider in the room just past him. Gabriel was out of
sight.

  If I ended up killing Gabriel…

  I would prefer not to think of that scenario. It wouldn’t be fun for me. Not at all.

  The doctor’s bald head shone in the bright fluorescent lights. “It seems he collapsed during lunch. We’re running a few tests based on what his symptoms were described as from the principal. We don’t have much to go on, I’m afraid.”

  “Can I see him?” I hesitated to ask, fearing the worst.

  He nodded once. “Sure.” The doctor led him to the room, allowing him to walk in first.

  Gabriel laid on a white bed, sheets tucked neatly around him. A tube was hooked up to his arm, monitors of all shapes and colors beeping behind him. His eyes were closed. His skin beyond pale. The great and mighty Gabriel looked awful.

  Why wasn’t he healing himself?

  “He certainly has a lot of tattoos. Do you know how old they are, so we can rule out any infections?”

  I stared at the boy. That’s what he was now, somehow, even with that darkness in him. Just a boy. A boy who never really had a chance at a normal life. I muttered something about the tattoos being over a year old. A lie, for most of them, save for the Celtic cross on his chest. That one, I signed off on when he turned sixteen.

  Out of all the Order members who were assigned a Purifier—I was the one who actually got him. I was the one who had to watch over him as he grew. If I would’ve known sooner, if he would’ve awoken when Kass fell into that coma three years ago, all of this could’ve been avoided.

  A shame, really.

  “Has he regained consciousness?” I asked, glancing at the doctor.

  The doctor sighed. “No, he’s been out since collapsing at the school. By all accounts, he should be awake.”

  Everything turned into a blur. I parted ways with the doctor, sat in the waiting room, staring at my knees. I’d have to report this, obviously, but I didn’t want to report it until after he woke. I wasn’t a fan of the Order’s ideas of punishment.

  A feminine hand suddenly interfered with my field of vision. Liz was beside me, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She wore a suit with heels, her normal clothing. “Do they know what happened?” Her English accent was thick, and a lot better than mine, because hers was real.

  Mine had always been fake.

  “He collapsed in school. That’s all they know. He’s unconscious. The doctor said he should be awake.” I paused, adding, “But he’s not.” My voice trembled as I turned to her, “What if he never wakes up?”

  Liz engulfed me in a warm embrace, and I buried my face into her neck. She smelled like honey. “He will, Michael. Gabriel’s strong. He’ll wake up.” Her comforting words meant hardly anything to me, because all I could think about was: what if he didn’t?

  What if I just screwed up the plan the Order had put into motion since they were formed in the Middle Ages?

  Chapter Four – Kass

  They wouldn’t let me ride in the ambulance. I was a minor, unrelated to Gabriel, and, truthfully, I didn’t feel like arguing, because I was tired. Worried, anxious, panicked—and so, so tired. My life didn’t know when to take a break.

  I sat in the rest of my classes that afternoon, listening to the kids gossiping about what happened during the first period of lunch. The whispers were irritating.

  “You know that kid, Gabriel? I heard he overdosed during lunch today.”

  “The cops lined everyone up and had them write statements.”

  Lies. I did my best to tune everyone out, to pointedly ignore the ones who came up to me, asking about it. Some people thought Gabriel and I were dating—yuck, right? Other people thought we were siblings or cousins. Some wondered why I wasn’t at the hospital with him. I would be, soon enough.

  The periods passed, feeling more like eternity than hours. Why didn’t the link between Gabriel and I go both ways? Why couldn’t I feel him like he could magically feel me when I was in trouble?

  The final bell for the day rang, and I walked to my locker in a haze. It took me five tries to open it. Same old me, just another day. I had a hand in my locker, putting the textbooks away when a short boy came to my side.

  “Liz is outside. We’re going to visit him in the hospital,” Max stated. He had no backpack. He just carried his books like a savage. He did have the muscle, somewhere, beneath his wiry frame.

  I only nodded once. There was nothing to say.

  Until a series of screams rang out in the hall, fifty feet away. My head snapped to attention, as did Max’s, and together we pushed through the crowd of students to see what the fuss was all about.

  It was, without a doubt, the worst thing I’d ever seen in my life.

  Max had his cell phone (God, I could use one of those…) in his hand, dialing Liz. Other kids were already turning away, pale, holding in their lunches and afternoon snacks by squeezing their eyes shut and turning away. A few of them were calling nine-one-one, while at least two took off running to the main office.

  I could not tear my eyes away.

  It was…horrific. More horrific than when I came home to find Koath dead. His throat was cut, torn apart by Crixis. That was a scene I couldn’t look away from. There was so much blood, everywhere, oozing from his neck.

  But here?

  Here, there was no blood, save for around the cut line.

  And boy, was there a cut line.

  A naked body sat, stuffed into a locker, folded like a jacket. From what I could see, there was a straight line from the hairline, down the face and chest, all the way to the groin. A human flesh suit, with none of the bones or innards.

  My stomach flipped when I recognized the kid’s face. I saw him, in sixth period. An hour and a half ago. The body was still warm, probably.

  How had no one seen this, and why…why didn’t I have a vision of it?

  I stumbled back, the image burned in my brain. I had to look away. This was clearly a murder from some supernatural creature. No human killer could carve out a body like that and put it in a school’s locker while school was in session. It just didn’t happen like that.

  No. Whatever did that had to be purified by none other than a Purifier like me.

  By the time I reached the car in the back lot, Liz was already getting off the phone. Max was looking worried beside her. Her dark eyes locked in on me. “Max said there was a body in a locker, and it looked like something ate it.”

  I shot a quick look at the red-headed boy. His definition of eaten and mine were completely separate. “Something like that. Definitely wasn’t normal.” I got into the car in the backseat.

  Liz and Max got in. She said, “I’ll drop you guys off at the hospital, then I have to come back here to supervise the clean-up.” After adjusting the rear-view mirror, she asked, “Did you know him?”

  “No,” I whispered, as if that made it okay.

  It didn’t.

  No one deserved to die like that.

  The ride to the hospital was silent, though I was sure Liz was full of questions. I was also positive that she was counting down the days until she could return to the Council over the pond, and leave us to Michael and whoever was going to be Max’s new Guardian. She wouldn’t stay. We weren’t her responsibility.

  Liz walked us through the hospital, brought us to Michael, who sat, slouched, in one of the building’s many waiting rooms. She said, “Something happened at the school. I have to go back. I’ll fill you in later. Maybe it’s connected to what happened to Gabriel.” She kissed him on his cheek and ran off.

  Michael could hardly look at us. He didn’t even ask about what happened at the school. He simply whispered, “Do you want to see him?”

  “Of course,” Max said as I spoke, “Yes.”

  My Guardian got up and led the way, bringing us past a group of nurses and numerous other hospital rooms with their doors and curtains drawn. He stopped in front of an open door and motioned for us to go inside.

  I went in first, practically pushing Max out of the way.
>
  Gabriel.

  He…didn’t resemble the Gabriel I knew, laying there in that bed, eyes closed, unresponsive. I couldn’t take it.

  “Gabriel,” I whispered, grabbing the hand that wasn’t connected to any tube or wire. The large hand in mine only moved with my help. No fingers squeezed me, no dimples appeared on his face, no sparkles in those azure eyes.

  Max was quiet, but Michael said, “The doctor doesn’t know why he’s not waking up. They’ve been taking him for tests all afternoon. They don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

  I tuned out most of what Michael said. I got the gist when he said the words doctor-doesn’t-know. If they didn’t know what was wrong with him, how would they be able to fix him? What if he didn’t wake up on his own? What if…

  What if I survived my death, only to live the rest of my life without my best friend?

  The mere thought of living without Gabriel made my mood plummet to an all-time low. I stared at his pale, expressionless face for the longest time, not quite believing what I was seeing. Was this a dream? Did I walk into a long vision when I wasn’t paying attention?

  This couldn’t be real.

  This…this couldn’t be real, could it?

  “What happened at the school?” Michael’s tone was sympathetic and downtrodden. Gabriel had been his charge, his first and only charge, until Koath dropped me on him. Normally, Guardians just had one Purifier to look after, to train and help, and eventually to replace when we died.

  Because we did die. We died all the time. Gabriel and I had, somehow, managed to avoid death (or staying dead), maybe until now.

  Death was the one inevitable thing about our jobs.

  My lips formed a thin line as I pulled away from Gabriel. “Liz will fill you in. I…have to go.” And then I took off, running out of the room, not listening to either Michael or Max’s cries to stop me. I didn’t tell them where I was going, because I wasn’t so sure myself. All I knew was that I had to get out of there.