Chapter Four
Just before making it out of the open field Gabriel noticed a large grave plaque. On it Gabriel read the following: This is a memorial dedicated to the founders of the valley and mountain ranges of Axal. In this field is where the people who built Axal's foundations are buried. Their graves and names are now lost due to vandalism and the corrupt spirit that is now found throughout our world.
Etched in the memorial was a closed gate with rays of sun shining down on it. Gabriel had seen gates like this on graves but they were always open. Whoever made the memorial had to have the same no bullshit spirit that Gabriel was finding in himself. The closed gate symbolized what Gabriel already knew. That the modern generations can only look forward to closed gates in life and death.
Gabriel looked out into the field trying to remember how it looked when he was walking with Apollyon. Gabriel was able to have a glimpse at how beautiful it used to be. Where lives lost loved ones, and grand-children of earth found their ancestors resting place. Now they only have a empty field of hollowed ground to look at.
Out in the field Gabriel could see divots in the earth where a grave was. in one spot he could make out a hole where someone had actually dug up a corpse and left it open. Gabriel hoped that maybe someone's ancestors had found the location of a relative and moved them to a marked grave. But most likely it was the twisted mind of a necromancy redneck since he could see beer cans around the hole. Upon further inspection of the field it was not really empty grave site but a junk yard of disrespect.
Everyday spent in Axal was enough to remind you of how corrupt people are. Axal was suppose to be one of the last frontiers where man could escape corruption. Instead it was just another birthing place of ignorance and vile swine. Finding love and happiness in such a place would be the hardest way of doing so.
Gabriel walked away from the hollowed junkyard of disrespect and headed back towards his wives resting place and his truck. Once he made it to Christy's grave again he stopped a moment and nodded his head before walking away again. He made his way back over the hill of his last true friends. When he made it to the top and started back down he could see a woman sitting on one of the graveyard benches reading a book.
He looked at the woman and then looked away. But something about her drew his glance back. He stopped and just intently stared at the unsuspecting women. She was such a beautiful and amazing monster of our world. She had on black cargo pants with chains hanging from the pants pockets. There was writing's and tears on her pants.
Her shirt was a simple black tank top, exposing green bra straps. On one of her arms was a tattoo of skeleton stick figures, with skull heads. One was a woman with a brides veil, the other was a man handing her a ring. The woman was a natural blonde but she had once died her hair black and it was fading. Her lip had multiple spikes coming out from them and strong black make up lined her face.
Everything about her was clearly saying don't fuck with me. She could have been reading at the library or in the woods but much like Gabriel, she enjoyed the company of the dead. She was a absolutely gorgeous ruin of a woman. Gabriel was completely fascinated by her, he was now ducking behind a pine tree to conceal himself.
She was much like Ashley but even Ashley still had a purpose in life to destroy men. But this magnificent monstrosity of modern worlds design was completely dead to the world. She did have some blood on her hands but the pain of her life was absolutely intriguing to Gabriel. The woman was the first that Gabriel could look at and want to see her suffering since she wore it like a trophy on her body.
Gabriel was even undressing her with his eye's. Removing the defense mechanisms of a corrupted soul. Underneath the chains, studs, black makeup, and hair coloring was a drop dead gorgeous blonde. He was not undressing her in a lustful way, but to see the perfect creature underneath it all. She was a butterfly that went back into a cocoon concealing her beauty. But Gabriel could see it shining through and was not falling for the masks.
After watching her for a few moments he knew he had to speak with this woman. He had to see the pain she went through no matter how frightening it might be. He would not walk away without seeing the architect of such a perfect ruin. Just like he used his curse to see Antonio's love for Christy, he would use it to see her pain.
At first he thought about sneaking up and just gently touching her. But he wanted to speak to her, and to know who she was before seeing what made her that way. He stepped out from behind the tree and headed down the road towards her. She was still reading her book and was unaware Gabriel was there even though he was now right next to her.
“What are you reading?” Gabriel said. She didn't even jump, or change expression. She just continued to read until she was at a point where she could answer. “I am reading poem's by Edgar Allan Poe.” Once she was done speaking she went back to reading.
“Mind if I sit?” Gabriel asked. Once again there was no reply but a simple nod of her head. Gabriel sat down next to her on the bench. He remained silent for a few moments and watched a blue bird flying around landing from tombstone to tombstone. “So do you like being in the graveyard?” Gabriel asked searching for words like a young man with pick up lines.
“I do enjoy the graveyard when no one is here.” She said in dismissal of Gabriel. “Not the friendly type huh?” Gabriel said.
“Do I look like the friendly type?” She was becoming agitated with Gabriel. She just wanted to read her book and be left in peace. “I am sorry to bother you, just wanted to know why such a beautiful woman would be alone and reading in the graveyard.”
“Look buddy, I am not into men. Save your pickup lines for some other clueless girl.”
“Well I am not looking for a woman so you don't have to worry about that. I just thought maybe you were someone I could have a interesting conversation with.”
“You thought wrong, I just want to be left alone please.” Right as she finished speaking she went back to reading her book. Gabriel was getting no where fast with the woman, so he turned to plan B. He reached his hand out and brushed up against her leg. The normal jolt and darkness hit him for a moment and then he found himself in a trailer home.
Looking up at a clock on the wall it was reading 1a.m. A little girl and boy were playing in the living room. The girl was about 6 or 7 and the boy looked a few years younger. The girl had blonde hair and Gabriel knew it was the woman back in the graveyard that he was so fascinated with. They had toy cars and GI Joe's sprawled out all over the floor.
The kids played for a few moments and then Gabriel felt the whole trailer shake and a loud bang. The kids panicked and shut off the light and darted down a hallway to their room. Gabriel could hear the engine of a car and he thought at first maybe it was a earthquake that shook the trailer but it was the vehicle. Gabriel followed through the dark back to the kid's bedroom.
Inside the room was a shabby home made bunk bed made from plywood and two by four's. It looked more like a crappy tree house that some kids slapped together. The girl was already up on the top bunk pretending to be asleep. The boy was on the bottom bunk doing the same. Gabriel just hoped that the whole bunk bed would not collapse crushing the poor boy below.
Even the trailer looked like it might collapse from the force of the car hitting it. But luckily the redneck paradise was somehow holding together. Gabriel could hear the door slam shut and some heavy coughing. Then he heard another huge thud of someone collapsing. “FUCKING TOY'S!” A man yelled in a drunken rage.
“Stupid fucking kids have been up playing all night!” The man yelled. Gabriel could hear some cupboards slamming shut. The light from the living room flashed on, the kids door was slightly cracked and allowed the light to glow in. Gabriel could hear more banging of cupboards then silence.
“That's it, I'm gonna teach these kids a lesson!” The man's rage was growing by the minute. Gabriel walked out to see the man. He was standing in the kitchen holding a Zipo lighter and going through a old cigar box. The man had
long brown hair and a purple muscle shirt. He was very tall with a long face filled with rage.
Though he had on a muscle shirt he was very scrawny. His arms were covered in tattoo's of Nazi signs, knives, revolvers, and roses. He also had a large cross with a Nazi sign in the middle of it. The tattoo's looked like they had been done in prison rather than by a professional. Once Gabriel was close enough he could see the man fumbling through WWII German badges in the cigar box.
The man could hardly stand straight and was trembling mad. He pulled one swastika badge from the box and closed it up. He laid the badge and the Zipo down on the table. He put the box of badges back in the cupboard and slammed it shut. Then he walked over to a drawer and pulled out some needle nose pliers and threw them down on the table.
Gabriel was not sure what nightmare the man was working on but it didn't look good for the children in their room. It looked like he was preparing for a drunken satanic and racist funeral of the kid's innocents. Gabriel could feel that sickness quickly coming back. Not the one of withdrawal but of disgust in the worlds monsters.
The Nazi sandman walked out of the kitchen and past Gabriel. Rage boiled on his face as he grimaced in anger. The rage on his face was not because of the children. But because of his own demon's that he faced in life. It was clear that the children were about to suffer because he was to much of a coward to face down his true demon's.
“Come here you little shit!” The man yelled.
“No daddy it wasn't him it was me, he was sleeping!” The girl pleaded. Gabriel walked back to see the chaos. He wished he could knock the man out. In the morning he would not even remember what happened.
The man had the young boy up in his arms. Then he threw the boy down on the floor. “You did this?!” He yelled. “I'm sorry daddy, it was me I was up playing!” The girl was now in tears, frozen in a frantic horror. With one arm he grabbed her leg and lifted her from the bed. Her body and head swung out from the top bunk and barely missed the floor.
Her nightgown covered the terror on her face. The coward carried her by one leg out to the living room and dropped her head first on the floor. “Don’t move!” He said as he walked over to the kitchen table and grabbed the items he had prepared. The little girl laid motionless on the floor. Tears streaming down her face and onto the floor.
The coward walked over to his trembling daughter. “I am gonna be teaching you a lesson!” he shouted at her. He took the pliers and grabbed a corner of the swastika badge and then took the Zipo and clicked the orange flame on. He held the raging flame under the swastika heating it up. Fire from the flame glowed in his eye's.
After a few moments the swastika was glowing bright orange. “NO!” Gabriel shouted to no avail. The coward grabbed the girl's hand and dropped the glowing hot swastika on it. She screamed in blood curtailing pain that Gabriel had never heard come from the mouth of a child. The smell of burning flesh filled the room. The cowards sadistic hand clinched the little girls. Tears now rolled down Gabriel's face as he fell down next to the girl.
With the pliers in hand he removed the swastika from the little girls hand. She was now passed out on the floor from pain. Her mind could be safe from the nightmare the man had caused. He let go of her arm and walked away into the darkness of the hallway. Her hand was severely burnt with the imprint of hatred.
She was a hero for sticking up for her brother. But now she would bear the night's anger on her hand for the rest of her life. Gabriel stared at her hand still crying, then he sprung to his feet. Cain's blood quickly being pumped from the valves in his heart. Storming off after the man he headed into the dark hallway.
“You gutless fucking coward!” Gabriel shouted into the dark. The man was laid out on a mattress on the floor in his bedroom. Gabriel dove after the man and just as he collided with him he felt the jolting of electricity. Then darkness, but Gabriel was still coherently angry. Now Gabriel found himself in the same trailer.
This time it was daylight and the coward was sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of whiskey. Behind him was a window and Gabriel could see the street outside. A school bus had just pulled up and children from the trailer park were filing out of it. Gabriel examined the kitchen table a little closer and saw a used condom sitting in front of coward.
He intently stared at the condom as he took another swig from the bottle. The door came open and the girl Gabriel had just witnessed being branded walked in. Now she was a few years older, possibly 9 or 10. The second the door shut the man jumped from his chair, knocking it down. The girl's eye's went huge as she watched him.
The coward grabbed the bottle and threw it at her. Luckily it just missed and crashed into the door. She quickly tried to open the door and run out but the screen door gave the coward enough time to grab a hold of her and pull her back into his lunatic grasp. He slammed the door and drug her across the broken glass on the floor.
“You want to go around fucking boys now huh!” He shouted as he slung her across the living room.
“Daddy I don't know what you are talking about!” She pleaded.
“Well then why did I find a condom in the yard right in front of your window when I was mowing the yard. You little slut!” The coward raised his hand and back handed the girl multiple times. She was almost in the same spot where he held her and branded her. Tears once again soaked into the stained white carpet. After a few backhand's she just laid still on the floor. Blood running from her nose and lip. The coward walked over to the table and grabbed the used condom and walked back over to the girl. He slung the condom at her once again barley missing her head. Then he turned around and walked to the door.
“This shit better be cleaned up when I come home tonight. As long as you are my little girl you won't be having sex with boy's so I don't want to see this shit again!” Then he walked out the door and slammed it shut. Once he was gone she slowly braced herself up from the floor. Her shirt and the carpet were now stained with blood.
She got up to her feet and went over to the sink and started cleaning the blood from her face. Gabriel was regretting wanting to see the architect behind the lost soul in the graveyard. He was just a racist insecure coward. Tears continued to run down both Gabriel's eye's and the girls. He could tell that she was not even close to the age of being sexually mature or even interested in it.
Once she cleaned the blood from her face she walked out into the living room and starting cleaning up the mess. She grabbed a paper towel and used it to protect her fingers as she pinched at the condom on the floor. Picking it up she held it far away from her body and she grimaced in disgust. It was very clear that she had nothing to do with it. “Yuck!” she said as she threw it into the trash.
Then she sat down on the floor and started picking up broken glass from the whiskey bottle. The image of her cleaning up that sick twisted mans mess was heartbreaking. Gabriel wanted to help her but he knew it was to late anyway. This was just the nightmares from her past and unfortunately he could not change it.
Most likely some teenagers or the neighbors threw the condom in the yard. The coward was so insecure and controlling with his daughter that he instantly assumed it was hers. Never thinking it through or using logic, he just used his ignorant racist wasted mind to connect the dots. He never even saw the damage he was causing in such a innocent little girl.
“I am so sorry!” Gabriel said to the girl just as he was jolted once again. He was back in the living room of the trailer and this time it was dark again. “Great what next?” Gabriel said. The girls brother was now a teenager and was sitting on the floor playing video games. The girl came out from the hallway with a backpack on and tears running down her face.
“Whats wrong Tiffany?” The young man asked looking at his sister. “I am so, so sorry Steven. I have to get out of here. I graduate next month and I cannot stay here any longer. I am 18 now and I just need to get away from here and start a life.” Tiffany said crying.
“Well are you gonna come back?” Steven asked,
he was now crying as well and getting up to his feet.
“I don't know when I will be back. I am sorry to leave you with him but I don't have a choice!” Tiffany said still crying and opening her arms for her brother. He fell into her arms and started sobbing. “Take me with you!”
“I can't take you with me, I don't even know where I am going to go.”
“What about dad, he is going to kill you when he finds out!”
“That's why I need to go alone, I am an adult now and he can't stop me. But he can't know about it, just act like you don't even know about it.”
“I don't want you to go!” Steven was struggling to talk through his sobbing.
“I know you don't, one day I will come back for you. But I really have to go dad gets off work in a few hours and I have little time!”
“Please don't go Tiffany!” Steven could barely talk now.
“I love you!” Tiffany said as she let go of her brother.
“I love you too, but I don't want you to leave us!” Steven said. Tiffany was now walking for the door.
“I am going to miss you so much, take care of yourself okay!” Tiffany said as she walked out the door. Steven just fell to the floor still crying. Gabriel followed behind Tiffany as she walked out into the darkness. She had just a small backpack, blue jeans, and a school sweatshirt on. She had long blonde hair, and was a very natural beauty. Gabriel knew all along that underneath her shield was that beautiful woman.
Gabriel was really starting to worry as cars passed by on the highway. It was clear she had no plan or idea of where she was going. She had nothing but the few items in the bag and years of scars. They walked under the nights sky for hours and it was very early in the morning now. A semi screeched by and was hitting his brakes hard enough that Gabriel could smell the burning rubber.
The truck came to a halt and a man jumped out from the cab. He looked like he was in his forties, his skin on his face squeezed his chin and cheek bones. From his face he appeared to have done years of drugs. But he had a slight pudgy beer gut. He was wearing a ball cap, a red and black flannel shirt that was tucked in to his pants. He had a large silver belt buckle with a golden semi in the middle of it. Tight pants squeezed his rolls and cowboy boots completed the scary image.
“Howdy, you look like you need some help?” The man said.
“Well I could use a ride out of here!” Tiffany said. The man smiled exposing gaps in his teeth. Gabriel was uneasy about the exchange of words. The man looked like it was his lucky day and was brimming at the thought of this young beauty being his co pilot.
“Sure, lets go I will get you outa here!” The man turned around motioning for Tiffany to follow. Gabriel went ahead of them and climbed in the truck. Once inside he went back and sat on the bed. There on the other side of the bed was a area where the man had a TV. On top of that was a extensive collection of porn and Rambo movies. It looked like Tiffany was going from one nightmare to the next. As she got in and sat down in the passenger seat Gabriel let out a sigh. The man hit the air brakes and put the truck in gear and took off.
“So where is it you are looking to go?” The man said.
“I am not sure, I am kinda running away from home.”
“Wait how old are you?” The man said slowing down.
“It's fine, I am 18 I just had to get out of my fathers house!” The man was once again smiling from ear to ear and speeding back up.
“Well as long as you really are 18 you can stay with me as long as you like, my name is Bob!”
“Nice to meet you Bob, my name is Tiffany” Tiffany was looking uneasy about Bob just like Gabriel was. But she also had desperation wrote all over her. As long as she was away from the monster she lived with for the last 18 years. Gabriel just wished that someone better for her had found her but instead she was in Bob's clutches.
Gabriel was jolted again and shot into darkness. Coming too he was now on the top bunk of the semi. Bob's luggage was up there with him in a unorganized mess. The shades to the cab were closed and a light was on. A smokey haze filled the truck and a sweet and unfamiliar smell filled the air. Gabriel hung his head down from the bunk and saw Bob and Tiffany laying in the bed below.
Bob had a glass pipe in his hand and a lighter. He put the pipe to his lips and light the liter just below the bowel of the pipe. Inside the pipe was small crystals that where melting and turning into smoke. Bob's eye's looked just like her fathers with the flame flickering in them. His face turned almost purple as he inhaled the smoke. Tiffany just laid there staring off in space. It looked like she was trying to separate her mind from the moment.
“Here try some!” Bob murmured as he held the smoke in his lungs. Then he exhaled a almost blue haze of smoke. Tiffany was shaking her head and was not liking the idea.
“Trust me you will feel so much better once you are high!”
“I have never smoked meth before and I don't know everyone at school said it was a really bad drug.”
“Nah, it's not bad at all. It makes you feel better and you can even lose weight. I have smoked it for years and I think I am doing alright for myself. I used to be about 350 and now look at me now, I am fit and sitting next to a real beauty!”
Tiffany sighed and grabbed the pipe. Bob smiled and started to help her guide it to her lips.
“Isn’t this stuff really addictive?” Tiffany said with some hesitation.
“Nope, I have quit many time's. I just like the feeling it gives me and how it keeps me in shape.” Bob guided her hand and the pipe back to her mouth.
“Now what you want to do is melt the crystal's and inhale the smoke.” Bob place the lighter under the pipe and started the flame. He twirled the pipe from side to side under the flame so that it was not direct heat. Tiffany inhaled the retched smoke of death and then pushed the pipe away. She started coughing out the smoke and choking on the toxins.
“Hahaha, not bad for the first time rookie. It's okay you will get used to it in no time!” Bob said with his holey grin. Once again Gabriel was jolted into another time. He was back in the bunk in a cloud of smoke. Below him he could hear the lighter flick the flame. He could even hear the toxin's crackle and boil in the glass pipe.
Looking down below he saw Tiffany and Bob propped up in the bed. Tiffany was in her bra and underwear. While bob was a horrific site in his whitey tighties and ignorant expression. Tiffany was sucking on the pipe like a calf struggling for its mothers milk of life. Instead though she struggled to get the poisons into her body.
“You know you have been with me awhile now.” Bob said with a more serious look on his face.
“Yes I know, I am truly thankful for everything you have done for me!” Tiffany said passing the pipe back to bob.
“I know but the ice, food, and room and board is not cheap. I think it's about time you did something for me. I know we have talked about it, but this time I am serious. You can do this one thing for me and if not you need to go.” The expression on Bob's face was serious. His eye's scanned her body up and down and his mouth dripped with disgusting lust.
“I guess if it means that much to you, but I have never done it so be gentle okay?” Tiffany was frightened and her body slightly spasmed at the touch of bob. He placed his hand on one of her boob's and goosebumps raised the hair on her arm. Then he ran his hand down and into her panty's. Tiffany looked away as she reached back to undo her bra.
Gabriel could not watch and looked up at the ceiling of the truck. This perverted man had spewed his poisons into her. Now she was addicted to it and willing to give up her innocents to him. Bob was as much of a coward as her father. He was using her for his perverse desires and taking advantage of a lost young woman.
In any other world Bob would never be able to take advantage of such a vulnerable flower. But in our twisted reality he was able to. The sad truth was most men would have, but maybe some would have done right by her. It did not matter now though because she was about to be branded by corruption once more.
“Wait a second, take your panty's off I need to get a condom.” Bob got up from the bed and reached up towards a bag at Gabriel's feet. Gabriel quickly darted his legs away from Bob's fumbling hands. He opened the bag and pulled out a condom. He got ready to zip the bag back up and then stopped with a smile on his face. He reached back in the bag and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
Gabriel clinched his legs in his hands trying not to throw up. He dry heaved for a moment and leaned over the bunk in preparation of throwing up. When he looked down he saw Tiffany, completely nude and frightened. She was looking at the scar of a swastika on her hand and rubbing her finger along it. She was perfectly broken in Gabriel's eye's. Such a beauty stuck with beasts from nightmares.
Bob got back into the small bed hardly big enough for the two of them. Gabriel pulled his head back into the top bunk. He did not want to watch what would happen next. Just hearing the motion under him made him dry heave in his mouth.
“Why the handcuffs?” Tiffany said with a worried tone in her voice.
“Just trust me, it will be much easier this way.” Bob said with confidence. Gabriel could her the sound of the cuffs clicking around her wrists and he winced in further disgust. Gabriel covered his ears and squeezed his eye's shut. He should have known better than to go into her past. The skeletons were written all over her in the graveyard.
Though he squeezed his head tight he could hear the cry of her innocents leaving her crushed body under the weight of another monster. How she was able to keep from killing herself after such a horrible life was beyond Gabriel. He knew after walking a few feet in her shoe's that he wanted it to be over for her. The truck swayed back and fourth under Gabriel and then it was quickly over.
It was clear bob had not been with a woman in a very long time. Tiffany was now crying and trying to hold back the pain. “I am sorry I had to do it this way. It's like a band aid you just have to pull it off. That's why I cuffed you, it was to protect you from causing more pain.” Bob said with little remorse in his lips. Gabriel could hear him kissing her skin as though it would offer relief from his poisons.