Chapter 38
Gabriel James waited until nightfall before going to Melissa Martin’s home on Blackstone Drive.
Turning off the headlamps of the nondescript tan Toyota he drove, he left the vehicle at the bottom of her hill and went on foot to her driveway.
He looked up into the blackened universe. The sky was clear save for vivid balls of yellow and blue ornamenting it, creating impressive, eddying shapes. To most, the glow would have been awe-inspiring, exquisite. But to Gabriel, the clarity of the evening and all its beauty was obstructed. He lowered his gaze to his feet and the pavement they walked on, concentrating on the rhythmic sound they created as each foot alternated, one in front of the next, until he reached the edge of the Martin’s property.
He stepped across hardened, icy grass and approached the tenacious oak that stood sentinel beside the garage. Its bark, furrowed and scarred with wounds of battles past, was beautiful in its imperfection. Standing beneath the boughs of the majestic oak, Gabriel marveled at the sheer dimensions of the tree, at its many paradoxes.
He placed a foot tentatively on its rough outer covering as he reached up and grabbed a branch. He began climbing pausing briefly to admire how each branch, though pliable in form and function, refused to relinquish its interlocking grip.
Gabriel gazed up into the network of branches that reached and stretched, expanding to the heavens.
But his destination was not heavenward. He was going to Melissa’s bedroom window to say good-bye, a descent into a personal hell.
Reaching the top of the garage, Gabriel scrambled over frost-coated shingles and saw Melissa’s delicate features framed in the windowpane.
Throwing open the pane, Melissa smiled and gestured for Gabriel to enter.
“Hurry, you must be freezing,” she urged.
“I’m fine,” Gabriel offered.
He knew Melissa immediately sensed falsehood in his demeanor; his lips smiled, but his melancholy eyes betrayed them.
“What happened with the police?” he asked.
“My dad and I gave our statements. I mean, I didn’t mention Terzini or anything. I just told them that we were in the woods talking out by the maintenance building, you know with Kevin and his friends, when this enormous lunatic came out of nowhere and attacked. I said he must’ve followed us home, here, because we were witnesses. They seemed to buy it. My dad and I said we thought he was drugged out or something because the attack was unprovoked.” Melissa paused then added, “They’re looking for you, to take your statement.”
“What’s really weird though,” Melissa continued, “is that we gave our statements, like, four hours ago and we haven’t heard anything since. I mean, is that normal? There was a dead body in our house, for heaven’s sake! You’d think there’d be some kind of follow up or something.”
Gabriel sat silently, his heart aching.
“What’s happening Gabriel?” Melissa asked alarmed.
Gabriel was reluctant to answer right away. He gazed into Melissa’s pellucid green eyes as he measured his response.
“I’m leaving tonight,” he said finally.
Melissa did not ask why. He could not answer her if she had. His lips would not form the words. His throat constricted so tightly it threatened strangulation. Heaviness settled in his chest.
Wiping tears with the back of her hand, she asked, “Will I ever see you again?”
“Yes,” Gabriel whispered, his throat burning, struggling to articulate each sound. “You will.”
“What about Terzini?” Melissa asked. “He wants me dead.”
Gabriel’s thoughts immediately refocused to the reason for his departure. The raw, squeezing feeling dissipated briefly and allowed easier communication. “You won’t need to worry about him. I have dealt with him,” Gabriel offered cryptically.
“Dealt with him? How?” Melissa worried.
“Put it like this, I have an insurance policy of sorts. I have very incriminating audiovisual feed that, if placed into the correct government branch of law enforcement, could end Dr. Franklin Terzini. He would never risk offering up his life’s work for you.”
“Why wouldn’t you just give it to the authorities now, turn him in? Then you could stay, with me,”
“Who knows what else Terzini has sent out into the world? I simply will not risk your life, again.”
“I’ll go with you, then.”
“And what about your father, you would leave him here alone?”
Melissa shook her head in frustration.
“If we could tell him, explain to him what’s going on I could come with you. I could call him and check in from wherever we go.”
“Melissa, you know we can’t tell your father about me,” Gabriel reasoned gently. “And while I’ll be able to contact you, I will not be able to disclose my exact location.”
“Gabriel, I don’t understand. How I will ever see you again?”
“I love you. I will find a way,” Gabriel promised his eyes stinging with emotion.
“Please don’t leave,” Melissa begged.
“I have to leave, at least until things die down here. I am connected to murders, murders of people who could easily be considered enemies of mine. It won’t be long before others students at school are questioned and my name comes up over and over again with Kevin and his friends.”
“But you didn’t kill them!” Melissa protested, tears streaming anew.
“Shh. Please don’t cry, Melissa,” Gabriel soothed, lightly touching his fingers to her soft lips. “You know that having me stay would be impossible. But I promise you, we will be together again.”
Gabriel climbed through Melissa’s window into her bedroom and took her in his arms. He pressed his lips to hers, tenderly at first, then, with urgency.
His heart throbbed and smarted. Their kiss was brief and bittersweet.
Gabriel held Melissa tightly, pulled her as closely as his arms allowed. He inhaled deeply, breathing the warm vanilla, caramel and coconut scent of her hair and skin.
Finally, with tears burning down his cheeks, Gabriel released Melissa from his grip.
“I’ll call you in a few days, when I get where I’m going,” he said. “I love you Melissa Martin.”
“I love you too, Gabriel,” Melissa managed through sobs.
Gabriel climbed out of Melissa’s bedroom window and slid on his backside down the length of the frost-coated roof of the garage. He then found an abiding limb outstretched to him and grabbed it. He descended the intricately dovetailed branches of the oak that shielded a large section of the house before landing atop the frost-crusted grass below.
An unremarkable beige Toyota awaited his arrival at the bottom of the hill.
He walked, unable to feel the earth below his feet. All he felt was pain.
A hole had been punched in his heart. A vacuous space, raw and ragged, ached. Each breath that he took hurt more than the last.
The crisp autumn air offered no reprieve. It did nothing to ease the burning pain that etched at him.
Though the notion offered little hope, he knew that someday he would be whole again. He did not know how. He did not know when. Everything, save for the agony he felt, seemed unclear, uncertain.
As he strode down Blackstone Drive, Gabriel was certain of one thing and one thing only: as long as his heart beat in his chest, he would return to Melissa.
DARK CREATIONS: RESURRECTION