“I can’t let you leave here. No one can ever learn the truth.”
Levi sprung from his haunches like a panther. Gabriel saw a flash of reflected fire from the blade of the knife, the crazed look on the younger man’s face. Wide eyes. Screaming. Gabriel pulled the trigger at the same moment Levi slammed into him. The rifle clattered from his grasp and Levi’s weight drove him to the ground. His head slammed against the rock floor. He barely had time to throw his hands up to ward off the coming attack.
Another flash from the knife and Levi raised it high over his shoulder.
Gabriel grabbed for it, but it was well outside his reach.
A small shape leapt from the pile of rocks and landed on Levi’s back. He whirled in surprise and a flurry of claws tore into his cheek. Hissing and slashing, Oscar turned the entire right side of Levi’s face to a sheet of blood before he was able to grab the tabby by the scruff of the neck and hurl it against the wall.
By the time Levi turned back to Gabriel, Jess had brought the barrel of her rifle to bear on his forehead.
There was no look of fear on Levi’s face. Only resignation. Or perhaps relief.
One second Levi’s head was there, the next it was gone, and Gabriel was wiping warm fluid from his eyes. The body wobbled and then fell down onto him.
Gabriel tried to scream, but his mouth was full of Levi’s blood.
He scurried out from under the corpse and looked up at Jess, who stood frozen in place, a twirl of smoke rising from the barrel of the rifle, her face pale.
The weapon fell from her hands.
***
Cavenaugh burned where he had fallen. There was nothing left of his clothing but ash and charcoal, and his skin had already blackened and cracked. He still held his sister’s rigid, clawed hand within his own.
Gabriel had to look away. The beauty was painful to behold.
Jess took his hand. He had never been so grateful for such a simple gesture in his life. So many years of constant torture and longing and hoping, and now it was over.
Now he would have to truly mourn the loss of his sister. No more deluding himself, no more hoping for a miracle. He faced the daunting task of collecting her remains and committing her to the earth in the Christian fashion she would have wanted.
There was so much death. All around him. So much loss. And for what?
Oscar limped away from the cavern wall. His right rear leg was broken in such a horrible way that it pointed straight behind him like a second tail.
Gabriel crouched and held out his hand, which only startled Oscar, and sent him hopping deeper into the cavern.
“Damn it,” Gabriel said.
He released Jess’s hand, walked into the smoldering fire, and found where they had abandoned the lantern. When he turned, he could read the expression on Jess’s face, but he couldn’t forsake the cat now. Oscar was the only part of his sister left in this world. The tabby had saved him. It was only right that he return the favor.
Raising the lantern, he staggered away from the smoke and flames, the scent of burning flesh, and pressed further into the mountain.
***
Gabriel felt dead inside. The sense of loss he now experienced, the horror over so much death, was sending him into a state of shock. He could only focus on finding the cat. Once he had done so, he knew he would fall apart.
His legs moved of their own volition, leading him into the rapidly cooling depths of the earth. The air was still and dusty, as though even the breeze feared to violate the darkness. After several minutes, or it could have been hours, of stumbling on numb legs, he found himself before another collapsed section of the tunnel. There was only a small black gap between the rocks and the ceiling through which to crawl. Considering he hadn’t encountered the cat, that left only one option.
He turned at the sound of footsteps to find Jess staring at him with the same distant expression he was sure he must have worn. Without a word, he started climbing the haphazard pile of stones. He held the lantern out before him and slithered through the gap.
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.
His mind failed to rationalize the scene before him as he descended the other side. The flickering lamplight played off a rounded chamber, only rather than highlighting the imperfections on a granite surface, it died on smooth walls thick with a layer of dust. Cobwebs were strung from the ceiling and walls as though some great spider had filled the room with an intricate network of webs. The dust in the air hung like a mist. Suddenly Gabriel felt as though he couldn’t breathe.
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
He raised his other arm and brushed away the cobwebs, which clung to his skin and jacket.
“What is this place?” Jess whispered from behind him. She reached to her left and ran her hand along a straight edge that resembled the side of a doorway. Her hand came away gray with dust, but the surface she had just cleared shone like stainless steel.
Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Gabriel turned back to the room before him and held up the lantern. The walls weren’t as smooth as he had initially thought. He walked all the way across the chamber and brushed off another section of the wall to reveal an instrument panel with a flat-screen display, beneath which was a series of buttons resembling a keyboard.
His heart was pounding so hard he could hear his pulse.
He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Gabriel headed left, the ground beneath him making a sound like buckling metal under his weight. The lamp highlighted several large mounds of dust-covered debris in the middle of the room. As he approached, the lantern drew contrast on the shapes. It looked like a cluster of high-backed chairs with headrests and—
There was a crackling noise ahead of him and a soft meow.
Gabriel followed the sound around the first seat and glanced down at it. There was Oscar, curled up not on the chair, but on a pair of spindly, desiccated legs. The cat looked up at him, the reflections from his eyes twin golden halos.
Jess drew a sharp inhalation.
Gabriel followed the legs to a collapsed abdomen. The hip bones poked through the mummified gray flesh. A five-point harness crossed a bare chest, thick with dust. The parchment skin peeled away from the buckle to reveal the thin manila bones of a ribcage.
For God spared not the angels that sinned…
He reached across the harness with a trembling hand and tipped the head up by the chin.
“Oh my God,” Jess whispered.
Gabriel couldn’t find any words for the face upon which he now stared.
…but cast them down to hell…
The orbital sockets were far too large, ovular rather than circular, and set too low on the face, to creating an abnormally long and broad forehead. The eyes themselves were absent and the skin had peeled away from the deep black pits. A triangular ridge of bone between them formed a nose far too small for the face. And beneath was a thin mouth. The lips had shriveled and retracted from the bared teeth, which were small like kernels of corn to fit the tiny mouth. There was only a bump of bone at the base of the weak chin.
…and delivered them into chains of darkness…
He wanted to jerk his hand back, but he couldn’t tear his gaze from the face.
The bible had led his sister and her friends to the location where the angels that had been cast out of heaven struck the earth.
…to be reserved unto judgment.
Where they were bound for all eternity, not in chains of darkness, but in their harnesses.
He understood now the secret that had been important enough to kill to protect.
No one can know, Jenny had said. None of us can ever leave here.
Their entire existence was built upon the perpetuation of a lie.
