He has reached the room he felt an aura of death from. This is an empty room, which in itself is strange. And then there is the aura of death here even though there isn"t anything present in the room. These two things combined make the h.e.l.lfire cautious as he steps in the room with his psychic-barrier held up.Gabriel: "Is anybody here?"
He asks. He asks, even though he can sense from the aura that no one is there. He asks, even though he knows that no reply will come. He still asks, just for the sake of easing his own anxiety. As far as his own safety goes, Gabriel doesn"t even feel the need to be cautious. But for those who are not strong, those who are in fact plainly weak, those like his family, his in-laws and his fiancé, are all people whose safety can make him worry.
Gabriel: "Where the h.e.l.l are they?"
And so he finds himself getting anxious but is unable to calm down even knowing that it will affect him in a bad way.
Gabriel: "Tsk!"
He just keeps looking again and again at the different empty corners of that empty room. In the house filled with comfortable sofas and beds, this room doesn"t even have a wooden chair to sit on. In the house filled with brightly lit and fancy bulbs, this room doesn"t even have a mere tube light. In a house filled with money and prestige, this room doesn"t even have a life. Yet, it has death. How?
Gabriel: "Ah!"
He moves away in surprise when he realizes that he accidentally stepped on something. In his surprised and hurried getting away, he ends up losing his balance and falling on the ground. That causes his eyes to get on a lower alt.i.tude. And as he looks back at the room, and automatically is able to get a better view of the ceiling, his breath catches in his lungs and his voice stops coming out of his throat.
Gabriel: "…"
He stares at that scenery in idle shock and crooked silence with his mouth hung wide open and his eyes stretched wide.
Gabriel: "a … a …"
He tries to bring some voice out of his throat but it feels to him like something has been put in his wind pipe making him unable to breath, much less say anything. And so, he just keeps staring at the horror in front of him.
His mother-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing both her arms and has her half her clothes torn apart.
His father-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing both his legs and has cut marks on the rest of the body.
His brother-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing his tongue and his nose and has markings left of flogging on his back.
His sister-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing her forehead and the part above and has markings on both her sides as if she was crushed between two giant rocks and all her bones are now broken.
His uncle-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing all his clothes and has iron rods put in and brought out through his feet and his palms.
His aunt-in-law, now hanged to the ceiling, missing both her ears as well as her eyes and has burn marks throughout her body.
The six in-laws that he had familiarized himself with were all there, in states that may have been better had he not been seen. The rest of the family that he didn"t even knew that well was also there, and in much more artistic fas.h.i.+on. Seeing that sight, how could he have any energy left at all in his body? He doesn"t. He has fallen on the floor and is lying in pure shock and horror, moving not one bit as he stares at that scenery.
Gabriel: "Who …"
Without even his knowledge or consent, a word escapes his mouth … and then escapes a sentence.
Gabriel: "Who … could have done … something like this?"
He asks to whom, he doesn"t know. He asks for what, he doesn"t know. He asks for whom, he doesn"t know. And yet,
With a dress pure black like that of a witch and an expression of a puppet with a smile, a woman with an oval face and downturned-brown-eyes and a caramel skin walks into the room with a knife in her hands and blood on her whole body as she says,
Woman: "I did this."
He tilts her head like a child as she says so. Gabriel, looking at his fiancé, tries to stand up as fast as he can as he says in an anxious voice,
Gabriel: "Anna, are you alright?"
He asks Anna Chesham, his fiancée, such an obvious and stupid question. Obviously, the answer is no. But,
Anna: "Yes! I"m okay!"
She tilts her head to the right.
Anna: "Mom is dead! Dead is dead!"
She tilts her head to the left.
Anna: "Bro is dead! Sis is dead!"
She tilts her head to the right.
Anna: "Uncle is dead! Aunty is dead!"
She tilts her head to the left.
Anna: "And I"m okay!"
She says as she spreads her arms wide throwing the knife away without any aim and acting like a little girl.
Anna: "Mom dead, Dad dead!"
She starts once again, this time with her hands raised.
Gabriel: "No!"
Anna: "Bro dead, Sis dead!"
She tilts her head to the left.
Gabriel: "No! No! Please, stop!"
Anna: "Uncle dead, auntie dead!"
She tilts her head to the right.
Gabriel: "Please! For G.o.d"s sake, stop!"
Anna: "And I"m oookaay!!!"
She says as she jumps up trying to spread her arms even wider.
Gabriel: "NO! JUST STOP IT! G.o.dd.a.m.nIT! PLEASE, STOP IT!!!"
He shouts as he loses the strength in his legs and falls down again. No matter what he tries to do, he just can"t stand up.
Anna: "Hmm?"
Seeing that, Anna walks over to him, silently, solemnly, like a curious, little witch.
Anna: "Hey!"
She says as she puts her hand on his cheeks and makes him look directly at her eyes, which were in turn looking directly at him.
Anna: "I killed mom, I killed dad!"
She says without the smile, while tilting her head to the right. Gabriel is unable to speak anything.
Anna: "I killed bro, I killed sis!"
She tilts her head to the left. Gabriel can"t bring himself to say anything.
Anna: "I killed uncle, I killed aunt!"
She tilts her head to the right. Gabriel just plainly watches in despaired shock.
Anna: "And I"m okay!?"
This time, she tilts her head once again to the left and looks as if she is asking an actual question. But then suddenly,
Anna: "Yaaaaaay!!!"
She exclaims with a smile like that of a 5-year-old mischievous girl.
Anna: "I"m okay! You know why I okay?"
She says as she closes her eyes and asks him. He, involuntarily, shakes his head.
Anna: "I killed mom, I killed dad!"
She stays the same; Gabriel tilts his head to the left.
Anna: "I killed bro, I killed sis!"
She stays the same; Gabriel tilts his head to the right.
Anna: "I killed uncle, I killed aunt!"
She stays the same; Gabriel tilts his head to the left.
Anna: "And then you kill me!"
She stays the same; Gabriel tilts his head to the right.
Anna: "So I"m okay!"
She says and holds his right hand with both her hands and brings it to her chest. She then casually goes back to where she had thrown the knife, picks it up and comes back, all the while Gabriel"s hand remains in the position she had left it in.
Anna: "I"m okay!"
She says as she hands him the knife in a way that the surface of the knife is facing her. And then she distances herself from his hands.
Anna: "And now, I"m …"
She says as she runs right into the s.h.i.+ne coming off the sharp object.
Anna: "OOOKKKAAAAAAYYYY!!!"
And her voice dissipates in the air, forever!
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His memory suddenly gains something. Gabriel"s mind all of a sudden comes to know how Sneha Stone"s aura is like. He realizes that Rosevelt has sent him the memory sample of when he met that Aural.
Gabriel: "That"s right; I have a job to do."
He gets up, lifeless, ignoring the fact that a dead woman lays in his arms who ends up falling on the ground when he gets up. He walks forward in order to escape the room and steps on the body of the dead woman, but ends up slipping sideways because of it.
Gabriel: "What! Why … did that happen!?"
He wonders why such a thing happened and gets up. It was probably some big gravel or something that made him slip, he reasons. And in order to remove that gravel from his path, he kicks it.
He kicks Anna"s dead body on her legs, then her thighs, then her stomach, then her pelvis and keeps kicking until the dead body is completely out of his path. He then stops and ends up stumbling backwards.
As he stumbles, he realizes that there is no longer anything in his path, and so he starts walking towards the exit.
Gabriel: "Ha! Ha! Ha! HA! HA! HA!"
He laughs as if to mock the foolish gravel who thought it could come in his way, the way of the h.e.l.lfire named Gabriel Was.h.i.+ngton. He brazenly laughs even though he is unable to walk straight and ends up mimicking the street burglar he had met a while ago.
But he isn"t on a street, he is in a room. And that is why, being unable to walk straight makes him stumble and b.u.mp on a wall. And so he punches that wall as if he"s a drunk. But as he punches it, he sees something on it, some sort of paper. There is something written on the paper.
He picks it up, reads it and,
Gabriel: "Ha! Ha! Ha! HA! HA! HA!"
He laughs like a crazed drunk and throws the paper on the ground and leaves the room.
On that paper, he had just read,
"This crimson pool you see is just a warning! Next time, it"ll be a crimson sea!"
A message written in blood, and the writer gave his name as "Bronzer."
*******************************