19 - Lost Soul (The Esper 2)

[ArchangelZero]

The storm had come from nowhere, and lasted for only minutes. The wet cobblestones glistened in the moonlight like the skin of a bathing reptile. I walk these deserted streets with much on my mind. The relic I am carrying... it is dangerous. I am afraid to sleep while it is in my possession. The dreams it gives me are almost too much to bare. They are... more disturbing than my usual nightmares.

And so I walk. I am alone on the empty slum boulevards. There are no lights here, save for the moon shining in the sky above. The wind is cool, and every so often the rain returns for a brief instant.

I gather the night around me like a cloak, seeking solitude in it's depths. I know what I have to do. If I fail, the souls of countless centuries will haunt me forever. I have to find the Phoenian. It must happen soon, because I don't know how much longer I can hold on. The rain weighs on my shoulders. An oppressive cloud descends upon me, and I feel that I am truly and hopelessly damned.

I turn a corner and glance at a particularly deep puddle.

I stop.

Wait.

Something is behind me. I saw a glint in the water's reflection. Impossible. No one sneaks up on Archangel Zero. Ever.

My hand slowly reaches for my gunblade. Around me, the breeze begins to gust, sending dirt and debris whirling into tiny black dust devils. Strange. I can't feel anyone behind me. Although... there is this... this aura. Yes, I can feel it now. Dark. Evasive. And very, very cold. I shiver in spite of myself.

I turn around.

Nothing.

No. That can't be. I couldn't have been imagining things. This was real. I raise my head to the sky.

The moon...

What the hell happened to the moon? It's gone!"

My...flesh...crawls. The cold... the cold, it's back. Am... am I dreaming? I'm... I think... I think I'm... terrified.

I make an abrupt about-face, planning to get the hell back to the church.

My gunblade clatters to the slick pavement.

...

The eye.

A single... evil... eye. Blue. Blue as frigid as an ice cap, and deeper than the sea. I'm... frozen. Entranced. I... cannot... look away. I see now. There are two eyes. One bright, and one so faint as to barely be visible. A smile. White flash of teeth in a midnight hood. Ghouls brush against my flesh, and a scream catches itself in my throat.

An icicle jabs its way into my consciousness. It speaks my name.

Azriel.

And then it is gone. What in the holy high hell? What happened? It's gone! The cloaked figure with demon's eyes is gone!

I race back to the chapel in the light of the slowly returning moon.

[ArchangelZero]

They found the church. The Senate tracked me down.

How...

The fire must have started in the basement. By the time a awoke, the smoke was everywhere. Flames leap from the weeds growing up through the floor. The ground beneath me is hot to the touch, stones blossoming from the heat of the furnace beneath the floor. Shadows from rotted benches and climbing ivy dance and burn. The altar is awash in rolling flame. Acrid, foul smoke fills my ancient lungs. There is no light, save for the flickering red and orange. Ghosts of those who've died here, married here, all who've grown up on the sacred teaching of the Magi, brought to them in this city of sin... these specters assault every sense I possess. They cry out as their ashes, there flesh and bone turned dust, whirl and burn in the rising thermal currents. Sparks and soot whirl through the blackened air, singeing my cloak and stinging my eyes.

The door is locked.

No. I will not die in this holy place.

The heavy door is made of wood and steel. I feel the esper's opressive presence inches from my heart. It burns hotter than the flames consuming the sanctaury. The voices in my head swell and fade with the dancing shadows. I don't know if I can do this. I have to concentrate.

I stretch out my hand and close my eyes.

The burning door explodes outward, propelled by the force of its own shattering structure. I am carried in its slipstream, landing on my back in the street.

The light from within plays tricks with the stained glass windows, casting half-formed, wicked murals of multi-colored light onto the pavement.

A child screams. From the spire. WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!?

A beggar child... no older that ten, clutching a ragged stuffed animal, wails from the balcony on the bell tower.

"MOMMAAAAAAAAAA!!! ANYBODY!!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!"

"DON'T LET ME BURN UP!!!!"

I leap from the street, landing mere feet from the small child. She gasps. Face smeared with soot, coughing from the black cloud belched from the blaze below, she recoils. I beckon.

"Come on! I'll get you out of here!"

She nods and comes toward me, still clutching her prized possession. I stretch out my hand.

"GRAB HOLD!"

The sanctuary collapses. She screams as the roof beneath her collapses. I catch her hand.

And then, we're on the street. She's sobbing, clinging to me and crushing her stuffed animal between us. I wrap my cloak around her, and run.

................

The Temple elder at his desk leaped to his feet as I appear from the shadows of his office. I don't say a word.

"Who are you? How the hell did you get in here?"

I don't reply. I gesture to the little one at my side, projecting a thought into her mind.

You're safe here.

And then I am gone.