Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6) (15 page)

“Okay, I guess,”
Yoshi said.  “You were a bit mean and you could have at least done it with an accent or mentioned freedom a few times.”

Gabriel
stood facing Yoshi.  Seconds earlier, his temper had risen volatilely and uncharacteristically.  Yet, somehow Yoshi had managed to take a situation as grave as the one they were in and lighten it.  Annoyance leaked from Gabriel and he shook his head slowly.

“Less mean and with an accent,” Gabriel said
and smacked his lips together.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Yoshi’s hand
unexpectedly clapping against his back nudged Gabriel ahead.  “We will bring her home.  You will be home with her before you know it.  Trust me.”

Gabriel stopped and locked eyes with Yoshi.  He heaved a sigh then said, “
You know, that little speech you just gave would have been better if you were wearing a kilt and on horseback.”

Yoshi tossed his head back like a child and laughed.

“Shh!” Gabriel warned.  “I’m sure we are not alone.”

Yoshi’s laughter ended abruptly and he glanced all around them.  “Right,” he whispered.

“Let’s stay close to the woods and see how far they continue down the road.  

“Agreed,” Yoshi said and they both stepped from the forest and onto the concrete.

The street was unnaturally still as they moved warily.  They passed one house that appeared vacant before they reached a dead end.  Only one other option existed and came in the form of a green sign.  It read
Ridge Road
and, judging from the steep incline of the hill before them, it would live up to its name.  The street was canopied by mature trees.  Rain water had collected on their leaves and each time the wind blew, droplets showered from them and slipped beneath the collar of Gabriel’s shirt where they slid between his shoulder blades.  Apart from the trees overhead, Ridge Road also maintained thickets on one side. 

They walked along, careful to hug the line of woodland that clung to the side of the residential road.  Houses were
scarce, and the few they saw sat on large lots of land.  Ahead another street sign glowed eerily under the fluorescent streetlamps it sat beneath, it’s lettering partially obscured by the shadows of limbs and branches surrounding it. 

“What was the name of the road Amber gave you?” Yoshi whispered.

“North Mountain Drive,” Gabriel replied.  “That is the street Terzini lives on.  Why?”

“I think that’s it up ahead,” Yoshi craned his neck to get a better view.

Gabriel’s pulse skyrocketed.  He sped his pace and raced to the sign.  When he saw that it was, in fact, North Mountain Drive, a swell of adrenaline surged from an unknown source, a reserve he did not think he possessed, for exhaustion had claimed him hours earlier.  But thanks to this sudden burst, pure energy began coursing through his veins, pumping in time with his heartbeat.

“We’re here,” he said to Yoshi
, his voice hoarse and thick with more emotions than he could identify.

He stole down the street, his movements stealthy and the world silent, save for the wild slapping of his heart
behind his ribs.  At any moment, he expected a fairytale fortress to rise from the grass, complete with spires perched atop steep roof pitches that pierced the heavens.  He was surprised when no such structure surfaced.  He walked until he thought they’d reached the end of the lane and had only passed one unexciting ranch-style house.  The house had been dark and weeds had long-since overgrown the walkway.  He doubted Terzini lived there and they’d passed it. 

When a wooden stockade fence
arose from pristine grounds, warning blew across Gabriel’s skin like icy breath and made the fine hairs on his body stand on end.  They approached the fence and peeked through its panels. 

“What the fuck?” Yoshi gasped.  “Holy shit,” he added for good measu
re.

Gabriel realized his friend’s vocabulary had been infected by Alexandra’s, though it did echo his exact sentiment. 

His eyes widened and his mind struggled to process all that he was seeing.  Lord Franklin Terzini’s house did not resemble a house at all.  It looked similar to a correctional facility, minus barbed wire atop the high fencing.  A mostly flat, sprawling building composed of brick spread as far as the eye could see.  In one spot, an additional floor had been added and was not constructed of brick as the rest of the building had been.  Small rectangular windows were spaced sporadically along the sided, second-story wall facing him.  The only other visible construction that rose above the flat roof was a small edifice near the middle of the expansive compound.   Half of its walls were constructed of glass and the lower half appeared to be made of metal.  It brought to mind a prison again as it looked identical to a guard tower.  The fact that it was occupied by four uniform-clad members brandishing machine guns did little to dispel the striking similarities.  Gabriel counted four more guards roaming about the property, though more could be on the other side of the compound.

“How the hell are we going to get in there?” Yoshi asked. 

“I have no idea,” Gabriel answered honestly.  “Let’s go around to the other side, to the front,” he said and guessed they were looking at the back of the building. 

Melissa could be anywhere inside the intimidating layout that seemed to ramble on indefinitely, and an armed, uniformed guard was certain to have her in his crosshairs.  That thought set Gabriel’s feet into motion.  Swiftly he edged the fence, wet grass swishing softly underfoot.  All he could think of was her, afraid and alone, left in the keep of soulless mercenaries.

He stopped when he reached the opposite side and Yoshi stopped just short of walking into his back.  They peered through the wooden slats of the fence and saw that it was heavily guarded. 

“We are never getting in there,” Yoshi said quietly. 

Gabriel felt his lips press to form a hard line, determination holding them there tightly as his teeth ground so hard he thought they’d shatter. 

“C’mon,” he said to Yoshi when finally he unclenched his jaw.  Only one side of the property remained that they had not seen.  If it were as secure as the rest, he did not know what he would do.  He was going in no matter what, but would prefer to make it to Melissa alive.

When they made it to the far side, he immediately saw that only one guard watched from the roof and an idea popped into his head. 

“Yoshi, if we split up and you go around front and start firing at the house from the woods, I bet that guard there will move to the front to join the others, and when he does, I can make a run for it.”

“There’s no door on the side, I don’t see how you’ll get in.”

“Look there,” Gabriel pointed to a narrow, rectangular casement window that sat just inches off the grass.
“See that small window?”

“Yeah, I see it.”

“I can pop that easily.”

“And then what, you dive in headfirst and land smack in the middle of a room
filled with Terzini’s robot killers?”

“I have to take that chance, Yoshi.  It’s the only way.  Besides, the window likely leads to a basement and
hopefully no one will be there.”

“If it helps
you to tell yourself that the basement will be empty then by all means, go with it,” Yoshi let his sentence hang in the air.

“I’m going in.  If I get caught or killed, so be it,” Gabriel said resolut
ely.  “You need to stay safe.  Don’t worry about me.”

“I don’t like this, Gabriel.  Melissa needs you,
alive
.  There could be fifty members in there,” he shook his head disapprovingly.  “I don’t mind shooting from the woods.  I can run and disappear if I need to.  I will be fine.”

“You don’t understand, Yoshi, I have to try.  I have to do whatever it takes to get in there and at least try.  He won’t let her live.  Terzini is going to kill her.”

Just speaking the words, hearing his voice say that Terzini would kill Melissa, sucked the air from his lungs so quickly, they burned, desperate for oxygen.  But he could not remember how to fill them, to breathe again, not with Melissa’s life threatened as it was. Pain radiated from the center of his chest and branched out, throbbing and aching.  But he took the pain he was feeling, took the pain and fear and shoved it down deep to the cavernous center of his core, where it curled like a snake and waited to strike.  He closed the lid to it and kept it there, readied.  Gabriel finally inhaled, greedily gulping stiflingly thick air.  His plan had been laid out inasmuch as it could be.  His fate would fall at its mercy.

“We need to go.  There’s no more time to waste,” he turned to Yoshi and said.

“All right, if this is the only way,” Yoshi said reluctantly and gripped the rifle that had hung across his body. 

“Good luck,” Gabriel said and meant it.

“And to you,” Yoshi replied.  “You’re the one who is going to need it.”

Gabriel looked again to the compound, taking his eyes off his friend
for a split-second.  He turned back to him to say something else, but when he looked back to the place where Yoshi had just been, he saw that Yoshi had disappeared.  It was as if the mist had absorbed him completely, sweeping him away on its spectral threads and carrying him off. 

“God
speed,” Gabriel whispered in the wind as he returned to the woods just beyond the fence shielding Terzini’s compound to wait.

Chapter 12

A small smile tugged at one side of Amber’s mouth as she glimpsed the expression on Kyle’s face in her peripheral vision.  H
e squinted and crinkled his nose and looked terrified; adorable, but terrified.  His fear was understandable.  She was driving nearly ninety miles an hour, shooting down a narrow and winding stretch of road. 

“Whoa,” he cried.  “Watch that turn ahead!” 

He referred to a sharp curve just ahead of them and the fact that she had not slowed to make the turn.  The street was slick with drizzle that refused to commit to stopping or raining outright, a nuisance at best.  It hung in the air and had collected on the pavement, giving it a luminescent sheen that was as slippery as it looked. Fortunately, the tight suspension of the Mustang made it feel as if the car were on rails, hugging bends and corners seamlessly while rugged tires with deep treads gripped the asphalt.  Kyle did not understand that she was experienced at driving at high rates of speed, in addition to being a closet automotive enthusiast, and that both her reflexes and vision were superior to that of most human beings.  His worry was unfounded. Furthermore, if anyone else were panicking as he was, she would have politely invited them to shut the hell up.  But since it was Kyle, she let it slide.

“Relax,” she tried to calm him.  “My reflexes a
re different from yours, better.”

“Good for you!  You won’t die when you wrap us around a tree or another car, but I will.  Oh Jeez!” he screamed as she raced up behind a car then passed it
, crossing over the solid, double-yellow line.  Headlights rushed toward them in the lane she used to pass in, oncoming traffic.  A horn blared in protest followed by Kyle’s screams.  “Oh my God!” he yelled and shielded his eyes with his forearms.  “We’re gonna die!”

Amber knew they were not going to die, not in a car accident at the moment, at least.  She maneuvered the car, tugging the wheel sharply to the right and narrowly avoided a head-on collision with an oversized pickup truck and missed the front end of the car she’d passed.

“See, we didn’t die,” she said to him and smiled wryly. 

“Maybe you didn’t,” Kyle gasped and his hand covered his heart.  “But I think I just lost a few years of my life.”

“You’re fine.  Just keep breathing.”

“Holy shit,” he
gasped.  “Seriously, you need to pull over and let me drive.  You’re going to get us killed.”

“Not a chance,” she chuckled. 

“Uh, the driver of that pickup you almost crashed into head-on, you know,
when you veered into the wrong lane doing a hundred
, I think he’d beg to differ.”

Amber’s hand left the steering wheel and wandered toward Kyle, intent to pat his arm and comfort him.  It had only traveled a few inches when she reconsidered the act and placed it back on the wheel.  Too many questions plagued her.  Chief among them: what if he
flinched at her touch?  What if he were too rattled by the episode seconds earlier to be comforted, especially by her, the person who had instigated it all? 

She strained to see him from the corner of her eye and tried to gauge his level of upset.  His face revealed nothing.  His expression was blank.  She was left with a strange thumping in her chest
and a belly that fluttered. 

Amber had been so busy agonizing over Kyle that her foot had relaxed on the gas pedal.  The car had slowed to seventy miles an hour.

“Thanks,” Kyle said and did not look at her.

“For what?” she asked then realized what he meant.

He nodded toward the speedometer.  “You’re not driving at warp-speed anymore,” he said offhandedly.

She pressed her lips
together and nodded awkwardly in response.