Trinity Blood: From the Ashes a New World Rises
By: BDS
Book 5 of 5
Pages: 1 - 15
Rated: PG-13
Chapter 1: Truth Becomes Reality
Soft music lulled over the still lands of Albion, as people gathered together, everyone humming a calm, and peaceful hymn, as red and white flower blossoms blew freely in the gentle breeze.
The day had finally come to lay him down in his final resting place.
Groups of people gathered solemnly, their kind words reaching the ears of those who had personally known the deceased man. Kind words like, "I heard that he was truly honorable," or "He died defending us. That is worth some recognition." All of which was true. But it was only half of the story.
When the time came for everyone to be seated, nearly all were in tears. The attendants took their seats, the men wearing nicely tailored suits, while the women wore their best dresses.
At the head of the room, in which everyone had entered, stood an elderly priest. His greying brown hair parted neatly down the middle, and a rosary was placed professionally around his neck. Pale green eyes surveyed the ever growing crowd, and then slowly, he lifted his left hand, and within seconds, the room fell silent, and the ceremony began.
"We are brought here today, to honor the life of a great man, a man who was one of my dearest friends, and co-workers! We are here, to honor the life of Father Abel Nightroad. His death was sudden, and was most certainly, unexpected. As most deaths tend to be. He was a devoted clergyman, who believed in equality between the Methuselan and the human races! He always believed in giving second chances, as well as he always forgave others for their faults. He was a gifted agent of the Vatican's AX team, and he died doing his job. But you see, Father Abel didn't just die, no, he was murdered! And by the hand of his own brother, no doubt! So let us all share a moment of silence, in which we will all pray for Father Abel's repose."
The silence in the room fell even deeper, the only sounds there were in the room came from those who had known Abel. And those people were now shedding tears of loss. For they had lost a dear friend.
One of the people, a young girl of around eighteen, sat nearest the opened coffin. Her short, fiery red hair fell neatly at both sides of her pale, yet beautiful young face. She held her hands in her lap, and clenched onto a small metal cross. Tears fell from her lapiz lazuli colored eyes, when she closed them. But opening them up again, they seemed to have lost all signs of life. The light that had once shined from her face had been extinguished. She stirred slightly, when the priest spoke again.
"Would anyone like to take a brief moment to stand here at the podium and say something about Father Abel?"
The young girl slowly stood up, her hands still clenched tightly around her cross.
"Please, come on up, Sister Esther."
Esther made her way slowly up to the podium. "Thank you, Father Wordsworth." When she first spoke, her voice was quivering with depression, but when she spoke again, her voice was unwavered. "Father Nightroad was a very good man! He wasn't one to hold a grudge. He was always there to help you when you were in need. He was the one who guided me when I thought I was all alone in this world. When my foster mother was killed, he comforted me. I thought that I had no more reasons for living. He showed me that I did! And now, I'll never get the chance to thank him for all of these things." Esther closed her eyes, fresh tears fell through her closed eye lids. And then she whispered to herself, the words that had been gnawing away at her mind.
"I did this...this is all my fault...Father...I got in the way and he killed you...I was helpless! I just stood there and watched it happen! You weren't meant to die like this! Not in this place! I never...I never got the chance to repay you! All those times you saved my life...And now...now I never will...I'm so sorry! I'm useless! I couldn't save you! I can't do anything!"
Pouring out her heart to a corpse she knew was pointless, she knew that Abel could no longer hear her pleas. He could no longer do anything except lay in his coffin and rest forevermore.
During her final attempt to make things right, she had pressed her tear stained face against the coolness of the oak coffin, her tears forming small motionless puddles on the wood. She felt that she could fall asleep, with her face still resting against the final home of Abel, but when a pair of calm hands took hold of her trembling shoulders, Esther looked up and saw Father Wordsworth looking back at her with the same sad look in his eyes.
"Esther?"
Wiping the tears away the best that she could, Esther whispered back feebly. "Yes?"
"Father Abel is now at peace."
"I know. But still I-" Her voice cracked and broke off in mid-sentence, when a wave of new tears overcame her.
With the sad look still in his eyes, Father Wordsworth helped Esther to her feet and then walked her slowly to her chair. And wordlessly, she sat down, and covered her face with her hands, a noticeable impression on the cross now embedded into the palms of her hands where she'd been clutching onto it.
William made his way back to the podium, where he spoke softly to the crowd. "We will end this ceremony, with the Lord's Prayer."
In unison, every head in the church bowed, as the Lord's Prayer was said.
"Our Father in heaven: May your Holy name be honoured; may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need. Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Do not bring us to hard testing, but keeps us safe from the Evil One. Amen."
And just like before, everyone spoke in unison, as if it had been a scene, practiced over and over again from a play.
"This concludes the ceremony." William said with a smile that was forced, and looking ahead, he continued. "Please go back to your homes and enjoy the rest of your day." He then waited for everyone to stand up and begin to leave the church, and once people started filing out of the building, he made his way down the steps of the podium.
Esther, however, remained in her seat, her mind lost in a labyrinth of thoughts. Nothing that she had once known was no longer familiar to her. The faces of her comrades, were now those of strangers.
And once again, she didn't notice it when Father Wordsworth was standing in front of her.
"Sister Esther...the session is over. You can now go back to your living quarters." He offered her his right hand, but brought it back when she shook her head.
"No, Father. I'm going to stay here for a few more minutes.
"Well..."
"I'm fine, Father. Really." She smiled weakly, her eyes slightly red from all of her tears that had been shed.
William nodded uncertainly and left behind the others.
After a minute or so, Esther stood up on her trembling legs and walked for what seemed like an eternity to the side of Abel's coffin.
She had seen the faces of the dead before.
The had been members of Saint Matthais, a church in the city of Ishtvan. The city and the church that she'd been raised in.
She had even seen the face of her murdered foster mother, Bishop Laura Vitez. And she had seen the man, who had killed the bishop, die in her arms.
So much death could be associated with her...so much pain and suffering...
The bishop...Count Guyla...all of her team members...Ion...Seth...and now...
She didn't want to think his name! The only way that she would do so, was if it was a guaranteed promise that he would return to her...alive and well.
But there was no way that, that could happen. The only place that it were even possible was in her dreams, but her dreams had been plagued with ghoulish nightmares. Nightmares that were exact replays of the event that now consumed her.
She then looked down at Abel's pale face, the smile that seemed to have always been plastered on his lips had been smoothed out into a perfectly straight line. His silver hair resting neatly beneath his stiff, stone cold body. His hands folded neatly over his motionless chest.
This wasn't the man that she remembered in her memories. This man was just a creation of the church members in Albion.
"Oh, Father Nightroad..." Esther began, but this time, no tears came. "Father Nightroad...please forgive me...I know that I can never repay you for the things that you've done for me. Nor can I take back the awful things that I sometimes said to you, but I'm sorry." Her voice choked slightly, but taking a deep breath she whispered, "But Father, I will do everything that I can...just like...just like you taught me on that day..."
She began to kneel beside the coffin of her best friend, her savior, as well as her main reason for going on. And closing her eyes, she confronted the images that appeared in her nightmares.
In her mind, she went back to the underground control room that was beneath the Buckingham Palace, and in the room she remembered, there had been shards of broken glass from the computer screens that were mounted on the walls. And in the center of the room was Abel, his eyes glowing a fiery red, his teeth now fangs, his skin an ashened shade of grey, wings that looked like they belonged to a demon were sprouted from his back, and a glowing red scythe was poised in his hands, ready to strike.
And yet before Abel, stood a man dressed completely in white. His hair, long and blonde. His height was about that of Abel's.
Esther hadn't been able to recognize the man in white, but it was apparent, that Abel could.
When Abel saw Esther, he had been in mid-attack, his scythe swung back was prepared to spring forward again, slicing through its victims neck. But in seeing the petrified look on her face, Abel froze and stopped the attack. And not a second after Abel froze, his eyes locked onto Esther's, a cold voice spoke.
"That's what I like about you, my dear brother. You're so predictable..."
And in that moment, a sound so loud, a blast so powerful, was emitted from his left hand.
The invisible attack hit Abel directly in the center of his chest, blowing a hole through part of his heart. Blood flowed up through Abel's mouth, causing him to gag. And when he opened his mouth to speak, the blood spilled over the edge of his lips and rand slowly down to the bottom of his chin.
"Es...Esther..." With these words he fell forward, and landed with a thud to the ground. Blood seeping across the open floor around him, his hair a tangled mess splayed around his body.
Esther watched in horror as she sank to her knees, the only word that she was able to allow through her lips, she repeated over and over silently. "No. No. No. No." And then with the depair proving to be real, she flung her body onto the floor and screamed with all of her might. "NO!"
She heard the murderer chuckle, and whisper, "Well that's what happens when you break the things I desire."
Esther wanted to yell at him, to shake him, kill him even, but her body refused to move. She was frozen on the floor, helpless against the evil around her.
She knew that much time hadn't passed but yet it felt as if ten full lifetimes had come and gone through her mind. And when she felt that she had enough strength gathered in her, Esther forced herself to stand up, and gaze upon the ruined body of her best friend.
Lying on the floor, Abel looked as if he were only asleep, but at second glance, it was apparent that he wasn't sleeping. But that he was indeed, dead. The pool of crimson blood stretching out all around his body.
His eyes were closed, making her unable to see his winter-blue eyes. And his bottle-round glasses were shattered. Fragments of both glass and frames were scattered around him.
She tried to breath, but there was a ripping hole that was building up in her chest. How could this be real? Was this really happening?
Kneeling down next to Abel, she gently touched the back of his exposed hand. When she felt the coolness of his skin, she recoiled.
"Not...a...dream..."
She stumbled back, as tears flooded her vision, and as she began to fall.
Reality was a cruel thing waiting for the unexpecting in the shadows of hidden truths. And no matter how hard anyone ever tried, reality could never be escaped.