Chapter 11

The cackling laughter erupted once again as Gabriel waved the gun around, training it on phantom movements that seemed to fly to a fro in the darkness just at the edge his vision, so fleeting that he never even had a chance to discern whether they were living creatures or some hallucination brought on by his current location. He fired three times at one of the phantoms, and was rewarded with an unearthly shriek, somewhat like an infant crying, but perverted to such an extent that it was no longer even remotely human. He continued firing into the darkness at the phantom shapes until the cackling died, and was replaced with the sound of silence, which was intermittently broken by the sounds of foot falls on metal grating. He backed against a metal pole that might have been a light post in the real world, but now was little more than a twisted spire made of rusted steel. He stood, back to it, gun facing the uncertain darkness before him, until a sickly light seemed to fill the area, and he looked up, noticing for the first time that the pole was indeed a light post, and, through some miracle, it worked, illuminating the darkness, and exposing the horribly twisted creatures that stalked just within the light.

They were large, almost as tall as him, but they appeared to be little more than a torso, the only thing resembling legs were the atrophied pieces of flesh that dangled at what might have been a waist. The used their muscular arms for what a normal bipedal creature would use legs for, and he noticed that they had a separate, smaller set of arms growing from their chest, they appeared to used for grasping and manual dexterity, for each arm carried with it a hand equipped with long, grasping fingers, and each finger ended in a wicked claw, nearly four inches long by Gabriel's best estimate, and they looked as if they were made for clawing flesh to pieces. They resumed cackling as they light dimmed and they were once again skulking in the shadows. One of the braver ones scurried out from the protection of the darkness and made a move to attack Gabriel, but was cut short by two loud reports from the handgun, which sent it sprawling on the grating; it's lifeblood seeping through the gaps in metal as it convulsed a few times, then grew still. "Anyone else wanna play?" he said with a dark smile. Another one of the creatures trotted forward and grabbed its fallen comrade with its spidery hands and began to quickly pull it back into the shadows, where the rest of the cackling beasts converged upon them and the cackling laughter turned to sounds of blood spilling and flesh ripping as they began to rip, tear, and eat the fallen demon.

Disgusted by this open display of cannibalism, Gabriel fired an entire clip into the crowd of beasts, knocking three more to the floor and sending the rest screeching back into the darkness, where they waited, cackling and growling. Gabriel ejected the empty clip and reached back into the backpack he had been outfitted with for another, he then slapped it into the gun and chambered a round. He slowly began to edge toward his destination while keeping his eyes on the dark forms that danced before him. When one would grow brave and overstep the boundaries of the shadows, he would fire at it eliciting an inhuman screech and more often than not, killing the brave creature. As he edged along though, he began to doubt more and more that he would escape unscathed, and he was unsure of how much ammunition his backpack actually held, and he was more than sure that he didn't want to be caught out in the open with the freak beasts without some firepower to back him up. He had only one other choice though, and it was life threatening at best, and suicidal at worst. It was his only choice though, so he forced himself into moving and was running down the dark metal road before he knew, and behind him, the cackling grew louder, and closer, until he couldn't hear anything but it.

He knew then that he was going to die.

***

They could smell his fear-drenched body as he ran through the darkness. They were closing in faster than he could run, within moments he would be a screaming, quivering plaything, and then, slowly, they would drain the life from him, until they felt whole again, and the cycle would begin anew. They were in constant pain, it was all they knew, it bled from them like sweat from a fearful body, and now it raged with such force that it drove them to new heights of violence, they were forced to attack and slaughter the weaker demons, even their own kind, just to satisfy their voracious hunger, and to ease their torment, for the only thing that even came close to easing the pain was to inflict the pain on other beings.

Early on in their existence, when they were fortunate enough to encounter some unlucky being that had been trapped in the between realm with them, they had wasted little time in sharing their pain. They had delighted in the agonized looks on their faces as they slowly carved their flesh with long talons. They fed on the screams of the damned, the pain, the fear they bled, and early on, that had been enough, they had been happy, they had grown numerous, and then, as the flow of new victims decreased, they grew angry, and weaker, and they were reduced to preying upon their weaker brethren, and fighting amongst themselves for what little sustenance they could glean from their corpses. Now though, they had prey that one of the unlucky ones from before, one of the poor souls who had been pulled between realms, into the limbo realm of steel and concrete, blood and rust, darkness and death, and left there to be eaten by the demons that inhabited it, demons like themselves, and some who were much, much, worse.

Suddenly the human turned and fired back at one of his closest pursuers. The quiet thrum of the mechanical drone that always seemed to dominate the quiet of Limbo was shattered by several loud explosions as his weapon jumped several times in his clutching grasp. One of their brethren fell back screeching as the heavy rounds tore through him, and suddenly the air was filled with the scent of his pain, and, like a beacon of light, they were drawn to it. They began ripping and cutting at their fallen comrade with razor sharp claws, rending it bleeding flesh and causing it to screech in pain, but soon the sounds were drowned out by their cackling growls as minor fights over the kill escalated into new bloodshed, and more pain.

Soon the human was forgotten as they reveled in their ability to bring pain to themselves with deadly precision.

***

The cackling demons had turned on each other after he'd shot three or four down, and for that Gabriel was thankful, but now he was in a serious predicament. In his haste, he had gotten turned around, and now he didn't know which direction was which, and was effectively lost, perhaps forever. He had no idea which way the antique shop was from where he stood, he had no idea where anything was, or, for that matter, where he was either. He stood, alone, in the darkness, and cursed everything he could think to curse. When he was finished, he turned, and slowly, carefully, traced his way back to the small park where he had first found the crayon scrawled directions. Along the way, he made doubly sure to check his surrounds carefully before and after each step, and after what seemed like an eternity, he was standing before the sign, and rereading the scrawled message with a nervous grin on his face. Finally, he thought, things might actually be looking up for a change. Then he noticed the smaller message at the corner of the sign, one carved into the wood and colored with the slightest tinge of crimson, and his nervous smile turned into a scowl as his entire body tensed for an attack.

We can see you Gabriel, you won't leave here alive. As if to punctuate the message, a loud cackling howl shot up through the night.

Once again Gabriel was running.

***

He stood not far away from Gabriel, hidden of course, by the darkness of the perpetual night that held Limbo in its cold grasp.

Funny, he thought, even Hell has daylight, even if it is choked by smoke. Why would Hell, if it were such a bad place, have an actual day and night cycle, but here, in this nether realm, there is none, in fact, I find it much worse than Hell ever could be…huh…maybe once I've burned The Gates I'll turn this into Hell, if it lasts through the transitions. It would make an extremely effective Hell wouldn't it? He smiled to Himself, the smile widening as the cackling howl rose into the dead sky and Gabriel bolted into the darkness. He had no need to follow, all He had to do was will it and He could see through the eyes of any demon, they were all His bastard children of course, He could control them too, so He was comfortable with the fact that He was letting Gabriel, the only true threat to his plans escape, He had no need to follow, and He wouldn't if He didn't want to.

He was interested in Gabriel's progress though, so He decided now would be a good time to see through the eyes of one of His many children, and He closed His eyes, searching with His mind for one that would be suitable to carry his consciousness with it, and He found one quickly, or did it find Him? He knew not, and He didn't care, for now it was following Gabriel, and so was He. He would enjoy this little show greatly.

***

Gabriel barely heard it over the pounding of his boots on the grating, which he could barely hear over the pounding of his heart in his chest. When he did hear it though, he knew it immediately, it was the sound of air moving, with a slight swish to it, it was the sound of wings, and it was right above him.

He turned just in time to see the dark winged shape fall from the blackness as it dove at him. He was suddenly thrown to the ground as a burning sensation broke out all along his left arm, and his hand quit responding. As he quickly got to his feet, he assessed the situation, and found that his chances for survival had suddenly dropped drastically, from very slim to none in the span of twenty minutes. At least I still have this, he thought as he pulled the gun from his coat with his good hand and brought it level with the dark shape scrabbling along the grating toward him, now bring it on you demon son of a bitch. As if sensing what Gabriel thought, the demon hissed and attacked. Gabriel's perception slowed down to a crawl as it launched itself forward, it's maw widening and seeming to crack and widen some more, it was an impossible mixture of reptile and bird, human and beast. He noticed feathers first, covering its body everywhere except it's face, which was decidedly human, even if it had more reptilian features than human features, it's body was a strange mixture of human, reptilian, and avian anatomy. It had arms and legs that favored human limbs, only stretched and jointed like a lizards, it had a long thin tail, much like a lizard, and a longer neck than it should have had, but it also had huge, flowing wings, it was almost graceful, in a demonic sort of way. Whether or not it was graceful didn't matter though, because within just a few seconds, it would be on top of him, ripping him to shreds.

Game over, he thought bleakly, unless I act fast. Before he could even finish the thought, the demon's clawed hand was flying in a tight arc toward him. In a split second of action, which seemed like an eternity to Gabriel's heightened perception, he was rolling on the grating, and coming to his feet right beside the beast's head, then he was lowering the gun, placing the barrel directly against it's temple, and pulling the trigger, not once, not twice, but until the gun clicked empty and he was reaching into the pack for a fresh clip. Suddenly the moment was shattered as the beast swatted him casually to the ground and was on top of him before he even had the chance to throw up his arms in self-defense. The beast tore at him, ripping his jacket to shreds in seconds, and, pinned down as he was, he would tear Gabriel apart within just a few minutes. Gabriel couldn't push it off of him, and he couldn't fight back, so he closed his eyes, summoned all the calmness he could, and resigned to his fate. As the pain began to intensify, a rumbling filled his ears, and his entire body shook with strong vibrations. Suddenly he had the sensation that the grating below him was beginning shaking, and with a jolt it began to shudder violently.

At the same time, he heard a sound like rending metal, at understood at once what was happening.

The beast seemed to understand as well, and with a shrill cry, it took to the sky and vanished into the endless night. Gabriel stood, looking down at his ragged clothing, he tried to staunch the warm blood that seeped from under the torn fabric, but it was coming faster than he could stop it. That was the least of his concerns thought, for when he looked up from his wounds, he noticed something in the distance, and it made his stomach turn.

The path back the small park, the way he'd come, was now coming apart, the little pieced disintegrating as they flew upward into the darkness. The destruction was slowly advancing his way.

***

"Goddammit!" He yelled into the darkness as He watched the world slowly come apart below Him. He knew it would happen eventually, but not this soon. Maybe this is for the best, He thought, the middle realm was growing useless anyway, now I can go onto the next phase. He slowly made his way across the building tops in order to follow Gabriel, and also to avoid being swept up in the tidal wave of destruction, as the limbo world was ripped apart behind Him.

***

Gabriel was beginning to tire. The blood loss from the attack left him feeling weak, and he was starting to get dizzy, though he dared not stop for fear of falling into the abyss as the world came apart behind him. Fear pushed him only so far though, and before long his steps began to falter, and he stumbled, falling flat on his face. When he tried to get up, he found that he no longer had the strength to get his arms underneath him. The rumbling grew to an almost painful level as the world was jarred beneath him and gave way. Then he was falling, and the world of rusted steel and bloodstains fell away from him as he plummeted into the endless night of the abyss. His last thought was simply one word.

Damn.