This is a piece I finished a few weeks ago. Personally I feel it is one of the best pieces I have written yet I hope you feel the same way so without any further babbling from me please enjoy,
The Gatekeeper
It had seemed like days but he couldn't tell for sure, the sun neither rose nor set across the desert of the forgotten. At first he rested when he was tired, sleeping if he must but on the third night the scavengers had sensed his presence and the girl. The girl's soul reeked of innocence. The Scavengers had been here long enough to know how to survive, they ripped the innocence from the newly arrived and feasted. Twice he had to pull them from this plane, but that was dangerous. He could feel the hands of Lucifer closer to his mind each time.
He could feel the fiend's anger at his betrayal. In all the history of Lucifer's control no Gatekeeper had refused to turn over a charge. But here he was, he had crossed The Forgotten and in that braved the rubble of ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Eden. Once they crossed the desert they came to a woods, the gatekeeper had never seen before. The girl walked at his side looking about with a child like interest in the unknown. A short way into the forest they came about a small cabin.
The door was cracked open for any and all to enter. The Gatekeeper slipped in first fearing more what could be inside than that which stalked outside. The building held only one sparsely furnished room. There were two shelves in the room, both loaded down with broken trinkets. Sitting in the room's center was a small round table, like most people would place in their kitchen.
Sitting atop the table was a small gnome-like creature; it was sitting with its legs crossed ignoring all but the tiny gold bodied alarm clock in his hand. Its body was emaciated from its time here and its eyes glowed an ominous green. It turned its attention from the clock to the figure now before it. The creature's voice was high pitched and irritating to the gatekeeper's ears.
"I remember you, you're the gatekeeper, and I doubt that you remember me." The gnome tossed the clock aside and rose to its feet. The Gatekeeper slowly brought his arms out from his side and as he did a faint white glow began to pulse through his hands. When the gnome saw this he stepped back, coming close to the edge of the table "Calm down, you don't have to fear me. I know your power."
The gatekeeper found his own voice weak, "Leave this place, now."
"But what is this place?" The gnome stepped to his right, making sure to stay an arm's length from the hulking presence before him. "I have lived in these woods almost as long as I have been in this place. This place has never been here before." The gatekeeper stepped closer and the Gnome jumped away, landing in the ceiling rafters.
The tiniest creak from the door distracted both as the girl pushed the door open. Both pair of eyes flashed to her. A squeal flew from the Gnome's mouth, "Well you have come with something special haven't you." He jumped again, this time over the Gatekeeper's head landing only inches from the young girl. "You know a secret don't you little one."
The gatekeeper flew into a rage rushing across the room and with both hands grabbing the Gnome's head pulls him high into the air. In a frantic rush of sound the Gnome pleads for his soul and barters where he can, "I know what she is, she can give us great power here."
The gatekeeper turns from the girl and in a low rhythmic voice begins the incantation "?--? --??? ?--???--? ?--? --? --??--µ? --?? --?µß??--???, --?? ? ? --??--??? --?? ???----?? ----? ----? --? ------µ? disolve µ-- --?--? ?--? ??--? ----? ??--µ--?"
The gatekeeper's hand begins to glow bright white and the gnome's eyes burst open. The incandescent green is replaced with the faded hazel eyes of a man who had seen too much. His withered body begins to shrivel and contract. His mouth opens to a soundless scream as the last of his essence slips free and the gnome's body becoming nothing more than an empty vessel. The gatekeeper releases his grasp and the body slips free. It hits the ground and shatters like a porcelain vase.
His hands are stiff, and waves of pain wash over him as he feels the fiend's presence ever closer. His legs give way and he collapses to the ground, the gatekeeper's body racked by violent spasms. Down on his knees his stomach begins to twist and knot before pushing him to a series of painful dry heaves. The girl looks to him and a sense of sadness comes over her, she crosses from the door, kneeling before him, and puts a hand to his face. The hand was cool and comforting bringing sleep. The sleep was deep and dreamless something none before had experienced in this place.
The hurried stamp of feet outside startled him awake. Franticly his eyes scanned the room, looking for the girl. He didn't see her and panic blossomed inside him. Then he saw her, she was playing quietly in the corner. He stood and stretched his body, sore from the position he had slept in. The voices were loud, they were not even trying to hide their presence. He moves to the nearest wall and leans close. Two of them are positioned near this wall; he closed his eyes and strains to hear their voices.
"I always knew this one would be trouble, I told the master he could not be trusted."
"You did no such thing I was there, you praised his choice." The first voice was unfamiliar but the second was clear to him, the fiend had dispatched the Sycophants to retrieve him and the girl. "I just wish we had been allowed to deal with the Gatekeeper ourselves."
He pulled himself from the wall; his mind going a mile a minute. It made sense; who else would the fiend send, the Sycophants where his most trusted rogues. A noise from the girl startled him, and he turned back to her. She had found two wooden blocks and was playing as if they were dolls. They were long charred blocks that in no way resembled dolls, but that didn't seem to faze her. She looked from the simple toys and their eyes met. Her color faded and her bright hazel eyes dimmed.
He looked away. He shouldn't have brought her here, it was a mistake. She was slipping, and with every gaze from him she became more a part of this place. The crossover scarred every soul who passed his way. He had never cared for a charge as he did for this one, the sadness of crossing had long since stopped affecting him as he too became a monster of this realm. But the girl, her innocence was so pure, she did not belong to this place. How had this mistake been made? How had he been dispatched to retrieve her and not the keeper of the other gate?
A voice pulled him from his thoughts, a voice he had long forgotten. He could sense the Sycophants pulling away, and a new presence came forth. It was a presence filled with deep sadness. It was not the Fiend himself, his was an arrival that pulled hope from your chest and filled it with despair. This new arrival had a voice of pure honey and as it drew nearer the gatekeeper heard nothing but its song, not a breath not a footstep. Nothing but the voice of pure delight.
"Gatekeeper." The presence whispered just outside the door. The Siren's words brought forth a flood of emotion and memories. Memories he had long since buried as they had become an unwanted torment. There she was in his mind's eye, standing in her full glory. Her face held a beauty no living creature should possess. Her kindness graced his soul with courage and stole his heart when he wasn't looking. Even after all this time, when in the quiet moments, when he dared think of her, he lent her grace.
"Gatekeeper, may I come in?" The voice slipped through the room like the tide across a beach and pulled his dismal surroundings to a field of joy. Standing there basking in the luminous field he watched a cool breeze run its path across the field rustling the stalks along the way.
When the breeze overtook him he was reminded of the autumns of his youth. The air warmer than the frosts of winter, but still cooler then the heat of summer. It moved across his arm pushing each hair into the next and sending a shiver across his body. It was a simple sensation but he tried to hold it none the less. Most people would let it slip from their conscious thought. Not the gatekeeper; he held it as long as he could, sadly you can't keep a feeling like that longer than it wants to be kept. No they slip from all of us leaving behind only the residual shiver of their passing.
With the sensation gone he turned his attention to the form before him, his beloved Liandra. Standing there she was more beautiful than the day he last laid eyes on her. "My love, I have missed you so."
Unhindered by time or distance her voice was sweeter still; "My heart was fractured, seeing how they treated you." She moved to her left and began to slowly circle behind him, her arm stretched out. Her hand comes within a whispers breath of his shoulder before she pulls back).
The gatekeeper holds his stance, his mind going back to the final hours before his crossing, "That is in the distant past, we need not worry about that now."
"I have arranged for us to be together." With this the Gatekeeper began to turn, and for the faintest moment, time showed upon Liandra's face. But only a moment as she keeps pace with him and does what she can to keep his back to her.
With sorrow in his voice he stops and lowers his head, "He would never release me from this realm. Once a soul is in his grasp, he is resolute."
"He will release us I have his word, and once we are free of the pallor this place has cast upon us no one and nothing can keep us apart." The pitch of her voice increased and her tempo quickened. With only the slightest falter she continued "Please I cannot stay in this place."
He turned and cast his eyes away, despite the pains he had endured and the horrors witnessed. A simple tremble of fear in her voice blossomed fear in him. But fear was dangerous in this place; it quickly crossed the line to anger and anger held more power here than it did in the world before. Its strength could cloud the most pious of minds. "I have walked beside Death, and watched his sorrowed eyes as the fallen begged for him to undo his touch. Not with all the force of heaven could he undo it."
She flinched at the word; no one here spoke of the other place. Not for fear it would garner the fiend's wrath. "We would not need him too," Her voice brightened the fear she felt before Gone replaced with the tiniest hope, for she thought she had found a hold to strengthen her position "He is bound by the rules as are we. Besides our bodies are long since returned to dust. But soon we will not be free of those rules ."
"All are bound by the rule of the light and the dark."
"Not all my love."
His voice thundered, and he lunged toward her, "You wish to become a Free Fallen?" Anger began to take control clouding his eyes and his mind. Liandra pulled away keeping herself just from his grasp "The Free Fallen are monsters that feast on souls to keep the strength."
Her voice is frantic again, seeing her hope slip from her grasp, "They are monsters only as they are consumed by their hate. There would be no hate to destroy us; we can go where we please."
"You've never seen one have you? They skirt the rifts between this world and the one before." His eyes turned from the field, turned inward as memories flooded his mind. "You find them mostly in hospitals, they feast on souls of the dying. Occasionally they find their way to a battle field."
"As I have told you we have no hate to consume us; we will be free." In a panic she steps toward him, her hand reaching out and before she can pull it back the cuff of her sleeve brushes his back. She pulls it away but is not quick enough. The fabric begins to darken and crumble to ash. She grabs the sleeve and rubs it between two fingers as if she can will it to return.
"They are not monsters consumed or created by hate, but from the unbinding." He turns back to her. He doesn't see the sleeve she grasps only the eyes he has longed for. Eye's that countless lie's had taught her to mask. "Liandra, all things are bound by rules; they gain their strength from those rules. When a being separates itself from those rules, from that power, it has no strength to contain its form."
Her voice snaps back in anger "You are wrong, he has told me the truth. They have great power." Her voice begins to falter at the end. She turned from her lover and allowed her mind to wander for a moment. She thought back to the worlds she had seen and the truths she had learned. The truths were harder to remember when your mind was masked by the lies we all tell ourselves.
That mask was beginning to slip, and she could see him clearly now in her memories standing before her, his touch easing her pain. Now she realized the truth of it all, now she could see with eyes no longer blinded by his lies. Now she could see his touch in her pain and his pleasure in her agony. She saw his words to be untrue.
"I'm so sorry, can you…" Her voice trailed off as she turned and stumbled aimlessly moving away. "His voice is so kind, it held a tenderness I had not heard since we parted." She pulled her hands together again and absentmindedly she fingered the singed sleeve, as tears welled in her eyes. "He told me the pain would be gone, I don't know what part of me believed that."
She slammed her eyes shut flushing the tears away. "I thought long ago that he had taken everything from me that there was nothing more he could take but I see now that there is always something more he can take."
Liandra lowered herself to her knees and reached out around her running her hands through the wheat. "Do you remember this place?" She turned her gaze back to him.
He looked about, and was reminded of his failing memories. He could see clearly all that had come after his crossing but not much from before. Most remembered only the pain of the crossing and the sorrows from their previous life. He remembered more than most but still only a few glimpses. While all were of his beloved Liandra, none were in this place.
"Of course you don't. These fields of my youth were burned long before your family came to my rescue. The last I saw of them they were a sea of flames." She turned back to the gatekeeper, but now her youth and beauty had slipped away. Replaced with the haggard face of a woman, drown in her own pity and remorse. Her eyes, while not unchanged, bore only the sadness of sudden loss, "He can always find something to rip from your grasp."
She rose to stand before him, weaker than she had been just minutes before. "I brought him with me. I told him that I would get you to give him the girl." She stepped closer now, her hair swaying gently in the breeze. She stopped and then took another half step bringing herself within inches of the gatekeeper. A few stray hairs brushed against his chest. They darkened and crumbled to ash, "Who is she?"
She looks up, her eyes meeting his, once again they are filled with tears. She slips her arms around him and pulls herself close. Every part of her from fingertip to cheek begins to burn, a slow cold burn. As Liandra crumbles away, the fields around them lose their color and the stalks began to wilt.
"Don't let him take me from you, please, not again." Her voice was fragile and cracked., With her last breath the decay that had over taken this place spread to the sky. The vibrant honey colored sun dimmed to a frigid dark amber and then ever so quickly to black.
As the sky began to crack and its pieces fall, the fields wilted and crumbled to nothing, leaving him back in the small shack. His Liandra lay clutched in his arms. He knew she was gone but still could not bring himself to release her. He slowly lowered her to the ground looking one last time into her eyes, hoping for some glimmer of life only to find lifeless globes staring back at him. He closed his eyes and with all anguished effort pulled away. He wants to hold her longer, but he knows the truth. These desires are what trap most souls where they are.
A tiny giggle brought him to his senses. He turned to see the girl, her young face staring at him with wonder. He looked about the room and found he was not where he believed himself to be. One would be pressed to describe the room as bright, but the colors were less faded than they had been when he first stepped foot in this place.
Returning his gaze to the girl, he found her eyes unmoved. Clutched in her tiny hands was a pale porcelain doll, clothed in a miniature but ornate silk dress. "There were some men outside."
Her voice was soft and delicate and it floated through the air just as the breeze he had enjoyed just moments before. But her words, her words hit him like a brick. Liandra had distracted him from his charge. He had forgotten that the enemies had gotten so close. His hands curled to fists and began to glow a bright white. He turned from her and allowed his rage for Liandra to over take him as he began to move toward the door. The gatekeeper was half way to the door when she spoke for the second time "They're not there anymore."
"Where did they go?" His voice seemed heavier now, anchored by the darkness his life as the gatekeeper had fused into him. It was a subtle difference, one most would not notice, even he had not noticed it before now.
"I told them to leave" Her eyes had cleared since he last gazed upon them. The haze and gloom were gone and had been replaced by what he could only describe as a twinkle, "They were not very nice people."
"No, they aren't very nice people." An unsettling sense of calm washed over him, as he looked upon her face. He took two steps toward her and knelt down to see her at eye level, "Who are you?"
A tiny smile crossed her face and when her lips parted he saw the crooked and gapped teeth of an active child. She scrunched her face up, pursed her lips and closed her eyes. Her lips twitched and quivered and a gentle wave of energy flowed from her. The wave swept through the gatekeeper and crossed the room. When she opened her mouth again it was filled with perfectly straight gleaming white teeth.
He felt the dark and commanding voice before he heard it, he had only heard it once before but he would never forget its power. "Release the girl to me, Gatekeeper."
He turned to see the addled corpse of his beloved slowly pull itself up. He moved to position the girl behind him. "Why do you…
The room began to shake violently, and the trinkets on the shelves began to tumble to the ground. The Fiend finishes rising holding itself up with a strength that defies its addled body. "It is not your place to question my will. You made your choice now you must abide by it."
The fiend stepped left trying to bring the girl into view, but every step was matched inch by inch from the gatekeeper. "You violated the rules, I have half a mind to send you down and let the Departed have their way with you. Better yet I shall feed you to the Free Fallen."
"If you send me down before I release her, you will be powerless to touch her." He reached back and with a hand on the girl's shoulder took a step back.
"You can be replaced." The fiend took a step forward; not a great step, a mere few inches. The Gatekeeper trying to keep his distance stepped back as well. With his eyes on the fiend and not his footing, the gatekeeper stumbled and for a moment the girl was exposed. A moment was all the fiend needed. He took his chance and lunged for the girl.
His strength heightened by his anger at his own foolishness, the gatekeeper launched himself at the fiend. Striking with terrible force the fiend and the gatekeeper crashed to the floor. The two quickly became intertwined, and the gatekeeper found himself at a disadvantage.
In this place the Fiend Lucifer's power was near limitless. Capped only by the limits he had placed on the form he chooses to inhabit. And he had chosen to inhabit Liandra , now the very torments he had visited upon her kept the fiend from using his full strength. In the weakened vessel the fiend was unable to stop the Gatekeeper from freeing an arm and gripping a shoulder. Once he had a hold, he squeezed crushing the brittle, charred bone beneath.
With the shoulder now useless the gatekeeper pulled his other arm free and as his hands began to glow, grasped the fiend by his temples. With his head in his grasp he once again began the incantation "?--? --??? ?--???--? ?--? --? --??--µ? --?? --?µß??--???, --?? ? ? --??--??"
The fiend's eye's burst open and its lips parted. Out flowed a pained voice that shot fear through the Gatekeeper. "Samuel"
The body slipped free of his grasp as the Gatekeeper scrambled to get free of thier intertwined bodys. He pulled himself free and digging his heels into the flood kicked, sending him across the floor. The frailty returned to Liandra's body as it collapsed to the floor, it tried to move both arms, but with the crushed shoulder collapsed every time. Using its right arm it began to scrape and crawl across the floor. "Please don't make me go back there."
Lianrda's body creaked and crumbled as she drug herself along the floor "Release the child, he'll stop the pain."
Her voice was weak and time held no sway here. The gatekeeper could only imagine the nightmares and torments that had been feasted upon her. A pity welled inside him, he had never known the horrors of those below. As the gatekeeper before him, walked Samuel through the gates Lucifer himself stood awaiting his arrival.).His presence made Samuel feel special and prized. The offer was simple, take control of the gate, escort those who must pass through and he would be spared the indignities of torment. Standing before the Abyss, Samuel chose the path of the gatekeeper. He looked now into the tortured eyes of his cherished Liandra. The pain that seared across her face ripped at his soul, his lips were dry as he forced he words past the hardening lump in his throat "She is special. I know you will not, cannot understand but she (special."
The agony and pain slipped from her face, replaced with a mask of disgust. "I died for you. You feign love, but you don't love anything. You lust for power now as you did before."
A sense of betrayal filled Samuel, as he pulled himself up and reached for Lianrda's cheek. "I do not want power. I have never sought power."
But Liandra pulled from his touch, her eyes cold with hate staring him down. With considerable effort Liandra raises herself to her knees. With ash crumbling away she reaches out and places both hands on Samuel's cheeks. At first she strokes him with her calloused and rough palms; two smooth and slow strokes. Then her nails dig in and with a scream she pulls his face to hers, "GIVE HIM THE GIRL!"
"Stop" the voice was so soft and quiet that had it not carried the weight of the girl's power, both Liandra and Samuel would have missed it entirely. But her power was growing and with the simple command Liandra's arms flew from his face. Samuel scampered back fearful of being forced to harm her.
Liandra bowed her head and a shudder crossed her body. When she raised her head again, turning to the girl once more Liandra spoke. When she spoke again the scared voice of a plagued soul was replaced with the deceptively sweet voice the fiend Lucifer used to ply his trades. "Little girl, I will enjoy feasting on your soul."
With the porcelain doll still in hand, she cocked her head to one side. Standing before the purest evil any living creature had known she was without fear. A tiny smile parted her lips and she began to speak, "You should leave him alone, he is a very nice man."
A deep guttural laugh filled the room, as the fiend stepped to his left and began a slow circle. The girl made not the tiniest step, not until Lucifer was behind her. Even then only a half step to the right putting Lucifer in sight, while leaving Samuel visible to her.
Samuel had seen Lucifer come for souls before, he devoured them quickly never speaking to those he looked down upon. But in all the time he had ferried souls across the planes, not once had he seen the Fiend speak as he was now. "He's not a good man, and hardly any would call him nice."
Lucifer stopped, placing the girl between Samuel and himself. "Your world is the birthplace of deception, child. The eyes that see him as a protector are clouded by that deception."
Lucifer raised a charred hand and gently, with only the tips of the fingers, ran them across the Gatekeeper's cheek. The cheek began to crumble to ash as she drug the finger across it. The tiny ashen speckles begin to float away pulled by an unseen wind. "He takes whatever pleases him, which is why I chose him as my gatekeeper. Many souls where sent my way by his hand Those to whom he professed love fared no better."
The little girl brought a single finger to her lips and made a quiet shush, bringing a wrinkle to Lucifer's brow. The girl began to move, she didn't step away from the fiend but towards him. It took her short legs five steps to cross the distance and she found herself standing within grasp of Lucifer. She reached out and with a gentle touch pressed a finger to his stomach. Her touch transformed where she placed her finger. Instead of burned ash it was now a small dot of pink flesh.
The dot did not remain small for long. It began to spread across the fiend's belly, causing an obvious and excruciating discomfort. The fiend jerks himself back, keeping itself out of the girls reach. But it is too late. Life and the warmth that accompany it have begun to spread across the body. With a sneer the fiend looks to Samuel and then the girl "Your power here is finite and when you have exhausted it I shall be waiting. I shall torture all who looked upon you with love."
"You're scared, you should leave her body, and you should flee this place and never come back." Her voice held a confidence not often seen in a child, especially one in this place.
The fiend looked down and the warmth spread across its form. The pain grew with each passing moment, and Lucifer's control of Liandra's body grew weaker. "I am not afraid of you child, you think you are the first to try and challenge me? In all the generations of your race not one among you has sustained the power to control this place. I ruled before your people and I shall rule after."
The warmth hit his lungs and with a violent gasp, he collapsed before the girl. The warmth continued to spread across Liandra's form; her tattered and burned dress restoring its seams as her body was restored. Then it was done.
Samuel rose to his knees and started to crawl. The fight with the fiend and all that had come this day had exhausted his energy. He pushed aside the tattered remains of the room, and as he drew closer a wave of fear swept across him. Had the Fiend's curse been broken? Could he run his fingers through and touch her hair? Could he feel her warm embrace without Lucifer's burning rage engulfing her once more?
Her head moved and she rolled to her side. Her face had lost the torture and torment he had seen before, it was exhausted now. Her bloodshot eyes opened slowly and she looked about. She saw Samuel and the girl. Her eyes passed between the two before finally settling on the girl. Her gaze averted, Samuel noticed a frailty to her that he had never seen before.
"He'll be back, he will find the smallest among his flock. He will thrust their nightmares upon them. He will feed on their tormented suffering and humiliation." The little girl placed a hand on Liandra's cheek as a flood of tears broke free. With both hands she gently brushed away the tears, and leaned forward kissing her on the forehead.
From across the room Samuel could not move, his love felt pain and turned not to him. The devastation swept across his soul. But no matter he could not look away, he watched the tiny lips kiss her fears away and from that instant her body held a faint glow. Liandra turned from the girl to Samuel and looked into his eyes as she smiled.
"I see now what I could not see before." With those words she closed her eyes and faded from sight. The little girl stood and smothered her dress, before turning to Samuel. She waited a moment and walked over to him with an outstretched hand.
Samuel took her hand and felt it's warmth roll over him as she helped him to his feet. He looked about the room; it had changed so much from when he first stepped foot just a short while ago. He looked down to the girl; she stared up with an unwavering gaze. "Who are you?"
The question was simple and for a moment he thought she had forgotten, as all who come to this place do. But then she smiled and said "I'm Sarah."
The End.