#i remember last night my little siblings were watching tv and i heard patricks voice singing the spiderman themesong i whipped my head back

[infectiousseptic]

[thehiddengracestory]

Chapter 8

My back ached the most. I couldn’t think.  All I felt was the pain, sharp and unbearable.  But it wasn’t my screams that woke me up.  It was Elijah’s.

I knew what was going to happen as I watched the holy light surround that run-down house. Its presence made the whole place shake.  This was the end.  I would be punished by my older brother and torn apart for my disobedience.  It would be nothing like the re-education I had to endure before.  It would be much, much worse.  The moment his hands grabbed a hold of me, hot pain coursed through my body. I was dragged up high into the air.  It felt like my limbs were being stretched in more directions than physically possible.  My back ached the most. I couldn’t think.  All I felt was the pain, sharp and unbearable.  But it wasn’t my screams that woke me up.  It was Elijah’s. My eyes snapped opened, I could feel Maggie’s arms wrapped around me.  She was staring at Elijah and pulling me further away from him.  He was sitting up, his arms clutching his stomach.  I got out of Maggie’s hold and reached for him.  My whole body was shaking.  He flinched when I touched his shoulder.  His brown eyes looked pleading when he turned his head to look at me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered his voice was incredibly quiet.  He went back to looking at where his hands lay against his stomach.  Maggie pulled me away again and whispered that she needed to leave into my ear. I nodded and walked her to the door.  She had to get up early for work tomorrow still, it being Monday.  She didn’t mean to stay so late.  As she grabbed her things, she asked if I was going to be okay alone with Elijah. I knew I would be, we were safer together.  We hugged goodbye. Then she left, promising to call later to check in on me.  After I locked up, I caught the time on my wall clock.  It was almost three in the morning. I shut off the TV, and then sat down next to Elijah.  He hadn’t moved. “What happened?” I said, taking one of his hands.  Mine were still shaking. “I died,” he said, “My brother killed me.” Silent tears were rolling down his cheeks.  As I watched, I could feel them starting to fall from my eyes too.  I pulled one of the blankets, over us tucking him in. “It’s alright now,” I said, “We’re safe.” “You had a nightmare too?” he asked and I nodded. We leaned against each other and cried at the memory of the pain that did not belong to us.  In the back of my mind I could feel David. I could feel him hurting.  I wondered if Elijah could feel Rick hurting as well.  We eventually fell asleep again, sitting together like that.  The next day we didn’t talk much and we didn’t leave the apartment. We watched the rest of season one of Supernatural then moved on to season two.  This became our routine for the rest of the week.  When we were hungry, we ate and when it got late I made coffee.  We slept in shifts, waking each other up if one of us had nightmares.  Sometimes we talked about our lives before angels came into it.  I found out a lot about Elijah. He went to business school with a full scholarship on behalf of his mother’s request, even though he wanted to go into computer programming.   In high school he was on the track and field team.  He was the best sprinter they had.  On rainy days he would entertain his two younger half-siblings with kid friendly versions of stories from his father’s old hunting journal with shadow figures.  He’s always loved strawberries, and when he was younger his father took him strawberry picking near his hometown, which was only hours up state.  His favorite movie was Men In Black and he was afraid of spiders. When he was in middle school his parents got divorced, he hasn’t heard from his dad since.  I could relate to that, the only contact I had with my mom was a monthly check that came in the mail until I was eighteen. His mom remarried about a year later, she was already pregnant with the twins by the day of the wedding.  Eventually I told him what happened to my father.  I didn’t cry this time.  Instead I smiled telling Elijah things I use to do with my dad, like the time he taught me how to fix the plumbing and flooded the bathroom. Or the time we decided to repaint our entire living room a dark green after my mother left us.  All of the furniture was stacked in the kitchen or upstairs in my room.  He turned up the radio and we spent the day singing at the top of our lungs, dancing around and getting paint everywhere.  One night during our time of being shut-ins, Elijah surprised me by finding my CD collection.  He said we needed to get some exercise.  He turned up the volume and made me dance with him into the early hours of the morning.  Neither of us really knew how to dance. David and Rick left us alone for the most part.  Once in awhile I could hear David in the back of my head muttering ideas about how he could get home.  I could feel his longing for that world he could not remember and the people he left behind there.  I wanted to get him back there.  We were eating when I expressed my desire to Elijah.  He agreed and suggested we do some research.  The Internet only got us so far, and we didn’t even find anything useful.  We decided we would brave the outside world and head to the library.  Before we left we made sure to have all the basic essentials with us just incase we couldn’t come back.  We ended up taking the bus since my car was still parked at Father Patrick’s house.  When we got there, we spent the whole time buried in any religious books and ancient folk myths that were available.  In the end we found nothing.  Then my cell phone rang.  I got a lot of dirty looks and a few shush sounds from people around us when I answered it. “Hello?” I said in the quietest voice I could muster.  It was Father Patrick on the other end; he was back in town and said we needed to meet.  He said to swing by his house as soon as I could, I’d pick up my car while I was at it.  Elijah thought it would be a good idea to see him, a priest who was a former hunter.  He could have some idea how to get David and Rick home.  I agreed; the way Elijah put it helped return a little bit of my faith in the Father.  If we knew anyone who could help us with this venture it would be him.  This time I called a taxi.

When we arrived at Father Patrick’s home he greeted us with a strained smile.  The feeling of guilt tugged at my gut at how worn down he looked. I clearly caused him grief by wanting to distance myself from him, wanting to keep him safe.  I apologized again about ditching him; he patted my head and forgave me.  Once inside I introduced him to Elijah.  The tension lessened when he invited us to dinner.  Father Patrick questioned Elijah about his new life as a hunter through the whole meal.  Then I told him what we found out about David and Rick. “You two shouldn’t help these creatures. It’s dangerous. They cannot be trusted,” Father Patrick said, not meeting our eyes. “They’re angels. I think we-” I said. “I don’t care what they say they are.  They aren’t natural,” he said, cleaning up the table. “You shouldn’t even be talking to them.” “Sir, they’ve saved our lives. Why would they suddenly mean us harm now?” Elijah said.  Father Patrick had walked back into the kitchen and dropped the dirty dishes into the sink.  The clattering of the dishes was loud against the sudden silence.  We both cringed at the noise. “It’s late.  We’ll talk more in the morning,” Father Patrick said.  After we finished cleaning up he lead us into the living room and helped set up a bed for me on the couch and one for Elijah in the lounge chair.  “I’ll find a way to save you Danny, I care about you,” he whispered to me before heading upstairs. “I know,” I whispered back.  

I was fast asleep when it happened, and now I thank God that Elijah was awake.  We were still in that routine of sleeping in shifts.  I didn’t understand what was happening.  Something soft was pressed against my face, but it didn’t register. I still thought I was dreaming.  Then I heard a voice.  Someone apologizing.  A prayer.  Then came the pressure and the pain.  My lungs burned, I couldn’t breath.  When I tried to open my mouth all I could taste was fabric. I squeaked out a pathetic excuse for a scream and struggled beneath the weight.  My heart was beating so fast, everything seemed muffled and it was the only thing I heard.  It might have been the last thing I heard.  Then the weight was pulled off of me. I ripped the fabric like object off my face and greedily gasped for air.  The room was still dark, but I could see two figures wrestling on the ground.  One of them was Elijah, and the one on top was Father Patrick.  He had a hold of Elijah’s neck and was saying something about needing to free me from that monster at all costs. But I really wasn’t listening.  I grabbed for the nearest heavy object, I think it was a candy dish and threw it hard at the Father’s head.  I watched as his body went limp and Elijah crawled out from underneath him.  Elijah came over to me and gently but quickly pulled me away. “Is he..?” I asked as Elijah led me to the kitchen. “Just unconscious,” he said grabbing a bag and stuffing it with food and water and salt.  “Where are the keys?” Shaking I pulled off a key ring from a hook near the window.  They were my car’s keys. He took them from me; we went outside and got in the car.  Elijah drove off; I didn’t pay attention to what direction.  We couldn’t go back to my apartment.  It wasn’t safe anymore.  I was running out of places that I could call safe.  He kept to the back roads; eventually I no longer recognized the scenery.  It wasn’t until the sun was in the sky again that I noticed we were heading west.  Half of the day went by before he jumped on the highway.  We didn’t stop until it was almost five. He pulled off and found a Wendy’s.  As we ordered from the drive-thru it was the first time either of us had spoken all day.  Once we got our food, Elijah pulled back on the road.  Eating with one hand and driving with the other.  He said he wanted us to get as far away as possible, to some place where we don’t know anyone.  When the sun started to set we knew we needed to find a place to stop.  But Elijah didn’t want to stay at a motel; we didn’t have any sort of wards to protect us from demons.  And I didn’t want to stop to see if a local church would put us up since that’s where Crowley’s lackey first found me.  We had gotten away once. I didn’t think Crowley would try sending low-level demons after us.  We agreed he’d probably come himself again.  So instead we pulled over and switched spots.  I kept going west.   “Danny, we need to talk,” Rick said.  The sudden sound surprised me, but I didn’t react.  I looked into my rear-view mirror and sure enough there he was sitting in the back seat.  He had this real serious look on his face, it was a look I can’t remember seeing on Elijah’s face yet.  I briefly glanced over at the passenger seat to see Elijah asleep. “I didn’t know you could talk to me while Elijah was out,” I said, my eyes back on the road. “You need to stop this whole trying to get us back home scheme,” he said, “It won’t end well for anyone.” “Is there something you’re not sharing with the class Rick?” I asked. “I can tell you feel for my little brother.  That’s real sweet and all but I don’t want you and Elijah getting yourselves killed.  I’ve grown fond of the boy in the months he’s played host to me and my grace,” he said.  “David’s asleep.”  It wasn’t a question.  I focus inside myself and found the light that I knew was David. He was in fact fast asleep. “How did you know?” I said. “You expected him to be asleep, so he is. You can influence him just as much as he can influence you.  I have a confession to make.  My name isn’t Rick, its Gabriel. And I remember everything.” “Why aren’t you telling Elijah this?” I asked. “You’re the one who’s hell bent on getting my little bro home.  The kid’s just going along with it cause he has a thing for you,” he said. I could hear the confident smirk in his voice.  My face felt hot.  I really wanted to pull over, it was hard to concentrate on the dark road and listen to what Rick had to say.  No, that wasn’t right.  His name was Gabriel, not Rick.  He was the angel Gabriel. The Archangel Gabriel. One of Heaven’s strongest weapons and Messenger of God.  And he was sitting in the backseat of my car.  Because my life couldn’t get any weirder.  He told me he remembered his old life the moment he met David and he knew the answer to what we were looking for.  Anger bubbled up in my throat.  If he had just told us, we wouldn’t have gone to Father Patrick for help.  We wouldn’t be running away blind.  I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel. “Are you going to tell me what we want to know? Or just let us continue our wild goose chase while we play hide and seek with the King of Hell?” I said.  If I could turn around and send him a glare I would have.  The archangel laughed, it sounded like a mixture of Elijah’s voice, his own, and bells.  It sent a shiver down my spine. “There are only two ways to get us back to that dimension that as far as you were aware until recently was only a TV show.  You two would have to rip out our graces, releasing us from you and that would kill you. No, that’s not right.  It would erase you from existence.”  The anger I felt trickled away to dread and fear.  My grip tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. “And the other?” I said, swallowing a hard lump in my throat. “I know a path that connects the two dimensions that you two can access using our grace.  Well, mainly my grace.  But here’s the catch, you’d have to come with us and you won’t be able to return.” I didn’t say anything again for the rest of the night.  I needed to talk to Elijah about this, and I didn’t want to do it in a car. Eventually I pulled off the highway and then drove until I found an old cemetery.  It was the only sort of hallowed ground I could handle standing on right now.  I prayed to whoever would listen that we wouldn’t be disturbed, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good.  Divine intervention free zone after all.  Then I woke Elijah up, but made sure David was still asleep.  We talked sitting on the hood of the car.  I told him everything.  This would affect him so much more than me.  He still had family. “What do you want to do?” Elijah asked me.  I stared at my hands in my lap my mind was racing.  What I wanted was to go back to my apartment, my job, my friends, and my life.  I wanted my dad alive again.  But I also wanted to help David and Gabriel. Mainly David.  I wanted him to be safe and home again. I had no reason to care so much, but I did.  Also I didn’t want to die. I really, really didn’t want to die. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life running. I’m taking David home,” I said, looking Elijah in the eye.  “You shouldn’t give up your life here for this though.” “Neither should you,” he said, then turned his gaze up to the night sky.  “I already gave up my old life four months ago when I started hunting.  I haven’t spoken to my mom or the twins in months and I was only really a burden to Josh and Mark.  A fresh start might be nice, and I would love to get Gabriel’s voice out of my head.”  The last part made me smile. “We’re insane aren’t we?” I said. “Maybe a little,” he said, “But that’s a given for anyone who has grown up knowing that monsters are real.” Our minds were made up.  We got David and Gabriel’s attention and told them our decision.  Neither of them were too enthused about it, but in David’s case that could have been because he was too busy fuming on the fact that Gabriel lied earlier about not remembering who he was.  David spent a good ten minutes scolding Gabriel, then another ten trying to get the archangel to tell him who he was. “Are you done yet?  Cause the kids’ little suicide mission to get us home does require some planning,” Gabriel said, removing his hands from his ears.  David glared hard at his brother as if his eyes could burn right through Gabriel and force him to tell him what he wanted to know.  Gabriel ignored him and asked us if we had a map.  I slid off the hood and opened up the passenger side door.  It took me a minute to go through the collection of junk in my glove compartment before I found a map.  It was only of the Midwest area, but Gabriel said it would do.  I laid it out flat on the hood next to Elijah letting Gabriel scan it over.  He pointed to a spot on the north part of Wisconsin close to the border.   “That is where a currently closed one-way Hell Gate resides.  We’ll literally have to go through Hell to get back to that dimension since in our current state we don’t have the power to directly travel to a different world,” he said. “We can’t cut through Heaven?” Elijah asked his posture had stiffened at the mention of Hell.  Maybe his hunter instincts were kicking in. “Only thing allowed alive in Heaven is God and his perfect little soldiers. Last I checked you two were human,” Gabriel said.  He kept glancing over at David who was still glaring at him.  If looks could kill the archangel would be six feet under, and if he weren’t already a ghost.  Sort of.  I took a closer look at the map, trying to determine how long it would take us to get there.  If we drove straight there it would take us at least a day and a half, and I wasn’t too keen on being cooped up in a car for that long.  I was starting to feel claustrophobic.  There was also the issue of all that land we’d have to backtrack, including driving through Minnesota.  At least our funds were holding out for now. We had to stop a few times for gas on our long drive, and each time I swear I saw someone staring at us that had black eyes.  The eyes of a demon.  Every time I’d point the person out to Elijah, he or she would disappear before he saw him or her, which really didn’t help my paranoia.  When night rolled around again I insisted we stop at a motel.  We both could really use a good nights sleep in an actual bed.  No one else agreed with me, but I was the one driving at the time so I pretty much out ranked them.  When we got there, after we demon proofed the room as best we could, Gabriel showed us what we would need to do to open the Hell Gate. It included a few things that we’d have to buy at a hardware store tomorrow, not to mention our salt supply ran out after we finished our motel room’s barriers. The price for the motel used up the last of the cash I had on me, so in the morning I went to an ATM and withdrew as much as I could.  I also made a very painful phone call to Maggie.  We both cried.  She promised to look after my family’s home until I got back.  I told her I doubted I’d come back, but she kept insisting that I would.  Then we just talked for a good half an hour about the most random things.  We talked about things we use to do together, childhood memories.  Like the time after we first saw the Ghostbusters movie and spent the rest of that week hunting ghosts that were in our basements with a cardboard vacuum cleaner.  I made sure to check that there were no real ghosts first of course.  We talked about her job.  Her students were a handful as always, but she still loved them.  We talked about the day her parents moved upstate, we saw so much less of each other after that.  But the goodbye that day was nothing compared to this one.  It took me a few tries to coax Maggie to hang up.  Elijah offered to drive the rest of the way and I let him.