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“Let me out!!!” Carter shouted loudly banging on the door in the darkness.

“Carter,” a voice called out to him.

“Gabe, is that you?” he said feeling a calm come over him.

“Yes, listen to my voice. You’re safe now, I’m here,” he said bringing great comfort to Carter.

“I can’t do it Gabe.  I just can’t.  I’m sorry but I have to get out of here,” he said over and over again to Gabe.

“Hang on Romeo, you’ve got to focus.  Just listen to my voice,” he said taking Carter down another notch.

“How about I go through that door for you? Would that be ok? Can you stay here while I take a look around for a minute?” Gabe asked with his calm soothing voice.

“Yeah, I think I can do that,” Carter responded, hesitant but willing.

“Now you have to promise me you will stay right here and wait for me.  Okay Carter?” Gabe said.

“Okay,” he responded seeming to understand but clearly shaken by the thought of whatever it was on the other side of that door.

Gabe went into the darkness leaving Carter waiting safely in the wings. Gabe could hear the laughter of children as he walked slowly through the tunnel of Carter’s childhood. Then he noticed a glimmer of light up ahead and proceeded to follow it. The light opened up to a field of tall grass and wildflowers. Off in the distance he saw two children playing together, happily frolicking through the meadow. Nearby, Gabe noticed the tower that Vie and Carter had fallen from on their star gazing date and he knew they must be on the reservation. Then Gabe felt a presence, an evil energy lurking in the shadows. Suddenly, from out of the brush a massive beast showed himself. He looked directly at Gabe as if he could see him standing there. Gabe knew that he couldn’t because this was not a real place in time, only a distant memory trapped in Carter Stone’s soul. Gabe moved closer to the beast and it stared right at him. Gabriel was frozen by the devil red eyes glaring back at him. It only took seconds for Gabriel to understand exactly what, rather whom, he was staring at. The beast was his arch nemesis Lucian, the ruler of the underworld, the root of all things evil. Suddenly the little boy turned around and faced Gabriel. It was Carter. The boy was the younger version of him but Gabe would recognize his fierce green eyes anywhere. He seemed to be communicating to Gabe through his eyes that there was trouble. Then the beast took off running straight for young Carter and his little friend.

“Run Carter run!” Gabe ordered feeling the threat of Lucian’s attack.

Carter grabbed the hand of the little girl and they ran as fast as they could to the tower. Carter hoisted the little girl up the rock and followed behind her. The beast continued to chase them attempting to climb the giant tower. Carter was throwing rocks down nailing the beast each and
every time but the beast kept coming closer and closer to the children. Gabe could do nothing but watch.

Then, young Carter’s little friend slipped down the side of the mammoth rock and Gabe watched the horror that appeared on Carter’s little face. He scaled back down with ease grabbing her little hand and pulling her back up to safety. It was clear that the only fear young Carter had was not of the beast but of losing his best friend. The little girl grew weak and began to slow down but Carter wouldn’t let her stop. He looked into her eyes like he was communicating silently with her and then she got up and pushed on. The beast was having trouble scaling the walls of the massive rock.  It kept sliding down, embedding his nails in the walls of the tower. Then, out of nowhere, the beast lunged and grabbed the corner of her dress, pulling her down the tower with his razor sharp claws. The scream she yelled out as she sailed down past Carter chilled Gabe to the bone. There was something about the sound of her scream that shook his soul. Gabe felt compelled to help her, even though he knew he could not because he was only viewing a memory. He reached the base of the tower and watched.

Young Carter scaled back again until he reached the little girl. He was pulling her hand but he could not free her from the mouth of the beast that had her dress clinched in its teeth. Carter grabbed a large walking stick and began to beat the beast on the snout, trying hard to free his friend. Suddenly the sky opened up and young Carter looked up to the bright light. Then, like in a slow motion picture, he yelled out “ZASTEE!” which meant “kill” in Lakota.  And with one powerful pull he freed the little girl from the grip of the beast. Bloody and weak the little girl dangled limply from young Carter
’
s hand as the beast began to climb again, even more ferociously now. Gabe zeroed in on the screams of the little girl feeling an ache down deep in his soul. There was something about the girl that had Gabe feeling anxious. Gabriel used his telescopic vision to zero in on her and that’s when he saw her as clear as day. The little girl clinging to life in the mouth of the devil looked directly at him with her beautiful violet eyes. “It can’t be!” he thought to himself looking closer at the little girl. But it was Vie that he saw and Gabriel fell back aghast.  Young Carter looked directly at Gabe now, bonded in their pain and with a tear in his eye he flung her little body in one fell swoop to the top of Devil’s Tower. The power he had was extraordinary and Gabe watched awestruck by the almighty strength of the little boy. They both watched a
s
she looked back down to Carter with her beautiful violet eyes, reaching for his little hand that would not come in time.

Just then, the tower shook and began to separate at the base where Gabe stood watching. It started to rise up from the ground, slowly at first and then faster and faster until the top of the tower had disappeared into the clouds high up above the sky. Carter held on, as did the beast clinging to the sedimentary rock. Everything stopped and there was a moment of complete silence. Young Carter took one last look up to the little girl at the top of the tower and back to Gabriel before jumping off as it came crashing down with the speed of light, pounding the beast into the ground and sending it straight back to hell.  Gabe looked up and watched Carter falling and then spread his wings to take flight. Gabe knew he couldn’t save the boy but he didn’t care,
he couldn’t watch any longer without helping.  He glided to young Carter and cradled him safely to the ground. He didn’t understand how he was able to save Carter, but he did. Gabriel placed his little body on the ground feeling the shattering of his soul. His spirit died when Violet disappeared into the clouds.

Gabriel now understood the fear Carter had and why. It was not a fear of church at all but deep anger he had with God for taking away the girl he loved. The girl named Vie.

It was so clear now why Carter was rejecting who he was created to be. Without Vie, his life, his soul was empty and he was lost and angry inside. Gabe was certain about his conclusion because he himself knew he would feel the exact same way if Vie were taken away from him. Gabriel thought this explained so many things regarding their almost immediate bond here when Vie arrived. But what wasn’t explained to Gabriel that had him furious was why he did not know that Vie was from this world and not theirs. “
Camulus
must know about this,” Gabriel thought to himself. “Why would he not tell me?” he wondered. “What other secrets does he keep?”

Until Gabriel was sure what was going on he needed to keep what he had discovered to himself. It would be hard for him to lie to Vie and Carter about what he knew but it was necessary until he got the answers he needed. Gabriel shook off the haunting screams that echoed in his memory of Vie in the clutches of Lucian the beast. Everything was beginning to make sense as Gabe traveled back through the darkness in Carter’s soul. Violet was not a Guardian.  She was human and that changes everything.

Chapter 21

Betrayed

“
Camulus
!”
Gabriel thundered outside the door of the council’s chambers before barging in and banging his hand on the table, interrupting the meeting in session.

“Gabriel, what is the meaning of this intrusion?” he asked angrily, standing up to confront Gabriel.

The two leaders stood face to face like two carnivorous animals standing over their prey.
Camulus
warned Gabriel to take it down a notch and dismissed the other members of the council from the meeting. It was obvious to
Camulus
that the two of them needed to speak in private. He had never seen Gabriel so angry and it was not a
n emotion that was welcomed
in their world.
Camulus
reminded Gabriel where he was and to whom he was speaking.

“Enough Gabriel!
Do you think you can just barge in here making threats and barking orders at me like I am your subordinate?”
Camulus
warned Gabriel.

“Tell me this
Camulus
, how long did you think you could conceal this from me…from her?” he asked. “Did you really think I wouldn’t uncover your little secret?”

It was then that
Camulus
knew Gabriel had indeed discovered the truth. He told Gabriel to calm down for a moment and he would try to explain everything to him. Gabriel was insulted by his late in the day reveal and proceeded to tell him that he didn’t care for his excuses. He said he wasn’t interested in partial disclosure and if he wanted him to stay he had better be ready to tell him everything, absolutely everything he knew about Violet.

“What do you think you know about Violet?”
Camulus
asked wondering.

“What do I know? Well let’s see, I know that ever since we got to their world nothing has made sense to me. Like Vie adapting so easily, like her instant bonding with Carter Stone as if they had known each other all of their lives, like the fact that she has real human feelings she is dealing with,  or how about the fact that her mouth waters every time she sinks her teeth into a cheeseburger? Is that enough for you
Camulus
, Huh?” Gabriel shouted.

“Come sit with me Gabriel, let me tell you a story,”
Camulus
said feeling that Gabriel needed to hear the truth.

“Will your story
be
one of fact or fiction?” Gabriel asked
condescendingly
.
Camulus
ignored his remark and continued.

“Many years ago I was guarding the Gates when before my eyes the porthole opened and there sat a beautiful little girl with big round violet eyes. She couldn’t have been more than three years old. She looked at me and smiled showing no fear at all in arriving in this strange world she had
now found herself in. I didn’t know where she came from, only that she was here. You know we are forbidden to question the why in anything here so I did not.

“How did you know she came from their world?” Gabriel asked curiously.

“Because she was badly wounded and bleeding.
Obviously she was not one of us but she was sent to be with us and I did not question it. She had no memory of her life and all she could tell me was her name was Violet. I swear Gabriel that was all we knew.  It wasn’t until many years later that I was informed about her connection to the boy,” he confessed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Gabriel fired his anger again.

“We thought it was best to withhold it, given your closeness to Violet,”
Camulus
said.

“Who
is
we? Who else knows about this?” Gabriel ordered him to answer.

Camulus
hung his head and then turned away in shame. It didn’t take long for Gabriel to r
ealize that he was not going to share that information.
Gabriel took a moment to process everything and then collapsed in the chair, exhausted in thought. “This can’t be real,” Gabriel thought to himself.
Camulus
could see the anguish all over his face and hated watching his friend tortured by the betrayal he felt.

“What about her powers? Humans don’t have powers, so where did her abilities come from?” Gabe asked hoping for a different outcome.

“We don’t understand that part of Violet. We thought perhaps they were given to her in exchange for the life cut short in her world, but none of us really know for sure. I do think that Violet was given the photographic memory as a gift for her lost time with the chosen one. You know Gabriel; none of us know what the bigger plan is.  We just know that there is one and we do what we are put in this world to do… protect the gates at all costs. You’re Violet may not have come here the way we all did but that doesn’t change who she is now.  She is one of us,”
Camulus
said.

“No, she isn’t one of us! She is human and this darkness in her soul will haunt her just as it haunted Carter. Can you not see it? Am I the only one here who gets this will destroy her? She needs to know everything now!” he bellowed.