In the darkness, they ran.

There were many of them.

They did not use vehicles, they didn’t need to, they ran.

Such was their rush that they barely waited for night to fall before acting.

Obscuring cameras, and other recordings they crossed the state; stepping across mountains, walking on top of dark waters. Leading them was a devil with eyes of fire, the only source of light if one didn’t take into consideration the falling sun.

“We strike them tonight, no fear, for Lore is with us… and Spirit for us.” If one could get close enough, that would be the only thing they would hear from them. Like a low buzz, like a mantra, each point of the spike formation uttered it in turn, the ones behind repeated it with honor.

Their direction was one and one only: the forest emerging on the side of a long out of the way road.

The demon with red eyes opened his mouth in a sick smile of expectations, he was about to hunt for the blood of his enemies.

***

Sometimes I wonder where she takes all that energy from.

Gabriel couldn't help but stress over his mother's boundless endurance.

The thickly built brunette with Sioux origins, practically flew around the kitchen. The young man was almost entranced at the spectacle while waiting at the counter.

That day as well, she had been going on for hours all on her own. It was the weekend, and customers had practically come in hordes.

Isn't that right? That Clemont bastard always gets sick on Saturdays, what a fucking coincidence! His foot batted on the ground in exasperation.

The helper had taken sick leave once again, and he had done the same thing the week before. He knew that August had barely started, it was the heaviest month of the summer season for them, and yet he had done the same the previous year. Gabriel wanted to punch him, but his mother always de-escalated his temper; it took but a smile for her to do so.

"Almost ready, sweetie! Table 12!" She said from over the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, mom, I wasn't doing it because of the wait!" He shouted back.

The TV in the background had been turned as always to follow the game; however, the chatter from the guests got especially loud when the anchorman on TV delivered a piece of breaking news. The Vatican had expanded once again. It had annexed another third world country.

What the hell, it’s the fourth in four years. But just as quickly as he heard the news, it escaped his mind.

He knew his mother would hear his tapping. Not once had she failed to notice when he came back home upset, for school or for something else. When Gabriel got bigger and noticed the pattern, he asked her how she could know every single time what he was doing, and her answer was always, "I have good hearing, sweetie."

The hard maple wood of the counter got suddenly darker when a shadow approached behind him.

"Mir, Table 12, is it ready?" The girl shouted.

"Almost!" Answered Gabriel's mother.

"You should have learned by now, there's no need to shout at her, she heard you come in." Gabriel said to the girl.

If he was a five-foot-nine, the girl could barely be five-four, but she had to be by no means underestimated.

In contrast with his intense dark eyes, coming from his mother's American Indian descent, the redhead at his right had a marvelous pair of green eyes, which shined as she blew her unruly hair lock from her face.

He smiled at her as she did so.

"I know, but I can't help it." She returned the smile.

Reina was as tender as she was pragmatic; and she was smart, way too smart for her own good.

So smart that he had no idea why she still worked there, she would be graduating that year though, so it was probably their last year working together, but they had been three joyful years.

Gabriel couldn't help but think that the restaurant, Rain Season was its name, rising from its predecessors' ashes, had been in part thanks to her, Raina. Taking nothing away from his mother's prowesses behind the kitchen.

Rain Season and Raina… it almost feels like it’s hers, he always thought, and by how the clients treated her, it almost looked like it.

In the five years since they had been open, the first two had seen a minuscule amount of activity, compared to the third year, exactly when she joined.

Her cute smile and red-locks, not counting her shapely physique, had probably been what drove most of their, today aficionados, o come back again and again until, of course, they had started appreciating his mother's peculiar cuisine.

"You know, I'm going to miss you, right?" He said to her out of nowhere.

She was scribbling something on a note but turned back toward him, raising her brow, "Why? Am I going somewhere?"

"Yeah, right. Keep being a bitch," he snickered.

"Gabriel!" Came her mother's voice from behind the kitchen. Raina chuckled at that.

"We shall see, I might miss you too, but I won't definitely be missing your mother's hearing!" She said the second part getting on her ball feet and addressing the cook, "One can't even swear in here! Miss soapy mouth!"

Mirai couldn't help but chuckle, yet before the two could exchange but a look of mirth, she had reached the counter.

"This is table 12, and-"

The phone rang.

Fast like thunder, Mir picked up the phone before Gabriel could even try to, and as he changed course and instead aimed to take the plate, Raina preceded him, snatching it from the counter, giving him the tongue.

"... 138, River Street. Okay, be there in a jiffy, and thanks for your patronage!" She concluded the call.

Gabriel sighed, knowing that another delivery was waiting for him.

"River Street, have you got any idea where the place is?" He asked his mother.

"No, but you sure do, sweetie, and if you do not, Google knows it for you, so accommodate that family," she pointed at the entrance, where a family of three had just entered through the sliding wooden door and was glancing around at the small yet beautifully rustic style of the fake wood walls and floor of the restaurant, "then get ready for the delivery, it's just a few pizzas, and Antonio will have it ready in 20. Right, Tony?" She ended shouting at the only other member of the staff remaining and currently Raina's boyfriend.

"Already on it!" Answered the big fellow dressed in white from the stone hoven at the right of the kitchen.

The pizza was only secondary to the restaurant, but she wanted to make the investment all the same since her appetizers blended wonderfully with it.

"Alright, alright," Gabriel answered.

Sometimes I wonder if abandoning University hasn't been the best of the ideas.

The restaurant had become stable, and the income had increased; they even managed to buy a van, which they used both for deliveries and their daily life, but his mother treated the staff with the utmost respect, and thus she did not skimp on any salary or benefit that they should have, so income remained regular, and all the excess was spent in bringing novelty and adjustments to the place, that and on adds. Yet it was still far off from granting him the leisurely to just dedicate to managing the economic side of things, he still had to actively work in it.

A few more years, then I might as well relax and take things slowly, hoping that Raina's leaving won't take away our regulars.

As if in response, a table shouted for Raina's name with glee in their voice; she had just sabraged a bottle of Dom Pérignon, one of the few bottles they had managed to get.

He got to the entrance, and with much-practiced finesse, his voice changing into one of a professional “seller”, he led the new customers to one of the two tables remaining and explained some of the basics; they were new after all

***

A few pizzas... right...

Gabriel was listening to music on his way to the depressingly long roadway leading to River Street when he noticed a flash of light far to his right; it was intense red and disappeared just as fast as it had manifested.

"What the hell was that?" He asked, to the empty seats in a scare.

"I swear to god, if these damn deliveries keep increasing, I'll affiliate to Uber or something!" His heart still beat drums in his chest; the light had made him think someone was about to ram onto him. Fortunately, it was something else, he had no idea what it could have been, but at least it wasn't directed at him

It was another five minutes before he reached the place; thankfully, no other accidents happened, and as he turned off the music and went to remove the pizzas from the trunk, he took in the massive place, which was the 138 of River Street.

As the name said, the out of the way road had been built by the river, yet the river itself was a joke when taking into consideration that place.

Two gigantic automated gate doors let part of the garden's insides, if that could even be defined as such, show even from the outside.

He judged that if the doors were roughly six meters, then the small forest inside of what couldn't otherwise be defined but as a mansion, had trees which towered over the fifty meters.

What kind of place is this? I didn't know we had billionaires in our city.

This must be a nightmare to maintain though, I wonder how they deal with insect swarms… yet it's so well kept…

Behind the gates, which had been left open, he could see the stone pathway, probably leading at the mansion. Being intimidated by the place, he thought better of pressing the interphone buzzer.

As it was the norm, it was equipped with a camera. But as seconds flew by, nobody answered him.

I'll give them one more minute than I'm in, he thought after gauging the time on his phone.

It had been two minutes and quite a few tries later after he finally decided to enter.

Come one, you're making me waste time here! Raina can't push through it all by herself, and I don't want mama to start bringing the dishes; tomorrow is a workday as well! Gabe was not amused by the fact that he was wasting his time there.

"Hello! Is anybody home!" He started shouting as soon as he had made a few steps over the path.

"I'm the delivery guy! I've got your pizzas!"

Sigh…

He decided it was high time he walked in.

***

"Damn, this place is unending..." Gabriel whispered to himself as he made his way through the path.

The little forest around him delivered noises to his ears, animals and small movement, but he wasn't one to be afraid of nature; he had spent most of his youth in it, his grandparents on his mother's side owned a little house in the mountains over the next state, and for a few years, while she worked to maintain them, Mirai, had decided to leave him their care. So, trips in the wild and such adventures had been his daily bread, not even accounting for his American-Indian grandparents' free spirits, and their obsession with "mana" and "ley lines."

They had professed to be shamans of sorts but would have explained to him only when he had "finished at least high school"; of course, by the time he got to middle school, he had moved into the city with his mother. Since then they had barely gone once to visit their relatives and after a big fight regarding Mirai’s life choices, she decided to cut bridges with them. Then, before he knew it, the year later, word arrived of their deaths. That was eight years before, Gabriel was sixteen back then.

The funeral, held together with that of many others, had been just a formality. Their bodies had, in fact, entirely been melted in the fire that took over their cabin in the woods and the rest of the mountain with it, the thing even made the national news.

It was the subject of study for months before being dropped as unresolved, yet he was too young at the time to even be suspicious of the event. He had been failing pretty hard at high school back then and had bigger problems than a mountain catching fire and its reasons.

In the distance, a little clearage amid the crown of a big tree let him look at the mansion's upper levels.

Its roman structure showed enormous windows, over which huge arcs loomed on; the color of their tiles made indistinguishable by the light display coming from the inside.

"That’s why you can't hear the damn intercom, they're having a party in there, it must be huge!"

He couldn't hear the music yet, but the light display couldn't be else but stroboscopic lights.

"They're having fun, and I deliver; now I get what they asked for 12 pizzas."

He righted his back to adjust the wait on his delivery bag, it kept the warmth in and the cold out.

I just hope I'll find the guy who has to pay, or I swear to God I'm going to make a mess, millionaire or not!

As he kept heading toward the mansion, the air started becoming thicker.

Mist?

The dim light of the garden lamp posts started dimming and increasing in an uncoordinated manner.

Man, they're really giving it their all in there, even the tension is being affected, I wonder what kind of shit they are pulling.

But it did not end there, as he crossed a peculiar star inscribed on the stone pathway, something akin to a silver wind started hovering in the air.

It popped in front of his vision out of the blue, sincerely scaring him.

"What the hell!" Gabriel shouted, backing away and ending with his ass on the hard stone pavement.

A few pizzas had probably lost their integrity for that, and yet as he turned to check on them, removing the bag from his shoulders, he noticed that the weird silver “wind” had disappeared.

Am I seeing things? What is it with this place, really?

Gabriel let the bag on the ground. He needed to see clearly what had happened. So, he neared the mark on the road and walked over it once more. As he did, the silver wind popped back in existence in front of his eyes.

Once again, Gabriel tripped, this time ending with his ass on the bag, definitely making the pizzas an inedible poultice.

"Fuck!" He shouted.

He didn’t know if he was more confused about the vision, or if he wished to swear at the wind for the lost delivery. Then, raising his head up, for just a gut feeling, something more entered his sight. Something dangerous.

Shiny eyes.

The eyes of a wolf.

Shit…

Gabriel was paralyzed.

He knew that wolves were a peculiar sort, they did not always attack humans on sight, but their reactions were hard to guess. And this one, with its shiny blue eyes and its… massive size, now that he took a long look at it, was definitely on the high-end of the hard to interpret wolf.

As he locked eyes with it, he noticed a speck of something, intelligence maybe, wit… not something entirely extraneous to a wolf, and yet… this one was so different.

It was really different from his grandfather's companion, which he had once met in the forest…Back then silver wind was present too... It edged around the wolf and his grand-father, in his memory, bathing them in a dim light as he smiled at him, with his ridiculous feather hat on.

Damn, that was so long ago… He thought as the flash-back disappeared as fast as it had come.

Involuntarily Gabriel made to proffer the wolf his hand. The wolf straightened itself.

Gabriel's hand was about to retract when the animal once again lowered his muzzle to him, something different in its eyes this time. It started walking forward, slowly...

It's limping… noticed the young man.

A gash let out rivulets of shiny blood from its right hind leg, at its center a spike, shining a red glow.

Gabriel did not know what drew him, maybe it was empathy, maybe it was the look in its eyes, those insanely shiny eyes; but he drew forward.

The wolf stayed there, immobile; its frame almost bigger than Gabriel’s.

The young man knelt, offering it a hand which the wolf touched with its nose.

Having received consent, Gabriel caressed its head and neck, before descending to touch the unnerved gash in its rear leg. As if to facilitate him, the wolf slowly sat down, giving Gabriel more space to work, whining just a little, and closing its eyes.

Poor little thing… he thought.

Gabe knew he had to be fast, he gripped the glowing spike, it felt weirdly cold in his hands; he expected it to be hot, given the color, but it wasn't.

Fast and painless, Gabriel though.

Then he jerked it off, removing it with a little effort.

The wolf did not attack, it did not lament, it did not growl, it simply widened its eyes, as if it did not believe what had just happened.

Gabriel threw the spike aside, and caressed its head, stopping at the base of its ears, slowly massaging them. The wolf's eyes closed in pleasure... until chaos unfolded.

The wolf's head snapped to his left, a high growl released from its throat. It was too powerful, almost way too strong to be normal, it made the air virtually ripple.

As a projectile of light came from the thick of the forest, the wolf dashed to the side, evading it and in the process, pushing Gabriel on the ground, away from the light blast.

Gabriel rolled on the ground, befuddled.

His heart started furiously beating in his chest.

Did somebody just shoot me? He asked himself, incredulous.

In the meanwhile, the wolf disappeared into the thick of the forest.

Gabriel had no idea what the wolf was doing, but he had lost interest in it, instead, his eyes followed the place of impact of the projectile.

It had left a scar on the earth.

Getting closer to inspect it, Gabe noticed that scar was not the correct noun.

There was a gash in the earth, he could not fathom how, but the projectile seemed to have dug deep through the earth, leaving behind a gap almost three inches wide.

What kind of fucked up weapon can do that? His hands trembled.

Gabriel was speechless. But it didn't last for long, because the next thing that came from his mouth was a scream.

Three people hovering in mid-air passed through the thick of the forest in front of him.

They barely spare a look at him as he backpedaled for a few meters because taken by a panic attack, then he once again fell with his ass on the ground, and right on the star, popping the silver wind into existence.

Those, however, couldn't possibly be people.

They can't be, right?

One of them was a blindfolded man with wings and a sword that had caught on fire. If Gabriel didn’t know better, he would have said the man to be an Angel.

Another was a creature of dreams. Of wet, vulgar dreams. She had horns on her head and her face was that of lust itself. And yet, as weird as it sounded, the most frightening one of them was the human.

Judging from his cassock, the zucchetto, and the collar, Gabriel couldn't but ask himself if he had gone crazy.

Is that a priest?

A robed man, a man of the church.

His face was covered into what couldn’t otherwise be but a mask of a picturing a Skull with multiple horns; and it, too, had caught on fire.

The Priest spoke to him. With a laugh, he said, “Boo!”

Gabriel was petrified.

No, this must be a hoax…" Gabriel thought, " a massive, hoax going entirely out of hand…

But the massive frame of an animal, covered in a pitch-black mist, towered over them, behind it followed the wolf with bright blue eyes.

As unnaturally as it sounded, the darkness around the thing, which Gabriel’s mind registered as an animal because it walked on four legs, shot forward, his massive frame doing the same an instant later. It looked like a bear if it wasn't for the absurd size of it.

The bear's dance with the three flying creatures commenced.

Bodies entangled and lights flashed left and right, at times slowly, some other times too fast for his eyes to follow.

As the bigger of the three flying creatures, the Angel, rolled with the beast in an attempt to tackle it, the priest released flashes of red light from his hands, one after the other as if he was shooting a laser gun. Their ethereal look, form, and effect defied all logic, there was no known weapon that acted in that way.

Gabriel was speechless.

The rolling bodies were moving about, leaving destruction in the forest. Their movements directed them toward where Gabriel was sitting, paralyzed by the spectacle.

They would have rolled over him, and given the damage left in the wake of their entangling bodies, they would have most probably squashed him on the spot.

If it wasn't for the blue-eyed wolf.

The creature appeared out of nowhere, pushing Gabriel aside with his forelegs, and making him roll ungraciously on the ground quite a few times.

As Gabriel's body stopped rolling, and he took control of it once more, his mind registered the wolf's cry. It had probably received the blunt damage he would have gotten instead. But he could not worry about that now. He needed to get away as fast as possible.

Gabriel had to bail.

His eyes darted from right to the left.

The two monsters were waging war on the stone pathway, so that direction was off-limits, and the only other thing that came to his mind was… the silver wind.

The wind acted as an arrow, almost directing the onlookers toward its desired direction.

He knew it was dumb to go toward it, the dumbest idea maybe, but it felt as if his grandfather was calling for him; telling him to come.

And since danger was afoot, he felt drawn to it even more.

So biting his lower lip, Gabriel decided to take a leap of faith.

It was better to run over the unknown than to run toward certain death. The only other road being the thick of the trees on his right, leading to the edges of the walls that enclosed the garden, but it was too dark, too scary to take.

So Gabriel ran, he ran with the silver lines leading him on the road. He ran, leaving behind the smashing sound, the flickering lights, and the certainty of death.

***

It wasn't long, minutes probably before Gabe found a stone, a beautiful stone tidy and well kept, it communicated him righteousness and somehow… a promise of change.

He stopped, breathing heavily for the effort. It had been mere minutes, but he had given it his all, even years spent as a waiter did not help him in maintaining such a run for long.

Gabriel got closer to the silver stone, and without even knowing what he was doing, he placed his hand on it, to feel its surface.

Before he knew it, his eyes turned into a beacon of silver light.

Then the night turned into day for a few seconds as silver light rushed from the wind and the stone into Gabriel's skin.

He felt the wind burn through all of him; skin, muscles, bones, organs… then he flashed of the ethereal silver light as if he himself was the source of it, and just like that, Gabriel disappeared.

A fuming patch of grass was the only thing that remained of him.

From where he stood, the shape of his boots had been left as a proof of his passage, sculpted in burning vestiges on the ground. Though the shape his hand had left on the stone, wet with the wolf’s blood was soon disappearing, the burned grass soon dispersed in the soft wind as new blades sprouted forth, canceling even the sign of his passage.

Welcome to Alter, Gabriel Walker.