l'incontro (Part II)

“Leave her alone!” – shouted a voice from behind. The hooded figure turned to find a man standing defiantly looking at him. “I said leave her alone!” – repeated the man.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t a knight in shining armour…” – spitted the hooded figure “- I guess I will have some fun after all, little Mary”, he said. And with a blow on the face, he threw Mary to the ground. Dirt and blood covered Mary’s eyes; she knew whose voice was this. He came. She passed out.
A tall man was standing a couple of meters away, below a streetlight, right in front of the church. He had dark green eyes, and his expression was mixed between determination and defiance. The hooded figure turned and started looking at him in silence, curious, as if watching a new pet eager to show some tricks. He sighed –“What are you doing here, Gabriel?” – uttered the hood in a theatrical tone – “Shouldn’t you be at home sleeping or feeling helpless and sorry for yourself?”
“Go away and leave her alone, this is my last warning…” – replied Gabriel
“Oooh, I’m so scared” – joked the figure “What are you going to do? I’ve been around for thousands of years, no one defeated me. Do you really think you can just come here and scare me away? Do you even know who I am?”
Gabriel took out a small bottle of water and tried to spray him. The hooded figure started laughing and in a second he jumped to Gabriel, punched his hand, and shattered the bottle on the floor.
The figure, removed his hood. It seemed to grow in size, and to darken the entire world into background. Its face wasn’t a face you could have ever seen without invoking your greatest nightmares. It seemed human, but it didn’t have any skin in it. It had strange shapes, and symbols, and its eyes… its eyes were glowing red, as if they were windows to a burning furnace. A look at it caused fear and awakened the most primitive forms of horror and despair.
“I am the prince of darkness, a master of the universe; you have no power over me, the devil to some a dark angel to others. No holy water can harm me: your faith is weak, and so are you. I can crush you like a bug, and darken you to the world so much, that no one you ever held dear will even want to remember you.”
“You shouldn’t be here! This is not your world, it is the world of Man and free choice” – cried Gabriel
“I am! And I’ve always been here, luring Man and its choices to my own will! You’re so easily shepherded…I just need to whisper what you wish, or what you think you do, and you all come crawling…”
“But I know! You can’t interfere… you can’t harm me, you can’t harm Mary!”
“I can harm you, if I so please, I only need a corrupted soul to do my will … and Mary?, she is mine, I own her soul, I can do whatever I please with her…”
The Devil awaited these words to sink in, starring at Gabriel, as he desperately sought a way through. Gabriel looked at Mary, she was still lying on the floor half unconscious. His heart and soul, were gaining strength. “-I need to end this” – thought Gabriel
“But let’s not fight Gabriel, I can be your friend” – the Devil said, as he face gained a frightful but scary look, and his eyes turned into light grey. “- I can sense your anger, your frustration, your fear… don’t fight it, let it go. Turn to me, and I can give you whatever you want” – he said in a warm seductive voice. Mary sighted, she was awaking and looking at the both of them. Gabriel looked at her, and then to the Devil.
“Let Mary go. Release her, and never come back for her again, and I am yours”- he said defiantly
“Oh this is so much fun!”- the Devil’s eyes turned red again, and his expression more frightening than ever – “Do you even know why I own her?”
“No!!! Shut up!” – cried Mary desperately…
“She came to me to seduce a man, someone she had set her heart into. She asked for abilities and skills that would make her fascinating to his eyes. And it worked; she lived a passion for a couple of years. But it turned out, that the man wasn’t who she though he was, he started mistreating her and finally left her for another woman. Little she knew, that that man, is mine as well, she fell right into the trap… She does exactly the same for me now, she lures men to fall in love with her, and they all come to me for help. I asked her to seduce you Gabriel, she doesn’t love you at all…”