l'incontro (Part III and final)

“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…”- said the Devil
“No! You don’t understand!, he’s lying!” – Mary was sobbing; thick tears fell from her eyes clearing the dirt and the blood. Gabriel was devastated; he kept on looking at Mary trying to understand what was real.
“Now, Gabriel, join me, and I’ll give you Mary as a gift. She’ll be your own slave and will do whatever you want. A woman like this doesn’t deserve more than this. Hell, I’ll even throw in a sweetener, you’ll be as rich as you can imagine! What do you say?”
Gabriel kept on looking at Mary. His eyes were fixed in her. He was in pain; his face mirrored the disappointment he was feeling.
“Take me. Leave her alone, and never come back.”- Gabriel said
“Hum… and lose a good recruiter…”
“Take it or leave it!”
“Don’t do that, please don’t!” – shouted Mary, getting up
“I’ll take it!” – the Devil replied, and beaming turned to Mary “- you’re free to go, this contract is good and I’ll leave you alone, for all I care. I no longer had any use for you anyway” – he then turned to Gabriel. – “But you’re coming with me. Now!”
The Devil summoned a knife and headed towards Gabriel, his eyes fixed on his pray, silently laughing.
Mary start sprinting, jumped in front of Devil trying to stop the knife. “Leave him alone! You can’t take him! He has done nothing, I love him! I love him! I love him!” – screamed Mary. In an instant blow, the Devil threw Mary to the ground and dropped the knife, and fiercely looked at her.
A strange glow started shining on Gabriel. A bright blue flame, almost invisible, seemed to cover his entire body. He grew stronger, his face determined, confident. He appeared to grow in size. His eyes were bright green. “I said: leave her alone!”- commanded Gabriel. The Devil turned. Doubt flashed through his eyes. Gabriel swiftly headed towards the Devil grabbed him by his arms, lifting him up. As his hands touched the Devil, smoke started to come out of him. The Devil's face was in pain as he helplessly tried to fight back. “It can’t be! You can’t… I’m the dark one!” – cried the Devil
“Go. And don’t come back.” – directed Gabriel to the Devil. And in a big explosion the Devil disappeared.

Silence.

The world seemed to be oblivious to what happened. Everything around came back to normal. The sounds of the night came back, and the trees seemed to stop holding their breath.
Gabriel was still with his hands in air, but he wasn’t glowing anymore.
He looked exhausted. Beaten.
He slowly turned to Mary, who was sitting on the floor looking at him, still terrorized with what had happened, not knowing who this man was anymore.
“What happened?” - she asked uneasy
“There is only one thing that beats the Devil” – Gabriel calmly said looking into her eyes. She immediately recognized the man she loved, and started smiling.
“When you jumped to the Devil, you were willing to sacrifice yourself for me, just out of love. And my deal with him, was also out of love. You see, we were both willing to die for the other no matter what. That’s true love. That’s the blue flame. The only pure selfless love that is willing to self sacrifice to save us, to make us better, and it is the only thing that beats the Devil in this world.”
He started walking towards her, and taking her on his arms, lifted her up. “Is he gone for good?” – Mary asked
“No, he’ll be around. He’ll be tempting people, luring them to him with poisoned offers, to do his dirty work. But something tells me that we won’t be seeing him again.”- he smiled, his eyes were bright green again. “Let me take you home”
Mary hugged him, kissed his face, and rested her head on his shoulder
“We can go anywhere, I’m already home.”