Escaping Death [Watty Awards]

Chapter 16-Gabriel

Chapter 16-Gabriel

We walked back to camp, hand in hand.  The night was luminous and held a sense of peace as well as an air of magic.  There was something different about tonight, I could feel it.  Suddenly, I felt a deep foreboding pain coming from my chest.  It was like I was being torn apart, piece by piece.  But as soon as the pain had pierced through me, it slowly faded the next moment.

I pulled Gwen closer to me, feeling overwhelmingly protective of her.  I'd never let anything happen to her...ever.  Not while I was here.  She was the reason that I came back and letting her go wasn't going to be an option.  Not anymore.  I didn't care about what the rules were.  All that mattered was Gwen.

"What's wrong?"  Gwen's voice held a hint of alarm as she stopped walking and looked up at me.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to look at her.  "Nothing.  I was just thinking."

"May I know what you were thinking?"  She asked, sing songing.  It was cute and it made me smile.  I pulled her closer to me and held her...never wanting to let her go.

If only she knew, I thought.  "Just thinking of you."  I whispered.  I sounded cheesy but I didn't know what else to say...I couldn't tell her the truth not yet.  "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, you will."  She nodded.

I kissed her forehead and watched her walk into her tent.  I stayed out for awhile and noticed that no one else was out, not even the teachers had stayed out to enjoy the night's beauty.  I walked to one of the fires and sat down on a log.  Starring at the flames, images started to flicker inside my head.  Memories of the months before I came resurfaced and I closed my eyes, willing them to go away...but they didn't.

It was just like what the Council of Elders had shown me.  It was late and the sun had begun to set over the horizon.  There were barely any cars passing the road that I was seeing.  I wondered why they were showing me this but I had formed my thoughts to quickly because then the image on the looking glass became focused on one car.  That's when I saw her.

Gwen was so beautiful that it stunned me.  It felt like someone had punched me in the gut.  It took me a moment to catch my breath.  It was the first time that I had seen her in years and I was overjoyed to see her well.  I was surprised that my father was letting me watch what was happening in a different time.  It was forbidden for anyone to use the looking glass and see into the past or future.  Well, it was forbidden unless the council had any say in it but they rarely looked into the past unless it was of dire importance.

I looked around me and saw the solemn faces of my father's council.  No one said anything of my presence here but something was wrong.

"Son,"  My father's voice drew my attention back to him.  "Just watch.  You need to see this."

I turned my gaze back to the looking glass and ignored the uneasy feeling that crept inside me.-Gwen was in her car, driving back home.  She was listening to music but her attention was always on the road.  She was utterly beautiful and I longed to be with her, sitting next to her as she drove.  She had long, flowing brown hair that went all the way down to the middle of her back.  Her eyes were the same deep, rich brown that I'd grown to love. 

It was just another ordinary day for her.

Then the truck hit her.

It all happened so suddenly that at first I didn't understand what was happening.  Her reflexes came too late to swerve away from the road.  The impact of the truck made her car spin out of control and flipped over.  Gwen screamed for help and cried tears of exasperation.  The other car had driven off the road and into a telephone post and crushed the truck with its deadly force.  Gwen was trying to get out of the car but she couldn't get her seat belt to unbuckle.  She was stuck and she cried out in frustration but also with fear.  She had a huge cut on her forehead, from her head hitting the steering wheel,  that had begun to bleed down the side of her face.  She kept on crying and calling for help until she couldn't anymore.  It only took a few minutes before Gwen lost her consciousness.  She laid still while the gas from her car started to spill all around her.  Before I knew it the flames started to consume the car.  Gwen never once stirred and soon the flames started to consume her, engulfing her in their fiery death.  Then the car exploded.

I threw a branch into the fire and looked away.  That's not going to happen to her.  That's why you came back to this time.  I got up from the log and went to put out the fire.

No.  I wasn't going to let anything happen to her.  Not this time around.  It's bad enough that my presense is here but I just couldn't bear to lose her...not again.  I wasn't there then and I couldn't do anything about it.  But now I was here and I was going to do everything that I could to protect her.  That's what mattered.

I've read the prophecies that were written long before the council was ever made.  My father had let me read them to see if I could find anything that could stop someone's fate from happening...but there was nothing.  I knew that Gwen was not suppose to die in that accident.  Something else had happened before and had unraveled this new path for her.  But what it was, I didn't know.

"Damn it!"

I kicked at the embers and paced around the pit.  There had to be a way to figure out what happened that night that changed everything for Gwen; the council had said as much.  They were as baffled as I was about her death.  They tried to figure out what went wrong but had come out with nothing.  They had gone through every moment of her life and couldn't pin point exactly where her fate had turned for the worst.  I just stood by the wall of the chamber still fazed by what I'd seen a few days prior. They'd mumbled their apologize to me and I appreciated it but it didn't do anything to help me.

After the council had come up empty with research, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I pleaded with my father to let me return to the past to try and stop Gwen's death.  He had refused and ordered me to drop the subject until I had made him an offer he couldn't ignore.  I had convinced him and my family to be allowed this request under one condition: to not reveal my secret to anyone. 

With my father's approval the council let me go back to the past but it was a long and dreaded process.  Soon, my request turned into a mission.  I was the one who had to figure out what went wrong in Gwen's life to bring upon her death.  The thing that was baffling about Gwen is that she has two pre-destined paths.  The first is to live a normal and happy life.  I had seen that path in the looking glass.  She had born to children and married an architect.  It pained me to see her with someone else but the pain was less then what her death brought upon me.  The second path was her death in the car accident.  It didn't make any sense that Gwen had two paths and either could happen with a decision that she makes.

Wait...if I was in the present and that night hadn't happened yet, then it might be possible that nothing would ever happen.  That had to be a possibility.  If Gwen was never suppose to die and if my presence here makes here life safe, then everything is solved.

Who was I kidding?...things couldn't be that easy.  No.  Life was pre-destined and that was the end of the story.  That is what I was raised to believe in.  But Gwen's death changed everything.  She is the only who has two paths but she can't choose which one she wants; its not a conscience choice that she could make.

There was never, in all recorded council history, of a person who had two pre-destined paths.  Something had gone wrong and I was the one sent here to figure it out.  I wasn't given any orders to intervene if something bad was going to happen to her but I wasn't going to just stand there and see it happen to her.  Even if I had strict orders from the council to not intervene, I would have dismissed them.  I didn't care about the rules.  All that mattered was Gwen.  I was going to do everything in my power to keep her safe no matter the cost.

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This chapter is dedicated to my FANS! I really appreciate all the support that you guys give me and always commenting and voting and tell me what you guys think :)) SO...hopefully you guy's liked this chapter and finally get a little taste of Gabriel's purpose :D Tell me if its confusing...because it was a bit of a challenge writing this. Well, hope you guys enjoyed it!!

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