Hello, lovely people! I hope you enjoy part 3 of this exciting project, any feedback is much appreciated; good or bad, cool new ideas are always welcomed :)
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Azrael opened the door a few moments later, his brow furrowed in puzzlement at my frantic pounding.
"What's wrong?" His gaze instantly hardened as he took in my panicked expression.
"Did you see the markings above our door?" I nearly shouted, jabbing a trembling finger towards the corridor.
Surprise flashed across his chiseled features before an inscrutable mask slammed down. "Get inside. Now,"
he hissed urgently, grabbing my arm and swiftly pulling me over the threshold before slamming the door shut behind us.
"Azrael, what sick fuck would do that?" I demanded, raking my hands through my messy hair as dread congealed in the pit of my stomach.
"I did it," he replied, toneless.
I recoiled a step, brow knitting in disbelief. "What? Why would you deface our home with those...those symbols?"
Terror began squeezing my chest as his unfazed demeanor provided zero reassurance. "I came rushing home because I just witnessed a man die right before my eyes, struck by a car one second and then vanished the next! And now this pagan graffiti?"
Azrael reached out, gripping my hands as he gently guided me toward the couch. "One thing at a time, Mena. Breathe." He settled beside me, tenderly stroking my knee. "What you saw were protective sigils - very ancient Enochian wardings. Powerful deterrents against...undesirable trespassers."
He held my bewildered stare steadily. "I inscribed them a few days after moving in. In my own blood as the key anchoring component. Just a prudent precaution, in case any evil entities sensed my presence and decided to come slithering after me." A shadow seemed to briefly haunt his eyes before he blinked it away. "Which could potentially endanger you as well, by proximity. So, I took steps to safeguard us both, whether you were aware or not."
"But...why didn't you tell me?" I whispered, wrongfooted by this startling revelation.
One corner of his full mouth quirked in a rueful half-smile. "Why mention arcane defenses against threats you have no understanding of just to alarm you? I vowed to shield you from the dangers that lurk beyond your comprehension, Mena, as my solemn responsibility from the moment I entered your life."
I searched his striking features as if truly seeing him for the first time, struggling to reconcile my naive assumptions about his character. For so long, I'd casually dismissed him as an arrogant, vapid pretty boy - one who viewed human existence as a trivial pursuit beneath his lofty disdain.
I could sense the profound shift in Azrael as the weight of his words, his unfathomable existence, truly sank in. But the ancient being before me now emanated strata upon strata of metaphysical complexities I couldn't begin to unravel. For the first time, it struck me how appallingly one-dimensional my perception of him had been. I had blithely delighted in his roguish charm, his elegant mystique, without sparing a thought for the unfathomable vastness scorching his psyche.
The untold eons he'd traversed, the unspeakable horrors witnessed and archaic evils grappled with - these forged an inseparable part of his primordial essence, scars forever etched into his very cosmos-spanning existence. And yet I had selfishly chosen to view his supernatural nature as mere peculiar whimsy, a curiosity to be idly marveled at when the mood struck.
While he had endeavored to spare me from the eldritch underbelly of reality he patrolled, I had reciprocated with willful ignorance borne of my own mortal naivete and self-absorption. A profound shame welled within me that this eternal warrior had granted me better friendship and loyalty than I could ever repay, even as I remained obliviously mired in my grief and anger.
Azrael's gentle rumble pulled me from my reverie. "Now...tell me about this man you claim to have witnessed die."
I haltingly recounted the disturbing apparition, from the strangely anachronistic 'witness' to the brutal vehicular impact that had made me scream - only for the entire harrowing scene to abruptly unravel into nothingness an instant later. As the fragmented details tumbled forth, a nagging recollection reasserted itself.
"Wait...there was one other detail. He had a briefcase beside him on a chair. And I distinctly remember seeing two embroidered initials on it..." I scrambled for my phone, fumbling to pull up a search engine as the fuzzy threads began weaving together. A handful of fateful keywords later and there it was - the answer, splashed across my screen in crisp digitized text.
"Azrael...this is him. The man I saw." I passed him my phone, letting him scrutinize the archival news article with its quaint period photographs and typing.
"Famous screenwriter Garry Lewis was struck dead by an oncoming vehicle," he read aloud with a deepening sense of disquiet. "Witnesses claim he purposely stepped into the path of traffic after being visibly distraught upon reading about his former lover's recent engagement to another...actress Maya Stuart."
I raked my hands through my hair, struggling to reconcile the macabre delusion with reality as it began crystallizing in my mind's eye. "That's what I saw - him hunched over the newspaper at that café before wandering dazedly into rush hour traffic right in front of me! But...Azrael, this happened back in 1959! Over sixty years ago! How is that even possible?"
Azrael nodded solemnly as I recounted the harrowing vision. "I believe you may have witnessed what's known as a residual haunting," he explained, handing back my phone after studying the archival article. "Emotionally-charged events that were so traumatic, their energy became soaked into the surrounding environment, replaying in an ethereal loop across time."
"These imprints are typically harmless echoes," he continued. "But in rare cases, they can become supercharged by unknown factors and begin interfering with the living residents of that location - at which point they've mutated into a malignant haunting requiring...professional intervention."
I arched an inquisitive brow. "Let me guess, the kind of 'intervention' that lands on an exterminator's to-do list?"