Snow falls. The cold bites into Gabriel's skin. Through the storm he can see a child, a girl, standing alone. He doesn't recognize her, but can't shake a feeling of familiarity that he gets when he sees her.
She's scared. He could see it written all over her face. Gabriel thought she's right to be. Somewhere in the dark there's a danger lurking. He could feel it deep inside his bones.
He knew that he needed to protect the girl, so he ra—
Gabriel was shaken awake. He lifted his head to look up, and saw the frustrated bartender shoot him a glare as she went about her work.
His head pounded. The taste in his mouth was both familiar and unbearable. He took a moment to take in what he saw while asleep. Vivid, but had quickly begun to fade after waking up. He thought there may be something there, something he should know. He had dreams like that before, and there had always been something to them. But that was then. He had moved on.
Gabriel looked down at the near-empty beer bottle in his hand in a state of dull contemplation. The memories that haunted him, and the pain that accompanied them, had been so vivid once upon a time. As each year passed, and time on the barstool increased, they all seemed to fade into a dull yet ever-present ache.
More often than not, he yearned for days gone by, for a time when he felt certain. Righteous even. It seemed like a glimmer of a dream in his foggy mind. Little more than shadows that would sometimes dance in his mind's eye when he wasn't careful.
Gabriel Chambers had once been a hero, or so he liked to tell himself. He had been a Knight of Dawn: a mortal warrior selected to be a soldier for the Host of Heaven, executing God's will on earth. Those days had been simple. As a Knight, most of his job was simply hunting low-level demons seeking to sew chaos into the order of Creation. He couldn't count how many he killed, but that was something he could never quite get himself to regret, no matter how much he regretted ever raising his sword in the first place.
As he sat on his lonely barstool, huddled over his drink, he felt a sensation on the back of his neck that at that point had become nearly alien to him. It's subtle, the slightest pressure, but it was there. Gabriel was then acutely aware that there was a demon in the bar with him. He looked up to the door and saw him. He looked unremarkable. Medium build, brown hair, and dressed plainly, the exact kind person you wouldn't look twice at. Unless you knew what to look for.
Most people go through life blind to the things around them. People are blissfully ignorant when they want to be, and this is especially true when it comes to the predatory side of the universe. The trick is that it's not just about what a person sees, it's about feeling, too. Gabriel honed that awareness through the years, and because of that, he noticed the glimmer of a red aura encompassing the creature's body.
He didn't notice Gabriel looking at him. Just as people liked to turn a blind eye to the genuine evil lurking in the shadows, they also like to ignore the drunks, addicts, and outcasts of society, and apparently demons shared that habit. The demon gave Gabriel a passing glance and he guided his companion to a booth on the other end of the bar.
There was a pull in Gabriel's gut that told him to take action. Wait for the monster outside, smite him, and save his date, but he ignored it. Those days were done. He had moved on.
In his apartment later that night, Gabriel stared at the ceiling and as he did every night, thought of his son, Owen.