Chapter Four
Gabriel wakes up to find Rose beside him, her face marked with confusion. His heart pounds with fear and anxiety as he looks at her.
Gabriel: "What the hell is happening to me?"
Rose: "I was going to ask you the same thing. Have you stopped taking your medication?"
Gabriel: "Medication? What medication? What the hell are you talking about?"
Rose: "Your antidepressants. You haven't been visiting Dr. George for a while now."
Gabriel is struck by a wave of shock, as if a thousand demons had just possessed him. His voice trembles with disbelief.
Gabriel: "Depression? When was I ever diagnosed with depression? What doctor? Why the hell can't I remember any of this?"
Rose exhales sharply, a hint of sorrow darkening her gaze.
Rose: "Damn it… not again. I didn't expect it to be this severe."
Gabriel: "What do you mean?"
She looks at him, her eyes filled with sorrow.
Rose: "PTSD. You've had it since Mason died. You spent a long time in isolation, drowning in grief and depression. I was the one who took you to Dr. George, and for a while, your condition started improving. But it seems that period was too traumatic for you... You've completely blocked it out."
Gabriel freezes. His fingers grip his hair as he trembles, his mind spiraling into chaos.
"This is madness. This is madness. This is madness. This is madness. This can't be real. This can't be real. How can I not remember an entire part of my life?"
Rose sighs deeply, regret evident in her voice.
Rose: "I'm sorry for dragging you into all of this, knowing how fragile your mental state is. But… we needed your intelligence."
Gabriel, still in shock, clenches his fists.
Gabriel: "Get out."
Rose: "What?"
Gabriel: "Get the hell out of here!"
Rose hesitates for a moment but then quietly leaves, not wanting to push him any further.
—
Later that night, at her home, Rose receives a call from Eva, who wants to congratulate Gabriel on the success of the mission. She also informs her that there will be a victory celebration at the end of the month.
Rose tries calling Gabriel, but he doesn't answer. She keeps trying for twelve days—without a single response. Worry creeps into her heart.
"I'll go see him at sunrise," she tells herself.
—
4 AM.
Gabriel lies in bed. He hasn't eaten in eight days. His body has become skeletal, nothing but skin stretched over bone. Beside him, a large bottle of water sits, barely touched. The only thing keeping him alive is his human survival instinct—though his mind craves death more than anything.
His face is frozen in shock
Rose unlocks the apartment door with her key and finds it in a miserable state. Broken glass fills the place, and the bathroom mirror is shattered. She heads to Gabriel's room and finds him on the brink of despair, his face sombre, and his body resembling that of famine victims.
Rose says, "Gabriel, my dear, what happened to you?"
He does not respond, nor does he change his sitting position. He remains seated on the bed, hugging his legs.
Rose says, "You need to cheer up. I am doing all this to create your dream of changing the world."
Gabriel, with a sarcastic and mocking tone, devoid of any care, says,
Gabriel: "Those were nothing but childish dreams. It is impossible to change the world. It will remain a disgusting hell forever. You should give up."
Rose: "No, I will not. As long as you are with me, anything is possible. I brought you pasta with shrimp—I know it is your favourite food."
Gabriel: "Just let me die. That would be better for everyone."
Rose: "You fool. If you die, I will die with you. That is a promise from me to you. Now, eat."
Gabriel agrees to eat after Rose's insistence. She then tells him about the celebration the organisation is planning and says that if he loves her, he should attend. He agrees to her request.
Five days later, on the last day of August, they go to the headquarters of the Zero Phantom organisation. Eva welcomes them and hands them glasses of wine.
Eva: "Welcome to the party, cowboys."
Eva delivers a speech and says, "Today, we struck our first blow against the Chevchenkov family and took down their lapdog, the minister. Tomorrow, we will expose all the documents we have gathered about this minister and all the evidence proving his connection with the devilish Chevchenkov family. But for now, ladies and gentlemen, let us celebrate this victory with a toast to our new member, Gabriel Sunderland."
Gabriel gives a faint sarcastic smile and thinks to himself, I fear for Rose among these fools. They are devoid of principles and only think about achieving their goal. It does not matter how noble your cause is—if you abandon your comrades and friends, then you are scum. Let these fools celebrate their imaginary victories. I have brought an audiobook of Sherlock Holmes with me. I will put on my earphones and listen to it—perhaps this time, Sir Moriarty will defeat Sherlock.
Their small celebration is interrupted by a call from their leader, Captain Avery, whose face is hidden, but his body is visible, dressed entirely in black.
He says, "Congratulations, gentlemen, on this great victory. We are on the right path, oh revolutionaries. But do not get too excited, for this is only the first step towards the heavens. Celebrate, but remain as vigilant as the wolf that sleeps with one eye open. Long live Phantom Zero."
As he says this sentence, he performs the infamous Nazi salute, and all the organisation's members follow suit, including Rose and Eva—except for Gabriel, who watches intently.
Eva speaks to Gabriel, who is drinking from Starbucks and has one earphone in his ear.
Eva: "It seems you have noticed, genius."
Gabriel looks at her and says, "Yes. That was a recorded video, not a live call."
---
After that eerie party, everyone returns to their homes. Gabriel heads to his apartment, followed closely by Rose, who slips inside unnoticed—or perhaps he did notice.
Gabriel: "What are you doing here at this late hour?"
Rose: "I've decided to sleep with you tonight. What? Are you really going to throw out this attractive, beautiful lady at such a late hour, oh great big man?"
Gabriel: "Of course I will. You're drunk, and you reek of alcohol."
Rose tries every trick to seduce Gabriel, but he refuses to let her stay the night with him.
Gabriel: "For God's sake, this is no time for foolishness."
She pulls out various kinds of drugs from her bag and says, "Come on, let's enjoy some cocaine and forget about this filthy world—at least for a while. Don't you love me?"
Gabriel: "I did—before I found out you were a Nazi."
Rose bursts into laughter, still tipsy: "See? You can be funny sometimes, you idiot!"
Gabriel: "Fine, but I'm not taking cocaine. I'd like to keep my nose and lungs intact. Give me some pills instead. And after that, you're sleeping in the living room."
Rose: "Si-i-i, señor!"
They stay up until dawn, laughing and indulging. It's a rare, joyful moment between lovers—but one that won't last long.
As Gabriel chuckles, he remarks, "That bastard Henry takes his role as a dictatorial judge far too seriously—what a lunatic!"
Rose: "What a bunch of madmen. I hope this filthy world is worth all the effort."
Gabriel: "Trust me, it's all pointless. But I still have hope that I can avenge Mason."
Rose: "You will, you silly man."
They both drift into deep sleep on the same couch after their night of intoxicated bliss.
Gabriel hears the sound of ocean waves. At first, he isn't sure if it's just a dream. Then, he wakes up—only to find himself lying on a streetlamp near the harbour. His hands are badly wounded, covered in shards of glass, and his shoulders are also cut. He has no idea where these injuries came from.
Gabriel (to himself): "Oh, this madness again… At least this time, I'm not bleeding for no reason."
He spots a nearby pharmacy and decides to tend to his wounds. He grabs some painkillers and bandages, but the pharmacist insists on helping him.
Pharmacist: "Are you the only survivor of that hell?"
Gabriel: "What the hell are you talking about?"
Pharmacist: "The café massacre. Go outside and see for yourself."
Gabriel's heart pounds with fear as he steps out of the pharmacy. Police cars and ambulances crowd the scene. The seaside bar has turned into a blood-soaked slaughterhouse—severed heads are scattered across the floor. Three men have been crucified on swastika crosses, their stomachs sliced open, their entrails spilling onto the ground in a grotesque display. One person has been reduced to nothing but a torso.
But the most horrifying sight is the skinned bodies of several children. Gabriel gags, unable to stomach the horror.
He turns to a bystander, his voice shaking: "What happened?"
The man replies: "Looks like the Grim Reaper has struck again. That wretched monster… He's the most ruthless killer in European history."
Gabriel: "You live in this neighbourhood, right?"
Man: "Yes."
Gabriel: "Didn't anyone hear anything?"
Man: "No. All of his crimes are eerily silent, as if he's a ghost. And they always happen late at night. This bar is open 24 hours—I bet the four children's corpses belonged to the workers who lived upstairs. The children would come down to fetch food for their parents. The third girl? She was the daughter of a waitress, also living upstairs. As for the fourth girl… she was probably the daughter of one of the prostitutes who slept in a tiny room inside the bar. Those poor kids… What a brutal death."
Gabriel is stunned into silence, his mouth slightly agape. He decides to leave the scene and return to his apartment.
He boards a bus and sits quietly, lost in thought. Suddenly, the bus empties, and an eerie gateway appears before him. It's as if he's been transported to a parallel world.
Gabriel now finds himself in a dark, desolate desert filled with graves, mist, and shadowy figures. Two skeletal beings sit atop tombstones, drinking a strange liquid. They look at him with haunting stares and say:
"Ah, look who are is ."
Then they continue in ancient greek :
"Αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ διάβολος σαρξί τε καὶ ὀστέοις."
Suddenly, corpses begin to rise from the graves. Small skeletons and the butchered children from the massacre crawl toward Gabriel.
He runs, desperate to escape, until he reaches the edge of a deep, jagged canyon. The dead slowly advance upon him—until he loses his footing and plunges into the abyss.
As he falls, he sees that the pit is filled with grotesque, melted human heads. Their flesh is barely clinging to their skulls, revealing the bone beneath. Their massive, razor-sharp teeth resemble those of monstrous piranhas.
The disfigured faces try to devour Gabriel, but one of them exhales a powerful gust of wind, sending him soaring into the sky.
Gabriel is now at the very peak of horror, ascending beyond all reason or understanding. As he reaches the clouds, a gigantic hand emerges.
In the palm of the hand is a massive eye, weeping tears of blood. The eye gazes at him with an unsettling intensity before the hand moves to strike him SLAP!
Gabriel wakes up with a start.
The bus driver is gently patting his cheek. "Sir… Sir, wake up. We've reached your stop. You're the last passenger. You've been asleep for four hours—it's 2 AM. I've got things to do, you know."
Gabriel apologises and steps off the bus.
The street is shrouded in darkness, thick with fog. The blood-red moon looms over him.
The bus driver grins—his smile eerie, almost malevolent. "I do hope this wasn't your last journey."
Then, the bus vanishes into the mist, as if it had never existed
Gabriel returns to his apartment after these weird day and says to himself, "I need to sleep before I go mad." He falls into a deep sleep after this exhausting and terrifying day. The next morning, he opens the television and hears news about the American minister and the documents that prove he is involved in numerous cases of child abduction and rape, and that he used to attend Satanic cult gatherings on random islands. The news anchor speaks about the documents linking him to an unknown Russian family called Chevchenkov, stating that this family had been planting their agendas and ideas through him and other members in Congress. The US government is still determined to find out the perpetrator of the assassination.
Gabriel turns off the television, takes a taxi, and heads to the company. Once at the office, Gabriel is at his computer, doing boring routine work until Rose approaches him and whispers in his ear.
Rose: "I have some important information I want to share with you. Meet me at the organisation's headquarters after work."
Gabriel: "Consider it done."
After work, everyone heads to the headquarters. It is the largest meeting of the organisation's members, and the place is crowded. Rose walks up to the podium and says:
"After years of hard work, I have reached a position in the management of Nexus Corp. After gathering all the information and the confidential documents I took from the company, I managed to find the location of the director, Mikhail Chevchenkov, through one of his lovers. I got close to her and placed a precise tracking device on her body. We discovered that she always goes every two weeks to a huge house near Mount Tasman in the snowy regions."
The members cheer and scream in excitement. Their celebration is abruptly cut short when Eva speaks:
"We've studied this situation, and we've come up with a plan, but we've realised we need a hitman to make it work. Gabriel, it will be you."
Gabriel responds, his eyes filled with determination: "Agreed."
Eva continues: "The boss has provided us with suits that allow you to blend into the environment like a chameleon, and they can also cancel out the user's sound. But they only last for an hour and a half before you become exposed. We will be at the mountain, and our hackers will disable all the cameras and all the alarm systems. You will wear this jet pack. Don't worry, the house is not full of guards, and the suit can also hide the jet pack. You will descend onto the roof of the building. You have two options: either blend in with the suit or eliminate the guards until you reach Mikhail and take him out."
Ten days later, the team arrived at the site on Mount Tasman. The place was covered in snow, with fierce storms and bitter cold. The team positioned themselves on the mountain, beginning to hack into the house's systems, while Gabriel donned his suit and prepared for takeoff. Rose asked him, "Are you ready?" He responded firmly, "Absolutely. This is the moment we've been waiting for." Eva then spoke up, "The systems have been disabled. Take off."
Gabriel moved into action, soaring into the air with the jetpack, heading towards the massive building's rooftop. Meanwhile, the drones above kept a close watch on his movements. The team on the mountain could finally breathe a sigh of relief; everything was going according to plan. Yet, far away in the snow-covered mountains, shrouded by the darkness of the night, Gabriel's heart pounded heavily. He knew this mission would be strange, but still, all he had was the resolve to complete it.
As Gabriel landed on the roof, the team watched him closely. There was no room for error. Every second counted, every movement had to be precise.
The clock struck midnight as he touched down on the rooftop. The only sound was the cold wind howling around him. No sound of death, no sound of destruction—just the biting cold air reflecting the distant beams of light.
Gabriel took another step, starting his mission. In his mind, Mikhail Chevchenkov's image became clearer and clearer. This moment was pivotal, there was no turning back.
High up on the mountain, everyone was on edge, waiting for news from Gabriel. They all knew their fate rested on this night, and in the coming hours, everything would be determined.
He entered the building and found a group of guards walking down the hallway. He blended into the shadows using the suit, carefully sneaking past them. Gabriel neutralised some of the other guards, knocking them unconscious. Finally, he reached the massive meeting room where his target awaited. And there, at last, he saw Mikhail Chevchenkov.
But something was off. Standing before him, engaged in conversation, were several beings, their forms nightmarish and chilling beyond words. The first creature was entirely made of wings, their feathers fused together, and it floated eerily. In the centre of this grotesque entity was a single massive eye, staring into nothingness.
The second being stood with four faces—one of a lion, one of an ox, one of an eagle, and one of a man. Each face looked in a different direction, and the creature had no fixed form. It had four massive wings and stood at a terrifying height of about 4.5 metres. The air around it seemed to hum with an unnatural power.
The third entity was even more disturbing. It had six wings—two of which covered its face, each wing brimming with eyes, their pale, lifeless colour sending a cold shiver down Gabriel's spine. Between these wings, an eerie, skeletal figure sat, cloaked in a black robe. Two horns curled menacingly from its skull. From the hollow darkness of the skeleton, a glowing red light leaked out, pulsing like an infernal fire.
Gabriel froze in terror, as if time itself had stopped. His body trembled violently, a fear unlike anything he had ever known overtaking him. The skeletal being raised a hand and pointed directly at him. A powerful gust of wind shot from its hand, throwing Gabriel violently from the room at tremendous speed. But he managed to cling to the branch of a nearby tree, narrowly avoiding a devastating crash.
He immediately contacted the team and told them, "The operation has failed." Everyone began to retreat back to the headquarters. Some members rushed to Gabriel in a 4x4 vehicle to take him back.
The driver asked, "What happened, my friend? You look like you've been to hell." Gabriel, his voice heavy with the horrors he had just witnessed, replied, "I truly was there. This was worse than any hell I could ever imagine."
The scene ended as they drove, the fierce storm winds raging violently behind them. This was his first failed mission, Zero Phantom.
End of chapter