The Beautiful Night Ch 00

This is a story that is similar to Joe Brolly's Genie Chronicles and 800IbGorrila's A beautiful wish. I haven't seen anything by either of them in a while so i figured that I would start my own story. I will try to get a new chapter out every month or two, I hope you like it.

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Prologue

Gabriel Erebus sighed as he stared out of the window of his third story apartment. When he had woken up that morning he had thought that it would be a good day. It had been bright outside but there were plenty of fluffy white clouds to block the sun, which always gave him a headache. It was in the mid 60s, which Gabriel thought was the perfect temperature, not to hot but without the chilling bite the wind took on if it was any cooler. When he had rolled out of bed he had noticed that his back didn't hurt and had gone into the bathroom to check the scar. It was finally fully healed. There were dozens of thin silvery lines marring the pale skin of his back along with a newer larger one that had come from a piece of rebar on his last construction job. The newest scar, from 3 weeks ago had finally stopped aching. The day went downhill from there.

Gabriel was 22 years old. He was tall, about 6'5'' or so and reasonably attractive. His last girlfriend had told him that he had the "rugged, bad boy thing going on". His hair was a very dark shade of brown, almost sable. His skin was pale and he had a dangerous air about him that you can only pick up by living on the street for as long as he had. He was built like a boxer, lean but with ropes of hard muscle everywhere. His most unusual feature though, was his eyes. They were a strange, silvery-blue color that, depending on his mood became more blue or silver the more emotional he got. With those eyes, Gabriel looked very much like his namesake, the Archangel Gabriel.

Unfortunately because of the way he looked, people assumed that he was dangerous. Which he was, but not to the general populous. This often resulted in him not being able to get a job. Once the interviewer saw him, or rather, the various knife scars on his hand and the one that bisected his left eye socket, he was politely shown the door before the first question was asked. Gabriel had thought that this job would be different because this was a place known for hiring ex-cons fresh out of jail. The job he was interviewing for was a night watchmen at a warehouse that the company owned but as before, once the interviewer got a good look at him he was told that he wasn't right for the job.

After going home and staring out the window for a while Gabriel felt that he had been moping for long enough and went for a long walk, just to have something to do. Braxton, Ohio was a fairly large college town so there was plenty of space to wander. After a few hours of walking around Gabriel noticed that the sun was setting. He stopped for a while at a small park in the middle of the town square. He sat on a bench and watched the night overtake the day. This was his favorite time of day. The 4 hours or so after sunset, everything seemed to quiet down. Gabriel sat there for about an hour, just enjoying the cool breeze and the quiet sounds of the night. After a while he looked at his watch. It was 10:00.

Gabriel was starting to feel bored so he looked around the town square for something to do. He saw a bar to the right called the Braxton bar and grill. It looked like a decent place so he went inside. The inside of the bar was comfortable. The bar along the back wall was old, polished, black cherry and the tables were circular and big enough to hold about 4 people each. The walls were made of a dark wood as well as the floor. There were a few patrons sitting at the bar and about 15 more spread out around the room. Gabriel walked to the bar and took a seat. There were two bartenders, a man in his thirties who looked to be about an inch taller than Gabriel with dark hair and an air of self confidence and a women who was more beautiful than any he had ever seen with hair the color honey that was mostly straight but feathered slightly as it went down her back. The man came over to Gabriel.

"What'll ya have?" he asked.

"Scotch" replied Gabriel. "Its been a tough day"

The bartender nodded knowingly and went to get Gabriel's drink. When he returned he placed it in front of Gabriel and said "This place will clear out a bit in a few minutes when the game is over. If you feel like talking, I'm a good listener."

Gabriel looked him in the eye and saw none of the wariness or fear that he was so used to. "Ya" he replied. "That sounds good."

The man nodded and walked off to serve the other customers and about 20 minutes later the football game was over and about half of the customers left. The man walked back over and leaned against the bar to the left of Gabriel. "My name is George." He said. "You look like you have quite the story to tell and I would be happy to listen."

Over the coarse of the next hour or so Gabriel told the man of his day. Then, when George prompted, his life. His entire life story just flowed out. It felt good, like releasing a breath that he hadn't known he had been holding in. He told George of his parents death's when he was 5 and the time after he had run away from the first abusive foster home that he had lived on the street. Gabriel told him about when he turned 13 and social services finally caught up with him after he had been arrested for shoplifting and of the years that followed, drifting from one foster home to the next, some abusive like the first, some not.

Then he told George something that he had never told anybody. He told him of his last foster home before he turned 18. Where his foster parents, Charles and Donna, drugged him then tied him to a wooden cross in their basement and whipped him repeatedly. This had happened for years. He had tried to report them to social services but Charles was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and bribed the people who came to investigate. After that he had been kept drugged most of the time. He had finished high school when he was 16 so there was no one to notice that he was gone. On the day he had turned 18 he had been untied for a few hours and locked in the basement. When Charles and Donna had returned he had hidden in the shadows and attacked them from behind and knocked them unconscious. He had stumbled from the house and called the police from the neighbors. Charles had not been able to bribe away the evidence that Gabriel had on his back, 3 years worth of scars. Charles and Donna were still in prison.

When he finished his story he looked at up and saw George staring at him intently. George took a deep breath and whistled softly. "I'm glad that you managed to get them put away." He said. He turned towards the woman, who Gabriel noticed was sitting on a stool behind the bar a few feet a way. She had tears in her eyes. George turned back to Gabriel and said "This is Dawn, my wife."

George turned to Dawn and asked "You heard his story?" Dawn Nodded. George walked over to her and they whispered back and forth for a moment then George and Dawn turned to him and Dawn said, in a beautiful, clear, feminine voice "You have been treated unfairly all your life." George broke in, "So we are going to give you the same chance that our close friends Jack and Jennifer gave to us." He said. "How would you like a job? We need a waiter and a bouncer and you look like you could do both."

Gabriel was stunned. This was the last thing he had expected when he had walked in here tonight.

"Absolutely" He said, "When can I start?"

"Monday" Said Dawn with a small smile. "Be here at 5, and wear comfortable shoes, you'll be doing a lot of standing."

"Great, I'll be here" Said Gabriel "And thank you"

Gabriel and George shook hands and Gabriel went to walk out of the bar when George called out "Wait, You forgot something." Gabriel turned and walked back to George and took what he held out and dropped it into his pocket. Gabriel was so excited about his new job that he didn't even see what it was "Thanks" he said, and proceeded to walk home.

When Gabriel got home he was exhausted, but happy for the first time he could remember. It was as he was stripping for bed that he remembered the thing in his pocket that George had given him. He didn't remember setting anything on the bar so he wondered what it was. He pulled the small object out of his pocket. It was a ring. A large silver ring with a piece of hematite as the gem. Gabriel frowned as he looked at it. He didn't own any rings. Gabriel assumed that some other customer had left it there and George just assumed that it was his. He decided to take it back Monday when he showed up for work. He was about to put in on his desk when he was struck by the irresistible urge to try it on.

He slipped in on the middle finger of his right hand. It was a perfect fit. Gabriel was about to take it off when he noticed that the gem had started to glow. He frowned and held it closer to take a better look. A dark, midnight blue mist seemed to rise up from the slightly glowing ring and surround his head. Gabriel jerked back but it was to late, the mist was already flowing into his nose and mouth. He felt a strangely pleasant tingling in his mind but didn't have time to focus on it for long before everything went dark.