Elizabeth sat down hard on the floor of the bathroom and flushed the toilet.  This was only supposed to happen in the morning but now it seemed to be happening every time she ate.

Mike would figure it out soon enough and she guessed it was time to tell him.

But tonight just wasn’t the right time.

They had been dating for less than two months and tonight, of all nights, he confided in her that he had only been with two other women his entire life.

Elizabeth found that hard to believe as he was the best looking man she had ever met.  She didn’t want to make him feel obligated to their budding relationship and decided to withhold the news a little longer.

Elizabeth felt her stomach settle and she washed her face in the warm water of the sink.  She was feeling so tired lately and crawled into bed fully clothed.  She reached up and clicked off the light next to her bed.

#

Michael stood across the street and watched Elizabeth’s house until he saw the light go out in her bedroom.  Only then did he turn to walk away into the night.

A dark figure stepped out of the shadows and stood in Michael’s way.  Despite standing directly under the light of the streetlamp, the figure still looked like he was standing deep in the shadows.

“It’s not like you to be travelling around all alone in the middle of the night.  Could it be that the mighty Michael has a secret even he doesn’t want to share with his loyal servants?”

Lucas looked past Michael to the house he had been watching and then back at Michael.

“Is there something I should know?”

Michael silently cursed himself for letting Lucas discover Elizabeth, but he decided to play it off with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Can’t a guy fall in love?”

“Not guys like us.”

With a flash of steel that reflected the overhead street lights, Michael caught the sword Lucas had tossed to him and held it loosely in his hand.

“I don’t have time for this Lucas.”

Lucas swished his sword back and forth theatrically.

“Each time you have stopped me.”

Lucas pointed his sword at Michael.

“Each time you have beaten me.”

Lucas lowered his sword and then raised a police issue taser with his other hand.

He pointed it right at Michael.  “But not this time.”

The needles from the taser embedded into Michael’s chest.  He bit his tongue as the sudden burst of electricity coursed through his body.

As he collapsed to the ground, the sword fell from his grasp and clattered onto the sidewalk.

Lucas squeezed the trigger until all the energy had been sapped from the taser before letting it drop to the ground where he stood.

Lucas then lifted Michael’s sword from the cold sidewalk with his free hand and spun both swords around again with the same theatrical motion as he straddled the figure lying on his back.

Lucas lifted the swords high over his head with their glistening points turned directly down at Michael.

“I am tired of playing by your rules.”

Lucas thrust down both blades simultaneously.  Michael reached up with the last of his strength and grabbed the blades with his bare hands, stopping them both just an inch from his chest.

Michael struggled desperately as they inched closer to his chest.  “You can’t change the rules.”

“Times have changed my friend.  I will find the ten lost tribes of Israel.  Then I will be God – and you will be nothing.”

Michael’s hands shook under the enormous pressure as blood began to run down the blades and spread out in a growing stain on his shirt.

“Tell me Michael,” Lucas said as he pushed downward until the tips stabbed into Michael’s chest.  “Where do angels go when they die?”

Lucas leaned his full weight onto the swords.  Michael was powerless to stop the blades as they pierced through him and embedded two inches into the solid concrete of the sidewalk.

Michael let out a harsh gasp right before his hands dropped listlessly to each side.

His head jerked back and forth until he no longer had the strength to move and looked straight at Lucas.

Lucas watched Michael intensely.

Michael’s eyes closed slowly and then his head dropped back onto the sidewalk with a slight crack.  Lucas pondered the scene before him.  Michael was lying flat on the ground with his arms spread wide on either side.  Such a familiar scene, Lucas thought.

Lucas reached down and yanked the twin swords from Michael’s lifeless body.  He held them high over his head and wanted desperately to yell out in a primal scream of triumph.

But it was too soon for that.  There was one last thing he still needed to do before claiming ultimate victory.  Lucas turned back toward the house at the end of the street.

The front door exploded inward like it was made from balsa wood.  Lucas’s newly acquired twin swords carved a bloody path into the walls on either side of the narrow hallway as he went straight for the master bedroom in the back of the house.

Lucas felt the empty bed.

Still warm.

She had been there only moments before.  Lucas didn’t bother searching the house.

He knew she was gone.

And he knew who had taken her.

Lucas lifted the bloodied swords above his head and roared the primal scream he had been holding in for too long.

“Gabrieeeeeeeeel!”