Chapter IX: Two Words

Contains spoilers

Overview

Gabriel awoke in a ruin, momentarily believing he was home with his wife and daughter before the reality of Dior’s presence and the rot-scented shelter returned. A pale, alluring woman appeared at the window, seducing Gabriel with whispers and memory-laced longing. Torn between duty and desire, he unlocked the window. The scene ended with Gabriel uttering the invitation that would let her in.

Summary

Gabriel woke in darkness to his name whispered, his body jolting with panic and hope. For a heartbeat he believed he was in his own home, imagining the faint breath of his daughter and the familiar scrape of sycamore branches, clinging to the illusion of peace.

Sensations corrected him: the stink of rot, blood, mold, and rats; Dior’s restless moans down the hall. At the window, a woman hovered outside in the night—pale, beautiful, and predatory. She pressed herself to the glass and bade him let her in.

Gabriel rose, feeling the weight of his troth ring and the cold air on his skin. The woman tracked him like a hunter, scratching blood upon the glass and calling him “my lion,” offering desire and solace. He imagined her touch, the taste of her blood, and the filling of his inner emptiness.

As she coaxed him, Gabriel reflected on the power of simple phrases—two words that shape fates and unmake lives. The whispered exchanges—“Forgive me,” “Do it,” “I can’t,” “You must”—framed his internal struggle between fidelity and temptation, caution and surrender.

Shaking, he unlocked the window and raised the sash. In a voice that did not feel his own, he spoke the decisive invitation.

Gabriel ended the scene by saying, “Come in,” inviting the woman across the threshold.

Who Appears

  • Gabriel de León
    narrator and protagonist; wakes in the ruin, struggles with temptation and memory of his family, ultimately invites the woman inside.
  • Dior
    the living Grail; present offstage, moaning in sleep down the hall.
  • Unnamed pale woman
    new; vampiric seductress at the window who calls Gabriel “my lion” and persuades him to invite her in.
  • Astrid
    Gabriel’s wife; remembered in Gabriel’s brief waking illusion of home.
  • Patience
    Gabriel’s daughter; recalled in Gabriel’s memory of domestic peace.
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