Phoenix Heart: The Last Heir

CHAPTER 6: Rebirth

Gabriel woke up and he immediately knew something was wrong because dead people weren't supposed to wake up.

He was pretty sure he had died in that river three days ago or maybe three hours ago. Was it three minutes ago?

He couldn’t tell because time felt strange and distant like a memory he couldn't quite grasp.

The smell hit him first. It was a mix of chemicals and something else that made his stomach turn. After a second, Gabriel realized the other smell was death and decay.

He tried to move but he couldn't because something was wrapped around him. It was tight enough that he couldn't even lift his arms.

Panic shot through him like lightning. He was trapped and he needed to get out. He needed to breathe.

Gabriel thrashed and heard something tear. Suddenly his hand was free and then his other hand. He ripped at whatever was covering him and it came apart like wet paper.

Once he was free, light flooded in, almost blinding him.

He was in a bag. A black plastic bag with a zipper. When he looked down at himself, he saw a toe tag attached to his foot that said JOHN DOE.

It listed a date that was three days after the night Siegel shot him.

Three days. He had been dead for three days.

Except he wasn't dead anymore and that should have been impossible, but Gabriel had learned a long time ago that impossible was just a word people used when they didn't understand something yet.

The bag fell away as he sat up. He realized he was on a metal table in a room full of other tables and body bags that probably contained dead bodies.

He gulped, trying not to think about it too hard.

A morgue. He was in a morgue.

Gabriel swung his legs off the table, getting up to his feet. His body felt wrong in ways he couldn't explain and when he looked down he saw that he was naked except for the toe tag.

His skin was covered in scars that glowed with a faint amber light. The scars traced patterns across his chest and down his arms and when he touched them, they felt warm like there was fire just beneath the surface.

That's when he remembered the Phoenix Heart, and Siegel shooting him and his guards tossing him into the river.

The Phoenix Heart had saved him and somehow, it had brought him back from death. Now it was part of him in ways that went beyond just being stuck to his actual heart.

Gabriel slowly looked around the room. Everything was too bright and too sharp.

He could see details he shouldn't have been able to see like the serial numbers on the metal cabinets across the room, the tiny crack in the ceiling tile above him and the dust particles floating in the air.

His hearing was the same way. He could pick out sounds from far away like voices in another room and the hum of the building's electrical system.

He could hear the sound of his own heartbeat which was louder than it should have been and had a strange rhythm like two hearts beating instead of one.

The Phoenix Heart and his real heart working together.

Gabriel needed clothes, and he needed to get out of here before someone came to check on the bodies, and found him standing around naked and very much not dead. 

He looked around and spotted a door marked PERSONAL EFFECTS. He tried the handle and it was locked but when Gabriel pulled on it, the whole thing came off in his hand.

He stared at the broken handle and then at his hand and realized he was stronger than before. A lot stronger based on how easy it had been to rip metal like it was cardboard.

The room had shelves filled with plastic bags and each bag had a name and date on it.

Gabriel found one marked JOHN DOE with the same date as his toe tag and inside were his clothes from that night. They were still damp and covered in blood but they were better than nothing.

He got dressed and his pants felt loose because he had lost weight from being dead for three days. 

His shirt had bullet holes in it that matched the scars on his chest and when he looked in a small mirror on the wall, he barely recognized himself.

His face was the same but different. His cheekbones stood out more and his eyes looked brighter.

When he looked closely, he noticed that his green eyes now had flecks of amber in them that glowed when the light hit them right.

Gabriel heard footsteps in the hallway and voices getting closer. He needed to leave right now before someone walked in and saw him. 

He went to the door and tried the handle but it was locked from the outside. He could break it like he broke the other one but that would make noise, and bring people running.

Gabriel suddenly felt heat building in his chest and spreading down his arms and into his hands. When he looked down his palms were glowing with that same amber light.

The heat kept building until it felt like his hands were on fire, except they weren't burning him and the fire felt like it was part of him.

He pressed his palms against the lock, hearing metal sizzling and melting, and after a few seconds the lock fell apart. 

The door swung open and Gabriel pulled his hands back and stared at them in complete awe, his mouth hanging open.

He could make fire. Actual fire. What else could he do?

No time to figure that out now. He stepped into the hallway and started moving toward the exit signs.

His body felt like it wanted to run faster than his brain could keep up with and suddenly, he was moving so fast that the hallway blurred past him. He reached the end in what felt like a second.

Too fast. Way too fast.

A woman in scrubs came around the corner and saw him. Her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to scream but he was already past her.

He reached the stairs, his feet barely touched the ground as he took the stairs three at a time until he reached the ground floor.

The exit was right there and Gabriel could see the street through the glass doors. Freedom was so close but there was another lock.

This one looked electronic with a keypad next to it and he didn't have time to figure out the code.

He put his hands on the metal bar across the door and felt the heat building again. The bar started glowing red and then white and then it melted enough that Gabriel could push through.

The door swung open and cold night air hit his face.

Gabriel ran and this time, he let his body do what it wanted. He moved faster than any human should have been able to move.

The street was a blur and cars honked, but he was past them before they could even brake. He kept running until the morgue was blocks behind him.

His lungs should have been burning but they felt fine and he could have kept running forever if he wanted to.

He finally stopped in an alley between two buildings and leaned against a wall, trying to process everything that had happened.

His mind was spinning because he had been dead and now he wasn't. He could run faster than cars and make fire with his hands.

He was stronger than normal people and his senses could pick up things they shouldn't have been able to.

The Phoenix Heart had changed him into something new and something that wasn't quite human anymore.