“Wait!” Lucian gasped. “Stop for a minute.”
After running for what seemed like miles through the thick jungle, Dora was relieved to slow down and rest against a tree, brushing the bright green fronds out of her way. The jungle was dark barring the odd ray of bright sunshine that shone through the trees.
It was impossible for the Angel Guard to fly over them here, but that didn’t mean they weren’t following them on foot.
She glanced in the direction they’d run from, surprised to see that it appeared untouched. There wasn’t even a broken branch in their wake.
How is that even possible when we’ve been running through here like a stampede of elephants?
“What the hell?” She poked a branch that she was certain she’d just broken as she ran past it. It shimmered with golden light.
“I was just covering our tracks.” Lucian shrugged.
“Why is your magic golden?” Dora asked. On earth, and when he was being an asshole, Lucian’s magic was a swirling purple cloud. The other angels all shot white magic at people, usually in the form of holy fire. But every time Lucian did something good, it was golden.
He shrugged again.
“The color is a sign of your magical status. Like Kieron’s mother is scary fucking green, and I’m er…” Pooey summoned a brown ball of energy in his hands. “Still in deep shit,” he muttered.
“Dude, you need to sort that shit out,” Lucian stared at the ball of brown energy. “How long has it been like that?”
“A long time,” Pooey muttered. “How the fuck did you get golden? No one gets golden energy.”
Lucian averted his eyes. “We don’t have time for this now. We need to get to the Emerald Garden. Come on. It’s this way.” He turned and brushed aside a curtain of thick vines, leading them onto a rough trail.
“There’s something off about that guy,” Pooey muttered.
“Yeah, he’s hiding something.” Dora nodded as she walked beside him, following Lucian through the jungle.
“Maybe I can get him to tell the truth,” Kieron said.
“I dunno. He lies a lot. What does golden mean in terms of magic?” Dora turned to Pooey.
“It’s the best. It’s the ultimate magic, the most powerful.” Pooey muttered.
“How do you know?” Kieron asked before he summoned a silver ball of light. “Silver looks prettier.”
“I know because I used to have golden magic before I fucked it all up. It’s rare.”
Dora stared at Lucian’s back as he hurried through the trees ahead. “If he’s got ultimate magic, why is he running from the Angel Guard? He can just blast them all can’t he?”
“Yeah, and I don’t know, but something’s off about that guy.” Pooey narrowed his eyes at him.
“Nothing about Heaven makes any sense.” Dora shrugged. Her idea of Heaven had been completely blown apart by the experience of being in it.
“I know right, where the fuck are all the dead people for starters?” Pooey asked.
Kieron shivered. “Eww, you want to see dead people.”
Pooey stared at him in silence for a moment. “What the fuck do you think the ghouls were in Hell, fairies?”
Kieron frowned for a moment. “Yeah, but they weren’t icky corpses.”
“They were kinda icky,” Dora said, remembering Larry, who could fart fire.
Pooey sighed. “Yeah, but where are they in Heaven? I haven’t seen one soul since I’ve been here. Where do all the dead people go?”
Dora frowned. He was right. In Hell, the souls had been everywhere. Souls had been a sick kind of currency. But here in Heaven, there were no souls. “Doesn’t anyone get into Heaven anymore? No, wait. I saw some. When I got here, there were lines of people in a waiting room.”
“That’s limbo,” Pooey said. “So they’re going to limbo, and then what? Where do they go next? Because the only things in Heaven are fucking angels.”
“And monsters,” Dora muttered.
Kieron raised an eyebrow. “Monsters?”
“I saw some cannibal angels outside Camp Angel. They tried to eat me.” Dora shrugged.
Kieron widened his eyes in horror. “What the fuck?”
She shrugged. “I just thought it was normal for fucked up Heaven.”
“Yeah, that’s not normal.” Pooey shook his head. “I don’t know much about this place, but eating people is never fucking normal.”
“So there is something really wrong with this place,” Dora said.
“More than one thing,” Pooey muttered.
Twenty-Two
Snakebite
Kieron came to a halt, staring ahead at his father. He frowned as he watched Lucian kneeling on all fours ahead. He appeared to be digging a hole in the forest floor with his hands, frantically searching for something.
“What the fuck? Did he fall over again?” Pooey asked, clearly referring to the fact that back on Earth, Lucian had fallen over all the time because he hadn’t been used to the Earth’s axis.
Kieron glanced back over his shoulder at the little bear, and he offered him a shrug.
Dora came up behind them, frowning at Lucian.
Kieron turned to face the fallen angel who was now ripping his way through the nearby shrubbery, pulling away vines and ferns and muttering to himself. “Maybe he finally lost his marbles.”
After watching him in silence for a moment, Pooey stepped forward. “Hey, did you drop your last marble or something?”
Lucian’s shoulders dropped as he sighed. Then he peered back over his shoulder with angry eyes. “Don’t just stand there. Help me look.”
Dora stepped forward. “What are we looking for?”
“The key, it’s gotta be here. I know I left it here,” he muttered before he resumed pulling apart the undergrowth.
Dora glanced back at Kieron, and judging by her expression, she too thought Lucian had lost his final marble.
“What does this key look like, and what does it open?” Kieron asked, stepping forward.
“Don’t stand there, you fool!” Lucian cried.
Kieron jumped back. “Why, what?” He peered down at the muddy earth.
“I haven’t searched there yet,” Lucian muttered.
Kieron narrowed his eyes and folded his arms.
“Maybe it’s mad angel disease.” Pooey nudged the ground with his toe, causing Lucian to scramble over and start pulling away golden and green leaves and fronds.
“This is ridiculous. Lucian, what the fuck are you looking for?” Dora asked.
“The key! Are you all stupid? We need the key now. They’re coming! Can’t you hear it?” Lucian looked up with mud clawed in his hands and streaked across his shirt. His eyes glowed red for an instant before they faded back to brown.
Dora jumped back with a gasp.
On instinct, Kieron jumped between her and Lucian. There was something wrong with him. He studied his father, who was back to clawing the ground again. His shirt sleeves were rolled up with long streaks of mud and dirt down them. Kieron zeroed in on the red rash on his arms. “What the fuck is that?”
He pointed to red veins standing up on his father’s arms. Then he gripped his hair, pulling his head up to face him.
A tree of red lines were climbing up his neck and growing across his jawline. He pushed the angel onto his back and ripped open his shirt, to reveal a muscled chest with a rash of red glowing veins on it. “Is he infected?”
Pooey peered down at him with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, but not by anything natural. That’s magical.”
“How do we cure it?” Kieron stared at his father, who had already scrambled back to his knees and was searching the soil for his imaginary key again.
“We need to find the source.” Pooey nodded at Lucian. “It’ll probably be on his body.”
“I’m not searching his…” Kieron widened his eyes. “There has to be another way.”
Pooey’s eyes remained narrowed. “There is one.”
Dora looked
hopefully at the little demon.
Pooey’s hand shot out through a throng of vines with lightning speed, gripping something that was hidden behind the bushy ferns of the jungle. Whatever it was, it struggled in his grip as he dragged it out of hiding. “We find the little bitch that did it to him,” Pooey ground out as he dragged a long colorful snake out of the undergrowth.
Dora widened her eyes in horror, and she stepped back at the sight of the snake.
Unconcerned by the fact he held a hissing serpent in his hands, Pooey stared at the reptile. “What did you do to my—” He glanced at Lucian. “…weak-minded minion.”
The snake bared its fangs, hissing and wriggling in his grip.
“Cut the crap. I know you can fucking talk.” Pooey shook it until its teeth rattled.
Kieron sidestepped the writhing snake and stood beside Dora. “Maybe they’re both infected,” he muttered to her out of the side of his mouth.
She nodded, her eyes never leaving the snake.
“Speak, you slimy bitch.” Pooey shook the snake again.
“Pooey, I don’t think it can talk,” Dora said hesitantly.
“Oh yeah, it’s just an innocent snake in the jungle, who just happens to wear the curse of the ancients on its skin.” Pooey nodded at the intricate red design on its long green body as he squeezed its throat. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to kill it then.” He extended a single claw across the throat of the creature.
The snake widened its eyes. “Let’s not rush into things here,” it cried, emitting a small whimper.
Dora’s mouth dropped open as she stared at the snake.
Kieron froze, staring at the talking snake in shock. For a serpent, it had a sweet voice. It sounded like a little girl with a slight lisp.
“Oh, now you fucking talk. That’s just wonderful. What did you do to him?” Pooey nodded to Lucian, who was still frantically searching the ground.
“I was guarding my home. He threatened it.” The snake lowered its head.
“I didn’t ask you why you attacked. I ask you what you did.” Pooey’s voice was dark.
“You’re not like most angels.” The snake wrapped its tail around his arm, undulating around it.
Pooey smiled nastily at it. “I’m not an angel. That’s why I know what you are.” He shook its tail off.
“W-what are you?” The snake sounded scared.
Pooey leaned closer. “I’m an ancient demon, just like you, Elyssa.” His voice was a deadly whisper.
She widened her eyes. “No, you’re dead. You were…” She trailed off as Pooey’s eyes glowed with anger.
“Betrayed?” Another claw popped out and pressed against her throat.
“You two know each other?” Kieron asked, eyeing the little demon in a new light. Pooey had never spoken much about his past.
The snake hung her head. “Fuck.”
“What did you do to Lucian?” Pooey asked.
“I didn’t know he was your friend.” She shook her head.
“He isn’t.” Pooey shrugged. “But you’re going to restore him all the same.”
“I’ve turned over a new leaf. I-I’m not the same—” The snake began.
“My inner violin is playing for you. Break the spell!” Pooey shook her again. He paused when he noticed that Lucian was stuffing leaves into his mouth and eating them. There was an obvious moment of indecision as Pooey smirked at seeing Lucian chewing dirt and leaves.
“Pooey,” Kieron warned. “He’s still my father.”
The little bear rolled his eyes. “Fix him.”
“I can’t work miracles. I’ll remove the spell, but the rest of him is your problem,” the snake muttered as she glowed. She closed her eyes and her form shimmered, transforming from a snake into a young woman. She was only small, about four feet tall, even shorter now since she was kneeling in Pooey’s grasp. Her golden hair flowed down her back in waves meeting the pale silk of her dress. She looked like a little angel without wings.
She held out her hands and aimed them at Lucian. A pale blue light shone in her eyes as she cast a cloud of blue smoke at the fallen angel. It surrounded him before evaporating into his skin.
Kieron watched as the red veins in his father’s skin faded away and comprehension grew in his eyes as he chewed on a leaf.
Lucian widened his eyes. Then he spat out the leaves in his mouth, choking for a moment. “What the fuck is this shit?” He spat out the foliage.
Pooey smirked, his claws still around the girl’s throat. “You’re welcome.”
The girl turned to Pooey, reaching out to touch his face.
He jerked his head out of her way.
“What happened to you?” She sounded awestruck.
He narrowed his eyes. “Is the snake bit karma?” he asked, ignoring her question.
“I was going for irony.” She shrugged. “Garden of Eden and all that.”
“I thought the Garden of Eden was on Earth.” Dora frowned.
“That was the last version of it. This is the beta.” The girl nodded back to the vines that Pooey had pulled her out of. “They called it the Emerald Garden.”
Lucian looked up. “Is anyone going to tell me why the fuck I was eating leaves?”
“My ex gave you magical herpes,” Pooey muttered.
“It was just a bite!” Elyssa said.
“Why did you bite him?” Kieron asked.
She batted her blue eyes at Kieron. “I was just protecting my home.”
“Your home is the Emerald Garden, but I thought you were from Hell?” Dora asked skeptically.
“What makes you think I’m from Hell?” Elyssa asked, staring at her with wide, innocent blue eyes.
“Oh hello, did you forget me in Hell again?” Pooey pushed her away from him. Then he muttered a spell under his breath.
Silver chains appeared around her wrists. She widened her eyes. Then she scowled at Pooey. “You wouldn’t dare…”
“See what I did. I fucking dared. Aren’t you going to invite us into your home?”
She narrowed her eyes at Pooey. “You’re a monster. Where is the kind man I once knew?”
Pooey pushed her toward the vines. “You made him into a demon,” he muttered as he pushed her through the vines. “Take us to the Emerald Garden.”
Twenty-Three
Secret Identity
Dora scowled at the back of their new companion, Elyssa. She kept shooting innocent looks at Kieron, who seemed sympathetic to her.
Dora didn’t know about Pooey’s history, but she trusted the little demon with her life. She’d never seen him so angry before. This was the creature that had sent him to Hell. It had turned Lucian into a dribbling idiot with just one bite, and now her serpent eyes were settled on Kieron.
Clenching her jaw, Dora tried to think rationally, but it was impossible when it came to Kieron. She’d only just got him back. Nothing was going to separate them again, and this new encounter seemed like a threat to her.
Oh great, I’m turning into a jealous girlfriend.
She tried to shake off the feeling. It was irrational jealousy, wasn’t it?
She caught Elyssa watching her with a nasty smile before it was quickly replaced by an innocent expression.
Then again…
“We need to ditch the fucking snake,” Lucian muttered as he sidled up to Dora, matching her pace.
For once, Dora agreed with the fallen angel. Elyssa was a threat. She could feel it.
“Pooey seems to have her under control.” She tried to be fair to the girl.
“She’s his ex. He’s never had her under control.”
Dora frowned at Lucian. What was that supposed to mean?
“Love blinds everyone, even your little ninja.” Lucian sighed.
“Pooey’s not in love.” Dora shook her head.
“He was once, and it doesn’t go away.” Lucian stared across the rolling green fields of the Emerald Garden. “Love never ends. It never lets you go.”
For a moment, she wondered which love he was speaking of. Then her eyes fell upon Kieron. She couldn’t imagine a world without him. It was true. Love wound around your heart until it became a part of you. It felt as if she would lose a part of her if she ever lost Kieron. She’d always love him, no matter what happened.
“So Pooey’s still under her spell,” Dora muttered.
“Yeah, and take it from someone who’s been under one of her spells, it’s not a fucking nice place to be.”
“What is she, a demon?” Dora asked.
Lucian shook his head. “I don’t know. She shouldn’t be here.”
“But there was a snake in the Garden of Eden. At least, that’s what the bible said.”
Lucian rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and according to that patriarchal bullshit, Eve was made from a rib of Adam, except that would impossible since all life begins as female. If you believe the bible, we have more problems than a couple of demons.”
“What is the bible? I mean really, what was it?”
Lucian shook his head. “It was entertainment. It was God’s fucking comic book. Some of the authors were awesome, and some of them sucked. It was a narrative, just another narrative.”
Dora frowned. “But people believe in it. People die for it! You can’t just…” She shook her head. “It has to mean something.”
“It does to the people who believe that story. All of this, reality and the world, it grows from a narrative. The stories define who we are. They define the world. Angels believe in God because of the stories about him. He isn’t even here anymore, but they make him real because they believe his stories. Faith in stories is our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.”
She turned to face him. “That’s oddly profound for you. What do you believe in?”
“I believe in the power of stories.” He winked. “But I don’t believe the stories.”
“What does that make you?” she asked.
“A writer,” he muttered.
“So what are angels then, writers?”
“Oh no, they’re just messengers. They just deliver the stories.”
“No, they save people, don’t they?”
Lucian rolled his eyes. “You don’t even know the narrative of your own world. No wonder you don’t understand Heaven. The word angel means messenger. That’s it.”
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