Dust

by Angela Nock

  He sat up and rubbed his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. 'Yeah,' he said, 'just a small cut. A lucky strike.' He smiled. 'You?'

  I nodded. Then rolled over and vomited.

  I sat up. My legs were shaking.

  'We need to go,' he said, 'do you think you'll be okay to stand?'

  I nodded again. Too ashamed to speak.

  'Got the phone?'

  'Yep,' I said, grabbing it from my back pocket. I looked at the screen; it was cracked. I pressed the button but the phone had died. 'Shit. It's not working.'

  'It's okay. I know where he's headed.'

  I didn't know whether I'd got my flying legs back or not. I stood up, trying to ignore the exhaustion consuming me.

  'Ready?' he asked, slipping his arm around my waist.

  'Yep.' But really I wanted him to throw his arms around me. I wanted to forget about angels and demons and be normal. I couldn't do this. I wasn't strong enough.

  But, without another word, we had launched into the sky.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A flash of lightning lit up the sky. Rain began to fall, drop by single drop. It was only a matter of time before the deluge began. Darkness was pressing in all around us; suffocating, thick and sticky. How many demons was the storm bringing? I could feel them behind us, snapping at our heals, wanting our souls. I would not look back.

  I would NOT look back.

  My mind was a mess, a tangle of thoughts and feelings that I couldn't quite process. I had no control over it. It kept taking me back. Kept making me relive the darkest moments over and over again.

  To the broken angel in the mortuary. To the demons scuttling across the broken ground like cockroaches as we left. To the panic in my chest as they swarmed into the building where, only moments earlier, we'd been standing. I'd looked away, too ashamed to watch, too fearful of what was about to happen.

  Was she already dead? I hoped she was. Or, at least, I hoped her death had been quick. How could we have just left her like that? And yet, I knew Josh had been right, we couldn't have saved her. It had been too late.

  I didn't even know her name.

  I shuddered. There was a sick feeling rising in my stomach. I tried to push the images of the demons away, but in my mind I kept picturing their dirty clawed hands all over the angel's body as they fought over her soul.

  Suddenly I was feeling cold and alone, even though I was wrapped up in the warmth of Josh's arms. The warmth of his body behind me provided no comfort from the ice freezing my heart.

  His wings were beating like a drum against the wind and the thunder. It was usually a beautiful feeling being so close to Josh, flying high in the sky like no other human could, watching the world turning below us, but now it failed to move me. My frozen heart was bleeding, and I didn't know if I could ever stem the flow.

  I feared I was broke.

  We flew high into the darkening sky. Thunder rumbled deep in the belly of the storm. The air became hot and sticky and ripe for chaos. A lightning bolt flared across the grey belly of the beast, illuminating the ground beneath us. I could see a forest of monuments, statues and crosses in amongst sturdy oak trees and sycamores. We were flying over some sort of vast cemetery that seemed to extend for miles in every direction. There were avenues and avenues of Gothic tombs, Egyptian style obelisks, and weeping angels. We were passing over a circular monument topped with a gnarled cedar tree when Josh tightened his hold on me.

  The air around us had become unstable. The electricity fizzing around in the hot air was making my nerves tingle. I could feel every single hair on my skin stand on end. Every part of me felt on edge, hot and alive.

  My heart jolted in my chest. We were flung backwards as the air itself seemed to punch us, like a giant invisible hand to the stomach. My breath was knocked from me.

  A bolt of lightning zipped across the sky above us. It made the air smell tangy, almost citrusy, and acid-like, similar to the smell of a battery. There was a burning smell, of singed flesh or wood.

  We began to drop like a boulder. I didn't have time to catch my breath, we were falling too fast. The air forced the skin tight onto my face.

  We began to spin uncontrollably.

  Josh thrust out his wings and squeezed me tightly as he fought to gain control. Slowly, he began to steady himself, pounding his wings against the turbulent air.

  And then we were out of the violence and the chaos of the storm above us. But there was another storm brewing below us.

  Without warning, and within so little time, we had entered the monster's lair.

  I wasn't ready. I needed time. I needed...

  There was no more time.

  Hyperion was stood in a large clearing edged with oaks and elder, Melusine behind him, curled into a ball. He was stood in front of a small altar, the Spear of Longinus, the Holy Grail and the Book of Solomon, resting open, before him. Four horse statues were arranged in a square around him and the altar. Three of the horses were mounted by grotesque figures, their bodies looking as if they'd had the flesh pulled from their muscles to expose their inner workings; the muscles, the veins, the sinew and bone. Each had bulbous eyes staring out from their stone helmets. One wore a crown on top of its helmet and had a bow in its right hand. The one to the right of it held a stone sword that looked as if it would be too heavy and too long to use in combat. The third figure held a set of scales in his right hand. They were three of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The fourth demonic looking horse, stripped of flesh also, stood patiently, waiting for Death to claim her position at the head of the pack.

  Hyperion looked up from the Book of Solomon. He saw us and smiled, then stretched out his stolen wings. They were white, with little flecks of gold that shimmered as he shook them out, and although they were beautiful, they looked rather odd against his stained, coppery skin. The wings had been hastily attached to his shoulder-blades with thick, black thread, and his bones were still visible through the red gashes in his skin. I thought about the angel he had stolen them from, and my heart broke.

  He began to beat his wings and slowly rose up to greet us. He seemed awkward as he flew, as though his wings pained him. They seemed an ill-fit for his body and stiff. I hoped they crucified him.

  'I'm so glad you made it,' he said, coming to rest before us. His metallic skin was pulled taut across his body, like a desiccated mummy.

  'Stop this now,' said Josh, 'it's not too late.'

  'Oh Joshy, of course, it's too late,' he said, his thin lips parting to reveal his jagged teeth. His wings were like fairy dust as they glimmered despite the darkness closing in around us. How they must have looked on the angel he ripped them from.

  'Why should I stop? I'm only just getting started,' he said. Hyperion turned his attention to me. 'Ahh, beautiful Evie. How's your mother? What's her name again?'

  Josh's arms tightened around me. A warning? Or anger? I couldn't tell.

  My hands were in tight fists at my side, throbbing. I stared at his wings.

  'Why did you do it?' I asked, burning with rage.

  'Evie, Evie, Evie, darling, don't take it so personally, your mother –'

  'I'm not talking about my mother.'

  Hyperion's eyebrows knitted together. He looked at me for a moment in stunned silence, before his face cleared and a grotesque smile twisted on his lips. 'You mean Lyrica?'

  'Lyrica?'

  'The sweet little itsy-bitsy angel back at the mortuary?'

  So that was her name. Lyrica.

  'Why Hyperion?' asked Josh.

  'Because I could, that's why!' he spat, his face distorted with fury. The storm on his face cleared, and the smile was back. 'She was a beauty, wasn't she? I couldn't resist her wings. Look, they're all shimmery and everything,' he said, with a girlish giggle as he stretched them out. 'I thought, you know, if you're going to take over the world and the Heavens, and yes, one day Hell, well, I need to look the part, don't I?'

  'You didn't have to leave her like that,' I said, trying
to bite back on my tears, and my anger.

  'What? For the demons? Sweet, sweet Evie, of course I did. I left her there hoping that you'd find her and do all your caring human nonsense, and the demons would come and finish you off -'

  'Well, it failed,' snapped Josh.

  'Yes, and no,' he shrugged, 'it doesn't really matter.'

  'It doesn't matter?' I couldn't control the squeak of anger in my voice. 'You left an angel to be devoured by demons, and you say it doesn't matter?'

  'Oh, you're soooo overly emotional! There'll be plenty more where she came from soon. Lots of tasty morsels for the demons -'

  'What do you mean?' Josh asked.

  'Once the demons see all the tasty angel souls I can offer them, they'll soon abandon Lucifer. Anyway, enough of that. I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself.' He looked up as a flash of sunlight momentarily broke through the clouds. He glanced at the shadow it cast on the floor below, and then back at us, before adding, 'Don't worry, you'll find out when the time comes. And as for time, it's a movin' and I have things to be doin'.' He lifted his hand to his thin lips and blew us a kiss.

  The air blown by Hyperion's kiss amplified as it travelled the few metres between us. It slammed into us, sending us flying backwards, knocking the air from my lungs again. The winded feeling wasn't helped as Josh's arms clamped around the bottom of my ribcage as he tried to stop me from falling.

  And then, Hyperion was upon us, fiery and golden as lightning flashed upon his coppery skin. I covered my eyes to protect them from the fleeting glare. And then I felt myself ripped from Josh's arms. I couldn't hold on. Hyperion was too strong.

  I was falling.

  Fast.

  Like the rain that had begun to fall from the clouds.

  The ground drew nearer as I fell faster.

  Like a broken doll.

  I was going to die.

  It is said that the moment you realise you're about to die your life flashes before your eyes.

  But it didn't.

  I thought of Josh's face. Of his warmth and kindness. Of his love and his sacrifice on that cold New Year's Eve when he saved me. What a waste it had been, that sacrifice that had led us to this moment of death. And yet, if he had not saved me, I would never have known what love was. What it was like to be loved and to love in return. I smiled as death's arms opened to welcome me.

  At least I had known Josh and love.

  And now I was about to meet my father. At last.

  A strange calmness passed over me. I held out my arms and let gravity take me.

  There was a violent movement above me. Blood, thick and red, splattered all around, and over me. Fat, red tears. I looked down to see the tears of red fall, staining the ground below me. The blood hit the rain-soaked ground and blossomed out, like giant red roses.

  'Josh!' I looked up, my own death now seemed immaterial as I saw Josh's broken body falling. 'Josh!' I screamed again, but my voice was dull, as it disappeared into the silence.

  Josh tumbled past me, a broken angel spiralling to the ground, heading towards the bloodstained floor.

  Then I was caught by metallic arms. Hyperion scooped me up and pulled me into him. I had stopped falling and we were hanging mid-air. I could feel his heaving chest behind me. The closeness of his body made my skin crawl. I wanted to vomit.

  He held me tightly in his left arm and tucked my hair gently behind my right ear with his free hand. I shuddered with disgust.

  'Evie, Evie,' he whispered. I could smell his rusty stale breath, the coppery smell of his body, 'as if I would let a beauty like you die like that...like your boyfriend.'

  There was a thud, a crunch of bones and a splash of water and I knew Josh lay broken beneath us. I closed my eyes. Not like this, I thought, he can't be dead. Not yet. Not like this. Please, don't let him be dead. Tears tumbled from my eyes, but they got lost in the rain.

  Finally, although it took all of my strength, I looked down.

  Josh lay face down on the ground, blood pooling underneath him, running like a red stream in the rain water. His back was covered in blood, his right wing had been completely torn from his body and now lay abandoned a few feet away from his body.

  I couldn't breathe. My chest was tight, my heart was pounding and I was gasping, clawing at the air for breath. 'What? What have you...?' I couldn't form a coherent sentence. My heart broke, my chest felt like it was being ripped in two. The love of my life, the only person I had loved, other than my father, was now lying on the floor.

  Dead. He was dead.

  'I've only finished what Death started,' said Hyperion in his flat, cold voice.

  I wanted to die. I wanted to be free of feelings, of sadness, of everything. I wanted it to stop. I wanted the hurt to stop. I didn't know what was worse; feeling too much, or feeling nothing at all.

  I couldn't take any more.

  Hyperion had taken everything, even our chance of saying goodbye.

  I turned my eyes away from Josh's crumpled body. I caught sight of the horizon through my tears. The clouds were dense and unusually black and unlike anything I had ever seen before. The blackness was huge, a furious monstrosity that was devouring everything in its path. Its great fingers of darkness reached out like hands as it raced towards us. Every now and again it was briefly illuminated by bright flashes of lightning. And within those flashes, I thought I could see the face of the devil himself, charging in on the unholy storm with his hellish hordes.

  We landed on the bloody ground, and, as he let me go, I fell forward, landing heavily on my knees. I saw myself reflected in the bloodied, mirror-like water pooling on the ground. I was broken. Blood covered my clothes, and smeared my face. My hair was stuck to my head and matted with blood and water and dirt, and it clung to my dirty face in clumps.

  I clutched my stomach, hoping that I could stop my soul from being ripped from me. I couldn't do this. I was done. I was only a human caught up in some Heavenly war that didn't involve me. They had taken everything from me.

  They could take no more.

  I wanted to die.

  There was a hand on my back. Its fiery touch penetrated through my wet hoodie, through my tee-shirt and onto my human skin. I turned my head and looked into the face of the victor. Hyperion had won. It was too late.

  'What do you want?' I asked. My throat was on fire, and I could barely speak, 'you've won. Let me go.'

  'Evie, will you stop being so over-dramatic. Your histrionics are starting to wear on my nerves.'

  He placed his hand on my head and grabbed a handful of hair before he yanked me up off the floor. His fingernails dug into my scalp, but the pain was lost on me. I was lost.

  'There's something I want you to see,' he said, freeing my hair. He took my hand in his and dragged me past Josh's body. I didn't want to look. I wasn't going to look. I would not remember him that way.

  He pulled me past Melusine's curled up body. If it hadn't been for the heavy, laboured movement of her chest, I would have thought she was dead too, for there were deep cuts slashed across her flesh. Her big shaggy beard was matted with blood, and her eyes were shut as if she were sleeping. As we drew nearer, I could hear her deep rasping breathes as her body tried to stay alive. She was not long for this world. I could tell. She had already given up.

  We were kindred spirits.

  Hyperion dug his claw-like fingers into the flesh of my arm and dragged me to the statue with the crown and bow.

  'Just wait there,' he said. He let my arm go but I could still feel the stain of his touch burning my skin. I didn't look to see what he was doing. I didn't care. I stared at the horse. Looked straight at its lid-less, bulging eyes. I thought of my father. And of Josh. I wanted to join them both.

  I felt a hand on the small of my back. It thrust me closer to the horse.

  'I wouldn't get too close,' he said, pulling me back with a sharp tug on my hoodie. I felt his metallic arm reach across my shoulders. He grabbed me and pulled me close. 'You're in for one Hell of a sh
ow.'

  It was then I realised he had the Holy Grail in his left hand. It was full to the brim with deep red blood that had sloshed over the side of the chalice and was now running down and over his coppery fingers in thick rivulets.

  I thought, how ugly and simple the Grail was. And then, I thought, I just wanted to die.

  Hyperion swept over to the horseman and began to pour blood over the horse and the figure straddling it. Viscous blood began to fall over the statue in thick, finger-like rivulets.

  'Arise!' he commanded.

  There was another flash of lightning. The rain began to fall even harder. It stung my eyes and I could hardly see.

  I took a sharp intake of breath.

  Nothing happened.

  Really? Nothing? Everything that we had gone through was for this….? Surely all the pain, the suffering, the death had been for something?

  There was a loud crack, like an invisible whip had been struck across the hard ground, then a low grumble as the earth beneath us began to shift and tremble. I stuck my arms out to try and balance myself, but I feared that the floor might open and gobble me up. I felt myself being shuffled forward. I grabbed at the arm next to me, then recoiled as I realised it was Hyperion.

  He turned to face me, his lips in a twisted smile.

  'Don't worry,' he said, 'you're not going to die. Yet.'

  The fingers of blood began to coalesce across the horse and rider, knitting together to form a bright red skin. The bones and muscle began to take on a living form, transforming from stone into living tissue with a clack and a snap, and the veins, nerves and muscles began to plump up as skin began to cover them over.

  'Pestilence?' I asked, not really questioning anyone but myself.

  'Yes,' said Hyperion, his eyes wide with a mixture of wonder and victory.

  There was the sound of trumpets. A blast of light.

  We both looked at where the sound was coming from. Golden light shimmered as if it were the sun itself, coated with glitter and sunk in the sky. The wind began to pick up, carrying with it the most beautiful sound I had ever heard; a melodious tune of crystal chimes and the wind in the trees. Of angelic voices and ocean waves lapping at my feet. Of laughter and love and life. It was only a whisper on the wind but it made my heart soar in my chest.