by M. R. Forbes
She scratched out a rough globe with a cloud above it for Heaven and a flame below it for Hell. I tried to be nonchalant about the fact that she was using her fingernail to make the scratches in the blacktop. She put her hands outside of the pictogram and squished them inward, so that the three scratches all sat on top of each other. How did she do that?
"In reality, we're all on the same level, but we're not in the same… dimension, I guess," she said.
She was squinting as she tried to come up with a good description. It was adorable.
"It's not really a dimension,” she continued. “It's more like a state of being. Our souls can travel these states, but our shells can't. Of course, its not like we can just go anywhere we want. There are rules, and that assures that Heaven is never overrun with sinners or demons."
"And that the moderates are given a chance to prove where they belong?" I asked.
She nodded. "That came much later, but yes. Purgatory is the buffer, the demilitarized zone if you will, but you must already know about that. It's the reason you and I can never be friends."
I don't know why, but when she said that, it hurt. More than it probably should have, I hardly knew her after all.
"You think the Rapture is a good thing?" I asked.
Josette looked up at me, and her eyes flashed in anger, but she covered it up quickly.
"Let us not get into that, Landon,” she replied. “We will never agree. That is the nature of who we are, and it is best that we accept it and move on."
She had a point.
"So," she continued, "if Heaven is right here, but in another state of existence, than it is no large matter for a being such as myself who resides in both states to move from one to the other, at least in part. In essence, I can reach through from one dimension to another, where I know I left my blade."
"Neat trick," I said. "But why can't I do it?"
"Two reasons. The first is that you aren’t powerful enough, not yet anyway. It took me five hundred years to learn how to reach through the dimensions. The second is because you don't exist outside of this state," she said.
“You're saying that Purgatory is part of Earth?" I asked.
"Yes. And no." She stood up and swept the scratches away with her boot.
"How can that be?" I asked, rising to join her. "How could millions of souls be living here, and nobody has ever seen them, heard them, or knows that they exist?"
"We are Divine, Landon. We decide what mankind knows about us. We control them, in order to protect them."
Like in the park. The area where we had fought the Great Were had been deserted even though it was the middle of the day.
"Why do the demons control them?" I asked. It couldn't be to protect.
"To use," she said. "As you have already discovered, information is the highest form of power and control. People are easily corrupted by promises of knowledge that will give them an edge." The same way I had been. "Now put up your sword."
She spent the next hour instructing me on how to hold a sword without cutting myself on it. She said I was a natural, but she said it sarcastically. By the end of the hour I could almost hold the thing steady, but it felt heavy and awkward in my hand, and I had no confidence at all in my ability to use it. We took a break, and I grilled her a bit more.
“What happens when a Divine dies?” I asked. We were sitting cross-legged in the center of the rooftop facing one another, our blades resting across our legs.
She shook her head. “Dying as a Divine is like dying as a mortal. Nobody knows for sure what happens, only that we do not return to where we came from. As my Lord has no knowledge of this end, I have always thought that we cease to be.”
"I’ve been making the same assumption,” I said. “Demons can be killed by…" I hung the end of the sentence, waiting for her to finish it.
"A seraph's blade, as you have already learned. Many demons also have a weakness to one of the four elements of life. Which one depends on the type of demon. Lesser demons like werewolves are susceptible to earth. All Divines can be killed by decapitation. Including you."
Decapitation was not a pretty thought, but I had assumed as much. Once the head and body were separate, which one was going to grow back? I could picture myself like a hydra, duplicating every time something lopped off my noggin.
“Silver, wooden stakes?” I asked.
“It can slow earth sensitives down, but won’t kill,” she replied. “You’ve seen too many movies.”
"Part of it is true,” I said in my defense. “What about holy water?"
"Ineffective as a weapon,” she said, “but it can heal any demon inflicted wound. It helps us to counter our greatest weakness."
"Which is?" I asked.
She started to speak, then thought about it. "Our greatest known weakness I mean. We need blessed blades to kill a demon. All demons can harm us with little more than a fingernail. As long as they break the skin, their touch is poison."
"So what about mine?" I asked.
"Yours?" She was confused.
"My touch," I said.
I had posed the question innocently enough, but her face flushed again. She stammered out her reply. "I uh... I really don't know. I haven't... I haven't been in that situation before. With a diuscrucis."
"You sure are demure for a seven hundred year old," I said, trying to keep the conversation light. I found her reaction intriguing, but I wasn't about to press her on it.
Josette conjured her sword and pointed it at me. "Shut up and fight," she said between laughs.
She spent another hour teaching me basic technique, which meant how to swing the blade without losing control of it, and how to get myself back into position to either attack again or defend myself. The night was wearing on, and the weather was getting colder, so I appreciated the fact that I was now immune to temperature changes. The earlier rain returned as snow, falling in heavy flakes that clung to everything they landed on, including us.
"Seven hundred years would mean you lived in the middle ages," I said.
We were taking another break, and I had decided I wanted to know more about my teacher than I did about anything else. I was getting a little tired of demons and fighting, and it was the closest I could get to so-called normalcy.
Josette nodded. "I was born in Paris. My father was a wealthy merchant who had close ties to the Catholic Church. I grew up in a privileged household, and wanted for nothing. It was not always an easy life, for my parents were very religious, and punished my brother and I severely for our sins. Still, it was a good life, especially for those times. You may think I was perfect because I am a seraph today, but I was not always the most well-behaved child."
"Good enough for Heaven," I said. "Besides, what child can ever avoid making a little mischief?"
"Yes," she agreed. "Good enough. My brother and I, we used to go down into the city dressed in rags and act as beggars. We would take the money we collected and spend it on sweets."
Her eyes were alight with the pleasure of the memory, and I could feel the warmth of her radiating and soaking into my skin. She was silent for a moment while she reminisced, and then her mood changed.
"When our parents found out, they took us out to the barn and tied us to a post, then used a riding crop to give us ten lashes each,” she said. “Afterwards, they made us work to earn back all of the money we had stolen from the real poor, and go out to the city and distribute it to them."
I couldn't believe it. "Are you kidding me? Your parents sound like monsters."
She shook her head. "Do not misunderstand me, Landon. My parents could be as loving as they could be cruel, and the pain they inflicted served to teach us to be humble and always remember that service to God means caring for the less fortunate. I hated my parents for a time, because of what they had done, but after I had passed to Heaven, I realized what they had taught me."
"I'm sure there were less violent ways to teach a child a lesson like that," I said. I was getting angry
thinking about it. Not that there was anything to do. I reminded myself that it had happened hundreds of years ago.
"You are right about that,” she said. “My parents spent many years in Purgatory due to their treatment of their children. In the end they proved that their souls were essentially good, and they were misguided in their faith. They sought me out as soon as they entered Heaven, and begged for my forgiveness."
That cooled my anger a little bit at least. "What about your brother? It sounds like you two were very close."
Her eyes dimmed so completely it was as if they had gone black. So much emotion in those eyes, it was an amazing thing to experience, though it seemed to amplify her feelings to the point that I was experiencing them too. It felt as though a ten thousand pound weight had been dropped on my chest as a mixture of sadness and fury.
"He did not respond as well to my parent's teachings," she said. "He became violent, angry, and withdrawn. He left home when he was sixteen."
Tears started rolling down her cheeks, and I could tell there was more she wanted to say, but wasn't able to. The answer was written in her eyes, in plain sight to me. He had killed her.
"Josette, it's okay," I said, reaching out and putting my hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to talk about it. I can see it in your eyes. I'm so sorry."
Those same eyes widened when I said that, and she turned her head away from me. She hadn't known I could read her like that. Not knowing any better, I had just assumed it was normal.
"Thank you," she said. "No matter how many years have passed, the memory is a torment on my soul."
I didn't think, just acted. I reached out and put my arms around her, wrapping her small body up into a hug. She stiffened at first, not expecting the maneuver, then melted into my arms.
"Seven hundred years, Landon," she said between open sobs. "Yet it still feels as if it happened yesterday. I joined the Order of Seraph because I didn't want such a fate to befall anyone else. I have saved hundreds of innocents from the hands of evil men and demons alike. Men that you will help one day."
She just had to say it. Maybe it was just due to her emotional state, but I didn't appreciate it. I pushed her out of the embrace, holding her at arms length.
"I'm all for saving innocents, Josette," I told her.
She smiled at me, wiping away my anger in an instant. "I believe that about you. And right now you can do so without consequence. What happens when the balance is restored, should good begin to triumph? That is the nature of who you are, and the mission that you have accepted. For all the good you may feel and show today, there is a devilish side to you, or you would not be what you are."
I didn't know what to say. She wasn't completely right, but she wasn't completely wrong. I had choked the Priest when he had resisted giving me what I wanted. I knew there was a part of me that could harm innocents if it meant achieving my goals. Admitting that to myself was difficult. It scared the crap out of me. Admitting it to her, impossible.
"I guess I'll worry about that if and when it happens," I said, letting go of her. "I have a lot of good work to do in the meantime." I went over and picked up my sword from where it was resting against the rooftop ledge. "Show me something else."
She didn't respond right away. She looked at me with a mix of fear and admiration. Her eyes told me as much. When she realized she was telegraphing her feelings to me, she turned away again.
"Please stop," she said.
"I'm not doing it on purpose," I told her. "Your eyes shift and change with your emotions. For whatever reason, I understand what the variations mean."
"You shouldn't be able to do that," she said.
"What does it mean?" I asked.
"I don't know,” she replied. “It's making me uncomfortable though. I feel naked in a way that goes so far beyond the physical."
I understood her perspective, but the selfish part of me didn't want to give up watching her eyes. The experience of seeing her emotions that way was intoxicating.
"I'll try not to look at your eyes," I told her. "But you should know they are incredibly beautiful and expressive."
She reddened again, but didn't say anything. Her sword materialized in her hand. "Shall we?"
"Thank you for doing this Josette," I said.
"I am repaying a debt to you fellow,” she replied. “Nothing more."
I didn't want to look at her eyes, but I couldn't help stealing a glance. There was a hint of brighter golden flecks at the edges, which danced along the outer rim. She was lying. It was enough for me that I knew. I didn't call her on it.
"Still," I said. "Thank you."
The moment was broken by a scream that sent a shiver down the base of my spine. I felt an almost primal pull towards the source of the sound, a few blocks away from the rooftop where we stood. Josette had sensed it too, and she turned and began running along the rooftop in the direction of the noise. I stood frozen in place, watching her as she bounded onto the ledge of the building and leapt, landing on the opposite rooftop twenty feet away and continuing forward with ease. I knew what I had to do if I was to follow.
"Crap," I said, breaking into a run, following in the angel's footsteps.
I made the leap without a problem, and this time I decided to do a controlled roll, pitching my shoulder forward and flipping over and back to my feet as I hit the snowy ground and lost my footing. I was rewarded with a half success, my arm blossomed with pain as my shoulder dislocated, but I managed to get back up and start running forward again without losing too much momentum. By the time I pulled myself through the jump across to the next rooftop, my arm was healed.
I caught up to Josette leaning over the ledge of the building, peering down into the alley. I pulled up beside her and looked down. Two girls stood shivering together in a corner, holding each other for support while six men blocked their escape out of the alley. The girls were wearing short, tight skirts and down jackets, obviously heading to or from a club or party of some kind.
"Watch me," Josette said, "And try to learn something."
With that, she was over the ledge, dropping forty feet to the ground and landing ever so gently behind the men and the two girls. She didn't have her sword, not yet.
“Leave them alone, or I’m calling the police,” she said to them, getting their attention. All six turned to face her at once.
"What the hell is this," I heard one of the men say to the others.
"Are you lost little girl," another one said, laughing.
"You know what?" the first one asked his friends. "Now there's more to go around." They all laughed then.
The first one stopped laughing when Josette's foot connected with his face. There was an audible crack as his jaw crushed under the force, and a few of his teeth went flying from his mouth. He dropped like the sack of crap he was.
The second attacker fell before he could overcome his shock, a heeled boot to the groin creating more misery than he could handle. He lay on the ground twitching, and Josette turned her attention to the other four.
Knives had been pulled, and one of the scumbags had a gun. There was a loud pop, and Josette's arm was shoved violently back as blood sprouted from her shoulder. Two more pops, two more sprays of blood, and she fell backwards onto the ground.
Panicked, I jumped up onto the ledge, prepared to drop myself into the fray. I shouldn't have bothered though. I had forgotten a simple lesson that I already knew. As the gunman approached Josette to pour a few more rounds into her, she shot up at him, slamming him in the face with her palm. His head bounced backwards, his neck broken, and he fell to the ground.
I had thought seeing her leap back into action like that would have sent the remaining attackers running. Then I noticed that the first guy was back on his feet. His fingers had grown out into claws, and a set of fangs hung out of his mouth. Vampires!
He leapt up and clung to the side of the building across from me, circling around Josette while she was distracted by the other attackers, who had also
revealed their true nature. I saw Josette reach for her sword, preparing to engage them. She didn't know the first one was getting the drop on her. I took that as my cue.
I flexed my legs and focused as I sprang from the rooftop, pulling myself across the gap and down onto the sneaky son of a bitch. It was a formless maneuver, but it worked. My body slammed into his, and we both plummeted to the ground. Luckily for me, he broke my fall. He hissed and growled beneath me in a mixture of anger and pain. I rolled off, more so I could get my bearings than in response to his protests.
He was one ugly dude, his features lumpy and twisted, his fangs crooked in his mouth. He rolled onto his knees. I didn't need any kind of special perception to know what came next. I ducked under his leap, and then turned to track him. I saw Josette out of the corner of my eye, her sword a blur as she twirled through the rest of the demonic mass. The second vampire had regained his senses and rejoined the fray as well.
I would have loved nothing more than to watch her and learn, as she had requested. Instead, I was preparing for the vampire's next move while wishing I had some silver on me. Heck, I would have settled for a wooden stake or some garlic and taken my chances. I crouched into the position Josette had taught me, even though I had neglected to bring my sword along for this ride. If nothing else it would help me react faster to my opponent's offensive. I hoped.
He eyed me cautiously, unsure of my position in the fight. He jerked left and right a couple of times, trying to judge my reaction time. Then he smiled, and I felt each individual nail of one of his buddies' hands slice its way down my back. I fell forward onto the ground, wondering what had happened to Josette that one had gotten past her. I listened for the sound of battle, but heard nothing. This was bad.
The wound healed quickly enough, but I decided to play injured while I got a better feel for the situation. I focused on my hearing, taking in the sounds around me. The shuffling of feet as the vampires rounded up the two girls, who were crying in between prayers. A body being dragged along the ground, the leather of her boots making a distinct noise against the pavement. The two assholes that dropped me were beginning to lean in to check on my health. I needed a plan, and fast.
