Redemption of the Dead

by A. P. Fuchs

  “You forget, Nathaniel, the Earth is mine, has been for many millennia.”

  “You are a defeated foe. The Host are here and your legion is falling.”

  The devil went to move to the side, but Nathaniel set his sword in his path, blocking him. “You really think you could beat me?” the devil said. “I know your role. You are not nearly powerful enough to stop me.”

  “He might not be,” said a loud voice, “but I am.” A man with enormous golden wings set down beside Nathaniel. He was dressed the same, but across his chest was a blood-red sash covered in beautiful golden symbols that shone like stars.

  “Michael,” the devil hissed.

  Tracy was relieved that help was here even though she didn’t believe she was seeing it. Two angels? That had to be what they were. They were amazing, full of light, huge wings, big, powerful. Even standing near them caused her to tremble. She hoped that indeed they were on the right side.

  All around them the sounds of war rang out as angel clashed with demon both on the ground and in the air. Demons swarmed around Tracy and Billie, flying in with bared claws and mouths open with sharp fangs. The bright silver of sword blades burst through the demons’ heads and chests, ripping through them and reducing them to ash.

  Just beyond, Nathaniel and Michael had their swords drawn; the devil had one of his own and right when he drew his liquid black sword, he transformed into a tall beast with powerful muscles coated in dragon scales, his face dark like tar, his eyes black as pitch, wreathes of smoke and fire igniting and bursting all around him in a continuous cycle of flame. Large, leathery bat wings shot out of his back, their razor-sharp tips moving like an extra set of blades.

  The devil moved lightning quick, the strikes of his sword deflected and parried by Nathaniel and Michael, each of the angels moving around the devil in circles, keeping him contained, while also blocking blow after blow of the demonic sword. The devil tried to escape upward, but Nathaniel was quickly in the air above him, brought down his sword and sent the evil one back to the ground where Michael came in with a violent slash, narrowly missing the devil’s chest just as he dodged it.

  Foul screeches pierced Tracy’s ears; Billie’s face was scrunched up in a wince. The terrible demonic creatures kept trying to have at them, but it was as if there was a force field of golden light encasing the girls so they’d be safe. Tracy followed the speeding lights around her, occasionally catching a glimpse of a warrior angel in battle armor: ornate silver helmets, breastplates and leg guards, silver shields and silver swords. Their presence was a comfort amidst the air of evil.

  The devil moved quickly to the side, able to twist around and get past Michael. He immediately went for the girls, his black sword coming in to cut them to pieces. Tracy wasn’t sure the golden light field around them would hold. Nathaniel appeared in front of them, deflected the blow and kicked the devil back into Michael’s arms. Contained, Michael was about to wrestle the devil to the ground when the evil one twirled like a tornado, jumped up, then slammed his sword into the ground. The earth rumbled and shook, the surrounding buildings immediately beginning to buckle and crumble from the earthquake.

  Tracy and Billie lost their footing and landed on their hands and knees. Nathaniel came in beside them, scooped them up and took them into the air.

  Below, the earth around the devil and Michael caved in like a funnel the size of a football field, the plane teetering on the edge of the dead grass and ground before falling into the chasm that kept growing and growing.

  All around angels and demons clashed in the air in whirls of light and scales. Shrieks and powerful calls in a language Tracy didn’t understand consumed the air.

  Nathaniel rose high over the city, one girl in each arm.

  “Thank . . . thank you . . .” Tracy said.

  “You’re welcome,” the angel said, his voice authoritative but oh-so-soothing with gentleness and comfort.

  “I’m so glad you came,” Billie said. “Thanks for saving us.” She took a deep breath, then said, “Joe . . .”

  The very mention of his name made the tears flow and Tracy looked away.

  “I know,” the angel said gently. “I’m sorry.”

  “Is he okay?” Billie asked.

  “It’s not for me to judge.”

  “Why couldn’t you get here in time?” Tracy said, looking his way. “He died because you weren’t here!”

  “The battle was in motion even before you saw these creatures for what they were, before the dark one emerged.”

  “Quiet!” she snapped.

  “Tracy!” Billie shouted. She shook her head slowly. “Don’t.” Her tone said she was dead serious.

  “Tracy, all is not lost. Please be strong and please trust God to work this for good.”

  How dare he? Her heart beat in furious rage. “You want to start talking like that after what happened? Look!” She pointed down.

  Below the dark chasm became a giant pit around which angels and demons fought toe-to-toe in a whirlwind of golden light, fire and black smoke.

  She glanced back at Nathaniel and to Billie beyond. Billie’s face was stern. Nathaniel’s—it was hard to read him. His jaw was set firm, but his fiery eyes contained gentleness.

  A fowl hollow screech filled the area and in a dark cyclone from below came the devil, his wings spread wide, flying at blinding speed toward them, Michael hot on his tail. Nathaniel turned on the air and bolted away while the devil gave chase.

  “Come back!” he shouted.

  “Set me down,” Tracy said. “You can’t use your sword otherwise.”

  Nathaniel squeezed her all the tighter and kept on. Behind them, the devil’s hot breath burned at their feet, its heat quickly rising past their soles and up their legs until he had caught up and was right over them. With a feral growl he grabbed Billie straight out of Nathaniel’s hands. Nathaniel arced up and snatched her back; Billie screamed and said something about her arm. Michael caught up, grabbed the devil and drove his sword into the evil one’s wing, puncturing a hole.

  The devil turned over and focused on Michael again, their swords clashing.

  Nathaniel arced down toward the ground, getting distance.

  “Put us down so you can get him,” Billie said.

  “No, we have something else to do. Michael will contain him. It was what he was created for. At the appropriate time, Lucifer will answer to One far greater and will pay dearly for his transgressions.”

  Below the amount of angels versus the amount of demons seemed to have increased.

  We’re winning, Tracy thought. Wait, what is he doing? “Hey!” she shouted.

  “We will now set things right,” Nathaniel said.

  “I don’t like it,” Billie said and Tracy knew why. They were flying directly toward the enormous chasm in the ground.

  They crossed the opening and were quickly engulfed in darkness except for the angel’s glow.

  “Are you crazy?” Tracy said. “Where are you taking us?”

  The angel didn’t reply.

  * * * *

  34

  In Hell

  The rush of wind as they sped deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth grew warmer with each passing moment. Sweat had already begun to break out across Billie’s skin, the wind from their fast descent not enough to cool her.

  “You’re taking us down to—” she started, but couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.

  “We must complete our mission. Mine was to set you on the right path, gather that which was sent out. Yours was to right your wrong,” Nathaniel said.

  Billie glanced behind herself. The entrance of the hole was nowhere in sight. In front of them, the hole was growing narrower with each moment. Soon they were rapidly descending down a rocky tube no more than a dozen feet in diameter and even that was growing smaller by the second

  “Um . . . Nathaniel?” Billie said.

  The tunnel grew even thinner and Nathaniel changed position, switching his de
scent to feet first, Billie’s stomach doing a flip from the change. She thought she heard Tracy yelp. In the ambient glow of the angel’s light, the dark stony ground below rushed up to meet them as the walls grew impossibly close. If Billie reached out to touch them, they’d take her arm off. She hugged Nathaniel tight and saw Tracy do the same.

  The walls of the tunnel closed in right around them and soon cast wide as they emerged in a massive, vacuous cavern.

  The heat was severe and Billie turned her head, seeing what she knew she’d see: the Lake of Fire off in the distance. The haunting screams of the damned rose and filled her ears.

  They touched down on the hot stone floor.

  “Where are we?” Tracy asked, her body hunched over, probably from the oppressive atmosphere of this place.

  Billie felt it, too. “The last place anyone would want to be.”

  “You mean?”

  She slowly nodded.

  The howls of the damned sent her on edge. The angel beside her was calm.

  “Before we go on,” he said, “we must cross the Lake. Do not look into the fire because what you will see will be very hard to forget.”

  “Why are we here?” Billie asked.

  “We are outside of Time in the eternal realm. You and I have been here before and so we must come to find the portal and set things right.” He turned to her. “Do you have the crystals?”

  She showed him the bracelet. “I do. What are they?”

  “They belong to this.” Nathaniel reached into his golden robe and produced a pocket watch. The pocket watch, the one which determined the time of Armageddon. “When the watch did not reset, I kept it in my care. After pulling Joe from this place and we were under attack while the demons flooded the Earth, I dispersed the watch’s contents—the crystals—and they landed in each of the places you visited. During the year since they were cast away, they acted like beacons and drew together forces for good to assemble and begin work on defending the Earth. It would have worked had Lucifer not manifested. I, however, have been too engaged in battle to retrieve them myself. We must return where we first met.” He held out his hand. “Give me the stone.”

  Billie touched the crystal-filled stone, gave it a tug, and removed it from the bracelet. She handed it to him without reserve, frankly glad to be rid of the thing. Nathaniel opened the pocket watch, pressed a tiny lever and opened its face. Beneath was an intricate array of diamonds and indentations of different shapes that matched the crystals. He placed the stone on top of the diamond bed, and in a flash of golden light, the stone went clear, the crystals now in each of their respective cradles. He replaced the watch face, closed its cover and put it back in his robe.

  Billie glanced around. “Did it work?”

  “It will,” he said.

  “Did what work?” Tracy asked.

  Nathaniel continued, “It must be returned to its appropriate point on the Timeline. We must be very precise.”

  In the distance, a bright red glow in the shape of a large oval lit up.

  “We’ve already taken too much time.” Nathaniel picked up both girls and sped off in the direction of the Lake of Fire.

  * * * *

  Tracy held tight as Nathaniel flew them through the chasm of Hell. Demons were already on their tail, chasing after them. She produced her gun and fired off a couple of shots.

  “It is a waste,” Nathaniel said. “Natural weapons do not defeat a supernatural foe.”

  Now he tells me. She put the gun back in its holster and saw the Lake of Fire come up beneath them. She knew he said not to look. Billie had her face buried in the angel’s golden robe. Curiosity getting the better of her, Tracy looked down. Millions of skeletons rose up above the flames, calling out to her and the angel as they flew overhead, begging to be rescued. Their bones were dry and cracked, ash-gray, their faces skulls, yet each distinct as if a reflection of the human being they once were. Their cries echoed from below and reverberated inside Tracy’s soul. She pulled her gaze from the lake and saw the disappointment in Nathaniel’s eyes when she looked at him.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  He cast his eyes forward and kept flying.

  Swarms of demons were nearly upon them before they suddenly switched course and headed downward toward a man . . . Joe!

  “No!” she screamed. He’s here! He’s in Hell!

  The demons closed in around Joe, hiding him from view.

  “Do something!” she shouted.

  “I will,” he said, “but not yet.”

  “What do you mean ‘not yet’?”

  “We must use the accessway they’ve created.” He flew them toward that glowing red object which was quickly coming into focus. It looked like a gateway of some sort. “I must vanish. Hold tight. I am here.” His light extinguished and all went pitch black except for the glow coming off the lake and the gateway.

  She felt a hard squeeze around her middle as if Nathaniel’s way of reassuring her of his presence. It helped. A little. They swooped in low and began to fly so fast she couldn’t breathe. As the last of the demons went through the portal, so did they . . . then flew past them at such speed she began hammering on Nathaniel, trying to tell him to slow down. Her stomach felt like it was in her feet and she couldn’t get an ounce of air, couldn’t even squeal. She couldn’t see Billie. She couldn’t see anything.

  Until light shone above.

  * * * *

  Billie screamed when a giant illuminated skull flashed in front her against a charcoal-gray sky. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, whispers on the wind.

  The Storm of Skulls.

  “How are we back in the storm? I thought we were just in Hell?” Billie asked.

  Nathaniel relit his glorious presence. “We were. The portal as it started triggered the Storm. It happened when the demons first rose. It happened again thus enabling your return and when they changed their plans. It’s happening now because we were just outside of Time and are now entering what would be considered the first Storm. We must arrive ahead of the chopper that brought you, Joe and August.”

  “Joe?” Tracy said.

  “How do we know where they are?” Billie asked.

  “It’s too difficult to say. We are between worlds, in the Storm.”

  Skulls flashed against the charcoal clouds; whispers in Aramaic haunted the air.

  “Who is that? Who’s talking?” Billie asked.

  “It’s a manifestation of the workings of the portal. It’s speaking into the air, creating a path. This Storm is all over the Earth right now, but only in certain places and in certain quantities. Large groups of people are in the middle of it right now down below, where in other parts only a single person is immersed in it, ignorant of its occurrence. These are they, like you, who the Storm touched and thus made you immune to the effects of the rain.”

  As interesting as that was, Billie just wanted to get out of here and land at that stupid bank and—then what? Meet herself? Nathaniel said that was impossible, that she couldn’t interact with herself on the same plane of existence.

  Thunder crashed and lightning pierced the sky. Nathaniel aimed for one of the thunderbolts and in a blinding burst of light, the sky went blue and they were high in the air.

  The angel shot down and the three landed in the back lane behind the bank. Quickly, Nathaniel transformed, but not to the old man that he was when she first met him, but the young man from the forest, the one that wore a gray turtleneck and jeans.

  “You and your friends will emerge in a moment. We must hurry,” he said and led them to the front of the bank. “Billie, you will stay with me. Tracy, you are the one now who must take this watch and wait until you give it to me, but I will be different. I will appear old. White velvet hat, white overcoat. He will know what to do when you give it to him.”

  He handed Tracy the watch.

  “I thought I was the one that was supposed to fix this,” Billie said.

  “You have.”

  “I don’t unde
rstand.”

  “You got the crystals and brought them to me. Now it’s Tracy’s turn. She has to because if the other you shows and sees you, then this mission won’t be properly carried out.”

  “I don’t get it,” Tracy said. “Why doesn’t she just stop herself from entering the bank thus stopping everything . . . else.” She furrowed her brow. “Does that mean that all this is suddenly going to disappear, or we’ll disappear, or—help me! Here, I don’t want this.” She gave the pocket watch back.

  “How about just trust me?” he said calmly, and returned the watch to her.

  “No,” she said and tried giving it back, but Nathaniel withdrew his hand. “Seriously, take it.”

  “Please trust him,” Billie said. “I know you’re confused, I know this is confusing, but he knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t have brought us here otherwise.”

  Tracy looked at the watch. “Fine. Just . . . whatever.” She headed toward the bank’s doors.

  * * * *

  35

  The Past

  Tracy reached for the door handle and her hand passed through the metal. Thinking she was losing it, she tried again and the same thing happened.

  “What is this, a hologram?” she said.

  Someone else was coming up the steps behind her, a middle-aged man with dark gray hair.

  “Can you open the—” she started, but he walked right through her, opened the door and went in. “What just happened?” She faced the door and tried touching it again. Like before, her hand went through the handle. Giving up, she said, “I’m not going to even ask anymore.” Slowly, she stepped toward the door’s glass and, bracing to smack her head into it, she instead passed smoothly through the glass and was in the bank’s landing. “Whoa,” she breathed and proceeded to the main entrance. She passed through it and was before the ATMs on the other side.

  There were people all around. A security camera covered the front entrance. When she glanced up at its corresponding monitor, there was no one where she stood. She tried talking to the next person to pass her and was completely ignored. She went to touch them on the shoulder and her hand passed through them.