by Livvy Aarons
By this time, Aidan had removed his jacket that kept his wings secure and had the massive black wings encasing both the corpse and himself. Slowly Aidan closed his eyes to complete the harvest and allowed one last tear to fall down his wet cheek. The weight on my body lifted, giving me the chance to find my footing. However, the second I thought about running from this awful place the ground began to shake. The subtle tremors turned brutal as the floor cracked and split, leaving a hole that was swallowing everything in the room. I jumped to the wall where the sink was, watching in horror as the tub and Aidan both were engulfed by the crumbling floor. I knew I would be next so I did something that I had not done in a long time—pray. Fear was the most popular reasons why people believed in God and I was no different. Although those same people always want to see something in order to believe in it, obviously those people are idiots. They could not handle the things I can see. When the flooring finally crumbled under my feet I opened my eyes expecting to see my end drawing near instead, I found an endless black pit. I continued to fall further down for what seemed like an hour all while watching a faint red glow get closer and closer. When the red glow was almost within reach, I felt my body slow down and suspend in the air before abruptly slamming into the ground. I was amazed that I was alive; the fall should have killed me on impact. Gingerly I gathered myself from the ground and dusted off the rust colored dirt then looked around to see where I landed. “Holy shit!” I screeched. I knew exactly where I was when I saw the pit on my left…I was in hell!
“You catch on rather quick for a human.” A voice said, echoing throughout the cave.
I took a deep breath to steady my faltering heart then turned around to see where the voice was coming from. Surprisingly the owner of the voice was not a demon, but a fallen angel. He was an older man with blue-black hair and beautiful dark olive skin. The only difference I knew between a fallen angel and an angel is that a fallen angel has a silver-tinted wings and a tattooed inscription on their foreheads. Then of course you have what are called “false angels”, they are nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“Ah—I see you have had a run in with our viscous brethren; they are a blood thirsty lot. However, little one there are quite a few of the kinship you have left out.” He sounded amused.
I licked my lips, “Who are you and why am I here?”
The fallen angel laughed, sending shivers down my spine. “Mon petit relax I will send you home momentarily. I find it rather interesting that you think that I want something from you…I have more powers than your sliver of humanity could think of.” With a smirk, he watched for my reaction then like a lighting striking, he was staring into my eyes. “However you are more powerful than I could ever be, especially with your rather rare gift.”
I stepped away afraid for what this fallen angel had planned for me but I did my best to not show too much fear. “Who are you and if you don’t need my pathetic sliver of humanity, what am I doing here in hell?””
“Forgive me—my name is Gershom or “Gershy” to your friend Tristan.” He said with a slight bow then straightened up to continue. “Now I must also apologize for leading you on about your location but I assumed that you could tell that this wasn’t actually hell; this is your expectation of what hell would be like. I cannot take a living human into the Inferno Realm, it would be very dangerous and more than likely irreversible. My intention of this whole ruse was to help you understand what would happen if you abandon your duties. Do not think that there is a third option McKenna; the path may be different but the outcome will always be the same.”
I looked away. “No worries there my duties are firmly intact and you have accomplished your goal. I still don’t understand why a fallen angel would want to help me or how any of this matters to you.”
Gershom sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Unfortunately McKenna this world you think of as black and white does not exist. You see things that only a handful of humans can see, therefore you can see evil and you can see the good but what you can’t see is the intentions of that energy. I was a commander in the inferno realm, one of six that had no one above me except Lucifer himself in the Inferno Realm but over time, I found it harder and harder to ignore the tipping of the scales. When I began to question the actions of a few members of Lucifer’s family and my fellow generals, my own family was slaughtered and I was imprisoned in the Aknoela.” His voiced crackled with anger. “Once I was released from there I formed an underground organization to help keep the balance of good and evil; it is called “The Oath”. I only told you all of this so you can understand that there is hope even in the darkest of hearts.”
I stared at Gershom for a long, reflecting on his obvious pain and on the impact of what he just told me. There was something wrong with this situation and my instincts were waving all kind of red flags. The bitterness of having no choice in my own future overrode my disappearing fear. “Let’s say I believe you, so what? Doing a few good deeds doesn’t make up for all the hundreds of bad things you did in the past.”
He smiled, “Are we talking about my past or one of your admirers? You should not be so hard on those two; both of them have knife wounds that run deep in their hearts. Forgiveness is something humans need to learn to embrace, if not they will find the afterlife void of it as well.”
“Who knew a former bad ass could be so philosophical.” I snapped, frustrated that the bastard was right. “Can I click my heels together and go home?”
Gershom eyes tinkled with amusement. “You remind me of your mother, she was a ferocious little thing if you ruffled her feathers just right. It was a pity she tried to do it her way and fight against fate; some humans are hard sales.” He pushed away from the rock he had been leaning against then dusted his hands in disgust. “Are you ready to join us or are you going to follow in her footsteps?”
Swallowing back my emotions at the mention of my mother, I stepped forward. “There is not much choice in this ‘join us or die’ speech and I know that your judgment is beyond biased, however you are right—I would never be able to live with myself knowing the ripple effect I caused.” Not only would I be condemning Aidan but anyone who would need my help in the future. That person could be someone’s daughter, son, sister, brother…or someone’s mother.
The fallen angel eyed me with a mixture of amusement and arrogance then with lightning speed he was inches from my face, placing his icy hand against the of my neck. “Little one this may hurt a little.” Before I could question him, a sharp stinging sensation radiated from where his hand touched my neck, I screamed out in pain but Gershom did not even flinch. The torture continued to increase until my flesh felt like a million fire ants were eating me alive and I could truly bear no more. In the corner of my mind, I could hear Gershom speaking in Latin, “It is done on earth as it is in heaven and in the pits of damnation.” When he finished the last word, like a light switch the pain was gone and my eyes flew open; I was back in my room. Erratically I searched the room for any sign of Gershom or my nightmare—nothing. The room was still mostly dark but I could see Aidan was sound asleep on my floor, unaware of the terror that I had went through. I pushed the hair from my sweat-covered face then rubbed the side of my neck where Gershom had touched me. Finding only smooth skin, I begin to wonder if it was just some crazy nightmare and I was making it out to something bigger; either way I was going back to sleep.
This bullshit was making my head hurt.
* * * * *
“Where the hell is it?” hissed a low voice.
Barely awake I could hear that whoever it was, digging through my desk and he was not happy. I peeked out from my covers hoping like hell that it wasn’t Gershom; nope it was Aidan. Immediately my temper spiked and shoved the covers away. “You have an odd way to thank a person for letting you sleep on her floor.” He stared at me like a deer headlights then dropped the papers.
“I was just looking for something to write on.” Aidan was lying.
I
narrowed my eyes suspiciously, “Let’s try that one again, I can tell when you are lying so don’t even bother with another one.” His shoulders slumped forward in defeat and my temper cooled drastically. How could Aidan still have such a profound effect on me after what he did?
With a heavy sigh he looked away, “You don’t understand McKenna…I need that address. The sword could be the hail Mary that saves me.”
The bastard just had to go there. I crawled out of my bed and crossed my room without looking at him. The closet was packed full of boxes, none of which were labeled with any logical meaning; I alone knew what they stood for. Carefully I pulled out a box from the very bottom labeled, “Nancy Drew books and fingernail polish”, then sat it down on the desk. “Everything that I have ever kept from people, things that I should just burn are in that box. Perhaps you are the one who doesn’t understand. I should’ve known you were using me.”
Aidan remained silent as he opened the box, swallowing thickly when he thumbed through the pictures I drew of my mother’s death and of the things I saw when I was younger. The drawings were a part of the failed therapy I received after her death and the following years afterwards. The next items he pulled from the box where old books and journals my grandmother had given to me, hoping they could help explain the beings I encountered. Most of them were too vague or seemed to be written in riddles. Finally, Aidan pulled the folder I knew contained the directions to Michael’s sword and few documents that I hid from the outside world. His eyes flickered to mine, “These are copies of your medical records and what looks like court documents.”
I turned away feeling ashamed that soon Aidan would be disappointed in me.
“These say that you’ve been arrested repeatedly for assault, trespassing and that you’ve served nineteen months in juvenile detention for involuntary manslaughter. You pled not guilty by reason of insanity but you lost.”
Before Aidan could continue I whipped around and snatched the folder from his hands. Perhaps I wasn’t prepared for him to know the real me yet. “Trust me I won—those people I killed lost. I was damned lucky the lawyer I had was really good.” Quickly I shuffled through the papers and found the directions then threw them at Aidan. “This is what you were looking for. Now if you don’t mind, I have a very busy day ahead of me.” Storming out of bedroom, I headed for the bathroom to take a shower, leaving a confused Aidan behind.
An hour later, I somehow managed to sneak Aidan out of my house dodging my father. Of course, Ben knew something was going on, holding my secret captive until blackmail was possible. I could thank Aidan’s silence for faltering Ben’s plans but instead of thankfulness, I felt raw and exposed by his withdrawal. We had just backed out of the driveway when he broke the tension. “Will you go with me to get the sword? All of this supernatural stuff is new to me.”
Even without taking my eyes from the road, I could hear the loneliness in his voice. The fact was that he was alone in this world; he had no family or real ties to anyone. Tristan was like a brother to him and now they couldn’t even stand to be in the same room. “Sure, I guess I could spare a couple of hours for a friend.” I tried to sound compassionate but not overly eager.
“Is that how you see us—friends?” His voice sounding hallow.
I remained silent for few minutes trying to forget his question but that was the coward way out. “Truthfully Aidan, I have no idea what we are at this moment. All I can say is that I am committed to helping break this contract, curse or whatever you want to call it and it would be easier if we try for a friendship for right now.” When he said nothing in return, I glanced in his direction; he was staring out of the window, chewing his nails. Inwardly I shrugged letting him have his space and went back to driving towards the dark forest. Perhaps this would go easier if I just concentrated on my current task—sword retrieval.
* * * * *
“Do you know how much further this damn tree is?” I barked, my time was running short and we had been walking in what seemed like circles for over an hour. The tree we were looking for was unique in appearance, with wiry branches and deep “v” like split in the middle. According to Gabriel’s instructions, only certain supernaturals and special humans could even see the tree. Aidan was just as frustrated as I was; he however was less vocal about it.
He was about a hundred yards ahead of me when Aidan suddenly froze and shouted, “McKenna!”
Frantically I ran to catch up with him, “What’s wrong?” He did not answer, but when I followed his eyes to where they were staring…I nearly pissed myself. We found the tree and if Aidan hadn’t been standing beside me I would have thought I was dreaming. “It is absolutely beautiful.” My voice crackled in awe.
“Yeah—looks like a tree to me. Do you think you could help me? I seemed to not be able to move my legs.”
I managed to look away from the hypnotic glow coming from the tree to try and help him. I yanked him repeatedly but he did not budge. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a faint shimmering line on the ground and stopped my efforts to follow the direction of the line; it encircled the tree completely. “It’s a defensive border.” I mumbled then pushed Aidan backwards. He yelled something but stopped when he noticed that he could move again.
His brows furrowed then looked at me confused, “How did you know to do that?”
“I saw the line on the ground and it just made sense.” I said pointing at the ground.
Aidan shook his head in disbelief, “You are crazy darlin’, all I see is grass and dirt.”
Confusion slowly cleared, “Oh—Gabe had said that certain people can see the tree; maybe certain people can see the border as well. It would make sense that someone like you couldn’t see a defensive border; you are the kind of person they are trying to keep out.”
He crossed his arms, “How does any of this make sense to you? I feel like a first grader trying to learn how to drive blindfolded.”
“Listen Aidan I have learned a long time ago to not ask so many questions when it comes to this stuff. There are just some things that cannot be explained, that’s where I have an advantage over most people. I have faith in these things because I can see it. You don’t have that advantage so you need to have faith in what you know in your heart.”
He gave me a crooked smiled with eyes twinkling in some emotion I couldn’t pinpoint. “The tree is beautiful huh?”
I nodded silently then turned back towards the tree. The distance between the tree and myself was not very far, however I could count the seconds as they passed. There seemed to be a hypnotic pulse that was pulling me towards the tree and the closer I got the harder it was to resist. Two hundred and forty one seconds after leaving Aidan, I stood in awe directly in front of our destination. The tree was not overly large in height but everything else about it was otherworldly. The leaves were a brownish-red that shimmered in the sunlight, giving off a luminescent glow and the v-shaped trunk was a light gray. At the bottom of the split I saw a hand imprint that looked burned into the bark. Reluctantly I placed my hand on the imprint, preparing for a shock or something spectacular; the thunderclap never happened. I had barely pushed against the tree when the vertex of the v began to open, revealing a small hole. It was probably not a good idea to put my hand in an unknown mythical tree with God knows what kind of booby traps but I ignored common sense and did it anyway. I nearly had my whole arm reaching inside by the time I was able to get a good grasp on what was inside; relief flooded me when I pulled out a sword. The hole closed immediately after the tip of the blade cleared from its entrance and my attention took in the craftsmanship of the sword—Michael’s sword. The handle was silver with a leather grip and the hilt was gold. The design was simple yet the markings on the hilt and the blade itself were very detailed. Despite the weight of the sword, I gripped it firmly while posing as I had saw in so many movies. It definitely made me feel powerful knowing that I had one of God’s most powerful weapons against the supernatural; my arms however disagreed. This was a sure sign
that I needed to work out if I wanted to kill anything other than myself with the thing. The sound of Aidan yelling for me stirred my thoughts and I glanced his direction, he was waving for me to come back. Carefully I jogged back carrying the sword with both hands to help ease the heavy burden.
