The Rift

by Skn Hammerstone

  I couldn’t think of who it could possibly be. Jesse didn’t seem to be afraid of anyone there. Maybe I didn’t even know him. He could be some guy who sat in the back of the science lab or one of the acting kids.

  Jesse and I got out of the car and walked into the school. The bell was going to ring soon which meant that Jesse was moving fast to get to wherever this guy’s class was. He passed through the science and the English wing. Math was forgotten as well. That left the history wing. That was weird. I had history this class period. Well I was supposed to. I hadn’t exactly been in school recently.

  “I told you I would find you,” both Jesse and I turned. The demon leader was in the hallway with five other demons.

  “Stay back!” Jesse ordered.

  “Do you honestly think we are afraid of you?” the leader looked at him like he was a harmless insect. Hadn’t Jesse been the one to slam him against a locker the first time he had attacked me? Yet now he wasn’t a threat to them at all.

  “You should be,” he said.

  “You can’t do anything to us,” one of the others told him. “No one can.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, gentlemen,” Nicholas had appeared out of nowhere, leaning against a locker behind Jesse and me. It wasn’t possible…

  “Joshua,” one of them hissed.

  “Joshua?” I turned to look at him.

  “It took you long enough, darling. I didn’t really make it that hard to figure out,” he told me. Well I didn’t know about any of this until an hour ago so it wasn’t really my fault.

  “You can’t touch us,” the leader insisted. “Unless you want to reopen the rift.”

  “I don’t know about that. It might be fun. Like Hell on Earth,” the demons backed up slightly. They didn’t know what he would do to them. Everyone really was afraid of him.

  “What would Raphael say? He is your boss, isn’t he?”

  “I only have one boss and it’s not Raphael so I don’t care what Raphael would say,” he told them.

  “You don’t want the rift to tear any more than anyone else. You’re the angel of death. It would be torment to you to have nowhere to take the dead,” another one of them decided.

  “I think I would enjoy ripping you all apart. Tearing your disgusting filth from these human souls you have latched onto. You would make excellent fuel for my fireplace,” Joshua was neither intimidated nor concerned with any threat that the demons might pose to him. It was most likely because they didn’t pose any threat to him.

  “He’s bluffing!” the leader was growing tired of his servants’ fear. “Get the girl. Leave the kid. We don’t have any use for him.” The demons moved forward hesitantly at first but when Joshua made no move towards them, they regained their confidence.

  “You didn’t really think anyone was going to help you, did you?” the leader asked. Jesse got in front of me but they easily overpowered him and pushed him to one side.

  “Are you ready to die?” one of them asked.

  “That is something you should be asking yourself,” Joshua strode over to the front demon and gripped him by the throat. The other demons backed up as a strange, high pitched scream began to erupt from the demon. I covered my ears and crouched on the floor as the glass in the room began to shatter. The scream got higher and higher as the demon began to burn up from the inside out.

  Screams from the unsuspecting students and teachers in the classrooms joined the agony of the demon. They would have no idea as to what was going on. I glanced over at Jesse who had covered his ears just in time. The demon completely burned up and Joshua dropped the remaining ashes onto the floor.

  “Well that was fun,” he said. The demons were angry now. They may still have been afraid, but they were not going to let one of their own die.

  “You and all of the angels are going to pay for this!” The leader announced boldly.

  “Go ahead. Wage your war. I’m not afraid of you!” A slight amount of steam had started to rise from the floor where the ashes of the first demon were scattered. They took this as an invitation to attack him. All of them but the leader ran at him. The screams continued to come as another one of the demons met his death. The leader had other plans. His plans involved running the other way like the true coward that he was.

  The smoke intensified as another demon died. Only two were left. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. I began to cough as the smoke billowed out around me. Fire alarms were going off everywhere and students and teachers were running out of the classrooms to get out of the school. Joshua held onto the throats of the last two demons, immune to their terrible screams, until they too fell in ashes at his feet.

  “What happened here?” Anna ran into the hallway.

  “They irritated me,” Joshua told her.

  “Do you know what you just did?” she asked, a look of horror on her face.

  “I’m very aware of what I have done Anna. Don’t you think we should get out of here before the whole places implodes?”

  “That could happen?” Jesse struggled to his feet.

  “It’s actually happening right now. I have such a terrible temper sometimes,” Joshua seemed unconcerned with what he had done, whatever it may be.

  “You tore the veil you idiot!” Anna was no longer afraid and my question was answered.

  “Shit happens,” he told her. I got up as well as the ceiling burst into flames.

  “We should probably leave now,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” an older man stepped out of the smoke. Anna swallowed hard. Now she looked afraid.

  “How are you Joshua? It has been so long since you locked me in Hell by myself,” the man said.

  “Actually now is not a good time to talk, Job. Maybe another time.”

  “I don’t think so,” Job held out his hand and a snake began to form from the flames that had replaced the ceiling.

  “Take Jesse and Rachael out of here Anna,” Joshua ordered.

  “But Joshua…” she began.

  “Now!” he shouted.

  “Alright, let’s go,” she began to walk quickly and I followed her with Jesse. I glanced back over my shoulder as Joshua faced Job. I didn’t know who this Job person was but he didn’t look pleasant.

  “We need to get out of here and go to the safe house. No one will come to attack you there,” Anna told us as we turned around a corner. People still ran in a panic around us, trying to escape.

  “What safe house? I doubt Gabriel will take us in even if he was watching Rachael after what just happened,” Jesse obviously knew more about all of this then I did.

  “We aren’t going to Gabriel. There is another place that no one will try to get into,” she opened a door and continued walking.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s owned by the angel of death and he gets very angry when people trespass on his property,” she explained.

  “What makes you think he won’t get mad at us for trespassing on his property?” I was having a hard time keeping up with her.

  “Because you’re with us,” she told me.

  “Why would that make a difference?”

  “I’m sure he will tell you on his own time but it is not my place to explain,” she said.

  “Where is your big, bad hellhound now?” the demon leader was back again and he had brought backup.

  “Get her out of here Jesse,” Anna moved towards the demons.

  “We can’t just leave her!” I told him.

  “We have to go now, Rachael!” he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards another hallway.

  The ceiling in here was burning as well.

  “Jesse, she might die in there!” I insisted. He was stronger than I thought he was. He didn’t have any trouble getting me to go the way he wanted.

  “Then it was her choice and her sacrifice,” what was wrong with him? He was just going to let an innocent woman die?

  “I just found out that I have a mother who actually cares about
me. I can’t leave her there!”

  “It’s her decision to make. She is doing it for you. If you go back it will defeat the purpose,” he was right, but I still didn’t want to leave her there. We turned into the cafeteria. There was a door that led outside on one side of it and that was where Jesse was headed. We didn’t make it that far. The ceiling caved in above us.

  Instead of making a run for it, Jesse pushed me to the ground, just outside of the area that had collapsed.

  “That wasn’t an accident,” he realized. “Stay here and don’t move. They might try to crush you again. If anyone that isn’t me, Anna, or Joshua comes you need to run. Get as far away from here as you can.” He started to walk back into the school.

  “Where are you going?” I started to get up.

  “Stay!” he said again before he disappeared into the thickening smoke. I didn’t want to just stay there and do nothing when three different people were fighting to save me. It wasn’t something I was used to. Normally I was the one fighting to save someone else. A rumbling sound began in the school, swiftly moving towards me.

  I seriously doubted the decision to stay when the aftermath of an explosion came boiling towards me like a huge cloud of fire. I had no way of getting out of the way of that in time. First instinct? Cover my face. Because that would totally protect me from being incinerated.

  “Rachael!” I don’t know how he got there so fast but suddenly Jesse was in front of me. I didn’t have time to react as the blaze hit him. Instead of burning him, the flames beat against him in wave after wave as a pair of silvery wings extended from his back. He threw back his head, screaming in agony. I couldn’t even feel the heat as he completely blocked the fire.

  Three angels had been watching me. One: Joshua the angel of death. Two: my guardian angel. Three: an unknown. No one had been lying to me when they said that my guardian angel had been there the entire time. Jesse was my guardian angel and he had never left my side.

  The fire from the explosion slowly faded and Jesse dropped to his knees. The entire school was burning now and it wouldn’t be much longer before the entire building collapsed.

  “It’s you. You’re my guardian angel,” I stated.

  “I would have told you sooner but I didn’t want you to be afraid when you found out that we were all real,” he explained.

  “I wouldn’t have been afraid,” I told him.

  “I just wanted to protect you.”

  “Didn’t we all,” Joshua walked into the cafeteria. “Job is really mad now and the building is going to collapse so let’s just have a sentimental moment and take our time.”

  “Yeah, we should leave,” Jesse agreed.

  “Common sense. It might actually exist in young angels,” he was even more mocking in real life than he was in my head. I started to get up but Joshua grabbed my hand and effortlessly got me to my feet. Without letting go of my hand he continued across the cafeteria and out the door.

  It wasn’t like I couldn’t walk without holding someone’s hand and quite frankly, I didn’t want to hold his hand.

  “Dude, I can walk by myself,” I tried to pull my hand away as Jesse came out the door behind us.

  “I doubt it. You are completely lacking in any form of common sense,” he drug me towards Anna’s car and pushed me into the front seat.

  “What about Anna?” Jesse started to get in the car.

  “Her? She’s probably dead, and even if she wasn’t, it would be a waste of my time to go get her,” Joshua got into the driver’s seat.

  “We can’t just leave her!” Why was it so easy for the two of them to just leave people behind?

  “Actually, I just did,” Joshua started the car without a key, Anna had that, and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “No! We have to go back!”

  “Would you like to get out of the car and walk back into that exploding building to find an angel that you barely know that may or may not be alive while a very dangerous fallen angel is coming out of Hell where he was trapped from the rest of everything for hundreds of years and is now very very mad about it so he will kill anyone in his path?”

  I didn’t answer. What was I supposed to say to that?

  “Yeah, I didn’t think so. I don’t really want to go back there either since I’m the one who put him in there in the first place so we’re not really best friends anymore. I think the distance for so long without contact put a damper on our relationship. I’m not sure though. He did try to kill me but isn’t that what best friends do?”

  “You don’t have to be such a jerk,” I wasn’t appreciating all of his sarcasm. I didn’t remember him being like this the last time I talked to him. He was mean but he wasn’t this bad. Not even close. He found me calling him a jerk very amusing.

  “I learned a while ago that you will never win an argument with him,” Jesse said.

  “That doesn’t stop you from trying. I believe that would tie in with that lack of common sense thing. You trying to threaten me in class that day to show off to Rachael was so touching because it’s actually likely that you could do anything that could hurt me in any way,” this was going to be a long drive no matter how far away the safe house was.

  “Dude, you are a jerk,” Jesse leaned back in his seat.

  “Thank you,” Joshua told him.

  “And Raphael wonders why everyone avoids you,” Jesse muttered to himself.

  “Does he? It’s so nice that he is concerned about me,” he apparently didn’t run out of ammunition.

  “What changed in the past few weeks that made you even more of a jackass than usual?” I had a feeling that I wouldn’t like the answer to that question.

  “I got frustrated and annoyed and really angry,” he answered.

  “Why?”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” he was done answering questions.

  “Ok,” I moved as far away from him as I could get on the seat and looked out my window. We hadn’t gotten that far out of the area and I already had no idea where we were.

  “Anna didn’t tell you who you are, did she?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.

  “She said that I was her daughter and my dad was a demon of some kind,” I said.

  “Well isn’t she helpful. What did angel boy tell you?”

  “You’re an angel too, Joshua,” Jesse spoke from his place in the backseat of the car in a slight amount of irritation.

  “I’m an angel man. You’re still an angel boy,” Joshua informed him.

  “When did that happen? Did you earn your wings when the bell rang?”

  “How does it feel being a guardian angel who let his only human ever be captured by demons?”

  “How does it feel knowing that you with all of your endless power couldn’t break through a demon fortress because you can only go as far as Raphael lets your leash out?”

  “How does it feel knowing that I could give you to Job as a pacifier right now?”

  “How does it feel knowing Michael and his angels are going to put you back in your crate for tearing the veil for the second time?” Joshua slammed on the breaks and practically ran another car off of the road as he moved to the grass on the side of the highway.

  “Would you like to shut up now? Because if you don’t; I will leave you tied to a tree for Job, Raphael, Michael, or whatever angel feels like finding you,” If I were Jesse, I wouldn’t have said anything else. But I wasn’t and Jesse didn’t care.

  “You’re all bark and no bite,” Jesse stated. Joshua gritted his teeth and moved back onto the highway.

  “You see Rachael; you don’t need to be afraid of him. He would never kill anyone; human or angel, because it tortures him to take souls to the afterlife. It’s his punishment for all eternity and it’s his alone to bear,” Jesse explained. I looked over at Joshua who was staring straight ahead, a mixture of anger and torment on his face.

  “You listen to too many of the stories that the guardian angels pass around. You don’t know what I would do
,” Joshua was trying to gain his power back, but he couldn’t.

  “Look man, you’re not a monster. No one is going to believe that. Are you mean? Yeah. But are you a killer? No.” The car grew silent once more and I didn’t think anyone was going to break the silence now.

  34

  Job, the fallen angel, stepped over the rubble of the destroyed high school, avoiding the sizzling remains as a stream of demons poured out of the rift behind him. Michael, arch-angel and highest heavenly power, stood waiting, several angels at his side.

  “Did Raphael send you?” Job questioned.

  “Joshua has taken the soul,” Michael ignored the question. “Not only that but he has torn the veil, again.”

  “Obviously I already know this,” Job sounded irritated like he knew what Michael was going to ask of him was below his station. “I happen to have just easily entered this pitiful world by stepping through the rift. All of this not long after 5 of my demons were hurled in my face by that same angel of death that you seem to not be able to control.”

  “Controlling him is not my job,” Michael was not pleased with what Job had to say.

  “Really? Whose duty is it then? Raphael’s? He’s doing an excellent job,” Job was clearly enjoying tormenting Michael.

  “Joshua is taking the soul and her guardian angel, Jesse, to a safe house. Unfortunately any of your demons’ attempts to kill her have failed because her inexperienced guardian made a deal with Joshua. Jesse may protect her, but Joshua owns her,” Michael continued to explain. “We avoid letting him own important souls because…”

  “Because they cannot die without his permission. I’m aware of that,” he finished for him.

  “Here is the deal,” the arch-angel stood stiffly as if the thought of making a deal with a fallen angel disgusted him. “We need the soul back and you want Joshua’s head on a golden platter. If you get the soul for us, unharmed, you may do with Joshua as you please without any angel interference of any kind.”