The Rift

by Skn Hammerstone

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t reap them. They will all be stuck inside their cages until the veil is repaired. It could take years before the voices stop. Until then they will just keep getting louder and more urgent. Think of it like a small child. One that never runs out of energy. They will not stop crying until they get what they want.”

  “What did my soul do when I died?”

  “Your soul has gone through death twice. It is one of the most miserable, torn, and broken souls I have ever some across. Murder victims’ souls are always like that. Ripped apart and destroyed. Sometimes it takes me hours to realize that the soul of a murder victim is truly dead because they don’t say a word and they don’t make a sound. They are too afraid of the soul of their murderer.”

  “By the time I realized you were supposed to die the first time, your body was already healed. The second time I knew immediately because I owned your soul. When I own a soul, they must ask my permission to die. Your soul asked, I refused, and it was forced to remain on Earth.”

  “Why did you refuse?” I asked.

  “Because of the same reason that I bought you and the same reason that you are here with me, safe from harm. The same reason that I will not tell you until I have no choice.”

  38

  “It is foggy and 54 degrees here in London,” a voice announced in a British accent on the speaker in the airport. “Drive carefully. Luggage pickup is in the 3b terminal. Make sure that the luggage you pick up is your own.” We moved through the airport to where a number of little black cabs sat, passengers of the airline flocking to them.

  Joshua opened the door to a cab and motioned for me to get in. Jesse got in on the other side and I ended up in between Jesse and Joshua. Joshua must have given the driver the address while he was outside of the cab as the driver knew exactly where to go. The weather report in the terminal had been completely wrong. Rain poured down, obscuring any view through the cab windows.

  It was only a few minutes before the cab pulled in front of a high-rise luxury hotel. The lobby was massive with marble floors and intricate crystal designs on the lights. The man at the desk looked up at Joshua in surprise and recognition.

  “My lord,” he gave a slight bow. “I would have thought that with the current situation Michael would have you on the front lines.”

  “I have other duties to perform in this war,” Joshua answered.

  “Of course. I did not mean to imply anything. I assume that you would like your regular rooms?” Joshua nodded and the man handed him a set of gold keys.

  “I do not wish to be disturbed. Do not tell anyone that I am here no matter who it may be.”

  “I understand completely. Would you like me to keep calls in the lobby as well?” The man knew this routine well as if Joshua frequented London often. I had never thought of him as being anywhere other than the City of Chaos. I assumed the safe house would be there as well but I was starting to doubt that.

  “That would be appreciated,” Joshua agreed.

  “Have a lovely stay, my lord.” Jesse had wandered a few yards away to look around. Even as an angel he hadn’t known any place outside of that little town in New York. This was an entirely new experience for both him and me. I wondered what his mother thought of his sudden disappearance. She knew he was an angel but I don’t think any mother is prepared for their child to suddenly disappear.

  Joshua guided me towards an elevator with a hand on my back, ignoring Jesse. It took him a few seconds but Jesse did notice, hurrying to catch up. For some reason Jesse and Joshua didn’t seem to get along at all and I couldn’t quite figure it out. They had been hostile towards each other every time I had seen them together.

  Was it just a typical rivalry between the types of angels? Jesse had explained to me before we had fallen asleep on the plane that there were many different types of angels. Guardians, Warriors, Seraphim, Cherubim, Messengers, and Fallen. Most of these angels were at about the same power level. Occasionally, such as with Gabriel, the messengers were higher up or, with Job, the Fallen were fairly high on the food chain.

  Then there were the higher powers. Arch angels and the angels of death. Arch angels were incredibly famous, even to humans. Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel were all arch angels. There had apparently been several angels of death in history. Each one had a slightly less powerful apprentice or partner who served beside them. The first had been Azrael with his partner Elizabeth. He had been the angel of death until the first time the veil was torn and he was murdered. Elizabeth had only been the angel of death for a few years, until Joshua was ready to take over the job.

  Elizabeth had disappeared then, heartbroken because of the death of her partner. Jesse had explained that it was a well-known fact that the angel of death always fell in love with the partner he chose. It made me wonder who Joshua’s partner was. Not only did it make me wonder who she was, it made me strangely jealous. I didn’t know why. Joshua wasn’t exactly the nicest person in the world or the most honest and I didn’t even know him that well. I supposed that I would meet her when we got to the safe house. She was probably some perfectly beautiful creature, living with him and giving birth to their perfect angel children.

  That made me even more jealous which in turn made me angry at myself. I had never before been jealous of anyone or anything. I hadn’t asked Jesse who it was because then he would have wanted to know why. Instead I let him move on to the next type of angel. The avenging angels.

  These were the most deadly and unpredictable. They could start as any kind of angel and something would trigger a feeling of extreme righteous anger in them. They would transform, slowly becoming a bitter and hateful creature that spent as much time by themselves as possible. They could only return to normal when they got their revenge for the sin that had been committed against them.

  They were a rare type of angel and the last angel to go avenger had turned back into an ordinary guardian over 500 years ago. There were some angels who were afraid that Joshua was an avenging angel but they could find no reason for him to be. Very little was actually known about Joshua. Only Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Job, who had been an arch-angel before he fell, knew how he became the angel of death.

  He kept to himself all of the time, performing his duties as the angel of death without question. The elevator in the hotel took us up to the top floor of the building. There was only one door in the hallway and Joshua unlocked it with one of the keys.

  It was a huge, several level, pent-house with huge windows and numerous rooms. As soon as we were all inside, Joshua shut and locked the door. A staircase led to a balcony above the living room and kitchen. Along the balcony where several doors leading to other rooms. There was a door under the stairs as well.

  “The windows are all one way glass,” Joshua stated. “You can see out but no one can see in. Do not go outside of this room. You have free access to anywhere in this area. We will be staying here tonight. There is only one bedroom. I don’t normally have guests. Rachael will sleep there. Jesse, you may have the couch.”

  “Rachael will sleep in your bedroom?” the angry tone that I never heard from Jesse until Joshua had come around was back in his voice. “With you?”

  “I don’t see how that is any of your concern. You gave up that right when you sold her to me,” Joshua answered with a tone just as angry as Jesse’s.

  “Just because you technically own her doesn’t mean I’m not still her guardian angel. It’s my job to protect her, even from you. Especially from you. It was what I was born to do,” he justified his reasoning.

  “You are doing such a good job. I believe all guardian angels let their humans die on multiple occasions,” Joshua informed him.

  “You didn’t save her either! I did my best! You have hundreds of years of training and practice. I’m only 17! No one trained me! I had to do the best I could with what my human mother could tell me,” I had never seen Jesse this angry. Joshua had hit a nerve and both of them
knew it.

  “I brought her back because of your sloppy work!”

  “I don’t care what you did! It is your fault in the first place that she is even being attacked!” This was getting ugly very fast and I didn’t think there was anything I could do to stop it.

  “You don’t seem to understand your position here! You are nothing compared to me! You’re a low class, pitiful little guardian meant for a far less important person. I am the angel of death. I control everything that goes in and out of the afterlife. I control who dies and who gets to live a few more years. I control when you die and I control when you are struck down. I could immobilize you right now and no one would be able to save you.”

  “Stop!” I told both of them. I had to do something now or Jesse would end up as good as dead. “It doesn’t matter! I’m fine now!” Playing referee to two angels was not something I ever expected to do.

  “I don’t think that he is strong enough to handle that,” Joshua decided.

  “I think your pride gets in the way of everything you ever do!”

  “Really? You are supposed to be working towards the same purpose and you are fighting with each other when Job is covering the world with his demons and who knows what else. The entire world is collapsing. Can’t you two just get along until it is back to normal?” I questioned.

  “I will do my best but if he lets anything else happen to you, then I will not hesitate to tear his soul from his body and throw him into the deepest part of Hell.”

  “If anything happens to Rachael, it will be your fault and I will hunt you down and use everything in my power to make you suffer.” They glared at each other for several seconds before Joshua spoke.

  “Rachael will not be sleeping in the same room as me as I do not intend to sleep tonight.”

  “Good for you,” Jesse told him.

  “Are you both satisfied now?”

  “I am,” Jesse decided.

  “Good for you,” Joshua repeated him, in the exact same tone, with a sneer.

  “It is good for me,” Jesse agreed, mockingly.

  “Well isn’t that just…”

  “Stop! I don’t want to deal with this right now! I just found out that my mother tried to kill me because she isn’t my real mother. Why? Because angels and demons are all over me for a reason that I don’t know. My real mother is probably dead only hours after I met her and oh yeah, the Earth is now dying. For maybe ten minutes can we not talk about things that remind me of it?” Both of them remained silent as I walked away. I couldn’t take either of them right now.

  I heard the door beneath the stairs slam shut a few seconds later.

  39

  Ever since I was a kid I had gotten into the habit of sitting upside down. It’s not exactly a normal thing but it helps me think and relax and that was what I wanted to do. I had some pretty bad times in my life and they all seemed to be connected in some way to the fact that I was half demon and half angel. How had I never been aware of this before?

  Shouldn’t it have been obvious? I was being pursued without mercy by demons and now a fallen angel and my protectors were a dead angel, an angel I still didn’t know, the angry, secluded angel of death, and an inexperienced guardian angel who had never actually been taught how to be a guardian.

  The mother that I had thought was mine had tried to kill me and now I was sitting in London after attempting to keep the angels that were supposed to protect me from fighting with each other while the most powerful forces in the afterlife fought over my soul. Why couldn’t I have just been a normal kid?

  Jesse sat down beside me on the couch. I tried to ignore him but I had a feeling that he had something to say.

  “I’m sorry Rachael.”

  Great, now I had to talk to him. “It’s fine. We’re all a little on edge right now,” That was the understatement of the century.

  “Not just about that. About everything. I failed you as your guardian angel. I’m practically useless. Joshua is right. I’m no match for anything that might try to hurt you. I might as well just be an angel shield. It’s about the only thing I’m good for.”

  “That’s not true. You have fought off more than one demon to save me. You protected me from a wall of fire by using your own body as a shield, although I can see how that would play into being an angel shield. You’ve come with me halfway across the world and you are willing to go anywhere just to make sure that nothing happens to me. You had the guts to challenge the angel of death because you thought he might hurt me.”

  “Even more than that, you have been my best and my only friend for years. You never thought about yourself. It was always about me. You’re the best thing in my life Jesse.” It was true. Nothing else even came close to how much he meant to me. Part of just speaking my mind right now was also helping me to collect my thoughts.

  “I still think he might hurt you. I don’t trust him. Even for an angel of death, something is seriously wrong with him.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like serious anger issues, unpredictability, inability to interact with humans, violence. He’s almost not angelic.” This was slightly amusing to me. I knew that angelic was meant as like saying someone was humanistic but it was still funny.

  “In what way?”

  “In the avenging angel way.”

  “I thought you said that was a rumor,” I said.

  “Ok, I’ve never seen an avenging angel but Anna has. She believes that he is one and that makes him more dangerous to you than Job or any demon.”

  “Why does that make him so dangerous?”

  “He’s like a nuclear power plant. Extremely powerful and very insecure. If something sets him off in anyway, just a slight imbalance, he will melt down and destroy anything in his way.”

  “I am not an avenging angel and I am not a nuclear power plant,” Neither of us had realized that Joshua had come out of the room. “I’m just not your average angel.” He turned and moved up the stairs, entering a room through an open doorway and shutting the door behind himself.

  “I wouldn’t believe that. Anna said none of them want to admit what they are.”

  “Was Anna your teacher?” I asked.

  “On all things angelic and demonic,” he answered.

  “So why don’t you and Joshua get along?” I had wanted an answer to this for a long time. He shrugged, not answering.

  “Don’t shrug at me. What’s wrong?”

  “What makes you think something is wrong?” he attempted to evade the question. He was good, but I was better.

  “I don’t know,” I played along. “I mean you normally get angry at everything someone says and you normally get into fights with people.”

  “You’re my best friend,” Oh he was pulling that card. “I’m not just going to let him waltz into your life and drag you to his safe house and do whatever he feels like. I’m going to make sure you’re safe.”

  “That was not what you were mad about. You never get mad,” I was done playing along. “You were mad because you thought he’d be sleeping in the same room as me.”

  “Yeah and it didn’t bother you at all?”

  “Obviously not as much as it bothered you,” I told him.

  “And then he just sweeps in to save you from all of the horrible creatures when I’m just a stupid guardian angel who can barely do anything. He could do anything and give you anything you wanted and I’ve already given you everything I have but it isn’t good enough. I’m not good enough,” this was yet another side of him that had never come out before.

  “Look Jesse, if it bugs you that much…” I started.

  “You barely know him and you’re just fine with all of this? He threatens to kill people all of the time. He treats you like you’re below him when you should be treated like a princess. I just can’t believe that you trust him!” Jesse began to raise his voice. I wasn’t going to take this. I stood, but I wasn’t done talking.

  “What are you saying?” I asked. Not the best thing to say,
but I was too angry at him to think of anything else. He stood up as well.

  “Next thing you know, you’ll dump me somewhere, forgotten and alone. You won’t remember any of the promises we made to each other. A few years from now I’ll hear about how Joshua is welcoming his new child, mothered by you!” What was he talking about? Did he know something I didn’t?

  “Why do you care? Since when have you cared about who I’m with and who I trust?”

  “Since the day I first met you. Since the day I gave you my heart. Since the day I realized I am in love with you!” I never saw that coming. When had all of this happened? How could I not have seen this?

  “You know what,” Jesse said. “Just forget it. Go have fun with Joshua. I hope you enjoy yourself.” Jesse walked away and I stayed this time. I honestly didn’t know what to do now.

  40

  I was almost asleep that night when I heard someone come into my room. I opened my eyes slightly and saw Joshua standing with his back to me, taking an envelope out of a drawer in a filing cabinet. He turned around and I quickly closed my eyes. I was pretty sure he thought I was asleep. I heard him come over to the bed and a slight amount of fear fell over me.

  Maybe it was brought on by all of Jesse’s warnings. However, all he did was pull the blanket that had slipped down back over my shoulders. Was he really as dangerous as everyone said he was? He seemed misunderstood. He brushed a few strands of hair out of my face and kissed my forehead before leaving the room.

  It was then that I began to lose my fear. I also became more jealous of whoever his partner happened to be.

  41

  I woke up the next morning completely disoriented. It took me several minutes to remember what I was doing in this random bed in a hotel in London. However, when I remembered, the emotions and confusion all came rushing back making me want to crawl back into the bed and sleep longer. Why couldn’t I just be a normal person?

  I had to keep going though. I got up and slowly made my way out of the room. From the balcony I could see that both Joshua and Jesse were up. They were also ignoring each other, save for an occasional glare when the other one wasn’t looking. At least they weren’t fighting any more although, the way they had been acting, it probably wouldn’t be long until they were.