The Rift

by Skn Hammerstone

  “I don’t dislike you Jesse,” Joshua wanted to make sure he had his word in as well. “You’re a good angel and you have done more for Rachael than any of us. I can’t deny you that. I’m sorry it has turned out like this.”

  “Raphael told me that it is going to be me,” Jesse admitted. “I made a vow to do whatever I had to for her, even if it meant I had to die. We were supposed to have a baby girl. She told me that she had loved me but Elizabeth tortured it out of her.”

  “I’m sorry Jesse. I’m sure she would have been beautiful,” Joshua was truly sympathetic. It must be easy to be sympathetic when you know you’re going to win.

  “Alexander showed me a painting of her. She looked like Rachael,” Jesse answered. “Well, she would have looked like Rachael. She doesn’t exist anymore.”

  74

  Job rode his hellhound forward towards the gathered angel army. Michael and Daniel had called a truce in order for the leaders of Heaven and Hell to meet. Michael, Joshua, Rachael, Jesse, Anna, Avery, Gabriel, Alexander and Raphael stood apart from the rest of the army, waiting for Job and his most trusted demons and angels.

  Job got off of his hellhound and handed the reins to a demon.

  “Come with me,” he ordered. He didn’t have to give names. They knew who they were. Daniel along with two fallen angels and three demons followed Job over to the gathering of angels.

  “How lovely. Come to finish your deal, Michael?” he asked.

  “There have been certain changes made,” Raphael answered for Michael.

  “Oh really? What would these changes be?” Job was already getting annoyed. He had a war to win and he didn’t have time for this.

  “You want an angel’s soul to feed Hell with all of the energy it needs, correct?” Raphael asked but he already knew.

  “Correct,” Job agreed.

  “You wanted Joshua because of the grudge you hold against him. There are, however, two angels that could become the fuel for Hell and we will give you one of them while we repair the veil with doors in between the three worlds in order to form a peace. You would rule Hell, free to come and go among the worlds.”

  “I would continue to rule Heaven, also free to wander among worlds. Rachael would rule Earth where they would also be able to travel through the doors in the veil,” Raphael explained the plan.

  “It sounds wonderful in theory, just like communism. But would it really work?” Job wanted to know.

  “There is a 66% chance probability that it will work very well,” Alexander stated.

  “What about that other 34%?” Job questioned.

  “That is another future,” Alexander answered.

  “How likely is it that that future will happen?”

  “The same as any other future.”

  “What are my angel options, Raphael?” Job asked.

  “Joshua is the obvious one and the one that everyone knows about,” Raphael began. “Your other choice is an angel of lesser importance but one that would ensure comfortable conditions in Hell for years to come.”

  “Who is it?” Job stressed each word. He didn’t care about the angel’s rank. He just wanted to know who it was.

  “The guardian angel Jesse,” Raphael glanced at Rachael.

  “What?” she demanded. “You can’t give away my guardian angel!”

  “It’s either him or Joshua, Lady Rachael,” Alexander intervened. “You cannot have both.”

  “I don’t think this is much of a choice for me,” Job stated.

  “It isn’t your choice, Job,” Raphael cut him off. “You don’t need the entire angel. All you need is the soul. For you to get the soul, the angel must be killed.”

  “I don’t mind killing angels that I don’t particularly like,” Job continued.

  “They must be killed by a current angel of death,” Raphael further explained.

  “So, Joshua. Are you prepared to commit suicide?” Job turned to Joshua.

  “Not Joshua,” he told him.

  “Who then? He doesn’t have a partner. She rejected him,” he insisted.

  “She changed her mind,” Elizabeth once again appeared out of nowhere. “With the return of her power, Rachael became the current angel of death. She has to kill whichever one of them it is.”

  “This was not part of the plan!” Rachael stated. “I’m not killing either one of them!”

  “Did you learn nothing from me?” Elizabeth demanded. “You will not let love dictate your life!”

  “Well, I am going to make this easy for you. You will kill Joshua for me and then me and my army will be on our way,” Job entered the conversation again.

  “It isn’t your choice, Job,” Raphael repeated. “Rachael must decide which one she will kill with the knife Elizabeth gave her.”

  “No. No,” Rachael backed up. “I won’t do this. I refuse. You cannot make me!”

  “If you do not choose and kill one of them, they will both die,” Raphael said. “You have to decide.”

  “Making the person who caused all of this suffer. Enjoy the show my good friends. It’s not every day you see an angel of death brought to their knees,” Job spoke to Daniel and the other fallen angels and demons.

  “Give him another angel!” Rachael insisted.

  “I’m not going to accept another angel. I want either Jesse or Joshua. If I don’t get one of the two of them, I will not agree to this and I will kill everyone and everything on this Earth.”

  “Remember what I taught you,” Elizabeth said again. “You don’t have a choice here. Kill Jesse and be with Joshua. It is what I have been planning for you for all of these years.”

  “You can’t kill Jesse!” Alexander interrupted. “I’m sorry, Joshua, but for her future to go the way it is supposed to she has to kill you. You saw the painting, Rachael! You know you have to kill him!” Everyone seemed to have their own opinion.

  “I can’t do this!” Rachael insisted. The hard, cruel personality that Elizabeth had given her was crumbling.

  “You don’t have a choice!” Raphael stated. “If you do not kill one of them, both of them along with the rest of this world will die. Your future has been decided for you. You need to make the decision. Which one will you kill?”

  “She cannot make the decision until she knows everything about these two that they have been hiding,” Elizabeth interrupted. “Jesse.” Jesse turned towards her. “Tell Rachael about what Raphael told you to do.”

  “No, you can’t make me…”

  “Tell her, Jesse,” Raphael ordered. Jesse turned towards Rachael, a pained look on his face.

  “Not in front of everyone,” Jesse begged.

  “But we all want to see you suffer,” Job denied him his privacy.

  “Move over there,” Raphael motioned to a spot several yards away. Jesse nodded and moved away; Rachael followed.

  “What is going on Jesse?” Rachael questioned once they were out of earshot. “Why are they making me do this? I can’t kill you! No matter what Elizabeth has taught me. I can’t do it!”

  “Alexander had a vision right before the battle,” Jesse started to explain. “I made a promise from the very beginning that I would do whatever I had to do for you to live and be happy. If you kill Joshua, you will have the future you saw.”

  “We will have a daughter and we will be together until the end of the world. Alexander is struggling to gain this future. He knows it is the one that will be best, but he had another vision last night. There is another future you could have.”

  “In the fourth future you are with Joshua. You have a son and he grows up to become Raphael’s most trusted servant. Job will attempt to kill Raphael and your son will save him. Raphael can’t die. Without that son, he will die.”

  “I will not be able to give you a son. Our daughter won’t save him. The future the angels want has changed. Raphael’s life is more important. My job is to make sure I am the one who dies.” Jesse looked down at the ground and blinked away the tears.

  “
I’m sorry. I have to do what Raphael says. You have to choose me.”

  “No,” Rachael shook her head. “No, no, no. I can’t do this.”

  “You will be happy. You won’t even remember me in a few years. Your son will be born within the year and you will be happy with Joshua. Happier than I could make you.”

  “You don’t know that!” Rachael told him.

  “I have to do what is right for you. This is what is right for you. You have to take that knife and put it through my heart,” Jesse stated.

  “No!” she repeated.

  “You’ll change your mind when you find out who you’ll really be killing if you kill Joshua,” Jesse started to walk back towards the group of angels and demons. Rachael hesitated before she went back over.

  “I would have loved to have witnessed that,” Job taunted.

  “Do you ever get sick of watching people suffer?” Alexander wanted to know.

  “No. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I will let you know when I do,” Job promised.

  “Your turn, Joshua,” Elizabeth told him.

  “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Joshua contradicted.

  “I think it would,” Job was clearly enjoying all of this.

  “Yes, Joshua,” Elizabeth stated. “I think it would.”

  “Show her who you really are, angel of death,” Job added to his own amusement.

  “What are they talking about?” Rachael asked. She had, had enough of information being kept from her.

  “I did it to help you. It was never intended to go as far as it did,” Joshua prefaced.

  “Just show her!” Elizabeth snapped. Joshua looked down at the ground.

  “I told her what I had to!” Jesse stated as Joshua hesitated. “You need to do the same for her!”

  “What you want me to show her is way worse than what they made you do,” Joshua insisted.

  “How? You aren’t going to die! You are going to be happy! You are going to have that child with her that I will never have! The least you can do is show her!” Jesse told him. Joshua swallowed hard.

  “You don’t want to see this,” he told Rachael.

  “Yes, I do,” she said. “Show me what this is.” Joshua turned his back on her and a transformation began to ripple through his body.

  “Do not hate me for this,” he stated. His hair grew longer and became wavy and a darker blonde. His height changed by several inches as well. The real change was taking place on his face where she couldn’t see because his back was to her.

  “Turn around,” Elizabeth ordered. Joshua slowly turned to face Rachael. She drew in a sharp breath.

  “You didn’t. You didn’t do this to me,” she shook her head.

  “I’m so sorry,” he repeated. He had taken the form of Josh, standing before her.

  “What am I supposed to do? You expect me to choose now?” she wanted to know.

  “You have to,” Raphael said once again.

  “I can’t make a choice,” she tried another tactic. “Because of Elizabeth’s training I do not have control of my emotions and the ones that I have are impaired. It would be impossible for me to decide.”

  “We don’t have any other options, Rachael. You must choose and you must kill one of them,” Raphael stated. Elizabeth took out the gold knife for Rachael and put it in her hand.

  “It is your choice to make,” she was acting like it was but Rachael knew she didn’t really have a choice. It was made for her. But she didn’t always have to do what was expected of her. That wouldn’t make her a ruler.

  She would be a follower instead.

  “You know that I… care about you,” she had to force the words out. Even with Elizabeth’s training being bent under this decision, it wasn’t gone. It was just weakened. But Jesse knew what it meant.

  “I know,” he was ready to die. If it would mean Rachael would be happy, he would do it. It was the whole reason he had been born; to replace Joshua as the one who had to die. “I understand.”

  Rachael closed her eyes, her hands pressed to her forehead. Joshua slowly moved out of the form of Josh and back into the one she was used to.

  “Make your choice,” Raphael ordered.

  “Someone could have told me a long time ago that this was going to happen,” Rachael didn’t look up.

  “You would have had too much time to think about it and you wouldn’t have been able to make a rational decision,” Raphael told her.

  “Because if you give me a few minutes the decision will be so much better?” she said sarcastically. “You cannot make me choose between the two men I love as to which one I will kill.”

  “We can, and we are,” Elizabeth was the one that spoke now. “You know who you have to kill. It isn’t a decision! It is fulfilling what you know and what we all know you have to do.”

  “I don’t agree with you, Elizabeth,” Alexander stated. “You are trying to get her to make the wrong choice just because it is what you want.”

  “Isn’t Jesse living what you want? Because that’s what you’re trying to convince her to do!” Elizabeth snarled.

  “I am the only prophet here! I know the consequences of each choice and I know what her future could be and what steps would put her there! Therefore I am the only one who has a reason that is worthwhile for the choice I want her to make!”

  “She would have a powerful son if she just goes with the angel she was supposed to be with! Joshua and Rachael will become exactly what this world needs!” Elizabeth argued.

  “Jesse and Rachael could do the same thing together!” Alexander wasn’t going to bend. “The only necessary piece for this world gaining the rule it needs is Lady Rachael.”

  “You know nothing! You’re just a human!” Elizabeth informed him.

  “At least I am not a bitter angel who has tortured Earth’s future queen into becoming heartless!”

  “It was not torture! It was training!” She insisted.

  “You are disgusting! How could you do that to a person?” Alexander wanted to know.

  “Enough! Let her decide on her own!” Gabriel stopped them. They stopped but Elizabeth continued to glare at Alexander who would most likely have done the same if he could see.

  “This is not an easy decision,” Rachael was trying to emotionally distance herself from the choice. “You are both very important to me. I cannot decide based on which one of you I love more, not only because my sense of love is so warped, but because I don’t believe there is one of you that I love more.”

  “I cannot decide based on anything that involves either of you. My choice is not being made based on either of you. When I went to see Alexander and when I looked through my futures, he told me about a little girl. She lives with a man who abuses her and mistreats her because he doesn’t understand her.”

  “He can’t understand her because she is a prophetess. In one of my futures she is happy. She comes to live with me and she lives the best life she could. It is one that she deserves. That is the only future in her existence where she lives like that. In all of her other futures she dies by the time she is seven years old.”

  “Murdered by her own father. Her future depends completely on me. The one future where she lives to become a great prophetess contains only one of you. The other one is gone and that is going to have to be the one I choose.”

  Rachael remained silent for a long time. Raphael showed emotion for the first time with the tightening of his jaw. This wasn’t the choice he wanted. Alexander and Elizabeth remained emotionless but they both knew who she had chosen.

  Rachael slowly looked up, her eyes meeting Joshua’s. He looked at the ground, taking in a shaky breath. Deep down he had known it would be him. Even if he had been Josh and even if she had claimed she loved him, he knew that it would be him.

  Jesse was shocked. He had truly believed he would be dying that day. Joshua slowly nodded, and walked towards Rachael. Job was triumphant. This was the soul he had wanted. Elizabeth was furious. After all
she had done she never thought Rachael would defy her. Alexander was neither triumphant nor upset.

  He hadn’t wanted to see either one die, but it was necessary for a truce with the demons and peace between the three worlds. Joshua dropped to his knees in front of Rachael and tilted his head up to look at her.

  “You have to do what you believe is right,” he stated. Rachael bit her lip to keep from crying, her eyes closed for a few seconds. The knife trembled in her hand as she slowly raised it. This was what that painting had meant. She was going to kill Josh and Joshua in the same blow and in the same instant.

  “I’m so sorry,” She told him.

  “I know,” he didn’t blame her. There was nothing she could have done to stop it. This was what had been meant by her being the repairer of the rift. She was the only one who could do it and this was the only way. It was his life for the lives of billions.

  Her hand was shaking so much now that any attempt to kill him would fail.

  “It’s ok, darling. You have to do this,” Joshua tried to comfort her. It was so wrong. He was trying to calm her down and help her when what she was trying to do was kill him. He took her other hand and kissed it, rubbing his thumb across her fingers. “It’s going to be alright. You’re going to be fine.”

  Rachael took a few deep breaths, squeezing his hand tightly. Keeping her eyes closed and his hand in hers, she raised the knife again and brought it down, straight into his heart. Her eyes opened as he gave a choked moan of pain.

  His grip on her hand loosened as he fell backwards. Rachael went with him, falling with one knee on the ground beside him and the other between his legs. His head hit the ground with another pained gasp. The knife was buried in his chest up to its hilt, his dark red blood flowing around the gold.

  “Joshua?” Rachael held herself up with one hand and gently touched his face with the other. Her lips trembled as a single tear fell from her eyes.

  “You’re going to be an amazing ruler,” Joshua could barely speak as his own blood dripped from the side of his mouth, choking him. Rachael dropped her head to his shoulder, her body shaking. Joshua put his hand on her back, pulling her against himself.