When Angels Fall

by Stephanie Jackson

  He waited the night out sitting at the kitchen table, doing nothing but keeping a watch over the house. It was mid-morning before Dani came back down the stairs. She had slept a full twelve hours.

  She rummaged through the cabinet until she found a box of cereal. Then she poured a glass of milk and sat down at the table. She ate the cereal straight from the box and chased it with the milk. She did all of this without muttering one word to Gabriel.

  Gabriel cleared his throat, “I think you’re supposed to put the milk in the cereal.”

  “Don’t tell me how to eat,” she snapped at him. “Just sit over there and mind your business.”

  “I’m sorry about last…”

  “I know you’re sorry. I heard you the first time you said it,” she said. “I don’t care anymore about your apology today than I did last night.”

  “I didn’t have another option.”

  “Yes you did,” she said. “You just chose not to take it.”

  “What would you have had me do?”

  “Run,” she said. “You could have run.”

  “Run,” he said, irritation tingeing his tone. “I love you, Dani, God knows I do, but I will not run, not one more step. Where I am is where I’ll be when Lucifer rises. The time for running is over.”

  “But…”

  “No, that’s the end of it,” he said firmly. “You’re not leaving here until this is done.”

  “Fine,” she said and went back to eating her cereal.

  “Dani, please try to understand,” Gabriel said. “I’m just trying to keep you safe. I never would have done anything to put you in danger.”

  “I know,” she said grudgingly and threw a piece of cereal at him.

  Gabriel caught the piece of cereal, popped it into his mouth and stood up, “Come outside when you’re done with your breakfast. I want to show you something,” he said and walked out of the house.

  5.

  Dani put the cereal back in the cabinet, rinsed out her glass and followed Gabriel outside. The sight before her was amazing. Gabriel was out in the yard with his hands and wings outstretched, and he was surrounded by hummingbirds.

  There had to be a hundred of them. They were clinging to his wings and circling his head. They were so colorful and were at perfect peace with Gabriel.

  “Come out here,” Gabriel called to her.

  She shook her head, “I’ll scare them away.”

  “No you won’t,” he said. “Come here.”

  She walked slowly out to him, fully expecting the hummingbirds to scatter, but they didn’t.

  He turned her so that her back was against his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist, “Hold out your hand.”

  She held her hand up and three hummingbirds landed on her fingers, “They’re beautiful.”

  “I thought you might like them.”

  Dani laughed, “You’re only doing this to get back on my good side.”

  Gabriel nibbled her ear and whispered, “Is it working?”

  “A little bit,” she said and turned in his arms to kiss him. “How did you do this?”

  Gabriel smiled, “I called to them.”

  “Can you do that with anything?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “After I make love to my wife, I’ll summon you a swarm of butterflies.”

  She smiled up at him, “You sound very confident.”

  “About making love to you or about the butterflies?”

  She laughed, “No, about the wife part.”

  “Wesley called you my wife,” he said. “I like the sound of it.”

  Dani giggled when Gabriel swept her up into his arms and carried her towards the house, “I didn’t say I forgave you.”

  “Come on,” he said. “You can’t find a better apology than a flock of hummingbi…”

  Gabriel stopped talking and jerked his eyes to the sky. The hummingbirds that were following them scattered, and Gabriel nearly threw her to the ground. She looked up and saw a ball of fire falling rapidly from the sky.

  She thought it was going to crash into the ground, but it stopped inches above the grass and hovered in front of Gabriel, “He comes,” the fire bellowed and vanished.

  “What was that?”

  “It was a Seraph,” Gabriel said. “But the voice was my Father’s.”

  “That was the Voice of God?”

  Gabriel nodded.

  “What did He mean he comes? Does he mean that…?”

  Gabriel nodded again, “Lucifer is rising.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  1.

  Four angels crashed to the ground but kept their distance from Gabriel and Dani. The angels were Antares, Formalhaut, Aldebaran, and Regulus.

  “Who are they?” Dani asked, clinging to Gabriel’s arm.

  “They’re Watcher Angels,” he said. “They watch all major events on Earth and record them in the Gospels of Heaven. They’re here to observe the battle between the two most powerful Archangels ever created.”

  “Gabriel…” Dani said, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “It’s alright, love,” he said. “I promise that you’re going to be just fine.”

  “I’m not worried about me.”

  “Have a little faith in me, love.” Gabriel said, laying his hand across Dani’s heart. “I will defeat Lucifer for you. You have my word.”

  2.

  Michael was at Gabriel’s side in less than a minute after the Seraph’s announcement.

  Gabriel looked at him, “Where is he? I expected him to rise here.”

  “They’re gathered about a mile from here,” Michael said. “I’m sure they’ll make their way to you soon enough.”

  “They?” Dani asked.

  “Yes, Lucifer and about ten thousand of his demon minions,” Michael said. “I guess he’s trying to make a showing.”

  “He’s supposed to face me alone,” Gabriel said.

  “I know,” Michael said. “But when has he ever played by the rules?”

  “How am I supposed to face down Lucifer and ten thousand of his demons and keep them all away from Dani?” Gabriel said with a worried look on his face. “It’s impossible.”

  “Michael can take me away from here, and then come back and help you kill the demons” Dani said. “That way you won’t have to worry about them getting me.”

  “No, he can’t,” Gabriel said.

  Dani stomped her foot, “Why not!?”

  “I told you that God demands that you be here while Gabriel fights Lucifer,” Michael said. “I know I’ve helped up until now, but now that Lucifer has risen, I can no longer interfere.”

  “But Lucifer is cheating,” she said. “Surely God won’t allow that.”

  “I don’t think we can expect God to assist me with this, Dani.”

  “It’s not fair!” Dani screamed to the Heavens. “You can’t allow this to happen! Do something, damn it!”

  “Dani!” Michael snapped and put his hand over her mouth. “Don’t do that!”

  Dani slapped his hand away, “Why not! Lucifer is breaking His rules.”

  “I know,” Michael said sternly. “But you don’t yell at God.”

  “Well somebody should,” she said with tears rolling down her face.

  Gabriel turned his head and looked across the yard, “He’s coming.”

  Dani turned her head in the direction that Gabriel was looking, but didn’t see anything. And then a hot wind hit her in the face. The overwhelming smell of decomposition made bile rise in her throat.

  And then the demons came in mass. They were preceded by a massive shimmering wave of heat. The grass burned in their wake. Instead of rushing, the demons made their way slowly toward them. Gabriel touched her arm and she felt her skin turn cold.

  “What…?”

  Gabriel didn’t take his eyes from the demons, but said, “It will protect you from being burned.”

  Dani looked at the burning grass, “The grass didn’t burn when the demons rose at Potter’s ho
use.”

  “Lucifer wasn’t with them then,” Gabriel said.

  The demons stopped about twenty yards from them and then separated in the middle of their mass. Then Dani saw him.

  Lucifer walked through the opening that his demons had made for him and stood to face Gabriel.

  “There’s no way you can win, Gabriel,” Lucifer said. “The girl is mine. Give her to me.”

  “No, she’s mine,” Gabriel said. “You’ll have to kill me to get her.”

  “Then so be it,” Lucifer said. “Get them!”

  At Lucifer’s command, the mass of demons rushed them. Gabriel had his sword ready, but the demons never made it to Gabriel. Before the demons could get to them, hundreds of Seraphim descended from the sky. The Fire Angels hovered above and blocked the demons way. The few demons that tried to run through the Seraphim immediately disintegrated.

  “YOU WILL NOT CHEAT, LUCIFER!” a voice boomed in the air.

  The voice was so loud that it made Dani’s eardrums vibrate.

  Michael informed her, “The only thing that can pass through a Seraph is an Archangel.”

  The demons backed away and sank back into the earth.

  “It looks like you’re on your own brother,” Gabriel called across the yard to Lucifer.

  The Seraphim formed a large circle in the middle of the yard and Gabriel stepped through the Seraphim.

  Michael nudged Dani, “You have to go with him.”

  She stepped through a space between two Seraphim. As soon as she was through the Seraphs spread out and formed a solid wall of fire. She looked at them for a moment longer and then stepped over to Gabriel.

  3.

  Gabriel stood in the circle of Seraphs and waited for Lucifer to step through on the other side.

  “I want you to stand as close to the Seraphim as you can, but do not touch them. It’s going to get hot in here, don’t try to run from the heat. You’re protected, you won’t get burned.”

  “Should I try to stay behind you?” she asked.

  He gave her a tight smile, “Don’t worry, love. He’s not getting over here to you. Just back up against the Seraphs and stay put.”

  Michael stepped through the wall of Seraphs and came to stand by Gabriel’s side.

  “You shouldn’t be in here, Michael,” Gabriel said.

  “I’m not helping,” Michael said. “Just bearing witness to a historical event.”

  Gabriel put his hand on Michael’s shoulder and nodded before turning back to Dani, “I love you, Dani. Never forget that.”

  “I love you, too,” Dani said, tears running down her cheeks again.

  Lucifer stepped through the wall of Seraphim, stood on the other side of the circle and stared at Gabriel.

  Gabriel kissed Dani one last time and turned to face Lucifer.

  Michael grabbed Gabriel’s arm when he attempted to make his way across the battlefield to Lucifer, “Gabriel…”

  “Let me go, Michael,” Gabriel said, cupping Michael’s hand with his own. “What’s done is done, and I have no regrets.”

  Michael nodded sadly, tears rolling down his own face, and dropped his hand.

  “Just remember to keep your promise to me.”

  Michael nodded again, “Always.”

  Gabriel smiled at Dani and turned to walk onto the battlefield.

  4.

  Dani watched as Gabriel walked to the center of the circle and used his sword to cut a line in the burned earth. Gabriel looked at Lucifer and declared in a thundering voice: “Thus far shall you come, but no farther: and here shall your proud waves break!”

  Job 38:11. Dani’s skin crawled at Gabriel’s words. They were God’s own words pertaining to Satan. The look of worry that flashed across Lucifer’s face at Gabriel’s words told her that he knew it, too.

  Michael stood next to her with his sword to his side, but she knew he wouldn’t make a move agaist Lucifer. It was forbidden. The sword was for her. She knew he intended to keep his promise to kill her if Gabriel should be the one to fall.

  Lucifer had his own sword in his hand and made his way across the battlefield to Gabriel, stopping a few feet away from him. Lucifer was talking, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.

  “He’s giving Gabriel another chance to hand you over to him,” Michael said. “Gabriel said he could have you over his dead body.”

  And with that Gabriel swung his sword and sliced Lucifer’s face. Things happened quickly after that. They kept phasing in and out of Dani’s sight, but what she could see was fierce. They were hitting, slashing and stabbing at each other.

  The heat coming from them was incredible. It felt as if she were standing inches from an open oven. There was a shimmering heat surrounding them and she could hear the air crackling. The air inside the circle smelled scorched. The grass caught fire wherever Gabriel and Lucifer stepped.

  She gasped when Lucifer stabbed Gabriel through the arm, but Gabriel paid it no attention. He continued to fight as if hadn’t happened.

  Michael explained, “They have to take the head or pierce the heart for it to be a kill shot.”

  Dani nodded but didn’t take her eyes from the battle. Lucifer was good, but Gabriel was better. No matter what Lucifer did, he couldn’t get across the line that Gabriel cut in the land.

  Watching Gabriel fight gave Dani hope that Lucifer would soon fall.

  5.

  Gabriel faced Lucifer with no fear in his head or heart. Lucifer may have stabbed him in the shoulder, but it had only been a lucky shot.

  He slashed at Lucifer and laid his left thigh open. He swung at Lucifer’s neck, but he ducked the blade just in time. It was starting to look like his Father was going to spare Gabriel’s life after all.

  He kicked Lucifer to the ground and was about to stab him through the heart when he saw a flash of bright red hair from the corner of his eye. He turned his head just in time to see Raphael standing behind Dani with his sword raised to strike her down.

  Gabriel screamed, “Raphael!”

  Michael turned and in one swift motion, drove his sword through Raphael’s chest.

  The whole scene unfolded in two seconds, but it was just enough of a distraction for Lucifer to jump to his feet and drive his sword through Gabriel’s side and pierce his heart.

  “NO!” he heard Dani scream as he fell on his back to the ground.

  Lucifer laughed and leaned over Gabriel’s dying body, “I told you she was mine.”

  Gabriel rolled his head to look at Dani. She had fallen to her knees and was sobbing. Gabriel smiled at her and winked.

  “And I told…you…that…she is…mine,” Gabriel said through the pain.

  He swung his sword one last time and took Lucifer’s head. The King of Hell had fallen and was no more.

  6.

  As soon as Lucifer’s head left his body, the wall of Seraphs disappeared. The battle was over.

  Dani ran across the burnt grass and dropped to her knees next to Gabriel and cried, “No, Gabriel! Don’t die! Please don’t die!”

  “It’s… alright, love. You’ll… be okay… now.”

  “No I won’t,” she cried hysterically. “I don’t want to live without you.”

  “But…you will…live.”

  Gabriel’s body was starting to turn to mist before her eyes.

  Blood ran from the corner of his mouth as he smiled at her, “I told…you I…would…smile…as I died…for you. I love…you…my wife. Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”

  With those last words, Gabriel’s body turned to mist and then he was gone.

  “No!” Dani screamed one last time before she fell into darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  1.

  Dani woke in her own bed with early morning sunlight streaming through the window. Someone had brought her home. She looked around her bedroom, but there was nobody in the room with her. She guessed the angels decided that with Lucifer dead, it was safe for her to be by herself again.

  W
hen she walked down the stairs she found Michael sitting, fully dressed, on the couch reading a book.

  He looked up at her, “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Not well at all,” she said. “What are you still doing on Earth?”

  “You’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on,” he said. “I promised Gabriel that I would watch over you.”

  She busted into tears at the mention of Gabriel’s name.

  “I’m so sorry, Dani,” Michael said, walking over and wrapping his arms around her. “I attempted to take your grief away, but I can see that it didn’t do too much good.”

  He led her over to the couch and sat down next to her, “Your friend has been here four times in the last three days checking on you. I told her you were down with the flu. The last time she wouldn’t leave until she saw you for herself.”

  “I’ve been asleep for three days?” she sniffled.

  “Yes, I didn’t wake you because I thought it best to let you sleep off your shock.”

  “Donna didn’t demand to know who you are?”

  “She did, actually” Michael said. “She’s under the impression that I’m a home health care nurse. I told her you refused to stay in the hospital to recover.”

  “Did she ask about Gabr…him?”

  “She did ask, but I told her I didn’t know who that was,” he said. “I thought I’d leave what to tell her about Gabriel up to you.”

  Dani nodded, “He said something before he…before he went away: Tá mo chroí istigh ionat. He said it to me once before, too. He told me if I wanted to know what it meant that I should ask you.”

  “It’s Old Gaelic,” Michael said. “It means ‘My heart is within you.’ He was telling you that you’re carrying his child.”

  “I’m pregnant?” Dani asked in awe.

  Yes, you most definitely are.”

  “How?” Dani asked. “When?”

  “You’re a grown woman, Dani. I think you know how,” Michael said with a small smile. “As to the when? It happened the first night Gabriel made love to you.”