Michael

by Aaron Patterson

  Uriel looked into her father’s eyes with surprise, having no idea what he was talking about. “Dad?”

  “Hush, daughter. And be still.”

  Cape Town, South Africa, present day

  Frank Wiseman watched the sun beginning to burst upon the predawn sky over False Bay from the verandah of his posh villa in Simon’s Town. He just hated it, he just hated all of it. His harpy of a wife was scratching and clucking like a yard-bound hen again, nagging him into getting a bit of exercise when it was the last thing he wanted.

  “But you’ll live longer!” she always said. He hated that too. She only wanted him to live longer so she would have someone to nag. If she didn’t have that she wouldn’t have a single reason to live, he ventured.

  Nevertheless he was up at sunrise. Why? Because he was hopelessly stranded in the rut of his life. The truth was, if he didn’t have her around to attempt to make him miserable, he wouldn’t have anything either. He had come to enjoy the fight, the constant scrap, after all these years. Sick, but it was endearing.

  But he never let that show. It would ruin the game for both of them. They had an unspoken understanding that any kind of truce would be impossible. It would fundamentally change the relationship and then where would they be? Square one, he thought.

  That made him suffer an incredible split second of anxiety and exhaustion.

  “Well, Frank, let’s get a move on,” she said, her voice strident and grating.

  “After you, princess.” He used her pet name like an insult.

  They walked down the steps together to the beach. She was talking again, and he tuned her out. There was some mention of, “…you’ve got to get some exercise…” and a little more of, “…at your age, you know…” He rolled his eyes and kept up with her.

  The sun was going to peek over the mountains across the bay at any moment. It would be blinding and she would say how magnificent it was and “Oh, Frank, isn’t it just lovely to be up and out before the dawn so we can behold all this,” but it would be blinding anyway and all it would mean was just the start of another wretched day, with heat, sun, misery, and dear wife Kimberley, in increasing order of irritation.

  He kicked at a stone embedded in the sand, but his foot caught on it and he took a tumble, soaking his nice new short pants in the wet sand. “Ow! Dash it all!”

  “Frank! Oh, dear! Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Just help me up, will you?”

  She reached to help him. “Are you sure? No broken bones?”

  “No, Kimberley, no broken anything. Lucky for you.” He tried his best to dust the sand from his bottom, but the wet was still there and it made him uncomfortable, if only just. Yes, it was rather like Kimberley.

  He looked down at the offending rock, more than a little bemused at the effect it had taken on his morning exercise.

  But it was not a rock.

  It was something bright pink.

  “Well, now, what is that, do you suppose?” He wasn’t asking and she didn’t answer. “Princess, will you help me with this?” He kneeled in the sand to dig around the edges of the object.

  The more his hands scraped away the wet sand, the more intrigued he became. He did not know where the impulse was coming from, but it seemed…it seemed…it seemed like an adventure.

  Frank dug while Kimberley stood with her arms crossed, ticking her tongue in disgust.

  Finally, the earth gave up its buried treasure. It had been embedded in the sand by the tides. “Some child’s bookbag,” Frank exclaimed, beginning to fumble for the zipper.

  “Well, don’t open it!” she scolded, but he did anyway. “Really. I just don’t see how it’s any of your business, Frank, I really—”

  “Kimberley,” Frank said, a different tone in his voice now, “shut up.”

  She did, though only from shock. Those were not words that were allowed; that was out of bounds.

  The zipper fell back to reveal a bright red jewel. As the sun threw open the day, the first rays fell upon the stone and lit it with an unreal light. It reflected off Frank’s face, making him appear malevolent, causing Kimberley to shrink back in momentary fear.

  But hold, Frank thought, quite unlike himself, what’s this? The stone was the most beautiful thing he had ever beheld. Still, he wondered what else might be in the knapsack. Perhaps more treasures?

  He opened the bag and looked inside it. “It’s a book,” he said absentmindedly. “A right nice looking one, too.” He reached in to pull it out, and as he did so, his fingers brushed against its hidebound cover. Like a shot in the dark, one word rang out in his head:

  AIREL.

  FAN FICTION by Kyle Pinkston, writing as Redstone:

  (American Fork Junior High, American Fork, Utah)

  Sawtooth mountains of Idaho, present day

  ROARS AND CLASHES RANG out on the mountain as the battle of angel and demon raged on. Above the fight was Kim. Long red hair flowed around her as she floated upon the air with her beautiful Bloodstone in her hand. She stared at it, the demon inside no longer commanding her. The demon had died, now she was the master. All the black luscious power of the stone glowing in her hand was now hers. She contorted her body into a crooked position in the air and laughed, letting her hair flow out of her face as she subsided to a chuckle. The redness of her hair grew a deeper blood color when she committed herself to the stone—it had wanted her to look her best and she liked it—that way when she killed it wouldn’t stain. After all… blood does take hours to get out of the hair.

  She raced to the ground, parting a large boar-like demon from an angel with powerful arms and long black hair. She smiled at the wounded deity and plunged her sword into his heart. He screamed as she wriggled the blade until the hole in his chest became large enough to pull the blade out with ease. She then took her black sword and swung it wildly around her head, feeling the power surge given to her from killing the angel.

  Letting the sword release from her grasp, it flew, slicing another angel across the ribs, embedding itself into a demon with four horns coming out of its face. The black robed beast collapsed onto the ground and shriveled into black dust. Oops, thought Kim as she sprinted to the sword and cut upward, gashing the maimed angel up the right side of his face. She then took to the air again as a demon Brother and his host fell upon the being.

  Kim laughed again.

  Now rising up to the height of the trees, she let the Bloodstone’s power flow to the demons below. Having them drink it in sent the battle to a new level of frenzy. The demons grew stronger as their human counterparts became crazed with the new invigoration.

  They were winning now.

  Staying aloft in the trees, Kim convulsed in mid-air, the Bloodstone gripping at her own life force to feed her army of hungry monsters. The strain made the red scars seep and reform on her body, forming her with a display of dark red tattoos, each resembling a time when she had suffered the pain of mortality. But now she was immortal.

  Grasping at the stone in agony, she crashed into a nearby tree, sending her to the ground. She stood up and grabbed at the face of a nearby angel, wrenching his neck, snapping it.

  I swung my sword with all my might, slicing off the three left arms of a six-armed demon that was grappling with Michael. Shrieking, the beast twisted to the side, a single right arm fighting me off as he continued to choke Michael. Skillfully, I leaped into the air, coming down with a blow that decapitated the demon as it erupted into black smoke.

  “Thanks for that one,” Michael replied gratefully as I helped him up.

  We quickly traded places. I swung my sword and relieved another demon of his head. A yell from behind me caught my attention. I whipped around to see Michael stabbing a large bald man in the side. Head-butting him, Michael sent him tumbling down the hill, hitting two men with bows that were aiming at an angel overhead.

  Twenty feet away, Kreios landed with an Earth-shattering boom, arcing his sword largely, slaying three demons and a man in one blo
w. A demon came up and grabbed at him. Kreios smashed in his face and turned sharply.

  “Ariel, Kim is on top of the hill. Get to her before she uses the Bloodstone to summon more demons.” Kreios leaped into the air and collided with a large bat-like demon mid-flight, sending out a shower of black dust as he tore through its mid section.

  I turned to Michael. He nodded and we started sprinting up the hill. Michael jumped and rolled over the shoulder of a large burly boar demon, plunging the blade of his sword into its lower back. Then, settling on a direct path, we started for the top of the hill.

  Kreios landed hard on a skinny man with short red hair. Feeling the crack of his ribs, Kreios then worried about the next threat. The two demons fighting nearby angels stopped and turned toward him. Come to me, you beasts. They rushed him. Kreios sidestepped and held his sword out. The first demon ran right through the blade, and as he dissolved the mist blocked the view of the other, but Kreios stabbed his face skillfully nevertheless.

  “Ho, Kreios!” shouted a nearby angel. When Kreios turned, he saw two angel warriors and noticed one of them was wounded, a large gash on his leg up to his mid torso.

  “Get him up to the Shadowers!” Kreios yelled to them. They immediately shot into the air, vanishing.

  Kreios had once before used this battle tactic, when he had contended with the Seer for Ke’elei. He trusted this technique from past experience. The wounded would be lifted and new troops would replenish them on the ground. The enemy could not see them, for the shadowers blocked their view.

  My warrior brethren, we must exchange ranks. The enemy is receiving energy from the Bloodstone. We need to refresh in order to hold the fight until Ariel is able to destroy the new Seer. Kreios then added to himself, sending his plea to El, I pray she has the strength to defeat her.

  Kreios was brought immediately back to the battle, parrying a swing from a black sword. He lifted his hilt to the height of his eyes, his blade turned downward so as to block the next horizontal blow. Then he pushed forward and cut upward to slash the man’s face. The body then convulsed, black ooze seeping from the man’s mouth. Kreios stepped back as the man’s demon Brother half clawed its way out of the body.

  A mammoth black creature stood before him. Coming to twice his height, it roared ferociously as it spread four huge wings and two enormous arms. This is more like it! He cheered to himself as he and the colossal demon took to the sky.

  Michael raced up the hill with Ariel. They slashed and jabbed at random as demons started to block their path. Having trouble keeping up with her, Michael started to hurdle the bodies that they had to maneuver around. After cutting down a large black snake from his view, he saw Ariel stopped in awe.

  Standing at the peak of the hill before it leveled out stood two enormous beasts. Each was ten feet tall with huge rippling muscles. Their upper bodies were humanoid, but their lower bodies were equine. They were huge demonic centaurs, and they each wielded two long black swords.

  “I’ll take the big one,” Michael joked half-heartedly.

  “Not funny,” Ariel replied. “I need to get to the top. No way will these guys let us past.”

  “I’ll distract them while you get to Kim. You know as well as I do that the Bloodstone will call to me once I get close. But get to the top once you see an opening.”

  No other demons were coming anywhere close to the centaur guardians. That’s a good sign, Michael thought as he ran at them.

  The first demon was the only one to move. He raised his sword and met Michael’s blade with a fierce clang and a shower of sparks. Falling to the ground, Michael barely rolled to the side in time to dodge the demon thundering his hooves where he’d been just seconds ago. Full speed, he ran and jumped on its back, stabbing its leg. Then he started to try to choke the centaur.

  “Go!” he shouted, and Ariel started to run for the gap between the guardians. Then the second demon raised his sword. Michael, in a rush, let go off the crippled demon’s throat and seized his sword. He flung it at the other sentinel and watched it sink into his chest.

  Ariel had made it past, on to the top of the hill.

  A hot shock went through him and he clutched at his chest. The ripping pain was coming from the demon he had impaled. Being half of one he was still connected to them. His father, the previous Seer, had cursed him when he had betrayed him for Ariel. But this pain was new. It felt more real, as if he could hold the sword and remove it from his chest. The other times had been more surreal, mostly in his mind.

  This was real.

  The colossal being pulled the sword out of his chest and slumped to the ground.

  Sighing heavily in relief, Michael looked back at the other one, assuming it had died during the exchange between the other. It had not. It got to its feet and hobbled on its three good legs toward the other one. Crashing together, the beasts merged. A horrible roar came from the heaping black dust as a dark flame burst out of the cloud. Michael ran for his sword and held his position, worried about what was going to come out of the gaseous formation in front of him.

  Finally I had reached the top. I had wished that this moment would never come. But it had, and now I had to deal with it.

  Kim was floating at the top of the hill. Her red cadaverous eyes turned to me; a huge smile growing on her face, showing that all of her teeth were still sparkly white. “Ariel, sweetie,” she chided as I cautiously came nearer, “Why do you look so sad? You were never sad. Only happy, like me!” she laughed, with two voices emanating from her. She came down to meet the ground, swishing her sword on the ground, flinging dirt with every jerky motion.

  “Kim, what happened to you?” I pleaded with her. “You don’t need to do this. Put the stone down and end this now.”

  “NO! This is my stone, MINE! And you, Ariel, can come and kill me for it. After all… you gave it to me.” I then remembered the time at the cliff, when Michael had killed James, and Kreios had destroyed Tengu. The stone had been discarded there after Kreios had healed Michael with it.

  I was dead when this happened, and was brought back in order to kill my friend. This was wrong.

  Then Kim rammed into me.

  Thrown by the sudden shock, I grasped at the air and straightened myself. Causing the air to ripple into wings around me I shot back at Kim. I pulled up at the last second and swung at her with my sword. A shower of sparks sprayed off the blades as Kim blocked. I punched with my other arm and sent her to the ground. I raced after her. She wheeled around on the ground and kicked with so much force it knocked the wind right out of me. It felt like dodge-ball, when the kid with the strong arm tags you right in the gut, but a bruise was already forming on my chest. Both of us stood and stared at each other.

  “Kim, I don’t understand!” I yelled at her through the sound of my ears ringing and angels slaying demons. “Tengu can’t control you. Throw the Bloodstone away. Remember when everything was normal? Our families, boys, shopping. Don’t you want that back?”

  Kim chuckled to herself. Straightening up, she roared into a full laugh, “Don’t you see? Tengu wasn’t ever in charge. He was: the great personification of evil. That’s who commands me! And I won’t let him down. No. No, I’ll let him out!” Kim tore the Bloodstone from her neck and hurled it to the ground.

  Shattering, the gem released a blast so strong it shook the hillside. A black wave of smoke came rushing out of it. I held up my hands and sword to block it from coming at me. I sank to my knees to try to keep from falling backwards. Then as suddenly as it came out, it rushed back to the stone.

  Standing there was my friend, but it wasn’t her. An aura of black shadow and flame surrounded her. The shadow formed the image of a man’s silhouette.

  “Now, Daughter of El. You die.”

  Kreios stood over the body of the gigantic winged demon. He yelled in victory and raised his blade. Now, on to the next foe. He rushed a pair of men. He swung with such great force the two men were sent to either side of him. He then stabbed one as the o
ther stood up. Unable to remove his sword he punched the other, crushing his throat, he fell to the ground soundlessly. The other man on the ground wrapped his hands around Kreios’s blade, lodged in his body. Looking down at him, Kreios pulled the blade from his chest.

  Warm pain flared in his back, and he turned to meet this next enemy. Another demon stood before him. Stabbing forward and catching the demon in the chest, Kreios felt the wound healing. There! She’s defeating her.

  But his hope was suddenly dashed to pieces as he felt the healing subside, the pain grow. The wound steadily got larger. Dropping to his hands, Kreios reached to his back and felt blood oozing from the wound.

  A horde of ten demons came at him, grasping for his sword. It was shattered as they fell upon it. He took hold of the shards and desperately flung them at his enemies, cutting them and impaling them with tiny projectiles. Well that worked. Exhausted, he stood, removed a sword from a nearby body, and threw himself again into the fight.

  Michael fell to the ground, holding back blood from another wound. The huge black beast before him rumbled deeply with a laugh. The demon had morphed into a dark dragon. It towered over him as it came up onto its hind legs. Its head was crowned with two large spikes jutting backward, black as the night along with the rest of its body. Two small red eyes set into its head glared at him, smelling demon on him but knowing that it was to kill him. Its mouth now stood agape with hundreds of little razor-like teeth.

  A burst of red flame spewed from its open jaws and Michael scrambled out of the way just as the grass was scorched into a pile of ash. He ran at the underside of the dragon, slashing upward, covering himself in boiling dragon’s blood. Screaming, he ran away from the wound grasping at his shoulders and left arm.

  The dragon complimented his yells with a roar of pain, crashing heavily to the ground on all four powerful legs. The dragon took to the sky in a rush, heaving a large gust at Michael. Being tossed onto his feet by the wind, he grasped at the dragon’s tail as it slid from the ground.