A loud drudging sound pierced the quietness of the huge cavern as the gates slowly began to open, dust falling from the hinges sweeping down towards the invaders. A single silhouette could be seen approaching the gates from inside Hell. It was tall, stick thin and had a huge mop of flowing black hair. Gabriel could make out a long dishevelled black cloak and a red chain round his neck bearing a black, upside down cross.
“Stay in formation!” commanded Gabriel loudly, as he and his bodyguards moved forward to investigate further. He had expected the gates to open and legions of demons to come pouring out, throwing them into a fight to the death for days or even weeks. Something was very wrong. As they moved forward, outwards from their assembled lines Gabriel could see the dark silhouette holding something in under the cloak and he stopped.
“Time to die,” came a quiet whisper from the unnamed demon standing at the gates of Hell. As he spoke the words from the jagged hole in his face, spit and blackish blood oozed out. The words seemed to reverberate off every small nook and cranny in the cavern, filling it effortlessly. The demon presented a large wooden staff encrusted with a single gold ring around its tip and placed it in front of him. He pointed it towards the roof and let out a high pitch ghoulish scream. Echoes shrilled around the cave, dust and small stones fell as a consequence onto the unflinching angels.
“FALL BACK!” shouted Gabriel to his troops, immediately recognizing what was about to befall them. But it was too late. They couldn’t escape, their powers were being blocked. That damn cursed staff! Gabriel looked up, knowing there was no point in trying to run. His bodyguards tried to engage the cloaked figure in hand to hand combat but some form of protection was stopping them getting close. Other angels desperately tried to blast huge chunks of rock from the walls of the cavern in a futile attempt to tunnel out. The vast ceiling of the cavern lit up. A dark blue ocean of water was forming high above, causing a brief hiatus in the panic among the angels, who stopped to gaze.
Then, without warning, a swirl of fire shot upwards from the gates of Hell and engulfed the water. This body of water pounded down towards the floor of the cavern. Water and fire mixed together with hail fell in amounts unfathomable to human minds. The demon at the gates walked calmly back into Hell’s vast corridors whilst the gates rapidly closed behind him, a slight bright sheen could be seen as they locked. Gabriel could not believe his eyes, as he attempted to swim towards a high rock, he was being pelted by huge stones of fiery hail. All around him angels floated, their charred remains still bubbling in the heat of the water. Severed, charred chunks of skin floated along the surface of the water amidst body parts: eyes, fingers, toes. He looked up towards the roof once more and saw a huge fireball pounding towards him at heightening speed, spitting flames of coordinated fire in every direction. Gabriel knew this was it. “Bless me, my Father,” he whispered, making the sign of the cross over his chest.
Chapter 9
“GET DOWN HERE!” Mary yelled from the bottom of the stairs, holding on to the banister for support. She may have been a pensioner, but she had lost none of her volume with age. David used to joke that if anything, she had only gotten louder.
The swift movement of footsteps from the floors above signalled they had heard her. David, Catherine and Claire all came rushing down, wondering what was wrong. She was glad they hadn’t arrived home drunk tonight. Her common sense told her to wait till morning but this was not a situation where that human trait applied.
“We need to leave, now!” shouted Mary, walking to the large wooden cabinet against the centre wall in the living room under a large family portrait. She needed to get cash, credit cards and the passports– just in case. The others were looking round in confusion, what was going on?
“Gran, what’s happening? Why are you out of bed?” questioned Claire, while helping her gran put on a comfy warm purple coat. Thank God she had sobered up and it hadn’t been too crazy of a night. That takeaway on the way home had done her well.
“We have to go, they’ve found us! They’re coming!”
“Who Mum, who’s coming?” asked Catherine. It wasn’t like her mum to be like this so she knew there must be something serious wrong. She may have been old, but Mary certainly had all of her mental faculties.
“David, tell them we have to go!” she directed a knowing stare towards him. Realising events were now happening, David nodded firmly and convinced the rest to gather essential belongings and hurry.
“Mum, we don’t have time to explain. There is something after us. They call themselves angels. I don’t believe them but they seem dangerous. We must leave now.”
“Angels?” asked Catherine clearly dumbfounded, being pushed towards the door by David.
“Less talking more walking!” ordered Mary.
They all started heading towards the front main doors - Mary in the middle of them. David had the car keys and Claire was helping steady her grandmother, who had insisted there was no time to get the wheelchair. Mary just wanted to leave now. Within two minutes, the family were inside one of the black jeeps and began to slowly make their way down the driveway towards the main road. The rain was torrential and David could feel the steering wheel vibrate through the unyielding battering of the gale-force winds. It seemed to be getting worse. With full headlights beaming and window wipers on their fastest setting, visibility was still at a minimum.
“David, step on it!” Mary pleaded intensely from the front seat. Her eyes kept darting from left to right as if she was expecting someone to jump in through the car windows at any moment. Putting his foot on the accelerator and tapping the remote control buzzer on his key-ring the electronic gates at the bottom of the drive-way began to open. David wasn’t sure what he thought he saw, as if seven figures had just appeared out of thin air just behind the gates on the main pavement – blocking their exit. The lights on the two columns supporting the gates illuminated their faces. The rain seemed to be non-existent now between the jeep and those who had just appeared. He slowed it down to a stop and turned the high beams on. The figures starting advancing forward, towards the jeep. Mary noticed them too and held her right arm up towards the windscreen. The ring on her finger, with the large encrusted diamond in the centre began to glow a bright blue. Mary closed her eyes and her brow wrinkled in concentration, murmuring something incomprehensible. A blinding light occurred, like the jeeps high beams being turned on facing a mirror. A high shriek pierced their ears. The seven figures had disappeared. Looking round at his gran, David knew this was far from over.
“They’ll be back. We don’t have much time. Step on it!” she barked, and David dutifully obeyed. Swinging out from the driveway and onto the main road he quickly accelerated well past the legal speed limit. He figured getting penalty points on his license would be the least of this worries now.
In the back seat, Catherine was holding Claire’s hand tightly, but staring over at her mum. “What’s going on Mum, start talking,” urged Catherine anxiously.
“I’ll explain all, but not here. We need to go somewhere safe. Head to the docks. If we’re lucky we might catch the morning ferry. Claire, can you see if you can get us tickets.” She knew Claire could whip out her mobile phone and have tickets booked and paid for within a couple of minutes. She noticed David was picking up even more speed; finally they were on the move!
“Why are we heading to that cottage, Gran” asked David, knowing she meant Wales and she was clearly concerned. The damn cottage was in the middle of the countryside.
“Gran, there’s tickets available but we’ll have to hurry. Ten minutes until boarding closes.”
“Book them love. Because it’s the only safe place I know. Time to find out how good of a driver you really are, David,” joked Mary, and he smiled. A momentary break from the seriousness was always welcomed. Mary’s mind was now racing, more so than in years. She never thought this day would come. When they would come looking for them. She knew everything was about to change. These storms, the secrets regardi
ng the Pope and everything else happening over the last few years. They were all signs. Hopefully, however, it wasn’t too late to shield her family from the coming, inevitable onslaught.
Chapter 10
“How the HELL did that happen?” Amber exploded, lifting herself off the ground and shaking clumps of dirt and muck off her fine clothing and well-polished boots.
“It doesn’t matter how it happened. The question is why did it happen?” interjected Ariel. He had managed to stay on his feet despite getting blasted into the middle of a desolate field in where he sensed was the Scottish Highlands. The sky was grey even here and the rain continued to pelt down on them. Their five support angels said nothing. Ariel knew this was nothing strange; special ops angels were never the most social or engaging in any crowd. They were designed to simply follow orders to the letter, to fulfil their purpose for existence, like all angels. They resembled the Secret Service – always wearing black suits and sunglasses.
“What do you mean sir?” queried Amber who was visibly annoyed. Amber may have been an angel, but Ariel always suspected she considered herself a lady. She didn’t like appearing 50 feet above a soaked flooded field in the middle of nowhere and come crashing down face first into it.
“What I mean, Deputy,” replied Ariel, now pulling rank and getting more frustrated by the minute, “is how they knew it was us? They shouldn’t even know we were coming to get them. And what the Hell was that. Was there anything in that file about them having any angelic capabilities, or otherwise?”
“Nothing sir. There was nothing. Though I’d say we didn’t receive half the information that was contained within that file. I get the feeling we don’t know what’s going on here. But we clearly aren’t dealing with your run of the mill humans. They’re capable of defending themselves and have been obviously warned about us.”
“That much is obvious. Get back to Headquarters and discuss further plans of action. Amber, I need you to find out whatever you can about them. Get special ops to launch a full scale reconnaissance, I want to know where they are and what they’re doing at all times. No one moves in till I give the go ahead. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir. But where are you going?” asked Amber.
“I need to do some investigating of my own. Staff meeting in one hour,” he barked. With that he vanished. Amber looked round to the four remaining angels.
“Ok you heard him, let’s go!” The field was quickly empty once again.
***
“Michael has launched a full scale siege of Hell. He’s ordered Gabriel down there as well. But that’s not why I called you. I need your foresight.”
“You do realise my position must remain completely impartial. I may be in Heaven’s employ but Fate is considered more important than the meagre happenings on Earth.”
“Of course I do. But the Human Experiment is at risk and that is more important than those three sisters. But please let me finish and then you can decide if you want to say anything. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” replied Lana.
They sat on a trashy park bench in New York, surrounded by litter and wind and rain. Everyone else ran around them in search of shelter as these two sat there, unperturbed by the weather.
“I’ve received orders to apprehend a human family by Michael himself. Apparently this family has special significance and must be protected. I’m authorised to use whatever force necessary to capture them and secure their position in one of our safe rooms. After much investigation and my entire department working on the case, not to mention countless trails about their significance leading to dead ends I find myself extremely frustrated. We finally assembled an assault team to apprehend them. This is when the most extraordinary thing happened. We couldn’t capture them, or even talk to them. They were able to banish me and by contingent hundreds of miles away, suspended in mid-air then dropped. Like animals! We both know that humans can certainly not move angels in any fashion, let alone banish them. I also had five special-ops angels with me who are fully equipped in countering anything we may face but they were no use either. We aren’t being given the information we need for their capture and I don’t like being kept in the dark. I need to know who these people are.” There was a few moments silence as Lana seemed to be processing everything Ariel had said and was trying to decide what to reply.
“I think the question you should be asking me is why you do not already know who these people are,” was her simple yet eloquent reply as her eyes traced an elderly gentleman shielding himself from the rain while eating a hotdog at the same time.
“Explain.”
“Well,” she ran a finger through her long blonde hair. The rain didn’t seem to touch them. “You say this family is of special significance and must be protected. Your entire department has been trying to work out why but still cannot come up with any reasons.”
“Yes.”
“Well explain to me why a human bloodline that is of special significance wasn’t being tracked in the first place. Why weren’t they on the registered list? And why couldn’t a specialist strike force simply apprehend one human group? Unless they already knew about us! Clearly they’ve only become of significance quite recently and that puts us at a disadvantage. We know almost nothing about them but they seem to know a lot about us.”
“And what of their angelic capabilities?”
“I can’t help you there. You know very well Ariel that mess was dealt with by Heaven swiftly and with the harshest of judgements. Besides, those humans never possessed anything near the level of power you’re describing. Granted there have been incidents of grotesque and vile experiments on humans by demons and monsters attempting to interbreed the species, but it has never worked. Humans were designed by God to only reproduce with each other, especially after what happened on Bruno. If they know about us, well then that’s a major security breach and the fact that they can protect themselves shows they know very well what we’re capable of.”
“What would you advise?”
“Ariel. I’m not here to advise you. Michael has given you orders. You need to bring them in no matter what. The timing however is certainly strange. You’d think with this major demon uprising Michael would want every department focused on the current situation. That tells you that whoever this family is, they’re probably more important than anyone is letting on.”
“And what about up there, has there been anything out of the ordinary?” said Ariel referring to Heaven and the general workings of the planet.
Lana finally turned round and looked at him. Her black robes matched the depressing scene around them. A sodden metropolis beaten down for the last few months with a never ending storm like that the world had never seen. The moon had not been seen in months either. Each night the storm seemed to increase in its tenacity. Weather experts had even talked about trying some geo-experimentation on the weather cycle to lift it but had not received government approval as of yet.
“I can tell you this. Tonight the three sisters of Fate are arriving. They weren’t due to visit Heaven for another fifteen hundred years or more. They’re meeting the archangels in a secure area in Heaven. This meeting is concerning matters of the utmost security and urgency. But that’s it. I know nothing more.”
They both looked at each other and nodded silently. With that, Lana was gone, leaving Ariel alone in New York to watch the underground storm system crumble under the current pressure it had been forced to endure for many months. He tried to contemplate what he had just been told. What caught his attention the most was the arrival of Fate in Heaven. They only visited Heaven when there was to be a major disruption to the fate of Earth, of humanity. The last time the three sisters of Fate visited Heaven was just before the Great Flood. The sisters of Fate were not happy about being given no pre-warning about that and spent years restoring order to the scriptures. Humanity and even some low ranking angels were always under the impression that Earth and their destiny was self-contained within the confines of Heaven. But He
aven wielded no control over when humans die, or what destinies they would follow throughout their lives. This was controlled by other supernatural powers which were in existence long before angels, Earth and humans. Some, such as Death herself, predated even God. Each supernatural power essential to maintain the natural order to the cosmos maintained staff on Earth as they did on Bruno and elsewhere.
The sisters of Fate had hundreds of ‘monitoring officers’ spread across the cosmos to ensure that humans and others were following their pre-written paths and to correct any deviances. To correct these deviances they would mostly use the harshest, quickest and most effective means which usually resulted in that person’s fate being cut. Immediately.
Death himself probably had the largest number of staff outside that of the angelic presence on Earth. When someone died on Earth, it was the staff of Death who dealt with them. Heaven was simply the end destination to which they were delivered. Angels always ensured they didn’t get involved as much as possible in the workings of these independent external functionaries.
Chapter 11
“We’re tracking them across the Irish Sea. They’re on a boat ferry, ma’am,” shouted a department analysis to Amber who was standing in the middle of the control room barking orders.
The room resembled that which the President of the United States would use in a national emergency, except it didn’t rely on technology. The large circular room had one huge colourful map embedded into every inch of wall. Split into thirds, the centrepiece highlighted the globe showing all the continents and exact locations of known angels, demons, monsters and VIP’s. The other two thirds at each flank were filled with intelligence information, live feeds from operatives in the field and stations monitoring demonic hotspots. The huge circular room had staff huddled at every wall using what looked like touch computer screens built into their desks. Usually focusing on ten or more objectives at one time all staff in the department had now been given one objective, the same objective as the person to the right and left of them – find the Bassett family. All other priorities were rescinded and those that were pressing were transferred to the Defence Department.
CounterPoint Page 7
