CounterPoint

by Daniel Rafferty

  The interior of the house was floodlit in a vast blue tint from the battle raging outside. Even the protective measures put over the windows and glass weren’t enough to keep it out. Straightening his tie and fixing his cufflinks, Ariel knew this was it. Blue and white crackles of light illuminated his face as the lights in the cottage dimmed to darkness with the attack raging on. Soon the shield would fail and from then on in, a fight to the death would commence. Watching the shield gradually dim as the minutes and seconds went by was haunting.

  “This is it,” said Mary gravely, looking around her family. “No matter what happens tonight, we stay together. That is my one rule, we stay together. Only then can we see this through.” Everyone nodded. Meanwhile, Amber stood at the other end of the cottage, its long corridor spanning the entire front of the building. She glanced down to look at Ariel, staring outwards. She knew that the odds of her making it out of this alive were miniscule, but she had a duty to Ariel, Heaven and God. She considered Ariel her boss and even a friend. Her loyalty was unquestionable towards him. A huge blast of fire rocked the cottage. Looking out she could spot an angel in the distance standing on top of one of the trees, thick strokes of fire ejecting from his two hands crashing into their defence shield. It sparked, smoked and exploded in a deafening shrill bang. It was gone. The time was now. Looking left towards Ariel she simply nodded, as he did in return.

  “Secure the building. I want Ariel alive!” roared Uriel as troops began advancing towards the house in a brisk walk. Mostly clad in dark suits and long coats, they blended effortlessly into the dark night. “Nuriel, good work” he smiled, looking up above him. Nuriel didn’t acknowledge the compliment.

  Deciding he didn’t want to fight and die in this empty shallow building, Ariel moved towards the front door and stepped out, with Amber quickly behind him. The air was clammy and damp, while the light wind rustled the sky sprawling trees all around them. He saw the dark silhouettes of his brothers and sisters moving closer. Reasoning with them was out of the question, he knew how stubborn he was and they could be equally as.

  The first line consisted of around twenty angels. Ariel threw his hands towards two large wooden buckets and then swung them forward towards the advancing lines. The buckets flew off the ground and the water in them released in controlled violent spills of fire equally across the entire front battalion line. The clear, silvery water laced with fire raced up against the battalion at lightning speed. They instantly let out huge screams and vanished, leaving behind clouds of white smoke. Some fell to the ground in agony, skin melting off them with clumps of hair flying in the wind. Withdrawing his staff Ariel stood at the ready as the remaining angels charged forward, their anger intensified greatly. Nodding at Amber, they split up to create some distance between themselves and simultaneously engaged the enemy. Ariel levitated off the ground and violently swung into the middle of four advancing burly angels – three men and one woman. He immediately slashed one angel across the abdomen causing her to sink to her knees whilst throwing a blade he had in his trouser pocket at the other. It pierced the attacking angel at the neck through the jugular line and he exploded, white sparkles littering the air where he once stood. Stepping back to gain a better strategic view, he withdrew a small vile of divine water from his other trouser pocket and threw it at the injured angel on the ground, using his angelic powers to ensure it impacted with him at speeds faster than light.

  “You’re going to pay for that, traitor!” spat the burliest angel, with whom he was now duelling. He lunged at Ariel and knocked him to the ground, causing his staff to fly across the pathway and in front of the cottage door.

  “The only traitor here is standing down there sandwiched between two bodyguards,” shot back Ariel, now on his feet. Knowing he couldn’t get to his staff, Ariel fell back on his martial art combat skills, in which he was well versed. Jumping into the air and kicking the burly angel straight in the chest Ariel watched as he flung backwards, causing ripples in the ground like a mini Earthquake.

  Just a couple of metres away Amber was engaged in a vicious blade fight with three female angels. What was it with sex discrimination in this fight, she thought. She duelled admirably with them, inflicting some serious wounds. A puncture to the lower left side along the waistline for an angel damaged their divinity. This caused them unbearable pain and she crumpled into a screaming mess among the grass and muck. With considerable energy, Amber disappeared and immediately reappeared behind the long blonde haired one. Stabbing her in the back along the neck line she watched with an ever so slight feeling of relief as she exploded from the centre outwards. One to go.

  “This isn’t going as smoothly as I expected,” said Uriel calmly, deeply. Looking around at his remaining troops he knew the victory would still be his. “Lines three and four, forward and engage!” he bellowed. It was time to end this once and for all. Thirty angels ran forward.

  Having beaten the massive angel to the ground and with blood gushing from his hand, Ariel knew his combat effectiveness was affected. Poised to make the final kill, he turned round to see two huge lines of angels advancing forward now, from almost all angles. Their only chance to hold them off would be from inside the cottage.

  Amber began back-stepping towards the front door, trying to keep the final female angel off her. Ariel fired bolts of energy at the advancing Angels though to little effect; Nuriel was providing a dampening effect, he suspected. He heard the dull roar of car engines in the distance, suddenly getting closer and fast. Then, the roar of vintage car engines pierced the clearing as six cars shoved their way to form a barricade across the front of the house. Jumping out with a steely determination that surprised Ariel, a brazenly loud version of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody pumped from a red convertible, of which four ladies jumped out including Sandra. Johnny stepped out of his white two door coupe, nodded at Ariel and started forming a straight line in front of the house. Knowing that this could hold them off a little longer Ariel and Amber joined them in the centre. The angels had stopped in their tracks, with the battalion lieutenant turning to look at Uriel.

  The deadly glare he received didn’t need any further explanation. The lieutenant of the battalion charged forward, now running, along with his troops. Seeing this, Ariel and Johnny charged forward along with everyone else.

  The two warring sides clashed violently in the middle. Ariel, flanked by Amber and Johnny pierced his staff straight through the chest of the lieutenant. Johnny was fighting with two small blades soaked in holy water. The incisions he managed to make caused the skin to burn and weep with pus, though this only aggravated the attacking angels further. The humans fought bravely, sending three angels back to Heaven. No small feat by any means. These were warriors of God after all. Turning round, Ariel watched as Amber shot a bolt of lightning into the air, and flung electrified rain at a large group of the angels. They sizzled and sparked, two collapsing while the other six stumbled to get back on their feet. Everyone, including Ariel was shocked. Martin, the elder patron of the human group possessed the unique ability to manipulate at the atomic level. He levitated off the ground and fired himself at two angels placing his hands firmly on their chests. They began to shrivel and lose cohesion. Their eyes filled with fear as they had never experienced this type of onslaught before. They quickly vanished back to Heaven.

  “HOLD!” shouted the new lieutenant of the attacking angels after seeing this human ability. The angels paced back behind him. Nevertheless using this opportunity to form a new line, Ariel ordered everyone to start backtracking towards the cottage again. They needed to consolidate their line and take advantage of the sudden lapse in strategy from the attackers. To help with this he turned round, threw his arm towards the white coupe about fifteen metres away and flung it into four unsuspecting angels in front of them.

  “That was my fucking car!” hollered Johnny as he drenched an attacking angel in the face with holy water.

  “I think,” replied Ariel, now la
unching a pick-up truck into the enemies’ left flank, creating a huge fire ball into the sky, “under the circumstances your insurance company will pay out when they see the wreckage.” Ariel’s arms were steady as he directed object after object, anything he could find, into the enemy ahead.

  “Insurance, huh?” responded Johnny.

  “Forward,” roared Uriel once more to the lieutenant in the field. These new humans may have been gifted but they would not be allowed to stand against the imperial might of Heaven.

  Sandra and her three sisters, all experts in telekinesis, stood in front of their red convertible 1950s car. Apart from the Bassetts, if there was anything worth fighting for it was their ‘baby’, as they called it.

  “Trisha, nine o’clock,” shouted Sandra. Trisha spun round and lifted an angel off the ground and shot it across the hills. Realising the angel numbers were mounting, Sandra and her sisters began using their abilities to rip huge trees from the ground and hurl them towards advancing angels with vicious force. Sandra had now bounced on top of her beloved convertible and was actively directing the trio in the battle. She launched some conveniently placed garden pots towards advancing enemies knocking two back into the forest. On the other side of the field, Martin was duelling with two Angels at once. Losing patience duelling with the blades, he jumped back and threw his hands out to stop them advancing forward. They sniggered until shots of white energy blasted them squarely in the chest and they were sent back up to Heaven. With that, he charged across the field to help Johnny.

  Back at the cottage, David was frantically pacing around the room. He had tried to break down the door three times now but he suspected Ariel had made sure they couldn’t leave. He heard the chaos outside, they all did. Claire and Catherine got especially frightened hearing the terrifying, gut wrenching screams followed by shallow Earth trembling explosions. He could only hope that none of those screams belonged to Ariel or Amber. The arrival of cars initially made them think the local police had somehow found out about the battle, but they had heard no sirens.

  “We can’t stay here, this is gonna turn into a bloodbath!” argued David to his grandmother.

  “We can’t even get outta this room David, what can we do?” shouted back Catherine. She agreed with him, they had to go. She didn’t know where or how but they needed to leave. A smattering of bricks and glass fell to the ground, followed by an explosion that devastated the small kitchen. The smoke slowly subsided and two 6-feet, tough, well-built angels dressed in all black walked in menacingly.

  “You’re coming with us,” spoke the angel on the right. He gripped his leather gloved hands together in a fist like look. David stepped in front of his family ready to take the first blow for them. Starting eye to eye with the one who spoke, David noted he must have been a special kind of angel. He had a martial appearance about him: square chiselled jaw, old fashioned robes buttoned up to the neck and short cropped black hair. A hand on David’s shoulder forcibly pulled him back and Mary rose from her chair into where he was standing. She screamed loudly, her eyes filled with rage. She flung her ring outwards towards the attackers and they were immediately catapulted against every wall in the kitchen before shooting out the hole in the wall again.

  “Gran, what the Hell was that?” asked Claire, helping to steady her and put a pillow behind her back for support.

  “I will NOT have anyone threaten my family. This ends now!”

  “Mum,” said Catherine, “what are you doing?”

  Mary was in no condition to risk harm to her frail body. Another explosion caused them all to cover their ears whilst shrapnel of bricks and wood sparked around the room. Amber lay before them on her back. Her perfect hair resembled something along the lines of a style favoured by Medusa. She was covered in dust, mud, cuts and bruises. Immediately jumping up, she momentarily looked round at them.

  “Sorry. Slight mistake in my flight path. Back soon,” she said, almost too excitedly. She raised her sword to eye level and charged back out through the living room and front door letting out a loud fiendish scream.

  David and Claire looked at each other. In one sense it provided a much needed slight comedy moment as Amber was clearly overdosed on adrenaline, or worse David wondered. Peeking out from where the door once stood, David and Claire could see out to the warzone of the field as the front door had been blasted open. Dozens of suited and booted angels fought with rag tag humans. Ariel and Amber were in the middle engaged in ferocious hand to hand combat with other angels. Ariel had gripped two by the throat and kicked a third to the ground simultaneously. David knew he could make out Johnny from the left window, he was exchanging sword combat with a small thin glasses wearing angel. The house began to shake, dust filtered through from the ceilings above and the wooden planks in the floor began to lift and rattle individually.

  Under direct orders from Uriel, Nuriel had launched a bolt of fire into the battlefield. It was against every fibre in his being to do so as he considered this situation highly suggestive and argumentative. But under orders from Uriel and fearing Michael’s wrath he had obeyed. The huge bolt of fire decimated all in its path, angel and human alike. This was not normal fire, but holy. David grabbed Claire and forced both of them onto the ground as part of the firestorm raped into the house and adjoining rooms. The flames extinguished as quickly as they started, and David was coughing deeply. He felt like his lungs were drowning in smoke. Checking on his family, they all nodded that they were okay for the most part. Catherine was tending to Mary, making her drink some water and use her inhaler. Gazing out round the now roasted smoking door frame, from what David could see the attack had harmed the enemies’ troops more than any fighting humans though there were few of them left now anyway.

  “Oh my God,” David gasped. Crawling over towards the two toasted bodies that had landed just outside their door, the smell of burning flesh nauseated him. Their bodies still smoked such was the intensity of the fireball. David fell back into their hideout room. He felt repulsed. Those two guys had died. For us. Hiding in that little kitchen. Their eyes had even been burned out. Now just empty melted holes. This couldn’t be happening. Last week he lived a normal life trying to build himself up the career ladder in the dirty politics of business. Now he was hiding in the back room of an abandoned cottage in the middle of Wales while angels and humans fought to kill each other just metres away over him and his family. If it was only him he would immediately have walked out there and given himself up. But he knew, looking over at his mum, gran and sister that no power in the world could make him hurt them or leave them. They were his family and they were all in this together. They needed to get out of here now, before they all ended up dead or worse.

  “Sir, more troops have arrived,” informed Uriel’s lieutenant. “As you requested an extra thirty men have been acquired for the on-going battle. I have been informed Michael is not happy about us requiring extra firepower.”

  Uriel squared up to his lieutenant. He knew his rank and reputation as a ruthless commander to the enemies of Heaven but also those under his command preceded him. “We did not know that these vermin would be helping the traitors. We did not know that they would have protection in place around the entire house,” he yelled, “and you can personally lead the final charge in…NOW!” The lieutenant, a tall handsome man with a good build and short brown curly hair, clenched his teeth. To him and many others, Uriel wasn’t respected for his brilliant strategic mind but for his sheer ruthlessness. He wasn’t like Ariel, who was renowned for his tactical resourcefulness and loyalty to those under him.

  He held up his hand signalling the final thirty angels to begin advancing forward. He turned round to look at Uriel one more time before vanishing and appearing in the middle of the squadron line advancing. His long grey coat flew and fluttered in the wind as the storm around them intensified. Catching a glimpse of the oncoming squadron Ariel knew that this would be it; they were out of options and tactics. It would be a fight to the death, and the dea
th would fall upon him and his comrades. His only hope for the Bassetts was for Pravuil to appear as he intended to and squash the situation once and for all.

  “Amber, get the Bassett’s and leave. We’ll try and hold them off,” shouted Ariel, while Johnny and Sandra rallied around him. All that was left. Johnny had to step over Martin’s body. Martin had flung himself in front of Johnny and Sandra when the fire-bolt came raining down. From this day on their lives had changed. They were at war.

  Rousing Mary from her battered brown leather armchair, Catherine and Claire tried to hurry as much as they could; they knew they possibly had only minutes left. David was keeping watch at the entrance to the room with the long blade Ariel had given him at the ready. He also had two vials of special oil ready to launch in some angel’s face if they dared come near him.

  “They’re retreating,” whispered David, mesmerised by the ensuing battle outside.

  “The angels?”

  “No, our guys.” He felt his knees shake and go light. They might not have as much time as he thought. Damn. Ariel, Amber, Johnny and another human hunter rushed in through the front door which was now hanging by one hinge and slammed it shot. Ariel reinforced the doors strength and a visible line of light appeared at the top and transcended to the bottom of the door and the windows around the house. A huge jet of fire seemed to engulf the front of the house. Raging, angry orange and red flames blocked the view from the windows. It was as if the house was in a roaring oven. Then, a huge shockwave penetrated the house, windows and doors exploding inwards. The door was blown off its frame and engulfed Johnny, pinning him to the floor. His agonizing groans bolted through the air like lightning. Ariel had managed to use his angelic powers to steady himself against the blast; Amber took slightly more of the impact, nothing being as powerful as her boss. Ariel immediately levitated and expulsed the door from the room that was over Johnny. Blood was everywhere and he could tell that he wouldn’t be able to heal him. These injuries were angelic in nature and were performed by one of the greater angels in the hierarchy. It was beyond his control.