CounterPoint

by Daniel Rafferty

  “Is this weather normal for this time of year here?” shouted David over the storm.

  “Nothing’s normal about today,” replied Ariel, in his signature monotone. “Follow me; we don’t have a lot of time. Events are moving forward. We sense we are not alone here.”

  Getting out of the taxi they started heading towards the large vaulted doors of the ancient looking church. Considering it was almost 4am, David was sure that they would not be touring the church as others would be.

  “You will need to open these doors,” Ariel informed David.

  “Me? Why me? You’re the angel.”

  “This is a divine building, I cannot cause any harm to it whatsoever.”

  “Okay,” he replied, rolling his eyes sarcastically again.

  David lifted his arms and spread them apart, focusing all his thoughts on the seals in the middle of the door. It began buckling and sizzling before each side blew open. He turned round to look at Ariel, who motioned for him to head in first. Walking inside, David was acutely aware of the burning sensation coming from the ring he was wearing. The church itself was cold; he could see his breath as they walked. A thin layer of frost covered parts of the floor.

  “This isn’t right,” shuddered David, the cold penetrating his clothes quickly, making the hairs over his body stand on edge. He could feel the tips of his toes contracting in the frost on the tiled floors. The ring was glowing brightly now, projecting an eerie amber glow against the haunted frosted walls around them. The corridors seemed to be filled with some sort of mist or fog.

  “We are not alone here,” replied Ariel, scanning the ceiling with interest.

  “No shit Sherlock. Contact Pravuil, tell him to call in some back-up. Now.”

  “No. We don’t have the time. Besides, only Amber and Lana are available and that would just complicate the situation. We need to keep our numbers small here. Remember, angel numbers are limited in this building.”

  “Is that a cast iron rule? Or just angelic ruling?” quizzed David, using his boot to swash some mist from side to side.

  “Both”

  Ariel began striding down the long corridor confidently but carefully – his head turning side to side analysing every detail. The frost had started to creep up the walls covering the infamous architecture and sculpting. David’s ring was glowing brightly in the darkness as his nerves kicked into gear. It also provided some much needed hazy light blue illumination. David’s eyes darted from one wall to the next and around each door. Ariel’s statement that they were not alone really did make him nervous. One thing that he kept thinking was that each time he’d seen this kind of frost and coldness was when angels contacted him such as in the bathroom with Pravuil and then Ariel. Putting that thought to the back of his mind, David knew at the moment he had to concentrate on trying to stay alive.

  After minutes of following Ariel around the corridors, they entered a small room which contained a large glass chamber in the centre. The walls were adorned with various religious relics which David would have liked time, in better circumstances, to view. Electric candles produced a warm yellow glow which bathed the room and its contents, a stark contrast to the cold, dark, frosty corridors outside. The glass chamber held what was purportedly part of the True Cross.

  “This isn’t real. It’s a fake,” growled Ariel, scanning the chamber and piercing his gaze below the ground onto the deeper levels. “The real cross is beneath us. We’ll have to...”

  A sharp thin beam of light blasted Ariel in the back and he exploded, letting out a terrifying, horrific, brutally painful scream. David covered his ears in an attempt to save them from bursting. The echoes of the scream reverberated throughout the desolate church, and the room shook. Dust tumbled down from the ceiling above and the lights shorted out. David swung round to face the attackers, trying to balance himself as the ringing in his ears dissipated. Three men in dark clothes and black hoods stood in the doorway. He could not see their faces or their eyes. He felt his heart beginning to race, the feeling of sweat on his forehead and what felt like a waterfall down his back. Clenching his fists tightly, he desperately tried to ring some sweat from them. His ring began to pulsate brightly, but it didn’t help show who his attackers were. He waited for them to speak. Moments passed. He knew it wasn’t defiance that made him stand there waiting for a reply: it was fear.

  “Leave,” said the middle cloaked stranger. The tone in which he spoke sent shivers down David’s spine. A low, gravely tone - as if the vocal cords were drenched in blood and grit.

  “What do you want?” replied David, muscling whatever courage and energy he could to speak and try to sound confident at the same time. He was desperately aware they could see him soaked in sweat with nerves.

  “Leave.”

  “Tell me what you want,’ shouted David, shocked at the anger in his own voice.

  “Leave!” the voice bellowed louder.

  As if in slow motion, David saw the middle one pulling out what seemed to be some kind of weapon or wand shaped object from under his cloak. David immediately swung his arm across the breadth of the room, sending his would be attackers blasting back through the doorway. The sheer luminosity of the fiery red bolt which exploded from his hand lit up the entire room. The ring now glowed red instead of blue, something he had never seen it do before. David rushed to the doorway. In the centre of the next room lay two of the three figures lying on the ground, blood oozing from their ears and eyes on their blacked facial skin. Hearing footsteps behind one of the columns on the other side of the room David swung round and deflected a demonic attack by the third demon. The force of the attack made David stumble back, dust rising from his rapid footsteps and almost catching his breath. The demon continued to viciously thrash dark coloured attacks at him. Most were red and white- crackling sparks fired everywhere as they duelled it out. Continuously swiping his arm left and right, deflecting each assault, David frantically thought of what to do next. He had no idea he could even thwart attacks, his body seemed to have some kind of natural defence against them. The demon jumped back, thumped his chest and let out a massive ball of red electricity at David.

  Acting purely on instinct, David threw his hand into the air in front of the oncoming attack, and a light white misty bubble appeared around him. This shielding bubble absorbed the attack before vanishing back into his ring again. He was alive.

  “STAGNO!” shouted David, brandishing his arm towards the demon in a ferocious fashion. A quick bolt of red lightning shot from his hand. The attack hit the demon squarely on the chest and for a moment it was completely frozen, his cloak covered in frost.

  “FUMO, FUMO, FUMO!” roared the demon, clearly angered by this attack. He marched towards David, his power being deflected by the human and instead blasting the room around them apart. David himself now began marching forward again, duelling with increased vigour. If this was it, then he had nothing to lose anyway, and whatever this was would be going out with him.

  “ANNECTO!” he shouted, aiming directly at the demon. Dark reddish aluminous ropes began to appear around the demon and started binding him together. Seeing his chance and the panic this monster was getting into, David jumped forward and blasted a thick streamed bolt of angry fire like energy forward. The monster let out a loud, animal-like, shattering scream as it exploded. Bits of flesh scattered around the room, one chunk landing directly on the tip of David’s shoe. The other two had vanished as well. He didn’t know if they were dead and had vanished, if that was normal for dead creatures. Or if they were still alive and decided to take their chances elsewhere. Taking a moment to steady himself, he spun around the room in all directions making sure there were no more surprises. A flash of light emanated in the middle of the room under one of the great paintings. Ariel had returned.

  “I thought you were dead,” gasped David, still trying to calm himself, almost falling onto the ground again.

  “It would take more than a demon to kill me,” insisted Ariel fiercely. S
moke still seeped out of his clothes.

  “What the Hell happened there?” shouted David. “How was I able to do that? And what are those words I was saying?”

  “You clearly must have inherent capabilities. It’s just a matter of getting them to surface. I will offer some advice though; instead of voicing the attack just think it. Voicing the attack such as ‘Fumo’ gives your enemy that vital few seconds knowledge of what you are planning and how to counter it. Now, we have work to do!”

  They both trooped back into the previous room in silence. David had noted that they may had defeated these demons but the frost and chill of the place remained. David was more confused than ever now, he felt so energised. He never believed that any of the so called fragments of the True Cross were ever genuine. Ariel’s statement that the one in this church, one of the most revered in many religions, was also fake startled him.

  “The True Cross is beneath us, step back,” ordered Ariel. Doing nothing but stare at the large glass chamber, it began to shake and slowly move to one side of the room revealing a small door built into the floor. Embedded into the hatch in the floor was three long black iron nails. David stood, immediately recognizing the symbolism and wondering if it could possibly be true. Ariel, meeting his eye answered his question.

  “Are these the nails used to bind Jesus Christ to the cross?”

  “Yes,” announced Ariel. “Apart from the caretakers, no other human has seen them since the time of the Crucifixion. You can only see them because you are with me. They are embedded into the wood but only present themselves in the presence of a divine being.’ Ariel held out his hand. A bright white light shone from it and onto the hatch which proceeded to open.

  “Can’t you just vanish down there and get what we need?” questioned David. He didn’t really like the look of the steep, unlit, dilapidated small staircase in front of him.

  “This area is beyond divine. Not even Michael could use his powers in this cavern.” Ariel stood still, bowed his head and began to walk down the winding stairs. David followed suit, the long unsteady walk down the small, broken stone stairs. He was glad his ring was burning as brightly as possible; he desperately didn’t want to fall to his death in here of all places. The deeper they went, the narrower the roof became and even though David wasn’t claustrophobic, he was beginning to feel it. On the sides of the walls, etched into pure stone were horrid depictions of the crucifixion. David thought this would have been a shrine, but was shocked by the brutal illustration of it all. They kept walking until they came to a small wooden door, like that in an old medieval cottage. There were words written on this door but he couldn’t decipher them.

  “It reads – Pass through this door to realisation”, said Ariel. David actually thought he detected slight anger in Ariel’s voice.

  Ariel reached out ever so gently and pushed open the door into a small rotting room. Following Ariel, David was immediately spooked by what he saw. The room was certainly small, with jagged walls cut from the stone and Earth. A small chest lay upon a boulder-like slab. Behind the chest stood a candle, on top of a golden jewel encrusted candle holder - burning steady and bathing the room a subtle orange yellow. The candlestick was half way down but still burning brightly. Ariel took a moment to stare at the candle. It was truly not of this world. He turned to David and instructed him that now was the time, the reason he was here in the first place. Telling David to open the chest and remove the True Cross, Ariel stood back. As David walked towards the chest, the door slammed shut loudly and the candle began burning brighter. He was spooked and, in a moment of bravery, swung round to Ariel and demanded answers. He knew something wasn’t right: there was something wrong with this room and what they were doing. It was as if the devil himself was in this room.

  “David, we don’t have time,” whispered Ariel. He did not dare raise his voice or tempt anger in this room.

  “Ariel, something is wrong here. This room, I have a gut wrenching feeling ever since I walked into it. I don’t think we were ever meant to come here,” whispered David. He kept his ring fully ablaze and held it quite close to the sacred chest sitting on the slab of stone. David half expected something to try and attack him from the chest; it wouldn’t be the most unusual thing that had happened to him of late.

  “I can’t tell you David because I do not know, now please,” said Ariel, desperate to complete the mission.

  “Ariel, think about it. You consider this room the holiest on Earth yet when I mentioned Jesus earlier you called him a trouble maker.”

  “He is. This room is not about the person but about the act. It is never about the person.”

  “Ariel I have been shot at, thrown across rooms, dragged half way across the world and told just to trust in faith. Ariel, I can’t keep going on like this. Summon Pravuil down here, now!”

  Ariel stepped forward, concern in his eyes. David, holding his ground, deciding they were now at a tipping point of no return. He hoped Ariel wasn’t keeping anything from him, but everyone had secrets, and he was dealing with angels.

  Realising the frantic mood David was in, Ariel stood back and put his hands up in an attempt to calm the situation. It was then that quiet, incomprehensible voices from the chest could be heard. The ultimate divine power itself seemed to be in that chest. David turned towards the chest and placed both his hands on each side of it. It was warm, very warm. He lifted the lid, which was encrusted with small shiny royal purple jewels. Time seemed to stand still for David as he opened the chest lid. Inside was the smallest piece of darkened wood, no bigger than a car key, lying on a purple plush pillow with gold threading and stitching.

  “Lift the pillow off gently and hand it to me,” interjected Ariel. He sounded nervous – taken away in the moment. Gently holding the pillow at both sides, David slowly lifted it up towards himself and handed it to Ariel. Ariel seemed to stare at it for an eternity before snapping into action. He swung round the room, almost as if he was expecting something to appear. Looking at David, he thanked him for his actions to the service of God.

  Chapter 29

  Amber was glaring straight at this hobo-like man standing there, daring to tempt her to destroy him. If she wasn’t so interested in the information he might possess, she would have done so minutes ago. Knowing that this was no mere human though, Amber was trying to figure out exactly what it was. The creature whilst in human form seemed to emanate a curious black pulse which could only been seen through angelic eyes. But there was one thing of which she was certain: he was evil incarnate.

  “Let me tell you a story, dear. I think you’ll find it very interesting. It’s quite similar to one you’ve heard over and over again,” he said, smiling as he walked around the rooms edges as if pacing himself along with his story. “Once there were two brothers and one father. The two brothers fought fiercely to gain the approval of their father, hoping for promotion. Both fulfilled every wish and request and order that he ever gave them. They completed and surmounted every challenge he placed before them. After what seemed like an eternity of this constant familial rivalry, the brothers are tasked with looking after the vaunted all important Human Experiment. The father informed all his creations that this experiment, the Human Experiment, was the most important thing ever created. Every angel would be brought to bear to cater for it.”

  “We know this story,” said Amber loudly, but the man continued regardless.

  “These humans would dominate a planet and be free from the constraints placed upon other creations including angels. They would have free-will and be free from a life of servitude. He declared that the Human Experiment was the most important event in history and that angels would be responsible for it. They would guide and protect them. They were ultimately to consider them more important than even him. They would have to wage war for these new kids if required, and die for them if necessary. Upon hearing this, one son rose up against his father. He explained he felt these humans would be inferior to his father and all other angels, th
at they did not deserve this amount of attention. God struck him from Heaven and ordered his other son to lead every angel into battle and defeat him once and for all. God even created a prison for this disobedient and disgruntled son. With the war still raging, God left and was never seen again. They still wait upstairs for his return – some even believe that he will never return. Some even wonder whether he ever existed. But when it comes down to it, there hasn’t been someone in charge for millions of years. When he comes back there is going to be the biggest expulsion in his empire the galaxy has ever seen. That much I can promise you,” he smiled, his toothless grin sickening Amber.

  “When God does return it’s vermin like you who will be expelled from his realm. Like an ugly boil being pricked.”

  “Ah well, you see I thought you’d say that,” he chuckled, “but unfortunately it isn’t going to happen like that, dear. You see, you never let me finish my story. When the disgruntled son went to God to protest against the Human Experiment, the other obedient one was also present. It was just them three, the father and his two closest sons. After hearing what one had protested against, the boss in the blink of an eye created a prison for him to be thrust into. He instructed the obedient son to do that personally, and to destroy any followers he may have had. With that, God vanished and has never been seen since. Now, surely that begs the question,” he beckoned to Amber, his hand outright towards her.

  “You’re telling me nothing I don’t already know.”

  “Heaven forbid, my dear. I’m telling you the one true story of what happened. Everything you know has been scripted and remodelled to the point where it is watertight. But consider this. During that meeting the father issued his orders and vanished. Never to be heard from again. Michael charged from that meeting into Heaven and rallied its armies. Lucifer along with a rag tag bunch of others were drove to Earth and most were slaughtered. Now here’s the clincher, darling,” he smiled a toothless grin again and paused for theatrical effect, spreading his arms out wide, “the only creatures in creation that have laid eyes on God are the almighty archangels. Then God left, and no one knew what his orders were. Legend has written over the thousands of years that it was Michael ordered to banish Lucifer to Hell.