Confronting the Fallen

by J. J. Thompson

  The judge waved a hand to indicate the room. “One of the early Hawkes added this little room for security purposes. I've modified it somewhat.” He typed in a few keystrokes and the monitors came to life. Chris was amazed to see images of the the judge's office from four different angles.

  “You have cameras in your office, sir?”

  “Indeed I do. There have been many times when I've received visitors whose actions were recorded for future reference.”

  Chris stared at the screens. He wasn't sure but he wondered if the judge and those working for him were a bit paranoid.

  “I'd like you to remain in here while I speak to Angelica, Christopher. You need to see the enemy for yourself. And perhaps you'll understand while I'm allowing her to enter our home,” he added dryly.

  “That's okay, your honor,” Chris stammered, feeling embarrassed. “I trust that you know what you're doing.”

  “That's very reassuring, young man,” the judge smiled as he spoke. “But Angelica is someone you should see regardless. She is a Fallen One and, unfortunately, there are more of them out there working against us.” He looked at Chris speculatively for a moment. “Our other young people here, who have met their angelic souls, gain the ability to identify these fallen angels as soon as they see them. It is a fortunate turn of events and it would be good to know that you too are able to do this, Christopher.”

  “You mean, if I saw one of them on the street, I could tell right away that they were evil?” Chris asked in wonder.

  “Precisely. In the war to come, we will need any edge that we can get, and this certainly applies as one.” The judge indicated the chair. “Take a seat, Christopher and watch. We'll see if we can learn what our enemies are really after.”

  Chris sat down and the judge left the room. The hidden panel closed behind him and Chris watched the judge on the monitors as he returned to his desk. Chris felt a bit light-headed. This is all happening too fast, he thought. I need some time to process this stuff. Fallen angels? What the hell?

  A few minutes passed and Chris heard the judge's phone ring. The sound from the monitors was quite clear.

  “Very well, Martin. Send her in,” the judge said and he sat back and watched the door expectantly.

  One of the cameras was pointed right at the door to the office and Chris gasped as it opened and a tall, slim figure walked into the room.

  He wasn't quite sure what he expected to see, but he assumed that Angelica was a lot older than the other teens here. But she appeared to be no more than nineteen or twenty years of age at the most. Her hair was very blond, almost white, and it hung down her back to her waist. She wore a simple blouse and jeans and she was smiling in a friendly manner as she walked across the room and sat down in front of Judge Hawkes. She was very pretty.

  “Good day, Angelica,” the judge said, also smiling in an absent way. “How lovely to see you looking so well.”

  “Ethan, so good to see you again,” she replied. Chris was surprised to hear her use the judge's first name but he seemed to take no notice. The young woman had a noticeable British accent.

  “And to what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?” the judge asked.

  Angelica laughed lightly. “Can't an old friend visit on a whim? Do I really need a reason to be here?”

  The judge's smile remained fixed. “Of course old friends are always welcome. But we were speaking of you, and your reason for stopping by.”

  His tone was light but Chris watched the young woman's expression change. She suddenly looked guarded and spoke more carefully.

  “Am I not an old friend, Ethan? After all, I was your first charge, was I not? You saved my life, as I recall.”

  “Perhaps I did, Angelica. Or perhaps I was led to believe I did. Who can say? In any event, we did not part on happy terms and I can't imagine why you would walk into your enemy's stronghold as boldly as you have.”

  Angelica was silent for a moment. “You are a clever one, Ethan, I'll give you that. Fine then. I do have a purpose beyond simply saying hello.”

  “Yes, I thought as much.” The judge's expression was no longer in any way friendly. He sat back and observed the young woman carefully, as if she were some sort of wild animal. Chris felt a sudden danger in the room.

  “So, let us put aside this facade of friendship and get down to it. What do you want?”

  The young woman took her time answering. She looked around the room and Chris saw that she noticed the cameras watching her. He caught his breath as, for a moment, he saw what looked like a flash of red in her eyes. But it was gone so quickly he wasn't sure if it was just a trick of the light or not. She made no comment about the cameras, except to smile to herself. Then she focused on the judge again.

  “I was informed by a...higher power, shall we say, that there was an occurrence here last night. Could it be that you are entertaining a new recruit? One that is, perhaps, more significant than the other pathetic shadows that you are hiding from the world?”

  The judge tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he watched Angelica. “Hiding from the world? You know better than that, my dear. Our young people come and go as they wish. If they stay, they earn their keep. We certainly did not keep you from leaving us when you had learned our secrets, did we? You were free to leave and betray us and cause the death of several of your close 'friends'.”

  The young woman's face paled. “I caused their deaths? Look in the mirror, Ethan. By taking them in and exposing their souls, you marked them as targets. It is you who did not leave them to live their lives in innocence. I did not betray them.” She glared at the judge. “I did not betray you, either, my old mentor. Nothing I learned here was of any use to Hell's armies. They showed me the way to true power and wanted me for myself; not like you, who wanted to use me and the others for what we could do for your cause.”

  Angelica stood up abruptly, rested her fingertips on the desk and leaned down over the judge. He sat back slightly but remained watching her calmly.

  “I am here to warn you, Ethan, one last time. We do not know what you are doing here or why there was a surge of power in the Nest last night so bright that it attracted the interest of my masters. But unless you turn aside from your suicidal path, now, you will have crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. They have toyed with you so far. You were merely an annoyance. But they are now concerned enough to turn their considerable powers against you.” She stared down at the judge with an expression that was almost compassionate.

  “Turn aside, Ethan,” she continued in a low voice. Chris leaned closer to the monitors to hear her. “I would not see you and yours destroyed. In the name of our once upon a time friendship, step away, before you are stepped on.”

  “Stepped on?” The judge stood up and Angelica backed away from his desk. They stared at each other and Chris noticed that they were exactly the same height. “Well, thank you for that warning. Unfortunately, I know you too well. You were the wrong messenger to send on this mission, Angelica. They've taken notice of us? Toyed with us?” He chuckled. “They have indeed noticed us, my dear. They are not warning us; they are afraid. They have always been afraid, as any bully is when confronted by those who will not back down. And now they are more worried than ever before.” He looked at her sadly. “I am so sorry that they are using you for this, but you have chosen your side. You will not be allowed into the Nest again, so please do not return. Tell your masters to look to their own lives. We are here and we will stand and you and Satan will fall, be assured of that.”

  Chris watched in shock as Angelica's beautiful face changed. Her expression was now one of loathing and hatred.

  “I will not be allowed into the Nest? Ha! The next time I come back to this miserable hovel, it will be to tear it down around your head and feed it and you to the flames. How dare you presume. We do not fear you, or that little boy you now shelter. What was his name? Ah yes, Christopher Wright.” Chris' stomach churned as he heard his name and he listened breathle
ssly.

  “This street urchin may have some small power, Ethan, but he will not stem the tide that is even now rushing to wash you and yours away.” She paused and Chris saw her make a concerted effort to calm herself. “I give you one chance, Ethan. Just one, to save yourself and your charges. Give us this child and we will leave you in peace. Give us Christopher Wright. We can make some small use of his meager powers. Is it worth the price you will pay to protect one unknown street kid?”

  “Ah, finally you get down to your real purpose. If he had no worth, you would not even be here, Angelica. Even if he were no more than a wayward child, I would not give him into your cruel hands. You should know that, my supposed old friend.”

  “Yes, I know,” Angelica replied. She sounded resigned. “I told them that that would be your answer, but they insisted I ask anyway.” She glared at the judge. “I could simply rip this place apart to find him, Ethan. You do know that, don't you?”

  Suddenly, the door behind her slammed open and she spun around, crouching down slightly. On the monitor that showed the open door, Chris saw a hooded figure in a long leather coat filling the doorway. His jaw dropped when the person began to speak.

  “You may try, Fallen One. You will not succeed.” It was Jacob's voice. But there was a timber there, an echo that Chris had not heard before. He shivered a bit. “Make your choice.”

  “Janariel,” she said, loathing dripping from her voice.

  “Yes, sister mine. Janariel, whom you betrayed, along with your other siblings. You are done here. Leave. Or fall. And from that fall, you shall not rise again.”

  Chris listened, mesmerized. Jacob? Fighting? He couldn't picture it. But his tone was deadly serious and on the monitors it was obvious that Angelica was, if not afraid, at least cautious. She glared at him then turned back to Judge Hawkes.

  “Very well. Keep your prize, Ethan. When next we meet, I shall take what I want from this place.” She glanced at Jacob contemptuously. “And none of your little pets shall be able to stop me.”

  Angelica swept out of the room without a backwards glance and Chris saw Jacob leave behind her. The judge sat down again and seemed to wilt slightly. He stared down at the desk for a moment, then looked up at a camera. “You may come back in, Christopher,” he said.

  Chris got up, flicked a switch beside the closed door that slid open the bookshelf and walked back into the office. He took a seat in front of the judge, but was careful not to sit in the same chair that Angelica had used.

  “Well Christopher, what did you think?”

  “Think? Well, she wasn't what I expected, sir. She was a lot younger than I thought she would be. And pretty devious too. Good catch on your part, your honor.”

  The judge smiled. “Thank you,” he said, sounding a bit tired. “She has never been good at deception and obviously her allies have not taught her very well in its use.”

  “They know who I am, sir,” Chris said worriedly. “They obviously connect me with what happened last night.”

  “No, young man, they do not,” the judge said sharply. “That's why Angelica was here. She was fishing, trying to see if your arrival and the disturbance last night are indeed connected or not. And she learned...nothing, except that her wiles will not work. She left, not only empty-handed, but with us even more alert to our enemies and their thinking than we were before. Her superiors will not be happy with her, I'm sure.”

  “Sir, that was Jacob at the door, wasn't it?” At the judge's nod, Chris said, “But she called him Janariel.”

  “Janariel is the name of the angel within Jacob. When you see any of the teens in the house wearing what Jacob was wearing, it means that they are on duty and their angelic soul has been brought out into the open.”

  Chris was confused. “I don't understand,” he said.

  “It means that Jacob has allowed his angel's soul to take over his mortal body, which allows it to use its powers directly.” The judge's gaze sharpened. “That kind of cooperation takes perfect trust, Christopher. Something that you and Sariel do not have at the moment. Whether you ever will is something that is between you and him.”

  “So when I spoke to Tyler one night when I was outside and he was on patrol, I was actually speaking to his angel?” Chris asked in wonder.

  “Partly. An angel is near the surface when the teens are on patrol, as Janariel was when he confronted Angelica. But Jacob and the others aren't subordinate when their angelic souls are brought out of the darkness, so to speak. It is an amalgamation, a blending of the two personalities, each contributing to create a being more powerful than both.” The judge seemed wistful. “I am told it is a joining that is superior to any other, be it love or friendship or what have you. I will never know, of course.”

  Chris tried to imagine such a joining but he couldn't. He was too independent a person to give up control of himself to someone else, even an angel. I'll probably never know either, he thought.

  “Well, that's something we'll worry about in the future. For now, I wanted to ask if you noticed anything odd about Angelica, Christopher? Anything out of the ordinary.”

  Chris hesitated. “Well, maybe one thing. I don't know if it was a trick of the light or not, but I thought her eyes went red for just a second, when she noticed the cameras.” He felt a little silly for even mentioning it, but the judge smiled broadly.

  “Excellent, young man. Well done. It was not an illusion. You can now see what the others like you here can see; the presence of evil in a fallen angel. The eyes are the windows to the soul, Christopher. That is the one sign that they cannot hide, no matter how gentle and caring they may appear to be. Watch for it when you meet others out in the world. It is a sign that evil is very near.”

  Chris shivered again. A real demon, that's what the judge called these fallen angels. The idea frightened him more that he wanted to admit. He watched as Judge Hawkes reached into a pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He unfolded it and showed Chris the ring resting on it.

  “Don't forget this, Christopher. You may need it sooner than you think. If you decide to use it, that is.”

  Chris put the ring in his pocket. “So what happens now, your honor?”

  “Now?” The judge reached for his phone and dialed quickly. “Now we step up security. I think we've started something today and, unless I miss my guess, our enemies are going to move against us and soon.”

  Chapter 12

  Chris had lunch with Tyler and Jacob. He was a bit shy at first about speaking to Jacob about his angelic alter-ego, but surprisingly, Tyler was the one to bring it up.

  “So how does Janariel feel about Angelica, Jake?” he asked casually. Jacob stopped eating for a moment and appeared to be considering his answer.

  “Sad,” he said. “You know he can't hate, not really. He's sad that she betrayed him and the others. But he was ready to take her on if he had to. I'm glad it didn't come to that though.”

  Chris spoke up hesitantly. “You're okay talking about this stuff in front of me now?”

  “Yeah, of course. You passed the test, Chris,” Tyler said in a friendly tone. “Martin passed the word to all of us that you're one of the family now, so to speak, and if we want to discuss this stuff with you, we can. If you want to, of course.”

  Chris sighed audibly. “Thanks, guys. That is such a relief. I really wanted to talk to someone my own age about it, especially you two, since you're part of the whole 'angel' thing.”

  Jacob grinned. “Yeah, the 'angel' thing. Good name for it. So, any questions, Chris? Because I think we have a few. But you're the new angel in town,” he said with a grin, “so you get to go first.”

  Chris collected his thoughts and finished off his chocolate cream pie at the same time. He spared a quick thought for Chef's amazing cooking.

  “Okay. I think my first question for you guys is, do you know who I have basically 'riding' inside me?”

  “Nope,” Tyler answered after a quick look at Jacob. “Not a clue. Which frankly is weir
d because normally these angels know each other on sight, even if the host doesn't realize that they have an angel's soul.” He looked at Chris quizzically. “That's why we didn't tell you anything about it when we met you, Chris. We simply couldn't tell if you had one or not. Which is odd.”

  “Yeah, Chris, what's up with that?” Jacob asked. “Janariel is actually confused, which is a bit funny because he's usually so smart about this stuff.”

  “I think I know why, guys.” Chris waited a moment, not sure how his friends would react. “You see, I don't have an angel's soul inside me.” Both Tyler and Jacob began to talk at once but Chris waved them down. “Hang on, hang on. I'm not quite sure how to say this, so I'll just say it. I don't have an angel's soul inside me. I have an archangel's soul inside me.” Both of his friends stared at him with wide eyes. “Yeah, that's pretty much how I reacted too.”

  “An archangel's soul?” Jacob's voice was hushed. He looked around at the other tables in the dining room but no one seemed to be paying any attention to them. “But, I didn't think that was possible, Chris.”

  “That's what the judge said, too. But we saw him and I talked to him and yeah, he's really in there. Which still feels weird to say actually.”

  Tyler was staring intently at Chris. “What's his name, Chris?” he finally asked.

  “And this is where it might get weirder, guys.” Chris tried to sound reassuring. “His name is Sariel.”

  He wasn't sure how his friends would react but total silence wasn't what he had expected. Both Tyler and Jacob gaped at him for a long moment and then, almost simultaneously, their expressions went blank and they lowered their eyes.

  It's as if they're looking inside themselves, Chris thought. Talking to their angels? Maybe.