Angels Shade

by White, L. C

  “She has to enlighten alone. She will then heal the rift, and ascend to be by my side,” he states, as I remove my hands from my face at his comment. “This.” He points to the ceiling with a tiny hint of humanity in his tone. “This has always been god’s word.”

  “Fuck god,” I yell, tugging the chains to get closer to the bars, so close I can taste the rusty metal. “This is god’s big plan, she ascends, that means she’s dead!”

  His eyes close as he shakes his head down to his shiny leather shoes. “She’ll be here with me.”

  “You’re telling me she’s going to die for this, then become some stiff lifeless angel like you!” He’s still looking at his goddamn shoes. “Look at me dammit!”

  His view flashes up to mine and I see it. A rare glaze of regret over his ice-blue eyes. I knew her enlightenment would be dangerous, but I thought I could teach and train her. I thought I could save her. He wants her to absorb hell. He’s using her, like he uses everything. So what if she ascends. I’ve learnt how powerful she will be, but if she’s up here, she’s as good as dead and that power is worthless.

  “You can’t do this,” I say in desperation. “You can’t allow her to die.”

  “I won’t, but she will choose this. It is all a part of enlightenment,” he says. “It can’t be stopped, it has to run its course. And you knew that, Tristen.”

  “Shit,” I growl out and gasp into my hands.

  “I remember cutting the cord from your mother, and holding your tiny possessed body in my hands.” He gazes at me, reminiscing. “It was one of the signs. A child will be born from hell onto earth. He will protect fiercely. Fight freely. He will be followed by the light,” he quotes garbage I’ve heard a thousand times before, as I slam the palm of my hand against the bars in frustration. “You are that child from hell, and Beth is the light.”

  I turn my back to him and drag the heavy chains to the wall. “You know this is wrong. You know you can stop it,” I yell. “You say I’m supposed to protect her. How the fuck do I do that from here?”

  “You have done your part. Now it is Beth’s turn,” he says. “She will understand when she sees what I have to show her.”

  “She’s here?” I holler out as he turns to stroll toward the stairs.

  “She was always meant to come here. I will deliver her back to the world.”

  I run to the bars, pulling and hitting the metal. I shout after him until my vocal cords sting, but he won’t listen to reason. He doesn’t care about Beth’s human side.

  I turned myself in. I thought my feelings for her and what I really am, would cause her death. But I was wrong. This was all a part of it, to get me out of the damn way.

  Chapter Twenty One: The Mighty Michael

  Beth

  I have never in my life felt this frightened. My legs have locked up and my boots have fused to the black marble. I’m only meters away from seeing the truth, but the fear I have bubbling through my bloodstream, tells me it is better not to know. I wish I could just fall asleep and forget all this ever happened.

  Bennett turns back to me, sliding his hand away from his bloody shirt, wiggling his fingers for me to hurry. I can see how much pain and effort he’s gone to, to get me here. But still I know when I walk through that door, there is no coming back. It will be confirmation I don’t want.

  Bennett plods to my side and takes my arm in his. “Beth, this has to be done. A few more steps.”

  “I can’t.” I gulp down.

  “If anyone should be afraid of this meeting, it should be Michael,” he says. “You have done nothing wrong, so do not fear him, when he should be fearing you. He deserves to be uncomfortable.”

  “What am I supposed to say?”

  I had several lines of dialogue prepared in my head. But now I can’t think of a single one. The only thing I can think of, is that is the door that leads to my dead Dad. An impossible door to get through.

  “Think of Tristen,” Bennett says.

  I turn my head to frown at him. He used that name on purpose. He used it, because he knows it will fire me up inside. I’ll admit, for a millisecond, Tristen’s incarceration escaped my mind, because of this screwed-up reunion. But now I know, I’m not here for me. I came here for him.

  My eyes move back to the doorway as my foot lifts off the floor. I walk with Bennett by my side, my chest getting tighter with each step. I don’t know what to expect. My dad or an archangel. Will he remember me? Does he even care about me?

  I close my eyes as I step through the doorway and come to a stop. I keep myself shut in the dark, feeling Bennett’s arm sliding away from mine. The room I’m in is warmer. Even through my eyelids I can sense it is darker. And the floor beneath my boots is no longer hard as stone, it’s soft like carpet.

  My chest swells up and down as my pulse booms so forceful, I can hear it. I swallow down the nerves, my fingers clamped into the palms of my hands.

  A popping sound makes me jump. Not a loud pop, but the pop of a burning ember. Oh god, I can’t do this.

  “Bethany.” After all this time his voice is still the same.

  Tears leak out over my cheeks as I slowly part my eyes to see my dad, standing only feet away from me. Blood swells to the surface of my skin, making me sweat. My throat is so tight I can hardly breathe, and I’m shaking, weak, unable to move my eyes from his. He’s the same. The same hair. The same eyes. The same size. He’s still a man, and has no wings on his back, or a golden halo over his head.

  I look over my shoulder to Bennett. He dips his head to encourage me, as my eyes travel around the room. He’s standing by a tall narrow stained-glass window, set in a limestone gothic arch. I should have known this room wouldn’t be the same as the outside. It’s historic looking. Warm and cozy, with a huge solid dark wood desk, before a flaming fire. There’s a deep red rug beneath my boots, and the lighting is dim. There is no daylight in here like outside. It’s dark, like nighttime.

  Reluctantly, my watering eyes find their way back onto my dad. I’m too emotional to speak; I can’t believe what I’m seeing. My dad, dressed in a suit, in heaven. My head has turned to mush.

  He’s waiting for me to say something, but I can’t. Like after I witnessed his death, I need to touch and check to see if this is real.

  I take a terrified nervous step to him, bringing up my shaky hand. One by one my fingers extend to hesitantly touch his cheek. The memories of that night flood through me. I whip my hand away to muffle a gasp. I remember the moment he bundled me inside the kitchen cupboard, and made me promise not to leave no matter what I see or hear. His last words, telling me to be strong; telling me he’ll always be watching over me. The loud crash of his apartment door being kicked off the hinges. The noise of glass smashing and the struggle he put up. His painful wheezing growls. And the sweat and salty tears my hands soaked up, like they are doing right now.

  Closing my eyes, I slowly walk to his back. There’s nothing magical about him. He is just my dad.

  He’s standing still and straight as I inspect him. There are words building sentences inside my mind. Question after question.

  “You’re… you’re real,” is all I manage to say.

  “Bennett, you should leave us.” The first words I’ve heard him say since that night, and they are not for me.

  “I’m going to stay,” Bennett states.

  I hover in the background as Michael eyeballs Bennett. I don’t want Bennett hurt. He’s the only friend I have here.

  I wipe my wet cheek on my wrist and turn to him. “It’s okay. Just wait outside,” I utter.

  He lets go of a loud sigh, shaking his head as he walks through the door, closing it behind him.

  “Why?” I whisper behind Michael… my dad.

  He turns to me, his eyes soft and caring. “I have missed you.” He avoids the question.

  “I asked why,” I say again. “Why did you allow me to watch you die.”

  “I never died, Beth. I was called back,” he says. “My tim
e on earth was over. I had completed my work.”

  “That is what I am… work?” My voice cracks in anger. “All those years haunted by the blood, the Shade, it was all just work?”

  “To rise up into the light you have to suffer the dark. I suffered when they called me back,” he explains as my raw eyes glare at him. “I didn’t want to leave. I became a man, a father to you. But there are reasons, a chain of events that will remain on our path. We can’t hide away from them, it is inevitable they will happen to save souls.”

  “So you come down to earth and reproduce.” I smirk. “Did you brainwash my poor Mom?”

  “No Beth,” he snaps at me. “I fell in love with your mother.”

  “Yeah, enough to stick around for what… a few weeks after my birth,” I bite back, forgetting who I’m yelling at, because frankly I don’t care anymore. “And what was with all the days out, the ball games, the camping, the damn Grand Canyon. Was that all just for show too!”

  “No, I’ve already told you, I became more man. Your mother, Karen, was the sign. We clicked.”

  “Well, thanks for that riveting explanation,” I sneer sarcastically, exhaling a pent up breath.

  “I am sorry for what you went through, but I have always been there, watching you.”

  “No you have not,” I cry. “Being there is actually being there!”

  I stride to the door, tempted to walk out and slam it on his face. The real reasons I’m here have eluded me, and I feel like some girl meeting her deadbeat Dad for the first time in years. I’m here for answers, I tell myself. I’m here to find Tristen.

  “Where is Tristen?” I bark at him.

  “Tristen is being held for his own safety,” he answers.

  “Let him go!”

  “I’m sorry Beth, but that can’t happen.” He strolls to his desk, turning his back on me. “He, like you, has a role to play, and right now his role is done.”

  “This isn’t a game!”

  “No it isn’t. You think me inhuman, lacking the capability to love.” He looks at me with a serious glimmer in his eyes. “I do this for love. I’m doing this to save Tristen, and the Sentinels. Your mother, and Brother.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I tried to seal the tear, but doing so shook the world. My power was too great, and would have brought on the end of all,” he says, sighing out a breath. “I was given the ability to reproduce and live as a man. A child would be born able to see the darkness, feel it, one day be able to control it. You Beth.”

  “This is so ridiculous,” I grumble, rubbing my eyes.

  “You will enlighten and darkness will be drawn to you. You will defeat it and rise,” he says, matter of fact.

  “That simple is it?” I smirk. “What if I refuse?”

  “You can’t refuse it.”

  “I haven’t got superpowers. I’m nothing like you. The truth is, what I’ve seen scares the hell out of me! So how do you expect me to do this?”

  “You were never meant to be aware of what was happening to you. At the right time your soul, half my soul, will wake.”

  “So this is a suicide mission?”

  “Sacrifices have to be made.” He takes a step toward me. “The Sentinels have been fighting for this. If the boundary is not sealed, then each soul is lost.” He walks toward me, lifting his hands, so I take a wary step back. “You need to see,” he coaxes me to trust him.

  He rests his hands on the side of my temples. A flash of light and a piercing sensation makes me drop down into the chair behind me. I see the Sentinels collapsing to the ground, being taken by what once possessed them. Blood oozes from their eyes, as headquarters tremors and cracks apart into dust.

  Now I’m standing before my house on Drury lane, watching Jake riding his bike. A truck comes out from nowhere and squeals to a stop only an inch away from him, as I scream out. A man gets out of the truck, leaving the door open, and stares aimlessly at the sky. My view follows his and I see fire raining down to earth. Quickly, I turn back to Jake as a ball of flames wipes him away.

  I’m screaming, trying to rip Michael’s hands away from my head as Tristen then appears to me. His wings have been torn to shreds. He’s bleeding from his eyes and choking on his blood, lying in a puddle of rain outside Mesa High.

  “NO, STOP… STOP!”

  Michael’s hands move away from my face, as I slide off the chair and onto the floor in a weeping heap. Bennett’s brown shoes appear at my side.

  “What did you do?” he yells at Michael, trying to lift me up.

  The vision of Jake, Tristen, and the world in flames, chokes me. Why would he show me that?

  “She needed to see what will happen if she doesn’t enlighten,” Michael states.

  “I fuckin curse the day you found me,” Bennett yells at him. “I curse you!”

  I push Bennett’s hand off my elbow as I breathlessly struggle up to my feet. Gasping, I gaze at Michael with the horrors I’ve seen in my eyes.

  “Was that all true? Will that happen if I don’t do this?”

  “Yes. By god’s word.”

  “Screw you,” Bennett shouts. “Beth, you don’t have to do a thing he says.” I turn to see he has tears in his eyes.

  All my life I’ve been hiding away from the Shade. I knew it was there for a reason, I just never could understand what it was, until now. The Shade wants to use me to break through the rift, and if I don’t enlighten, what I saw will come true. I can’t allow that.

  I draw in a long breath, staring at Michael. He walks up to me, pulls me into his arms, and I allow him to. I close my eyes against his chest, beginning to understand him. I understand clearly what I have to do. If he sees what I’ve just seen every day, then I can’t blame him for using me to stop it.

  “I will be right there with you. You have my strength, and the will to walk through the valley of death.” His hand gently presses against my cheek.

  “Bullshit!” Bennett yells in the background.

  “If I do this,” I say quietly, pulling back away from Michael. “I want you to promise me, Tristen and my family will be safe.”

  “You have my word.”

  “And I want to see him… one last time,” I say, firmly.

  His torso moves back and his right brow dips at me, like he wasn’t expecting me to ask.

  “You need to be aware of how Tristen became what he is,” he says with doubt in his tone. “That you and he cannot be together.”

  “Don’t do this,” Bennett calls over.

  Michael sighs, shaking his head at Bennett in a threatening way. I breathe in a lungful of air as my heart quivers, afraid of what I’m about to learn, about the boy I’ve fallen for.

  “I know the Sentinels were all once touched by the Shade,” I say, gaining Michael’s attention. “But in a way, so have I.”

  “Tristen wasn’t taken by a lower demon. He was born possessed by one of the most feared and dangerous. A grade three who resides in the inner circle of Lucifer.”

  My fingers come up to press against my open mouth in shock. Why didn’t he tell me? Did he want to hide it for a reason? I know his touch, his heart, and I never saw any evil in him.

  “Apollyon,” Michael adds.

  “You son of a bitch,” Bennett yells. “The poor boy isn’t a threat, unless you make him one. He declared his allegiance to god, and to you, the moment you saved him. You have used him more than that demon ever did!”

  Michael moves a step back from me, glaring at Bennett. I slide my hand away from my mouth, knowing that if I don’t say or do something, Michael will retaliate. I take a wide stride to him and grip his forearm, making his eyes soften on me.

  “Okay,” I say in a deep breath. “And I don’t care. I still want to see him. Then… then I will do as you ask.” I gulp away the tightening in my neck.

  “Brave girl.” His hand runs down my cheek, before he walks around his desk.

  “And after I’ve seen him, I want you to wipe my mind
of all this,” I say. “If I’m going to do this, then I don’t want any knowledge of it. Like you said, it’s better for me not to know the how’s, when’s, and where’s. To just let it happen.”

  Michael arches over with his hands pressing down on the desk. His head rises and he looks up to Bennett.

  “Bennett, see this is done. I give you permission,” he says. “Once it is done, you have fulfilled your service to me, and you can go back to your life.”

  “I won’t do it,” Bennett yells in emotion.

  I turn and walk up to Bennett. I take his hand in mine, watching tears shine over his tired eyes.

  “Thank you,” I say, pulling him in for a hug.

  Chapter Twenty Two: Trapped

  Tristen

  I’ve always been taught that if I have doubts about belief and duty, I should repent. Basically punish myself for having an opinion. I’m beginning to realize it was all just bullshit brainwashing to keep me in line. Now I don’t want to be in line in this version of hell, following kamikaze orders. I don’t want to repent. I want out of these goddamn chains.

  I’m pacing the small stone cell; the grating of the heavy chains, irritating the hell out of me. Christopher stands on guard by the narrow stairwell, waiting for the other grays to return so they can take me to the Rack.

  I’ve heard all about the Rack, a chamber which is impossible to find or escape from. It’s like god’s own naughty step, designed to inflict the mind with pain and the images of hell for eternity. It’s like a horror story for Sentinels. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen it, or known a Sentinel be punished by it. It’s as though it’s mythical. A grim tall tale to keep us in check. I guess I’ll find out, soon enough.

  “Hey Christopher,” I call out, my arms and legs twitching with restless anger. “You remember Sister Caroline?” I look over to him, but he’s just staring into space like the obedient little Sentinel he is. “Remember, how she told us about the Rack being used to send bad boys into hells fire, if they didn’t do as they were told?” The jackass is completely ignoring me. “You listening to me?”