AngelFire

by Luke Valen

  “We have been expecting you,” they all said.

  —§—

  “I wonder what is going on up there?” Bryon asked. The beings were no longer loud enough for the three on the ground to hear. The silent desert stood patient.

  Jade plopped down on the sandy hill, waiting patiently like the earth.

  —§—

  “Then you know what I have come seeking,” I said, standing tall and strong.

  “What you seek is within your grasp. You need only but the faith of a mustard seed,” they spoke softly, robotic and angelic at the same time.

  I forced my voice to be calm. “I have the faith, but where might I find my sword? I don’t remember. Please help me. I come humbly before you seeking what you guard.”

  “Seek not with your eyes, but with thine heart. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given to you,” they replied in riddle, spinning from ox to eagle.

  “I don’t know what you are saying. We are running out of time. There are dark forces at work and the Evil One is getting stronger. Please, Holy Guardians, I need your help. We all need your help,” I said. I didn’t know what else to do but beg. The weight of the world was heavy.

  “Your vision is clouded by the mind,” the beings said, shifting from face to face. “Purify your soul and clear your thoughts, only then will you see. Only then will your heart be set free from whence it last came.”

  “Where did I come from? What happened to me? I don’t remember! Why won’t you tell me!” I became enraged in a fit of helplessness, and my wrist began to glow a bright red.

  “YOU WILL NOT IN THE GARDEN OF GOD!” the beings clapped back with their earthshaking voices. All eyes illuminated a blinding white light, their tattoos lit up just as quick and of the same bright, glowing white light. “WE ARE THE GUARDIANS OF THE GARDEN. YOU WILL RESPECT HIS HOME!” Their voices were so powerful that I was knocked onto my back from the wind, blowing my face and hair like a powerful typhoon.

  “Guardians,” I spoke softly as I stood to my feet, “I do not mean to disrespect. Please accept my apologies. I seek only your wisdom and guidance. Show me what I must do to see—show me how I can find what I seek and once again defend the people.”

  A hand from the other being not holding me in the air slowly rose out of the clouds with an open palm upright and facing me dead-on. Approaching slowly, the palm began to glow a small, light blue glow the size of a human hand right in the center of its large barn-door palm.

  “Come and see,” the voices said.

  I moved forward, slowly stretching out my arm and bringing my own hand in line with the small blue glow. I closed my eyes just before touching down, but a second later I was launched backward once again, landing on my back on the soft surface of the supporting palm. The hand lowered from its position.

  “No.” My words were heavy and slow, breathing erratic as if I had been sprinting a marathon. “No. That is not true. What did you show me?!” I shouted with tears streaking my face.

  “You have seen the truth. Take this knowledge, and you will find what you seek,” the voices said calmly.

  “No! That isn’t the truth! That cannot be! I refuse it! I refuse what you have shown me!” I continued to shout through falling tears.

  “Leave behind the desires of the flesh,” the beings said. “Leave behind the wants of the world, the lusts of the heart. Then and only then will you become who you once were. Should you ignore this…YOU…WILL…FAIL—just as before.”

  “That is not what I asked for—that is not what I asked to see!” I shouted.

  The hand on which I was held in the sky began to lower itself down below the clouds and back to earth. “No! Wait!”

  “Seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given unto you. This is the world of the Lord. Go with God. Live by faith, not by sight.” The voices could be heard ever so faintly as I was lowered to the ground.

  “Where is it?! I don’t understand!” I continued to shout.

  The hand approached the ground. On my knees, I sat in defeat. Gently the hand turned, sliding my body off and onto the sand between the three others and once again returning to its resting spot above the clouds.

  “Agh!” I shouted and slammed my fists into the sand. Just as quickly as they had appeared, the holy beings disappeared in the strike of two bolts of lightning. The sky had turned to black. The sun had taken its final resting spot and gave ownership to the moon and stars. Uncountable, the stars were like diamonds tossed into the night sky.

  I rose to my feet.

  “Finally! I didn’t think you were ever coming back. Where is it? Can I hold it?!” Bryon said, making swordlike swinging gestures.

  My eyes were red from the tears, my face solid as stone. I turned and walked.

  “What’s wrong? What did I say?” Bryon stopped.

  Jade ran to stop me. “Dean. Hey,” she spoke softly, “is everything okay? What happened up there?”

  “Nothing. Coming here was a waste of time,” I said. Up the spine of the desert hill, I made my way.

  “What was that all about?” Bryon asked.

  Al ran after, following my path. “Dean. Where is it? Where is the sword?” he asked nervously.

  “I don’t know.” I continued to walk up the crest of the hill.

  Al jumped in front of me. “What do you mean? Where is it!” His large eyes widened.

  I stopped, throwing my hands up. “I mean, I don’t know! For all I know it’s gone! It doesn’t exist! There is no sword!”

  After a moment of silence, I turned and trekked on. Al stood dumbfounded and at a loss for words.

  Bryon and Jade had stayed back and watched the commotion unravel. Jade shook her head, disappointed, and turned the other direction, walking away as if seeking a moment of solitude.

  “Jade, where are you going?” Bryon asked.

  Jade continued walking in silence.

  “Well, that’s fine. I’m okay here all alone. I’ll just wait here,” Bryon said with bewildered eyes, scanning the dark desert void, jumping at the smallest noise. His eyes darted from side to side, dilating, trying to see all he could in the darkness of night. “Mannn…DEAN, WAIT UP!” Bryon said, running in my direction.

  Alone, I walked in the stillness of night. My path lit by the moon and stars with nothing but a dark void on all horizons. I went through every second of what the Guardians of the Garden had shown me. Against every fiber in my being, I fought it, denying the visions now burned into my mind. No.

  The faint sound of running footsteps tickled my ears. “Bryon, I’m not in the mood, man,” I said to the sound.

  The steps grew louder and quicker, fast approaching.

  “Dude! Stop!” I yelled, turning to scold Bryon.

  Without having time to even turn and face him completely, I was violently tackled to the ground. The blow had knocked the air out of me, and I struggled to regain my breath. Sand blinded my eyes as the small stones entered and cut the surfaces of the cornea. “What are you doing! Stop!”

  Taking punishment, blow after blow I wiped my eyes, clearing them of the dirt.

  When I could see again, I realized who was hitting me. “Al?”

  Al’s eyes were large and yellow like that of a feral cat, his teeth exposed like a shark attacking its victim. Hundreds of razor-sharp teeth lined his upper and lower jaw. His skinny, bony body was exposed from its clothing.

  “Where is it?! Where are you hiding it?!” Al shouted through his hypodermiclike teeth.

  I fought him off, holding his jaw open by the teeth, keeping him from ripping off my face. Blood dripped down my hands from the sharp teeth gnashing away to get free.

  “Ah!” A few of his teeth pierced my hands deeper. Punctured and bleeding, I maintained my grip. “Get off of me!” I shouted, kicking Al off.

  The crazed maniac went soaring through the air. More than a football field’s distance.

  “I know they gave it to you! I know they told you not to give it to me!” Al shout
ed as he stood up from the body-sized crater in the sand.

  “I don’t have it!” I shouted through heavy breaths. Where was Bryon and Jade? What did he do to them? The thought was like a carrousel—round and round it went.

  “LIES!” Al began sprinting at me once again. Like a locomotive, he came rushing in on the spine of the hill, eyes locked on mine. His claws exposed and teeth drawn, he barreled toward me. I stood ready this time.

  “Come on, come on,” I whispered to myself.

  My wrist remained human.

  “COME ON!”

  Nothing.

  Al was getting closer and closer.

  “Ahhh!!” I shouted, preparing for impact.

  “Not on my watch!” I heard someone yell.

  Bryon came hurdling in from the hillside, smashing into Al with all his force and knocking them both down the other side of the sandy dune.

  “Bryon! No!” I shouted, running after their now-rolling bodies. Careening down the hillside, they flipped head over heels, heels over head, side to side, kicking up dirt in their wake like a wheel of fireworks on the Fourth of July.

  Finally, their bodies came to rest at the bottom of the hill, barely visible in the dim night sky.

  “Ah,” Bryon groaned, placing his hands under his body and trying to lift himself up. Slowly getting to his feet, he looked around for Al. They had rolled the distance of a mountain down the hill. I ran as fast as I could. I could see Bryon stand up. Just behind him the sand began to move and rise, Al’s eyes slowly emerged from beneath the ocean waves of sand, glowing in the moonlight. Bryon didn’t see him.

  “Bryon! Watch out!” I shouted. Bryon turned, but it was too late.

  “I’ll kill you!” Al shouted, lunging at Bryon from beneath the sand and tackling him to the ground. “I have wanted to do this since you walked through my door, you worthless human!” Al yelled, swinging his sharp claws at Bryon, grazing his side.

  “Dean, get out of here!” Bryon fought to take control of Al’s swinging arms. Just as he did, Al lunged forward with his shark-like teeth and bit down.

  “AHH!!!” Bryon shouted as blood squirted from his neck and shoulder.

  “NO!” I froze in shock for a brief second. “GET OFF OF HIM!!” I shouted, sprinting toward Al and Bryon. As I was closing the gap, my wrist lit up a bright blue.

  The blue light flooded my icy veins as tears swelled my eyes, the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. My friend. I am the bleeding heart.

  Bryon lay motionless. Filled with rage, my ears began to ring. Dizzy with each step, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How could I not have listened? Bryon tried to tell me. My heart pounded in my stomach. I came swiftly in, grabbing Al and ripping him off Bryon’s weakened body, tossing him like a rag doll some distance away.

  “Bryon, Bryon…” I lifted him onto my knees and into my arms.

  “Hey, Dean, looks like I was right,” Bryon managed to force out, followed by a blood-gurgled laugh. He lay there on his back, blood squirting from his throat and sides.

  “Hang in there, buddy. Jade!” I cried out, holding Bryon’s weakening head. I looked around, left and right for her. Where was she?

  Bryon’s eyes began to droop. “Hey, hey, you stay with me, okay? You stay with me. You’re going to be all right, I promise.” I lied. I didn’t know what would happen to him.

  His body began to go limp.

  “Jade!” I yelled again. “Hang in there, Bryon, okay?”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Bryon said faintly through a weakening voice.

  “Your little friend wanted to be the hero. I just showed him what happens when you try to save another!” Al shouted from the distance, drooling spit and blood from his gaping mouth. Bryon’s blood. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill them all. The blue light quickly morphed to red. Hate.

  “Go. I’ve got him.” Jade came running in, taking hold of Bryon and looking over to me. Fear—I saw fear in her eyes.

  “Ahh, is poor little Dean going to cry?” Al pressed on. “I’ve always wanted to know what the tears of an angel taste like.”

  I faced him—he faced death.

  “Go kill that son of bitch,” Bryon managed to whisper out of slow, shallow breaths.

  “Come on! You’re weak! Just like your mother,” Al said.

  I am vengeance.

  I rose to my feet, looking away from Jade and Bryon. My body emitted heat waves as I squared up, eyes locked on my target with a thirst for revenge. Glass formed below my feet with each meltingly hot step. The veins in my body smoldered a red glow like lava flowing through the pipelines of this anatomy. Each step becoming quicker and quicker, I began to run, to sprint toward that which caused me pain.

  Al mirrored and dashed head-on in a game of chicken.

  Our silhouettes could be seen on the ridgeline of the sandy dunes, illuminated by the backlight of the full moon, two figures sprinting full force at the other. Collision inevitable.

  “Ahhh!” we both screamed, nearing each other, preparing for impact.

  Just as we were about to collide—

  BOOM! Lightning streaked through the sky, injecting the ground between us with pure purple-and-white energy. The two beings stood in their place, blocking the way between Al and me.

  “ENOUGH!” their voices came like sonic booms from a fleet of passing jets destroying the sound barrier as they slammed their identical golden scepters into the ground. Everyone covered their ears in agony from the sheer volume. Al and I in a standstill blocked by the enormous Guardians. “YOU WILL RESPECT THE LAND OF GOD!”

  Their eyes could be seen lighting the sky with pure white light hundreds of feet in the air. “YOU!” One of them pointed to Al. “YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE FOURTH LAW. FROM WHERE YOU CAME, YOU SHALL RETURN.”

  “No, no! Please don’t send me back! I won’t tell him where you are, I promise! Anywhere but there! Please no!” Al begged as the scepter once again hit the ground.

  A fissure began to form in the ground beneath his feet. A yellow-red aura came from below, and the sounds of cries and bloodcurdling screams broke the silence of the desert. Blackened and diseased hands reached through, grabbing hold of Al, pulling and ripping at his body. “No! No! I can’t go back! No!” His body, wrapped in bony, lesioned arms, was pulled slowly into the flaming fissure. The warm sands returned, covering the fissure into nonexistence.

  The night air became cool and slow. I ran back to where Jade was holding Bryon’s dying body.

  “Guardians, I beg you…help him,” I said from my knees, looking up to the sky.

  “From where four becomes one, giving life to the land, so too shall life be restored,” the Guardians said, lowering one hand to the ground.

  Lifting Bryon’s now-lifeless body into my arms, I walked over and onto the hand. Jade followed.

  Bryon’s head and legs hung motionless.

  The hand began to rise into the clouds, this time moving closer to the mountain in the sky. As they grew nearer, the mountain became more visible, tangible, covered in greenery, succulents, and trees of all kinds. Golden animals roamed the mountainsides, watching all that was happening. The Guardians lifted us to the top of the mountain where there resided a small pond surrounded by leaves of gold and animals that seemed to glow in the starlight. The reflection of the moon shone brightly in the still waters. From the miniature pond, four openings, one from the north, south, east, and west, poured water down the mountainsides, dropping off the floating rock and into the endless abyss of the vast skyline.

  “The four-headed snake,” Jade uttered. “We found it. This is where the Garden of Eden stemmed from. This is the water of life, the land of creation. Dean, we made it.”

  I looked over to Jade, still holding Bryon’s decaying body. I couldn’t feel any excitement. I couldn’t feel anything. Stepping off the hand and onto the grass, I carried Bryon to the pond. A soft, blue glow seemed to originate from the center of the waters. Surrounded by the trees, the animals came to se
e what was happening. Each glowing through the trees.

  One slow step after the other, my feet teased the water. Then my knees, then my hips. I stood there, looking at Bryon’s closed eyes and still chest, and gently dipped him in the waters. After a moment of complete submersion, I brought him up, spilling water off his lifeless body back into the pond. Hoping his eyes would open, chest move, for any sign of life…I stared.

  Nothing.

  “Come on, Bryon. Don’t give up on me now, buddy,” I said, holding him close. “We need you, pal. You need to be strong. I know you can hear me.” A beat passed and still nothing. “Why isn’t this working!” I shouted at the Guardians. “You said this would work! Save him!”

  “Oh, you of little faith. It is not us who can save the boy,” the Guardians echoed in their loud thundering voices. “You must believe.”

  “You have to do something quick, Dean,” Jade said desperately. “His brain will be hypoxemic any second now. He won’t be able to recover from that.”

  I looked back to Bryon hanging in my arms. “Come on, Bryon. I know you’re in there.”

  I lowered him into the waters once more, closing my eyes. My wrist began to glow a soft, white, luminescent glow. Tilting my head up to the sky, eyes closed, I whispered, “Please, God.”

  The waters began to glow brighter and brighter, the white light competing with that of the moon and stars. The burst of light slowly narrowed into a beam shooting straight to the heavens themselves. Jade shielded her eyes from the sunlike brightness of the wonder and glory of the light. The powerful beam gently receded back into the waters of the small pond. Bryon’s body still hung in my helpless arms.

  “Come on, come on,” I whispered.

  Bryon coughed and spit up water, opening his eyes. “What happened?” he said, reaching for my neck and sitting up in my arms. The numbness I had felt was overtaken by a rushing warmth.

  “Bryon!” Jade and I shouted with joy. Our eyes brightened and opened wide in excitement. The animals of the Garden seemed to glow even brighter as if in celebration. They cheered and danced around the illuminated pond in a beautiful array of light and love.