Child of the Morning Star

by Tatiana Carey

  The angel patted the girl’s head and laid a chaste kiss on her temple. She saw Lilith standing in the doorway. “Come on, come give me a hug.”

  “Bite me,” the demon growled but stepped into the room to sit by the bed.

  Semangelof smiled as the three chatted. He thought of how lovely it was to see his sister’s eyes filled with delight. Soon the imp twins came as well. One snuggled up to the princess, sobbing loudly, the other simply hugged the girl. After some gushing the pair came to him.

  “Thanks for saving us back there,” Darren said politely. Erin however jumped into the man’s lap and gave the firm cheek a kiss. The two laughed when the angel’s face turned a deep shade of red. Darren sat on the man’s other knee. The pair began laying kiss after kiss on the angel’s face. The two watched the distressed being look to their mentor.

  “Lilith, Lilith, help me,” Semangelof pled in vain. The soft lips were littering his skin and making him have unholy thoughts.

  The demoness merely smiled, “Sorry, Sem, they seem to like you.”

  Conversations began anew, despite the two imps refusing to get off the muscular lap. Semangelof stopped complaining though, they were keeping his legs warm.

  All soon realized that Atropa’s mind seemed to forget most of the fight. They all took turns refreshing her memory.

  “You went nuts when miss angel got stabbed a blew up a girl!” Erin recounted.

  “I did?” Atropa asked. She recalled the emotions, but not the events. It sounded cool though.

  Semangelof smiled, “You did, it was amazing. Thankfully none of those daggers were made to harm our kind.”

  “Or you, for that matter,” Sansenoy added. She wondered who had switched them out. The thought plagued her. She hoped it wasn’t one of the ones they killed, Sansenoy would have liked to thank them.

  “What happened to the other angels?” Atropa asked.

  Erin sighed, “Well, Castella got away with her girlfriend.” He rolled his eyes, “Lilith said it wasn’t right to kill cherubs.”

  “It isn’t,” the demon insisted.

  “They killed the weakest two,” Darren said pointing to Semangelof and Sansenoy. “Lilith ripped apart the others.”

  Atropa’s eyes went wide, “You did?”

  Lilith glared at the wall, “I thought they had killed you, of course I went berserk.”

  “It was terrifying,” Erin shuddered at the memory. “She tore through them like paper,” Darren explained.

  “Aw,” Atropa took her love’s hand, “All for me?”

  Lilith smiled and gave the girl a kiss, “Always for you.”

  * * *

  It took a couple more days for Atropa to fully recover. She no longer awoke with a sharp pain in her chest. The nightmares were finally subsiding, Lilith sleeping next to her helped. Her powers had also noticeable grown with her ‘mortal self’ dead. Lucifer had explained it, but she still didn’t really understand. She stared out at the reddened sky and wondered what kind of turmoil was happening beyond the clouds.

  Sansenoy had told her that chaos was spreading throughout the heavens. Apparently her sister had gone up there and had come back disheveled and shell shocked. Atropa cringed, remembering that Castella was Sansenoy’s niece. The girl wondered if a fruit basket would make up for making her vomit her guts out.

  Atropa stepped out onto the balcony. They had come back to Ravenblack, seeing as how the manor was still standing. Lucifer has left the day before. It seemed chaos had also spread down below. Atropa sighed, she had no idea how she was supposed to fix this mess. Couldn’t God have ended the world without wrecking everything?

  Nations around the globe were now panicked and scrambling. The fires and floods had killed millions and left many countries in shambles. She apparently had to address them tomorrow. The girl had no idea what she was going to say. ‘Hi, I’m the antichrist, I’m here to rule your world!’ was all she could come up with. She knew that wouldn’t work.

  “You want to offer up some advice?” she asked the sky. The creator didn’t reply, not that she expected them to. They’d been silent to everyone apparently, even Lucifer.

  The air shifted and made Atropa pause.

  She watched as the sky grew darker. A sense of dread and fear washed over her. Panic rose in her chest as the world began to shake. Another earth shattering sound ripped through the air. This one shattered the glass around her, causing the girl to duck in fright. Lilith was at her side in a flash. “I thought the horns were over?!” Atropa cried out in confusion.

  Lilith helped the other up, picking some of the shards of glass out of the crimson hair. She turned to the sky and gasped, “Oh my god.” Red eyes widened as lights began to rain down from above.

  “Lilith, what’s going on?” Atropa asked.

  She looked into the girl’s eyes. They were just as lost and confused, “I don’t know.”

  Atropa watched as the beams fell. Screams of terror could be heard. Lilith ushered her under the canopy. A body hit the roof and rolled off the balcony.

  For a split second, Atopra caught sight of it. It was an angel.

  Atropa felt her gut twist. More smashed into the Earth, some landing on the front lawn. The only noise that filled the air were the screams of the fallen. “What are you doing?” Atropa asked the clouds, “What are you doing?!”

  The sky turned black as a voice spoke, “I leave it all to you.”

  Atropa felt something pull away. Something violently ripped out of her and disappeared. Tears filled her eyes, something was lost and severed.

  God was gone.