Crossroads (29 page)

“
Take that, you worthless
monster,” Davin shouted and gave Vivian a thankful smile as he
flipped back up. He somersaulted and landed behind more demons. I
couldn’t see what happened, but black ashes rained on the floor,
and without a trace, they vanished.

“
Ashes to ashes and dust
to dust you shall become,” I heard Caleb say as the demons were
executed.

Suddenly, without warning, Michael was
surrounded by ten of them. He gently pushed me to the side. “Stay
here under the desk.”

“
Come and get me!” he
shouted at them.

There were many of them swarming in
full force. I was terrified, worried about Michael. My fingers dug
deep into the floor as I took a peek. Michael’s wings were opened
slightly, and when they came close enough, he opened all the way.
His wings were like blades. He spun around, slicing one after the
other until all ten lives were taken, leaving Michael in a tunnel
of ashes. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. As soft and
delicate as his wings were, I would have never imagined that they
could be used as a weapon. It was frightening and completely
remarkable at the same time. Relief overcame me as I saw Michael
standing there without a scratch.

Unexpectedly, the table that I was
under disappeared. It was thrown at Michael from his blind spot,
knocking him across the room. I stood alone, exposed and
defenseless, as the demons edged toward me. Noticing a scalpel next
to my feet, I quickly picked it up and waved it in front of them.
Even though I knew I didn’t have a fighting chance, I had a burst
of adrenaline. I noticed Michael standing; ready to bolt across the
room in my direction. Before Michael could reach me, the demons
collapsed. I blinked in surprise, the scalpel shaking violently in
my hands. Then I saw Caleb, Vivian, and Davin standing right before
me. In that moment I realized three things—the three of them had
killed the demons standing before me, all the demons were
eliminated, and all of my friends were safe. Not to mention that
what had started as a storage room had now become unrecognizable.
It was unbelievable!

Knowing this wasn’t completely over, I
immediately turned to Aden. He was backing away with an intense
glare in his eyes. All the demons had turned to ash, and he was
left standing alone. Aden knew he was defeated; his eyes were
boiling with anger.

Michael tenderly touched my cheeks,
relieved that I was safe. He turned to Aden. “Can’t find enough
fallen to do your dirty work, so you had to play with fire? Went
down to see the devil himself? Are you crazy?” Michael’s voice was
loud and angry. “You don’t have that kind of power anymore. Who
helped you open the gates of Hell? What happens if they turn their
backs on you? You will leave the humans defenseless against these
uncontrollable demons!”

“
I am your superior. You
do not ask such questions!” Aden commanded and narrowed his eyes at
me. “And you…” He pointed to me. “Too bad Lucy got in the way. You
should have been there to protect her. It was too bad I had to go
through her to get to you.” He smiled a cold, evil
smile.

As he started talking about Gamma, I
immediately reached for the bracelet she made me. It didn’t hit me
at first. I thought Gamma’s stroke was due to her age, but it
wasn’t. Aden had killed my Gamma.

Michael gently placed his hand on my
back and said, “He is trying to get to you through your emotions.
Don’t listen!” His touch and his words calmed me.

“
Too bad she had to have a
massive stroke. I enjoyed making her suffer.”

My fists were clenched tight. I could
only imagine feeling the satisfaction of punching him, because
there was no way I could get close enough to do what I
wanted.

“
It’s not true. They don’t
feel any pain when they have a stroke, Claudia,” Davin spoke,
walking toward me.

Under normal circumstances that might
be true, but Gamma was an Earth angel. I couldn’t hold back any
longer. “What did you do to her?” I shouted.

“
Nothing much, just the
usual torture. She wouldn’t give me the answer I wanted to hear, so
I squeezed it out of her head. Such a pity. If only she had
cooperated. She could have lived another twenty years,” he said,
giving me that evil smirk.

“
You are the devil!” I
shouted angrily. “How could you?”

“
It wasn’t difficult. She
fought me with everything she had. She just didn’t have much
strength since she had aged.”

While listening to him, my body burned
with anger, like a wildfire blazing inside me. I felt like I was
going to explode.

“
Let it go, Claudia. His
powers are weak, with the demons out of the way,” Michael said as
he rested his hand on my back.

Then he focused his attention to Aden.
“Aden, now I know why you need the fallen and the demons. Besides
having them fight your battles for you, you feed on their evilness.
You draw from their energy. You are truly pathetic, and yet you
call yourself a leader.”

“
Come with me, Michael,”
Aden’s voice was deceptively sincere. “Better yet, why don’t all of
you come with me?”

“
Don’t waste your time.
We’re not mindless, like your puppets,” Caleb said.

“
Your time is up. Either
you surrender, or I will kill you myself,” Michael ordered, slowly
closing in on him.

Without a word, Aden started to laugh
hysterically, and just as Michael plunged into him, Aden
disappeared. His laughter resonated, sending chills prickling down
my back. His swift, sudden disappearance had startled me and all I
could do was stare at the empty space where he had just stood.
Where had he disappeared to? It didn’t matter where, as long he was
gone. I knew he would be back, and now I knew for sure the reason
why. Even though I was extremely relieved that he was gone, my body
started to shiver as my thoughts turned to Michael.

Michael was left standing where Aden
had been, his shoulders slumped, empty-handed and anguished. The
opportunity to eliminate Aden was in his hands, and just like that,
it had vanished. Knowing he would blame Aden’s escape on himself, I
needed to reassure him that it was not his fault.

“
Michael,” I cried out
softly with a raspy voice.

Immediately, he tilted his head and
looked at me.

I was also debating whether or not to
tell them what Gamma had said, when Michael grabbed me. “Are you
all right?” he asked. He caught me as my knees buckled, and stopped
me from falling to the floor.

“
Yes, now that you are all
safe,” I said, feeling relieved. My heartbeat finally steadied,
along with the shivers. His hold was all I needed to calm me. I
placed my head on his chest and let out a heavy sigh.

“
I’m sorry. We would have
been here earlier, but we were detained by other demons,” Michael
said, apologetically.

“
I know,” I said, as he
continued to embrace me. “That explains why the demons disappeared
while I was running away. I thought they were fallen. These demons,
where do they come from?” I asked Michael.

“
Demons, also known as
evil spirits, were angels, followers of Lucifer, and some are
children of fallen angels. They are disembodied spirits. They were
sent to a spiritual prison called “Abyss.” Humans call it “Hell.”
When they enter your world, these demons must occupy bodies of
unbelievers. Their eyes turn black so that we can distinguish them.
The only way they could be released is by a gatekeeper or by the
Royal Council. How they escaped is unclear, but the answer lies
with Aden. I do not know how he did it. The only thing that I could
think of is that he must have found a fallen gatekeeper to do his
dirty work. What puzzles me is that I can’t think of any fallen who
was a gatekeeper.”

“
Oh.” It was all I could
say.

There was dead silence in the room
until Davin spoke. “Well, we’re always happy to get rid of them for
you.” Then he pulled me out of Michael’s grip. “Share a little,” he
joked, giving me a tight squeeze.

I sucked in my breath from the
tightness.

“
Sorry,” Davin said,
chuckling while releasing me. Then he became serious. “I’m just
glad Aden disappeared instead of making us disappear.”

“
Well, he didn’t have a
chance. It would have been four against one,” Vivian answered back.
“Since his powers were weakened, I think we could have taken him
out. I believe he knew that as well, so he just
disappeared.”

“
That’s true. We were
lucky that he was getting weaker with the demons out of the way.
But what puzzles me is what he could possibly want with you,
Claudia.” Davin looked at me with curious eyes.

I didn’t answer.

“
There must be something
else besides you crossing over to Halo City, because he wouldn’t go
to this much trouble bringing the demons to Earth,” Vivian said.
Then she turned her attention to Michael. “What do you
think?”

“
I don’t know. Let me
think about this,” he said, brushing the question off as if it
wasn’t important. “No more questions,” he demanded. “Claudia has
had enough. We’ll talk later.”

The alkins didn’t ask me any more
questions after that. Everyone had something to say, except for
Caleb. I could tell Caleb’s thoughts were elsewhere. I ran to him
and embraced him. He was as stiff as a board. “I…I…thanks,” he
said, surprised as he leaned away from me.

I didn’t care, nor was I insulted by
his action. He was here to help me, and I was grateful.

“
Don’t mind Caleb. He
isn’t used to it. I think physical affection was missing in his
previous life on Earth,” Vivian spoke as she patted Caleb on the
back. Caleb quickly looked down, feeling uncomfortable with
Vivian’s words.

“
You know nothing about my
life on Earth, and none of us remember our past,” Caleb said as he
stared into the space where Aden had been. Caleb turned and looked
at us. “What made him turn so evil? I could only imagine that he
was once a good angel, don’t you think? It must have been hard to
avoid such temptations that were forbidden, only allowed for the
humans. I think eventually, when you live among humans, you think
and become like them. Look at us! We miss being here even though we
can’t remember our past, whether it was pleasant or not. It’s the
freedom to choose, to love, to live to the fullest, that we all
hunger for.”

“
Wow, Caleb! That was the
most you’ve ever said,” Davin said jokingly, placing his hand on
Caleb’s shoulder.

Smiling, Caleb pushed Davin a few feet
from where he stood. “Shut up!” he said playfully. “You talk too
much. Sometimes I have important things to say. I may not share
what I’m thinking, but I think about many things.”

“
We all think about “what
ifs.” We wonder about our lives on Earth that we have no memories
of,” Vivian responded.

Michael wasn’t paying attention to our
conversation. He suddenly wrapped his wings around me as he was
deep in thought, staring into the same space where Aden had stood.
He looked worried. “Aden will be coming back with more fallen and
demons. He’s just testing our limits. His army is growing,” Michael
said, looking extremely concerned. He tilted his head toward the
door, grabbed my hand, and said, “We should get going.”

About halfway out the door, I noticed
Caleb standing in the middle of the room with his arms stretched
out. The door behind us closed by itself, and Michael whispered
into my ears, “He’s putting everything back, cleaning. We call him
the sweeper.”

My eyes practically popped out. “I
see,” I said, looking behind my shoulders only to hear soft noises.
It was incredible to witness their powers: Davin, the gatekeeper,
Vivian, the locator, Caleb the sweeper, and Michael, with multiple
powers and more I had yet to witness. Michael was amazing just the
way he was, and it didn’t matter if he had any powers at
all.

Chapter 19

We stepped inside the elevator, and
all the mixed emotions I stored so tightly inside began to unveil.
The adrenaline that pumped through my body as I was running for my
life had temporarily pushed aside the loss of Gamma. Now that I was
safe, the reality of Gamma’s death settled in. So many overwhelming
circumstances had taken place within a short period of time. My
body became weak, and I thought I was going to faint. I just had to
hold myself together for a little while longer.