When Angels Fall (4 page)

One half of her brain; the sane half
, said that this was impossible.
It said that
there were
no
angels,
no
Devil,
no
God, and
no
Hell.  The other half of her brain was telling her to
run
; to get as far away from
here as she possibly could, because if any of this crazy man’s
story was true, then she was screwed, because her
angel
had fallen back into the same catatonic state he’d been in when she
’d
left
him in
the hotel room.

She wanted to give in to the urge to run, but she couldn’t get her legs to move. Her feet might as well be nailed to the floor for all th
e good they were doing her. And
the smell was getting stronger, like it was now coming from inside the house
itself
. The lights started flickering in the old chandelier hanging from the 12’ living room ceiling.

She was at the point of screaming when the angel dropped to one knee and, head down, raised his right arm above his head. Something big and shiny
broke through the front window
and flew into his
outstretched
hand. It was a
sword
; a huge silver sword at least 5’ long.

As soon as the sword touched his hand, the angel flexed his shoulders forward.
Dani
would never,
for
as long as she lived, forget what happened next.
Wings
; enormous golden wings tipped in white, unfurled from the angel’s back. He sprang to his feet, and turned to her.

3.

“Get over here,” Gabriel commanded.

Thankfully, she didn’t hesitate; she pulled her feet from the floor, ran over and stood before him. He put his ha
n
d on the top of her head, and crushed her to the floor.

“Stay there, and
don’t
move,” he ordered.

She didn’t argue with him. She may not understand exactly what was going on, but he could see she knew something was amiss.

Gabriel stood stock still as a foul, noxious mist started to swirl in the spot Danielle
had
been standing in just moments
ago. He saw her watch in horror
and amazement as the mist swirled, then solidified into a fully formed man.

At first glance, he looked like a perfectly normal man; and
he
wasn’t
naked. Danielle c
ould at least appreciate that. The demon was
wearing jeans, tennis shoes and a
Kiss a Pig
t-shirt with a picture
of a
pig’s ass on the front of it. But when you looked into his face you couldn’t miss n
oticing the glowing orange eyes
and the thin tendrils of black smoke coming from his nostrils.

“Well, shit,” the demon said when he looked at Gabriel.

Black smoke curled from his mouth when he spoke.

“Vetis,” Gabriel said.
“I’d like to say it’s nice to see you again, but I think we both know that’s not the case.”

“We didn’t think you would actually come,” Vetis said.

“Surprise,” Gabriel said.

“Look,” Vetis said.
“I know you despise humans more than the rest of us, so why don’t you hand over the girl and
let this science experiment end.
What
do you say?”

“I say no,” Gabriel said.
“
I don’
t defy the orders of God.
”

“Sure you do. Isn’t
defying
God’s orders what brought you here today?” Vetis asked.

“Yes, it is,” Gabriel said.
“And I intend to rectify that situation as soon as possible.”

“You’re not strong enough to defeat Lucifer,” Vetis said, “He’ll kill you.”

“Maybe, bu
t you won’t be around to see it,” Gabriel said.
“Good-bye, Vetis.
”

Gabriel used one golden wing to sweep Ve
tis to him. He raised his sword
and drove the blade into Vetis’s heart.
Gabriel pulled the blade
from Vetis’s chest, and fire shot from the wound. The flames spread up and down his body u
ntil it
completely consumed him.

Then, in a foul cloud of smoke, Vetis was gone. The only sign that he had been there was the lingering smell of sulfur, and a scorch mark on the carpet.

4.

“Are you alright?” the angel asked.

“I think so,” Dani said
,
as he
pulled her to her feet. “Was t
hat…that man, he was…was he a….
”

“
A d
emon?
” he asked.
“
Yes, he was; and there are many more where he came from. Can I assume that you’re now willing to take this seriously?”

“Yes,” Dani said.
“
Absolutely
.
Just tell me what’s going on, and what I need to do.”

“So
now
you wan
t to hear what I have to say?” t
he angel asked.

“I said
yes
, didn’t I? What do you want? A
hand written apology? Tell me what to do!”

“To start
with
, you can stop shouting at me, and show m
e a little respect,” the angel said. “
Then you can sit back down and
listen to me
.
”

She glared at him, but sat back on the couch as
he
instructed. If she had to put up with him to get through this alive, then she wou
ld find a way to muddle through,
but she
really
didn’t like him. She found him to be superior in his attitude, unsympathetic
,
and rude. She could see why he was sent to Earth; they probably couldn’t put up with him in Heaven.

Heaven
! There
really was a Heaven!
As much as she thought she would never believe in such a
place, she believed it now. And
she believed this angel had come from ther
e to save her
and the human race. All these things were going through her mind when another thought popped into her head. Her mom!

“Did my mother go to Heaven?”

“That’s not important now,” he said.
“
We have m
ore pressing matters to discuss.
”

“It’s important to me,” she said.
“
I’d like to
know that all the faith she had
and all the going to chu
rch that she did wasn’t for nothing.
”

“Yes, you
r
mother went to
Heaven, j
ust as
you
will after your time on Earth has ended,” the angel said.

“Do
you
decide who goes to Heaven or Hell?” she asked suspiciously.

“No, I do not
. Those decisions are for
God
and God alone,” he said.

“Then how can you possibly know that I’m going to Heaven? What if I murder someone? Wouldn’t that put me on the ‘no entry’ list?”

“No, it wouldn’t,” he said.
“
It wouldn’t matter if you were a serial slayer of newborn children;
all
that carry the
blood of God goes to Heaven.
”

“Well that doesn’t seem fair. I should have to be judged like anyone else,” she said.

“Finally,
” he said.
“Something
we agree on; now can we continue?”

“Sorry,” Dani said, and rested her tire
d head on the back of the couch.
“Go ahead.”

1.

“Please pay attention this time. What I’m telling you is
vaguely
important to the current situation,” he said.

Danielle pulled her knees up to her chest, folded her hand
s
and rested her c
hin on them, “I’m one big eardrum.
”

He sat down o
n the opposite end of the couch
and pinched the bridge of his nose. Even after everything that had happened; everything she
’d
had seen, she still couldn’t stop bein
g what humans referred to as a
smartass
.

He closed his eyes, took another quick look around the perimeter of the house to make sure there wouldn’t be anymore surprises, and then continued his story.

“You remember I told you that you’re the la
st human on Earth to carry the B
lood of God?” he asked.

“That was
like
five minutes ago, of course I remember,” she said.

“And that if you die then humanity is lost?” he asked.

“Yes, but I don’t
understand that part,” she said.
“If it was s
o important to destroy all the B
lood of God on Earth, why not just kill Mary before she had a chance to have another child? I mean, wouldn’t
it
have been easier to do it that way than to wait two millennia to kill me?” she asked.

“It would’ve been
easier
,
and I’m sure Lucifer would have ordered his demons to do just that if he’d
known what God’s plan was. But
by the time he figured out that God’s blood still walked the
Earth after the death of Jesus, it was too late;
Mary had already had her child.
”

“Why not just kill Mary
and
her daughter?” she asked.

“They couldn’t,”
he said.
“
When m
ore than one human carries the B
lood of God, no demon can touch them
.”

“Couldn’t Satan have killed them?” she asked.

“No. The first thing you have to remember is that Lucifer is
, first and foremost,
an angel; a fallen angel, yes, but
still
an angel. He has to respect the will of God. It didn’t work out for him too well the last time he stood against God.

“
Our Father decreed that Lucifer could only rise from Hell when only one person
carrying His blood remained. Lucifer
was locked
in the pit until three days ago
when your mother died
.
”

“What would
happen if he ignored God’s will?
” Danielle asked.

“If he interfered with the B
lood
of
God, God would smite him,” the angel said.

“Why hasn’t he smote him already?”

“For the same reason that Lucifer n
ever attempted to kill Jesus,” he said.
“
No one wants to kill the son of God; not even God himself, Danielle, and Lucifer is
still
a son of God
.
”

“Dani,” she said.

“What?”

“Please, call me Dani. No one but my grandmother ever called me Danielle,” she said.

“Dani, then” he said.

Saying her name caused an unexplained tightness in his chest.

“Speaki
ng of which, do you have a name?
I
just
ask
so I can stop thinking of you as ‘
the angel’
?”

“You may call me Gabriel, if you wish,” he said.

“Gabriel? As in t
he
Archangel
Gabriel?” she asked in
a little
bit
of the awe
that Gabriel
had been waiting for.

“Yes,” he said.

“Wow; you’re like
a
really
upper
level
angel.
”

“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Gabriel said.

“It’s the
only
way to look at it. One of the four Archangels is in
my
house!
” Dani said.
“
If my grandmother was
still alive, she’d shit herself.
”