Arabesque Ending Chronicles IV ~ Vampires/Werewolves: Murder or Love?

Everything was black. But I could hear things so clearly it was scary. There were a few moments of crisp sight every day, but other than that I saw nothing and felt nothing. There was a vacuum of nothing except sometimes I heard conversations, enough to understand where I was and what was happening to me. I was totally numb, so the pain didn’t hurt that much. Not like it used to for us.  There was also no heat whatsoever. I didn’t even generate body heat anymore; the only thing keeping me alive was the small amounts of ambrosia they gave us each day.

                I guess I should probably explain you might be a bit confused. I was born as cattle on one of Jupiter’s moons. It’s called Ganymede. It’s very cold which works for the Bèt Nan Bwa Baton. Which is the crossbreed race made from Werewolves and Vampires; they colonized on one of Jupiter’s moons before I was born. They bred my father a werewolf and my mother who was human to make me. They haven’t come up with a name for me yet though. Anyway, years ago the Bèt Nan Bwa Baton, smarter than the last generation obviously started creating human farms and they bled us to the brink of death every day, before giving us ambrosia, a drink that healed the gods. 

                I was a failed experiment, so I am treated less humanely than most others, all except the resisters. I am left outside immobilized in the freezing weather, and they have sealed me in my cave. Sometimes they take me out of my tomb, just to tease me though. And I am tortured by the cruelty of them. I tell myself each time they do this that they will pay, and though I know they won’t, I keep doing it. Normally people would just give up and stop taking the food that they give us scarce amounts of, but I don’t have that choice, since I am something not human, they pump nutrients into my body, I can’t really stop this process. And since there is only a couple people they experiment on we are known as a delicacy. They take more blood from us than they do from ordinary humans, also my blood type is extremely rare, and the count of people with blood type CO₂ is in the single digits. I actually don’t know all this; I only remember hearing voices discussing things such as these. I also know that Jerry’s kreye patenarya san is committing adultery on him. How do they still care about things like adultery, and here they are pumping blood out of our bodies and  letting us die a little bit inside every day?

                I wonder how the hybrids live with themselves. Do they not feel remorse for nearly wiping out the entire human race? I hope they do, I hope it haunts them in their dreams. But not all Hybrids are cruel and cold on the inside some of them breathe and they have emotions and feelings and they still have human genes in them from their transformations. I found all this out one day. When Sovè came into my life, I was lying there in pure darkness contemplating how exactly to keep them from drinking my blood when my tomb was suddenly opened and a gale of wind swept over me.

                I shivered but it wasn’t because of the cold, I was accustomed to that by now, it was because I knew what came next. Assault physical, sexual, and verbal, my life was about to be made into a living hell for about ten minutes once again and I was scared. More than usual, I could feel my strength, it was less than it had been lately, they must have dropped my ambrosia supplements again. They do this a lot to worsen your morale. It works more than they think it does, most subjects become dependent on it, and they would give up their air supply for a day if their ambrosia was raised.

                Then a figure looked down at me and I realized I hadn’t seen this one before. He was different. He didn’t wear a uniform as the guards that messed with me did. He wore a leather jacket and a green grey t-shirt. He smiled at me and pushed back his blond hair. He called to someone over his shoulder something that was inaudible and unintelligible. I strained my finely attuned ears to hear but couldn’t. Then suddenly I was covered in spotlights and the man was down in my tomb holding me in his arms, I saw his face clearly now and he smiled at me. My bare body was freezing now; we were flying through the air on some kind of cord, being raised into the air. 

                I was cuddled up to the burly man now, his long blond hair was falling on my shoulders and it tickled slightly, I could still barely feel it. There was no way I would be able to walk, my bone marrow and blood have been harvested, if anything the most I could do was sleep, but I hadn’t done that my entire life. Not slept, I’d been passed out but never asleep willingly. So if he set me down, my tibias would snap in half, my bleeding would be slight and I’m pretty sure they would never be able to be mended.

                I couldn’t even hold on to this man without his help. We were back on the ground now and in a gruff voice he told a short girl “This one’s special, I think they’ve been experimenting on her.” The girl nodded and held out her arms to take me. Now I could feel the girl’s body heat. The man must not have been human because he had none. The woman took me into a dark room inside a big industrial looking building; possibly it used to be a hospital. I’d been in those when they decided that I was special.

                When the woman endeavored to give me a shot I attempted a futile struggle “its’ okay dear, no one is going to hurt you now.” She reassured me. I calmed down a bit but still winced when the needle penetrated the nerves that had been frozen for my entire life. Then I could feel again, not enough to do anything about it, I was still too weak to even move. I shut my now wide open eyelids and passed into obscurity of perdition even worse than the one I had anticipated when my tomb door was hastily slid open.

                When I woke there were no lights in my room, but a faint sunlight which I would not have noticed had there not been a man being framed by it, standing two feet away. I gasped then realized I had just made a noise I hadn’t been able to make in at least 14 years. My eyes widened and I shut them, the man had turned quickly in my direction. He turned away and I opened them again, but then he turned back to me and I knew he had caught me awake. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He said in a thick Scottish accent. I attempted to reply with a bratty retort, but my voice was cut off by strangeness. I hadn’t been able to even use my voice box my entire life, or not anything I remembered.

                He quickly flicked a blond strand of hair out of his face and looked pitifully down upon me. This man wasn’t human, what was he? A human right’s activist possibly, the men I had heard liked to compare how many they killed in a week. The man walked slowly over and kissed me on the forehead. I made an effort to raise an eyebrow at him. He laughed at this wiping a tear away and walked out of the room. The sunlight passed and I felt a strange sense of comfort as I was blanketed by cold. I stayed awake and thought about what had just occurred, and by the time I decided I would ignore it, the woman who had given me a shot came in and turned on a lamp. She had caramel coloured skin and long dark hair, she had green eyes which were very beautiful, but I thought nothing of this when I saw her, the only thing I could do was stiffen and hope she didn’t give me another shot. She saw this small movement and smiled at me.

                “I’m not going to hurt you.” She said

                “That is what everyone tells me but I don’t believe you.” I answered through blue lips.  The woman stopped whatever she was doing and came over and sat on my bed. I could barely move I was still near immobile, but I managed to squirm away a bit.

                “I know what you’ve been through. Well, actually I don’t . . . I was a human and alive when this all happened. You were born into it, judging by your face you’re only about thirteen. And you were born into an experimental cause. And I am sorry, I’m so so sorry. . . But no one can prevent you from becoming a werewolf.” I squinted at her and said.

                “Sixteen,” but I didn’t blame her. Ambrosia works sort of like the fountain of youth. And werewolves stop aging when they hit puberty. So, in a human’s mind I would look thirteen, but other werewolves could tell how old I was just by glancing into my eyes. “So what is this, have they finally outlawed experimenting or something?” The girl sighed.

                “If only, no we are a group that consists of humans, vampires, werewolves, and hybrids, we are against the human’s being farmed for their blood and bone marrow, they guy who saved you, Sovè, is one of the most extreme of us, he’s a werewolf, like you.” That was her one mistake.

                “No! I will never be like him! I am a human being!” I said jerking wildly, I had weak motor controls and couldn’t do less than thrash mindlessly around.  The girl put her arms lightly on my shoulders until I calmed down and corrected me.

                “No, there is a difference between human and humane. Not all humans are humane and not all humane beings are human.” I pondered this while I was fed food and swallowed a treasure trove of pills, when I asked what they were the girl, Aquamarine, I found out her name was, answered in quick succession “Ambrosia, protein, strength, normal eating habits, bone marrow regrowth, and alcohol (to help you sleep). And half a gallon of water three times a day to rehydrate you.” I shrugged and fell asleep. When I woke up, I once again found the man in my room and this time he was asleep in the chair in the corner. I fell and he woke up, hastening over to me. I could still barely feel anything and I tripped over a torn up tile in the floor. Aquamarine rushed into help me, but I couldn’t feel the pain, apparently my ankle bone had been fractured. Sovè stayed in the back of the room observing, but when Aquamarine left after giving me an even bigger amount of pills than before, he stayed in his chair looking out the window. 

                “Do you know who I am?” He asked me. I simply shook my head and he got the message. Nodding he got up and came over to kneel at my bedside. He asked “What about your name, do you know that?” I once again shook my head and he sighed sadly. He was going to have to spell it out for me in two sentences. Whispering intimately in my ear, “Your name is Rori McCullen. And I’m Angus McCullen. I’m your father.” He pulled away to see a shocked and confused expression. Seeing that I had no idea how to respond to this he left the room to give me time to think about this.

                “Rori McCullen. . . ” I said to myself. It had to be true, why would he lie about it? I had never actually seen myself in a mirror; I could look exactly like a female version of him, only smaller. I turned my head slightly to see white blonde hair lying on the pillow beside me. I needed to find a mirror. It was almost imperative. But I couldn’t move, almost as if she had heard my thoughts Aquamarine walked in and started toward my pills. “Aqua . . . could you do something for me, can you bring me a mirror? I need to see myself. ” She cocked her head to one side, and seeing no problem with this request she said

                “Okay, but then you have to get your pills and go to sleep.” I nodded in agreement. She left and came back in with a full body mirror. She set it next to my bed and helped me sit up so I could see myself. I was little more than skin and bones. I could see my ribs and jaw prominently sticking out, my knobby knees worse in this condition. I looked like a tiny thirteen year old anorexic. But I ate regularly every day, no wonder they gave me weight gaining pills. The only actual hair I had on my head was thin and wispy, barely visible as it was white-blonde. It was very long but the strands were brittle and my face was badly sunken, I could see my cheekbones, and there were shadows under my eyes.

                My feet were long and my toes were thin. My ankles were nearly identical except the right one, the fractured one, was slightly purple. And my shins were just that, shins, there was no visible calf behind it. My knees were little more than patella’s and it was difficult to see through the gown they gave me, but my thighs were almost skinnier than my shins, and my waist and hips had no difference between them. It was all mostly torso. My hands gripped the side of the bed with fear as I saw this horrifying image of myself.

                I could’ve cried. But I didn’t “Okay Rori, I think that’s enough.” Aqua said. I fell on my back and Aquamarine turned the mirror toward the wall, she put all of my pills in a small glass and set it next to a giant glass of water on my nightstand. I sat back up, with gentle help of Aqua. She was the only person I’d met here. Putting the nightmarish image out of my mind I asked

                “Aqua, are you and Angus the only people here?” Aquamarine looked a bit baffled by this question.

                “Of course not sweetie. Why do you ask?” I swallowing the biggest pill first, answered

                “Are there any people my age here?” Aqua smiled and said

                “Yes, are you lonely?” I faintly nodded “Okay, I’ll send someone in tomorrow to keep you company when you wake up.” I smiled my thanks as I finished downing my last pills. The next morning a handsome boy who might’ve been 20 or 21 knocked on the doorframe. I said

                “Come in.” He came in and looked around to see me attempting to throw the mirror out the window. There was a wheelchair Aqua had left me for today. He smiled at my efforts and took it away from me. Placing it in the next room over he said to himself this one is independent, better watch out for her. He walked back in and sat down in Angus’s chair, which was not in the least happy about his daughter who he’d never even met before already flirting with other boys.

                “So, what’s your name?” He asked politely. I answered unsurely.

                “Well, this guy who is apparently my father, but I’ve never even met him before in my life, told me it was Rori.” The boy understanding held out his hand and shaking his bangs out of his face said

                “My name is Symon.” I smiled and repeated him. The name sounded good coming out of my lips, it rolled off my tongue nicely.

                “Are you a werewolf too?” I asked inquiringly.

                “That is a very rude question.” He answered flirtatiously. “But I suppose since you are of no threat at the moment, yes.” I smiled at him and showed my fangs, which were sharpening every day. He smiled back and my mouth fell closed at the sight of his fangs, they were perfect canines, I would have thought he was half saber tooth instead of wolf if they were only a bit longer.

                He moved over to the opposite side of my bed and said “So. . . Rori, what’s your favourite colour?” I cocked my head confused and asked

                “What’s a colour?” He pursed his lips as if in contemplation. Then he realized that I must have been a special case. He took a picture out of his back pocket. There was a half circle on it and there were hues of colours stuck into it. He said

                “Pick the one you like the most.” I stared at the picture carefully and pointed at the light colour in the middle of it. He looked at it and smiled.

                “That’s yellow, it’s mine too. We might be good friends.” He concluded carefully tucking the picture back into his back pocket. He layed on the bed and asked “What was it like . . . being in a tomb I mean. I don’t think I could live without seeing the small amount of sun we get each day. ” I looked at him and answered

                “You would if you’d never seen it before.” I said philosophically. He looked shocked at me.

                “You’ve never seen the sun before?” I shrugged and shook my head. He smiled at me and said “Well, we’re going to have to fix that.” I looked at him questioningly and he said “Be awake early tomorrow, okay?” I nodded as if I actually understood what he was saying. He got up abruptly and touched my hand. “I’ll be back, okay?” I smiled and said

                “Okay” As Symon was walking from my room, he stopped to talk briefly to Aquamarine. Though I didn’t hear it he said to her

                “Wake her up two hours before sunrise. Please and thank you.” Aquamarine, raising an eyebrow nodded and watched him walk away. He ran away to fix the perfect day for tomorrow. I was sitting there still feeling my hand where Symon’s hand touched mine and it was still warm when Aquamarine came into my room and asked

                “How was it? Fun, I bet.” I looked up at her and nodded. She smiled and said “Got to go to bed early tonight okay? Don’t ask any questions.” She said in one breath. I shrugged my shoulders and pointed to the pill box, Aquamarine laughed and said “Not now, just earlier than usual.”

                “Okay.” I said nodding. Aquamarine pulled out her book and she said

                “Want me to read to you?” I nodded enthusiastically and Aquamarine started with a poem from Walt Whitman. And after taking my pills I fell asleep listening to Shel Silverstein.

                The next morning I was extremely tired when I woke up to Aquamarine shaking my shoulder. “Come on girlie, time to get up.” I looked at her like I despised her. She smiled and said “Not my orders, blame Symon.” I grunted and sat up the light made it hard to see, I had to squint. Symon was standing outside the doorway with a chair that looked like a pretty version of the one I used to move when I got off the bed. He flashed his canines at me. I smiled and did the same. He had dimples when he smiled I noticed. He walked down the hallway saying

                “Get dressed and we can go, and be back faster.” I pointed at the dress Aqua had helped me put on. And we got me dressed. I attempted to walk out to Symon, my ankle was mostly healed and I was feeling much more nourished than I had been. I was walking down the stairs trying very hard not to fall. My feet were bare so the pads made smacking noises as I jumped slowly and gently down each step. It hurt but I didn’t want help, so I kept going until I basically (don’t mind the cliché) fell into Symon’s arms. He stumbled a bit under the almost complete dead weight, but then I straightened myself up and started walking forward without him. He hurried to catch up with me.

                “Where are we going?” I asked him. He answered almost straight away.

                “Well, it’s a surprise.” He donned weird looking goggles as we walked out the doors, he held one open for me. I learned later that this was an act of gentlemanliness, but at the time I hated him for it, I thought he was making it abundantly clear that I had never done any of this in my entire life, but I wasn’t a baby. I knew about all this stuff, sort of. After we went to a building which Symon introduced as ‘Home sweet home,’ I followed Symon to a gorgeous precipice, but I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t have the same goggles that Symon did, and it was still pitch black outside.

                I was holding on to the back of his shirt for most of the time we were wandering around in the dark, but now Symon’s warmly comforting hand took hold of mine and guided it to where he was sitting on the ground. I sat down next to him, scared for my life I couldn’t see anything and I was used to that. But I wasn’t so used to being in large open spaces in the dark, anything could come out of anywhere and it was terrifying, I scooted closer to Symon and tapped the lenses of his goggles

                “What are those?”

                “Goggles. They’re like glasses that help you see in the dark.” He answered looking at me. “Wanna try them on?” he asked. I nodded enthusiastically. He carefully took them off of his head and put them on mine. I thought I felt his hand linger on mine as I adjusted them, but I couldn’t be sure. And suddenly I could see everything. It was all there perfectly clear. It was not normally coloured whatsoever, but it was all there. Nothing like the empty void that it had been, it was sort of like the first time they opened my tomb that I can remember. I gasped and Symon, concerned, asked

                “What is it, are they too tight? Is it hurting you?” Then he realized what was going on. “Oh” I was looking around in wonder at everything. I ruffled his hair, and even though I couldn’t see it, he blushed scarlet. I touched his face and pulled at the rock cold ground. I looked over the edge of the bluff we were sitting on. I wondered why he was acting as if we were totally safe.

                “Why aren’t any of them attacking us?” I asked finally focusing on his face. He looked at me and explained.
                “It’s not a full moon, so they’re actually human until then, and the sun is about to come up, unless the Vampires are suicidal, then they’d be deep underground by now.” I nodded my understanding even though I didn’t actually, and looked back over the cliff edge,

                “It’s so beautiful.” I stated simply. Symon continued staring at me and said

                “It gets a lot better.” He said. I looked at him and I was about to ask him how that was even possible, and before I knew it, he was trying to kill me! He’d pressed his lips to mine and I was struggling against him. But he obviously didn’t know I could breathe out of my nose. So I pushed him off of me, just in time to see some hazy circle that was kind of the same colour I’d pointed out to Symon on the piece of paper he’d shown me the day before. Only it was brighter, I practically ripped the glasses off of my face and had to shut my eyes. I fell backwards; it wasn’t like a ball of glory or anything but the light hurt my eyes. I was curled up in a ball on the ground.

                It was far, far away, but it brought extreme warmth to it. I could feel the light shining on my body, it was a wonderful feeling. I stood up quickly and demanded that Symon take me home. He was confused but held up his hands and showed me the way. When we got to the hospital, I ran to Aquamarine and she was smiling and I couldn’t believe it. “He tried to kill me!” I yelled at her, and her smile went away as she looked questioningly at Symon.

                “How,” She asked still staring at Symon, though I knew she was talking to me. Symon walked outside and sat on the step, and she turned to me for my story.

                “He tried to cut off my air, by pressing his lips on mine! But he’s stupid I can breathe out of my --” I stopped seeing the amused expression on her face. “What?”

                “Darling, he didn’t try to kill you . . . he tried to kiss you. It’s a response people give when they like you.” I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

                “No, you weren’t there, he tried to kill me. Like death, die, I almost died!” Aquamarine shook her head, reassuring me that I was safe with Symon. I lie down in my bed and fell asleep; this entire charade had exhausted me. Aquamarine left me to talk to Symon, sitting down on the front step she said

                “You can’t expect her to be like you. You can’t just pretend like she’s normal. She is the equivalent of a child. She has a very broad mind and she’s extremely scared.”

                “I know. Her concept of beauty is different than other peoples and I think that we could be wonderful together. But at the moment she doesn’t even know what together means.” He said more to himself than Aquamarine, who nodded and went back inside to find me asleep and Angus, who I came to call dad in later months, singing softly  to me a sweet lullaby. 

                 

               

Arabesque Endings Chronicles III- Demonic Raid

                I sat down next to Gemma. She was already talking so I was quiet for a while, I didn’t want to interrupt her. I looked around the circular table and for a moment I attempted something I hadn’t for a long time, smiling. I had made so many friends since I died. Some of them, like Gemma, were my friends before I died. We weren’t allowed to smile in Hell and I knew that, but I couldn’t keep myself from trying. I was actually, relatively, ignorantly happy in Hell. That’s an oxymoron of sorts isn’t it?

                I’m pretty good at those. My mind contradicts itself all the time. I attempted to smile at Gemma when I told her the news and she hugged me. Today was the day. Hell was going to freeze over and even if it didn’t then Lucifer would still lead us to Earth. We walked into the fire pit, yes as cliché as it sounds there was a fire pit in Hell. It’s a bar, with alcohol. I’d never drank alcohol before I died, well that was a lie, but only when I was in Junior High. I attempted to clear the smoke that inevitably crowded itself in front of my face. But nothing came of it; it was merely replace by worse smelling smoke.

                The bar was one of the cleanest in our ring of hell. It was created by one of my close friends. His name was John Doe. Well, at least that’s what he tells everyone he meets. Gemma walked in as I held the door open for her, she curtsied as a guy walked out. I grabbed a rag from the counter, it left a film of dirt and alcohol on my hand, but it cleaned off mine and Gemma’s stools. John walked up to us and asked us what it would be, I ordered something stronger than anything they ever had on earth. This drink was created by pure fiery plasma. But I couldn’t feel the burn; I was too used to it by now.  

                I was only 18 when I died. It was pretty sudden. And I didn’t get a bad deal with Hell.  I had just gotten married to the love of my life. I’d had a crush on him since we had to share the same table all day in sixth grade. We were driving down the interstate slowly (we were a bit preoccupied in the car and didn’t want to get into a wreck). He’d picked out the perfect honeymoon for us. A hotel that looked like Hogwarts on the outside and had a room for each fandom, which there were a lot of, we booked the TARDIS interior which actually had a pool! I was to say the least excited.

                I was sitting in the front seat of our Impala and flirting with him. He was laughing, the greatest laugh ever. Lying back in my seat, I told him to pull over. I knew I had to get a bowtie for our honeymoon. It was mandatory, and I saw a Mall coming up. He looked not at all happy about this, but did it anyway pouting the whole time. I got out and walked into a wedding shop in my wedding dress. Bet I looked a bit strange. I got a bowtie and left. I went out the back way so, that I could surprise him.

                I was twirling around in circles playing the song that we first danced to, this morning in my head. I saw a guy curled up in a corner, and then I saw it. There was a boy lying on the pavement behind the dumpster, blood was pooling around his body, how could such a small child’s body contain that much blood? I curled my hand around my mouth, simultaneously dropping the bowtie I had been whirling around like a streamer.

                Walking up to the man shuddering with sobs in the corner, I put my hand on his shoulder and said ”Are you okay?” He looked at me and then realizing what was happening pulled a gun out of his jacket and shoved it in my face. He looked me up and down and realized what I was wearing and assuming I had just gotten married. A pained expression overcame his dark toned face.

                “I’m sorry.” I tilted my head and looked at him questioningly.

                “What?” And then before I knew what was happening I had a tremendous headache. And I couldn’t feel anything. My vision went black and I felt really cold. And then I was sitting with him in my wedding dress covered in blood. He was crying and having a sort of mental breakdown. And then I was in Hell. There were lots of people there and no one paid any attention to me. I was just another confused person. I’m not even sure why I came to be in Hell. I don’t think I did anything wrong. I didn’t believe in God. But I was a wonderful person compared to most people. I volunteered, I was healthy. I even contemplated adopting a child with him. We never talked about it. I’d like to think I brought joy, or contributed to the joy brought to a lot of people. But I guess I didn’t do enough.

                I looked at Gemma and she knew without me having to say anything. The world had finally turned around. I touched the scar on my head. I thought of him and knew what I would do. Without any further thought on the matter, when I got to Earth I would find him. I would love him like I never got the chance to. The raid would begin at sunrise. Of course we didn’t have a sun in Hell, but we would all know. There would be a feeling, and we would know.   

                That feeling came after the fire had gone out. Hell was a bit like a desert. It was scorching hot, and the night was colder than an ice cube, I don’t mean to be all science-y but I’m pretty sure they create a sort of vacuum for us when the fire goes out, or maybe that’s why the fire goes out. I don’t know, I’m no rocket scientist, and I’m pretty sure rocket science isn’t what you need to know for that information. I shrugged and downed my second glass of Plasma. I set my head down on the bar and John picked it up for me wiping the dirt off gingerly and weirdly compassionately intimately. He left his hand lingering slightly comforting on my face and then pulled away to refill my glass.

                I tipped my head gratefully up and downed the third glass. Gemma watched me. “So, what are you going to do when you get out?” She asked John who shrugged and continued filling glasses. She made a face at him, which I’m pretty sure I couldn’t imitate if my life depended on it. “What about you?” She said pointedly staring at me. I ignored her finishing my fifth glass. I simply shrugged snapping at John. “Well, you guys are no fun. I know exactly what I’m doing. First I’m going to go shopping. Wearing the same clothes for what seems like an eternity is destroying my body.” I looked at her. Why did I have to pick talkative friends, why couldn’t she just accept that no one cares? “And then I’m going to find me a nice mortal boy, to corrupt as a demon does.” I nodded as if I actually cared. I snapped at the new bartender. He set down four glasses for me and Gemma. I drank all of them in succession. I’d already forgotten how many that made.

                I left the bar and slept on the sidewalk, getting kicked every ten seconds. I didn’t mind. I didn’t want to be drunk when I saw him, it had been at least seven years, and he would be expecting something wonderful and amazing. Not a drunken demon who was quiet and a mess because of something that happened seven years ago. He would be fantastic and I would be too. All of a sudden, everyone outside and inside, started walking one way almost as if they were being brainwashed, they were walking together like a swarm. I got up and started walking with them.

                Gemma was walking hand in hand with a guy, they both had blank expressions. I walked up next to them, I even smacked Gemma in the face and stomped on the anonymous guy’s foot, they had absolutely no reaction. After a while I just kind of followed them without any reason to. No one else was conscious either; I was definitely out of place. Then we just stopped walking everywhere. There he was so glorious standing there; Lucifer was the most beautiful of Demons. His hair was what some people would call elegantly disheveled.

                “Today is our glory day!” He yelled. So what was this? A riot, a pep talk, something in between, “Follow me brethren, for we shall claim our lives back. We will soon rule over mankind, for our former selves have been brought here for a reason.” I clapped and shouted with everyone else though I still had no idea what he was talking about. We were suddenly in a crowd of people. All of the demons looked around like strangers in a strange land.

                Now, Demons aren’t what I assume you picture when you think of Demons, you probably think red skin, horns, pitchfork tail, fangs, black eyes, nope. We don’t change when we die. Our souls don’t anyway, my body was more than likely crawling with worms by now, but our souls look completely human. I started walking forward and everyone mostly ignored us. Humans are stupid apes, we may have looked human, but there was an obvious difference between us. They just went on their merry way.

                Then –Excuse the irony of this- all Hell broke loose. One of the people I had become close to in my seven years of perdition grabbed a knife and stabbed two children who were waiting in line to buy a candy bar. I covered my mouth in shock and ran out the door, away from the chaos. I had to find him, once I did that everything would be okay. I walked outside into the sunlight and wind and basked in it for a moment too long. Gemma caught sight of me and followed suit. She tapped me on the shoulder and smiled.

                “It feels so good to smile again!” I just looked at her. She wrinkled her nose as if she had been insulted. I walked away to find a phonebook. I grabbed one off of a bench for a bus stop. I quickly found his name in it and smiled for the first time. Then I wiped that stupid look off of my face and set a destination in my head. Walking down to the sidewalk I, with difficulty, hailed a cab. The cabbie was very familiar to me, but he was extremely rude. He charged me a lot of money which I, of course, didn’t have so I just told him he would get it when he took us where we wanted to go. I handed him the slip of paper that I had written the address down on, he raised an eyebrow at me.

                “This is in Manhattan, you know that right?” I just shrugged, I find myself doing that a lot. He whistled and said “I’m gonna be pretty rich at the end of this car ride.” Gemma blabbered about random things the entire way there. I tuned her out watching outside the window the only thing that interested me right now was getting to him and falling into his arms. I noticed things, places I used to live, places I always wanted to see. None of that mattered anymore. I pictured the reuniting scene. It would be exactly like a love story.  I would run to him, and he would realize what had happened and then he would run to me and we would meet each other halfway and then we would live happily ever after, which didn’t seem impossible at the time because there were no other demons attempting to wipe out the entire human population.

                Gemma eventually fell asleep and I was so jittery every moment, I woke her up numerous times when I was talking to myself. She got more annoyed by me in those few hours than I ever was by her in seven years. I smiled at the thought of being with him again. I asked the cabbie a question after a minute.

                “Do you think there are any sappy love songs playing on the radio?” He got the hint. He turned on the radio and he thought to himself I better get paid extra. I woke Gemma up when we got to our destination. I jumped out of the car without any hesitation and I ran to the door. I stopped myself from knocking though. I saw something on the inside of the house through a window. He was there with another girl. They were older. Of course! How could I have been so stupid? He was sitting there with his arm around another girl. There were three shorter heads on the couch next to them and one on his lap. Two of them, twins, a boy and a girl, they were both blonde and they were jumping up and down play fighting with each other, they couldn’t be more than 3 years old. There was a teenager on the couch, listening to music, and the little girl on his lap was sucking her thumb, she must’ve been the third twin, so he had triplets.

                I wondered how the teenager was there; I had only been gone seven years hadn’t I? Then I realized that his wife was a bit older than him, and the adolescent had a striking resemblance to her. His hair was dark like hers and unless he had died it, I was assuming it was his stepson. He did show obvious dislike for him. I couldn’t see anyone not liking him though. I realized that my face was wet. I had started raining. No, my body was dry, it was just my face. I was crying.  I hadn’t been able to cry in a long, long time. I turned away and sat on the stoop. Then I saw Gemma walking toward me and I had a blindingly brilliant idea.

                “Gemma! Gemma, I need you to do something for me! Okay, you see that family in there, they’re going to die, unless we help them! I need you to warn them that they could die if they don’t find a safe place to get to, immediately!” Gemma pursed her lips at me unhappily.

                “Well, why can’t you do it? What do I care if they die?” She asked. I had to think very hard for an answer.

                “I can’t do it because one of them will freak out, they knew me when I was alive. And you care if they die, because I care if they die, and think about all the things that I’ve done for you in these past few years.” Gemma attempted to put up a good argument but couldn’t think of any, so while I hid in the bushes, Gemma walked up to the door and knocked. He opened the door and smiled. It was so wonderful to see him smile again. I heard Gemma’s words from far away.

                “Oh. My. God! There are people eating people and they won’t die! You need to get to safety right NOW! Mister whatever your name is! I suggest you take the people you love and get out. Get somewhere they won’t find you!” He looked confused but before he could ask any questions she ran off, and as if on cue, I ran out of the bushed and bit her arm, tricking his mind into thinking I was tearing her arm off. He slammed the door shut and I heard yells of alarm, as he turned on the news and saw it was true. They gathered up all their valuables and got in the car and drove away.

                Before they left he tried to find Gemma and failed, as she was hiding in the bushes with me at the moment. Well, I thought, I couldn’t guarantee his safety or his family’s but I had forewarned him and that gave me peace of mind. Gemma had her arm around me, and I was finally telling all the stuff that had been haunting me for what seemed like forever. It told her about all the amazingly romantic stuff that had happened between me and him and how none of it mattered anymore. All that mattered was his family being safe and him being happy.

                I was staring at my feet not looking where I was going, as I was talking to Gemma and I kicked something that looked very strange. It was his wallet. I opened it and there were five pictures in it. One of his wife, or I assumed she was his wife, her name was written on the back of it. Olivia. There was a picture of the teenaged boy under that one, he definitely was not happy to have his picture taken, or didn’t appear to be anyway. Colin. The triplet that was sitting on his lap had pigtails in and a shirt on that said “Daddy’s Girl”. Piper. The only triplet boy was sticking his tongue out at the camera; he looked exactly like his father did when he was that age. Sean. The last triplet, the one fighting with her brother on the couch was in overalls. Luna. They all looked so happy. I let the tears fall more freely than they had been.

                That night I was going through his wallet in private, I had found his I.D. card. He was so adorable. His hair was darker than it had been when we were eighteen. It was longer too. Then something fell out, it was a picture that must have been hidden, because I dissected his wallet trying to find out all I could about him. For instance I found out that he opened a Comic Book Shoppe like he’d always wanted to, and I cried even more when I found out he’d named it after me. The picture was of us on our wedding day. He was holding me bridal style, sitting on the highest branch of the tree we had gotten married under. I was kissing him, and almost immediately after that picture was snapped, we fell from the tree, thankfully not breaking anything in our fall. On the back of it, it read: My darling Twyla, my first and always love, giving me the last kiss I will ever cherish more than my life - Enoch

Arabesque Ending Chronicles II - Rapture: The Flame in the Darkness

The day it happened I was sitting on the fountain with my girlfriend, Shadow. We were having lunch like we always did. There were people all around us, and we were making fun of the way these people were being all furtive and discreet about everything. A man in an uncomfortable looking suit was trying to hide the fact that he was texting. Shadow splashed water on me, and laughed.

                “Hey, Tiger, whatcha looking at,” I turned back to her and laughed at the stupid nickname she used for me.

                “Tiger, I like that. Hmm, does that mean I can call you Lemon?” She narrowed her eyes at me aware that I was trying to change the subject. But pushing it off, she took the bait.

                “Nope,” She answered. I laughed, and then tried again.

                “Kitten,” She looked at me, cocked her head, and then flipped her hair and nodded enthusiastically. “Kitten and Tiger,” She tried experimentally. Then her face lit up. Mine wasn’t smiling though. She frowned and asked “What’s wrong,” I said very seriously managing to keep a straight face

                “Tiger and Kitten,” She threw her head back and laughed. Now I smiled, Shadow’s laugh was a wonderful thing to hear. But today wasn’t a day to smile. I had a bad feeling, and I knew what this feeling was.

                Shadow had saved me when I fell. From Heaven that is. My name is Blayze.  And I’m a fallen angel. Shadow and I, chose our love over our love of ‘The Almighty Light’. She was kind enough to have Gabriel cast me out of Heaven, and not send me to hell, and not tear out my wings. Wonderful and pristine as they may be, our wings are our greatest weakness. If they are even touched we could be killed, they are a bit like our Achilles’ heel.

                Shadow couldn’t feel the same as I could we were affected differently. Obviously ‘The Almighty Light’ gave me this gift so I would know what to do when the time came. I stood up and took Shadow’s hand. She was confused at first, but she’d learned not to question my motives after a few years. So, she followed happily chatting, pointing out the clarity of everything.

                She stopped a couple times to gather dandelions, and put one behind my ear and then pressed her lips gently against mine, listening to the sweet singing of birds. She did this at times. Sometimes she was so . . . human. The prospect seemed so strange to me, but these were just the things about her that I endeared most. The humanness of her thought processes. Wrapping an arm around my waist, smiling in bliss, Shadow asked.

                “What’s happening, Tiger, what’s wrong?” I looked down at her and kissed her forehead. Her smile grew even wider. “Something bad, Kitten, something real bad, you know how a few years ago, we had to stop seeing each other for a while, while I healed.” She nodded understanding.

                “Well, something worse is happening now.” She wrinkled her forehead in thought, and then asked once again. “What?”

                “Well, you’ve read the bible.” She scoffed and answered

                “Like four times!” My only reply to this was, “1 Corinthians 15:51-52. . . 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. . . Philippians 3:20-21.” She thought for a moment, then easily, confidently recited “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. . . For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. . . But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Then seeming to absorb all of what she’d just said on what seemed like a command. She kind of whispered to herself “Oh-” Then to me. “Rapture,” I nodded, thinking to myself, right on the dot.

                I started walking faster; the feeling had become stronger than before. What did she want me to do? How was I supposed to help any of this? Save myself, save Shadow, save the innocents, what? The only thing I could think of right now was to get to the one place no one still a resident in Heaven could touch. There was only one I absolutely knew of, but it was at least seven kilometers away. We needed a ride. Then in one will, a man pulled up next to us. He asked if we needed a ride, we gratefully accepted. Just as we got in, baseball sized hail started pouring down. The man smiled at me from the front seat.

                “Hail in June, huh? Who’d have thought?” He said attempting at friendly conversation; Shadow reached over and put her hand on my knee, I glared at him under my long dark bangs. “Calm down, Tiger, everything will be okay.” I looked at her and she smiled so reassuringly, that I might have believed her. But as unfortunate as it was, I’d been trained in spotting liars, and this wonderfully human girl was lying through her teeth. There it was in her eyes, that one little emotion that spoiled everything for her. Fear. The emotion that drove people to do the crazy things they do, fear was worse than hate or anger at cause and effect.

                Then knowing I would see through her shield she moved her hand up to my forehead, and let actual concern peek through. “You’re warm.” She said. I laughed at her. She knew my temperatures always varied between freezing point, and 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I would be worried if my temperature was that of even relatively close to hers. She leaned into me, and fell asleep. I woke her up in the ten minutes it took to be at our destination.

                The one place heaven residents couldn’t touch. Actually, it was more pure than heaven itself, which over the years had been tainted, the strikingly peaceful eye of the storm. It was the ocean. But that’s not the point of it; it was what was under the ocean. A volcano, that with the way things were going probably wouldn’t be dead much longer. The volcano was one of the many entrances to Hell. Shadow wrapped her arms around my shoulders and said “I hate when you do this.” I smiled back at her and jumped into the sea.

                The only resistance between me and the dazzling ocean is Shadow, who is stubbornly holding on to my back. I taught her a long time ago to not strangle me, but sometimes habit gave into panic. Not very often but today, I could feel her slight arms slowly constricting around my neck.

                She wasn’t going to kill me, but, it was extremely uncomfortable to have something tightening around your throat when you’re trying to concentrate while hail is pouring down on you and you can clearly see a hurricane in a close range. Even though this was most likely the least problematic all of that day, but this one stuck out to me.

                Shadow’s grip was tight enough to cut off my head, luckily it didn’t. God only knows how traumatic that would have been for her. She was hitting my back as hard as she could with minimal amounts of air and now I could feel it through the numbness caused by the freezing cold water. I looked back at her and she gestured for air. The only response I could give her was a nod and a finger for patience.

                 It killed me, that I kept forgetting how utterly fragile she was. How could I forget? It was only too obvious every time I looked at her she would smile and I could see the rising and falling of her shoulders and chest as she breathed. And when I called her in the middle of the night, she slept. And she was so . . . wonderful. Now, I wrapped her arms around my waist for her, so she could hold on as tight as she wanted without me being uncomfortable. The problem was she wasn’t holding on as tight anymore, her grip was weakening any second, and with her grip faltering I was afraid to swim too fast and she’d not be able to keep hold of me.

                The time dragged on, and then I felt it, her grip ceased. She just fell away from me, I looked around, but the water was so dark from pollution that I couldn’t possibly see her at all through the murk. I swam down, and everywhere I could think she might be, I even went up once. I was frantic with fatal worrying, she couldn’t be gone. Not this way, not in this dark, cold place. She deserved to be warm and living and loved. She deserved to be able to live. She should be more than that.

                I shook my head, and after another fruitless search, left. I left everything, swimming up to the surface of the water. I propelled myself forward without bothering to even observe the slightest things. I was walking through the city now, and realized my temperature had risen again; the water was seemingly evaporating off of my skin. I hated it.

                I hated it. No. I didn’t deserve to be hot, or warm, I shouldn’t be able to move. I should be wherever Shadow was now. She was so beautiful. I closed my eyes and slipped my hand into hers. I could feel her warmth again, feel her soft skin in mine, and feel her lips on my cheek and my lips and my forehead. And then I couldn’t. The rain was falling down my body, no longer hail, the storm clouds blocked out the sun and I could feel her fear, I was supposed to save her. I knew that she was gone, and I knew that she wasn’t coming back, and I knew that it was time, but what was I supposed to do about all of it? And then there was just nothing. Nothing at all, no emotions or feelings or senses, I was in a vacuum inside myself. I was helpless.

                          

              Shadow was falling, there was a light and she desperately wanted to reach it but time was passing oh, so slowly. She couldn’t imagine anything slower than this. Then she was rushing and she wasn’t ready to go yet. She still had time with Blayze, he needed her to heal him, and she knew this. And then there was this white noise in the background. She was sitting with some other people and they all faintly reminded her of Blayze. The only reason was that they were the angels. The not fallen, she’d heard Blayze talk about them sometimes, nothing too nice either.

                They were all looking at her, then a beautiful woman, who looked about Shadow’s mom’s age - Oh my God, her mom. What was she doing right now, was she worried about her? Was she already dead? Shadow didn’t know. – Walked up to her and smiled pleasantly like she was greeting an old friend. And I guess in some ways, she was. Then she introduced herself as the ‘light’. Shadow faintly remembered a memory of Blayze talking about ‘the almighty light’ and her jaw dropped.

                “Oh. My. God. It’s God!” She said to the surrounding angels and they showed no sign of seeing her. They were all paying attention to ‘the light’. She smiled amused and replied “Some people call me that, but I rather prefer my friends to call me Dee.” Shadow just kind of stood there and looked at her. She had floor length wispy blonde hair, crow’s feet around her eyes from smiling, thin lips. Not all that attractive, Shadow thought.

                Now, after she’d calmed down, she looked around at the other angels, they looked completely normal. There were business men and women, and there were college students and children, and they weren’t dressed in white robes, they looked as if you’d just passed them on the street. Just a little bit different. Now that she’d got to thinking, Shadow asked, “Why am I here?”

                The older woman smiled and said “I chose you. A long time ago actually, and then you became the beautiful girl you took the form of. I assume you’ll want me to call you Gabby instead of Gabe this time, eh?” She walked on. But Shadow stopped putting two and two together.

                “Gabriel?” She asked. Dee stopped and looked back at her. She was no longer smiling.

                “Well, Gabriel will work I assume, it’s always been Gabe with you before. I have to admit, I never expected you to take the form of a girl, and especially not for your first reincarnation.” Shocked, Shadow forced her feet to move and kept pace with Dee.

                “Why did I not know before?” She asked.

                “Angels reincarnate every few million years, and when they do, they are given a lifetime to be human. They forget their entire angel persona. But I’m afraid it will no longer be the same after this rapture.” She finished grimly. “You’ve forgotten completely. And while you’ve forgotten you’ve also had one of angel’s highest ranking officers kicked out of Heaven for you.”

                “But why did Blayze not know who I was?” Shadow asked. She closed her eyes and answered

                “Because when an angel is going through their human stage everyone who ever met them or ever will forgets about them. Even me,” She hung her head in sadness.

                “Wait, so I’m the archangel Gabriel, and I’m supposed to remember that I am, but I don’t. Are you sure you’ve got the right person?” Shadow said in one breath.

                “Yes, you’ve got the same life force you always have had.” She said.

                “So, if I’m an archangel, do I have the power to give people their wings back, and take them from whatever hell, they come from?” ‘The Almighty Light’, Dee, looked at me, and nodded with suspicion. Shadow made up her mind and said “Thank you.”

               

                The darkness was gone now. I could see everything so clearly, it was ridiculous. Like seeing through the looking glass, everything was so fine and magnified; every single detail was broken up into grains of sand. But no one could see me. I was nonexistent. I was walking through oblivion, darkness was more prominent, and it was like seeing through Vincent Van Gogh’s eyes. Everything was drawn, in swirling colours and shades. I couldn’t remember anything from before.

                There was just nothing. A blank space, but now the world was so full of everything, filled to the breaking point. The hues of the rainbow, the aquamarines, and robin’s blue for the sky, the deep sea green for the grass, they were everywhere. It was like a thousand crayon boxes mashed together in a whirlwind of everything. And the people walking around weren’t people. They were humanoid but they didn’t have any features, they consisted of colours, there were colours that humans had never even seen before.

                And then there was one figure that looked positively glowing. The fact being that she was glowing helped a little bit, her aura was white, almost too bright white to look at directly. She was walking right in my direction and I was thankful for the little warmth she brought with her, there was very little in this place, or a perception of time. There was everything and nothing all at once and it was positively wonderfully horrid. And then there was her. She was close now, I could feel the heat emanating off of her, and she wasn’t like the others. I had a faint sense of familiarity. She was standing right in front of me stopped now; she had features too, not like the others. Her face was almost perfect. She smiled at me.

                “Blayze,” She sighed with relief and the light enfolded me. And there she was, every second of my banishment. There she was holding my hand, kissing my lips, hugging me with her weak arms, compared to my strength, caressing my wings with amazement. It was all there in my memory, like a flash of lightning. And then she was there, her thick black hair falling down her body like waves, her multitude of freckles, her cute little nose, and pink soft lips, her utter perfection, Shadow, the most important girl in the universe and beyond.

                And then in less time than that, we were walking side by side. 

                “So, apparently I’m the Archangel Gabriel’s reincarnation.” She said casually, I was still looking around us star struck when this registered. I looked at her with my eyebrow raised,

                “No, you aren’t, it was Gabriel that threw me out of Heaven . . . for you.” She just smiled at me.

                 “Yes, you’ve told me that, I’ve been an angel for a shorter time, (well what I remember anyway) and already I can correct you. Time perception darling, heaven always has an archangel, even when we think that we’re human it will be the future us or the past us, in a second an entire galaxy could have gone by and we would feel it, but we’d never actually know.”  I squinted at her,

                “So, you’re an archangel, huh?” I was smiling brightly now. I could feel the weight of my wings and see her black menacing looking wings, and knew that they were actually gentler than most living things. And my tropical glowing blue wings, ready to fly. “That means you have the power to restore me to my former rank, Kitten.” I was already devising a plan in my head. She smiled and said,

                “Already taken care of Tiger, now . . . kiss me. I haven’t had a real proper kiss in ages. Not since the love of my life was sent to purgatory.” She looked up at me and fluttered her wings in a manner of flirting before I pressed my lips to hers. No longer could I be thrown out of Heaven. Two archangels in love was definitely not a crime against ‘The Almighty Light’. Normally it would be but we were an exception. I could feel the glowing of her dark aura her wings gave off, bending closer to mine so I did the same, and our wing tips touched without any reaction from either of us, we were too busy with our lips. And this commitment was made, angel wings were never made for anyone to touch, but when two angels’ wings touched it meant something more than Human Marriage or Vampire Feeding, or any ritualistic joining. It meant angel’s wings morphing.

                Our wings were now the exact same colour, Elektrick Blue, and they were more luminescent than any angel’s wings have ever been. And now we looked deep into each other’s eyes, and breaking away, turned to bow before ‘The Almighty Light’.