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’.

               

First Arabesque Ending! Zombie Apocalypse: "Saved"

I woke up that morning, not bothering to open my eyes. I could feel the sunlight beneath my eyelids. I sat up on the bed, careful not to make any noise, I knew my cellmate was a light sleeper and had probably only an hour or so under her eyelids. She didn’t sleep at night, most people jokingly called her nocturnal and it kind of stuck. Hearing noises from the upstairs bunk, I stood up to find Arachnea already awake and furiously writing on a notepad.

            Of course I was speaking metaphorically when I said ‘cell’. I was as much a prisoner as anyone else in this apocalypse, that wasn’t saying much though. I shot an inquiring look at my friend and she looked up saying,

            “Oh good, you’re awake! I’ve been up all night working on this for you, but it’s not done yet, terribly sorry.” She kept writing ignoring all the questions shooting out of my mouth at once and laughed.

            “Wait, you haven’t slept all night? Why not? What are you writing? Why are you writing it? Where did you get the ink to write? Writing, for me?” She just kept on laughing and then there was a buzzing sound from my bunk. So, I sat down and opened my laptop turned translator. Gryffon’s face appeared on the screen and he yelled

            “Happy 16^th Birthday, Annlyn Rose!” He had donned a party hat and blew into one of the old duck quackers.” He was beaming at me and then moved out of the frame. I turned the translator so that it couldn’t face me. How he knew it was my birthday, I had only just remembered myself! It was kind of late in the day. I heard another burst of giggles from the middle bunk as I jumped away from the translator to brush my hair and get dressed in Gryffon’s favourite outfit of mine. I turned and raised an eyebrow at Arachnea, and now Ambroze who was looking down in interest from the top bunk.  

            I checked myself once again in the mirror. I smoothed down the insufferable bedhead, and turned back to the translator that still had no one in the camera frame. I waited and Gryffon looked into the lens seeing me and smiling even brighter than before he held up a painting. There was a blanket of snow on the ground and pronounced snowflakes which sparkled with the fresh brushstrokes, and looked even more amazing next to Gryffon’s perfect face.

            I smiled now and had no complaint of anyone knowing my birthday; this would not be the same dark day that it was so many years before.  I smiled back at him softly and he still did not look away, then abruptly he heard beeping and had to tear his gaze away.

            “Oops got to go. I’ll give this to you later. Bye, Annlyn” I smiled at him and waved star struck. Then the screen went black and I heard giggles from the two girls above. I got out of bed and back into my pajamas, it was my birthday, I refused to work today, well that and it was a Sunday. Most of the people in our refuge group were very religious and so therefore no work was done Sundays. It was just how things were.

            A couple years beforehand this virus broke out and people started rotting alive. But then they started eating animals alive, and the next step, of course was people. They went like it was the end of the world. Well it was the end of the world and it is the end of the world and will always be the end of the world.  We soon found out the virus was spread through bodily fluids.

            My parents were assigned to a different camp, to be called Encounter like aliens, but all the young people older than 11 got divided and put into two different camps, why they did this, no one is absolutely positive. Unfortunately by that time, I had just turned 11 so, I got taken and put in this refugee camp, Raven, (after the girl who designed it) with and one hundred and ninety nine other teenagers, most of which were four or five years older than me. There were only a handful of junior high students so; we all got assigned our own little corner of the mall, we set up in. The rest left to be abolished by the ever inebriated, promiscuous, high schoolers.

            The older kids, more mature, the ones about to be eighteen would teach us, and sometimes to the kids who were having trouble coping with this new change, namely me, they’d sing them to sleep or read them stories. Until they had to go off and be transferred to one of the adult camps, that is. Then BAM, just like that, we were the ones reading the younger kids stories and teaching and some of us, sneaking alcohol and staying in rooms of the opposite sex. Some were more in between like me.

            I was always totally concentrated on helping the younger ones, trying to make up for the trauma I had when I was that age. Then just like that, this boy that had always hated me got switched with a boy from the other refuge camp, he was a year older than me, and had the most wonderful laugh. His name was Gryffon and we were instant friends, he always talked about this girl from the other camp though. I knew he loved her.

            “Okay . . . done!” Arachnea squealed from the middle bunk. That’s another thing; my two roommates are Arachnea and Ambroze. Arachnea, and I had taken a Creative writing class in junior high, and Ambroze and I had been neighbours and best friends since before I could remember.

            I stood up and held my hand out for the notepad which was Arachnea’s life line and I knew it. She handed it to me, only now it had a light green bow on it, my favourite colour. Carefully reading under the bow, the top of the notepad said, and it was embedded into the thin paper, Happy Birthday, Annlyn Rose: A.R. + G.B. = Love in cursive in the center of a heart. Then flipping through all the papers on the notepad, I realized she wasted her entire notepad for me. I looked up at her, and hugged her after giving her a look that was full of thanks.

            “Why did you waste all your paper on me?” I asked knowing how scarce paper was these days; there was no one to actually create paper. Arachnea shrugged and smiled at me, which I returned. Ambroze had climbed down and was looking at the notepad, I set on my bed.

            “’Why did you save me,’ Annlyn asked Gryffon, he smiled lovingly up at her, and tweaked her nose like he often did, ‘You asked me to.’ Gryffon said speaking his last words, he held out his hand and Annlyn took it realizing that he held a scarlet, gold, black ring case in his hands. Annlyn gasped and with her jaw hanging open, she tore her eyes away from the ring case just in time to see him close his for the last time. She kissed him one more time, and sent him unto heaven to spend eternity watching down on Annlyn, as she spent the rest of her life in agony, she’d never told him she loved him.” Ambroze said reading the last page. I hit her belly playfully and said, “Thanks for spoiling the end for me.” And then I turned to Arachnea, “Thanks for killing the love of my life. I might actually cry if I get the chance to read it myself.” And simultaneously, they said “Any time.” I sneered jokingly at them, and then crawled back into bed.

            “Oh, no, you are not going to sleep; we’ve planned out a whole entire day for your sweet sixteen.” I groaned, it was the end of the world, who had birthday parties anymore? Ambroze pleadingly looked at Arachnea and as she nodded her head in consent, Ambroze sneaked into the bathroom, and came back in with a bucket of melted ice; it had just finished melting before I woke up. Arachnea climbed down, making sure that she wasn’t in the zone where I could reach her quickly enough to strangle her.

            I had just drifted back off to sleep when, I felt it. The cascading waves of water falling down on me, instantaneously, I shot out of bed, and Ambroze and Arachnea, were sniggering in the corner, Ambroze holding the bucket. I sneered at them, then seeing her in her night clothes nothing but a thin tank top and underwear, I gathered all the clothes from her dresser which may have been ten or fifteen outfits, and I mean I made two or three trips before they noticed me, they couldn’t figure out what quite what I was doing, but once I got all of Ambroze’s clothes into the bathtub I turned on the cold water.

            She laughed and said, “You think that’s actually going to bother me?” I meaningfully looked out the window at the snow blanketed ground and she just shrugged. I narrowed my eyes at her and then before she could get any kind of reaction in, I shook my hair like a wet dog, flecking them with freezing cold water. Remember how I told you about the promiscuous drunks? Well, let’s just say that I’m pretty sure in all her time here; Ambroze never read a story to a child or sang them to sleep. So, an hour later, with me and Arachnea in warm dry clothes and Ambroze still in her underwear and tank top, we left.

            Where we were going I had no inkling of an idea. We walked down the street with more than half the boys staring at Ambroze, not unkindly. She got wolf whistles and more than one guy’s hand on her rump, and other places, and she didn’t mind in the least. In fact, she encouraged behaviour such as this. Ambroze enjoyed the single life and also, she knew that she looked good; she didn’t try to hide it. She shivered a bit and had goosebumps but, she still had on a smile. Arachnea looked at me and we knew we were probably going to have to bunk with someone else for the night.

            Anyway, we walked up to Gryffon’s house, and Ambroze knocked on the door. Gryffon opened and looked Ambroze up and down, not as if he wanted her like all the other boys did, but as if she were crazy. He ushered them in and threw a bag of girl’s clothes at her. I knew this meant there was a girl who regularly left her clothes at his house and it made me sad, but the sadness dissolved a bit when he embraced me. “Happy Birthday, Annlyn!” He whispered in my ear, then he handed me a party hat.

            “We have a big day planned for Annlyn today, care to join us?” Ambroze asked, putting on a very form fitting tank top, and short jean shorts – with lots of holes in them. He looked at her again and shook his head, probably wondering who would wear that in this weather.

            “Yeah, just let me get some stuff in order,” he went into the hallway, and I heard him explaining to someone else on the phone that he wouldn’t be home all day, the last words he said were

            “All right, don’t call me. Just in case, call Annlyn. She’ll have her phone with her, I know. Bye, love you.” These words shocked me the most. This girl had my number, I’m friends with her. I should hate her guts. I wondered for hours that night about who it was. I knew it wasn’t Ambroze or Arachnea, so I crossed them off the list. And I crossed all the guys off. I couldn’t figure out who it was. Why would they have my number? Had Gryffon given it to them?

            Gryffon emerged out of the hallway and I saw he’d brushed his hair and changed his clothes. He was now wearing a collared shirt and a red bow tie, and a trench coat. I laughed as he modeled it for us, spinning and twirling. He, like magic, pulled the painting he’d shown me before, only it looked so much more eloquent in person. I ran my fingers over the brushstrokes; Gryffon’s paintings literally always brought a tear to my eye. But knowing that he’d painted this specifically for me brought the tears down like rain. He wiped the tears away gently, then jokingly took my arm in his and escorted me out of his house out onto the street. Ambroze and Arachnea glanced at each other knowingly then led the way, walking quite a ways in front of Gryffon and I. He told me jokes and we laughed the entire time. When we arrived at our destination, I looked around shocked.

            We’d left the shelter of the hospital that the refugee camp was based at and now were in the middle of the street, outside in a dark alley. I remembered it perfectly. I was where I’d killed my first zombie. It wasn’t a pleasant memory to say the least. But there was sunshine and fresh air, the city was dirty, but everyone knew about my claustrophobia, it was kind of hard to cover up when you’re forced to ride in an elevator.  The sun was shining and I could feel the breeze on my face. I heard a noise, but ignored it as I was in complete bliss soaking in the sun. I was freezing but I’d shed my heavy winter coat and ignored my surroundings.

            Then I heard my three friends stifling giggles and ignoring Ambroze and Arachnea, I, uncharacteristically graceful as a swan, asked Gryffon to dance. He bowed and said

            “It would be my pleasure.” He pulled me as close as our physical forms would allow then started singing. He had the most beautiful voice, velvet as silk and smooth as unfaltering. Once the song he was singing was over, he whispered into my ear, the only three words I’d ever wanted desperately to say to him.

            “Annlyn, I love you. You know that don’t you?” I looked at him; his mousy brown bangs had fallen into his face again. I was so startled by this confession I couldn’t answer, right away, then slowly I shook my head no and he looked sad. “Well, I do. I just wanted you to know. I know this is a bad day for you.” I buried my face into his chest. I really wasn’t sure what to do, other than attempt to show him how I felt. The words refused to conjure in my throat and I had no idea what else to do. So, I pulled him close to me, stood on my tip toes, but he was inevitably taller than me. I put my hand on the back of his hair and slowly pulled him into a kiss. It didn’t last long, but it was the most amazing kiss of my life, except for the long one after that. The only thing I had to compare it to, possibly the joy of him telling me his feelings. There were no words. I looked deep into his eyes and finally decided to reveal my thoughts.

            “Save me from this torture we call our world; this hell has no escape, except you.” I said to him, right before I kissed him again. This time, for the first time, I felt his lips, they were dry and cracked and rough, but I found I rather enjoyed it.

            Suddenly, Ambroze screamed. The moment was broken and so were our lips. He pulled away to see a handful of the undead surrounding us on either side of the alley. Arachnea was the expert at killing dead here, and had brought four guns. She handed two to Ambroze, who as having nowhere to store one hadn’t brought one.  I had one in my boot and two knives there; also I had one in the back of my jeans. The undead were trailing blood and were making an awful lot of noise. I had no idea how we’d not noticed them.

            They were closing in and Arachnea shot two or three in the head, then she beat one of them in the head until it fell off. The mouth was still moving even after that, pouring out blood, not so dramatically as in the old movies. Then Ambroze, not sure what to do started cowering behind her. There were only half of the original zombies now, and even better Gryffon had started shooting, I handed a knife to Ambroze who was better with blades than anyone else here. I’d also pulled out my gun and shot a few more. Now only four remained. I had Gryffon behind me, in a sort of protective way. But Ambroze was on a roll, before either I or Arachnea could shoot them, she’d beheaded three and gouged the last one’s eyes out stabbing the squishy red stuff inside.

            Then we heard it, in the silence. He was moaning and I whipped around. I was sure Gryffon was right beside me the entire time. I shot the already massively bleeding zombie multiple times in the head, and then I looked at Gryffon trying with all my might not to look at the part of his skull the zombie had eaten. I could feel the tears running down my face; I made no move to wipe them away. My hands were on his chest and he sputtered some blood I looked up at his face. Realization shot through my brain, I’d felt a very strange hand on my back halfway through everything, I’d just figured it was Gryffon making sure I was okay. But now I realized it was the zombie I’d just given a major dose of overkill to.

            “Why did you save me?” I asked Gryffon, he smiled lovingly up at me, and tweaked my nose like he often did,
            “You asked me to.” Gryffon said speaking his last words, he held out his hand and I took it realizing that he held a scarlet, gold, black ring case in his hands. I gasped and with my jaw hanging open, I tore my eyes away from the ring case just in time to see him close his for the last time. I kissed him one more time, and sent him unto paradise to spend eternity watching down on me, as I spent the rest of my life in agony, I’d never told him I loved him.

            I turned around and laid down in the fetal position and started crying, even more than before, my shoulders were shaking. Ambroze was at my side, plugging my ears, so I wouldn’t hear the gunshot. It had to be done, it was inevitable I knew, but I was going through a relapse. It happened again, my twelfth birthday all over again. My brother, wasn’t here anymore and neither was Gryffon and it was entirely my fault. That night, after the breakdown, I realized it must have been Sarah, Gryffon’s little sister he’d talked about all those years, and it wasn’t another girl. I never even knew he had a sister.