Too Much of Heaven
By DesertIsland
Author's Note: To begin, I would like to take a moment to thank Snarky Miracles who inspired me to actually try writing something. I would also like to graciously thank them all for taking the time to go over this story for me and giving me ideas and suggestions for improvements. I truly appreciate their efforts and time.
Chapter One
It was a morning like any other for as long as he could remember. Christopher Murrow awoke from a restless sleep drenched in sweat upon a smelly old mattress on the floor of the tiny bedroom. He reached over and picked up his phone to forcefully silence the blaring alarm. Once the noise had stopped he gazed upon it with bloodshot eyes as he looked at the time and dropped his phone carelessly,
"Fuck my life." he said to himself with utter contempt.
It's been the same for him every day for the past few years, disturbed sleep plagued by nightmares of the things he'd seen in the places he'd been. He got out of bed in a hurry and made it up with military precision, pillow, blanket and sheets sorted until they looked fresh. The rest of the bedroom, no bigger than a small third world prison cell, and certainly no more cleanly, was in a state of total chaos. Some habits are just easier to break than others.
Chris wandered sleepily into his living room, it was tidier than the bedroom, but only because there was next to nothing in it. The space was cramped, with one side of the wall being the kitchen area, and the other half being a desk with a computer on it, littered with empty cans of various energy drinks. He headed over to a beat up refrigerator where he pulled an energy drink out of the fridge, popped the top, and proceeded to chug it down in one go.
"Fuck my life." he repeated to himself as he chucked the can into an overflowing trash bin surrounded by old pizza boxes and other discarded energy drinks.
Later in the shower he squeezed the last drops of his shampoo into his hand and with a long sigh he rubbed it into his wet black hair while holding the bottle under the shower to let some water into it, he plugged the hole with his finger and gave the bottle a good shake and used the soapy water to at least pretend his hair was going to be cleaner, then he lathered up what was left of his scrubber and did his best to clean up his chubby body, recent years of take out and eating on the go took a toll on him, he looked at himself with disgust as he scrubbed.
Meanwhile, his front door opened and a young lady walked in with a plate of scrambled eggs and some toast, she set the plate down on one of the only semi clean spots on the kitchen counter and took a look around the living area with a long sigh, eyes fell upon the dining table, covered in old newspapers and note pads, she went over to the table and looked it over, the various items seemed to weep for a time long past when Christopher made an effort in his work and cared about the things he was doing.
The young lady was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Christopher clearing his throat, she looked up at him and quickly averted her gaze while turning to face the opposite wall.
"Chris! What the fuck? Cover up! Why are you walking out here naked?"
Christopher laughed at her, "If my nudity offends you, by all means, stop abusing my spare key!"
She covered her face with her palm and sighed, "I brought you some breakfast, I made too much and thought I'd share."
Christopher shrugged as he stepped into his bedroom to dress, he raised his voice to be heard by her across the apartment "What did I do to deserve this charity?"
She shrugged to herself, "You're an overgrown child and I feel sorry for you."
Chris groaned loudly "Well fuck you too!"
Sarah laughed loudly, "But seriously. I help you out because I've been in your shoes. It's not easy, so, whatever I can help with, I just want to."
Christopher finished dressing himself in some jeans and a buttoned shirt then went out to the living room and put on a pair of old worn out sneakers, he didn't even bother to untie the laces first, just slipped them on using his fingers to help his feet slip in.
"Your breakfast is getting cold numb nuts!"
Chris nodded and went over to the dish, he scooped some of the eggs up with the toast and took a bite.
She looked at his face as it cringed slightly at the first bite, "Is it too salty?"
"Yeah, now I see why you were so happy to give me your leftovers. I'm not your garbage disposal you know! If you can't eat this, why give it to me?"
Sarah glared daggers at him in response, his words were harsh, but he continued eating regardless of the salinity of the food.
"Relax, it's perfect. I love my food salty," he finally said in a reassuring tone.
Sarah simply continued to glare at him, "No wonder your blood pressure is always up..." she looked over to his garbage and saw how it was overflowing with discarded energy drink cans. "And how are you not diabetic yet after drinking all that?"
Chris chuckled to himself, "What can I say, it gives me wings?"
Sarah sighed and made for the door, "I've gotta go finish getting ready for work. I'll see you at the office later. Eat up and hurry out too or else you'll be late."
Chris laughed at her back and called out "Yes mother!"
Later that morning Christopher was walking up the street when his phone rang, "This is Chris, talk to me."
"Are you on your way yet?" he heard a feminine voice over the phone.
"Yeah boss. Though, I'm still wondering why we want an interview with this guy. MIT trolls him in scientific journals, and Caltech is looking for a way to get their diploma back from him."
Meanwhile back in the office his boss laughed into the phone, and looked up at a young, well dressed, Asian lady sitting across the desk from her flanked by two intimidating men sharply dressed in black suits and wearing dark sunglasses. "Well Chris, he's got all the right friends, in all the right places." she said before hanging up the phone.
"So, about that advertising for your father's businesses Miss Satsukitane? I didn't think any Japanese companies had any businesses in this part of the world."
The young lady smiled serenely at the editor in chief, "My father believes we should take advantage of the current economic trend for some aggressive expansion," she said in a kind tone, leaving the other woman to infer the meaning.
The Japanese girl then picked up a copy of the day's newspaper and eyed the front page with a delighted grin, the headline stated: 'Top Mafia bosses found dead'
Chris arrived at his destination on time and looked around, there wasn't much of anything there, just a pitched tent by the river and a power generator further away with barrels of fuel around it. Chris narrowed his eyes and looked to the tent, then sighed. He went over to the tent and spoke loudly to it, "Hey, I'm Christopher Murrow, from the Newspaper, we had an appointment."
A few moments later he heard a voice from inside call him inside. Once in, he saw a Japanese man with white hair holding a doll of some anime character he didn't recognize and was brushing its long golden hair with his fingers. "Greetings, I'm Eishirou Sugata, genius, and this is my assistant, Pretty."
Chris kept his outward appearance professional but inwardly cringed as he thought to himself, "This is it, rock bottom. It can't get any worse than this."
"So, what are you working on?" asked Chris in his professional tone.
"Look here." Sugata replied and went over to his computer, with his doll's feet, he pushed some button on the keyboard. "There appears to be some kind of anomalous hole orbiting the Earth. Scientists around the world have been working together to try and solve the mystery of its origin."
Chris nodded his head feigning interest, "I've read about it. And I've read your theories on what it could be, and the responses debunking your theories too," said Chris in a polite tone.
Sugata kept his professional tone as he responded, "They have their own hypothesis about this phenomenon, but they're all flawed because they are grounded in reality."
Chris put his finger up, "Sorry, but, science is usually the thing that explains reality. So if you're saying this thing isn't part of reality, then... I'm confused."
Sugata stepped away from his computer and over to a empty space in his tent to address his guest "As I am sure you're aware, Columbus, who discovered the new world was able to stand upon it by simply thinking outside of the box."
Chris was still lost, "Your point?"
Sugata continued, "The story illustrates that no one believes in the unreal until they see it for themselves. It's the nature of people." Sugata lifted his doll up to the light and peeked under her short skirt with one eyed closed, "It's similar to the world underneath a girl's skirt. Something truly a mystery. But I have the ability to see! I can see the keywords connecting everything! A whole, new, world!"
Chris took some notes with a bored expression on his face, "Right. Panty science. Got it. Peeking up doll's skirts aside. This is even more confusing than my dreams."
Sugata raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Confusing dreams you say?"
Chris shrugged, "They're just dreams."
Sugata raised his index finger scholarly and spoke up, "Many intelligent people believe dreams to be electrical signals your brain sends out when processing memories. In other words, your desires for your memories become your dreams during your sleep." Sugata walked back over to his computer, "But that's nothing more than a hypothesis grounded in reality. You can't explain the unreal using real terms. Tell me what happens in your dreams."
Chris glared at him with confusion, "Don't you think that's a little personal?"
Sugata shrugged, "You brought it up."
Chris sighed to himself, "Touche. But it's still none of your business."
Sugata adjusted his glasses "Many people have been reporting strange dreams since the hole's first appearance. I am certain yours are among them! Your dreams are connected with this mysterious hole. I'm sure of it!"
Chris shook his head, "Truth is subjective. People only see the truth they want to see, that's also the nature of people you know."
Sugata smirked, "The reason I'm here is because the hole seems to have stopped directly over this city. I'm investigating it now. Have faith in me and I will unlock this mystery! I'm sending you GPS co-ordinates, meet me there tonight at midnight and you'll have all your answers!"
Chris face palmed, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
Back at the office Chris sat at his desk typing up what little he had managed to get on the scientists he was sent out to speak to. His colleague Sarah looking over his shoulder as he furiously typed with an angry scowl on his face.
"Someone's in a bad mood..."
"You would be too!" he snapped.
"Alright... Take a deep breath, and tell me what happened."
"He's gone off the deep end. He doesn't take anything he does seriously. He has a little girly doll as an assistant and he peeks up its skirt..."
Sarah started laughing uncontrollably. "Isn't that what you love about this work though? Is there ever a dull moment? Ever something really boring? You used to have such passion for this job, what happened to you?"
"I'm not in the mood to be analyzed. Don't you have work to do? I have to turn this screwball into a one thousand word story and I have an hour left to do it. I'd appreciate being left to focus," said Chris and then he picked up his open energy drink can and started chugging it.
"Fine... But you really need to cut back on that junk. It's going to kill you. Have you seen your gut recently?"
"Sarah... The amount of patience I have for a person is directly proportional to how attractive they are. Because you have that baby face and epic fun bags, I'll let you go with just a warning. But your assets won't help you if you keep pushing my buttons."
"That's sexual harassment you know!"
"Damn it woman! I don't care! Leave me to my work!"
"And what about me Chris? How much patience do my attributes win me?" came a new voice from behind them.
Chris turned around and saw his boss standing over them with her arms folded and a scolding glare in her eyes.
"My patience for you my lady, is as infinite as your beauty."
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment I really appreciate. If I could afford to fire the two of you, I would, but I can't. So get back to work!"
"You can't fire me because I'm just as much eye candy to you as you are to me boss," said Chris with a disinterested tone of voice as he turned back to his computer.
"Be careful Chris, you're not nearly as attractive as you seem to think you are."
"Then why do you still keep me around?"
"It used to be because you were the best at what you do. But now I'm starting to wonder..." she said dismissively while walking away.
Sarah sat down at her desk and huffed in annoyance. A young man sitting beside her tapped her shoulder and asked her a question in a hushed voice, "Hey. Why do you put up with that guy?"
Sarah tapped her chin in deep thought for a moment while composing her response, "He's an asshole sometimes. But he's a good man."
"What about the boss? Why does she take his shit? Do they have some kind of history or something?"
"They do. And it's none of your business. You're doing sports, not gossip," she answered in low but harsh tone.
Chris sat on a patch of grass in an open field beside his old motorbike reading a message on his phone,
'Will be late. Something came up. -Sugata.'
Chris sighed and looked up into the sky. "What am I even doing here?" he asked himself.
Chris looked out at the landscape, the city in the distance bathed the grassy valley in light, the pattern of the light almost seemed as if the city were being reflected upon the grass as if it were water. Chris felt a nostalgic tug pull him over to his backpack on the bike, he reached in and pulled out a camera. "Can't remember the last time I took photos for fun."
Chris walked around the field taking snaps of various things and looking for the perfect place to capture the whole scene when his phone started to ring. "This is Chris, talk to me."
"Get out of there!" came Sugata's voice on the phone.
"What?" asked Chris nervously when he registered the urgency in Sugata's voice.
"I've been going over the data. The hole's-"
The signal cut out and Chris couldn't understand the rest of what he said. With his hand shaking he looked up into the sky and there he saw the massive black hole in the sky. He took a deep breath and pointed his camera up at it, he held down the shutter release letting the camera snap images of what he saw. Through the viewfinder he saw a stream of light come out of hole which was on course to slam directly into him.
For a moment, he was frozen in a panic, but on instinct his feet started moving, running, desperate for a secure location. Suddenly he was thrown into the air by the force of an explosion and flung across the field, by reflex he put his arms out and allowed himself to roll once he hit the ground, minimizing the damage of the impact, he rolled until he was standing on his feet and took a look around to assess his situation. He felt something drip down his forehead and into his eye, the sting was much worse than that of sweat getting into his eye, he touched his forehead and looked at his fingers, blood. He couldn't feel any pain, but that didn't mean anything. "Priorities. Threat assessment," he thought to himself.
Chris looked around and then up into the sky, the danger seemed to have passed for the moment. He looked and saw his camera was still intact, against his own better judgment and experience he decided to go back to where the explosion happened to get a few shots, if it was something interesting, it could go in the paper and the evening wouldn't be a complete waste. He also considered that if he was lucky enough he might get blown to smithereens and get some proper sleep for a change.
As he approached the site of the explosion, he saw a reasonably deep crater, the dust still hadn't cleared, he held his camera at the ready to get a few shots of whatever was left inside of it, to his shock, he saw the face of a young woman inside of it, her eyes were closed, she was unconscious sprawled out on the floor of the crater, her hair was a rusty sort of red with some black thrown in, and as the dust fully cleared, he saw feathery wings.
"Wings?!" Chris shouted to himself as he slid himself down into the crater to try and carry her out as he lifted her up he quickly noticed the wings attached her back were really attached, there weren't part of some costume. The ground beneath his feet shook suddenly and he felt something hit the ground behind him, he looked back and saw what appeared to be a stone column hit the ground, he looked up and saw more coming down from the hole in the sky.
Chris was frozen in terror for a moment when his feet once again started to walk of their own volition, he slung the girl over his shoulder and listened as the sounds of the stone falling from the sky echoed around him.
"This isn't happening, this can't be happening!" Chris shouted to himself before something came into his mind, "There was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven." he spoke as he remembered the passage and looked up again at the hole as he struggled to carry the girl across the grassy valley with stone columns raining down around him. "God! If you can hear me up in that hole, send me straight to hell because I'd rather be damned for all eternity than share space with your stupid followers!"
As if the heavens had heard his request and were keen to grant his desire, the next column to fall from the hole was coming down right on top of their heads. Chris shut his eyes, he knew he wouldn't be able to run fast enough to get away but he still tried anyway, for whatever it was worth. Suddenly he felt his feet come up off the ground, and his body felt as if he were moving at a great speed, as he took inventory of himself, he felt like he was being held in two strong arms. He opened his eyes and looked down to see that he was now high above the ground and the chaos was all beneath him. He then looked over his shoulders, his gaze was met by a pair of emerald eyes, he was completely frozen. "Begin imprinting process." she said.
His eyes were then drawn to her choker, specifically, the chain attached to the front which seemed to be glowing and getting longer, his eyes followed the chain until it wrapped itself around his right hand, he looked at it in shock, still completely speechless from the whole ordeal.
The Angel carried them both to safety and then set Chris down on his feet and landed herself behind him, the man's eyes were set upon the chain which wasn't falling off, he closed his fist around it and felt the metal there, it was very real and he couldn't get his hand out of it. When he finally turned around and looked at the Angel she was kneeling before him, he widened his eyes and he himself fell to his knees from the exhaustion.
The Angel then began to address him; "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am a pet class Angeloid. My purpose is to fulfill your every want and desire. You are my master."
Christopher's mind couldn't handle it anymore and shut down completely, the rest of his body gave out as well and he fell to the floor unconscious.
"Please take good care of her for me," he heard as the sky pulled her back into itself.
Christopher awoke the next morning in his mattress on the floor of his bedroom to be greeted by a sharp stinging pain in his head. He reached up to touch his forehead and felt a bandage there, he also felt something in his hand, he looked at it and saw chains around his hand, he tried to pull them off but they were stuck in place by some unknown force, his eyes followed the chain links back to their source where he was greeted by the emerald eyes of an Angel.
"Good morning. Master," she said to him in a low monotonous voice.