My steps echoed through the dark hallway as I walked toward the place where we had all agreed to meet. As I turned the corner I heard some voices I walked towards them and found myself face to face with a grand doorway with light seeping through the crack at the bottom. I knocked softly three times fast then two more times at a slower pace. There was a soft click of the lock and the door opened but a sliver, revealing the eye of one of my beloved brothers staring at me "Open the door Uriel" I heard Michael's voice after a minute or so of standing outside. "Fine, whatever you say your majesty" he responded sarcastically as he opened the door flooding the hallway with light and allowing me to enter into the room. As I entered I saw the smiling face of all but one of my favorite brothers; Michael, Uriel, Castiel, Gabriel, and Raphael. I rolled my eyes and laughed, of course he would show up last to his own meeting, he always has to be the star of the show. A few minutes later we heard the same patterned knock, Uriel opened the door once more but this time did not make the guest wait and in waltzed Lucifer with a big grin plastered on his face. "Brothers, to what do I owe this pleasant surprise, I am honored you have decided to dain me with your fair presence" he said with outstretched arms. "You invited us you dolt and you're late" we said in unison "Now get on with it" Michael told him. "Weeeell… you all know my take on the 'love the precious little hairless apes… I mean humans' speech Father delivered yesterday, so on the morrow we are going to pull a prank on said precious little apes and I just wanted you to be informed that I expect all of you to join me". Most of us went along with his plans just to humor his melodramatic self, Castiel and Raphael needed a little more convincing, and Michael flat out said no and went as far prohibiting Castiel's participation, he did however agree not to ruin Lucifer's plans. The next morning we met up as planned at the gates and waited for Lucifer to arrive, for he was late yet again. We saw him coming, and with him were Mammon, Asmodeus, Leviathan, and Belphegor who was holding a cage with a creature inside it. "Brothers" Lucifer called out when he was a few feet away from us "let us commence with the plan… you as well as I know that Father has forbidden those puny humans to eating the fruits of a certain tree" we nodded "Tell me brothers do you think Father would still be so proud and try to force those distasteful humans down our throats if they disobeyed his one and only order?" "Brother do you not think that Father would suspect that we played a hand in this?" I heard Raph asking "Aaah, but thats the beauty of it, who would tell him certainly not I, nor would our brothers" Lucifer pointed at the four who accompanied him, "and I can not fathom that any of you would be capable betraying me, of betraying us and the bonds of our brotherhood, now let us begin." "What exactly do you have in mind my dear Lucy" Gabriel asked rubbing his hands excitedly as we all knew he was the trickster of the family. Lucifer's eye twitched "Great question Gabby, you see our wonderful brothers here have found this marvelous creature who we've taken upon ourselves to name Satan we shall release him into Eden where he shall convince those pesky human to go against the simple command of not eating from the tree, and not a single human will be hurt through the whole process now may we please get on with it, we don't have all day now follow me unless you'd prefer to join Casi in his house arrest with Michael". He took the cage from Belphegor and marched forward, we all shared a look and decided to follow. We released Satan in a secluded place, then returned home and waited. As we watched through Satan's eyes I began to laugh, "So Lucy, tell me again why you needed such a big entourage for something so small", "Oh dear brother, I did not need you, I just thought that for once in your boring lackluster lives you guys would like to have a little fun". In the distance we heard a bell indicating an announcement from Father. When we arrived at the town square we found out just how well our stunt had worked as Father announced that from now on all human souls were banned not only from Eden, but from heaven as well. After being dismissed we headed to our meeting room were Michael paced to and fro as he waited for us "What have you guys done!?" he asked sounding pained. "Do not blame us brother, for it was but a mere suggestion, they were given their choice and they chose wrong, besides we're better off without them" Lucifer said. "Did you even give them a chance, did you ever think about them being good souls!?" Castiel exclaimed coming forth and out of the shadows making his presence known to us. Guilt welled up inside me the moment I saw his heartbroken state. Were they not Father's creations aswell, so who was I to think I was better than they, who was I to judge them as lower beings. As years passed Michael had grown very distant only talking to Castiel who although still interacted with us never truly lost the pained look in his eyes whenever the humans were mentioned, we had lost Michael's trust and hurt Castiel. For a long time I'd attempted to make amends but failed repeatedly. I finally got the chance to speak to them when I caught up to them on their way to meditation one evening "Brothers" I called but Michael ignored me, pulled Castiel with him and picked up their pace. I too picked up my speed, caught up to them, passed them, and stepped in front of them in order to make him stop. "Michael please, it has been too long, this wall between us must fall, what must I do to tear it down, Cas I need to know how to fix thing between us, between all of us" "Bells…you already know what you must do, I told you that night, you must give the humans a chance, go down to Earth and see for yourself then come and tell me what you think but for now, I'll be on my way" Cas said as Michael stepped around me taking Cas with him leaving me all alone.
I would do it , I was going to earn their forgiveness and things would go back to normal between us. I was at the gates in no time, I went straight down, took my human form , and landed in a small town village. I roamed the streets aimlessly taking in the view of poverty and sickness and then I saw her. A woman who looked as if she didn't belong in this world of poverty and dirt, she was walking about handing out food and blankets to the needy. As she walked she sang songs to my Father raising the spirits of those who were down, it was the most beautiful and compelling thing I'd ever seen. I stayed rooted to the same spot as she continued down the row of people, she was near me when she accidentally dropped one of the rolled up blankets she was hauling around in her cart, it landed at my feet. I immediately picked it up and handed it to her, "Thankyou" she said but I waved it off "don't worry about it" she gave the blanket to an old man who wore extremely thin clothes "Hi, my name's Grace and yours" she said with an outstretched hand as she introduced herself to me "I'm Beelzebub but you could call me Bells thats what my brothers call me" I told her as I shook her hand. "Oh…you have brothers how many?" being an angel, I had too many to count so as we continued walking and handing out food and blankets I told her I had ten and that we had all been taken in as orphans to a kind and loving father. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know that you did not have a real family" "Grace…I just told you I have ten brothers and a loving father how more real can they get" she apologized again for saying an unnecessary thing, we talked the evening away and I learned that she was an only child, also that she worked as a schoolteacher for young children where she taught them about a kind and merciful God, and about her garden where she got the food for the villagers from, while I told her all about my brothers. As the sun set I walked her home and told her I'd be back tomorrow. As soon as I got home I looked for Michael, I could not wait to tell him about Grace. I found him waiting at the gates "Do you see now Bells how wrong you guys were" "Yes I do" "Well then come with me" he took hold of my hand and all but dragged me to the familiar grand door "tell them Bells, tell them how they were wrong, tell them they must do the right thing and ask Father to forgive the humans" he pushed open the door and led me inside were my nine other brothers were patiently waiting "about time Bellzy I was almost getting tired of waiting for you" Lucifer told me smirking "So what's so grand that's got Michael talking to us again" asked Gabriel, I could tell this was something they all wanted to know because at that very moment all eye were on me. "Brothers… Michael was right, I went to the human realm and I met the most amazing human today, and if human souls were to be allowed into heaven she would make it in no questions asked" "Nonsense" Lucifer interrupted "human souls are not and will not ever be allowed into heaven, Father made that decision long ago!". "But Lucifer it was our fault, you have to give her a chance, all of you must come with me tomorrow for I am going to see her again and she told me it would be nice to meet you". "Sure thing bro" all but one of the angels in the room responded. Lucifer looked like he'd been betrayed and finally he looked at me "Fine!, but she had better be worth it". "Trust me brother you will not regret this". The next morning I arrived at the gates my brothers were glaring at me for being late, even Lucifer was already there he however was not glaring. I led them to the small village and told them to wait. I saw her going around with food once more. "Grace" she looked up and smiled "I brought some people who would like to meet you". After she'd finished handing out the food I took her to meet my brothers. I could tell that they immediately took a liking to her , even Lucifer had been charmed by her. We visited her many time after that and it became obvious to me that they now loved her as a little sister, surprisingly out of all of them Lucifer was the one who'd grown the most attached to her. Most of the time they left us on our own but often told me to quit hogging her. In all my visits I was never late until one time when my brothers held me up teasingly, since they knew I was anxious to leave. That day the moment I arrived at the village I felt the coldest wind, so chilling it sent shivers down my spine, I knew right away something was wrong. I rushed to the same spot I had gone to many times before and there in the middle of the street was a mob of people, I pushed through not knowing what to expect and when I got to the center of the crowd I saw Grace on the floor her face smudged with dirt and blood, her dress torn and her arms scraped and bloody. I fell to my knees and held her cold dead body. "Grace, oh Grace what has happened to you" I looked up and saw the old man I'd first seen when I met Grace."Pray tell sir what tragedy has befallen our sweet little angel". He knelt down beside me and told me with tears in his eyes that Grace had been hit by a moving carriage when she'd pushed a child out of its way "but do not worry sir, she has surely earned her spot in heaven for there was no soul kinder than hers". His comment spurred me and I knew I had to act fast for human souls were not allowed into heaven. I got up and hurried home. I had to tell Father. I found him on his porch and the look on his face told me he was waiting for me and that he already knew why I was coming "Father!…you must open the gates for her she deserves to be here" I begged. "Son you know that is impossible even if it is you who ask it of me, you know there are rules even I must follow, and these are the consequences of the humans foolish actions" "Yes Father but that was our fault", "No son they were given free will and they made their choice as did you and your brothers" I knew that I alone could not convince Father so I left in search of my brothers. I found them walking towards the gates they were smiling up 'til they looked upon my face. I never gave them the chance to ask what was wrong before I said "She's dead" and fell to my knees. Lucifer ran up to me "What are you talking about, get up and join us we were just on our way to visit Grace" her name was all it took to break me "DON'T YOU GET IT! SHE DEAD, GRACE-GRACE IS GONE, to a place beyond our reach,gone because…" I could not bring myself to continue for we all knew why we had lost our Grace. "because of me, it's all my fault…I did this" said Lucifer "and I can fix this, I can talk to Father-" "-you mean we can talk to Father" interrupted Castiel, "we'll fix this together". I am not entirely sure of what happened next, but it doesn't matter because the outcome was still the same, we could not get our Grace back. We walked to the room, the room where it had all began. The tension rose between us all but I didn't care all I wanted was for everything to go away. For some reason or another Michael and Lucifer began to argue and Lucifer yelled out "This is what you wanted wasn't it Michael! Your perfect punishment for our wrongdoings to the humans so many years ago, you never were one to let bad deeds go unpunished, you probably never even cared about Grace and her only role in your perfect one was as collateral damage ", "Don't you dare, you know me, I would never do such a thing-" "-really" Belphegor interrupted "because as far as I'm concerned you've always been the perfect little strategist" Mammon, Asmodeus, Leviathan nodded their heads in agreement, and although I didn't want to believe it, it was the only explanation that made sense to me at the moment. "You know what, I don't need this, you guys know well enough how much i cared for Grace" and he stormed out followed by Castiel who before he left told us to have more faith in our big brother. Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel told Lucifer he gone to far and went to go look for our other brothers. "Brothers… what if I told you I knew of a way to get Grace back" Lucifer said. "We'd say we're all for it" Mammon said. "Tell us what you're thinking" Levi said. "Tell me brother's why did we go to Father to open the gates?". "Because he's the only one with the power to do so" answered Asmodeus. "That you are right but Father is to weak to do anything about the gates, so how about we open them for him". "That's impossible" I said, "the only way we could do the is if we had his power". "Exactly, so all we have do is take it from him and the we will be the ones with the power". "Let's do it" the others said. "I don't know Luce". "Brother we must… do it for Grace, if we get Father's powers no one can tell us what we can and can't do". "If it's for Grace, then let's get this over with" I rose from my seat with new vigor if it was for my Grace I could do anything even go against my own Father.