The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The cold, crisp air burned his lungs as he ran, shoes hitting the pavement rhythmically. He rounded the corner, the houses coming into view as he slowed down and stopped, catching his breath. Luke rested his hands on his knees as he looked at the pavement below him, his breath misting in the early morning air as the familiar bump of his dog, Bailey, catching up to him as he rested. Bailey was a Dober Pinscher, and an excellent guard dog when he needed it. She was also a nice companion to have.
He was reaching down to pat Bailey when it happened, she sensed it before he did. A low growl emitted from her throat as he looked up, fear spiking through him at the thought of being mugged in a tiny town, but instead it was something much worse.
Gabriel, one of the archangels stood before him clad in dark armour and black wings behind him. He looked disorientated for a moment, before setting his focus on the human below him. Luke still had his hands on his knees, shocked at the sight of a brother he had not seen for thousands of years.
"You did this" Gabriel hissed in the angelic language, anger coating his voice. Luke stumbled backwards, landing on his ass as he looked up at the archangel. "You and your kind!"
Luke anticipated the swing of the sword, falling even further backwards onto his back to dodge it. Unfortunately, Bailey was not as lucky and took the hit that was meant for him. Shock ran through him, his eyes widening as he looked at his companion of nearly ten years.
He was pulled back to the current situation when Gabriel raised his sword again, wings following suit as if to trap Luke. He scrambled quickly, somewhat rusty from not having fought for a millennium but still able to dodge as Gabriel went in for a hit with the large wings, looking furious as the lower angels fell yellow behind him. Luke ducked easily, moving quickly underneath the wings and shoving Gabriel forward with a harsh kick to his back. Gabriel stumbled as Luke turned and ran, passing house after house as the lower angels fell around him, entering the other houses of weaker souls.
He skidded to a stop in front of the large wooden walls that surrounded his house, the door to the garage held a keypad on one side and he desperately mashed the buttons to get himself in, looking back only once to see Gabriel had taken on a new target that was one of his neighbours running away. His heart jumped at this, wanting to help, but he needed to get inside. He had bought this house for the exact reason of having a large backyard. One for Bailey, and one for his stash of weapons designed for this problem.
He had wrenched open the door, ready to slam it shut when his neighbours appeared.
Jess, a single mother, was a neighbour on his left side, living in a simple two bedroom, one bathroom house he had been invited to once. He had tried to avoid everyone, hoping they would leave him alone, but she had appeared as soon as the moving trucks and security company did, bringing muffins as a welcoming gift. He had seen her younger daughter, who had only been 10 at the time, playing on the front lawn from time to time. That had been seven years ago, and he hadn't been able to get rid of Jess ever since.
They didn't look possessed, no sign of black veins, pointy teeth, or black eyes on them. But he was still hesitant, the emergency button beside the inside panel had his hand resting on it as they ran up.
"Luke! Luke, what's happening? Why is... what is.." Jess said, her dark brown hair clearly damp from a shower, her black shirt and dark blue jeans clearly quickly put on. She had her daughter, Heather, in tow behind her as she stopped in front of the door. Jess's brown eyes pleaded to be let in, and he didn't blame her. His large house and tall walls gave a sense of safety, but lower angels could climb.
He stood there staring, his blue eyes cold as he contemplated the situation.
He had been banished to Earth a long, long time ago. Originally he believed himself above all the humans around him, but over time he had grown to see why Father loved them so much. They had compassion like no angel, they had fear that gave them personality, and they had grown from nothing to something all on their own. After a long time, he had grown to respect them and admire them. They had something he never could, they valued life like he never could.
He had even grown attached to the two humans that stood in front of him, that currently had two lower angels running up behind him.
Wait, that's not good.
He let out a growl as he grabbed her wrist, pulling her easily inside with Heather.
"Get to the kitchen, there's a door to the basement. Go down there, and wait outside the safe. Do not come up for whatever reason, and if I'm not there lock the door and barricade it with whatever you find" He said, his voice low as he looked down at her, his hand still around her wrist as he looked back at the two lower angels running to the door.
"Understand?" Luke said after a moment of her just staring, clearly shocked. Jess nodded quickly after a moment and he let her go, giving her a slight push to the door that sat on the other side of the empty garage, only one Ute resting in the middle of it.
Luke immediately set to work, pulling down a panel beside the wall quickly and taking out the blade that hung in there, turning back to the door and walking out to the chaos.
The lower angels were upon him as soon as he left, but he tried to be quicker. Slashing upwards on the first one drove it back, and quick stabs to the wildly swinging arms of the second left the lower angel open for a quick stab to the chest, blood leaking out onto Luke's hands as he dropped him.
He didn't see the one that snuck up behind him as he advanced on the other one from before, but he certainly felt it. It jumped on his back, its arms wrapping around his throat and a simple butterknife digging into his shoulder, buried to the hilt.
With a cry of anger, he split his sword into two with a flick of a lever. The duel swords worked efficiently with his anger, one going through the head of the one on his back and the other easily decapitating the one in front of him.
Shrugging the one on his back off he finally looked at them, one was a clerk for a gas station and the other was a girl who worked at the diner. The one that had been on his back he didn't know, but it looked like an old man.
With a huff he turned, pain splitting through his shoulder, and walked back into the garage. He slammed the door behind him and wiped the blood off on his black running shorts. He turned towards the door, the small screen above the coded lock showed chaos outside as people ran from the lower angels, but he switched it off. Now was not a time to go out and save them, he had to focus on the two humans he had in his basement.
Pushing the emergency button beside the camera panel shut off the lights inside, darkening the garage as he pulled off his gray running shoes and slipped his feet into the black combat boots that rested beside the door, throwing the slightly blood stained running shoes in their place.
With a sigh he turned and walked out of the garage into his house. He was first met by the bleak hallway, containing nothing but a few doorways that led off in other directions. The first turnoff of the hallway was to the left of him, beside the door, and contained the living room. The second was to the kitchen, which had a small door that also connected to the living room. The rest of the hallway contained four bedroom and two bathrooms. It was spacious, unnecessary for a man living on his own, but it was only the backyard he was worried about. He had no gardens, but the land was large enough for Bailey to run around and for him to build an underground shelter.
The thought of Bailey made his throat close over for a moment. He hadn't bought her, but found her on the side of the road lost and distraught as a puppy. He loved her and nurtured her, and she returned it by being there and guarding him. Now she was gone.
With a sigh he turned towards the kitchen door, having no need to open it because the girls had already opened it. The kitchen was just as plain as the rest of his house, a simple silver fridge, a microwave, a table sitting in the middle of the room with one chair. There were no decorations at all, as he didn't actually need any. The only thing that would indicate life was the dog bowl he had on the counter, ready for this mornings feeding, and the amount of dog food he hoarded.
He made his way to the basement door, a white old door beside the door that led into the backyard. Luke turned the knob on the door, only to find it was locked. With a huff he banged on it, slightly annoyed they had locked it as soon as they had gotten down there.
"Open the damm door" He shouted after there was no answer, listening quietly while leaning against the doorframe. He glanced at his shoulder, having forgotten about the damm butterknife embedded in his shoulder. Reaching up, he hissed in pain as he slid it out and dropped it on the floor, blood following it as the door opened as Jess gasped in surprised at the sight of blood, and the blade still in his hand.
"Ohmy, Luke, what happened?!" She exclaimed as she pulled him inside, shutting the door as he headed down the stairs and into the equally empty basement that only contained a giant door that looked like a safe.
"I was stabbed" He said, brushing it off like it was just a flesh wound as he approached the door. Heather stood beside it, shock in her golden eyes as she watched him begin to open the safe, twisting the knob this way and that until a heavy click sounded. He stepped back and pulled the lever, the door swinging outwards and revealing another, much more modern door inside it.
"Come on, we'll be safe down here" Luke said, looking back at them as he entered the pin to open it to the bunker he had underneath. He was slightly surprised when he stepped through, mainly because they didn't really ask any questions. He would've been in shock by now, demanding to know why this was happening and what was causing it.
They followed him inside, looking around at the walls. One wall was covered completely in guns that were legal to guns that were illegal, the other shorter wall had knives and spears and all sorts of weapons that didn't require ammo. The other had labeled craters stacked up, ranging from food to medical supplies. He instantly headed over to one labeled First Aid, pulling it open and taking the first aid kit out.
"This is... you had this under here the whole time?" Jess said, her voice quiet and shocked. Heather just stared, shock probably catching up as Luke sat down, opening the kit.
"Yeah, it's mainly for emergencies. I didn't expect this to be one of them though" He explained as he opened the kit, pulling out needle and thread. He threaded the needle calmly, then pulling the strap of his grey singlet away from the stab wound and started stitching.
"Wait, what exactly is the 'emergency'? I just saw people out there murdering each other" Jess stated in an angry tone, crossing her arms as she stood in the middle of the room.
"It's.. it's hard to explain, you might want to sit down" Luke said, looking up as he finished tying the stitching off. He placed the needle down as she walked over and hesitantly sat down beside him, Heather following after her and sticking close by.
"Explain, and explain why you have this" Jess said, he was surprised by how demanding she could be. It was probably why she hadn't been possessed, and he was glad he had someone like that to fight along... if she would fight at all.
"Where do I begin.." He said, taking a deep breath before continuing. "First, empty your mind of all the stereotypes because out there, what you saw with all the black veins were angels, lower angels" Luke explained, about to state the next part when Heather interrupted.
"Wait, I thought angels were the good guys?" She asked, leaning forward, her dark brown hair spilling over her knees.
"Yes, and no. I'm only guessing here, but Gabriel, an archangel, had a lovely little army of lower angels. We called them the Dogs of Heaven, and he is currently leading them against us humans. I don't know what could cause this, and I don't know why God hasn't intervened, but right now it's not safe to go outside. The higher angels might side with Gabriel, which would also mean hell for us, so you're lucky that I choose to move here and build my bunker here" Luke continued, in truth he had moved here because it was a tiny town where no one asked questions. It had a line of shops, a gas station, and a small supermarket. It was perfect for hiding out.
"How do you know all this?" Heather asked, wrapping her arms around her knees.
Luke looked at his bloodied hands when she asked this, unsure of what to say.
"Well.. I was once one of them, I was an archangel before I did something very bad and was thrown our of heaven." Luke explained, his voice quieter. A hundred years ago he wouldn't had been ashamed, but being around humans for so long had seen him become like them.
"What, you mean like Lucifer got thrown out?" Jess questioned, her legs crossed and her palms on her knees.
Luke flinched as she said that, she had hit the mark perfectly.
"Yes.. I mean exactly like that" Luke said quietly, unsure if he should tell them his little secret.
Unsure if he should tell them that he was infact that.
That he was Lucifer.
Hey there, thanks for sticking through to the end and reading it all. I'm really hesitant about writing this, mainly because I don't want it to be just one chapter and me never update it. I want to keep this story going, I want to have Lucifer, Jess, and Heather develop. Don't worry if you think Heather doesn't get enough attention, I think so to. I'm going to have her do some important stuff next chapter.
The quote at the beginning of the first chapter is from BibleGetaway, and is out of the New International Version of the Bible. It is Revelation 12:7-9, but it is not the full quote.
Thank you for reading, and review if you have the time to. Any review is a good review in my books.
-DR