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Disclaimer: "Angels & Demons", and all canon characters and characteristics remain the property and rights of Dan Brown. All I own is the writing itself, and any original features and / or attributes portrayed within said writing.
A/N: I finished reading this book a while ago, and I have to say that it was brilliant, in spite of its many historical and geographical inaccuracies! What I wanted to do here was detail Ventresca's final ascension, and what ran through his mind from the moment of ignite to the moment of disapparition. So I wrote this. :3
I--I
Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca raised his weary head from prayer, looking graciously upon the joyous crowd before him as he stood behind the sacred Papal Balcony's balustrade. A profound multitude of voices resurrected from the moment of silence, roars of rapturous song thundering from the congregation assembled below on St. Peter's Square.
The camerlengo could feel his linen garments heavy with the translucent oils of the Pallium lamps, the soaked fabric clinging painfully to the open wound seared onto his chest. He had endured the stinging sensation with nothing short of noble reticence, for he knew that continuing these actions would do nothing but satisfy the Lord, achieve His goal, and lead on to have His brilliant plan come into final completion. Even though he was nothing but a pawn in God's universal game of chess, he was humbled by the fact that He had put him into play...if only for a short while.
To think, he could turn around this instant and abandon his mission altogether.
'No.', he thought firmly, positioning his thumb on the lighter. 'For this was His intention.'
The confused spectators' scattered remarks soon grew into exclamations of shock as their unsuspecting eyes witnessed the camerlengo's robes ignite, immediately engulfing his entire body in a magnificent pillar of flame. His arms spread open to the skies in a holy surrender, as if inviting God Himself to descend from the heavens and seize him where he stood.
'Take me into your Kingdom, Lord.'
He would see his Father. He would rejoin his Maker. He would finally come face to face with the Almighty and hear His praise, the tangible words of favor he longed to hear.
'I am ready.'
He allowed the fire to envelop his entire being; the heated blaze swallowed the Illuminati Diamond branded onto his chest, burning the mark away with the sin.
'I leave myself in your embrace.'
The hand of God was upon him, now.
He could feel his physical senses becoming paralyzed; all pain, discarded as insignificant with the arrival of his ending. The flames licked higher and higher in his peripheral, yet his vision focused on nothing more than the clearness of the Vatican sky. He feels nothing, nothing but the unbridled joy of freedom uplifting his heart and freeing his soul, carrying his spirit higher than any mortal mind could possibly fathom.
And when the flame went up toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.
He was the angel of the Lord.
There was nothing left but a darkening vision of a starry night. The fading voices of a singing crowd. The lingering scent of fire and rain.
Then peace.
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