The Angel Of Death
My entire life, I have only known my existence to be one of death. It is my duty after all, to carry souls who are faithful to heaven's gates. The gentle embrace of death is what some might refer to me as. I am the white and soothing light some claim to see before they die, though how they live to tell of this I am not entirely sure. It is the belief of many that the horseman Death is the one and only Death, but if the full truth may come into light, I was the Angel Of Death long before the horsemen were even created. Most of Death's reapers also carry a quality that renders them unfit to enter heaven. This quality is a subtle desire for humans to suffer after they pass into the void, meaning that they enjoy the activity that is damning. It is because of this sinful desire of theirs, that I created the other Death Angels, because as powerful as I may be, I cannot send the thousands of souls that die each day to heaven on my own. Death by most human's viewpoint is something to be feared, that I am to be feared. While it is true that many die a gruesome death, it brings a smile to my face when I place my hand on a dying human's soul and see their furrowed faces relax and an expression of peace envelope them just as I bring about the end of their human existence, which in my opinion is like freeing a slave from a long and painful service to their master that is called modern society. I often call my work Liberation, in which I would receive a prayer from a dying soul and go to them, comforting them in their time of dying, often singing a lullaby or favorite song, which I seem to get requests for very frequently. But this is not what I intend to share with you; I want to share a story that began as an order, where along the way I met two brothers, an old drunk, and two strong women, all of which being under the care of my beloved brother who I watched and partook in his suffering and struggles and trials of faith.
"God save me!" the panicked prayer for salvation rang through my mind and I quickly followed the voice, which led me to a man. Poor soul, he lay writhing in the middle of a dirty alleyway, clutching at a bullet wound that was imbedded in his lung, streaming red hued life. I appeared in my usual human form, as I did not need to settle in a vessel, partly because over a span of a few weeks they'd combust. I preferred the form of a girl that would be the age of sixteen in human standards, with waist length milk chocolate ringlets, a refined build, and dark arching eyebrows that overlooked eyes that were a shade of crystalline hazel. I stretched out my wings to show him I was an angel and meant him no harm. Normally an angel's wings are not visible to humans but since I was only seen by him I could freely let the strongly structured white wings unfurl.
" Am I…Going to die?" The man asked, struggling to speak through the blood that filled his mouth and trickled down his slightly bearded face. I gave him a slight smile, a smile of comfort and nodded solemnly, then kneeling down to place my hand over his fatal wound, sending a flush of calm over him while learning who he was. Thomas (called Tom by friend and family) Anthony Graybeel, age 37, a faith driven husband and father of two, cause of death, a gunshot wound to the chest for the money he had in his possession. I sat cross-legged next to him, a comforting hand still on his chest. His death was not to pass until twenty-three seconds after 7:30 in the evening; the current time was forty-nine seconds after 7:27. Blood still seeped from Thomas' wound and mouth, but he no longer writhed, instead he lay there utterly still, realizing that this was God's will for him and he would soon join his father and sister who I had Liberated when he was 15 when he had endured an 18-wheeler smashing the car into a pile of twisted metal. He no longer felt pain due to my touch, and as the seconds fluttered past us he stared at me for a moment, then difficulty spoke,
" Who are you?" I smiled at the question. It was asked every time I Liberated a soul, in their defense I suppose it would only be logical to wonder who the stranger angel with a hand placed on them was.
"My name is Ciel, I am the Angel Of Death." My routine answer was given with the routine gentle smile. 16 seconds left. I reached towards Tom's soul, humming his favorite song, Bohemian Rhapsody. 4 seconds left. I grasped Thomas' soul and looking into the man's soft brown eyes I whispered, " It's time to go home Tom." He smiled nodded his head, his neatly trimmed blond hair bobbing up and down with the movement. It was now twenty-three seconds after 7:30 in the evening; I lifted my hand from Thomas' chest. He gasped as life left him, and then slumped, his body now a corpse. As I lifted my hand away from his chest, which was now already growing cold, a small outline of him rose from his body, then quickly compacted itself into a bright, shining white ball of light. Small wisps of the light radiated warmly against the cool night breeze as I cradled Tom's soul and flew towards the stars, towards heaven. The flight took a matter of milliseconds, but to me it felt like an endless journey, a small angel against a calming sea of stars. Giving my wings a strong down stroke, I landed in Tom's already forming heaven. Nudging the soul a bit, it slowly floated off towards its path towards his father and sister. For him the path was an old forest trail he used to hike on every Sunday after church in his old family home. I waved goodbye to Thomas and flew to Heaven's Garden. It felt strange to intrude on other soul's heavens so I came here, Heaven's Garden, or as I saw it, Eden. On occasion I would speak to Joshua, but for the most part I kept to myself, lost in my own mind that reminisced of the times I came here with my brothers. Michael & Lucifer used to smile all the time then, Lucifer running around with me on his shoulders while our big brother Michael would chase after us. We were the first angels to be created so we had always been closest, and then suddenly, those happy times ended. I still ask myself, how did it go so wrong? What changed him so much? But then, why would I know the answer to that? Even now, so many millennium after Lucifer was corrupted and fell, I have never found a way to cope with it all, there is still a hole left in my heart that was torn away by witnessing my elder brother banish Lucifer from heaven. I threw myself on the plush grass of "Eden" and stared up at the sky. The sunlight in Eden that day was dappled with clouds, passing lazily across the large expanse of blue. I breathed in the scent of life, of grass, and sunlight and let myself doze. I had stopped dreaming around the time Lucifer was released from his cage, whether it was because of worry that I might have nightmares or the anxiety of letting myself go into a deep sleep and thus letting my guard down I am not sure. But I awoke from my dreamless sleep when I heard Joshua calling my name. I lifted my eyelids to stare into his wide brown eyes, which held a serious light in them. I frowned slightly,
"What is it brother?" He delayed his answer by offering his hand, which I took sleepily. He helped me up and now stared down at me, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows. "Father wants to see you Ciel." He intoned in his low and calm voice. Instantly I smiled. I had not seen God in a while and I felt lost without him, though I suppose I should be thankful that I even know what he looks like.
"Thank you Joshua." I said, still smiling as he placed his hand on my shoulder. The presence of father still had not left him so I grasped at it and followed it to Earth. Of all the beautiful places I thought God would be I never expected him to be where I found him, in his usual human form, sitting on a park bench in Waterville, Maine. Tilting my head slightly I pondered his location spot, but then again, father loved watching his human children roam about in their daily lives. I cleared my throat and took a seat next to him. I never did think that his human form did him justice, slightly shaggy brown hair, chiseled face with a small shadow of facial hair, and beautiful blue eyes that seemed to reflect the very ocean waves. The appearance was beautiful in a human perspective, though he appeared in his mid- 40's, but it never really seemed to capture his full awe inspiring beauty. He turned his head to face me, then the corners of his mouth spread into a smile. He put a hand on my shoulder,
"It has been a while my child." His voice held a powerful rumbling tone, like rolling thunder, but only, gentler you could say. I wrapped my hands around the hand on my shoulder,
"Indeed it has father, thank you for calling me here." We held our slight father and daughter embrace for a moment longer then broke away and sat there on the park bench, to avoid stares of the humans passing by.
"I can hear you wondering why you are hear my child," he broke the silence and I nodded, politely prompting him to go on, " It is about the matter of your brother's future vessels."
"The Winchester boys father?" I asked, he nodded, " Many of your siblings are being corrupted by Lucifer's very presence on Earth, and have already turned to coercing them to give their consent. It would seem that they do not care about my children here," He gestured around the park, " And only wish to end this Earth as quickly as possible." I had a faint idea of where he was leading up to,
" What would you have me do father?" He turned to me again, his blue eyes staring into my hazel ones.
" My dear Ciel, I want you to guard them at all costs, and whatever you do, do not let them give their consent to either of you elder brothers and thus ensuing the end of this wonderful world I have created." The gentle order quickly imbedded itself into my conscience, and I smiled at the warmth it gave me,
"I will do as you ask father." God reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand, his radiance sending another rush of warmth through me.
"I know you will my child." And with that he was gone. It was hard not to wonder why he chose me to guard these Winchester brothers. I was merely an Angel Of Death, not a guardian. And yet despite this, I felt a strange connection to the boys I had not even met, so I stood from the park bench and set off, walking surprisingly. I tried to reach out for their souls but it appeared they had been protected by Enochian sigils. So instead I followed the next best presence I felt. An angel. Who they were or what their intentions were I did not know, but I knew that they were after the Winchester's and that I had encountered this angel before. My tracking led me to a police station in the same little town of Waterville, Maine. I looked through one of the windows and saw the angel, along with who I could only assume was one of the Winchester's. Until now I had not recognized the Angel's presence, but now that I was close enough I realized it was my younger brother Castiel. I let out a sigh of relief. If Castiel was protecting the Winchester's then I surely did not need to worry myself much. Though he was ridiculed for it, Castiel's bond with his human charges were strong and effective, it always helped to have a personal desire to keep a charge safe, and Castiel took this to extremes. I had not yet seen his new vessel, so I studied him. It was not far of from what father's human form looked like, though the hair was slightly neater and a few shades darker, and the eyes were a richer blue, with less movement in them. He was younger than father's human form and he wore a tan trench coat, which I thought was slightly odd seeing as how most angels have their vessels wearing suits. It would be strange for a young girl to wear a suit so I simply wore a white dress. The Winchester next to him was wearing a suit and was speaking with a serious expression. His eyes were an intriguing shade of forest green. They held a purity within them that spoke clearly that he was meant to be Michael's vessel. His sandy blonde hair was not messy, but not uniform neat either, just casual I suppose. I decided to wait until their conversation with the police officer was over, it would have been rude to intrude while they were in the middle of speaking to him and I thought that the officer Walter Framingham would be quite alarmed at my sudden appearance. To pass the time I reached towards the Winchester boy's soul. Dean Winchester. So that's his name! I thought to myself. After Lucifer was freed I had kept away from anything other than Ascending souls to heaven so I had only heard of the Winchester's when I spoke briefly to Zachariah, who had been in a particularly foul mood that day. As for where Dean's brother was I was not sure. Furrowing my brows I wondered, if Castiel is charged with protecting the Winchester's, why is he not with both of them? Where is the other one? I bit down slightly on my thumbnail and spread my conscience across the nation, searching countless souls for what seemed like hours. As it would happen, when I snapped back to my body in my vain attempt to find my second charge, I noticed that Castiel and Dean were ducking into a car and began to take off. Gasping slightly, I took off after them, flying of course. I was inside the car in a matter of seconds, though neither of them seemed to notice. It would appear that Castiel's senses were growing dull, which was incredibly strange to me. The Castiel I knew was incredibly vigilant, always on the lookout for danger. But it took a full minute and thirty-four seconds for them to notice me, and that was only because I cleared my throat. Dean lost control of the car for a moment, swerving across the road franticly, inspiring a flower of nausea to bloom in my stomach,
"Son of a bitch!" he cried, much to my confusion. The insult seemed to be referring to me, but I was clearly female and technically I had no mother so it was completely irrelevant to me. Castiel's reaction was calm and instantaneous though, showing a bit of the Castiel I know. He drew out his angel blade and pointed it at me, then halting in his attack when he recognized me,
"Dean, pull the car over." He said gruffly, retracting his blade. Dean gave Castiel a questioning glance, then pulled over. Luckily, we were alongside a forest and I burst out of the car in relief.
" How can you put up with such a nauseating form of transportation like that?" I asked, trying to regain my composure. Dean wore an expression that seemed to demand an explanation.
"Uh Cas, what's with little heart attack here popping up like that?" I tilted my head with confused narrowed eyes, what an odd way of speaking. Castiel merely smiled, a very slight but genuine smile and nodded a greeting,
" Hello Ciel." He said, much to Dean's bewilderment.
"Cas!" seems he has a short temper, so much like Michael. Castiel turned to Dean and gestured to me.
"This is Ciel, a friend." I smiled at Dean Winchester,
" Hello Dean, it is a pleasure to meet you." He smiled, but it was obviously sarcastic and fake,
" Wish I could say the same sweetie, but I'm still trying to guess at who the hell you are and what you were doing zapping into my car!" I frowned slightly, an embarrassed flush rushing to my face,
"Yes, my apologies for that, I saw you drive off and I panicked. I meant to confront you sooner but I was in the middle of searching for your brother." At the mention of his brother Dean stiffened slightly, alert. Castiel took on a suspicious expression.
"What do you want with Sam Ciel?" There's the name I needed! I could not help but laugh slightly at how tense they were so suddenly,
" Relax brother, I am not looking for him for the reason you are thinking of, I merely want to find him, to protect him." They relaxed but were now confused, both for different reasons,
" What exactly were you thinking she was gonna do Cas?" Dean asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
"Ciel is the Angel Of Death, I thought she was trying to find him and take his soul to heaven or in other words, kill him." Castiel said passively, like meeting an Angel Of Death was an every day thing, although in his case it almost was.
"But those aren't my intentions." I quickly added when I saw him tense worriedly, " I have taken it upon myself to look after the pair of you, and make sure you do not 'say yes'." It was a slight lie, I had actually been ordered to protect them, but I thought it would avoid suspicion if I said I had done it on my own accord. Castiel seemed satisfied with the answer, no longer confused, but Dean unfortunately only narrowed his eyes,
"Is that right? Well hate to break it to you but you won't be necessary, Sammy and I will die a thousand times over before we say yes." I nearly laughed. His eyes held no sincerity in them at all, he was obviously trying to prove that he could resist the odds to not just me but to himself most of all, how pitiful. I did not know what to say to make it through his incredibly stubborn mind so I simply resisted the urge to roll my eyes and looked at Castiel, then back to Dean,
" Dean, it is important that you tell me where your brother is, I need to speak with him." Taken aback, Dean raised an eyebrow,
" Oh yeah? And just what do you need to talk to Sammy about?" What a nuisance. I thought. It was not as though I could not simply search Dean's mind for Sam's location, I most certainly could, it just did not seem like the most courteous of things to do to someone I had just met. But with my patience running thin, I closed the distance in which we were apart and placed my hand on his forehead, Castiel only flinched and said,
" Is that really necessary?" I replied in the affirmative and delved into Dean's memory, ignoring the slight grunt of discomfort he made. I hated forcefully gathering information like this, it was too much an intrusion, but I somehow was sure Dean knew where the other half of my charge was, and I needed to find him as soon as possible. Dean was rigid and obviously not enjoying what I was doing, so I picked up the pace to his further discomfort and finally found him. Sam was in a small motel in Garber, Oklahoma judging by Dean looking at the GPS on his phone a day earlier. I released Dean's forehead and he fell to his knees, gasping and shaking his head to somehow try and get the aftertaste of the reading out of his mind. I felt my heart twinge a bit in a rush of guilt.
" Please forgive me Dean, that will not happen again I assure you," I turned now to Castiel, who was awkwardly shuffling his feet near the Impala, clearly unsure of how to react in this situation. "I will return soon so please try and keep Dean alive until I get back, don't do anything reckless. If you need me I'm only a prayer away." Castiel nodded, making his way over to a nauseas Dean and helping him into the car. After shutting the door he turned to me abruptly, suspicion in his eyes. There's the Castiel I knew. " All right sister, why are you really looking after the boys, from what I know you've avoided contacting them this whole time. Why are you taking a sudden interest now?" I deliberated on my answer for a moment, then looked up at my blue-eyed brother with a solemn face,
" I decided I could not wait and do nothing any longer, I can't watch my brothers kill each other Castiel… I just can't." Again it was not a true lie, protecting the Winchester's from saying yes was the best way to keep my beloved brothers from fighting to the death and destroying half of my father's kingdom along with them. I realized suddenly that a rim of tears was forming around my eyes, and I quickly batted them away with a few blinks. When I returned my gaze to my brother his face had softened and he put a hand on my shoulder,
" If that is the case sister, I will help however I can." I smiled and put my hand lightly on the one that touched my shoulder in a gesture of sibling affection,
" Until next time brother." And then I was gone, already flying off to Garber, Oklahoma in search of Sam. When I arrived in the motel he was supposedly staying at, I passed through many of the rooms, my presence concealed. When it became apparent that Sam was no longer there, I searched his room for a sign of where he could have gone. That's when I felt the icy tingle of a presence I knew all too well. I almost cursed. Lucifer had already found him! He had been here twice now, and I could almost hear his silky voice, as he no doubt tried to coax Sam into saying "yes". Slightly frantic now, I searched around the room, feeling around for a trail his soul might have left. Suddenly I stopped, my conscience torn away from itself. As always with my visions of current deaths there was someone's death involved, and at times I would see the death angel in charge of liberating their soul. The death was a hunter's perfect end, outnumbered by demons and being skinned alive, in front of two friends. The Death angel assigned to this job was one of my best, Samandriel. In the seconds after the hunter's death and the fleeing of his comrades, he took the encouraged liberty of smiting every demon left unexercised. The last thing I saw was what worried me; after the hunter was off towards heaven his comrade's faces were dark, the shadow of angry grief and murderous intent plain on their faces. When I snapped back to myself I doubled my efforts to find Sam's trail, knowing that somehow the vision was a message from father saying that the Winchester was in danger. I picked up an advertisement for a bar near the motel and finally felt strong warmth that could only be Sam's soul trail. Instantly I was there, the bar where his Soul so strongly resonated. I had lost track of time and became aware when a starry night breeze and the calm light of a gibbous moon greeted me. The situation would have been calming, had I not felt the hair's o my neck prickle at the contact of three very angry souls, accompanied my a very terrified soul. I decided to enter the bar concealed, to assess the situation before I took any action. Two of the angry souls were the two hunters I saw in my vision, the same expression I saw on their faces when their friend died was the same, and directed at who I only could've guessed was Sam. I only had to catch sight of the look in his eyes to know why he was meant to be Lucifer's vessel. A hunger for power, hatred for those who had made his life miserable, and a mass of built up rage that waited for the right moment to release within him that almost frightened me, yet there was also so much of Lucifer's old angelic traits that made up Sam's character. A desire for approval from his brother, guilt for all his past mistakes, the need to make everyone happy for his own sake, and also a capability to love innocently despite all the pain he's endured. Yet now his darker side was reflected on his face, which was stained with the blood of a demon. From simple deduction I could only guess that the two hunters that were confronting Sam were unaware that the demons they sought revenge against were dead and there desire for Sam's powers were unnecessary. Now at the conclusion that this confrontation was unnecessary