Your Rapture: Chapter Two: The Tender Trap
"But....But I don't want to see her!" protested Javert, who was being cruelly shoved and dragged in turns to the edge of heaven.
"Why, might I ask?" Cosette questioned, dragging him closer to the edge.
"Because something bad is bound to happen!"
"Like what?" accused Valjean.
This Javert had to think on. He needed a good, plausible excuse to keep them from hurling him down there in search of his daughter. Hell, he didn't even know what she looked like! "......She won't like me!" Oh yeah, good, plausible. He was toast.
"Oh boo who, you great coward!" Marius shouted sarcastically, pausing a moment to give a friendly wave to Saint Paul on guard duty for the Pearly Gates. The saint waved back, pushing the automatic button that opened the gates. Javert would have thought they'd use a key, or something special like that, but no, modern technology was so much more convenient.
"What?" accused Fantine. "You'll have to do better than that, Chief Inspector." She waved to Paul as well, signaling to put them into transformation. A soft whirlwind covered them, and they all began to change into dogs.
"Sure! Tons of people don't like me! You don't like me, do you, Valjean!" he said, begging for a little help here.
"Now that's a stupid question, and you know, Javert!" the Golden Retriever ahead of him, dragging him by the scruff of Javert's black, fuzzy neck with his teeth accused.
"Marius, please tell me you don't like me!"
The black Labrador, Marius, who just loved giving Javert a hard time, affectionately pinched his cheek and cooed in baby talk "But of course I like you Javert! I just love you!" The word "Love" was pronounced "Wuv" just to annoy him. Fantine and Cosette, a Vizsla mix of some sort and a Collie, glared down at him.
"Don't even try it."
"Javert," Cosette added encouragingly, into positive feed back, not negative. "Tons of people like you. I like you just fine! You're like family to us!"
"Yeah, you know!" Marius chipped in. "Like an in-law! Annoying as hell, but you gotta love 'em!"
"Marius!" Cosette scolded, hitting him on his head. "You are no such thing, Javert! Don't listen to him!"
"Look," Javert interrupted, not really wanting to hear any more of the mushy junk. "I'm begging you people here. Please don't make me go down there! Tons of dogs are fathers, even the ones up here, and the Holy Spirit doesn't have them tracking their relations all over the globe!"
"Yeah, but Javert!" Valjean told him, "Their relations aren't half human! You can't just have a half human dog running around all over New York City!"
"I don't see why not! She's been doing it for a year, and she's just fine!" he whined.
"Javert, she's running into trouble everyday!" Fantine put it. "She's starting to question the dog world and society, and in a tough place like New York City, that could have her killed!"
"And there's something else, too......" Valjean said, his voice trailing off in worry.
This made Javert look up and stare intently at the Golden Retriever. "What is it?"
"She's very sick Javert. She might be dying."
Javert shriveled up into a small ball, his eyes wide, shaking slightly. "Oh dear Lord."
"This wasn't supposed to happen. Her body's attacking it's self."
Javert shook harder. "Oh God, oh God! I'm killing her!"
"The angels think its cancer, but they don't know. This sort of thing has never happened before."
"She's only mentally ill," Fantine added in. "The physical effects haven't taken hold yet.....She's slowly loosing her entire memory, and that includes instinct."
"It'll be like you when you first set foot in the modern world, only she doesn't know why she's there or where she came from," Marius added solemnly.
"Then...Then I've got to go down, don't I?" Javert said, seeing no other way around it in order to save her.
"We'll be by your side every step of the way," Cosette encouraged.
Javert looked around the circle as they reached the last chunk of swirling mist; the border of Heaven. "Promise?"
"Promise," they all agreed.
...
The four dogs, invisible to the mortal eye, landed gracefully, eyes closed with looks of serenity on their faces as the reached earth. The fifth landed with a "whump!" into a trash can.
Javert was the fifth.
Grumbling, he pulled himself out of a dumpster. After Cosette had calmed him down, Valjean had given him a good hard shove, sending him plummeting toward earth while the others followed in style. Indignantly, Javert joined the others, swishing his tail to express his rage. This was partly because Javert hated it when he had a tail.
Automatically, Javert's head flicked eastward, and he caught himself doing it, and blushing slightly, looked down. Valjean saw him do it, however, and knew exactly what lay east of here.
Her.
The one whom Javert owed his immortality to. Emily Leroux. Just a few blocks down. That was always, always the German shepherd's first priority: Find out where he was, and see how long it would take for him to get to her.
"Not today," he reprimanded himself. "Today, we're here to find my daughter."
His daughter. By God, they were the oddest words anyone could ever have placed in Javert's mouth. Once upon a time they were love and mercy, but now, they were his daughter.
"So how are we going to do this?" Javert asked skeptically. "I mean, I can't just bounce up to her, stick out my hand-"
"Paw," Marius corrected.
"Right, paw. Stick out my paw and say 'Hello! I'm a ghost, which means I'm dead even though I'm your father, and I'm not even really a dog, I was just reincarnated and how are you and what's your name!'" he acted, shouting out everything starting out with "I'm not even really a dog."
"Of course not, silly!" Fantine said, as though that should have been obvious. "She won't be able to see you!"
Javert collapsed onto the side walk as some random person walked right through him and shivered slightly at the sudden cold they felt.
"Since it's a special case, it needs some special help," said Valjean, indicating the little leather bag around his neck. As Group President, he was keeper of the miracles, and the miracles, little orange balls of light, were kept in the plain brown leather bag. "The Lord-" a pause as a chorus of angels gave a brief voice at the sound of the name of the Lord "- was kind enough to give us ten this week instead of the usual five."
Javert was still cringing. He hated it when the angels interrupted sentences like that. But he finally stopped and regained his composure. "So where do we find her?"
"Down ten blocks and take a right into the alley way," Valjean said mater-of-fact-ly. Javert didn't bother to ask how he knew that, he just walked the direction Valjean had pointed.
...
P.O.V
Brianna
New York City
Present Day: 2005
This alley way is like a second home to me. I was born in it, I grew up it, everything happened in it! I must admit I adore the place! My father even met my mother here!
I manage to find and uneaten piece of slightly green meat in the garbage bin, and quickly wolf that down. I'll eat rats if I have to, but all tangles with rats are to be avoided, if at all possible. Those things have sharp teeth.
The rain stops soon enough, and you can sort of see the stars, though everything is still sopping wet. As much as you can ever see the stars in New York City. My stomach as full as it ever is, I settle down in the driest corner I can find and settle in for the night.
That's when it starts.
"This alley?"
"Yup, that looks like it."
I lift my head up. "Who's there?" I call. Nothing. I can't see anyone, and the only thing I smell is a light, sweet sent, sort of like roses. Oh, it's beautiful!
"Well? Aren't you going in?"
"Erm...no."
"Inspector!"
I still can't see anyone, but the voices persist! Am I going crazy?
"Well, I really don't see a problem with not going in!"
"Javert, you're going in there!"
Who is Javert? Who is talking? All these different voices at once! I'm so confused!
"Ow! Okay! Quit shoving!"
"Then get your tail moving!"
"Oh great!" I complain. "First I loose my memory, now I'm going crazy!"
"See! It's definitely her!"
"Oh, come on! How can you tell?"
"Aww, Javert, look! She has your ears."
"Well, your ears when you're a dog anyway."
"What are you all talking about? Wait, what am I talking about, you're not even real! I'm just going nuts!"
"Oh no, you're not nuts!" One of them finally seems to be talking to me. "I mean, I know it seems like that, but we're really here!"
"Then why can't I see you?" I ask.
"Well....we're invisible."
I flick my ear back and look at nothing skeptically. "And this is all proof I'm not going mad?"
"You tell her, Javert! It ought to be you doing it anyway!"
"But I don't want to!" the voice that's obviously this "Javert" person whines.
"Javert! She's your daughter for heaven's sake!"
I stand up at this. "Daughter?" I say breathlessly. Is that what C-O-J-A-C-K spells? Javert?
"Oh fine, just give me one of your miracles, Valjean. I really hate you all for this."
"We love you too inspector-poo!" The one who says this must be hugging Javert or something for he shouts "Get off me, Marius!" and then there is silence. I can hear a whispered prayer, and suddenly a soft breeze that smells exactly like these invisible people do!
And poof!
"Gah!" I cry, and scramble against the wall. Five dogs all staring and smiling at me. Except for the one in the front, who's looking sort of angry yet frightened at the same time.
And he's a pure black German shepherd.
This fact must be pushed aside for a moment. "Where...Where did you all come from?"
"From Heaven, of course!" the Golden Retriever says jovially.
"From Heaven, of course?" I counter, confused. "What are you talking about? There is no Heaven!"
The five pale.
"N...No Heaven?" the black one, Javert, asks confused. "Yes there is. We've just come from there."
"I'd heard that New York strays don't believe in a lot of things, but I never thought it as bad as this....." the chocolate creamish one says, her eye wide with shock.
"What'd' a mean strays? You make us sound like a bunch of side show freaks!"
"No, no, Brianna, calm down, we didn't mean it like that," the collie says.
"Brianna? Her name's Brianna?" Javert asks excitedly.
"Of course my name's Brianna! What else would it be? And I'll have you know my father was pure blo...." My voice trails off, staring at the German shepherd, suddenly remembering.
He looks about awkwardly. "What? Do I have something on my face?" he rubs his nose in attempt to get the nothing off of it.
"My father.... He was pure bred black German shepherd. Those aren't too common among the slums of New York City."
He now gulps and gets nervous. "Oh. That. No, well, you see it's a bit more complicated then that-"
"You're him, aren't you?"
"Well, technically, yes, but-"
I tackle-glomp him. "Oh, I knew you'd come back! This whole long year, I knew you were out there, somewhere, looking and searching for me!"
"No, Brianna, stop, you're not listening to me-"
"Oh, we've got to find my mother! She'll be so happy to see you! I know she ran off with that pit bull, but what's a pit bull to a German shepherd! She'll want to be your mate in a heart beat!"
"Mate? Woah, whoa, now hold on a second! Brianna, it's not going to work like tha-"
"Not going to work like that, what are you talking about? Of course it's going to work like that! I've planned it since I was two moths old!"
"Get off!" he shouts and the black Labrador drags me off.
"Marius, you can sometimes be a godsend," he says to the Lab, Marius.
"Well, don't expect it to stay like that."
He got up and shook himself off, taking one hard look at me, and turning back to the Collie. "Do you really think she has my ears, Cosette?"
Cosette the Collie nods her head. "Not the same color of course, but they're the exact same shape!"
The Golden Retriever laughed. "Trust a woman to notice."
Solemnly, Javert turns back to me. "Things aren't going to be like you planned, Brianna. Not by a long shot."
Nervously, I ask "Why not?"
"Because, well..... It's for a lot of reasons really," he answers, beginning to pace back and forth across the wet pavement.
"We are dead, Brianna," the Golden Retriever says.
I pale. "I'm dead too?"
"No, Valjean didn't quite word it right," the creamy female answers. "Only the five of us-"
"Marius-" they begin to number themselves off, each saying their own name.
"Cosette-"
"Valjean-"
"Javert-"
"And myself, Fantine, are dead. We lived two hundred years ago, and we all died two hundred years ago. We've been in Heaven, living with God all this time."
"But there isn't a God!" I protest. "And how can he-" I gesture to Javert "-be my father if he lived two hundred years ago.
Javert sighs and slumps against a wall, completely disheartened, it seems.
Valjean also sighs. "It gets a bit more complicated than that."
"You see, Brianna," continues Cosette, "all souls, no matter their species, when they come down to earth, come down as dogs, regardless."
"But," I say with a laugh, "then he could be anything! And he's clearly a dog!"
"No, Brianna," Javert says darkly, his yellow eyes fixing on me with a cold, frightened, dead look to them. "I am not a dog."
"Not...not a dog?" I say confused. "But that's impossible!"
"Not so impossible, it would seem," says Marius darkly.
"Javert was a human," Fantine says, going on with the story. "A human man who went mad with confusion and – correct me if I'm wrong inspector, but – I believe a little grief as well." Javert glares coldly at Fantine, who ignores him and continues. "He threw himself into the swelling tide of the Seine River. I wouldn't expect you to know where that is. And he drowned in it."
"So that is why he is dead. But how is he still my father if he's a human? Surely he can't impregnate as a ghost!"
Javert shudders at the words.
"No, he can't," Marius says, picking up the story line. "But things get far more complex than that. Javert was almost condemned to Hell for committing his own death, but our good Lord took pity on him and gave him a second chance."
"Reincarnation," Javert breathes. "A hell unto it's self."
"It's no less or more than you deserved!" Cosette snaps! "Insanity is no excuse!"
Javert remains motionless against the wall, not responding to the brief show of anger.
"But God reincarnated him into a dog in the modern world, and after being adopted," Valjean said, breaking the tense silence, "Well, I'm afraid I don't know how you impregnated anyone beyond that," he says, turning to the ghostly Javert.
...
Javert could see it all again. That first, awful, hell of a night with her. He didn't love her then. He hated her. Hated being indebted to that stupid, foolish girl! Why had she chosen him? Why must he get his immortality from her?
And what was he so afraid of about her? What was it that he wanted to escape from?
Love. It was love. He was afraid of being openly, unconditionally loved. He didn't know how to respond to it.
So he ran.
By that point, he'd already been given that dratted collar, which now he'd love to wear again. She never knew that it didn't take him long to figure out how to unlock the door, because, after all, clever he may be, but he was only a dog.
She never knew.
He wasn't really thinking about running away. That seemed like a stupid idea. He just wanted to run around. Being in the skin of a dog was new and in some ways, exhilarating, until he realized how very drastically the world had changed since his death.
And he was only a dog.
That's when he'd gone charging down the alley way, trying to figure things out. And that's where the bitch had been lying. It was frightening and strange, but her odd, soothing words and her smooth, velvety voice had been so calm and delicious to the sound.
As odd as it was for him, only instinct seemed to rule in his slightly organized panic. And he liked it. He liked responding to spur of the moment thoughts and feelings. And the ruling one now was what drove her to him as well. Hers was because she wasn't fixed and in heat and wanting to mate to produce, not that she was particularly fond of producing, it was just in her genetic makeup. She wanted him.
And he wanted her.
Looking back on it, Javert could kick himself. What an idiot he was. Dogs weren't like people. They didn't have sex simply for the pleasure of it. They did it for a specific reason and purpose that seemed to have been lost somewhere in humanities reasons for the reproduction act. Did he never stop to think that when dogs mated, the female generally became pregnant? No, he had not. He had dove on in and, to his furious embarrassment (had he not had fur, he would have blushed at the memory) thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Damn.
Even so, it was all over well before dawn, so he snuck back "home," and promptly forgot it all, though he would not have said no to repeating the act, and should his mind ever wander (it never did. His was a steely mind with a set course) he might have thought that such things might even be better in human flesh.
Now Javert leaned his head back against the brick wall and closed his eyes. He sucked in a breath and let the next words he said really sink in:
"Good God. I've fathered a child."
To Be Continued.....
