No reviews for last chapter; oh well, no big deal, I'll live on :)
About the chapter though, for some reason this chapter is my favorite so far. I don't quite know why, I think I just liked the way I wrote it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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After twenty minutes of running, jumping over fences, and cutting through yards, I stood on my lawn staring up at my house.
Still panting heavily, I sat down in the grass and started to cry.
What had I done? Who had I pissed off up there? Why me? "What did I ever do to you?" I asked, looking up at the sky.
"It's not about what you did to Him, it's about what you can do FOR Him."
I turned around to face the voice behind me.
It was a man. Young looking. Dark hair, very light eyes. He had a airy feel to him, but nothing was too un normal about him, except for the fact that he had six foot wings protruding from his back.
I recognized him from my vision I got from Angela. He was a half-breed. Part angel.
"I am Michael." He said folding his wings up and sitting down next to me. He smiled and took a deep breath. "Don't you just love the smell of an early summer morning?"
I smirked, not entirely believing that I was sitting next to an angel. "If things were normal, I could probably agree."
"Normal?" Michael asked turning to face me. "What's normal?"
"Hmm, normal." I said, thinking hard. "Normal would be me sleeping in my own bed right now, not being psychic, not knowing about this war between planes, and not sitting next to an angel."
"Well, what's normal for some, could be horrifyingly un normal to others." Michael replied. "What makes all of this un normal for you?"
I scoffed. "Well, I wake up one day and I'm a psychic-"
"Lots of people are psychic. Angela and John for example?"
"Did they wake up on the bathroom floor of a school three miles away, soaking wet, at two in the morning?"
"No, but Angela spent quite a bit of time being possessed in a hospital pool last year."
"How sweet."
"What else?"
"I was possessed by something that came out of a vision I got when I bumped into John-"
Michael coughed.
"I know, I know, Angela was possessed too."
"She was possessed by the son of the devil, you only had an itty bitty lower level passive demon."
"Thanks, you made me feel really big right there."
"Josephinea, this is nothing, you saw the hells and trials that Angela and John have been through."
Suddenly I got defensive. "Yes, but you have to understand. People like John and Angela are used to this kind of thing! It's nothing to you guys! You knew Heaven and Hell were waging a war against each other! I was just sitting here, completely oblivious to it all!"
"You believed in God though, didn't you?"
I thought about the question for a second. I had grown up with the idea that something was out there. I wanted to believe in Him, but I was never really sure about it all, up until that morning that is. "Yes, I do."
"Well then how are you oblivious then?"
"I didn't KNOW that there was an unbalance! And a war! Christ! How I saw it God was in Heaven watching us and listening to prayers, surrounded by people in long flowy white robes with wings. If you went to church and asked for forgiveness then you got to go to that place and live in peace for eternity. But if you were bad and you sinned then you went to a fiery pit ruled by a big horney read goat guy." I said shrilly, falling back into the grass. I took a deep breath and said more calmly, "I would have rather kept that image than known the reality."
There was a moment of silence, and then Michael broke out laughing. "You humans make me laugh with your stereotypes and mass thinking. Why can't you ever think for yourselves? Use your imagination?"
"Because TV has warped our fragile minds." I said, closing my eyes.
Michael laughed again. "No, you humans have just lost the story along the way." He joined me and laid back on the ground.
"Fine, but what does this have to do with me?" I asked without opening my eyes.
"Josephinea, you and Angela are two very powerful girls. And John is a very strong willed-"
"Asshole." I said, remembering him hovered over me when I woke up.
"Fighter, but yes, that one too." Michael said laughing once again. "Together, you three are going to fight a very powerful evil."
"Like Mammon?" I asked, remembering the Angela vision.
"No, not exactly. Mammon wanted to take over the earth with Gabriel. This evil wants to destroy the earth all together, so that there's only Heaven and Hell." Michael said.
"Why doesn't God stop it then?"
"For the same reason Lucifer doesn't. They can't interfere with human affairs."
"But this wouldn't BE a human affair! How could this 'powerful evil' be so powerful? Where would he get all this power aside from the Devil?" I asked insistently
"Josephinea, you have to understand. Every human is born with the potential to be very powerful. Now, this power is in the hands of that person, and that person no matter what, as the choice to use it for good or evil. People like you and John and Angela somehow developed your power and want to use it in a good way. I think. In John's case it's more of a technicality though…"
"But good and evil, or rather, the Devil and God, influence our decisions, right?"
"No, people like me and the other 'half breeds' as you call them, influence your decisions. It's up to you to make the final act. It's up to you to choose the right path." Michael said. "You sure got a lot out of John and Angela."
"I pieced things together." I replied, getting up on my elbows. "Do Angela and john know if this 'powerful evil'?
"They know something's coming. They can both feel it." Michael responded, sitting up. "That's how they knew to come find you last night."
"Do you know what's coming?" I asked, looking up at him. The sun was directly behind his head, giving him an ironic halo effect.
"Do you think if I knew what was coming, I would be standing here talking to you?" He said smiling. "No one knows what's coming. And that's where you three come in." Michael got up and stretched a bit. "Well, I think it's about time I get going."
"Wait!" I cried, jumping up after him. "Do you know why I was at the school last night?"
Michael looked troubled for a moment before saying, "The answer you seek, lies within your mind. When you unlock that, you will unlock other answers also." He lifted his hand and brushed my forehead with his fingers. I felt blessed almost.
"You half breeds are always so damn vague. Why can't you just come out and say what you mean?"
I looked past Michael to see John, standing next to Angela in front of a bright yellow taxi cab.
Michael smiled and turned around. "Why if it isn't John Constantine! How have you been lately?"
"Why don't you go fuck yourself Michael?" John answered gruffly.
Michael rolled his eyes and whispered in my ear, "He's had problems with our kind since the ordeal with Gabriel."
I nodded, not taking my eyes off John, who seemed to be watching Michael carefully.
"Joe, get in the car." He said.
"No, I'm going inside." I said, turning my back on him. "I live here."
"Right, well it's been nice seeing you all again, hello Angela, yes I saw you, but I really must be going." I heard Michael say from behind me. I felt a warm breeze on the back of my neck and when I turned around, Michael was gone.
"Fuckin' fairy." John grumbled, pulling his lighter out of his pocket and flicking it open.
I turned back around and continued towards my door. "Hey!" John yelled, "Where are you going?"
"Inside." I replied, not bothering to turn around. "Where I am going to take a very hot shower, eat something, then go back to bed and sleep for forty days and forty nights. Then maybe when I wake up, everything will be back to normal."
"Normal is overrated." John yelled.
I reached my door and just as I went to open it, a hand reached out and slammed the screen shut.
"We need your help." John said. For the first time since I had met him, he actually looked slightly sincere.
"John, maybe you should let me talk to her for a while-inside?" Angela said, finally walking over to us and pushing John's hand out of the way.
She opened the door and ushered me into my own house. John turned around and motioned to Chas who parked the car.
"Nice place." John commented as he walked inside. "Your parents home?"
"No, my dad left for work already." I replied, walking into the kitchen.
"And your mom?"
I stopped mid step and turned around, glaring. He had hit a soft spot. "She lives in New York."
"Ooh," John said, noticing my look. "Sorry I asked."
I turned back around and continued for the kitchen, with every intention of getting something to eat. Specifically waffles.
"Josephinea, John's right. We need your help." Angela called from the other room.
Suddenly, as I went to grab the box of waffles from the freezer, it all hit me.
I realized what everything was. Why it was happening. Who it would effect. Why I was needed. Why Angela was needed. Why John was needed. Even Chas, who had just come crashing into the house, even he had a purpose. "-there's something coming Joe, something big-we can feel it, even you can feel it. Can't you?" John said, standing behind me and breathing down my neck.
"That's how we knew to come and find you." Angela said, basically quoting Michael, as she walked into the room.
I turned around and looked at John. "I know this is a lot."
"You are being strange." I replied. "Fuck it, I will help."
"What?" Angela said looking a bit surprised.
"I said I'd help." I said, sidling past John and tossing my waffles into the toaster.
"Well, I thought it would take a bit more convincing than that." Angela said, sitting down in a kitchen chair.
"What Michael told me, it kind of just hit me." I replied shrugging and leaning against the counter. John smirked and shook his head. "Listen. You guys chill out down here ok? I need to take a shower because I think I am still covered in toilet water."
"Can I watch TV?" Chas asked, throwing a glance towards the living room.
"Knock yourself out." I replied, walking out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. "Remote is on the table next to the couch."
Fuck all of this. I thought. I really don't want to help them.
I knew though, deep down. I really didn't have much of a choice.
XXX
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