Connor's POV
I would always remember my mom and dad talking to me and saying stuff like Heaven is the biggest place in the universe and it's a huge kingdom filled with many riches of moral value.
When we got to heaven, they got one thing right. IT. WAS. BIG. Like magnificently undefinable.
Once we landed just right outside the gates, Raphael flew out of me. But Michael looked at him and they seemed to have had a silent agreement. He must not enter. Yet. It was Raphael who told it though.
"Um how about you stay here kiddo. I'll be right back." I was about to follow him, but the spikes on Michael's mace almost seemed liked it was growing another inch or two.
I decided to stay outside, "Sure."
With that said, both of them opened the gates and entered.
I never noticed the two guards at the doors when we landed. Naturally, I would just blurt things out. Like..."Do you guys talk too?"
Both of them said together, "Yep." I was...startled.
"So what are you guys?"
"Guards." They replied nonchalantly.
"Ok..."
The one on the left said, "What's your name?"
"Connor..."
The one on the right said, "OHHHH! Like from Assassin's Creed 3?"
"Um..." I was freaking out now. Maybe it wasn't a good idea staying out.
"No, it isn't." The one on the left commented.
"Before I get vertigo, what are your guy's names?"
The one on the left said, " Bob."
The one on the right said, "Steve."
Ok...
"We both have very different names, and really hard to pronounce..." Bob commented and was picked up by Steve.
"So we just gave you names you would remember very easily. Besides, it would be cruel of us to make you pronounce the WHOLE name."
Angel guards with humor...
"And no, we are not being sarcastic." Bob said.
"HOW CAN YOU READ MY MIND?" I screamed.
Both Bob and Steve just grinned and gave a bro-punch to each other.
While trying to compose myself with all the confusion, "Ok, would one of you tell me what's happening?"
They both said, "No."
Great.
Thought Bob said something different afterwards, "Though we can show you."
Oh noI thought to myself.
Then Steve's voice popped out of nowhere in my consciousness Well better confused than bluntly stupid about the situation, right?
As he was done talking, Steve touched my forehead and the whole place dissolved into a dreamlike state. Everything around me was all in ashes, but looking from the devastation, and from the debris, it looked almost exactly like my neighborhood.
Steve scared the living heavens out of me, "Oh Jes-"
"Uh uh uh, don't finish that sentence boy, and no I'm not Jesus."
I ask him, "What is this place?"
"It's more like whenwill this happen. This is how it will begin. The end. Everything destroyed."
I was a bit more scared now, " Wait, how soon?"
"I can't really tell, but sooner than before. And Satan is doing his best to make this whole thing happen."
Now my skin was tingling, "Satan? I thought he will lose the fight in Armageddon?"
Steve's face made a face like he had smelled something bad, "Oh yeah he will lose. But you see, he's doing his best to make sure he loses with tons of casualties."
"Oh, so what does that have anything to do with me?"
Steve looked at me interestingly, " Nothing, but yet, everything. We must go, Bob is telling me Michael and Raphael are done seeking audience to the Lord."
As soon as he was done talking, the whole scene dissolved again into the sights of the Gates of Heaven. We got there with enough time to regain my composure and consciousness, just as the gates were opening. If an angel could get more frustrated, Michael was proving it could be done. He looked at me with eyes more stern and hard than before. Raphael, on the other hand was different than him, he was smiling in fact. As they both walk up to me, Michael sized me up and said, "God has let you live." YES!
"And I got good news and bad news." Raphael interrupted.
"Ok give me the good news." I replied to him.
"The bad news is that God has given you and me a task that needs to be resolved. Quickly."
"I said the 'good news' Raphael."
"Oh, well the good news, we get to go to Joe's Crab Shack in Sacramento." He said with a smile.
"Ok. Why?" I asked.
"I'll tell you once I've ordered about 3 plates of calamari."After that lovely conversation, he flew into me once again and we both plummeted into the Earth's atmosphere.
Once we settled down on the ground, my stomach was starting to hurl up some nasty things that I really don't want to see. One, because it's disgusting. Two we were right outside Joe' Crab Shack in Downtown Sacramento. Once I regain composure and some stability, I ask,"Why are we here ?"
"This place makes a mean crayfish and calamari, come on." When I looked at him he looked nothing like angel, instead he wore white skinny jeans, a pair of white Vans with etched wings on them, he had a white shirt with a red unbuttoned plaid shirt on top with strewn-in wing designs. Well, this angel had a sense of fashion.
After I was done being amazed at Raphael, he started to talk to me again, "You're probably wondering where your family is, huh?"
As soon as he said it, the image of the burning house told me enough: they were dead. But how Raphael said it, it sounded more like something more worse than dead happened to them. I shake myself back into reality as we both were walking toward the hostess. As we got closer, she saw us, then her eyes focused on Raphael. If heaven forbid, her smile got brighter than before.
"How may I help you?" The hostess asked.
"Table for two, if possible anywhere outside, or near the windows." Raphael replied nonchalantly.
She grabbed an adult menu and a kiddie menu. I really hope that kiddie menu is for Raphael. No such luck. We were seated outside on the balcony, just on good spot on good view of the Sacramento river. As Raphael and I sat down, the hostess gave us both our menus, the adult one for Raphael, the kiddie one for me. Seriously, I just turned 15 people! Anywho, Raphael doesn't seem bothered on the fact that they gave me a kiddie menu.
"What would you like?" The lady back too soon.
"I would like mango iced tea and..."
"I would like a Dr. Pepper." I interrupt Raphael just in time.
Once the hostess left, I instantly ask Raphael, "Where are we going to get money to buy the food were going to eat?"
"It's all good, and settled. And you still haven't answered my question earlier."
"They're dead! They were obviously in the flames and if they didn't burn, the Night Mare thing could have easily turned them into demon food." I hissed at Raphael, pouring out as much anger as I could put.
Raphael looked up at me from the menu and and gave me the skeptical eyebrows look. "Are you sure?" He asks almost too certainly. What did he know that I didn't?
"Look kid I'm here to answer as much questions as I can, but with you and that little anger of yours, I won't be able to say anything." How dare he say something like that? Didn't I have to rigt to be mad?
He sighs, "Then I can give you this, they're not dead. They have been imprisoned in hell by Satan' order's. And God told us that Satan has no regulation whatsoever to do so. Now, instead of coming down almighty, He wants the place checked out. Nothing like this has happened before. And the Big Man himself is curious." As soon as he said it, my other worst dreams have come to surface, possibility of them being alive is one to one million. Bu this! This is...I couldn't bear to say "impossible", because it just happened. As much as I was thinking about this, I hadn't noticed Raphael already ordered 3 plates of fried calamari.
"Well are going to eat or not?" He asks.
_Line Break_
After eating 3 plates of Calamari, he ordered some dessert for both of us. Ice cream sundaes. Eating ice creams were one of my favorite things two do, and work out just to balance that off.
After a few spoonfuls, I ask, with a bit more patience, "How are you able to sync in with me?"
When Raphael looked up at me and I di my best not to laugh, he had fudge covering his mouth. Then he realized he had chocolate lipstick on, he wiped his mout with a napkin.
"Well you see, in a nutshell, if your born as a Catholic or a Protestant into this world, then your parents, or whichever was the Catholic or Protestant one, can bless you with an angel or a saint. It is not some hocus pocus thing boy. It's the real deal, anyone even back then was blessed by God to have a guardian angel. Though saints didn't become popular until after St. Peter's establishment into making the Catholic church. Afterwards, saints were able to be used as 'guiding saints'. Each kid are allowed either both saints, or an angel and a saint. Sometimes even more. but usually, just two. Does that make any sense?"
As soon as he was done talking about the whole "blessing of the saint/ angel" business, more questions flooded through his mind. Raphael must have noticed me, because he said, "Don't worry about, I'll talk to you more about it when your ready. K?" How can I be ready? What if this is a dream.
Before Raphael could put the last spoonful of ice cream in his mouth, a roar erupted. We both looked at each other and we both knew: some"thing" was here. We both got up and he immediately had a sword in his hand. I rubbed my ring, and there appeared my double-bladed weapon.
We were going to run towards the door going inside, but something barreled out of the window and it was, no it can't be.
The monster was about 7 feet tall, big muscular and hairy. It had horns on its head and it's nostrils flared with flames, literally. Its hands looked more threatening than a sledge hammer.
"Troll!" Wha...
I wasn't able to finish that sentence because it started running towards us, Raphael did the most sensible thing at the moment. We both synced together.
How do I kill it?
Raphael's response was one of pure ingenuity. Run!
I didn't argue. When the troll was about to start running towards us, I heard a loud thunk and the troll seemed to be paralyzed. Another thud. then the troll exploded into ashes. When the air cleared out, I saw a girl not older than I with a bow. The girl had chocolate brown hair, with blue, and purple streaks, braided on one side, and had a tan colored skin. She wore a creme colored shirt and skinny jeans that hugged her legs pretty well. Though the most insettling part was her eyes. They were not yellow-ish brown, or brown-ish yellow. It was pure gold. She looked at us with a suprised look that turned into a worried face. As she came closer to me, I could smell her, she smelled of apple and cinnamon. If Aphrodite could fight, this would be her look. Raphael snapped me back into reality. Aye! Wake up! She asked you a question.
I shook myself and realized she did ask me a question. "Who are you? I could feel an angel's scent on you."
As soon as she said it, Raphael flew out of me, still in his normal (normal meaning the modernized look) clothes, and said, "Well I can smell a saint's smell on you."
Then a lady stepped out of the girl and took form of a nun. "You are most certainly are correct Raphael."
I looked at her and it dawned on me she was...
"Yes, child, I'm St. Clare. Now we must get out of here before more of them nasty trolls come again."