Chapter 1
A month before…
"Come on Lillian." I whisper, holding out my hand. The 20-year old woman nods, her golden hair bouncing in the sunlight. She walks over to her sister, Holly, and wipe some tears off of her sister's face. Her sister closes her eyes and sobs even harder into her husbands shoulder.
I walk past the elevated casket that holds Lillian's mangled body and up to her ghostly form.
"Lillian." My voice starts to sound far away and I see that my raised hand starts to go translucent.
It's past time.
Lillian looks one more time at the place she knew so well,
And then places her hand in mine. Our hands glow, a golden light between our entwined fingers, and I smile sadly, leading her over towards the trees. I sigh, closing my eyes and my wings snap open. Lillian gasps and I grab hold of her arms and I fly upward,
Into heaven.
*8*
I drop Lillian off at the summoning lines, to see if she deserves heaven or hell. Basically mortals call it puritory.
I fly up to where my assistant is waiting for me, and sigh, flipping my hair onto my right shoulder. Jack looks at me and I nod, throwing the chain I was wearing on the ground.
"Any word on him?" I ask breathlessly, pulling my wings in tight against my back, shimmying on a white robe like Jack was wearing.
Jack shakes his head, his blonde hair falling into his face. He opens the door that leads from puritory into the actual heaven and we start to push our way through the crowd of angels, souls, and saints.
Heaven isn't something that any mortals can think of, it's glory too wondrous to describe. Angels fly across the sky, chattering and laughing, singing and dancing, smiles always illuminating their faces. But those are for the younger angels. Angels of death, like myself, have sullen expressions on their faces, always walking, never wanting to draw even more attention to themselves than necessary.
The souls that are not as important to the church stay in groups, talking, but never making new friends. There's no need to. Everyone knows each other, the glory of God shining through them so they're actually glowing in radiance and happiness for being in the presence of God.
The saints though are a different story. They walk around, singing praises to God on high every passing minute.
The buildings are made from pure imagination, however you think Heaven is like, everything mirrors your imagination. Right now I'm thinking of the alleyways of San Francisco, so everything is dark and gloomy, much like an Angel of Death,
Which I am.
Jack could be seeing a cloudy city, everything made from clouds, pure and white, reflecting the angel that he is. An angel for the church, always helping churches and a host angel for the church in some city I don't even remember, or care about.
The golden gates that let souls that were chosen to be in Heaven are the only thing that doesn't change in anyone's imagination. God had told me it was because the Holy Spirit was so strong in those gates that no one could ever change,
Or imagine for that reason.
"Excuse me, Mother Theresa." I mumble, grabbing onto Jack's arm. She smiles up at me and I wave. A hand grabs onto my arm and turns me around.
"Where is she?" Joann asks, her eyes wide and teary. I let go of Jack's arm and smile, pulling her into a hug.
"She's in puritory." I whisper into her golden hair. She nods and starts to sob. Well, as best a soul can.
I pull back and she nods again, a sad smile lighting her face.
"Don't worry, she was a good kid." I squeeze her hand and drift away from her.
Jack loops his arm into mine and whispers into my ear, "Who was that?"
I look over at where Joann was and sigh. "Client's sister."
Jack nods, his eyes faraway, before dragging me into an abandoned hallway.
"Spill it." I lean against the wall, crossing my arms and looking nothing like that perfect angel I'm supposed to be. The thing is, Jev and I always looked out of place, even in angel training. We both have the black eyes, black hair, and black wings, while our friends all had the blonde hair with blue eyes and pure white wings. When the archangels make all of us wear white robes, Jev and I always looked out of place.
"You and your brother are made for a special purpose so you will stand out. But you're angels, and you'll be fine." God had said.
But what purpose?
And when is it going to be? My brother has been missing for two centuries and that purpose hasn't shown up just yet.
Now has it?
Jack sighs, running a hand through his blonde hair, tousling it even further than he wants it, his blue eyes shining with excitement, his pure white wings trying to be free from his white robe, straining hard.
"Rumor has it, he's been banished to Hell." Jack whispers. I gasp, tears flooding my eyes.
My big brother,
Banished to Hell?
"Or," Jack is quick to cover up. "He's been turned into a fallen angel. If you want my opinion, he's probably a fallen angel, I mean, why else would he be gone for two centuries." I watch him with veiled horror and he looks at the sky, his brow furrowed.
"Well, I guess it could also mean that he's been chained in Hell, so I guess it could be either now that I think about it thoroughly."
"Jack," I stare at him with wide eyes. "just shut up."
He looks at me and I shake my head. "He's an archangel, they would never do that to him." I grab the front of Jack's white robe and pull him close, shoving my face against Jack's, grounding out, "They. Would. Never. Betray. Jev. Never. So I'm going to go over there and find out if they have anything about him and you're going to listen to me and follow what I'm doing. Okay?"
An unreadable expression runs through Jack's eyes before he laughs like a little kid. "Guess I'm going to be following you now, huh? Better get on board."
*8*
I slam the doors open that lead into where the archangels meet, storming up to the raised table where the group of archangels sit, discussing something. I glower at them, stalking up to the table, Jack right at my heels. I slam my fist against the ancient oak table and stare at them, spitting flames.
The leader of the archangels, Angelica, sets down her papers and stares levelly at me, her blonde hair rustling lightly in the wind, her blood red robe clinging to her small body.
"Where. Is. He." I ground out, my face inches from Angelica's. Her azure eyes meet mine, and they harden until they're almost ice-colored.
"Whom are you talking about, Ms. Charoum?" Angelica sighs, grabbing her papers and looking back down at them.
I hit the papers out of her hands and jump up on the table until I'm eye level from her.
"Cut the act, Lica," I sneer, my anger flaring. "You know who I'm talking about. Jev Cipriano, my brother."
"What do you want to know about him?" Angelica leans back in her chair and sighs, staring at me.
"What happened? He's been missing for two centuries! He was one of the most important archangels in your group! Where did he go?" I shout. My wings break free from my robe and snap open to their full extent, sixteen feet of glorious midnight black wings.
The wings of an Angel of Death.
"If you don't answer me, I can snap you like a twig." I threaten, starting to flap my wings from the torn white robe.
Jack grabs my arm and pulls me down to the ground. Angelica watches my fighting form with veiled amusement.
"Such a big mouth from a little sister." She muses. I growl and fight even harder. The other archangels watch me with their mouths open, eyes bugging out.
"Did you know he used to talk about you all the time?" Angelica asks, looking at her nails. I scream against Jack's hand and he digs his hand even deeper into my ribcage.
"He said that you were a nuisance, a bother. He wished he never had you as a sist-"
"Stop it!" An angel yells, standing up, cutting off Angelica. She looks up at the angel, spewing flames as the angel says, "If you want to find him, you can, but we can't tell you what happened to him." After a look from Angelica the angel adds, "It's classified information."
I jab Jack hard the side, hard enough to make him let go of me, and smooth my tattered robe, nodding. "What do I need to do?"
"Get permission from a higher being and report to me at the gates in a half an hour." The angel says, looking down at his clipboard.
I nod again before turning on my heel, and running off.
Oooh. I wonder what's going to happen? JK I know what's going to happen.
Sort of...
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