The angels of heaven. Such untouchable creatures. Not even human... Death was unknown to them. They were death. They were what so many longed to see, they were fear, hope, sadness...
Lee had once been an angel. He still was, in some respect, but somehow people just refused to believe it. With his tattered wings and odd lack of a halo, he looked more like a deformed bird. A half breed, perhaps! Many found it amusing. Of course, he wasn't, but the whole idea of a half breed making his way into heaven was something to think about.
He saw past perfection. He didn't just see people, he saw through them. He knew nothing of the wonders of heaven. He could only find flaws.
"Look," he'd said to me as we sat with our feet dangling off the edge of a cloud. "Can't you see them? Them with their machines and their theories..." His milky green eyes stared down like a curious child's. I didn't see what he saw. I saw beauty and elegance and progression and... Good.
We were friends. Friends were different. I could accept that.
It was a week before his sixteenth birthday. Sixteenth in the respect that his body appeared to be turning sixteen. Death was ageless, really, and if he didn't want to age he could prevent it. He could even go back. But he couldn't go forward.
There was something wrong with him. Just something in his eyes. How his smiles didn't reach them and they were hiding a secret...
I don't know how it all came crashing down, but it did. Maybe something finally snapped. Maybe he'd been possessed. It was too surreal.
We are not blind, I swear it...
But he took each and every one of us captive. At least, the ones he could defeat and the ones who were willing to come. He wasn't invincible, none of us are. But we are death, and death is painless. The older angels couldn't stop him.
Me? I didn't know if I should follow and throw my life away or go down fighting against a friend. So I let him take his power, let him defeat me, but only to the point where I could run if I had to. Instead, I followed.
He took us all away, to a place lower than the heavens. He took us to Earth. And he told us to win what was rightfully ours.
It might've taken years for any other creature, but angels can do great things. We have taken control of the earth, we have made it 'better'. We have killed the sinners and left the innocent children alone and afraid. We'll create a new empire with their parents' blood.
Our 'base' is a milk-coloured, sandy, barren wasteland. This is, essentially, the bottom of life itself, and most of the angels have taken refuge elsewhere, but Lee insisted on staying. It was a demonstration of his own power, simply acquiring the place. In fact, he had to dry out the Dead Sea to do so.
And now, the world is in his control... But he is not satisfied. He is greedy. And he wanted the non-believing angels, the ones who remained in heaven, to suffer. So he would bring them down with him.
He had power, yes, definately. Power over the rest. Power over the ones with the abilities he did not posess.
One of the angels, whose name was Reuben, had a form of pyrokinesis. He was told to shoot fire into the heavens until we 'caught' something. More specifically, until an angel's wings caught fire and they fell.
And indeed, we did catch many things. None of them died when they hit the ground. It was my job to plunge a dagger into each of them (however, the wound could not be fatal), to pin them to the ground, and let Lee talk to them. I'm not sure, even now, if I want to know what he said.
But there was this one angel. A girl. She fell with tattered, torn wings, and limbs bent at all angles. Her shiny black hair had been singed from the fire.
And I knew she had power. She could stop this. Her name was Cayley-Esta, and I wouldn't let Lee touch her.
And so I plunged the dagger into her heart, and once I was sure she was dead, did the same to myself. But she would return to heaven, for she could not die, and maybe put an end to all this misery.
But I would simply return to this wretched place. My wings cannot carry me back. |
Submission Name: Burning Paper
