Seraph

  “Yes, my bill is $1,153, my insurance won’t cover it, and I don’t have that money.”

  “Kathy, we’re going to comp the bill.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “There you go, Andrea, you’re all set.”

  “Wow, thank you . . . thank you so much.”

  “Listen, you have my number, If you need anything . . . use it.”

  Andrea thanked the kind doctor and hugged her again. She didn’t know Doctor Lillian, but she seemed so sincere, and she really listened to her story without judgment. And at this moment she was the closet person who acted as a friend.

  Andrea left the hospital and walked to the hotel, which was within walking distance. All of her personal information was in the suite—driver license, maxed out credit cards, keys to her car and home. She kept those things out of familiarity. She racked her brain thinking about where Oscar was. Why had he deserted her? Was he totally lying to her to charm his way into her pants? Was she nothing but a challenge that he saw and conquered? Some challenge I was, she thought.

  When she had finally arrived at the hotel, she was called to the front desk before she made it to her suite. She secretly hoped it was news from Oscar.

  “Hello, Mrs. Rose, there was a problem with your room.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, the card that was on file has been canceled. And we cannot process the payment.”

  “Canceled? How . . . I . . . well, have you run it again?”

  “We’ve run it several times, ma’am, but I’m sorry. It just keeps getting declined.”

  “Oh my god. Well, how much is it a night?”

  “Well, that suite is $4,000 a night, Mrs. Rose.”

  “Four thousand dollars a night? Unreal. I do not have $4,000!”

  “We know!”

  “Excuse me?” Andrea stared down the front-desk clerk.

  “Nothing.”

  “How much is your cheapest room?”

  “Well, most of our rooms are booked and the least expensive room we have available is $439.”

  “Four hundred thirty-nine fu—” Andrea caught herself. “$439?”

  “It’s actually being discounted right now.”

  “I . . . can’t afford that, you really have nothing else available?”

  “No, Mrs. Rose, we don’t.

  “Miss . . . Miss Rose.”

  “Okay . . .”

  “Listen, the entire stay here was being paid for by the man I was with, Oscar . . . God, I don’t even know his last name.”

  “Miss Rose, there is no card on file for a man named Oscar. The card we have on file is in your name.”

  “What?”

  “Miss Rose, I have other people waiting to check-in. I really must end this conversation.”

  “Wait. I don’t understand.”

  “You’ll find that all of your belongings are being held by security. We were waiting for you to come back to tell you, but you were away most of the day.”

  “Wait, please! Can’t I just stay one more night and leave in the morning? I don’t have any place else to go.”

  “No, Miss Rose, you cannot. We’ve already booked that suite tonight. Now if you don’t mind, I must attend to other paying guests.”

  “Wait, you can’t do this. I’ve been staying here for nearly four weeks.”

  “And we thank you for choosing The Grand Marquis Hotel, but you can either escort yourself or we can have security escort you out; the choice is yours.”

  Andrea cursed the young woman and kept swearing until she grabbed her luggage and left the hotel. All she could do was walk. She didn’t know where she was walking to. She was alone. She had no one to turn to and, and to add insult to injury, her phone was dead. Thankfully, she wasn’t too far from home so she could call Sally—the one constant in her life she clung to, She spoke to Sally every day she was in Missouri, but she couldn’t call her now and that was killing her. Andrea was slowly being driven beyond tears. She was close to a breakdown and she would have had one right then on the corner if Doctor Lillian had not driven by at that very moment.

  “Andrea?” she yelled across the street in her red Corvette Stingray. “Andrea, are you okay?” she yelled again before making a U-turn and pulling up beside her.

  “Andrea, what are you doing out here with all of your belongings?”

  Andrea tried to form words to answer her but she was too overwhelmed and no sound came, only tears and a quivering mouth.

  “Oh no, c’mon get in.”

  Doctor Lillian escorted her into the luxury sports car, luggage and all. They sped off in the direction of the doctor’s home.

  Meanwhile, Andrea kept thinking of Oscar. She felt betrayed, alone, and hurt. The one man she had chosen to fall for since she lost Kenneth had abandoned her, and she was pregnant with his baby.

  She hadn’t seen him or heard from him, but what she didn’t know was that he was watching her more closely now than he did when he was with her. His heart ached because he knew what she was feeling, but he was powerless to comfort her. He watched as long as he could and then flew back to his post in a pain he never knew his black heart could feel.

  John landed just outside of a cabin he spotted from his aerial view. The scent of the feather had led him here, and he knew that Sophia was in the cabin, or at least in the surrounding area. The woods were still green and he could smell every pine. It wasn’t overpowering; it was light but amazing. If he wasn’t on such an important mission, he would have stayed there for hours. But it was getting late, the sun was going down, and he still had to find Sophia. He ran into the cabin, but it was empty. He looked around and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. It looked occupied, but he sensed nothing unusual about it.

  He walked outside again to see if there was something he was missing. He walked all around the cabin and began kicking things and looking for trapdoors around the outside. When he found none, he walked back into the cabin. He searched all over the house and all of the bedrooms upstairs. When he came back downstairs, he sighed heavily. Then he threw a “hello” into the air hoping whoever was nearby would catch it and answer him. He lingered there and then a faint subtle reply came to him through the walls. He repeated his hello and moved closer to the walls to hear where the replies were coming from. As he moved closer to the fireplace, they became a bit louder.

  “Hello? Sophia?”

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is John. I mean Seraph. Are you alright?”

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “I’m gonna get you out of here.”

  He started knocking items off the shelves and kicking the fireplace, hoping that he would stumble upon the key to freeing her.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”

  “No. I don’t.”

  “Press on the bricks. I don’t know which one it is, so push them all.”

  John did so and pushed in the correct brick after several attempts and out came Sophia—a bit damp but healed from all her injuries. Aside from being kidnapped and held against her will, she was actually okay.

  “Are you here to kill me?”

  “No, I just released you. Why would I kill you?”

  “Because the enemy is a tricky one, and I do not know you.”

  “Right. Gabriel sent me to rescue you.”

  “Gabriel? Who are you?”

  “I’m a friend,” John said while attempting to break the shackles that bound her. But his strength could not remove them.

  “How did you find me?”

  John pulled out the feather he used to track Sophia down.

  “I believe this belongs to you.”

  “A feather from my wings?”

  “You don’t look like any angel I’ve ever seen, ya know.”

  “I am in human form, but when I am dry enough I will transform from this flesh and blood that imprisons my true nature.”

  “Well, I would love to see that if I can break these chains off you.�
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  “You said your name is Seraph?”

  “Yes.”

  “There are rumors of Ahadiel, our brother, being trapped inside a human. I assume you are that human.”

  “Yes, the rumors are true. He’s in here . . . somewhere,” John said while trying to use heavy objects to break the chains.

  “Incredible . . . how did it happen?”

  Just then, as John worked on freeing Sophia, he could hear a whirling sound and instinctively swayed out of the way as a short battle sword whizzed by his head and got stuck in the wood of the cabin. When John turned around he saw Ornias. It was the same demon that he had seen in the retrocognition shadows the night before.

  “Quite simple really. I put him there,” Ornias said, appearing in his demonic form and ready for battle.

  “You.”

  “Me.” Ornias grinned.

  CHAPTER 8

  John grabbed the sword from the wall and flung it back toward Ornias, who was surprised at how quickly the object came traveling toward his head. He barely got his shield up in time to block it. The sword clanged off the shield and flew into the dark woods that were only lit by a pink twilight sky. Before Ornias could blink or recover, John used his super speed and kicked him, sending him flying and landing next to his sword. John stood in the door of the cabin.

  “Sophia?”

  “Go, I’ll be fine,” she said as she struggled to break free from her chains.

  John stepped from the cabin and tried to use the power of his will to activate his suit but nothing happened. To his surprise his suit had not sorted itself out, and he had not changed into the hulking intimidating being that was supposed to protect the world. He tried concentrating harder, but he soon realized that he was going to have to do this alone. He didn’t know how this would play out, but he would do his best. Ornias was getting up and grinning.

  “You seem to be taking well to the gift I gave you.”

  “Suppose I should thank you?” John said walking down the stairs and onto level ground with the demon.

  “You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into you filthy human!”

  “Filthy? Do you not know what you smell like?” John said, smiling.

  “Humor, a sign of weakness.”

  “Humor is a sign of weakness,” John said in a mocking tone. “Blah, blah, blah, we gonna do this or not?”

  “I am going to skin you alive and then take your soul down to the depths of hell.”

  Ornias screamed before charging John who just stood there and waited. Ornias swung his sword high at an angle and John ducked, grabbed the demon’s legs, and lifted him high into the air before bringing him down in a most powerful slam. At that moment Ornias knew he was in trouble. He tried to crawl away from John, but John grabbed his foot as he tried to escape and swung him like a baseball bat into a tree. Ornias hollered in agony.

  John ran to his opponent, picked him up by his throat, and pounded his ribs with his free fist. Then he threw the demon onto the ground about twenty or so feet away. Ornias, though a capable fighter, wasn’t a warrior by any stretch of the imagination and that was being proven every moment he fought John. Ornias had been in a few angelic scuffles before. However, this fight was anything but angelic. Angels fight with a certain fluidity and grace, but John was very raw, powerful, and instinctive. And it made Ornias extremely uncomfortable.

  Ornias stood up but was promptly kicked in the face, which lifted him off his feet once more. There was just no way that he could get the upper hand. After landing on his back, he slowly stood up. John was approaching and Ornias threw several attacks his way, striking with everything that was inside of him, but it wasn’t even close to being enough. John evaded and dodged every attack. When Ornias threw another punch, John caught his hand and struck him with his own fist. John gained confidence, but wasn’t cocky. He knew he was quite handily winning the fight.

  Meanwhile inside of the cabin, Sophia was still chained to the fireplace when she began heating up. This time there was no one with a bucket of water to stop her from catching fire. She wasn’t quite there, but with every passing minute she was getting closer to being free. Sophia was glowing and although she had not quite transformed, her illumination and warmth could be felt outside.

  After being thrown into another tree, Ornias fell to the ground. John jumped Ornias and pounded him as if he were an MMA fighter. He pounded away, but suddenly he felt heat and noticed light emitting from the cabin. Distracted, he stopped his assault to see what could possibly be happening inside. Ornias reached for anything he could get his hands on and found a fistful of dirt with one hand and a rock with the other.

  When John looked down, Ornias threw the dirt into John’s eyes with one hand and smashed him in the face with the rock in the other. This was a tactic that would have proven futile if John were wearing his armor, but he wasn’t. And this was exactly what Ornias needed.

  John got up and rubbed his eyes while he walked away, bleeding from his temple. He was completely defenseless. Ornias took a moment, gathering whatever strength he had left, and rose to his feet, smashing John in the back of the head with his shield. John was flattened. Ornias went to pick up his sword as John rose to his feet. The sun had completely set. The only light came from the cabin, but the specks of dirt in John’s eyes made seeing impossible.

  Ornias approached John, who swung on the demon but missed terribly. John swung once more, but Ornias moved his shield in the way of the oncoming fist. John’s fist dented the shield, but Ornias stabbed him in the stomach.

  By this time Sophia was completely ready to transform and she caught fire as if she were bathed in gasoline. She laughed almost maniacally because nothing stood in her way. She focused on the manacles that held her down and began heating up to a degree that began slowly melting the chains away.

  John clutched his stomach, but refused to give up, and swung again, but this time Ornias swung the sword at the incoming fist and chopped his hand clean off at the wrist. John howled like a wolf in the night. Ornias shoved John against the tree and stabbed him in the shoulder. The blade went straight through John’s shoulder and into the tree, pinning him. John was in such excruciating pain that he fainted and hung on the tree.

  Ornias knew that he was lucky to have escaped this battle with his life. He never thought that trapping Ahadiel in the body of this human would be a problem. And the human hadn’t even become that big of a problem, yet. But Ornias was determined to make sure the human would never become one.

  “John? Johnny Boy? Look at you now. Where are all your jokes now, Johnny Boy? I know you can’t hear me, but I’m going to tell you this anyway,” he said, growing his talons and raising his hand in the air while preparing to savagely attack John. “I’m going to make good on my promise to skin you alive.”

  While Ornias was dealing with John he didn’t realize that the cabin was in total flames and burning to the ground. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. Sophia had transformed into her angelic form and stood where the fireplace used to be, burning like a six-foot pillar of fire. Ornias looked at Sophia and before he could say her name, she threw a fireball at him that sent him crashing into the woods. In the darkness all Sophia could see was a figure on fire fleeing into the woods.

  Sophia cooled herself down. Only her hair was aflame. She extinguished the fire in the cabin before it devoured the forest. She approached John, who was still unconscious and hanging on the tree. She removed the sword and caught him as he fell into her arms. Sophia carried him, as a husband carries a wife over the threshold, and flew into the air until she disappeared. To anyone watching the night sky, she appeared to be a vanishing star in the cool night air.

  The light from The One shone throughout the entire city of Zion, the capital city of heaven, where the physical presence of God dwelt in the midst of his people. Hundreds of millions of souls sat in the middle of the city to commune with him, billions more came and went as they pleased. Some would stay for
hours, while others stayed for months, yet others had been in his presence for centuries. The longer one spent in his presence, the more irrelevant time became in a place where time didn’t really seem to exist at all.

  This was what Sophia saw as she carried the unconscious warrior through a gateway from earth into the heavenly realm. This was the place of the safest haven. She landed on the edge of the city. She passed through the middle of the three gates on the eastern wall. Zion had four walls with three very large, wide entrances on every side.

  When she entered the city it was quite busy, much like the most popular cities on earth put together, but it wasn’t overpopulated. The pedestrian traffic moved freely and smoothly at all times. While most of heaven’s citizens lived in one of the six heavens, many also lived in Zion. And although seeing angels going to and fro was a part of daily life, seeing one frantically running with an injured human was something entirely different.

  Sophia ran as fast as she could until she finally reached the angelic sector. This area housed angelic homes, recreation, chronicles, and an infirmary, which was where she was heading. Humans and angels interacted in heaven frequently and daily, but there were certain places where both appreciated their privacy. It wasn’t an uncomfortable hostility, just a simple and necessary separation; humans were humans that needed human comfort and amenities, and angels were angels with angelic needs.

  She finally made it to the infirmary and laid John on the first open bed she could find. The archangel of healing, Raphael, was attending to other wounded angels when Sophia came bursting in.

  “Sophia, what is this?” she asked.

  “Forgive me, it is an emergency.”

  “I have many emergencies. Who is this?”

  “John Summers.”

  “A human?”

  Sophia nodded.

  “The humans have their own infirmaries. You should take him there.”

  “Raphael, please help him. . . . He saved me . . .”

  “Saved you? From whom?”

  “It’s a long story and I promise to explain later, but for now please just do whatever you can for him.”