I rolled my eyes. “Don’t start it.” I didn’t even know how my father looked like, and I was going to kill my spirit in this world if someone ranted about how hot my father was.
Prima Dona chuckled. “Well, your father looked just like you.” Her eyes suddenly darkened. “His name was Lucifer.”
I stiffened and felt my heart pound with horror.
At that moment, the ice upon my head crashed and a small spark of fire started to flicker underneath. My eyes became wide and I was horrified.
Prima Dona flinched and Madonna gave a distracted cooing cry. “Zach, what’s the matter now?” Prima Dona sounded rather snappish at the sight of my fire again.
I couldn’t believe it….but I could. Lucifer. I recalled that moment in Harg when Uncle E was helplessly crying out, “Lucifer! Lucifer!” And the devilish gaze of Lucien was staring straight at him. It was so obvious, and at first I didn’t want to believe it. But now, I had no choice. Uncle E was crying out to Lucifer, who was my father.
I felt a striking blow at my head again and I had another brain freeze. I immediately snapped out of it and faced Prima Dona, who had struck me with her spear.
“The Higher One,” spoke Prima Dona. “He’s your father, isn’t he?”
“Lucien…” I was catching my breath. “He really is my father. He’s Lucifer, the brother of my Uncle Ebenezer. He’s the last king of Jerusalem, and the man who married Sarah Madonne!” It all made perfect sense. I remembered the image of my father in that dream I had of him in Hell. His face that was covered with blankness became clear now, and I was looking up to the devilish eyes of Lucien, my father.
He was more than just my father. He was Lucien the Higher. He was Lucifer. He was…Satan.
Prima Dona narrowed her eyes. “Hmph….to think you were born of his blood too. You share blood with the king of Hell. Zach, that’s what makes you strong enough to have broken here in my world.”
“I’m sorry…I really mean no harm,” I was starting to feel even colder than I had been when I had first arrived here.
But Prima Dona only chuckled. “Nonsense. You don’t have to feel any sorrow. I like you, Zach,” she smiled at me. “Whatever you feel like you need to discuss, you can talk to me about it. I won’t betray you—but you better not betray me.” Her eyes flashed. “Do not tell another soul about my world, or our little conversation. My world may be powerful enough against other spirits who try to break in, but I would still like you to keep this as our own little secret.”
I nodded respectfully.
“Of course, I probably wouldn’t have found out about my father if it weren’t for you.” I managed to force a smile at the ice lady. “Thanks, Prima Dona.” My heart was beating rapidly.
Madonna cooed soothingly and Prima Dona smiled back with her thin red lips. “It’s probably time you should wake up. Our moments do take time, and we don’t want you falling asleep forever to this world.” She gave me a wink.
“Hehe, of course not….” I was already slowly drifting away. Prima Dona and her SoulBird eventually vanished.
Then I blinked my eyes open to a scorching hot sun.
Chapter Sixteen-
“Wake up already, Zach!” Jenna gave me a sharp shove on the shoulder and I blinked my eyes open. The sun was shining hotly on my face and I gave a wince of irritation from the sudden brightness.
Dewey’s head appeared in front of my face. “Having good dreams without me?”
I sat up and brushed off sharp twigs from the back of my hair.
Jenna huffed impatiently. “Zach! Hello?! I just got word through Grace that Hannah, Michael, and the angels just fought a tribe of hellish savages and have been taken captive.”
I met her gaze. “Really? Savages took the angels captive?”
“They’re trapped, and they cannot do anything until they are freed. They said they’re held captive at an academy in Nawt. We can find this academy quite easily. It’s overrun by hell creatures, and there are tons of devilish SoulBirds guarding the front gates. We have to find them and free them.”
As soon as we set out, I continued to think deeply about what had just happened in my dream. I glanced over at Dewey, who was staring at me intently.
I narrowed my eyes. “What?”
“Hmph! Pretty rude for you to have a dream and not share it with a lifelong partner that could have made it better!”
I gave him a sideways look. Actually no, he would not have made it better. My moment with Prima Dona was personal, and she was the only spirit that seemed to care about my feelings, and at the same time, help me with them. So far, no one wanted to reveal the truth to me. Uncle E wouldn’t even tell me about my own life on Earth. He only explained his own reason for coming into Purgatory, but he didn’t even bother about explaining why I was here.
Even Nurse Hannah and my guardians didn’t reveal anything specific about my past, even though they probably knew everything about me.
Prima Dona, on the other hand, didn’t seem like she would know my entire life story, but she knew a little bit about me. And she was the only one to reveal my father’s name. Because of her, I finally figured out something important about my family in my mortal life.
“So you’ve discovered Lucien’s your father, huh?” Dewey’s voice broke into my thoughts.
Jenna, Grace, and I all turned to Dewey with disbelieved looks.
“What?!” Jenna and Grace were flabbergasted.
Dewey snickered. “Ask Zach! He’s the one who had the dream without me.”
“How could you have a dream without your SoulBird knowing about it?” Grace spoke.
I gave a wry look. “Well, it wouldn’t hurt for a spirit to dream in privacy without the interference of another soul, would it?”
Jenna was eying me. “Well, if you dreamed by yourself, how can you be sure that the Higher One is your father?”
Dewey huffed. “Well, he’s tall and extremely hot! Just look at all the attention he gets from the ladies!” Dewey raised his eyebrows twice.
Jenna gave a disgusted look. “I totally find nothing gorgeous about him,” she said scornfully. “I think he’s rude and conceited, and two-faced, just like any spirit from Hell!”
“Excuse me, that’s my father you’re talking about,” I teased.
Jenna glared at me.
“I don’t know how I figured it out, but I did,” I said. “Déjà vu hits me like a bomb. His name just came to me and I recognized everything clearly! Lucifer. Uncle E was calling Lucien by that name in Harg. I already saw it for myself. Jenna, I’m sure you already knew that.” I narrowed my eyes at her. Since she had been secretly working with Enoch to help me, she must have been told a few important facts about me.
“Well what about your mother then?” Grace looked up at me.
“My mother….she’s still missing. We can’t be sure whether she’s in the mortal dimensions or the dimensions of afterlife.”
“Well, if she were in the afterlife, she’d be in Hell, that’s for sure,” said Dewey ruefully. “Ugh, if this dream was so important, why wasn’t I in it? That just doesn’t make sense!”
I crossed my arms and gave him a proud look. “Too bad. You were probably so nosy that you must have missed the most important part of what I was dreaming about.”
“Now that’s nonsense!” A sharp firm voice cracked through the air and Saint Grenada and Saint Annabelle appeared above us.
“You guys again!” Said Jenna, looking up at the angels.
Grenada faced me with a frown. “Even in star-portal dreams, the SoulBirds would be able to have read it. This is very serious, since you just had a dream without the presence of your own soul-mate.”
I grumbled angrily under my breath. These angels were just too nosy.
Annabelle seemed apologetic. “Oh, come now! Don’t bother the child. Perhaps he’s just had a dream he’s too ashamed or embarrassed to tell about. We shouldn’t force him to share it with the world.”
“Don’t share i
t with the world. Just share it with me!” Said Dewey. “I’m your SoulBird!”
“Well, I bet you saints are just jealous that you finally didn’t get to stalk me when you wanted to,” I glared up at the saints. “Whatever it was that I dreamed about, it’s helped me a lot and I’ve finally found out about who my father was.”
Annabelle flinched. “Oh dear! The child knows now!”
Saint Grenada rolled her eyes. “At last! Sheesh, it wasn’t that hard! Couldn’t one glance at Lucien’s eyes have told you something?”
I scoffed. “Apparently it didn’t. Not until I had that dream.”
“Listen fools!” Grenada raised her voice. She pointed at me. “You need to be careful, especially now that you’re wandering in the outlands of Purgatory. Whatever dreams you have, make sure you interpret them correctly. Your dreams will always have a meaning. Zach, if you had a dream that didn’t involve your own SoulBird, and if it was a dream that not even us angels can read, then it is most likely that the dream could be a trap.” Her eyes were dark and serious.
I stared back with a simple look. Dewey was still narrowing his small round eyes at me. “Yeah, and you better watch out. I may not be able to read that dream, but I can read your soul and mind about it, when you think about it.”
Jenna huffed. “Zach, would it not hurt just to confess your stupid dream to us? We’re wasting time just standing here talking about it!”
I rolled my eyes. “Do I tell you to share your dreams?”
Suddenly, an arrow shot passed my face and hit the tree to my right. The tree immediately withered and sunk to the ground. Raising my expression, I turned to face Jenna, but she hadn’t thrown that arrow.
Dewey gasped. “Dark faeries!”
To the left, a small creature was glaring at us with envy in its eyes. Its body was the size of a SoulBird—merely a foot tall. On its back it had glittering wings that flapped like a dragonfly’s.
Grenada hissed. “It’s a dragonfly angel. These angels are from the underworld.”
The dragonfly faerie started to spin its arms in circles, and created a spiral twist in the air. The faerie gave softly blew at the spiraling twister. It started twisting toward us. Then the faerie created more mini-twisters in the air. Pretty soon, the twisters were everywhere, and were headed in our direction.
“Run!” Cried Grenada, dodging to the side as the dragonfly faerie aimed another arrow at her.
“Ugh! What the--?!” Jenna stopped and grabbed the back of her head. Just above her ponytail, a twig-sized arrow had struck the back of her head. It was barely tangled in her red hair.
I laughed. “Wow, that angel just owned you right there,” I said sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes and flicked the arrow out of her hair.
Suddenly, the woods were filled with numerous little faeries. They were all scowling enviously. They aimed their harpoons at us. We ran through the woods, ducking and dodging the little arrows that shot through the air.
Finally, we found ourselves in front of a huge old building made of molding bricks. The building was deserted. Dry mosses were already growing from the cracks in the bricks.
The trees rustled behind us. The faeries were creating tiny twisters in the air.
Jenna and I hurried toward the opening of the building. It was like a tunnel into a cave.
The building was large and empty inside. Jenna stared down a crumbly aisle.
“This is the Bhad Chapel,” she said.
The walls were very high and the floor under our feet was bumpy. The ceiling looked ready to fall apart. To either side of the aisle, there were benches that looked tippy and ready to collapse. At the end of the aisle, there were three steps that led up to an altar. This was where Mediums graduated, before moving onto the next stage. The rumors said this graduation chapel had been abandoned since the Higher One had trashed the place and got rid of all the Headmasters and High Ones. Now, I could believe such rumors.
I caught a glimpse of two red figures hiding beneath the benches. I widened my eyes.
“Demetrius and Jezebel!” I yowled.
But before I could say or hear another word, the two imps leapt out from the benches and pinned Jenna and me to the ground.
“Take this, Zachy boy!” Demetrius stabbed my chest with his small trident.
I felt my spirit burn up. My vision blurred, but just before I rolled my eyes back, I felt Demetrius’s body lift off of my chest. The imp was screaming.
I managed to glimpse the figure of the Shadow Man clutching the imp in his right hand. The shadow threw the imp aside.
But I had already passed out.
Chapter Seventeen-
Cold water was smearing across my forehead. I blinked my eyes open to a blurry vision of a lady, who was wiping a cool wet washcloth over my face.
“Argh!” I immediately sat up and the washcloth fell off.
The lady gasped. “Zach! You’re awake!” I recognized the voice of Hannah.
“He’s awake?!” Annabelle’s voice echoed from my right. “Oh, Zachariah! We were so worried about you! Thank the Lord that we found you!”
I growled and frowned at Hannah. “What…?” I gazed around myself. I was sitting on a dry bumpy ground in some kind of empty building. There was a huge window behind me, and I could see the outside. There were buildings everywhere, and there were crowds of ugly beasts and hell spirits wandering around. Flocks of devilish fire SoulBirds were flying everywhere. It looked like I was at an academy where hell creatures had taken over.
“Zach, you are in the stage of Nawt,” said Hannah. “Lucien’s henchmen have taken us captive. We found your spirit lying unconscious, here in the Assembly Building,” Hannah was gazing at me with awe. “Zach! That only means you were in the Bhad Chapel!”
“Huh?!” I turned to look around myself. Inside this building, I was surrounded by angels. Grenada and Annabelle were hovering in front of me. Hannah was kneeling next to me on my right, and behind us were about a dozen angels who were wearing metallic collars around their necks. “What happened? Did I make it to Heaven?” My head was spinning with confusion.
“No, you idiot!” Saint Grenada snapped. “You’re in the land of Nawt now. This is the academy where Michael and his angels were taken captive by those hellish savages! Zach, the angels here had contacted Jenna’s SoulBird, and they were waiting for you and Jenna to free them! Why are you the only one here?” I could tell Grenada was shocked and confused as well.
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t know! Why don’t you tell me? I don’t even know what just happened to me!”
Hannah laid a hand on my shoulder and spoke soothingly. “Zach, since we found your spirit in this building, it could only mean one thing. Somehow, you graduated from the Bhad Chapel. Mediums find themselves in this Assembly Building, only after they had graduated from the previous stage. There would be no other reason why you are here, unless Lucien has corrupted these lands so much that graduations are irrelevant in the stages.”
I frowned. “The latter is probably the reason. There’s no way I’ve graduated Bhad, especially at a time like this. Besides, that chapel was deserted anyway.” The place didn’t even have any effect on Demetrius and Jezebel!
Dewey suddenly appeared out of nowhere and hopped onto my lap. He gazed at me excitedly. “You ought to thank me, though. I was the one who asked the Lord to save you and Jenna.” He winked at me. “That’s the only reason why you made it here.”
Michael appeared by Hannah’s side. He was looking at me with warmth in his eyes. “Zach, if the Lord listened to your SoulBird, He must have felt that you were ready to graduate from Bhad. I cannot say that you exactly ‘graduated,’ but I can say that the Lord had mercy on you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left your stage and made it to this place so quickly.”
I slowly shook my head. Everything was just so confusing. All I can say was that I was taken to the next stage of Nawt without fully graduating.
“Ugh, whatever,” I crossed
my arms.
Dewey was hopping next to me. “Aren’t you happy, Zach? You were granted a graduation! You should be proud!”
I looked around and all the angels were looking at me with gratefulness in their eyes as if to congratulate me.
But I just rolled my eyes. “God probably just needed me to rescue you guys, that’s all.”
The angels murmured with sorrow as I turned away and looked out the window.
“It’s impossible for Him to be rewarding me for anything,” I continued scornfully. I couldn’t believe that God would be rewarding me after I had chosen to spend time at Lucien’s palace.
“He could be rewarding you because you destroyed Harg,” said Dewey.
“Yeah, but that was an accident,” I muttered.
I looked around the building. “Am I the only one who was taken to this building? Where’s Jenna?”
“Well, she already belongs in the stage of Primal,” chuckled Michael. “I don’t know if the Lord will take it easy on her. She has to take the harder path, and physically travel to this stage by herself.”
I slightly snickered. “So Jenna and Grace are still on their way here?”
Hannah nodded. “They are. Chelsey just contacted Grace. They are almost here.” Hannah’s air type SoulBird was hovering around the empty room. Her halo was glowing, and she seemed to be in the middle of communication.
Hannah turned to me. “In the meantime, you must stay hidden. No hell spirit must know that you’re here. Enoch is obtaining weapons from Heaven. When Jenna and Grace arrive, you and Dewey will distract the guards so that when Enoch returns with all the weapons, we can easily escape.”
When I looked outside, I saw that there were guards on the bottom of the windowsill. There were guards standing everywhere there was a window, and there were even fire SoulBirds perched on the rooftops and any nearby ledge on the building. I felt like we were trapped in a dark fortress.
I turned to Hannah and frowned. “Can’t you angels just go to Heaven and then teleport to wherever you want to go?”
Grenada huffed. “It’s not that easy for them! Look closely! They are wearing soul-tracers!” Grenada pointed at the metallic collar that was wrapped around Michael’s neck. “Lucien placed these collars on the angels, so that they would be too weak to teleport into the higher world for Heaven!”
The Purgatory Saga #1: People of the Fire Page 17