by Darcy Town
“How do you know?”
“I don’t know, Helion, but I have faith in them.” Leviathan smiled and disappeared in a whirl of blue.
Helion stood on the shoreline and took a deep breath. He sat down and stuck a finger in the mud. “I have faith too. Whitney can take care of herself until I get her. I know she can. I just don’t know if I can take care of myself.”
***
Whitney finished stitching Michael’s right side. She moved him carefully to expose his left side. Michael groaned. She snatched her hands back. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”
Michael ground his teeth. “It is not due to you, the pain in unavoidable.”
Whitney frowned. “Yeah but still, I am sorry.”
“Do not apologize.”
Whitney began to work on his chest. “You know I’ve noticed that you guys have issues accepting apologies.”
“To accept an apology is to admit that someone else can injure you. To give one is to admit failure and fault.” Michael blinked against the pain.
“So basically you’re saying that you’re too proud to do either.”
Michael glowered at her. “Do not put it in those terms.”
“What terms? The truth? Are you too proud to admit that as well?”
“The truth, the absolute facts of things…that is important and must always be accepted.”
“So if it were truth that your God is a dick and in the wrong that would mean something to you?”
Michael glared at her. “Why am I speaking to you?”
“It takes your mind off your pain. Doesn’t have anything to do with you or me.”
Michael stared at the lights in the sky. “Hypothetically, yes if He were in the wrong then that would matter.” He groaned. “This is idiotic. He cannot be in the wrong. He is right, what He does is correct.”
“Why?”
“He is our creator, we should do naught else but obey.”
“Why?”
“If we disobey what purpose do we have?” He looked down at himself. “I am ruined by my disobedience. I damaged myself by going against Him.”
Whitney rolled her eyes. “This is coming from the guy that just got lashed with a fire whip. You sound like an abused housewife.”
“I deserved it.”
“Are you listening to yourself? He hit you because you didn’t want to do something evil! That’s okay?”
Michael set his jaw. “Good and evil, they do not apply to His orders.”
“You’re really dumb.” Whitney pulled out more of her hair.
Michael closed his eyes. “Whipped, cast aside, and now insulted. This is truly my end.”
Whitney laughed. “God, you guys are so melodramatic around here. Oh noes I am defeated!”
WILL YOU SHUT UP? YOUR INANE CHATTER IS DISTURBING ME AND STOP THOSE ROCKS!
Whitney turned her head slowly. “Poor you, my heart goes out.” She gazed at her rocks and four more appeared, different sizes, they added to the cacophony. Whitney smiled.
Michael gazed at the rocks. “That does nothing for your situation and yet you still do it. Why?”
Whitney shrugged. “I find it amusing. Don’t you do anything for fun?”
Michael’s mouth twitched. “No.”
“Ever?”
Michael remembered memories of laughter. “No.”
“You’re lying. I thought the truth meant something or were you lying then too?”
Michael bared his teeth. “Fine, yes, I remember doing fun things once.”
“Why didn’t you just say so?”
“It was with him, the betrayer.”
“Lucifer?”
“Yes, he…he was my older brother.”
“Was? I don’t think you can undo that kind of relationship.”
“I have cast him aside. I am ashamed to be his sibling.”
“Harsh.”
“He means nothing to me now.” The veins on Michael’s forehead stood out. “Nothing, he is nothing!”
Whitney looked him over. “If he were nothing I doubt you’d go red in the face and hiss.”
“I am not hissing!” His exhalation came out in a hiss. Michael stared at his hands. “I should not talk to you any longer. Please leave me alone.”
“Fine.” Whitney stretched and stood up. “I needed a break anyways, gotta shake the limbs out.” The rocks near Whitney stopped.
FINALLY.
They picked up into a beat.
NO.
Whitney kicked her leg over her head. She twisted her waist. She hummed and the rocks changed their tempo. Bigger rocks appeared making louder, deeper percussion. Whitney smiled. “Bass!” She made figure eights with her pelvis; the angels outside the area watched horrified and fascinated.
Whitney turned to Michael. “You ever hear club music?”
“Club music?”
“You know the kind that makes you shake your ass like this.” Whitney shook her butt at the throne. She strutted towards the fire and formed high heels out of rock as she walked; she clothed herself in a stone bikini, polished mirror smooth. Whitney pumped her hips to the beat. Her chest and butt moved in ways that had the angels fixated.
DO NOT WATCH HER.
Whitney grinned. “Aww, but I never get looked at in clubs! I don’t really have much of a butt.” She dropped and curled up slowly, she let a bikini strap slide to the side. “It’s fun being the hottest girl around, even if that’s because I’m the only girl. Sorry, I mean woman.” Whitney glared at Ariel. Ariel snapped her teeth at her.
Whitney slid to the right. “Then you shake it to the left. Drop and dip and roll your body.” She sang along with the moves she was practicing. “I can get on the floor and kind of do this one called the worm. Do you want to see?”
Michael watched her. “You do this for fun?”
“Well, with more people. Dancing alone is kind of lame, but it seems to irritate Big G.”
“Big G?”
“God Almighty, ruler of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen, Big G!”
Michael closed his eyes. “What will make you stop this rock noise and your body gyrations?”
Whitney grinned. “If you talk to me, I guess I’ll stop.”
Michael grimaced. “Fine.”
The rocks disappeared. Whitney sat by Michael’s side and picked up her needle. She took his hand in hers and worked on getting his fingers back on. “So, where were we? Oh yes, brother trouble.”
“I do not seek to speak on this topic again.”
Whitney clucked her tongue. “Now is that really healthy?”
“Healthy?”
“He’s your brother.”
“No more.”
“You can’t un-brother him. It doesn’t work that way, and why are you so pissed off at Dahlia? What did she ever do to you?”
“Lucifer chose her over me.”
“Dude, bros before hoes is a completely unrealistic ideal, just like chicks before dicks. That stuff only works in books and movies.”
“What?”
“He wanted to be with his woman, that doesn’t mean Lucifer was casting you aside.” Whitney gaped. “That’s why you cast him off! Because you thought he cast you off first! I’m a genius!”
“He did!” Michael grimaced as his wounds tore further. “He threw fire at me. He tried to kill me!”
“His girlfriend had just been imprisoned by his own hand. We call that kind of behavior on Earth temporary insanity.”
“I see nothing temporary about it.”
Whitney folded her arms. “Well, I think you two should talk it out, maybe hug it out too.”
Michael managed to smile slightly. “That would end in one of us dying.”
Whitney moved to his cheek with her needle. “How would you feel if he died?”
“Satisfied.”
“Really? Like…have you actually thought about it? Or do you actually just want to punch him? People often overstate what they want. I bet punching him would be just as satis
fying. You guys could have a good old-fashioned brawl and then you could move past it together and go have dinner or watch football.”
“I doubt that.” Michael watched her sew up his cheek. He sighed. “I will be done soon. The pain has been lessening.”
Whitney kept sewing. “And?”
“I do not think I have the strength to raise a hand against you now, but perhaps when you are done I would.”
Whitney slowed her stitches. “Oh?” She frowned. “Oh well, we’ll just see then won’t we.” She kept stitching.
Michael frowned. “You are very odd.”
“Thanks!” Whitney smiled. “I think normal is so boring, kind of like this place, everything looks the same.” She turned his head gently to the side to work on his neck. “Why do you look different? Why do only some of you appear as you are when the rest are creepy clones.”
“I was made by hand.”
“Oh, by the Big G himself. Got it.”
“No.”
Whitney kept her face blank. “No? Were you spontaneously made into existence?”
“No.” Michael shuddered. “Lucifer made me.”
“Interesting.” She kept silent as she finished one cut. She started on another. “So wouldn’t that make Lucifer your creator and not the Big G? Just saying.” She bit on her lower lip.
Michael said nothing.
Whitney pulled more hair out. “And by your logic aren’t you supposed to obey your creator. What they do is right therefore by that train of thought Lucifer defecting was right and you should have gone on with him? Since you were his second or whatever Dahlia called it?”
Michael clenched his jaw. His eyes met hers. “You speak as a silly girl, but your words are insidious.”
Whitney smiled brightly, but said nothing. She hummed and turned his face from side to side. “Looking better, my dear friend. Almost patched up.”
“Do not call me friend.”
Whitney sighed. “Fine, Michael my frenemy. So…” She took his hand. “Are you going to try and whack me around now?”
Michael closed his eyes. “I find my strength has yet to return to me.”
“Ahh, well, in that case I think we can just continue to talk.”
DO NOT. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOUR TERRIBLE VOICE, WHITNEY.
Michael frowned. “I should not encourage you, if I wish to curry favor.”
“You still think you’ll be allowed back in with Big G, super friends once again? Hey, Big G, will you heal Michael?”
Michael settled himself. “He will not answer you.”
Whitney started up her rocks. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”
WHAT?
“Will you heal Michael if he shuts me up?”
THAT PROSPECT IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE APPEALING, BUT IT WOULD NOT MATTER. HE CANNOT SHUT YOU UP.
“But if he did?”
FINE, YES, ANYTHING TO STOP YOUR CHATTERINGS. I WOULD HEAL HIM FOR THAT.
“I’ll stop if you heal him. My sewing is making him feel better, but his wounds are not healing. I can’t do anything about that. Not that you care because you’re a dick and you don’t love anyone here. That’s why I kind of find this confusing, all this obedience, no love. I was always taught that God is love, or that God is fear. It seems to me that those fear guys had it right. There’s nothing love-like in this place. Why do any of you follow him? What is the point? You know that on Earth everyone has a great time. You can do what you want, no one to beat you with a stick if you step out of line. So why don’t you all just defect and join the party on Earth? I promise you’ll have a good time! Eh? Eh? I can go all day, Big G.”
FINE. MICHAEL, YOU ARE RESTORED.
Michael glowed and his body was whole. He gaped at his flesh and pulled at Whitney’s hairs that now sat on his skin like spider webs. He glared at her. “Why?”
“You were hurting.” She smiled.
Michael stood up and staggered, still woozy. He knelt facing the throne. “How may I serve?”
YOU HAVE, SHE HAS STOPPED SPEAKING.
Whitney nodded and dropped to the ground with her mouth shut. She flashed him a toothy grin and lay down on her back.
Michael ignored her. “What is your will now?”
MICHAEL, YOU SERVE NO PURPOSE. I HAVE NO NEED FOR YOU NOW.
Michael cringed and remained kneeling. “Then what should I do?”
END YOURSELF DOING SOMETHING USEFUL. KILLING YOUR BROTHER WOULD BE A WORTHY WAY TO DIE.
Michael bowed his head. “As you command.”
***
Bean and Jegudiel walked along the rooftops of Eden. She kept ahead and leapt up onto the terracotta roof of a taller building. Jegudiel followed her. The sun began its quick descent towards the horizon and painted the city in burning colors. Jegudiel wished he could enjoy the view, but he was nervous.
Bean was conscious of him following behind. She concentrated on thinking about something adult to talk about that did not involve drugs, sex, alcohol, or partying. Bean found it difficult. She switched tracks and thought like Furcas. “You look good in those corduroy pants, they’re your color.”
Jegudiel flinched and looked down at his pants. “I would like to keep them on. Thanks.”
Bean blushed. “I didn’t mean it like that! I mean…you just have a knack for what you wear.” She turned away and kicked at the roof. Shit.
She hopped across tile and jumped onto the lip of a fat chimney. She looked into the sky. “It was very sunny today!” She smiled, that was safe.
Jegudiel nodded cautiously. His defenses were up. “Yes, it was.”
Bean smiled. “Not a cloud to see! It would be nice to fly while the sun was setting.”
Jegudiel leaned on another chimney and looked up at her. “Bean.”
Bean turned to him and blushed. “Yes?”
His muscles twitched. “You’re not going to try and assault me again are you? That is not why you wanted to go with me?”
“No!” She shook her head. “I’m very sorry for that!”
He frowned. “Good, it was very inappropriate of you to do.”
“I know. I’m really sorry. Seriously.” She met his gaze. “Do you accept my apology?”
“No.” Jegudiel looked away. “Not yet at least. I have to know that you mean it, that this is not a trick.”
Bean struggled to hide her hurt feelings. “I understand. I’m in the untrustworthy box.” Jegudiel frowned and scratched his bare chest, drawing her eyes over. She blinked and looked away. She bit her lip; she couldn’t help it. She wanted to get close to him in every way. Bean sat on the chimney and gripped the stone underneath her. It broke off beneath her fingers. Her heart pounded. “So, uhm.”
Jegudiel watched her. She looked pale. Concern unwanted and unbidden arose. “Something ails you. Should we return home? Do you need me to get Raphael?” He regretted speaking after he did. He shut out those feelings.
“Nothing ails me, I’m perfectly fine.” Bean controlled the level of her voice. “Only maybe you could put a shirt on?”
Jegudiel ground his teeth. Anger flared up and he glared at her. “Are you that bad that you cannot control yourself at the sight of bare skin? Should I ready myself for another attack from you? You will not succeed.” He balled his hands into fists.
“No, no, I’m sorry.” Bean looked at anything but him. “You are pleasing to look upon. You should take it as a compliment. That is all that I mean it as.”
His eye ticked. “I thought better of you, Bean.”
She gulped. “I…I’m sorry. I’m trying, I really am.”
Jegudiel wrapped his wings around his body. Her trembling was visible from where he stood. Her features were unguarded. She was open again, vulnerable, just as he had been in the bathroom. She was the weak one now, while he was strong and had the power. Jegudiel’s fists clenched in time with his pulse; he would not give that up to her. It was his power now and he intended to keep it by any means that he had to. He chose his words carefully. “I am surpr
ised by you, Bean.”
“Surprised at what?”
“That you dally here with me when I will not give in to you.” He put Furcas’ words out of his mind. “There are plenty in this city who would lay with you despite yourself.”
Bean’s wings blurred, lifting her from the rooftop. “What?”
“You obviously need to be with someone.” Jegudiel felt ill, sick with himself. “And it will not be me, so why don’t you find someone else to satisfy your cravings if they pain you so.” His thoughts and feelings warred for control over his mouth. “Go be with someone else.”
Bean stared out over the rooftops. “I don’t know what you’re saying, Yoshi. That is not my desire.”
“Is it not? You think of it when you look at me. You look at me the way your parents look at one another. I can see the hunger in your eyes.”
Bean frowned. “That’s love, I—”
“No it’s not. You don’t even really know what that is. You want sex, you said so yourself. So if you are sick with desire, go get a fix with someone else.” Jegudiel drove his nails into his palms, drawing blood. “You are not going to be with me so stop hanging on in pain. I don’t want you like that. Go fuck someone else.”
Bean shook as she took a deep breath. This walk was not supposed to go to this topic. “Can we speak on something else?”
“Why?” He frowned. “You seek to divert my attention so that you can attempt at being sly?”
“I am not sly.”
“You are Paimon’s creation, their sick golem. Do not attempt to trick me as to your innocence. You were born tainted.”
She watched birds fly by. “Aren’t they pretty.” Her mind scrambled, confused. “Parrots I think. Andrealphus would know the type.”
Jegudiel scaled the chimney to get next to her. “I am not going to be fooled by you.”
Bean kept her eyes averted. “I wonder where they roost. I think we should find them. Let’s look!” She nodded, there, a non-threatening activity. She reached for his hand. “We can find their nests and look at the babies!”
“Do not touch me!” Jegudiel jumped back to the roof below. “As soon as I draw close you try and reel me in. You show your true self. It is good for me that you are still inept at deception, still just a child. It is good for me that you are young and stupid.”
Bean stared at her hand. “No! I’m sorry. I…I didn’t mean anything by it. I wasn’t trying that.”