by L. L Hunter
He found Eden and Asher already eating by the time he walked into the dining room. And they weren’t alone. His stomach flipped when he saw that Melody sat in the seat opposite Asher, adjacent to the seat he usually sat in. Melody turned her head and smiled as if sensing his presence as Gabe made his way to his seat.
“Hi, Gabe,” she said happily. She looked radiant today. Gabe had to take a second glance. She was literally glowing. An aura, or rather, a halo of light, surrounded Melody. It must be an angel thing, thought Gabe.
“Hey, Gabe. You okay?” asked Asher. His greeting snapped Gabe out of his daze. He hadn’t realised he was staring at Melody.
“Uh… yeah. Um… I’ll be right back.” Gabe realised he had forgotten to grab breakfast, so he used that as an excuse to leave the awkwardness at the table. As he poured himself a generous helping of cereal and covered it with banana, honey, and milk, he thought about how he would bring up the fact that Melody was his guardian angel. He couldn’t just say, ‘Hi, guys. How was your night? Mine wasn’t that crash hot because I found out the girl I’ve been crushing in is my freaking guardian angel, and Lucifer’s son has escaped the Realm of Ice. But I’m fine.’ Could he? He glanced over at his cousin, her boyfriend, and Melody, watching how they laughed easily together. It was then Gabe realised how well Melody fit into his life. She was like the missing puzzle piece. He walked back over to the table with a cereal bowl in hand and sat back down. When his butt hit the hardwood of the chair, Melody turned to him, smiling. Gabe froze, spoon halfway to his mouth.
“Dude, why didn’t you tell us about Melody?” Eden said suddenly. He dropped his spoon, and milk dribbled down his chin. He quickly swallowed his food and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.
“Huh? What?”
“Why didn’t you say she was your guardian?” said Asher. Dumbstruck, he glanced at Melody then back at Eden and Asher.
“Um… because I… um… just found out. I wasn’t sure what to say. I was going to tell you.”
“It’s okay, really. I figured Aunt Scarlett and Uncle Dyston had sent someone to protect us.”
He let out a sigh of relief and dipped his spoon back in his cereal.
“They sent me to watch over Gabriel specifically, but when the time comes, I will protect all of you. I will also call on my fellow guardian angels for backup. The son of Lucifer cannot succeed,” said Melody.
They all agreed on that.
Chapter 7
The night was bitterly cold as Samson slept fitfully. The Realm of Ice, the realm humans called Hell, was always cold. It was meant to replicate the world one knew as home, the world one’s soul knew, an upside-down mirror image that was covered in ice and snow. This was Samson’s life now. This was his punishment for holding several Nephilim women captive and making them turn on their loved ones, tainting their minds with darkness. He had done it with his own girlfriend, Willow. He was glad for one thing, and that was the Archangel Samuel’s punishment. He had allowed Willow to be locked in this icy cage with him. He was half-Archangel, half-demon. The son of Lucifer. He thrived in this realm, so it wasn’t really a punishment.
An ear-piercing scream echoed through the night, and Samson sat up in bed. He glanced around the room of his penthouse suite. He had escaped the prison easily enough and made it to his father’s penthouse apartment in the middle of the city. As he sat in his king-sized bed, the silvery-grey blankets pooling around his hips, he realised the apartment was eerily quiet. Too quiet. Something wasn’t right. He hoped the scream had only been a dream. He glanced over to the pillow beside him and found it empty. He touched the linen with his fingertips and found it cold. Willow hadn’t slept there for hours. He threw off the blankets and grabbed his dagger from the nightstand before padding out of his room in his boxer shorts.
“Willow?” he called as he entered the living room. He couldn’t hear a thing except for the howl of the wind whipping against the side of the building outside.
He crept into the kitchen, dagger in hand, a dagger which had been a gift from his father, forged from Hellmetal.
He peered around the side of the wall that led from the hall to the kitchen and saw a figure cast in shadows standing in the kitchen. Samson pinned himself against the wall and tried to calm his racing heart. It could just be Willow fetching a midnight snack. He decided to take the leap. As he peeled himself from the wall and stepped into the kitchen, he collided with the shadowy figure, dropping his dagger as he did.
“Tsk, tsk, Samson. What would your father say if he could see you now? You’d have thought Lucifer would have taught his only son how to protect himself.”
“Holy shit! What are you doing in my apartment?” Samson grappled for his dagger on the ground and held it toward the new caretaker of the souls and the leader of the Realm of Death.
Max shrugged. “Since I have crossed the threshold between realms and am the new Grim Reaper, I can enter any realm I want freely.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I have come to ask you to leave Gabriel alone.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Samson laughed coldly. “That abomination killed my father. He is far too powerful. He can’t be allowed to exist.”
“I wish I was kidding.” A fog cloud began to surround Max, and he hovered above the ground a few inches. “If you don’t give up now, you’ll be starting another war between realms, another war between angels, demons, and humans. The loss this time would be far more catastrophic than the last battle.”
“Like I care.” Samson lunged and sliced his blade toward Max, but his blade cut nothing but air and fog. Max was gone. He glanced around, but the little bit of fog in his apartment was the only sign that anyone was ever there. He heard the toilet flush down the hall.
“Sammy? Where are you?”
“Here,” he called out. A moment later, Willow joined him at the window overlooking the frozen city.
“What are you doing?”
“I… had a nightmare. Let’s go back to bed.” He took Willow’s hand and led her back to their bed. He had no idea where she had gone or what had just happened, but the experience left him feeling haunted.
As he got back in bed and closed his eyes, he realised the abomination, the daughter of Lakyn Blackbell and her English ex-human lover, knew he had escaped and what his plans were. And it was all thanks to the son of Scarlett and Dyston. Samson knew he had to get rid of them all, even if it’s the last thing he did.
Chapter 8
Max touched down on the shimmering ground of the Realm of Death. The ground crunched as his boots covered the wings of the angels who had earned their right to be there. It was an honour to have your wings fossilised in the ground of each of the angelic realms.
As he made his way toward the cottage where he now lived, he heard the tiny whistling sound of a rogue soul flying through the air. He paused and glanced around but saw nothing. As he began walking again, he heard the sound of the earth crunching underfoot. He turned and saw two figures materialise in a cloud of fog before him. He recognised them immediately.
“Abraham? Jazmine? What are you doing here? I thought you’d been banished from this and all other realms?”
“Technically, we have. But we are free to roam wherever we please,” replied Abraham in his distinct gravelly voice. Jazmine flicked her blonde hair over one shoulder and smirked at him.
“Hello, little son of Scarlett and Dyston. My, how you’ve grown,” said Jazmine.
Another soul whizzed past Max’s head and circled him. He held out his hand, but the soul was hesitant to land on it. Max scrunched up his nose in confusion.
“The job suits you, little Blackbell. But you have a lot to learn. Come, let me tell you the history of soul reaping and harvesting.” Abraham placed his hand on Max’s shoulder. Jazmine went to Max’s other side, and together, they walked with him to the cottage where they told him the origins of soul harvesting.
They sat down in the living room, and Abraham pulled a
leather-bound book from the bookshelf and handed it to Max.
“The Sin Harvest,” Max read and looked up at Abraham. Abraham had perched himself on the arm of the adjacent wingback chair and was watching Max with amusement.
“What is this?” Max asked.
“My story.”
Max began reading and was soon hooked on the story of the former Grim Reaper.
The Sin Harvest
Have you ever wondered what happens when you sin?
Have you ever wondered where your soul goes when you die?
Well, sin, and you shall find out.
Abraham had been the Angel of Death since the beginning of creation. He loved harvesting souls. He loved collecting souls more. He had thousands upon millions of souls in his collection, but none were more precious than the coloured ones—the Sins.
You see, one colour was designated to each of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Ordinary souls, human and Nephilim, were milky white in colour and glowed pulsing bright when near their host. Demon souls were duller and more transparent. They didn’t glow, but they acted more ferociously when near a host.
Sins were different altogether. They were bright and tinted with a colour according to the sin their host committed.
Red – Lust
Green – Envy
Purple – Pride
Black – Wrath
Yellow – Gluttony
Brown – Sloth
Orange – Greed
This is the story of how the first seven sins were harvested.
Gluttony was the very first sin committed. This may surprise some, but it will make sense when the story is known.
After Abraham was booted out of the Realm of Fire, or Heaven, as you may know it, he was sent to rule the Death Realm. Death needed a caretaker. Abraham was feeling lost after his father kicked him out of the only home he had known. He was told to leave because he fell in love with the Angel of Fate, and their romance distracted them from their work. So God sent them separate ways. Jazmine, the Angel of Fate, was sent to the Earth Realm soon after Abraham had fallen, and Abraham was sent to rule the Death Realm.
His new role was to harvest and care for the souls of the newly dead. Abraham took his job seriously. After all, he was glad God had given him something to do in this new place, as it distracted him from thinking about Jazmine.
His first task, his first harvest, would turn out to be one of the most important in history. He was sent to earth to harvest the soul of a woman who had died after being beheaded.
Being his first soul harvest, Abraham found this one to be particularly gruesome, but God had said this one was important and needed to be handled with utmost care. When Abraham arrived at the side of the woman’s body, he had to go in search of her head, as this was where a soul is located. As this woman was beheaded, he soon discovered she was a rather famous woman—a queen. Her head had been collected first, and her body left behind at the scene of her death.
When Abraham found the woman’s head in the bedroom chambers of the French King, he reached in, and when he pulled her soul out, it was tinted yellow. Confused, he held the soul in his palm, cupped his other hand over, and the events of the French Queen’s life flickered before him like a movie. This woman became the Queen of France and Navarre and had a taste for opulence. She loved spending money on riches and eating, especially cakes. She was later beheaded for treason. Her name had been Marie Antoinette, and she had committed the first Deadly Sin—Gluttony.
The second soul belonged to someone less famous, much to this man’s chagrin. He was a politician who was used to being in the limelight. He loved the attention a little too much and took pride in his appearance. Thomas Percival loved the attention from the press and women. He wanted to run for president one day. Even though he was a happily married man with a big house in the suburbs of an American capital city, his attention wavered, and he often found himself in the embrace of attractive women—women other than his wife. He took to partying, and this soon led to drug usage and gambling. It wasn’t long before he began to lose money. When Thomas fell into bankruptcy, they had to sell their big house. One night, his wife became angry with his behaviour. She had lost everything they had worked so hard for, so she killed her husband in their bed. His soul came out purple. His wife’s soul came out black after she drowned herself in the bathtub.
While the circumstances surrounding Abraham’s second and third harvests were unfortunate, for his victims, that is, these sorts of deaths were common when you were dealing with sins.
The sin of Envy didn’t come as a surprise to Abraham. He wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it. He hovered on the roof of a college sorority house in California.
Now you may be thinking about how Abraham can be in several places at once right before a death. The answer was—Abraham didn’t know. It was magic. Abraham was an angel, but he was also not wholly corporeal. His body wasn’t solid. Which meant his body and his soul could wander through dimensions and be at a location right before or after a death has occurred. And if you think you can trap him in one place, you are wrong. He cannot be trapped. His soul is free. But we’ll get to that a little later in the story.
Let’s go back to sin harvesting.
As Abraham sat perched on the roof, he heard screams coming from inside the house. He knew human and Nephilim girls screamed on all manner of occasions, so he didn’t flinch. He thought they might just be having a pillow fight or something.
But the screams soon turned into the kind of screams that made your blood curdle. He stood alert and waited until it was his turn to pounce.
“No, no, Katie. Please don’t do this!” a girl begged.
“You have everything, and you take it for granted. You don’t deserve the newest clothes or the fastest car, or the hottest most popular boyfriend,” a second girl said menacingly. “All I’ve ever wanted is to be loved. I would never take anything for granted as you have.” He heard the click of a gun and a scream followed by a thud.
It was time.
When Abraham arrived at the scene of the crime, he was surprised by what he found.
He expected to collect the poor girl's soul who the jealous girl had shot, but that was not so. Instead, he had to collect the soul of the jealous girl.
He was puzzled about how she ended up dead instead of the girl she had intended to kill. But then he saw two girls huddled crying in the corner of the room. A second gun lay beside the pair. He wished he could help the pair so they wouldn’t be charged, but that wasn’t his role. His job was to collect the soul of the jealous girl. He reached into her head and pulled out a shining bright green soul—Envy.
With the Sin of Greed, Abraham stumbled upon it rather haphazardly. He certainly wasn’t expecting it. A middle-aged couple had just buried the wife’s elderly mother and were the executors of her estate. The elderly woman also had three other grown children, which she had left most of her assets to. Still, because she had died closest to her eldest daughter and son-in-law, they had nominated themselves to organize everything. The elderly woman had been quite ill in her last days, and Abraham had taken her soul too. She had been a gentle and loving woman, so her soul was not tainted by sin. It remained bright, white, and unblemished.
The same could not be said of the eldest daughter. One morning, soon after the funeral, the woman’s daughter packed her bags and left the house, planning to flee the city without telling anyone, even her husband. But she wouldn’t get very far. As she was driving out of her street, a truck rounded a bend too fast and wiped the woman’s car out, killing her instantly. When Abraham came to collect the woman’s soul, he found it was tainted orange—the colour of greed.
The rest of the elderly woman’s family eventually got what was rightfully theirs, with only a little money going to the son-in-law.
Abraham’s next harvest came a few weeks later. He was flying over a derelict-looking housing estate one day when he heard someone coughing and moaning. He swooped down to
inspect and saw a man looking worse for wear. A used syringe lay next to him on the bed, and a fine white powder covered almost every surface. On the man’s TV cabinet, he saw a letter from the government saying he had missed a job searching appointment. Another letter nearby stated this man was getting government benefits. The TV showing static flickered light over the thin man’s face. He coughed one last time and took his last breath.
The man’s soul came out brown—slothfulness.
Abraham’s last sin harvest came just one day later. It was uncanny that the seventh sin would be the very one that made him flinch. It was the sin he was guilty of committing himself. He was kicked out of the Realm of Fire for it. Was this a cruel joke on God’s behalf?
Even though this harvest made him anxious, he did his job without complaint.
He found the seventh sin hiding in a place that was quite cliché. A well-dressed businessman wearing a wedding ring arrived at a brothel on his lunch break. He was quite overweight, and Abraham was embarrassed to be watching as the man fulfilled his lusty desires. He was no stranger to acts of lust, but he preferred not to watch as others committed it. In the middle of a sex act, the man suddenly clutches his chest. The prostitute called for help, but the man couldn’t be saved. He died a minute later, and Abraham harvested a bright red soul. As he cupped the red-tinted soul in his hands, the man’s life flashed before him. This wasn’t the first time the man had come here. As he was getting no attention at home—his wife had just given birth—he had decided to get his release elsewhere.
When Abraham had all seven sins, he filed them away in their own tiny soul spheres—round crystal balls used to transport souls—and placed them in his bag before taking them back to the Realm of Death.
Because these seven were Sins, they would be kept in a safe place for all eternity. Abraham locked them away where they remain to this day, his most prized possessions.