Laws were for followers, however. And the three of them understood that constant all too well. Kings … and Queens made them to control subjects, not the other way around.
So none of the three should have been surprised when Rain spread her own wings wide, mirroring Lived’s, then put her hands on her hips and pulled back her blistering-white plumage … all the way. She smiled at Lived, right through his eyes, then she turned her gaze to Life. “We shall play games then. How … quaint.”
— XC —
“WHOA-WHOA!” SALVATION yelled. “No-no-no!” she screeched ahead of her, shouting far down the dungeon’s dark tunnel, toward the source of the white light in front of her. “Rain almighty! What are you doing?” she yelled, and then she sprinted and jumped and flew. And the portal twisted shut behind her.
Jump stood outside the portal for a couple of seconds, staring at the closed entrance. His eyes were wide under his sunshields. He took them off. Salvation never cussed, much less at her only daughter.
Whatever she saw in there, they were off the plan already. Luring the ornery demon away from his concubine so Jump could interrogate her in private was not going to be very easy if they went in there all beaks blazing and feathers firing. You couldn’t get a voluntary testament from someone like that. They’d just clam up, grit their teeth, and make you torture it out of them.
Nothing after that was reliable. Torturing someone got them to talk, but they said anything to make the pain stop.
Jump ran to the portal entrance, waited for it to twist open, and then folded his wings tight behind his back and stepped through it. “Take it easy,” he shouted after Salvation. She was already well ahead of him. “You know you can’t do that shit.”
If Salvation was in a mood, she could fly almost as fast as Fury. And it didn’t get any moodier than her using profanity. Jump ran behind her, flapped hard, and tried to fly after her.
The passageways down the middle of the usually dark and damp tunnels in the dungeon glowed brightly for some reason. But they weren’t big enough for an angel to fly along. In fact, they were built that way on purpose.
It was written in the first book—the Book of Eden—the testament of the very first Protector of the very first eternity—that the dungeons should prevent dark souls from escaping. As such, they needed to be built so an angry soul could not fly through or out of them.
Salvation’s wings scraped and sparked along the stone ceiling and floor of the passageway—the tunnel between the cells. And she screeched and screamed in front of her as she flew, ignored the scraping and kept flying. She ignored Jump cawing whatever he was cawing behind her, too.
Jump’s wings were far too big to fly inside the dungeon, and it only took a few scraping, sparking flaps for him to crash to the ground. Then he stood up and ran, leaving his wings slightly open so he could glide every few steps. He tried to look ahead and find out what had his wife so angry, but he couldn’t see beyond her flapping wings.
One thing was certain, whatever was ahead of them was as bright as Rain and he wondered if the great mother, Life, was blasting her brightness again, showing off for the few spectators she had left.
Whoever it was, clearly the light was pissing Salvation off, because he hadn’t seen her this angry since they faithfully waited outside the operating room at the State hospital, only to find out that their daughter was … in a better place.
Jump was almost to the source of the light, when Salvation veered to the side of the passageway and slammed into the gate of one of the cells. Then she violently flapped and clawed, flailing her wings wildly through the bars, screeching and cawing at whoever the unlucky bastard was inside. Because if any of those blows connected with whoever was in that cell, they would be in a world of shit.
But the light was still bright and Jump adjusted his sunshields. After their first fiasco, he and Salvation brought them whenever they went to the dungeons.
The first trip underneath the arena, it was kinda like leaving on a foggy morning and not even thinking twice about bringing sunglasses, then squinting all day while the afternoon sun burned pink slits into the whites of their eyes. Bringing sunshields to a dungeon was about as intuitive as … Sunglasses on angels, Jump thought. It worked, but it still felt weird to him. But the Chosen One, Life, still had her bright—one thing Rain let her keep—so he was glad to have the shields.
And then Jump saw her—Rain, pushed behind Salvation—on the floor and totally naked. “Put on your damn plumage!” he yelled. And he grabbed her by the arms—“don’t touch me” covenant be damned—and he spread his great wings wide, shielding his daughter from whatever was behind him. “Right now!”
“Do not touch—”
“Save it, little girl,” Jump said. And he looked at Salvation. “You better hope she guts someone. You’re in deep shit.”
And Salvation’s steel wings were busy beating the shit out of the bars on the cage behind him and when she flapped them behind her to deliver another blow, they scraped steel with Jump’s and huge sparks flew. But she kept thrusting them into the cage.
Once Rain pushed her feathers out, Jump hurried her down the tunnel a safe distance away, then he told her, “Stay right here!” And he ran back to where Salvation was still battering and sparking the iron cell.
“I’ll tear out your guts!” Salvation screamed at the figures inside the cell. She continued reaching and clawing at them. “How dare you!”
When Jump got to her, he understood why.
Lived was standing with all of his feathers retracted and his serpents hissing—no mistaking what they wanted. And Lived cackled and laughed as Salvation’s wings barely missed clipping him. “You should get better control of your bitch,” he said to Jump. Then he leaned in a little—just out of reach—looking toward Rain. “Probably both of them.” And he tilted his head back and let out a loud caw.
And the fallen demons and devils in the entire dungeon cawed and cackled and screeched at their master’s call.
Life leaned into Lived’s back and pushed him gently into the pathway of Salvation’s wings.
One of Salvation’s wingtips sliced across Lived’s chest and he screamed out. And black blood—molasses from the garden—spurted out and then red blood shot from his arm, and he screamed like a hawk and swung his wing back at Life.
Lived’s wing slammed into Life’s chest and she went rolling toward the back of their cell, ramming into the wall. And she whale-moaned out a long sorrowful sound. When she was finished, she sat up and coughed. Then she laughed.
And Lived raced at her and he was on top of her, and he dug the talons on his hands into her chest and Life screeched loudly.
Lived hoisted her up off the ground with no more effort than a great fork-horned owling snatching up a field mush. Then he looked into her black orbs and he growled.
By now, Salvation had stopped her futile assault on the cell. Jump stood beside her. She breathed heavily, like a cheetah after running down a gazelle … if they existed anymore. Jump tried to hold her shoulders to calm her, but she shook him off violently. “Get the—get off me!” And she looked at Rain’s seal on the gate to the cell.
Jump caught her glance. “Don’t even think about it.” And he grabbed her hand.
Salvation tried to pull against Jump’s hand, but he held her tight. Then he looked in at Lived, squeezing his talons into Life’s breasts. He laughed a little. “Looks like you could use a little help yourself … Daddy. What’s the matter, trouble in Purgatory?”
That stopped them both, and they looked at their creation—Lived forgetting to squeeze and Life trying not to wince.
Jump crossed his arms and frowned at them. “Are you two finished?” He raised his eyebrows. “Put her down or so help me, I’ll pull this seal off and rip the guts out of both of you … again.”
Lived dropped Life. He didn’t even know why. And she fell to the floor in a pile and crouched on her hands and knees. Blood flowed from her breasts—crimson red from her
right heart and black molasses from the wrong one on her left. And she hung her head down and watched it drip.
“Don’t even,” Jump said to her. “Jesus Christ … stand up, Your Majesty, you’re fine.” He couldn’t manage an ounce of pity. Then again, that was how the father had made him.
Salvation was still fuming. “You’re…? Mercy?” she said. “For them? They were going to—he had his plumage down!” And she rushed at the great iron bars and swung a wing in at Lived again.
But Lived was too far back for anyone to be concerned, and Jump pulled Salvation away from the cell. She protested a little—her wings jerked, and she cawed at her husband. Then she stood next to him and crossed her arms, too.
Lived had calmed himself enough. This was more excitement than he had enjoyed in a long … long time. “Look, darling,” he said to Life. Then he reached down and held his hand out for her.
Life grabbed hold and allowed him to help her to her feet.
Lived squeezed her hand hard on the way up. Once Life was standing, he let go and put his hands back on his hips. “How delightful, it’s the house of hypocrites, come for an evening visit.” He leaned forward, trying to look around Jump and Salvation, at the light from Rain down the hall. Then he turned back to Life, her own light back to bright. “Is it evening?” he asked her. Then he looked back at Salvation. “One never knows, down here. I did say evening appetizers, did I not?” Then he turned back, looked down the hall again, and then back at Salvation and then directly at Jump. “Though, you—you have come a bit early. Then again…” And he looked back at Salvation, still fuming. “Could it be? Maybe that is why you are so furious. What has you so angry? Great Dragon letting loose his fire too quickly in his old age?”
Once Rain was satisfied that her plan was well in motion, she walked back to where her parents stood, and then she played her part in their plan. “I must apologize for my unkingly—”
Salvation was hardly finished with her naive little ruler. “Apologize? You are in so much trouble. Do you have any idea what this bastard is capable of? I’m so—I’m gonna—I…”
Rain stared at Lived on purpose, ignoring her mother. In half an eternity, she had learned … things. And yet the seductiveness of a male’s snake was still intriguing.
When Salvation saw where her daughter was looking, she flung her wing over Rain’s face. Then she looked at Jump and motioned with her head a couple of times at Lived. “Can you please?” she said.
Jump looked at Lived, still standing and smiling—now with his arms crossed—his feathers still back and his snakes stretching straight up, flitting their forked tongues toward Rain. “Jesus,” he said, “put that thing away or I’ll blind you with it.”
Lived looked down at his snake. “Ah … yes,” he said, “how rude of me.” Then he twisted his hips and pointed them at Life, reminding her of what was to come later. And he pushed out all of his great blood-red plumage and folded his wings tightly behind his back, forming the long staff with the twisting snakes and angel wings on his shield—the warmark of his legions, the Hell he once ruled over. “The innocence and gullibility of youth—wonderful, isn’t it, darling?” He smiled at Salvation.
Salvation gave him a frown and merely tilted her head as a warning.
“Must be positively infuriating for you,” Lived said to her. “Her curiosity—how will you ever keep her from resurrecting her lust? Ah, how I wish we could go back to simpler times. Back when we weren’t all so … tied up about our bodies. Before we were beaten senseless with our own desires.”
Rain had pulled her mother’s wing from her face. Now she was glowing and smiling at Lived. “And what desires might those be, great liar?” she asked.
“Rain!” Salvation said to her. She tried to put her wing back up over Rain’s face, but her daughter gave her a condemning look and held up her hand. Salvation frowned, still slowly raising her wing. She pleaded, “Please, he is the most—he will inject you with lies!”
Rain pushed her mother’s wing down all the way. Then she stepped in front of her, directly in front of the cell. She looked at Lived. “He will not lie to me,” she said. “Will you, Day Star?”
Life could see Lived’s snakes, writhing and wiggling beneath his feathers. She may have grown disgusted by her cellmate’s assaults on her, but Lived was her beautiful creation and no child would toy with something that rightfully belonged to her. Not the other one and certainly not this one.
She would not lose any more, anyway, for Lived was one of the few things she had left from her reign of pain and terror. Life stepped in front of her devil and said, “You are no god, girl. Do not toy with animals you cannot hope to control.”
Salvation and Jump both gasped a little. Open blasphemy would usually send Rain into a tirade about manners and land someone a pile of shitty angel duties, at the very least. Jump knew Salvation was still going to have to answer for using that forbidden word when they came into the dungeon. But Rain held her hand behind her back at them, motioning them both to be silent.
Life glanced behind the little insolent bitch and then she looked Rain in the eyes. “You think you can rule over the desires of devils?” she said to her. “Over your father? Hah! He is my—our son has no ruler. He placates your innocence. I can smell it on him.”
Jump raised his eyebrows at that little tidbit. He had kicked this bitch’s lying ass. Just as easy to do it again … now that he knew the secret. But Salvation eased her hand over his and held it.
Life stared at Rain and continued, “Great Dragon… You have little hope of controlling a desirous demon, much less this angel of light or his bastard son.” She turned behind her and looked at Lived. When she turned back, her black orbs had turned wild. “I have managed this liar for nearly two eternities. And only through my own failings were any of you able to challenge him. He is foul and ferocious, little girl, and he will fuck you until you are a faithless, featherless purgatory!”
And Jump just about stepped in on that one, because—
But Salvation leaned on him and squeezed his hand harder. She looked at Life’s light. It was glowing now and Rain was letting it. And it seemed, at least for the time being, that Lived’s ego was letting his concubine sing his praises. It was perfect.
Life’s black orbs glowed dark blue around the edges when she started speaking again, “How many are your works, O Rain almighty? None! … In wisdom I made … them … all. The Earth was full of my creatures … long before I sent your soul to it. Everything was already created, and you presume to renew the face of the garden? After I commanded it destroyed?”
More blasphemy, Jump thought. There would be a helluva reckoning at the end of this day. And yet he was confused when Rain let Life continue again.
“The Earth was mine and everything in the world and the universe,” Life said. “And all who lived in it! For I founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. And the universe was formed at my command, not yours, so that what was seen was not made out of what was visible, but what I saw … me! … And you”—she pointed at Rain—“you took it from me.
“I say this to you for I am your redeemer, who formed all of you in my womb! … I am God, who alone stretched out my bosom and spread out the earth … by myself!”
And now Jump thought she was starting to sound like less of a deity and more like a spoiled little rich bitch.
“And I will send you back to the dream you called life,” Life growled at them. “Back to your trial and your judgment and your resurrection…”
Now they could all see that the god, turned jealous lover, had finally snapped, because she was glowing white hot and even Lived was moving away from her, toward the back of their cell, cowering like a lion from the whipping words of his master.
And lightning bolts started to form in Life’s eyes and Salvation knew they were almost there, and she gripped onto her husband’s arm again with her other hand, because she could feel him wanting to do something—he had no idea.
Then Lived’s face went slack … and his mouth slowly fell open. Then he said, “No, you ignorant—”
But his arrogance was surpassed only by that of his creator’s, and Life almost yelled when she finally said, “…just like I sent that furious little bitch!”
— XCI —
WHATEVER THE GOLDEN Guardians told you little pissing-purgatories about rape back in that angry dream you think is reality, I can tell you right now, it’s complete bullshit. Rape is not that rare. And the murderous mayhem you just saw back in that Mexican Protection cell, that wasn’t like it went down.
Because like, Man-monkeys love rape! They love rape almost as much as they love war. Because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be so much of it.
Listen, the best way I ever heard it… Even if he is a wicked bastard, he knows some shit. Don’t get that old without—here’s how it is: If you are born or you get created or whatever—okay, so let’s say you’re a lion, back in Life’s eternity, if you want.
So you’re a lion and that’s the way she created you, and you’re all, I’m a lion, right. So you go around doing what lions do. And in this case, what you do is, you eat. Simple enough—some things are simple. Bitchy as she was—is—she made some simple shit.
Okay, so you eat. And you don’t care what you eat, because like, you’re a lion. Zebras, deer or whatever, hyenakins I think she called them, hippos or hunthounds—doesn’t matter, not the point.
Now, you’re out doing all that eating, and you’re tearing out guts and chomping on throats, and pretty much ripping and raping and pillaging your way through anything you want.
What? … Never thought of it like that, but yeah, just like an archangel … which none of you will ever get to be if you don’t shut up and listen to this story!
You done? … Okay. So, because she made you that way—lion—you eat everything alive, while it’s like, still living. And I do mean living—feeling the last part of anything that it will ever call life again, because whatever unlucky, furry little bitch you happened to claw down that day, it can feel every last thing.
TF- C - 00.00 - THE FALLEN Dark Fantasy Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy (Books 1 - 3) Page 38