Life eyed them all—faithful servants of her will and word. Then she smiled at Utipa. “How is this possible?” she asked. “I trust you took every precaution upon receiving tribute of task. Indeed you are one of my most trusted and worthy warriors. And yet here you stand”—she motioned around the room with her hands—“delivering miserable message of deception’s failure—a babe barely plucked from bosom, too soon returned to the ash of its conception. My mind does not see how this can be truth.”
Utipa was indignant—to be called a failure and a liar in one breath was an unacceptable reward for her loyalty. She stared back with angry eyes at Life—threat of impending annihilation be damned. “Yet as your own Word tells us, my master, truth merely is.”
Life smiled a wide downturned grin. Then held up her hands in mock relent. “Very well,” she said, “yet let no corrupt communication proceed from mouth, save that which edifies and informs, that fair angel’s voice may minister grace and goodness to mine ears. For the tongue of Man is a most wicked weapon these dark days. Let angel speak her words with caution”—she glanced at the guardians beside her and then back at Utipa—“for my mood grows weary of failure.”
Every guardian in the room was keenly aware of that fact.
Utipa loosened her ballistic feathers and relaxed her shield—all five guardians did. Then she stood up and spoke proudly, “Though intent of vile devil’s plot remains shrouded in darkness,” she said, “I bear news of treacherous and treasonous ten who cast its shadow.”
Life clapped her hands together. “Excellent!” she said. “Then I shall hear names of the same.”
The Arena of Reckoning was packed to the ceiling with the fierce flesh and feathers of … millions of the faithful from Life’s Heaven and faithless from Lucifer’s Hell. The arena’s long rows and rails of perches circled the grandstands as they twisted their way up to the retractable roof at its peak.
The perches were stuffed to overflowing with screeching and screaming, cawing and clawing, clucking and chuckling feathers and razor-sharp talons of angels thirsting for vengeance. The “standing” room only feathered flock of followers all wished to see Judgment delivered and justice administered in spilled blood. For only once in the history of the eternities that any of them could remember had an angel been cast out. All sat poised to witness the history-making event of five traitors from Heaven and five mutinous mongrels of mayhem from Hell being cast out of God’s kingdom.
The retracted roof reduced the noise by but a little—the sound in the arena would have been deafening to a mere mortal. To the immortal, the cries of their flock were like a choir to their souls.
Life stood at the center of the arena in the light of her own making, smiling and wallowing in the thoughts of the misery she was about to inflict. How dare he! she thought. Again?
The traitorous angels of Life’s own Heaven—Rsoni, Raum, Lilith, Zepar, and Zarzi—stood facing their God on the left, and the treacherous archangel demons from Hell—Aax, Dorak, Lucifia, Shax, and Uzza—faced the Lord of their enemies on the right. They each stood steeled and still, knowing full well the consequences for their mutinous hearts.
Lucifer stood between the two groups, smiling characteristically, not even attempting to show regret or remorse at having been discovered.
Utipa stood next to Life, smug in the knowledge that the treacherous snake who had choked her from life would now suffer a far worse fate than death.
One of the guardians who had held Utipa’s wing so harshly now stood on the other side of their Protector, shoulder to shoulder with her comrade, once again prepared to save Life’s life with the forfeit of theirs if they had to.
Utipa smiled at Lucifer. He would pay.
Lucifer’s long lying tongue was never one to remain hiding inside his mouth very long. And by this far into an eternity, his sarcasm was legend. He held up his hands at the entire crowd and the grandstands fell silent. He knew Life would let him speak. She had to. “Because I have called and you refused to listen,” he shouted up into the grandstands. “Because I have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you, like a storm and a whirlwind. And when distress and anguish come upon you—when you will call upon me to save your sorry souls—I shall not answer. You … you will all find nothing”—then he pointed right at Life—“save the tip of her sword!”
The arena erupted—half of the grandstands calling for Lucifer’s head, and half of it calling for Life’s.
Then Life held up her hands, and the arena slowly quieted to a murmur. She waited impatiently a few more seconds, for the remaining tide of timid murmur to subside. Her arms came down to her sides and she buzzed and fluttered her transparent wings, and then hovered a few feet higher than her guardians. She moaned like a great whale as she spoke, “Whosoever among you be subject to governing authorities… There is none among you with loyalty to laws except from God. Therefore … whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur Judgment. This is the Word.
“For I am not terror to good conduct … but to bad I am tempest. Do you have no fear of one who is in authority? … If you do, then do what is good, and you will receive approval”—then lightning formed in Life’s black orbs and it emanated from her hair and flashed above her head, and the thunder cracked and shook the entire arena”—but if you do wrong, be afraid, my children … for I shall not bear the sword Satan speaks of in vain!”
Life was not known to make idle threats. Squawking and cackling and the shiver of wings filled the arena back to a steel symphony of panic.
Life looked back at the conspirators in disgust, and then she stared at Lucifer. “Are you not a servant of your—Eden eating my eyes!” she shouted in horror. “What have you done with treasured tail?”
At that, the rest of Lucifer’s ten slowly tucked missing talon or departed dactyl as far as they could from Life’s sight—the sins of missing fingers and taken toes were sent to shadow.
Lucifer looked slowly to his left and then to his right, letting the ten of them feel the fear before paying for the fate from the sin of severing his tail. “Some feared,” he said, looking slowly back and up at Life, “that I lacked resolve in leading revolution’s rage against you. It was felt”—he glanced to his conspirators again—“that wicked whip would serve better … as tempting treat for greedy angels’ gums and guts.”
A gale of gasps blew through the grandstands. Such a thing… Screeches and screams of disgust and damnation swept down from every penitent pigeon’s perch.
“You shall not cut your flesh!” Life shouted. She looked at Rsoni. Then she pointed at Lucifer. “From this liar I expect assault and egregious action against own flesh, but your golden wings and feathers are…? It is forbidden! You know this!”
Rsoni attempted to answer, “For treacherous action I will gladly accept—”
“Silence!” Life shouted. “In an eternity I have never”—her eyes boiled and burned with bolts of lightning—“what I promised as simple reprimand for ruinous intent, I shall deliver as wrath upon each of your blasphemous bosoms!” She motioned toward the side of the arena.
A cadre of Golden Guardians took flight from the shadows along the side of the field.
Then Life looked into the stands. “Your God,” she said, “being rich in mercy and because of the great love which I hold for these fallen … and as they behave as the dead in their trespasses, only by the grace of your God will they be saved!”
Shouts and cries and screaming blasted from the grandstands, like trumpets signaling an approaching enemy.
Life raised up her hands and the sound died down, quicker this time. “Calm yourselves, my children,” she said. “I too thirst for the truth of justice that lies beyond this Judgment. And justice will be delivered in Heaven this day, as it shall be meted out upon the Earth.”
Lucifer knew exa
ctly what that meant. He braced himself for it to be delivered.
Lucifer had informed all ten mutineers of the sole path to return to the Garden to plant the seeds of their treacherous plot. No seed to produce tree could be planted, blossom or grow to bear fruit, unless they all were buried back in the grime of the Garden.
And now each of them stood and waited for that fate to be meted out by the only one who could.
Shax grumbled a little and he nudged Lucifia. “Here we are then,” he said to her, “mind your munchers down there, lassie. Me finger’s not lookin’ for company. And don’t go stealin’ me heart neither, ya hear me. I won’t be able to afford the loss after this.”
“Farewell favored fingers,” said Lucifia, and then she mocked Shax’s accent, “ya big beautiful ’airy bastard.”
Shax chuckled a little. “You might make it to me lovely lady yet,” he said. “Minus your finger bitin’, I expect. I wager you’ll make a right fine feline down there, I do.”
Lucifia smiled. It was a lie and she knew it, but she told it to him anyway, “Not for all the heat in Hell,” she said. “Come looking for ravaging with me, mister, and I wager it’s your skull that be gettin’ raped.”
Shax chuckled again. “Beautiful bit,” he said, “right pretty pound of prose, it was. Fair enough, I’ll take that wager. But don’t think I’ll be savin’ meself, pining away, waitin’ for your knickers to get numb—me little pig needs its pillowin’, don’t ya know.”
Life stared in disgust at the two dangerous demons, and were it not for who Lucifia was, she might have smote the pair of them for their insolence. As it was, the punishment she was about to hand down, in her humble opinion, would be worse. She motioned to the guardians, flying high above the center of the arena now.
Two Golden Guardian angels swooped down in a wings-back power dive and both arrived at their intended targets at the same time.
Shax and Lucifia flew backward and went rolling with the guardians. Neither offered resistance as Life’s lapdogs ripped out their right hearts.
When Shax and Lucifia stumbled back to their feet, they spewed black blood, the sweet nectar of molasses from the Garden, out of their mouths and chests, heaving in agony as their right hearts were removed. They were left to live as the Man-monkeys did—with only wrong hearts on their left sides to pump vile and vicious red blood through black-hearted souls.
Zepar took flight, both of his hearts bidding him to flee after witnessing Shax and Lucifia’s fate.
The flying guardians caught him, raced him to the floor of the arena by his wings, and ripped out his right heart.
As excited as Zarzi was about making the trip to the Garden, she had nothing but fear over the toll for the trip. “I don’t know if I can—”
It was the last words she would say as an angel with two balanced hearts. When it was over, she felt a darkness she had never experienced creep over her soul. As soon as she made it to the Garden, she would understand where it came from.
Raum and Rsoni took their medicine like warriors, and Lilith accepted her ripped-out fate with only slightly less courage than that.
Dorak, Aax, and Uzza—ugly and angry demons, having no nature for peace, went down fighting and clawing and growling and biting. But in the end they were no match for a dozen of Life’s well-armed golden geese. Their hearts were delivered to the rest of them—a pile of penance and purpose at Life’s feet.
When it was over and the last right heart was removed, Life addressed her followers again. “Though the whole earth is mine,” she said, “if you obey me fully and keep my covenants, then out of all nations in the Garden you will be my most treasured possession. Defy me”—she pointed at the ten coughing, spitting and bile puking angels she was about rain down upon—“and this shall be your fate.”
No angel in Heaven or Hell harbored anything but disgust for Life’s Man-monkeys. For, to an angel of either realm, to be a filthy being created to replace them as the apple of their God’s eye was to be an enemy who had enjoyed exclusive hold on Life’s undivided attention … for as long as any of them could remember. While, as evidenced by the ten suffering soon to be souls in the center of the arena, angels were left to lesser fates.
And when God decreed that angels should harbor Man-monkeys’ best interests in their own hearts … well, to an angelic being, that was simply intolerable, Heaven sent or residing in Hell. There were many who pondered ripping out their own right hearts to join the Man-monkeys in slowly learning to hate God.
Rsoni finally stood up. He tried not to smile. At the behest of his God and to deliver her messages both medium and small, he had flown to the Garden several times. And in doing so had encountered one of its less disgusting creatures—he had found woman.
Rsoni was not the only angel to fall victim to such temptation, but he was by far the most smitten.
Raum stumbled over to him and put his hand on Rsoni’s shoulder. They steadied each other. Raum said, “I hope she is worth it, brother,” he said. “Are they … worth it?” he asked.
Rsoni was known for his stoic and stern-as-steel demeanor, but he was not without humor. “Is the sun worth seeing for those mired in gray mist?”
Raum smiled at him, for that’s what they seemed to be leaving. And it was exactly where they were going. “Indeed, brother.”
Uzza and Dorak were just livid, angrier than either of them could ever remember being. They growled at the guardians, standing in a circle around their entire group of conspirators.
“Gilded lilies,” growled Uzza. The point came across. “I’ll get to your guts.”
“That,” said Dorak, rubbing his already healing breast, “will definitely leave a mark.”
Zarzi slumped into Lilith’s shoulder. The naive young angel had not been prepared to be so ruinously treated by God. Life had never—the shock of who Zarzi now knew her Lord to be … was more than she had words for.
Lilith was well aware. “Their deceptions,” she said to Zarzi, attempting to comfort the waifly angel, “are only matched in misery by our own delusions that those lies do not exist. Tomorrow is another day, sweet flower, and today you have grown older by ten.”
Aax looked at Shax. “Glad I didn’t take that wager,” he said to his friend.
Shax raised his eyebrows and rubbed his big palm over his face. He twisted the end of his mustache after he did. “There’s a part of me ripped out chest over there”—he pointed to the pile of hearts next to Life—“what wishes you’d been right.”
Lucifia coughed some black blood. Then she looked up at Shax. There wasn’t the wicked playfulness in them that had been there before. “When I tighten terrible talon on golden godsuckers,” she said, “so help me Satan, I’ll—”
“Whoa, lovely lady,” said Shax, “easy then. Everything in its proper place in time. You’ll get to it soon enough, love.” Then he winked at Aax. “Quicker’n cunt closes at Christmas, I’d wager”—he smiled back at Lucifia—“but now ain’t the tick a the tock for it, sister.”
Life turned in mid-air, facing each section of the grandstands as she slowly spun, hovering in a circle. She held her arms above her in a giant “V” as she did. “Your God shall not be deceived,” Life said. Then she stopped, facing the ten traitors. “Nor shall I be mocked. For your hearts’ crime of sowing seeds of rebellion and ruin against the Lord God Almighty’s throne … I hereby decree that your mind, body and immortal soul shall reap the reward of resurrection back to life.”
Cawing erupted and screeching ensued from the perches in the grandstands as soon as Life delivered her verdict.
Yet God was not finished. For the ten of them, life’s misery had just begun. “And … you shall live among the Garden’s beings and creatures—animals that you so adore—as long as I am Protector of eternity!”
— CXC —
THE VERY FIRST day at Saint Samuels Seminary Academy, we all got a good look at the front of the formation. The pulpit was a huge wood tower that put Father Dominic’s feet almos
t dead even with all the rest of our heads. But as intimidating as the Pulpit of Pain was for the seminary students over the years—as I would remember as soon as I woke up from what I wanted to believe was just a bad dream in the dormitory hallway—the Sinner Stocks in front of the pulpit were worse.
Huge wooden railroad ties covered in black oil jutted straight up from the courtyard floor, and the shorter crossbeams made both of them together look like giant upside-down crucifixes.
There were three holes in the crossbeams. I knew that because Barbara’s hands were squeezed and bleeding from struggling against the tightness of two of them, and she could barely tilt her head up so her eyes could beg me to save her … from the larger hole in the center of the beam between them.
The two inverted-cross stocks faced each other, so a sinful student could see their own miserable penance reflected back at them on the anguished face of another, suffering right along with them.
I had never known how hopeless and helpless the unlucky souls who experienced it had been … until I woke up and stared across at the fear, panic and anguish on Barbara’s contorted face.
That was the first thing I saw. The first sounds I heard were Barbara’s screams. The second … was Father Dominic’s deep loud voice. He shouted at the entire formation of seminary students, though it felt like there were far fewer boys than I remembered from our first month. Of the ones I could see—twisting my neck to catch a glimpse of them—all of them were older.
Father Dominic’s voice growled above me as he shouted, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent … has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
And Barbara screamed out so wildly that I bucked in my stocks, then the pain spiked through my back and I screamed along with her. The crack of a whip sent real pain streaking across my back—a lightning bolt of languish that felt like it would cut me in half.
TF- C - 00.00 - THE FALLEN Dark Fantasy Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy (Books 1 - 3) Page 74