Crazy Files

by Yvi Valentin

  “It’s another dimension’s version of space. Everyone sees it differently based on the preconditioning of their mind.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” I said. “What do we do now, sit here and wait until it’s time to go meet Raphael?

  “We can do whatever you want until then. I know you have lots of questions, we can start with that if you want.”

  I was nervous about what was to come but I knew I had to ask. “So, what else do you know about my dad? You know, besides the fact that he’s a homicidal maniac trying to destroy all of humanity.”

  I could tell Andy thought carefully about what he was going to say next. It was obvious he hated the man which I completely understood. “He’s horrible. He spent more time thinking about ways he could become more powerful than he did about how to take care of his own family. He was only ever there for you because he wanted to use your power one day but your mom caught on quickly and took you away from him. She made sure he would never get to you again so that’s when he decided to send Evan to lure you in.”

  “That’s why my mom never wanted to tell me anything about him.” I finally understood the situation with my mom and I felt horrible about bringing those memories back to her every time I asked.

  “She just wanted you to have a good life. She was trying to protect you.”

  “Yeah but not telling me the truth doesn’t help me when all I can do is let my imagination run wild. Do you have any idea what that did to me growing up?” I got more and more upset as the memories came to mind.

  “You need to see this from her perspective.”

  “I know she had her reasons for not telling me everything but it still sucked not knowing.”

  “I know it always hurt you, but…” Andy started.

  “What’s his name?” I interrupted. Part of me was scared to find out the answer.

  Andy took a deep breath and braced himself before he answered. “Lucifer.”

  “I’m sorry I must have heard wrong, did you just say Lucifer? As in…the devil? You’re joking right? Please tell me this is a joke.” I was taken aback. He couldn’t have been serious. It had to be a joke. If this was a dream, I wanted to wake up right away.

  “You heard me right…and…it’s not a joke. I’m sorry Aimee.”

  “I’m literally the spawn of the devil…this can’t be happening. I’m dreaming…I…I just have to wake up. That’s it! I just have to wake up!” I yelled hysterically.

  “This isn’t a dream sweetie.” I knew it broke Andy’s heart to see me in such distress.

  Tears built up in my eyes. “I remember I used to get into arguments with my mom. I would ask her to tell me about my dad and she wouldn’t tell me anything, not even a name. I was so mad at her for keeping such an important thing from me. A girl shouldn’t have to grow up without her father. I don’t think I was ever asking too much. Didn’t I deserve to know? Now that I know...I wish I hadn’t bothered my mom so much about it. Now I know she was just trying to protect me. Part of me wishes I could go back to not knowing. I should have just left it alone. Why didn’t I just leave it alone!? Isn’t it better to know than to have my imagination run wild based on numerous unanswered questions?”

  Andy had me in his arms trying to comfort me. “I know it’s hard to process right now, but soon enough you’ll bounce back from this. You always do.”

  “It’s just that it always hurt not knowing and I thought I would feel better when I found out, but now that I know…I don’t feel better at all. I grew up thinking that my dad didn’t want me and it really messed me up. I figured if one of the two people in this world who were supposed to love me no matter what didn’t care enough to stick around, why would anyone else care about me? No one should have to grow up like that. But it turns out that my dad just wanted to use me for his own selfish reasons.” I started to get mad. It was definitely a better emotion than feeling sorry for myself. I could put my anger to good use; I hoped I could use it to win the war against Lucifer. “So when can I start training?”

  “You really want to start training already? I thought you would have needed more time to process everything.” I heard the shock in Andy’s voice. I knew he was going to put up a fight to try to get me to fully deal with everything but I couldn’t allow myself to do that.

  “I’m mad at the situation between me and Lucifer so I may as well put it to good use. Can we go now to start my training?”

  “I don’t see why that would be a problem but I want you to deal with all of this first.”

  “I want to let my anger fuel me to make it through the rest of my training and everything else I have to do.”

  “If you don’t deal with it now, you’re just going to let it bottle up inside until you eventually explode with all these emotions.” He was half shouting at me while still trying to be nice. I knew he was just looking out for me but I needed to do things my way.

  “If I do let myself deal with all of this, I’m just going to fall apart!” I yelled.

  “So you’d rather fall apart later? That’s ridiculous!”

  “What’s ridiculous is that you won’t let me deal with this my way. This is my problem to deal with, not yours.”

  “Alright,” Andy sighed in defeat. “Let’s just go meet with Raphael.

  I felt bad about this whole fight with Andy. I knew he was just looking out for me but I couldn’t let it tear me apart. I was fragile enough with questioning my sanity as much as I was and I didn’t want anything else holding me back on the off chance I wasn’t dreaming.

  Andy took me in his arms as we prepared for our journey back to headquarters. I was thankful to know he wasn’t furious with me about what just happened. It wasn’t long before we were back at headquarters, ready to meet Raphael on the training floor.

  “Welcome back Aimee,” Raphael said. He reminded me so much of Michael. They were definitely related; at least it seemed that way to me. He had a military style haircut, wore a t-shirt and military fatigues, but had a look that reminded me of Michael. I wasn’t sure what exactly it was. He looked like an intimidating drill sergeant and definitely had a more serious nature than Michael but I could still feel the love emanating from the core of his soul. Even though the loving feeling I got from him was comforting, I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. I didn’t want to start boot camp; I just wanted to learn my abilities.

  “Thanks,” I timidly replied.

  “Will you be training with us Andy?”

  “Yeah…if that’s alright with you.” I got the feeling that Raphael was a feared and respected archangel because I felt Andy’s high level of nerves. But wouldn’t that have been the case for all archangels? What did I know? I was the new girl.

  “That’s quite alright. Let’s start by having you show us what you can do and then we’ll take it from there.”

  “Where should I start?”

  “Whatever you feel most comfortable with.” Raphael smiled at me. He wasn’t so scary, he was more encouraging in my opinion, but maybe it was because of who I was supposed to be. After all, who would want to be on my bad side, especially if I was the key to winning the war? Raphael led Andy and I to a huge room. There was an open closet stocked with all sorts of weapons and I hoped I wouldn’t have to use any of them but had a feeling I needed to eventually. “Shall we begin?”

  “Sure,” I said. I took a deep breath and created a fireball in one hand and a water ball in the other. I looked around to find a target to throw the fire and water balls at and decided the wall would be as good a place as any. I aimed and threw the ball of fire followed by the water.

  “Have you tried creating a wall or shield of an element?”

  “No, I didn’t know that was possible.” I was amazed by all of the possibilities, yet part of me still wondered if any of this was really happening.

  “Looks like we found the first thing you will be learning.” Raphael seemed excited. I figured it’s been a while since he taught someone the basics…lucky me.
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  “Okay…so…how do I do it?”

  “The same way you do everything else,” Andy said with a grin. I stifled a laugh.

  I relaxed and thought about which element I wanted to form into a wall. I decided on ice and concentrated on what I wanted to do. I put my hands in front of me and out came the ice to form a wall between Raphael and myself. It must have been a weak one because the fireball he threw at it melted a hole right through it. Luckily for me, I instinctively threw a ball of water to put out the fireball before it could hit me. I put my hands up and patched the hole in the wall and made it thicker. It took a few fireballs to put any real damage into the repaired wall and I was very proud of myself.

  “That’s great, Aimee!” Andy exclaimed.

  “Thanks,” I said. “What’s next?”

  “Let’s test your fighting skills,” Raphael answered. I was afraid of that. I wasn’t a fan of combat training when Andy and Brian taught me and I knew it was only going to get more intense with an archangel teaching me. “Andy, would you mind helping out with this one?”

  “Not at all,” he said with a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you.”

  “No need.” I laughed. Andy lunged towards me and pinned me to the ground. I caught my breath and kicked him off me. I was ready for his next attack. He managed to grab my arm, but I grabbed his and took him down. The fighting seemed to go on for hours and I was getting better the longer I fought.

  “Great, now let’s add some weapons into the mix.” Raphael had a smile on his face that made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure I was ready to fight with weapons.

  Andy and I headed towards the weapons to choose what we would work with for the day. There were assorted guns, swords, daggers and every other weapon imaginable. Some looked like they belonged in the medieval period and others looked like they were made just yesterday. There was so much to choose from but I was immediately drawn to a certain sword.

  It was beautifully polished as if it required a great deal of care. The hilt was black with intricate silver carvings peeking through the darkness. It was breathtaking and I knew this was my sword. The second I touched it I could feel an immense amount of power running from the sword through my entire body. I never liked weapons as far as I could remember but this one was different. It was mine and I didn’t want to give it up for anything. I turned around with the sword safely in my grip to see disbelief painted all over the faces of Andy and Raphael.

  “What’s with the look?”

  “You probably don’t remember this, but that’s your sword,” Andy replied.

  “I actually own a sword?” I didn’t believe him but at the same time, part of me knew he was right.

  “You’ve had it for quite a while,” Raphael answered. “Only you are allowed to use this specific sword.”

  “Why? What’s so special about it?”

  “Do you remember the story of the sword in the stone?” Andy asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That story was based on you,” Raphael said.

  “So I pulled the sword from the stone? I thought it was a man who did that.”

  “The story tellers wrote it that way because it was unheard of that a woman could do such a thing during those times,” Andy explained.

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course.” I always hated how sexist human society was in the past; at least it got a little bit better…a little, not much. “What’s the sword doing here? Why haven’t I been keeping it?”

  “It is only to be used for certain battles,” Raphael explained. “It possesses great power and is kept here for safety reasons until the time comes when you need to use it.”

  “What kind of power are you talking about?”

  “The sword can amplify your abilities,” Andy began, “but it also has a few powers of its own that no one knows about except you…well…you used to.”

  “Am I supposed to use this sword against Lucifer?”

  “Yes,” Raphael and Andy said at the same time.

  “Right.” I was worried about that part. I had no clue what powers this sword possessed and neither did anyone else. And on top of that, I had to use it to fight Lucifer and I had no confidence that I was going to be able to pull it off.

  “Shall we get back to work?” Raphael asked.

  Andy grabbed his sword and once again, he got the fighting started. I found myself doing jumps and cartwheels to get out of the way of the sword coming at me. I managed to get in a few good moves myself. I flew around the enormous room to get to a better position to attack and eventually Andy struggled to keep up with me.

  “I’d say you’re back to normal,” Andy said, panting. We were both exhausted by the time we gave up on our little sword fight.

  “I think that’s enough fighting for today.” Raphael seemed amused by how tired we were. “If you want, you can take a quick break before we start working on your special abilities.”

  “I think I’ll be fine,” I replied.

  “Speak for yourself, you completely tired me out.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, you can relax for a while and watch me learn how to do the things that apparently only I can do.”

  “Good point.” Andy found a chair near the entrance of the room and plopped himself down. I didn’t realize I had tired him out that much. I felt kind of bad about it but not so bad that I couldn’t continue with my training.

  I walked towards Raphael to find out what I was going to learn next. He brought in an array of objects from electronic devices to big bowls filled with water and cages with small animals inside. I was worried about what I was going to be doing next. I knew I had the ability to control just about anything, but the thought of controlling another living being threw me off. It wasn’t right and I didn’t want to do anything that could potentially harm another living creature.

  “Let’s start with the elements. Why don’t you try moving the water from this bowl into your hand?”

  It seemed impossible. If I wasn’t sure before, I was positive I was dreaming. No one could do something like control the elements, it was impossible. I was sure I was going to wake up from my dream eventually to find that none of it ever happened. Nevertheless, I still wanted to see if I could do it, it seemed kind of cool. I relaxed focused on the water in front of me. I pictured a small portion of what was in the bowl leaping into my hand to form a ball and within a matter of seconds, it became a reality. I decided to add more to my hand and created a small cyclone coming from my palm. I was amazed I had pulled it off. I was equally amazed when I was able to make the water go back into the bowl without a splash.

  “I have never seen someone take to their abilities as fast as you.” Raphael was astonished, which I didn’t think was possible but I was starting to realize the impossible was happening all around me. “I think you should work with the electronics next.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “Try to turn them all off at once,” Raphael said casually.

  “There’s no way that’s possible!” I protested.

  “It is. I’ve seen you do it before. Now, give it a try.” I was glad someone was confident in my abilities because I didn’t think there was any way I would be able to do what was being asked of me.

  I did what I always did when I wanted to use my abilities and relaxed. I shifted my focus to the electronics in front of me and felt for their energy. Once I had a feel for it, I took their power away, causing each of them to turn off. After a moment, I put the power back into each of them, turning the computers and phones back on.

  I looked over at the cages and knew they were next. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew it had to be done. As if I read Raphael’s mind, I opened up one of the cages telekinetically and let a cute rabbit out to start hopping towards me. I started thinking about what I wanted the rabbit to do and decided to have it hop towards Andy, relax for a little bit and then come back to me. Instantly, the rabbit did exactly as I willed it to. It was very tame, but I had no
desire to make it do anything more.

  Raphael didn’t seem impressed. He opened the other cages, allowing the rest of the rabbits to hop out. “I want you to make the rabbits move into a square formation and stay there for at least ten seconds.”

  I nodded. It was simple enough and I didn’t think it would cause any harm to the rabbits. They all bounced around in chaos. As if I was telepathically talking to each of the rabbits, I had them stop their chaotic hopping and move into the formation Raphael expected. They stayed in the square formation for about a minute before I had them each go back into their cage.

  “Impressive.” Raphael was pleased with my progress.

  “Thanks.” I was beaming with confidence. It was exciting to know I had impressed an archangel.

  “I want you to go back to earth and practice all of the skills you learned here today and try to expand to other elements of control.” Raphael was all business which was a little intimidating. “If there is anything you need help with, feel free to come back any time.”

  “Alright, thank you Raphael.” I was so grateful to get help with my abilities. I hoped it would pay off in the end.

  “So what do you want to do now?” Andy asked as I approached him.

  “Let’s go back home and start practicing again.”

  “You want to practice more already?” Andy’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “We just finished, why do you want to start back up so soon?”

  “What else do we have to do right now? We may as well practice, right?”

  “I guess that’s true, but don’t you want to take a break from it for a little while?”

  “The faster I’m fully able to do everything I could before, the sooner we can win this stupid war against Lucifer.”

  “This is about him, isn’t it?” Andy already knew the answer. He was worried about how I was dealing with things. I had only broken down once since I heard the news and it wasn’t enough for him.

  “Of course it is, but isn’t it better for me to use my emotions towards something productive rather than being an emotional wreck?”

  “I want you to deal with this Aimee.”