Beyond the Darkness

I had failed Him. I. Had. FAILED. He had asked of me a simple task: watch over the humans. Simple enough. I had done that for a while, protected and guided the humans on Earth. But I grew too attached. They astounded me; they created and built and discovered. So, I decided, one visit couldn't hurt. But I was wrong. He was furious. I had never seen the creator so mad.

"Glasyalabolas," he stormed. "You have failed me. You must leave."

"Leave?" my voice cracked. "But, Heaven is my home. Please don't ask me to leave."

"Too late, Child, too late," the Creator shook his head. The ground beneath me - a pure white, cotton-like surface - disintegrated, revealing the world below. Soon, I was falling miles and miles down to Earth. Pain shot through my back and up my wings. It felt as if my wings were being set on fire, burning slowly, feather by feather. The pain was relentless, not subsiding until everything went dark.

"Is she alright?" a voice asked. 

"Yeah, I think so, do you know what happened, Brent?"

"No, Carla, I don't. She just seemed to fall right from the sky," Brent sounded in awe.

I peeled open my eyes and looked around. Everything was so different. Earth had moved on.

How long was I falling? I wondered.

"What's your name?" the girl, Carla, asked.

I groggily looked at her. "Glasyalabolas," I said.

"Woah," Brent looked startled, "like the fallen angel."

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled.

How do they know I fell!? This is so awful! I told myself.

"Why don't we call you... Glace?"

"I don't care," I shrugged. "I have to go."

"Wait!" Brent called.

I didn't turn around. I had to find the other Fallen. I shrugged my shoulder blades and my wings were still there. Good. I'd need them for sure in the future. The wind brushed my face and threw my hair behind me as I sailed through the air. As I flew, I realized what had caused the pain. My wings were a pure onyx now. I had heard talk that your wings turned black when you fell from Heaven, but I could never imagine my silvery white wings being ebony-colored. I sighed, the emotional pain from being disowned by the Creator starting to sink in. I shrugged the sad emotions away and turned my thoughts to the world around me.

The air on Earth is so much different, I thought, than the pure air of Heaven. Everything around me was so green and smelled sweetly of the scent of pure life. Both the color and smell were things I had come to deeply appreciate during my first visit to Earth. I had no idea where I was, as I had no particular direction or place in mind, but I was determined to find the others, despite the fact that I no longer had the will of the omniscient creator on my side. I had grown too used to his guidance. I guess this is a chance for me to become independent, I concluded as I watched the world below me. Brent and Carla had no chance of catching up to me now, as I was far off in the wilderness.

"Here I am, flying above the world I so wanted to be on. Hopefully I won't regret this later." I said to myself, my words dissipating in the wind.

When I finally landed due to my aching wings, I found that I was in a place the humans called New York. What a strange name, I mused to myself. I folded my wings close to my back and shrugged on a jacket. No need to scare the humans. I wandered the streets aimlessly, looking for a Fallen angel like myself. I was, sadly, disappointed. This was going to be more difficult than I thought. I rented a room in a hotel for the night and went out in search of a job to pay for the room. I found employment at a local pet shop, I had to feed the dogs and cats and play with them. That wasn't that hard considering I was with God when he had created them, so I was good with animals, especially dogs. Well, it WAS my namesake.

When I came out of the shop my eye was drawn to a plane flying quite low for an aircraft. Don't these humans know anything of flying? They'll strike that building, I thought. And that's just what happened.  

The plane dove towards the building, fire rushing through the air around it when it collided with the tall column. Pieces of the plane tore off, and quickly fell to the ground below. Screams and yells echoed throughout the city. I yelped in surprise. Cars screeched to a halt when they realized what was happening. Another plane followed the last one, this time crashing into the building next to the first one. The plane exploded, causing fire and pieces of plane to blast through the air. Thick, black smoke oozed out of the holes in the buildings that the planes had formed. The whole time, I stood watching in disbelief. I may not come from Earth but I can tell that this wasn't supposed to happen, I thought to myself.

"Everyone calm down and get back!" I called as I ran towards the destroyed buildings. They were a few blocks away, but it didn't take long for me to get there.

When I arrived, I spotted a pile of rubble from one of the destroyed planes. I crouched down and looked for anyone trapped underneath. I heard a yell, and then spotted its source. I dove down underneath the crumbled parts of the plane and crawled to the person. Claustrophobia began to wash over me, but I ignored it. I was focused on saving the trapped person.

My breathing quickened and became harder as I pushed further into the rubble, but I didn't think about it. I had to save this person. As I came closer, they reached their hand out. I took it, but had no idea where to go from there. I had scraped myself several times on broken glass and pieces of aluminum while  crawling through the pile, and dragging them across the ground would only do worse to them.

"Can you crawl out?" I asked the person, after coughing from the dense smoke that was extending in tendrils in the rubble."There's a ton of glass and pieces of the plane under here, so you'll get hurt less if you do so."

"I can try," a voice responded. They lifted themselves up a bit and began inching towards me.

"Just follow me out, okay?" I said.

I led the way to the outside, and we both exited the rubble at the same time.The city was still in the same state of utter commotion that it had been after I left, but it was worse now. Smoke covered the skies, and the air was difficult to breathe. However, I was still glad to get away from the powerful, disgusting smell of burnt aluminum that had hung thick in the rubble.

Men with yellow suits and red hats held dogs on leashes, the dogs sniffing for survivors. People gathered around the scene, completely shocked at what had happened. I turned to the person I had saved, who had begun coughing. For some reason, he looked familiar.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Lucifer," he choked out.

"L- Lucifer?" he was the first of the Fallen!

"You!" I yelled in his face, forgetting our situation. "You ticked the Creator off! Are you happy now?!"

He looked at me in surprise, then grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the prying eyes of the humans.