Entanglement

absent

Phil POV

-

The world was frozen.

Maybe that wasn't the right way for me to say it. I was the one who was frozen. Trapped in one place, as my surroundings moved as if being pulled through molasses, every breath causing needles to poke holes in my lungs until I could barely even breathe.

I had been so stupid to have hope.

Even if I had made it to where he was being kept just hours before nightfall, ready to defend him and stop this, all of that hope was gone by now. All of it.

I'd thought that I could succeed in once again trying to convince Korey that it didn't have to end up like this. I had been so wrapped up in my despair that my only thoughts had been that I had to stop this. I had to.

And yet I couldn't. I was one angel, so afraid of losing Dan that every risk I took didn't feel as scary or as impossible as it actually was. I suppose I had realized it earlier, when he had begun speaking like he had just accepted he was going to die, but my hysterical state of mind hadn't been able to process it. It had all been denial.

I knew now, as I forced my limbs to move away from the one I loved. It physically felt like my legs were made of stone, like they had been glued to the same spot for years and no blood was pumping through them. I couldn't feel my own lungs inhaling air, I couldn't feel the tears falling down my face. Especially when Dan looked up at me to show me I love you one last time.

Instead of leaving, however, my eyes found the supply closet near the door. Silently, I slid over to it, opening the latch and pushing myself into the darkness. The door closed behind me, and I bent down, my gaze finding openings in the air vents of the door.

It was torture, and yet I couldn't tear my eyes away. Dan said one last thing to Korey before shutting his eyes, and the angel nodded firmly. And I watched as they all lifted their hands.

Despite how this had never happened before, they knew what to do. We all knew that the only way to fully kill a demon or angel was to sear every nerve and every thought processor in the brain. It was the only way to kill who had already been killed.

Angelic fire began to form in the palms of Korey, Alfie, and Mamrie's hands. Then, streams of it were burning towards his brain, flames following the veins and nerve points. I looked away.

Two minutes later, I looked back up, and saw that my colleagues were gone. Dan, however, was still on the floor; they had left him there so that the fire could set in and Hell's body removal crew would come later.

I noticed, quite late, that Dan's chest was rising and falling. The movement was slow, but there.

My entire body seemed to spasm, but I was still able to shakily bring my fingers to the door handle, my brain not processing that this should have been impossible. My only goal was to get to his side, to wake him up and see if somehow, he had survived the ordeal.

I ran across the metal floor, nearly slipping twice. I flung myself to the floor, my knees skidding as they halted right next to his side, and I heard my breath leaving me in shuddering gasps.

"Dan," I choked out, my voice sounding far too small considering how large the room was. The demon opened his eyes, impossibly, the flame normally burning in his pupils gone completely. "You're okay," I mumbled, the end of the statement leaving me as more of a question. When he didn't answer, I brought a weak, shaking hand up to his face, cupping his cheek as gently as I could. The searing fire I normally would have felt barely burned. "You're okay," I repeated, and it was at this point that I realized it wasn't true. He was simply dying slower than others would.