Fugitive Angel

Chapter Twenty-Three

The child named Gabriel rode happily on a horse in the forests of Heaven. It was his favourite place to be, there was always a different adventure to have. It was even better when his father was in the adventure with him, in this case he was. The Archangel Gabriel rode a horse behind his young son, laughing and smiling as they chased each other down the forests, narrowly missing the trees around them.

"Father!" Gabriel Junior shouts as the horse keeps sprinting down the land. His father smiles as he speeds up his horse to catch up with his son. They stopped at the L'acqua Caduta, which was a great waterfall in the centre of the forests of Heaven. They got off of their horses, leaving them where they were, and approached the falls. A smile cascaded across Gabriel Junior's face as he touched the soft water falling from high above.

"This is one of the oldest parts of Heaven. When Mondo Umano began its course, L'acqua Caduta formed as the smallest body of water, and then transitioned to a great waterfall that held the memories of centuries of Paradise," Gabriel explained to his son. He was in awe at what his father was showing him. Gabriel Junior took out his small wings from his back and flew up to the top of the waterfall. His father chuckled and formed his wings as well, flying up with his son. To Gabriel Junior, this was why Heaven was so beautiful. The freedom and the fresh air, he didn't know any other world except for this amazing one he lived in with his father.

"Son, look up," Gabriel said. The young boy looked up to the skies of Heaven, and heard the magnificent song of the Seraphim flying in the sky. The boy smiled brightly and laughed happily as he heard the melody fly through the atmosphere in a gorgeous song. The Seraphim in the sky continued to fly around the father and son, butterflies beginning to fly down to them from the Seraphim dropping them down. A single, Monarch butterfly sat itself on Gabriel Junior's hand, causing him to smile again brightly.

"This is your home, son. Always be sure to pay attention to the beauty it has to offer, and never take it for granted. You must appreciate what you have here in Heaven, that is how happiness forms," his father instructed as they stood on top of the waterfall, taking in all the sights of Paradise. They could see all parts of Heaven from the top of the falls. The gorgeous meadows, the castle of Heaven where God and his uncles were at the moment. They saw the lakes and rivers, their water sparkling all throughout the land. The trees and the Seraphim flying around the whole image.

"This is amazing," Gabriel Junior said before both of them flew off the cliff of the waterfall and flew into the air to the rest of Heaven, where their adventure commenced.

~••••~

Alice shot up in her bed when her eyes opened wide to find herself sweating and panting. It was the nightmare once again. She had been having the same one for the past three days. Ever since she went to that movie and saw those flashes on the screen. It was always the same thing. The woman walking down the hallway in a long dress, surrounded by fire. The images of demons dragging her down a flight of stairs harshly and painfully, and her scratching at the stairwell, only to find that when they brought her down, there was a man standing above her. She would be constantly calling out for Ramona to help her, but there was no one. Blood pooling on a black slate floor swiftly and darkly. Who's blood was that? She always asked herself. It never showed who was bleeding to death on the floor, and it never showed who the woman is who walks down a hallway of flame.

She looks at the clock to see the exact same time it always is when the dream ends: 3:00 AM. It was never a minute too late or too early. It was always that precise minute. She was getting a bit scared as to why she was having the same dream for the past three days, and why the flashes would have caused it. Alice climbed out of her bed to the computer sitting on the desk in her bedroom. She didn't bother turning the lights on as she sat in the chair and turned the computer on, going straight to Google. In the search engine, Alice typed dreams about demons. There were many websites analyzing the aspect of demons in a nightmare, but none of them accounted for what she was going through. She turned off the computer and sat in her desk chair, wondering what she should do next. An idea came to her that she should talk to Ferruccio tomorrow, catching a ride to the Vatican via her friend Cora, who was a year older and had her driver's license.