~~Young~~

Chapter Twenty Two

   “No…” he shook his head, “no it can’t be!” He shook Sera now, “wake up beauty,” he pleaded with her as he pushed her hair from her face, “please! Come on, talk to me!”

   She…she wasn’t responding, her head it…it just lolled to the side.

   “No,” he moaned and cradled her against him, “don’t…don’t do this to me beauty,” he whispered in her ear, “Don’t leave me.”

   He closed his eyes and began rocking back and forth on the floor. He wasn’t thinking about how cold she was in all this heat, or how her lips were turning blue as he held her, because he refused to think about what that meant.

   His eyes snapped open to Death’s still form, “go,” he said through his teeth, “don’t just sit there, go get her! Bring her back like you did last time!”

   But she only cried harder as she shook her head at him, “I…I can’t,” she pushed through the tears, “they were waiting this time…they wouldn’t let me near her!” she said angrily, “They held me back, made me watch as they took her those fucking angels.”

    Then that’s what he felt, the angels waiting in the other wing, waiting to take Sera away. They knew she was dying. And this time they weren’t going to let her get away. God knew Death would try too, that’s why he retrieved her, so he could stop her.

   “She fought them too,” Death continued on, her face more pained now then he had ever known her, “but she wasn’t strong enough. She...she begged me to stop them…but…I couldn’t…Gage I’m sorry!” she threw her arms around his neck and began to weep again.

   “It’s not your fault,” he said calmly as he looked back to Sera, “I should never have let you go.”

   Why? Why did God want her so bad? Was it only to spite Gage, to take the only thing he had ever loved away from him just to punish him for all his discretions? He was a dead God if he did. If that was his reasons for taking Sera then it wasn’t Lucifer he should be worried would start a war against him, it was Gage.

   “You need to know something Gage,” Death picked her head up, “she…she loved you.”

   Gage’s vision blurred as twin sensations racked his body. The feeling as if someone had reached inside his chest and ripped out his heart, and the agony as his last brown feather made it final bid as well. Two, in this one night he would lose two. Detached from his body they floated in the wind from the heat, once they swirled, twice, and then they too began to burn till there was nothing but ash.

   So then it was done, he was wholly evil now.

   The walls around them shuddered as part of the building collapsed on itself and Death jumped to her feet, “you’ve got to get out of here,” she tugged on Gage’s arm, “before this whole place crumbles.”

   He didn’t so much as lean in her direction.

   “No,” he said and firmed his grip on Sera…on Sera’s body, “I won’t leave her.”

   “Gage this isn’t hellfire, your body will be eaten away too.”

   “I know,” he said quietly, “but I should burn.”

   “What?”

   He shook his head as he looked up to her, “you saw my feathers, it’s over for me, I’m evil. I…I won’t ever be able to be with her again so just…just let me burn with her,” he mumbled as he tucked his head back against Sera.

   But Death wasn’t letting it- or him- go, “no, no you’re not.”

   Only it wasn’t her choice to make.

   “Yes I am,” he growled at her, “she is dead because of me, the woman I love is dead because of me,” he suppressed a sob, “and for that I should burn!”

   “Gage no!” she wailed, “even you can’t come back from ash!”

   “I know, and that’s the point. At lease I can be with her, forever, in the earth, so just…go,” he closed his eyes once more and resigned to his own death, “leave us be.”

   He was knocked to the side as Death punched him but recovered quickly, righting Sera in his lap again.

   “I won’t forgive for this!” she shouted at him, “don’t…don’t you come crying to me for help anymore do you hear me?” oh yeah he could hear her and the tears in her voice, “you…you suck!”

   She was gone in the next moment, but still Gage was not alone. Another presence replaced Death, one he had far less patience for.  He reached quickly to snuff out an ember that landed in Sera’s hair. If there was any justice in this world then his eyes would burn before the fire could mar her features. He didn’t want to remember her like that.

   “Just leave Michael, and do not speak a word before you do or I will kill you,” Gage didn’t even turn to look at him, “I am in no mind to tolerate you.”

   But like Death, he ignored Gage’s request, “would you really do that for me?”

   “Would I what?” Gage growled over his shoulder.

   “Kill me.”

   Had he already died? Had the fire consumed him that quickly? Because surely he hadn’t heard what he did had he?

   Now he turned to Michael. His armor was gone, his sheathe empty and he stood there only in his linen skirt. That had him rising from the floor carefully with Sera in his arms as he stalked over to him through the burning room, “why would you want to die, you have lost nothing, nothing!”

   The angel shook his head sadly, “I have lost everything.”

   “This,” Gage held Sera out to Michael, made him look at those unmoving features, “this is everything. Love is everything.”

   “I know,” he nodded his head as his crystal blue eyes bloomed in tears, “I know the loss of love myself and I…I am truly sorry Gage,” he blubbered, “I never meant for her to get hurt.”

   Gage’s hand was around his neck before he could stop himself, lost to his anger, to his devastation, “meant nothing!” he spat, “You meant to make me suffer; she is dead because of you!”

   “I know,” he shook his head again and made no move to fight off Gage, “and that is why I want to die. He will never forgive me for this,” again he sniveled, “so please, kill me. You are the only one who can end my suffering.”

   Tension made Gage’s fingers ache, it took everything he had not to snap the angel’s head from his shoulders and toss it into the fire. He would have loved to see it burn but what Michael unknowingly just offered him was a much better retribution.

   He pulled his hand away abruptly and turned from him as he cradled Sera to his chest once more.

   “Where are you going?” Michael asked desperately, “I wish to die.”

   “Then figure it out for yourself,” Gage mumbled to him, “because I won’t help you.”

   “No!” Michael shouted and ran up to Gage as he walked out into the hall, grabbing his arm and dropping to his knees before him, “don’t let me live like this!”

   “Like what?” Gage snarled at him, “With the knowledge that your own actions are the reason you suffer?” he shook his head and snatched his arm as he walked away from Michael once more, “then suffer you shall.”

   Because Gage knew all too well Michael wouldn’t be able to kill himself. Suicide was a sin, and he could commit no such act.

   Michael’s anguished wail was the last thing he heard before he walked into the heart of the blaze, after that pain was all he knew as his flesh charred and fell from his bones.  

   As he died.