Umbel (Terminal Trilogy #3)

17: Home

Summer is a time that promises relaxation and sunlight, and then grants only a fiery death by humidity and mosquitos. The cycle change had brought the cycling Earth from October to May, and now in July I was in constant suffering.

Ria and I stayed in the orphanage, now accompanied by the old matron Ms. Robles, an old woman who I knew would die in seventeen years, just as she had done two years ago, when I had first arrived in this orphanage. I had made peace with her sudden death. I didn't like seeing her walk around again.

I had told Ms. Robles that Ria was an orphan, and I was her older brother. She had taken us in on this alone, despite our ages and lack of resemblance. She was a kind woman. I wish this didn't feel so much like elder abuse though.

The orphanage didn't have air conditioning, and I had taken to traveling over to the non-cycling Earth- which was currently in March- most days. There was a portal in our basement, as the fallen angels had cheerfully informed me. Seems they all had been dragged through there with their fall.

I had been warned the moment I stepped through the doors of the orphanage not to enter the supposedly poisonous basement. I'm not sure what was supposed to kill me down there. The realization of this lie struck me oddly- did Ms. Robles know about Heaven and Hell?

My new life was not much of anything. Hornbrook was a quiet town, a little short on population. I read books, I guess. I spent hours a day laying on my bed and staring at my blankets as the ceiling fan gently circled above me.

Ria was off worse than me, equally bored but more susceptible to grief. I didn't know what to say to her. I had saved her, and I didn't regret it. But we never had known each other too well. I came into her life two years ago, suddenly, just in time for her caregiver to die. Though she told me she used to have parents, a mother and father who lived with her in this house and would someday return, I was all she and Adeline had left.

It was hard at first, but we got used to it. And then I died right as we had begun to settle.

I don't know how much this uncommon life had hurt Ria. The shock of a new reality, and another unexpected death, was something I did not know how to alleviate. I figured she got on okay. We'd sometimes talk, and she seemed fine.

In town, sometimes I'd run into fallen angels, and sometimes I'd hang with them. Their exclusive bar, Purgatory Café, was the only place I heard information from Hell- though few of the fallen really gave a fuck, one or two of them kept me up to date.

One angel, the only non-fallen allowed in the place, acted as a courier. His name was Dohniel, and like most things involved with Hell, I had never been told the precise history of why he was here.

About two months after I had stormed out of Hell, I was walking the long hot trek back into Hornbrook after spending the day in the library of Deerfield. As I crossed the road that led to the Purgatory Cafe, I noticed someone standing in the shade.

As I approached, I realized it was Dohniel. He started frantically waving as I looked at him.

"Blake!" He called, "I have been waiting for you."

"So I see."

"I have just returned from Hell. There's been much talk of you." He stopped talking to smile and nod for a few seconds. It was one of those creepy things angels did. "I keep getting called by the leaders there. 'Go get Blake!' they tell me, 'we need Blake!' I always say no, but this time, they were particularly desperate. Michael spoke to me."

He stared at me, waiting for a response to this particularly exhilarating piece of news. "That's good." I said, giving a reassuring nod.

"God yes, it really is. I haven't seen him in so long Blake- for any Michaelian like myself, it's been like getting strangled. Anyway. Michael's asking for you. He said he needs you for something, something you're good at."