Unholy War 3: The Gates

15

Michael

"Let me out."

I'm in a tower. I'm at the very top. There is only one window in this room. I'm in chains on a chair. I'm shirtless. My back aches and my wings are desperate to be free. I lean forward shaking the chains as I go. My heart is beating fast as hell through my chest.

Gabby smiles, "I'm not going to let you out. Not after the work, I did on those chains. Ha. I did a good job on the chains, didn't I?"

She had a point. Gabriel was the strength of God. That was literally what her name meant. As she stands in the doorway she looks like a strength. She barely wears any clothes and her muscular torso frames the door almost completely. Her wild hair takes up the rest of the space. She's always been the type of person to command a presence everywhere she went. Her power shown through. I knew if she had imbued the chains around me right now that I wouldn't get out of them.

I lean back. My eyes pressed close against her but my mind somewhere else. I feel so far away now.

"You're supposed to be my friend."

"I'm not the one who's turning his back on his friends," Gabby states, "You are supposed to be our leader. How the hell did it happen that you met up with Lafayette?"

"Samael."

Gabby gives me a look. The name itself doesn't sit well with her.

"He's a fallen angel. Samael. He works for the new Prince of Hell."

"Yes."

"And you went with him anyway?"

"Yes."

"What did they promise you?" Gabby asks me.

The way she looks at me is suspicious. I can see it all in her eyes. She was judging me. She thought I had been enticed by the devil.

I remember when I met with Lafayette. He wasn't much my type even though Samael swore up and down that I'd be in love with him. Love had nothing to do with it. The meeting only lasted 2 minutes. 2 minutes and I promised to be his general. 2 minutes and I told him that I'd win his war for him. I'd go fight where he wanted me to fight. I'd give him this city and when he wanted the human cities I'd line them up for him as well.

I'd give him anything he wanted.

I'd give Lafayette the world if he wanted it.

But what would I get in return?

"I want to forget."

Gabby raises an eyebrow at me, "Forget?"

"I want to forget him. Uriel," I explain, "I don't know how I was going to get that. Maybe damnation. Maybe if I fucked over God hard enough he'd remove his blessing from me. Maybe I could go to hell chained up feeling nothing but misery for all eternity. I wanted to be fallen. I wanted to be hatred and pain. Because that was easier than the alternative."

"What was the alternative?"

"The only thing possible that could be worse than an eternity of damnation," I explain shrugging, "A moment more without Uriel."

I sound crazy. It was an intensity that I had never really put into words. I don't expect Gabby to really understand what I'm saying. She'd always been a good soldier. She'd always been a valuable general in the war against evil. Her halo was never tilted, not even a little bit.

Me on the other hand. I was scorched and every day my wings got a little blacker.

"You still have your gifts," she explains to me, "God has not forsaken you. Not yet."