Chapter Forty-Six
Interlude: The Rainbow Looks Stupid
Sam's POV
The young man scrolled through the garden that serene afternoon. The sun cast its rays on the flowers and made them shine even brighter and more colourful and the man almost laughed at the simplistic perfection of his father's work.
Behind him, he could feel the presence of one of his demons who was giving reports of the happenings in Hell, though he wasn't exactly interested in what the demon had to say.
"Where's the demoness who usually reports to me?" The man snapped at the obviously flustered demon who backed away in fright, his head down.
He never addressed his helpers by their names even though he knew the names of every single soul that was in Hell. He thought being familiar with them would encourage them to be relaxed, and he couldn't have that.
Demons were rebels by nature; vile creatures he had to subdue. He had to be hard on them. He had to show little to no emotions, least they rioted. He couldn't deal with a riot. He knew first-hand how messy that could get.
"You have assigned her a lot more duties, Master, hence she requested I report to you."
Of course! How could he forget! He had given the young demoness the responsibility of looking after the little child while he was away.
His thoughts went to the girl. He knew he had to go to her soon. It wasn't safe to keep a human child under the close watch of a demon, but he had a lot of responsibilities. He couldn't be blamed.
He wanted to be angry at her for her words. Who was she to assume he didn't care about anything? Then again, she was merely human and he knew humans were anything but insightful. Granted, Angels didn't quite perceive emotions the way humans did, but it was wrong to assume they didn't feel anything.
He sought to be mad. It was easier to be angry, but try as he might, he couldn't be. Not when there was a pesky little emotion that decided to gnaw at his essence like a parasite overstaying its welcome.
Pain!
The man wanted to shed tears, but he couldn't. He wasn't sure he was even capable of such, but he was saddened. He wanted to be home with his siblings. He missed every single one of them. Even the annoying Guardian Angels who got on his very last nerves.
He most especially missed Gabriel who was even more uptight than Michael. He was sure the child and Gabriel would get along fine. He also missed the Seraphs. How he loved showing off his marvellous voice to them.
He didn't feel remorse for the riot though. He had his reasons for starting it. The humans, the other Angels, they didn't understand his Father the way he did. If they understood Him, they would have also started a riot. However, he wished he could have done things a different way so he'd still be on talking terms with his siblings.
"Are you paying any regard to me, Master?" The demon sought, snapping the Devil out of his thoughts.
"I am not. Your voice is ridiculous and you bore me. Now, I understand your vocal cords were ripped out and put back repeatedly, but can you try not to sound like someone threw a fistful of gravel into a woodchipper, then set it ablaze? It's awful."
"But, Master –"
"Just stop speaking to me!" The man shouted.
The demon bowed and he could feel the sadness radiating from his essence. He wasn't moved though. He couldn't be bothered about the feelings of a demon.
The man continued his stroll, but immediately stopped when he felt the presence of his brother. His brother felt like life; medicine and happiness in its truest and purest form. It almost made the man smile.
"Get lost!" He growled to the demon who had far weaker senses and was yet to perceive the young Angel's presence. The demon nodded and vanished from his presence immediately.
The man dipped his gloved palms into the pockets of his white trousers and continued his walk, not caring to wait for Raphael to catch up with him. He was tempted to fly away and evade his brother's energetic attitude, but he had to admit he somewhat enjoyed spending time with the Angel of Medicine.
He felt Raphael swoop down from the sky, his wings flapping around him, creating a gust of wind that caused sand to fly around and some flowers to detach from their stalks.
Raphael looked at the mess he just created and like someone suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, he couldn't help but fix up the flowers and help them bloom again.
"Lucifer! Lucifer!" he called out in joy. He sounded like a new demon who was given the first opportunity to torture a soul.
He turned to look at his brother, his brows quirked as he wondered what the Angel wanted this time.
"Don't tell me! You found an actual dragon and you want to repopulate the dragon species?" The Devil guessed and smiled when Raphael pouted sadly.
"I wish! I've been begging Father for ages to bring back the dragons, but He continues to adamantly refuse. However, I know you, Lu, and I know you have a few hiding in Hell," Raphael accused and the Devil frowned in thought.
"Now, why would I do that?"
"Because you loved them even more than I did."
"What do you want, Raph?" The Devil decided to evade the topic of the dragons.
The truth was he did have a couple in Hell, but he knew if he made it known to Raphael, the Angel would try to invade his home in order to search for them, and he just couldn't have Raphael in Hell. It would be utter chaos.
"My new friends just hatched an egg. It's so beautiful. I've been trying to show off to our other siblings, but you know how they are. They don't really care about penguins." Raphael crossed his arms and kicked the dirt like a child about to throw a tantrum.
"What makes you think I won't set it on fire the moment you show it to me?" The Devil gave his brother a deadpanned stare. The archangel was however unfazed.
"Come on, Lucifer. I know you have nothing urgent to do right now and you're practically avoiding the human. Also, your new demoness is actually doing a good job at keeping the other demons in check. I'm super proud and I know you're about to ask how I know of this. Of course, I know. I've been keeping tabs on you to make sure you're not up to anything ridiculous. You're one of my favourite siblings and I don't want anything to –"
"If I agreed to your senile request, would you shut up?" The man snapped as he rubbed his temples as though he was suffering a migraine even though it was physically impossible to do so. He had just picked up a lot of gestures from his prolonged time with the humans.
The Angel of Medicine nodded with enthusiasm, flapped his wings and kicked himself into the sky, not looking back to see if his brother was following after him. The Devil shook his head and flew after his brother. They hovered around the skies for a while and the Devil was quick to catch up with his brother.
"Where exactly are we headed?"
"The heart of Antarctica," Raphael answered with a huge smile which dropped when he realized he was flying alone as his brother had completely stopped moving.
With a groan, the Angel circled back to find the Devil staring at him with his brows furrowed.
"What now? Did you catch whiff of Gabriel?" Raphael questioned but the Devil shook his head.
"I don't fancy the cold. You know this already." He shrugged as though he was physically suffering a cold and Raphael passed him a look of exasperation.
"You're an Angel, Lu!" He reminded. "The temperature does you no harm."
"True that. However, Antarctica is the opposite of Hell where everything burns," Lucifer argued and Raphael made a strangled sound.
"It's not even that cold anymore, thanks to global warming. I asked Father to let me heal the planet, but he refused. He insists everything is for a purpose. I swear, I don't always completely understand his orders. However, I must obey them. I feel like I've gone off topic." Raphael snapped his fingers. "Yes! Desist from acting like a baby and come with me."
Lucifer agreed and together, he and the Angel continued their voyage, not saying anything until they stopped in a snow-covered paradise.
"You should like it here. It's so white. Look at you! You're totally blending in!" Raphael gestured to the Devil and his white apparel, but not even his smile was amusing to the Devil. "Oh whatever! You're no fun!" He whined.
Lucifer watched his brother in slight curiosity, but his attention was soon caught by the penguins that littered the land. Totally uninterested, he witnessed his brother rush towards the penguins who huddled towards him as they weren't threatened by his presence.
Raphael talked to the penguins, his smile dropping with every exchange they had and the Devil tilted his head to the side, sensing the slight discomfort in the air. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't really care.
With his spirits fallen, Raphael waddled back to Lucifer and breathed out heavily.
"What did you do this time?" The Devil questioned, his brows quirked up so high, they almost get lost in his golden bangs.
"I didn't! I didn't do anything!" Raphael defended as he threw his arms into the air. "It's the goddamn useless humans!"
Raphael was seething and the environment was feeling the impact of his rage. The ice was rapidly melting and the sky became grey and gloomy with thunder booming overhead.
The Devil remained unfazed though. With folded arms, he stared at his brother as he waited to be brought into the loop.
"If you love these fragile creatures, you'll quit your temper tantrum. You're scaring them," Lucifer noted and Raphael looked around at the mess he just created.
With a sigh, he snapped his fingers and everything went back to normal.
"Okay. Now, let's try again. What happened this time? And make no mistake! I am in no way interested in knowing. It's just that the sooner you tell me, the sooner I can get out of here."
"The humans! They came in and took little Ellie and some other penguins. You have to help me find them, Lu! Please!" Overhead Raphael's head, a rainbow appeared; Raphael's attempt at being cuter in order to persuade his brother to do his bidding.
"The rainbow looks stupid!" Sam waved off his brother who pouted at him. "Moreover, they are probably dead already and being digested. It's the beautiful nature of the food chain and man stands at the top of that chain. Animals were literally created for them."
"I don't care!" Raphael shouts. "I am not going to allow the poor penguins to be trapped in a cage for display, neither am I going to let them get eaten!"
"Father forbids Angels from intervening. Trust me, Raphael, you don't want to get on Father's nerves and end up like me," the Devil advised. As nonchalant as he appeared to be about everything, the thought of Raphael being cast out for something as piffle as a penguin bothered him.
"Father isn't that cruel. He wouldn't – Well, I don't know. He probably would. I don't care. I'm going to find them and you can either come with me or you can fly away like a coward."
Raphael looked dead serious and Lucifer was about to discourage him further, but the Angel spread out his wings, kicked into the sky and flew out of sight.
Lucifer looked around at the penguins and sighed deeply, he kicked into the air and was about to follow after the younger Angel to make sure he didn't hurt himself, but he suddenly felt something stir inside of him and he let out a groan at the wrong timing.
Bells was in trouble.
He ignored the feeling and continued to chase after his brother, but something was deeply wrong. He could feel her distress. It washed all over him, making him uncomfortable.
Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day, be at my side, to light and guide, to rule and guard.
He heard the prayer inside his head and try as he might, he just couldn't ignore.
"I'm so sorry, Raph!" The Devil called out in apology. He was going to have to make up to his brother later, but at that moment, he had more pressing responsibility.
The child needed him.
~~~
Enjoy the update everyone! I'm having serious writer's block, but i managed to put this down.
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