862 A.D
The heat from the scorching sun burned the surface of the ocean’s waters, sending heat from every direction and it sizzled the skin of both Hannah and Garin as their ship floated across the still water in the middle of the ocean.
It had been an entire week since they set sail off the Island and in all that time, they were yet to find refuge or a new place to settle. It was almost like all the land in the world didn’t exist anymore as all they could see on the horizon was an endless body of water.
The fact that they were still alive was a miracle because within one week since they got on the ocean, they were bombarded by burning heat, freezing cold and powerful storms that threatened to end their lives. Their food and resources ran out quickly and they had to hunt for fish in the ocean to stay fed. Their resilience and will to live made it possible for them to survive but they wouldn’t last out here forever and desperately needed a way to get out of their predicament.
.
.
.
Garin stood on the deck with his hands over his face while he looked ahead in his telescope, trying to spot someone or something ahead. He had read the clouds and could tell that a storm was brewing and it would be massive and that made him worry. He continued his scans while Hannah was below deck because she couldn’t stand being under the gruesome heat of the sun any longer.
Hannah was in the main cabin of the ship and she wanted to do something to keep herself busy but there wasn’t really anything to do. She decided to take a nap so she would be refreshed and able to stay awake for the night because that was usually when the rain comes and with the rain comes the storm so they needed to be alert to power the ship through it. The rain was certain to come tonight because the sky was very cloudy and from the looks of things, it was going to be a very big one.
She fell onto the bed and after closing her eyes for a few seconds, she drifted into a deep sleep. Hannah was asleep for about two hours but it felt like it was only a few minutes when she woke up with a loud gasp after having a horrible dream.
“You seem a little jumpy, Hannah,” Fawn said to her with a smile.
Hannah sat up on the bed and wiped her eyes with her hands.
“What do you want, Fawn? I thought I told you to not appear to me anymore,” Hannah said to her quite aggressively.
“I take you’re still upset with Father,”
“I will always be upset with him. Is that why you came? To tell me that everything bad that happened to me was because I renounced him?” She asked as she stood up.
“Hannah..,”
“Was he the one who destroyed the Island I lived on with Garin? It was him, wasn’t it? He’s so obsessed with making me suffer, he does these things to make sure I’m never happy,” Hannah said.
“Hannah, please, enough! I didn’t come here to fight with you about Father,” Fawn raised her voice.
“Then, why did you come?” Hannah asked.
“I came to help you survive the storm tonight,”
******
Garin climbed atop the mast and stared ahead into the telescope. He scanned the ocean for any form of life but all he saw was water and he grunted out in frustration.
“Does this godforsaken sea of water never end?” He asked himself and climbed down back onto the deck.
Hannah walked up the stairs and reached the top of the boat. She looked around and saw Garin tying some ropes and so, she called out to him.
“My love, any progress?” She said.
“Unfortunately, no. I think we’re going to be out here for a while longer and we’re going to have to ride the storm,” Garin answered.
“Maybe we’re not,” she said.
“What do you mean by that?” Garin asked and turned around to face her and that was when he saw her.
“What is she doing here?” He asked aggressively.
“Relax, Garin, she’s here to help us,” Hannah said with her hands out to him.
“That’s right, demon. I’m here to help,” Fawn said but she didn’t sound happy about it because Garin was a demon and angels never got along with demons.
Except for Hannah and Garin...
“Since when have you or any of the angels cared about helping us? All you do is stand by and leave us to suffer so why would you want to help us now?” Garin asked.
He didn’t trust her.
“I’m not here to help you, demon. I’m here to help Hannah and if that means you get saved too, then that’s just a price I’m going to have to pay,” Fawn said.
“Hannah, can I speak to you?” Garin said to her and walked to the end of the ship.
Hannah went to him and he held her arm and pulled her aside.
“I don’t trust her. I think this is a trap of some sort to make sure we die out here,” He whispered.
“Garin, I don’t think it’s a trap,”
“It has to be! Don’t you remember the one time we needed help and no one came?” He asked her.
Memories of their son suddenly came flooding back into Hannah’s mind, sad memories but now was not the time to think about that.
“Of course, I remember. I can never forget that but this is different,” she assured him.
“How is this different? Your sister there is definitely here to lead us to our deaths. She’s more slippery than the devil himself,”
“You do know that I can still hear you, right? Listen, Garin, I already explained why I’m doing this to Hannah but if you want an explanation too, I will give it to you,” Fawn said to him.
“Please then, tell me why the sudden change of heart, because I’m sure God didn’t send you here so you’re risking invoking his wrath upon you,”
Fawn moved closer to him and stared him dead in the eyes.
“God did send me here but not for the reason you might be thinking. There is a commotion in Harlem; an imbalance of power among celestial forces of the universe. The gates are flaring up and this imbalance needs to be corrected which means the two of you, being the only banished angel and demon currently living on Earth cannot die tonight or Harlem will collapse on itself and every angel and demon will escape and roam the Earth,” Fawn told him.
“The gates are at a critical level and if we die tonight and it opens up to let our souls in, that would be the final tug that unravels the seam of balance,” Hannah said to Garin.
“That’s not our problem. We’ve survived this long at sea without your help and we’ll survive tonight as well and if we don’t, then we’ll die together,” Garin said to Fawn.
“Garin, listen to me,” Hannah said and held his face, “we have to let her help us."
“Why?”
“Listen to me, my love. If Harlem collapses, we won’t be able to find each other in the afterlife. I can’t exist in this form or any other without being by your side. We have to survive tonight so the problem can be fixed and when we do die, we’ll have somewhere we can spend eternity together,” Hannah told him.
Fawn watched them with a guilty look in her eyes because she knew something about Harlem that they didn’t know.
When Harlem was first created, it served as a place for reflection after angels and demons died on Earth after being stripped and banished there. There was no segregation of the angels and demons from one another but after Hannah and Garin fell in love, the rules had to change.
God and Lucifer agreed that it would be better to separate the angels and demons in Harlem so that if it ever happened again, the parties involved would not be able to continue their sin even after death.
Hannah and Garin didn’t know this yet. They still thought that Harlem was the way it had always been and God had specifically instructed Fawn not to tell them and that was why she felt guilt in her heart.
“Okay! For you, my love, I will accept her help,” Garin said and kissed his wife.
“Wonderful! Now, this is what’s going to happen. The storm will come in the night and to help you ride out of it, there will be a map written in the stars, kind of like a compass and it’ll show you how to navigate the water so you can make it through,” Fawn explained.
“Why can’t you just lift the ship off the water and take us to dry land?” Garin wondered.
“That’s not how God works, Demon,” Fawn said and looked at her sister, “Good luck, Hannah,”
She released her wings and took to the sky before disappearing into the clouds.
******
A few hours after Fawn left them, Hannah and Garin had gotten themselves ready to face the storm that was already brewing.
The winds howled violently with force and aggression and the clouds became darker as the black covered the bright blue. The wind smelled of rain but it was not yet time for the sky to cry down on them.
"The storm will come in the night, my love. That's what Fawn said," Hannah told him as they stood on the deck and waited.
"Then, we have some time to talk," Garin said.
He walked over to her and took her hands in his. He made her sit down with him and looked her in the eyes as he thought about what he was going to say.
"I don't think we're going to make it out of this storm, my love. This could be the end for us," he told her.
"Don't talk like that, Garin. We will make it..."
"Maybe we will," He cut in, "...but if we don't, I want you to know that my life, the life I've spent with you, has been the best experience I could have ever had."
"Garin..?" She wanted him to stop talking about this but he couldn't.
"Let me say this, Hannah. I have to say it now while I still can."
"Okay, tell me then," she said and waited for him to continue.
"If we die tonight, your spirit will return to Heaven and mine will go back to Hell and then our fathers will send us to Harlem and although we'll be together again for eternity, it won't be the same as being with you on Earth because let's face it; Harlem is just a fancy word for prison.
"You have been my joy and my entire happiness. You made this world worth living in and I just want to thank you for loving me when no one else did."
"You don't have to thank me, Garin. Being with you and loving you was also the best experience of my entire existence. I cannot even imagine how my life would have turned out without you in it. I love you, now and always," Hannah said and moved closer to him.
His eyes were wet and a solitary tear streaked down against his cheek as he looked at her.
"Garin, I've never seen you cry before," she said, also in tears.
"I did a good job of not crying in front of you all these years," he said with a smile as she wiped his tears away with her hands.
They embraced and it was the perfect way to go into this sequence of uncertainty that was right ahead of them. It was the calm they needed before the storm, the strength they needed to brave the impossible and the words that needed to be said.
.
.
.
Night fell and the ocean became darker while the winds howled louder. Hannah looked up at the sky but there were no stars at all. She was worried but she was certain Fawn had not lied to her because that would have been too far a line to cross.
A drop of rain fell and landed on Garin's arm and he felt it.
"Here we go, Hannah," he called out and they braced their selves.
The rains began to descend upon them and the waves escalated quickly. In about a minute, the waters were rising higher than mountains and the ship danced aggressively on the water.
"Quickly, Hannah, steady the mast while I open the third sail," Garin ordered.
Hannah ran to the mast and held it steady with all her strength while Garin climbed up the ship to release the third sail. The ocean tumbled upon itself and its ferocity threatened to break the ship apart. The couple could hear the creaks of the wood and were sure the ship wouldn't be able to hold on.
"It's already out of control, Hannah. Where are the stars in the sky?" Garin screamed.
"I don't know. They should be out. I don't understand why they're not," Hannah screamed back.
"I know why! Your sister lied to us," Garin said and jumped down onto the deck.
A powerful wave lifted the ship and almost slammed it into the sea but Garin held the sails steady and managed to pull them toward the direction of the wind and steadied them.
"What are we going to do?" Hannah asked, worried.
"We don't have any other choice. We have to keep going," Garin cried out.
They rode the storm but as much as they tried, it was just too much for them to handle. The power of the water was beyond anything they'd ever faced and it seemed to be the end for them until they saw what they needed all along.
"Garin, look," Hannah said and pointed at the sky.
The clouds had moved out of the way to expose the constellation of shiny little dots in the night sky.
"There's our map. Fawn was telling the truth," Hannah said with a relieved smile.
Garin looked at the sky and saw the map of stars and a smile crept onto his face as well. But now wasn't the time to celebrate because they still had a lot of work to do.
"Alright, honey, we have the map. Now, let's try to use it. With me!" He called out.
They dove into action, reading the stars and doing their best to steer the ship around the waves and through them. It was a long night, filled with tension and unease, rumble and tumble, hard work and perseverance and although it was hard, they managed to make it through the storm, through the night and into the next day.
*******
Morning arrived after what seemed like an endless night and although the ship was banged up, it wasn't at the bottom of the sea which was all that mattered to Hannah and Garin.
The lovers lay on the deck by each other's side, exhausted and worn out from all the hard work they had done during the storm. Hannah was asleep but Garin's eyes were open and they were fixed on Hannah's face.
Garin watched her as she slept and the look on his face was filled with love, care and concern. He was glad that they made it because he wasn't ready to leave the Earth and he certainly wasn't ready to leave Hannah.
He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead at the risk of waking her up, unable to fight the urge to do so. She did wake up because of it but she was happy because the first thing she saw was Garin's beautiful dark eyes.
"Good morning, my love. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," Garin apologized.
"It's okay, darling. Waking up to see your face is never something you should apologize for," Hannah said and leaned in to kiss him.
As the lovers lay on the deck, Garin looked up at the sky and could see something flying in their direction. The sun rays were in his eyes so he couldn't see what it was but it for sure had wings.
Was it a bird? Garin thought.
"That's Fawn," Hannah answered, almost like she could read his mind.
"What is she doing here after almost leaving us to die?" Garin asked in anger.
He got up to his feet and waited for the angel to reach them. Hannah stood by his side and held his arm to hold him back from doing something foolish.
Fawn reached them and landed on the ship. She retracted her wings and walked over to the couple.
"You know, you have a lot of nerve showing your face to us after what you did last night," Garin yelled at her.
"Calm your horns, Demon. The constellation appeared in the sky, did it not?" Fawn asked with a raised brow.
"Several minutes after the storm started! We could have been killed out there before your stupid map showed up," Garin shouted but Hannah held him back.
"You ungrateful savage!"
"Enough, Fawn! Garin does have a point. We almost died out there," Hannah told her sister.
"But you didn't and that's because Father kept his promise. The imbalance has been repaired and the gates of Harlem have been restored. I just thought I should let you know," Fawn said.
The angel released her wings but before she flew away, she turned around and looked at her sister.
"Father doesn't hate you, Hannah. He's not capable of hate and you know that," she said.
"I'm not so sure that's true," Hannah replied.
"I am," Fawn said and used her head to gesture at what was just ahead.
Hannah turned and faced the other direction and saw what Fawn was gesturing at. Garin saw it too and they both smiled at each other, happy to finally see some land.
"It's a peninsula," Hannah said with so much joy and turned around to look at Fawn, "It's a..."
But Fawn was gone.
The lovers had yet again fought against death and survived it and it seemed like they would have yet another chance to stay with each other longer on Earth.