❝𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡 is a good place to visit
but certainly not a 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑
place to 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦.❞
It was somewhere deep in the mountains, where the sixth sister wished to dwell. Far from God's business. Somewhere no one would find her without looking hard. The cave was the last place you'll think someone would be living in; surrounded by snow, cold weather and loneliness. It was what she wished.
"I like what you did to the place," said the eldest sister, having a look around the cave while the sixth sister stood at the entrance.
Her red hair was covered with a fuzzy hood stitched to the furry jacket she wore. She was pulling what seemed to be a dead animal as she pulled the bow off her back. She aimed the arrow at her sister, the string shining bright.
"Remember, you're aiming at your sister." reminded the eldest, doubting her sister would shoot her as she studied lines drawn on one of the rock walls.
The sixth sister had the bow aimed at the blonde, the frown on her lips slowly shifting. Her lip quivered as she hesitated to shoot, her eyes getting watery.
"You know it's done. Nothing can be changed." the eldest kept her eyes at the wall, her hands behind her back.
"You keep a memory," she ran her hand against the silver drawing of a wing. "You're worse than I thought."
"I'm scared." stuttered the redhead, pulling her bow down ever so slightly. "I'm scared to forget."
"I know you are, sister." responded the blonde comfortably. "I've come here to help you."
"I don't need your help," the redhead aimed her bow right at her again, ready to shoot her sister in the back if she had to. "It's all your fault."
"It is not." denied the blonde. "You know it yourself. It was your foolishness that did this."
The redhead was not backing down, despite her quivering lip and eyes. She was stubborn in her decision to kill her own sister if it came to that.
"If you stay here on your own- If you do nothing. You'll forget."
"No. No. I won't," the redhead shook her head. She was slowly breaking down, making the blonde smirk to herself.
"Come with me. Let me show you." started the blonde. "Let me help you. You can't lose anything now, can you?"
Not receiving an answer, the blonde moved a step back as the redhead tightened her grip on her bow. It only made the blonde's smirk wider. 'She won't shoot at her sister.' thought she to herself taking another step back.
Without doubt, the redhead let go of the string, the arrow making a loud noise as it passed right next to the blonde's ear. The sixth sister was the best shooter, it was not possible for her to miss.
As the blonde opened her eyes, the redhead walked out into the cold. Her icy blue eyes landed on the arrow, which pierced the wall in the drawing of the wing, the one she ran her finger against. Her chuckle meant she had persuaded her sister to listen to her.
━━
The redhead now stood in the snow, just outside of her cave, looking out at a landscape; a frozen river, poor animals running in the snow as they search for food, barely visible greenery in the trees and a view of more mountains in the distance.
"I don't know what you see in this." said the blonde, walking up to her sister who ignored her entire presence watching the innocent starving creatures.
"You feed them?" questioned the blonde, now standing beside the redhead who gave her a nod. "Not much has changed I see. You've still got a bit of him in you."
She did not receive an answer as the redhead sadly watched poor stags, searching for wood to eat. The blonde, on the other hand, felt no compassion what so ever toward the creatures. She had grown more selfish over the time she spent on Earth.
"He's gone. He's dead." reminded the blonde, only now getting the attention of her sister. She opened her mouth to speak again, only to be silenced by her sister.
"Don't you dare say his name." said the redhead through tears.
"Come with me. Let me show you the way. The way we were promised." whispered the blonde into her ear, placing a violet crystal into the palm of her hand. The redhead's eyes widened as their blue colour was replaced by violet.
━━
With a blink of her eyes, the redhead found herself in the rain. Her red hair soaking wet as well as the fur she wore. She watched in horror. Women screamed as humans burnt them.
The blonde showed her what she didn't want to see. She showed her horrors that could happen to her, only if she decided to stay hidden. They had their duty to fulfil. Their duty was to serve Lucifer, the one who got them out of prison.
"It'll happen to you." spoke a bearded man behind the girl; his voice seeming too similar to her sister's. "They'll burn you at stake as soon as they find out who you are."
The redhead couldn't believe her eyes as she watched innocent women screaming for help. Humans, God's proudest creations, created on appearance, were slaughtering her own kind.
"You'll be able to live in hiding for 4000 years, not a year more before they pull you out of your cave and burn you while your screams echo in the night." spoke the man, seeming far calmer than a villager who was witnessing a burning.
The redhead's eyes teared up as a quiet sob left her lips. She was left speechless, only watching the horrors unfolding.
"You got out of chains for love, right? But where is your love now?" the man walked closer to her, not standing by her side, his head just above her shoulder. "He's dead. Died by God's wrath for the sin you made."
"One of her archangels, falling simply for a guardian was unacceptable." he continued, tears falling down the redhead's cheeks as the fire reflected in her crystal blue eyes.
"And this is how you honour his memory? Object darkness? It's what you were meant to do. It's where you were meant to go. Your silly so-called love was just the trigger."
He looked at the fire, a smirk in the corner of his lips as he took her hand, squeezing it. "My sweet Ophelia. Isn't that what he called you?" he whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine.
The girl felt as if her heart was being ripped out of her chest. She hid in the cave, hiding from the darkness she had to accept as part of the deal for freeing her from chains of God.
"He promised-" the redhead's expression changed as she turned around to look at the man with a glare in her eyes. "He promised no one was going to get killed! He gave me his word!"
"There are always fallen soldiers in every revolution." explained the man, taking a step back from the fiery red.
"There was not supposed to be when they are the reason for someone's fall!" argued the redhead, tears in her eyes as she got closer to a head taller man.
━━
In reality, the two sisters hadn't moved even a meter. The redhead was in the snow, screaming in pain, trying to fight it off. She kept turning around in the snow, her whole body fighting as her hand clenched to the crystal her sister placed.
"It is what's for the best, sister! You can't be mourning over some angel for the rest of your life! I doubt he'd be doing the same for you!" said the blonde, standing above her sister. She did not care the girl was in pain as long as she would turn.
"You've got to come back to your senses! You're a waste of life, living out here and outcasting yourself!" continued the blonde as she followed her screaming sister.
She knelt down beside her, pulling her clenched fist up. She studied her face as her eyes opened. The blue in her irises was replaced by a violet colour. The eldest sister smirked at it, knowing it had been done. She gave herself to darkness.
"Welcome to the darkness, sister. Welcome to the right path." smirked the eldest, pulling the crystal out of her hand. "From now on, you'll be Ophelia the mischievous, the sixth sister, guardian of the darkness, the witch of the moon and stars, Satan's sword. We're glad to have you back, sister."
The blonde's smirk didn't fade away as she kept looking into her sister's eyes, watching the tears slowly drift away from her eyes as they went back to their normal colour.
The redhead felt like she was born again. The piercing pain, resembling her heart being ripped away from her, had left as she felt like a whole new person. She looked around before her eyes laid back onto her sister.
" I'm happy to be back," replied Ophelia, a smirk forming in the corner of her lips.
━━
Mesopotamia, 3004 BC
"And God's not actually going to wipe out all the locals," explained Aziraphale, the angel. "I mean, Noah, up there, his family, and his sons, their wives, they're all going to be fine."
He and well, his acquaintance, stood in front of the crowd, watching as Noah and his family filled the ark with pairs of every animal. He was possibly one of the only creatures on Earth, knowing what was going on except Noah and his family, of course.
"But they're drowning everybody else?" questioned confused Crawly, the demon.
Instead of saying it, the angel just nodded, feeling ashamed of the answer. He did feel like it was a foolish thing to do, but who was he to go against God's word. The demon glanced behind himself, constantly having a feeling of being watched. His eyes laid on a fairly strange woman, standing in the crowd of people, wearing red; unlike the rest who wore more earthy tones.
The sight of her left him speechless as he studied her fiery red hair and bright ocean coloured blue eyes. He even managed to catch her eyes as she went back to looking at the ark. Unlike the rest, she seemed far calmer as if the flood didn't even worry her.
"Not the kids? You can't kill kids," the demon looked back at the angel, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Mm-hmm." nodded Aziraphale.
"Well, that's more the kind of thing you'd expect my lot to do," admitted Crawly, looking back at the ark.
"Yes, but when it's done, the Almighty's going to put up a new thing, called a "rain bow", as a promise not to drown everyone again."
"How kind."
"You can't judge the Almighty, Crawly."
"God's plans are-" stuttered Aziraphale searching for the right word.
"Are you going to say "ineffable"?" groaned Crawly, seeming to know the angel too well.
"Possibly." mumbled the angel, looking off to the side.
The demon returned back to looking at the ark. He was indeed very confused by the strange plans of the Almighty. As time passed by, they became stranger and stranger.
"Oy! Shem! That unicorn's going to make a run for it." called the demon, shouting at one of Noah's sons while a unicorn ran off, leaving only one to Noah and his family. "Oh, it's too late."
"It's too late! Well, you've still got one of them." recalled the demon, his eyes looking up at the sky as a storm started.
He looked back, to get a last glance at the strange woman, only to find her being gone. He furrowed his brows, looking around to see if perhaps she could be seen in the distance. But there was no trace of her, perhaps no trace of her even standing there. It was as if she was a ghost. It all smelt too fishy to him.
━━
Golgotha, 33 AD
"Aah! Come to smirk at the poor bugger, have you?" from nowhere appeared Crawly, Aziraphale's hell acquaintance. Aziraphale stood in front of the crowd at Golgotha, watching God's own son being crucified. His opinions were very different from God's plans again, but who was he to have a say in it?
"Smirk? Me?" asked the surprised angel, worried he might have smirked once at the poor child.
"Well, your lot put him on there," mentioned Crawly.
"I'm not consulted on policy decisions, Crawly." replied Aziraphale, looking back at the poor man.
"Oh, I've changed it." announced the demon, proudly. It had taken him quite some time to figure out a better name for himself.
"Changed what?" asked the angel, confused with the topic they were talking about.
"My name," answered Crawly, making Aziraphale surprised to hear it. He did not know they could do that. He certainly did not want to change his.
"'Crawl-y' just wasn't really doing it for me." explained, now Crowley. "It's a bit too squirming-at-your-feet-ish."
"Well, you were a snake," pointed Aziraphale out, looking back at the demon. "So, what is it now? Mephistopheles? Asmodeus?"
"Crowley." answered the demon.
"Hmm." simply replied the angel.
"Did you, uh ever meet him?" asked the angel upon watching Jesus.
"Yes." answered the demon, looking upon at the child of God. "Seemed a very bright young man. I showed him all the kingdoms of the world."
"Why?"
"He's a carpenter from Galilee. His travel opportunities are limited."
They both looked back at poor Jesus. The young man did not deserve the treatment he was getting. Aziraphale did not agree on God's choice to do this to the poor man, but he could not have his opinions on it. At least not in front of other angels.
"That has got to hurt." said the angel, watching in disgust as nails were hammered into Jesus's wrists, making him scream in pain.
"What was it he said that got everyone so upset?"
"Be kind to each other."
"Oh, yeah. That'll do it."
The demon turned around, only to spot what seemed like a quite familiar figure. Sure, he hadn't seen it for a little more than 3 000 years, but his memory never failed him. It only worried him why the woman was still alive. The two did not share eye contact as the redhead watched Jesus, her famous red hair covered with a piece of fabric.
"Hey listen, do you feel like being followed?" questioned the demon, scared it might be hell sending people to spy on him.
"No? Why?" the demon made the angel furrow his brows in confusion as he never heard of such a thing. It worried him since he did not want to get in trouble for running into the demon from time to time.
"I have this strange feeling hell's sent someone after me." confessed the demon, glancing back only to find the woman is gone again.
"Really? What?"
"A woman."
"Well, you must have done something- Um.. Bad?"
"That's what I'm worried about."
"I'm sure you're just being paranoid," assured Aziraphale, thinking there was nothing to worry about.
━━
Rome, 8 years later
"You do understand we will have to talk at some point?" spoke a man dressed in black, taking a sip of his drink.
She looked up, the ginger, knowing perfectly well his words were meant for her. She had her red hair, pulled back into a crown braid with a golden leaf tiara like his, complimenting it. She stood out of the crowd, wearing a maroon gown which well complimented her blue eyes, ginger hair and her pale freckled skin.
She glanced at him, only to share a look. Frightened, she quickly got on her feet. She took the fabric resting against her arm which she normally would wear on her hair when outside, placing it over her head.
With a swift motioned, Crowley grabbed her by her arm just as she was passing behind him. "Why do you follow me?" asked Crowley, sharing a single look with the girl.
She looked frightened while he looked curious, furrowing his brows at her. She did seem far more familiar than he thought she would.
Without a said word, the woman pulled her hand away from his, her eyes not leaving his before she left.
Crowley considered her to be spying on him for hell, but yet again she did not seem to be so good at it. If he knew something, it was that hell did not send the same people to spy. He expected her at least to do a bit of shape shifting.
Ophelia was far away, down the street when her hand started to burn. She glanced down, noticing what seemed to be a black hand print resembling a burn. It surprised her, never occurring to her something could happen with a touch. She gave a last glance behind herself, before disappearing into an alleyway and being on her way. She figured she'll have to think of something else if she plans on spying on Crowley again.