Serafine

Part Four

The five shuriken hit the wall, burying themselves halfway into it. Arella stared at them and smiled.

“Well, this isn’t so hard,” she held her hand out. The shuriken pried themselves out of the wall and returned to her rosary.

“Okay,” she took a deep breath. “I can do this. I’ll be just fine.”

She looked at the piece of paper with Mal’s address. It would be fine. Everything would be fine.

This was her life now, and that was fine.

ooo

Mal sat on the floor of his basement, leaning against the wall and staring at his now bloody knife. He smiled at the blood on his hands and arms, the blood that must have splattered on his face and body.

“It’s not like I’m asking a lot from you,” he wiped the knife on his pants. “Just tell me what you told them. Tell me if they made you look at mug shots.”

“No…” Eddy could barely get the word out.

He couldn’t see from the blood that had ran into his eyes, didn’t want to move a muscle, every shift making him feel the hundreds of deep cuts and bruises.

“No you didn’t look at mug shots? Or no you won’t tell me?”

“… I won’t tell you… anything…”

Mal got up and slowly walked over to him.

“Why not?”

“Because… Because you don’t care what I say…

He grabbed Eddy’s chin, shaking his head in anger.

“What are you trying to say? You think I just want to torture you, is that it? You think I’m insane?”

Eddy glared at him, ignoring the pain.

“I need to know if you identified me, because I need to know if I have to run away.”

“Go to hell!” His yell was barely a whisper.

“You know I’m going to have to start cutting things off soon, right?”

ooo

Arella stood in front of the rundown house and checked the address one more time just to be sure?

“Should I just knock?”

She shook her head, police didn’t, that’s basically what she was. She turned the doorknob and the door opened, revealing a dark hallway.

“Hello?” She quietly asked.

She took a step forward, her hand searching the wall for a light-switch.

She really didn’t know what she was doing.

Suddenly a man stepped out of a doorway, a crowbar in his hands. He swung at Arella and she noticed just in time to duck.

“WAIT!!!” She screamed out, falling to the ground.

He swung again and she managed to roll away. She got up and started running through the house, desperately looking for a place to hide. Then she remembered what Angels had that humans didn’t.

To him she disappeared, but she was still in the room with him, leaning against a doorframe and panting, her wings wrapped around her.

“Where…?” He looked around.

“Next time I’ll remember the wings before I come inside.”

“Where are you, bitch!?!”

Arella spotted a phone on a table. She picked it up; it was heavy. She walked behind the man.

“I’m right here!” She yelled, but he didn’t hear her.

She hit him on the top of the head and he fell to the floor unconscious, she felt his pulse. Thou shall not kill.

“Okay, just unconscious.”

She looked up saw a door. There were noises coming from behind it. She grabbed the fallen crowbar and proceeded towards the door. She opened it and was met with a stairwell leading down to a basement.

It had to be him. She would just knock him out and call the police. It was going to be just fine.

There was another door at the bottom of the stairs. She opened it slightly to take a peek in and felt her blood run cold.

“Eddy?”

Mal stood behind Eddy, holding his head to one side by his hair and holding the knife over his ear.

“Are you even listening to me? Why bother having ears if you don’t even listen?” Mal sounded frustrated.

Mal brought the knife down and began cutting. Eddy screamed.

“EDDY!!!”

The door burst open and Mal looked up in confusion. No one was in the room with him, he was alone, but he didn’t feel alone.

Arella’s shuriken come to life and flew towards Eddy’s hands and feet, cutting the rope that trapped him there. Eddy’s eyes went wide and he realized he was free.

“What the…?” Mal was still looking at the open door in confusion.

Eddy lunged away from Mal and the chair, holding his ear in pain. He fell to the ground, unable to stand.

“HEY!!!” Mal started after Eddy who crawled towards the door shaking. “I’m not finished with you!”

Mal suddenly went still, looking like he was in pain.

“What…?” Eddy’s voice was nothing but a whisper.

Arella stood in front of Mal, the crowbar tightly in her hands. Blood slowly began drip from his nose where Arella had hit him. Slowly he fell to against the wall dazed. Arella threw the crowbar away and Eddy saw it clatter to the floor.

“Who’s there? What’s going on!?!” Eddy yelled, looking around the room in fear.

Arella was on her knees beside him, holding out her hands. He couldn’t see her, couldn’t hear her, couldn’t feel her. Even if he could, he wouldn’t see Sera, he would see a stranger.

Her fingers touched his cheek.

He was hurt. If she hadn’t taken so long to get there, he would have been fine. She had a mission to do, and she had ignored it.

He could have died.

And if he had died, they could have been together.

Behind her Mal began to get back to his feet, holding his nose in pain.

“I’m so sorry…” She whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

Mal spotted his gun lying on a table. He walked quickly, grabbed it and pointed it at Eddy. Arella followed Eddy’s worried eyes towards Mal, she turned around just in time to see him pull the trigger.

“You were the one who was supposed to die,” Mal glared.

If he died, they could be together… but then he would lose everything as well. It wasn’t right.

“NO!!!” She screamed, but there was nothing she could do. She wasn’t fast enough to block the bullet this time.

Eddy fell back to the ground, grabbing his shoulder in pain.

“Eddy! EDDY!” She put her hands on his wound, and for a moment it was almost like they were holding hands. “I need to help him! I need to help him!”

She felt frantic, forgetting about Mal for a moment. She then fell onto Eddy, screaming out in pain herself.

Mal stood over her, holding the crowbar in confusion.

“Something’s there?” He reached his hand out to where the crowbar had stopped in midair.

Suddenly he felt something fall on him and push him to the floor. He looked up in fear.

“I won’t let you hurt him anymore!” Arella screamed, having tackled Mal to the floor.

“WHAT’S GOING ON!?!” Mal tried to push the weight off him, and suddenly he was holding onto the shoulders of a blond teenager.

He stared up at her in shock and she glared down at him. He had never seen her before, but there was something so familiar about her.

“Your eyes…” He whispered. They were her eyes. “Sera… No! You’re dead!”

Arella punched him, but she had no strength. His fear disappeared and Mal punched her back, hitting her in the face and throwing her off of him. Eddy managed to scramble to the door, but Mal was on him before he could reach the stairs, hitting him once more in the face with a crowbar.

Eddy fell to the ground, completely still.

“Stop it!” Arella jumped at Mal again, but this time he grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall.

“Who are you?! WHAT ARE YOU?!”

“Judgment,” she hissed, and disappeared.

In his shock he let go and screamed out in pain as Arella’s shuriken dug themselves into his right arm. He fell onto the ground, looking around wildly in fear.

“WHAT’S GOING ON!?!”

Arella picked up the crowbar and stared down at him.

“Justice will be done.”

She hit him with the crowbar, he screamed out in pain; then she hit him again… and again… and again… and again…

“STOP!!! HELP!!!” His hand searched the ground until it felt the cold but of the gun. He held it up to the air and started shooting it wildly, screaming in pain and fear.

Arella ducked as Mal emptied the clip. He threw the gun into the air, tears streaming down his face. Arella glared at him and her shuriken ripped themselves out of his right arm and cut into his left arm.

“You belong in Hell!” She yelled at him.

Arella leaned over Mal, ready to stab him with the crowbar. She looked up for a brief second and noticed Eddy raising his head, slowly waking up. Their eyes met and for a moment.

Eddy gaped in shock, there he saw an outline, like light reflecting off the water, an Angel standing over Mal, about to stab him. It was like looking at a dream, except her eyes… he could see her eyes clearly.

They were Sera’s eyes.

She brought the crowbar down, aiming it for Mal’s head. Her own words echoing in her mind.

“We’re here to make sure that everyone is protected… Everyone…”

The crowbar hit the ground right next to Mal’s ear. Arella let it fall to the ground, her eyes clouding over in tears.

She couldn’t do it.

Mal looked at the crowbar and passed out.

Arella fell to her knees, looking over at Eddy, who in turn was looking in her direction, but his eyes were unfocused. He couldn’t see her.

“Eddy…” She couldn’t stop her tears.

“Is… is someone there?” He asked unsure.

Arella crawled towards Eddy, wrapping her arms around him, holding him close.

“I’m so sorry that I let him hurt you,” she whispered into his ear. “Just sleep now. I’ll go get the police.”

Eddy eyes slowly closed and he fell limp in her eyes.

“Sera…” he mumbled.

She held him close, not wanting to let him go. She kissed his forehead, willing his wounds to heal, but there was nothing she could so for him except call the police. They were wrapped around each other, but both completely alone.

“I have to go now…” She whispered, and despite everything she wanted to do, turned and walked away from him.

ooo

Arella sat on a nearby rooftop watching the police and paramedics scurry around Mal’s house. She looked bruised and battered, but she felt worse. She wrapped her wings around herself hoping for warmth, but the cold she felt came from inside her.

“Were you watching the whole time?” Arella asked without turning around

Uriel stood behind her, looking at the three stretchers being taken away.

“Sorry to say, but I wasn’t.”

Arella buried her head into her knees, wanting to hide.

“I didn’t do a very good job, did I?” Arella asked.

“I’m just happy no one died,” she didn’t sound happy, but she didn’t sound mad.

Uriel sat down next to Arella.

“It’s never easy to be thrown into a situation like that,” Uriel explained. “It isn’t fair, but you need to understand that it will never be easy and there’s no point in trying to hide that fact. Those three people will heal and justice will be done. Be proud of that.”

“I almost beat him to death.”

Uriel didn’t reply for a moment.

“… I know. I also know that it will never happen again.”

Arella looked up at Uriel.

“Because now you know what’s it’s like to hold a life in your hands. I told you, you have a noble soul. This is why you’re here.”

Arella looked back towards the house and saw Eddy being placed into the ambulance.

“Will you be all right on your own? I won’t be checking up on you again.”

“Now than I’m done my first mission, I get to pick a power, right?”

“Yes…” Uriel carefully replied.

“I know what I want my power to be.”

“Oh?”

“I want to be able to heal,” she looked at Uriel with tears in her eyes. “All I wanted to do was heal them. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore.”

Uriel smiled.

“Well… now you’ve turned out far better than I thought you would.”

Uriel stood and began to walk away, leaving Arella to watch as the man she loved was carried to safety.

ooo

Arella waited until every last person left the site, though she couldn’t bring herself to follow Eddy to the hospital. For a moment she had considered the notion of letting him die, how could she possibly be forgiven for that?

Instead she found herself yet again walking into Angel’s Diner. Her clothes torn and her face dirty and bruised, but she didn’t care. She sat down in front of Angel at the counter.

Angel nearly dropped the plate she was holding.

“My God child, what happened to you?”

Arella smiled weakly and put a $10 bill on the counter.

“I had some good luck today after all,” she said.

“You look like someone beat you up,” Angel said worriedly, ready to call the police and get Arella some help.

“Yeah,” Arella replied with a coy smile. “You should see the other guy.”

Angel quickly had a cup of coffee and a slice of pie sitting in front of Arella.

“Keep your money; it’s on the house,” Angel pushed the $10 bill back.

“Are you sure you’re not an Angel?” Arella leaned in. “You can tell me.”

“Why don’t you tell me something instead, darling?”

“If I can, I shall.”

“Were you kicked out of your home?”

Arella’s smile faded.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she stared into her coffee. “I can’t go home. Things will work out though.”

“Do you have a job?”

“Um… well…”

Angel smiled.

“How do you feel about waiting tables?”

ooo

Arella wiped down the counter at the diner, as Lito smiled up at her, happily drinking a chocolate milkshake.

She didn’t know if she could get used to this life, or if she even wanted to, but she knew she had to.

Lito smiled up at Arella and for a moment she saw her sister sitting there in his place.

All she knew was that she had a chance to protect people. She could live with that.

ooo

Eddy lay in his hospital bed listening to the muffled sounds of doctors talking in the hallway.

“You don’t find it strange that he doesn’t seem affected by what happened?”

“Of course I do, who knows what he’s suppressing in his mind?”

He didn’t know either.

They all look at him like he was about to go crazy. They kept saying he went through a traumatic experience, but it didn’t feel that way to him, because for a moment he knew he saw an Angel.

Maybe it was in his mind, maybe he was hallucinating from blood loss… but it didn’t feel that way. Her eyes were real, Sera’s eyes were real.

He smiled.

“Maybe I have gone insane,” he thought. “Or maybe she’s not as far away as I thought.”

ooo

Lito was more than happy to drag the exhausted Arella down the street. Her shift had just ended and Lito barely let her change before he rushed her out of there.

“Hurry! Hurry!

“I just got off an eight hour shift, slow down a little; my feet are killing me,” Arella complained, lagging behind.

“Good thing we’re going flying then!” Lito replied cheerily.

“And when does the flying begin?”

“Later. I don’t want to ruin the view.”

“The view? Where are we going?”

The two suddenly stopped and Arella looked up, and up some more, and saw the CN Tower before her.

“You’re kidding, right?” Arella almost laughed.

“Are you just going to ignore your wings for the rest of eternity?”

She shrugged a little. “The thought has crossed my mind…”

Lito grinned at her, grabbing her hand. “Follow me, but don’t look away from the tower. Promise?”

Arella sighed. “I promise, I promise.”

The two began to fly in circles up the tower, all the while Arella wondered what was so important that she couldn’t look around. Finally they came to the observation deck and landed on its roof.

“Okay! You can turn around!”

Lito sat down on the edge, hanging his feet over and Arella tuned around. Before her stretched out Toronto, a sea of buildings, surrounded by green trees. In the distance the sun was setting, covering everything with an orange and pink glow.

Over the city and as far as she could see, were dozens and dozens of Angels flying around the city.

“My God,” she whispered.

“You sure said it,” Lito smiled.

“Thank you for taking me here,” she smiled down at him. “I never even knew… Thank you.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to get used to this life after all.

End

If you want to read about the civil war, check out:

The Last Battle for Heaven

&

Lucifer

And be sure to read the next chapter in Arella’s life in:

The Virtue

(Why did I give Arella shuriken? I thought it would be interesting. I like using roses around Arella and thought it would incorporate easily. Anyway, I’ve finally edited everything. There might still be a mistake or two, so point them out to me. I changed a few things in the previous chapters, though the biggest thing was cutting out about 2/3 of Chael’s dialogue. The poor Angel! But (after watching way too many spaghetti westerns this week) I decided that Chael, being the stoic person he is, should use words very sparingly. This chapter was fun to turn from script to narration, if only because I got to write out the fight scenes in more detail. It’s a small fight scene, but I like it. It’s good to set the bar low and keep raising it. I thought it was extremely important to end on a happy note after everything that had happened. I know if I was able to fly the first thing I’d do is fly up to the top of the CN Tower. If you can’t tell, this isn’t a kid’s story. Some of the future story arcs will have a mature rating. How many of the story arcs will I post? As many as you guys want me to. As long as somebody’s posting reviews, I will post chapters. There’s probably more I want to say, but I just got off work and I’m dead tired.)