“Child of light, what are you doing in a place like this?”

The small blond head lifted from hands that crept out of the sleeves of sodden white clothes, timidly, to stare at the great grand creature that stood above her, almost disappearing into the darkness around them in his inky black. She opened her mouth, but was mute, couldn’t make sound come out.

He knelt down so he was closer to her level and had to look up at her instead, spreading large glorious wings that kept the rain off her already-soaked head. “What is your name, child of light?” he asked softly, soothingly, to not scare.

She took the sleeve of her shirt out of her mouth. “Kaisa,” she whispered, and put it back in again.

“Kaisa.” He laughed and tilted his head to study her. She blinked back at him and his unnaturally green eyes. “What are you doing here, little Kaisa? Most angels that dream do not find themselves in this part of the world. It is very dangerous here for your kind.”

Kaisa shuffled her – bare – feet and stared down at the ground, shaking rainwater out of her hair. “Dunno,” she mumbled, and teared up very abruptly, whimpering and pressing both hands to her mouth. “It’s lonely here,” she said, and hiccupped, wiping her eyes and smearing rainwater with tears. “And scary. And – empty.” She reached out and touched him on the chest, on the left side, in a rough estimation of where the heart would be. She tapped lightly. “You don’t have one. You’re one of them. Which one?”

He smiled up at her. “My name is Jannic. I’m really only a minor demon. But enough of that,” he said gravely, standing. “You need to get out of here, okay? Before the others find you.”

Kaisa hiccupped. “I don’t know how,” she whimpered.

“Close your eyes. Think of your home. Of light, of beauty, of your God. Don’t think of this place.”

Kaisa closed her eyes, then sniffed and opened them again. “I can’t,” she whispered, and then, a little accusingly, “He’s your God too.”

Jannic laughed immediately and harshly. “Oh. No. Not anymore. I – we – can’t – the Dark One – don’t, child, think of the light.”

“I’m scared.”

Sudden warm arms encompassed her, sheltered her from the rain and cold and dark, even though he was dark. Somehow, it was a lighter darkness. “Light, snow, stars, warmth, gold, love – ” There may have been a slight hitch in the dark angel’s voice. “ – waterfalls, butterflies, honey, softness, G-God – ” This time there was a definite catch. “ – beauty, grass, flowers…”

Then Jannic stopped, because the pretty little creature in his arms had dissolved in a muted flash of white, leaving only two feathers to show that she had ever been there. He folded his wings back slowly, staring at them.

“Jannic!”

He started and turned to see another of his own landing from flight, touching the ground softly, still half-appearing out of the mist that covered this part of the land of dreams. “…Maldic,” he said stiffly.

“What are you – what are those?”

He couldn’t hide them; they seemed to repel anything dark, staying pure and white. Knowing it was no use even if he could cover them, not now, Jannic kicked misty mud over them, only to see them glow no less. The rain was colder.

“An angel.” Maldic spat the word out as if it burned his tongue. “Where is it now?”

“…Home.”

Malicious understanding flickered in the other’s eyes. “You let it go.”

“She was pure.”

Jannic’s better laughed scornfully. “Jannic, Jannic. Do you know what you’ve done?” He leaned in, reached around to rest a hand on Jannic’s wing. “Most of us don’t like being demoted to the fires.” He wrenched his clawed hand away, shredding the wing. Jannic gasped, too much pain knocking enough air from him to keep him from screaming. Black feathers joined the two brilliant white ones on the ground.

“Maldic – ” he choked. “No – ”

Pain engulfed him as his second wing was shredded, though Maldic hadn’t moved a hand. Jannic screamed. Another demon stepped into view.

“A traitor, Maldic?” he asked, leering at Jannic writhing on the ground. “It’ll be the fires, for him.”

The laughter rang in Jannic’s ears. The fires. He would burn forever. He cast a desperate eye to the two feathers, now appearing as blurs through the haze of pain. He would burn forever.

He screamed again when one of them hauled him up by his hair. “Is eternity spent in the blazing uttermost depths of hell really worth letting loose the little angel?” the second demon spat in his face, sadistically fingering the shreds of Jannic’s wings.

He was going to pass out. And then he’d be dying for eternity. Without dying.

Yet…

“It was worth it,” he wanted to say, but he couldn’t even do that. His face must have shown it, though, because suddenly more pain flared up his arm, and then he wasn’t aware of anything but the pain.

Burning.

Burning.

Burnforever.

Screamforever.

...GOD!!...

Soundtrack: “What I’ve Done” – Linkin Park

A/N: I don’t know why the ending came out the way it did. There was an alternate ending. Jannic could have swallowed the two feathers defiantly and disappear into oblivion, nothing near so nice as heaven but definitely not the burning flames of hell. Nor did he deserve it, in a lot of eyes.

I am a Christian. I think I subconsciously depicted a question a lot of people ask about why good people are sent to hell…why God would do something like that… I didn’t mean to question the way I did, especially not with adding Jannic’s last cry like that, but. There it is. Writing is meant to provoke thought, so…

Ah, and Kaisa and Jannic are mine. That’s a given. I’m particularly particular to Kaisa’s name and Jannic’s character.

- Destinee