Welcome to my new story. If I had to dedicate this to any one, it would be Tsubaki. You rock Ali. Thanks for your support and all the patience!!

And well, to the readers. This is for you. I hope you guys will grow to share the same thrill and love I have for this story. I find that there's better prospect to this story in compare to any of my others or to my fictionpress story: The Perks of Being a Goddess. It can always be because of how much I'm enjoying the writing process. In the next two chapter I hope to convey what I mean about enjoying the writing process.

Thanks for giving this story the chance and I hope you'll stick the whole landing with me.

Much gratitude.

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City of Angels

--butIdoLOVEyoU--

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“I’ve seen enough to know that beautiful things don’t always stay that way.

I’ve done enough now, to know this beautiful place isn’t everything they say.

I hear, that evil comes disguised, like a City of Angels, I’m walking towards the light.”

--Good Charlotte

ð

. . .

: Prologue-- City of Angels :

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A black and pulsing light encircled Arial.

The light could only mean one thing: banishment. Only those consumed by evil could bask in the black ring of light. It was neither the white light nor gold light that teleported the angels to and from the Silver Tower. The light that caged her within the ring was a semblance of evil.

The soul was now corrupt, darkened.

Arial knew better.

This was an injustice, a cover-up for her findings.

There was no presence of evil within her. Not even the smallest whiff of darkness existed within the depths of her inner being. She was a white angel. She didn’t know the meaning of evil. How could her soul be darkened when she had never been exposed to it? The malice that the High Council Elder accused her of having did not exist.

“Evil has darkened you, Angel.”

“It has not!”

If Arial could be blamed for anything, she knew it had to be for curiosity about her world and how it worked. She was filled with nothing but empty knowledge. All her life, she’d done both of her jobs without complaint, without fault. She had helped all the newborn angels and guarded the Gates of Heaven. The rest of her life was more of the same.

After Genoa was accused of being a treacherous traitor, thoughts began to fill Arial’s mind. And they weren’t like before. These thoughts didn’t pertain to fluffy clouds or the bubbly things that had previously seemed so interesting and entertaining. With Genoa gone, her focus shifted tremendously; her mind seemed able to retain information. Unlike before, she didn’t wake to an empty head. She could now recall thoughts. Tiny bits of information now flooded her consciousness, coming to her from days before, even years.

Arial was able to form thought without having to be commanded.

She was no longer controlled by the Council of Angels. And all it had taken was stealing a few of the Sacred Scrolls.

“Do you deny breaking and entering into the Scrolled Room, Arial?” It was the Elder Council man.

“Must be, for she—,” The woman beside the Elder was cut of by Arial.

“That is not what I meant. How am I to deny the truth?” Arial refrained from shouting, but her tone wasn’t soft either.

“You lie of course.” The presumptuous voice to her left indicated that the bearded man was an experienced liar.

“I was never taught to lie, or even what lying was,” Arial shot back, hinting at something. She had been giving the High Council the run around. She was waiting for the perfect time to expose all that she knew. To their knowledge, she had only gotten access to how a council member was chosen.

Arial knew a lot more.

“You can always learn from another. It is quite simple.”

“Learning isn’t part of our requirement. The only other option is that we are commanded to lie.”

“Then there you have it. Someone must have told you to lie.”

“Would that be you then?” Arial tilted her head, and gazed fixedly at the Elders. She resembled a curious child.“The only ones to order and command us are Council members. Is that not what you do, bark down orders to your minions? The Council controls us, does it not?” Again, Arial tilted her head, but this time to the left. She was sizing up the ten council angels before her, two female and eight male. In comparison, Arial was only the height of half one of the council members’ arms. As a mere angel, she was never taught how to morph into human stature. To her and every other angel, only those who rose to higher positions stood taller. But that was a lie.

Everything about the City of Angels was a lie.

“Do you insult us, Angel?” Honey brown eyes stared her looked as clear as hers now did, but were cold and heartless. They didn’t have that far away look she did once, when she was but a mere doll; an angel, who had no other purpose but to serve the powers of good, or at least what she was told was good. “Yes I insult you. The only ones able to cultivate lies are you, the council members.”

“You dare call us liars?” It was the light skinned women.

“Yes I do. Or do you deny the truth?” Her chin rose a bit.

“You’re eager to say something, Angel. If you do so, spit it out. I can see it in your eyes.” This came from the dark skinned woman. She looked down at Arial with hatred.

“I have no evil in me. You know that as well as I. But for your benefit, you choose to outcast me. You fear that the truth I now know will not remain with me alone.” Arial took a pause to measure her voice. She wasn’t going to give them the upper hand by letting their comments anger her. If she went up in fumes, then there wouldn’t be any validity in her statements. It could all be looked upon as an outburst of some sort. “This meeting isn’t to question my liability as an angel of good, but to see how much I’ve learned, and how much I’ve told others. You’re scared about my loyalty to the Council.”

“Your action was evil, thus you are evil.”

“No, it was wrong.”

“It’s the same.”

“Perhaps. If I were still under your mind control, it would be considered evil. However, I am not. The scroll has helped clear the fog the council induces on each and every one of the angels’ minds. Such great clarity I have now!” She boasted at the end.

“What do you speak of, Arial?” The Elder Council man frowned down on her.

“I speak of the way this city is being operated.”

“If you had tried to plead your case, then we would have considered your staying in Heaven. However, it appears that you are not content here any longer.” The light skinned women spoke with contempt.

“Very well, it does not matter if I voice my findings. You all must know that I did not take just one scroll. This is why we still avoid that you know that I know.” Arial squared her shoulders and looked at the Council Elder straight in the eye. “The veil has been lifted off my eyes and I know a few of the City’s secrets. Starting with what you’re responsible for.” There was a long interlude of silence while everyone in the room took in what she had just stated.

“I am being condemned the same way Genoa was accused of evil. But if we were to analyze the circumstances, then the council and I would need to switch positions. I have but uncovered the truth. Of course, breaking into the Scrolled Room was wrong, but working us like senseless puppets is evil. Do you not erase every thought from our mind? Do you not handicap our brains? Is this not how you control us? Tell me Elder, are we really working for the greater good? Is this God’s purpose, what you work so hard to achieve?”

“Enough Angel! You would not understand our reasons for what we do.” If she held enough power, Arial thought, the sky could thunder. She disregarded the light skinned women. She instead continued to look at the Elder straight in the eyes.

“You have never discussed your jobs to us. How are we supposed to understand? And don’t you find that quite ironic? You ask me to understand. How can any of the angels understand why we do the things we do? Have we ever been allowed to process any significant thought? Aren’t our ideas only filled with fluff and meaningless garbage? Every Angel that has been banished before me has been banished because of their discovery of how you run this city, and your control over our minds.”

“Besides Luke, that is.”

“So you do acknowledge the truth?”

Another brief silence followed.

“I believe we are done here Arial.” Iciness dripped from the dark skinned lady’s voice. It coated her name with insignificant indifference. “Congratulations on regaining a part of your brain. But what difference does it make? From here on, you are banned from this and any other city of Heaven.”

“For fear that I will help brighten the rest of the angels!”

“Precisely.”

The triumph Arial felt when she gained accessed to the numerous scrolls vanquished. They were right. What could she do now that she was being exiled? If she had been a bit more careful, perhaps she could have warned other angels, gotten the word spread. She still had to learn how to remain in Heaven of her own free will. The information she acquired hadn’t been fully processed. It had only been a day since her discovery, and the clarity the scroll had brought still wasn’t complete. There were still lots more she needed to know; questions were still forming in her brain.

It was like she was a new born baby again, discovering the nocks and crannies of her world. There was so much unfamiliar to her, other worlds she hadn’t known about. Had she been as wise as she should have been, she could have planned out how to help.

Utopia shall never exist.

“Any last words?”

“I am not finished!” Regret started to worm itself through her gut. She should have taken all of the scrolls instead of the insignificant number she took.

“Neither are we, neither are we.”

It was a mystery to Arial what the Elder meant by that, but they were finished with her.

In a fury of winds, the black light bound her to its circular ring. It whooshed high above her head, the faces before her blurring so that the only thing noticeable was the black lines.

It was like being stuck inside the middle of a tornado, with strong winds threatening to knock you over, if not kill you.

Where do I go now? There can’t be nothing more than the City of Angels.

There was Earth.

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