“Don’t quote the scripture at me,” Michael snapped, turning back to face him, and the devil could sense he was clenching his teeth.“I won’t kill him?—”
“Only capture him?”
“And I will capture you too, Satan,” the prince added, lower.“You will be brought before God.”Lowering his gun, the devil shook with laughter.“In exchange for Hell, you swore that you’d return to the Lord, and you would accept His resurrection of the angel of worship that you destroyed.But, instead, you’ve schemed, time and time again positioned yourself like a god of this Earth.Christ, the Son, was crucified because of you.And you committed an abomination because of your recklessness, yourpride.And I will bring you before the Lord so that you repent before He tears you apart and creates a reborn Lucifer from your corpse.”
Satan was quiet, smile falling slow — all the humor gone.Silence.It was enough to seemingly unsettle Michael, who shifted, waited.Over a shoulder, the handle of his sword loomed in threat.But the prince, in all his pale armor, gleamed the church’s light.He could have been a ghost, standing among artifacts of saints, angels, of a bygone time.
“The prophecy of the Revelation,” said the archangel slowly, almost with a nervous shake, “will occur.It’s greater than you, than me.”
“Those were words written by a man.”
“God inspired those words.”
“Maybe God inspired a lie,” replied Satan, then he watched as the chief prince turned to show him his back, wings curling in to tuck into them, perhaps slip back into his body.“And where are you going now?”
“The anti-Christ will have no choice but to reveal himself soon, and I’ll wait until then.Consider this my covenant with you.”
Satan, then, snorted.“Didn’t you say you’d torture me for refusing to tell you where he is?You haven’t changed since we last spoke, too cowardly to hurt me, too cowardly to save me.”
“I have seen your face everywhere on this Earth,” said Michael, marching toward the door.“You are their performer and their priest, their god.This is a wicked place, and all there is to do is destroy it, as God has promised to do.The evil will suffer and the good will rise to Heaven.”
“And replace the angels?”
“The time of angels has passed.We are all corrupt.It is because of you that we are not worthy to care for God’s eternal city any longer.”Michael paused, then he turned back one last time, helmet still shielding however much he might be frowning or hurting.“You will not be victorious against God, Satan.You did not win the war for Heaven, and you will not best our Father this time.I will follow the prophecy.It has been written.God will be victorious.He is good.”
The devil slipped his weapon back into his cassock, bit the inside of his cheeks, and waited before it was obvious that Michael was the one who wanted to hear some final words, perhaps a goodbye.“But areyougood?”
“I will do as He says.”How dearly Michael must’ve missed talking to Satan.“Because we angels are all sinners now, I will not bother with sanctity when I hurt you.”If Satan could pity, he might’ve pitied him.“I will treat your body with no grace, no holiness.I will desecrate every inch of you.When I capture you, if the Lord allows me to be the one to kill you.”
“You love it when we argue.I give voice to your doubts.”
“Farewell, Satan.I will burn you when we meet again.”
“You will miss me.”
“Perhaps, I will burn us both.”Then, the angel lifted the board he’d placed over the doors, set it aside haphazardly.Michael tried to expel all the fury in his heart that should be fiery anger but was weighing into dense misery he could not do away with.God, help him, God, help him.Every step forward in the dark evening was an inch toward apocalypse, the few stars above twinkling in the dark abyss.‘It will not be like before.’He would do it right this time.But, his heart ached as he admitted who he must speak to, who he should have come to first, no matter how furious it may make her.‘Joana,’ he thought.Joana.
CHAPTER18
There is no center to Hell.Wherever it was that they took Dina was unknown to him, but he felt that it was not the center, in the same way that if he were to slip his hands inside himself, however unfamiliar his gore might be to his fingers — he would know where the heart is.His hand could take it, feel the thumps of his life.But there was no such heart here, no pulses.If Hell had a center, it wasn’t here, but if it wasn’t here, then it was nowhere.He found himself kneeled over smoothed rock, terribly warm, in a rare space between all the extravagant carpets, nearly as red as the walls — of stone, as well.Much of it was obscured by plain banners; if this were Earth, they might’ve carried an emblem of a king or nation but they had little more than simple embroidery at the corners.There were many fires, joining the sea of red all around, but they were concentrated on the tops of tall torches lining the hall.
Satan’s throne, at the peak of a steep stairway much like that of the devil’s old home among the caves of the Earth, was ornate, golden, and there were great bones at its head, curling up so that anyone who sat on it might appear to have horns — but it was empty.Lonesome, the other bone accents on the massive seat remained still, as did a cloth strung upon it like a diagonal sash on a torso.Baal did move to stand before it, however — the throne of his king.His shoulders were tensed, his hands were fists, and though his back was facing the captured angel, he soon turned his face to reveal a clenched jaw, glared red eyes, an angry curl to his upper lip.
“Who are you?”grunted the chief duke of Hell.
Dina stared up at him, instinctively wanted to place his hands before himself and fiddle his fingers but his wrists were locked together with bulky, rusted cuffs, listening to the shuffling of a demon behind him.Earlier, the one in the hood had slipped away, murmuring something to Baal that the angel hadn’t heard.This had occurred as Dina was dragged through a narrow passage in the cave he’d been pulled into, as they had stepped out into a great hollowing in the red rock that encased Hell.Here, there had been a tower, though its likeness was not like most tall edifices of Heaven, nor any of the multi-story buildings of Earth.Instead, it resembled an amphitheater, the walls composed of archway after archway, so reminiscent of the great arena where innocent angels brawled before Satan’s corruption, except far too tall and thin.When Dina had come upon it, his face had tilted up and up and up, trying to take in the impossibly towering structure of Hell at its faux center.
“Answer me,” Baal grunted, twisting his body, stepping toward the angel.In one hand, he still held the mace with its starred sphere on a chain, still dripping heavenly blood.
Dina was still wounded, of course, red soaked down the torn front of his hoodie, soaking the company name printed there.He couldn’t help but oddly pity it, the company name, though it was his own chest torn open and pulsing in pain.Like a heart — the pulsing.“Dina…” he answered slowly, warily, tongue still tasting the metallic tang of his bleeding.“That is… who I am.”As they’d walked Dina down the steps toward the devil’s tower, he’d realized there were other buildings in the vicinity — stouter and some of wood, some of rock, some of mud.The demons he saw — a few with animal heads, many with animal limbs, most with horns and tails, nearly all angelic beauty lost — were cleaning stone pathways and scraping off their walls clumps of red-pink like flesh.‘It even breathed, like flesh.’
“Dina,” echoed Baal, took a second to glance at the demon behind the angel, then returned his attention to Dina.“What are you doing here?”His tone was stiff, even irritated, but he didn’t raise it.“Did your God send you here?Or was it your chief prince?”Slowly, his hands began to work coiling the chain around his palm, the sphere coming to be held carefully by his claws.“I know that you little angels can’t lie, but if you spare any details it’ll be your head you lose next.”
Imagining the sight of his body, twitching and decapitated, Dina swallowed and felt his body shudder.“I—” ‘Where is my star?’What should he say?“I’m not here on Michael’s orders, and I’m not here on the Lord’s either.”Baal, slowly, growled.“It’s true!”Dina added hastily, turning back up, struggling against the cuffs of his hands because he so terribly wanted to interlock his fingers before his face and beg.“I’m not here for anyone except myself.”
“Then what the fuck do you want?”
Dina, frantic, tried to think of something, some half-truth, something his star would guide him to say.Instead, he blurted the truth: “Where are the Watchers?”Baal’s eyes, instantly, widened.“I’m looking for my friends— Azazel.Armoni.They left Heaven to help the humans.Many things happened.I cannot tell you what — but I know that there was a Flood.The Father commanded me to see the Earth and tell the man Noah that the end would come and that he should build an ark, but I never understood what happened.I was told the Watchers corrupted themselves with women and there were giants, but I never understood.I never—” He was not only being honest to the demon now; Dina was confessing a secret to himself.“I never believed it because I didn’t understand.It didn’t sound like something my friends would do.Believe me that this is why I am here in Hell.I didn’t mean to come to Hell.I was only searching for my friends?—”
