Looking down, I find similar dried stains on the kid and tighten my arms around him. Even now, when he is close to my heart with my arms wrapped around him, I can’t tamp down the rage that wakes up when I notice his sunken cheeks. Just a couple of months and those monsters managed to dim his light.
It kills me how similar our stories are, taken from our families and thrown into a cell for something out of our control.
There were more of us in those cells at one point, whose life’s purpose was cruelly snatched away before dying in the most gruesome ways. All because one person was abusing their power to destroy a future they disagreed with.
Furiously rubbing my eyes, I try to clear my glassy vision and find some hidden inner strength to pull myself up. My head is reeling with tattered stories from my past as I limp towards the border, and I don’t block them out this time.
The familiarity of my father’s voice in my head soothes the ache in my heart even when I can’t exactly remember what he looked like when he told me those stories. I purposely distract myself by revisiting the blurry memories of when he told me about the history of our world.
One day,the three sisters of fatesaw a glimpse into a future led by the immortals. Something about that vision rattled them enough to announce a gift—the gift of procreation.
News about ‘the gift’ took Heaven by storm. Fates offered everyone a chance to have asoulmateand create a family of their own. A different life than what they were created for, i.e, being a soldier.
God was reluctant in the beginning, but when he heard the protests against the gift and watched his first children slowly get poisoned by power, he knew it was a necessary step.
Heaven soon split in two between those who chose immortality and eternal loyalty to Heaven and those who opted for the gift.
Lucifer, the miscreant son, stood up to bear the burden of leadership and built an entire realm for himself and his followers when Heaven made it clear those who stumbled away from their original destiny had no right to their creator anymore.
Over time, the original devil in name created many new supernatural species to help him bring quantity toHell.
Since the beginning of time, humans have only come close to extinction once, and that close call ended up freeing the souls of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to guide them to the end.
Before my ancestors could finish what they were freed to do, the sisters of fate suspended the end of humanity. Even thoughthe end of time got postponed, the Horsemen were trapped into existencecenturiesbefore they were needed.
Since Horsemen didn’t belong to one place more than the other, they decided to build a home hidden amongst the same humans they were destined to erase one day.
Poetic.Dark but poetic.
The differences between Heaven and Hell were never resolved, and the more time passed, the clearer it became that the two sides would never reunite.
Slowly, our kind became a link between both realms, working with both sides but answerable to neither.
Though Horsemen didn’t get along with Heaven or Hell, they never interfered with the grand plans for humans. However, in the last half-century, the Horsemen found an ally in Hell when the future Grim Reaper became friends with the new King of Hell.
If you count, there’s been three significant wars between Heaven and Hell. The first one that drew a clear line between them. The second was when the original Lucifer found his mate. And the third that the Horseman of Death instigated. My dear papa, to be exact.
When Papa was seventeen and still learning the ropes of being the next Grim Reaper, he was invited to Heaven with Uncle Elijah—thesecondLucifer to be crowned king of Hell, for an annual meeting with the Archangels.
What was supposed to be a professional meeting turned into a bloody brawl when the Archangel of love taunted Papa that he wasn’t born with a soulmate. His exact words were, ‘Fates aren’t cruel enough to punish a poor woman by pairing her with a Horseman. The Grim Reaper, no less.’
Having learned of his bleak future, he did something impulsive and frankly, quite stupid. Since Uncle Elijah was his best friend and the newly crowned King of Hell, he offered thehelp of a ‘Lucifer’ and joined him in his quest instead of trying to change his mind.
Those two are pure chaos when united.
They broke into Heaven one night and stole a piece of Divine, which Papa used tocreatea daughter with his essence. His logic being, if he didn’t have a mate or the future he wanted, he would make his own fate.
So, he created his own family. He createdme. He literally made a baby out of thin air from his blood, essence, and the power of Divine.
Guess what he named the said daughter?Nevaeh. Heaven spelled backwards.
Tell me he wasn’t aiming to piss Heaven even more.
The Archangels were enraged and believed since it wasHeaven’s propertythat created me, a superior species with unknown abilities on top of my Horsemen blood, it was only fitting for Heaven to keep me and make sure I don’t turnevil.
When Papa refused to give up his one-day-old baby girlorapologize, Heaven retaliated. But when you have all of Hell backing you up along with your chumminess with the literal devil, who can stand against you?
Even though Papa never found his mate in the time I was with him, it never bothered him because he had me, his daughter, his trouble.
