“You look like a rabbit when you sleep. Your nostrils flare out and you sniff things. Occasionally, you squeak.” The Angel of Death sat next to me, peering at me curiously. I shook in trepidation, draped in his robe at the corner of his bed.
I hadn't managed to string a word together for over an hour. He'd hand-fed me toast and counseled me through hell and high water. One moment I raged, the next I wept like a banshee. Now, I was silent, manically pulling down from the pillow case.
“I watched you all night, you know. When you cried out, I sang to you, and you drifted back to sleep. What is it, to ride dreams, I wonder? Your little body, so warm. That it could contain such wonders.” He ran his fingers through my hair, braiding it meticulously. He drew a red ribbon from the air and fixed it at the end. Sam slid his arms over my shoulders, resting his h
I have loved you since conception, through the banks of time and across the waters of life.When I first saw you, Eve, you were golden. Father shepherded the twins proudly in to the court room, first-formed of humankind, made in the image of God. My brothers and I sang, welcoming you into the world. Adam gazed vacantly up at the Father, empty-headed and waiting to be crowned with His glorious Light. You were created to be his vessel as well, but your eyes stayed closed, refusing to open, and you drew soft, cool breaths, as if waiting for the moon to rise. It was not until I held you that you opened them. I still can not fathom that moment: their blue waters met my depths.My heart stopped, and I refused to part from you. God laughed and said I had the makings of a man in me. I did not know what I felt. I just stared into the question of your lips and waited, knowing in time, we would be.I held you at your christening and lowered y
I surfaced from his memories, finding his head in my lap. He clutched at my back like Jacob's wrestling angel. “You were so- so young.” I said. He hadn't been more than eighteen in his memories. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I stole you. I thought you were mine. It is how I understood things, as toy soldiers and spoils of war. It was not until I saw my brothers die for me that I realized the gravity of what I had done. I thought I was liberating us, that I would challenge our Father and demand our freedom.” “He would not let us step a foot past the Abyss, told us that it was the end. But I hungered for knowledge, and I sought more, made a pact with it. The void showed me what was Beyond, for a price. Now, in a sense, I am it. It drove me mad, or perhaps made me insane. Just like our Father was. He thought Himself the only one. He could not bear to know there were oth
This is what I remember:He stands by the howling void. Chalk white cliffs plummet downwards to the raging sea. The blue-blackness froths beneath him. Wind screams. It is absolute zero.Shadows fall like dolls into the abyss. There are no cries of pain. Merely silence.The Legion stands before him. Michael brandishes his flaming sword. His face is raw with suffering.“Don’t do this, brother,” he pleas.His cry falls on deaf ears. It is a corpse that stands before him. Razor thin. Pale as winter snow. He towers over the archangel, still as the grip of death.He opens his hollow eyes. All Heaven holds its breath. The void yawns, grating its jowls. Its master smiles wretchedly. His flesh cracks like ice as he speaks:“Either way, I win.” His voice is like bitter wind.The pull of the Pit wraps around the Host like a vise. The weakest crumple like smashed mica. Their shards plummet into the ab
My body strained as I ran mad-dash down a twilit path, imagining hounds on my heels. The darkness of the forest transported me to a primal time. Trees whispered ragged like ghosts in the wind. Muscles honed from years of training propelled me onwards as crisp autumn air filled my lungs, spiced with woodsmoke and loam. Instincts awoke and the desperate need to escape propelled me onwards, into the bosom of the woods, away from the impending threat- though it was only a waking dream.“How do you run so damn fast, Callie!” coach had asked once in disbelief after I'd finished a 5K in 16:30.“Rabid dogs,” I'd replied,He'd raised his brow a mile high and plastered me with a pitiful stare. It was no use explaining my unconventional techniques to the unimaginative, just like it was impossible to convey the sweetness of danger to the tamed. That beautiful feeling: heart pounding, adre
Something brushed my face. I groaned, eyes fluttering open. My back ached and I felt bruises blossoming along my arms and ribs.It was dark- so dark, I couldn't see a thing. I groped through the blackness. Something covered my body, velvet-soft, shielding me from the wind. The air smelled like musty books and heavy wine, and the ground beneath me rose and fell to the steady whirring of some hidden thing.Finally cognizant, the nightmarish memories came flooding back to me- the horse and its phantom rider, those gleaming red eyes...The hearse.“Oh, God,” I choked. I reached out, finding the wooden frame of the vehicle and the heavy curtains drawn over its sides.I was inside the deathly carriage.“Actually, God has nothing to do with this. More like: 'Oh devil! I've been abducted by a fiend!' At least that's what I assume you think me, unless you
“But- but you don't exist! You shouldn't- it's impossible. Oh my god, help me,” I panicked, scurrying into the farthest corner of the carriage, putting as much space between him and me as possible. I closed my eyes and pulled my knees to my chest. “You don't exist, death isn't alive. It's a thoughtless force of nature- it isn't sentient!”He scoffed. “Oh, pity, so I'm not real? And here I was all this time, laboring under the delusion that I existed, when it was all just a lie. Hand me a handkerchief, I'm sniffling.”“Stop mocking me. You're supposed to be silent. Death doesn't have a sense of humor.”“Says who? My job would be depressing if I wasn't. Now open your eyes, little mortal- you have nothing to fear. I'm not here to collect your soul. Not yet, anyways.” His voice was soothing
“Who am I? I have a thousand names; your kind has feared and worshiped me from the moment of your conception. I am the wolf and the raven, the silence of the night so thick you could slice it with a knife. I have witnessed the history of creation and will bring about its end. I am within and without everything, shepherding them ever closer to their terminal ends.” He paused, petting the crow idly. “But my friends call me Sam,” he added as an afterthought.“Melodramatic much?” I murmured, struggling to tame my amazement. I stumbled to my feet, brushing twigs and leaves from my dew-damp jeans.“Well, at least I don't swoon.”“I didn't swoon! It's just that this,” I said, motioning to his face, “was not what I expected.”“So what did you expect? A mouldering cadaver?” he laughed, blue-black hair cascading do
“If you value your life, then yes,” he said, helping me into the carriage and whistling to the horse. It snorted and he mounted its back, guiding it to the border of trees. The roan grunted, braying as it nosed the brambles. Peeking through the window, I watched in awe as the branches peeled back and the trunks bent to let the hearse pass through.A path appeared out of nowhere, its worn dirt lined by toadstools that glowed a faint blue. I could swear one was a fish belly-white gnome with an upturned cap, but once I blinked, he was gone. Corpseboy gazed about with reserved interest, watching as shadows crept by. Monstrous forms were hinted at by the shifting dark. His eyes were like lasers penetrating the night, casting red pools upon whatever they saw.Something growled and I jumped, startled. Not wanting to see what it was, I drew the curtains closed, huddling at the center of the carriage. The l