AMELIE - Part VII

AMELIE – PART VII –
© Tamsin L. Silver 2013

              My lungs suddenly felt constricted. I was unable to inhale any air into my human body. All it would take is the wrong choice and I’d be stuck with it forever. Angels didn’t get chances like humans. We weren’t allowed mistakes. Just ask those that had sided with Lucifer.

I had no idea why I was here. Could he be right? Could God have cast me to Earth to be snatched up and taken to Hell? My spirit reached for the truth of that and found it false. As I absorbed that realization, relief comforted me, a warmth spread through my chest.

A smile crept across my face. “You lie.”

“You don’t know that. You don’t even know why you are here.”

“Actually, I do. I’m your escort out of town. Lucky me.”

“I’ll kill this body. You want that on your conscious?”

All it would take was for me to solidify Esther and she would slice the skin of the man the demon had taken over and with the body dying, the demon would have to vacate. The question I had to deal with was did Charles deserve to die for his lack of faith in the one true God? Was death appropriate for his unhealthy religious practice that brought him to this fork in the road?

“Tell me about Charles’ church, Patricia,” I demanded.

“Wha- what? Why?” she stammered, her voice shaking.

“What kind of church is it that you witnessed?”

“Charles is a good preacher. He may worship differently, but he’s a good man.”

Red flag number two. I sighed.

“He’s a good man, he loves the Lord,” she continued.

“Yeah, which lord is the question,” I muttered. I had a decision to make. Pondering the location of the sword in Charles’ belly I knew I only had two options, and they both weren’t great…as the humans would say, they both sucked.

“Stand,” I ordered Charles and the demon obeyed. Maneuvering him away from the family, placing myself in between him and the church I said, “Kneel.” He followed orders like a puppy. He had no choice with Esther embedded into his spirit. I took a settling breath and looked to the sky. “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I demand you exit this body and return to where you came.”

Hoping not to have to follow through with my next move, I did it anyway. I yanked the spiritual sword from his body so he could exit, but the demon screamed and attempted to hold on. To push him further, I arced the sword, which was now solid, in a way that would remove Charles’ head. That was the last push.

Charles’ body fell backward; his legs still bent under him. With vacant eyes, his mouth opened wide and a black, oily substance seeped out from his body. With no idea what form Semiazas would take, I braced my feet and prayed for the best. However, I knew he was angry, and I’d very likely get his worst.

“Stay in the church,” was all I said before the black substance took form.

Standing before me now was a seven-foot man of solid, bulging muscles, red in color with two, four-inch horns that curved from the sides of his head. Spreading his arms wide he roared, exposing long white teeth the same length as his horns. His wings spread, exposing that they no longer were beautifully covered in feathers, but leathery like a bat’s. Semiazas reached to his back, muttered a name, and pulled an enormous axe from behind him.

“Holy–crap!” Killian spouted.

I couldn’t help but agree with his sentiment. I tossed Esther up and caught her so she was upside down, the shape of a cross, and held it out toward the beast of a demon. With another roar, he backed away.

“Leave, go back to your lord and tell him he has no power here.”

His wings beat furiously and he screamed at me. Once his temper tantrum was over, he spoke to my mind from his, like angels speak to each other, “This is not over!” With that, he threw his axe, and in horror we all watched as it landed in the center of Charles’ body, blood shooting up like a fountain, gushing out all over the ground.

With a scream, Patricia pulled from of her husband and ran from the safety of the church, yelling for Charles. I could see the man she cared for was gone and my heart broke. Keeping the cross between Semiazas and myself, I turned to see that Pastor Steven, in fear for his wife, now ran after her. If I were a cursing being, now would’ve been my time.

Semiazas’ eyes lit from within, like the embers of a fire, and as Patricia fell next to Charles’ body, he reached down to scoop them both up.

“No!” Pastor Steven bellowed.

I began to flip Esther into fighting position to protect the pastor when the axe swirled down, catching him in the left shoulder, tossing him across the road. His body landed at the edge of the hill and rolled over it and disappeared, prompting Killian to come running out of the church. Turning, I saw him lift up the sword Charles had dropped and run towards Semiazas.

Pulling off the long sleeve t-shirt Patricia had given me, my wings erupted from my back and I flew into the air. I knocked the sword from Killian’s hand, scooped him up in one arm while the other held Ester, and flew to the top of the church. Spinning Esther again to a cross, I held my ground.

With a laugh, Semiazas flew higher into the air and disappeared in puff of smoke, taking both Charles and Patricia with him.