Nakoma

I open my eyes and see my robe clad saviour. He’s dark skinned with unruly, curly dark brown hair that brushes against his shoulders. But the feature that strikes me the most, are the seven pure white wings protruding from my saviour’s back. I’m left speechless as the heavenly figure socks the dog-like creature in the face, sending it flying. It yelps on impact before crawling back to its feet with a growl.

“Wh-who are you?” I ask.

The man looks over at me with bright golden eyes.

“Oh, I’m Gabriel, but you can just call me Gabe.”

“Gabriel… as in the Archangel?” I inquire wide-eyed. A smile breaks out on his face, and he nods.

“That’s me.” He gives me an endearing look before turning his attention back to the dogs where the alpha seems to have recovered from the shock of being punched. He growls menacingly, which the other dogs soon join in with. Is he going to be okay? Was there anyway that he could take on this many at once? He was greatly outnumbered. Before I can voice my concerns, there’s another flash of light beside me. I recoil from it, but once it fades, I’m greeted by another man with tanned skin and gorgeous golden eyes. Upon his back I spot seven wings with a pale green tint to them. This angel was garbed in a seafoam cloak and white robes underneath.

“Hello,” he greets me gently, reaching towards me. “Are you hurt?”

“Down boy,” I here Gabriel say. I turn my attention back over to him.

The dogs pounce at him, but he easily fends them off with his fists.

“Don’t worry about Gabe,” the angel says softly. “He is Heaven’s strongest. Let’s worry about you right now. Are you hurt?” He repeats.

I nod and hold out my bleeding mess of an arm. I can hardly feel it now, but I know it must hurt like Hell. He frowns, and takes my arm gingerly into his hands.

“And you are?” I ask, gritting my teeth at his touch, no matter how gentle he is, it’s still uncomfortable.

“I am Raphael,” he says warmly. So he’s another Archangel.

“What are two Archangels doing here?” I ask. He places a hand over the wound on my arm. Beneath his hand, a green light begins to glow. I’m mesmerized by it, and I can’t tear my eyes away from it. I hear a yelp from one of the dogs and Gabriel apologizes.

“We’ve been watching over you,” Raphael informs me, fixing me in his warm gaze.

“Watching over me?” I cock my head to the side, noting how my arm was starting to feel better.

“Yes,” he smiles. “You’re carrying out a sacred duty, it’s only to be expected that you have angels looking out for you.”

“Yeah, but... Archangels?” I ask with amazement.

He laughs softly. “Yes, Archangels.” The green light grows brighter and I hear another yelp from the pack. I look over to see Gabriel standing unscathed in front of the group of cowering dogs. After a few moments of staring Gabriel down, they back away before fleeing into the woods. Gabriel looks back at us with a smile.

“Hellhounds,” he shrugs. “Not too bad. I didn’t kill any of them, I couldn’t bear to, but they shouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.”

He strolls over to us, and I look back to Raphael’s hand where the green light was fading. Once the light disappears, he pulls back to reveal my arm has completely been healed.

“Whoa,” I breath, touching the area that should have been shredded to bits. There wasn’t even a scar. “How’d you do that?”

“It’s a gift from my Father.” He says. “Gabriel has his strength, Michael has his speed, Uriel has his flames, and I have my healing.”

“It must be very useful,” I note. An odd look flashes across his face.

“Oh, you have no idea…”

I then remember the demons sitting back at the campfire. They were probably wondering where I had gotten off to.

“I need to head back. The demons are probably worried…” As soon as the words leave my lips, I realize that they probably hope I’m dead.

“We’ll take you back,” Gabriel says with a smile. I return his smile and nod.

Raphael holds out his hand to me. “It’ll be faster if we teleport.”

I’m a bit reluctant, but I agree. “Alright…” I take Raphael’s hand in mine and squeeze my eyes shut. I get a tingling feeling in my stomach, and suddenly I can smell the campfire.

“Noki!?” Colt sounds surprised.

“Uncle Gabe, Uncle Raph!” Dica says loudly. “What’s up?”

I open my eyes to find we’re standing in front of them.

“This is Uncle Raph and Gabe?” Colt asks, his golden eyes wide. I realize in that moment that Colt has the same golden eyes as the Archangels. As I look to my two angelic companions, I realize that their wings are gone. They must be hiding them somehow.

Raphael looks to Colt.

“You must be Colt,” he says, walking over to the demon. He grins ear to ear and ruffles Colt’s hair. “You look just like your mother.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys finally,” Colt says gleefully. “My father talked a lot about you.”

“Ah, hello, Puella,” Raphael says with his gentle smile to Puella. She looks up at him with a cold glare.

“Fuck off, you Kentucky Fried reject,” she snaps. Raphael doesn’t even flinch, almost as if he were expecting it.

“It’s nice to see you too,” he mumbles.

Gabriel scratches the back of his head. “Sorry about your loss and all… It’s hitting us pretty hard in Heaven too, with losing Luce…”

“Luce…” Dica mumbles to himself almost in disbelief.

“It’s okay…” Colt breathes, obviously saddened by the subject of his father.

Raphael looks sadly at the ground. Suddenly Dica leaps to his feet.

“Why haven’t you guys told the church about Lord Lucifer’s passing?” He asks accusingly. “If you told them like you were supposed to, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Raphael sighs. “Believe me, we wanted to. It’s just that our Father has yet to make the order for us to.”

Puella suddenly rises from where she sits. “Of course that old bastard hasn’t,” she growls.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes earnestly to her. She sighs and sits back, probably realizing that yelling at angels wouldn’t do much.

“What are you guys even doing here?” Dica asks.

Gabriel smiles. “It’s not like we could let a prophet of the Lord get torn apart by those big scary pups.”

“Hellhounds?’ Dica asks, to which Raphael nods. After a moment of silence, Dica breathes, “Fur…” So there was that name again. Looks like Furfur still wanted me dead and now he was sending scaly dogs to carry out my execution. This time he almost succeeded.

“Would you guys care to join our campfire?” I ask them. Puella looks offended that I would even offer, but she doesn’t say anything.

“Heck yeah,” Gabriel says, a dorky grin on his face.

A few minutes later, we sat with the two Archangels around the fire. Colt seems very interested in them.

“What was Dad like back when he lived in Heaven?” He asks. Raphael pauses a moment, contemplating what to say.

“He was… a good big brother,” he eventually says. “The apple of Heaven’s eye. Everyone adored Lucifer. He was charismatic, witty, funny, protective… just about everything you would want in an older brother. He was our Father’s favourite by a long shot.” Raphael smiles at the memories. Colt leans in closer, a smile on his face. Dica, however, seems lost in thought.

“What changed?” I press, suddenly interested.

Raphael pauses, the smile vanishing from his face. “Humans. Lucifer despised our Father’s creation. He saw them as a poor replacement for angels and well… he grew jealous and angrier until he decided to sabotage humanity and I’m sure you know the story of the Forbidden Fruit.” I nod. So Lucifer was jealous of humans? I guess that would make Envy his greatest sin. I look to Colt. Perhaps that’s why he doted on him…

“But Luce was great,” Gabriel says. “You know the platypus?”

We all nod. A large grin breaks across Gabriel’s face.

“That was all Luce and I.” He puffs out his chest with pride. “Back when Dad was creating animals and stuff, Luce and I thought it would be cool to combine the most ridiculous things we could think of. So we drew it up, gave it to Dad, and created the most rad creature in existence.”

I giggle at the use of the word “rad”.

“That’s so cool. I had no idea.” I say, smiling at the Archangel.

“Yeah, Luce and I got into tons of trouble back in the day,” he confesses. “Michael would always get mad at us.” For angels, the two of them seem so human, a lot like my demons. Were Angels really all that different from Demons?

“It was nice getting to talk to you, Nakoma,” Raphael says. “But we really must return to Heaven. I fear we’ve been away far too long.”

I nod. “It was nice getting to meet you.”

“Come along, Gabriel,” Raphael says and within a second, he’s gone. Gabriel waves before he too vanishes into thin air.

Puella mumbles something that sounds like “winged bastards”, and I can only assume that she wasn’t the biggest fan of angels. I yawn and look to our dying fire.

“I’m heading to my tent,” I announce. “Is anyone else tired?”

Puella and Dica shake their heads while Colt looks up at me with big shimmering eyes. “I’m pretty tired. Can I sleep with you, Noki?” I think it over for a minute. Having Colt with me was better than him fighting with Dica all night. Maybe I could talk to him about Dica.

“Alright, c’mon Colty.” I say, heading towards my tent. I pull back the flap and crawl into the tent and go to sit on my sleeping bag. Colt follows suit and sits across from me after zipping the flap back up. I cross my arms.

“Alright, Colty. Why do you hate Dica so much? And I don’t want to hear ‘he’s a whore’ as an answer.”

He studies me for a moment or two before opening his mouth.

“I mentioned it awhile ago but… he killed Sloth.”

“And Sloth was important to you?” I ask. I notice a small shimmer of tears in his bright eyes.

“She was everything to me,” he says mournfully. “She was the most amazing person I had ever met.”

“She must have meant a lot to you,” I say softly, feeling a pang of sorrow for him.

“She really did…” He stares off into space as he continues. “She had the cutest snores and the brightest smile… Her laugh would always get me to laugh along.” A smile breaks out on his face. “She always knew what to say too, sharp with her wit and smarter than any person I had ever met.”

“She sounds amazing.” I say.

“I miss her,” he laments. “I miss waking up beside her in the morning… seeing her sleepy face come alive. The way her hand felt in mine… they were always soft, I mean, she was always soft. I loved her so much it felt like part of me died with her.” He pauses to wipe away a few tears. I move quickly over to him and wrap him up in my arms.

“I’m so sorry, Colty,” I apologize. He sniffles in response.

“And… every time I look at Dica I just see her ashes… I see the man that took her away from me.” He rubs his eyes. “I see a monster.”

“I understand why you feel that way…”

Colt glances up at me with his tear streaked face. My heart shatters at the sight and I want nothing more than to wipe away his tears.

“I just wish she was here with me… I get it… she’ll reincarnate and all, but she’ll be a completely different person when that happens.”

“I see…” I wipe away a few of his tears with my thumb. So Colt was a bit of a romantic. It was kind of sweet to see, but he was so sad. He must have really loved this girl.

“Why did Dica kill her?” I ask.

“She was talking shit about him,” he confesses almost hesitantly. “All true things, I promise. But that’s what happens when people cross Dica; they die.”

I shudder and yawn. “If that’s the case, why are you still alive?”

Colt stiffens. “I… I don’t know.”

Silence fills the tent and the two of us eventually lie down close by each other. As I lie there in the dark, I think over what Colt has told me. Dica was a killer, he killed all those who opposed him, and Colt loved Sloth. I try to imagine what things she said about Dica to warrant her death, but I come up with nothing. A thought hits me suddenly.

“Sloth was your sister…”

“Yeah,” Colt says nonchalantly. “I promise it’s not that weird in Hell.”

I try to wrap my head around that as Colt wraps his arm around me.

“I see a lot of her in you,” he whispers.