My Angel
“Do you resign?” My voice was harsh, a gritty sound that seemed to make my Angel shiver. Yes, she was mine. I had finally won the battle of seven years, the War of Ages. My Angel was my reward, the only thing I needed to show my victorious stance.
“I cannot continue to fight.” She was defeated. She had lost to the darkest side of life, the one true death. I couldn’t help but to feel my twisted lips pull tight in a gruesome smile.
Lifting my blackened hand from her thin, pale neck I stood back gazing down at my prize. Her emerald eyes blazed up at me in rage, but she could do nothing to stop me from completing my intentions. She was mine to keep, a pet of sorts to show off to my impossible victory over the Saints of Heaven. Tears of heaven poured down my grimy skin to dampen my hideous wings. Heaven’s rain, it was a true sign that this creature was mine to keep.
Reaching down to my prize I hefted the Angel from her spot on the ground and forced her to stand on trembling legs. She would be the body to keep my nest warm at night; a bright and glorious reminder of my victory. Yes, I could already feel the glow of her essence flowing into me. Such a warm, liquid current of energy as she was. It was as though just touching her arm gave me power.
“Please,” My Angel’s voice purred. “Do not kill me.”
Life? She wanted to live knowing what I would do to her? Belting out a hefty laugh I watched her face warp into a sight of horror.
“I will do with you as I please.” I lifted a hand and cupped her cheek for only a moment. “You are mine.”
Her eyes glimmered with tears as my ashen hand slipped away from her cheek leaving charcoal to taint her skin. As if washed away, the darkness melted from her skin. Even in defeat I could not taint this pure creature. She would forever remain sterile and cleansed. It was in their nature to be pure, not even one such as I, so disgusting and poisonous, could change that.
Days passed before my Angel spoke again to me. I had dragged her back to my nest, a cozy cave filled with my collections from over the years. She was by far the greatest possession I had. Even wrapped in the blood caked shackles that encased her limbs and neck she was a great light in the darkness; a beacon to my bed, where she had sat silently for days on end, never parting her lips to speak, eat or drink. I had started to worry that my prize would wither away into nothing, but on the fourth day those pink lips parted to offer me one word.
“Ghost.”
I did not understand her meaning by that word. Ghost, a shadow of ones former self. Was this her intent all along? I could not be sure, but in the following nights her words came more often.
“Save you from hell.” Her words were fast, but so soft I nearly missed them in the darkness of the night. She sat like a glowing goddess at the foot of my bed. Her wings shimmered golden dust while her hair trailed down her back in soft waves.
I opened my mouth to reply, but hesitated for a reason unknown to myself. “You cannot save someone who does not wish to be rescued.”
My angel turned slowly, a motion that seemed to be patient and sure. I lifted myself from where I had lain across the sheets to meet her emerald stare.
“You have fallen far from my lips, Demon.” Her voice echoed around the room, a curious sound that lured me closer to her shining silhouette.
“Had I once belonged to them?” My words were teasing as they slipped from my mouth. My Angel froze, her mouth hanging slightly open as she seemed to come to herself.
We didn’t speak again that night or the next, but something did happen. As I slept something strange happened. It seemed that everyday the angel spent at my bed side a part of this disgusting figure would fall away. Peach skin was revealed by pealing away the grime that slicked off of my skin in pieces. My once scaled wings began to sprout feathers like fresh flowers in the spring while my eyes faded from black to a most strange color of blue. One morning I had even woken up with a new layer of yellowish fuzz on my head. All this time my Angel had sat silently, watching my body change in the most eerie ways.
“What is happening?” I had the gall to ask myself one night as I had started to search my body for any new signs of change.
The woman behind me, My Angel, had answered me so swiftly I had turned to watch her intently. “You are becoming more like me, an Angel of grandeur status,” her voice drifted to me from her seat on the edge of the bed. It was a lovely sound, a melody of single pitched words.
“I am a Demon, never will I be what you are. I am a servant of Hell, a hellion that works under the word of the Nether God.”
“An ingenious jest you have come up with.” A soft smile played across my Angel’s lips. Surely it was an act. Some pleasurable company to trick me into releasing her bonds... Surely.
“I do not jest, my Angel.” Even as I spoke my voice sounded unsure. A fine tremble that her soft eyes noticed.
“Our hearts have been entwined ever since our fingers first touched.” Her body rose from the bed. One long leg pressed in front of the other until she stood at my chest, emerald eyes gleaming up at me. “I have found you, ma fleur.”
I lifted my hand to strike my Angel away, but as my hand swept across my body I found myself unable to move. My hand, it was not black. My skin had become untainted. My eyes widened in horror as I realized that I was becoming less of a demon, and more of an Angel. Lips pressed against mine, but I could not seem to register the feeling and react. I could feel something sliding down my skin, my scalp moved along my skull, my wings lost their weight becoming lighter and less of a burden. My thoughts faded away, a fog of ease clouded my thoughts until I found myself staring into a pair of familiar emerald eyes.
“Ma Ange?” Was that my voice? So soft and melodious? It seemed impossible for it to be so light. My heart fluttered in my chest, a movement I had not felt in many years past. Dragging a ragged breath through my lips I sighed it out, a feeling I had also not felt in ages.
“I am here, amour.” My angel smiled up at me. It was an expression I had never seen before.
“What has happened?” I could not understand myself. It was strange to have words that you spoke and not know a word of it.
“You have come back to me.” Her hand pressed against my cheek. Such a soft touch forced a sigh from my mouth and a feeling of calm to overtake my body.
“Where did I go?” I took her hand in my own, ran a strangely beautiful thumb over her soft skin and explored her digits with my own.
“You became a ghost, ma amour.” She pulled her hand away from mine and parted my arms to rest her head against the bend of my shoulder.
“A ghost?” My arms found a hold around her body and I held her delicately too me as if she might break.
“Yes.” Our lips met, and for once in my cheerless life I realized that all I had needed was love.
