Argathripe - Book 2 ~ (The Dead City Series)

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ Chapter 7 ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

Hunter

"Alright, alright, settle down!" The commander shouted to all the rowdy people in the marble room.

We were having the last conference before Angel Season. I thought that Angel Season was a waste of every angel's time, but I had basically every single angel against me, and I also had no say in the matter. I adjusted my shirt's collar.

"We all know our jobs, correct?" Some people nodded their heads, and I heard a few responses.

The commander sighed. My hands fiddled with my tough but comfortable gloves. They're good for punching people in the face when the time comes. Like, for example, a demon exists somewhere. Any angel would know to put them in their place. Even if the demon wasn't hurting anyone, every angel knew how sinister demons were on the inside.

"Sir, I still don't see why I have to go. You're usually fine with me staying here for Angel Season. So what's up with that?" I asked him, annoyed.

I heard multiple groans in the room of 100 battle angels. I was pretty sure the commander was one of them.

"Hunter, you're one of the best on the team," Multiple people started 'hey!' ing to that. "And this year," He hesitated, "King Salhom is letting demons come to the ceremony."

Almost everyone stood up. Then we all started to yell and shout and stomp in protest. Our wings got fluffy, like they usually do when angels got mad. They also got fluffy when we were embarrassed, but that definitely wasn't the case at the moment.

"This is outrageous!"

"I'm not going if stupid demons are gonna be there!"

"Why were we not told this before?!"

"This is stupid! It's all stupid! Everyone here is stupid!" Then people started yelling at that guy as well as the commander.

The classic 'I hate my life' face the commander was owning was actually a little funny, but no one laughed. But seriously, demons?! Our enemies?! Well, we weren't at war with them, but every angel hated every single demon. Except our king, King Salhom. He was always hanging out with the demon king, King Damian. King Salhom had tried multiple exercises where the angels don't hate the demons, but no angel could practically stand the look of demons. Much less 'hang out' with them and 'socialize.' It was in my blood to hate demons. It was in everyone's blood.

Eventually everyone settled down after getting all their anger out. The commander went over everyone's roles again, just so it was burned into our brains. As an 18 year old, I was angry but tired at the same time. My role was to protect the king in Angel Season again. To other species, that means I protect him from assassins or people trying to kill him. But to us angels it just means to make sure no demons go near him. I saw nothing wrong with it, and didn't think I ever would.

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

After the commander told us we could all leave, I figured I would take a small break. I was walking down some of the marble stairs to a white, star-gaze gazebo. When I reached the end, I took off my shoes and socks to feel the clouds' fluff under my bare feet. I walked over to the gazebo, and sat down on one of the benches. The view was always spectacular, especially at dawn or dusk. The orange mixed with the yellow, pink, and baby blue was a perfect sight after a long day. In just three days Angel Season would be upon us, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

Eventually I realized it was dark and I should've gone to bed. I hopped off of the bench and put my shoes back on. I stretched my wings, did a few flaps, and I started towards the dorms. With us battle angels, we needed to be available at any time at any day, so we were all kept in the same area. They basically looked like college dorms, except with clouds, marble, and really nice showers. Also they had a great exercising area outside and inside. And a heated pool. I realized how pampered we were. As I got to the courtyard, I saw multiple people up and walking around. I was surprised at how many angels were up at this time. I checked my watch. 23:57? It wasn't like it was only 11 in the morning. I saw most of them walking over to the bulletin board that kept us updated. I walked over. Some angels saw me and moved away so I could see. Others snickered. But some looked sadly at me. What the demons? I thought as more of them moved out of the way for me.

"Sorry Hunter..." An angel I had never talked to in my life said to me.

"Sorry about what? What's going on?" I asked.

No reply. I got to the bulletin board and multiple angels pointed to a post that hadn't been there this morning. It was a pamphlet about letting demons in this Angel Season. Apparently someone had to guide a few of them to let them know where to go and where not to go. Then I saw who it was. I stared at it in disbelief. Without adjusting my gaze, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and got into a certain someone's contact.

"Hello?" The groggy voice said.

"Yeah, hi. Did I wake you up?" I said trying to act completely calm.

"Um, yes. Hunter why are you calling me at this time?"

"Well, I would like to talk about something. Just, a tiny thing, really. Not all that important."

"If it's not important--"

"Why in KING SALHOM'S NAME do I have to guide demons this Angel Season?! What in the DEMONS do you think I do for a living?!" Multiple people gasped at my foul language towards the commander.

The commander didn't answer for a few seconds. "Hunter I'm on speakerphone aren't I?"

"Yep!" I said, not letting a hint of shame in my voice even though I just cussed him out.

I heard him sigh. "We can talk about this in the morning. Just let me sleep."

"No, we are talking about this right this second--"

I heard the beep that meant he had hung up on me. I was able to tell that people were starting to back away from me. I smoothed my hair, ruffled the feathers on my wings, and started to walk towards the elevator that would take me to my floor. On the way over, I hurled a trash can at a window and heard a crash, turned, then just kept walking.