Angels We Have Heard On High

Chapter One

The end of the world.

I say the world; the earth, of course, was not ending. It was our world, the human world, that was coming to an end. And we just weren't ready for it.

It.

The apocalypse.

Strange word, apocalypse. Apocalypse. The End. The word itself is big, scary, full of many different sounds, hard to swallow. Very similar, in most ways, to its meaning.

The end of the world.

In biblical terms, the word 'apocalypse' refers to "a disclosure of knowledge." In the Book of Revelation (Greek: Apocalypsis Ioannou), John receives a revelation from an angel of the coming of Christ to the earth from heaven one final time.

Revelation 1:1

'The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by sending His angel unto His servant John...'

And the angel said to John,

'Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and also they which pierced Him: and all kindness of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.'

Revelation 1:7

Strange, how we seem to relate the coming of Jesus to the end of the world. "I am Alpha and Omega," God said. "I am the beginning and the ending," saith the Lord. I am. The great I Am. The Ending.

If this is God's end, then I want nothing to do with our god. He abandoned us. Us. His children. The ones he loved the most. Or at least should have. He gave us these verses through which to worship him, but in return we got nothing but pain. I don't love him anymore. How can I? How can I love someone with so much indifference toward me? I have a few choice words and a verse of my own for the Alpha and Omega:

'Cerie looked to the sky with raised middle finger and said unto Christ Jesus:
"Go screw thyself," but she received no reply, because he did not care.'

Cerie 1:1

In other words, God doesn't give a shit. God has left the building.

There is no God.

What became of the angels, those kind, beautiful, loving creatures, I do not know. I do know that they once walked among us, guardians and protectors of the Lord's creations. The were as real as the earth. As bright as the moon. As warm as the sun. And if you looked closely, you could even see their halos.

I haven't seen a single one since it started.

It.

The apocalypse.

Some people say their halos broke, and that's why we can no longer see them. Others say they flew back to heaven to escape the chaos.

Personally, I think they're dead.

My mother was saved by an angel once. As a child, she would go with her older siblings to swim down by the river. They'd never let her in the water, though, for fear she'd be swept away by the strong current and drown. But left unattended, she'd often take off her shoes and socks and go for a quick plunge in the icy water. Generally, she'd be careful not to go too far out, for she knew she could be easily overpowered by the river. But sometimes she was not so careful.

The way she tells it, the current caught her while she was practicing her strokes, and swept her to the river bottom, where her shirt snagged on a piece of driftwood and trapped her beneath the surface. The violent water flow knocked the wind out of her, and just as the corners of her vision started to go black, she saw a flash of brilliant blue light as an angel's wings unfolded. The angel dove to the bottom of the river and pulled my mother back to land. He drew the water from her lungs, dried her face, and held her until she stopped shivering. Her crying siblings ran to the angel and fell to the ground, sobbing and thanking him for their sister's life. His wings faded back to their normally invisible state and he left without a word. Mom says the one thing she remembers most is how brightly his halo was shining. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, she tells me.

And that's how my sister got her name.

Halo Grace Winchester, circa 2007.