I, Devil (a love story)

Chapter Thirty Two: Sachiel

It was a crazy idea, I know. I had no idea what the repercussions would be, if any. It seemed like both the right and wrong thing to do. I just couldn't shake the core of my identity. I was an angel, a good guy angel, but stuck in the wrong place. I was free from Lord Adremelech and I wanted my last moments as myself to do something good in the world. I felt bad for Wendy. She was tangled up with a whole bunch of Devils and didn't even know it. She didn't deserve it, either. I had seen her file and all she was is a good person-- a super duper good person.

So, I thought saving her life in her very first near death experience was the right thing to do. From reading her paperwork, she drowned in a pool as a very little child. I didn't read all the details. She was in the deep end of the pool and it was the kind of the tragedy that happened every day, all the time.

I stood a moment to take in the scene. It was an unstable place, since it was just her timeline, her memory. It was sometime in the 1980's, and everything in the country-club was well polished, white, and fabricated. The pool was an unnatural, chemical blue and Wendy's flotation device was made of petroleum based neon-colored plastic. I didn't like it here. It felt like a Low Place, somewhere near Hell's vibrations. Nothing here was natural or organic. Even the music was upbeat and made to be consumed. I caught some of the song lyrics:

"I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf
Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you"

Everything felt off and strange. However, there wasn't anything natural about time travel and I wasn't particularly good or skilled at it. I was only here because I was granted the access based on the paperwork. I knew I was unable to travel anywhere else. I could feel the invisible boundaries around me, like a big glass dome. I had access to her memories on file and had some limited permissions, but nothing else. Though, I don't think either Lords Azazel or Adremelech had anticipated that I would actually interfere behind their backs and meddle like this.

I stood in the background and made doubly-sure that I couldn't be seen this time. I placed layers and layers of spells of invisibility and camouflage onto my being. I definitely didn't want the risk of being seen. I saw Wendy floating on her plastic raft, her backside facing me. I saw her looking intently at something, but all I could see facing her direction was a wall of green hedges. Yet, she seemed to be talking to something or someone. Even if it was a spirit or a ghost... I should have been able to see.

I could sense she had the usual assortment of fairies around her at a distance. Since she had fairy heritage, it wasn't unusual for her kinfolk to be near, especially as a child. This didn't seem like that. I feared stepping closer in case whatever it was could sense me in some way. But, from what I scanned in her file she should have been alone in the pool. That's what caused the mistake. No adult was around to rescue her the first time.

I drifted across the way, pretending to be a cloud. I knew I couldn't be seen, but I felt that if I focused on truly being nothing, that it would help. As I rounded my way across the pool, I could see what young Wendy was talking to. It was a man, tall and lanky with red hair and a brown suit. He stood on the pool's edge, crouching down to be closer to eye level. Strangely, a small orange floated in the water between them. I could see young Wendy looking up into his face and babbling, as a child would.

I couldn't hear what was being said. She was supposed to be alone, that's what was in the paperwork. Wendy's first near death experience happened in the country-club pool, where she slipped off her plastic raft and drowned. Since no adult was acting responsibly and watching her, it was too late by the time she was found. She moved on into a different timeline and continued her experience as a human, only with a little damage done.