Anarchy, Burning(ONC2022 Entry)

Part 9- Elijah

Elijah sits in the cabin trying his best to make sense of everything the women have shared with him. It all seems fantastical and unreal. The kind of stuff you read in a fantasy magazine. He might have laughed it off as a joke had he not seen the hellspurs erupt out of the earth or the hellhounds lumbering through the streets. He looks below deck where Amy is fast asleep. Emily stares up at him, her eyes haunted. He wonders if he looks the same way.

"So you and Fryga are members of this Organization?" he asks, glancing between the two women.

"Ha. I'd never be a narc." Fryga scoffs, the ship bouncing as it fights against the chop.

"No, I'm a hunter. She's a car thief I sent to the dungeons for smuggling."

"Okay. So, if your people can deal with this, how do we get to them?" Despite the tension between the two women, Elijah feels hope for the first time since seeing the GWB.

"That's the thing. We've been having trouble getting in contact with command. And not just my team, but all of Brooklyn. When Jack and I crashed, I was trying to get to HQ."

"What about Heaven?"

"I want to give you answers, Elijah, but I don't have any right now. I'm as in the dark as you are."

"Fucking stupid..." Fryga says to herself.

"Look, I've had enough of your shit!" Maria snaps, running her tongue along her busted lip.

"Wait. Truce," Fryga says, raising a hand in surrender. "Just before I got out, a gatecrasher I know was excited about a big move by a major player. I thought he was talking about one of the gang bosses or politicians, but he hinted it was someone bigger."

"I don't follow."

Emily comes up the short flight of stairs and sits beside Elijah. He takes her hand and they lace their fingers together.

"Think about it, Maria. If the gates were open, they wouldn't need hellspurs to anchor the planes to one another."

For a moment, the only sounds are the crashing waters. Fryga's words go over Elijah's head, but they seem to mean something to Maria.

"This isn't Judgment Day." Maria's expression becomes the image of despair. "This is an invasion."

Silence falls over the cabin. The choppy waters, the cruiser's engine, and the distant screaming. It all acts as background music to their desperate flight from NYC. Emily squeezes Elijah's hand, her dark pupils still a bit dilated, but her pallor looks much better. Maria fidgets with the sleeves of the sweatshirt Emily has lent her. The woman is smaller than she looks and his wife's clothes are a baggy fit. Fryga keeps her attention on the river, avoiding the largest chunks of debris.

Elijah tries to make sense of things that don't make sense. Since adolescence his visions have always been a part of him. A glimpse of the future, a hint of the present, messages from the past. A gift no one could explain. Despite this, Elijah has never considered himself supernatural. Now, sitting with a half-angel and half-demon, his sensibilities are being tested.

"Ms. Ruiz, how... how would one know if they are a demi-angel?"

Everyone turns to Emily, she does her best to avoid eye contact.

"Call me Maria." The woman smiles reassuringly. "In some families the traits breed true, showing in every member of the bloodline. In some it skips multiple generations. While I can manifest wings, halo, and weapons, my older brother could only look into people's thoughts."

"You never told me you had a brother," Fryga says, turning her attention back to the river.

"I didn't tell you a lot of things. I was undercover."

"Fucking narc..."

"Grandnonny always said her husband had been an angel, but no one believed her. Momma and my uncles all said she was crazy... When everyone else had passed away, it was just Grandnonny and me." Emily's grip tightens and Elijah starts to realize where her thought must have led her. "She'd hurt herself one winter, slipping on the way to her car and hurting her hip. She was bedridden for months. Every night I could hear her talking to someone or praying. In my small apartment, it drove me crazy... I thought she was losing it, but she swore she was reaching out to my grandfather.

It was around then I got a job offer here in New York. I was conflicted with what to do. It was my career, the job of my dreams, but there was no one to take care of Grandnonny. After a big argument about her husband and her delusion, I made my decision and put her in a group home. I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought she was insane.."

"Well, maybe she is," Fryga says. "Angels and demons are real, but so are crazy people."

"Fryga." Maria shakes her head. "Emily, you had no way of knowing. But now that you do, maybe-"

"They had her committed to a mental institution. She died there with the whole world thinking she was insane."

"Wow. That's fucked up."

"Fryga!"

"She's right... I killed Grandnonny."

"No, Em. The negligence of that place killed her." Elijah hugs her close, her pain becoming his pain. "You left her in the care of people who didn't do their job. That's on them."

"... I think-" Fryga begins, but stops short as Maria motions for her to zip her mouth.

Emily buries her face in his shirt and weeps. Despite the hard times, Emily's stories about her grandmother are always wholesome and loving. The woman meant the world to Emily and the weight of her loss has haunted her. She'd always blamed herself, but the possibility that her grandmother had been sane the entire time is a lot to bear as the world is crashing down all around her. Elijah does the only thing he can and holds her.

"And we're through," Fryga says.

He looks back and sees the George Washington Bridge, or its broken remains, falling behind. Clear of the debris, they can focus on getting as far away from the city as possible. He breathes a sigh of relief. Things haven't gone as planned, but they've gotten out. That's what's important. He smiles and kisses his wife on the forehead.

A roar rips through the night, making his hair stand on end and his knees turn to jelly. Emily looks up from his chest, her face streaked with tears. Maria and Fryga both look past him. The roar comes again as a coiling mass of scales, tentacles, and mouths emerges from the river. It dives beneath the waves in an explosion of displaced water before emerging again. A single eye in its center glares at the boat and Elijah can feel his limbs growing heavy.

"What the fuck is that?" Maria and Fryga say in unison.