The Known/Unknown Quantity

Chapter 175: A Signpost Flipped

Chapter 175: A Signpost Flipped

Aziraphale squinted.

                Up ahead was a door, standing all alone and half open, with something shining on the other side. Right in front of it, shadowed in its blue light, were two figures sitting at, from what little the angel could make out, a game of chess.

                He took a few steps forward, then set the kitten down, and followed it closer as it trotted to the figures.

                "NOT OUR FIRST GAME," taller figure explained, pointing to the door. "I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER."

                "Well, if you would just move the knights correctly," the smaller figure quipped, "we'd had been done ages ago."

                The taller figure turned to him. "YOURS IS ANOTHER GAME THAN THIS, MY FRIEND."

                "Eh, excuse me," the angel asked, curious but wary. "Do forgive me. I didn't mean to stumble into your game or your, eh," he looked behind him nervously," Desert."

                "WRONG TURNS CAN BE RIGHT SOMETIMES. CHECKMATE."

                "No, look at where my queen is. I keep telling you, she doesn't go there."

                "I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE KNIGHTS."

                "Really, which of us is truly up to something? This is the 200th game I've won already."

                "BEST 500 OUT OF A THOUSAND?"

                "Um, yes, wonderful match. Em, but, if I may beg your pardon for just a moment," Aziraphale leaned in and the larger figure stood up, sending the angel straightening upward and making his head fall back. "Oh, dear."

                "YES?"

                The voice was like a thing already inside you head, tolling like a bell, edged in the whispers of dried leaves, or fleeting souls. On certain syllables an echo rang, the blunt clang of a chisel on granitite.

                "Um, you're very much like...him...you know. You understand my mistake."

                "OF COURSE. ALTHOUGH, WE ARE DIFFERENT IN SOME VERY...VITAL WAYS."

                The angel blinked. "I'm sorry, was that a joke?"

                "He's getting better," the other figure called back, then made a move and sighed. "Either that or I've been here too long and am just starving for good entertainment."

                "EXCUSE ME, ONE MOMENT." The taller figure turned and closed the door, but not all the way, shutting out most of the light.

                And now the world came into focus for Aziraphale as the strange mechanics of this realm allowed him to see as brightly as in day what would normally be shrouded by a moonless night.

                "Ah, there do appear to be some important differences."

                This was Death. But not his Death. This was a Death with glowing blue embers for eyes and a tomcat rapped lazily around his boney shoulders. Occasionally he petted it.

                He was smiling. Smiling like a skull, but he meant well.

                "I KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE, AZIRAPHALE, ANGEL OF THE EASTERN GATE, BETROTHED TO THE FALLEN ANGEL ANOTHEY J CROWLEY."