The Angels from Hell

Lilea

Lilea had to find Ala. Still holding the mop and bucket, she hurried through the offensively identical corridors. She couldn't stay in heaven, not like this, not with borrowed wings and familiar faces and names threatening to engulf her. But it wasn't just fear of death or punishment. She had practically volunteered to go on this mission, and it wasn't to find Rylan or to uncover why he had vanished, she had barely even reacted when she saw him alive. For nearly a thousand years, she had pushed all those memories so far back into her mind that the only thing she had thought about was becoming an angel again, returning to her job in heaven and resuming life like nothing had ever happened. Yes, she had sinned, she had questioned a manager, but she had believed that if she could prove to everyone that she would never question again, would never disobey, her place in heaven would be restored.

Lilea thought back to Ala. Ala sitting in the council meeting in hell, Ala standing in front of Will. Questioning and disobeying came so easily to her which made sense she was a demon and she always had been but...Lilea remembered Ala pressed against the door, Bezilda looming over her with a clipboard. Lilea can go alone, she will probably fail and suffer while John Castillo does not but that is not my business. That was what Bezilda had said, not just John Castillo wouldn't be punished but that she, a complete stranger that had only insulted Ala, would suffer. Ala had looked at her and signed the form. She would not have abandoned Rylan, not like Lilea had.

Darius had told Ala something about seeing her tomorrow to monitor humans. Lilea peered into the doors on each level. No angels bothered her. They simply looked down at her mop and returned to whatever meeting or job they were doing. Five floors up the main staircase, Lilea found an empty monitoring station. The screens were still running but there was no one inside. She stepped out, wondering whether she should keep continue to the left or right of this door. That's when she saw Ala, accompanied by Darius, Lethe and an angel she didn't know. They were all talking quietly together. Lethe said something to Darius who raised his arms as if in defeat. Warily, she shuffled a little closer, not looking up from her mop that was tracing thoughtlessly across the floor. She heard Darius say, "same time tomorrow." The three angels moved away, still whispering to each while Ala remained still, watching their retreat. When the other angels had turned a corner, Ala moved towards Lilea. She seemed distracted and still hadn't seen Lilea. Before any other angels could come into the corridor, Lilea darted towards Ala, grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the empty monitoring room.

Ala let out a gasp that was quickly stifled when she saw that it was Lilea.

"If I grabbed your hand, I'm pretty sure you would have stabbed me," Ala grumbled good naturedly, closing the door behind them. "Next time you can just say something." Lilea stepped away from Ala, a sudden and unexpected heat rising in her.

"Sorry," she said which seemed to surprise Ala even more.

"Sorry?" Ala tilted her head slightly to one side, her eyebrows raised.

"I have something important," Lilea's voice hardened, "What were you doing with the angels?" Lilea said the words before she had really wrapped her tongue around them, and they came out sounding harsher than she had intended. She had the absurd compulsion to apologise again.

"I have something important too," Ala said, the slight tension in her relaxing somewhat at the shift in Lilea's tone. "I've found out how humans destined for hell are ending up in heaven, I just don't know why." Ala explained everything she had seen or heard since she woke up in the morning.

"I told them that if they sent me down to Earth I could prove it to them. I think Darius would have let me, but Lethe wouldn't have it. They told me to come back, identify more humans and they would test my accuracy by themselves. I'm going to have to earn their trust. It might take a while. So, what did you find out? Anything useful." Lilea had listened to all of this in silence.

"Uh, nice job," she muttered. Ala looked concerned.

"What happened to you?"

"Nothing," Lilea felt that same heat. This was stupid. "Actually," she composed herself, straightening her blouse, "I have not been entirely honest with you."

"I'm shocked," Ala said sarcastically, reaching out for one of the room's two chairs and stretching out on it.

"I told you I fell because I saw something and asked too many questions," Ala nodded, leaning forward in interest. "That's true but there's more than that and I'm starting to think, it's going to explain the why." Lilea resisted pacing. "I used to have a fr-a colleague. He disappeared but before he did I went into his room, and he was hiding something. You remember how Lethe and that Darius were searching that room you found me in yesterday. I think they're the same things. I think this is all somehow connected."

"What was it? What did he hide?"

"I don't know but I know where he hid it." Comprehension spread across Ala's face.

"You think Raina hid it in the same place," Ala's voice became more urgent, "if they find us in the same room, either of us, they're going to think something is going on. Lethe is already suspicious of us."

"Let's go now," Lilea said, 'it'll only seem more suspicious at night. Quick before your colleagues try searching it again or they come looking for you."

"I wouldn't call them my colleagues," Ala said, standing up from her chair, "but I get your point." She opened the door and checked both directions before turning her head to smile at Lilea, "hey look at that," she said, "we got through a whole conversion without you telling me to shut up." Ala ducked out of the room, leaving Lilea momentarily alone feeling oddly confused.