The Angels from Hell

Lilea

Lilea opened the door and was about to stand aside for Ala when she saw movement at the end of the corridor. She swung the door shut hard and stood in front of it, preventing Ala from following her. Through the door she heard Ala's muffled gasp of surprise, almost instantly silenced. Hoping Ala knew to stay still, Lilea stepped away from the door and moved towards the nearest cleaning cupboard where she had stowed her mop. As she reached into the cupboard and pulled out the mop, she saw two angels approaching her. She kept the cupboard door open, shielding her face. They hurried past her whispering intently to each other. It may have simply been Lilea's own concern, but through side glances she thought she saw fear in the angel's faces. After they passed, Lilea let out a low sigh. She focused on the cleaning supplies, allowing her heart beat to slow. When the corridor was silent, Lilea closed the cupboard door only to become face to face with a man. Not just any man, not just any angel. She found herself looking at Rylan's old manager and the man that had sent Lilea to hell. It was Deleon.

They both stared at each other. For a moment, Lilea thought that he might not recognise her, it had been nearly a thousand years, but that burst of hope was snuffed out by the look in those piercing blue eyes. Neither of them said anything. Lilea's skin was prickling as if those eyes were slowly burning away the top level of her skin. She couldn't break eye contact. Deleon had not changed since that last day in heaven. His face was lined, with thick grey hair and tiny glasses that did nothing to shield Lilea from his gaze. Lilea had seen many angels, she had seen many demons. Many of them were dangerous, they liked torturing humans a little too much. In their eyes, you could see their anger, their hatred or their cruelty. There was none of that in Deleon's eyes; all she could see was his power. At last he spoke.

"Lilea," he said in a low, controlled voice, "back so soon."

Lilea ran. There was no debate in her mind about fighting back, trying to reason or trying to lie. Those eyes had seen through every excuse or explanation. He had spared her life when she was an angel; he could see that he wasn't an angel anymore. She fled around the corner, unaware of where she was going or what she was going to do once she got there. The vial of M in her pocket, was sticking uncomfortably into her leg. In the back of her mind, she had vague idea of finding the cupboard Ala and Lilea had entered through and escaping back into the white void, but everything looked the bloody same. The only thought that comforted her was the idea that the further she ran, the further she led Deleon away from Ala. Lilea reached the main staircase and headed down, looking behind her to see where Deleon was. She faltered. He was not behind her. She stared around. There must be somewhere to hide. Should she find an empty room or perhaps a room full of angels where she could rely on the cleaner façade to hide amongst them? Here in the middle of the hall she was exposed but inside a room there would be nowhere to run. Where was Deleon?

There was no more staircase. She must be on the ground floor. Spinning around, Lilea saw a row of windows looking out onto those green fields of yellow flowers. Trying to keep her breathing steady, she approached one of the windows. There must be a way out of here. Lilea thought back to all those years in heaven. All that time, staring through those windows, she had never once left the building. She reached up to touch the window, but her fingers rested, not on a sheet of cool glass, but on smooth marble slightly indented from the rest of the wall. Lilea stepped back. The window looked so real, she could almost see the flowers sway in a subtle breeze. Speeding up, she ran her hand across each window, all the same. She broke into a sprint. On one side of her were the windows, on the other side rows of office doors. The path in front of her opened up and she found herself once again at the bottom of the stairs. Deleon had still not appeared. Perhaps he had never run after her, perhaps he was going to let her go or perhaps he knew that there was no exit to this building.

Lilea raised her eyes to the top of the staircase and saw Deleon emerge into view. He was walking ever so casually towards her. His fingers were running up and down the knife at his belt, softly tracing its blade.

"Not going to run, Lilea," he said. She stepped away from the stairs, looking left and right. He was halfway down the staircase. Lilea couldn't speak. "What to do with you?" Deleon pondered, still stroking the blade, "looks like neither heaven nor hell wants you." He was five steps from her. Slowly, calmly, he drew out the knife. "I have a few questions for you," he said. Lilea managed to take another step back. Deleon pouted. "I thought you liked questions," he said. His hand reached out to grab Lilea's arm. In her mind she saw herself pulling Ala by the wrist into the spare monitoring room. Lilea hoped that she was safe, that she had snuck out of the room and found the cleaning cupboard they had entered heaven through. She hoped she would know to escape back to hell and not linger here where someone was bound to make the connection between the two supposed cleaners that had appeared at the same time. As Deleon's hands gripped tightly against her forearm, she hoped that, despite whatever had happened to Rylan, despite the M and Lilea abandoning him, that he was happy now. The pressure on her arm tightened and Lilea closed her eyes. It seemed almost poetic, spending decades in hell trying to work her way to heaven, only to die when she got there. Lilea had the absurd compulsion to laugh.

The pressure released.

Lilea opened her eyes to see that Deleon had let go of her. He appeared distracted as if listening to a voice that Lilea couldn't hear. His wings burst open, knocking Lilea back by the gust of wind and their sheer, searing light. His face, a second ago impassive, had twisted into an expression that Lilea would have described as terror on any other angel or demon. He touched a leather bound watch on his wrist and vanished. Lilea stood, still frozen, at the bottom of the stairs, wondering what the hell had just happened.