Shattered Halos

Prologue

Heaven is everything you would expect. Angels, clouds, mansions, anything you could ever want with the snap of your fingers. The sun was always shining, and even during the night, it was never truly dark. Heaven was a place of celestial beauty. A place where saints were welcome and rewarded for their righteousness. Even the people had a slight glow of white light around them.

There was never any chaos or turmoil with Heaven being a holy place. Nobody fought, nobody argued, and there were no crimes or suspicious activities. Everyone had golden halos and gorgeous white wings. Everything seemed perfect. But not today.
Thunder rumbled as lightning strikes crashed in the cloudy sky. Angels gathered at the main palace, curious about what may happen inside. Nobody expected another angel to be thrown out, not after the devil himself. No one, besides Sabrina, would dare be 'evil' enough to have the same fate.

Sure, she was never a ray of sunshine, unlike the rest of the angels, living all high and mighty without a single sin to weigh them down. She'd always been curious–curious about the human world, the 'underworld', as they'd called it in Heaven. But nobody would have expected her to go this far.

Rumors had been going around about her making interesting comments about the demons, wanting to know why they did bad things, and they were so looked down on by everyone. She was too curious in the King's eyes. And today is the day he finally puts his foot down about it.

"I don't see why it's so bad down there," she argued, trying her best to keep a calm and respectful composure. "Why are we so afraid of them when nobody even knows anything about them?"

Sitting on his glorious throne, the King of Heaven, His Majesty, and Sabrina's father were looking down upon her not understanding why he had to waste his precious time to fix this problem, spoke, "Are you implying that the rules I have made to keep our kingdom up here are too discriminatory against those creatures? You know nothing about them, that should make you afraid like the rest of my subjects. Why do you insist on ruining your innocence?"

"Ruining my innocence," she questioned, slowly starting to give up on her respectful act. "Over curiosity–wanting to know more about the unknown? Why do you try to hide it from us? What do you not want anyone to know about?"

"Sabrina!" Her father scolded, his expression a mixture of anger, annoyance, and... a slight hint of pain.

"What are you so afraid of?!" Sabrina cried, her father slowly losing his temper.

"I'm not afraid. I'm disappointed that my eldest–and only–daughter has begun to question the power and authority of her father and King!" He stood up, holding power and fierceness in his voice as he spoke, "Heaven, Earth, and Hell are separated for a reason, Sabrina. We cannot afford you to be bringing such filth into this world, such as books and your sinful research about why and how demons are so terrible. If you choose to continue along the very dark and winding path you've made for yourself, you won't have a place here next to me on the throne any longer."

"What if I don't want to be here anymore?" She snapped, her long, angelic white hair beginning to come undone from her outburst of frustration and anger. "I want to go out, see the world for how it is. I don't want your protection. I want to know more about the living world, Hell–the demons. Is that too much to ask for? Just to know why they're so feared by humans and angels?"

"Very well, you want me to be the bad guy? Now I'm the bad guy. Your wish shall be granted, but you may never be able to return. I hereby disown and cast you out of Heaven. You no longer have a place here in my kingdom. I will have the guards escort you out in the morning. Goodbye, princess." At the wave of his hand, guards grabbed her by both arms, dragging her along to her living quarters. She watched as the throne her father had put next to his just for her since she was a toddler, was struck by lightning, crushing on impact.

She cried, tears streaming down her face as everything was destroyed before her eyes. She tried to get away from the guards, thrashing and squirming, but they wouldn't let go.

Sabrina was unable to sleep that night, tossing and turning with an unbearable feeling of regret. When she finally was able to fall asleep, she was always woken up by terrible nightmares. Nightmares about the demons. Nightmares about being cast out. Nightmares about what she'd risked because of knowledge and curiosity. Maybe she went a little bit too far. Was the knowledge of demons worth losing the only home she had? Was it too late to change her mind?

As the sun rose the next day, she was cast out the gates, falling faster and faster, her wings turning colors with her hair, she didn't know what to do, she couldn't make her wings move, nothing was working. She closed her eyes, expecting the impact to hurt tremendously.

But when she opened them, she realized she was sitting on the ground somewhere, in some unknown place. She looked around, everything was weird. There were people everywhere, the sky was red, and the streets were flooded. Like angels, everyone looked like normal people–humans. Something she couldn't quite describe, as they were all flesh and bones, never quite the same, but you could tell they looked just like humans, except they had horns and tails and the most terrifyingly, unsettling smiles.

This wasn't at all what she was expecting. Hell wasn't even as hot as everyone said it was. Instead, it was at a fairly normal temperature–not too hot, but not too cold, either. It was very similar to the angelic world she knew, just... different.