THE SEVEN CHAIRS

ᡣ𐭩°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

I opened my eyes. I was in the sick room back in Vatican city.

"What were you thinking? You knew you couldn't handle even one chair without proper preparation." Raphael snapped at me the moment he noticed my eyes were open. "You could have died."

I looked at him slowly. "God chose me."

"No he didn't, you nearly died! I can't... I can't lose you." He whispered, defeated. "Let's give this a rest, let's just run away, we don't need power to be together, we just need to leave!"

"No. We are so close. I am so close. God spoke to me. Now that I have seen his face I can harness all of them. He told me so."

"Stop this! It's not right, I didn't realize until I saw your body fall to the floor from the chair. You weren't breathing. You died."

I fought my way out of the sheets, "You have no right to tell me what I can and can not do. I am the arch nun. I am higher than you and you obey me."

His eyes seethed with rage and sadness. "You told me you loved me. You lied didn't you. You loved the attention and what I could give you."

Something twisted deep in my chest telling me something was wrong, deeply wrong, but my mouth betrayed me. "You were a stepping stone in my ascension, and I thank you for that."

"I loved you. I still love you, and because of that I can't let you do this." He stood up, he was going to call for backup.

I shoved him to the floor and took off running down the stairs. I knew where I had to go. I needed to go to the chamber with all seven chairs.

My head felt like it was full of cotton the closer I got. People in the hallways looked at me strange as I passed. It was only a few moments till Raphael had all of the Vatican coming down on me.

I stumbled into the chamber collapsing onto my knees in the center of the circle created. My hands shook as I bound them together to pray.

"I always knew you would betray me. God spoke it to me the moment I saw you."

I looked back, Pope Leo stood in the doorway. He had a deep sadness on his face, he never looked so frail.

"Then why did you take me in?" I bit at him, "You are a foolish old man to ignore that warning if you knew."

"The same reason God put the poison tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. It was a test. A test of love. I do love you Cordelia, I do."

"No you don't, you are a selfish old man who took children into the church with no thought of what they might want!"

He smiled sadly, "No I did it to save you all. Your families were destitute and poor, they could never care for you, so they did the only thing they thought they could do: give you to me. And I've loved every last one of you as if you were my own flesh and blood. Cordelia, if this is what you think you need to do then do it. I just hope God holds half as much mercy as I do." He turned, leaving the chamber and closing the heavy oak doors.

I screamed, hot tears streaming down my face. I wanted to stop. God wasn't holding me anymore, I was falling from grace.

A presence came over me, the words whispered to me while I was on the chair began to pour out my lips. The room was beginning to glow around me. I was terrified.

The door flew open, men were yelling.

The Vatican was here. They could help me. Before I could cry out for help my body was hit with pain like I was thrown into the fire. I screamed and screamed and screamed.

The pain died down. I looked around the room. The Vatican soldiers stood pressed to the walls, in front of me lay Gabriel, his body scorched to cinders.

I looked around in terror trying to beg for help but the words wouldn't form. My eyes met with Raphaels. "I love you." I blubbered out at him, "I'm so sorry."

Tears rolled down his face as he looked away.

I screamed, both to Raphael and to God, "Why do you turn your face from me! You are supposed to love me unconditionally, but here you betray me in the hour of my need!"

A loud booming voice reverberated around the chamber. It was God. The voice I heard before was snide and whispering but this time there was no denying this was God in all of his glory.

"You have forsaken and betrayed me, you have committed the unforgivable sin by giving yourself over to Lucifer himself. You, my child, have to be punished."

I cried, grabbing at my robes, "Please no, God please forgive me."

"You had all the time in the world for forgiveness."

My body was hit by such indescribable pain. I was being burned and frozen, skinned and chopped up, starved and fed till I exploded.

When it passed and I could open my eyes again I was somewhere dark and shadowy. I could hear people murmuring around me but not coming near, all in awe of me.

A voice spoke behind me. "Ah, Cordeila, I've been waiting for you, you could say I'm a big fan of your work."

I turned, behind me stood Lucifer the Morning Star, and he was beautiful.

He grinned like a wolf, "It seems you and I have similar motives now. We both want to get back what was ours. I think we can help each other, don't you think?" He held out his elegant hand to me.

I took it. God turned his face away, but another had turned its face towards me. And he understood.