Dance of the Angels

Chapter 9

With a cocoon of blankets around her, Naomi sipped her hot cup of chocolate as she held it with both of her hands. The cartoon on the television was a repeat, she had seen it several times before but watching it was better than listening to her older siblings argue.

Michael was pacing back and forth in Naomi’s peripheral vision, Gabriel stood in the doorway to the kitchen while Azrael stood in the doorway near the front door. They had finally stopped arguing.

“You can go now,” Michael said to the two fellow archangels. “We’ll be fine.”
“We’re not taking chances,” said Azry as she finally walked into the living room and sat in the armchair.
“We’ll stay for the night,” said Gabriel. “And that’s a minimum.” Since Michael didn’t speak, Naomi spoke on his behalf.
“Thank you.” Naomi’s voice was shaky but no one said anything as she took another sip of her hot drink and focused on the old episode of Scooby Doo which was beginning to play.

The following day, Michael ensured Naomi reached school safely. The man from the previous day was no longer there but she didn’t find it too unusual. Perhaps he was an avid church-goer or someone trying to discover his family history. The church still held some ancient birth certificates as well as marriage and death records. Shrugging it off, Naomi found her friends and hugged Michael goodbye while ignoring classmates and other random students.

Instead of waiting for her mentor to drag her out of class and disrupt it, she headed straight to his office. She knocked the door twice and waited for a response. Nothing. She pushed the door handle and opened the door, it hadn’t been locked. So he was in there.

“Naomi?” asked Mr Jones, surprised at her willinging coming to his office and confused at why she was there so early in the morning.
“I need to talk, okay?” Mr Jones nodded and Naomi dumped her bag on the floor. She then blurted out: “My brother is after us and he shouldn’t be able to.”
“Your brother?” he asked. “Michael?”
“No, Lucifer. He’s after me, Michael, Gabe and Azry and I don’t know what to do,” she rambled on. Her mentor spluttered as he tried to think of words.

“I think you should sit down,” Mr Jones eventually said. Naomi did so, dropping her coat on top of her bag and then sitting down. The teenager was trembling, frightened and couldn’t stay still for more than a few seconds. “Hey, relax. You’re safe in school. Your brother can’t get you here.”
“But I’m not.” Mr Jones pointlessly tried to reassure the girl but she stubbornly shook her head. “I’m not going to be fine, okay? I’m not. I’ll never be safe of this planet or any planet if I’m being entirely honest.”

“Do you want to go home to your brother?” Mr Jones asked, leaning forward slightly. “I could arrange something.”
“I don’t know,” said Naomi as she sniffled. She desperately tried her hardest to hold back tears as her fingertips tapped against the edge of the desk.
“Maybe being with your friends will help but if you think it’s too much come here for a while and I can send you home if you need to go home.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly as she tried to smile.

Across from Naomi was Ryan. Today, the two of them sat away from their usual group of friends so Ryan was immediately concerned. It was clear from the expression on his face and she was sure he had noticed the lack of pasta in front of her. Or maybe the lack of food in general.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t believe everything I have to say,” said Naomi. “But I can try explaining it, I guess.”
“Okay,” said Ryan, eager to help his friend. “You can try.”
“My brother Lucifer, he… Lucifer caused the ground to shake and crack the mosaic cross on the church floor. The floor in the entrance and the path outside were cracked perfectly down the middle. He can freely leave Hell whenever he likes now.”

“Shit,” whispered Ryan. “Is everything going to be okay?”
“Not unless Lucifer is stopped but there’s not enough archangels to do it. There’s just three and Raphael won’t help, Samiel hasn’t been heard from in over a decade and Michael refuses to let me help.” Naomi grabbed the edge of the table and took a deep breath in.

“But you’re not an archangel,” said Ryan.
“The three of them agree I’m most powerful than normal angels but not quite at the level of an archangel which means I can help them stop Lucifer. Michael won’t let me, he won’t let me have a choice but neither are the other two.”

“Jesus Christ…” muttered Ryan as he processed everything she told him. “Fuck, I don’t…”
“I know,” said Naomi, awkwardly laughing. “Please, you can’t tell the others.”
“I won’t,” said Ryan as he looked down at his food. He pushed his packet of crisps across the table to her. “I swear I won’t tell anyone but you have to eat.” She smiled as a thank you and opened the packet.

“Is this why you’re not sitting with them?” asked Ryan. Naomi shook her head.
“You wouldn’t believe me.”
“You just told me you have your brother called Lucifer after you and correct me if I’m wrong but that’s the Devil himself so…”
“I’m sorry Ryan,” said Naomi. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just don’t trust Ianto and Katie.”
“Is it to do with them?” Naomi shook her head and ate some of the crisps her friend had given her. Ryan grinned. “It is!”

Groaning, Naomi went to drop her head on the table again but Ryan put his hand there and stopped her.
“Why?” she whined.
“The last time you did it, it hurt. It would have hurt just as much this time.”
“That’s a good point,” she conceded. Ryan smiled and chuckled at her and Naomi managed to muster a small smile back.

She walked into the church on the way home, lingering in the entrance and staring at the crack one of her siblings had caused. It hadn’t been fixed. She didn’t know if it could be fixed. She also didn’t know if anyone other than her siblings and Ryan knew it even existed.

Walking in, Naomi thought she heard footsteps behind her but she brushed it off as an echo as the walked to the front of the church. She saw the dark hair of Michael in one of the rows near the front - three from the front to be precise.
“Michael?” Naomi asked quietly, just to be certain. He stood and turned to face her. Naomi let out a sigh of relief and Michael did the same.
“Naomi, I thought you’d come here,” he said.

Naomi headed over to Michael and hugged him, glad to be away from her stupid school and be provided some sort of safety.

Without warning, the wooden doors at the entrance slammed shut. The summer breeze no longer blew in. Naomi heard footsteps and she couldn’t dismiss them as an echo.

Michael’s happiness faded and his smile dropped.

“Brother?”