Azreal

(1) Always Death

Chapter One

Always Death

A wicked smile slowly spreads across my lips as I regard the whimpering human in front of me.

Tears streak down his dirty face. His clothes are wet and ripped as he pushes himself across the pavement. His right leg is torn off and strewn in the middle of the street. Blood streams from his stub down the road and into the nearby drain.

Darkness wraps around our bodies; the only light coming from the dull glow of the street lamps yet I can still see him perfectly.

He's pitiful, really.

Snot drips from his nose. His eyes are wide with shock, fear, and immeasurable pain. Part of his cheek is missing, revealing the fleshy red jelly underneath. His scalp is barely holding on on the left side of his head and rocks are embedded in his forehead and other cheek. Some of the skin on his arms is filleting from being dragged across the gravel road.

The man, whose name is Leroy, continues to make a horrible gurgling noise. I'm sure his insides are liquid, making it next to impossible for him to breathe. A blood vessel in his right eye bursts, filling his eye with red. He starts to howl. Agony writhes through his whole body as he starts to convulse.

I continue to just stare at the man, anger burning in the pit of my stomach. He deserved so much worse than this. The man had just finished murdering and raping a young woman in the alley way before hearing police sirens and running out onto the road. He didn't even look and got clipped by a bus.

Humans are idiots.

I scowl at the scum at my feet. He can't see me yet. He's still dying and I don't need to cause another spectacle by appearing. Father is still on my ass about the last time.

So what a few humans saw the Angel of Death taking someone to the other side. Do with it what they will. Most will probably chalk it up as some sort of trick or hallucination. Most are on some sort of drug anyways. Yet my father is worried about the few who will become obsessed and start praying for me. Like I would answer a measly humans prayer. I'm the Angel of Death. Not God.

The rain starts to come down harder, feeling like pellets against my bare arms. The droplets ricochet off the pavement. Thunder roars overhead as lightning illuminates the sky. The stonework in the building ahead of me glows as the lightning feverishly cracks across the sky.

I wish I could say I had something to do with the storm. It's pretty neat to end someone's life in the middle of such a raging downpour. Though I feel like it's wasted on this guy. He doesn't deserve such cinematic final moments. He deserves to die in a pile of horse dung mixed with cow patties.

The person driving the bus finally reaches the dying man. She's a wreck. I watch with curiosity as she starts blubbering into a cell phone. Her voice is a high pitched wail as she talks to 911; barely distinguishable to my ears, let alone the poor human on the other side of the line.

"Help," she yowls, her voice laced with terror, "Help please. I--" she falters, "I hit a man!"

I snicker. No one can help this lad now. I'm here. There's no going back. I don't do second chances. I'm sending this fucker straight to hell.

The girl screams out street names and tells them to hurry. I tilt my head to the side as the girl collapses to her knees. Her blonde hair is plastered to her face with both tears and rain as she rocks back and forth.

"I killed a man." She sobs. I watch apathetically as her sobs turn into chokes as she realizes what she's done.

"There's no point in wallowing in it." I say, though I know she can't hear me. "It wasn't your fault. My fathers just an asshole."

Leroy starts gurgling. I tilt my head. I'm surprised he's lasted this long. With his dismembered appendage and all, I would have figured he'd have gone into shock and died instantly.

The girl starts screaming. Though she's mostly yelling about how her life is ruined and that she's a murderer.

Selfish humans. All they ever do is think about themselves.

"What's going on?"

My smile comes back. Jubilance rushes through my body. This is almost better than getting inebriated. Almost.

"Leroy!" I chirp while turning to face him.

He just stares at me, his eyes wide. He hasn't seen his body yet. He doesn't know he's dead. His eyes narrow slightly and his pupils dilate. I know in his mind he's thinking about murdering me, too.

I snort. Dumbass wouldn't be able to get near me even if he were Mr. Fantastic.

Leroy continues to stare. In this situation he can feel that there is something off. He knows I'm not what I seem yet his mind is too miniscule to put two and two together. He's distracted by how I look.

I know I must look intriguing to him. I'm more beautiful than any regular human girl; given the fact that I am technically an angel. I'm exotic to most human men with my hip length raven black hair and my hypnotic icy blue eyes. My skin in like that of a porcelain doll and I have a natural pout to my lip, which I consider one of my greatest assets.

Right now my hair is in a warrior braid down my back and I'm adorn in black leather pants, a dark red tank-top and knee high black boots; flats of course, heels are impractical. My black cross sits in the fissure of my cleavage. An amicable reminder of who I am.

"Who are you?" Leroy finally asks, his eyes never straying from my face.

My lips part into a dry smile. In the distance I can hear sirens, concurrent with the girls miserable cries. "My name is Azreal."

Confusion clouds his eyes, "The Angel of Death? Aren't you supposed to be a man?"

Annoyance makes me sneer. Crossing my arms over my chest, I work my jaw. "You know. It really fucking pisses me off that everyone thinks I'm supposed to be a guy."

Leroy opens his mouth to say something then seems to freeze in place. I watch as the confusion in his eyes fades to recollection then hurdles straight into despair. All air gets sucked out of his lungs as his eyes finally find his bludgeoned dead body. His complexion turns grey.

"I'd advise not looking too long." I say sweetly, "Sometimes it causes a relapse in judgement and your body gets shocked at seeing itself so it shuts down to where it thinks it should be. Essentially causing you to live through your death for a second time." I pretend to think about it, "But in your case, I'd say keep looking."

Leroy whirls on me, his face a mask of panic. "Please! You need to bring me back! I can't die."

I snicker. The rain continues to pelt down around us, causing my loose hairs to stick to my face. "I don't know what you think this is, but it's certainly not a gripe session to ask for a second chance."

"I'll do anything!"

Anger turns my blood cold. I lock my jaw. A small force of air expels from my nose. Touching my tongue to my tooth, I try to keep my temper in check. "You see," I say, my voice taut, "That's not how this works. Especially not for vile dreg like you. You've done nothing but despicable inhumane acts all your life. You warrant a lot more awful things to happen to you but you died. So you get death. You deserve what gruesome acts of punishment my brother dishes out to you."

Not shockingly he starts to cry. Very unattractively. I scowl. No way do I want to stand here and listen to this.

Focussing my energy, I plant my eyes onto Leroy's. He instantly sobers up. His expression goes lax as he looks into my eyes. I can feel everything around me start to slow down as I focus on calling my brother; Lucifer.

My skin starts to burn up, despite still being wet from the rain. Power pulses from my body, almost rhythmically. Deep in my psyche I can feel Lucifer attaching to me. My eyes start to burn a luminescent shade of blue as my voice takes on a melodic lull;

"Muori. He will take you now."