A Kiss of Life (Bk2)

Chapter 9

"Michaelangelo? The origin of the Gabriel line of the sons of god. Your ancestor?" I looked at Fin now back on he feet complete with his aggression focused back on mother.

Like a bad case of dejavu Fin took a step forward and I moved to intercept. But this time we did not crumble in a heap upon each other. This time we were held upright and away from each other by an invisible force. I looked in askance at the cloak but this time it wasn't him. It was all mother. I felt the cloak go berserk at being restrained.

If you can't take the heat then don't start the fire. I misquoted mockingly to the cloak...to Michael.

It seemed I really was a chip off the old block for mother fluttered unerringly close to Fin and looking him in the eye she said in that high pitched squeak of hers," Fascinating...simply fascinating." She fluttered around eyeballing Fin as she went. I didn't like how this was going. The last thing I needed was for Fin to be turned into a cloak himself. Admittedly William must missing his old beaten down worn to tatters leather contraption that treated him as nothing short of a confection. But he should just get over it already and do something to pacify mother.

Death must have read my mind for William was then boldy uttering," Well it seems this trip has been a total waste. None of us have gained nothing from it. The revelations although interesting enough does nothing at all to further our course. Even if there is a way to release Sara from Michael's clutches," he said drawing mother's attention away by making it seem like it was all Michael's fault. That everything was poor Michael's fault...," the Cloak cannot be changed back into its true form. Michael chained for an eternity as a cloak will be crazy. Wild and uncontrollable. That kind of power unleashed will only cause more chaos..."

I murmured soothingly to cloak feeling Michael's ire shoot up a level or two. I was trying to distract him from what William was saying when mother intervened.

"Enough! I care not for the distruction you say Michael will cause. There is another reason for why Michael has been locked in this form," she said before fluttering away from Fin towards me. She purred softly as she pointed one tiny finger and ran it down not a fraction of an inch. "But I will not be revealing that anytime soon. if you need to know, ask god. He knows as much as I."

Mother paused for dramatic effect then she fluttered up to look down upon us all. I knew she would be gone soon. That she had stayed this long at all surprised me. It must have been the appeal of all this drama.

"But I can say this much, the mortals need what I have done. The mortals need me. Think you the human race can survive on the promise of goodness alone? Think you that the peaches and cream propaganda of heaven is what drive them out of their beds at the break of dawn till dusk on a daily basis? What are they working themselves to death for? To appease god and seek his favour?" She paused again to glow with fake spiritual goodness. She resembled a miniature embodiment of the gods whom the mortals prayed to.  A flash later  and some corny pyrotechnics and she was a chillie red demon.

"Its these visions that drive the Earth but the one that gets worshipped the most... awake or asleep is mine. This red horned devil. I am the most worshipped being on earth. The humans greed for more, they gluttony for punishment and their endless, endless lies is what brings them closer to me. I don't promote myself. Not like how heaven has set up countless churches and the like to feed in their truths. I don't need to. Their natural survival instincts and constant greed for more drives them to me.

This will always be the case and this will always empower me. I don't need bloody armies to fight my battles not when I have billions of children worshiping me...empowering me twenty four seven. And remember this... they need me more. The fear of me controls their sins just as much as their drive for ambition births from my womb."

With that enlightening speech mother was gone. Fin fell back to his haunches as if relieved from a heavy weight on his chest and Michael was strangely unresponsive. Even William was quiet. A moment later and he made his excuses to leave then was gone before I could respond.

Then there was just Fin and I... and Michael of course.

"We should head back," I started to say but Fin cut me off.

"I need to go back. I have been away too long. I need to leave for heaven," he said before abruptly rising to his feet and in a flash of light that burned he too was gone.

I stared bewildered at the empty plateau spread around me. I was alone. Alone with cloak. Alone with Michael. I bent to lift up my fallen staff and then begun my solitary track home with cloak neither spilling slugs nor maggots. I guessed he must have realised that it would be incredibly unbecoming for him to continue to do so now that we all knew he was not simply Cloak but Archangel Gabriel Michaelangelo.