The comedic Tragedy of Asmodeus and Raphael

Chapter 4

We enter on a pacing Angèl, her wings are out and she's ranting to her dog, who seems to be listening intently. During a particularly passionate statement she almost knocks over an aloe plant on one of her bookshelves.

"The darn things always get in the way." She says, taking a mental note to mind her wings.

"Anyway, she's insane! I can't believe she would go against my wishes like that, especially trying to tempt my human! Ugh! The nerve of that demon, that- that insect!" In the heat of the moment her wings knocked over a vase that held daisies from her garden. There is a puddle of water on the floor now.

"Oh gosh, look what she made me do! That evil mistress." Elizabeth shouted, pointing to the ground. She went to her kitchen to fetch a rag when Chloe suddenly piped up.

"Bark!"

"What was that?"

"Bark."

"I can't do that."

"Ruff..."

"It's inhumane! And i've already used too many frivolous miracles, I could get in trouble."

Almost as if on command, there was a knock at the door, Elizabeth sensed who it was and quickly cleaned the water up, setting the daisies and vase aside. She went to open the door and give a proper greeting, but it slammed open before she had the chance. A woman that looked about the age of Elizabeth stepped in. She had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin. Her dreadlocks pulled into a neat, short ponytail. Her outfit was completely white, blindingly so.

"Why hello! It's great to see you again Mi-" She was cut off.

"Do you know why I'm here? And why are your wings out?" She demanded in an authoritative tone. Elizabeth quickly hid her wings, opening her mouth for an excuse before she was interrupted again.

"Nevermind. I'm here because it says here you've performed a frivolous miracle in the past week." She pulled a clipboard out of nowhere and showed it to Elizabeth. It was her miracle receipt, everyone had one. On one of her latest miracles it had shown "Creation of two (2) Southeast School of the Arts (Newberry, South Carolina, United States of America) late excuse passes for Elizabeth Angèl and Lilly Evergreen, bearing the signature of (unintelligible), no known reason."

"Care to explain yourself?" Elizabeth waited for her to continue until she realised she genuinely wanted an answer.

"Oh! Um, the public vehicle the assignment and I use to travel to the school in the mornings had a sudden error so it stopped to be fixed and that caused us to be tardy to the first class of the day. The passes usually come from a superintendent at the school and we got one but on our way to class a demon was trying to tempt my human. But don't worry, I thwarted her! While we were walking away the demon must have took our passes so when we arrived to the classroom the teacher was frustrated towards us and my human started to get panicky so I miracled the passes for her mental security!" Elizabeth rambled, trying not to get punished.

"That excuse sounds good enough, and it's good that you already know about Jalvoz, one less thing to inform you about."

"I didn't catch her name, thank you. I have a favour to ask you, though."

"Yes?"

"The Saturday of this week my assignment has asked me to attend a large gathering of humans that the both of us are unfamiliar with. There is no convincing her to not go and I am afraid that bad things may happen to her. May I be allotted some frivolous miracles incase bad things happen? Please, Michael?" Elizabeth stopped, pleading with her eyes at the elder being. Michael looked deep in thought, then met her gaze.

"I'll see what I can do, but I can assure anything done to protect your human won't be penalized, I promise." Michael had a soft look in her eyes, she was always fond of this one, Elizabeth could never do any harm. She started to walk out but abruptly turned around once she was out the door, addressing Elizabeth.

"Also, it's Archangel Michael, little Cherub. If I'm going to do all these favours then you better show some respect." After a playful smirk aimed at Elizabeth, Michael turned around, and spread her wings.

They were stunning, they were about 25 feet long and were in three pairs. They were different shades of brilliant blues mixed with black and tipped with white. One would say they looked like a bluejay's. It was a sight to behold as the six wings flapped to lift Michael into the air. Once she was about 30 feet in the air she stopped and gave one last wave to Elizabeth.

"Fare thee well, Archangel Michael!" Elizabeth shouted.

"Fare thee well, Cherub Opheliel!" Michael shouted back.

They shared one last smile and with a flap of her mighty wings, Michael ascended into the clouds. Elizabeth retreated back into her house, closing the door.

"Chloe." She sounded mortified.

"The demon I thwarted wasn't named Jalvoz, I've never heard of that name and I only sensed one demon in that school." She looked like she has seen a ghost as her wings appeared and unfolded in panic.

"How am I going to protect Lilly?"