Angels of the Fallen

The Eyes of the Innocent

We only had to go one stop.

We were in the subway car when it malfunctioned and as a result none of the doors would open. We obviously couldn't leave the car till the doors were fixed, so they brought us to the service station. But, since all the other cars worked we had to watch 37 stops and 37 rotations of people moving in and out of the cars adjacent to us. Finally, we got to the service station and fixed the issue but obviously we now had to go all the way back to arrive at our stop...

During this process all of my anger had fizzled out and was replaced by sheer exhaustion, despite the lengthy nap I had received earlier in the day. Seraphim thought it was a great chance to get to know all the people around us and be a general delight to everyone in the car.

Which meant that I was stuck with No Name. Thankfully he decided that talking to me was probably not the best idea and instead focused on nursing his nose bleed.

By the time we arrived at the house the sun was setting behind us. I debated whether or not to go into the house at all. My two companions were shifting anxiously behind me, obviously having the same thought I did.

Seraphim spoke first, "Jophi I know you've had a tough day but maybe we should bail?"

Then No Name chimes in, "Ya, you know members of the fallen are at their most powerful at night,"

I knew it most defiantly was not a wise idea to enter this house, but a small voice in my head crept into the light and said, 'But if we wait even one more day will we be able to save her soul at all?'

I take a deep breath and decide to risk it.

After some maneuvering of the lock, I open the door to the house and feel a sudden chill creep up my spine. The house is dark and empty with not a soul in sight. Seraphim hands No Name and me a flash light.

"Search the house. Look for anything that might look like the artifact," I say and motion for both of them to enter through the threshold of the house.

"What will it look like?" Asks No Name in a shaky voice.

"You will know when you touch it. The soul of the fallen will make you feel like throwing up," Seraphim says then makes some mock throw up sounds and giggles.

No Name continues to rattle off questions, but I abandon the two to go up stairs. I open the first door on the left of the long hallway and inside I see a play room full of toys. The ground is covered with a very intricate train set that looks like it was meticulously placed. In the dark it's hard to see the pattern it's making, so it takes a few seconds for me to realize that the pattern is oddly familiar. I take out my steel card from my bag. The same steel card that I had shown to Father Austin not more then a few hours prior. I glanced from it to the train set. My eyes widened.

Suddenly I hear a door open back in a hallway and hear Seraphim call out to me, "Jophiel I think I found the artifact! But you're not gonna like it..."

I take a second to file away what I saw as I move over to the other side of the hallway. My face drops when I see where the artifact is. No Name comes running up the stairs with a smile on his face but it quickly morphs into shock and horror when he reaches the threshold of the door.

"Well No Name is this what you were thinking when you said you wanted a "perfectly executed exorcism","

True to my description, the girl was holding the artifact in her hand, but it would have been cruel to say she fit any other part of the story I had fabricated for No Name. She wasn't holding it per se, more like clenching it. Clenching at the card as if her life depended on it.

She was muttering words that I know to be a language as old as time itself and sitting cross legged in the middle of her room. However, all of that would have been considered normal in comparison to the blank soulless stare of her completely dilated eyes. Her pupils covered the whole surface of her eye making them completely black.

I glance over to No Name who now was wide eyed, pale, and looked like he might throw up.

'So much for being top of his class. He can barely stomach the sight of a real possessed person,' I roll my eyes and help him sit down on the mattress and give Seraphim the signal to make the preparations.

She looks over to me in surprise, "Jophi, no offense, but isn't this a lost cause? I say we wrap it up and destroy the place,"

I glare at my partner in a wordless command. She bows her head slightly in submission and fishes supplies out of her bag. After taking my eyes away from my partner I look at the creature in front of me and don't dare move my gaze.

The first thing I think about while looking at the frail figure in front of me, is how the hell did she fall into possession of such a strange artifact? I knew it to be a tarot card however, despite what people may tell you, much like any object they are not bad unless tampered with. But that begs the question of who tampered with it and then decided to give it to a 12 year old girl?

With a great amount of frustration I realize that my questions will probably go unanswered. Instead I take a second to look at the girl in front of me and hopelessly wish to take her far from this dark and evil place. I try to imagine her as a daughter, a friend, what her laugh sounded like, but mainly I struggled to envision what her eyes may have looked like before all of this shit happened.

When I met her they were a foggy and lifeless grey with a hint of blue. However, even then she was being effected by the creature that now inhabited her whole being. I couldn't help but wonder, as I looked at her now completely black eyes, what they would have looked like only an hour ago.

'If only we had gotten here sooner...'

I snap myself out of my own self-conscious as Seraphim draws the final line of the ritualistic circle on the ground.

After she's done with all the preparations she nods to me and I crouch down, never breaking eye contact with it.

I place my hands in the two circles connected to the larger circle and just as Seraphim touches her hands down it is as if we connect on a spiritual level. The familiar sensation of the electric current between us fills me with hope. Our minds become one, my thoughts are her thoughts and Vice versa.

We speak as one and confront the fallen, "To whom are we addressing?"

"I am, who am" it howls in laughter at its own blasphemy. The girls body audibly cracks under the strain of the load her soul is carrying.

My heart aches at the sight, but I repeat with more force, "I command you to answer! To whom are we addressing?"

The eyes of the girl bug out unnaturally, her face cracks and almost splits in two. My eyes widen in horror and I break the connection with Seraphim. I launch my body forward. I faintly hear Seraphim screaming at me that is to late and then to No Name to stop me, but she is cut off once I fully enter the circle.

The room turns dark and all I can see before I black out is that the mangled body of the girl collapsing to the ground in front of me. Darkness overcomes my vision and blinding pain rises to meet my senses along with nausea that overcomes my body, despite this all I can concentrate on is one thing.

I whisper a silent prayer, 'Please God... let her live,'

Then I feel nothing.