Heaven's Hell (currently paused)

Fifth sphere

Louis raised his eyebrows and dropped the spoon. Caspian looked him straight in the eye.

"The truth?" Louis laughed, "That sounds so theatrical." "I am theatrical." Caspian moved the chair back and crossed his arms, watching Louis pouring soup onto their plates. Louis slowly slid into his seat across from Caspian and cleared his throat.

After he had overcome the first shock and Caspian went into the bathtub, he had time to think. But he just couldn't explain the whole thing plausibly. And he left out the fact that Caspian had appeared out of nowhere. Only absurd explanations had crept in and he quickly shook them off. He wanted to be fair to Caspian. That is why he shrugged now. "Okay. Sure. Then go ahead and tell me everything."

Caspian calmly took a spoonful of soup and stared past him. He looked thoughtful. "Maybe I should do it like tearing a band Aid off. Short and painless." Caspian nodded slowly to himself. Louis drummed his fingers on the table and suppressed a roll of the eye.

"I am an angel. But I was cast out and thrown into the human world." Louis choked on the soup. Caspian waited until he gasped again and wiped the tears from the corner of his eye. "Really funny Caspian."

"I'm serious. My back? You saw it. They smashed my wings with a holy hammer and tore them out. Both. Then they dragged me to the edge of the neglected garden of Eden and threw me to earth."

-

Caspian saw Louis staring at him and could almost hear the gears in his head. He had not thrown him out and scolded him yet, so it was going well. Therefore, he just kept talking: "I didn't know where I was. I still don't know exactly. I have to restore my honour ... I have to hunt and kill demons. Only this way, maybe one day I can get my wings back. I want to be able to fly again. Being free. I want to go home." Caspian took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "However, I'm not as strong as I used to be. I suspect it has something to do with the ether. There is a lot of ether up in heaven, but not down here. I was already injured and my body weakened. I screwed it up. Now it's taking longer for me to track down and kill demons."

Caspian looked at the window after the speech. He did not want to look at Louis. It was just embarrassing and miserable. He clenched his fists under the table and immediately regretted having spoken the truth. Louis was a journalist, what was stopping him from turning this thing into a huge story? "The madman from the forest." He could already see the headline.

"What was it like to fly?" Caspian blinked and looked at Louis, who had put the spoon aside. Caspian laughed uncertainly. "Is that your first question?" Louis nodded. "Obviously, I've never flown myself and I'm afraid of flying. I just don't trust these machines."

Caspian's heart grew heavy. "It is breath-taking. As soon as you are in the air, you are completely free. You could fly all over the world, to any place because you like to see. I have been everywhere in the human world. Singapore. Paris. Ottawa. I have I even took a look at Antarctica, I am not really sensitive to the cold. I am not visiting Germany for the first time either, but I was down in the south, not here. "

"Wow ... then you've probably seen a lot. How ... how old are you really?" Asked Louis in awe. Caspian laughed when he saw Louis's face. As if he was God, sitting in front of him. Good thing that he was not...

"I don't know exactly," he admitted, "As an angel of the second sphere I am subordinate to the Dominions, they take care of lower angels of the second sphere. I am a member of the authorities; we fight for God and keep peace. Next to us there are the virtues in the second sphere, to which most people pray because they can fulfil wishes and proclaim God's signs. They honestly have it better than we do. Since we are basically just soldiers, we often die in battle. Before me, there were hundreds of Caspian's. I'm just ... a copy."

Louis shook his head. "I don't believe you. You are your own personality, not just a clone." Caspian shrugged. "As you like. I can't believe that you just buying it from me. I could just be a foolish idiot and tell you bullshit." Louis raised an eyebrow.

"I saw you falling from the sky. I saw that your back looks a hundred percent like someone hit it with a hammer-" Caspian winced, "- and I scratched you half dead from the street. Now after you got some water and a bath, you just look like you had a fight behind you. Therefore, if you tell me bullshit, it was at least a pretty conclusive bullshit."

Caspian did not know what to answer. "Eat now. Then come to the bathroom. If your weird ether doesn't help, maybe some human medicine."

-

Louis strutted into the bathroom and searched his closet. Caspian came in shortly afterwards and immediately adopted a dismissive attitude. "Thanks. I'll do it myself." "Forget it. You can't even raise your arm without flinching." Caspian scowled and reluctantly sat on the edge of the bathtub. Louis ordered him to take off his t-shirt and removed the bandage Caspian had wrapped around his chest uncoordinated.

Damn. Up close, Caspian's back looked worse. "Could be a little bit cold," Louis murmured, beginning to smear the cool ointment on Caspian's back. He just growled. There was a short silence. "Who was this woman you actually wanted to move in with?" Asked Caspian finally, probably wanting to talk to distract himself from the pain. "It was a man," replied Louis, trying to gently doctor a particularly bad spot. "His name was Alexander." "Hm." Caspian tensed and Louis waited for him to relax.

"Was he an asshole? You said he cheated on you." "I had a car accident six months ago, pretty bad. With broken bones and all the paraphernalia. I was in a coma for a while. When I finally got better, I checked myself out a few days earlier than planned. Well ... I surely surprised him and his affair." He laughed, but deep inside, everything still tightened.

Alexander had been his first great love. That is why he had put up with so much. In the end, he was glad to be out of this toxic relationship, but being betrayed still hurt. "He was an asshole then", Caspian said and Louis smiled. "I wasn't easy either. I can get a little too attached and he just loved his freedom."

"Anyone who love the freedom more than the future will one day see that freedom is only an illusion, but the future is a constant." Louis paused for a moment, then reached for the bandages. "That was very philosophical." "I'm an angel after all. We're super wise and everything." Caspian glanced over his shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself just because you loved."

-

A very strange dynamic had developed over time. Louis had not said he should stay, but he even brought Caspian his own bedding the next day. Wow.

While Louis was working, Caspian gradually tried to regain his strength and health. Minnie had given up hissing at him and sometimes slept on Caspian's bed. And they ate dinner together. Every day.

Caspian did not really understand the whole thing and was trying to figure out why Louis was so caring. Sabrina came to visit every now and then, but it had become more difficult to speak to her as she asked more and more questions. Otherwise, Caspian was on his own and he did not mind that at all.

At first he had tried to reach the others by telepathy, but even Uriel seemed to ignore him. Caspian would never admit that, but it hurt him. Uriel had always been the most playful and humorous of the archangels, and the two had been close friends - before the incident with the Danglathas.

So maybe it was kind of an instinct when he jumped off the couch and felt that a stranger had entered the apartment. "Caspian?" "Still here," Caspian pressed out at Louis' question and went out into the hall. He was right.

A blond young man with brown eyes stood next to Louis and smiled cheerfully at Louis. But as soon as he recognized Caspian, his eyes widened and filled with horror. Caspian stared at the newcomer with hatred and clenched his fists. His muscles tensed and and he was at him with one leap. "Wait-" His fist hit its target and the blonde was smashed against the wall. He groaned and blood spurted from his nose. "Caspian what the hell!" Shouted Louis, staring at him stunned.

"Whoever that is, he's not a friend of you, Louis. This is a demon. A Guede. He stole a person's body."