Halo And Horns

Chapter 10: A Rainbow After Rain

Six months had passed since the death of Clary and Will. Nick was still grieving. In fact, he would grieve an eternity before he was fine with what had happened. He couldn't sleep again; he stayed up all night, every night, staring at the ceiling or the necklace he had gotten off Clary. It took him a couple of months to stop feeling the aching pain of loss in his chest. Now he just felt hollow. An empty shell of who he used to be. Of who his friends and parents had made him into.

He thought he could have a nice, happy life when Clary had accepted his feelings. He was so happy at that moment but once she told him her secret, everything went dark, the color she brought into his life faded and when he saw her sway in the air, hanging by her self-made noose, the little color remaining, the little hope he still had left, went gray, was lost.

He stood in the line, in a queue by river Seine, staring at the ticket he had just bought for the 'Hop-on hop-off Seine river Cruise'. He was in Paris, where he had landed a month ago after spending the past 4 months in a hotel in London. He had locked himself inside the hotel room for a whole month before coming out and buying new things for himself.

One day in London, he had been standing, leaning on the concrete edge-guard of the Blackfriar's bridge. He had stopped feeling the ache in his heart by then but he couldn't shake off the loneliness and the emptiness. The loss of so many important people left him with large un-fillable holes in his heart and on that particular day, he stood there, the wind blew on his face and through his hair, it flapped like flags in the wind. His hair was longer at the time, he hadn't cut it for a good few months.

As he lifted his leg just slightly in order to lift it up and over the guarding, a man walked to a stop beside him. He was taller than Nick was and he looked wise. He had a neatly cut, pure white beard and short hair, enough to see his scalp through them. He wore a thick black coat as it was late in the autumn, his hands in its pockets. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he had said and Nick dropped his leg back down and looked up at the man.

"And who might you be?" Nick asked, genuinely curious.

"Just a man," the man had answered.

That explains everything then, Nick wanted to say but didn't and instead turned his head back down toward the river where boats glided by, carrying tourists and buoys bobbed on the surface of the dirty river water.

"You look hollow," the man said now to which Nick gave no particular response. "But there are other things you can do to save yourself from being taken over by the grief of loss."

To this, Nick looked back at him. He didn't remember telling him, or anyone in fact, that he is grieving. "Don't just stand there, assuming."

"Oh, I'm not assuming," the man said and leaned down close to him and Nick saw the man's eyes held the same blue of his own and of his devil's. "I know."

For a long moment, they held their gazes and then Nick stepped back and away from him, suspicion falling over him like a sandstorm. "Who are you?"

"A rainbow after rain," he said. "You have lost people, so many people, you have sinned and convinced yourself that they are justifiable. You killed people, Nick."

Nick looked around when he spoke about killing, and then again realized, he had not given this man his name. "Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"Life is a road full of twists and turns and potholes and craters. Sometimes you jump over them, sometimes you fall. When you fall, you must know how to get back out. Falling is easy, but getting back out requires will power, determination and a lot of effort but it will be worth it in the end. You're in a hole right now, do not dig yourself in deeper. A devil may tell you what you want to hear but an angel can simply give you advice. It is up to you to follow it or not."