Paradise End

4 - Past

"I said stop!"

Boots shuffled across the ground. A thick voice came forward in an undertone. In the dimly lit chamber, an onlooker rushed forward through the crowd from the other side.

On the floor, his stomach throbbed and swelled with pain, his eyes growing dreary and glazed. Suddenly, the kicks stopped. Whispers fell away, the sound reduced to low crackles and snaps of nearby torchlights. The prisoner's eyelids fluttered open.

Gradually the sight of a pair of golden-brown feathers came into focus. A cherub, with the soft appearance of a boy around the same look as him, held the objector back by his hands.

The cherub opposite to the golden angel glared, figure struggling against his grip. After a moment passed by, the objector released, stepping away to the crowd, casting a scythe like stare at the prisoner.

"Zadriel, what's this about?"

The golden angel's stance only stiffened beside the prisoner, his muscles, enkindled by the remnants of combat, falling away to his side. His lips fell quiet. Boots scraped softly against the ground; he placed his feet firmly there where he stood. Fixed in place. Despite the soft hum coiling over the room like a hot rope, etching itself into every layer of every stare, he fell still.

"Zadriel, what's the issue here?"

"What's the issue here!?" the angel bellowed, "What's the issue!? Didn't you all hear the gatekeeper – he's one of us!"

"Tsh" the gray-winged one scoffed by the wall, "A cherub with horns and batwings. Give me a break; that's a demon in disguise if I've ever seen one."

Zadriel planted his feet. "I disagree! Firstly, how can you describe what you see as a disguise? If they'd planned to fool us I'm sure they would have done it by now and with a disguise that looked more like you and I. Secondly, didn't you hear!? They performed all the tests necessary! You see it as well as I!" The angel motioned with his hand at the fallen cherubim behind him, bellowing with heavy breaths and a tall steady glare, "Even if you hate to admit it, when you look with open eyes you can see his spiritual energy. It's the same essence as us. He's an angel, so why are you lying to yourselves?"

The crowd by the edge of the wall fell to silence.

His breaths came out in short desperate intervals, "What's it going to take for you to believe what's right in front of you? He's one of us."

A tall man with a roman nose, and navy-blue wings stepped forward, "Zadriel, I have nothing but respect for you, but you're only fooling yourself if you believe those words. Look with open eyes? We are looking, Zadriel. We're looking with all the knowledge and judgement from past lives and past mistakes. Look at what you see. That's not a cherub; we don't know who he is or where he came from. He might as well be a demon, a fallen one, looking to latch on to the lost souls for what energy they crave." His face fell to the life on the floor, "After everything I've seen, you can't expect me to believe such a silly logic. No, a silly passion. To follow passion will only lead to destruction."

"You're wrong! Logic and passion have nothing to do with it!" Zadriel glared at the small gathering. While he didn't speak, he stood nonetheless, his form blocking all from inching any closer to the chained being.

The cerulean cherub sighed, rubbing his neck, "Nothing I say is going to please you, huh." He said, scratching his chin, "Very well, if you insist on not listening to reason then go right ahead – play human all you like, I won't stop you. From this point onward, he is your responsibility." Frenzied murmurs passed through the room. Snaps of electricity rustling every feather and every rank.