Uriel healed Merikh’s bruises and sore muscles. He groaned in pain because of the healing process that he’s enduring for his broken ribs. Azriel on the other hand took Collin’s body inside the house and placed him in one of the rooms as they prepare for a proper funeral for him. I found a place where I can be alone – the dungeon. I was still bruised and had a couple of cuts, plus a sprained ankle. I’m still too sad to even heal myself or get some of the angels to heal me. I carefully sat down on the floor of the cell I was in, crying my heart out for losing my best friend. I can only hear myself crying and not notice Merikh came in. He sat beside me and held my hand, “it’s not your fault,” he started. “None of this is your fault. It’s not Collin’s fault either. He saved your life, and you saved ours. And who knows, maybe Collin’s probably in Heaven with his family,” he said softly as he wrapped his arms around me, trying to comfort me.
“Hey,” Azriel said after softly knocking, “sorry to interrupt but, uhm, you gotta see this,” he was a little uncomfortable as he said it. Merikh helped me up and we followed Azriel. As we walked up the stairs, he’s been hesitating to say anything. He’s been glancing back at us then forward like he wanted to reveal what we’re going to see but at the same time, he didn’t want to spoil anything.
As we reached the rooms, Azriel turned around to face us, stopping us from our tracks. “Okay, as we go inside, don’t freak out. Okay?” he said.
“Uh, yeah. Sure,” Merikh replied, then Azriel opens the door. He went inside then we followed, and we saw Collin sitting on the bed rubbing his temples. My eyes grew wide and my heart skipped a beat. I was speechless, but I ran to him and gave him a tight hug, and sat beside him. Merikh lifted his staff and poked his arm, Collin swatted the staff.
“But I watched you die,” I blurted, “h-how is this possible?!”
“I don’t know either, I –“ Collin replied as Merikh poked him again. “Will you cut it out?!” Collin irritably said, “I’m alive alright?!”
“Hold on. If you’re alive again, are you human or vampire?” I asked, they all stared at me. “What? He died as a vampire. I’m just curious if he still is or he turned human.”
Collin got curious as well that he tried retracting his fangs but nothing happened. His eyes didn’t glow either. “Wait,” Azriel said, “he’s neither.”
“What do you mean?” asked Collin.
“You’re giving off an energy that isn’t human or vampire,” Azriel furrowed his brows like he was thinking then his eyes widened, “the energy you’re giving off isn’t human nor a vampire because –“
“You’re an angel,” Merikh cuts his brother off, continuing what he was thinking. “The strong energy you’re giving off is your grace. But what can you remember though?” Merikh asked and sat in front of him.
“Well, I remember Beleth trying to kill Mia and I blocked whatever it is that he did, and I died. That was it. Then I woke up. I am here. Azriel was as startled as I was.”
“Yeah,” Azriel agreed, “I, uhm, I called on Raphael and Uriel before I went to you guys but they have no idea, too, as to how is Collin was resurrected.”
I stood up from the bed and parted the curtain a little bit. “Wait. What happened to the backyard?” I asked after I peeked outside.
“Oh, yeah, uhm, we fixed it. Me, Nathanael, and Zophiel. We fixed everything there to, you know, close any passage to Hell.”
“What about the monsters? The apocalypse?”
“They’re still around. Apocalypse is still ongoing. We just cannot close the gates of Hell entirely ‘cause there are people out there who kind of deserves to be dragged there.”
Collin and Merikh were kind of taken aback by what Azriel said. “Azriel, are you sure that’s really you in there and not someone else?” Collin asked.
Azriel nodded, “uhm, yeah. My vessel’s just new and I still haven’t gotten used to it. I guess, hence the inability to stop from being brutally honest.”

***

When the sun was up we went to the backyard where the fight was the night before. The four of us just standing there, Collin in the middle. “Okay,” started Azriel, “let’s try untucking the wings.”
Collin took off his shirt and did some stretching before standing taller. He moved his shoulders like he wore a backpack, trying to untuck his wings. Nothing happened. He tried again and again, still nothing. Azriel held up his hand, “hmmm. Alright. Let’s skip that for a moment. Try, uhm, try making your eyes glow.”
Collin was readying himself then he stopped, “wait. How am I supposed to do that?”
“Just close your eyes and think of your powers and your grace. Imagine saving someone or trying pull something heavier than a car.”
He proceeded to do what Azriel said, then he slowly opened his eyes – it had some bright light to it. The light on his blue-gray eyes was brighter. We all cheered for him as he accomplished that small victory. Collin was pretending like he won a gold medal when a flap of wings broke our cheering. “Ariel?” Azriel suddenly said.
“The mermaid?” I asked, looking a little bit confused.
“Do I look like I have red hair?” she replied. I see a beautiful angel in a white top, gray pants, and light blue coat with black hair and green eyes. “What brings you here?” Azriel asked.
“I have something for you,” she handed over pieces of paper. All of them were posters. The ones you see on bulletin boards and lamp posts. “These are missing person fliers,” I commented, “are we going to look for them?”
“Sort of,” she said. “But before that,” she stops and looks at Merikh, “I heard you got your grace back. Why aren’t you using it? I mean, they needed you last night. If you swallowed your grace, we wouldn’t have any casualties.”
“It’s not yet –“
“The perfect time?” she chuckled, “when is it ever a perfect time? Look, Mia killed Beleth. Azriel killed Lucifer, although Mia was supposed to do that, but of course, she was in the middle of burning Beleth like a suckling pig, she needed the help. But no one blames you, it’s just that it would’ve been better if you just used your grace.”
Merikh didn’t say anything anymore. I know he felt guilty about it. “Anyway,” Ariel broke the silence, “going back to those fliers. No, you’re not going to look for them. Why? Because they’ve died a long time ago. Their family doesn’t know yet ‘cause their bodies are, let’s just say, will be a huge treasure hunt.”
“What do you need us to do?” Azriel finally asked his sister.
“We need you to save them.”
“From where? Or who?” I asked.
“Hell.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“These people are innocent. They might’ve done a few bad things but it isn’t enough for them to go to Hell and have their souls tortured for all eternity. So we need you to get them back and lead them to Heaven.”
“Why do you need us?” Merikh interjected, “I mean, we just fought the big bosses last night. We’re tired. We need a break. Why can’t you do it or Michael?”
“Because I man the desk! I am not equipped to fight anything or anyone! I am not a warrior like you or Azriel or Raphael and Michael! I do the paper works! I am only here playing messenger to the Archangels and Seraphim because we’re short of angels! Thanks to Beleth, he burned every angel when he cracked the earth open! Even murdered a few of them if you noticed them last night,” she took a deep breath and somehow pouted. I can see it in her eyes how sad she is for losing her brothers and sisters. Before any of us could say anything else, she disappeared.

I looked at the fliers on my hand and I can see the pictures were kids. The eldest is 19 and she was last seen 4 years ago. I handed the fliers to Collin as he stretched out his arm towards me, asking to see them. “Is there a way to Hell other than the one opened by Beleth somewhere?”
“Yeah, there is,” Merikh replied casually as he took the fliers from Collin.
“O-kay, so where?”
He looked up at me, “Purgatory.”
“That’s cool. We can probably hang out for a bit in that town. Kind of cozy there,” I remarked then I saw Azriel and Merikh exchange looks. “Okay, now what?”
“The other way to Hell is in Purgatory, yes,” Azriel said.
“But the Purgatory we meant is the one on the other side,” Merikh chimed in.
“The one with, uh, with the monsters?”
“Yeah,” the brothers said in unison.
I took a deep breath and sighed, “great. But hold on, I thought humans cannot go to Purgatory?”
“Actually, you can,” Azriel confirmed, “if you know the way.”