“Come on, get up,” Azriel said as he helped me up. We ran away from the monsters that surrounded us when we arrived. We’ve fought vampires, werewolves, Djinn, a wraith, and some form of hybrid between a wraith and a vampire. I am not sure how but she had vampire’s teeth and a retractable spike on her wrist. Another monster got between me and Azriel. We both fought it, Azriel tried his powers but it didn’t work on this monster. It sent him flying to a tree a few feet away from me, then the monster shifted his glare at me and he revealed a mouth bigger than any monster’s regular mouth. I threw some punches at it and he threw some back at me. I was knocked down to the ground and he rode on top of me, revealing his sharp teeth and big mouth again. I quickly placed my machete onto his neck. I slowly pushed the edge of it through his neck, the monster was snarling. Once its head was chopped off, black ooze splattered on me including half of my face. I simply got up and kicked the head far away from its body. I looked over at Azriel, who was already walking towards me. Panting.
“Got any clue on what that thing was?” I asked him, still catching my breath. He nodded and grunted at how sore he felt right at the moment. He stood up straighter, “I think those were Leviathans,” he said.
“Leviathans? Like ancient monsters before angels and demons existed kind of ancient?”
Azriel nodded, still catching his breath.
I looked around and Merikh was nowhere to be found. “Azriel, where’s your brother?” I started to feel panic, but as I look over at him his eyes were searching for Merikh too.
***
Merikh’s been running aimlessly. He couldn’t find Mia and Azriel, he leans on a tree and peeks on the wound he has gotten from some kind of a hybrid. Mia beheaded the vampire-wraith hybrid, but this one, oh this one is something he’d never seen before. He was sweating as he tried to run once again then he fell to the ground, and the scene changed into a bright morning outside of the rift. Then a voice started calling his name, frantically calling his name. He opened his eyes to see Collin hovering. He tried getting up but his deep wound made him grunt. He held on to his side tightly but Collin’s trying to take a look at it. “Hold on, Mer. Just…uh…shit. I’ll be right back,” Collin stood up and went to the back of the truck. The compartment wouldn’t open, then Collin shifted to the backseat and took Mia’s duffel bag. He fished out a first aid kit from the bag and he frantically opened it. He poured some alcohol to Merikh’s wound, he screamed in pain. “Sorry,” he said, then he placed some bandage on his wound to keep it from bleeding further. He took a suture out then Merikh held his arm, “just…use…your…powers,” he tried saying and then coughed, “you’re a fucking angel. It’s going to heal me faster.”
“How am I gonna do it?”
“Close your eyes and focus on healing me.”
“Is it going to hurt?”
“Like a son of a bitch.”
Collin nodded and placed both his hands on Merikh’s wound. He closed his eyes and thought of his wounds stop bleeding, closing up, and healing. He hears Merikh yelling and groaning then he stopped. Collin opens his eyes and sees Merikh laying there, eyes closed. “Thanks,” he said, panting.
“Where’s Mia and Azriel?”
“I don’t know. I lost them after,” he paused and sat up.
“After what?”
“After we got ambushed.”
Collin’s eye shifted to where he opened the rift. He was about to stand up when Merikh pulled him, “you can’t go. It has to be me to go get them. I’ll, uh, I’ll go straight to Hell and maybe meet them at the backdoor.”
Collin looked at his phone, they only have 3 hours left before the window to Purgatory closes for good. He helps Merikh up and they dusted themselves off. Merikh disappeared the moment Collin told him to move quickly.
He stood there by the truck’s hood, put his hands together, closes his eyes, and started praying. He prayed for his three friends’ safety. He prayed for them to get back as soon as possible. He prayed that the innocent souls be rescued.
***
Azriel and I ran towards the sound of water. When we reached the source of the water, I knelt down and drank it. “For an awful place like this, it sure does have some potable water,” I said as I continued drinking. Azriel knelt down beside me and washed his face, he closed his eyes for a moment. “Collin,” he suddenly said.
“What? Is Collin okay?”
“Close your eyes and listen.”
I did what Azriel said, and there it was. I can hear Collin’s voice, praying. He was praying for our safety. He even said thanks for turning him into an angel. His abilities helped heal Merikh. I suddenly opened my eyes, "he healed Merikh?! Oh my God. What happened to him?! Holy shit!" my thoughts start to run wild.
“Mia, relax,” Azriel said softly as he tried to calm me down and not let me get an anxiety attack right then and there. I took a few deep breaths and when I was feeling a lot better, he helped me up. We followed the river’s direction and hoped that we get to our destination faster.
As we were walking, we heard a growl. We didn’t try to stop and look back, we just ran as fast as we can. I can hear the crackle of the dry leaves under our feet and the monster following us. Then we saw a huge boulder closing, Merikh showed himself and motioned for us to run faster. Both of us jumped inside and we heard the monster yelp on the other side of the boulder. Azriel and I sat on the ground, panting. “This door right here can only be opened by a demon and no monster can come in here even if I leave it open,” he commented.
“That’s, uh, that’s good to know,” Azriel was catching his breath as he replied to his brother.
“Come on,” he held out both his hands to help us up, “we only have a couple of hours.”
I was about to say something when Merikh told me he’ll explain later. I just nodded and we followed him through the maze of a hall.
Each hall has doors lined up. I wasn’t able to look inside of them from the first few halls we passed by but on this hall, I was able to get a glimpse of what’s on the other side of the door. The souls were reliving their most notorious deaths. Their last days on earth as the evil person they once were. One of the souls looked at the door and saw me. He ran towards the door, yelling for help. At first glance, he seemed like a normal person but when he got closer, I saw his eyes were gouged out. There were shards of glass all over his face. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen. Merikh pulled me away from the door, “don’t look inside. No matter how curious you get, don’t look,” he whispered to me.
“Here,” Azriel said, “found Mary Andrews.”
Merikh opened the door and Mary was standing there. She turned around and saw Merikh, she started screaming then Azriel went in front of her. She calmed down the moment Azriel touches her hand, “we’re going to get you out of here, okay?”
She nodded.
“Just close your eyes and I’ll take care of it,” Azriel placed his two fingers on her forehead. A bright light appeared and she turned into a ball of light floating up, disappearing from the ceiling. “Let’s look for the others,” he said as he turned around. We walked to a few more doors and found the rest. When we reached the cell of the last missing person, the room was empty. There were no signs of her. Then we heard Merikh grunting, we looked outside and saw him fighting some demons. We ran towards him to give him a hand. Azriel just placed his palm to the top of their heads and burned the demons. I used my blessed knife that I hid inside my jacket to kill off another demon, stabbing him in his throat.
“She’s gone,” I said to Merikh, who stopped at the entrance of the cell. He went inside and looked for some clues. “Demons took her,” he suddenly said, “there’s sulfur right here.”
Azriel and I walked closer and found some yellowish powder near the stone chair. Merikh got out of the cell and led the way around the maze once again, looking for the last girl – Paola Hackshaw.
***
Collin looks at his phone again and saw that the three of them only have 10 minutes left. “Come on, come on, come on,” he whispered to himself, taking a deep breath. He didn’t hear him arrive, he just walked beside Collin. “Still in there?” his deep voice surprised Collin.
“Jesus Christ! You scared me!” he replied as he turned around to see Uriel.
“You really shouldn’t use the Lord’s name in vain,” he commented, lifting an eyebrow.
“Sorry,” he replied, “but yeah, they’re still in there.”
Uriel just took a deep breath.
A few minutes later, Collin’s phone alarmed then Uriel snapped his fingers. Azriel, Merikh, and Mia appeared in front of them. They were surprised to get out of there, thinking that Collin did it. Then they saw Uriel behind him. “Sorry, I couldn’t wait for Collin to open the rift and have the three of you run around Purgatory again,” he commented, “however, I know you were looking for Paola Hackshaw, am I correct?”
The three of them nodded. “Well, you weren’t going to find her because she’s been saved.”
Mia’s eyes widened, “saved?! Saved?! She’s been saved?! Why didn’t anyone tell us?!”
Uriel puts his hand up, “relax, Nephilim. She’s been saved even before you saved the others.”
“Wait,” Merikh interrupted, “we were supposed to get all of them. Why was she saved first and got the others to rot there? Why didn’t they just save the rest of them instead of having us do the work?”
“Because the angels that were supposed to save them were killed. The demons are going rouge. Without Beleth or Lucifer, no one’s taking orders from anybody,” he paused, “they wanted you to take over but since you found your grace, there’s a possibility that you can get reinstated in Heaven. Unless you choose to rule Hell instead.”
We all looked at Merikh. He was looking down then lifted his head up, “is there someone else who wanted to rule down there?”
“There is,” his older brother replied.
“And?”
“And neither of you would want her to rule.”
“Who are you talking about?” Mia asked.
“Bernael. She’s the fallen angel of darkness.”
“Bernael can do more damage than Beleth ever will,” added Azriel. His expression changed from being confident to being scared just by mentioning her name. Who is she? And why is an archangel afraid of her?