Part IV.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Quiet,” she said.
“Where are we going?”
“I said be quiet.”
I struggled to level my voice. I’d only just learned how to talk an hour ago and already this angel wanted me to perform complex vocal maneuvers.
“Where are we going?” I whispered this time.
The angel ignored me, tugging my arms forward as she trekked on. She used a long, spear-like staff to help her climb the uneven terrain. The angel had called it a ‘stick’ when she picked it up. I wondered if they had sticks in Heaven, and if so, what they used them for. I wondered if it had any relation to the river that flowed from her home to mine. I wondered if she had any intention of using that stick as its name implied. I wondered about a great many things.
Doubtful things.
Curious things.
Beautiful things.
Horrendous things.
The mind spends a lot of time wandering as it wonders. No surprise mortals often lose it.
“Keep up, demon!” The angel tugged at me again. I tripped over my feet, just barely catching myself. Suffice to say, I didn’t have a fancy stick to rely on. But I regained my footing and trotted on. It wasn’t long before I tripped over a clump of dirt instead. With nothing but my tied hands to catch me, I fell to the ground, right into the face of a sleeping beast.
Its eyes were crusted over, its nose dry. I leaned closer, taking in its long lashes, its gray hairs, its floppy ears.
“We are like this creature,” I realized.
The angel scoffed. “I am nothing like that dirty thing.”
“It breathes as we breathe. Come look.”
She took a step back. “I can see from here.”
I peeled open the beast’s eyes and peered into them. They were not like the angel’s. They were black, like my own. “Its eyes… There’s something in it.”
“What is that?”
I only saw it after the angel pointed it out. A red gook seeped out of the beast’s stomach. I touched it. It was cold. The more that seeped out, the slower the beast’s breathing. Labored and thick. I rested my tied hands on its chest.
We both watched, in silence, as the light in the eyes of the beast dimmed and faded away. Its body fell limp to the Earth, as if life never existed to begin with.
Whispering came easy now. “I think it’s gone.”
“You mean…” The angel’s silence spoke for us both. “How do you know?”
I looked up into the sky. A breeze brushed against my cheek, pushing tendrils of hair across my face. While the beast’s soul had left its cavity, still its corpse remained in the jungle with us. The angel seemed to sense it too, though she didn’t say a word. Her eyes went dark. We both came to the realization at the same time. Death on Earth was carnal, feral. It was physical before it became spiritual. One had to tangibly penetrate the protective skin we were both growing dependent upon.
Here, our body was our home. It was our harbor. It anchored us to this new world.
In the silent jungle, with a hollow creature at our feet, we learned that to kill each other meant we’d have to draw blood.
The moment before I’ll always remember. The angel stared at me. Nothing gave her away. If there was any time to act, to end this war, that time was now. Crouched in the dirt, my hand rested on something sharp just under the foliage of the jungle floor. In the angel’s hand was her walking stick, now with much more violent purposes than originally intended. Neither of us spoke. I waited. She could strike at any moment. I was ready for when she did.
Her fist clenched. Every muscle in my body quivered, reacting in its mortal instinct to protect itself, just as all creatures know to. I was now bound to nature. To Earth’s gravitational pull. Control was a thing of my past.
The angel didn’t attack. Rather, she did the opposite: she dropped her stick and turned her back on me. Perhaps I wasn’t the only creature in this world under its thumb.
I released my weapon, but my eyes never left the angel. Her posture was hard to read. I didn’t have much time to decipher its meaning. As soon as I turned away, a kneecap slammed into my left temple.
I didn’t even see it coming.
Stars exploded behind my eyes as I fell into a muddy puddle beside the dead beast and stared into its soul.
Nothing stared back.
See you soon, I thought.