“Now what?” I asked. This was all the farther I knew how to get.
“Where is he supposed to go?” Joshua prompted me.
“Hell.” I winced. “He’s supposed to go to Hell.”
“And how do you get him there?” he continued.
“The soul finds its own way once it is released from the cage of the body,” I answered.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “So let it go.” I took a deep breath and pushed the glowing soul towards the grey sky. It started to flicker briefly before it disappeared. “Now was that so very hard to do?”
“I just killed him.” Realization hit me.
“No.” Jesse helped me stand with a gentle hand on my waist. “He was already dead. You helped him be at peace.”
“Well, if we are done here, I am going to let myself be returned to Hell to live out my sentence of eternal torture.” Joshua’s voice interrupted my guilt.
“You can’t just leave!” I told him. “I can’t reap this entire city of its inhabitance on my own!”
“I did it on my own for a thousand years,” he answered. “And you act like I care.”
“You’re not allowed to leave until this is finished,” Jesse informed him.
“Who might you be to tell me what I can and cannot do?” Joshua turned his anger on Jesse.
“I am the angel appointed to keep you from escaping and to keep you in line,” he stated.
“So, the babysitter?” The two of them had never gotten along, even before I was in the picture. Now they really didn’t get along.
“No.” Jesse’s grip on my waist involuntarily tightened and I winced slightly. “I’m the man who is going to kill you if you do not do what you are supposed to do.”
“I’m already dead,” Joshua hissed.
“I can make it worse.” Jesse stared him down until Joshua eventually turned away.
“Whatever.” He moved over to another body, starting to reap the soul of the fallen human. I reluctantly walked over to another Orc, lying in a sticky pool of his grayish-green blood.
I rested my hand on his forehead, trying to center in on his voice with my eyes tightly closed. Whereas the last voice had been so easy to find, for some reason I could not get this one. I didn’t understand why I was having such a hard time until a hand closed around my throat. My eyes flew open and I tried to escape, but the Orc I had thought to be dead had me in a vise-like grip, growling savagely as it strangled me.
“Rachael!” Jesse was suddenly there, stabbing his hunting knife deep into the creature’s heart. I took in a pained breath as the Orc let go, falling onto my back on the ground. “Are you alright?” I struggled to breathe, my windpipe closing in on itself. I couldn’t think or answer him as this Orc’s voice joined the others. Every minute added another agonized voice to the masses screaming at me.
I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t talk. I didn’t want this job. I wanted to go home and hide from all of this death and agony around me and I wanted my mind back. The feeling of insanity closed in around me, sending a panicked feeling through my body. Escape wasn’t an option anymore. The only option was to calm down and get back to work.
“Rachael.” Jesse’s soothing voice broke through the chaos. I focused on his brilliant blue eyes, my breathing swiftly going back to normal. I got up, using the back of my hand to wipe the Orc’s blood off of my face.
“I’m fine,” I told him.
“Ok.” He nodded. I knew he didn’t believe me. He knew I wasn’t actually ok. I placed my hand on his forehead again, knowing he was actually dead this time. He was far more hostile than the first Orc, mostly because he had died trying to kill me. I decided to move on to a human then.
If I stumbled upon one who was not actually dead at least they wouldn’t try to kill me. I chose a young man, dressed in the uniform of Ebulon. He looked like he was frozen in time; his eyes still wide open in shock and horror. The snow fell onto and around him, covering his hair and the fur on his uniform.
He might have been twenty years old, if that. Dead long before his time. My hand melted the frost and snowflakes on his forehead as his terrified voice led me inside his mind.
“Hi.” I decided to say the first thing since he was looking at me in fear.
“You’re an angel,” he realized.
“Yes, I am.” It was better to start small and build up to the fact that he was… well dead.
“If you’re an angel, then that means…” He struggled to build up the courage to say it. “That means I’m dead, right?”
“Yes.” I didn’t know what else to say. Maybe this was why Joshua was so angry and testy all of the time. He had to tell people numerous times a day that they were dead. Not that they were dying but that they were dead.
“I’m not ready to die,” he told me. “Please! I have a fiancé and she’s pregnant! I can’t leave them all alone!”
“I’m truly very sorry,” I answered. “There is nothing I can do…”
“I have heard stories about people being spared.” He interrupted me. “They were dead for hours or even days and they were brought back. You are the angel of death; you must know something about that! You have to be able to help me!”
“I’m not… I haven’t been the angel of death for very long,” I admitted. “I don’t know what caused something like that but I don’t think…”
“My leader’s name is Ky,” he interrupted me again. “He was dead and has been for a long time and yet he fights today in Ebulon because of the deal he made with the angel of death. You’re the angel of death. I wish to make the same deal with you as he did.”
“I didn’t make a deal with anyone,” I insisted. “I don’t know who Ky is. If someone made a deal with him; it was Joshua…”
“You have to help me!” He repeated. “I cannot leave them alone! They need me! Don’t you understand that? Isn’t there someone that you would give anything to be with?”
“Yes.” My answer was quiet. Jesse. I would give anything to be with him. I knew that my mistress, Elizabeth, did not approve and she would do anything she could to separate us. She knew it wouldn’t work though. Jesse had been by my side since I was six years old, never letting anything happen to me and never letting anyone hurt me. I knew what this man was feeling.
“If this was you and you were dying, wouldn’t you want someone to help you?” he asked. I struggled with what I knew I was supposed to do and what I now wanted to do. This man was right; it was possible. Joshua had done at least three times. There was a way to do it. I had to think. The soul was damaged right now.
It would be repaired once it got to Heaven. That was where this man was destined to go. If I could take it out and then repair it, I might be able to put it back into his body and bring him back to life. The reason for death in any human is the damaging of their soul. A person could sustain horrible injuries to their body, but they only died when their soul suffered injuries as well.
If I could heal his soul, there would be no reason why he couldn’t live again. I had to at least try. If I was in his place and I was the one who was dead, I would want the angel of death to do everything they could to bring me back to Jesse.
“Ok.” I agreed. “I will help you.” I drew his soul out of his body, opening my eyes in the snow-covered street inside Ebulon. The glowing orb floated over to my hand, waiting for me to help it. I only knew basic healing and I didn’t know if it would help the soul or not. I would try though. I knew Joshua wouldn’t help me and Jesse wouldn’t approve either. I had to do this on my own and fast.
I held my free hand over the rotating sphere and started to slowly release a small amount of healing energy into it. The slight red line started to turn with the soul, filling in the little empty spaces and tears in its surface.