“I’m not going to let you die.” I refused to let that even be a possibility. I cradled her in my arms, knowing my time was running out.
“Hurry, angel boy!” Joshua stood ready for the Orcs. They were less than twenty yards away from him. Thirty yards away from me. I only had seconds. I couldn’t pull it out from her back. The barbs would take pieces of her with it. I had to help it continue its path through her body.
“I am so, so sorry.” I kissed her forehead before I pushed it out through her chest. She gave an agonized cry but I couldn’t stop. As much as her pain hurt me; her death would be far worse. I pushed the arrow as far as her body would allow before I switched hands and took the end coming out of her chest to pull it the rest of the way out.
By now the Orcs had reach Joshua. He was able to fend them off because only about four or five could come through the gate at a time. He wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. I had to fix Rachael as fast as I could. Her blood poured out onto my hands, her shock and agony evident. I pressed my hand to the wound in her chest.
“You are going to be ok,” I repeated. I pushed as much energy into her as I could with no regards to my own personal store. My life and my own strength were not as important as hers. It didn’t take as much energy as I expected. Her vitals were uninjured and it was mostly just the repairing of her muscles and skin. “Does anything still hurt?”
“No.” She shook her head. I glanced back to see that three of the Orcs had escaped Joshua and were headed straight towards us.
“Stay back here,” I ordered. “Don’t go anywhere near the fighting.”
“But, Jesse…”
“No.” I didn’t let her finish. “You are not endangering your life or hers. Stay here.” I stood up, making sure she moved away from the fighting, before I met two of the Orcs with my knives through their throats. I pulled them out as quickly as I had stabbed them in, sending the third one to his knees with one in his stomach and then to the ground with the other straight into his brain.
I stayed behind Joshua, letting him head them off and catching what he missed. I was more concerned with keeping Rachael safe than protecting the city. However with the vast amount of these creatures pouring in through the destroyed city gates; it was very likely that I was going to be taking her out of this place.
She could continue to reap these godforsaken souls once they were all truly dead.
These creatures were even more grotesque alive than dead. They varied in how deformed their faces were. Several could be recognizable as having slightly human faces. Others were so horrific that they couldn’t be distinguishable as living. If they didn’t have souls I wouldn’t believe that they were living beings.
I was so distracted I could barely hear the voice calling to me for help. Even when I did hear it, the voice almost got lost in the numerous voices screaming desperately in my head. It wasn’t until I actually saw one of the bodies move that I realized there was still someone alive among the dead.
“Hello?” I walked cautiously up to the body. With all of the snow and mixed blood around I couldn’t tell if it was a human or an Orc. “Did you say something to me?”
“I asked why it took you so long to come.” A distinctively human voice came from the mass of snow and fur.
“I’m sorry?” Most people didn’t ask me that. They didn’t want to see the angel of death coming to them. More often I got asked why I was there so soon.
“We have been waiting for hours for our reinforcements to come.” He turned around and I quickly hid my expression of shock. A huge gash ran from his left temple to the lower, right side of his jaw. It went through one of his eyes and sliced his nose completely in half. “There were only twenty of us down here. We sent out a distress call hours ago and no one came. Why did you take so long?”
“I’m… we’re not your reinforcements,” I told him.
“Than what the hell are you?” he wanted to know.
“I’m the angel of death,” I reluctantly answered. “I’m here to collect the dead.”
“Good luck with that.” He laughed bitterly. “You’d have better luck collecting the living. Why don’t you tell me when there’s good news? Like when my reinforcements finally show up.”
“I don’t think anyone is coming,” I stated. “I think that once we come it means that the battle is over. There’s no one left to come to you.”
“This may be why you’re the angel of death.” He turned away from me. “You don’t even have the common courtesy to comfort a dying man with the possibility that his death might have been worthwhile.”
“I’m sorry… it’s just… this is my first time doing this.” I winced inwardly. That came out wrong.
“This is your first time doing what?” He turned back around. The last thing a man on the brink of death wanted to know was that the angel of death who should be taking him to rest was on her first day on the job.
“Never mind.” I shook my head.
“This is your first time being the angel of death,” he guessed.
“Maybe.” I glanced over to Jesse. He was surrounded by dead Orcs with more rushing towards him. I really would much rather be helping him keep the Orcs at bay than talking to a bitter, dying warrior.
“One of my fellow soldiers came this close to death last year,” he started to explain. “He said the angel of death was at his bedside for hours before he pulled through with the help of our most talented healers. He also said that the angel of death was a man.” I looked away from him. He didn’t need to prove I wasn’t who he expected. I already knew.
“I am sorry that I am not what you wanted,” I started. “But I am not here for you. I’m not here to help you fight and I am not here to collect your soul because you are not dying. Count yourself lucky. Not everyone else was so gifted.”
“I don’t count myself lucky.” His eyes were filled with a frightening fire that made me wish I was facing an Orc instead. “I would rather die defending my city than live knowing it has fallen.”
“We don’t know for sure that it has fallen.” Now I was starting to feel uneasy. As soon as I got back to Washington DC I was going to give this title and this job over to Elizabeth. She had wanted it from the start and I never wanted it.
“I know it has fallen.” The fire left his eyes. “This city is in the heart of all who live in it. We know when it is dying.” Joshua and Jesse were finishing off the last of the Orcs but I knew he was right. There was nothing left of this city.
Smoke rose in all directions from across the mountainous city and the death rippling through my head was worse than anything I have ever heard in my entire life. Death was not something I wanted to experience anymore. I was supposed to be focusing on life but I couldn’t when all I could think about was that every life ended in death.
My own life would end in death as would Jesse’s and our baby’s. Joshua was already dead and I was the one who had made that happen. Every person and every creature of every kind was going to die and it was my job to take their life. This was not the life I wanted. The life of the angel of death is a lonely and desolate one. The life of an angel of death is the only one that truly welcomes death when it comes to them.
Entry Point by 12 - by Jennifer Priester
The Star Power Puppy was awoken from his nap by a voice in his head. Due to sleepiness all he heard was, <Ebulon… danger… help… follow.> From what he understood, someone or someplace called Ebulon was in trouble and needed help. He was unsure about the last part. Who or what was he supposed to follow?