HOW THE WORLD ENDS
The tainted air was rushing past his ears as he was falling; the injuries sustained in the ensuing battle had caused his wings to hang lifeless, as he plunged further towards the torched earth and certain death. Gabriel used his entire god given strength to will his wings into action and stall his decent so he would survive his landing upon the earthly plain. His wings unfurled and it was as if he was on gods strings and he was the puppet to his master he stopped in mid fall and took upon himself the shape of the cross as he floated and glided to the raw parched dirt below him. Crumpled in a heap he was no longer able to use the wings upon his back and with two sharp strikes of his heavens sword they were a bloody mass of skin, bone and feathers nesting quietly on the ground. The wings emblazoned with light so bright and burst into holy flame and blew away with the hot northerly gust of wind blowing from a battered city only miles away.
“Gabriel, you are alive my brother?” the voice from alongside him was Michael his brother and fellow aspect of god.
“Yes brother but only just, I am afraid the demons of the dark one have inflicted more than physical injuries on me this day” he replied thru rasping broken breaths.
“We must triumph brother or else all humanity and the land of god itself will be doomed, we cannot allow the devils to run amuck upon this earthly soil, they are treacherous and deceitful and full of death to humanity.” Michaels verse was uplifting and true but what could he and a broken brother angel do to stay the demonic execution that would surely end this war.
“I do hear you Michael, be assured of this, but I am broken, I can no longer help you in the battles above, my wings stripped clean and the spurs upon my back are now a solemn reminder of our mortality.” Gabriel spoke with authority and also a hint of defeatist in his tone.
“You will help the mortals’ brother; you are akin to death and fighting for the righteous, so thus it is told, stay the execution of man from the mortal land.” Michael took a large breath and took in the scoured land before him. “Make them understand they can win the fight; even tho they created the war in the first place; I will take control of the angels in flight and fight for your honour brother, take my hand and say it is so!” Michael held his hand and Gabriel took it at the wrist some of his undying power flowing back into him showing him the way of gods not of man and cowards.
Michael took flight back to the skies above to a place where only gods and now daemons preside. Looking down he saw for the last time his brother walking the soil of man towards the city just out of full vision, he said a small litany to himself a prayer for him to succeed and not let the daemons inside to cloud his mind. The war was above and below, it was created by man and now it was up to gods to finish it.
Gabriel wandered across the insidious red mat of earth called Nevada to the human city named Las Vegas, it was a ruin and the huge buildings of steel and concrete were no longer sending a beacon of light to the heavens at night. The sins in this place were even more than in war, decadence, lust and gambling, as well as unsanctioned unions of men and whores the binding of two people in what they called marriage by a long dead singer. Drug addicts and illicit drugs abound creating not only deaths from abuse but murder and deceit to play out in the sins of power and greed. The walk to the city of sin was enlightening and dead in equal measure. Some fleeing the concrete jungle stopped to ask if he was ok, offering food or moisture in return for nothing, others spat on him as they drove past along a spear of hot black tar he found that led into the city. For those who stopped to render assistance he said a prayer for, a quick death for them instead of a drawn out unimaginable death at the hands of the undying ones from below.
A noise from behind him took him from his poise and posturing as he walked.
“You want a lift mate” A voice of southern inflection asked from the cab of a large truck that was carrying both men and arms for fighting a foreign foe.
“Yes, it would please me to no longer have to walk upon this hot black dirt covering.” He replied looking at the highway under his feet. “Jump in brother, we have food and water, Jess will fix you up in no time.” James Harris said as he jumped in the back with what could only be called a small militia force. Other vehicles followed from behind also carrying men, women and equipment.
“Please sit mister” a voice like angels singing filled his ears and he looked to see a vision of beauty with dirt and grease smeared upon her porcelain flesh. He sat and as he did the woman held out a canteen for him to partake of fluids. “Thank you”...... “Jess” the human woman replied with a whisper. “Jessica, but everyone calls me jess”.
“I am Gabriel angel of the lord master sent here to help defeat the common foe” he said without hesitation. The convened in the truck all burst into a riotous laughter, something they had not done in days. “You expect us to believe you are the mighty Gabriel, gods angel fallen to earth” a burly man with a machine gun slung over one shoulder. “No, I don’t ask of you to believe, I ask only of you to have faith and know within, that I am who I say I am.” He replied gently but with the authority of a millennia and more of service the all mighty.
“Holly shit look at his back” the burly man said as he stood to assess the so called angel. “I am Peter, and I am sorry I just said Holy shit, shit I did it again, I am sorry Mr......um...ah...” peter stumbled over his tongue as he tried to make amends. “Gabriel, please call me Gabriel.” he unsheathed his heavenly sword, a broad golden sword with an edge filament thin and glowing blue with the aura of heaven itself. “This is Penintentiarius my sword of penitence, it has held many of the unworthy to just cause with death from its blades edge” he explained.
It can only be wielded by one worthy of god’s love and in doing so it is as useless as a freshly cut flower in the hands of the maleficent or human detritus.” He added as a way to dissuade others from trying to take the blessed artefact. “I am just glad you’re on our side.” a young boy said as he looked upon the heavenly apparition in awe.
The ride into the broken city was uneventful and little could be found to bring on the end of the world as we know it, but Gabriel new different they had lost the twelve angel guards taken out by the demons of the “Light Bearer”, the humans call him by many names but he is the first and most powerful angel cast aside by God, “Satan”
“Why are you here Gabriel? And what happened to your wings?” the man called Peter asked with an inflection of knowing in his voice. “I was battling the demonic angels of the Light Bearer and was attacked by too many of the damned creatures to win the battle. I destroyed ten of the unholy beasts, before the rest attached their chain bindings to my outer shell and the hell fires within the chains drained my powers and damaged my wings beyond usefulness so I cut the useless limbs from my body.” He replied. A woman at the front of the vehicle laughed and called him a charlatan and magician, a bearer of bullshit, not of righteous power. “How, how can you believe this, this man.” she said still laughing. “Is he going to bring my little girl back to me, NO!” she said looking directly in Gabriel’s eyes. “No he can’t, and why because he is no more an angel than I am, we are doomed, and we will die for the sins of our fathers.” Crying now, she openly sobbed into her hands as she covered her face, not wanting to believe anything at this point only the sorrow of her loss.
“I am your deliverance, your holy power upon this earth, there is no-one who can bring Lucy back to you, of that you are correct, but unless you believe I can help you I am powerless, I need the belief of man to sustain my fight here on earth, it is your undying faith that will save us not my powers, or my sword.” Gabriel held her hand and a flood of warmth fell over her and she saw her daughter safe in the arms of angels in heaven. “Is that a true image you show me angel.” She cried softly. “Yes mother it is, it is where we all go to nestle in the bosom of the father.” He finished as he let go of her hand.
They made their way to the broken down remains of the LUXOR a huge Pyramid shaped building that was all but intact. There were looters and murderers on the streets and this was just the beginning. They all piled out of the vehicles and followed behind Gabriel as he made his way towards the centre of the city itself. A ruinous place with death and sin surrounded them, the twelve angels of protection chained to inverted crosses in a circle surrounding a lone figure sitting in a flesh thrown made of naked entwined limbs of women there sex organs on show for all to delight in and moans from the edifice still holding ecstasy within the trapped souls.
“You dare come here boy” the demon bellowed from his sanctum of flesh and despair. The fallen angels with chains of glowing red stalked behind and around the group. “Gabriel is not a boy he is one of Gods servants, as we all are” Peter said motioning his arms all around him to the thing, but his words trailed off into pain as his head exploded from within covering his friends and fellow warriors with fresh brain tissue and blood. James walked up closer to Gabriel but the angel held his hand out and said “not here not now he is too powerful, there is so much decadence in this place the force is almost too much to bare even for me. This is a foreboding place my friend.”
“What do we do Gabriel?” he asked finally “we fight the source of his power boy, follow me.
The group almost fifty strong sought out and with righteous power killed the unholy and those who would desecrate the word of the Lord with sin and violence bringing his vengeful wrath upon many hundreds who fought back against them. Building by building they slew the sinners and the unworthy, diminishing his hold over the city and ultimately the world. The dark angels or demons sat back, watched and relished the bloodshed in the glory of a god who was but a spoiled brat with humanity his toy. There was so much blood spilled in the name of the father the Holy Spirit but it had to be done. The dark forces holding the earth needed to be purged and sent to hell.
Gabriel stood once more at the entry of the Bearers gate to this world. The twelve guardian angels, screamed at him, in spite of life being lost at a cross each. They spat unholy trinity at him as he passed them as he moved to the foot of the living throne the great outcast sat upon. “There is no more decadence to be had no more sin to behold dark one, you cannot have this place I will not allow it in the name of my father.” He said with anger and blood dripping from Penintentiarius his holy blade. It was at this moment, two hundred angels fell to earth wings tucked and the ground swaying under foot as they hit with the pressure of a nuclear blast. “Gabriel your work here is most favourable, you have done well now we will despatch the beast to the hell pits which whence it came.” Michael said to his brother as he placed a hand on his shoulder. The evil one laughed, sat and pondered the thought of an all out war right at that moment but he beckoned the angel with no wings to come listen to what he had to say of terms. “You are one of his stock boy, you must listen to my atonement before you can judge me, is that not true?” the deceiver said with quiet malice in his voice. That is true dark one but, I only listen to appease the spirits by which we are bound to this realm.” Gabriel said as he walked slowly to the throne.
The Light Bearer lent close and showed Gabriel the first day of man the bringing of light was his doing as God had ordered before he became jealous of his father’s interest in the playthings he called humans. “See my boy I am one of you, the first angel, I have many names, you call me the light bearer, this is true, but so is the first outcast, the great unclean, the devil and my personal favourite of the humans Satan.” He took a feted breath and the heat generated from within stank of sulphur and ash. “You see my brother we are alike more than you care to imagine.” Gabriel took offence at this and drew his sword only to see it wither and die as a flower in the presence of this petulant death. “I am nothing like you demon.” Gabriel spat at the huge bulk of the prince of death.
“Ah, but you would have me believe this after you and your self-righteous humans slaughtered hundreds possibly a thousand so called sinners in the name of your father, and mine.” The unholy said now laughing. “Do you see boy you can’t defeat me with hate, even to appease our father, for I am the Light Bearer and therefore the taker of life.”
He whispered in Gabriel’s ear “it ends now!”
Gabriel looked back at Michael, ashen faced and closed his eyes for a second as realisation poured into his mind of what he had done. The chaos that was around him the screams the laughing the sporadic gunfire, even his own heartbeat, it stopped and with that second of silence the world of man ended.
This was written for a competition with the theme (not with a bang but a whisper)
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