Into the Woods
A knocking sound began, startling Adele and causing her to scream, capturing their attention. Tension had been building as they moved deeper and deeper into the woods. A squirrel using a broken branch to break a nut was the source of the noise, and Adele relaxed when she saw it. He was all too aware of the woman who had screamed at him. His mouth worked as he ate, staring at her. His head tilted one way, then the other, then upward at something he had heard. He darted off and under the brush.
“Damn squirrel,” she grumbled under her breath. “Scared me.”
“I’m sure your scream scared him, too.” Maxwell came to the defense of the small animal.
“Oh, yeah, especially the way he just sat there staring at me like I was stupid. A real sign of me scaring him...” Adele’s voice trailed off as she and Maxwell turned to watch Gabriel, who was staring off into the darkness of the woods.
Maxwell walked up to Gabriel and stared in the same direction. Adele watched them, both intensely focused on the blackness. “You feel it, too, don’t you?” Gabriel whispered.
“Yes.” Maxwell’s tone was hushed as they stared off. Adele stood there, bewildered. There was no doubt she was strong, but she wasn’t used to being silent and listening for things, waiting for the smallest sound to alarm her.
Suddenly, both angels reacted. Maxwell grabbed Adele and threw himself on top of her, Gabriel ducking and putting his hand on his horn. With a whoosh, a hairless demon flew from the darkness. It was the very same one from the wasteland, screeching at them like a frightened bat. It twirled in flight and darted toward the top of the trees. Its squeaks and aggressive grunts could be heard amid the rustling of the branch’s leaves. The demon stopped and began shaking the branch in an intimidating manner.
“What the hell?” Adele said, pushing at Maxwell. “Why do you keep doing that?”
He rolled off, keeping his eyes on the moving branches above. “Instinct.”
“I can take care of myself,” she spouted off, rising. “I don’t need you acting like some knight.”
Gabriel and Maxwell watched the demon. “Why don’t you shut it, Adele? If it weren’t for him, you’d be dead. It’s obvious you need help with the forces you’re facing. You didn’t even know that thing was coming at you. In all the time you’ve been here, you should’ve at least learned to listen when you’re near danger.” Gabriel’s words were harsh, but he had a point and she knew it, which only made her angry. He inched his way toward her to place his index finger over her lips and pointed up.
She looked up, seeing the branches moving as the winged demon bounced around from one to another. The creature was quiet, but the branches moved as it slinked its way through them. In the moonlight, she could get a better look at the hairless, black demon, and her hand covered her mouth.
The demon moved back and forth, staring at her, its lips curled back, exposing bright white teeth and elongated fangs dripping with saliva. Adele assumed it was some type of ape, but with the way it moved, it was more human in appearance. Muscles moved under the blackened flesh as its hands gripped a branch, breaking it off and throwing it down at her. Hairless, except for a few stray dark strands on the top of its head, it was nude and genderless. It had a human-like face, but the nose was cut off and it had empty eye sockets.
Adele twirled in a circle, struggling to watch the beast above her, getting a good view of the black wings upon its shoulders. Bony and thin, tattered holes dotting the skin between the bone. She found it horrifying. She darted to the side, avoiding another piece of wood hurled at her by the spindly fingers of the monster.
“Quit it!” she yelled.
In response, it yelled down at her. “No!”
While the demon was focused on Adele, Maxwell took the opportunity and threw a large rock at the creature. The beast cried out in pain, grabbing the side of its head, and falling to the ground. He quickly moved over to it, watching it struggling to get up, and stomped on its human-like head. A thick black substance oozed out of it.
“What are we going to do with it?” Adele asked, leaning over to get a closer look.
Before dying, the creature’s talon-like nails clawed her across the face. Adele screamed, grabbing at the wounds. First, a bite to her shoulder, then cut and tortured, and now a claw across the face. Her body was battered, but her pride was not. Reacting, she kicked it swiftly. The body crumbled like ash, leaving behind an outline.
Taking her hand from her face revealed the demon had gotten her just over her lips. “How bad is it?”
“Looks like you could’ve lost an eye,” Gabriel said, examining her. “It’s deep and may leave a scar.” As he spoke, Maxwell started tearing off the bottom portion of his top to attend to her wounds.
Touching the fabric to her face, he cleaned the blood off. “It looks worse than it is. A lot of blood, but I’m not sure if it’ll leave scars.”
“Try healing,” Gabriel said. “You know you have magic. Try and heal yourself.”
Adele’s eyes had begun to water with the mention of scars, but they dried with the thought of healing herself. “If you have confidence, you will heal,” Maxwell explained, lifting her hand to her wounds. “Closing your eyes helps you focus. Touch your flesh and see if you can do it.”
Her eyes closed, and she focused all her energy on her hand. After a few unsuccessful moments, a white light came from her hand and the wounds slowly began closing. Adele felt the warmth and opened her eyes, looking at Maxwell with a smile.
“See. I knew you could do it.” He kissed her forehead and moved past her to continue walking.
“It was warm. Is that normal?” she asked, following him.
“It is. When energy is focused, it causes heat,” Gabriel answered. “It’s what your kind calls science. All magic really is. Sometimes the heat is cold, but it still moves, causing a friction when applied to a surface.”
“Magic is science?”
“Yes. They haven’t figured out everything, but it’s known as power or magic in our realm. There’s nothing mystical about it when you understand it.” Gabriel was sharing knowledge without realizing it.
“Careful, Gabriel. What you’re doing got me in trouble before. Not too much now.” Maxwell worried his brother was about to damn himself. “Remember, Watchers shared sacred knowledge instead of letting man discover it for themselves, and we went straight to Hell for it.”
Gabriel quieted before explaining too much, remembering that mankind was only led to answers when it was time. He was discovering how hard it was to keep things from her at times. She was unique, but still a member of mankind.
Minutes grew into hours and they soon forgot how long they’d been moving through the thick trees. Adele had lost track of time while she had been in Kokabiel’s mountain. Growing weak, she fell to her knees, collapsing to the ground and grabbing her sides. Gabriel gathered her up, his arm around her torso. She draped her arm over his shoulders and put all her weight on him.
“We have to find her something to eat soon. She’s going to starve if we don’t,” he said.
Maxwell had already begun searching for something, finding nothing. The only items he found would’ve killed her. Poisonous berries and mushrooms littered the damp ground.
“Wait here.” Maxwell pushed a large bush to the side, disappearing into the trees.
Unsure how much time had passed, Gabriel kept Adele conscious with soft smacks to her cheeks, lifting her in a slight bouncing motion. “Gabriel, just let me rest. I’m so tired. Please, just let me sleep,” she begged as he jostled her. He could see her weakness, a combination of not eating, nothing to drink, and traveling. He knew there was no way Kokabiel would’ve let her sleep with the things he probably did to her.
Maxwell made his way back to them, pointing. “There’s a river not too far in that direction. Saw fish. We can get her something there, even set up camp and let her rest.”
Gabriel nodded and began helping Adele walk. The forest became thinner, finally breaking into a sandy beach next to a wide river. Maxwell went on ahead and began gathering up water with his hands, quickly giving it to her.
Slowly, she began swallowing the water past her parched lips. She gathered strength and began drinking more. Maxwell took her from Gabriel’s arms and sat her against a log, then handed her a large leaf full of water that Gabriel brought to them.
“If you can start a fire, I’m going to try to get some fish,” Gabriel explained to his younger brother. Maxwell nodded.
Adele rested against the log, watching Gabriel undress. The angel was handsome. After all, God made no mistakes. She watched Maxwell moving quickly to dig a fire pit, gather wood, and make a fire with his magic. Gabriel stood within the water, waiting until a fish was close enough, then quickly reaching down to grab it. In under an hour, the two had cooked several fish and fed her on leaf plates.
Belly full, the fire crackling and providing warmth, Adele scooted her knees to her chest. “Thank you.”
“It’s easy to forget…” Maxwell stuffed a piece of the cooked fish into his mouth, “that we need to refuel.”
“I very rarely have to. I only do when I’m like this,” Gabriel explained, gesturing to his human form. “It keeps the machine running, the armor proper.”
“So skin, bones, and muscles are armor to those like you?”
“Depends.” Maxwell paused, staring up at the stars. “For Gabriel, it’s an armor protecting his true form from demons and their darkness; for me, it’s a cage. I can change very little of my form. I can hide my horns and things like that, but I’m more or less stuck like this.”
“Horns?” Her eyes grew wide and she leaned forward. “Really?”
“Yes, horns marked us. I try to keep mine hidden, so they’re not exposed. They’re tough but very sensitive. I’m sure if something happened, they’d grow back…unlike my wings.”
It was then she realized she’d never gotten to look at him closely, examining him. Thinking about all the different things she’d seen…from the hairless human-like monkey demons to the black masses, even the ambiguous Yeqon…she couldn’t help but ask, “Why are there so many forms? I mean, humans are just humans. Our skin may differ, but we’re still recognizably human. I’ve seen so many different types of angels and demons.”
“Actually, you’ve only seen the different types of demons and the mutations of Nephilim. Angels are non-corporal or corporally armored,” Gabriel explained, still wary of giving too much information to her. It was so tempting to explain, to educate. For a moment, he silently pondered how Maxwell and The Watchers held out as long as they did. It was a true temptation to educate mankind, guide them, teach them. His eyes looked at Maxwell differently. Oh, how his brother suffered because of this yearning, giving into the temptation of needing to aid one of God’s most beautiful creation. Man.
Not wanting to push for more answers, aware of what she could be doing to Gabriel, she stood. Staring into the flames of the fire, she was silent, masking the horrors dancing inside her mind. Gabriel and Maxwell watched as she let herself become lost in the dancing flames.
“What did they do to you?” Maxwell asked, receiving a hard elbow to the ribs by Gabriel.
“She might not want to talk about it. You know what they’re capable of,” Gabriel whispered harshly.
Still staring, Adele spoke slowly. “Horrible things. I saw what Hell can truly be.” Her eyes flicked up to Maxwell.
“It must have been so sad and brutal to be there. What was outside the mountain was so different, like the calm before the storm. The sound of bells…” Her hands moved to cover her ears, her eyes watering, thinking of how thunderous those bells were, the ringing causing her insides to vibrate. “It sounded like church bells, a choir of tormented screams complementing every tone released. I never saw a steeple, but the sound was so close. As they moved me through this dirt path, I walked past so many people begging for release from the pain they were enduring. I was then isolated as they began torturing me for information. It was so hard to think with that bell sounding, the screams, and the way they looked.
“Yeqon didn’t look like he did when he released me. He looked different. He didn’t have horns, none of them did, but they looked so entirely soulless with blackened flesh that smelled of sulfur and ashes.”
Falling quiet again, she sighed heavily and tried to put it behind her. It was over now. She was safe and heading to a safer place. She turned away from them, moving her hands in the air as she walked to the side of the camp. The dirt started to move, and the trees gave their branches and leaves to the shelter she was creating so easily. Within minutes, she had a square shelter of mud, dirt, wood, and leaves. Crawling inside of it, she could see the two angels still sitting by the fire. Sighing, she rested on her side, using her hands as a makeshift pillow.
“How did you fight temptation as long as you did, Maxwell?” Gabriel asked, nudging his shoulder against his brother’s “I’m already starting to feel that need to teach her, to tell her everything. Is it that strong?”
Maxwell sighed and nodded. “It is. You see something so innocent, you want to help guide it along, but you can’t. They’re not ready for some things and must discover things for themselves. This is something I know now but didn’t then. None of us did. The only thing we knew was that before us were these beautiful creatures so much like ourselves, yet completely unique in their own way. We wanted to help because we loved them like Mother and Father did.”
He turned to face Gabriel. “The love for a child is different from loving another. That love changed for many of us. We no longer saw man as wind that must be guided. We saw them as equals and we loved them differently. I loved her, I always have, but Adele isn’t Lilith. She knows a lot, but unlocking the past lives stored in her memory is vital to her success in understanding what she’s done. She has already experienced much. When I began explaining things the first time, she wanted to jump to her death.
“With everything she’s seen, she’s walking the fine line between good versus evil. She could give up. She could never back down. It all depends on her. Yes, I’m here to help her, to save her, but it’s so she can do this on her own. Everything falls to her. Will it be a life worth living, or a life that was snuffed out too soon? These are things none of us know the answers to. No magic will know the future for this woman because her future is truly on her.
“A Bishop Witch Seer once said that she knew of Lilith coming back, having no idea when or how the world would be when she did. The world could end if she dies before her time. The balance will shift in such a way that Kokabiel, even Lucifer, could take over this plane. God would, in turn, abandon Earth, and you, dear brother, Gabriel, and those of still pure could never return to this place again. There is such a deepness and realness to it, I couldn’t bear giving her such information. It’s more than one woman or man could handle. They’re more delicate mentally than they realize.”
The hopelessness and fear in Maxwell’s words disturbed Gabriel. He knew Much more than he let on, but even he did not consider the thought that Earth would be left to the demons. “I will do everything in my power to help you until the end. What will the witches do for her that we cannot?” he muttered.
“For an angel to share knowledge is damnable in the eyes of God, but for a witch, it’s a loophole.” Maxwell sheepishly grinned. “I can’t do it, you can’t do it, but they can. I’m already damned, brother. There’s no saving me. I always have hope, but I know what I did was damnable. I’ve accepted my punishment because it was justified, but that doesn’t mean I like it nor does it mean I’m going to give up. If the ultimate reward is gaining entrance back into our home, then so be it.”
“Whatever happened to your child?” Gabriel asked sadly.
“I couldn’t bear to tell her of that yet. She knows we had a child, but not of what came of it or that we had two. Word spread like wildfire when the children of the fallen angels began dying. We could feel it when a bit of our remaining light died out. I remember when our daughter and our son died. I had heard Michael was the one, but everyone always thinks Michael ends. The swift justice of the eldest brother.” Maxwell continued speaking, “I could feel a panic, even a fear. I believe my daughter had been chased for some time before she was finally ended. It’s hard to balance time there. What feels like seconds could be years on Earth.
“When our children began dying, we began plotting. We wanted out. The first doorway was created on that day. Eshu’s place rests on top of it now. The portal he opened was the first ever created. When we came through, it was nothing but wilderness. It became a village, then a city. Some of us remained there; others scattered across the Earth.”
His eyelids closed, his words coming out rough. He was starting to struggle, holding back new tears. “How do you explain to someone who already has been through so much that their dead son was the father of vampires? That she’s the mother of witches, grandmother of vampires, and is related to Werewolves? It’s just too much. How do you tell someone how their children died?”
A supportive hand rested on Maxwell’s shoulder. “You were still in Hell, but I feel this important to share.” He pointed to Adele. “She felt it all. She knew when her children died. She may not remember it now, but she experienced the loss.” He grabbed Maxwell’s knee. “She went on a rampage. Neither of you knew it, but it was happening at the same time you came back, and she died. Michael was ordered to make her end quickly because if you had been on the same plane again, Earth may have ended before it truly had a chance to thrive. She agreed to her reincarnation cycle, and Michael ended the reign of Lilith.”
Maxwell let the tears flow. He had been so close to seeing her one more time as Lilith. He grits his teeth in anger. “Did she see them die?”
Gabriel’s fingers laced together, and a sad look came over him. He answered with a single nod.
Maxwell’s fingers rubbed at his eyes, clearing the tears, and holding back more. He cried for her having to witness the deaths alone. He wanted to start ripping the trees from their roots. Shaking with anger, his jaw clenched. “Why wasn’t I told this sooner?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember what we named them?” Maxwell asked, finally gaining some control over himself. “Did you even know what we’d named them?” He turned toward Gabriel. Before the angel could respond, Maxwell continued. “Hannibal and Cassia.” He smiled, remembering his children, how fast they grew… All Nephilim grew fast. Hannibal, his hair like a crow’s feathers, and Cassia, her hair a rich brownish red… Both babies, beautiful and pink, grew to be strong and rebellious. Part angel and part man, neither with wings, but both with beautiful and dangerous magical skills the world had never seen before.
“I once heard that your son drank the blood of man, and your daughter killed an entire village with an army of insects,” Gabriel said.
“I heard that, as well. I heard she went into the village of someone who threatened to kill the children of angels, eradicating the entire village of its people. I had heard that my son fed on the blood of animals, but had fallen in love with a silver-haired woman who changed when she drank his blood. I also heard that when he fed on blood, the feeling he got from it was like a thousand orgasms.” Maxwell chuckled at the thought.
Gabriel nodded and chuckled. “We need to rest. I’ll go make us some shelter.”
When Gabriel finished, the beach held three structures. Adele was already sleeping, and Gabriel was now resting. Maxwell remained awake a little longer, enjoying the quietness of the night. A random frog croaked out to another that never answered. “It’s all so beautiful, Mother and Father,” he whispered, not wanting to disrupt nature at its finest. He looked toward the inky sky, dots of light scattered about. He knew the dots were planets and stars, but he also knew some of the faint dots were his siblings watching over Earth. God never replied, and Maxwell went to his own rest.