Chapter 10: The Dark Angel

The weekend passed in a glimpse of an eye. As always, no one called Lily out – she had no friends at all, due to her absence of light aura. She studied in her room and daydreamed the whole weekend, while her sister enjoyed her friends’ company, laughed, and had fun with them.

On Sunday morning Lily woke up with her usual tired expression, put her clothes on, did her toilette, and descended into the dining room to have her coffee.

“Hey, dear!”

The mother greeted her. She was sitting with her female guardian angel, Haniel, and was enjoying her coffee and croissants.

“Hello…”

Lily sat at the table, waiting for the servant to arrive.

“Come on, what’s with that long face?” Her mother chuckled. “You’ll make Haniel sad here…” She glanced at her angel, who happened to be the archangel of joy – a beautiful golden-haired blue-eyed mistress of the light.

“Whatever…” Lily shrugged and looked up at the old servant that had come up to her.

“What would the young lady have for breakfast today?”

“Like usual, Vincent. Thank you”.

“Alright,” Vincent bowed and walked off.

“Lily, if there is anything, please, just tell me…” The mother got concerned now. “Maybe I can help..?”

“It’s nothing…”

“Lily,” Haniel’s tender voice sounded, “your aura has changed…”

“Huh?” Lily raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“I feel you’ve been up to something, Lily,” Haniel answered. “You’d better go to church today. Your aura is not neutral anymore. It has gotten darker, way too dark for a normal human”.

“What?” Lily’s mother covered her mouth with a hand, “Oh, goodness! Lily, what does this mean?”

“I… I have no idea…”

Lily averted her gaze from them. She got nervous – what if they found out she had interacted with the devil? No humans perceived that guy as an angel, so far. Not many knew he was an angel in the past, and those who knew called him ‘fallen angel’, ‘betrayer’, etc. They considered him evil, and she didn’t really know him all that well to judge him herself.

Haniel shook her head with a sigh. Servant Vincent brought milky coffee and chocolate cookies to Lily. She thanked him and began eating her breakfast.

“Lily, please go to church, dear…”

Mrs. Black pleaded. Her thoughts were full of worry and concern for her child:

Maybe this is why she is so gloomy, because of the dark energy around her?

“Okay, I’ll go…”

After finishing her breakfast, Lily indeed went out, but took the road opposite to the church which her family often frequented. She never liked churches since her childhood. She felt awkward in there, as if she didn’t belong. That feeling of being an outsider even in a church caused her pain in her youth, so she decided to not go to church anymore. She wouldn’t step in there this time either.

Why would I ever go there?

Fallen into her thoughts, she heard a faint, horrified cry come from a dark alley nearby. It led to the Den of Former Hosts. She widened her eyes and clenched her fists in disgust:

Those scum criminals down there are up to something…

She crossed the street and entered the dark alley without even looking back. She cautiously walked on and soon arrived at the end of the alley, in pure dark streets of the Den of Former Hosts. She saw a little boy of over thirteen years leant against a stone wall, shivering in dread, with four older guys gathered around him. One of those older boys did have an angel – a tall, long-blond-haired brown-eyed warrior dressed in golden armour. To Lily’s stupor, that angel was now threatening the kid. But the most astonishing was still the little girl of over fourteen years covering the boy with her feeble hands, while she too shivered on her part. She had long, tender golden hair, part of which had covered her right eye. Her left eye was blue like the clear sky. She wore a thin white dress and had soft white wings which she had embraced the little boy with. She watched the vicious boys with tears in her eyes.

“Give the money, ye dumbass, unless ye want trouble!” One of the boys, with the dirtiest clothes, ordered and spat off. “Ye hear me?”

“B-But, that’s everything I have… Only five coins…” The boy shed tears.

“Oh? Well then…” The dirty lad shrugged and looked at his warrior angel: “Doriel, finish him off!”

“Huh? No! Please!” The child cuddled with his female angel in fear.

The boys laughed. Doriel, the gruesome warrior angel, spread his golden wings and advanced towards the young boy with his golden-handled glittering sword. The boy’s legs shook and he fell to his knees, not even able to stand anymore, so horrified he was.

“Ah! Stop!” The little angel girl covered the boy with her wings and looked at Doriel with the tearful eyes: “Stop, please…”

“Move aside, trash!” Doriel clutched her throat and threw her off to a wall.

“No! Amiel!”

The little boy yelled in distress. Just then, the tip of the warrior angel’s blade stopped right before his nose. Sweat poured off his forehead as he stared at the gruesome angel. The laughter of the boys deafened the alley.

“Finish that mouse off, Doriel! We have more serious stuff to do!”

“As you wish, Sheldon,” Doriel raised his sword.

“I told you to not call me like that!” His host grunted, apparently ashamed of his funny name.

Seeing the glittering sword above his head, the little boy trembled and sobbed:

“I don’t want to die!”

“Jo… han…”

Amiel, the little female angel, looked up at her host, with the divine blood pouring off her face. She raised her hand, but it only fell off, too weak. Doriel was about to swing his sword.

“Stop!”

“Eh?” The boys turned around, to see Lily before them. “Who are you, slut? Beat it!”

Johan and Amiel looked at the stranger in surprise.

“Leave that kid and his angel alone”.

“Huh? Or else what?” Sheldon laughed. Doriel turned towards Lily, with his sword ready.

“I shall let you meet the lord of hell,” Lily glared at him.

Sheldon frowned, frightened by her merciless eyes for a moment, but then chuckled and glanced at his angel:

“Doriel, teach this slut a lesson first! We’ll handle that mouse later”.

“Run away, miss, while you can!” Johan yelled. “This guy’s like no other angel – he’s an angel of war! He doesn’t care whether he kills or not!”

“You shut up!” One of the boys kicked him in the stomach.

“Ah!” Amiel let out a cry, feeling the pain of her master.

Lily’s frown deepened. Doriel clutched his sword and stepped towards her. She didn’t back down.

“Why isn’t she running?” One of the boys asked Sheldon, preoccupied – no one had resisted against the celestial sword of Doriel before.

“She’s probably too stupid,” Sheldon laughed. “Didn’t you notice? She has no light aura, so no angel either. She probably has no idea what she’s dealing with”.

The boys followed him up in laughter. When Lily saw they weren’t going to give up, she shrugged:

“I gave you a chance…”

She drew the sign of a cross with her left hand – the vertical line from up to the bottom and the horizontal line from the left to the right.

“Eh? What kind of a sign is that?” Sheldon burst out laughing anew. “That’s not even how you call upon an angel!”

“My guardian angel, I invoke you!”

The boys laughed hard – that was no way to call an angel, and she had no light aura at all!

When the black smoke appeared, however, Doriel halted in worry. The boys too ceased laughing at once:

“What’s happening?”

Once the black smoke dissipated, they gasped in horror – a grim reaper had emerged! His red eyes shimmered from beneath his black hood, and the silver tip of his black-handled scythe glittered under the sunlight. Once beheld that cold glare, Doriel trembled, for the first time Sheldon had ever seen.

“Y-You…” he stepped back, “Samael…”