Apocalypse Lullaby

The feversick sleep consumed me, in the serpent's coils:

What was to come, in years to follow, once the Apocalypse had passed, spooled out in front of me.

In my physical body, I felt my heart explode, gore staining the sheets as Samael cried out. The bride price transaction had been too much, and so, I was dying.

"Shannon, Shannon, please god, wake UP!" Samael wailed, holding the melodic arteries of my cardiac tissue, dripping like strawberry pie.

I smiled faintly, too far gone. "Goodbye, Sam… I'm gonna finally find peace."

My lids fluttered closed.

"SHANNON. WAKE. UP! I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT YOU! PLEASE! SOB!"

Darkness, a tunnel, flame -

I was in the burning ground.

The land was barren and ragged. Fires spewed forth above the remnants of charred trees. My eyes stung from the smoke and scorching air, and I stumbled to the dry riverbed. The river belched flame, and the ground was cracked and withered, studded with nothing save dried grass and pathetic skeleton trees. The once beautiful grove was poisoned, fed by acid rain, left in ruins.

I saw him through the screen of my tears. His flesh was blackened, cracked and ruined. He lay moaning on the riverbank. A stream of black tears ran into the riverbed. His wings bent at painful angles, charred and torn. He was broken, body and soul.

I dragged myself towards him, cringing at his mangled, immaculate limbs. Like a shattered mirror, the pieces of the nachash still gleamed, tragically beautiful under the burning sun. It was a sick red globe that hung too low, as if Phaethon had led it astray. Pieces of the shining one littered the ground. Glory trampled under the serpent's own heel.

My heart murmured; welts formed on my skin. I had only a few moments left to live, I knew it. I looked death in the eye. I reached for him.

He shuddered.

"Save your breath. I'm beyond salvation. What a way to end," he wheezed, coughing up blood. Black ichor clung to his cheek. He caressed my brow weakly, his eyes like open wounds. "And you. You eternal idiot. Why did you follow me here?"

"No!" I raged. "You can't die! You're immortal. Why do you think I came here?" I demanded, weeping. "Get up, Samael. Get up before you burn."

He sighed hoarsely. "If only it were as simple as that. Stupid maggot…" he whispered, touching my cheek. "You're too young to die. Get out of here. Don't sacrifice yourself for nothing."

"I'm already dead, Samael," I choked on my words.

"No," he snapped, fierce. "Not you. Get out! This isn't your business. It never was, you stupid girl! I die alone."

My vision faded, my hands gave out beneath me. I fell to my side, cringing. "You're a bastard. You burned the goddamn Tree. And yet here I am, trying to help you. Because you know what?"

"What?" he chuckled, apathetic to his fate.

"I have faith in you, Samael. Even after all you've done."

The firmament ripped open. The music of the spheres boomed across the earth. I cried out in agony at the heavenly din, and the eldritch beings descended. Flaming wheels, monstrous seraphim- the holy horde was upon us.

"The angels have come for us," I whispered.

"No. They come for you," he said, voice a hiss. "Be brave. Lie. If they sense any fear, they'll destroy you."

"Why! Why have they come for me?"

"Because," he rasped, "it is the will of God."

The angels of judgment descended. Frost followed in their wake. They had pale gray skin and blind, ivory eyes hidden under rags. Their hair whipped in white coils like albino snakes, and their stained raiment was devoid of color. One had a scale in his hand. He reached out for me, opening his mouth to speak-

"No!" Samael growled, covering my ears.

The angel's voice was the unholy cry of eternity. I screamed in pain, eardrums nearly bursting. The other angels followed, raising their voices in cries of destruction. The ground split open, and Eden caved in beneath us. I cried out, falling into the sudden abyss.

Samael released me, throwing me up to the awaiting angels. One caught me; his frigid skin burned. I shrieked, watching Samael fall. He disappeared beneath the cavernous depths, falling past, into chaos - into a flaming eternity.

His heart burned within me. The angel tore me away from him, into the cold embrace of the light.

I could almost hear him whisper.

"You don't have far to go, girl."

"You don't have much at all."