One Selfless Act

“What are you up to, brother?”

“He plans to destroy them all.”

Brother and sister, closest than any of their other brethren, stood side by side staring down at humanity as they scurried around living their lives completely oblivious to the forces controlling their future.

“The first seal has already been broken.” Aala’s soft hand came to rest on her brother’s shoulder. She knew the news of this would hurt him. Mika’s very instinct as a protector would be screaming in protest.

Mika’s face, stoic and emotionless as ever, turned toward his sister. “It will take decades to break all seven seals. I need to convince Father they are worth saving.” He told her this knowing she was the only person he had ever trusted with his entire soul.

Aala sighed. “He has made up his mind, Mika, as strongly as it was when he decided to create humanity in the first place.”

Mika’s anger created a charge that sparked the very air. “So, what, he creates this experiment and because it’s not going his way, he just decides to dispatch the Horsemen without even so much as a family meeting?” Aala snatched her hand away from Mika’s shoulder rubbing her palm.

“Mika?” Aala lowered her voice. “They are killing each other. Gang violence. Addiction. Pollution. Wars. Famine. Atrocities against one another that was never his intention. Peace on earth will never happen because they will never let it.” Aala forced her brother to look at her. “They were given the greatest gift of life and everyday our Father has to watch and listen to them squandering it!”

Mika knew in that moment his sister wasn’t on his side like he first thought. The thought of her betraying him never even entered his mind but she did have an opinion opposite to his and more alike his fathers than he realized. “They are also saving each other. Locking up the bad and fighting against war. Curing disease and fighting famine. Peace on earth will never happen just like it will never happen in our world, little sister, surely you aren’t that hypocritical.”

“The difference is we aren’t killing each other.”

Mika’s cruel laugh rang throughout the sky. “We can’t kill each other Aala, that’s the only difference.”

Pain creased the middle of Aala’s brows. “Brother…”

“I am going to show Father he is making a mistake; you are either with me or against me!”

Mika took flight, his white wings gliding through the air more powerful than any of his siblings. He was the warrior. The shield. He decided a long time ago after falling in love with a mortal woman that he would protect Earth at all costs, he just never thought he would ever have to protect it from his own father. Not from the man who took great care with its creation in the first place.

With Aala hot on his heels, they flew until the very air shivered around them. Breaching the barrier, they landed in Washington D.C on top of the motel Mika owned. He’d carved out a whole identity for himself as a ‘human’ here.

“I know why you want to protect them so much,” Aala continued their conversation as if they didn’t just fly through two different worlds.

“You know nothing!”

“Nephilim,” she sighed.

“You mean my daughter.”

Aala knew any kind of sympathy at this point would just anger him all the more. “You created another life here, Mika, I get it, you don’t want to lose it. But you are an angel, you don’t belong here.”

“I was given the job to protect Earth and I will do exactly that or die trying, Aala, daughter or no.” Mika blew out a frustrated breath. “Yes, I have a life here and yes, she is a big part of that life. Love is a powerful thing Aala. Love for a child, for another person above yourself. I know what that feels like and no one, not even our father will take that away from me.”

“She’s in trouble.” Aala kept up the pace as both angels faded their wings away, a surprising feat since in comparison, she was half his size. “The addiction has almost taken her over.”

Mika ran a hand through his dark hair as he walked straight toward the bar inside his top floor penthouse. Pouring himself two fingers of bourbon, he offered his sister the bottle, she nodded. He poured her the same generous amount in a twin tumbler.

“She’s had a lifetime of listening to people’s thoughts, knowing she’s different.” Mika sipped his drink. “She started drinking to drown out the voices. Her mother was the only person who didn’t think she was crazy, especially when she started to see us around.” Aala choked on the liquid as it slid down her throat. “You didn’t know that one did you, sister?”

“She’s seen us?” She spluttered.

“Oh, yeah.” Mika drank the rest of his down. “I decided it was time to introduce myself at that point. Things were going well. She went off to the FBI academy. Her mother and I reconnected. I rebuilt this life.” He spread his hands. “She was doing well. She was finally happy, even accepting of who she is.”

“So, what happened?” Aala slid her empty glass toward the bottle for a refill. Mika obliged for the both of them.

“She’s involved in the Missing Person Unit and went after a man who thought it an eye for an eye to take away her family like she did to him.”

“I’m so sorry, Mika.”

“He killed her mother.” In one gulp, Mika’s second drink disappeared. “Killed her babe as it grew in her belly and took her fiancé, as his final insult.”

Aala could feel her walls against this world fracture just a bit but shook off the overwhelming empathetic sensation. “So now she works, drinks, parties, takes drugs to drown out what… the pain? Us? Who she really is?”

Mika sighed with a nod of his head. “But I also know she is the key to opening our father’s eyes. If anyone can pull themselves out of the darkness, selflessly act as a voice for the helpless, it is her.”

The steel in Mika’s voice should have scared Aala away from working against him but he was blinded by his own personal stake. And now that she knew his plan involved a half human junkie, her own plan solidified inside her mind. She was the Angel healer after all, someone who could help reduce addictions and illnesses. There was no reason she couldn’t increase an addiction in someone already on the precipice of the edge already – one little push is all it would take.

Callie Rayne searched the table-top beside her for a bottle with some actual pills in it. She knew what she looked like to her co-workers and wondered how long she could keep up this little charade, and just a little surprised she’d lasted this long. Two pills made a sound at the bottom of the orange container as she shook them out in her hand. Chasing them down with a beer she didn’t finish last night, her whole face twisted with how disgusting it tasted.

Walking into her bathroom she realized how much of a cliché she actually was. Staring into the mirror, she realized she was staring at a stranger. Her fiancé used to tell her how incredibly beautiful she was, now her eyes looked dead, almost soulless which was laughable given who her father was. Breathing out a long sufferable breath, this overwhelming feeling punched her in the stomach. A hunger. A need for more pills. More alcohol. To just forget everything. Forget the pain and the only way to do that was to completely get lost in the bottomless pit of a forever powerful feeling. Drugs did that. They made you forget. She wrapped her hands around the once swollen belly of her baby growing safely inside her womb, her mind remembering his boot as he viscously kicked her over and over again. NO! Stop, thinking, Callie’s internal voice screamed inside her mind, raw, so full of pain. She walked into her bathroom wanting something to change in her life and walking out realizing nothing would.

Until she looked over at her coffee table in the middle of her lounge room. Her now clean, glass top table that only minutes ago was a filthy mess of joints, pills and beer bottles had two items sitting in the middle – a pile of cash, and a small, leather bound notebook. Sighing, Callie went over to investigate. She already had a feeling who left them there.

An hour passed before Callie processed what she had read. Truth be told, she had so much pent-up anger at her father. He was an Angel, a warrior to boot. Yet, her whole world was destroyed, and he couldn’t stop it? She knew humans had a notion about religion that wasn’t entirely how things worked in their world, but they were powerful, they created humanity. And now he wanted her to sign herself into rehab. He wanted her to feel every ounce of pain completely sober. Every day. He had no clue what he was asking. The pills, the booze, it didn’t just dull the pain, it also drowned out the voices inherited from him. Something she will never get rid of even if the pain becomes less and less one day, like he promises. The entire Earth depends on her decision to be selfless… his words.

Callie leaned forward and picked up the cash. All she could think about is how many pills she could buy with that amount of money. She counted it. Twenty thousand dollars. She read her father’s words inside that little black book over and over again. It really felt like she had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other… Close.

Aala stood in the shadows not far from Callie’s apartment getting more and more frustrated by the minute. Callie was a lot stronger than Aala had given her credit for, that was for sure.

Decision made. Callie chewed the inside of her lip as she gathered up everything she was going to need. Her hands were shaking. Her voice sounded weird even to her own ears as she called her boss putting in for some leave. Money in her bag and that little black book in her pocket, Callie checked herself into the nearest rehabilitation centre. Her father was right about one thing, all it takes is one selfless act to change the course of so many lives and with this second chance, she intended to make the world a better place one step at a time.