Part Six

Heaven was at war.

It was a long time ago. I know that, somehow. So long ago, the angels barely looked like us, then. But then there's Nathan. I still see him more or less the way he is now. His face is strange, his hair is longer and it spills out of a very simple helmet. He's wearing armor. Not much of it. Just plates over the most vulnerable places, and not even all of those. The neckpiece of his armor reminds me of that stupid shirt he wears. This is a really weird dream.

No. It's not a dream. This really happened. Or it's happening? I don't know. I got lost somewhere, somehow.

He's fighting. He's cutting people down, and he's so focused on it he can't see anything else. He can't see that there's a terrible monster coming at him. It has so many wings! They're like a bat's, with thick ribs and rubbery flesh stretched between them. They're really shiny, and they look so heavy. I can't believe something that huge can actually fly. It has enormous jaws. I can't see its eyes. I don't even know if it has eyes. If it does, they're not showing.

Every flap of those gigantic wings thumps so deep and loud. Nathan doesn't even seem to hear it. It has huge talons, dripping with blood. It's stretching its neck out, and there are so many teeth! Those teeth are bigger than his whole head! It's got shreds of armor hanging off its claws! How fast it is moving? How big IS that thing?

But Nathan just keeps swinging that scythe, ripping armor off his enemies like it was paper. They're falling so far, falling into nothing, but they're tatters and smoke before they fall out of sight. There's so much sadness! And the singing! I can't tell where it's coming from, sounds like it's everywhere. It's so haunting!

This isn't like the stories at all! They're so beautiful, the creatures Nathan's cutting down. They don't turn into demons. They're not ugly and twisted at all. Their armor is so much bulkier than his, and so much more decorated, but they're pretty much the same as he is. Their wings are so bright, and their eyes burn with so much faith, so much love! Then they're cut to ribbons, and their light sputters to nothing. They're just gone, and there's a wound in the world where they should be.

This is what it's like when angels die?

The thumping from those massive wings has turned into a deep thunder. The monster's bearing down on him. I should warn him. Even the monster is beautiful, somehow. There's a shimmer on the fringes around its head. There are glints on its scales that ripple every time it moves. I could watch it forever.

It's too late. There's no way he's going to get away from it now. It's stretched its neck out, and its giant jaws could fit him in without even spreading all the way.

A flash of blue-black crosses behind that enormous head. An armored shoulder smacks hard into one of the thin ribs that hold up one of its foremost wings. The rib snaps, and the wing starts to tear away from the break. At first I can barely see what's happening, the monster's so big. The monster's head jerks back, and it roars. Its jaws snap-- but they don't shut. Its massive teeth look stuck on the pointy ends of a huge shield. Or maybe it's just wedged between them. I can't tell.

There's an angel holding that shield. His wings are black, but there's a blue shine running across them. They look like raven's wings. I can't see the face behind that helmet. Just the thin line of a determined mouth, and a few locks of hair that match his wings. Like Nathan, he barely wears any armor at all. He's got a sword, not a scythe. But he keeps it across his chest. He shoves his shield hard, and bends the monster's head away from him.

Nathan's seen it by now. Its talons snatch at Nathan, but he's ready. He holds his scythe across his body, and brings it up to block those wicked claws.

And then it's all gone. Just like that. I guess dreams are weird that way. But I'm so sure this isn't a dream. I'm in a kitchen, and it's right now, right this second. It's just a normal kitchen, with a normal woman doing the dishes. Except... hanging from the light fixture. I can just make it out, it almost blends into the wallpaper, but I can see the outline. It looks like an umbrella. No. No, umbrellas don't have ears. It's got little ears, like a fox, but longer and pointier. They flick back and forth, like they're listening to something. It's hanging from the fixture by a thick scaly tail. I think what looked like an umbrella might actually be its wings.

Why did I think it blended into the wallpaper? It's dark, it's almost black. Wow. I used to make fun of the big black spiders on the bathroom wall, when they held still rather than hide-- like I was going to miss them on our bright white tile. Maybe there's something to that after all.

And there's something sleeping at her feet, that I didn't see before. It's soft, and furry, with a delicate snout. It kind of reminds me of a fawn, or maybe a llama. Not that I've seen either one anywhere but on TV. It's got a thick fluffy tail, like a collie's. It looks so sweet all curled up on her floor. This lady has some weird pets.

And she keeps them in some weird places. I think I see eyes peeking out from the oven. One pair of eyes. And another... wait. No. Only three eyes. Not four. And they're all clustered up together. A tiny little paw-- wait. Is that a hand? A tiny little hand is smudging up the soot on the glass part of the oven door. It's attached to a spindly little arm, and that's sticking out of a puff of gray-black fur! It's like a little ball of fuzz, but it's got arms! Or... maybe just the one?

And then something crawls out from under the oven, and I'm done trying to figure out what these things are. The first thing I see are two pincers, but the further they stick out, the more I realize they're not attached to anything I can name. They're on the end of long squiggly... what do I call those? Not tentacles... not arms... whatever. Long squiggly... squiggles. At last a pair of eyes peek out, swivelling on these little stalks. They're stubby, and when one bumps the oven, they retract inside, hiding its eyes. That happens a few times, until I guess it's satisfied that it's safe to come out. It slithers out, pulling leg after leg out from under it. Is it a bug? Some kind of sea thing? It's got a slimy tail like a slug. Yuck! How can anybody keep that in the kitchen?

She turns, and her mouth drops open. Oh, maybe that one's not a pet, because she looks really scared. But no, now she's looking up. I look up too. There's some kind of black smoke pouring in from the ceiling. There are shapes moving inside it, but I can't tell what they are. They move so fast! The little creatures leap up, and for just a second I can see them close in around her. But there are withered, nasty limbs thrashing around in that black smoke. There are all these mouths, and claws, and milky-dead eyes!

Her pets are getting hurt! The sounds they make are so desperate, such awful wails! I can see bits of those bat wings spread out now, the skin torn away so the ribs are showing. One of those fox ears hits the floor. It barely bleeds.

I can't see the woman. I can't see where she went. The violence is so thick and fast, and I'm so scared! I can hear something, like a quiet chattering. I crawl into the kitchen cabinet, but there's nothing here. But I can hear that little sound, that little rattling. Something in me is drawn to it, so I keep looking, keep feeling around me. Everything in the kitchen starts to go foggy, and I can't see so well anymore.

Somehow I know I'm slipping past the world I know. I learned in science class how matter was really mostly nothing, molecules with lots of space in between. This is the space between. There's a shape in the darkness. The cloudier everything gets, the clearer that shape becomes. Bottles of cleaner and the scrub-brush beside them turn into swimmy clouds of nothing, and where they were, I can see something pink and shiny huddled into a ball.

This is where the chattering is coming from. This little creature is pink and shiny, and there are all these little bony plates on its back. They're kind of white in places, yellow and even a little greenish-black in others. God, they reek. The closer my perspective gets, the worse that reek becomes. It smells like my uncle's breath, only a hundred times more sickening. Those little plates are clacking against each other. Funny thing, I could swear they look familiar. Almost like... almost like teeth.

The little creature whimpers. It's curled up, but it's got two fuzzy legs pulling its head down into the ball. They're funny-shaped, like bug legs, but they're covered with a fine brown fur. There are eight of them, I think, six tucked into its body and two around its head.

It lifts its head, and I could swear it's looking right at me. Its big black eyes are so plaintive. Its narrow little snout looks so sad. I wish I knew what to do. I want to reach out and touch it, but I don't know where my body is. I just know I'm not with it right now. I want more than anything to comfort this poor little thing. I want more than anything to help.