Post by The Circle Television Network on Feb 12, 2017 20:54:11 GMT -5
Chapter XXII: Faithless… (Part 2)
High Over…
Empire City
Anka had not slept or eaten in days, every moment had been consumed by the search for Arella. It has seemed like something out of a dream when she first saw the girl in the ruins of the collapsed stage after Gaia had attacked the Town Hall and nearly brought the coliseum down on hundreds of people. She knew she should have focused on helping to stop the carnage, but all she could think about was the girl she had watched die in her arms inside a tomb hundreds of years prior.
To her, it seemed a perverse joke. Until she had happened upon the young blind girl, her thoughts had been consumed by nothing but ideas of revenge against Rome and their demi-god Superius. She had been so close to getting her hands on the man when she had stumbled on Arella, centuries ago…
Anka moved though the darkness…finding her way around the camp…looking for the banner that would lead her to her quarry. As she saw the command tent, she knew that the general languished inside. It was heavily guarded…a dead giveaway.
It was too much to hope for…the tent left unguarded…Superius asleep in his bunk…no doubt dreaming of rape…murder…conquest. She would plunge his own sword into his chest…or better yet his abdomen. He’d die a slow and painful death…perhaps not slow or painful enough for her liking…but it would have to do. The same for his guards…she’d delight in their deaths as well…so much the better.
For all of her fantasizing about this moment…dreaming that nothing could deter her from it…something did…
She heard the sounds of a wailing girl. Her cries so mournful that she could hardly turn away. Anka reluctantly turned her attention from the command tent, as she followed the sounds of the girl. As she came closer, she heard that the girl not only cried…but spoke as well…and the words, though not spoken in her own tongue, were words that she understood.
Curses to a cruel God…scorn, hatred, and bitterness. It was all so familiar to her…all so painful. She was drawn like a moth to the flame. No longer walking it seemed…almost floating. When her eyes finally fell on the source of the girl’s screaming…it was as if she were reliving a piece of her own history.
A young girl lay over the nude and bloody corpse of a woman…likely her mother. Several other bodies were heaped around…some dead…others dying. The drunken Centurions had had their fun with the rest…and now they turned their attention to the last.
Three was their number…all drunk and stinking of blood and ale. Their manhood no longer stood erect from their earlier abuses…yet what did it matter? It was all just fun and games…and the ending was always the same. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to visualize herself walking away…running towards the tent and doing what she came to do…killing the General, but that image eluded her. Instead, she felt herself being thrown to the ground…her clothing torn from her…her mother forced to watch as her innocence was taken…not by one…but by many.
She cursed God…she begged God…she wanted to be saved…but no one came to her rescue. God abandoned her to her fate…left her to be savaged…to be ravaged…to be torn asunder…
Anka would not allow it to happen to another…not while she could stop it. It was all a blur to her as she charged in, grabbing the short sword from one drunken Centurion and quickly separating his head from his body. The other grabbed for his sword, but found nothing but air. He shouldn’t have dropped his belt along with his pants. She jammed the point of the blade into his throat and a great torrent of blood gushed forth, splattering her as the man’s gurgled cries melted away along with his life.
She turned to the final man…then winced…
She looked down and saw the hilt of his blade sticking out of her. She followed it to his hand and up his arm…all the way back to his face. A cruel scar was cleaved there, from his eyebrow all the way across the bridge of his nose, down through his upper lip. The man growled at her as he shouted and roared with such passion and rage.
Anka reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him close, even as she drove her own sword directly into his exposed pelvis, slicing into his genitals. She grimaced as she raised her foot and kicked the screaming man away from her. He held on to his sword…dragging it out of her.
She fell to her knees and put a shaking hand to the vicious wound in her abdomen. The pain was vile and she could feel the acrid taste of her own blood rising in her throat. She didn’t have much time before she lost her window of opportunity. Wounded or not…she’d find a way to get to Superius. The girl was safe…and the General would soon be dead.
She struggled to get to her feet, even as the blood flowed from her like a stream. She staggered toward the tent, casting one last look to the wailing child. “Go… RUN!! Get away from this place…”
“I… I… c-can’t…” she replied.
She felt the anger rising in her as she turned to the young girl. “I SAID RU…” The words caught in her throat as she looked down.
The girl’s eyes were covered in a milky haze and stared off into the distance, blind and unseeing…she was going nowhere…
In that moment, she had chosen to forget revenge to save the girl from suffering the same fate she had suffered at Roman hands…beaten, raped, crucified. Anka had survived those horrors, only to endure them over and over again for many more years. She was the girl that would not die…the same would not be said of Arella.
The two of them had run from the Roman camp…evaded capture for months as they made their way to the safety of the Mongol lands…the ancestral home of Arella’s people…the sworn enemies of the Roman Empire. There, they would be safe…they could live out their lives in some semblance of peace, or so she thought. Not long after crossing over into Mongol lands they were stopped by a patrol. They had been held and questioned for days…but it was a far more hospitable than any mercy the Romans would have had for them. Soon they would be set free and Rome would be forgotten…or not…
The two were held and questioned for days on end… over and over, always the same…
…were they spies?
…what were the Romans planning?
…where would they strike next?
The questions held no meaning for Anka and Arella…but as they drug on…an uneasy feeling began to settle over the pair. Anka could feel that something was wrong…and it was something she planned avoid. She formulated an escape plan. The two of them would escape under the cover of night…
…but they never got the chance…
Before Anka could slip her bonds with Arella and make good her escape, she was greeted by the all too familiar face of a murderous Centurion she never thought to ever see again. Before her stood the very man that had made an orphan of Arella…the man with the vile scar across his face…the same man that she had made a eunuch out of.
Romans…Mongols…together…it hardly seemed right.
The Centurion’s name was Flavaious…and after she had attacked him and left him for dead…he had managed to recover…such as one could in his condition.
Flavaious proved to be a TRUE Roman in every sense of the word…affirming all that Anka ever thought of them. Flavaious was a sadist and a pedophile…who had been hell bent on revenge against Anka, for all that she had taken from him. He took his vengeance out on Arella…all while Anka was made to watch. So vile were his acts against the young girl that a few of his soldiers refused to stay and watch…
…later he had them put to death…
Anka did her best to stifle the whimper that escaped her as she held Arella. Her body was broken and left a defiled and bloody ruin. Her tiny lips moved wordlessly, but the words didn’t need to come…she could read them perfectly…and they spelled the word…mother…
Even as she looked down into the girl’s unseeing eyes…she felt that they saw right into her. As they began to dim and grow dark and lifeless…a sound unlike any other burst out of her…a wail that could split the heavens in two.
The Roman’s that gathered there…only those who could be entrusted with such knowledge…turned their heads and looked away. They knew of the story…the girl had been ravaged, beaten savagely, nailed to a cross…and yet…she did not die. For nearly 300 years she was tortured and brutalized…but she didn’t die. Every one of them…each and every one had thought that they would give anything to have the power that her God had granted her…
…as they looked away…inside their secret hearts, they were glad not to have such a power. Living in ignorance was no longer such a bad thing. Her God may have been great…but how cruel He had been to her. Could He not have saved her if He wanted? Why did He not strike them all down? Her God might have been real…but in the end…He was just as uncaring as the many false gods of Rome.
The Centurions watched as the forlorn girl held the bloody body of the dying young angel close to her bosom. The darkness slowly…almost mercifully began to close around them as the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. Again they diverted their eyes…
…the child breathed no more…
…the heavy stone was rolled to the front of the cave…
…the secret of the girl who would not die would stay here forever…
Even as the unholy alliance of the Romans and the Mongols sealed her inside the cave, rolling the massive boulder in front of its mouth…her thoughts were not on escape or revenge. She clutched the broken and lifeless body of Arella in her arms, holding her so tightly that the two became as one.
The light ebbed away…and the soldiers outside the cave could hear a most wondrous thing, though they wouldn’t have realized the significance. The girl of the raven hair prayed aloud…speaking to God…pleading to Him for the sake of the dead girl in her arms. The words were meaningless…yet…they all wept to the man.
The darkness came as the stone was pushed into place…and there she sat…unmoving…for an entire age…
That is where the story should have ended…not only for Arella, but for her as well. Sealed in darkness, the two of them rotting together for an eternity. She could not die…but at least she would she would no longer have to live in a world of filth and death. She could stay in this place forever with her grief and the body of the girl that had become like a daughter to her. That was not recompense for all she had suffered, but it was a kindness…of a sort…
…or so she thought…
What power had brought Arella back to life…and for what purpose? She had watched the girl die…she had held her in darkness for so long. What a horror to bear witness to in someone’s final moments…
…but they had not been her final moments…
She had seen Arella once more…she had seen Arella in the Veil…the place between this world and the next…
…it should have been wondrous…yet, to her…it now seemed the most cruel trick of all…
How long had she sat there in the darkness…unmoving? She didn’t know…and she didn’t care. She closed her eyes… still speaking her prayers…even until her end had come.
She opened her eyes and for the first time beheld the face of Raphael…Archangel…Guardian of the Veil…and her eventual jailer.
He smiled as he looked down at her…stretching out his hand. “Anka…get up child…”
She sat still, unmoving. “No…I can’t leave her…I won’t…”
His face softened, ever so much. “There’s nothing left Anka…your burden is lifted.”
She looked down at the tiny body she held, and as she did, what remained fell through her arms and scattered across the floor. Her mouth fell open as she dropped to her knees and screamed.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Raphael grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her to her feet. “Anka…do not grieve…God has heard your plea.” He stepped aside and revealed behind him a bright and dazzling light…beyond it an ocean of blue, green, yellow…all the colors of the rainbow…warm and inviting. “Go Anka…take your reward…it is yours…”
Beyond the light, she heard the voices of her parents calling to her. She walked towards it…stumbling on legs that were once atrophied. As she moved closer, she suddenly stopped and turned. Her eyes focusing on Raphael. “Arella?”
He shook his head. “This is not her time now…Heaven is not for her. Our Father has another plan for her…just as He has opened paradise unto you. Go now child…take your reward.”
She turned, and slowly began to walk into the light…step after step seeming just as heavy as the last. She stopped…staring into the light…her eyes wide. There had never been anything so beautiful…so inviting…so perfect…and yet, she could not bear to leave. She turned back to Raphael, her eyes wet with tears. “I…I can’t…I can’t leave her!”
“You must! You must leave her Anka! You are released of your bur…” He paused and looked back into the light, as if listening…then nodded as he looked at her. “You would stay here…on this plain…you would sacrifice paradise for her?”
Anka looked back towards the light, her legs trembling. Happiness…she had not known it for well over 300 years or more. Now, it was hers and all she had to do was walk. Father…mother…friends, they all waited for her…waited to receive her into their bosom. The girl who had not kept faith with them…the girl who had cursed them for fools and watched them slaughtered before her. In an instant…all would be forgotten…
It took everything that she had in her to turn away. She looked at the angel and fell to her knees…her voice small and barely audible. “…yes…I would stay…”
…
The sounds of sobbing filled her ears…ragged and uncontrolled. It wasn’t until she felt a hand at her shoulder that she realized the sounds were coming from her. She looked up…and her eyes met those of Arella…no longer sightless.
She reached up to touch the girl’s cheek and she seemed to evaporate into thin air.
She looked to Raphael. “Wha…”
Behind her blossomed broad powerful wings…not unlike those of the archangel himself.
Raphael backed into the light as he regarded her with an approving look. “You are blessed Anka…remade for a great purpose…go now…”
Confusion and terror filled her as she screamed, “No…wait…WAIT!! ARELLA!!”
“He cares for you…He cares for us all…” Despite her cries…he vanished…along with the light, leaving her in the darkness…all alone…wondering what that great purpose was…
Anka had wandered the world for ages afterwards seeking that purpose…not knowing that all along the child she had given up paradise for was still here…STILL HERE ALL ALONG!
…why…WHY?!!
God had once again made a mockery of her…but to what end? So that he could torture and humiliate her? No…He’d not get off so lightly this time. He’d have to answer for this…and answer He would!
She turned her gaze heavenward as her wings beat faster and faster, propelling her higher and higher over Empire City. From the ground…she could no longer be seen…from her vantage point, Empire City itself was no bigger than a grain of rice.
Though the higher she went…the more difficult she found it to breathe…still she pushed on…driving on higher and higher still…
The cold gripped her…bit at her face…her arms…her entire body. She shivered fiercely, but anger kept her warm…fueled her accent. She ignored the cold…ignored the pain…she focused on a distant star and watched as it came closer and closer…then dimmer and dimmer.
The air was thin…
So very thin…
No air to breathe…
No further to climb…
Yet climb, she did…
“You…will tell me…you wi…”
She drove herself on, even as her voice failed her and the world turned black. Her eyes rolled back in her head as her wing beats slowed…then came to a stop.
Her body limp…then suddenly falling…tumbling out of control…miles and miles to go…
The Veil
Between Earth & Heaven
The sound of the wind rushing pass her ears faded, even as she stood now in complete darkness and waited…waited for the light that would show her the way…the way towards the answers that she sought.
The voices came first…beckoning and sweet. Faces in the darkness…family and old friends…
She ignored them…she ignored them all. She had come for one reason and one reason only…to speak with God…and no other.
The light appeared and she made her way towards it…screaming at the top of her lungs. “TALK TO ME!! TELL ME WHY!! YOU WILL TALK TO ME!!!”
“ANKA!!”
She stopped in her tracks and turned. It was not the voice of God…it was the voice of the Veil’s caretaker. She narrowed her eyes as she squared herself against him.
“Raphael…this doesn’t concern you, so don’t try to stop me…”
The angelic figure stood there shaking his head. “The light is not for you…not yet. This isn’t your time and you must go back.”
“NO!! I won’t go back there!! Not this time!! Not until He has answered my questions!” She turned to continue her run towards the light.
She never saw him move, but indeed he had for he was now right in front of her. “Anka, you must return to your body…The Lord God has not yet called you home to parad…” She threw herself against him, battering him back. It was more surprise than anything else that caused him to give ground, but it was fleeting. Raphael grabbed her by her throat and lifted her easily as he held her at arm’s length. “ANKA!! STOP THIS MADNESS!! You know as well as I do!! The living do not enter Heaven before their time!!”
He threw her back and she hit the ground in a heap. She screamed at him. “BASTARD!!! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!! YOU LET ME PASS SO THAT HE CAN TELL ME HIMSELF HOW MUCH LONGER AM I TO SUFFER!!! HOW MUCH LONGER IS HE TO PLAY HIS GAMES WITH ME…WITH ARELLA!!!”
Raphael bristled at her request. “Anka…go back…I…” He suddenly paused as if hearing some distant call, one that only he himself could hear. He nodded as he looked down at her, talking to himself…or perhaps to God Himself. “Yes Father…I shall do as you say…”
He looked down at her. “The Father says that you have a great task yet to perform in His service. A purpose that when served…will gain you admittance into paradise, everlasting.” Raphael reached down to her, offering his hand. “This is God’s covenant with you Anka, for He loves you more than you know…”
Anka’s dark eyes narrowed as she stood on her own, ignoring his outstretched hand. The words Raphael spoke were drowned out by the memories of the past that she had just relived. She had given up paradise centuries ago to save Arella…to send her into the Promised Land instead…but her sacrifice had been in vain. Arella was not in Heaven…she was trapped on Earth…like a rat…just like she herself had been. She had been foolish and naïve to trust God…but no more…NO MORE…
Raphael eyed her curiously as he addressed her once more. “Anka… did you hear me? God holds you earthbound for a great purpose…one that is far greater than you can ever kno…”
She slapped his face, even as she backed away, her dark eyes no longer streaming with tears…but glowering with malice. “Tell Him that I said…GO TO HELL!! I am His plaything no longer…NO LONGER!!!”
She fell back, and in an instant she was gone…
Raphael turned back towards the light. “Father…it is done…”
Somewhere, High Over…
Empire City
Anka opened her eyes even as she tumbled wildly out of control…
…falling…
…falling…
She had brought herself to death’s doorstep…and beyond. She had touched the Veil…made her plea…and as always it had fallen on deaf ears…
For a moment, she considered allowing herself to hit the ground in a spectacular splat, but that would mean going back to the Veil…back to the one place that was so close to Heaven…and yet…not. She had no desire to torture herself further, and she would not.
She struggled to right herself…pitching and rolling even as she saw the ground rushing up to meet her. As she gained some semblance of control, inside…she was filled with nothing but turmoil. She clenched her fists as she continued on her way...on her way…
…on her way where…?
She hovered there for a moment…not knowing where to go, or what to do. The only thing that she was sure of, was that she no longer wanted anything else to do with God’s so-called plan for her. She was done being a patsy for Him…she’d find a new purpose…and through it…she’d get what she wanted. She just needed time to figure it all out…
“YOU THERE!! STOP!!”
She looked up with a start as the booming voice shook her out of her own thoughts. She looked right into the bright lights of an Empire City Police hovercar. She stared at the occupants, even as they stared back at her.
Inside the car, the two officers looked at one another. The younger officer spoke to his partner. “Dude…how in the hell do you tell an angel that she’s wanted for questioning at the station?”
The other officer shook his head. “I don’t know Baxter…but I think you better come up with something before she decides to fly the coupe…AWE SHIT MAN!! TOO LATE!!”
Anka took off and before long the police unit was in hot pursuit, with lights and sirens blazing.
She didn’t know what they wanted, and she didn’t care. She dove down between the buildings and they followed her as best they could…until…
KRACKATHOOM!
The two officers screamed, throwing up their arms to shield their faces as the dashboard erupted into a spectacular explosion of sparks and flame.
From the ground, Athena smiled as the electric charge she had thrown at the car dissipated from her hands.
Athena grinned at her handy work as the car veered off course. “That was rather fun…what do we do next?”
She looked over at Arella as she stood there watching the police car hurdle out of control. “We wait for the city to start tearing itself apart…just as my Father commands.”
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Arella … Orchid
Decapitated Roman … Johnathan Nesbit
Neck Stabbed Roman … Ness Farratu
Flavaious ... Chris Andrew
Raphael … Phoenix Chambers
Officer Baxter … Eric Weaver
Unnamed Officer … Dan Extra
Athena … Cass Baumer
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure
High Over…
Empire City
Anka had not slept or eaten in days, every moment had been consumed by the search for Arella. It has seemed like something out of a dream when she first saw the girl in the ruins of the collapsed stage after Gaia had attacked the Town Hall and nearly brought the coliseum down on hundreds of people. She knew she should have focused on helping to stop the carnage, but all she could think about was the girl she had watched die in her arms inside a tomb hundreds of years prior.
To her, it seemed a perverse joke. Until she had happened upon the young blind girl, her thoughts had been consumed by nothing but ideas of revenge against Rome and their demi-god Superius. She had been so close to getting her hands on the man when she had stumbled on Arella, centuries ago…
Anka moved though the darkness…finding her way around the camp…looking for the banner that would lead her to her quarry. As she saw the command tent, she knew that the general languished inside. It was heavily guarded…a dead giveaway.
It was too much to hope for…the tent left unguarded…Superius asleep in his bunk…no doubt dreaming of rape…murder…conquest. She would plunge his own sword into his chest…or better yet his abdomen. He’d die a slow and painful death…perhaps not slow or painful enough for her liking…but it would have to do. The same for his guards…she’d delight in their deaths as well…so much the better.
For all of her fantasizing about this moment…dreaming that nothing could deter her from it…something did…
She heard the sounds of a wailing girl. Her cries so mournful that she could hardly turn away. Anka reluctantly turned her attention from the command tent, as she followed the sounds of the girl. As she came closer, she heard that the girl not only cried…but spoke as well…and the words, though not spoken in her own tongue, were words that she understood.
Curses to a cruel God…scorn, hatred, and bitterness. It was all so familiar to her…all so painful. She was drawn like a moth to the flame. No longer walking it seemed…almost floating. When her eyes finally fell on the source of the girl’s screaming…it was as if she were reliving a piece of her own history.
A young girl lay over the nude and bloody corpse of a woman…likely her mother. Several other bodies were heaped around…some dead…others dying. The drunken Centurions had had their fun with the rest…and now they turned their attention to the last.
Three was their number…all drunk and stinking of blood and ale. Their manhood no longer stood erect from their earlier abuses…yet what did it matter? It was all just fun and games…and the ending was always the same. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to visualize herself walking away…running towards the tent and doing what she came to do…killing the General, but that image eluded her. Instead, she felt herself being thrown to the ground…her clothing torn from her…her mother forced to watch as her innocence was taken…not by one…but by many.
She cursed God…she begged God…she wanted to be saved…but no one came to her rescue. God abandoned her to her fate…left her to be savaged…to be ravaged…to be torn asunder…
Anka would not allow it to happen to another…not while she could stop it. It was all a blur to her as she charged in, grabbing the short sword from one drunken Centurion and quickly separating his head from his body. The other grabbed for his sword, but found nothing but air. He shouldn’t have dropped his belt along with his pants. She jammed the point of the blade into his throat and a great torrent of blood gushed forth, splattering her as the man’s gurgled cries melted away along with his life.
She turned to the final man…then winced…
She looked down and saw the hilt of his blade sticking out of her. She followed it to his hand and up his arm…all the way back to his face. A cruel scar was cleaved there, from his eyebrow all the way across the bridge of his nose, down through his upper lip. The man growled at her as he shouted and roared with such passion and rage.
Anka reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him close, even as she drove her own sword directly into his exposed pelvis, slicing into his genitals. She grimaced as she raised her foot and kicked the screaming man away from her. He held on to his sword…dragging it out of her.
She fell to her knees and put a shaking hand to the vicious wound in her abdomen. The pain was vile and she could feel the acrid taste of her own blood rising in her throat. She didn’t have much time before she lost her window of opportunity. Wounded or not…she’d find a way to get to Superius. The girl was safe…and the General would soon be dead.
She struggled to get to her feet, even as the blood flowed from her like a stream. She staggered toward the tent, casting one last look to the wailing child. “Go… RUN!! Get away from this place…”
“I… I… c-can’t…” she replied.
She felt the anger rising in her as she turned to the young girl. “I SAID RU…” The words caught in her throat as she looked down.
The girl’s eyes were covered in a milky haze and stared off into the distance, blind and unseeing…she was going nowhere…
In that moment, she had chosen to forget revenge to save the girl from suffering the same fate she had suffered at Roman hands…beaten, raped, crucified. Anka had survived those horrors, only to endure them over and over again for many more years. She was the girl that would not die…the same would not be said of Arella.
The two of them had run from the Roman camp…evaded capture for months as they made their way to the safety of the Mongol lands…the ancestral home of Arella’s people…the sworn enemies of the Roman Empire. There, they would be safe…they could live out their lives in some semblance of peace, or so she thought. Not long after crossing over into Mongol lands they were stopped by a patrol. They had been held and questioned for days…but it was a far more hospitable than any mercy the Romans would have had for them. Soon they would be set free and Rome would be forgotten…or not…
The two were held and questioned for days on end… over and over, always the same…
…were they spies?
…what were the Romans planning?
…where would they strike next?
The questions held no meaning for Anka and Arella…but as they drug on…an uneasy feeling began to settle over the pair. Anka could feel that something was wrong…and it was something she planned avoid. She formulated an escape plan. The two of them would escape under the cover of night…
…but they never got the chance…
Before Anka could slip her bonds with Arella and make good her escape, she was greeted by the all too familiar face of a murderous Centurion she never thought to ever see again. Before her stood the very man that had made an orphan of Arella…the man with the vile scar across his face…the same man that she had made a eunuch out of.
Romans…Mongols…together…it hardly seemed right.
The Centurion’s name was Flavaious…and after she had attacked him and left him for dead…he had managed to recover…such as one could in his condition.
Flavaious proved to be a TRUE Roman in every sense of the word…affirming all that Anka ever thought of them. Flavaious was a sadist and a pedophile…who had been hell bent on revenge against Anka, for all that she had taken from him. He took his vengeance out on Arella…all while Anka was made to watch. So vile were his acts against the young girl that a few of his soldiers refused to stay and watch…
…later he had them put to death…
Anka did her best to stifle the whimper that escaped her as she held Arella. Her body was broken and left a defiled and bloody ruin. Her tiny lips moved wordlessly, but the words didn’t need to come…she could read them perfectly…and they spelled the word…mother…
Even as she looked down into the girl’s unseeing eyes…she felt that they saw right into her. As they began to dim and grow dark and lifeless…a sound unlike any other burst out of her…a wail that could split the heavens in two.
The Roman’s that gathered there…only those who could be entrusted with such knowledge…turned their heads and looked away. They knew of the story…the girl had been ravaged, beaten savagely, nailed to a cross…and yet…she did not die. For nearly 300 years she was tortured and brutalized…but she didn’t die. Every one of them…each and every one had thought that they would give anything to have the power that her God had granted her…
…as they looked away…inside their secret hearts, they were glad not to have such a power. Living in ignorance was no longer such a bad thing. Her God may have been great…but how cruel He had been to her. Could He not have saved her if He wanted? Why did He not strike them all down? Her God might have been real…but in the end…He was just as uncaring as the many false gods of Rome.
The Centurions watched as the forlorn girl held the bloody body of the dying young angel close to her bosom. The darkness slowly…almost mercifully began to close around them as the sound of stone grinding against stone filled the air. Again they diverted their eyes…
…the child breathed no more…
…the heavy stone was rolled to the front of the cave…
…the secret of the girl who would not die would stay here forever…
Even as the unholy alliance of the Romans and the Mongols sealed her inside the cave, rolling the massive boulder in front of its mouth…her thoughts were not on escape or revenge. She clutched the broken and lifeless body of Arella in her arms, holding her so tightly that the two became as one.
The light ebbed away…and the soldiers outside the cave could hear a most wondrous thing, though they wouldn’t have realized the significance. The girl of the raven hair prayed aloud…speaking to God…pleading to Him for the sake of the dead girl in her arms. The words were meaningless…yet…they all wept to the man.
The darkness came as the stone was pushed into place…and there she sat…unmoving…for an entire age…
That is where the story should have ended…not only for Arella, but for her as well. Sealed in darkness, the two of them rotting together for an eternity. She could not die…but at least she would she would no longer have to live in a world of filth and death. She could stay in this place forever with her grief and the body of the girl that had become like a daughter to her. That was not recompense for all she had suffered, but it was a kindness…of a sort…
…or so she thought…
What power had brought Arella back to life…and for what purpose? She had watched the girl die…she had held her in darkness for so long. What a horror to bear witness to in someone’s final moments…
…but they had not been her final moments…
She had seen Arella once more…she had seen Arella in the Veil…the place between this world and the next…
…it should have been wondrous…yet, to her…it now seemed the most cruel trick of all…
How long had she sat there in the darkness…unmoving? She didn’t know…and she didn’t care. She closed her eyes… still speaking her prayers…even until her end had come.
She opened her eyes and for the first time beheld the face of Raphael…Archangel…Guardian of the Veil…and her eventual jailer.
He smiled as he looked down at her…stretching out his hand. “Anka…get up child…”
She sat still, unmoving. “No…I can’t leave her…I won’t…”
His face softened, ever so much. “There’s nothing left Anka…your burden is lifted.”
She looked down at the tiny body she held, and as she did, what remained fell through her arms and scattered across the floor. Her mouth fell open as she dropped to her knees and screamed.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Raphael grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her to her feet. “Anka…do not grieve…God has heard your plea.” He stepped aside and revealed behind him a bright and dazzling light…beyond it an ocean of blue, green, yellow…all the colors of the rainbow…warm and inviting. “Go Anka…take your reward…it is yours…”
Beyond the light, she heard the voices of her parents calling to her. She walked towards it…stumbling on legs that were once atrophied. As she moved closer, she suddenly stopped and turned. Her eyes focusing on Raphael. “Arella?”
He shook his head. “This is not her time now…Heaven is not for her. Our Father has another plan for her…just as He has opened paradise unto you. Go now child…take your reward.”
She turned, and slowly began to walk into the light…step after step seeming just as heavy as the last. She stopped…staring into the light…her eyes wide. There had never been anything so beautiful…so inviting…so perfect…and yet, she could not bear to leave. She turned back to Raphael, her eyes wet with tears. “I…I can’t…I can’t leave her!”
“You must! You must leave her Anka! You are released of your bur…” He paused and looked back into the light, as if listening…then nodded as he looked at her. “You would stay here…on this plain…you would sacrifice paradise for her?”
Anka looked back towards the light, her legs trembling. Happiness…she had not known it for well over 300 years or more. Now, it was hers and all she had to do was walk. Father…mother…friends, they all waited for her…waited to receive her into their bosom. The girl who had not kept faith with them…the girl who had cursed them for fools and watched them slaughtered before her. In an instant…all would be forgotten…
It took everything that she had in her to turn away. She looked at the angel and fell to her knees…her voice small and barely audible. “…yes…I would stay…”
…
The sounds of sobbing filled her ears…ragged and uncontrolled. It wasn’t until she felt a hand at her shoulder that she realized the sounds were coming from her. She looked up…and her eyes met those of Arella…no longer sightless.
She reached up to touch the girl’s cheek and she seemed to evaporate into thin air.
She looked to Raphael. “Wha…”
Behind her blossomed broad powerful wings…not unlike those of the archangel himself.
Raphael backed into the light as he regarded her with an approving look. “You are blessed Anka…remade for a great purpose…go now…”
Confusion and terror filled her as she screamed, “No…wait…WAIT!! ARELLA!!”
“He cares for you…He cares for us all…” Despite her cries…he vanished…along with the light, leaving her in the darkness…all alone…wondering what that great purpose was…
Anka had wandered the world for ages afterwards seeking that purpose…not knowing that all along the child she had given up paradise for was still here…STILL HERE ALL ALONG!
…why…WHY?!!
God had once again made a mockery of her…but to what end? So that he could torture and humiliate her? No…He’d not get off so lightly this time. He’d have to answer for this…and answer He would!
She turned her gaze heavenward as her wings beat faster and faster, propelling her higher and higher over Empire City. From the ground…she could no longer be seen…from her vantage point, Empire City itself was no bigger than a grain of rice.
Though the higher she went…the more difficult she found it to breathe…still she pushed on…driving on higher and higher still…
The cold gripped her…bit at her face…her arms…her entire body. She shivered fiercely, but anger kept her warm…fueled her accent. She ignored the cold…ignored the pain…she focused on a distant star and watched as it came closer and closer…then dimmer and dimmer.
The air was thin…
So very thin…
No air to breathe…
No further to climb…
Yet climb, she did…
“You…will tell me…you wi…”
She drove herself on, even as her voice failed her and the world turned black. Her eyes rolled back in her head as her wing beats slowed…then came to a stop.
Her body limp…then suddenly falling…tumbling out of control…miles and miles to go…
The Veil
Between Earth & Heaven
The sound of the wind rushing pass her ears faded, even as she stood now in complete darkness and waited…waited for the light that would show her the way…the way towards the answers that she sought.
The voices came first…beckoning and sweet. Faces in the darkness…family and old friends…
She ignored them…she ignored them all. She had come for one reason and one reason only…to speak with God…and no other.
The light appeared and she made her way towards it…screaming at the top of her lungs. “TALK TO ME!! TELL ME WHY!! YOU WILL TALK TO ME!!!”
“ANKA!!”
She stopped in her tracks and turned. It was not the voice of God…it was the voice of the Veil’s caretaker. She narrowed her eyes as she squared herself against him.
“Raphael…this doesn’t concern you, so don’t try to stop me…”
The angelic figure stood there shaking his head. “The light is not for you…not yet. This isn’t your time and you must go back.”
“NO!! I won’t go back there!! Not this time!! Not until He has answered my questions!” She turned to continue her run towards the light.
She never saw him move, but indeed he had for he was now right in front of her. “Anka, you must return to your body…The Lord God has not yet called you home to parad…” She threw herself against him, battering him back. It was more surprise than anything else that caused him to give ground, but it was fleeting. Raphael grabbed her by her throat and lifted her easily as he held her at arm’s length. “ANKA!! STOP THIS MADNESS!! You know as well as I do!! The living do not enter Heaven before their time!!”
He threw her back and she hit the ground in a heap. She screamed at him. “BASTARD!!! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!! YOU LET ME PASS SO THAT HE CAN TELL ME HIMSELF HOW MUCH LONGER AM I TO SUFFER!!! HOW MUCH LONGER IS HE TO PLAY HIS GAMES WITH ME…WITH ARELLA!!!”
Raphael bristled at her request. “Anka…go back…I…” He suddenly paused as if hearing some distant call, one that only he himself could hear. He nodded as he looked down at her, talking to himself…or perhaps to God Himself. “Yes Father…I shall do as you say…”
He looked down at her. “The Father says that you have a great task yet to perform in His service. A purpose that when served…will gain you admittance into paradise, everlasting.” Raphael reached down to her, offering his hand. “This is God’s covenant with you Anka, for He loves you more than you know…”
Anka’s dark eyes narrowed as she stood on her own, ignoring his outstretched hand. The words Raphael spoke were drowned out by the memories of the past that she had just relived. She had given up paradise centuries ago to save Arella…to send her into the Promised Land instead…but her sacrifice had been in vain. Arella was not in Heaven…she was trapped on Earth…like a rat…just like she herself had been. She had been foolish and naïve to trust God…but no more…NO MORE…
Raphael eyed her curiously as he addressed her once more. “Anka… did you hear me? God holds you earthbound for a great purpose…one that is far greater than you can ever kno…”
She slapped his face, even as she backed away, her dark eyes no longer streaming with tears…but glowering with malice. “Tell Him that I said…GO TO HELL!! I am His plaything no longer…NO LONGER!!!”
She fell back, and in an instant she was gone…
Raphael turned back towards the light. “Father…it is done…”
Somewhere, High Over…
Empire City
Anka opened her eyes even as she tumbled wildly out of control…
…falling…
…falling…
She had brought herself to death’s doorstep…and beyond. She had touched the Veil…made her plea…and as always it had fallen on deaf ears…
For a moment, she considered allowing herself to hit the ground in a spectacular splat, but that would mean going back to the Veil…back to the one place that was so close to Heaven…and yet…not. She had no desire to torture herself further, and she would not.
She struggled to right herself…pitching and rolling even as she saw the ground rushing up to meet her. As she gained some semblance of control, inside…she was filled with nothing but turmoil. She clenched her fists as she continued on her way...on her way…
…on her way where…?
She hovered there for a moment…not knowing where to go, or what to do. The only thing that she was sure of, was that she no longer wanted anything else to do with God’s so-called plan for her. She was done being a patsy for Him…she’d find a new purpose…and through it…she’d get what she wanted. She just needed time to figure it all out…
“YOU THERE!! STOP!!”
She looked up with a start as the booming voice shook her out of her own thoughts. She looked right into the bright lights of an Empire City Police hovercar. She stared at the occupants, even as they stared back at her.
Inside the car, the two officers looked at one another. The younger officer spoke to his partner. “Dude…how in the hell do you tell an angel that she’s wanted for questioning at the station?”
The other officer shook his head. “I don’t know Baxter…but I think you better come up with something before she decides to fly the coupe…AWE SHIT MAN!! TOO LATE!!”
Anka took off and before long the police unit was in hot pursuit, with lights and sirens blazing.
She didn’t know what they wanted, and she didn’t care. She dove down between the buildings and they followed her as best they could…until…
KRACKATHOOM!
The two officers screamed, throwing up their arms to shield their faces as the dashboard erupted into a spectacular explosion of sparks and flame.
From the ground, Athena smiled as the electric charge she had thrown at the car dissipated from her hands.
Athena grinned at her handy work as the car veered off course. “That was rather fun…what do we do next?”
She looked over at Arella as she stood there watching the police car hurdle out of control. “We wait for the city to start tearing itself apart…just as my Father commands.”
EPISODE CREDITS
CAST (In order of appearance)
Anka … Kenzi Grey
Arella … Orchid
Decapitated Roman … Johnathan Nesbit
Neck Stabbed Roman … Ness Farratu
Flavaious ... Chris Andrew
Raphael … Phoenix Chambers
Officer Baxter … Eric Weaver
Unnamed Officer … Dan Extra
Athena … Cass Baumer
Directed by … DubbleFC
Screenplay by … Ron B.
Produced by … CTN Television Studios
Casting by … Maleek Raheem
Music by … Guilty Pleasure