The Hunt: Visions

I knew where she was when it happened and if I'd known what was going to happen I would have been there. Instead I was busy satisfying my curiosity of the ignorant humans. I was again at the Church of Cross and Crown where Father Jayes was giving a special Friday night sermon. I never miss one of his sermons and with both Sean and Arcot hunting after Sara I thought it was well in hand.

"I know it is unusual for us to be gathered together on a Friday evening. I know that many of you feel there are better ways to spend a Friday evening. Out at the movies, on a date, sleeping but let me tell you tell you that there is no better place for you than here tonight. I'm only asking for a half hour of your time. A half hour of your life. If you think of your life as a hundred miles long I'm only asking for a quarter inch."

I had to give it to Nigel he was an impressive speaker. If I didn't know that the things he was saying were the half-truths of ignorant humans I would be impressed. Honestly I still am, there are moments like now where I stop to wonder if I really could ask for forgiveness. If Jehovah or whomever is in charge these days would really give me forgiveness. He probably would but only at the price of my freedom, and my loyalty. I'd have to go around telling everybody He was better than me. I think I'd rather go on as is.

"I'm glad that you have taken the time out of your lives to be here. Thank you." Father Jayes had already abandoned his pulpit to walk amongst us, his flock. I know that he really believed the things that he said. I didn't understand that humans were a lost cause when I sat in his church. Misguided, ignorant but not hopeless. I didn't realize that until much later. Even now as I look back I can't say if I was right. It might be unfair to pit a creation against its creator no matter what the circumstances.

He paused over me and met my gaze evenly before continuing past me. He never speaks to me when he can avoid it but the fear he once held of me is gone. He hates me now but he doesn't fear me. He starts speaking to each person one at a time, a few people confess to him publicly. It isn't his preference to take confessions though, he believes a man's sins are between the man and God and there is no need for a middleman.

I felt it during that sermon though it had happened only twice before. A sudden presence in the room. To distant to communicate with but close enough that there was no denying that if not God himself at the least a representative had been sent. In all my years I'd never felt a single presence, not even a hint that God was listening to the pathetic humans. I tried to hone on it, find the source but as suddenly as it had came it left again.

I paid my usual half attention to his sermon letting my mind wander as I did. It wasn't his words that fascinated me anyway; it was the fact that he truly believed. I came to study that; I could have heard a sermon just like his at thousands of churches around the world or even over the television. When it was over I watched the crowd thin out, one by one they exited the church but I remained behind staring up at the Crucifix.

"Asylum." I pretended not to hear the minister as I rose to my feet and moved around him closer to the cross. "Asylum!"

"You're doing something right." I muttered without turning. I stared at the Crucifix for a moment longer almost reaching out for it when I remembered Jayes. "Something was here." I turned and stepped past him.

"Wait."

I didn't turn to face him but I did stop in place. "What is it?"

"Why do you come here?"

"You know the answer to that." I started walking again. Tonight I had just come to watch him. He had become my human and I rarely traveled far from him. I listened to his surface thoughts almost continually trying to discern his dreams, his prayers. "Do you have something important to ask me?" I turned toward him tossing my hair as I did.

Asylum?

What?

Why are we in church? You just tempting fate today? Trying to see if He really will strike us with lightning?

It's important.

Fine.

"Stop you?"

"Sorry could you repeat that?"

Father Jayes waited for a moment staring into my eyes. He knew, he wasn't supposed to find out but he knew that I wasn't in control for a moment. I cursed silently. "Why doesn't God stop you from coming here?"

"He doesn't . . .care." I paused waiting for his response.

Nigel just stared at me for a long moment. When he finally spoke it was in a hushed tone. "Maybe he is giving you a chance. Nothing is beyond his ability to forgive."

The concept was so absurd that it beggared belief. I would have laughed at him accept it wasn't meant as a joke and humans are so sensitive some times. "I don't think so. He and I, when we wish it we speak directly."

What is the point of all this?

I need to know Gayle. He fell silent again but I could feel his frustration mounting inside me. I rarely take the time to notice how odd it is to feel emotions from within that aren't your own.

Need to know what?

What makes them tick. I only half responded to Gayle. He couldn't understand he was nearly human himself. The secrets that so easily eluded my eternal patterns were perfectly clear to him.

"I think he would forgive you. I believe that you are here because you seek that very forgiveness. Is it not true that you were cast out of heaven for siding with Lucifer? It was a mistake." Nigel forced a smile over his lips as he looked up at me. I always hated when he smiled. It might have worked on a human but I could taste the underlying emotion. The hatred that he held for me simply because of what I was.

"First I never sided with Lucifer. I was a demon before. I was part of the Darkness that existed before the Heavens and the Earth. That is part of why I must die. I am the old way."

Stop it; there is no reason for this Asylum!

Shut up.

I want my body back!

I grunted slightly as I felt him try to knock me loose and take control of me. There was a brief struggle of wills before I managed to push him back into the darkness for a moment. "For the record the rebellion only started some odd sixty years ago. On the earth you felt the battle as World War two." Whatever had happened to me before slammed against my consciousness again searing through my veins and trying to rip me free of this reality.

Father Jayes almost stumbled to get away from me as I collapsed to my knees screaming. I couldn't stop it but I could feel it, my body randomly ripping through one form after another. Leathery bat wings tearing through flesh and fabric before sprouting pure white feathers. My pants were destroyed as I nearly doubled in size and a pair of twin tails sprouted from the base of my spine lashing out. I shattered a pew without trying and sent a second flying into a nearby wall. My wings twisted around at an impossible angle before grafting themselves to my arms. My thrashing tore the delicate flesh splattering the priest with my blood.

"Asylum! Stop it!" He shouted from the corner where he was hiding. Only my body was in the room with him though, my mind had been shattered though. Part of me was watching as a beast erupted from the earth and took Sara by the hair.

Somewhere else I was witness to a six angels standing around a pure white flame. The sounds of the forge echoed all around me but I couldn't see what was being worked on. Somewhere behind me a door opened and He entered. The Lamb entered the room his clothing and hair so bright that they might have been made from woven light. It was painful to behold such elegance and power, but impossible to look away all the same.

"It is finished my Lord." The angel, whom I know recognized as Metranon reached into the flames. What he pulled out was an object the enemies of Heaven have feared since it was put into the forge two millennia ago. The Final Halo.

A final scream twisted my spine at an impossible angle and locked me like that, trapped screaming in my own mind. Over and over again I watched that Halo being pulled from the flames and Sara, my Sara being attacked by a beast.