Dark Angel (A 001 prequel story)

21 - Light

Rose held her chin up, staring at the big fresco on the church's wall.

"Forgive us, God, for we have sinned".
A voice whispered at her back.
She turned her head, watching her father approaching her slowly.
He smiled down at her and stopped behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
She looked back at the scary images. The fall of Lucifer from heaven.

"Where is God?" her child voice asked.
"Can't you see it?".
"See what?".
"The truth".
She stiffened, hating to say that she didn't.
"Do you remember what's the fastest thing in the universe?" he asked.
Finally something she could answer.
"The light".
"E=mc^2" he quipped. That was his favourite equation. He had one single tattoo on his body, over his heart. Those simple symbols meant everything to him.
"You need a little mass to get so much energy".
She frowned. Her young brain still struggled to understand that stuff.

"Your mother and I have sinned. Hybris. Do you remember what it means?".
Greek. "It's the pride or arrogance of the men who thinks they can become God".
"Exactly. And we were so sure we could play God. My little Rose, my precious Rose" he handed her a small book.
The Little Prince.
The cover showed a boy with blonde hair and light clothes. Her hero.
There was a rose in that story.



She knew the story by heart.
Her little hands grabbed it and held it against her chest.

"But that's not what inspired us to call you Rose" he father continued "Do you remember Dante's Paradise?".
She nodded.
"And the images of how he thought heaven would be".
"The circles!" she exclaimed.



"And what was above the circles?" he tapped her nose "The Mystic Rose".
Rose grinned, feeling important.
He kneeled in front of her "Above all the angels and so close to God" his face darkened "But we are all paying for that arrogance. And you are paying the highest price. And we are so very sorry for that".
Her breathing hitched at his alarming words.
"There are people, evil people, who want to take you and use you. You mother and I were once allies of those evil people. But we couldn't let them have you, experiment on you as we saw happening on someone else. That's why we have to fight together, to hide you in open sight. Our lives will never be easy, will never be normal. We can't trust anyone. I've been studying the secrets of the brain for my whole life and finally we found the key to unlock something so incredible. And seeing the price, I wish we can lock it back, within you".
Rose swallowed hard.
"What is it that is so incredible?".
He caressed her head "You are incredible. You asked me where is God. What did Einstein say? About time and space? Where is eternity?".
She looked up at the paintings, searching for the right answer.
"When you can travel as fast as the light".
"Right" her father said proudly "At light speed, time stops. But nobody can reach that speed. Not yet. So what is the only thing that stay eternal? What is in the Mystic Rose?".
Rose struggled to deal with that complex reasoning.
"Light?" she tried to guess.
He smiled broadly "Yes. Yes, darling. Light. And how is God described as?".
"Light" she repeated more convinced.
"What we're always looking for is already with us" he rested his hands on her tiny shoulders, staring deeply at her "Find the light within you, Rose. And you can see the miracles you can do. Your will, your thoughts can convert little amount of your matter into endless energy".
Scary images flashed in her mind. A giant mushroom of smoke over a city.
"Like an atomic bomb?".
His face saddened "That's how that secret was immediately used once discovered. To destroy. You can choose. You can use your inner power to do good. Although I bet this world isn't ready to see what you can actually do. They would tear you to piece just to try to understand how it works".
She flinched. But her father was with her, so she was safe, right?
She only cared of being save and not disappointing her parents.
"You see why we depend on this secret and you don't have to try anything unusual? We are like him" he looked at the fresco above them and stood up "We wanted to be God and we got punished. You are totally innocent, Rose. Yet you pay for it as well. We fell to hell. But as someone said, better to rule in hell than to be a slave in heaven".
It rang some bell in her and she searched for the connection.
"Paradise Lost!" she exclaimed when finally she remembered why it sounded familiar.
He chuckled "Exactly, my brilliant girl. That's Milton. But we are not forsaken. We don't hide in darkness. God is still with us. Light is always around us. Even when it's cloudy or storming, there's light. We have eyes to see that light and a mind to learn its secrets".
Rose couldn't help but yawn. All that speech was weird and tiring.
"Don't forget it. You are kissed by light, by God every morning, every single day" he pulled her hand, walking towards the exit and opened the door.
The light of the sun that was setting flooded them.
Rose raised her free hand to shield her eyes from the sudden strong light until they adjusted to it.
God was kissing her.
It made her giggle.
She looked at her smiling father and with him she walked towards the light.

A/N

So, I don't know what this is 🙈
I tried to mix science and religion and literature and to give a possible explaination to the source of her powers (I've also read some physics books that made me meditate on these things)
I hope I didn't bore you and that it made some sense.
Anyway, you can always blame it on Rose's mind being delirious or her parents being weird neurologists 😅

I'm Italian and I'm in love with Dante and his Divine Comedy. Jamie said that he would like to be involved into something about Dante's Inferno and I couldn't agree more 🔥 The Inferno is the most interesting part, the one that is studied at school, while the Paradise is quite snobbed because it's less interesting... just like I prefer villains to heroes.
But I love how Paradise is depicted there.
Where's God?
There's a hierarchy, there are angels, archangels and other kind of good souls.
I call Henry an angel in the title so I have to justify it somehow, right?
And it's also a tribute to his interest in good and evil, heaven and hell, and how his Henry is double-faced, as we all have light and shadow in us.

👆Reference to "Angels and Demons", another fav book of mine, along with The Little Prince.

The Little Prince is somehow similar to this chapter, it seems a short weird story with big meanings in it.
Actually, it came to my mind because of its cover and how the Little Prince is depicted... doesn't he remind you of someone? 😎

And isn't it comforting that Rose is recalling this old memory from her childhood and notices this detail, hugging the cover to her heart?

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important" 🌹🛐

And remember that we time travel whenever we look up at the sky. We see the Sun how it was 8 minutes ago and we see the stars how they were many many years ago, and some of them are no more by now but we still see their light 🌞🌟