Fallen Angel

Chapter 73: Brannon

The last thing I saw was Emily looking at me, then the ring of fire burst up from the darkness. I couldn't see through it and I tried to get up from the lounge but couldn't. I was stuck.

So in the darkness that had once been my father's office, I watched a wall of fire burning bright. It wasn't hot, it wasn't even warm. There wasn't a change in temperature, just the room itself.

The office had fallen away, replaced with the void of nothing. We had been moved into the abyss so that there would be no interruptions or interference, no escape. Emily had signed for a deal from the devil, something that I didn't think an angel would ever do.

I had questioned her motives, her so called inability to fall to my father again and in a way, it was wrong of me to do that. Maybe it might not be wrong but Emily had said that she loved me and I still questioned her. It was confusing and I know that if I spoke to my mother about it, she would say that I was young and that it wasn't unreasonable to be confused. She seemed to have a closer grasp on the real world than my father, she was younger and having been a human, she saw the world in a different way to him.

The flames had settled to a dull flicker, the wall was tall and impenetrable to my gaze. Stretching my body up higher was pointless, the view was still the same. My backside was stuck, feeling like I was glued down and weighted with something heavy. I was expecting that certain chef to rise out from the darkness with his firm grip around my ankle again, telling me that he was going to keep an eye on me.

"Igor?" I whispered.

Nothing which meant that he wasn't here. Igor would not ignore a person; he was not a rude man.

The inky darkness seemed to swirl like water, I looked below my feet as I pulled them up to the next cushion. It wouldn't be beyond my father to have some of the damned floating in the abyss. The flames reflected, deep into the shadows the light shined and showed the rippling darkness. Something was down there.

Lifting my gaze with fear, I couldn't see my father or Emily. Just a ring of fire that soared high into the black. Warily I leaned forward, looking down into the abyss. The watery black rippled again and then something moved. I gasped as my eyes widened, the ghost like figure moved fast.

"Dad." I said uneasily.

He said nothing. I wasn't sure if he couldn't hear me or if he was busy but it wasn't helpful. Not when I was out here on my own. This wasn't my dominion and the abyss was never ending, I wouldn't want to fall into it. As for what might be down there, that was the unknown as well. The damned would claw at my body, begging me to free them, begging me to grant them a moment before my father. They might even hold me until my father granted them a moment.

There wasn't much that they could do to me because I was classed as immortal but that didn't mean that they couldn't make life difficult. They could suck me down into the abyss and hide me within their own, waiting for my father to search for me or ask that they return me. That was a problem because it meant that they would have something that he wanted and it was a bargaining tool. I did not want to be used as leverage so they could get out of their damnation.

Something moved again, like a ghost flying through the night sky, the spectre moved with speed. I couldn't figure out what it was, there was no distinct shape to it, no face or body. Just one fast moving blur of pale grey.

I sat back and waited out of view, if the thing had eyesight of course. Having no idea what it was, I also had no idea of what it could or couldn't do. Playing it safe was ideal, that way my father wouldn't be pissed off at me. No Brannon getting sucked into the abyss for him to retrieve, no issues when he already had one rather large one to deal with.

Emily's changeover was taking longer than I thought, at least it appeared that way. Having no concept of time down here made it difficult to figure it out. So I laid out on the lounge, able to move my backside but unable to lift it from the leather seat.

My time in the abyss on the leather lounge from my father's office was going along rather boringly well and I would have liked it to stay that way except that damned shape was still moving around. Cautiously I watched it, nervous as to its intention.

The black rippled like that unknown something was coming towards me, I pushed myself hard against the backrest and called out to my father again. Still, there was no response. It felt like I was alone in this world of nothing, left to fend for myself. Maybe I was and maybe this was a test of my devotion to Emily and the support that I was supposed to give her. Me wanting to run away wasn't very supportive.

But that damned ripple was getting bigger and closer. As my fingers gripped the leather armrest, I watched the ghost figure getting closer to the surface. Bursting through the non-existent water, the figure screeched loudly and ventured high into the darkness. The flaming wall reflected against the body of grey, the screeching figure rose higher in front of me until it stopped, towering over me.

I stared at it as it started to form into a shape, a divine figure of a woman that had beautiful curves. The screeching stopped for a second until one red skinned hand with sharp black nails reached through the fire and grabbed hold of the shape. The figure shrieked as she was dragged into the flames and once she was gone I was alone again, left with the silent darkness.