Death Angel

Chapter 9: Escape

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. From out of the frying pan and into the fire, I went from one disaster to another with the casual ease of of a well-practiced career bungler. The story of my new life wasn’t pretty and it was almost comically tragic that the life I left behind was so much better than this one.  If I had the choice, I really would have liked to take a mulligan and not gone to the party with Daniel.

No, not the party I was just at a few nights before. That first party: the one where I fell to my death.

I was listening to Death explain the situation to me. It was all so surreal. Part of me didn’t want to hear it, but here I was, in grave danger once again.

“Vanessa, cherie, you really have to snap back to attention now,” said Death.

I shook my head. “Sorry. What was that again?”

“Listen carefully, that little girl, demon, whatever, is bad news. Very bad news for us both.” Death put two fingers up in the air. “Two things cherie, two things we don’t mess with ever: Angels, and Demons. As a Death Angel, you don’t take sides in the eternal war. You let Heaven and Hell sort their problems out on their own.”

“And what happens when you take a side?”

“Vanessa, as if you can’t figure that one out? Take a side and you take a side, if you know what I mean. Problem is, you’ve already passed on heaven’s judgment. So the “good” side doesn’t want you anymore. Trouble with that is, the “bad” side does.

“Ok, and what if I play both sides?”

“You and I are not going to be smarter than God, or Lucifer. Trust me on this one Vanessa, you do not play those two against each other without dire consequences.”

“Ok, so tell me again about this Azazel.”

Death shook his head. “No time for that. First, we have to survive.”

“Survive?”

Death sighed. “Death Angels can be,” he paused to breathe in deep, “recruited to serve under the demons of Hell. The head honcho on the other hand,” he said pointing at himself, “not so much. So they don’t like me. The problem herein Vanessa, lies in the fact that Azazel is an archdemon. Meaning, she technically has more power than Death itself.”

“So that’s it then? She can kill you?”

“You can’t kill Death, cherie, I assure you. But Azazel has the power to put me in a penalty box of sorts with the powers that be. It’s never happened before, but that’s because I haven’t that many Death Angels do stupid things like you did.”

“Ok, fine so you get in the doghouse with Heaven and Hell. What about me?”

“Well, Vanessa, you, my dear, either lose your soul to Hell, or get recruited in its service. Trust me, there is nothing in this life or the next that is worse than either one.”

I sighed. “Ok. Tell me what I have to do to get out of this then.”

“To get you out of this mess cherie, I’ve got to get political.”

I nodded. “You have to get involved, to save me. Staying out of this means giving me up to Azazel.”

“Exactly right, cherie.” Death pointed at me. I'm going to activate the Nether Void now.”

“The what?”

“My ability to halt time and space. You saw it back then, when we were first training. As agents of Death, we have to be able to do what we need to do when we need to do it. That includes being able to stop time if we need to.”