Broken Circle

Why couldn’t the sun just wait ten more fucking minutes?

Bright winter light spilled in from her windows and overflowed in the bedroom and on the pillow right where her face was. Rai scrunched up her eyelids like that could shield her from the rude intrusion, but when it proved ineffective, she flipped over onto her other side, groggily registering the other presence of a sigh, but when a lean arm wrapping itself casually around her waist, her eyes snapped open.

Lying next to her was the same boy who had been stalking her; who somehow understood what had been going on with the woman from the mirror. There he was sleeping like an innocent baby; seemingly vulnerable in nothing but his bare skin, while the serpentine tattoo inching up his neck into the left side of his face leered at her; almost winking in the bright sunlight.

Rai shut her eyes after this thought and got comfortable in his arms. It was easier to just give him his way rather than wake him up and deal with the stubborn advances that would proceed- especially when her wrists still hurt.

Yeah, she didn’t think she was going to argue with him much after what had happened last night- but that still didn’t excuse why she was getting cozy with him now.

The blonde realized how her body had disobeyed her by edging even deeper into his embrace and frowned, but couldn’t bring herself to turn away. No matter what happened, even despite the wounds on her wrists that were going to be a bitch to hide, it didn’t change her mind. A lingering attraction ran its clawed fingers over her better judgment and grew something that shouldn’t have developed after such a short time period. In her mind she reviewed everything that had happened since she found her grandmother’s head in a package; then her eyes nearly popped out of her head with another, much different train of thought.

Yesterday was the twenty-fourth of December, which naturally meant today was the twenty-fifth.

Today was Christmas.

She slipped from his embrace and pulled a silk robe around her body; she glanced at the clock near her nightstand and smiled slightly. She still had at least two hours until Christmas mass. She dipped into the bathroom and started the shower hoping that the male in her bed would remain asleep. She was quickly and dashed back into the bedroom removing her robe and slipping into a light blue-green long sleeved dress that had a tight bodice and flowing skirt to the knees.

She grabbed a pair of matching pumps and a short cape of heavy black material that came to her knees and she was off. Sliding out into the wintry weather she slipped into the pumps and hurried the few short blocks to the church with its towering steeples. She made it there with a good hour and ten minutes to spare; surprisingly she was the only one there this early. She sighed and closed her eyes leaning against her chosen seat in the middle of the pew.

She did not hear the faint snapping of the middle bands that surrounded the great cross mounted to the wall above the altar. She did not hear the door open and then close nor did she hear the footsteps silently approaching her. She did not hear the metal bending to seal the doors to prevent escape.

Until it was too late.

She screamed with pain as sharp metal pins shot through her wrists and wrapped around them yanking her into the air before piercing her feet together. She was swung around and yanked backwards against the cross. She gasped in pain and winced; her eyes tearing slightly. It took a few moments to clear before the two figures that stood below her became apparent.

\"Lilith,\" she whispered the demon’s name like it was a curse; then spoke in shock, surprise and fear. \"Adam!\"

\"Hello, my dear,\" whispered Lilith, her blood red lips tilting in a mocking smile.

She held up the silver chalice with its beautiful sapphire at the base. She held it up and the girl\'s blood trickled down into it; then lifted it to her lips to drink it. Rai struggled, but the nails holding her against the cross didn’t leave her any room to do anything but wince and watch helplessly as Lilith approached her, using just a clawed finger to undo the tie of her cape and let it hit the floor.

“Now you didn’t really think I was gone forever, now did you?” The sovereign of Hell wanted to know, but the question was rhetorical as she continued. “Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? The monster always returns. And this one has brought guests- unless of course you wished for our rendezvous to be private.”

Lilith smirked again as Rai turned to see Adam; then yanked the girl’s chin back in order to face her, exposing her white teeth as she trailed a hand slowly over the material of the dress; singing absentmindedly to herself.

“So many words can’t describe my fate, these feelings involved- so soon to break out. I can’t relate to a happy state…Feeling the blood run inside. Why won’t you die? Your blood in mine. We’ll be fine…” She looked directly at the girl and smirked viciously. “Then your body will be mine.”

“Don’t,” Rai whispered weakly.

“Don’t?” Lilith repeated with an arched eyebrow. “I hope you are joking- after waiting thousands of years, you think I will stop because you don’t want to?”

The enchantress clucked her tongue and shook her head, observing the human girl beneath her thick lashes.

“Honey…”

Rai flinched at the patronizingly sweet tone; her eyes blinded by more tears when Lilith slipped a hand underneath her skirt to grip her naked thigh, but the demon then became distracted from whatever she planned to do with it when she noticed the open bitterness streaming down the blonde’s face and leaned in to lick them; her voice becoming a low hiss- like a chorus of serpents.

“The bitterness of a thousands’ suffering.” Pitch black eyes lifted to those of bright blue and Lilith sighed in that same repulsive hissing voice; touching Rai’s hair before cupping her cheek tenderly.

“My sweet blue-eyed girl…”

The blonde sniffled, then stifled a cry as the demon pressed one of her nails in so deep that blood trickled down her pale face; her cold eyes just as merciless.

“Your tears are no solace for my own suffering. Because of your husband’s incessant whining, thousands of my children have perished, and the rest were driven from me. Because of you, I was lost in shadows- my memory made into the boogeyman for expecting mothers and men who forsake their instincts. Until I say so, your suffering will not stop, and although you will beg, you won’t be permitted to die until I see fit. And nobody this time will stop me- Michael may have caught me by surprise last time, but if he does charge in to your aide, I’ll be ready for him. He is- after all- but an Archangel, and I am hatred. Hatred will never die.”

Rai whimpered when the woman licked away her tears before pulling away to stare down at the young girl.

\"Your terror smells like heaven to me,\" said the demon. \"It is intoxicating like wine.\"

\"Don\'t do this,\" pleaded Rai.

Lilith smiled and moved her hands down the young girl\'s body before pushing the skirt of the dress up over her hips. \"You smell of sex,\" stated Lilith. \"Did you and your beloved archangel make love last night?\" Lilith turned her attention to Adam. \"I don\'t think that’s very fair of her to give herself to the man that nearly killed you, do you? Why don\'t you show her how much you appreciate what she has done to you?\"

Adam lurched forward and took Lilith\'s place before Rai\'s bleeding body. The blonde girl blinked the tears away and shook her head trying to stay awake. She was losing so much blood and she was scared beyond belief.

\"Rai…\" Whispered Adam, cupping her cheek with one hand and sliding his other hand down her body.

\"No, no, no,\" chanted Rai closing her eyes and sobbing softly in embarrassment as she felt his roaming hand dip into her panties. Rai couldn\'t take it anymore; she opened her mouth and screamed.

_______________________

Michael was awakened by the bright sun shinning into the bedroom on his face. He twitched slightly and opened his eyes to find himself alone in the bed. Sighing he sat up and slowly began to pull his clothes back on. He reached for the light pink phone on the girl\'s nightstand and punched in the number for the apartment he had been staying at and listened to it ring.

\"So Mika-chan, get lucky?\" Came Raphael’s voice.

\"Yes,\" smirked Michael. \"I did.\"

\"Where is the girl?\"

Michael frowned, \"I don\'t know.\"

“You lost her?”

“I didn’t lose her. She’s just…Somewhere else.”

“You lost her.”

Michael opened his mouth to retort, when he heard sniggering on the other side of the phone. His golden eyes narrowed into slits, while he forced his voice to remain calm.

“Raphael, would you please put the demon on the phone?”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

He listened to Raphael sigh; then the other angel’s voice became distant as he told Hessa to take the phone.

“What the fuck is that thing?” She demanded.

“It’s called a telephone; telephone, this is Hessa. Now that you two are properly introduced, take it-”

“Hell no!”

“Take the fucking phone, Hessa! That‘s an order!”

There was a moment’s pause; then the woman’s voice became clear.

“Hello?”

Michael sucked in as much air as he could; then screamed into the phone. Underneath his own voice he could hear the Lilim shriek, and then stopped to bask in his triumph, before Raphael’s irritated voice returned to the phone.

“Okay…Well now that you’re done scarring my whore for life, what do you want?”

Michael sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes before he felt something trickling up his spine. Something was wrong with Rai; she was in trouble and she needed him.

\"Something is wrong with my woman.\"

Raphael rolled his eyes to the ceiling, \"She isn\'t your woman, Michael.\"

\"She is now,\" smirked Michael. \"I claimed her.\"

Raphael sighed and shook his head, \"Where would a good little girl like Rai go on Christmas?\"

There was a moment’s pause; then breaking realization.

\"CHURCH!\" Shouted both angels; shooting to their feet and dropping their phones as they raced from their rooms.

Hessa clucked her tongue as she picked up the dangling phone and replaced it on the cradle that she had seen it hanging on.

\"Hessa!\" shouted Raphael from the doorway. \"Come!\"

\"Yeah, yeah,\" grumbled Hessa, rushing to join Raphael.

___________________

Lilith grinned as the cross fell to the ground and Adam straddled Rai, ripping the top of her dress apart. Rai had lost her voice from screaming and felt like her throat- much like the rest of her- was bleeding. She whimpered softly and even that cut ribbons out of the sensitive tissue. If it wasn’t obvious before that Adam had changed, it was now, in his vicious eyes that spoke for him and his obsessed hunger. He unzipped his pants and his victim sniffled, Adam grinning toothily in response.

“Rai…”

Rai looked up instinctively at the sound of her name and didn’t have time to look away before the boy ripped off his shirt.

Causing the female to scream.

The wound where Lilith had ripped out his heart hadn’t properly healed- if you could say it had healed at all. There was a thin scaly layer of flesh stretched over the cavity; only made uglier by the rhythmic throbbing of an organ that wasn’t there. And around the reptilian blemish was an outbreak of rotting black flesh that spread over the left side of his chest; the thick stench of gore now exposed to the open air and caused her to twist her head around to be sick; then gasp desperately for air when Adam slammed into her.

Because of what Lilith did to him, Rai was not expecting him to be gentle, and Adam was doing his best to meet this expectation. It felt like her body was being ripped apart slowly- as if by some perfectionist of torture. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and looked at the demon queen, who was positively beside herself with glory. The blonde couldn’t take the mockery anymore and shut her eyes, all the pain swirling together into one pulsing mess that was what she had been reduced to. She couldn’t cry; she couldn’t scream; she could only watch her life end without her dying.

The rain poured down in sheets while thunder rang in the distance slowly coming closer. Almost has if God was urging Michael to speedy up and he did, and crashed right through a stained glass window slamming into the now undead Adam. He rolled with the male and managed to end up on top.

\"What the fuck?\" he whispered

\"Michael why the hell are you doing destroying a church?!\" shouted Raphael running in with Hessa not far behind him looking like she wanted to throw up now.

\"You know,\" she said slowly, looking around the room. \"If I wasn\'t so freaked out by the place because it was blessed I would say this is rather cozy. Of course we\'d have to do something about the broken window and the bleeding female that is crucified on the cross and about to die of blood loss.\"

\"Fuck!\" shouted Michael and Raphael at the same time.

Adam took his opportunity to slam his fist into Michael\'s stomach followed by a shred of glass. Raphael for his part ran toward the girl removing his jack and shirt. The jacket he place on top of the girl for modesty sakes and the other he quickly began to tear into strips to use to bind and stop the bleeding.

\"Raphael,\" she whimpered softly.

\"Shh,\" whispered Raphael. \"I know.\"

Lilith watched in amusement as Adam and Michael exchanged blows; so far they were both evenly matched. She then turned her attention to her daughter.

\"Hessa,\" she said smoothly. \"I didn\'t expect to see you here of all places.”

Hessa blinked rapidly, like the woman standing before could disappear into the walls of the church. A lump lodged itself in her throat, relishing in the sounds of the heavy rain and the shouts of the war behind her, before her voice returned to her like a stranger.

“…Mommy?”

“How long has it been, Hessa?” Lilith asked, walking forward with her hands outstretched to touch her daughter. “It feels like ages. Where have you been, darling?”

That stifling lump returned to Hessa’s throat. She raised her wrists between her and her mother, exposing the manacles still present, and for a brief moment, Lilith’s face fell.

“A slave to the dirt race…I cannot believe it. My own flesh and blood-” she cut off her own sentence and shook her head. “It no longer matters. You are here now; you shall watch your mother as she triumphs over her steadfast enemies.”

As if on cue, a loud crash interrupted their reunion, Hessa twisting her head around to watch Michael flip out of the crater he made and pounced on Adam, sending them both crashing into the benches. Lilith gripped her chin firmly and pulled her face back, her thick lips twisted into a feral smile as she continued.

“My child, at long last you can finally return home. Is that not what you want? To return to the darkness? Be reunited with your own kind?”

Hessa blinked back the tears; then turned around to see Raphael, who was watching them carefully. Lilith’s eyes followed Hessa’s to the archangel and turned her head closer to her daughter, taking a breath of her scent and glared.

“My greatest enemy desecrating my daughter. I will not have this.” Lilith turned to Hessa, her black eyes softening into a rare gaze. “Forgive me, Hessa, I cannot remove this stain that the buzzard has left upon you. But I will have his heart for this terrible insult. Call it a gift from your mother- the only one who truly loves you.”

“Mommy,” Hessa repeated, but was shoved backwards as Lilith stormed towards the archangel; her eyes flashing like a night storm.

“You spoiled, polluted turkey,” she snarled wrathfully. “You’re just like the rest of your kind- sticking your noses and your cocks where they aren‘t wanted. I’ll tear you in half.”

Raphael pulled the dazed body of the girl closer to his body and stared coldly at the Demon Queen. He didn\'t say anything to Hessa, instead waiting for her to do something. In the background he could hear the continuing fight between Michael and Adam. He pulled Rai as close to his body as possible without jostling her too much or taking her into him.

\"Do you honestly think there will be no consequences for what you have done Lilith?\" asked Raphael. \"Do you honestly think God will let this go unpunished?\"

\"God,\" laughed Lilith, her voice mocking. \"Cares nothing for that girl. She was a gift to Adam after I abandoned him for my freedom, and he stole my children from me and you, you, took my daughter and made her into your whore!\"

Raphael didn\'t respond keeping his front facing the demon so that his back was presented to Hessa. The daughter of Lilith watched, not sure what to do; then she noticed the girl Eve, no, Rai watching her. The girl\'s light blue eyes were staring at her, waiting for her to do something. The question was what was it that Hessa was supposed to do?

Michael slammed his fist continuously into Adam\'s face. The archangel of Fire was seeing red for the man that had been in the middle of raping Rai- his Rai. He would see vengeance for the wrong done to his woman and it would be sweet. Surprisingly life liquid spurted from Adam’s face despite his zombification, and Michael continued to strike him until he had reduced the other man’s nose into a bloody pulp, and his hand was slimy with the same wonderful gore. His own blood splashed into his eyes and blinded him, but Adam lashed out at Michael all the same in frantic defense, taking his attacker’s throat and threw him down to the floor; trying to tear through the flesh with his bare hands while the archangel struggled to pull him off. But it was amazing how much strength a human could inspire when their existence was being threatened. Adam’s nails dug deeper into the already raw flesh and Michael cried out furiously and kicked him off, but the zombie was back in a flash of an instant.

“Michael,” Rai said softly and tried to get up, but Raphael pushed her back down, his gray eyes narrowing into slits. There was no way to stop Adam; he was an immortal shell without any thoughts or emotions other than what was imprinted into him by his mistress. Lilith, humankind‘s most wretched outcast- there was really nothing more dangerous than a mother who has lost her children.

All save for one.

He didn’t turn his head to see her, but he knew she was still standing there; madly in love with the prospect of being set free. She had been separated from her mother all this time; she wasn’t going to help them- not with her own free will at least.

Raphael leaned over the girl’s body, shushing her one last time as he wiped up some of her fresh blood and used it as a morbid paint to sign his name on her forehead in angelic script; while the black queen laughed derisively.

“A sigil for protection?” She scoffed. “You’re insulting your own intelligence, Raphael- I can‘t be stopped.”

“The sigil is to make certain you don’t turn against your promise,” Raphael responded as he stood up.

“What promise?”

“The promise you’ll make to save your daughter.”

Lilith arched an eyebrow, but otherwise her face didn’t move.

“Are you trying to scare me, Raphael?”

“Hessa come here,” he demanded; the younger demon rushing instantly to his side. “I was the one who designed the chains your daughter wears, Lilith, and if you think the humans abused their stolen power, wait until you see what I can do.” He turned to face her. “Hessa kneel before me.”

Hessa flinched, but her body refused to cooperate with her screaming conscience as she obeyed him shakily. Raphael glanced sideways at the demon queen, who was now paying close attention to him, but she no longer looked composed. He gritted his teeth against smirking and turned back to Hessa, examining his nails calmly.

“Now undo my pants.”

“Raphael,” Lilith snarled threateningly. “If you enjoy having your head on your shoulders, you’ll stop this.”

“How many times did Rai ask you to stop? Of course you didn’t listen to her.”

“Why should I?!” Lilith demanded with a snarl. “She is God’s pawn! Her and her spoiled brat of a husband! Because of them thousands of my babies were murdered!”

“You should worry about your living child rather than your casualties,” Raphael told her. “Or will you abandon her again for another hundred years? It’s none of my business what you do, but having her as a personal whore is very rewarding. I don’t have to pay her and I can hit her whenever I want to.”

He turned away from her for just one second it seemed, but that was all it took for Lilith to pounce on him; shrieking like a thousand crows packed into a single voice. Raphael’s head hit the floor and skidded until the wall got in the way; the blonde opening an eye to see her. Lilith was all he could see; black wings shrouded everything else from view, and he preferred her bottomless eyes to those hideous appendages of scaly feathers.

“Harpy,” he snarled to which the demon queen dug her nails into his shoulders; hissing in a foreign language.

Hessa watched her mother, Lilith, and her lover, Raphael, fight for the soul of the mortal female watching them and her warily; the blood sigil drying up and leaving a stain behind. The young demon turned her attention to the mortal incarnation of Eve. The girl seemed to be trying to stand, but every movement was painful to her and she could see why; the wounds on her body had opened up again. The girl was staring at Michael and Adam she blinked and slowly began to crawl towards them; she paused and turned her attention to Hessa.

\"Why do you care about him?\" demanded Hessa confusedly, standing above the fallen former wife of Adam.

Rai stared at her and Hessa understood. She, Rai, had no choice; things can change for one day to the next and not all lives are the same as the previous one. Like the Angel Alexiel, Rai had managed to stop the circle to which she had been forced into with knowledge or consent. The circle had been broken.

Suddenly a crumbling sound came from above them and both women looked up and watched a beam that had been caught in the crossfire of Michael and Adam\'s fight, plummet towards them.

\"Move!\" shouted Rai, some deep maternal instinct calling on her to get the other woman out of the way.

Hessa gasped and slammed against one of the pews wincing at the holy wood connected with her skin. She watched as the girl stared up at the falling beam and became aware of the silence in the room.

\"Rai!\" Shouted the archangel of fire; running to aid the fallen girl.

There was a bright flash of light that seemed to consume the entire church. When it faded Michael was there holding the woman; his bright wings of snow white spread out around him.

\"What are you?\" whispered Rai before passing out.

Michael sighed and gently placed her back down on the floor. Turning his attention to Adam, he sneered and drew his fiery sword. \"You will die today, mortal.\"

Adam growled in response; bloody spit frothing from his mouth like a rabid animal. This depiction was not redeemed as he charged the archangel, but all of his savage momentum was put to lamentable waste. Michael stabbed him, watching as the divine tool slid through the blonde man’s gut as easily as if it were warm butter. Warm butter that left a wretched stain. He yanked the sword back out and regarded the blood in disgust before punching Adam in the face.

“Your blood is not worthy to touch the blade of an angel,” he hissed and punched him again, following Adam as he staggered back. “You sick, mindless, mother-fucking heap of bullshit!”

He seized the zombie by the skin of his neck and flung him across the church, waiting patiently for him to hit the floor. And then he came at him; sword poised and thirsty for the defining assault. Adam looked up one last time, staring blankly at the angel’s torso before his pretty head was cut clean from his shoulders.

The harvest bounced grotesquely onto the floor; its dull blue eyes still open but sightless. Michael stared into his eyes and whatever he saw in their blindness mocked him mercilessly as he snarled through his teeth and kicked Adam’s head like a soccer ball; not bothering to look where it landed as he began to hack what was left of Adam’s body into even more pieces; cursing furiously through his teeth.

“Sick obese cow…Cunt-sucking waste…BASTARD-!”

“Michael!”

Michael stopped instantly like his name was the magic word; Hessa taking the silence as an invitation to continue.

“He’s in a million pieces; he can‘t come back now-”

She jerked back in surprise as the angel spun around to point the sword to her neck, glaring through the demon like he was considering his options; then withdrew indignantly.

“I have bigger bitches to fry.”

Michael turned his attention to the woman that had given birth to Hessa, Lilith, who smiled at him mockingly.

\"I never thought you would have it in you,\" she chuckled. \"To defile your creators house with the blood of the first man.\"

Michael snarled and spat to the side. He would probably catch Hell for this later on, but he had been ordered to protect the woman and protect her he had. From her own husband.

Now he had to simply take care of this trash and he could take care of Rai.

He turned his attention to her and sighed in relief when he realized that Raphael was examining her. He knew he had nothing to fear from the other angel taking advantage of the situation. After all, Raphael had his own female to keep him amused.

Lilith watched the redheaded archangel in amusement before shooting forward. She was vaguely aware of someone shouting a warning before she slammed into the short male. He growled and snapped his teeth in an attempt to reach her neck, perhaps to tear out the throat. She grinned, but then shrieked when she felt something tear into her side. She looked down and saw a piece of wood sticking out of her- a piece of holy wood.

She staggered back and clutched her side, hissing in fury while smoke and blood drifted from the wound. She turned her attention to Michael who was smirking sadistically. Then her attention turned to her daughter, Hessa, who had no idea what to make of the situation.

The first woman had fucked things over by risking her own precious mortal life to save the daughter of her worst nightmare.

Snarling again, Lilith allowed herself to return to where she came from, but not before leaving a warning. \"I will return.\"

The roof of the church began to cave in on itself, and the two angels and Hessa ran out of the building avoiding the destruction made by Michael and Adam. They stared at the destroyed church remains, looking like survivors of some war movie.

Rai whimpered slightly and tried to get out of Raphael\'s arms, whispering something about demons and angels. Michael turned his attention to her and then looked at Raphael for an answer.

\"Her mind couldn\'t handle the strain of events,\" said Raphael pointedly. \"There isn\'t much I can do for her without causing more damage to her mind. I think we should leave her with the human doctors and let them take care of her.\"

Michael sighed and nodded, though hated to think of his female locked away from the world she seemed to love. He gathered her into his arms and took off in the direction of the nearest hospital while Raphael and Hessa stayed at the church site for a while; before leaving in the direction of the apartment. Hessa stopped for a moment and turned her attention to the destroyed church again as one question flashed through her mind that she wanted to ask the first woman.

Why did you save me, the daughter of your worst enemy and greatest fear?

Sighing, Hessa knew she would never get her answer, so she quietly followed her master towards the apartment; wondering what lay ahead for her now.


__________________________Present day_______________________________


Michael finally landed inside Rai\'s hospital room and stared down at her. She rolled over and stared at him for a while before opening her arms; which he eagerly allowed himself to be embraced and sighed in contentment.

\"Michael?\"

\"Hhhmm?\"

\"There is something I need to tell you.\"

\"Hhmm?\"

\"I\'m pregnant.\"

___________________________________________________________________

THE END