Annalise, The Archangel, and The Emerald Locket

Annalise tossed and turned in the night as she dreamed of how life once was cruising down an old country road of Northwest Georgia with her parents and two younger brothers. The windows were down, the warm summer wind was blowing her dishwater blond hair in her face. They sang silly songs and played various driving games on their way to the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park to watch the whitetail deer come out for their evening graze. Her family had this outing every Sunday for as long as she could remember.

She shot up from her slumber with a cold sweat beading down her face to the howl of a Hell Hound off in the distance. Tears swelled in her eyes as she gazed down from Wilder Tower on the ash covered earth that was now her reality. The tower was all that remained untouched from her childhood, during the damnation of earth and was the only place Annalise still felt safe. As she stared down at the ash covered ground scattered with fires, piles of embers, and trees burnt to pillars of coal throughout the forest, Annalise was in disbelief at what this once beautiful and sacred place had become. Once covered in flowing green grass, tall trees, wildlife, and other people who enjoyed this amazing place, it was now nothing more than a burnt, dead land. Why has this happened to this place, to the earth; why had her family and friends been taken from her so violently by the fires and Hell Beast? It had been 10 years, at least, since the first fires had started, and the Hell Beast had started appearing. Annalise still did not understand it all, and probably never would.

As the morning grew late and her stomach churned and gurgled in hunger. She descended the tower stairs with her few belongings, the clothes on her back, her father’s hunting bow and knife, and her great-great-great- grandmother’s golden heart shaped locket with an embedded emerald gem on the front. So, she started out on her morning hunt. The wildlife was mostly made up of various large reptiles with new species of mammals such as the Hell Hounds. The deer, rabbits, and other wildlife that once inhabited the land were distant memories of a past earth.

As she hiked the ash covered hillsides, she searched around burnt logs and remains of trees for signs of life. Annalise ventured deeper into the forest of burnt charcoal trees. After several hours of hiking and collecting a few small snakes, Annalise found a pile of warm embers near a fallen log and cooked the snakes. After she cooked the snakes, she rested on the log and ate her meal. While she ate, she almost did not notice the emerald in her locket begin to glow. It had done this quite often since the damnation of the earth. She had learned over the years that it meant danger was near. She did not understand why the locket had begun to glow; for her own piece of mind, she told herself it was her mom watching over her. Annalise finished her meal and started to head back toward the tower.

She had only made it about 50 yards or so before she heard the crunching embers and, to no surprise, saw one of the creatures the group she had once roamed with called Triclaws because of the three large claws on each of their feet. They were large muscular lizards which resembled a Komodo dragon with the scales, teeth and back ridge of an alligator. They also had the tusk of a wild boar with patches of coarse black fur spread across their bodies and they glared with their beady, glowing red eyes. This one was a lot smaller than other Triclaws she had encountered in the past, only spanning about four and a half feet from snout to tail, however still large enough to be quite dangerous. It stood glaring at her through its piercing red eyes with a thick white foam dripping from its snout, and its snake-like tongue flickering as it hissed. Annalise slowly drew an arrow from the quiver she had made from the hide of a Hell Hound that killed one of her brothers. She raised her bow, pulled back the string, and focused her aim. Her small arms and petite frame still struggled at times to hold her father’s heavy bow steady, however years of survival had turned her into a skilled and confident archer. As the Triclaw began to charge stirring up a cloud of ash, Annalise held her aim until she was confident of her shot. She released the string, and the arrow flew from the bow and pierced the creature in the chest slightly to the right of its left front leg. The Triclaw’s charge slowed until it crashed to the ashy earth and slid to a stop. “Damn, there goes another arrow” Annalise said as she turned the beast over to find her arrow had broken in the fall. She picked the large lizard up throwing it over her shoulders and continued making her way back to the tower.

As she neared the tower Annalise noticed a tall man with massive wings standing atop the tower. “Great, what does he want now?” She asked herself as she got close enough to identify the man as the Archangel Michael. She climbed the tower stairs and when she reached the top, she laid the Triclaw down and turned to Michael giving him a disapproving stare.

“Greetings Annalise, I had feared you may have relocated your camp.” Michael said with a slight smile.

“You should have known better; this is my home. Why are you here Michael?” she asked, slightly annoyed.

“My motives are the same as always, my dear Annalise. I have come to ask you once more to join one of my units in God’s Army.”

“I told you the last time, I’m not interested.” she shot off in anger,

“I understand where your faith lies Annalise, however I have a unit in the mountain to the west, I think you know it as Lookout Mountain. I have a unit there that could use a strong fighter such as yourself.”

“Look around you Michael. See what this world has become. I will not serve a Lord who would do this to his people.” she said glaring at Michael.

“The outcome of earth is part of God’s plan to bring us closer to him and help him fight his battle against Satan. The fires and beast are the work of Satan, not God, as is your faith.”

“I respect your intentions Michael I really do. I am not a soldier, and I will not serve your Lord. This conversation is over” she said sincerely.

“If you happen to reconsider-”

“I won’t!” Annalise quickly interrupted. Michael dropped his head in sorrow, spread his massive snow-white wings and flew away.

Annalise spent the rest of the day cleaning the Triclaw she had earlier killed. She drained the blood into an old tin pail to reserve for drinking the next day. The thought of drinking the blood of another creature absolutely disgusted her, but she had not found a trace of water in weeks. In the heat of the days not having anything to drink was much worse. After draining the blood, she cut the skin from the body, and separated the meat from the bones. It was a nasty process in which she hated. “At least I won’t have to hunt tomorrow” she said to herself. After she finished dissecting the creature and hanging the hide over the tower ledge to dry, she placed her fingers in the pail of blood, then starting just above the brow of her eyes, she slowly dragged her bloody fingers down her face to just above her jawline. She had adopted this ritual since she was forced to put her beloved father out of his misery when he had been gravely wounded by the Hell Hounds.

As the sun fell from the sky and the night grew dark, she lay on the stone of the tower deck staring up at the night stars, the only beauty this world has left to offer. She contemplated the archangel’s visit as she had each time, he had come to call upon her service.

She thought “the nerve of him to come to me to serve the Lord when it was here in this land on our way to fight the Lord’s battle that I lost everything. It was on that journey I lost my friends, my mother, my two brothers, and had to take the life of my father. On the journey to carry out the Lord’s will he took everything from me, and still has the nerve to send his servant to call on my service, as if I would bow down and eagerly serve such a cruel, ill-minded Lord,” her thoughts raged and raged.

As Annalise’s mind rant subsided and she began to dose off to sleep she shot up to a gut-wrenching shriek in the night as she noticed the gem on her locket had begun to glow. Another shriek came from a different direction the shrieks were coming from both sides of the tower. The shrieks were followed by a much eerier sound the sound of steel smashing the tower stone. She hurried to the side of the tower and looked down and to no surprise she saw a pair of plum sized fiery eyes scaling the tower walls. She knew immediately what was approaching her as she heard the other starting to climb the 136 stairs up the tower, she was being attacked by demons. She drew her bow and an arrow, pulled back the string and fired down at the demon climbing the tower walls. She watched the arrow splinter to shreds in the moonlight as it bounced off the tower missing her target. She quickly drew another arrow and fired again this time hitting the demon in the right shoulder, but it did not phase the creature. By this time, the other demon had reached the top of the stairs and was charging straight for her. With no time to draw her last arrow, she pulled out her knife and danced around with the demon throwing unsuccessful jabs and slashes at each other, carefully avoiding its steel claws.

As the first demon climbed over the top of the tower Annalise found an opening and darted for the staircase. When she reached the exit, she noticed about a half a dozen more demons approaching to the left of the tower. She immediately turned right and bolted off into the charcoal tree forest. She weaved in and out of the trees jumping over fallen logs glancing behind her occasionally to find the eyes getting closer and closer. As she approached a dried-up stream she tripped over the branch of a fallen tree and fell to the stream bed hitting her head on a large rock. As Annalise felt the warm blood running down her face, everything went black, and she heard the demons approaching the creek as she fell unconscious.

As Annalise came to consciousness, she slowly sat up still feeling dizzy from hitting her head. As she stood to her feet, she saw a grayish blue transparent man standing a few feet away. “Pastor Ellison?” she asked in confusion.

The man turned toward her “Analise, you are awake!” he said.

“Pastor Ellison, it’s really you; am I dead?” she asked recognizing the pastor from her childhood church.

“No Annalise, you are very much alive” he said with his warm comforting smile that had warmed Annalise so many times throughout her childhood.

“So, you have saved me, Pastor Ellison?” she asked curiously.

“No not I, Annalise, The Night Watch saved you.” He said giving her a creepy stare.