Tears from Heaven

The word, Heaven, carries a weight that’s felt around the world. It is a place to most where a person might go if they have lived their life with a faithful heart. Some people might believe it’s a state of consciousness- a world our mind creates after they die, or a world amongst another dimension of reality. And of course, some believe Heaven isn’t a place at all- a fabricated concept that religions impose on Humanity. Marcus Flinch had not believed in such a place, and couldn’t fathom what creatures or beings would walk amongst there. Life has a strange way of bringing true mysteries to a chosen few- his life had mingled into a world that was supposed to be hidden from Mankind, a world called Heaven. This is where our story begins…

Two Angels, Zoel and Zekel, stand near the Well of Reincarnation. Both had just finished the council meeting amongst the other Angels- intel on a new demon rising the ranks in Hell. It was no surprise to the Angels another Demon had climbed the ranks; Such creatures thrive on competitiveness. This particular demon, who’s name was unknown, seemed to have come out of nowhere. Every step in finding him was always met with another difficulty.

Zekel leaned over the well, pondering at his reflection- a floating wave of light. To most Angels, their forms are adjusted through their consciousness, and in most cases, they present themselves as mortals are- genderless reflections of man and women. There true form was always a wave of light.

We look at the mirror and see what we want ourselves to see, but looking closer to our reflections, we always see who we truly are-a paradox of the mirror, thought Zekel, always two identities in one.

“What is going on with you, Zekel?” asked Zoel who looked at his friend who was lost in heavy thought.

Zekel gave a long sigh before looking back, “This demon in Hell is troubling me, Zoel” he finally replied.

Zoel seemed somewhat surprised, “There’s demons always trying to best each other, they thrive on competitiveness” he told him.

Zekel thought hard on the situation. Intel didn’t even provide a name or species of the demon. It seemed to Zekel that the angels were getting careless on the severity on these reports. The more they looked for it, the harder it was. It was like something was working against them.

“Something about this Demon, Zoel. We need to take this more seriously. No demon climbs the ranks that fast. It’s troubling” he said looking at the reflection of himself once again.

“Why do you concern yourself with this? We listen to the reports, we delegate, and move onto the next case” said Zoel who walked nearer to Zekel.

Zekel paused at his thought, swallowing hard: “Unlike you, I’m part of the security council, there are rumors amongst some of us…”.

“Rumors?” asked Zoel, a glint of something strange in his appearance fluttered.

Zekel pondered in thought, wondering if he should say it or not. He looked at his friend in thought.

“A spy within Heaven” he finally said.

Zoel’s expression suddenly froze. In fear or anger, Zekel didn’t know.

“That can’t be true” said Zoel, looking flabbergasted, his voice angry.

Zekel sighed heavily and looked back into the well, “Reports of this new demon, and suspicion of a spy…It worries me, greatly”.

Before Zekel could look up, he felt a heavy force hit the back of his head.

Dazed and confused, Zekel tried to understand what was going on. Everything was starting to spin around him. A slow pain began to sprout as something moist was dripping from his skull.

Zoel stood expressionless, silently glaring at Zekel struggling next to the well. He lifted up a baton-like weapon and smashed it against Zekel again, knocking the Angel further to his knees.

Zekel’s hand slowly gripped the side of the well as pain filled his body.

“You’re going to be trouble for me, Zekel, my old friend,” said Zoel who slipped a knife from his robe.

Zekel held himself up onto the well and peered down at the reflection below- a dying light.

Suddenly a sharp blade stabbed through his back. Zekel gasped for air.

There was no place to go after a death in Heaven. Just darkness. A single tear slowly dripped down his face and finally dropped into the Well of Reincarnation.

Darkness finally took him.

On Earth…

“Marcus, get up NOW!” yelled Martha, who was looking around the room for the paperwork she needed for work.

This was the second time his mother had shouted for him to get up. Marcus knew not to get passed 3.

“I’m up, mom!” he yelled back from his small room as he dragged himself out of bed.

She passed his door, quickly looking into the bedroom for signs of life.

Marcus put on his clothes, looking for his backpack, when his mother shouted an “aha!”.

She found her paperwork, he knew.

His mother rushed into the room, clearly judging the mess of clothes along the way and gave him a hug: “Breakfast sandwich is on the table. I have my cab waiting outside, so I have to go” she said, “No more famous dinner spots!” she told him while walking away.

Last night they had agreed to check out a pizza place a few blocks down. It was supposed to be famous, so there was a line they had to wait in for a slice which delayed them till nearly 10:30 at night. Both were tired, but that pizza was worth the wait.

Marcus ate his breakfast sandwich as he walked to school. The day went by quickly, and time flew by. He found himself walking home from school later that day wondering how time moves differently some days. Today went by fast, where as other days go by painfully slow.

He looked up in the air and inhaled deeply. The cold city streets of New York washed through his lungs. A mix of iron, urine, and trash. A breeze pivoted through the alleys and made its way to him. He was cold and tired. As he looked up, Marcus suddenly felt a drop of water fall into his eye. Immediately he looked down smudging his eye lid hoping it wasn’t a bird who had just pooped on him. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so he had thought made someone spit from the roof. Who knows. The city makes a cynic out of its residents at time. He convinced himself it was just a lonely condensation of water that met him by chance.

He had arrived home and threw himself onto his bed. A lonely tiredness came over him again. He breathed in and out slowly as sleep finally took him in…

Images of darkness and light flashed all around Marcus’s mind. He found himself looking through the eyes of another person, speaking to someone in a language unknown to him. The face of the other was blurry. A wave of violence came over the man’s expression as he gripped Marcus and flung him to the floor, beating him. Marcus tried to scream for help. He noticed a well right next to him and he began to crawl to it. The stranger knelt by him and said something he couldn’t understand. Who was this person? His face was blurred, but he was wearing a white gown.

He found himself hanging over the well when something sharp pierced his back. A voice spoke to his mind: “Pray that we catch him!”.

Marcus finally woke up, his body covered in cold sweat.

His mom was leaning over him concerningly.

“Marcus, wake up. It’s ok” she began, petting his shoulder.

His eyes opened slowly and he felt his body cold and mucky. Sweat watered the sheets.

“You have a fever”, she said.

Marcus was slowly dazed; the dream was returning back into the shadows of his mind.

“I don’t know how I got sick. I was fine yesterday,” said Marcus.

“Hopefully its not he food we went out to eat” she said, concerned.

A horn honked outside the apartment.

“I need to go Marcus; I laid out some medicine on your table and I made some soup in the fridge. You were out cold all day yesterday!” she said.

“Thanks Mom” he replied, laying in the misery of his sickness.

She kissed him and left.

Back in Heaven…

The death of the Angel Zekel had kicked the hornet’s nest of Heaven. Council members were in utter awe such a thing happened- a murder in Heaven, it was impossible they believed. Zekel’s body had proved otherwise and the rumors of a traitor in Heaven was no longer a whisper but an everyday discussion and growing paranoia.

Zoel weaved his way through the alleyways of the city called Stride. The buildings were made out of a white marble and hued a rainbow glitter when you looked closely enough. The ocean next to it drifted its salty air through the alleyways and roads. Zoel had made sure he wasn’t followed as he slithered further and further into the Finance District- going down stairs and through doors. Zoel then found himself to a dead end- a wall of made from the olden days of Heaven- laid out in a red brick. Some of the historians always wanted to keep such walls around the city- a remembrance of an older testament. None truly knew why the walls always marked a dead end.

Zoel looked behind him once again. He faced the brick wall and put his lips closely to it then whispered something in a language not belonging to Heaven. A black mist then bled through the cracks of it until it grabbed Zoel, pulling him through the wall.

On the other side was near darkness- a cavern lit my torches.

A dark figure walked in- shrouded in a black cloak who led Zoel down the winding tunnels. An aura of fear and smell of rot grew the farther they went down. He then walked into a room to see someone sitting on a throne of rocks and moss.

The Angel bowed.

“Do you serve me, Angel?” spoke the demonic voice.

“Of course- “

The creature held up his hand to silence the man.

“Who told you to kill that, Angel?”

Zoel swallowed hard, “It needed to be done, he was growing closer to finding the truth. It would have been an irritation, my Lord Drakul”.

The creature grinned, showing off black sharp teeth.

“That is MY concern, not yours. You had your duties to provide me information in Heaven.”

Zoel nodded in silence.

The demon named Drakul sighed in annoyance.

“What’s done is done. He won’t be a problem anymore. The politicians of Heaven are in chaos- this will give you time to do your work and climb the ranks even more, my Lord, while Heaven is concerned itself with far greater worries of a murder from their own kind”.

“You’re not afraid of getting caught?”

Zoel smiled, “I know the ways of Heaven. They won’t catch me”.

“Your confidence is misplaced. Zekel is still going to be a problem…” the demon replied.

“A problem? He’s dead” said Zoel, wondering what the demon was getting at.

“Reports had seen something escape from Heaven through what you described as the Well of Reincarnation”

Zoel stood on the edge, wondering if Zekel had dropped something in the Well. That’s impossible, he thought.

The demon seemed to have known what he was thinking.

“He did drop something, but I don’t know what it is just yet. My demons will help me find it. We know a boy on Earth had found it.”

A wave of calmness took over Zoel, “What on earth is a boy going to do to us?” he smiled, nervously.

The Demon smiled with him, “He will be taken care of, but your carelessness had let this slip… Mark my words Zoel- stick to your place, otherwise I’ll take care of you too”.

A wave of fear pulsed through the Angel’s body. He bowed and left the cavern.

Returning to Heaven’s capital, Zoel was stopped by one of the Angels investigating the murder.

“Thomas, you have already questioned me…” said Zoel, annoyed at the man’s persistence. Nothing in that room could tie him to the murder, but Thomas was a pest he grew to annoy each time they met.

The Angel’s face looked grim, but a wave of amusement brightened it up, “Zoel, thought I’d tell you of our new discovery”.

Zoel glanced directly into Thomas’s eyes. A new discovery?

“My team had found something had dropped into the well…” he began, “Seems the murderer was very careless…”.

A wave of anger pulsed through Zoel, “What was dropped?” he asked almost too quickly.

A small smile leaped form the investigator’s lips, “Something very rare amongst us in Heaven…Very rare indeed”.

“What would that be exactly?” replied Zoel.

“I can’t disclose that just yet, but since you were his best friend and all, I wanted to let you know our murderer will be caught soon…,” said Thomas.

The investigator left Markus standing in the middle of the gathering hall.

Zoel couldn’t hold back the fear any longer. He started to sweat profusely, and his fingers stretched into his hair nearly tearing it all out. He was going to get caught…

No. He wouldn’t. The Demon’s need to find the child before the Angels do, he knew.

Marcus would wake up several times a night, but every time he closed his eyes the same dream came up- being murdered by the blurry face, but in each dream the face would get less blurry- the image of the killer was almost there.

He didn’t know why he had these dreams, or what it was about. For three days he was having them, even if he took a nap.

He got up from his bed, waking himself up in the shower. Marcus grabbed his backpack and headed for school. Today he took a shortcut through the alley way, something he does once in a while to break up the routine. He saw one man taking out the garbage behind Mr. Parkingson’s sandwich shop. Marcus didn’t recognize the man.

Must be a new hire, he thought.

The employee seemed to be minding his own business, but as Marcus walked past- the man turned quickly around and grabbed him, pushing him behind the dumpster away from view.

Marcus was stunned and felt the man’s hands grab harder onto his shirt. He looked up to see the man in front of him.

His eyes must have been hallucinating. The man didn’t look human.

The stranger had markings carved into his skin and red eyes. Horns seem to be growing out of the man’s bald black head.

“What are you?” he said, trying to contemplate what was happening. This had to be a dream, thought Marcus.

The man looked at him and smiled, “So you can see what I am…”.

Marcus slowly nodded in fear.

“Great” he smiled, showing a set of rotting, sharp teeth. “Fear adds to the flavor” he said as he opened his mouth wider and wider- beyond anything a human was capable of as if he was going to swallow him whole.

Tears ran down Marcus’s face as he wondered why this was all happening to him. It all seemed like a dream. He closed his eyes and shriveled into a ball, and for the first time he prayed, hoping he would survive.

He suddenly heard a gasp that made him twitch, had the beast killed him?

“You can open your eyes now, Marcus,” said a voice.

He slowly opened them to see a man who was glowing white.

“You’re glowing” he slowly said, being awed by the man’s warm presence.

“You can see that?” the man asked.

Marcus nodded.

“So, it’s true...,” said the stranger.

Another man came running into the sidewalk.

“Thomas, I’ve found you,” said Zoel.

“What a coincidence” said Thomas, looking at the man with no surprise.

“Yes, well… I thought you might need some backup” replied Zoel.

Marcus looked at the other man who he thought would be another Angel.

“Why do you look different?” Marcus asked, seeing there as a black aura fading off the man, they called Zoel.

Thomas suddenly looked at the child and smiled.

“Did you find it?” asked Zoel, ignoring the child’s comment, “Did you find what Zekel dropped?”

Thomas smiled and knelt near the boy, “This will feel uncomfortable, but It won’t hurt you” he said as he took out a swab and poked the child’s eye.

Marcus felt his eyes get super watery as he jolted from the man’s swab.

“Do you recognize this man?” asked Thomas, pointing at Zoel.

“I’ve never seen you both in my life” replied Marcus.

“From your dreams, perhaps. Think deeply,” said Thomas.

Marcus was surprised the man knew about the dreams. He looked over at Zoel before closing his eyes in thought. He could see the blurry face murdering him in his dreams.

Suddenly the face was clear. The man in the dream, its him!

He opened his eyes in shock, “That’s the man who murdered me in my dream” he finally said.

Everything pointed at Zoel, knew Thomas. The case is solved.

Before Zoel could run several men with a white aura showed up and grabbed the man.

“This is a joke, Thomas! What the hell would a human child know!” yelled Zoel in a rage, trying to shake off the Angels who had a hold of him.

“Do you still not know what Zekel had dropped?” asked Thomas.

“A tear” said Marcus, realizing that day when the single drop of water fell into his eyes, “A tear!” he said again.

Thomas nodded, “It’s almost unheard of for us Angels to cry, but Zekel’s body had proved it. There was a dark stain, as if it had burnt him, that dripped form his eyes down to his chin” began Thomas, “When we discovered something fell through the Well of Reincarnation, it seemed to fit.”.

Zoel stared in panic.

“Very interesting a demon is here too; I think we found the spy within our ranks,” said Thomas. “We’ll analyze the swab, which will show the last memories of Zekel. You’re finished, Zoel”.

Before Zoel could yell a flash of light blinded Marcus. When he opened his eyes everyone but Thomas was gone.

“And now you…,” said Thomas.

“You’re not going to kill me, are you?” asked Marcus,

The Angel laughed, “of course not! But you’ve seen more than you should. Angels, Demons, dreams of Heaven… It’s not your time to know about these things”.

“You are going to kill me” replied Marcus.

“No, I promise I’m not, but you are going to close your eyes and wake up. You’ll have no memory of any of these events. It’ll just be another day” replied Thomas.

The boy nodded as the Angle put his hands on the boy.

“Close your eyes, Marcus,” said Thomas.

Suddenly an alarm started blaring. Thomas opened his eyes and felt a wave of exhaustion over him.

“Get out of bed, Marcus!” yelled his mom.

“Yeah, yeah” he replied as he dragged himself out of bed and into the shower.

As Marcus walked to school he looked into the alley way, wondering if he should take another way. Something inside of him held him back, as if he was almost scared to do it. It was an unusual feeling, but he had taken that alleyway hundreds of times.

As he turned to take it a man walked past him, “maybe stay away from the alley way kid, I heard someone almost got killed yesterday at this one” he said.

Marcus noticed a name tag on the man’s jacket, as if he was leaving a reunion. It read Thomas.

“Uh, thanks,” replied Marcus, turning back onto the road.

The man smiled and walked in the opposite direction.

Someone had almost got killed? A slight shiver went down his spine, “glad it wasn’t me” he said as he walked down the street looking at the sky for rain.

Within the shadows of the alley way a demon stared at the boy leaving. He had just lost his spy due to the human boy. The monster clenched its fist in anger. A glare of dark black teeth clenched in its mouth.

There’s more work to be done, knew the Demon Dracul.