The Portal, Part 2

Vocal Family ~ Below is Part 2 of The Portal: Yellow Moon Nexus. Part 1 can be found at https://vocal.media/horror/the-portal-toco06n0.

The last passages contain Latin. Please forgive any language errors.

I hope that you enjoy my supernatural world of horror.

Part 2

Jack hit the winged beast from hell like a cannon. Angel and wolf-demon tumbled through dark clouds, tangled in a battle. Night creatures, who wanted no part of war, fled.

Jack never stopped thinking about Asha. Baby girl, are you alive?

When the angel and demon squared off, flapping mammoth wings in scorching air, both were raining blood that was not human. The wolf-demon taunted his foe with insults between jagged breaths.

“So, exiled angel,” the demon growled, “I thought you didn’t give a damn about people anymore.”

Jack spotted shreds of Asha’s denim and flesh on the demon’s claws. Since the exiled angel still knew how to pray, he bowed his head … but never took eyes off the babbling wolf. When Jack lifted his head, he was ready to do whatever it took to save the people he loved. Asha’s family was his, too.

“Barrouck!” Jack flew closer, sizing up the old enemy he knew well. “I’m sure Justin St. George ripped out your heart and sent you back to hell. A year ago, right?”

The demon winced. He put a bloody claw to his chest, protecting the new heart that came with rebirth.

Jack grinned, knowing he struck a nerve. “What went wrong, demon? Did you get tired of hell?”

Barrouck’s anger flared up a notch. He returned Jack’s grin with truths he knew would wound.

“Exiled angel, what are you calling yourself nowadays … Jack something or is it Gabriel again? Didn’t you rebel, feeling unloved by divinity, then play at being evil for a minute?”

Touché!

Demon and angel circled each other, Barrouck’s gray wings and Jack’s red riding thermal tides.

Barrouck flew closer. His breathing slowed. He was planning his next attack. The demon wolf rumbled low and aimed for the core of his target.

“Jackie, boy, how’s your wife in the Afterlife?”

Jack couldn’t remember exactly when he gripped Barrouck’s throat, squeezing the life out of the demon.

He barely remembered letting go of the demon’s neck to pummel his ugly, hirsute face. Jack just knew that his fists attenuated the wolf’s howling. The wolf-demon could barely rasp his unrelenting taunts: “Exiled … angel!”

Eleven years ago: When Katrina Montgomery, Jack’s wife, was killed in another battle her husband started … Jack died in every way that mattered. He never got over losing his beautiful Trina.

She was human. Since he was an angel and exiled, few who walked the realms of shared mortal and immortal worlds approved of their wedding vows.

Every day, after watching the love of his life get buried on a cold morning near Christmas, Jack called out to his dead wife, especially when he felt the loneliest. He never heard a word back … from heaven or hell.

Today: Barrouck’s memories conjured up old shame from when Justin St. George killed him … ripped out his heart … that first time. When the defeated Barrouck returned to the underworld, his father met him at the gates of hell. He beat his son for seven days and seven nights with throngs of witnesses cheering.

Now, hurled into a tree after the exiled angel stopped choking and pummeling him, Barrouck was speared by a limb. The wolf-demon could not bear this second disgrace. Though dying, he felt a new fire of shame within.

Jack was surprised. He felt no joy in defeating the wolf-demon, though the latter had slaughtered thousands, and most of them were innocent prey enjoyed as sport. He turned his back on Barrouck.

Swiftly, Jack’s thoughts turned to finding his niece. God, please, let Asha still be alive. I know…

His prayer halted. Pain stabbed the angel.

Jack was confused until he looked down and saw a limb, inches below his heart, piercing him from the back. The tides had turned. Barrouck was rushing him to his own death, driving the wounded angel toward a bank of trees.

“Gabriel,” Barrouck growled from behind him. “I must admit, you almost won. When I tell your story to my father, I will tell him that you died well.”

Jack felt defeated. His glorious red wings folded. He bowed his head to pray and leave this realm ... but he paused. The holy words of another voice filled the air.

Latin:

Sancti qui supra et infra regnant. Tibi damus omne quod sumus. Omnes quod sumus, tibi damus et rogamus te. Barrouck, quaeso, malum nunc perde. Remitte illum ad inferos.

“Asha?” Jack whispered.

The prayer repeated, and new voices from the ground and air echoed in a soft breeze. Countless voices. Jack understood. Asha survived and opened the nexus portal. From the six worlds, the Allies gathered, and their first holy words were for him. Jack was not ashamed of his tears.

The Allies lifted their voices.

Latin:

Sancti qui supra et infra regnant. Tibi damus omne quod sumus. Omnes quod sumus, tibi damus et rogamus te. Barrouck, quaeso, malum nunc perde. Remitte illum ad inferos.

English translation:

Holy Ones who rule above and below. We give to you all that we are. All that we are, we give to you, and we beg you. Please destroy Barrouck's evil now. Send him back to hell.

Asha St. George took no pleasure in watching Barrouck ignite in flames, screaming and writhing in pain.

Levitating, she grabbed her Uncle Jack on the right. Justin St. George, Asha’s father, levitated on the left and steadied his old friend. New prayers rang for the beloved angel.

Latin:

Sancti qui supra et infra regnant. Gabriel ignosce pro peccata suae rebellionis. Dimitte et sana puerum tuum.

English translation:

Holy Ones who rule above and below. Forgive Gabriel for the sins of his rebellion. Please forgive and heal your child.

Jack’s glorious red wings started to unfold. They were magnificent!