Afterlife: A Fall of Angels Novelette (5 page)

The next man was brought before the council.  Cole couldn’t help the glee that shone in his eyes.

His timing had been perfect.

“Uncle Harold?” Jeremiah breathed, disbelief filling his voice.

Uncle Harold wasn’t
so
lucky as Grandpa.

With Jeremiah still reeling in his seat, Cole leapt
from his own
and accepted the branding iron.

Never before had a branding felt
so
satisfying as he pressed the hot metal into Uncle Harold’s neck.  The man screamed, begging for mercy.  His fingers clawed at the stones beneath him.  As Cole pulled the iron away, the man collapsed onto the ground.

As his followers around him leapt to the catwalk to drag Harold to the below, Cole turned to Jeremiah, meeting his eyes.

The look of realization started growing in Jeremiah’s face.

Once the walkway cleared, Cole returned the iron and flew back to his seat.

Jeremiah didn’t say a word, just stared at the stones of the catwalk.  Cole sat silently, relishing in the sweet feeling of justice.

Harold was followed by close friend Tom, followed by former co-worker Di. 
Followed by second-cousin Catherine.

“What have you done?” Jeremiah finally breathed, his voice sounding on the verge of cracking.  Cole smiled when he observed Jeremiah’s quaking hands.

“I warned you,” Cole said calmly as he watched the next person being escorted to stand before the council.  “You should have left her alone.”

“And this is your revenge?” Jeremiah’s voice did finally crack.  A small whimper escaped his throat when he looked at the woman before them.

Even with her face covered, there was no mistaking this was the woman Cole had let burn for just a bit too long in the fire.

Jeremiah’s daughter.

“You didn’t,” Jeremiah barely managed to make his voice work. 

“I did,” Cole said, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat.

“You’ve taken them all,” he said.  “Everyone I cared about.”

“Do you understand what regret feels like now, my brother?” Cole said quietly.  All of his insides felt very still as this woman’s life started to be read.

Jeremiah didn’t respond.

All the more regret filled Cole, accompanied by surprise, as this woman’s deeds were read aloud.

He wasn’t expecting to have to brand her.

Everything within him felt heavy as he gave a beat of his wings and landed on the walkway besides her.  Accepting the branding iron, Cole turned toward the woman.  As if on instinct, she shrank to her hands and knees, letting her blond hair fall from her neck.

He’d never felt anything but glee and satisfaction before when he branded someone.  But then he felt only dead.

She screamed.  They always screamed.  Taking a quivering breath, Cole pulled the iron from her skin and threw it out into the air, where it turned over for just a moment, and then fell to the below.

Taking one of her hands in his, Cole helped her to her feet.  Daring further wrath from those around him, he pinched the white fabric between two of his fingers and pulled the sack from her head.

“You,” she breathed.

Cole stilled as his eyes met hers, green quickly fading to black.

“I didn’t think you were real,” she breathed.  Her entire body shook from pain and fear.

“All too real now, I’m afraid,” he said simply.  He then turned and took his position again.

Cole didn’t even care about all the hard and confused expressions his fellow leaders gave him when he returned.  There was a pause for just a moment, everyone debating if this was the time to rebuke Cole for his continuing erratic behavior.

“Cambria Blake,” the blue-eyed leader finally spoke, moving on.  “Judgment has been placed.”

Cole squeezed his eyes as the masses leapt at this woman.  He tried not to wonder if,
had he
not taken her before it was her time, if she might have turned the scrolls of her life around.

Jeremiah sat very still next to Cole, as still as the stone he sat on.

“I won’t bother her again,” he finally said as the council started to leave.  “It seems you deserve your position after all.”

And then Jeremiah jumped into the below.

Cole closed his eyes again.  He heard the whispers, felt the eyes flickering to his face.  It was only guessing, but for the most part those guesses were correct.

And just like that, Cole had gained all respect back.  He was a man to be feared again, a man none of them would challenge.

Cole was tempted to go below and seek out Cambria, thought about forming some kind of apology.  But he would wait until she had reunited with her father.

Finally Cole thought about Jeremiah’s promise.  He no longer had to worry about his brother harming Jessica, about him exposing Jessica for what she had become.  He didn’t have to avenge her any longer.

But he knew he hadn’t seen the last of her.  Everything within him told him that somehow he was going to continue helping her.

Cole was not a good man, hadn’t been in centuries.  But there was something about Jessica.  Something only she was able to dig out inside of him.  Jessica… believed in him almost.  But Cole was in his position for a reason.  He wanted people to suffer generally.  He enjoyed giving people what was coming to them.

But why did he want to help her?  And help her to be with another man?

He resented her for making him question himself.

He hardly knew who he was anymore.

But here await me,

and
comfort thy dejected spirit and feed on good hope,

for
I will not leave thee in the nether world.

- Canto VIII, Inferno, Dante

Talk flew around the afterlife like gnats in the air.  You couldn’t move around without walking into some of it and breathing it in, causing you to choke.

Already a new exalted leader was being talked about.  And Cole had heard the whispers about another.

Things were going to get complicated, very fast.

Cole was relieved when he felt the pull for a trial.  He needed a distraction.  He didn’t want to be thinking about helping Jessica anymore right then.

Cole settled into his seat, only feeling slightly tense as Jeremiah settled into his.  They hadn’t uttered a single word to each other since Jeremiah found out Cole had eliminated much of his family from the world of the living.

“Sally Thomas,” Cole’s head jerked up as the trial started.  “The deeds of your life have been accounted for and judgment will be passed.  Your actions must be made known.”

Had he been paying attention, Cole might have recognized the tiny frame, the tense shoulders.  Even though her face was covered, he should have known her.  He had tried to convince her to kill herself once.  And then tried to return and finish the job when she failed.

Sal stood there, her hands trembling where they were bound before her.  She whimpered quietly, words sounding like “what’s happening” stumbling out of her mouth.

Jessica was going to be devastated.

She didn’t need one more horrible thing going on right now.  She was already going to be losing the person who meant the most to her.  She didn’t need to be losing the person who meant second most.

Cole shook his head in frustration.

Why did he
care
?

Thousands of his brethren flooded the cylinder and Sal’s cries increased.

“Sally Thomas, your deeds will now be revealed,” Richard continued.  Unraveling the scrolls of Sal’s life, it was immediately obvious where she was going.

Mixes of boredom and interest piqued as the acts of her life were read.  Every one of the condemned started zoning everything out, nothing of interest having taken place in her life.  The list they got excited by was very short. 

All the more whispers started going around the cylinder as Sal’s good deeds were read.  People who lead lives as good as Sal’s didn’t come around very often. 
Even if she hadn’t really had any other choice when she was alive.

Judgment started being passed.

“Up,” started the blue-eyed leader.

“Up,” sentenced the next.

“Up,” agreed the rest of their kind.

So did every one of the rest of them.

Richard smiled as he moved on.  “Sally Thomas, judgment has been placed.”

A scream ripped from her throat as a set of wings sprung from her back.  She collapsed onto her hands and knees, the white sack sliding from her head as it hung between her shoulders.

A few exalted fluttered down to the walkway, lifting underneath Sal’s arms, helping the woman to her feet.  Their whispers of calm and assurance were enough to make Cole’s stomach churn.

How could they stand being so… pure?

The cylinder started to
buzz
with talk again, excitement building in the tone of the masses.

“Sally Thomas,” the exalted leader began again.  “It seems you are being put up for election.  The masses are being heard.  Do you understand what has happened to you?”

Sal finally looked up again.  Her eyes hesitated on Cole’s face for a brief moment, her face blanching.  But then her eyes slid to meet her leader.  “I’ve died,” she said, her voice shaking.  “I understand that much.”

“And you understand judgment?” he asked in a reassuring voice.

Sal nodded.

“Those around you are calling for a vote.  The leadership here
shifts,
changes.  People who lived a life like yours don’t come around very often.  Will you accept this position should the vote be granted?”

“I…” she stuttered, turning to look at these who surrounded her.  “I don’t know.”

“You’ll know soon enough,” he said. 
“All those in favor of Sally Thomas joining the exalted council?”

The afterlife rumbled with replies of “I.”

“All those opposed?”

A few replies fell flat against the hot stones.

“Just like that?” one of the exalted leaders hissed.  Cole felt a twitch of a smile curl in the corner of his lips.  “You would replace me just like that?  When she isn’t even sure if she wants this?”

“We will let her observe,” the leader said, rubbing his hand over his bearded chin.  “She can watch and learn what we do.  Should she decide to decline, your position will be
reconsidered.
”

Seeing that this council and voting was coming to an end, more of the blue-
eyed’s
flocked around Sal, preparing to escort her to the above.