Clipped (The Clipped Saga, 1) by Devon McCormack (5 page)

Kinzer set his menu back on the table.

“Y’al know what you want to drink?” the waitress asked,

approaching the booth. Her black-as-night hair was in pigtails. A purple streak, matching her apron, ran from her bangs through one of the pigtails.

Kid eyed the menu uncertainly.

“Um,” he said. “I uh...”

“What you got?” Kinzer asked, trying to help Kid out.

The waitress set her hand on her hip and cocked her head to

the side. Her purple-streaked bang fel over her eye. “We got orange juice, milk, coffee—”

“Coffee!” Kid exclaimed.

“Cream and sugar?”

Kid stared at her blankly.

“Yeah,” Kinzer replied by proxy, “he’l want cream and sugar.

I’l take a coffee, too.”

“Kay.” She slipped back behind the counter.

“How long were you in that place?” Kinzer asked.

“Few years.”

“How’d you end up there?”

CLIPPED 42

Kid shot him a look that let Kinzer know he didn’t want to

talk about it.

“You gonna tel me about that
scar
?” Kid asked, mockingly emphasizing the word
scar
.

Kinzer hesitated.

There were rules against talking to mortals about immortal

affairs. But at that point, he didn’t care. His world had been ripped out from under him, and right now, with his thoughts jumbled and disoriented, he desperately wanted someone to talk to. And given Kid’s circumstances, he didn’t imagine there was much that could shock him.

He took a breath, recognizing the consequences of what he

was about to do. But that wasn’t going to stop him.

“You believe in God?” Kinzer asked.

Kid snorted. “You serious? Listen, I don’t need you or

anyone else shoving their religion down—”

“You want me to answer your question or not?”

Kid eyed him skeptical y. “Okay, okay. Go ahead.”

“God’s a bad word. Means too many different things to too

many different people. What I’m trying to say is, there is a Creator of this world. A very powerful being. We cal Him The Almighty.

Before He created this planet, He created another set of

creatures...powerful immortals. People here usual y refer to them as angels. We cal them higherlings. They were his pet project.”

“You trying to tel me you’re some sort of angel? I was

actual y curious. You don’t have to be a douche.”

43 Devon McCormack

“Not an angel.”

The waitress approached their booth. She slid two mugs and

a plate of sugar and creamer packets before them. “You fel as know what you want to order?”

“Fuck,” Kid said.

The waitress rol ed her eyes.

“Can we have another minute?” Kinzer asked.

“Whatever.” She went back to the counter.

“If you’re not an angel,” Kid said, returning to their

conversation, “what are you? A demon?”

“We prefer to be cal ed fal ens. Will you look at your menu

before she comes back and gets bitchy with us?”

Kid scanned it again.

“Ooo! They have waffles! I haven’t had waffles in forever.”

He sipped his coffee. “Mmm. That’s real y good.”

Kinzer tasted his. It was burnt. He scowled. Grabbing five

packets of sugar off the plate, he ripped them open and emptied

them into his mug.

“Sorry,” Kid said. “You were saying? You’re a demon?”

“A fal en.” Kinzer stacked a few of the creamer packets by his

mug.

“You trying to steal my soul? Cause I think you’re a little

late.”

“You mortals have a pretty fucked up sense of what’s real y

going on. That’s not even close to how any of this works.”

Kinzer peeled a packet lid back and poured the creamer into

CLIPPED 44

his mug.“After The Almighty created the higherlings, He fel in love with one of them, Satan. We fal ens know Him as The Leader. They had a fling. According to legend, they had some pretty great sex.”

“God’s gay?” Kid asked. “Top or bottom?”

“Eh. The Almighty’s kinda a hermaphrodite, so I don’t know

if He’d be considered gay, but I think you can rest assured that He’s a top. Anyway, they were lovers for, in your time, mil enniums.

During this time, The Almighty created a present for The Leader: the world. But The Almighty was so disgusted by it that He tried to hide it. Eventual y, Satan found the world, and when The Almighty explained that it had been intended as his gift, The

Leader...Satan...actual y thought it was pretty sweet. But it wasn’t long after that, they split up.”

“Why?” Kid’s eyes widened, as if he was surprised that he’d

asked that. Kinzer could only imagine how al this was sounding to him. He must’ve sounded like the nuttiest guy in the world. And

maybe it was better that way.

“Al the possible reasons are myths now. No one real y

knows. But after the break-up, The Leader moved to another realm, and a lot of his friends decided to join Him. Part of The Almighty and The Leader’s agreement was that anyone who went with The

Leader was banished from Heaven forever and had to char their

wings as a symbol of their transgression against him. He was very over-dramatic about the whole thing.”

The waitress re-approached their booth. “You guys figured

45 Devon McCormack
out what you want?”

“Um...yeah,” Kid said. “Can I get three pecan waffles, two

chicken-parmesana omelettes, and a chocolate pie? Oh, and

hashbrowns covered in chili?”

Kinzer and the waitress eyed each other.

“Hungry?” she asked with a smirk.

“Yup.”

“And you?”.

“Just two eggs,” Kinzer said, “over easy.”

“Be right out.” She dashed behind the counter.

Kid pressed his thumb to his cheek. “So, God and Satan

fuck. Break-up. And Satan and his peeps go party in Hel ?”

“Pretty much.”

“That has nothing to do with your scar,” Kid said.

“I’m getting there. After the break-up, The Almighty and

The Leader agreed to leave the world alone. But The Almighty went behind The Leader’s back and tried to destroy it. This started a war between Heaven and Hel , a very brief war that ended in far-too-much bloodshed. You see, The Leader head created a powerful

weapon, Morarkes, creatures with one purpose: to kill

higherlings...angels. To prevent them from attacking the fal ens, The Leader gave them a keen sense of smel to detect immortals and

distinguish between higherlings and fal ens. But The Leader

discovered that he couldn’t control them. They turned against the fal ens and wreaked havoc on Heaven and Hel .

“For a brief period, Heaven and Hel united and fought

CLIPPED 46

against the Morarkes. And fearing that another war would wipe out not only the world, but Heaven and Hel , The Almighty and The

Leader created a special assembly, The Council, to moderate any

immortal activity that happened in the world. Like the United

Nations for immortal realms. The Leader hoped that The Council

would prevent God from trying to destroy the world again. And

The Almighty hoped it would prevent The Leader from creating

another devastating weapon.

“But as you can imagine, if The Almighty doesn’t destroy

the world, then He looks like The Leader’s bitch and like any

immortal can walk al over him. So, The Almighty is still trying to annihilate the world, but in a very sneaky way. The Leader has

figured this out, and it’s turned into this massive chess game.”

“Do you realize how out of your mind you sound?” Kid

asked. Kinzer was relieved that Kid wasn’t taking him seriously. It meant he could ramble on without having to worry about him

freaking out about the horrors of mortals’ vain plight in The Leader and The Almighty’s petty feud.

“In Hel ,” Kinzer continued, ignoring Kid’s commentary,

“there are a lot of fal ens, who for whatever reason, are trying to get in good with The Almighty again, to restore their place in Heaven.

These fal ens will do just about anything to get back, including helping bring about the end of the world. One group is cal ed The Raze. The Council sent me to infiltrate this group, to see what their plans were. But someone ratted me out. They clipped my wings,

47 Devon McCormack
and I’m guessing their leader, Veylo, sold me to Jerry, just to piss me the fuck off.”

He wasn’t going to tel him about Janka. That would be too

much for him. He’d lose control of his emotions.

“Bul shit,” Kid said. “You’re tel ing me that shit on your

back used to be wings? Like bird wings?”

“No. Like fal en wings.”

Kid shook his head. “Whatever. If you’re real y some

immortal demon, prove it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Don’t you have powers or shit? Don’t you do

things different than people? Isn’t there some way you can show

me?”

“When they clip you,” Kinzer explained, “you lose your

powers. And other than having unusual y large genetalia, we’re

pretty similar to humans. We’re actual y the original model. But maybe if you get a closer look, you’l get it.”

~

“Where are they?” Kid asked, whispering.

Kinzer sat on a toilet, shirtless.

Kid stood beside him, crammed between Kinzer and the

stal door, staring at his naked back.

“We could total y fuck in here,” Kid said.

“Shh!”

CLIPPED 48

Kinzer’s eyes were closed. He sat quiet, like he was

meditating.

Kid looked around uneasily as the foul restroom stench

filled his nostrils.

Black, oily marks, the marks Kid had seen back in Jerry’s

place, started to reappear, till they were black with tiny points protruding from them.

Kid leaned down to get a good look at them. They were

sharp, barb-like. He moved his fingers close, but just as he was about to touch one, several shifted together.

“Holy fuck. What is it? A mutation?”

“That’s where the wing used to be.”

The mark was weird, but it was too big of a leap for him to

believe Kinzer’s story. Kinzer was either lying out of his ass or bat-shit crazy, but he didn’t care. Kinzer had rescued him from Jerry’s, so he would swear his loyalty to him regardless...even if that meant going along with al this nonsense about angels and demons and

wars between Heaven and Hel .

“Ok,” he said. “What do we gotta do?”

“I gotta warn some higherlings.”

49 Devon McCormack
Chapter Four

“Dillon and Aaron on standby.”

Pop music blared so loud that Kid could barely make out

the intercom voice as he and Kinzer made their way through a

smoke-fil ed bar.

Kid was still chuckling at the sign outside. “This place real y

cal ed Dick Dongs?”

A dim, orange light illuminated a box-of-a-stage, where two

late twenty-something guys, rubbed their steroid-induced muscle

bodies against black poles, posing with the music.

The place was pretty empty, except for a few balding men

wel into or beyond their fifties, who were tended to by shirtless gym-rats that barely looked like they were in their twenties.

Kinzer had driven for nearly twenty-four hours without rest

till they reached Atlanta, where he claimed his friends would be to help him. Kid still thought it was a bunch of nonsense, and now

CLIPPED 50

that they were in a strip bar, he was even surer of it.

Kinzer approached the bar. An older bartender—in his late

mid to late thirties, his broad chest covered in curly black hair, his love-handles nearly nonexistent—set a crate on the floor and

stocked beers in a tub of ice.

Kid looked around uneasily. His eyes drifted to the stage.

The guys dancing were less-than-enthusiastic. They bobbed around and dipped fairly low for the wide-eyed frumpies that were handing over the cash, but Kid saw the same look in their eyes that he was used to seeing at Jerry’s house. Sad, empty, defeated. He imagined that’s what he looked like.

Kinzer set his arm on the bar and glanced around.

Kid final y asked the question that had been burning on his

mind since they’d arrived.

“I’m sorry. You said these were angels, right?”

As much as Kid didn’t buy Kinzer’s story, he stil was curious

about how this al worked in his head.

Kinzer nodded. “AKA, higherlings.”

“Um...what are they doing
here
?”

Kinzer smirked. “Seems like God has a pretty fucked up

sense of humor, right?”

The bartender popped up from the beer tub and

approached the counter. “Hey, man.”

“Jack on the rocks,” Kinzer said. “And can I change out for

some ones?”

He reached into his pocket, pul ed out one of the wal et’s

51 Devon McCormack
he’d lifted from Jerry’s clients, and handed some cash over to the bartender.

Kinzer turned back to Kid. “Better to keep higherlings in

places you wouldn’t expect them.”