Genesis: Falling Angel
Read Genesis: Falling Angel Online
Authors: Keily Arnold
Genesis:
Falling Angel
By Keily Arnold
Genesis: Falling Angel
Copyright © 2014 by Keily Arnold
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
First e-book edition published in the United States on May 12, 2014
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Cover image by Elizabeth Campbell
Find out more about the author and upcoming books at
www.twitter.com/KeilyArnold
Contents
For my mother, who pushed me to chase my dreams.
We were made to serve.
Angels are proud in some ways. It’s the main reason Lucifer fell so fast, and so hard, into the abyss. We may not be the chosen race, God’s most beloved creation. However, we are still his most trusted servants. We are granted peace, love, and joy for all of eternity. That is, unless we stray like Lucifer did. However, he is no longer Lucifer, and no angel has strayed since the Great War.
My companion told me these things patiently, with the excitement of someone who loves nothi
ng more than to teach. He had always been an expert in such matters. The right hand of God must be knowledgeable, and Gabriel was the essence of knowledge.
Gabriel was beautiful. His long hair was like spun gold and his eyes were a deep, ocean blue. He wa
s strong, agile. His wings were the purest white among us all, and his voice was deep and gentle. It was no wonder that God chose this perfect creature as his most trusted messenger. He was an absolute masterpiece.
Gabriel valued
nothing more than his relationship with God. Not even me. This was a strange thought, being envious of someone’s relationship with our Father. I silently asked for forgiveness. Angels are fairly pure beings. We have our sinful tendencies, mostly just flickers of thought. We dropped to our knees in prayer the moment they crossed our minds. I couldn’t help but feel a little envious. I was created solely for Gabriel, and he rarely even spoke to me. He seemed happy with my mere existence, but I felt empty with so little attention.
It was Gabriel who spoke with God about companionship. He claimed that Adam had received Eve. He claimed he wished not for a wife, or a daughter. A “companion” was the word he used. He wanted someone to teach, someone that he could spe
ak to. In this request, pride was evident. He believed himself better than the humans, and therefore worthy of a companion. As I had thought, we were not completely without sin.
Thus, the female angels had been created.
As Eve was of Adam, so were we of our male counterparts. It was Gabriel’s blood that formed me, the same blood that flowed through my veins. The beginning of my existence was smooth, easy. I had beginner knowledge of the realm, and I was thirsty for more. Luckily, Gabriel obliged.
There were no romantic relationships, not like the humans had. We did not touch beyond quick embraces or pecks on the forehead. We were dear to them, but we were not lustful. We were cre
ated as pure and beautiful as any other angel.
It wasn’t just physical aspects that we lacked.
It was the unyielding attention and the ability to share every innermost dream and fear. There were no dreams. There were no fears. Romantic love was merely something we observed in humans, marveling at it. Though we were created as equals, the dominant sex was clear from my birth.
After Eve was so easily tempted, we, females, were not as trusted. I never stepped foot out of Heaven, no matter how many times I brought
up the subject to Gabriel. I had heard the stories a million times, and I began to grow restless. There were endless oceans to swim in, beautiful stretches of sky to soar through, and countless fields to run through! Why would anyone not want to see the earth, just once? From my home, it was easy to see the pyramids of Egypt, the icy terrain of Antarctica, the rainforests of South America. Even the tiniest hummingbird was in perfect view. When would I see it up close?
I believe
d my appearance worried Gabriel too much. He rarely let me leave his sight, eyes always on the air behind me, on the only “flaw” he ever saw in me. I had the same hair as Gabriel: long, golden. I was just as beautiful. I even bore an echo of his name: Gabrielle. Unlike him, my eyes were a stormy gray, something that caused a bit of shame in me. No angel beyond a few Fallen had gray eyes. My wings were another matter entirely.
Yes, we were created to serve. As female
humans were treated as servants and housewives, we were servants to the original angels, those we were born of and owed our very lives to.
“Gabriel,” I asked one day, as he explained his frustration with humanity for the million
th time, “Could I please see the earth?”
He froze, but responded in the patient, gentle tone he reserved for me. “We have been called back from the earth, Gabrielle.”
“What happened?” I asked with a frown. Time seemed to fly by.
“The humans are being punished.” There was no explanation to these words. He merely turned his back to me. “Now as I was saying—”
“What did they do?”
He glared. Obviously I should’ve kept my mouth shut. “Some things are better left unsaid. Sometimes God does things, and he needs no reason. You know this.” His
tone made his feelings obvious. I could almost hear him saying, “Have I taught you nothing?”
I cast
my eyes at the floor, admiring the smooth, white stone. “I believe everyone else knows but me, Gabriel.” It was a coaxing statement. He would reveal the cause to me.
So he did. “You know I want you to be safe. I know how attached you are to the mortals. They have been horrible, Gabrielle. They have slaughtered so many of their own in great wars, violated each other in ways you would never understand, cursed our Father for the horrendous disasters they brought upon themselves.” His blue eyes were hard. “They need to be punished. They need to remember the God they have forgotten.”
He turned away once more. His voice said that he pitied them, but it also betrayed the apathy that is common amongst us. We are capable of love, but not like God. We are not unconditional. Many believe humans to be almost like a failed experiment, and we sense the pain they cause for our Father.
“Can we not help them? Perhaps we can spread the message of our Father once more!” My words were excited, desperate. I wanted there to be another way. Maybe there was a dream for me after all. I wanted to se
e the earth, and I could not do so as long as something was destroying it. “What exactly is happening to them?” I asked.
Sighing, he turned to me. “We cannot help unless they pray
for our help. They are cursing God at this very moment, hating Him for the tragic fate they were pushed into. Hell has opened, and from it pours legions of demons and things so horrible that they will be begging for help and forgiveness soon.” He said it bitterly, spitting the words as though they were poison. He believed, wholeheartedly, that humanity was receiving a punishment it deserved.
All of H
ell was pouring onto the earth, and there was nothing Gabriel would do. He was the right hand of our Father, one of the few aware of His decisions before He acted upon them. It was obvious that he had probably been pleased with the decision.
“You don’t care, do you?” I whispered, rising from my seat. The air shimmered around me, evidence of one of Gabriel’s illusi
ons wearing off. It was the one hiding my wings, of course.
“Gabrielle, hold still,” he said, eyes on the shimmery air. He reached for the air surrounding me.
“No,” I snapped, pushing past him. We are allowed anger, mostly righteous anger. I had every right to be angry after having been created from a being that cared nothing for God’s favored creation. The humans were interesting, the few times I caught glimpses of them. They had emotions that I could never dream of having, if dreaming was possible. They had freedom that I could never hope for. The male angels had some freedoms, especially when not on one of God’s special missions. Females had very different lives. We just sat around all day waiting on orders from our counterparts.
Gabriel envied humans for God’s favoritism toward them. I envied them for their freedom.
The shimmer around me was removed, revealing my wings beneath the glamour. Several angels gasped, and one steered his companion away from me as if I was diseased. Gabriel never said it, but I knew he thought God had punished him for his request. Gabriel had asked for it out of envy and pride, and so his request was fulfilled with a catch. He had been given the most beautiful, intelligent companion—so he says—but she had been given one horrific flaw.
My wings were a
n oily, pitch black. Black was the sign of the Fallen, and it wounded me deeply when Gabriel had first ordered me to hide them. I walked nervously through the immaculate hall, wings spread wide for all to see, ignoring the whispers and stares. It was my first act against Gabriel, all stemming from his horrid view on humanity. It was a silly, childish reason, but maybe I cared too much.
I wondered vaguely if God had considered my feelings. Sure, we weren’t capable of the broad range humans had. If an angel could be proud, it could also feel shame. Shame was what drove me away from the crowds of
human souls. Shame is what made it so hard to look Gabriel in the eye some days. Shame is something I shouldn’t have had to bear.
“You are disturbing the souls, Gabrielle.”
I blinked, glancing around to see the human souls milling about. A group of children were staring at me, eyes wide with confusion. Another angel grabbed their attention with sweets, giving me an icy look. I sheepishly curtsied in his direction, mouthing an apology, and turned back to the direction of the speaker.
“I’m sor
ry, Michael.” His fingers gently touched my wings, and I felt the cool sensation of their disappearance. It wasn’t exactly cold. There was no cold here.
Michael’s silvery eyes regarded me with pity. If the angelic race had just a bit more humanity to it, then perhaps the word for him was “friend.” I was the only strange one. I was the only one becoming defensive of a dying species. “I overheard,” he said softly. “Gabriel is a bit stubborn when it comes to mortals. His position as a messenger has made him jaded. You’ll have to forgive him.”
“Have you received orders to help them?” I don’t know why I asked. Gabriel was incapable of lying, as we all were. If he said angels were called back and unable to help, then they were.
Michael’s gaze shifted slightly, the tell-tale sign of him being backed into a corner. He knew of my fondness for humans—or obsession, as Gabriel called it. He obviously didn’t want to speak for fear of upsetting me more than I already was.
“Never mind,” I said. My feet led me past my room, out of the pavilion I called home. I rarely ventured from the field I had made my second home in, as the marble buildings so common in the realm always made me feel trapped.
The field itself held all manner of flowers. It was ever-changing. Flowers grew, bloomed, died, and were replaced by other species. All of this happened in a matter of minutes. There were no trees, and the field went on as far as the eye could see. There was a false sky above, a false sun eternally setting. The sky was streaked with purple, orange,
and hues that I had been unable to create when I dabbled in painting, though it’s hard for angels to be creative without the range of emotions humans possessed. I was no poet, and it was hard for me to ever think of a way to explain how I saw the field to Gabriel. He kept his distance from it and claimed that it was dangerous for us to venture there. Well, everything that brought us too close to humans was dangerous.
I had no need of a bed, furniture, anything. We never slept. Instead, I spent my time by the pond located far out into the fields. The moment the white structures of the realm disappeared from view, the pond was always there. Its waters were clear, smooth as glass. My reflection gazed back at me, and I lightly tapped my wings to make them reappear.
With gray eyes and black wings, I looked like one of the Fallen, if not for my golden hair. My skin was still white, not the ashy gray that so many Fallen possessed. Perhaps that meant that I was defective. Perhaps I was a failed experiment like the humans.
I had never met a Fallen. They—they being Gabriel and Michael—always told me that the Fallen were the proudest of creatures. They were darkly beautiful, with smoky gray eyes and wings as black as night. Their gray skin was supposedly from their lack of sunlight. Yet they we
re nameless, save for Lucifer. They were without a name and therefore without an identity.
The white gown I wore ruffled slightly in a warm breeze, and I glanced around to make sure no one was watching. I sat by the surface of the pond, gazing into the still water. There were no secrets here, but I was always anxious about viewing the human world.
“Hello,” I whispered. A ripple formed in the pond, as if in answer. “Show me them.”
I had not gazed upon the humans in a short time, and I did not expect the pond to reject my request. “Show me them,” I whispered with more urgency.
“What’s going on?”
I turned slightly, catching the eye of a young boy with brown eyes and wind-ruffled black hair. Human souls were allowed to know the troubles on earth, though they were incapable of feeling any pain
at the troubles of the world they previously resided in. “I’m not sure,” I said honestly. I did not know the boy’s name. He had never offered it. He may not have even been a boy, but a grown man who had reverted back to a childlike form upon death. Anything was possible.
He was one of many humans who made the field their home. They clung to the pond as I did, though they clung to a world they were not ready to let go of. I was unusual, the only angel who came near it. Perhaps, even, the only one that cared.