Perfect Being

Moloch was an Angel. Emphasis on 'Was'. Nowadays he roams the Earth as a servant of his new father. A creature known and feared by all, his name sending shivers down the spines of all creatures

She hadn’t made it hard. It was not an easy job to hide a pure being from my eyes and she had failed, making me smirk to myself. Down below, standing on the balcony of a lower apartment, the Angel was oblivious to my presence. The white wings, the blonde hair and the stench of purity and kindness in the air, it was all sickening.  I had a demon blade, one my Lord had given me and was designed for the ethereal beings who called themselves Angels. It simply caused pain, terrible agonising pain. The pain so severe it could kill these ‘Perfect beings’.

So with this in hand and mind, I left through the fire escape and went down, hiding my presence from her with an Amulet, masking my soul. I climb inside, behind her and smirk to myself. “Lailah, recognise me?” She turns around, shocked she was prepared to fly if she had to. She wouldn’t engage in combat, I had known her for too long to not know this. She was a healer and would flee at any sign of danger. Despite all this, to my surprise she was brandishing a small blade, keeping it in front of her at all times, but it wouldn’t be a problem.  She quickly looked me up and down, trying to determine why I was familiar but then passed the thought off and composed herself.

“I’m impressed, you found me quicker than I thought you would.” She tried to sound confident, tried to make it sound like she wasn’t terrified by my presence.  I still heard the fear in her voice.  Although what she had said angered me. I’ve never had an Angel work up the audacity to question my skills and superiority.

“Do not mock me Angel!” I rushed towards her, the blade ready in my hand. “Do not be mistaken of my power. Your kind cowers in my presence”. I calm myself, knowing what my purpose of being here is. “This city has been claimed by the dark. It is my domain. So why are you and your pious brethren infecting my streets?” She stood straight, trying to be brave and I smirked at how I had made her squirm.

“Why would you think I’d so easily tell you? Especially after getting such a poor welcoming, I’m so very disheartened” She has become more confident it seems, she feels as if she can stand against me. A deep growl escapes my throat, sounding animalistic. My black, tattered, bat-like wings force themselves out of my back, opening large wounds between my shoulder blades and making black blood pour down my back. I hover over the pure being and hold the blade to her neck, making her swallow.

“So you mean to test me wretched being?” I am angered easily and push her against the wall. “Now why are you here?” The Angel whimpers slightly bringing me some comfort that I am not letting her off easily, despite our past. She lets out a shaky breath before finally giving me an answer.

“There is a young girl in this city. I’ve been sent for her.” Two sharp canines protrude slightly from my lips and I smile. I pull the blade away from her neck and stand straight, my wings settling slightly.

“Oh? Which girl would this be?” I ask, stepping back once to give her a false sense of security. And it shows. She relaxes slightly, breathing out and allowing herself to come away from the wall.

“Her name is Alice, I’m here to protect her and you will not get in my way.” She states, feigning strength and bravery. I allow a small laugh to escape my lips at how her attitude changes as mine does. Allowing me to subtly and indirectly control her.

“Have you been told anything about her? About why you are protecting her?” I ask and she shakes her head slightly, giving me the answer I was looking for. “I know of her… She’s my assignment. She is a half blood, the offspring of both our kinds. The heart of an Angel and the anger and agility of a Demon. Lucifer wants her for himself and I intend to give her to him.” I laugh to myself as the Angel stares at me in disbelief and terror fills her pupils. “I see you know the prophecy then? When a half blood is born, if taken by the dark on the 21^st birthday, the Underworld will cease to exist below and leak into the world of the living. Her birthday is tomorrow and the day after that… My brethren and I will conquer the earth.”

For a moment her breath stops and she has a realisation of just how dire her situation is. She narrowed her eyes and her grip on the blade tightened, warning me of an attempt at bringing Justice down upon me.

“Then in no way am I letting your tainted hands anywhere near her. You creatures of filth rule the Underworld- is that not enough?” She was confused and angered. I had made an Angel break her own circle of serenity. This is going well.

“We can no longer exist in the realms of Darkness, we crave the power that the surface can bring us. We crave the fresh meat that the world and humans provide and the fresh souls that could be handed to us. Our place is on Earth, not to be placed in your basement as you see fit! We will have the girl and you cannot stop me.” I shoved the Angel against the wall, blade yet again against her throat. On my bare arms, ancient runes began to appear in blood red and my eyes fill to black, much like ink blending with water. My fury and hatred towards Angels becomes clear and I bare my sharp canines, snarling. “We will not be defeated again!” I yell, but my voice is not the only one heard. A demonic voice overlays my own and I feel Lucifer’s presence begin to take control of my soul and use it to surface.

She yelled at me, sharing her anger. “Your kind sicken me. We take our positions above and below yet you always crave more than you deserve. We must learn to leave the living in peace.” She yelps quietly as I slam her into the wall, her wings sprawled against the red brick and being pushed past their own limits. She knows who she will soon be facing, she also knows there is no use fighting. Her chest began to rise and fall in shallow breaths and she yelled yet again. But not in anger this time, but rather fear. “Let me go you piece of filth!”

“And why should I do that little Angel? Are you afraid?” I smirk and Lucifer begins to leak his consciousness further into my mind, the demonic voice that comes with his presence becomes incredibly prominent.  My body begins to weigh down on hers again, pressing her back further into the wall and beginning to crush bones in the already delicate, weak wings. “Do you feel the pressure light one, the fiery pain of the bones in your wings as I break them? One by one. Do you recognise me yet? Once your friend… But you betrayed me!” I am now watching on, Lucifer has full control and I’m but a witness to the acts my body is committing.  I can do nothing but think back on my past, back to my time as an Angel no less than one thousand years ago.

She was cowering away from Lucifer’s presence as I heard many more cracks which could only have been her wings breaking. My strength came from both my previous father and the one that had adopted me when I fell. The Angel was terrified. She now knew who I was and it was clear in her eyes. She first seemed confused, not being able to show it as pain overtook her face more often than not. Tears sprung from her eyes and she struggled to breathe but then she remembered. It was clear by her sudden stop in struggling. But I didn’t want her to stop struggling. I wanted one of two things. I wanted her to either continue fighting Lucifer and give herself a chance. Or the only other thing that would help…

“Moloch!” The power of a name. In my world, they held all power, more even, than that of Lucifer. He slunk back to the Underworld and I regained control of my mind and actions. I breathed heavily and dropped to the ground recovering from the havoc that Lucifer’s soul wreaks on a demon. I sat on the ground a moment, not being able to do much else. Breathing heavily, the searing pain that was penetrating my mind finally subsided. “It took you long enough to remember me Lailah.” The runes on my arms slowly faded away to nothing and the black drew itself out of my eye almost as quickly as it came. My wings could not last much longer for now and retracted into my back causing immense pain in my spine and a burning sensation while the skin welded itself back together. “I thought that an Angel may remember a friend she once betrayed, a friend who they made fall from their home.” She slowly brought herself away from the wall and her wings hung limp behind her, dragging along the ground behind her and slowly but surely healing themselves now they have a chance. Of course it was clearly causing her pain but she pretended as though it wasn’t and did not let it faze her.  What did faze her was her old friend, in front of her, shed of their holy wings. We had not seen one another for one thousand years and now we meet in these circumstances. I wanted my revenge but I didn’t want her dead.

“Forgive me Moloch, you had changed so much…I did not recognise you’re fallen form.” She’s justifying herself now? How dare she! I don’t care if I have changed. The face of an old friend, especially one you have wronged, does not leave a mind so easily.

“Perhaps Lailah, my wings and so called ‘ethereal features’ have been stripped but other Angels I have come across have not forgotten my face. Although they did not live to warn anyone.” It’s true I was speaking of the many previous friends and fellow soldiers that I had slain since becoming this creature. Many I didn’t want to kill, it was Lucifer who had killed them, or sent them back with a clear message to the Realm of light. I struggled to stand but as I did I stumbled slightly, my back was now streaked in my black blood and I fell back, catching myself before I hit the ground. My back hit the wall behind me and I slid down, wincing in pain from the impact. 

“You’re not someone I would expect to come across as a demon… I still see you as the Angel who stuck by my side.” She spoke in a quiet voice, she was still standing by the wall until I collapsed the second time. I could tell she didn’t know what to do. I was never the broken one, I was always the one to be strong and brave. I was the one to look out for her. She began to slowly walk forward as the blade in her hand dispersed. She trusts me, that’s a miracle in itself.  She didn’t want to move any closer and so she stood in the centre of the room, unnerved by the new knowledge that I brought with me.  “I didn’t expect you to be so vengeful-“

“How could I not be?! You left me for dead on the battlefield, blood pouring from my shoulder while you retreated to the safety of the clouds. I haven’t been one of you in a long time and I must now carry out my mission. I am a demon now, I serve my Lord, not yours.” As I begin to talk about my past I’m allowing my mind to weaken again and I feel Lucifer attempting to overtake my soul again. “He’s coming back, you should go.” I warn her, feeling I needed to. If he came back while she was here, she wouldn’t survive this time.

“I had no choice Moloch. You couldn’t fly, I was going to come back with help. I didn’t know that I would be sent off to help one of the archangels heal. I was forced into flying off. I would never have chosen to leave you!” She had a solemn look on her face and looked down, an influx of guilt coming over her. “And please do not remind me, you are now a child of Satan. Nothing can change this now.” She began to pace, a habit I remember she had when we were both young. She took to pacing when she was thinking or frustrated or, like in this situation, both. “But right now, this is of little concern to me, what concerns me is your state. You have ruined yourself and Lucifer isn’t the most gentle of leaders. He cares only of the result rather than the consequences.”

“He cares more than yours ever did!” I shout, getting angered by her words. “All demons are those Angels and Reapers who have been outcasted or exiled from their homes. Or those of us who have been betrayed” I take a clear emotional stab, knowing how to hurt her by bringing up her past mistakes. “He takes in lost souls like myself and makes them great. Why do you care anymore? Leave me to my own devices, we are no longer and can no longer be friends. We are meant to kill each other, and I should have done that the minute I came in here." I press on, standing up slightly.

“If you are meant to kill me then get it over with already? If you hold such hatred and animosity towards me then put your blade to use!” She taunted darkly, clearly feeling no sympathy for me any longer. There was no reason to try reasoning with me any longer.

“I said, that I should’ve killed you. Do not make me stoop so low as to hurt you.” Once standing, I tucked the blade into the back of my jeans. “One of my brethren can do the job I refuse to do and I welcome any punishment that comes to me because of this.” I continue quietly, going towards the window, not wanting to continue this conversation any longer. This made me miss home. Not my home in the underworld but my previous home. Fighting for a different cause. Saving rather than killing. Was I questioning my decision? Possibly. “Know that I never forgot you or what you did, but I did forgive you years ago.”

I turned back as I heard her voice cry out. “If you believe I’d let myself be slain so easily by a creature of the underworld , you have truly lost your faith in me. At least, to be slain by one I wronged would allow me to die with honour.” She had her eyes trained on me as I walked off. I on the other hand could not bring myself to look at her any longer. “As for forgiveness, it lies in both of us. Disappointment also runs deep to see how easily you have forgotten yourself.”

“I did not believe that you would die so easily against my brothers and sisters. I would not leave your fate in their hands if I believed you would. I leave you to your own devices and hope you find the will to survive as I could not in your world.” I replied to her, still not looking into her eyes. “And I have not forgotten who I was, no matter how much I try and repress it, my ethereal soul is still in the back of mind. To this day it resides there and taunts me. There is still hope for you, but not for me. Do not waste your time trying.”

“If I could, know that I would happily take the chance to get you back, bring out your original self. But it seems you are too far gone Moloch. But if you do ever decide to come back. I’m not too difficult to find.” I finally feel her release her gaze from my back and hear her walking away, out the door and back to her life. “Lailah wait!” I call and turn around, running after her. But it wasn’t me calling out. It wasn’t me running. It wasn’t me holding the intention of what was about to happen. Lucifer.  I followed her down the hall, down the stairs and my arm caught her as she was about to step outside, onto the street.

“What is it Moloch?” She asked softly and I pulled her back inside. By now I was only watching on, my body no longer my own and the runes that had appeared in my skin before came back. The black seeping into the whites of my eyes again. And then came the voice and she knew it was no longer me. “Moloch! Moloch!” She tried using my name again but she had already used it once. It would not work a second time. My Demon blade materialised in my hand and Lucifer curled my fingers around it, gripping the hilt tightly. He held it in front of Lailah’s face and before she could react he plunged it into her heart. She gasped, trying to grapple on to her last breath before her body went limp and a shadow of Angel wings was projected onto the wall behind her. Lucifer slunk back to his hole, laughing to himself and I regained my body once again. I breathed heavily and looked down at her body on the ground. It had already started to glow as the process of an Angels body ascending had begun. I was blinded by her light for a moment and when I looked back, the shadow of her wings was all that was left.

“I’m sorry…”