Two worlds apart

Can an angel and a devil really fall in love?

Once upon a time

An angel and a devil fell in love

---------

My feet pound on the grass as I dash behind the metal gate. My skirt swishes around my legs as I run, I am never wearing a skirt after this. It’s way too troublesome to run in. I sneak around the statues made of cold marble. I can’t let anyone see me no matter what. Flying won’t work even though I am dying to soar through the sky, and feel the feel of the wind on my face. It would be way too risky; someone could easily spot me if I tried to fly. But I’m so excited to finally see Angelica again, it’s been weeks since I’ve last seen her, so I push down the urge to fly building up inside me and carefully approach the place where Angelica is sitting.

She’s leaning against a stone statue which isn’t visible to the guards patrolling the perimeter.

“boo!” I say, trying to startle her. It never works; it’s like she never gets scared (I know this wasn’t true but It still amazes me how she never even flinches when someone sneaks up on her.)

“Lil, you’re finally here! I’ve been waiting for so long!” she sighs in exasperation but I can see a small smile forming on her face.

“Sorry! My brothers kept questioning me, they’re getting more and more suspicious” I say. I can see Angelica’s eyes narrow. I can imagine the cogs whirling in her head. She’s probably coming up with some way to avoid my brothers who are getting way too suspicious of where I’ve been going ever so often. I tuck my wings behind my back and lean on the cold, hard metal of the gate. Angelica looks beautiful under the light of the sun, it cast a glow on her fair skin and her icy blue eyes seem to shimmer under it. Her straight blond hair is a halo around her face, her bright white wings glow and she really looks like the perfect angel.

“Just tell them you’ve been training extra hard!” she says.

“I wish I could do that but then they would want to help me train”

 My dark red hair falls in front of my ebony eyes and I push it back. My hair is getting too long, I need to cut it. Angelica always says I look pretty with long hair but it gets in my way too much.

“You know what, let’s just forget about that for now. I want to show you something!” she exclaims and I can’t deny her. She grabs my hand and carefully drags us along the edge of our two worlds. It’s hard for us to meet up often because of the barrier between the worlds. This narrow zone of contact is the only place we could meet and even then, we have to sneak past the soldiers that would skin me alive if they even found me near this place and their precious princess.

Angelica leads me to a small clearing. It’s beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it. Everything is fiery and either shades of red or black where I live so this beautiful place amazed me where the grass was so green it looked like it was glowing.

“how- what?” I stutter, how did she find a place like this that isn’t completely in angel territory?

“I have my ways” she winks at me. I don’t know how she did this but she’ll probably tell me later.

Angelica’s still holding my hand and she tugs me forward until we’re leaning against the bark of the largest tree in the wood. Her fingers inter-twine with mine and I feel content in this peaceful clearing with Angelica. Her fingers rub soothing circles on the back of my hand.

“Your hair is really pretty” she croons, her finger twisting around a lock of my hair.

I narrow my eyes at her. Was this a new kind of way to make me flustered? Then I hear the scream. It rings in my ears even as I jump up, my reflexes taking over.

“Lil, NO!” a voice screams, it sounds like Angelica but it’s coming from far away and Angelica is right beside me.

Angelica growls and tightens her hand around mine. My head is spinning. ‘whose scream was that... oh no... did someone know I was here... with Angelica.’ I have to get out as fast as I can.

 “Angie, I think I should go now-” I try to free my hand from her tight grip but she isn’t letting go.

“LILITH!”

My head whips around, that sounds like Angelica but that was impossible.

“Stop screaming, you brat” says the Angelica beside me. Then it hit me, the odd behaviour, the growling, the not wanting me to go even in the face of danger. This isn’t angelica. Someone had figured out about us and had disguised themselves as her.

“NO! LILITH GET AWAY FROM HER”

Another scream, that’s from the real Angelica. I can’t let the imposter standing beside me find out I’ve figured out their secret. So, I pretend to go along with it.

“Angie, what’s that scream?” I inquire, cocking my head to the side like a lost puppy. I just need to buy some time so I can get to Angelica.

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about darling.” The fake Angelica ground out between her clenched teeth. How did I ever think this was angelica? I’m so stupid.

Then I hear footsteps. Someone is coming. I have to act fast.

“Angie, let’s go hide!” I say, trying to sound frightened.

“Oh no need sweetheart” she says and a cold feeling slithers down my spine. What did this person disguised as Angelica have planned for me? Her hand is still holding on to mine and it tightens even more. It has started to hurt but the pain just pushes me to think of more ways to get out of this situation.

Another scream, this one louder. It sounds like the screams are getting closer and that means Angelica is coming towards me. I don’t want her to get in danger. I have no idea what to do. I’m trained for this, to get out of situation like this but I’m useless, I can’t do anything. I won’t be able to protect her. In a situation like this, Angelica would say something like “don’t lose hope” or “You can do this, believe in yourself”. She’s so much braver than me.

“LILITH!” she shouts. The screams are even closer now. I look up and she’s right in front of me. Her hands are being held by someone, it looks like another angel, her white hair is dishevelled and has bits of grime and dirt stuck in it. Her white clothes are ripped and torn. What happened to her?

 “A-Angelica?” I stutter. I should be able to protect her, to defend her.

The imposter beside me cackles but I can barely hear her over the blood rushing in my ears.

And then a gun is being held to her forehead. NO. no no no no. This can’t be happening; they can’t kill her. She’s their princess, they won’t do it. They can’t.

“I love you Lilith, I always will” Angelica smiles at me, and it was so pure and beautiful that I didn’t register what she said. Then it hit me, she said she loves me, she said it like they were her last words.

And then a deafening boom and the thud of a body falling on the ground. “ANGELICA!” I shout in agony.

No no no no no no! they couldn’t have shot her.

I feel my hand being released and before I know it, I’m running across the clearing to Angelica. Her eyes are barely open anymore. I gently hold her in my arms, rocking her. I should’ve protected her; I should’ve been shot, not her.

“I love you too angelica. I love you; I love you; I love you so much” I whisper to her. Tears are running down my cheeks. Angelica, the one who would make matching flower crowns for us in the meadow. Angelica, the one that would puff out her checks like a little kid when I didn’t pay attention to her. Angelica, the one that would keep an injured bird and heal it, then set it free. Angelica, the one that held me tight when I cried. Angelica, the one that never once left my side. Angelica, the one that would stay with me when everything became too much.

“Are you done with your weeping?” the fake Angelica sneers from behind me, but I don’t care. They shot Angelica. My sweet, sweet Angelica. They are going to pay for this.

I stand up, gently putting Angelica down on the ground. I turn towards the imposter.

“You’re going to pay for this” I shout at her. My blood is boiling. this couldn’t be happening.

I charge at her, but she was prepared and easily dodges me. The angel that was holding angelica, comes in between me and the fake Angelica.

“Move!” I growl at the angel between us.

 The fake angelica pushes the angel aside and walks toward me. I get ready to pounce on her, but something stops me. it’s like a force is holding me down and preventing me form moving.

“oh, you poor thing.” she says. It sounds like she’s mocking me. The adrenaline runs through me as I try to break free of the force holding me down.

“Miss Seraphina. I think that’s enough. We should really go now” the angel says, sounding nervous.

“We need to teach this devil a lesson” Seraphina hisses.

“you just killed your own princess. You don’t deserve to be an angel”

“Oh? She violated God’s rules. She disrespected our God. Our “princess” wasn’t worthy of that title” the way she said the word “princess” made my blood boil. “And now you deserve the same fate.”

Her twisted idea of what should or shouldn’t be done makes me sick. But my knees are weak and the force is still biding me down.

“if you care so much about these “rules” then we should have a fair fight. Without this force binding me down. Or are you too much of a coward, think that I’ll beat you in a fair fight?” I try to make my town as innocent as possible. Hopefully this will make her unbind me.

“fine then” she fumes. With one swipe of her hand, I’m not being held down by the force anymore.

I make a split-second decision; I pick up angelica gently from where I’d put her in the side and run as fast as I can. I know I can’t beat Seraphina on my own so I decide to run. I would love to fight just to teach her a lesson but I can’t leave Angelica here.

“DON’T LET HER GET AWAY”

I hear Seraphina scream behind me. Adrenaline courses through me as I dash across the border between our worlds, trying not to get seen by the guards patrolling.

My mind is racing, thinking of where I should take her. I can’t go into the angel’s territory; I’ll almost surely get killed. I have to take her to the palace. I don’t realize how long I’m running until I suddenly reach the steps of the palace. I soar up into the sky, putting all my remaining strength to push my wings to flap as fast as they can. I reach the window of my room and pray that no one saw me. angelica is still resting her head on my chest and I can’t bear to even look at her. I can’t believe that imposter, Seraphina, did this to her. I unlock the window and open it, going inside. I gently rest Angelica’s head on my mattress. I sit just beside her on my bed. she won’t be able to do anything for months, maybe years. A wound like this will take forever to heal even for an angel.

I gently caress her cheek and my ears start watering again. I wasn’t able to protect her, I wasn’t able to save her, I’d always promised Angelica that I would be there for her when she needed me. But I failed her.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps outside my room and my heard whips around. I grab a hold of a blanket at the foot of my bead and put it over Angelica. Then I get it beside her and lay on my side, trying to look like I’m sleeping.

“Lilith, what’s with all the noise” I hear my brother say from behind me. “oh, you’re asleep”

I hear the door closing behind me and breathe a sigh of relief. I look at Angelica’s face and I feel this urge to kill whoever did this to her. I can see the blood flowing from her head so I get up and move to my closet. I look through it until I find the medical kit my father always tells me to keep in there. I am so thankful for that at this moment. I know patching up the wound won’t help much because it’s still going to take the same amount of time for her to heal. But it will give me some amount of relief, I also can’t have blood staining my sheets, one of the servants might see it and not soon after my father and brothers will know. So, patching up her wound is pretty important.

As I walk over to her, something catches my eye. Her hair. Her white hair is turning a dark red, but it’s not because of the blood. I go over and touch the red part of her hair, but I can definitely tell now. This isn’t blood. But then why is her hair turning red? The bottom end of her skirt is black now instead of her usual fair white. Could this be another one of my brothers’ tricks? But that would mean they knew angelica was here. And if they knew she was here, they would do something way more extreme than simply changing the color of her hair and skirt.

The red from her hair is slowly moving down from the roots to the tips, I don’t know what to do. what I do know is that I need to patch up her wound.

 I take some of the cotton and put it on her head to soak up some of the blood, while I hold the cotton in place, I look at Angelica’s face. Trying to memorise every little detail. When’s the next time I’m actually going to be able to hold a conversation with her? When’s the next time I’ll be able to talk to her about everything and anything? When’s the next time I’m going to be able to gossip with her about the guards and out siblings and everyone we can think of? I realise tears are slipping down my cheeks and internally berate myself. I’ve cried way too many times today. I don’t need to cry more.

I look down at Angelica and decide to take the cotton off and just wrap the bandage around her head.

As I lift the cotton, I see that the bleeding has completely stopped.

But that’s impossible

I’m so confused. Then I actually look at angelica.

She doesn’t look like angelica anymore; her face Is still the same but her hair is a bright shade of red. Just like the colors of the sky just before the sun rises. Her previously ripped white dress is now a pitch black. Just like the midnight sky and it’s not ripped anymore.

I jump back from her. I slowly back away from the bed towards a corner of the room and grab the dagger from my boot.

She looks like a devil. But I know that’s not true, she’s an angel. My head I spinning and I don’t know what to do.

“Lilith?” I hear a whisper.

My heart pounds in my chest as I slowly creep towards the bed.

Angelica? Sits up and I almost fall back in shock. Her eyes are black. The black of the night sky. The black of secrets. The black of terrible lies. Not her fair white anymore.

This can’t be angelica. It can’t. this isn’t her.

“lilth?” she whispered again and I just stared. That sounded just like my

angelica but...

“LILTH” this time she screamed and tackled me into a hug. I froze, not knowing what to do.

 This couldn’t be angelica. But only she would tackle me in a hug like this.

“LILITH! OH, I WAS SO SO WORRIED” she screams and I see tears running down her cheeks.

“Angelica? But your hair and your eyes...?” I trail off, to really knowing what to say.

“it’s a long story..” she smiles sheepishly.

I bite my lip. I want to believe this is angelica, I really do but I don’t know for sure.

“ask me something that only I would know” its like she gussed exactly what I was thinking.

“when and where did we first meet?” I ask.

“Hm, your birthday. 17th November. On the border.” She answers almost immediately.

Then It finally hits me. Angelica, is here with me, but how? Her head wound should’ve taken at least a year to heal. Maybe even more.

“stop worrying, I’ll explain later.” She smiles and its dark and mysterious. It looks like the smile someone shows just before the reveal the thing they’d been hiding.

“let’s go kill this Seraphina” she says, and her smile widens.

“What? Angelica no. you’re an angel, you can’t kill!” I shout at her, what is she thinking?

She does a twirl and smirks at me. “I’m not an angel anymore”

She unfolds her wings from her back and I gasp. They’re black, just like mine. The black wings of a devil. I can’t believe it. how?

“but- but how” I stutter. Not knowing how to react.

“I’ll explain later. Don’t you want to know how it feels to get revenge?”

We could hurt Seraphina enough to make her not be able to wake or move for years. We could basically kill her, send her to the worst rings of hell to stay forever.

“let’s do it” I say.

She hurt my angelica. Now she’s going to pay.