Lucifer's Angel

Left alone in silence, my mind began to shift. I got to my feet as quickly as I could. Running a hand through my hair, I started to frantically pace back and forth, doing anything I could to occupy my mind. With each step, the sound of my boots connecting with the floor began to fade and the crunch of gravel replaced it. I came to a halt, shutting my eyes tightly. This only brought more memories, more regrets forth. I could hear gunfire now, echoing off the buildings. I could feel the heat of the flames around me, the rumble of tanks firing in the distance. My eyes began to sting and it was getting harder to breath because of the settling dust.

My eyes snapped open and I found myself staring at my reflection in the window. The morning light of the sun was searing, but I didn’t bother to look away. Orange, reds, and yellows blended together, creeping out into the blue of the sky. It was days like this, days when the memories fight and fight until they break through, seeping old poisons into my mind, ripping open old scars that had just stopped aching, when I despised living. No matter how much I wanted to, I could not turn and run, I could not just leave everything behind, even though it seemed so worthless most of the time. I had a greater purpose, one that allowed me just enough motivation to keep going, just enough reason not to give in. I could not allow myself to break. Always, I had to be a stoic soldier. I had to make it look like I could take on anything with a straight face, and I had shown everything but that.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I’d done the right thing, despite it seeming wrong. Mary was upset, yes, but she needed to know what had happened to Miles and Katherine. The only people she called family had somehow been killed by Lucifer. We didn’t know how, but the reason why was obvious. Mary knew this as wel—

My stomach dropped and my eyes widened slightly, understanding something. I let out another sigh, sitting down stiffly. She blames herself…. Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the seat. It wasn’t her fault, but I would never be able to convince her otherwise. No one had ever been able to convince me when I always blamed myself what things that had happened during the war. Now that so much time had passed, no one bothered with it anymore. They knew it was a hopeless effort with me….

After the government turned militaristic, the world’s multiple militaries, peoples, cultures, and so on united under one banner. The boundaries that separated countries ceased to exist, leaving only the continents of united people. This new government was an attempt to greatly lessen war, but at the same time, the changed managed to cause on of the worst wars to ever occur. The language and cultural boundaries separating people began to fade along with many other things, but not nearly as drastically. These differences were as stubborn and unwavering as the groups of people representing them, and eventually, conflicts started in Europe after a military officer was killed while trying to break up a fight between. We’re still not entirely sure what they were arguing about, people just assumed it was over the cultural differences.

At first, they’d told the United Military to stay out of it, but when things started getting violent, our generals, many of whom are no longer in the military, started picking sides. They started using enlisted North American natives to spy on Europe and the generals who sided with them once our leader’s opinions became known. When Europe, Africa and Australia discovered this plot, they began imprisoning and torturing them.

That was when war broke out. Once a general picked a side, who ever they were in charge of automatically shared that opinion. It had gone from the military not being involved to being at war with each other. We were pitted against our friends, our family, people we had worked with in training. We didn’t want to fight, but we had no choice, no say in the matter. To voice your opinion usually ended in being shot, or worse. That was how the military worked then, and how it still works. You are told to do something and you do it. If you resist, there are consequences. Foolishly, many of us made the choice to resist. To counter this, they started blackmailing us. Some generals would search through years of records, finding anything they could to use against us. When they got sick of looking, they resorted to something much worse, something that was much more effective. They… they would take our families captive, threatening to harm them if we did not do as we were told. It took far too many people to realize that our leaders were being serious. Unfortunately, it did not take much to set off one of the former generals. Even the slightest bit of hesitation to carry out an order on the chain of command resulted in misery. Few people had managed to avoid this torment… not even me….

A large grin crossed the officer’s face as he held the gun out in front of him, aimed in her direction. I struggled against the ones holding me, earning a hard kick to my ribs, just below the lungs. I kept struggling.

“Oh, now you wanna fight,” the officer in front of me sneered, amusement in his voice. Another kick struck me. A loud cracked sounded this time a terrible, burning pain seared through the skin along my side, creeping into my lower back. I kept fighting, trying to get free, but the two men holding me were too strong. They kept my hands in an icy splash of water that had collected in a dip in the road so I could burn them to a crisp. Eventually, they kicked my again, this time in the back, knocking the air out of me. My body went numb as the oxygen left me and all I could do was staring up at the officer. I couldn’t look at her, look in her eyes. The fear showing was too much for me. I started to fall and my fellow soldiers finally let go of me. I collapsed onto the ground, unable to move. When I could breathe again, I did not move. I just stayed there, still. There was no use fighting them.

“Okay,” I spoke bluntly. “You win. I give up,” I choked out, keeping my eyes glued to the ground. She called my name, screaming and yelling, telling me to get up, telling me to run, to fight, though she knew what would happen if I did. I refused to now. I would not let her die because of this.

“Wonderful, we’ve gotten the point across.” And at that, the gun fired and a spray of red covered us. My eyes went wide in fury and I shot up from the ground, only to find myself at staring down the barrel of the gun, stained in blood… her blood.

“And what do you think you’re doing? You don’t want to end up like your-“

My eyes snapped open hearing the screech of the door and silently whoever was there stepped into the room.