The Angel of Death

“Relax, I do this all the time!”

He seemed pretty scared, something that really surprised me. He turned to look at me with widened eyes.

“Do what?!” he asked.

“Visit my dad!” I answered, smiling. “I don’t get to see him as much as I want, but it’s still fun.” He just sort of kept staring at me. I couldn’t really imagine why.

Gerard gripped my hand tighter as we got closer to the ground. I couldn’t help but smile more. I knew he had no reason to be scared, but it was interesting to see his reaction.

“Okay, here’s the fun part!” Now that I was closer to being the older version of myself, it was easier to control where I was flying. I folded my wings so they were nearly flat, trying to go as fast as I could before we landed in Hell. My dad didn’t want me flying too much around him, so I had to have as much fun as I could before we got there.

Gerard closed his eyes just before we passed through the barrier and into Hell. I fanned out my wings to slow us down as warm breezes rushed over my face, and it seemed to calm him down enough that he opened his eyes.

“It’s alright,” I said quietly. “You’re just not used to how everything looks here yet. You’ll get it.”

He sighed. “I really wish people would stop saying that…”

I had to laugh. “We’re not people.”

“I think I know that,” he snapped, though he didn’t sound very intimidating. I knew he was still scared. I landed on the ground and made my wings disappear, picking Gerard up and putting him on his feet in the process.

“Okay, we’re here,” I stated with a weak laugh as we began to walk. “Sorry I can’t just fly us there. My dad said no.” He didn’t answer, so I stayed quiet. I guessed he was worried about what my dad would say to him.

I straightened my tie and subconsciously brushed myself off. My dad hated it when I didn’t look insanely formal in front of him, and I didn’t want to make him mad.

“Welcome back, Death,” he said when we were standing in front of him again. I instantly knew we had come at a bad time. He was eating.

“Hey, dad.”

“I see you’ve brought someone with you,” he noted, talking with his mouth full. He tilted the skull back and scraped the last of the brains off one side, then picked up the object and dumped the contents into his mouth. It took a second before he could continue. “Why is he here?”

“Mom said to take him with me. I don’t really know why, though,” I answered. I figured I might as well ask before he decided to tell me specifically. “Anything you need me to do?”

“Yes, actually.” He swallowed to clear up his voice. “Go collect souls again.”

“But dad, I just did that last month!” I said a little more sharply than I had planned. I instantly regretted the outburst.

“I don’t care,” he responded. “They’re piling up, and you know what happens when too many of them are in one place at the same time.” I sighed. I knew very well that there was another war going on up there, and I couldn’t just sit there and let them suffer.

“Fine, I’ll be back soon, then.” I suddenly had an idea. Maybe if I could convince him to let me bring Gerard, nothing would happen to him. I looked between them. “Can I take him with me?”

“Why would you want to?” my dad asked, a darker tone to his voice. “He’s a murderer. He causes death. He’ll only make your job more complicated.”

“I told you, I never meant for anyone to get hurt by what I did,” Gerard said with uncertainty. He looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Ah, but is not the road to Hell paved with good intentions?” my dad countered. Neither of us had an answer. “Take him if you really want to, Death. Whatever you do, just make sure you get him out of here before I decide his brain is worth more than he is.”

He snapped his fingers, and another mindless skeleton slowly made its way toward him. It took the empty skull away from him and replaced it with a full one. My dad wasted no time and attacked the second one just as hungrily. Once Gerard saw the skeleton holding the empty skull, he gave a panicked gasp and tried to back away. I grasped his hand and walked down the hallway to get to my room. I opened the door and led him inside. It was brighter, and I almost smiled a little. It wasn’t so bad now that I had made it look a little more normal.

“We don’t have to leave just yet. I never do.” I walked over to my mini fridge and opened it. “Hey, you thirsty?” I glanced back at him as I grabbed a can of soda. He shook his head.

“What…what was that?” he asked blankly. I heard an ominous hiss outside, so I pulled him away from the door and closed it.

“He was eating,” I said hesitantly. I opened the can and drank about a third of it. “I’ve never tried it, but he says it’s really good.”

“What’s it like?” he murmured. He wasn’t looking at me, and I wondered if he realized how well I could really hear.

I walked over to him. “What’s what like?”

“Having the two of them as parents.”

“Oh.” I was a little surprised. No one had ever asked me that. “It’s alright, I guess.” I finished off the drink and tossed it in the trash. “I mean, they fight a lot, about almost everything. And sometimes I guess I wish they hadn’t separated…”

“I thought he said they were married,” said Gerard, looking confused. I smiled a little.

“Oh, they’re not divorced. They can’t be. But they can’t stand to be near each other anymore. Well, Mom can’t stand to be near him, anyway. But I know he still loves her.” Actually, I wasn’t so sure about either of those things. My mom got frustrated when he tried to do something to mess with the world, but that made sense. As far as if he still loved her, well…I knew I was only trying to convince myself of that. “It would be so much easier if they could just be in one place. Not that I don’t like flying everywhere.”

I watched as Gerard hesitantly popped open the soda and drank it. At first I thought he would spit it out, but he seemed to get used to the taste as he drank more of it. I didn’t want to mention that it was blood; I figured he would need it. The newly dead easily fell prey to weakness and injury, so something that filled them with life usually helped calm them down and make them feel better. It wasn’t like I stole it from a human, anyway.

“So, why are you a teenager here, but only a little kid up there?” Gerard asked, pointing up towards the ceiling.

I laughed. “I’ve spent a lot more time down here,” I explained. “Dad grounds me sometimes, just for no reason…I think he’s afraid I’ll leave and go back to Mom if he doesn’t.”

“Would you?”

“No. I have to do whatever they tell me. I have to listen to them.” I stopped ranting for a second, glancing at him. He looked upset about something. “Are you okay?”

Gerard shook his head. “I’m…I’m a wreck,” he said. “I feel like everything I did…everything I’ve ever done…was a waste.” He set the can on a table and pulled his fingers through his hair, leaving his hands on either side of his forehead. “I don’t know how he does it. He makes me feel so…so-”

“Insecure? Inferior?” I offered, not meaning to cut him off. I lowered my tone in case my dad was listening. “…Worthless?”

“Exactly,” he answered. “And he shouldn’t be able to. I was always so confident about what I did… You should’ve seen it. I had just gotten off the drugs and everything…getting my life back together…” For the first time since I had met him, he seemed full of energy. I thought it was because of the soda, but it seemed like something else was involved. “I could do concerts like never before. I finally realized I didn’t need anything but the crowd to get that high feeling. I was invincible.”

No sooner had he spoken than he returned to his miserable, sullen state.

“And…the worst thing…you wanna know the worst thing, kid?” he asked in a raspy voice going higher by the second. I didn’t answer; I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “I…I don’t even remember…what happened.” He crushed the soda can in a fist. “How is he able to do that to me? Make me feel like that just by talking? I should be stronger than that! He can’t possibly have so much power over me!”

“His control is not absolute,” I said, trying to calm him down. “He only holds as much power over you as you allow. You know, you were just the same.”

“What do you mean?” Gerard asked.

I shrugged, beginning to understand what had happened to him. “Well, think about it. Your words were powerful enough to influence those kids, weren’t they? Even if it didn’t work out exactly as planned, you still had control. And they were only words, just like he only uses words.” I placed my drink on the table with a little more force than necessary. “But hey, what do I know? I’m only an angel. I’m only their son. I don’t even have a real name.”

He looked stunned. “You don’t?”

I shook my head. “Not really. I’m the angel of death. Mom calls me one thing and Dad calls me another, so it just depends on where I am. Really…I just think of myself as Ande.”

“Andy?” he asked.

“No, Ande.”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“You spelled it with a ‘y’. It’s spelled with an ‘e’. See, it’s just taking the first two letters of each part of my name. ‘An,’ ‘de.’ Ande,” I explained.

“Oh. Okay,” he said. “Why don’t you tell them that?”

I shook my head again. “I couldn’t. I’m not supposed to question anything. I’d…I’d end up worse than him if I did.” I didn’t even want to think of what my dad would do to me if I said something like that to him. I crumpled up my empty soda can and tossed it into the farthest trashcan. Gerard just dropped his in the one on the floor next to him.

“We should probably get going,” I said. We left my room and went back down the hallway, appearing outside soon after. Gerard looked up at the white light, letting his eyes travel along its path from the clouds all the way to the strange fortress where my dad now resided.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing up at it.

“It’s a reminder,” I said. I was beginning to understand. It was the complete opposite of Hell; it had to be from Heaven. “It’s so he knows she’s always present, whether he thinks of her or not. Now let’s go.”

I took his hand and leapt into the air, making my wings appear in the process. It wasn’t long before we reached the ceiling, and I took a shallow breath as we broke through it and began soaring up through the atmosphere. I still had so many questions, but my dad wouldn’t tell me anything and my mom thought I was too young to understand.

I felt a violent tug against my arm and looked down. Gerard was squirming, trying to work his hand out of my grasp. I couldn’t believe it. “What are you doing?” I shouted. He didn’t answer. All at once he was falling away from me, and in seconds, I couldn’t see him at all beyond the fog of the clouds I had been rising up through. I slowed my ascent and turned around, zooming back towards the surface of the earth, but I was too late. He was gone.