I dreamed I had a normal life. Almost.
There were the occasional attacks. Every few years when I was alone, four or five people would appear out of nowhere, push me up against the wall, or down on the floor, and run their hands over my back. They would leave quickly, without a word, and without taking anything. There would be no evidence of them having been there at all. I was afraid that these were hallucinations and eventually stopped reporting it when it happened.
Then one day I was walking down an empty street when it happened again. Three men and one woman seemed to step out of the wall of a building and pushed me to the ground. They examined my back for much longer than usual, and for the first time, they spoke. "Oh..."the woman said, "oh finally. Feel right there. You can feel the change. He will be happy."
They forced me up and began to drag me along with them. I believe I was hit over the head, because the next thing I remember is waking up to voices. I was confused, because it was dark, and I seemed to be kneeling. Then the blindfold was taken off my eyes. I was in a large courtyard. It looked like an outdoor throne room of gigantic proportions. In front of me was a man unlike anyone I had ever seen. He was a giant, and His skin seemed to be made of fire, if fire could hold still. He was terrifying -all nightmares combined.
He said "I have been looking for you for a very long time. You took your time with changing."
I tried not to cower, but He was too terrifying to look at directly. After a long pause, I realized He was changing. When I dared to look at Him, He had become an average sized man of human appearance. He was fairly good looking, middle-aged, and He had an extreme intensity about Him that was nearly as intimidating as His giant form. His eyes were the same texture as His skin had been -as if fire had frozen.
He explained to me that I was half-angel, the only one of my kind. I was born into the earthly realms, where He had power, and I would eventually grow wings. The change in my bone structure had apparently already started. He thought the idea of a half angel was hilarious, and insisted that I remain in his kingdom, the kingdom of Hell, as His guest.
After leaving His presence, I wept in relief to be away from Him. I was shown around hell by some very nice demons, who eventually became my good friends. (one of them, who's name was Entia, was the woman who was sent to fetch me, and one of them was my real life friend Nathan, who's name in this dream was Vethan.). Hell was a medium sized city, rather industrial and colorless. Everyone who lived there had a job that they were assigned to do. Mostly the inhabitants were demons, who looked almost exactly like humans except tat their tongues were black or silver. I was assigned a job at a factory and began a rather boring existence. The boredom was punctuated by the occasional terrifying visit or summons from Satan. (Satan had a different name in this dream. But he told me on one of his visits that if I ever went back to the human realms, I would instantly forget that name. The name "satan" was invented by humans who had visited hell, and had tried to remember the name. Satan found the name 'Satan' extremely amusing, as if we had called him 'fluffy' or something") Satan ruled Hell like a dictator, and the demons were extremely respectful and terrified of Him. Even my demon friends would never speak badly of Him, and looked terrified by anything negative that I had to say.
Satan was seemingly all powerful, with a maliciously playful nature. I seemed to be His favorite citizen. After that first meeting with Him, I was determined never to show fear in His presence, something I think greatly amused Him. I was defiant, rude, sarcastic and refused to be intimidated, even though inwardly I would shrink in terror just thinking about Him.
One day, my friend Vethan whispered for me to follow him. We went covertly through the city, and out further than I had ever been allowed to go. He told me that most of the demons felt extremely sympathetic towards me. They, after all, can not exist outside hell without satan's permission. But I was a human, and half angel, and did not belong in hell. Vethan brought me to the edge of a cliff. He said that jumping off the cliff would lead me to the human realms again. I of course looked at him with extreme suspicion. Jumping off a cliff did not seem like a good way to solve my problems, and for all I knew, he could be satan in disguise playing another sadistic game with me.
Vethan asked me if I trusted him. I said .... well... yes... And he immediately pushed me over the cliff.
I landed on something soft, but it was a long time before I could pull myself together to open my eyes. I seemed to be laying on fabric. I looked around to find myself laying on a large awning of a building front. I sat up, and was so startled that I nearly fell over. I was looking in what appeared to be a gigantic, colorful face staring at me. When I calmed down I realized that I was looking at a paper-mache mask. I looked around this familiar place and realized that I was in the French Quarter in new Orleans. It must have been mardi gras season, because there were people, colors, masks, beads and floats everywhere.
I jumped down carefully from the awning and began to wander around. How long did I have before He came looking for me? Where could I go to get away from Him?
Suddenly I had such a blinding pain in my back, that I fell over. I crawled to a deserted alley. The noise of the street vanished suddenly and completely. It felt as though my back was splitting open.
I heard a voice. I heard His voice.
"You thought you could just leave me? You thought you could hide from me in my own City? New Orleans has always belonged to me, since the beginning." He sounded angry and throughly amused at the same time. "Your transformation is continuing, and you are not here where I can protect you from it. I am coming for you, little angel. I will find you again soon."
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