Chapter Sixteen: Herald’s Theatrics

Many tales were told of Jehovah. His birth was prophesied in stone. The great demon lord Beelzebub is to fight Jehovah at the end of Babylon. When he was born, it was said the heavens shook. Demons stopped their advance into heaven in fear of what this boy might do to them. It was all rumors, but they must have come from a place of truth. At least that’s what the angels thought.

Delilah was in front of Lucifer, who appeared spaced out. She was a brash young woman who was loyal to a fault. She was an orphan like Lucifer and given the title of Protector at fourteen-years-old. Only the strongest in heaven were qualified for the job, but a little girl had the position and was best at what she did.

She wore black jeans a black tee and black leather boots. She had long blond hair, light blue eyes and was taller than Lucifer by an inch or so. She, sort of a tomboy, tried to look and act like the opposite sex the best she could.

Delilah exasperatingly questioned the two boys, asking. “What are you guys talking about?”

“No of your business, Delilah.” Jehovah said to pass her and so he did.

A vein popped from her head as she says, “You want to be like that, huh?"

A few well-made scythes fell from the sky, startling Lucifer and Jehovah, stopping them in their tracks. The scythes were as sharp as they could be and easily would have taken one of their heads if not handled well enough.

Jehovah, his face turning red, angry and embarrassed exclaimed. “Delilah! What was that for?!”

She smirked and said, “Protecting you.” She explained, “Two flies were next to you and the kid. I used an angelic Gift to kill them.”

Lucifer repeated it back, befuddled. “The kid? I could be older than you.”

She ignored Lucifer and said, “Anyways... I protected you."

Two slit-in-half flies passed Jehovah and Lucifer perspectives, and they were impressed, but not for what it was worth.

Jehovah: “You still could have killed us!” He exhaled, calming down, telling Lucifer. “I want you to come meet me later, tomorrow. I’ll have my guards come get you. You may bring whomever you’d like.” He added, "But I need to get Delilah and the twins as far away as possible before something bad happens. I feel imminent danger whenever they are around the public.”

Lucifer: “What will we be doing?”

Jehovah shrugged his shoulders and said, “Whatever you want, I guess.” Noa and Litcht, followed by twins, formed a circle around.

One of the twins said, “I want to come.” The other said the same.

Jehovah said excitedly, “Everyone’s invited!”

Noa clapped her hand in her tiny voice and said to Jehovah, “No way! We will come to your house."

Jehovah said. “Of course, just make sure your brother and sister come with you, okay?” He looked towards Delilah, “We have some small matters still to attend to.” then at Lucifer. “See you then, Lucifer.”

Lucifer was surprised. “Yeah, I think we could fit this into our tight schedule.”

Litcht replied, “What tight schedule?”

Lucifer, “Huh? Oh! I haven’t told her yet, but yeah, we’re so busy. Usually. I’m speaking generally. There is a lot going on... around the house and with these two.”

Jehovah reposed back, “Yeah, it must be hard. I'm sorry to hear that.”

Litcht shook her head in disagreement. “No, we’re usually doing nothing. You’re reading or tinkering around the house, and we watch.”

Lucifer held his tongue, grabbing his sister's he gave her a nuggie on her head. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Litcht the sister, reversed the positioning on Lucifer grabbing him by the neck and drilling her fist into his head. She spoke back to her brother, struggling to keep the hold around his neck, “You haven’t had a job in months.”

Lucifer pulled his head away, fixing his longer than usual hair. “And I told you, they were paying me pennies. I’m 14. Has anyone not heard of child labor laws? I deserved better.”

Jehovah scrunched his eyebrows, thinking about what Lucifer just said.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Lucifer pulled both of his sisters into his arms, feeling similarly embarrassed to Jehovah right about now if he wasn't before. “I think we’ll take our leave. We’ll see you.”

Jehovah, Delilah, and the twins embrace the three one final time before departure.

The sibling now had to go grocery shopping. On the way to the market, in the alley, Lucifer said there was a shortcut. The children were surrounded by adults in cheap hoodies. They looked homeless and dirty. They stunk, and no one would go near them.

“What’s going on?” Lucifer said to them manically.

“Stop.” A homeless man said this to Lucifer and his sister.

He took his hood off, going closer to them. It was Herald. The others showed who they were. It was Ann, Delrick the blacksmith, and Jonn the cook. They were all ill and pale-looking, like they had just seen a ghost.

Herald urgently said. “Who was the boy you were with today?" Herald answered his own question. "How do you know someone like that?” He grabbed hold of Lucifer, tightly squeezing him in the arms. “Did he ask about the camp? Did you tell him about him?”

The girls were scared of Herald. Ann, who kept watch over the alley until now said, “Enough! Herald, you’re acting crazy. It’s the kids. They don’t know anything.”

Lucifer replied. “It was Jehovah. The Kingdom's come down to Ellenstein." Herald bewildered, asked why. “I… I don’t know, recruitment... For fun, the twins said something about that.”

“The twins? Oh, the twins said that! Then everything fine" Herald chortled. "Whoever these 'twins' are, they don't know sh*t. They wouldn’t be here for no reason.” Herald pulled a smoke from his pocket and a lighter, igniting something that wasn’t exactly a cigarette but was similar. A black tobacco leaf is wrapped around a white powdery substance. He calmed down with the first drag taken, and it was burning fast. Herald said to the children. “What was the young prince like? Noa, did you like meeting the young prince?”

Ann went back to watch the front side of the alleyway.

Noa happily, ready to talk about her experience today, said to Herald. “He was handsome. I've never seen a boy with white hair before. I thought he was older, but he’s a young kid like my brother. And there were these kids that tried to hit on Litcht. They said they liked her. Can you believe that? Two of them. I thought they were going to kiss Litcht, Mr. Herald.”

Litcht blushed, saying it as quietly as she could. “Noa, stop telling everyone everything you snitch. What are you going to do next? Tell them God is here?"

Herald said to himself aloud, “The old man is here too. That’s a thorn in my side.”

Noa twiddled her fingers, fidgety and looked down. Speaking to Herald, she said, “Is he a bad man? I read something in your library that said he was bad. Jehovah.”

Herald looked back at Ann and the others who disapproved. He reset and explained to the kids. “No, he’s not bad. Just bad blood. You read it wrong my dear. People tend to do that.” He raised both his eyebrows and said, “I’m actually surprised an eight-year-old can understand my work better than full-grown adults.”

Ann went by Herald's side to help them better understand. The little girl wasn’t the only one out of the three who’s been in Herald’s study room, and she knew this small minute detail. Ann explains, “We aren’t on good terms, so to speak. No, they are the good guys, but we haven’t done anything wrong either. We’re freedom riders.”

Herald questioned Ann, saying, “You’re portraying us as activists now?”

Ann: "Shut up."

Jonn from the back end of the alley signaled and said, “We should go soon Herald, Ann.”

Herald: “Did you see someone?” Jonn nodded, saying he was looking forward to you talking to the kids. Herald gathered his hoodie and said, “I’ll speak with you tomorrow, children. Stay put and stay away from Jehovah.”

They left like the wind. Lucifer didn’t have time to explain to Herald or Ann that they were going to meet with the boy tomorrow.

Back at home after shopping, Litcht was knitting herself a beanie while Noa was put to bed early. Litcht said to her brother. “Guess we're not going to hang out with Delilah or Jehovah tomorrow.”

Lucifer said, “Noa was complaining about the same thing.”

Litcht: “It’s not complaining, Lucille. It’s called fun—something you don’t know how to have.”

Lucifer said to himself, “I know how to have fun.” He said louder towards Litcht, “And I’ll prove it! We will disobey Herald’s direct commands and go hang out with Jehovah, tomorrow.” Lucifer maniacally laughed like an evil villain.

Litcht: “This is what I'm talking about. No fun. Who goes around saying and doing that kind of stuff? Cool people would just do it, Jehovah wouldn’t do that.”

Lucifer: “Stop comparing. That’s one of your problems, you know. I’m being cool, asked Noa.”

Litcht: “She’s eight.”

Lucifer brushed her off while reading his books that were still on the ground. He thought about Jehovah, something he was waiting to do. He could not fathom that the boy would be so nice, especially towards him.

The sky was degraded. The blue irritation of the sky was dark and the sun that could no longer be seen; reflected off two moons.

Ellenstein was quiet on one side and by the shore, there was a party going on.

Herald, accompanied by a group of masked angels, broke into the abandoned old mill.

Lucifer stayed awake painting a picture of a beautiful garden and writing a poem for Litcht. She wanted to make it for a boy at school. Lucifer was reluctant to help in her conquest of love, but she begged him. She admitted to her brother that he was a smidge better with words than her. Lucifer’s advice was to not let the poem go over his head, and to stop using the dictionary.

"Alacrity, is a word no one knows," he said to her.