“Don’t tell me you followed them back,” Michael said, glancing at Cupid from the corner of his eyes as he delicately removed the octopus from his head. He didn’t do so with his hands though because no way in Heaven was he going to touch that disgustingly slimy animal with his bare hands. The red squirming sea creature was now floating several meters above his head. In its place was his beautiful golden hair that reached his nape along with some kind of barrier stopping the octopus’ juices from dripping down on him. A faint golden light shone on him after he twirled his finger and flapped the white wings on his back. The first motion was to return the octopus to where it rightfully belonged whilst the second was to dry his soggy hair.

Cupid stifled a laugh as he watched how Michael repugnantly treated his dear pet. He knew how his fellow Angel was somewhat of an automysophobic. Actually, that might be an extreme term to use. He just really disliked getting dirty or coming in contact with anything that seemed to be remotely dirty. In any case, Cupid love messing around with Michael because his reactions were comedy gold. At least, in his eyes they were.

“What do you think? Obviously, I did. Now, I wouldn’t be Cupid if I didn’t, right?’ Cupid clicked his tongue and shook his head disapprovingly. “You know me. I’ll go down to Earth as and when I like. Celestial beings bore me. Humans, on the other hand, are more interesting, don’t you think so? Look, they’re at our mercy. We can control them as we please and bend their will to our every bidding. What humours me even more is that they can’t see us. They think it’s this imaginary thing called fate controlling their lives when it’s actually just us tugging at their puppet strings.” The playful expression on Cupid’s face was momentarily gone and in its place was nothingness. Michael couldn’t read the brief blank sheet on Cupid’s face, but it wasn’t long before his mischievous friend had an impish smile hanging on his lips again. It was rare for Cupid to be anything but jovial, so Michael was puzzled when Cupid learned to have such a strange emptiness to the vivid play his facial expressions would act out.

There were things Angels couldn’t do and wouldn’t do, purely because it was in their nature not to do so. They would not pry into another Angel’s past unless the situation called for it, but that too was extremely rare. The reason being that an Angel’s past revealed all their weaknesses and most importantly, their true name when they were human.

Transcendent beings from Heaven and Hell were all humans in the past. It was some strange ritual the Upstigans had to go through before immortality became their one and only reality. The way this worked was that unlike normal humans whose lives would end after they circled the cycle of life and sealed the loop with death, the death of these otherworldly beings would signify their rebirth. Their souls would return to the hollow shells up above or down below where their lives would continue, but not as they once knew it to be. Surprisingly, most of them didn’t hold any attachment to their past lives. They bore the memories of their human selves, yet their ties were severed. It was just like an out-of-body experience, a faraway dream even. They would view their memories through someone else’s eyes as though it was something that felt familiar yet foreign and distant.

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The logic behind this ritual was for them to experience worldly sufferings so that they wouldn’t commit the same mistakes humans did. After all, with great power came even greater responsibilities. Angels were the saviours of humanity, whereas Demons were punishers of the damned. They were to judge humanity and balance out the scale of good and evil. One might think a world consisting solely of good would be a utopia, but reality wasn’t so kind. Humans were made to suffer and it didn’t matter how self-content one was because at the end of the day, they had their own breaking points. Moreover, humans weren’t engineered to be exact carbon copies of the perfect human. If they were, wouldn’t they just be robots who had no sense of identity?

Back to the point at hand, Upstigans were clear slates when they were reborn, but the strongest mortal fear lingering in their souls would be their Achilles heel as Angels or Demons. That wasn’t all. Knowing a Upstigan’s true name would mean being able to look up their past and binding them to a mortal body. Both were equally terrifying, but binding transcendent beings to a mortal body would mean making them go through another round of suffering. No matter how Demons loved punishing people, going through mortal suffering would be the worst punishment they could get. For Angels, they’d like to live without any pain if necessary. Cupid’s pranks were harmless. Sure, they were annoying but he didn’t wish harm upon them. But with an eternity to kill, what was he to do if not play pranks on his fellow friends and poor, unsuspecting humans?

“You know we’re not supposed to tamper with humans for fun, Cupid. That’s not our job. They’re fragile beings that need patient guidance. We’re meant to observe them and put things in the right place when they fall out of order,” Michael chided, but knew his words would fall on deaf ears.

“Yes, Mother Michael. We must abide by the rules blah blah blah. But where’s the fun in that?! Surely you must think it’s fun to toy around with humans. As long as the scales are balanced, anything goes! You know what makes humans tick. Love!” Cupid winked and kicked himself off his cloud. He flew over to Michael’s side and swung his arm around his friend’s neck, catching him in a loose neck lock. “Love, Michael, love! Don’t you see what love can do to humans? Love can do wonders! It can make or break a person and that’s what fascinates me so. It’s my new project and really, I can’t wait to see what happens. Humans, they’re really so stupid it’s riveting. ” Cupid’s eyes sparkled as though he’d found the most precious gem.

Michael rolled his eyes at the nickname his friend gave him and sighed in exasperation at the overflowing excitement oozing out of Cupid’s wings. Clearly, he didn’t share the same sentiment. But no matter, Cupid would narrate his adventures whether Michael liked to hear them or not. “Leave the humans alone, Cupid. But why do I bother? You’re not going to listen to me anyway, so do continue your story so I can leave before the sun sets.”