Chapter 3

A young girl with black jeans, a white T-shirt with the words OBEY in red caps and a beanie with a skull shaped strawberry was deeply focused with a sketch pad in one hand and the other with a number six drafting pencil. The subject of her intense scribbling was the day old corpse of a rat that had died of old age. Her attention was drawn to it when she noticed the missing limb on the right side of its body. The frailty of this creature and its silent and thoroughly missed death inspired today's manic episode. Behind her a plume of fireless smoke rose behind her. Both silent and odorless. It began to coalesce into a dark human-esque shape.

My eyes first opened. I noticed two things within a span of two seconds. First was that the numbness I had been feeling was still very much present. Somewhat worse actually. Second was the fact that he was standing in a windowless warehouse filled with metal columns and about a thousand square feet of empty space. I shook my legs and arms to try and get some blood flow going. The sudden scraping of skin on the floor woke the twenty something girl from her flow state. Turning towards me our eyes met. Then just as suddenly as she saw me her eyes went wide. Dropping her sketchbook she rushed towards the door like a gazelle, seeming to forget it was a push door. She began pulling the door despite the large bold print over the door reading “Push”, while tears streamed down her face. I was shocked. I never did get a chance to see my face before but I doubted greatly I deserved a reaction like that… She seemed to collapse on the ground into a fetal position. With eyes tightly shut and seemed to me muttering something just outside my hearing. Seeing the sketchbook on the ground I reached down and noticed my arm covered in obsidian scales.Stopping my reach I used my other hand to touch the texture but felt nothing but the feeling of ants crawling and biting over my skin or at least what I imagined that would feel like. I shook my head to try to get a handle over myself and picked up the notebook. Turning back to her, all I saw was the open door closing shut with a small whoosh and dry slam of the door hitting the frame. I looked back at my arm, head facing the floor and noticed another issue… I'm totally naked right now…

“Here put this on. “

I instinctively turned toward the voice, I swear, I didn’t jump out of fear. Probably. Standing in the same white 3 piece white suit I had seen before was a much younger woman, with sharp features. In sharp contrast to the other woman. Her voice was smooth and almost musical.

“Well? I’m not going to be holding on to this all day now. '' She said with a shit eating grin plastered on her face while waving a plastic bag filled with what I later noticed was clothing. Taking the proffered clothing I quickly removed the plastic cover. Inside was a black hoodie, a black t-shirt both with the words Thrasher in bright red letters, a pair of dark grey sweats, and a pair of black socks. Quickly pulling them on. Sweats then socks then when i went to put on my shirt I ran into a slight snag. There seemed to be a stick or something that was keeping me from pulling the shirt over my head. When I began inspecting this strange obstruction I felt… well I don’t need to explain how weird this had been so far but I had FREAKING HORN sticking out of my FUCKING FORHEAD!! Not only one But TWOOO WHOLE FUCKING HORNS that curled into them selves like a ram. I just COULD NOT FUCKING COMPUTE!! My breath was ragged and almost impossible to control as I peeled the shirt off my FUCKING HORNS and with a heaving sigh, pulled myself up to my feet. Feelling the world begin to spin I felt strong hands grab my shoulders and pin me against one of the metal pillars filling the warehouse. I turned to see a green eyed man with chiseled features and a short cropped beard. His hair long and reaching his chin framed his face and the man began to take deep but slow breaths. Before long the world began to stop spinning and I found myself breathing in the same steady rhythm of the man. His grip eased. Eventually let me go to stand on my own two feet. The man then turned toward the young woman leaving me to begin to feel the edges of my new horns and scaly head.

“I really wish you would have consulted me before giving him the clothing. You know how humans can be about this kind of stuff Rizoel.” said the man.

“ Well I can hardly be faulted with this. I was incharge of background research and this was the latest in Whuman fashion! Plus I did have to take a short detour to rearrange my appearance. I refuse to be caught down here in that makeshift shell I had earlier. All you had to do, like always, was appear and liaise.” the woman replied. Taking a moment to take a second look I realized immediately the obvious. This was the same woman as before.

“W wh wh wh... why do you guys look so different?” a massive stutter escaping my still numb lips.

“Well it seems our pet Whuman has finally woken up. Why my dear pet, “ said Rizoel completely sidestepping my question and condescendly so. “You have been reborn! Congrats! There hasn’t been one new member of our kind in over a millenia, assuming you don’t count those oafish Nephilim and trust me you should not! Welcome back to earth my dear.” stepping towards me she gracefully picked up my t-shirt and sweater and handed them towards me. I instinctively took them and pulled them on, this time, more carefully over my head. Because of the larger width of the horns compared to the shirt I had to place one horn in first followed by the other. Doing the same with the sweater I turned towards the two expectant faces. “Why do I look like this?” my voice came out as barely a whisper.

“Well my boy!” answered the man with the black suit. Which I was assuming to be Anapiel, “ With the restrictions on human reincarnation at the moment and the very nature of your, let's say vacation, in limbo. The only option was to rebuild you into a more sturdy form. That of a Jinn, you are now mostly composed of semi-conductive alloys and the embers of life. To say the least this is definitely an upgrade if i do say so myself” the last part he said with a smile and a lift of his eye brows. “ But never fear we were all born with the features you have now. We just learned to adapt just as you will too. In time of course. Can’t really run without walking first, no?” Stiffing his stance he raised his hand towards himself and Rizoel. “Myself and Riz here will be shadowing you for the foreseeable future. We will not be directly interacting with you as we are now. This was merely for a brief introduction into what to expect and to answer any questions. Like do we eat! The answer is yes, we require the same type of sustenance as any normal human just in much greater amounts.”

“The word Prodigious comes to mind” quipped Rizoel as she seemed to inspect the nails on her left hand.

“Yes” said Anapiel with a frown towards her.

“ Another thing to know is that sleep is no longer a requirement as well. You can sleep if you want. Just don't be surprised if a century passes when you decide to take a short nap.”

“You have no idea how frustrating it was to miss the 80s” said Rizoel with a slight unhappy puckering of her lips. “ I would have thoroughly enjoyed that decade.”

Anapiel turned to face me and said “Fun fact about your new form is the time you will now have! While we do age, it is much different to that of the human bodies you are familiar with. We Jinn are made of much sterner stuff. We can live almost indefinitely unless a couple of things happen. One, if we are separated from our flame. It is in the core of your body so it is not an easy target but it has happened before with some of our less than careful brothers and sisters. While it rests within you and you do not make any effort to move it. You should be fine. Second, if you are crushed into atomic particles then you are as good as dead since your flame would have been spread so thin as to be shut off completely. Third and most importantly, is old age. Like I said we can age but unlike human’s bodies that grow old and begin to fail them ours do the reverse. We can grow stronger and larger, so much larger that we sometimes must leave this planet then we explode and either become stellar dust or form the beginnings of a star. My great grandfather is coincidentally one of Orion's belts! Fun right?” finished Anapiel with an enthusiastic smile.

“Fun?” I replied. I highly doubt exploding into a star was my idea of fun but whatever. “ How long do I have?” I asked somewhat sheepishly.

“Well it really depends on you. Everyone is different and frankly the big guy upstairs does not like to give out ‘spoilers’ as he calls them” said Rizoel using her hands to make the quotation marks with her pointer and middle fingers on both hands when she said spoilers. “ It’s the basics of his philosophy or something like that. Rules like not knowing the future and fighting for survival to prove your one existence. I swear if I have to listen to another one of his mandatory speeches on the nature of reality as he has made it. I will literally rip my flame out of my body and drop it into the indian ocean.” said Rizoel.

“Settle down Riz, you are being dramatic again” replied Anapiel.

“ yea sure, Ana here has only been alive for a couple hundred thousand years. You should really respect my seniority here.” Rizoel said with a tone of finality.

“Well yes I do admit you are a bit older.” Anapiel answered sheepishly.

Both turned towards me. “ Look, this is the deal,” began Rizoel with a deep breath,” you will be for the foreseeable future bound to this form and this plane. You are to remain until the stipulations of Lilith’s and Yahweh’s deal have been met. You will not under any circumstances tell others of your experience. You will not and I repeat NOT! Provide evidence of the divine to humanity. They have a hard enough time understanding the basics of Quantum mechanics and chaos theory and when they did they almost destroyed an entire continent. I swear if Azrael would have not been on site to contain the blast this planet would have started leaking oxygen by trillions of gallons per second and everyone would have just died of hypoxia. Imagine them with the ability to unravel reality itself! Needless to say, you will have to figure out a way to get by. Find something to do. We really do not care. Just make sure it is out of sight and furthermore we will be watching so avoid doing anything untoward please. I have enough bad memories to last a millennia. I would not enjoy more of that.” by the time she had finished speaking her face was just scant inches from mine. Her finger pressed into my chest in an accusatory manner.

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I still did have one issue that if I didn’t address would drive me nuts.

“When will the numbness wear off?” I said.

Turning to look back towards Anapiel. Rizoel stepped away from me and turning back towards me I noticed a frown on both of their faces mixed with a look of guilt.

“Well that is another issue. It seems you spent the better part of the last 10 years, from earth’s point of view in Limbo. There are bound to be some side effects. My advice is to just go with what feels right.” This last part was said with a look of chagrin. “For now just trust that it is temporary and that in time the essence of that realm will just have to ebb and flow out of you in a natural way. “ Replied Anapiel.

“So this is the last time I will see you guys?” I asked.

“ Well… yes and no. We will be around to make sure you are following the rules but besides that. Mostly no but hey ! cheer up! It is not often that God makes a Whuman like yourself all but immortal and impenetrable. You could always start a crime fighting career or become the next super dude or whatever it is that he is called. You know the guy that flys around with the red undergarments on the outside '' said Rizoel while miming the classic flying superhero pose.

With a look at Rizoel, Anapiel made a deep frown and shook his head in the negative towards her.

“What! That is a thing down here. Come on!” said Rizoel in indignation.

“Well for what it is worth, thanks guys.” I said.

With that and a gust of wind they were gone. A few moments passed before I realized my own stupidity for not asking. Where in the fuck am I?!

I spent the better part of that day simply walking from abandoned back alley to back alley. Doing my best not to seem suspicious. Luckily it was midwinter wherever I was and the snow was coming down like a mother fucker and with whatever made limbo still flowing through me. I barely felt any of it. Regardless of what little clues I could get together. Some random left behind newspapers and passing ads. I discovered I was in no other than New York. Specifically south bronx. Continuing like this and with the abandoned notebook in hand. I made my way south. Making sure to avoid any signs of life in the city. After what seemed like forever the sun had fallen on the horizon and the snow had let up. Doing my best to avoid the bright lights all around me I found myself near an abandoned warehouse district. Moving as quickly as I could, which with this new body felt like something out of a martial arts movie. I was able to clear at least 20 feet in a single leap and that was without really trying much and I felt that I could probably keep up with a car moving at full speed now. Eventually found a good spot and broke into this dilapidated warehouse. The door’s lock felt like paper when I peeled it off the front door. The windows were all covered in old newspapers and the front had the faded sign of an old auto parts store. Within was a good five thousand square feet of old car equipment and old cars all stacked ontop of eachother in large car sized shelves made of thick steel beams. Climbing up the side of them I found what were the remnants of a beat up Volkswagen van. The doors and exterior were covered in rust but the inside was almost completely untouched. It’s interior came complete with thick shag carpeting and even though it was dusty. The back was spacious and even sported a small disco ball hanging from the top. Against my better judgement, I found a nice spot and took a quick nap. Relieved to have found a temporary home to hide from this new world I seemed to have fallen into.

I awoke with a start, remembering the words of Rizoel ringing in my head. Worried I could have slept for a thousand years I shot up from the back seat of the van and was drawn to sounds coming from below but within the warehouse. I looked out and saw a group of men. They all sported the same gold and purple colored clothing in various styles and shapes. They were unloading wooden boxes into an open space within the warehouse from the back of a large metal container attached to a semi truck. Suddenly the shapes of humans. Young boys and girls were being unloaded at gunpoint and made to stand near the back wall. Each and everyone of them wore ragged clothing, all of them looked disheveled and worn out and were chained to a long pipe that ran from one end to the other. Many sporting dried blood in various forms on their clothing. From what I could tell many of them seemed to be victims of human trafficking and if any of the television specials were to be believed the group with the guns were probably moving drugs with in the boxes. My first instincts were to just hide in place and wait till everything quieted down so that I could sneak away. Leaning back into the back seat the numbness around me radiated stronger for some reason when I tried to fight the images of the children bound in chains attached to metal pipes and the faces of some of the men as they leered and counted their earnings. Suddenly my body quivered as if I were back in limbo. The numbness became that much more intense with every moment I filled with inaction. The moment I considered acting against these men, a cold numb feeling seemed to begin to recede. Is this what they meant? That I had to do what feels right.. I still wasn’t sure any of this wasn't still some fever dream that I was having back at the hospital but if there was a chance to get rid of this numbness. This was as good a chance as any to test out this theory. Taking another quick peek at the floor below I began to plan my attack.

Moments later I had slowly crept out of the van through an open window on the drivers side. Making my way as quietly as possible I climbed through openings in the cars to the bottom of the car shelves. Previously I had seen that after they had unloaded all their spoils the bulk of the men had left. Leaving behind a group of five men. Three of which went into a set of office doors in the back with the label management partly peeled off to make it read “MAN GE NT” on the door. Two men remained in the general area. One seemed to have taken an interest in one of the young girls at the end of one of the lines and had been whispering something just outside of earshot to me and the other men. Clearly distracted by her. The other was smoking a cigarette just outside. Both had what looked like the typical small machine guns you see in gangster movies. Not the old school tommy gun but the modern MP5 something. The type you see in drive bys and what not. Taking the solid opportunity I made my way silently as possible towards the man harassing the girl. She could not have been older than sixteen and with the way it seemed they were treating their merchandise she could not have weighed more than 100 pounds. I surprised myself and hot anger seemed to boil within me at the thought of these children being treated this way. The closer I got the more I wanted to smash the man into pulp but I held back and moved inch by inch. Slowly step by step I crept closer, within a few feet of the man I was creeping on. I was out of the safety of the shadows cast by the warehouse. The dim light over head casting my shadow behind me. A few of the children looked up to see but I put a long nailed finger to make the silent motion to keep them from revealing my location to the guard. At this point I doubt anyone of them could have distracted the man from the way he was running his hand on her. Her soft weeping started a flame. It was burning within me in a blisteringly white hot anger that filled my insides. When I reached just arms length I heard a shout from my right. The man who had left was now aiming his gun at me and alerting the others in what must have been spanish. “ Oye! Tenemos compania! Hey mother fucker back the fuck up!” he said and in that moment I grabbed the sick fuck closest to me by the back of the neck. Making sure to grab the MP5 dangling from its strap with the other hand. Using him as a human shield I pulled the trigger. The deafening roar of the gun filled the night, sending ricocheting rounds at the man . He in turn was dropped and probably dead before he hit the ground. Holding the trigger all while falling. I felt a few impacts on my right side but I didn’t have time to think before the double doors exploded with movement. The man within my grasp felt like he weighed like nothing so I awkwardly did an overhead toss with his body. Shifting my left hand grip from the gun to his hip and throwing him bodily towards the three men entering from the office. Knocking all of them on the ground in one fell swoop. With a battle cry that sounded more like a choked up old man. I jumped on the recovering men and began to swing wildly with closed fists in what I looked back to think of as nerd rage. Clearly uncoordinated but still effective. I was able to beat most of them to unconsciousness at least. Many of them with limbs facing the wrong direction and black and blue bruises filling every inch of visible skin. With my lungs heaving and a warm sensation filling me I rushed over to the children and one by one I crushed the restraints holding them. Suddenly the sound of sirens filled the air and seemed to be coming ever closer. With that in mind I directed the older looking children to hold hands with the others and to lead them to the opposite side of the warehouse where they would be safe in case the cops decided to come in commando style like on tv. Double checking on the men to make sure none would be a threat. I pulled the warehouse metal doors open only to be flashed by over 20 lights and with blue and red lights filling my vision. I looked away quickly before an officer that looked rather pudgy pulled out a speaker. “ We are the NYPD, put your hands up and drop any weapons or we will open fire.”

Shit this is going tits up real fast. Spinning on a dime I leapt out of view of the cops and made my way to the children. “You kids are gonna be ok alright. Just do what the police say and don’t make any sudden movements when they come in” I looked around to make sure I had their attention. Many nodded but I could tell they were clearly trying to avoid looking at me. I would too if I ever saw someone that looked like me. I figured this was the best I could do and hoped they spoke enough english to understand. I leapt with all my power up. Which was probably a mistake since that shot me right through the roof with an explosion of dust and debris. Landing flat on my tailbone on the roof. After a quick self inventory of my body. Nothing broken it seems. Dam I clearly made from solid steel at this point. I hope that doesn’t cause any kind of copyright issue with Mr. Dude of steel. Laughing at my stupidity, I made my way across the roof and leapt again towards the nearest building. Just barely over shooting the 15 foot gap and landing just within the next roof. Taking a quick look back from behind some vent coming from the top of the building. I saw the cops swarming the building from all sides. With little in the way of being able to help at this point. I made my way into the cold night hoping to maybe find another sweet spot. Would be great if I found something with shag carpeting again.