Zeke and his friends must’ve been at the library for over an hour now. He remained adamant about not checking the time but knew that it was midnight for sure.

He was angry with Ugo’s subpar description of the place; he figured that someone with his memory would pay more attention to detail. It had a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and the towering cracked bookshelves shone just like the flooring with a varnished oak wood glow. The resin, or whatever was used to make the glow, produced a scent that stagnated in the air like plastic with a dash of woody perfume.

The wall bore a warm taupe color with numerous iron sconces that had to be strategically placed in a room that was so highly flammable that it teetered on the line between irresponsible ignorance and reckless stupidity. As if to attempt fate even further, the room had abstract oil paintings and linen wall hangings etched with exciting patterns. The less flammable offenders were a variety of decorations such as mirrors, masks, stone eyeballs, and mounted busts of beasts.

Shattered display cases — containing single pages and colorful illuminated manuscripts made from sheep skin — and ruined white marble statues of beautiful women, some missing limbs and others with half their faces broken off, dotted the floor that was marked with a repeated insignia matching the sigil Zeke drew on the door to get to the hospital.

The room looked as if it expanded for miles and featured massive, crumbling spiral staircases with a couple of steps missing, promising more to offer on the second level, but neither of them dared to go up the harrowing collection of broken steps.

Zeke, Ugo, and AJ stationed themselves at a long table, and piles of books were spread across the top alongside their surgical masks. When they scouted the library, Ugo mentioned how each shelf had a sigil engraved on its side, perhaps to denote the genre. He showed them the shelf where he got the exorcism book; the sigil on it was like the Holy Cross. They grabbed some books from it and gathered some more from shelves carved with sigils they determined looked the most demonic, and then some from a bookshelf inscribed with a sigil that looked like a constellation because of Zeke. He attested to how his grandmother also taught him that angels and constellations were linked.

Therefore, Zeke stayed focused on a book from the constellation shelf. It provided words in English, but the terrible handwriting scrawled across the papyrus pages made it seem like a different language. From what he could read, it didn’t seem relevant. It went on and on about the rankings of angels and their positions in Heaven. It said in total, there were nine classes of angels divided into three spheres.

The First Sphere was composed of Seraphim, Cherubs, and Thrones, and they served God directly. The Second Sphere were the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers, and they governed every Realm below Heaven, especially Earth and not including the Netherworld.

The Third Sphere had the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels; their main priority was guiding humans. He browsed through the paragraphs explaining their angelic forms and attributes, but there was nothing about weaknesses.

He was hoping to find something he could identify Naomi with. It seemed too stupid to even think about, but he hoped to find a step-by-step guide on treating an ill angel, like a how-to-do video you’d find on the internet. Every time he turned a page, it felt like half of it would rip off.

“Did you find anything?” Zeke heard Ugo ask AJ as she flipped through one book they took from the devilish symbol inscribed bookshelf.

“Nope, just mostly about the different demons in the world. It’s really freaking me out,” AJ responded.

Zeke heard Ugo slam his book shut and complain, “Mine just goes on and on about the different corners of Hell in great detail. I’m going to have nightmares for days.”

Zeke refused to look up and turned to another page. He stopped and studied the conspicuous heading inscribed with blackened ink—CONTAINERS.

He read the block of scribbled text that followed. He reached the end of the page and pulled back. A thought was clawing its way out of his mind, one that was either logical, moronic, or insane, but that was for his audience to decide. “Whoa,” he said.

“What is it?” AJ asked.

Zeke read one more time to make sure and then returned his eyes to the top of the page once again. He read aloud verbatim, “‘Angels require Containers to walk select mortal lands. They have grown accustomed to human Containers, and when an angelic soul enters the recipient, it transmogrifies their vessel from its innards.”

“‘In exchange for free will, thy vessel shall be granted with godly vigor, and an increase of measure of Mana and full access to White Magic spells. All this is made possible because of the angelic soul expelling minuscule, invisible creatures into the bloodstream of thy vessel, replacing the existing ones.’” Zeke raised his head and cracked a smile.

“Okay… what does any of that even mean?” Ugo asked.

Zeke recited, “‘Minuscule, invisible creatures to replace the existing ones’? And expelled into the ‘bloodstream of thy vessel’?” He took a short beat to manage his excitement and continued, “The author is talking about cells.”

Ugo and AJ stared like a couple of fourth graders being told about the quadratic equation.

“You guys know what cells are, right?” Zeke said. “The fundamental units of life… they are why we breathe, reproduce and —”

“We know what cells are,” AJ interrupted, “why would a book on angelology talk about cells?”

“I’ve come up with a theory,” Zeke said.

“Are you going to try to convince us that angels have blood cells?” Ugo said with a raised brow.

“Yes, angels are celestial, incorporeal beings, and that wouldn’t make any sense, but this page explained it all. Like, in Celestial Blade, angels can only interact with the human world via a human vessel, right?”

“Right…”

“Then, that would mean that they can be inflicted with anything in the human world, too, like insect bites, poisons, and viruses, but with little to no effect. Why? Because the angel changed the physiology of the body it’s burrowing. According to this book, it does that by substituting the human cells with…” He wanted to hit himself for wanting to attempt to coin the term and said, “heavenly ones.”

Ugo and AJ’s faces went blank, and then they exchanged looks.

“So, you’re actually trying to use science to explain the unexplainable,” Ugo said. “Welp, if anyone can convince me to believe that, then it’s you, Mano.” Ugo leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. “Proceed.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Zeke smirked and then turned the book to Ugo. “So…”

“No,” Ugo said angrily.

“Dude, come on, you can speed-read.”

“It’s draining.”

“You’re just lazy. Do it for Naomi. The answer has to be in this book.”

Ugo stared at Zeke and then reached for the book. He picked it up, and his eyes moved swiftly from one side to the other, back and forth without falter as he turned page after page. Zeke enjoyed watching Ugo speed-read; his focus and bone-dry look made him look distinguished despite his ostentatious hairdo. During such key moments, it seemed impossible that he was the same guy who spent an entire weekend researching local clinics treating memory loss patients and scouting out amnesiac women to pick up by pretending to be their lost lover. He didn’t get a single phone number. If only Ugo actually invested in his beautiful mind, Zeke thought to himself.

If only I had your brain, he could hear his mind whisper to him. Maybe Ugo’s dad was part of the problem since he only used him as a human password-saving software and a reminder for important dates.

Ugo stopped and said, “Hey, I found something interesting.” He turned the book over to them and showed sketches of entities of various shapes — discs, sickle, crooked stars, wings, globs, and pebbles. Each shape had a name under it.

“The book said that these are all the shapes the author had observed so far.”

“Zeke was right,” AJ said. “Naomi said that she thinks a bug is causing all her problems. So, does that mean that there’s one in the bloodstream of her… vessel?”

“Container,” Zeke corrected. “But, yeah, anywhere in her immune system, I guess,” Zeke said.

“So, it’s a virus from Hell,” Ugo added.

Zeke stood up. “We need to identify which virus it is. We need to have a look at it. The equipment from the lab could help,” he cleared his throat, “Dr. Rosario is going to do a blood test.” He grabbed the gloves, put them on, and snatched the green mask off the table. He bolted for the exit, shouting, “Look for information on demonic microorganisms.”

He didn’t hear what Ugo and AJ shouted in response because he was already bolting back to the lab. Zeke pushed the mask onto his mouth and fumbled with the straps, his fingers tingling from the adrenaline of anticipation. Bursting through the lab door, he nearly tripped over the mess inside. He managed to skirt around it, then grabbed the first syringe he could find.

Zeke tested the weight of the large bronze metal; it felt heavy in his hand, like a dumbbell, and the white needle jutting out of it was longer than his middle finger and thicker than it as well. The barrel was empty, and Zeke put his thumb through the ring-shaped plunger and imagined for a moment he was injecting medicine into someone. It made him smile under his mask. He finished tightening the straps behind his mask and exited.

The door to Naomi’s room was the prime destination, and Zeke let himself in. He held the syringe in his hand and found her moaning and writhing. Without a misstep, he moved up to her. She stopped and turned her head over to him, haggard with sunken cheeks and the streaks lined across her face. Zeke held her feeble look and said, “Hola.” He kneeled and put his hand over her arm. “I need something from you,” he said, raising the syringe.

Naomi squinted at it as Zeke rolled up her jacket and sleeve through the straps, revealing pale skin with throbbing black roots slithering across it.

“This won’t hurt… I think,” Zeke said.

“I don’t think that will break my—”

The needle bit into her black vein, and she hissed.

“Sorry.”

“That isn’t a normal needle.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

Zeke put his finger through the loop of the plunger and pulled it back. The barrel was filled with pitch-black goo. Naomi watched in awe.

“That’s amazing… I’ve never seen my blood before.”

“Um… I don’t think it’s supposed to be black,” Zeke said. Midway through, pulling the needle out of her skin, he panicked, remembering that he had brought nothing to cover the wound. Zeke had removed the needle before having the chance to stop himself. Then he witnessed Naomi’s oozing wound closing itself, leaving just a trickle of goo drizzling down her skin.

“Where are the others?” Naomi asked, snapping him out of his trance of amazement.

“Hm? Oh, um, they are reading as much as they can about all this stuff that we don’t understand about angels and demons and Containers and stuff. This place is filled with books about that.”

“What is this place?”

Zeke teased a smile. “A hospital.” Zeke raised the syringe and stared at the black, sticky gunk squeezed inside the barrel.

“So, you really have no idea which bug is inside you?”

“I actually don’t know the names of the bugs or how to get rid of them. I don’t really know much about any of the Realms. Not even this one.”

“What, were you an angel that fell asleep during class?” he snorted.

“‘Class’? I’ve never experienced such a thing. Not even Virgil would take the time to teach me anything. I’ve heard those walks with him are fun.”

Apparently, angels don’t pick up on jokes. Zeke made a mental note of that. “So, who is this Virgil guy? That’s the second time you’ve mentioned him. Is he an angel?”

“Yes. A dignified one. He’s respected by every angel. Nananiel, too. I need to get back to him and Nananiel. And all the others. They were attacked. I-I-I let it happen. I did nothing; I need to repent.”

“Well, you can’t go back, given the state that you’re in. You could infect all your celestial friends.”

Naomi turned her head back and stared at the pentagram on the ceiling. “I have to go back, though, but if I do… I’ll be punished for sure… they’ll put me back in the cage.”

“‘Cage’?”

Naomi didn’t respond. Zeke attempted to chip away at the mystery and asked, “What were you doing before—I mean—how did you fall out of… Heaven?”

“I didn’t fall out of Heaven. I was flying through the sky while being attacked by angry spirits.”

“You were in some high-stakes battle with your other brethren, and things went awry?”

Naomi’s lip quivered. “Yes.”

Zeke frowned and stopped there. “Hold on just a little longer. Me and my friends are going to crack this case wide open.”

“Why are you trying to break open a case for?”

Zeke put on a vacant look. And angels don’t pick up on expressions, either. “My friends are… amazing. If they weren’t here. I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Naomi gave Zeke a look. “You’re quite amazing yourself. A human coming here to draw blood on his own.”

“No, I’m a coward. You have no idea how much mental effort I had to put into coming here. I had to do it quickly so that my brain wouldn’t overthink. Mora overthinks nothing. He just does what he wants. He just doesn’t care about what other people think. He is so much closer to Vee than I ever will.”

“Is Vee the one with the glasses?”

“No, that’s AJ. She’s disciplined and has lots of willpower. She has amazing physical prowess and doesn’t let herself indulge in anything unhealthy. Vee, though… she’s a badass. She’s out of the country now and has been for three years. I try to be like her as much as possible, but it’s so hard. She was on a whole ‘nother level of not giving a damn.” Zeke paused with a flinch and stared wide-eyed at Naomi. He pondered how many Heaven points God deducted from cursing near one of his angels. But Zeke didn’t see a flinty look on her. He saw a look of empathy on her ashen face. He continued, “She was fearless and wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself or for others no matter how big or daunting the enemy was.”

He gripped the syringe in his hand and lowered it. “She would use harsh words without hesitation, and if they didn’t work, she’d fight for it. She was crazy smart, too. Some say that her pride was arrogant, but to be honest, I found it admirable. I mean, what’s wrong with being confident in yourself and actually having the means to back it up? She wasn’t ashamed of who she was.”

“Are you?” Naomi asked. “Are you ashamed of who you are…?” She gaped at him with her mouth open just a bit.

Zeke gave her a stale smile that she couldn’t see and stood up. “I’m going to get started now. Gracias.” He walked out of the room.

It was time for a blood analysis.