Part One; The Chosen of God

Stretching before me are the towering walls of our world. They reach up into the sky, where I see the lovely blue hue of our empty sky. The walls that enclose our world go on for what feels like an eternity, inside are many talls shelves stacked with crates hardly ever left open. Each one is filled with treasures yet to be discovered or needed, and as I walk I smile warmly to my two companions.

To my left is a girl with short black hair and dark skin, she bobs her head as we walk playfully whistling. To my right is a boy with white hair, and soft ivory skin, he is staring up at the sky happy as can be nodding his head to the girl’s whistling.

We’re relatively old compared to most of the other children, but that doesn’t mean much. We’ve been walking in this direction for a while down one of the main aisles, and have been lucky enough to not yet be bothered. The stacks of shipping containers obscure our vision long enough to make me stay on guard the entire time. Until Azura steps forward pointing out in the distance an enormous mountain of dirt that reaches above all the rows of crates, it almost stacks as high as the walls of our world.

“There! I told you guys~ A great, big, super, duper tall mountain, covered in trees, with no stacks on it at all!”

Seth steps forward, his mouth slightly dropped as he admires the pine trees at top. “You weren’t kidding, I bet if we climbed the tallest tree we could see over the top of the walls!”

I roll my eyes and shrug my shoulders just a tiny bit. “There is no way there is one that tall, we would have seen it earlier.”

“Aw, don’t be a downer, I bet if we climb to the top we will find the tallest, and maybe then we can stack on each other’s shoulders to be even taller!”

“I told you already, I saw a lake up there, but I didn’t see any tree that tall.”

“See? You shouldn’t get your expectations that high when it is just going to get you down later.”

Seth protests, “C’mon you guys, it’s probably the tallest thing that exists!”

“No you c’mon and listen to me, I didn’t see a tree that big, otherwise I woulda told you!” Azura sticks out her tongue at him.

“Both you need to be a bit more realistic, way more often.” I sigh.

They both give me big pleading eyes. I know they want me to lighten up to join in their fun, but it’s just a mountain.

I sigh and keep walking. “Ugh, let’s keep up the pace. Neither of you will see the top if you stop to stare forever.”

“We will totally get the closest to the top compared to anyone else though!” Seth declares with pride.

“That’s for sure, as I said, it’s the biggest mountain I’ve ever seen! So let’s hurry, I want to make it ours~” Azura nods, making a truce with Seth for now.

“It’s going to be awesome, when the trees grow up we will for sure be able to see the whole world!” Seth hurries after me as I walk, trying to draw out a conversation.

I glance back and forth as we walk, checking each intersection in the crates as we walk, but then make time to glance back and ask, “Why do you even want the mountain top?”

Seth smugly declares, “To see-”

“To see the top I already know that. I meant Azura.”

Seth pouts and crosses his arms as he walks slightly closer behind me in protest.

“Well it has a nice lake, and we can see everything.” Azura hums.

“There are sources of water everywhere,” I lazily hold my hand out to the nearest container that stands high above me.

“Also being higher up means we are a more vulnerable target. You keep saying that it is important, but you won’t give a reason why.” I look forward as we walk on.

Seth playfully nudges her with his elbow. “Is it because it is the tallest?”

“No. I guess since you two walked all this way with me there is no reason in keeping it a secret. I just thought, you’d be more excited when you saw it.”

She points enthusiastically over my shoulder towards the great stack of dirt.

“What do you see?”

I answer in the dullest tone I can muster. “A tall thing without any food inside it.”

“No, on it!” She points even more excitedly.

“Trees?” I blink unamused.

“Yes!” She excitedly leans on my back as Seth leans his head forward to watch me grimace.

“I had hoped you two would be excited to see trees. It’s been years since I’ve seen any!”

Seth and I chime in unison. “Same.”

“That has to be a magic spot then! I want to live there!” She stands back up straight.

I glance back again, “Huh?”

“Is it because we can climb the-” Seth starts to speak, but is interrupted by Azura.

“No! It’s not because we can climb the trees!”

Seth plops his head into my chest with defeat and I try to comfort him with an affectionate head pat or three. Standing still staring at the mountain.

“It’s because I want to grow a tree of my own. The lake may not be special, but it is something about having that high spot, with all that water, and dirt that makes trees grow. I want a tree of my own! They are so pretty, and so tall. I remember God telling us how they can live forever, so we shouldn’t touch them.”

Seth weakly lifts his head to ask, “But why do you want a tree?”

“Because they can last forever, I want to be remembered forever.” She declares.

Seth trots forwards after recovering from his mortal injury. “By the tree? They can’t talk ya know. They don’t have eyes to see, or anything like that.”

“Well I know, but I was thinking whenever people see the tree, they could think of me. Like a way to remember me, maybe I could carve my name into it.” She smiles.

I pat my hand on the knife strapped to my belt, the metal clinking against my hip.

“You could always carve your name into the stacks.” I nod towards a nearby metal wall.

“I want my name up there though. .” She murmurs.

“Is it because it is up high?” Seth smuggly asks.

“If it is, Seth and I could help you drag a crate up there.”

Azura sighs, “No, neither of you get it! I do want it up high, but I want it to be special. Seriously, have either of you ever seen that many names on the stacks?”

I glance up at the twenty foot tall, dull metal boxes. “Nope, but I don’t try to keep track of them.”

Azura grins, bobbing her head as she strides towards the mountain. “Well I swear places I have marked before have disappeared. I think God fixes those too, that’s why I want the tree. It will always grow, because no one messes with it. There are so few, even just seeing it people will know it is mine!”

Seth marches up after her. “Well I will help you!” The two exchange bright smiles, and walk faster towards our new home.

I however can’t help but rub the back of my head as I feel a mild headache welling up. “Why can’t we just remember you?”

“Well, how many other people do you see?” She asks.

Seth taps the top of his fingers counting to exclaim, “There were those three two days ago, and six days ago we saw that one kid.”

“This has been a more populated area though, but tell me how many people do you see that look older than us?”

“Not many, I haven’t seen someone taller than you in a while.” He taps his four raised fingers to his chin.

“Exactly. I’m wondering if we are always going to be here.” She glances towards the stone pathway stretching out before us endlessly.

Seth starts to walk backwards towards the mountain out of boredom, or just to be polite and see our faces as he wonders aloud, “What do you mean? Like, do you think we are going to get to be God’s Chosen soon? Or maybe, we get to go to another place where other people are, older people like The Angels.”

“I don’t know. I am just thinking I want people to remember me. I don’t want you guys to forget me, but we can’t remember every kid we’ve ever met, so maybe with a tree, everyone else can at least remember me.”

“Well I want a tree too now, I want to take the tallest one! You can have the next best one!” Seth cheerfully looks at Azura, trying to out pace her while walking backwards. He almost runs into a hard metal edge, but I grab him, pulling him back towards the center.

She shakes her head. “I was going to try growing my own, so I wouldn’t upset God by cutting up one of the trees already there.”

I look up at the ever distant mountain that seems to be getting further away the more I walk. “What if those trees are already other peoples?”

“W-what do you mean? Is that why we aren’t supposed to mess with the trees already there?” Seth gives me an expression of a lost blind kid, and Azura’s face even lowers a bit with a disheartened look.

“So, you should probably try growing a tree with Azura, that way you don’t upset God.” Trying to cheer them up more I say, “Put them both at the highest part, then everyone sees your trees first, alright?”

They both start brimming with joy and cling to me tightly in one big hug. If their clothes weren’t so dirty and damaged it’d be a lot more comforting.

“Alright, alright you guys. Let’s get to the mountain, step to it.” I drag them off of me so we can keep walking.

Part Two; The Pilgrimage

We walked for the rest of that day, took a break to camp underneath the dark sky, and returned when light filtered over the sturdy sides of the world once again. Unfortunately it’d be at least another day before we arrived at the mountain, but at least our shoes were still in good enough condition to not be falling apart as we walked the long pathways between the crates. We didn’t need to search for water, or pry open a stack hoping it had food inside. It was so close, even when Seth whined to take a break because his feet hurt I urged him along. Azura wanted to get there more than me, but was more worried for Seth to actually be happy, but I kept pushing them. It’d be safer and get this journey finally over with.

“Can we please take a break?” I shook my head again, not even glancing over my shoulder towards Seth.

If we kept this pace we could make it before The Firmament was dark. I look at the light tracker strapped to my wrist. Something felt off since we started moving again, if we were being tracked by others I would have noticed something by now. Looking up towards the mountain, it was a rare sight, but now one familiar to me now like a home that is just out of reach.

I turn to look at Seth leaning against one of the metal stacks as Azura hurries over to comfort him, offering her help to keep him moving. That’s when I see it.

“SETH ABOVE YOU!” With a scream I lunge towards him trying to pull him away, but I’m too far away. Azura though, right before they are both killed pulls him away tugging him tightly towards her away from the container’s wall as a giant elongated maw snaps down where their heads were.

Crawling down from the dark blue metal crate is a creature almost half the container’s size. Four feet tall, eight feet long, covered in black scales with six long legs bending in strange angles as it easily crawls vertically down towards us. Its long face has six bulging white eyes shifting, without pupils I cannot tell who it is looking at, maybe all of us at once.

It flicks a thin black tongue showing red teeth as it lands on the floor, now releasing sharp orange nails from its claws. I quickly pull out a knife, it’s sharp, but it’s hardly enough to keep this thing away. Azura tries to hurry with Seth towards the mountain behind me.

That just excites the creature, it jumps after them moving faster than any of us can handle, luckily it falls a bit short as Seth stumbles forward, and quickly unclips his bag. The Demon plucks the bag right off his back, throws it up into the air and tears it into pieces as it lands back into its open jaw. We retreat as fast as we can, but I can see Seth is slow so I point quickly to one side as we come to an intersection.

“We should split up and meet up closer to the mountain, it can’t chase us all.”

They hardly second guess me in the moment as Seth hobbles down the more narrow side passage between two stacks, Azura across towards the left exit, and I run straight looking back as the Demon resumes its chase.

As it scurries in my direction cracking the ground as it charges me I am surprised and relieved to see it leap onto a stack and climb up three crates to the top to look down the other side. It rushes faster than I can even run, and when I look down another turn to the right I see Seth limping quickly.

I hear all the metal stacks around me shake. Shit, I can’t see it anymore.

I keep running, passing a dark red container, to see that the next right turn is empty, and I hear Seth scream for help at the top of his lungs. I feel my feet get heavy for a second, I’m not sure if I should try, but I turn down the path to look for Seth anyways. Knocked over on the ground I see the creature has his arm in its mouth, and pulling up a hollow crack echoes throughout all the metallic aisles. I freeze for a second as blood rushes down his body, and the creature in one loud snap breaks his arm off to swallow it whole. Seth tries to squirm towards me on the floor, but the creature tries to go for the rest of him. I hurry towards his side and swing my bag off my back towards the creature’s face, but the Demon just sinks its teeth into my hands. I feel the crunching of my bones, and see blood pour from the monster’s mouth.

It’s hard to move my hands, but I kept the knife in one, so with what force I can manage I try to plunge it into the roof of this monster’s mouth.

With a loud howl the creature lets go of my hands. I stumble as blood floods out of my mangled fingers, as well as the fiend’s maw. The knife is still stuck inside there, I don’t have time to do anything about that.

Hardly thinking about a plan I offer my arm to Seth, and he stumbles into the narrow alley between two metal stacks with me. The beast shrieks in rage and starts to bash its long claws against our hiding spot, reaching for us, but we are just out of reach. The crates start moving from the Demon’s strength though. We won’t have long before it gets through, and it can climb faster than we can turn corners.

The thing’s white eyes all writhe slightly, as if trying to hone in on me, with every inch it gets closer, I falter back. It screeches louder, and barrels forward knocking the titanic weight of the stacks aside as its maw snaps closer to us. Seth clings tightly to me with the one arm he has left, but his grip is weavering. I can’t do anything, my hands burn so much.

Then I see Azura leap onto the creature’s neck from the side, her knife skitters off the scales at first but is dragged down into one of the narrow rows of eyes. She is thrashed about as the creature screams, and bites at the air. The demon launches her off along with her dagger that she desperately clung to.

There is a loud thud as she hits the stone path in the center of the beast’s lane. It tries to shakily turn towards her blood covering half of its snout as it all pours down one side of it, she is hardly able to stand, but brandishing the knife she doesn’t back away from the monster.

As blood drips from its mouth, the thing’s head lowers, and flinches backing up. Then it shrieks in a hiss, and Azura replies in kind shouting at the top of her lungs.

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The Demon sluggishly turns and climbs up a stack, Azura backs towards us not lowering the knife. The creature doesn’t jump towards us. It just scurries off the metal containers away from us, disappearing over the crates.

“Oh God, are you two okay?!” She instantly drops the knife and applies pressure to Seth’s arm with a bit of her bedroll. Blood is everywhere, my hands are all red, but I can’t lower them. I can’t help him.

I just stumble against the door of a crate. “We, we should get inside here, we might find something to patch him up with, and we can hide from that thing.”

“If you can, please do, Seth is so pale, and that Demon might come back.” Her voice is shaking, everything sounds a bit distant now.

I grind my teeth together as I struggle against the twistlock, and bashing my side into the door as I heave it open I pull it just enough to squeeze in.

Azura is quick to pull him up and inside, fortunately this one has enough space for us on top of the supplies, so she quickly lays him out on top of some plastic wrapped pallets of dried food.

I kept watch over the entrance as she started to wrap the bedroll around him.

It’s hard to hear what he is saying, it’s so quiet, but I can barely make out some pained words, “Az, am I dying?”

She whispers back, “No, you’ll be okay, we are going to go to the trees together.”

He weakly smiles as his eyes close, “What’s going to be on The Otherside?”

“I don’t know, but we will find out together, okay? Just try to stay awake.” Her voice is so soothing, it’s making me tired.

“You have a really soft voice. . I can’t hear it over all the ringing.” He mutters.

I pull off then wrap my hands together in my old shirt, just to stop the bleeding as I look back at him. I can hear ringing too, it’s so quiet to me. I’m tired too, I want to close my eyes, but I can’t.

“God, please don’t take Seth away from us.” I hold my hands together under the wrappings, despite the pain, so I can pray.

After getting the bedroll tightly around him to slow the bleeding she starts to search the dark container, climbing over pallets of water bottles, some stacks of wood piled up high, until she reaches a smaller container.

She comes back with a little box with a red cross painted on the top, and she quickly pulls out some long gauze, and a black bottle. She has to quickly look over a small neatly written note inside for the basics of wound care, but once she is done she doesn’t hesitate to pull open Seth’s blanket to pour a clear liquid onto his open wound, he gives out a tired groan, and then she starts to replace the whole wrapping with the medical supplies we were blessed to find. She coats some of the gauze in another liquid, but as she is tying it around his torso he slowly stops whispering.

I look at her concerned, but see shallow breathing from Seth. It takes a while, however he eventually is cleanly wrapped up. She rubs some ointment on my hands afterwards, but we just use a new shirt from one of the other boxes inside this container to bandage it, because she used all the gauze on Seth.

Then, she pulls the door tighter for us to hide, and we wait.

We wait and wait, for hours. My hands still sting with pain, but I’m trying to be quiet as I just want to rest on top of one of the boxes while I can.

Eventually I do pass out, but after my time tracker was crushed, I don’t know how long it took.

When I wake back up, it’s to Seth’s voice, weakly thanking Azura. She smiles to me as I struggle to sit up. He was sipping from some green bottle, but is hardly able to move as she is just tipping it towards his mouth as he leans against the inside of the container.

“Oh, you’re also awake again! Good news, I found soda. I think it will make you both feel better to drink some after what happened.”

I try to smile at her, but I can’t.

“Thanks, but first take care of him. I can’t stomach anything right now.”

She gives me a worried look as she returns to caring for Seth, and we all try to take a long break. Azura urges me to scoot closer to them eventually, and when Seth finishes getting fed some dried bread she found in the food crate he was resting on, she pulls some more out of the side that she cut the plastic open on and helps me feed it to me.

Seth meanwhile turns to me in an exhausted voice to whisper, “Thanks…You save me, you both did. I’m sorry I was too weak..”

I look him over and notice Azura must have taken off his shoe earlier, and I see it has a bloodied shirt tied around it.

“No, it’s not your fault. If I was more vigilant that wouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s not your fault either, that Demon, it was a sneaky one…I just wish it didn’t get my arm, because I’ll just be more useless.”

“I didn’t save you because you were useful.”

“Well I at least would have liked to climb to see what is over the sides of the world. . .”

Azura brings a soda bottle over to me, and helps me take some sips, “Well, we can still help you do that Seth, but first you both need some rest.”

I give her a nod, and try to enjoy what food I can. We all rest for a few more hours, Azura slowly finds what she can inside, and glances outside a few times, but eventually after a long nap that I wade in and out of I eventually feel good enough to stand back up and keep trying.

With a look towards Seth as I drag myself towards the door with the lighter bandage Azura helped make out of some clothes I struggle to do much, but I look to Seth when he final wakes up to ask,

“Do you think you can try walking to the mountain? It won’t be safe here forever, if that fiend comes back. I’ll help carry you.”

He gives me a tired smile and nods, “We should get there soon, I will try my best.”

Part Three; The Exodus

As we force open the door Azura ensures she has a bag of supplies, I get Seth tied to my back in the place of a backpack, and he drifts off to rest while we start the walk towards the mountain.

The pine trees get closer with every step, but it doesn’t make the walk easier, my hands still hurt constantly.

I’m however perked up when a loud ring echoes throughout all the stacks, around every corner, shaking the containers themselves as The Voice of God declares loudly,

“Blessed morning my children, it is once again the holy day, The Sabbath which is a time for rest, and recovery. I’m proud to have seen you all survive to this day, and so I encourage you all to rest. For on this most sacred day, for those children who are new to the world The Demons shall be more docile, as they fear My Wrath. I know some of you have struggled rather diligently, and your devotion shall not be forgotten. As always your efforts may be what ascends you beyond the world, into Heaven, as you could be chosen to be an Angel, one of My Chosen. So remember to maintain your prayers, and I shall lead you today as always. Just drop to your knees and look towards The Firmament.”

Azura leans towards me as God recites the typical blessings, “I suppose you knew today would be a safe day to travel?”

I give her a slight grimace as I hear Seth mumbling prayer in his sleep, “Thank you Lord Almighty, God Creator of All Things. . . Please protect us from Demons. . . And light our world. . . for hours on end. .”

Azura hearing his words will start to repeat, and I just focus on walking. God eventually finishes prayers, and urges all to find some rest for the day. Then he speaks of simple advice, probably for those that showed up recently. I wish they matter to me, but learning basic words doesn’t matter anymore when I’ve heard them all before. I wish I was back at that far side of the world, but because this place feels so endless walking all the way back there would take longer than I can even guess at. It’s actually hard to remember what it was like to be that young, when I had no one to travel with, when the lessons were all new. I try to brush these thoughts off and just focus on walking, while I can still move.

We take some breaks to ease the burden on our legs, and when we do Azura helps Seth take a drink before he falls back to sleep, and she prays. I can’t stand to hold my hands together any longer from the pain, so I just mumble the words along as I lean against one of the cargo stacks.

It takes the rest of the day, but eventually we arrive at the great mass of earth. Small patches of grass coating it, with tall pine trees at the top. Because the height of the earth piled up near the wall, the trees seem to barely arrive near the height of the sides of the world, it’s got to be nearing one hundred feet, just like the pristine ends of the world.

It might actually be possible to see over them, to see what’s beyond. I feel Seth stir on my back and mutter, “I can climb up the mountain, I can do that at least.”

I hesitantly let him down with Azura’s help, and slowly we all tread up a worn dirt path towards the top. Seth has to lean on us as he avoids stepping with his wounded leg most of the time, and he almost stumbles down one of the sheer sides for a moment, but with our help he reaches the top. There we find a dark blue pond of water, big enough to fit a whole container in it, with six trees almost lined up in a row next to it.

Each of the trees smells so fresh, once we get near it Seth collapses against the base of the tree almost smashing his face into the bark. Azura makes sure he is comfortable, but he just laughs with a huge grin,

“We can totally see the outside world from up there. We just need to climb them, and they are covered in branches!”

“You’re right, but please take care of yourself, neither of us want to see you hurt!”

I glance down to him with a nod, “Please don’t push yourself so hard again. We all had a long trip here, and you are still injured. We shall wait till tomorrow to climb to the top.”

“W-what?! We came all this way, it’s within reach, I can’t wait that long, it’s too exciting!”

“I don’t care how you feel, I don’t care how many hours are left in the day, but eventually the blue sky above us will turn dark, and once the light comes back we can help you climb. Until then we all need rest.”

“That’s not fair, it wouldn’t take that long, please!”

“Seth my hands are still bloody, I can’t do this, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt worse than we already are. So just wait one more night.”

Azura nods as she helps him get comfortable against the base of the tree. “We will help you climb to the top, but for now we need to start making a new home here. Tomorrow we can go back down to the stacks to get more supplies, but let’s focus on resting for now, he is right.”

Seth sighs weakly, and settles down on the ground. “Fine.”

Azura and I start to unpack her bag, setting up a large bed mat on the ground we can all rest on, and with some effort we get Seth into some clean clothes, to replace the gauze we had around him.

We slowly prepare some proper dinner, grabbing a can of corn, some canned pork, and soda we grabbed earlier. We feast in a way God would intend, with thankful prayers to him first for providing us this food in our crates. Then we get to some relaxing chats on the bed roll we made into a picnic table as the light slowly dims, and the dark blue sky starts to take over the sky above us.

“So Azura, now that we are finally going to see the outside of our world, what do you think is there?”

“I think it’s just going to be an endless expanse of the sides, like the pathways, but just a different thing under your feet, and no stacks to care for you.”

Seth blows a raspberry at her, and looks towards me. “Did you at least come up with something more interesting? She is still being boring.”

He gives me pleading eyes, and I scowl.

“If you want to hear something interesting then, what about this?”

He excitedly grins at me as I point towards the top of the smooth white walls. “Out there is The Land of Demons. God’s land is sacred, but The Demons can still manage to get inside like the last one, it could climb anything, even the sides of The World. A place without food, a place where Demons eat Demons. But because they are so evil they smell God’s children in here, so they will do whatever they can to climb inside from a wasteland with just stone, no dirt, with no nature. They have nothing but each other out there, and they hate it. So let’s throw some trash over The Sides of The World, for them to eat and leave us alone.”

Azura rolls her eyes, “Your imagination might be a bit much, because that sounds terrible. Couldn’t you at least have thought of something nice?”

Seth hushes her trying to pry me for answers, “Wait, but do they have the same light from God shining over them?”

“Well, I’m not sure so we will have to find out tomorrow.” I give Azura a sly smile, but she just lowers her head to shake it. Her messy black hair covers her eyes, but I can still see a slight smile.

“Oh come on, now I wanna see it even more!” Seth puffs his cheeks up as he glares at me.

Azura pats his hair, messing it up almost as much as her own. “He is just teasing you, no one knows what you will see except for God. I don’t think you should throw trash over the side though, God’s Chosen will be by tonight to collect it all anyways so just leave it out for them, and it will be gone.”

Seth grabs his empty water bottle and holds it close with his arm. “Nope, this is just if I need it. Maybe we will be safe if we feed the monsters trash.”

Azura sighs and buries her head against the blanketed floor. “Fine, but after you see what’s up there, we plant a tree next.”

“Of course!” Seth smiles, and we all get comfortable for the night, happy that The Angels will banish any Demons that try to harm us tonight.

Part Four; The Angels

It takes a while for me to actually get to sleep, but the pain in my hands eventually becomes ignorable as I get more exhausted, until I pass out as I stare at the blank dark blue sky.

It was comfortable to sleep, to dream of the tree tops, and climbing them, but it didn’t last, not long enough, nothing ever does.

I awaken suddenly to Seth’s voice as he shouts, “What’s going on?!”

I jolt up ready to find a knife nearby, but I freeze as I see Azura trying to give a reassuring smile to Seth. Her eyes look so tired as she looks down at him. She was dragged up from Seth’s side as they slept, by an angel. A tall figure in a sleek white metal suit, next to them is another of God’s Chosen, also in The Garb of The Divine. Neither of their faces are visible behind white visors, but I can clearly hear the one holding Azura echo a hollow order.

“She is coming with us.”

“But wait, we still have to climb the tree.” Seth reaches out to grab Azura’s hand, but his hand is stomped on by the second Angel.

He screams in pain, and I stumble up towards him, “What’s going on?!”

“This is God’s Will. This is all God’s Divine Providence.” The first one echoes from behind his helmet, and the other reaches towards his side to pull out the punishment of God. A small white object shaped like an L, with a narrow hole on the end which he points at Seth’s head. Then in an inhuman voice he says,

“Crimes: Obstruction of justice, questioning Divine Authority, and touching an Angel.”

I reach out my hand trying to say something, but before I can a horribly loud bang rings throughout the whole world. In a bright white flash I’m blinded, and I wish it was permanent, because when I can see again Seth has stopped moving as blood pours from the side of his head, where a large hole has been created. I feel a thin red mist spread everywhere, coating my face, and dying his white hair in a sparse red.

The first Angel turns and pulls Azura tightly in their grasp as she screams, but I can only hear the ringing again. The same ringing I heard before with the Demon, and then I charged the second Angel. They quickly pull a long white rod from their side, a weapon that’s supposed to be used to flog a Demon, and then it smashes me on the side of my head.

Dropping to the ground, my head pounding and a liquid running down the side of my face I struggle to look up again. The first Angel looks back to order the other, “Let’s go, God ordered that one be left alive. He’s no burden.”

When he does turn I can just barely see Azura try to force one last smile as she says, “Just plant a tree for me okay, and see what’s on the outside, okay Cain?”

I know she wants me to stay, but I scramble to find her knife at the side of the camp and chase after the two. They board a floating creation of God that’s long and narrow, except for two large wings. It’s white so easy to see, but it quickly in a loud roar flares up into the air. The white wings they ride quickly darts away above the height of all the stacks, but I don’t let it go. I scurry to a nearby container, and lurch up to the top using the lock as a stepping stone. Once I am on the top I chase after it as fast as I can, with the knife clenched tightly in my hands, blood dripping down my body the entire time.

I jump from the top of one stack to another, keeping high to watch the angels fly away in stark contrast to the night sky. It feels like an endless run further away from the place where I awoke so many years ago, with one thing in my sight, the Angels who took my friends. I hear a loud thumping in my head the entire time, I trip and tear open my knees at one point, but I don’t stop.

Not until I finally find where they are going, another side of the world, the exact opposite from the start of the world. It took forever, and they got far away from me, but I saw them head in this direction. I know this is where they went and as I keep running I eventually stop at the top of one stack two containers high, near the most confusing thing I’ve ever seen.

The Angels disappeared along with their device, but there is another one, clean from blood, standing in front of a door on this Southernmost wall. It’s just some double doors no larger than the containers, but without any locks. This must be The Gates to Heaven, this must be where they took her.

I carefully lower myself on the side of the container near the door, using the locks as a way to not break my legs before charging at Heaven’s Gates. As I turn I see The Angel standing at the door, not drawing their weapons, just turning their mask to follow me.

Walking closer holding the knife tightly I glare at them. They turn to the side as I hear a low roaring sound approach, another one of those things The Angels ride with strange weavering air shooting at the back, two Angels step off of it carrying a much younger child in their hands.

The one carrying the young boy in their hands echoes to the one guarding The Gate of Heaven in a similar voice to the one that took Azura, “Angel three hundred ninety four, and Angel two hundred. Reporting in with Ezekiel, Chosen by God.”

I grip the knife tighter as that one looks back towards me, “What are they doing here?”

The Angel at the door holds up their wrist for a moment as a bright light shines out of it.

“Cain was chasing his friends again. Anyways, you’re approved, please enter.”

One Angel carries in the child, as the other leads in the floating device at their side, but I scramble after them as they push open the door. The Angel at the door clicks on their wrists a few times, not looking at me until it is too late. I barge past him behind the two others to see what’s inside.

All that I see though, is white, endless white, bright light that I can hardly stand, and the two other Angels in front of me. They hardly glance at me as the door’s guardian pulls open the gate again to look down at me with a baton in hand.

I stumble backwards from the endless void screaming, “There’s nothing here?!”

I don’t see any stones on the other side of the door, it’s all white, there is nothing beneath me, just a void I scurry back away from

“There’s nothing here?!” I hear them draw closer behind me so I turn and run, dropping the knife, sprinting as fast as I can away from the guardian. All I can think about is getting away from them, all of them.

Running throughout the night I hear the Angel shout after me, “Stop!” I push past him as fast as I can, he stops following me though as I disappear into the maze of stacks.

I run and run, even till my legs are sore, but that doesn’t stop me. I run until blood covers my body. When I finally reach the mountain I fall back down at the base of it, and pass out writhing in pain.

When I awaken next it’s to the sound of God’s voice droning throughout all the stacks behind me.

“Dear children, last night several special guests were taken to Heaven, specially chosen by me. I hope you all had time to say your goodbyes, some of you probably didn’t have the proper chance, but you must understand how important this is. Being chosen by God is a rare occasion that should make you feel special. I’m sure you will forget about this in time, but never forget you are all Children of God, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.”

God clears his throat a bit before he continues, “Now there are a few matters to announce such as many containers were replaced last night with new supplies. I do hope you all enjoy the graces of God.”

As he talks I slowly crawl to the top of the mountain in pain, and wash my face in the waters. I shake as I hear his words, tears flowing down my cheeks.

“Aside from all that, we do have some other news, including some prayers. Firstly someone has requested growing another tree on a little hill. I would normally not approve such a request, but it’s actually by someone very special. So by The Grace of God I shall permit it. I do hope you appreciate my kindness.”

I slowly break down, dropping my head against my knees and just cry. It’s a long day, and slowly God’s words fade to static. I unravel at the top of the mountain, and that day fades from my sight.

Part Five; Penance

Slowly much of that day fades from my memories, many years from the past fade in kind, leaving me with little. I do not age, yet the memories disappear all the same. I remember some of my past, but more of it slips away with time.

All I can remember to do is water these trees, all I can feel is the guilt and pain of my past mistakes. At first I just woke up to find a small pine and eucalyptus sapling on the mountain, but after years the pine grew to be half the height of the others, and slowly it grew to be higher than the rest. The eucalyptus stands out much more though, it’s the only thing I have left to remember them anymore.

Eventually I carve names into the trees when they are all old enough, so I don’t forget them. I can’t hold back my tears when I am near them though, I am never able to do more for them except water what remains. I just don't want to go through this pain again. I just want absolution.