PART 10

CHAPTER 9

Laughing out loudly at Monica’s offer, Monique turned to her (rather shocked) apprentice, “You see, Erika? When you think they have done the most stupid things with their existence, they surprise you by doing something even more idiot!”

“She can’t be serious... you ... you can’t be serious! You don’t really mean to change places with him, he’s practically dead!” the young demon spoke, moving closer to Monica.

“Yes, I am serious, Erika. Andrew is my friend and I love him so much you can never imagine...”

“Oh gosh, not this talk again!” Monique grumbled.

“Do it, Monique. You’ve always wanted to destroy me; you won’t lose anything if you do what I’m asking!”

She became slightly pensive of a few seconds and finally nodded her head, “Yes... You’re right, I won’t. And it’ll be a pleasure to do what you’re asking me this time! Hum... I never thought I’d say that myself!”

Monica took Andrew’s hand and placed it against her heart. “Andrew, please forgive me...”

Little by little, her skin became covered with scratches and wounds and she felt a sharp pain all over her body. Then, she collapsed right next to Andrew and fell unconscious.

The blond angel, for himself, regained his consciousness seconds later and panic crept over him when he saw Monica lying lifeless beside him. “Monica! Monica!” he cried, immediately sitting on the ground and placing his hands on her small shoulders. His heart was pounding loudly in his chest at the image right before his eyes: Monica was so badly hurt that, for a moment, he thought she was dead. “Monica! Monica! Answer to me! Please...” a weak movement of her chest rising and falling told him she was still alive. With his eyes shining with tears and deep anger, he glared at Monique, “What did you do to her?! What did you do to Monica?”

“I did exactly what she asked me... I gave her your wounds!”

“No...”

“Yes, I’m telling the truth! Erika can prove it, tell him Erika!”

“It’s true... she asked to change places with you...” the young demon confirmed. With a miserable expression on his face, Andrew looked down at Monica, “Angel... no... how could you do it? You shouldn’t have done it!” he cried, gathering her in his arms.

“Well this conversation is fascinating but I must be going, you know. There’s a life to be taken at any minute and I can’t miss it! Hum... I didn’t tell your dearest friend but I had something else in mind before she asked me to change places with you...” she turned to the creatures that were surrounding them, “Take them to the cave! After all, as much as I like seeing her all beaten up and practically destroyed, I wouldn’t risk having you two going around, even in a place like this. You angels are better off locked inside a cave so that you can die together.”

A few minutes later, Monica and Andrew were taken to a cave in the foot of the mountain and thrown in its interior. The blond angel sat down on the ground, always holding Monica in his arms, cradling her with all the love and care he could muster, and placed her head up against his heart. That was the last image of the angels Erika and Monique saw, as the evil creatures started to block the entrance of the cave with stones. Andrew watched as they did that task and in a matter of minutes, it was finally closed.

“At last I managed to catch her!” Monique spoke, and looked at Erika, “You see? That’s the essence of being evil; of being a demon!”

The apprentice didn’t reply this time; she kept on looking at the cave instead.

“Now I have an execution to watch! Edward Evans’s death will be in all the newspapers tomorrow!”

Inside the cave, Andrew placed a feather like kiss on Monica’s forehead and gently stroked her hair; every little action carefully planned, not to cause her even more pain than she was already feeling, and, for a moment, he was grateful that she was unconscious.

“Father... Please, help her... Help your angel... send her healing, because she’s seriously hurt... I can stay here for the rest of eternity but please, I beg You, find a way to take Monica out of this place... Finish what I’ve started... Save this angel who I know belongs to you but who I can’t help calling mine... I love her so much...” he prayed, with tears pricking his green eyes.

*

David stared at Tess and Rafael right in front of him with disbelief and shock, “Angels? You mean you’re angels?”

“Yes. And I we were sent here with a message from God.” Rafael replied.

A long minute later, he lowered his head with shame and regret, “I did everything wrong... He’s disappointed in me... I’m a failure...”

Tess shook her head, “God doesn’t make mistakes, David. And He know exactly what He was doing when he created you; all His children are brought into this world with a purpose and He had and still has a special plan for you...” there were tears in the young man’s eyes and, humbly, he bowed his head, “I’ll do whatever He asks me if I can have His forgiveness...”

“So I guess you know what you need to do, right?” the younger angel spoke, watching as he nodded his head.

“Yes... The life of an innocent man is in danger because of my omission...”

“And Edward Evans doesn’t have much time, he’ll be executed in 20 minutes.” Tess added.

“At midnight of a Halloween night...”

“No he won’t!” the young man spoke, “I won’t let that happen!”

All of a sudden, they head another voice in that deserted street: “David...”

It was Erika, who stared at her boyfriend and at the 2 angels in disbelief. At first, he was happy to see he again, and walked over to her, taking her hand. “Erika! I’m so glad to see you! and I’m so relieved that you didn’t get hurt, sweetie!”

“What... what’s happening here?” she asked, her eyes never moving from the angels.

“She knows pretty well what’s happening here!” Tess spoke, accusingly.

“No! I don’t!” Erika replied, with annoyance, and David found that tone of voice quite strange.

“The house caught fire... I... I don’t know how that happened, how it started...”

“A fire?” she spoke, now really surprised.

“Yes. I almost died here, I couldn’t wake up despite Joy’s barks... Rafael and Tess saved me...”

“Oh no...” she whispered.

“Erika what is it?”

“Her plan has failed; that’s what happened!”

“Her plan? Wait a minute, have you met before?” the young man wanted to know, now really confused.

“No... but we’re always ready to fight against the one she represents!” Tess said, glaring at the demon. And, before David could make another question, Erika gave a step closer to the angels, “You have no right to accuse me just because you’re angels!”

“You know who they are?”

“Yes, David, she knows! Because all this time, we’ve been trying to stop her from destroying your life!” Tess said, and looked at him, “David, Erika is a demon!”

“What?”

“She’s a demon, an apprentice, I must say, because we all know who is monitoring her: Monique, a more powerful demon than she is!”

David shook his head. “C’mon you guys, you can’t be serious!”

“Why do you think she wanted to stop you from going to the authorities an tell them the truth? She wanted to destroy Mr Evans life and having you to live with the death of an innocent in your conscience!”

“No! We were going to live together! We would raise a family together... Tell them, tell them the truth, Erika!”

She looked at him with sadness in her eyes, which suddenly turned to red ones, scaring the guy. “They’re right, David. I’m a demon.”

“What? Oh God...” he spoke, with disgust, backing away from her. And  that reaction brought a strange sensation of sadness to Erika.

“And everything that’s happened here tonight is connected to her actions!” Rafael completed.

“I... I didn’t know it would happen! I didn’t know Monique would do something like this!”

“Yes, you did!” Tess replied.

“No, I didn’t! Monique asked me to... to put some medicine in his juice so that he could sleep and wouldn’t go to the police to tell them the truth!”

“You did this, Erika? How could you?”

“I thought I’d be protecting you, David!”

“Protecting me? I almost died here!”

“Monique deceived me! She said nothing would happen to you!”

“I trusted you, Erika! You were the only one person who I trusted in this entire world!”

“I was trying to help you!”

“And all this time you were digging my own life sentence!” he motioned to the red Cadillac, “Tess, Rafael, could you please take me to the state prison? I need to fix a terrible mistake before it’s too late.”

“Yes, baby, we’ll take you there.”

“David, let me explain...”

“Stay away from me, Erika! Go back to the darkness where you belong, I don’t want to see you again!”

They got inside the Cadillac and left the place afterwards.

Erika, for herself, remained in the same place, and maybe for the first time in her existence, a single tear made its way down her cheek. What she didn’t know was that Monique was near them, hidden in the shadows, and watched as David left to the prison with the angels. “Damn it!” the demon cursed, with a red shining in her eyes and with a hoarse voice, “What were these two doing here? How could they get here before the house was on fire?”

She took a short breath, trying to calm herself, and then finally spoke, “Well, if I can’t destroy the 2 men, at least the 2 angels will die... And I guess I’ll have to make that cave collapse as fast as possible!”

*

Inside the cave, in total darkness, Andrew rested his forehead against Monica’s and only interrupted his prayers to check on her; her feeble heartbeats seemed to be about to stop at any minute.

“My angel... Please, don’t be afraid. I don’t know how or when it’ll finish, but one thing is for sure: I won’t leave you... I know that the Father wants us together, that’s why He gave us this beautiful friendship. I know that He won’t take you away from me... So I’m not afraid of what’s ahead for us to face because, in the end, we’ll be together again... I don’t care about whatever I have to go through... For you, Monica, I’ll do anything...” he whispered, and kissed her forehead, carefully holding her and stroking her cheek.