Reyna…
She was only a few days away from turning fourteen years old as she waited for her father to return from a hunt. He had promised her and her mother a large feast when he came back.
On the day that the village scouts told everyone that the hunters were returning, she tiptoed around the huts in another attempt to scare her father.
She crept along the edge of the huts and kept her eyes opened wide as saucers as if to consume every detail all at once so that she could spot her father the moment he appeared.
Yet, when the hunters eventually returned, she did not spot her father among them.
Her heart sank as she thought feared that maybe he had died during the hunt and left from her hiding spot to go ask what happened to him.
She ran up to one of them and asked, “Where is my father?”
The hunter that she approached gave her one look and seemed to be hiding his expression from her as he looked away.
He then raised his fist to his face as if to hide his expression from her as he walked away without saying anything.
She tried to ask the other hunters but they all refused to talk to her and hid their expressions from her.
Why were they ignoring her…?
What happened to-
Before she could finish the thought, someone grabbed her by the waist with firm hands and lifted her into the air while shouting like an animal.
She screamed in fear and tried to shake herself free. She started punching and kicking the air to try and get away only to be spun around and came face to face with her father who gave her a big grin.
“I win this time! It is my turn to scare you my precious daughter!” he said.
Instead of getting angry that she was on the receiving end of the scare, she locked her arms around his neck as she gave him a tight hug.
“When I didn’t see you with the other hunters, I got worried. They would not talk to me or look at me.”
“I told them not to so to better surprise you. I’m sorry that I made you worry,” he said as he fixed his grip on her as he held her in one arm while picking up his spear in the other.
As he carried her home she asked, “I wish you would let me go hunting with you...”
“But you are a woman aren’t you? Hunting is a man’s job as it is dangerous, and a woman should stay home where it's safe. Besides, what would your mother think of you being a hunter?”
Reyna looked down as she felt guilty for asking, but she was not even allowed to go with the gatherers to help the village.
She could hardly stomach being kept at home any longer, even though she knew that her parents were only doing it for her own safety.
Reyna has already proven that she was more than capable enough to be a hunter if she wanted to.
Her body, while still young, was blessed with strength that rivaled even some of the strongest men in the village.
How could she contribute to helping the village and her family if she was left to remain in her home, free of any risk or consequence?
In spite of her desire to help her family and the others in the village, she loved them too much to disrespect their word and did what they said.
“Come now, let us head back home,” he said as he set her down and held her hand tight in his own.
When they returned to their hut, her mother was there waiting for them, wrapped snugly in animal furs.
Her mother’s beautiful brown eyes looked up at both of them as she was working on new clothes for Reyna as she had already outgrown most of them.
“Welcome back home dear,” she said to her father.
Her eyes then fell on Reyna as she continued, “You were there to greet him back home, yes?”
She nodded as she fell onto her bed and sighed.
Her father and mother looked at each other as he tried to say quietly, “She is getting restless…”
“Yes. She needs something more to do because being stuck here is clearly bothering her.”
Reyna, who could hear all of this, felt irritated that they would have this conversation about her so openly and not be subtle about it.
She turned herself around to face her parents, but just as she was about to tell them what she felt about all of this she went speechless as Gabriel had appeared behind them.
Her mother and father looked at her as if wondering what was wrong until they turned around and faced him as well.
“M-My lord,” her father said as he knelt before him, to which her mother followed his example.
“Gabriel…,” Reyna said breathlessly as she struggled to sit up straight before kneeling as well.
Unlike her parents who kept their heads bowed down in respect, Reyna raised hers to get a good look at Gabriel’s appearance.
The Archangel wore the same attire that he had worn the many times he had visited them. Simple furs like that of the other villagers, yet clean of dirt.
The other times that he had visited them, he would usually have a kindly expression on his face. However, the look that he had in his eyes right now was far more intense and urgent.
Seeing him like this actually scared her and caused her to lower her eyes.
“What brings you to our home once again?” her father asked, his voice sounding ever grateful to see him once again.
“You all need to find a place to hide at once,” he said firmly, with steel in his voice.
Her parents flinched at the tone in his voice, and her father asked, “Lord? Did we do something wrong?”
Making his voice much harsher and more urgent, Gabriel spoke once more, “There is no time for idle chatter. Find a place to hide. Now!”
Not wasting any time to question his words, her mother pulled aside the fur on the floor of their hut and removed a piece of wood to reveal there dug out storage room.
Her father then quickly picked her up and dropped her inside.
But before her parents could climb down and join her, Reyna was hit with an overwhelming sense of fear.
Then, a sudden flash of light blinded her and a wave of intense heat washed over her skin.
She tucked her body in close to her as she felt an immense pressure of wind blow over the storage room.
The sound of the wind roared in her ears and she could hear nothing else, not even her own voice as she screamed for her mother and father.
When the roar of the wind and the burning heat stopped, she opened her eyes and struggled to readjust to what she was seeing.
As she looked up, instead of seeing the top of her family’s hut, she saw only the open sky.
What...what happened?
The blood curdling cry of Gabriel’s voice as he shouted for answers pierced her ears.
“Why Cassiel?! Why have you done this?”
She pulled herself to her feet and tried to climb back up the storage room to look outside.
She almost screamed in horror as the sight of her village laid to waste scarred her eyes.
Not a single hut remained standing, none of the villagers save for herself seemed to be left alive.
She held a hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying.
She looked around for Gabriel to see if he could fight against the terrible thing that had done this to her people.
When she finally did spot him, his appearance had changed drastically.
Instead of the furs he had worn to blend in with the others, he was surrounded by six enormous emerald colored wings. His skin also seemed to take on a golden hue and the veins beneath his skin pulsated with light.
Yet try as he might, he seemed to be frozen in place, unable to move.
His eyes were fixated on someone else.
Reyna followed his eyes until she spotted the other angel, the one that he had called ‘Cassiel’.
He seemed very similar in appearance to Gabriel save for his wings, which were a pale white color.
Cassiel looked at her brother with indifference.
Angered that he refused to give an answer for what he had done, Gabriel shouted once again, “Answer me!”
Something else seemed to catch Cassiel’s attention as he appeared at the foot of a destroyed hut and grabbed a survivor by the throat.
He had moved so quickly that her mind was unable to comprehend his speed.
“It seems that one of them had managed to survive...a pity,” he said.
“No, don’t-!” Gabriel pleaded only for Cassiel to squeeze his hands around the survivor’s throat and reduce him to bloody mist.
“Father couldn’t have ordered you to kill these people, could he?” Gabriel asked as he tried to get answer out of him.
Cassiel finally turned his head to look at Gabriel as he said, “Of course not. Father did not order me to do anything of the sort.”
“Then why? Why slaughter these innocent people so mercilessly? If Father did not order you to come here, then why-” Gabriel tried to ask but Cassiel appeared next to him and bent forward.
“I am surprised that you aren’t concerned about the fact that Father has not learned about what you have been doing here all these years. And what of the power keeping you restrained. Have you nothing to say about that?”
Gabriel’s eyes widened, as if coming to a sudden realization.
“My power...you halted it yourself? But how? No one aside from Father...or perhaps Lucifer could…”
Cassiel’s eyebrows raised as if waiting for Gabriel to fill in the rest of the information.
“You...you took Lucifer’s power for yourself? I don’t understand. What is the reasoning behind your actions?”
Instead of answering him, Cassiel said, “Hasn’t it ever bothered you? If Father is supposed to be all seeing and all powerful, then why is it that despite his order for us to not interfere with humanity, that for all your years of visiting these humans, he hasn’t once caught on to what you are doing and come to stop you?”
Confusion spread across Gabriel’s face as he tried to make sense of Cassiel’s words.
“Was this...an experiment? To see if you could provoke Father’s wrath? To see if he would notice?”
“No. He is preoccupied elsewhere. I have other reasons for being here. Reasons that wouldn’t make sense to you now even if I tried to explain them to you.”
“Then help me understand! Make me understand why you would commit such atrocities against innocents!”
As Cassiel was about to speak, Reyna’s hand slipped.
The angel’s head turned to look at her directly, staring deep into her soul.
The fear that her life would be snuffed out in the very next instant was so overwhelming that her vision faded to black.
The fear that Reyna had felt was so intense and overpowering that it forced Marcus out of the dream as he screamed in fear for his life.
When he awoke, he could not move his arms and legs. It was as if he were stuck in some kind of sleep paralysis even though he knew he was still awake.
He could then hear Thalia running from her room to his as she called out to him to see if he was okay.
The moment his bedroom door opened and she ran over to his side, his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he was forced back into the dream.
When the dream resumed, it was now in the point of view of Gabriel.
He looked at the ruins of the hut where Reyna had been hiding.
Despite his all seeing eyes, despite being obviously aware that Reyna was hiding there, he did nothing.
Why…?
Then, as if just becoming aware of something, Cassiel’s eyes widened before turning his head to stare into Gabriel’s eyes.
He stared so deeply into them as if he were burning a hole straight through to his soul...or to something beyond it.
“C-Cassiel…?”
His voice seemed to break him out of the trance like state as he said, “It seems that my time here is coming to an end.”
He then pulled his arm back before thrusting into Gabriel’s chest and starting digging into it as if looking for something.
“There it is…,” he said as he pulled out his arm and Gabriel felt the power granted by the aspect of his father given to him fade away.
The hold on Gabriel’s body that kept him suspended vanished along with all of his strength and he fell to his knees.
He could feel himself becoming more and more human as all of Father’s light was being taken from him.
“Before I go Gabriel, I must ask you something,” he said as he knelt in front of him.
Gabriel barely had enough strength to lift his head as he listened to what Cassiel had to say.
“Why do you think we exist?”
“W-what…? Father...created us...to serve him,” Gabriel asked, confused by the seemingly nonsensical question.
“Think beyond that. On a fundamental level, why do we exist within this reality?”
“I...Father made this universe for us...didn’t he?”
Cassiel’s eyes twitched, as if he could tell Gabriel was getting close to the reasons behind his question.
“Brother...Gabriel...Our Father did not create this reality, he is but a product of it, as are we all. So if he did not create this universe, then what created him, and for what reason? For what reason do we truly exist?”
“I...I don’t know…,” Gabriel admitted.
All of what Cassiel was telling him contradicted everything that he knew. He had no answers for him.
“I trust that you will come to a meaningful answer some day. When you do, call out for me and I will find you,” Cassiel said before setting Gabriel’s wings aflame and disappearing.
Writhing in pain and agony, the flames continued to burn his wings to ashes before vanishing as they reached the skin on his back.
Just as the pain began to subside, he could feel his consciousness fading as Reyna ran to his side.
Even though she looked so frightened and about to break down crying any moment, he seemed so grateful to see that she was okay.
“Reyna...I am...so glad to see...that you are...alive,” he said.
“Please save your strength Gabriel,” she said, almost weeping as she forced out the words. She then lifted him to his feet and let him lean on her.
“We need to...leave this place…,” he said.
“But where would we go?” she asked.
He managed to raise his arms as he pointed forward and said, “We will go...to my brother...Lucifer. He will...help us…”
With those last few words, he feinted from exhaustion as Reyna carried him to safety.
When the dream finally came to an end, Marcus found himself being shaken awake by his sister Thalia.
“I thought...I thought that you would never wake up…” she said, giving him a sigh of relief to try and hide the panic that was clear on her face.
“Yeah...that nightmare was...awful,” he said, giving her a smile to try and calm her down.
However, it was not enough to make himself feel calm over what had happened.
Whatever doubts he might have had about his dreams being anything more than dreams were shattered.
They were so much more than that, and that truly scared him.