A confusion of Angels - how many pins can dance on an Angel? Diary of an Occult Resolution Assistant.
Xanthic laughed at my distress and I wanted to punch him.
"Relax, I know its you and of that there can be no mistake. I knew you were out in the wilds and I know with full confidence you are here and in a hospital bed a few miles away."
"You are a bastard, you know that, I thought you were about to hurt me or something and accuse me of being an imposter."
"If I thought that you wouldn't be breathing, so relax. I know where you are anywhere, which is what makes this all interesting. I believe you have travelled the road least walked and somehow ended up at the end before you even started. This gives us an advantage."
"An advantage? Ended before I start?" I didn't know what he was on about but he seemed excited about it. "Who do we have an advantage over?"
He thought for a second; "Not exactly sure who or what we have an advantage over right now, but the fact you've done what you've done means there is something out there pulling strings or stirring up trouble, and now we know what we're going to do before we know we're going to do it." I'm sure there was a logic to that statement but right now I couldn't follow it.
"Look, I need you to answer a few questions and fill us in on what's happened to you and we can go from there. But, and its a huge but, Hal works for the other team and I don't want them having unrivalled access to everything." Xanthic squeezed my shoulders in what I took as team mate solidarity, I just wish his fingernails weren't so claw-like as tiny lightning bolts of pain triggered within my nerves as they broke through the thin cloth of my top. "We got to keep a little something back for just us don't we." Although he was wearing dark glasses I knew without seeing it he had winked.
"Is that tea stone cold or are you waiting for a skin to form on it?" Hal's voice carried through the closed door at his normal spoken levels but he had definitely projected it so we could have heard it no matter where we were in the house at that volume.
"Listen to him!" was all Xanthic could say. "Anyone would think he could die of thirst that way he carries on sometimes. He maybe an Angel but he can be quite catty in a coffee-shop if they keep him waiting."
Xanthic led the way into the library and I followed carrying the tray. The door swung back and almost removed it and the pot from my hands.
"Thanks for the help." I said to my employer's back.
The room had had a bit of a make-over in my absence. A single office style wire chair with a red cushion and back rest was in the middle of the room and two much more substantial chairs a few feet away were facing it; the complete library of Harahel, the librarian to God was sat on a small table between the double chairs with a decanter of wine and two glasses. I knew with certainty the single chair was for me and with equal certainty neither of the two wine glasses were mine.This was going to be the interview from Hell; Alan Sugar eat your heart out.
I took my seat, Xanthic and Harahel did likewise, one sat upright, hands on his crossed legs in clean bright clothes. The other sprawled in the chair and over hanging the sides almost as much as he inhabited the seat in ruffled blacks and dark shades. Good cop, bad cop from Heaven and Hell.
"Tell me in your own words what has happened to you since you arrived in your hospital bed on Friday. I understand that to you this was a few days ago." Harahel spoke slowly and clearly in formal interviewer tones.
"I had made notes in my diary" I told them, "But I don't have it here so I'll have to try and remember."
"No issues, " Said Hal, "We have a copy here." And he pulled out a few A4 printed sheets. "This covers from Friday through to you returning home after meeting a lady called Melody."
"I haven't had a chance to put much more than that, and I guess it'll be hard to put anymore as diary printers don't take into account that I need a couple of extra days now." How did they have the print outs? Did the digital library hold books being written or that could be made into books? The fact it doesn't hold everything that happened gave me a little breathing space over holding things back.
"Don't worry about that, just rip out a few pages at the start that you haven't used, scratch out the days and write on the new ones till you catch up." Offered Xanthic in advice.
O.K I thought, I took a deep breath and started right from the beginning covering the conversations and events of what happened as I lay in that bed.
"Um....should I tell you when you come into it Xanthic?" I asked. "I don't want to cause some kind of temporal paradox or anything."
"Don't worry about that, I want to know everything I will have done. Paradox's are just for TV and lazy sci-fi plots; after all, if you could go back and kill your grandpa you'll just find that your Gran had an affair or something or was married twice and you got the wrong one; although with you, you'll probably miss and end up shooting yourself in the foot. Go on and don't leave anything important out." The inflection on the last part was defiantly leave important stuff out if it'll give us an advantage over the good cop. "And besides I've already read your diary so I have a fair idea of what I do next."
I carried on; Ludo, the crying lady and the morphing blade featuring heavily. I skipped over how pathetic I was during the fight and subsequent rescues, after all this was my story and I didn't want to look unable to look after myself in front of my boss. I tried to give details of how we looked for the monster from the hospital, she was responsible for the deaths of children and unforgivable in my opinion no matter what Angels and their boss may think; and I wanted her caught for her crimes.
I was pushed through light questioning on my activities in Wykham and if I had actually attended the scene of the animal attacks and how they may play a part of all this and alas I had to be honest and tell them I had not and did not know. Enquiries over Mary's activities with the girls playing at Witchcraft came and went but Melody featured heavily. I did not know how she was involved but I knew she was pivotal in all of this.
The story moved onto what happened in The Jolly Reaper leading up to my egress through the restroom window and my subsequent collection by my heavenly rescuer. I laboured on detailing how the atmosphere in the pub changed from friendly banter and into unbridled aggression. Xanthic had his own theory on this.
"I Knew a science teacher who was convinced the universe and everything was controlled by tiny little things. He showed me one night in a pub how little electrocutes can pass out and leave marks like a ball but also surf a wave and that small thing means planets and space can too. Drink had flowed so I'm not sure if he was as accurate as he could be and then he went on about a dead cat in a box, and that's where I really became interested." I knew what Xanthic meant, I once had an 'Uncle Geoff' who forgot about a birthday present he had for me and when he finally remembered I had nightmares about a stiff dead hamster for months.
''I think his little pre-evolved human brain was thinking about this guy called Schrödinger, who by the way now tutors developing demon pupae in comedic timings.'' Xanthic poured himself a drink from a decanter of wine on the side of the room, I looked at his full glass and mined the universal hand symbol for him to duplicate it for me. He failed to notice.
''The guy thought about how electrons could act both as a particle and as a wave, think bowling ball and the flow from a knocked over glass.'' He casually knocked his wine glass over and his wine flooded out and across the table as Harahel dynamically lifted the laptop up and away to the safety of his lap while the wine flowed out in an increasing v shape from the glass.
''The point of this was a pure thought experiment; with elements we can all imagine to illustrate his point. A cat in a box with a bottle of vapour poison and a decaying particle or uranium that should decay in an hour. If the particle decays the bottle opens and the cat is poisoned; if it does not the cat is safe sat next to a sealed bottle. Without direct observation on that particle after one hour no-one knows whether the particle has decayed and claimed the life of the cat or not; thus proving observation of any environment is changed by the observer no matter how independent or removed they believe they are; although I have collected a few soiled souls from people who put it into practice and gassed themselves along with the cat when they opened their boxes. These people now know how much the big guys down below love their cats. Which by the way are evil personified, don't believe me? Then ask a mouse.''
My arse had set hard into the deceptively hard chair and I had to shift myself to reawaken those parts of me that I like to shake on the dance floor.
'' OK I get that, but I've always been confused about him squishing the cat through a slot to leave marks on the end. Trust me, I saw a cat stuck between bricks in a wall and there was some serious marks left on the fireman's arm when they tried to free it.'' From the look of the two men opposite I had obviously got my GCSE science a little confused.
Xanthic took three of the A4 sheets that constituted my diary. folded them in half and placed them on their side in an upturned v on the table end. He moved the folded sheets apart to make two gaps between them, one in the middle and one each side all parallel to another couple of sheets he managed to stand upright on the lone side straight up without the paper wanting to fall. He took a bag of peanuts from one of his bottomless pockets and then tipped the nuts out. They rolled across the table, some peanuts hit the folded sheets and stopped, others rolled through the gaps and rested against the edge of the table in two piles roughly in line with the gaps.
'' It's not exactly laboratory conditions but you get the idea. Particles will leave two equal patterns of impact marks that match the holes. But electrons can travel as waves, like the spilled wine and spread out from the gaps leaving marks strongest between the middle area of the gaps, where the waves of both gaps meet and are strongest but also to the left and right of where these two piles are here.'' He said hovering a finger over the peanuts.
''It's sometimes referred to as a stripy interference pattern. By direct observation a scientist can see a collection of single electrons behaving like the peanuts but taking a step back and watching the whole he'll see the wave and see the stripy pattern. In actual fact both can happen depending on how closely you observe the experiment. The same is with Angels and Demons walking amongst you all; by us being there humans behave differently and a crowd observed by a Demon out for amusement can turn bad tempered and could, with a little push, turn to violence or rioting. But one individual with specific demonic persuasion could be lifted to great acts of negativity against society. So if an ' Other' were stood in a crowd, the whole would be affected, but a single person selected for individual attention would take a role of ring leader and focus the group in one direction. If it were an Angel the group could achieve great things; if it were a Demon then something akin to a football riot can occur. Its deeply fascinating if dirtying the greatest number of souls with the least amount of effort is your goal. I believe the instant and intense negativity in a confined group would have originated from a source that wanted it. Interesting."
I didn't take in half of it, but if he was right it meant someone had been affecting our emotions and caused a reaction of fear in some and aggression in others. I was scared and I let the two men discuss the implications of this. Then after a period of time their focus came back to me and then bid me continue.
The discussions held on the journey out into the countryside and the actual message Xanthic left for me was a hot topic, the boys rehearsing their lines so not to get them wrong when they had to do them later lifted my mood. They were very interested in why I had been asked to go into the mound and why everyone was interested in the package as neither knew what I was expected to collect but, as they theorised, they had a couple of days to find-out before I was sent and it explains why Xanthic was so positive I could handle myself on this mission as he was yet to send me on it. He was more distressed than I when I mentioned the Zaf, and why I had it as the Jag was totalled. I never thought a Demon could cry but with the news he would soon lose his beloved car he openly howled.
When I had no more to add, and after I had answered both their questions to their individual satisfaction we broke for tea, which surprisingly was still hot and brewed to perfection.
"Relax, I know its you and of that there can be no mistake. I knew you were out in the wilds and I know with full confidence you are here and in a hospital bed a few miles away."
"You are a bastard, you know that, I thought you were about to hurt me or something and accuse me of being an imposter."
"If I thought that you wouldn't be breathing, so relax. I know where you are anywhere, which is what makes this all interesting. I believe you have travelled the road least walked and somehow ended up at the end before you even started. This gives us an advantage."
"An advantage? Ended before I start?" I didn't know what he was on about but he seemed excited about it. "Who do we have an advantage over?"
He thought for a second; "Not exactly sure who or what we have an advantage over right now, but the fact you've done what you've done means there is something out there pulling strings or stirring up trouble, and now we know what we're going to do before we know we're going to do it." I'm sure there was a logic to that statement but right now I couldn't follow it.
"Look, I need you to answer a few questions and fill us in on what's happened to you and we can go from there. But, and its a huge but, Hal works for the other team and I don't want them having unrivalled access to everything." Xanthic squeezed my shoulders in what I took as team mate solidarity, I just wish his fingernails weren't so claw-like as tiny lightning bolts of pain triggered within my nerves as they broke through the thin cloth of my top. "We got to keep a little something back for just us don't we." Although he was wearing dark glasses I knew without seeing it he had winked.
"Is that tea stone cold or are you waiting for a skin to form on it?" Hal's voice carried through the closed door at his normal spoken levels but he had definitely projected it so we could have heard it no matter where we were in the house at that volume.
"Listen to him!" was all Xanthic could say. "Anyone would think he could die of thirst that way he carries on sometimes. He maybe an Angel but he can be quite catty in a coffee-shop if they keep him waiting."
Xanthic led the way into the library and I followed carrying the tray. The door swung back and almost removed it and the pot from my hands.
"Thanks for the help." I said to my employer's back.
The room had had a bit of a make-over in my absence. A single office style wire chair with a red cushion and back rest was in the middle of the room and two much more substantial chairs a few feet away were facing it; the complete library of Harahel, the librarian to God was sat on a small table between the double chairs with a decanter of wine and two glasses. I knew with certainty the single chair was for me and with equal certainty neither of the two wine glasses were mine.This was going to be the interview from Hell; Alan Sugar eat your heart out.
I took my seat, Xanthic and Harahel did likewise, one sat upright, hands on his crossed legs in clean bright clothes. The other sprawled in the chair and over hanging the sides almost as much as he inhabited the seat in ruffled blacks and dark shades. Good cop, bad cop from Heaven and Hell.
"Tell me in your own words what has happened to you since you arrived in your hospital bed on Friday. I understand that to you this was a few days ago." Harahel spoke slowly and clearly in formal interviewer tones.
"I had made notes in my diary" I told them, "But I don't have it here so I'll have to try and remember."
"No issues, " Said Hal, "We have a copy here." And he pulled out a few A4 printed sheets. "This covers from Friday through to you returning home after meeting a lady called Melody."
"I haven't had a chance to put much more than that, and I guess it'll be hard to put anymore as diary printers don't take into account that I need a couple of extra days now." How did they have the print outs? Did the digital library hold books being written or that could be made into books? The fact it doesn't hold everything that happened gave me a little breathing space over holding things back.
"Don't worry about that, just rip out a few pages at the start that you haven't used, scratch out the days and write on the new ones till you catch up." Offered Xanthic in advice.
O.K I thought, I took a deep breath and started right from the beginning covering the conversations and events of what happened as I lay in that bed.
"Um....should I tell you when you come into it Xanthic?" I asked. "I don't want to cause some kind of temporal paradox or anything."
"Don't worry about that, I want to know everything I will have done. Paradox's are just for TV and lazy sci-fi plots; after all, if you could go back and kill your grandpa you'll just find that your Gran had an affair or something or was married twice and you got the wrong one; although with you, you'll probably miss and end up shooting yourself in the foot. Go on and don't leave anything important out." The inflection on the last part was defiantly leave important stuff out if it'll give us an advantage over the good cop. "And besides I've already read your diary so I have a fair idea of what I do next."
I carried on; Ludo, the crying lady and the morphing blade featuring heavily. I skipped over how pathetic I was during the fight and subsequent rescues, after all this was my story and I didn't want to look unable to look after myself in front of my boss. I tried to give details of how we looked for the monster from the hospital, she was responsible for the deaths of children and unforgivable in my opinion no matter what Angels and their boss may think; and I wanted her caught for her crimes.
I was pushed through light questioning on my activities in Wykham and if I had actually attended the scene of the animal attacks and how they may play a part of all this and alas I had to be honest and tell them I had not and did not know. Enquiries over Mary's activities with the girls playing at Witchcraft came and went but Melody featured heavily. I did not know how she was involved but I knew she was pivotal in all of this.
The story moved onto what happened in The Jolly Reaper leading up to my egress through the restroom window and my subsequent collection by my heavenly rescuer. I laboured on detailing how the atmosphere in the pub changed from friendly banter and into unbridled aggression. Xanthic had his own theory on this.
I didn't take in half of it, but if he was right it meant someone had been affecting our emotions and caused a reaction of fear in some and aggression in others. I was scared and I let the two men discuss the implications of this. Then after a period of time their focus came back to me and then bid me continue.
The discussions held on the journey out into the countryside and the actual message Xanthic left for me was a hot topic, the boys rehearsing their lines so not to get them wrong when they had to do them later lifted my mood. They were very interested in why I had been asked to go into the mound and why everyone was interested in the package as neither knew what I was expected to collect but, as they theorised, they had a couple of days to find-out before I was sent and it explains why Xanthic was so positive I could handle myself on this mission as he was yet to send me on it. He was more distressed than I when I mentioned the Zaf, and why I had it as the Jag was totalled. I never thought a Demon could cry but with the news he would soon lose his beloved car he openly howled.
When I had no more to add, and after I had answered both their questions to their individual satisfaction we broke for tea, which surprisingly was still hot and brewed to perfection.
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