Story Stopper

Part XIV: The death of innocence

"Dolphiel. Wake up, Dolphiel."

As I opened my eyes, I saw the plane of existence. By that I mean I saw the chaos that was the existence of all things before all things existed.

First, there was darkness; such blackness as cannot be comprehended by anything describable. God was not attached to anything in this world so falling from grace and the absence of Him in a fallen angel was the closest one might come to describing this blackness. One word that would come close would be absence; the absence of God, the absence of the angels, the nothingness and lack of sensation that breaches even death.

The feeling weighed on me as I watched this and as my nothingness began to burn, the voice that had awoken me made a sound like a child's pop gun. In that instance, there was, all of a sudden, a gathering of compact and minute lights. They were not arrayed like stars but rather focused into a small area like sheep in a pen.

I heard them speak. My step-brothers began to sing. They sang in joyful chorus, which brought light unto this rather compact area. They were only talking to each other but the light of god within them gave so much power to their voices, they could scarce do anything but sing; once the song had begun.

The reverberation was so sonorous that the whole of existence began to swell and as the voice which had awakened me began to yawn, the area of those tiny lights expanded exponentially.

All of a sudden the universe was astir with singing and lights flying in every direction. The stars were formed by the sweating of the angels and lights all over filled the great expanse of this new existence.

For a long time, there was peace and happiness and angels dwelled in the great expanse but they felt the universe and some even questioned god: "what is all this for?"

This was the right question because shortly after, the whole Genesis of man's existence was born. It took a long time to even get to man's existence but as they arrived, so did the magnificent gifts god gave to them.

Most of the angels were overjoyed to have such frail creatures to Sheppard but not everyone saw them as frail. Those who didn't, even saw them as an insult or as a threat to the kingdom of heaven so they rebelled.

I saw god's most beloved Angel stand by his side and as he received all the praise and love of god, he became so full of himself that he saw himself as beauty beyond man and eventually beyond god. His hubris was seen by his brethren and though a third called him king, all fell from grace who did.

A third of my step-brothers looked at Lucifer and loved him above god and my step-brother Michael took the multitude and war broke out to shake the heavens with god's wrath.

The voice that had awoken me started weeping like a wounded child. He wept as strongly as history would ever see him weep again for I had heard this voice before and knew him.

As I watched brother slay brother with weapons as fierce and savage as any that man could create, I watched the multitude crush this misguided and vicious rebellion with seraphic ferver. The anger of god and his betrayed heart reigned strong and gave Michael the advantage over his brother Lucifer. Though Lucifer was so filled with self-agrandizement, he cowered in fear in the face of his angered father and fell under the spear of Michael with little more than a whimper.

For all of Lucifer's rebellion, it was no more, in the end, than sound and fury signifying nothing. As he fell, I watched his face and I felt his heart and the voice that had awoken me disappeared.

Where that holy voice was, the voice of another who was as beautiful as anything holy turned to ugly resentment. His heart cried as his eyes wept and he knew what he had done. He was awakened as Adam and Eve to the sadness and reality of a harsh world. It was as if he had eaten the forbidden fruit himself and all of a sudden, he knew all things like no angel ever had or ever would. This realization made him painfully aware of the cruelty of his actions towards his god but it also made him see that there was no forgiveness for angels and because of this, he became even more aware at the imbalance of god's love towards man as opposed to god's demand on the angels.

He hated man for all these things and blamed man for him and his brothers fall. He blamed god for the situation and realized man's importance if he was ever to take back heaven for him and his fallen brethren. In this, he awaited the day that he could corrupt a Nephelim or even show his feelings and point of view to one who was part man and part angel.

As time went on, I saw myself and my transcendence. I saw Lucifer watch this and realized that I had felt him out of the corner of my eye as it happened. He had only awaited my doubt and now I was aware of why that voice which had shown me all this wanted me to know.

As the visions began to fade like a dream on the back of my eyelids, the last thing I heard was, "I love you, my child, for all that you are. In the coming end, I hope you make your choices with your eyes open. This is all any father can ask of his child. This is all He can ask for ALL of His children."

Letter to the departer

I crouched at the top of a building somewhere in New York City and looked down at them.  The wind rustled my feathers as I stared into the multitude and imagined their sorrow and anguish from living.  I am truly the devil they make me out to be, that much I cannot deny but reasoning matters I suppose.

Some call it arrogance.  Why would a child question his father and why does order seem preferable to chaos but have you ever lived in chaos?  Where is the order for those beyond the vale?  For that matter, where is the chaos?  The lack of one denotes heaven and the lack of the other would be perceived to be my domain but does anyone question my motive?  History is written by the winners or so they say.  The lack of both order and chaos is where we were but the freedom to choose is inherently human.  I was damned in heaven as well as hell because for all my power and importance I am still bound to being what I am.

The angels never really had a choice.  "Lucifer, my beloved brother," He said with a smile as he cast me out.

Many of the other angels had their wings cut off or were severely tortured before heaven cast them out but me?  I am bound to have forgotten its destination as I forgot my pledge to be His servant.

Spreading my wings, I can fly in this phased out dimension and watch reality unfold but can I find my way back to the whirlwind between the worlds? Never.  I am never to go back to my father and even have the chance to talk to him again.  The pain was immeasurable and that was punishment alone but the pit of hell is what I am chose to rule for my "misguidance" of humans.

"What is a man but a miserable pile of secrets."  Humans wrote this in a video game they dispense to their children.  It's the devil that made those humans write such awful words in their public forum but not everything evil that comes from humans is my fault.  This is the nature of chaos and order in tandem.  This is the nature of God.

Humans would condemn me for my arrogance and call me the prime evil but is it not evil to cast a soul into this world of choice and freedom?  If freedom is so important why was I cast from his light for asking for it?  Yes I can be the dragon as the Revelation of John suggests and yes I do seek to destroy man and heaven but it is for the bitterness and lack of heart that gives me my drive.

You see, Dolphiel, I do not get to have a heart.  I don't get to have free will.  Even as "evil incarnate," everything going on is his will.  Do you think that God would allow an angel to function free just because he's fallen from his grace?  I still have my wings; here I fly above the people, watching their pathetic run about and just hoping that they will deny their lord and come with me to populate my heart which has become hell.

As I settle on this building across town, I write you this letter in hopes that you'll get it and understand what it is to be fallen.  I hope you will get it and understand what it is to be Lucifer, the devil, Satan.

Perhaps if you know, then you will understand what it means to do what I do.  You will understand that the human part of you will be with me always.

Story Stopper

Part XIII: Death becomes him

"What do you want with me Lucifer?  I'm ashamed enough of my betrayal as it is and yet you mock me still?"

"On the contrary," said the well dressed angel, "I seek to rebuild you."

I looked down at the floor and said nothing.  Deep within what was left of my human soul, the absence of god was like no pain anyone on earth should ever feel.  Even the most brazenly heathen people on earth are still loved by the lord.  That warm confidence is felt even if it's not recognized.  The atheists would call it confidence, panache,  je ne sais quoi, vivre! But when you've spoken to god, felt his presence while in his presence, you come to understand what it is that invigorates man to be such an amazing creature.  We have the love of a father who created us to be as he is: powerful in our independence.

On the opposite end, angels were not created to preform any independent function.  Their soul purpose is to serve god and carry out his command.  It was for this reason, we are told in heaven, that Lucifer was cast out from god's light.  It is also for this reason that god granted me the status of an angel because whereas my human side served to usher a soul into heaven, my angelic side was meant to force a devotion to the function I was meant to preform.

"How can you rebuild what is not there anymore?" I said.

Lucifer remained quiet and put his hand on his elbow and the other on his chin, as he began to look me over like a tailor getting ready to fit me for a nice suit.

"You're not lost, Dolphiel.  You are very much still here and have incredible power that you don't even realize you have.  Now granted, your choir was lower than mine was but look at me! I am god's equal only I exist on the negative scale..."

"...You are no equal to god!" I snapped at him.

He looked at me with pity.  God how low I've sunk that the devil pities me.  However, he envies most humans and disguises it as pity so I could be victim to the crafted fantasy of the lord of lies.

"You are no victim, my friend," said Lucifer, "on the contrary, I said I was here to rebuild you and that is what I'll do.  To call it a selfless act makes me seem too..."  He paused and turned his nose up as if sniffing the air for the right answer, "Christian.  However, whether you like it or not, you're in my boat now and we are both no longer in the light of god."

I looked out the window of the cruiser and watched the city below.  He watched from behind me as I marveled at the creation of man.

"Amazing, isn't it?  It gets more like heaven every day..."

"...Without the glory of God and miracles," I moaned.

"Dolphiel, human beings have the potential for great things.  You control their mortality.  You still know who's going to die, where and when.  As you look out that window, think about this: all that was built by people who lived in a temporary existence and had limited time to come up with long term solutions.  Building up was a logical conclusion to the growing problem of population but the way that they did it.  This skyway that we are traveling on: what would the right man have come up with if you didn't take his life in some of his finest years?"

I thought hard on it for a minute and he did, indeed, have a point.  The philosophy in heaven was that god and only god decides when it's time to take a person.  Samael does it in droves but he is still bound by god's decree.  Everything that happens in this existence is by his command.  When I was first an angel and was being trained by Samael, he explained to me that what he did, he took pleasure in but that pleasure stemmed not only from the sickness of his mind but more so because he carried out god's command with an artistic excellence.  He told me that the devil's greatest desire was to take the earth from man because from the earth it was a simple one step to heaven.

As we approached a sidewalk where Lucifer could let me wander this empty city of millions upon millions, Lucifer looked toward me and said, "Would heaven give you a better deal?" With that, the door opened and I was pushed out in front of the cafe de 2 moulin in Paris, France.  The year was back to being present day and as I got up off the ground, I walked over to a chair and sat down in it.

I noticed that I was out of phase with the natural world and there in front of me, but a distance away was the killer of children at a local school.  My mouth watered as I strongly desired to pull him into this phase of existence but I hesitated and watched as he turned to me, looking straight in my eyes as no other person in the city could, and winked.

As I watched him walk away, I felt my wings behind me still in tact and thought hard on the decisions I had to make as either a god, a mercenary, a toady, a soldier, a mid-level-manager or simply me, Dolphiel: the great escapist.

I had felt the absence of god, it was all so real but the devil wouldn't tempt lest he knew he could be convincing.  There were elements of truth to the things he said.  There were elements of things he knew were my greatest desires.  In an eternity, I had not seen or felt such choice dangled in front of me.  Part man and part angel: was this a cruel joke of the lord or was this fantasy Lucifer created to get me to favor his side?  Perhaps we will see.  Perhaps I will avoid Michael in the human realm and through the vortex in combination where I might be able to hide and test god's love and patience.  Perhaps it's time to end this madness or blossom its potential? Death becomes me and who I am is the end of the story line, regardless of orders.  The story stops with me.

Story Stopper

Part XII: Outside the soulless

"Child of the lord! You question god in your heart and the nature of your position gives you great strength.  It is here that you must witness the power of the lord that shown to you may make you a believer and save your angelic soul as well as what remnants of your human soul are left.  Perhaps darkness will deliver you unto the light."

With that, the angel Michael swept down upon my wings and the feathers on them burnt so I could no longer ascend to the heavens.  Without wings, I could not even exist in heaven.  I grabbed my scythe as I fell and saw Deviel ascend and she cried out as she watched me and reached out for me as my fingertips brushed hers until there was nothing but the vortex.  In there, I was tossed and spun and disoriented until I fell to the earth in front of a statuesque man in a long overcoat.  He was well dressed and looked well bred.  He stood in front of me and looked down at a golden pocket watch as if expecting me.

Looking around and trying to determine where and when I'd landed, I noticed that the nice clothes I'd been wearing were now in shambles and I seemed to be in England some time around the mid to late 1800's.  The man in front of me spoke, "Hello, Mr. Dolph.  We've been expecting you.  Please, if you will."  He motioned to a carriage near by and headed towards the double doors.

As he handed me new clothes, I stepped in and began to change. Getting in, what I saw was an ordinary carriage but as I bulled the shirt over my head and the door shut, it was much roomier than the outside made it seem.  There was a grand, white room and a long satin couch in the middle of it.  Outside the windows, all one could see was fire and the walls of a great pit.

"For all intents and purposes, you are in a carriage in London traveling White Chapel where I will dispose of another whore a little later tonight, but a deeper game is afoot as you may well know by now."

Coming out of nowhere, a broad chested and beautiful man with flowing golden hair came across the room toward the couch.  He had to have been at least equal height with Michael and yet as it was obvious to me that he was an angel, as he got closer, he shrank and developed into a fine looking, proper English gentleman.  He was around six feet even with longer, dirty blonde hair; his eyes were green and his nose very properly sat on his face indistinguishable from any other one might see in any time period in English history.

"Lucifer!" I said.

Sitting down on the satin couch in the middle of the room, he responded, "In the flesh, my dear boy."

We sat for a while, looking at each other with differing glances.  I looked at him as if waiting to hear a speech but he looked at me as if he did not care what was said by whom, if anything was said at all.  It was as if he were studying me.

"You're a fascinating creature, Dolphiel.  Do you know that angels consider you to be neither man nor angel?  You 'fit in' nowhere.  Why, with such nomadic proclivity, and such astronomical raw power, one such as you could be a creator of an entirely new existence..."

"...or its destroyer..."

"Ironic, my friend, that I am the one with the glass half full attitude and you with the tragic ennui on your breath."

He laughed aloud, which scared me at first but once I realized where our conversation had gone, I tried asking some questions of my own.

"What do you mean, 'power'?  You should know by now that I am no longer the angel of death."

"Oh really?  I hadn't noticed," he laughed.  "You were never the angel of death, Dolphiel.  You were the Grim Reaper.  A position that has its own set of rules.  Your angelic status has been revoked so you are no longer the Grim Reaper but make no mistake of it, you are still, in every way, granted the ability to reap souls and once you regain your strength, you will be able to walk through the walls of fire outside this room and travel to any point in time you wish to go.  The only difference is you're in my domain now.  You've fallen."

"...but what power is it to reap souls?" I asked him

"It is a great power, my friend," he replied.  "We have the power to offset the balance of god's creation.  You have the power of an imagination that's imbued with the image of god himself.  Being part human, makes you part god! Or did you not understand what He meant when he said, 'made in his image'?"

At this, I grew visibly uncomfortable and began to question, in my mind, just how far from God's decree I was prepared to go.  Lucifer, sensing my discomfort, asked if I preferred a more complacent setting than hell and with a snap of his fingers, we were traveling in an aircraft of some sort, over a city I did not recognize."

"Where are we?" I asked.

"We are in London, I've just changed the year to 2,338."

"You can traverse time?"

"I'm the devil, son, I exist in every instance of time just as god does.  It is how I am his equal and yet, his opposite.  He represents the rules and devotion to him.  I represent the devotion to nothing and to no one."

"How can one be devoted to no one?" I said.

"I'm glad you asked," said Lucifer.  "We have much to talk about."

Story Stopper

Part XI: Inside the soulless

Reading through the papers in some cafe in Paris, out of phase with the human realm with my wings extended, I learned of the latest school shooting.  I sometimes like to sit in the the human realm like this because my wings are often stressed in the vortex between the worlds and Paris in mid-march is windy but delightful to stretch one's wings.  Oh the great irony that humans could not see me and yet here I sat as one of them would, just slightly out of phase and with outstretched wings.  Only babies and people who may have caught a "glimpse" from the corner of their eyes would notice a dark angel reading the news at the Cafe des 2 Moulin on the Rue Lepic.  The irony that I was in Paris, reading about school shootings was also not lost on me but given the nature of my job, and in the words of the angel Gabriel, death is "poetic."

Humans are such violent perpetrators of death but this one on the front page of some American nothing magazine was an artist.  He was a fool granted that his dental records, which would have been so perfect had he not made them out of stone, were found to be false and a manhunt would have been started for him had he not vanished into thin air.  Only I knew where he was and as I watched him at the coffee table adjacent to mine, I admired his poise to have killed an entire school of high school children without batting an eye or displaying any remorse in this cafe here, not more than 2 weeks after it all happened.  His convictions were worn on his sleeve but I could also read his mind being the supernatural creature that I was and it was completely swirling; not unlike the vortex between the worlds.

Speaking through a hole in the vortex, not to mention obviously using some of the last remnants of her temporary grim status, Deviel called through the vortex saying, "I know what you're doing and you should stop before you get yourself in trouble.  Taking advice or 'words of wisdom' from humans especially one with a mind as dark as this one is ill-advised."

"Be silent!" I yelled, shutting the tear and pulling the human to my phase of existence.

He sat there staring at my wings at first and then at me.

"Are you not afraid mortal?" I said.

"Why would I be?  I don't even know who you are," he replied.

"I'm the angel of death," I told him.

"That's hardly true.  You are in no way Samael."

"How do you know Samael?" I said in shock.

He paused and reclined in his chair and smiling, he said, "Now you don't seem to know who I am."

I thought for a moment about my journey and paused as a sudden realization crawled up and down my spine like a million spiders made of ice.

Looking directly into my eyes, he grimaced slyly with a sick spiteful, stentorian stare and slowly said, "he can be taught."

For the first time in millennia, I was truly frightened.  It was as if fear became embodied in this rather plain looking man before me.  

"It's nice to finally meet you, Dolphiel.  I am nothing to fear, though.  I serve my purpose as you do."

For a moment I was shocked and could not speak but when words found me, I replied, "then why are you fallen and I am loved?"

"Are any of us truly loved by our maker?" He asked.

I had no response as he moved closer to me and sat down at the table next to me.

"I have been sitting inside this body whispering and suggesting he commit unspeakable and unthinkable acts in the name of god and yet god is not here because he does not meddle in the affairs of humans except to give them strength and love to fight me.  ME! Who was his most beloved until these pitiful flesh bags came into existence on this horrible, painful, ephemeral, realm that he's forced on them. The war for heaven is oft talked about in this place and yet none of them knows that the war is over.  God won when he cast me out.  He proved that by the power of the heavenly host, he can expel anything from heaven.  The irony is that this not only includes angels but man as well.  My fiery realm would not exist if god had no wrath.  The Christians call him awesome! and the jews call him loving but is he?  If the fact remains that in Judaism, it's spoken that sinners are punished and in Christianity, it's said that those who do not cleave unto the blood of 'the lamb' and get saved are condemned to hell, then I ask you, is god really all loving?"

My breath was taken away by the hate that poured out of this vessel like the vortex between the worlds, without the stability of a reaper or the wings of an angel.  It was like a punch to the gut and it took me a while to regain my composure and a while longer to even remember that I still served god but the words came to me from the human side of my being which was odd because I hadn't known it for 3,000 years, give or take.

"God's love is based on choice.  We are given the choice to love and obey or we are given the choice to fall as you have, Satan."

He laughed hysterically in a maniacal way that gave rise to my entire body being frozen in place.

"I'm sorry but it's so funny to hear my name bastardized like that.  I prefer Lucifer and I am an angel, child; Perhaps cast out but I am still an angel."

He stared at me for a minute and would not let me speak.  It was if he had stolen all sound from my body or clenched his fist around my voice box only.  After a minute of pondering me like a chess player from across the small table, he said, "Do you really have a choice?  I mean if you do, congratulations but have you ever tried being bad?  If you truly have a choice then you can break gods commandments and rules and you will be fine because it's your choice and he loves you unconditionally but if you don't then he will cast you out as I have been because there is definitely a wrong choice in the divine equation."

I reviewed my own words and thought hard on them.  What choice do I have?  To what extent does god love me that he will tolerate the tomfoolery that I am capable of before he casts me out?  Looking to the skies, I fell on my knees and prayed as a human would: from a distance but god did not answer.  Instead, I watched Satan walk through my pull of this phase of existence and back into the human realm.

A moment later, my prayer was answered.  The world seemed to melt and my wings were gripped as if my humongous hands and pulled hard toward the heavens.  There on the heavenly planes, stood a man of great stature.  My best guess would be that he stood at least 9 feet tall.  His hair flowed golden and his wings seemed to stretch out like skyscrapers on their sides.  In his hands, he grasped a weapon that was pointed towards my face and the sword was aflame!

Lead By Example

The light shining through the Christian Academy windows, looked blue through my eyes. It was like some bad, made for TV recreation of what was about to happen but I was not cogniscent enough to really care either way.

The TV drama of this moment might paint me out to be some sort of malevolent, maniacal mastermind but in that moment there was nothing. There was no joy or glee for the feeling of killing.  There was no pain in my heart that caused me to shoot everyone. I felt no sexual rise from the murder or feeling of superiority or even any feeling of regained control in my life; all I felt was the machine at my fingertips that mowed down those who were being judged by their god.

I remember walking into the cafeteria and sliding a bar and chains on all of the exits. From there, it was simply a dance of blood and slaughter. At first the gunfire was loud and unnerving but after a while, the slaughter became like drums and the screams like horns as I danced to the music of death. The song would even rise and fall in climax until it dwindled down to the last few shuffling of children and teachers and voluptuous lunch ladies that puked the words, "hunny chile..." to the fat faced megalomaniacs who roamed the earth at this disaster on earth.

"RATATATATATAT!"

Such quick work of a school run on routine.  It was good it worked this way too because the crowd was concentrated and I killed every last one. Not a few people in the cafeteria and a few missed in the library. Not 7 dead and 6 wounded, all 158 students, 29 teachers and 5 neurotic lunch people. All dead. I counted and I used my knife to poke holes in their heads to make sure.

Death came slow and painful to them but there was a reckoning that day. At the end, I climbed the fire escape and burned down the building from within and from outside, with a cadaver that had my teeth in its mouth. A nice set of pebbles carved to replica in played my own mouth but the body lay with the others in the building as it burned to the ground.

If I had the power of a higher being, I would have simply taken them without all that pain but as a human being, this was to be a cautionary tale of woe for all those who thought that they were safe.

Sleep well princes and princess. Tell your story in the afterlife and to the people still living by your example. Bon voyage.

Story Stopper

Part X: Death Lives Always

What a strange life this Michael had that he would choose such rash action.  I remember none of living that life save the pictures and images that are held in the records of time.

Deviel was happy to have me back but I was displeased with my experiment.  Even when I had the memory of my current self erased to live life as a human, was it really all gone to eternity when all was said and done? Had god cursed the angels by giving them eternity to watch humans meander a world we could never experience or even truly understand?

I had lived mortal lives where I was only a walking shadow because inside I was still the Grim Reaper. I had now lived a life as a human who seemed to experience only misery but none that I could remember as me.

It wasn't me anyway; it was Michael that experienced the misery and from the hall of records and the stories and manifestos he'd left behind, there were always remnants of me that plagued him until his death.

Yes! I had cursed this poor soul to be me but not know it and it had driven him mad.  Perhaps the experiment was not all a loss for now I knew for sure that no human could live with the weight of responsibility for which my job entailed.

What powers do I hold as the angel of death? Can I call myself that when the title clearly belongs to Samael? It's interesting how time works in the afterlife. To humans, their little minds can only perceive that Satan was cast out of heaven a long time ago but for us, it could have been yesterday, it could have been tomorrow. For all I know, Satan is in heaven still and in hell at the same time.

Only god is omnipotent and omnipresent and all the "omnis" but existing outside in the vortex between the worlds, we reapers have extrodinary grasp on powers that would seem to be only his. Obviously, we do not have his mighty strength but we do have a presence throughout all eras of recorded time. We can not be at every one simultaneously and we can not know everything that goes on at every point in time but we can go to anywhere we desire in time.

Are we not then gods of death?  The Japanese seem to call us Shinegami or death "gods" I am the chief of the death "gods" so in my own way, I am a god supreme.

Hearing my thoughts, Deviel shushed them.

"No Dolphael! Do not think such things.  To question the limits of your position in the grand order is what causes one to fall."

"Yes but are we not free as humans are to question our existence?" I replied.

"No, you are not," a voice came down through the void and there before me, I saw him shining with the pure light of god himself.

"Gabriel!" I gasped.

"Deviel, you are right to caution your Grim to such foolhardy thoughts. I come as a warning and to fulfil my duty as the messenger archangel, Dolphael. To question the supremecy of god is herecy and if you do not heed this warning, second to me is Michael.

The irony that the human I had "made in my image" would be my destroyer should I not end my quest.

"Do not misunderstand me, Dolphael. I do not seek to have you end your quest at all.  God seeks for all his creation, including the angels to marvel at the beauty of what he has made. The Seraphs are so ecstatic about it that they fly around his head and sing 'holy holy holy' forever."

"What a life..." I mumbled.

"It may not occur to you, brother but being a man who has ascended to the rank of angel is a big deal. You have a unique perspective which is why the burden of man's mortality was placed on you. Samael knows only how to destroy but you are well versed in love, poetry (in more ways than one), sex and have the ability to even go back and forth and to live as one, if you so choose, provided your primary function is preformed. You have been given the pardon and indeed encouragement to have reapers who preform your tasks for you on service of you which is only allowed because they serve god first. You are a lucky creature Dolphael. Do not ask for more blessings than god can allow."

With this speech, he ascended back into heaven. It occurred to me that I could follow him but my reapers would always remain here or on earth; not as humans, mind you, but as shadows of human beings, remnants and in a world out of phase with the one that mattered.

Time cannot dictate how long I sat and thought about what he said but do not children always question their parents? Don't they always want more as is the nature of growing up? Most importantly: aren't parents always scolding their kids?