ANAK CAHAYA- A child of Light

EPISODE 4

Inconveniently, the business card she had received from her employer was inside the case of the mobile she lost. The contract she signed didn’t have a phone number mentioned in it. Googling the name of Mikael Hreshtak brought no results. She had no way of contacting her employers, so she decided to forget about them for a while. However, a month later, she received a letter through the postal service—a letter from Mikael Hreshtak.

Dear Apprentice,

As you recently started the internship under our supervision, we strongly recommend you follow the advice of your tutors. Any mistake can have great consequences. In your last assessment, your negligence brought many unwanted results, which we had to correct.  The perpetrators have avoided being caught and are now in hiding because they know that we are into them. They will not surface until at least the following All-saints’ night. As we know that you will best learn from your own mistakes, we will leave the next assessment in your hands, but with close supervision. All the details of the assessment are enclosed in the attached file.

Signed,                                                                

Dr Mikael Hreshtak                                   

Reading the letter that informed her about her latest task, and how “her negligence brought many unwanted results”, she felt rather confused. Indeed, she did fail in providing evidence, but nothing bad happened. The letter she received had a mini sand disk enclosed.  On the sand disk, there were numerous files dating as early as the ’90s. The files were documenting diverse crimes committed by someone called Zamofer, no surname. It informed her that her task was to approach and keep occupied the person, known as Zamofer. It also informed her that some members of the same society of witches broke him out of the asylum he was contained in, right after Halloween. This person is being venerated by the community of ‘witches’ as a demi-god. Which feeds his hallucinations and grandiose delusions? The file informed her that the man does not particularly stand out as a criminal and can be resonated with. But again, he is aware of her employers and would run away if they’ll come near him. Although not fully agreeing with the crimes he was accused of, Ella is aware that hallucinations and delusions can seriously impair an individual and can in certain cases become dangerous to the public. The address she was told that Zamofer was last seen, led her to a very unwelcoming place. She entered an unusual house, a large bungalow, untaken care of, poor lit and smelling like it has never been cleaned, not a surprise for the infamous Airport Highlands neighbourhoods in Birmingham.  Even if the doors were all ajar, little light and air passed through. She walked freely through all the rooms, the youngsters that were inhabiting the house seemed undisturbed, acting just like students in their social groups. Walking into the living room, she found a small group of men sitting on an overused couch, watching telly. The TV was placed straight on the floor, and it made a loud noise like a rusted woodchipper machine. She has been told to infiltrate the house and find Zamofer. Strangely, the files contained no picture of him. She read everything that was written about him in the folder she received, all the criminal offences he is accused of, such as, burglary, moral offences, racism, and even instigations to murder. However, there was a side note she kept coming across in those files, something about the fact that his deeds were the result of following orders from a superior. She entered the house and approached the group of youngsters.

“Hi, my name is Ella!” She introduced herself to the group of young men seated on the couch.

The three young men sitting on the couch looked in their early 20s. From right to left, the first man was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a black top with the word h*******t written in red paint. The choice of hairstyle made him look even more like a rock band member.  The man sitting in the middle was snacking from a bowl of nuts and looked immersed in the show presented on the telly. His style pretty much like the young man sitting on his left. The man sitting on the far end of the couch is what statisticians would call a concealed outlier, he looks rather odd and yet, he looks the part. His clothes are very neat, all black, even the pocket square displayed in his blazer’s pocket is black. But somehow, he doesn’t look too formal or too casual. His face is turned towards the telly, but he seems to look beyond it.

“Hi Ella, I am Matt, these are Josh and…. I forgot his name. He recently moved in.” The man in the h*******t top replied to her.

“.... Zamofer, my name is Zamofer.” The all dressed in black man introduced himself. Ella’s eyebrow twitched instinctually; he is the one she’s looking for.

“Join us!” Ed invited her by shifting closer into the other guys.

“Thank you!” She politely replied and sat down.

“Are you looking to move in?” Ed continued. Move-in? So, they are looking for a roommate. It would be a good reason to find more about them, Ella thought.

“Well, I am curious to see what the prices are around here. I currently live in a down south town and the prices there, for a room, are sometimes more than half the salary for the month.” She complained like she would be interested to move.  Ella has no plans to move to Birmingham. After all, her uni is in Headington; she should be moving there. But showing interest in the room might provide her with the way to infiltrate them.

“Excuse-me,” Ella said, raising from where she was seated and heading towards Zamofer.

“Your name is really unique! What does it mean?” Ella asked him. Her sudden move made him startled as someone awakened from daydreaming.

“Are you ok?” She asked, surprised by his reaction, and showing genuine concern.

“Yeah, yeah...sorry! What...what was it that you asked?”

“I asked what the meaning of your name is- Zamofer?”

“Ah…” He exclaimed, displaying a smile. “...it means to become strong like iron. At least this is what they told me when I got the name.” His smile disappeared recalling the event.

“So, are you strong like iron?” She amusingly asked, touching his biceps. His smile returned accompanied by a blush. “You appear so innocent!” She stated, smirking at his blushing. The files she received describes him as the most wanted criminal in the history of humanity. She looked at him and what she saw was not darkness or evil, but sadness and pain. Like someone who doesn’t want to live anymore, has no motivation to wake-up in the morning, and no desire to achieve anything. Despite his neat fashion sense and his perfectly groomed hair, his eyes were saying a different story. She has always been able to see the pain in people. She felt like those accusations made him an injustice. A doubt born into her heart; are her employers wrong? And is it what she’s doing right?

“I can see you’re deeply upset, what happened Zamofer? I can listen, and I promise I will not judge, no matter what it is.” Her innate counselling skills kicked in.

“Is not something that I can easily put in words.” He stopped, took a deep breath in. “All I can say is that the redemption I am looking for is not something I deserve.”

“Redemption?” His words were unexpected, but she felt him as being honest. “What do you mean?” Ella asked.

“I’ve done terrible things…things that would make any human hate me from the deepest layers of their hearts,” Zamofer confessed.

“We all do mistake. No one is perfect. The only perfect being in the whole Universe is thought to be God. No other being is perfect.” Ella continued.

“Hmph…you’re different!” Her words surprised him in a good way, from her aura to the way she reacted, defending him instead of accusing him. For the first time, she made him feel that he might have hope for redemption.

“Zamofer, I’ll go a little religious on you…But, in the Christian religion Jesus, who is thought to be the son of God gives the parable of the workers in the vineyard who still received the rewards even if they arrived at the eleventh hour. As long as you’re sincere and true into your search for redemption, you shall prevail.” She now, knew without a doubt that the man she is talking to is the man her employers asked her to identify. And still, she could not help but feel pity for him. Perhaps, as Skinner believed, people’s behaviour is just a series of reactions to their environment. Perhaps, Zamofer is just a victim of an unfair environment.

Her employers only gave her two hours to find and identify the individual. At right, 3 pm Gabriel, or rather Dr Gabe is to show up and take him back to the asylum. This is what the letter said. As a person and maybe because she is also a psychology student, she believes that no matter how much evil a person may have done, given the right conditions that person’s inner goodness can surface. Like Maslow, she believes that people and any other living being are fundamentally good. She found this assignment easier to conclude than the first one; she even had some time to watch the interesting wildlife documentary from the telly. It was a documentary about prey and predators. When Gabriel showed up, together with two officers, he didn’t give Ella time to defend Zamofer. They just cuffed him and loaded him into the police car with the destination only known to Gabriel. She felt a wave of injustice washing over her. But, unable to do anything, she just followed Gabriel’s instructions, to go home. Matt and Josh didn’t seem to be shocked by the two police officers cuffing Zamofer; they acted like something like that is rather quotidian in their lives. That night a disturbing dream fed onto her feelings of injustice. The dream brought her back into that house; it seemed that instead of Dr Gabe and the two police officers, her employers, that somehow were angels in her dream, appeared. They, just like Dr Gabriel and the police officers, did not give her the opportunity to defend Zamofer and acted upon the situation as impending danger. However, they did not cuff him, but instead, they used an odd device that allowed them to open a portal for Hell in order to teleport the escaped prisoner back into his plane of existence.  They did not give her the opportunity to present them the “inside” information. They only asked her to point him to them. She refused to discover his identity, but they seemed to not need her at all. She tried to stand in their way, but Zamofer walked straight into the opened portal ray released by the Greek cross Rafael was holding. Ella ran towards the open ray, hoping that her employers would cancel the teleportation process to protect her and that way Zamofer would be spared.

“MIHAELA!” Raphael attempted to pull her out of the ray, hurrying towards her; however, Mikael stopped him.

“You have to let me go; I am a demon, I deserve this!” Zamofer told her already accepting his fate.

“No, please! Let me explain them!” Ella pleaded with tears in her eyes, but it was too late, the portal had already swallowed him! She fell on her knees, her strength weakened by pain. “What kind of judgement is this?” she shouted at her employers.

“Mihaela, we can’t close the portal, is stuck. We have to send you too, but we will come after you, I promise!” The angels did not answer her question but instead told her that she would get sent to Hell too. Mikael shouting startled her. It sounded loud at first, and then very far and muffled. Unexpectedly she got covered by thunder and lightning, falling through a dark tunnel of clouds. It felt like she was sucked by a black hole, becoming nothing, and slipping into nothingness. What felt like an eternity owned an end, as sudden as the beginning. She landed on her palms and knees, on something that felt like worked soil. She arose and instinctively went into straightening her clothing, as her hands touched the clothing, she realized that she was dressed as earlier, a red and white three-quarter strapless dress, and concluded that she indeed is in another plane. She landed behind an almost copycat bungalow. But instead of being made of red bricks and covered with red tiles, the bungalow seemed to be made of soil bricks and covered with cheap panels of asbestos. What should be windows were replaced by holes covered with old rotting wood plaques. The light from that place where she landed was almost non-existent, the darkness of a night without moon or stars. “If this is Hell, Earth has become its mirror!” She muttered to herself. From where she landed, she could see what seemed like a campfire, weak light coming from the front of that little house with no windows. She stepped forward cautiously, hiding behind the corner of the house, she prepared herself to get a glimpse of whatever was lurking in there. The view was quite unexpected for a place of such fame. She could see groups of angels of light sitting on green hills and watching something like a ray that was emerging from within the hills. She saw her team of angels in there too, they have arrived before her.

“Mikael, Raphael?!” Ella cautiously approached them.

“It took you some time…” Raphael stated

“Really? How long?” She asked.

“In Earthly equivalents, it would have been two days and approximately 4 hours,” Raphael answered again.

“Two days and 4 hours?!? You’re kidding me, right?!”

“No, he is not,” Mikael confirmed Raphael’s words.

“So, I’ve been gone for two days? I have lectures and work. Oh, no!”

“Don’t worry...it’s only been a few minutes on Earth!” Raphael continued.

“What do you mean? You said that two days and 4 hours have passed since you last saw me!!”  

“Yes, on Earth equivalents it would have been that long!”

“Shouldn’t I have experienced biological needs then?” Ella continued her enquiries, confused, and worried about what exactly happened.

“Look, here time expands. Because you are alive and tethered to Earth, your body reacts to Earth’s time. While your brain functions on the present environmental cues.” Mikael continued.

“So, are you telling me that five minutes are two days in here? Just like the stories I read about people who experienced Hell?”

“Yes, it’s been less than five minutes on Earth.”

“Woah...I thought that those stories were referring to the self-perception of time. Because pain and suffering are difficult to endure, we perceived it as being experienced for longer than it actually is.”

“Hell, exist in a different dimension to Earth. Here time goes slower” Mikael firmly stated.

“Wow. This is truly fascinating!” Ella replied in awe of experiencing Einstein’s theory of relativity. Her curiosity about what happened got overridden by the view in front of her and the song that was unexpectedly coming out of a deep pit. Millions of people chained and wearing nothing but rotten clothes to cover their shame were harmoniously singing choir songs like a prayer. “Why are those people so neglected?” Ella asked.

“Those are the people who neglected everyone while they were living on Earth. They only cared about themselves. Despite being offered several lifetimes to improve themselves, they did not improve enough to enter Heaven. Therefore, as the next stage, they are locked in chains and forced to express beliefs against their beliefs. Some of them gain a change of heart and find redemption, and others swear allegiance to Samael becoming soldiers in Hell’s armies.” Mikael answered her question.

“So, they are forced into singing the prayer? But isn’t that making the prayer worthless? I mean they are not sincerely praying?”

“Their prayers still hold significance because it is an act that it will not benefit them. The act itself, despite being forced upon them is selfless.”

“Is their prayer creating the Ray of light?”

“No, the prayer is just a way of keeping the environment-friendly enough that lower-level angels can attend the event. You are quite lucky to witness such an event. It really doesn’t happen often!” Mikael continued.

“Yeah. I guess the ray purposely blocked on me to bring me to witness this sort of event!” Ella amusingly stated.

“It is quite possible. I can’t see the outcomes yet. But it might have something to do with Zamofer as well.” Raphael interrupted.

On that ray of light, Ella could see two silhouettes, one that appeared to be of a woman and the other one of a man, coming closer and closer to merge as one. The angels told her that the woman came to Hell to save her husband. They told her that if the woman failed, both would be damned forever, and if she succeeded, both would be in Heaven. She looked across the pit and stopped when she met the man who was her assignment- Zamofer. He looked very sad, looking down and listening to someone who seemed to be his superior. Without taking her eyes off, she asked.

“Any soul can be saved?”

“Yes!” They all answered in a choir.

“Even his?” She asked, pointing towards Zamofer.

“Yes, but there is a need for great love and self-sacrifice and if the forgiver fails both their souls would be erased!” Mikael answered her.

“Erased?!” She shouted, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Taken out of the timeline…” He explained, and abruptly stopped like wanting to say something more, but suddenly changing his mind. Ella rose and headed straight toward the place where Zamofer was. It was a place like a coffee restaurant in free air with a few round wooden tables and chairs. Another man was sitting opposite the table Zamofer was at and seemed to be scolding him for something. They were the only two in there. She couldn’t make much of their conversation, but from what she could understand was that Zamofer was enough of inflicting pain and misery and darkening souls for Samael’s satisfaction.

“I am enough! I would rather burn in Hell than spend another day doing Samael’s dirty work!” Zamofer frustratedly raised his voice to his superior.

“You know that this isn’t how you want! This is your duty!” His boss stormed out and let Zamofer to blankly stare at the deep pit in front of him. She approached slowly, leaned down to him and wiped his tears. She asked him to follow her, but he stood inert—his tears begun to run richer than before. After a few unsuccessful attempts to make him follow her, he, knowing what she wants to do, spoke in a mild and sad voice.

“No, Mihaela, please! I don’t want you to lose your soul as I lost mine! I should have never followed Lucifer! It is my fault!”

“Your place is not here!” Ella bossily scolds him.

She instinctively came behind him and placed her hands on his chest with all the kindness she could feel.  She began praying, and that covered him into an angelic light. She covered her face to protect herself from the light, only to discover that what was blinding her was the rising sun of a new day. She arose straight on her feet and looked around confused. She was in her bedroom.

 “I must have dreamt!” She muttered to herself. She often has all these sci-fi dreams that read like a story; therefore, she just dismissed the dream, like something that just happens often. Meeting her reflection in the tall mirror, she stretched like a cat waking up from a nap; surprisingly, she was wearing the red and white vertical stripes dress that she dreamt herself in. “I must have been rather tired last night, to have forgotten to change into pyjamas!”

“Alexa...what day of the week is it?”

“Today is Sunday, the 3rd of December.” The AI promptly responded.

“Alexa...what time is it?”

“The time is 7:29 am” Alexa replied in the same prompt manner.

“Brilliant, I have enough time to get to Oxford and attend the morning service.” She spoke out loud. She took the 9:15 train to Oxford but arrived slightly too early. She told herself that if the church is open, she’ll have time to salute the Supreme Creator and say a prayer unbothered by curious eyes. Her daydreaming was stopped by an unexpected view; there was a group of a few people lightly dressed fighting in the churchyard.

“What is happening in here? This is sacred ground, have you got no shame?” She stepped in, scolding them in a bossy tone.

“Is she talking to us?” They looked around like scanning for other people and just continued to cross swords with the other guys, unbothered by her presence.

“Are you serious, you’re even fighting with actuals words!? How dare you? You’re not only breaking the law. But have you got no respect? You are in a churchyard for God’s sake! I am calling the police on you, right this moment!” She outragedly scolded them, again and warning them to act against their behaviour.

“Is she really talking to us? The men asked themselves.

“I don’t know” Some of them replied.

“Keep focus, would you?” One of them shouted.

“Yes, I am talking to you, guys!” Ella addressed them again, seeing that they are ignoring her. They looked at each other again, puzzled by the woman.

“Us!?” They stopped and acknowledged her presence.

“Yeah, you...swordsmen!” Ella enforced her previous statement.

“Who are you? How can you see us?” They all asked, shouting. But shortly after, they resumed their fight as nothing happened.

Six in number, fighting each other with what looked like authentic swords and some form of light made shields. About half of them dressed in white clothes and the other half in red and black robes. The white-dressed men had gold and brown hair with beautiful eyes looking like the stereotyped angels. The other half was also tall in build, and had dark tanned skin with ash looking faces; their eyes looked sunken and empty.  And they seemed to have the upper hand.

“Are you an angel?” One of the white-dressed men asked, seeing that the woman was mostly dressed in white and was similar in appearance to them.

“No. Are you having your comic com rehearsal in here?” She asked.

“Are you a saint?” The same men asked, ignoring her question.

“A saint? What are you talking about? Just get out of here before I call the police!” Ella warned again taking her mobile ready to call the emergency services.

“Are you a demon?” A man dressed in red and black asked her this time. The men did not seem to be bothered by her scolding and did not seem to have any plans to stop their fight either.

“NO! What the heck, people? Seriously!? I am calling the cops on you!” Ella dialled 999. In no time, one of the men dressed in black and red pushed her into the nearest tree, his hand firmly clenching into her neck.

“Fight him!” One of the white-dressed men shouted at her, trying to keep at bay two adversaries. “You must KILL HIM! He is a DEMON!” The man continued. Their theatrical comic con scene became dangerous in the bat of an eye. Fear overwhelmed her; she couldn’t move; she couldn’t shout. She felt like a great weight was crushing her whole body. Somehow, all she could think of before she blacked out was Gabriel. The sudden feeling that someone was calling for his help was from the Anak Cahaya. In an instant, he teleported himself right behind the demon. The men in black and red dropped their weapons and retreated themselves upon recognizing Gabriel.

“How dare you touch her?!” Gabriel shouted thunder-like while catching Ella into his arms.

“Great General, accept our bows and forgive our negligence!” The men in white threw themselves to the ground apologizing in unison, not even aware of their wrongdoing.

“Jordan, James, and Jeremy rise now!” Gabriel commanded them.

“Great General, we did not intend to harm her in any way!” Jordan, the leader of their small team, spoke.

“I know.”

“But, sire, who is she?” Jordan asked Gabriel.

“If one of her hair gets touched again, you’ll answer to Mikael and to me!” Gabriel warned them all, instead of answering his question. He was nearby when he felt her distress call and parked his car right outside the churchyard. This proved helpful now, as he carefully laid Ella on the backseats. She opened her eyes at the touch of the cold leather seats.

“Are you ok?” Gabriel softly whispered.

“Gabriel!?” She blinked a couple of times, not believing that her eyes are seeing Gabriel, her employer.

“Can you sit up, now?” Gabriel asked, showing concern in his voice.

“Yes, I think I am ok now. Thank you. I am truly grateful that you just happened to be walking in the churchyard at that moment. Thank you. I think you just saved my life!” Ella thanked him, thinking of how lucky she must be that he just walked in at that exact moment. She did not expect the nerdy comic con fans to act in such a violent way towards her. She doesn’t even dare to think of how that could have ended up.

“I’ll give you a lift home, and make sure you are not losing my phone number again. Memorize it!” Gabriel told her in a commanding tone. “Next time, if you’re close to danger don’t hesitate to call me, anytime!” Gabriel continued, although just calling him into her mind would be enough, they agreed not to reveal themselves to her yet.