TALE OF RAPHAEL

MEMORIES

The never ending darkness seemed like bottomless abyss sucking me in . My body felt heavy and became more breathless the deeper I drifted in the darkness as if I was drowning. I felt hopeless since I had no control over my own body , it felt more like being pulled deeper . "Is that light , am I dying?So this how it feels to die. " As I drew near the light I resigned to my fate.

"Silence! a mighty voice ringed in my ears. "What , where am I ?"The light was illuminating everywhere the eye could see . Was I in a large room or an open place. The place seemed to expand infinitely and packed with what seemed to be winged creatures and in the middle of it all ,their leader sitting on a golden throne .All the chattering and murmuring stopped . On closer inspection there were four winged creatures different from the rest who had a maximumof four white wings, their wings were golden and eight in number., three stood beside the being I assumed was the leader and the fourth who had the brightest and larger wings was kneeling before the leader.

"I announce my judgement , " the voice of the leader thundered across the infinitely expanding space," Raphael , hearing that name I realised I was looking down on the floor, staring at what seemed to be my reflection and not as a third person perspective. "What , are this my arms ? " As I looked around , the faces of the winged creatures seemed familiar as if I knew them for a very long time . The figure I assumed leader was before me yet His presence seemed to be everywhere in that space,I felt both reverence, fear and respect towards him. It felt like only his words were right in the entire universe and I should never go against him but this left me wondering with this strong conviction to never go against Him that I felt from this body why was I being judged as a criminal. What was he , I , fighting for to even defy my strong conviction and loyalty towards Him.

"Do you know your sin," As I thought what could be his sin (mine),my head was flooded with memories, though fragments, of my life as the golden winged creature ,Raphael. More so revolving around a certain woman who against all odds seemed more important than my loyalty towards my creator. Her smile ,tears ,fragrance and everything about her seemed surreal and fleeting like a beautiful dream that would eventually come to an end that made it so hard to let go.Her beauty ,I could tell even though her face was blurred in the memories, brought light to my soul that was darken with years of s*******r during the war to conquer this world.

"I did no sin ,"the words come out naturally without my control in answer to His query. "I did what was right for me , I did it for love. You who advocates love should understand me." "By leading a rebellion, " one of the golden winged creatures, Valentine, exclaimed . "I had no choice, time was running out and peaceful negotiations fell to deaf ears ." I said with my gaze directed to the throne." The rebellion was not your sin but your actions in the lower realm was," there was a hint of anger in His voice. "Soldiers were needed for war and the humans were in plenty and their potential limitless. They were perfect tools to overthrow you , you being so emotional about them. And they would never be needed if You had granted my simple wish ." "I expected patience from you," his anger was growing even more. "Patience, for her to age and die like every other mortal, time was the only thing I wanted in plenty and you expected me to wait for was nearly being exhausted, with what logic was that possible. "

"That is your second sin, wavering in your loyalty and faith to me." I had nothing to throw back at that statement and I doubted was it really my idea to rebel since I knew more than anyone what He was capable of doing."For your sins I banish you from the celestial realm to the Lower realm. A curse shall befall on you on the lower realm.For your exemplary achievements I shall give you a trial , your curse shall be your trial." I could tell His words hold power and can warp reality and if He were to spell His curse on me it would come to be." I curse thee ..."Those words entailing the curse could not reach my ears as if someone did not want me to remember the content of my curse and trial . The harder I tried to remember the words the more vague they become and at some point I felt overwhelming pain just remembering the word curse coming from His mouth.

As I struggled to remember what was entailed in the curse as I had a vague idea almost instinctively that they hold the key to my trial,the reality I was in started to break down like pieces of glass breaking apart with each piece holding an image of a past memory drifting away from me and me falling once again. I felt like my world was overwhelming me as the emotions from those memories flooded from within be it love , hate ,joy,sadness all at the same time. I did not know how to react and from a distant on a broken mirror drifting in empty space I saw an image of a woman with a sword pierced through her chest. I could feel an overwhelming sadness taking over all other emotions and as I looked at the sword rage filled my heart."Why ? Why? She did nothing wrong .Why??!!"shouting ,I found myself in my room,my mom beside me and tears flowing nonstop. I could feel both rage and sadness from within but could not tell why I would be sad mad at all