Death of a Fallen

CHAPTER 1Riley had purposely sat the alarm clock on the other side of the room so that he would have to physically get out of bed to shut the damn thing off. Today, however, more than most mornings, he regretted this decision as he went through the ritual of untangling himself from underneath the sheets, then shuffling the eight feet that he had, in fact, counted to the other side of the room. Still exhausted, Riley felt a bit of satisfaction as a new silence enveloped the room, now that the alarm clock lay broken at his feet. That was until he heard Jonathan call out from the kitchen. “I’ll make sure to put ‘new alarm clock’ on the grocery list. Now let’s try not to have a repeat performance of yesterday.” A mental image of a glass of water pouring onto his face brought him fully awake. “No need for the water. I can assure you that I will remain vertical!” Pulling on jeans, a t-shirt that sported his landscaping logo, and boots, Riley went to the bathroom adjacent his room to finish getting ready for what he hoped would be an easy day. Now with teeth brushed and deodorant applied, but hair still a mess, Riley walked into the kitchen to find Jonathan sitting at the table reading a newspaper, a plate of food resting next to him. After all this time that they had been together, Riley still couldn’t get over the size of Jonathan. His height was close to that of a professional basketball center, except that he had the physique of someone who pumped iron all day. Jonathan only read two sections of the newspaper, the missing person ads and obituaries. Riley sat at the table and asked in a musing tone, “Anything exciting happening in the news today?” Jonathan folded the newspaper in half, dropping it on the table. “Eat quick. The work day is calling.” With that he slowly stood, placed his dishes in the sink, and went outside, leaving Riley alone. After eating, Riley grabbed his ball cap off the counter and walked out into the welcoming hot and humid Texas morning. Finding Jonathan already in the passenger seat of the truck, Riley climbed into the driver’s side and headed towards their first job. Things had changed so drastically over the past year. Riley and Jonathan now permanently lived at the lake home. Seven months earlier, Riley had said goodbye to the house in Taupe City that he had built for Allison when they first married. It had sold well under market value. His real estate agent and friend, Alex, had cautioned Riley that he wouldn’t break even. But it was time to let go of the past—hard as it was—little by little. If the last year had taught Riley anything, it was to always prepare for the worst. He lived as if something was just waiting to pop up at any moment. Fortunately, he and Jonathan had yet to encounter anything more from the Devil and his tricks. Life had pretty much gone back to normal, if living with a fallen angel could be called normal. However, the strain of living with the unknown had worn not only on Riley, but on Jonathan as well. The town was still the same with some minor changes. For one, Paul’s store, where Riley had almost been killed in an ambush, had been torn down and turned into Jackson Brothers Super Store. These big-box stores put tremendous strain on the small mom-and-pop shops in the area. Riley felt guilty for shopping there, but he knew it was just another way life moved on. Paul had been murdered by what authorities called a crime of passion. However, Riley knew the true story and was forever sorry that he brought such trouble to this small, secluded lake town. Three demons had taken over the bodies of unbelievers and ended not only Paul’s life, but also that of local boxer, Luis, whose very house was where the demons had sat, waited, and watched Riley and Jonathan for days to learn their routines. Jonathan blamed himself for both of their deaths as well as Riley’s late wife, Allison. He had been her guardian but had failed her in the most profound way, costing her very life. With the deaths of both Paul and Luis, Jonathan chided himself for letting his guard down with the monotony of the day-to-day routine he and Riley had settled into. It was another topic they didn’t talk about. As for Allison, her tragic death was the beginning of an unbelievable series of events that nearly killed both Jonathan and Riley and changed their lives forever. Jonathan thought back to that day—the day Allison died. It was Riley and Allison’s wedding day. They had their whole lives ahead of them, with bright shared futures. But in a flash, a demonic force had caused the horrific car accident that injured Allison so badly that she passed a short time later. Limited to work behind the scenes as a guardian angel, Jonathan could do nothing to save her. Riley had escaped without serious injury. After that, Jonathan was given the choice to return to Heaven forever or to fall from grace and become a Fallen, which meant he could reside on Earth where he could be a friend, a companion, and an earthly guardian to Riley for the rest of his days, but would lose many of his powers. Still, he had chosen to remain with Riley. Now Jonathan was Riley’s guardian angel too. A kind nurse at the hospital, who went by the name Granny, had cared for Allison. She, too, was a Fallen and had warned Jonathan of the trials that would come his way. She had been a comfort to Riley, who didn’t know her true identity, after the accident and had showed him patience, kindness, and strength when the time had come to finally let Allison go. The real problem was that these trials were far from over, as Jonathan had told Riley, more than once. Riley continued to press until, one day, Jonathan broke down and answered. “Lucifer will never stop sending his demons after us until we are both dead. That I know for certain.” After hearing what he already had come to suspect, Riley dropped the topic. Instead, he busied himself with trying to create a new life for himself, a new normal. He always had to worry, wondering when something might show up to take his life. He was thankful for work. However, things had changed. Now instead of having three crews that worked for his small landscaping company back in Taupe City, it was just Riley and Jonathan, which actually had its perks—Riley teased him about being able to boss a fallen angel around. After selling the house and moving out to the lake house, Riley took over Luis’s small landscaping business. It consisted of little more than a dozen residents around the lake. But it was something that he could draw a sense of purpose from. It was a hot and humid summer, something that Texas was well known for. It had become such a scorcher that it felt as if the sun had been turned on high. “I never could get used to this heat!” Riley exclaimed. “We should just sell the lake house and move to the Arctic.” Out of the corner of his eye, Riley noticed that Jonathan gave a shake of his head as if to say, here we go again. However, Riley wasn’t finished as he continued. “It’s eight in the morning, for crying out loud, and it’s already a hundred degrees!” Riley complained as he pulled up to the first property. He took his phone off the charger and checked his email to make sure no one else, as of yet, had asked to be serviced that day. “Thank you, God.” he blurted. “I take it that it’s a short day?” Jonathan inquired. “Yes, it is. You know what that means?” Jonathan knew very well what Riley was about to say. “Yup, looks like we will be doing our training earlier than I thought.” Riley leaned forward and let his head drop on the steering wheel. “I don’t want to go to the hole today.” He had begun calling their gym in the metal Quonset building a “black hole” since it sucked the life out of him. By the time they were finished with their workout, Riley often would only have the energy to shower and go straight to bed. Sometimes without dinner. “Do you realize that today is the Fourth of July? Your American Independence Day?” Jonathan asked. “We should finish this property, go buy some steaks, grill out, and watch the fireworks—maybe even get in the lake and cool off.” Jonathan stepped out of the truck and closed the door. Watching Jonathan through the passenger-side window, Riley was sorry about how he limped now. Although he was as strong as ever, it was still hard to see his friend struggle. It always made Riley feel guilty, although there was nothing he could have done to prevent the injury. Jonathan had battled two demons that had nearly beaten him to death. The wounds had taken a very long time to heal, and his right leg would never be the same. With all that they did during the day, it seemed to exhaust Jonathan. Before the injury, it wouldn’t even have registered on Jonathan’s radar. Now though, at the end of the day, he would lean back in a recliner and wince once his weight was off the leg. The single time Riley commented on it, Jonathan got a little short with him. “It’s fine, Riley,” he said, irritably. “There’s nothing anyone can do. I doubt modern medicine or your country doctor can do anything about a demon-inflicted wound. Just leave it alone, Riley. I’ll be fine.” As soon as the words had escaped his mouth, Riley saw the remorse on his face. “I’m sorry, Riley. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’re concerned. Please don’t worry. I think I’m just going to turn in early.” He lifted himself out of the chair with a little more effort than usual. Then he went to his room and quietly closed the door. Josh Hardin was the local doctor in the area, an older gentleman who still made house calls. They had called the doc out to Riley’s lake house after the episode when the demons had shot Riley and nearly killed him. The country doctor got a quick education on the matter. Jonathan had to persuade Josh not to report the incident. Riley and Jonathan later learned these three demons were the ones who killed Paul and Luis. Eventually, Jonathan had to reveal to Josh what he really was. Surprisingly, Josh took the news quite well. Because Jonathan had included him, Josh had become another innocent bystander whose life was affected by the trials that Riley was being put through. It had happened the day Jonathan had almost died. Josh had tried to intervene to stop the Devil from touching Jonathan, with the end result being that one of Josh’s hands was so severely burned that the basic functions of that hand were now extremely limited. Even holding silverware was too much. He needed to teach himself to eat with the other hand. Because of this handicap, the only kind of doctoring he could do was little more than prescribing medication for the common cold, flu, or other viruses. His surgical days were now long behind him. “Don’t give it another thought,” he had told Riley when Josh told him of his decision to step down from performing surgeries. “It was time for me to give up that kind of practice anyway. My hands were already starting to shake, so it truly was a blessing in disguise.” Still, it pained Riley to see Josh have to walk away from a practice he was passionate about. As for Jonathan, his injuries still impacted him and his frustrations grew. Once, when loading up after a long day of landscaping, he went to pick up a pallet of leftover sod, something that truly did require super-human strength. Months before, it would have been no problem. However, his bad leg gave out and the pallet toppled onto him. In a cry—more out of frustration than pain—Jonathan threw the pallet to the side, scattering sod everywhere. Riley walked to the back of the trailer where Jonathan was unloading the remaining supplies. He quickly reached for the weed eater so that Jonathan could ride the mower. Jonathan’s temper flared up again. “I’m fine, Riley. Quit trying to coddle me!” Knowing that Jonathan could hear his thoughts, Riley just let the moment pass. Jonathan grabbed the weed eater and primed it, then gave the cord a pull only for it to sputter. He tried it several more times before losing his temper. Lifting the weed eater above his head, he threw it to the ground, smashing it into pieces as he muttered to himself. Riley wiped his brow and looked up at him. “Jonathan, calm down. It’s not that big of a deal.”