Devil's Toy

Chapter 4

Michaels grip on my hand never loosened as we made our way to the section of Heaven I desperately tried to avoid. The training center. We flew past secretaries, and interns, all smiling and giving small courteous waves. I remembered the training days. God once assigned me to train all new greeters. The greeters work closely with newly arrived humans. They show them around, and basically give all the pointers about heaven. 

It's really simple once you get the lay of the land. But some of these interns and new hires made me want to rip my hair out strand by strand. Another emotion I wasn't supposed to feel. But how could I not?! I once had to explain in detail to a new hire why we weren't allowed to just take the humans to God whenever they had a question about the meaning of life.

Just remembering the situation agitated my heart.

We still have a few more clouds to pummel through before getting to the recording studio. I know what you're thinking. What kind of office has a recording studio? Well God seemed to want to keep with the times and technology so he had us start recording introductions to play outside the gates to keep the humans entertained and informed while in line waiting for Peter, and for the training of new hires. We also made custom beats that played as humans entered.

"I'm still not over my meeting with Him." I said the words out loud into the crisp foggy air. I felt the need to release my frustrations with anyone who would listen. 

Michael kept his pace, his face turning to me for a moment to gauge my emotions. A tendril slapped him right in the eye from the velocity and twist of his neck. I couldn't help but giggle, my eyes squeezing for a moment. 

"Oh so you think thats funny huh?" He teased, stopping abruptly so the front of my body mashed against his back. My arms flailed in front of me, instinctively wrapping around him. I could feel his tight abdominal through his tunic, my fingers absently tracing. I ripped away from him instantly, my face bright red and hot to the touch.

Michale doubled over, laughing harder than I'd ever seen him. He wiped away stray tears.

I smacked him over the head, "Not funny! You scared me half to death!"

"You're the one who started it by laughing at my hair mishap!! I could've lost an eye and all you did was giggle!" We were both laughing now, Michael lightly bumping his shoulder into mine.

"Okay alright, move it along buddy." I shook my head, shoving him forward.

"I understand how you feel, by the way. I know meeting God sounded like it would have been an absolute prize, but you're not the first to mention how anticlimactic it ended up being." 

We were moving at our same pace, but our hand were apart at our sides.

"It's just... He's God... He's supposed to be this magnificent being and all I saw was...."

"Smoke and mirrors?"

"Smoke and mirrors." I nodded.

"Well, the word up the food chain is that he does that on purpose. Only those Angels true and pure are allowed his full majesty"

"Am I not?"

"We just agreed Gods antics are smoke and mirrors, Gabs. Maybe we're not such great examples of Angels."

I shrugged, the comment slightly digging into my heart as the recording studio coming into full view.

It resembled an ordinary office space up here. Golden doors, golden trimming, but when you walked in, it was all pure soundproofing and state of the art recording equipment.

"Sebastian my man!" Michael fluttered quickly to a tall skinny Angel with large bulky headphones wrapped around his neck. It seemed goofy paired with his tunic and golden sandals.

"Mikey!!!! Long time no see man! What brings you to my dojo? And is that Gaby lurking in the shadows behind you!?"

"Hey Seb." I gave him a small wave.

Sebastian was the recording master. He made every awkward "Uh, thanks for visiting Heaven" into a full blown professional masterpiece. The word around is that God himself asked him to make private recordings for him. No one knows what for, but Sebastian was seen visiting him with his equipment in tow.

"It's nice to see you take a little break from the constant hustle and bustle Gabs! Michael here corrupting you?" 

My eyes flew open and they both laughed.

"Easy Seb, you're going to give her a heart attack."

He turned to me with a cheeky smile, "This place is so soundproofed, not even God can hear us."

He winked and fist bumped Sebastian.

"You shouldn't be saying stuff like that, Michael."

He shrugged, obviously not caring. I know we play around a lot about having forbidden emotions and saying things we shouldn't. But we never really mentioned much out loud. Here with Sebastian he had no filter. I prayed for his sake he was right.

"Anyway, I'm here to pick up the intro recordings. I've gotta give them to Macey before sundown. There was apparently some sort of situation with the humans and a large lump sum of them will be up here in a couple of hours."

Sebastian grimaced, "Yikes, I hate when that happens."

Although God made humans with love and passion, somehow some humans came out with pure malice within. Our theory is that the Devil assigns his demons to select humans with weak souls and slow guardian angels. These creatures end up destroying the home God built for them, and sending them up here much too quickly and in large quantities. Some times it was even children, sent here much too soon.

"Yeah, it definitely puts a damper on God, and us Angels when situations arise, but we make the best of it. Do you have the tapes ready?"

"Yeah, here you go." Sebastian had been sitting behind the electronic desk that faced a plexiglass encased booth. The sound board looked like it came from a space ship with all colorful knobs and buttons that flashed or turned. He levitated to a standing position and unlocked a storage space the lined the ceiling at the end of the room. He opened the small cupboard and pulled out a case of CD's. Each one labeled boldly with a date and it's purpose as he flipped through them. He stopped at  "ENTRANCE TO HEAVEN// WAIT LINE MIX 2021" and carefully removed it from its plastic sleeve. He put the case back and reached further into the cupboard, pulling out a clear CD case and putting the silver disc in it before handing it to Michael.

"One fresh Welcome to Heave, sorry for the wait, CD just for you." He grinned rather goofily before shutting the cupboard and resuming his place at the sound table.

"Thanks man, you are the best!" Michael squeezed his shoulder before grabbing my hand and leading me back out.

"Bye Sebastian! It was nice seeing you again!" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Same to you Gabs! Good luck with the new kid!!!"

His voice barely escaped the door to me as it shut.

"How does he know?"

"Those transfers love to talk." He shrugged.