The Ascendance

Chapter 9 - Controlling Emotions

After one year from the start of her training, Joffiel will now take the third part of her training.

Joffiel was very excited about what Angel Zai would teach her. She was not doing any tasks for three months that’s why she was looking forward to this day. Everytime Joffiel receives additional tasks, she becomes more joyful. She felt that she’s making the Creator happier.

Angel Zai called Joffiel. It is the time for her new trial.

"Are you excited, Joffiel?" her mentor asked.

Joffiel happily nodded. If she was very happy during her first and second task, she’s happier this time. From the time being, she’s only feeling positive things.

Joffiel follows Angel Zai as they walk toward a familiar direction. Everything around them is purewhite but being an angel, they could easily distinguish every part of Heaven. For them, it’s just a natural thing and they feel that they’re feet are moving on their own if it is in terms of going from place to place.

“I’m very much excited about the new task that I would work on,” Joffiel answered.

Joffiel seated besides where her mentor sits. They are both facing the big screen that displays the life of a specific human being.

“For the next task, the goal is for you to control all of your emotion. This is the training so that if you’re already in the human world, you could easily do things without your emotions being affected,” Angel Zai said.

Joffiel innocently looked unto Angel Zai. She asked, “Emotion? I thought that we are already practicing that from my first two tasks?”

Angel Zai smiled at Joffiel. She answered, “You should be remembering that every human has different emotions. Your main task is for you to not let the human emotions manifest. Just remember, even though I think I said it many times before, being an angel in Heaven does not mean that you could only feel positive feelings, you could be affected by emotions evident in the human world. Being together with humans is so much different than being in a group of pure angels.”

Joffiel just nodded in affirmation. She knows about this but being reminded about this made her feel safe.

As long as she is not able to experience being with humans or disguising as human, she could not tell if it could really be easy or be too hard.

Angel Zai snapped her finger to open the screen. Joffiel became focused as she looked at the screen.

What awaits her on the screen was a mother and a child that is staying in the street. Both of them are lying in a cartoon that is very thin. Both of them were very filthy and had torn clothes.

The mother was using a piece of cut cardboard as a fan for her sleeping child. The sweat drips on the mother but they don't seem to care about the sunlight directly above them.

“Why are they in that situation?” Joffiel curiously asked.

“People like them are called beggars in the human world. They are experiencing hardship as they lack money for them to avail the daily needs of a human. They also don’t have a shelter or a place that you could call a house for them to stay and be safe. The two of them are not the only one that are experiencing that kind of thing, there’s so many humans that are called beggars in the human world,” Angel Zai explained.

Joffiel cannot utter a word as a reaction to what Angel Zai had said. After a few moments, Angel Zai lifted theJoffiel’s head so she could look her directly in the eyes.

Angel Zai gently touches Joffiel cheeks. She reminded me, “If you feel anything that is weird, don’t hesitate to tell me, alright? Since this is about controlling your emotion, you need to be true to yourself, be honest, and don’t hide anything from me. We can do a lot of things about that if something wrong happens to your emotion. Remember what our Creator has said, believe in Him and believe in yourself, all this kind of thing will be easy for you.”

“Angel Zai, could you tell me what’s wrong with having human emotions?” Joffiel asked.

“Having negative emotion is one of the root causes for an individual to sin, for them to disobey our Creator. As a person sways by his emotion, he would not think of the right thing to do and would only act according to what he feels,” Angel Zai replied.

Angel Zai takes a deep breath. She added, “I will tell you a few things that I know about human emotions. I didn’t experience any of these, I learned this through humans that I encountered in the human world. I will tell you this you could understand if your having this kind of emotion”

Joffiel becomes serious as she listens to Angel Zai.

“The first thing that you need to know is about sadness, it is one of the main emotions of humans. I would not go into details but being sad is when you feel hurt and you are in pain. You feel that there would be an ache in your heart. This is very common to people that couldn’t achieve what they wanted or couldn’t hold onto what they needed,” Angel Zai expounded.

“So, if I am a human, I should feel that way if I would see people like beggars?” Joffiel asked.

“Well, that would be true to some humans. But humans are very complex, their emotions are different from one person to another. Some people would feel bad or feel sad about beggars, some will not care, some will be annoyed and there are few cases that people make fun of them. It is very different to each individual human,” Angel Zai replied.

Angel Zai continues to discuss human emotions to Joffiel. She teaches emotions from being happy to being sad. Joffiel learned everything and somehow understands what is that feeling which could help her notice if she’s already having those kinds of emotions.

Joffiel continues to watch the mother and her child as they roam and beg for money.

The task of watching those two will be done in six months time. Joffeil needed to watch them from time to time and make sure not to develop any kind of human emotions.

Throughout the months, Joffiel saw the two to be kicked by other people and to be neglected by most of the people. She didn’t feel anything about that and just believed that the Creator had a reason behind what was happening.

Joffiel notices that those people that don’t have much are the one that are always the people in need. She concluded that experiencing one’s situation would make one understand how hard a circumstance is. From this time, she decided if ever she has the choice, she will choose to be disguised as a human rather than just to be like an invisible being that is guiding humans in secret.

Through the six months, Joffiel only shows one general emotion which is happiness than happened everytime people shared what they have with the two beggars.

Joffiel also learned the value of money in the human world. She felt that most of the humans praised money as if it was their god. Money makes the human world go round. So she thought for herself that if she would be sent down to the human world, she should make sure that she spends what she has on the right things.

Angel Zai was proud that Joffiel finished her task without any kind of failure.

Angel Zai introduces Joffiel’s next task that would also cover half of the year. She shows the screen that pictures a man that is covered with black clothes.

“That man is called a criminal, a human that does bad things against the rules that were also made by humans,” Angel Zai said as she introduced the man on the screen.

“What kind of device that he has on his hand,” Joffiel asked.

“It is called a gun, it is a weapon used by humans to protect themselves or hurt their enemies. But for this situation, that gun is used for a bad thing, it could be used to kill other humans,” Angel Zai answered.

Joffiel also noticed that the guy is together with the other men also wearing the same thing. The surrounding is dark and other humans are not seen on the outside anymore. The men started to climb up a gate.

They started to storm the house while making sure that one of them is outside to watch things out.

“I see, this house is not theirs. And they are trying to get important things from this house,” Joffiel spoke loud enough for Angel Zai to hear.

Angel Zai just smiled and patted the head of Joffiel.

After a while, a sound of a silenced gun was heard. A man wearing a pajama prostrated to the ground and blood came out from him which then looked like he was already bathing on his own blood.

Joffiel just watches in silence. She did not feel a thing from what had happened. She knows that a human died and she also knew that killing one another is a big sin of a human being.

“Why did they have to do that? If their intention is just to steal, then they just have to knock him up, right? Is it really necessary?” Joffiel asked continuously.

Angel Zai smiled at Joffiel. “Just like what I have told you, human beings are different to one another. You could not always predict things that they will do. Some people will just do what they feel is right in the heat of the moment. Maybe one of them thinks that it's the safest thing to do so the authorities would not catch them. But maybe one of them feels so awful that they have killed an innocent human. As you continue to watch them, you would understand some of these things,” Angel Zai explained.

Joffiels gazed goes back to the man that is lying without life. Against the group of men, this guy is helpless. Joffiel knows that the guys wearing black would be punished for their sins, if not by the human law, they would surely be punished in the hand of their Creator.

After a moment, all of the criminals cleared the area. They get away using a car that’s already waiting for them.

The family of the dead man came to him one by one. It could be seen from the faces of his family that they are in pain. They are crying out loud including a very small child that seems to be the son of the man with no life.

Joffiel just watches them with no reaction on her face. The screen goes back to the guy in black and the other guy with him is having fun, celebrating their success. They are also making fun of the guy they shot them.

The siren of the police car and ambulance could be heard from inside the car of the criminals. As the police just ran past them, they started to laugh again.

Joffiel just doesn't understand what these guys are doing.

“So that’s the work of the guy that you will be observing for another six month. Just remember our goal, if you ever feel something,” Angel Zai said as she was interrupted by Joffiel.

“...say it honestly to you,” Joffiel interjects.

“Good. Just continue watching him and I’ll be away for now,” Angel Zai bids farewell to Joffiel.

As Joffiel watches the man, she learned that this man is just a 16 years old boy. As he was going home, his father welcomed him with a belt on his hand.

The father started to hurt the boy, demanding to give him some money. As fast as he could, the boy reached out his pocket and gave money to his father. His father continued to demand for more and threatened to hit him another time, the mother of the boy shielded him and talked out with his drunk husband. The father just walked out from home as the mother hugged the boy.

Several weeks and months have passed and Joffiel learns many things about the boy. He was being forced by his father to work with criminals to earn money.

Even though many sins were done in front of Joffiel, she does not feel any negative emotions. She affirmed to herself that she could control it.

As another day passed by, the same scenario happened to the boy’s family. It ended with the boy’s mother shouting and fighting with her husband to not make her son do those kinds of things again. The father just walked away from the house with money that came from the boy.

As Joffiel saw the boy, she felt that his eyes were empty. The boy’s mother confronts his son to not do bad things ever again. The boy insists that he needed those works to earn money. The mother slapped his son saying, “I didn’t raise you to be a criminal.”

The boy cried and declared, “Then you should not give birth to me! I should not have been born with this kind of family. You should not have married that kind of man, I hope both of you will die.”

The boy runs out from his house.

Several days have passed, with the boy just roaming around, he decided to go back to his house. He saw that a crowd was gathering in their house and there’s also police there. He finds out that his mother killed his father and takes her own life afterwards.

After knowing that, the boy fell down on his feet as he heard murmurs saying that his mother is a psychopath. This broke his heart, he regretted the last words he gave to his mother.

As much as Joffiel wanted to continue to observe the boy, the duration of tasks was already finished. Angel Zai visited Joffiel and declared that her task is already finished. Six months have already passed.

Throughout those months, Joffiel managed to control her emotions and show no sign of any negative feelings, thus marking her tasks to be successful.