Angel of Light

Archangel Gabriel looked down upon the Earth from his chambers up in Heaven. He used his Sight, a superpower that allowed him to see things at very long distances to look for demonic activities. Gabe gazed in on New York City where there have been a lot of violent activities lately. His Sight scanned night clubs run by demons who enticed humans to come in and be entranced and enslaved by them. He peered past political offices infiltrated and held by demons. Then, Gabriel focused in on the Mayor, who was a powerful demon. He was currently making a deal with terrorists to kill off his political opponent. “Of course, make it look like an accident. No, no, do not use a bomb. There will too many civilians. The blast will cause too much chaos and panic,” the Mayor instructed the terrorist. “In fact, just use a sniper. He will be giving his speech at the park. The park is completely open with very little defenses, so that would be your best opportunity,” the Mayor suggested, “What? Oh, the speech? He will be delivering it on Thursday night at 7pm. Great, I look forward to watching it on the news then. Bye.” Once Gabriel was able to tune in and get the date and time of the attack, he tuned out and went for a walk. Gabriel walked up to his favorite spot on the cliff and looked down upon the world. He and his Archangel Brothers resided up here in the highest part of Heaven in their towers. On sleepless nights like this, he liked to go for walks and think. Gabriel watched the waves crash against the cliffs down below. He was created shortly after the Fall of the first archangels. He, along with his six brothers Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Zerachiel, Azrael, and Barachiel were created to help defend God and His holy creations. Each archangel had his own area of expertise that he was a patron of. They protected those areas and guided the humans who prayed daily to them. Gabriel was the Patron of Dreams and Prophecies. He communicated to humans in dreams whenever the need occurred. Demons from Hell threatened the human race. They warred with the Archangels and some very powerful humans for supremacy to rule the Earth and all its inhabitants. They felt that nothing was above them. The demons challenged the might of Heaven and flaunted its holy laws and rules. The war with them was as old as time. He was about to leave the cliff when he heard a piercing human scream. The fact that the scream reached the heights of heaven meant that she was very powerful. If she was very powerful, she would attract demons. He turned his Sight back to Earth and scanned for the location of the woman screaming. Gabe located her in Tokyo and was about to fly down to Earth when Gabriel realized that she was in the throes of a nightmare. He tuned into the nightmare and saw what she saw. The girls’ parents were being massacred by demons. The demons had burned her house down. Her father was dead and her mother was in the process of being murdered. The mother turned to her daughter and yelled at her to run for her life. The little girl couldn’t have been more than seven ran but was overtaken by the demons. Gabriel gave a start when he recognized the demon that had killed the girl’s father and mother. It was Aaron, one of the most powerful demons of Hell. He was second only to the Dark Lord and was his right- hand man. The demon caught the girl and said something to her, but Gabriel already had enough of the demon. He transported himself into her nightmare to face this demon warlord. Anastasia was seven years old again and watching her house burn down around her. Her father had just been killed by a demon. Her mother died trying to protect her. Her last words to Anastasia were, “Run Anastasia, run for your life!” She had run and hid, but the demons had found her and dragged her out. She struggled against them, but they were too strong. The demon that killed her father and mother walked over to her, his eyes an unholy red. “I am Aaron. Your father screwed me over in a deal and now he has paid for it with his life. You will come with me and serve me, my little one,” Aaron said in a quiet chilling voice. As he reached for her to take her with him, Anastasia blasted him with her psychic energy. It was strong enough to knock him backwards into the burning rubble that used to be her home. The blast also knocked over the other demons holding her, and she saw her chance and ran. However, she wasn’t fast enough and Aaron caught up to her. Just as he reached out to grab her, a blinding light hit him, and a golden man with golden wings and a golden sword appeared. He struck the demon warlord and was about to stab him when the demon teleported elsewhere, but not before Anastasia saw fear and recognition in the demon’s face and eyes. Once, the demon was gone, the golden man turned to her. Anastasia was struck by how bright and beautiful he was. His face was finely chiseled, and he had deep, blue Mediterranean Sea eyes. His lips were full and luscious, and he had short cropped blonde hair. His golden wings and sword glittered and reflected light everywhere which made him difficult to look at. In fact, everything about this man shone. His eyes, his face, his muscular, six pack toned body, exuberated strength, vitality, and golden light. He spoke to her and his voice was deep and soothing, “You are safe now. When you wake up, you will feel refreshed and relaxed. Your dreams will trouble you no more. Sleep well.” Then, in a flash, he was gone. Anastasia woke up to the sound of her alarm clock beeping. She checked the time. It read 6:00AM, and she rolled over. Strange that she wasn’t soaked in sweat and shaking. She has had this recurring nightmare with Aaron so many times, and each time she’s screamed herself awake shaking, sweating, or crying. As she thought back to the nightmare, she realized that this was the first time a golden man with wings appeared. Never before in her nightmares has anyone appeared to help her. She was always alone, running, and scared for her life. She shook her head, got up, and took a shower. Then, Anastasia made some toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. She downed it with a hot, steaming cup of coffee. After breakfast, she went over to her headquarters Center for Tracking Demonic Activities also known as the Center. She walked in and greeted the receptionist. Then, she strolled into the Monitor Room. That was where all the action was. Any demonic activities that occurred was tracked and stored in the Monitor Room. Agents went in and out of there collecting information on demons they were tracking. Anastasia had spent many sleepless nights in there as well. Liz, her friend of ten years was watching the monitors when she walked in and greeted her. “Hey Girlfriend, couldn’t sleep again?” she asked. Anastasia shook her head, “The nightmare happened again.” Liz nodded sympathetically. Her best friend has been plagued by the same recurring nightmares ever since she was adopted by Master Yuki. The girls had gone to the same private school as children together and became fast friends. Now they were both twenty-eight and as different as night from day. Anastasia was tall at 5’10” and muscular from all her training. She had beautiful long black hair and dark blue eyes. Her mother was Japanese and her father was Russian. Anastasia never spoke much about them except that they were killed by demons in a fire when she was little. Liz, on the other hand was 5’3” with short, brown hair and big, brown eyes. She wore glasses that were too big for her face, but they helped her to see well. Liz also preferred to track demons with technology and knowledge instead of fists and weapons. She decided to distract her best friend with some juicy news, “Well, you’ll be happy to hear that we are tracking the Prime Minister. He’s come up more than once on our radar, and our sources say that he’s heading to New York City for a peace conference which is just a cover up for a terrorist negotiation.” “You think he’s been possessed?” Anastasia asked Liz after she finished reading his profile. Too many times, powerful demons will get a hold of a human and hypnotize them or entrance them into doing evil deeds for them. Getting the demon to break the hold over the human was hard, because it meant tracking down the demon and destroying it. It was rare, but there have been occurrences where the demon completely possessed the human. Killing the demon meant killing the human too. Since it was easier to kill the demon when it inhabited a human, most demons preferred to hypnotize the humans and use them that way. “Possibly, but I doubt it. His aura is still human. If he’s been possessed by a demon, his aura would show up as red or black on our sensors. Most likely, he’s been hypnotized by a powerful demon and is operating in a trance,” Liz replied. “Ok, good to know. When does he leave for New York City?” Anastasia asked. “He leaves in two weeks. I have your badge for the conference ready. You are a journalist Lisa Lee from the New York Times. You will have access to all the public areas of the building,” Liz informed her friend. “What about the private, off limit areas?” Anastasia inquired. Liz grinned, “That’s why you’re a secret undercover agent, sweetie. Master Yuki’s training should come in handy for all those tightly, controlled off limit areas.” Anastasia smiled back and replied, “Of course.” Master Yuki had been her mentor and trainer since the death of her parents. He found Anastasia at the orphanage where she was staying and brought her here to the Center. He trained her to track demons, fight, and destroy them. She vowed that one day; she would track down the demon known as Aaron and destroy him. Anastasia spent all her time training, and if she wasn’t training, she researched and looked for Aaron. Her research showed that he was a very powerful demon known as the Marquis of Hell in his circles. He used demons and humans alike to fulfill his evil means. However, he was too slick to get caught. Someone always took the blame for him. He was responsible for the world’s most heinous crimes, and he always had a demon in powerful positions calling the shots. Aaron’s last known location was New York City. However, a few years ago, he disappeared off the map. Try as they might, the Center could not find him, even after their agents questioned and tortured his demon associates. No one knew where he vanished to. This made Anastasia all the more determined to find him. She also found out from her research that her father was a scientist who had worked at a plant owned by Aaron. When Aaron asked her father to help him develop a hydrogen bomb, her father complied. Later, when her father realized Aaron was going to sell the bomb to terrorists, he destroyed the blue prints and the bomb. Aaron couldn’t make the deal or replicate the bomb, so he killed her father and mother as a result of the deal going bad. He had tried to come after her too, but even at the tender age of seven, she’d had psychic powers that the demon had been unaware of. Anastasia remembered blasting him and his cronies. Then, she had blacked out. When Anastasia had regained consciousness, she was on a stretcher in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Though, in her nightmares, he kept coming back from the blast and tried taking her down to hell with him. The fact that Anastasia could never escape the demon warlord in her nightmares made her train even harder with Master Yuki. She wanted to be prepared for the day when she would come face to face with the Marquis of Hell. Then, last year, Master Yuki passed away in his sleep. Though, she missed him terribly, he had taught her well. She spent all her time tracking, killing demons, and protecting humans. It was a 24/7 job which left no room for a social life or dating. She preferred it that way. Getting too close and too attached meant heartache and pain. She never wanted to feel the pain and heartbreak she felt that night she watched her parents die. Her best friend Liz had other ideas and was forever hooking her up on blind dates with this person or that person. She loved Liz. She was the only real family Anastasia has ever known besides Master Yuki and the team of agents she worked with. Liz was short and bubbly. She was super smart and was the computer and tech geek behind all of the Center’s equipment and monitors. She knew where demons appeared before they appeared and that made Anastasia’s job so much easier. All she had to do was show up where Liz told her to show up and kill the demons. Then, she went home to a nice hot bubble bath and a warm dinner. It was her life, and she loved it.