A Fearless Friendship

I stood behind the Angel who had just summoned me at my crossroads.

“What’s up, Feathers?”

The Angel jumped with fright as I snickered. She recomposed herself.

“What’s up, Soul Eater?” She chirped back.

We chuckled, then hugged each other. We have been best friends for 3000 odd years.

“Eden, you do know I have a cell phone and the reception in Hell is good.” I stated, pulling out of our hug and showing her my phone in my hand.

“I know Loki.”

“Then why do you insist on summoning me?”

“I like to keep things old school.” She answered with a shrug.

“You know this is bad for business when humans see an Angel and Demon together.” I remarked, crossing my arms and pretending to be mad.

“Good, more souls for Heaven.” Eden teased, sticking her tongue out.

I chuckled, shaking my head.

“Do you have time for coffee?” She asked nervously.

Sensing there was something on her mind, I took her hand.

“Yeah, why not? It’s a quiet night, anyway.”

Eden spread her wings and with one powerful thrust, she lifted us off the ground into the night sky and flew us to our favorite little diner. We landed in the quiet parking lot with a thud, stones and dust scattering around us. I continued to hold Eden’s hand as we always did when we walked into the café and waved to Mavis and Carl behind the counter.

Carl had summoned me 50 years ago to make a deal to get a crappy diner. Who would have guessed this would turn out to be the best place to get the best pie in the county? They won endless pie competitions. As a crossroads Demon, the deal is 10 years for you to live your ‘dreams’, and then on the hour of when your deal was made, you die and I collect your soul. But I could never collect on Carl’s soul and even granted Mavis to live as long as him. Guess I just love his pies too much and for his gratitude, I get free pie and coffee.

“Thanks, Mavis,” I said when Mavis brought our order.

“Anytime sweetie.”

“So, what’s bugging you?” I asked Eden as soon as Mavis was out of earshot.

Eden played with her pie as she seemed to struggle to say what was wrong. I took a sip of coffee, giving her a chance to spill the beans.

“There’s a war coming.” She whispered, looking up at me in anguish.

I scoffed. “There’s always a war coming.”

“Not between the humans. Between Heaven and Hell.” She stated, shaking her head.

“Again, there’s always a war between Heaven and Hell. Good and evil.” I said, dismissing the notion, taking a bite of my pie.

Eden shook her head again in fear and frustration.

“They’re just rumors. We haven’t had a war in over 5000 years. You pay too much attention to human hogwash.” I stated firmly.

“No. Loki, you don’t understand. I’ve heard this directly from Gabrielle. He is preparing for war. He’s calling all of us back to Heaven and is ordering a lockdown.” Eden pressed.

That made me stop and look up. The panic and worry were clear as daylight. This was serious. This wasn’t just hearsay.

“Heaven hasn’t had a lockdown since Michael and Balthazar had a tiff 4000 years ago,” I said. I put my fork down and frowned.

My phone chimed. I opened my message and frowned.

“What is it, Loki?” Eden asked, stretching her hands out across the table.

I put my phone face down and took her hands in mine.

“Hell is on lockdown. They are calling all of us Demons’ home.” I breathed, shaking a little. Or was it Eden shaking?

“What are we going to do, Loki? I’ve never been in a war and I can’t go up against you. We’re best friends. But I can’t fight against my family.” She whimpered, with tears threatening to spill.

“The same,” I replied, squeezing her hands tight.

“What’s going to happen to all these humans? Last time… last time, the war almost wiped them out. Luckily, they blamed the plagues. But this time, humans have technology and are not that stupid and scared like in the dark ages.” Eden said with despair.

“How did this all start?” I pondered, breathing hard.

Eden shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think it’s been brewing for a while. I guess one demon took a step too far, and Gabe was just waiting for the perfect opportunity.”

“Whoa, you two look like the world’s going to end,” Mavis said, refilling our coffee.

If only she knew how accurate she was. She shrugged and left us again.

“We have to stop our families! Save the humans!” Eden hissed with fear and determination.

“I agree. Humans make their own wars and we can’t interfere, but this is not a human war. We have to intervene.” I declared, squaring my shoulders.

“How?” Eden breathed.

“I have an idea, but it could get us killed, and that’s easy compared to the price,” I said with apprehension.

“I’ll do whatever it takes.” She said with courage and hope.

“We reveal our friendship and prove to everyone that Angels and Demons can get along,” I said.

“Loki, it will never work. Some of them are just to set in their old ways. The fact that we have to hide our friendship after 3000 years is proof enough. They will kill you and take my wings.” She replied in a strangled voice.

I sighed with a heavy heart. She was right, they would never accept our friendship. The fact that they have not caught us yet after all these years is a miracle on its own, pardon the pun, but it’s true.

“There might be another way. Two rings.” I breathed in a shaky voice.

“The rings of the Holy and the Damned.” Eden gulped.

I nodded slowly, feeling a lump sitting in my throat.

The rings are believed to be holy and damned. The rings grant you the power of all the Archangels and all the souls in hell. It is just a power below our rulers. And whoever wears them is connected to its partner for eternity, but it’s believed the rings drive the bearers beyond madness, that they end up turning on each other until it left neither standing.

Are we willing to go that far? To save the humans and stop a war between our families, only to end up killing each other from madness? I don’t know if I’m willing to lose my best friend like that, to have her blood on my hands from my evilness, but if we don’t, then I lose her either way.

“For the humans.” Eden declared with squared shoulders.

I paused for a second to make sure that Eden was truly on board with this as well as myself. There were no signs of either of us faltering.

“For the Humans,” I said with a firm nod.

We rested our foreheads together, breaths mixing. It was as if we were silently saying goodbye to each other and ourselves because initially, we will never be the same, like this ever again.

“Okay.” We whispered, pulling apart.

It was our mutual way of saying go prepare, find the rings in their guarded safes. We greeted Carl and Mavis, who observed us with apprehension as we walked out of the diner. Eden gave my hand one last tight squeeze with a small smile before she pushed herself off the ground and headed for heaven, leaving a gust of wind behind. We wouldn’t see each other again until the battle where we would meet in the middle of the battlefield and stop the war.

“Goodbye Feathers.”

I closed my eyes, and the ground opened up with a red glow coming from below. I stepped off into the hole and fell to hell and landed in the war room filled with demons waiting for the King of Hell, Avex, to address us. King Avex held up his hands. Silence fell quickly.

“Heaven has declared war on us!” He boomed in anger.

Somebody mumbled “Again!” causing whispers of agreement.

Even though I agreed, I held my tongue, for I knew better. Seconds passed before the demons that interrupted Avex vanished in a cloud of dust. Dead, ‘good luck downstairs’, I thought. When a demon gets dusted, you get sent below with your fellow souls to be tortured for eternity.

“Gabrielle has declared war for the most ridiculous reason. Hell is getting more souls than Heaven.” The King sneered.

I raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief. I know the king wouldn’t lie about such a thing, but it didn’t make sense. Yes, Gabrielle is known for his jealousy, but to start a war for that reason alone?! No, it doesn’t make any sense? I wish I could contact Eden to verify if this is true.

I listened to some more unexplainable things Avex was saying, and I was truly starting to doubt him. But I lost my loyalty when he instructed us to call in all of our contracts, regardless of whether their time was up or not. My nose flared. I might be a demon and supposedly despicable and damned to Hell, but I honor, and respect my contracts enough to never breach them in this way.

I kept composure until we were dismissed. I turned on my heels and all but ran to the forbidden room. It was a red door. How fitting. I turn the doorknob slowly. I felt something I hadn’t felt since I first came to Hell when I was created as a demon - Hellfire. The door was pulsing with hellfire. It burned like nothing could compare to it, but I bit down and pushed through until I was in a dark room with only the safe glowing red hot with flames on the far end of the wall.

Clutching my burning hand, I marched up to the safe, sucking in a deep breath. I used the only combination known to the underworld. The safe burned my already burnt hand. It left the smell of rotten, burning flesh. Well, I am a demon, so when I burn, it smells rotten.

It clicked as it unlocked and I opened it. In the middle of the safe, on a black velvet cushion, rested a plain gold band. With my burnt hand, I reached in, bracing myself for the next pain that surely would follow, but nothing happened. I slowly picked the heavy ring up and examined it. It was truly just a plain gold band.

I let out a sigh. This can’t be the ring of the Damned. It has to be a decoy, right? I was about to put it back, heartbroken and pissed that I went through that pain all for nothing, when my gut told me to put the ring on, so I did.

I felt an immense power surge course through me, knocking me to my knees, gasping heavily. I could feel and see all the souls in hell and of those contracts that were yet still to be reaped. I heard a roar of anger shake the castle and felt the souls quiver in fear. Avex! He knows! I pushed myself up and closed my eyes and thought of the top side.

When I opened my eyes, I was on earth at my crossroads. Sighing with relief, I studied my hand where the ring rested on my middle finger. I pulled it off and felt all the power disappear. Interesting. I put the ring back on and instantly felt all the power return again, but unlike the first time; it didn’t knock me to my knees. Strange, I would have thought that someone cannot remove it, once the ring it was on. I wonder then if the ‘drive you to madness’ thing was due to wearing the ring permanently, that would make sense. That amount of power all the time that would make anyone insane.

I looked up at the heavens. Please let Eden have found the ring and figured this out too, I pleaded silently. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw a text from an unknown number. It was a bunch of emojis.

“Feathers.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

She has the ring and has figured out to keep the ring off until D-day. With peace of mind and heart, I went back to hell to play dumb. Hell was in true chaos when I returned. Avex shouted orders left, right, and center to find the ring and to prepare for battle and that there was no time to collect more souls because we leave for middle earth for the battle to commence at sunrise.

As we ascended from below, the angels descended. It was quite a sight to see. We would have scared the humans if they saw us now. The sky was so bright that it would blind you. And the earth, full of black fog so thick around your ankles that you cannot tell where the ground is.

We stood on the battlefield several feet apart from our supposed enemies. I searched for Eden in between the cluster of birdbrains while anxiously twirling the ring between the fingers of my hand that was in my coat’s pocket.

There!! I spotted Eden and met her searching eyes. Both of our shoulders relaxed. I tilted my head just enough for her to know I was saying hi. If it were anyone else, they would have thought I just cranked my neck. Eden’s eye twitched, and I knew she was winking back at me. We had our secret language that would just seem like a twitch to a normal person, angel and demon included.

Gabrielle and Avex glared at each other before walking to the hallowed ground to meet. I carried on staring at Eden, waiting for her to indicate when we should intervene. My ears picked up bits and pieces of their conversation as the wind carried their words. They were in cahoots with each other! They wanted a war! But why?!

Eden must have realized this too because she pushed through the body of angels and I did the same until we were both on the front lines. With a nod, we both slipped our rings on. A huge gush of power made everyone cover their eyes, with our leaders gawking at us in awe, bitterness, and anger.

Eden and I walked toward each other and joined hands. Our power suddenly increased tenfold, making our leaders whimper and kneel before us along with everyone else.

“Why do you want to start a war?!” Eden demanded in a voice that echoed.

They glanced at each other in fear.

“Answer her!” I yelled!

They shrank back with a yelp.

“Be… because of you. Your... your friendship.” Avex stuttered.

Eden and I stared at each other with shock and heartache.

“Angels and demons can’t be friends!” Gabrielle spat.

“Best friends.” I growled, making him cower in fear.

“You would start a war because of our friendship?” Eden breathed in dismay.

Both angels and demons gasped.

“You would risk thousands of brothers and sisters and destroy humanity for a friendship that my not even forbidden by our father himself!!” Eden screamed.

Everyone whimpered, falling to their knees while Avex and Gabrielle were lying flat on their bellies, wailing with hands up in surrender.

There were whispers on both sides. I was about to defend our friendship when I realized that the comments and disgruntles were about our leaders. They seemed disgusted, and at that moment, our leaders lost the respect of their warriors. Commanders from both sides arrested the fallen leaders.

“We need the rings back, children.” Both our lieutenants said, holding their palms out.

“But the curse of the rings?” I asked, squeezing Eden’s hand.

“Only if you never take them off.” Dagon, my lieutenant said.

Eden and I nodded, taking the rings off quickly, and let out a sigh of relief as we placed the rings in their palms.

“And our friendship?” Eden whispered, looking at me with wet eyes.

“What of it?” Her lieutenant asked with a shrug.

I studied Dagon. He, too, just shrugged, showing no interest in our friendship. Both Eden and I grabbed each other in a tight, fierce hug, crying in relief. I felt the ground open as the demons left and gusts of winds as the angels left.

Eden and I pulled apart, leaning our foreheads against each other.

“Feathers.” I breathed.

“Soul Eater.” Eden replied in a whisper.

“Pie?”

“Pie.” Eden agreed, smiling.

She then flew us to our diner for coffee and pie. Now we can be friends in the open.