The Pasts We Wish We Didn’t Have: Part 4

 

            Duo felt the wings rip through his back, but it didn’t hurt. It was an odd sensation, his skin was ripping, but he felt no pain. He felt like he would never feel pain again. His eyes saw only darkness, his skin felt only cold and he was moving. He was moving between worlds. He knew where he was going, a parallel world that belonged to the angels. 

            Then sunlight filled his eyes and his body met his mind again. The world came into view.

 

~~

 

            The knife tore itself through his skin, his blood dripped onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. How long would this last? Drip, drip. Down his legs, on his feet, from his arms and straight to the hard rock floor…drip, drip. She smiled and stood away from him. His long black hair hanging around his head, which was limp, his chin pressed on his chest. “Look at me,” she ordered him, “Look at me or I’ll transform into a male again…” quickly his head moved up, his eyes filled with terror. Not that again, please, not that again, Wufei thought panicking, that’s worse than anything. So he looked at her. She smiled at him and spread her arms. The only things she wore were a small leather tong and his blood. It left dark lines and smudges along her slim and firm stomach. It lined her perfect breasts. Her blemish-free face had smudges on both her checks, her smiling mouth showed his blood on her teeth. Her hair matched the color of the blood perfectly, but what scared him the most where the black, bat-like wings. The wings he first saw the first time she disrobed herself in front of him. Since then she always came dressed in something like she was wearing now or nothing at all. “See what I am, human. Do you see?!” She wanted him to answer, so he nodded his head. “Yes you do see. But does he?! Does he give a fuck about what I am? Does he even care about you? No…or else you wouldn’t be here would you?” She ranted like this often, but at least when she did she wasn’t hurting him. “I’m so much better than you are, than you humans are. I’m so much more. I could give him so much more. Can’t I? CAN’T I?” She came to Wufei quickly, grabbed his hair and pulled his feet off the floor by it; he winced from the pain that shoot itself down his head. “Aren’t I human? Aren’t I better than you? Huh? I’m better, I’m better than you! You’re nothing. You can’t even stop me from hurting you! I’m right aren’t I?” her eyes were wide and insane. “I’m BETTER! I’m MORE! AREN’T I?”

            “Yes,” Wufei barely choked out, his voice was hoarse. How long since he had used it? 

            “What?!”

            He cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said, more clearly and loudly than before. She quickly let go of his hair, he fell. The only thing keeping him up were the thick chains and manacles holding his wrists to the wall and ceiling. She turned from him and sauntered away, her demonic wings folding forwards and back, and then she turned back to him. “That’s right. I am, human. Always remember that.” She wandered to the bed, and picked up a long thin spike. Wufei stared at her in horror as she turned back towards him. “Never forget, and maybe, after I’m done with you. You can tell him. Yep, I think I’ll carve the message on your rotting flesh.”

 

~~

 

            Duo stared wide-eyed around him. The houses and buildings were all Roman, columns and balconies were all around him. That’s when he noticed that he had red wings. He reached to them, not as difficult as he thought it would be because they bent as he willed them. It was an odd sensation, to gain wings and then control them. The crimson feathers felt like satin under his trembling fingers. Memories came to him, his fingers brushing soft black feathers, someone, a woman, whispering affectionately in his ear. <I love it when you do those things to me.> A name came to mind, a name that hadn’t always been hers, Lorelei. Dark red hair in his face,<It’s not as long as yours, or as soft> she was saying. He heard her giggle.

            <Duo?> asked his father, snapping him from his thoughts. <Come with me.> The older angel turned and started to walk towards the building of which they were standing in the yard. Duo, who should have had a thousand questions, followed him, his mouth closed firmly.

            His father led him into the massive golden doors of the building. They opened to an immense chapel. Slowly they walked down the line between the pews, towards the alter of burning candles. Duo’s father noticed one of the candles was out. As he walked by it on his towards the door to the right of the alter and he blew on it. Fire sparked back to life. He and Duo entered the door. For a moment Duo’s head spun and he felt like he had just gotten off a roller coaster or something. When he recollected himself he saw he was in a small, priest-like cell. Mad and wild sketches filled the room. Duo glanced at them and saw that mainly they were of angry faces and images of angels burning.       

            <Duo, in this room time passes more slowly, so what may seem like an hour for you and I seems a minute to those outside it. That is why you felt nauseous when you entered it.> Duo nodded. <I believe I have some explaining to do, this way I can do it without wasting anymore time than necessary.>

            <What about Wufei?> asked Duo. His father sighed and sat on one of the stools in the room, there were three in all.

            <To be truthful, we don’t know where he is. When the angels I’m working with find out they will come straight here. I believe Michael said he would come personally.>

            Duo raised an eyebrow, <The Michael?>

            <Yes> his father answered coolly.

            <Oh ok> answered Duo sarcastically, folding his arms around his chest. <Until then, you’re gonna answer my questions?>

            The older angel nodded.

            <What am I? What are these?> he gestured towards his wings.

            <You are an angel. You see, Our Father made many glorious creatures. As for sentient beings, we were first, and then he made Man. Man likes to believe that we are less than them, but The Great Lord is an unconditional loving Father, He has no favorites. He even loves His animals, His trees, His minerals, His gases, His liquids. He loves it all. But we came first. He sacrificed Christ for them, he sacrificed knowledge to us. You see Duo, we have powers humans do not. We are also able to travel to both our and their worlds. This is a universe parallel to the human world you were in. We are also immortal. We may be able to fly, and travel and perform little miracles, we do not have souls and the only one who can kill us is Our Creator, Himself. We can experience physical pleasure, but we are not as fertile as humanity is. On average to every 10 thousand years of human evolution one of us is born. We are not given names, so to gain names we must either A) do something so wonderful that Loving Father tells humans about it and they ask for names, such as Michael, or B) we must go to Earth and gain one. That is what you did, that is what you are. You are an angel that went to Earth to gain a name, and you did. When Solo died you named yourself Duo. You were supposed to come home then, but something happened. You see, you forgot who you really were when that virus attacked you. Yes, Duo, you had the virus, but it affected you differently than it affected humans. You forgot who you were. You became as human as it is possible for one of us to become human. Oh, your mother, she mourned you for so long, it drove her insane. And Lorelei, she couldn’t handle not being around you for so long. And as for your wings, well, I think that’s obvious.>

            <If I’m immortal, how have I grown up Human?> Duo asked.

            <In order to do what you did you transformed yourself to a human child, and told your body to age as humans age. You see, while this is how you really look, you can transform your shape. All of us can.> Quickly the older angel changed his appearance from a woman with long blonde hair, to a red-haired teen, to Duo himself, then back to his original form.

            Duo finally sat on one stools, < Ok…I guess that’s cool> Duo thought for a second, looking for his next question. <Why would one of God’s ‘glorious creatures’ have urges to kill?> The older angel sighed.      

            <Duo when you were born, something…amazing happened. Lorelei was born two minutes after you. Never in our existence had two babies been born so close together. We saw it as a sign. The Almighty Lord wanted you two to be companions. So you grew together. You learned together. Then we realized what a mental link you two had, and the impulses you shared. When you had reached the maturity of 13 year old humans, your mothers caught you together, in the way only meant for marriage. You both went insane. You attacked your mothers, screaming at how they dare interrupt you. When I finally made it home, black and chrisom feathers were everywhere. My wife and Lorelei’s mother were tied and gagged. You both had lost your feathers. You were both now fallen angels, finding glory in the human world. Something happened when you two were born, since you were born so closely together, no one is sure exactly what, but you were almost destined to fall. It was about a century before your bloodlust reached its peak. That peak was the White Chapel Murders. Lorelei looked on as you destroyed the first girl. The last one you did together, loving every minute of the pain experienced by those humans. When they couldn’t find the woman’s womb that meant that together you and Lorelei had feasted upon it. Even with these new murders, you would eat her womb.>

            <Why now? Why did you come to me now, why not sooner? Why would I kill now?>

            <Duo when our bodies reach full maturity, we stop aging. It was bound to happen to you, and it’s happening now. You and Lorelei are reaching your developmental peaks. This is affecting your mind. As for not coming sooner, we had to wait, we…we…didn’t know if the virus was still in you and if it was contagious. But this thing with Wufei…>

            <I see, you left me to die with humans.>

            <Duo, please understand, if I could have torn you from that world I would have! So would your mother! But we couldn’t! The others wouldn’t allow it. Lorelei tried several times, but they always caught her before she could.>

            <What happened, why did we become good again, why do I have feathers again?>

            The man took a deep breath again, <The Lord killed Lorelei’s mother.>

            <What? Why?>

            <She asked it. She prayed to our Eternal Father and begged him to take her sacrifice in exchange for both of you. He did. And we thanked him for it, because when one angel dies, we all feel it. You two felt it and returned to this world, to see her lifeless body. It changed Lorelei, she cried and you loved her, so you comforted her. That was your one redeeming quality; you both loved each other, in your own ways.>

            <Where did she get her name?>

            <Ireland, years and years ago. When the English were fighting them for their land she went there as a human child and gained the name meaning ‘destruction’. Then she came back to you.>

            <Is her hair blood-red?>

            <Yes.>

            <And her wings are black.>

            <Yes, they are.>

            <She must have viewed me as a traitor.> Somehow, maybe it was the wings or the world around him, but Duo found it easy to digest and accept everything this nameless angel told him.

            <She…missed you.>   

            <Why would she kidnap Wufei?>

            The man sighed, Duo had meant it as a rhetorical question, but he realized that his father had the answer. <Wufei has a spirit inside of him.> Duo looked curiously at him. <When you and Lorelei gained back your feathers you…became bored, so you created a spirit of great power. It’s not technically sentient, but it’s alive, like a dog or a cat. When its power began to tempt you, Lorelei sent it away to a family. It was passed down from generation to generation, through conception. Wufei holds it now, it’s inside of him, it is one of the things I believe that what made him such a good candidate for Gundam piloting. It is also what is keeping him alive now.>

            <What are you keeping from me?> Duo asked. He knew he wasn’t being told the whole truth. Just then the door of the room opened. A handsome, actually glorious, angel stepped into the room, and blinked to reorient himself. His eyes were beautifully blue and he had shoulder length black hair. Duo’s father stood and motioned Duo to emulate him. Duo stood.

            < Hello…Duo.> This new angel had his wings tucked behind him and his strong arms folded across his chest.

            Somehow Duo knew who this was, <Hello Michael. I take it you know where Wufei is?> Michael smiled and motioned father and son the follow him. Duo was left the room immediately following Michael. His head spun as he stepped back into the chapel. As he reoriented himself he noticed at figure kneeling at the alter. Black feathered wings folded behind her, blood-red hair covered her face, golden dress fit her body perfectly, she was focused on prayer. < Lorelei?!> Duo’s heart jumped and he felt himself go warm. Lorelei broke herself from prayer to look at the three angels.

            <Why did you bring her here?!> demanded Duo’s father.

            <You didn’t tell him did you?> Michael asked, bemused, <He needs to find out…>

            <I was hoping…> But he trialed off. Duo hadn’t paid attention to their conversation. He was slowly walking to her; she stood and finally spoke, in English “Not really. Can’t you feel it, my sweet Duo?” She started walking to him, and when they were close enough to touch she reached out and brushed her check. Yes, he did feel it, something…something was missing from her, but what? Then he remembered why he was here, “Where’s Wufei?” he asked dimly searching her pure innocent eyes for what was missing from her. She lowered her head, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

            <What is wrong, my love?>

            She turned from him, “Duo don’t. I don’t understand Adam’s Tongue, not anymore.”

            That’s when Duo realized what was wrong with her. She couldn’t handle the lust when he was gone, so she drove it out of her mind and by trying to do so she became….what, less of an angel? It felt like…like…half of her was missing.

            “What did you do?” He asked her back.

            “I…I,” she was pushing back sobs. “I pushed out every evil desire I had inside of me. I pushed it out, hoping it would die, but instead it took on a new life. It became me Duo. It’s me, but outside me. We are like…like…twins.”

            Then he understood. She was missing half of herself, the evil half of herself. She was missing lust, anger, and any imperfection. She was a pure, innocent angel, and she couldn’t speak the language because it would kill her, like it had hurt Quatre to even hear it the 1^st time, before he got used to it. She was half of herself and the other half, the evil half was the literal example of an evil twin, an evil half, and she had Wufei. The thought sent chills down his spine. He could imagine what she was doing to him and he didn’t like it. He had to save his friend.