Is That Really A Demon?

The Angel in charge of the camp I was assigned to showed me to a cabin. There were three sets of bunk beds in the room and it was fairly large.
That was the last thought even remotely close to happiness I had for about three months.
I guess I kinda expected to be given preferential treatment for being the Son of Gabriel, but I quickly forgot that notion. I considered myself in fairly good shape, not bulging with muscles, but not fat either, but those three months in boot camp taught me otherwise. It took me a week to be able to run the morning exercise without fainting, and another week after that to be able to breathe normally afterwards. But once I got past that, things just got harder.
The first week was spent teaching my brethren, the Nephilim, and I all about how out of shape we were. Pure physical exercise from 6 in the morning to midnight. We started the day with a weighted run, carrying increasing amounts of weight on our backs. The first day was 10 pounds for 2 miles. They added 10 pounds and a mile every day, leading up to a grueling 8 mile run carrying 70 pounds of metal in a backpack. And that was just what we did before breakfast.
After we ate our morning meal, they took us to the gym in camp and had us do a punishing regimen. We had to do between 10 and 50 of every kind of exercise imaginable, and they weights on some of them were increased daily. After that, we ran around the camp twice and then ate lunch. After lunch, they took us out to the lake and made us do laps, and if you weren’t quick enough you were assigned extra laps. After swimming, we were put through wrestling matches with each other and then sent to dinner. By this time, everyone was exhausted, but dinner was at 8. After dinner, everyone spent three hours in melee training, fighting combat dummies. Then, they let us drag ourselves off to bed.
After a week of this, I could feel myself getting stronger. Every muscle in my body was noticeably bigger, and they would continue to grow.
The next two months passed in a haze of weapons and melee training, learning to use swords, sticks, our hands, feet, and heads to fight, along with anything else at hand. Then, they divided us into squads and began war games. Those passed another month of time before the day that we woke up and found all the Angel instructors lined up outside. They called the whole camp to attention, which caused about 1000 pairs of feet to snap together. The head instructor, an angel named Odoman, spoke in a loud, ringing voice to all of us.
“You have been training in my camp for three months now, and I am proud to say that you all turned our much better than I had ever hoped. But that is not enough. You are all Half-Angels, and as such, have never used the kind of powers you have. We shall now begin the month-long training course in which we shall teach you to use the powers that you gained from your Angel parents. Dismissed!”
The Angel’s words echoed in my mind. We had even more boot camp, and powers? Is it not enough that we were going to eventually sprout wings? We had to be able to rip people apart with our minds too?
Oh well, all the more fun.

As I was finishing my evening Melee practice with my scimitar, I heard a twig snap in the forest and froze in place, listening intently. There was nobody out here tonight and I should have been alone. But I could hear someone. A very big someone.
Showing no outward signs of concern or notice, just as my teachers taught me, I prepared myself for a fight. It might just be a bear snuffling for food, or it could be a couple of the other Angels hoping for a fight.
As always, I was way the fuck off in my guess.
Hearing quiet footsteps gaining on me, I timed it until whatever was following me would be about 3 feet away and suddenly spun on one foot, both my scimitars coming smoothly out of their belt-sheathes and into a guard position, one extended towards my enemy.
Instead of an animal or an Angel-child, the 7 foot tall being before me was something I knew now existed, but never once expected to see. Just my luck, catching a Demon sneaking into camp.
I barely had time to register the giant axe in his hands before he was roaring, swinging in a downward slice that would have done me in right there if not for my instincts. Rolling to the right, I stabbed for the creature's armpit, hoping to disable it's attacking arm. leaping up and flipping in the air, I went for a killing blow on a neck I didn't quite reach.
Hitting the ground with a heavy thud, I felt the air knocked out of me before I realized that I'd been swatted to the ground. Staggering up, I ran at the creature again, filled with a cold rage that seemed to fuel my every instinct. My vision tinged blue as I let loose a battle cry and leapt, swinging for the neck with all my force. Landing in a crouch, I could almost feel the surprise in the Demon as his head slid off.
Standing and looking myself over for bruises, I noticed a blue glow starting to fade from my body, as if heaven had surrounded every part of my skin. Maybe that's why I had blue flames on my blades? Doesn't really matter I guess.
Stooping down, I examined the beast I'd felled. He stood a little over 7'1" in life and had huge, curled horns on his forehead. His skin was tinged red and his nails were all claw-like. Scars on his back indicated seniority, for this one was originally an Angel. He had fallen far under Lucifer's rule, his mouth a grotesque, fanged orifice now, his wide eyes the color of brimstone. His blood was black and looked poisonous, his hair mangy and tangled. Grabbing a handful, I lifted the head and began the long walk to the Camp Supervisor.
This was gonna be a hard one to explain.

Learning Your Place

It all started with Christians.
Not that I blame all Christian believers for what happened, but it IS kind of their fault. I mean, it’s their god that did all this. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

It was a normal day in May. The sun was shining, the day was just the right temperature, and I loved it in my town of Little Rock, Arkansas. The year was 2014, and I had been out of the shadow of that Mayan bullshit prediction for a little over a year. I felt pretty good about life. I had just returned from a business trip and I thought nothing could ruin my sense of happiness.
I was wrong.
As I stepped into my house, I had the feeling something was wrong. For one, my wife wasn’t there. Neither were my kids. And this struck me as strange, since it was 4 in the morning and our other car was in the driveway.
So I called up all the people who might know where they were. Nothing. Some people answered and didn’t know anything, some just weren’t there.
Called the church where they all went every week for worship. No answer.
Then a strange thought popped into my mind, and I couldn’t get rid of it. What if this was the Rapture that everyone always talked about?
Now, I’ve never been a stupid man. I love reading, and I love learning. The Rapture was supposed to be the Second Coming of Christ, where all the faithful were taken to live in a perfect land or world or city, or maybe Heaven. The scholars never could agree which it was. But many thought it would happen in an instant, and that the non-believers would be left on Earth, perhaps to await condemnation to death.
The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that it had to be the Rapture. So I turned on the news and watched for a bit. Some of the news anchors were new or amateur, on account of “unexplained absences”. It looked as if about two thirds of the human population was gone. Not just the Christians, but the Jews and Muslims too, apparently. As the news went on and on into the morning, I had the strangest sense that something, or maybe someone, was coming.
Standing up and stretching, I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee, heating up the oven to cook some eggs and bacon. Eating slowly, I watched the news all through the day, occasionally eating some more of my cold food. The final reports were astonishing. Nearly half the population of the USA was gone, two thirds of Europe, most of the Middle East, and a third of Asia. Around 2 PM the authorities began talking about religious explanations and stumbled onto the same explanation I had by around 6 CST. By now, I was already driving around town. I decided to head home around eightish.
As I drove up and parked on the concrete of my driveway, I stepped out of the car and suddenly felt all the hairs on my body trying to stand up straight. I shook off the feeling and walked up to the front door, reaching for the knob to unlock it. Suddenly, I froze. The door was open. I stepped inside quietly and noticed the television was on in the living room. Stepping into the room, I noticed someone relaxing in one of the armchairs and turned on the light.
What I saw, I will never forget.
His skin was tinged slightly violet, just enough to be strange, like someone with an iron deficiency. He had long fingernails that were tinged navy blue and his eyes were glued to the television. From a quick glance, I guessed him to be at least seven feet tall standing. The air around his back seemed to be shimmering ever so slightly, and he was wearing a black business suit, black socks, black dress shoes, a black shirt, and a black tie.
All in all, not someone you expect in your living room.
“Hello David. I’ve been expecting you for quite a while.” The man turned his head to look at me with eyes the brightest shade of purple I’d ever seen. Wait, no, they were just a strange blue. Yes, a strange blue. No man had purple eyes, that was silly.
“Yes, silly to think I have purple eyes. That color is lavender, you moron.” The man laughed softly at my confused expression, continuing, “And by the way, yes, this is the Rapture. All the faithful have flown,” he gestured with his hands skyward, “on to Heaven. But you stayed behind, because you don’t believe the Almighty Father exists. Well, I’ll tell you a little secret. He does, and I should know. He created me, and I met him.” The man’s eyes twinkled and I could have sworn they really WERE lavender.
Then he disappeared, poof, just like that. Of course, I looked all around for him, but he was nowhere to be found. I sat down and had a glass of gin, thinking about why it seemed so familiar to meet him. I had the feeling he’d be back, and give me some answers.
I wasn’t disappointed.
He came to me again a few days later, while I was pulling out my old Marine issued gear and oiling my gun. I figured that whatever was going on, I might as well be prepared for riots to start.
“You won’t need those where you’re going you know.” The man walked into the room with a cup of coffee in his hand, still in the same outfit, although no shimmer this time.
“And where is that?” I casually aimed the rifle at his chest, staring him hard in those eerie eyes of his.
“Well, Jesus decreed that the Contingent of Angels, blessed by the Heavenly Father, is not big enough. So I, and a few others, are tasked with bringing in all the Fallen and the Nephilim. You happen to fall into the latter category, though you may not know it.”
I watched my gun bend in half as he talked, my eyes wide with astonishment. Then I realized what he had said.
“What do you mean!? I’m not a half-breed angel! And you’re certainly not an Ang….el…” The words died in my mouth as I watched his back literally split open and sprout wings. He looked fearsome now, and his business suit wasn’t any such thing. It was a combat uniform, all in black, complete with a set of combat boots, a grenade belt, and a long sword in a sheathe across his back, slanting between his massive wings.
“Believe me now, David? And yes, you are a Halfie. You’re a pretty important half-breed. In fact, you’re probably the most important half-breed next to Christ himself. Your father was the Archangel himself, Gabriel. Of course, I hate to speak in the third person. Would you prefer Son, or just David?”
That’s about when I passed out. Gabriel woke me up a couple of hours later. He thought I was dead.




When I woke up, nothing had really changed aside from the fact that I was laying on the floor. The business suit was still gone. Gabriel’s eyes were still lavender. He still had wings.
It was all a bit much to comprehend. So, naturally, I fainted again.


This time, when I woke up, I was in a different place. There was a roaring fire in an antique fireplace, and a man sitting in an armchair. He had a long, slightly ragged beard and long hair, held back by a hair tie. He looked to be about my height and was wearing similar combat fatigues to the ones Gabriel had on. Gabriel was on his knees before the man, watching him with devotion not unlike that of a dog to a good master.
Since I was pretty sure not even a son of Gabriel was allowed to meet God, I was most likely in the presence of Jesus Christ himself, Savior of all Mankind.
I tell you, it made me feel pretty damn small.
As I stood up from the floor, Christ’s eyes snapped over to look at me, away from his contemplation of the fire.
“Ah, Gabriel’s seed awakes from his slumber. How are you, my son?” The… whatever he was, spoke with a slight accent that I couldn’t place, and he sounded words out in a way that seemed just a bit odd until I remembered that Latin was the only language he had ever needed to learn. Of course his English would be strange.
“Ummmm…. I guess I’m alright? I have no idea how to refer to you… Christ? Jesus? Jesus Christ? The Son? I’m kinda… lost?” I said, in slight awe of the fact that I was talking to the son of God.
“On the battlefield, call me J.C. All haste purposes and all. Off the field of battle, call me whatever you’d like. You’re probably wondering why you’re here, no? Well, I figure you deserve an explanation.” Christ took a deep breath and began to tell me what he had to say. He talked long into the night, and with some words I didn’t really know, so I’ll just sum up what he said.
Basically, in the beginning, there was a Covenant between God, The Almighty, and Lucifer, once The Morning Star and God’s right hand angel, now the Prince of Lies and Deceit, Ruler of Hell. It was agreed that neither party would interfere in the workings of man on Earth. Lucifer, naturally, almost immediately began to fiddle things his way. God stayed true to his word- mostly.
So as time went on, God used his disciples on Earth and angels to do his work, keeping most men on the path to Heaven. But soon this wasn’t enough, so he sent his only Son to Earth and used him to bring back faith. After God’s only son, Jesus Christ, died, he began to train a good number of the Angels in Heaven for War and kept them up to date on the latest military strategy and weaponry. When the crossbow came out, Christ’s army began to practice aerial sweeps with them. When guns appeared, they tried those too. Continual training brought about an elite army. But when the time came, they weren’t enough. So now, with the Second Coming of Jesus at hand, Christ was recruiting all the Fallen Angels and bastard children of Angels into a force.
So far, there were enough to make up two over-sized Battalions if you included the Angels. Another four battalions of Angels were being specially trained to come to Earth to help with the fight and would arrive in about 4 years. Until then, Jesus had small goals. He wanted to solidify his hold in North America and hold it, rebuilding the world in a proper Christian Image, starting there. If few casualties were met, they’d take to the South American Continent and pacify that land. Their base of operations was in a small Christian town in the Southern USA, but there were two massive training camps in the area. This was where the 2000 new Nephilim and Fallen were to be trained in the ways of war, although guns were not to be used except for sidearms. The estimated time it would take to train everyone was nearly a year, and then we were planning to roll out.
I learned one other thing before I begged exhaustion. Apparently, I can shoot lightning from my fingertips.
Fucking awesome.