Page 20 of The Halo & the Heathen
He doesn’t catch me as I race across the raised soil between pits of writhing, skinless bodies.
He doesn’t come for me as I slip past the two vulture demons he warned me about.
Clothed in his rags, still wearing his collar, I stop ten steps up the stairway to heaven and look back at the entrance to his vault.
He stands at the entrance, watching me, but not chasing after me.
Something tugs at my chest, telling me to go back, but… He’s a demon,he’snot going to die if I forsake him.
I have to keep going. For Skye.
Stairway to Heaven
I don’t knowhow long I climb. I don’t know how many times I stop.
Sometimes, it’s to look back, sometimes to rest. Sometimes to cry.
Hell always tugs at me. Or maybe it’s my demon.
I can’t go back to him now. I made my choice. I doubt he’ll welcome me back once I’ve made my trade.
Eventually, hell disappears and I trade the red and black clouds above for bright white below.
When the stairs end, I fall in a crumpled heap at the pearly gates.
My body leaves smudges on the polished ground and I ache so badly, I can’t stand.
I don’t know how long I lay there. I don’t know how long I weep.
I have to hurl myself through the pearly gates.
Instead of that polished floor, I land on fluffy, cloud-like cushions.
The collar and rags my demon gave me are gone, but I don’t have the capacity to be ashamed of my nakedness.
There’s too much to see.
It is so beautiful, I want to cry again.
Nothing hurts anymore… not the new wounds or the old scars.
But that beauty starts to sear at my skin.
Winged creatures look at me with so many eyes, my skin feels hot under their gaze.
I am a stain on this place.
And I am alone, despite the multitude of winged beings.
There are no other people. Just angels. The heavenly hosts gather around a blindingly bright light that makes its way toward me.
Where is everyone?
I lick my lips, startled that they are not chapped and broken anymore. And I shrink away from the light as it reaches me.
“No one has climbed that staircase in a millennium.”
The woman who forms out of the blinding light is painfully beautiful.
