Chapter Text
People usually plan to go visit family for the holidays, or go to a ski resort, or maybe just stay at home and get some relaxing time. But a week from Yule, I decided to go to Heaven. Should have seen Dean’s face when I told him - literally the night before, once it was already decided and all planned out.
Before that, we talked with Sam and Bobby, and they thought digging around these Men of Letters could be interesting, to get to know exactly what they wanted. But I had my own idea and thought the best start would be to stir up the hornet’s nest. It took a few weeks for me to refine that plan. Some sunday afternoon, as Bobby was on the phone with Rufus, see if he had anything on those British hunters, and the boys were on on shoot practice, I pretended like I needed to make a run to the tobacco store - which I did, it just also happened to be an excuse to make a stop in a coffeeshop in town - and give a call to my secret super-hero team, exposing them that crazy idea.
First thing first: Barbatos absolutely refused to let me proceed without him. We agreed then that I’ll let him possess me and bring him to the upper floor clandestinely. Castiel was pretty confused. He thought the very first step of our plan was already risky, that angels would normally detect if someone’s possessed by a demon, even dormant. That’s when we reached the why I gathered us apart from the rest of our hunter party. My plan was built on one theory that I pondered since Lucifer couldn’t sense me around in Carthage: I must be cloaked, somehow someway, from Heaven - and heavenly beings. It added up with some things that happened during that long-ass year. It took months after the Fire Seal for their Intelligence to find me, and it matched with what Gabriel said, that Heaven had no idea who I was before that event. That plus my absence in the Winchester gospel. The only mystery remaining was how Castiel himself could detect me, and he suggested that it must be linked with that prayer I addressed to him. Lots of maybes, but Barbatos confirmed it checked up with what he knew - and continued to keep concealed from me. But we were in that unknown territory about me I didn’t like Dean to step in, especially with what he said on that big fight we had. He apologized, over and over, and I got to accept he obviously didn’t mean it like that. But somewhere, he still meant it. Plus, that whole thing regarding Lucifer not detecting me also involved what happened with Meg, and I decided it would never be the right moment to tell him, in case it might confirm his fears. Either way, I couldn’t help it, I didn’t want to worry him some more, especially not so soon after Jo.
From there, it would be a lot of improvisation. Cas explained Heaven wasn’t one place, but that it actually was formed of a multitude of small infinite paradises, all clung together.
“Like a bee hive?” I asked over my hot coffee.
“I don’t know what a bee hive looks like. Certainly not like Heaven.” He replied in his serious voice, slightly tilting his head.
“Nevermind.”
That would be the most dangerous part of the plan, running all around until I would find what interested me: Heaven’s armory. I imagined it could be a thing, since thousands of angels have angel blades, and mister trench-coat confirmed it did. Only problem, it was guarded by a powerful Host by the name of Virgil.
“So you are planning another heist?” He inquired.
“Yep.”
“What do you plan on stealing?”
“Anything, to be honest. The what doesn’t matter. It’s the where I’m gonna stash it that’s gonna be fun.” I smirked, my top-hat demon rolling his eyes behind his large sunglasses as he knew we were about to step into trouble. “But that’s gonna be phase two.”
“It’s an unnecessary plan, involving unreasonable risks to take and for an absurd outcome. Why do you want to proceed with it so forcefully, Liv?” The angel was worried.
“Because if that’s what you think of it, then it means Heaven will never see it coming.”
So one week later, on another sunday, I was on my way to Des Moines, Iowa, one of the closest big city near Sioux Falls, where I searched for a faith preacher, same kind Dean and I passed by in Kansas City that led Zachariah to zap him to an apocalyptic future. Barb was already on board, and I had left all my weapons, angel blade, handgun, even my silver knife, at home. I had told Dean, and he thought I was crazy. I had the hardest time to persuade him that crazy non-sense would work. That sometimes, the wildest winding path is the best to take.
“Hey, you sir.” I spoke to the first street evangelist I found. “Please, would you- It’s gonna sound weird, but could adress a prayer for me?”
“I- Most certainly, miss, it’s never too late to seek redemption and absolution. No soul is beyond the Lord’s grasp.”
“Yeah, please, leave my soul out of this, I just want you to send a message to Heaven.” I said, widening my eyes with a frustrated smile.
“What is your message?”
“Hm… Say this: ‘The Fire Seal calls on Heaven’s Intelligence’.” The man looked at me, baffled. “Just- say that. Out of charity, please?”
He finally accepted and joined his hands, beginning to pray and repeating my request several times. I thanked him and sat on a bench nearby, having a cigarette while I waited. I couldn’t feel him in any way, but I knew Barb was nervous. I’d be lying if I said I weren’t. The whole thing laid on the fact Naomi would take the bait and send Esper or another of her minions to take me to Heaven, without noticing the hidden joker in my sleeve. Assuredly, Dean was right, it was a little crazy.
“Liv Johnson?”
I looked around and on my left, a tall brown-haired man, rather attractive, had just popped next to the bench I was sitting on. His serious look and the grey suit he was wearing confirmed me he was another fluffy-winged soldier.
“Question: do you only select vessels than work in a bank or in an insurance company or do you get some in their pjs and then go and change clothes? It’s bugging how you’re all dressed the same.” I smirked, burning the butt of my cig off.
“Naomi was pleased to receive your message.” The angel said. “I’m here to take you to her.”
I stared at him a short instant, see if he’d notice anything. He didn’t seem like he was. “Okay.” I followed him and we walked a couple hundred yards until we reached the open garden area in front of a public library. I was on my guard, in case he was leading me into a trap, but the place was quiet. “By the way, is that you Esper? Can’t recognize you, if you keep switching vessel.”
“No. My name is Ion.” He replied plainly. “Esper, they- don’t want to deal with you anymore.”
I repressed a chuckle. Our tomfooleries against angels with Barbatos got us to traumatize one. Okay, maybe it’s not funny, but still, I took it as a good omen for the day to come. Ion led us not to the front door of the library, but to one on the side. The kind you don’t even notice if you don’t pay attention. He opened it and let me go first.
Suddenly, I was in Heaven.
No big white beam, ni weird-ass portal, no big whooshy water-like vortex, I just stepped right in and found myself in a very bright and quite oppressive minimalistic office. Alongside with my demon.
“Liv. Welcome, come, have a seat.” A lady angel that I understood to be Naomi greeted me. She was also wearing a grey pant suit, and had her light-brown hair in a very tight bun. She was smiling, which was odd for what I encountered of Heaven’s executive so far. I did as she told me and sat on one of the large white armchairs that were facing her desk. I kept a straight face but I wasn’t comfortable. I wondered for a second if Barb could feel that. “I’m so glad you finally changed your mind, I have been eager to meet with you for such a long time.” I stared at her, keeping my mouth shut for once. “So, Liv. Why that sudden change, what is it that brings you here?”
I hesitated a second to launch into the biggest lie, but I told the truth instead. “I’ve got questions. I don’t like to turn to you, but I want answers now. I feel like everyone is lying to me, or concealing parts of important truths, or-” Well, Dean wasn’t one of those, of course. He was the only exception of this sad assessment. “It’s made me to lie in return, and I’m not sure I’m liking that.”
“You’d be right to, lying is a sin. Not the worst, of course, but-”
“Oh don’t worry about my sins, life made me a murderer anyway.”
Heaven certainly isn’t the best place to lay flat and cold facts like that, but I didn’t care much. That getaway would be my only one glimpse at upstairs. I’ve always known my soul would never end up there once I’d die.
“I thought you prided yourself to be a good witch.” Naomi said, leaning against her glass desk.
“I don’t recall ever saying that.” My tone was both unvarnished and unrestrained. “I certainly have done a couple good things in my life. But also a lot of bad, even with rightful intent. How do you judge that?”
“I don’t judge souls. I collect data about them and merely analyse it. And yours is quite fascinating.” She turned around her desk and sat across me. “You simply keep eluding from our eyes.” Theory confirmed then. Damnit, if Heaven couldn’t see me, that meant I actually had never put Dean in any danger by staying with him. “How to illustrate that- You keep running too fast for Heaven to catch up with you. You were totally unnoticed until that… trick you performed with the Fire Seal. Some of our troops call that a miracle, others an aberration. One thing for sure, we didn’t see it coming. And you understand that’s where my job starts.”
“I do. I mostly understand you must hate my guts for it.”
“We have no reason to. Except how you treated one of my most loyal subordinates, you haven’t done anything to make yourself an adversary of Heaven.”
“Yet.”
“Do you plan on doing so?”
“Don’t ask questions, you don’t wanna know.” Something in this interview gradually gave me the same ick as when I had one with Piers. My innermost being started to show. “I said I had questions, so it’s my turn: why can't you angels see me?” I said, a bit more aggressive now.
“We don't know. You're a mystery to us. That's more than uncommon, it's actually never supposed to happen.” The Head of Heaven's Intelligence said.
“I'm getting sick of hearing this bullsh*t! You won’t have me believe you don’t have anything in store about me when one of your archangels has been getting on my nerves!”
“Archangels? Who?” She sighed and closed her eyes, obviously annoyed by what I just said. “It’s Gabriel, isn’t it?”
“Hm, so not only you can’t foresee what’s up with one little witch, but you can’t keep track on one of your most powerful officers?” I laughed, way harder than I should have. “Dear Lord, you guys are more… pathetic than I feared.”
“Careful what you say.”
“I have another question.” I said, cutting her off. “I have a wall in my head. The kind that’s been put to keep things from me, and I’ve been told only powerful beings could do that. As Head of Intelligence, maybe you’ve heard if a little fluffy wing prick happened to pass over Massachusetts, Yule 2006?”
“A psychological Wall? I’m familiar with the concept. Angels can do and undo these, but again, we had no idea you even existed at the time. It’s not Heaven’s work. We have nothing in store for you.”
In case this wasn’t emphasized enough, she really insisted on the ‘nothing’. It didn’t hurt my ego, on the contrary, I found that reassuring. The less I had to deal with Heaven, the better. And on that thought, I decided that interview had lasted long enough.
“Well, then, too bad for me. I guess, I have nothing to gain to stay any longer.” I said, standing up.
“May I know where you think you’re going?”
“The door.” I replied, not caring much how snarky I sounded.
“Well, I have a bad news for you.” She still looked calm, but her tone was stiff now. “That door won’t bring you to where you came from. Heaven is a bit more complicated than you may think.”
I chuckled, given my intentions. “Well, to be fair, I knew I wouldn’t leave without a fight, so I was prepared for one of us to lose. Still, I too have a bad bad news for you: imagine Heaven’s a gunpowder stock. Let me announce you, you’ve invited the fuse.” My deviant expression got her to raise from her chair, but I knew we had another sympathetic ear. “Now, let’s add some friction.”
The switch was seamless. I couldn’t tell, but from Naomi’s face, I guessed that Barb did not show our black eyes, to keep the confusion of the plot-twist to our advantage. Obviously, we couldn’t bring his sword cane either, and had to rely on our powers. Using his demonic telekynesis, he knocked her against the wall and slammed her desk against her, the surface of the glass beaming with heat. Using the element of surprise, Barb raised a smokescreen to blind the Intelligence master and stepped back, for us cross the door behind us.
So there was Heaven. Whose was a good question. No time to wander around and find out, we started the search for a road. Cause that’s how Heaven works. Every cell of that beehive is connected to the next with something like a road, some stairs, a door, anything that serves as a link between two points. The piece of paradise we first stepped in was of a beautiful cliff, the sort you picture when you think of Scotland or north Canadian landscapes. The link there was pretty easy to follow, since a path was going down the cliff, to a cold beach of rough sand. We noticed someone was fishing afar, surely that person’s paradise we zapped in. They had an old wood cabin, which meant a door. We crossed it immediately. Next one was a gigantic mall, which meant many possible doors. We searched for a while, and had to be particularly careful. Castiel explained Heaven emergency frequence on angel radio goes fast, to the point a wandering soul or human within Heaven wouldn’t normally have time to cross through two to three paradises before being caught. It all depends on who’s sent on your trails, but for big fishes, it could even Zachariah himself to take over that task. So, as Barb and I were getting lost in the huge mall in which no shop had an actual door, I was getting nervous Cas would be proven right, and that our unauthorized parade through Heaven wouldn’t last for long, when we needed it to. The longest we were chased, the more angels would hear about our break in, to the point the word would reach one of them called Balthazar. He’s a friend of Cas, that our favorite trench-coat guy described as an excentric, for angelic criterias. That one was apparently the kind that wouldn’t refuse to raise a little hell among the ranks of the Hosts of Heaven, and Cas had prayed him a message to give us a hand to find that armory.
‘Barb, the escalators!’
Not the best feeling, to see all your body sees and not being able to move a muscle. But somehow, having Barbatos in charge wasn’t as bad as having a sleep paralysis. Once we climbed down the moving stairs, that in Heaven of course only went upwards, we ended up in a beautiful theater that gave strong baroque vibes, with gilded decorations and royale blue chairs. Ballet dancers were practicing on the stage, without the music. That paradise, who we suspected to belong to an old lady who was the only member of the audience, wasn’t easy to circulate throughout. We arrived in one of the balcony, and none of the corridors going around the different sections of the venue had a door. We had to find another kind of exit. When my demon and I finally found the way to the stalls, we didn’t have time to stop and watch the fabricated artists. Suddenly, a spotlight aimed directly at us, blinding both of Barb and I. Apparently, I was a serious fish to catch. Despite knowing nothing about me, Heaven used the big guns to come after me. We started to run between two rows to try and find a way out, but two angels came right at us. We turned around and a third one, that I recognized to be Ion, was on the other side of the room. The funny thing was that the old lady and the dancers didn’t notice a thing. Surely a trick from the angels, not to disrupt anything in this paradise. Damn, that was supposed to be the perfect afterlife? A never ending fake and hollow show? And I didn’t think high of Heaven already…
Throwing chairs with swirls of fire to the angels didn’t slow them much. But we didn’t want to fight, we just needed to find the passage to the next cell. Barb got us to jump on stage, to try and reach the backstage, but a fourth angel unfortunately appeared right from there. Forced to backup, my demon got us to waltz between the ballet dancers to escape the Hosts, the spotlight from their boss never quitting my position. Being a member of the audience myself got me to panic a second. What if they caught us? Crazy is only funny if it’s a success. I couldn’t tell if Barb felt that, but his next move led me to think he did. He got us to run and hide in between the different sets of curtains, hanging at the corner of the stage. With another spin, he found our way out.
This time, we were in a reception hall. The tables were empty, but the decoration indicated clearly a wedding was happening in here. I wondered if it were the bride or the groom’s paradise, and a thought got me to hope the lovers, whoever they were, were reunited. But we didn’t have time to go and taste the appetizers, we had to keep going. Now that apparently Zachariah was after us, there was a good chance the word had spread to that Balthazar guy. We had to run until he found us. Suddenly, the lights in the hall turned off. The angels had already located us.
‘Barb, a door, quick.’
My demon went towards the edges of the room, but if there were any doors, the Heaven executive made sure we couldn’t open them. That square hall was without an exit, and we were trapped. The darkness not being very natural, we couldn’t see a thing, but the distinctive gusts of fluffy wings confirmed angels had zapped in. Three, at least.
‘Switch.’
I sensed Barbatos got confused, but he must have felt my resolve back. We switched. Back in my own bones. I cracked my neck and arched my back as I snapped lanterns to hang around the ceiling, which confirmed the presence of three angels in the room. Barb’s powers were strong, but he couldn’t use my magic like I could. I enflamed my left hand and smirked, as a warning sign I would have the first of them that would take another step being a hot red test to see if I could grill an angel. And all three of them did. Idiots. With a swift wave of my hand, I sprung two lines of bright orange flames, separating each of my foes.
‘We are not supposed to fight them, Liv.’ I heard Barb’s mental warning, and ignored it.
Ion, who was in the middle, got stuck in this hellish corridor. He tried to cross, but the fire whipped him like snakes poncing on its prey. It still didn’t kill them, but from the way he screamed, my craft was at least hurting angels now. And they were supposed to be in their prime of power, here in Heaven. I focused on the one on my left, ready to let him have a taste as well. From the light my fire produced, I caught a glimpse of his shadow, projected on the wall. He was way larger than what his vessel looked like, had something like four wing and just as many arms, and some kind of horns or spikes on his head. Damn, angels’ real forms really must have been awful to see. That bastard took the opportunity of my slight shock to charge me, forcing me to dodge his attack and roll. One knee on the ground, I shook my right arm and made a swirl of fire going around my wrist. He charged again, his fist firmly ready to launch. I waited until he began his move to punch me and wielded my arm, creating a whip with the swirl I had just prepared that went to twist his arm. Turning my back, I used my whole strength to send him over me and knock him out, his heavy body meeting the ground, head first. My inattention got the walls to weaken, letting Ion and the other angel free of their isolating.
‘Young lady…’
I grunted, and began to run. The angels followed and they were fast. I rolled beneath a table, setting the tablecloths on fire to blind them. The room remained without any door, or the slightest object that could work as a passage. But I should have remembered that in that sort of case, one should think outside the box and create their own way out. A surprise ally had not forgotten that. Out of a sudden, someone broke in, crashing a way with a large Jeep truck.
“Get in! Come with me if you wanna live!”
I didn’t see her face but recognized the voice immediately and jumped in. Within a second, my surprise driver speeded her way out and once we got outside in some sort of a courtyard, quickly changed gear and turned the wheel to make a donut and shield the car in thick dust and smoke. Once it settled down, we had jumped into another paradise, still a very dusty one since it was a Nascar race track. Very impressed by her skill with a driving stick, I had to congratulate my rescuer.
“f*cking hell, that was FREAKING COOL.” And also kinda hot to be honest. “Pam! Damn!” Smiling with all her teeth, her brown hair shorter than what I remembered, there was Pamela Barnes, the best psychic of the midwest. We got out of the car and I got struck by one detail: she had beautiful blue eyes I never had the chance to see the two times I met her before she died. “How did you find me?! How- the heck, is that your personal Heaven?”
“Yep! The Milwaukee Mile Speedway! Always had the best time here ! Met the hottest pilot of Wisconsin, his name was Jesse - an idiot, but who didn’t take away my love for a good old car race!” She laughed and went to show me around. Contrary to the empty wedding reception hall and the dead silent theater, that race track was very much exactly how you can picture one in real life. The bleachers were full of people, yelling and eating and waving each time the numerous cars passed by. And there was dozens of them, maybe forty, the growls of the motors was deafening, I could barely hear what Pamela was saying to me.
“Don’t worry, angels won’t find you here!” She explained. “I got a friend, sort of a genius, he- upgraded our cells, make it a little more personal. His is a bar, with all the music and drinks and girls he loves. But most of all-” More cars hurled near us and I had to cover my ears. “Most of all, he rewired our Heavens. Like, their IPs address keeps changing, every minute. Angels have much more of a hard time noticing us.”
“And you guys don’t get punished for that? Like, banished from Heaven?”
“Ha! Why do you think they keep each human soul in their own little perfect box? So they don’t have to manage us! There aren’t that many guards watching over us up here. They don’t give a single f*ck what we do with our afterlife.” Pamela explained, grabbing us two ice tea drinks at the nearest stand. The more I learned about the Pearly Gates, the dirtiest that place seemed to me.
“Why is yours a race track, by the way? I mean, apart from the memories of- whatever random guy.”
“Hehe, you’re a clever girl, can’t you guess?” She smirked, leaning on a guardrail.
“Hmmm. It’s crowded, messy, and freaking loud. I don’t know, it all seems a little too much for a psychic.” The race cars passed by again, deafening us, and Pam smiled above her glass, not flinching the slightest to the noise. “That’s the point, right? Of course. You’re a psychic. And a good one. I bet that if you want, you could hear everyone’s thoughts around you, all the time. But in here…”
“It’s so loud, everyone in my head is damn quiet. I’ve always loved this place!”
We cheered our drinks and looked at the racing show for a few minutes. It felt good to take a little break, but unfortunately, I couldn’t stay.
“That friend of yours, that’s how you found me?” I asked.
“Yes and no. I was in his paradise, having a drink with him, when his system caught an alarm on the angel police scanner. Even him had a hard time catching up with what was going on, and trust me, Ash is good! But then, something changed. I just felt it, I recognized you, your- energy signature. Same as during this hypnosis we performed. Even beyond death, you’re one of a kind!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.” I scoffed, finishing my drink.
“You can! And if you had angels after you, I had to come and give you a hand.”
“That’s very sweet of you, Pamela, but actually, I’m waiting for an angel to find me. Ever heard of a Balthazar?”
She grimaced, frowning. “Don’t think I ever did, sorry.”
“It’s okay, I’ll find him.”
“Why are you here? What are you doing in Heaven?”
I sighed, thinking I shouldn’t linger any more. “That’d be a long story, I’m just on groceries duty. I don’t want to get you into trouble, I should go.”
“You sure?” She sounded a bit concerned.
“Yeah, I- Thank you, so much, for the rescue! But I have to go.” I smiled, trying to reassure her.
“How’s Dean, by the way?” She asked suddenly. “You guys still good?”
“I- Yeah. Yeah, we’re good, you know, given the circ*mstances.”
“Yeah, the Apocalypse, I’ve heard.” She pinched her eyes with another smirk, not sure what she caught in my aura this time, mentioning Dean. I wasn’t even sure she still had her powers in Heaven. “You’ll tell him and his sweet-assed brother hi from me, will you?”
“Of course, I will.” I nodded, before stepping towards her and give her a hug. She seemed a bit surprised, and to be honest I was too. It’s not like we ever really were friends when she was alive. But I remembered how Dean was upset when she got killed by a demon. I just felt like seeing she did well in Heaven made a little peace out of that memory.
A race track might be almost a road, I didn’t cross it to get to the next Heaven. Instead, I went to one of the quick repair stands of the racing teams and found a map. Getting real close, to only see the loop shape in my eye sight, and then stepped back to discover I was on the top of some ramparts of what looked like a medieval castle. Matched with the idea of a road, going all the way around. I started following it, trying to guess where I was exactly, but it was nighttime in that paradise and I couldn’t catch much from the horizon.
‘We should switch back.’ I felt my demon was worried.
“It’s quiet here, Barb, let me explore a little.” I replied out loud, knowing he’d hear me.
“It is quiet. A little too quiet, don’t you think?”
I turned around to discover a man behind me. Well, another angel. But with his five o’clock shadow beard and dark jacket thrown upon a grey v-neck shirt, he definitely looked more raggedy than the average stiffy soldier. “You Balthazar?”
“I take it you’re Castiel’s friend, am I right?” He said with a slight accent I couldn’t identify.
“Cas said you’d take me to Heaven’s armory.”
“Yes, and he said you were a pain in the ass.” Balthazar laid with a smile like the most absolute truth. Which he wasn’t far from. “Well, that’s not exactly what he said, of course, he’s too kind for that.”
“Yeah, of course he is.” I replied, before I got a pretty unpleasant surprise. Barbatos took back the wheel without consulting me. “Sir, I personally am all for good manners, but we unfortunately have no time for chitchat.” ‘BARB!’ “You’ll be kind to take us to the Armory now.” The demon ignored me and ordered the angel, and I guessed from Balthazar’s face that he had flipped my eyes black.
“Good Lord, smuggling a demon in Heaven. Cassie was right, you are… quite mad.” He looked up and down on us. “Can we be friends?”
“One more word, Balthazar, and you’ll be ex-communicado like Castiel.”
Okay, maybe I wasn’t so mad that Barb got more careful than I did and switched us. The big gun Host that was after us had finally caught up with our localization, and it turned out to be Naomi again. “A demon in Heaven… Damn witch.”
“Funny, lady angel, how Liv and I already surprised one of your troop once with that sort of trick, and we managed to simply repeat it.” Barbatos mannerly said in my mocking voice. “Heaven’s Intelligence doesn’t seem so… clever.”
Naomi smirked and her three subalterns joined her, Ion by her side and the other two from the reception hall behind my new ally, completely surrounding us from any exit along that rampart. “So, Balthazar. Let’s see where your loyalty stands.”
“Oh, I happen to know perfectly where it does.” The blond angel replied before clapping twice in his hands. Suddenly, the ground trembled and the castle felt like it was gonna fall apart. Which it did, sort of. The stones from the ramparts started to slide, line by line, like the whole thing was rearranging itself. If the movement wasn’t enough, it started pouring rain, like Noah’s Ark flood rain. The stones my body was standing on got slippery and, blind from the deluge, I thought my demon normally so steady would fall from the edge, having every difficulty to just stand. But so did Naomi and her minions. “Shall we?” Balthazar offered his arm to lead us to- jump off the line of the rampart??? But the wall of the castle suddenly formed a curve, for us to get down like we were taking a water slide. Once we reached the ground, we couldn’t even see from how high we took that leap, the hail was totally blocking the view. The angel quickly showed us the way to the shore of a river, and unveiled a small boat that was covered with a tarp. “Let’s not waste a second, we need to be on the move.” He said and Barbatos obeyed with no hesitation.
That river turned out to be just another road, and in less than a minute, we obviously had left that piece of Heaven behind, now floating around in an ever-changing decor.
“Where are we now?” My companion asked.
“In-between all the different Heavens.” Our captain replied - he had put on a sailor’s short blue hat. “Only angels can open this space, it’s how we’re supposed to keep an eye on that big ball of a messy place.”
“Supposed?”
“Yeah, lad. How many blocks do you think we have in here, since the beginning of Creation? Trillions of trillions. We’re not enough angels to surveil everything, most of Heaven works on auto-pilot. Trust me, being an angel, it’s actually damn boring.”
“Hm. Interesting.” Even if that was Barbatos’ tone, I shared that remark too. Discovering that place with my own eyes - even as a spectator - had been a definite confirmation on all I could have suspected on Heavenly beings, and their laws, and the way they have their hands on… well, everything. Overall, this was too far from what I was standing for. My very chaotic self, making crazy and stupid decisions from some random impulse coming from my guts, could get demons. Demons are flawed, they are the worst definition of flaws. But, apart from the very few at the top, late-Lilith and her Princes, they remained human souls. Angels and Heaven were so… dull, and blind, and in desperate need of control. “What happened back there? That castle, that was your doing, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. The rain and the slippery dance and the escape on a lifeboat, I got the idea from a terrible movie. But it had to happen in that paradise, I couldn’t go out and search for you in any other.”
“Why?”
The angel smiled proudly. “Because that castle was the Château de Tourbillon. And it’s my vessel’s future piece of Heaven. That’s why I could move the furniture around in there.” Barb crossed his legs, as he generally does when he’s attentive. “He’s not dead yet, but I managed to get his slice modelized a little in advance. You see, Markus, he’s- how to phrase that?- a castle aficionado. He visited that one in Switzerland when he was a kid, and been all around Europe to see some more. It’s like a pilgrimage for him. When he accepted to be my vessel, he had just one demand: he wanted me to take him visit every bloody old pile of stones on the planet. Do you have any idea how many there are?! We won’t be finished with that damn Apocalypse coming around !”
Barbatos chuckled, and looked around as we were floating along a dense forest. “I see. He’s where your loyalty stands.”
Balthazar squinted his clear eyes. “Yes. But you’re a demon, you possess people. You’re riding that witch right now. What do you know of loyalty?”
“You’re turning your back on Heaven to accomplish one human’s dream. I turned my back on Hell for one entity’s purpose too. And protecting that witch is part of it. I will die for that purpose, and for that witch. Let today be the day I prove to an angel that demons also have a true sense of loyalty. Get me a sword, if we meet Naomi again, I might even demonstrate to you that we can show mercy. I won’t be spilling angel blood, I just want us out of here.”
“Mercy? You’re a weird demon.”
“Yes, I’ve been told so, many times.”
They both laughed heartily, as the light around us got clearer and clearer. Apparently, we were reaching some even holier parts of Heaven, closer to the Armory surely. Balthazar was as trustworthy as Castiel had said. If there were more feathers like these two, maybe there was a very, very, extremely thin hope Heaven could change.
For now, we had to settle for a change of scenery. The dense pine forest cleared more and more to the point we were not floating on water anymore but on something like a foggy sea of clouds. Don’t think of it as a tranquil and peaceful part of our journey. The damn thing felt like a cobbled road until we finally dropped down a waterfall, like one in an amusem*nt park - except the angel expected the drop and the demon didn’t express any kind of surprise, so that twist felt very anticlimactic to me. We arrived and stopped in what looked like an underground lake, from which the aerial river found its source like it was flowing backwards. We left the boat at a shore, and I wanted to explore myself but I felt Barbatos didn’t want to give me back the wheel for now. For an underground cave, it was very bright, like the walls were of white granit stones or maybe even marble.
“Is this really the right path to Heaven’s Armory?” My demon asked.
“It’s the only path to the Armory. That waterfall was a shortcut. I know some, all throughout Heaven.” Balthazar replied.
Barb chuckled. “Hm. Well, believe it or not, but I happen to know those of Hell.”
A part of the cave was carved into stairs that went deeper in the ground and led to a very impressive hall, with dozens of white columns decorated with gold that formed beautiful cathedral-like archs on the ceilings. Picture a very angelic version of Khazad-Dûm, without the hundreds of creepy gobelins to guard it. Instead, only one knight was standing at the bottom of the stairs. His armor was impressive, but I only had eyes for the racks and shelves that were aligned in-between the columns. Thousands of angel blades were laid-out for easy reach, but these were not what I came all this way for.
“Halt!” The angel knight shouted in a pretty deep voice that was barely muffled by the heavy gold helm he was wearing. I couldn’t see his face because of it, but his vessel wearing it was very much impressive. “You! Balthazar. What is the motive of your visit and who do you bring along?”
“Dear Virgil, you don’t get good reception down here?” Balt mocked. “It was all over angel radio. But don’t worry, old friend, we won’t be long.”
“Friend? Last time I saw you, you deserted the battlefield.”
“I’m a better scout than soldier.”
“We were only two garrisons against a whole legion of demons.”
“And I slipped out so I could get their commander to surrender, didn’t I? There are battles you have to win with muscles and some you win with brains.”
‘Hm, they’re talking about the great battles for the 16th century Reformation. Hell wanted to get their hands in what humans were doing, and angels fought back, so that their plan wouldn’t be disturbed. I’ve heard of that great failure for Hell, Lilith wasn’t happy with that surrendering demon and threw him in the deepest bottomless hole of the Pit. If you wonder, it vacated a free spot among her Entourage and that’s how I stepped in and grabbed the position of Valet at the time.’ Barbatos exposed without a word, as an idea imprinted in my mind.
“So what is your brain preparing again?” Virgil asked, his two hands resting on the knob of his broad double axe pommel.
“Preventive insurance.” Balthazar replied, stepping down the last couple steps of the stairs. We followed, and the closer we got to the guard, the more it appeared his vessel was built like a tank, thick gold armor or not. “Just grabbing a couple trinkets, to be used as potential bartering, you know, one can’t be too careful these days.”
“You are to remain in line, until your captain calls you for duty.” The guard of the Armory stated, but wasn’t fooled.
“I know, I know, but you see-” Taking off the cap he was wearing, Balthazar pointed out to the left of the room, to some display cases my demon and I hadn’t noticed yet. “I got an reservation for a night tomorrow, in a suite in a 14th century castle in Germany I won’t dare mispronounce the name of, and you understand I can’t miss it.” He smirked and threw the blue cap right to the guard’s face.
Guessing he was creating a very short diversion, Barbatos rushed down the stairs to the wing that looked promising. ‘Let me choose!’ I asked my companion, as I was trying to catch in what I could see in the field of my own view.
“A minute, young lady.” He said, swiftly going around the room until we could get his preferred type of weapon. Loud brawling noises of shelves being knocked over indicated Balthazar was gaining precious seconds for us. “I guess that will do.” Barb said, grabbing a rapier. It was a bit longer and thinner than his usual sword cane, but it still looked deadly.
“Thieves!” Virgil yelled, grabbing Balthazar by the collar and lifting him like he weighted nothing.
“We’re mereling borrowing.” Barbatos replied, waltzing again between the shelves and the columns, grabbing an angel blade in passing. “And that one’s going to the Michael Sword, isn’t it in Heaven’s best interests to protect him?”
“You! Your only presence in Heaven is foul!”
“Well, you angels were fool enough to let us in. And if Heaven is some sort of a beehive, then here comes the wasp.” Swiftly sliding between the two Hosts, Barbatos managed to get his blade in the interstices of Virgil’s armor, and carved incisions in his arm as thin and sharp as paper cuts. Letting Balthazar go, Virgil grunted, holding his arm that was now bleeding out through his gauntlet. “It stings, doesn’t it?” Barbatos said as the show-off that he was. Grabbing the two wings decorating Virgil’s helm, Balthazar took it off of him and hit him in the face with it. Before he got time to strike back, my demon slid underneath him to insert the rapier in the interstice of his greave, badly injuring the guardian’s right leg.
“You may get what you came here for, sir Balthazar. I’ll hold him off.”
My two companions of the day switched place, and my demon and I took care of keeping the bull-like angel busy. The fight consisted more of Barb dodging his attacks, that were a bit slower now that Virgil was hurt. Using his powers, my demon did try to stop our enemy’s axe and launch it back to him, but his strength was too much to handle and our synergized fire telekynesis was useless against his armor, so we were really just buying time. Or losing some, to my opinion. ‘Barb, let’s switch!’ He ignored me, so I asked again, and again, for long minutes, until he finally broke and yielded. ‘You be careful’ He instructed me to, as I finally got back the wheel.
“Yeah, sure, careful’s my middle name.” I said out loud, rolling backwards to dodge another of Virgil powerful attack that got his axe to pierce a crack in the floor. I got back on my feet, throwing the rapier away.
“What in the Lord’s name..?” The guardian muttered, noticing something different.
“Hi, no time to chat, my apologies.”
The strong angel wasn't very talkative anyway, and preferred to prepare another swing of his beast of an axe. ‘Barb, stay put' I ordered, standing my ground. As the axe flew to my direction, I didn't backdash, but stepped forward instead, grabbing the handle as well, using Virgil’s own impetus to destabilize him and grant him a good whack in his hurt leg. Swinging by, Balthazar seized him by the collar of his armor and threw him off on the ground.
“Go help yourself, witch.”
I didn't wait to watch the large bull angel to get back on his feet and sneaked back behind a column, quickly taking a look around. I rushed to the section where I had noticed the display cases, figuring Heaven preciously kept their nicest weapons in there. But I didn't have time to read the labels, so I settled on an old and raw-looking long spear. I broke the glass with my elbow and stole it. It was a little heavier than I anticipated, but I had no intention to wield it in combat.
“No!” Virgil yelled, noticing what I had in hands.
“I’d take that emergency exit now, Balthazar!” I said to my ally, still occupying our foe.
“No need to ask me twice.” Balthazar took a bow to the guardian of the armory and bounced back, passed one of his arms around my waist and we were finally out ot that Pearly nightmare.
The angel zapped me back in Sioux Falls, just a few miles from the infamous Singer’s Auto Salvage. He didn’t talk for long, as he had taken a fair amount of weapons that he needed to hide now. We parted, both satisfied from our short partnership. I could have walked, but even in South Dakota, one doesn’t simply go unnoticed when walking around with a seven-feet long spear. Also, I was tired and too lazy to walk, so I called Dean to pick me up. It was night already, but not even that late in the day when we arrived at our wobbly headquarters against the Apocalypse that was Bobby’s house.
“It is quite the delight to walk in my own skin again.” Barbatos said, walking out of the basem*nt in his usual meatsuit.
“Dude, gross.” Dean snarled, which made me giggle. Any interaction between these two always seemed a little out of place, and I found that pretty funny. “Anyway, anything interesting about that spear for you to risk your life for it?”
“Well, it looks like any old poker stick to me.” The master of the house said, examining the weapon I brought back. He and Sam couldn’t figure out what made it so precious for Virgil to react so badly when I seized it. “Sure you found that locked in Heaven?”
“No, I stole it from a dummy guard in Las Vegas Ceasar Palace. Yes, Bobby, that’s really from Heaven.” I bantered, rolling my eyes.
“Ceasar Palace… Liv, you’re a genius!” The youngest Winchester exclaimed suddenly, getting everyone in the room’s attention.
“I’d- counter-argue that many people would say I’m actually a lunatic.” I grinned.
He laughed, and spoke very fast as he was searching for something on the mess of notes that was Bobby’s desk these days. “No, no, no- Well, you tend to drive people nuts, that’s for sure-”
“Hey!” Dean snarled again.
“But! You’re also a genius.” Sam found and opened a large leather-covered book, which I recognized to be a simple old King James’ Bible. He began searching through the pages rapidly. “Damn where’s Cas when we need him-”
“Sammy, what is it?” His brother inquired.
“Ah! Here, get this- the Gospel of John: ‘But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.’”
“What, son, what are you-” The old man rolled to him and took the book from his hands, before giving another glance at the spear Barbatos had in hands - I could see my demon was dying to do more baton-twirling with it, but it was too dangerous indoor. “No?! This?”
“You said it was locked in a case, Liv?”
“Yep. Wait, that old thing is in the Bible?” I asked. Of course it’d be, but I didn’t know the book as well as the hunters.
“That old thing-” Sam chuckled. “Might be the one once weilded by a roman soldier, later appointed as to be named Longinus. He and other soldiers were ordered to quickly take care of some crucified bodies, and to make sure they were dead, break their legs. But one of them already looked dead, so instead, the soldier pierced his ribs with his spear. And that crucified guy happened to be Jesus.”
I made a sound between a gasp and a laugh. “Jes- The Jesus?”
“Yeah, I- I think you stole the Holy Lance. Or- Spear of Destiny, pick the name you like better.”
“So what, the one in the Vatican is fake?” Bobby noted.
“Well, tell me about it.” I mumbled, giving a glance to Barbatos. He knew what I meant. The way he grimaced back was just as crystal clear to me. Our wordless dialogue could have been transcribed as ‘I went a little too far, didn’t I?’ to which he responded ‘I’ll take care of it for you, young lady.’
“Is that downstairs dungeon warded against angel, mister Singer?” Barb asked.
“The panic room? No.”
“Hm, then we shall not lose another minute. Would you hold that for me an instant, Winchester?” The demon said, delicately handing the spear to Dean, before going back to the narrow staircase to the basem*nt. “I’d advise you to gather some essentials and food, Liv, you should stay hidden down there for a few days, for your own safety.”
“What?!” Obviously, I had misinterpreted our wordless dialogue. “I’m not staying in the f*cking basem*nt!”
“It would be for one, two days at most. Until the spear is taken elsewhere. I humbly concede to take care of that task.” His voice became less and less audible as he went down, but the idea was final. I followed him and saw him draw some sigils on the heavy iron door. “I cannot step in, you’ll need to repeat the operation on the other side. And keep your angel blade with you, just in case.” Barbatos put the chalkbar where he had found it and passed right by me to get back in the living-room, ignoring my consterned face.
“I’m not staying down there!” I repeated.
“Winchester?” My demon hold out his hand and Dean gave him the spear back.
“Understood.”
52. That’s the grand total of hours I stayed in that clammy hole that’s the panic room. Good news, with my powers, I don’t really ever get cold, so for the most part, I was just damn bored down there, despite having Dean staying with me a little. Truth is, I was pretty pissed off and not of the best company, so we ended up mostly texting, so that I could reply to him only when I felt like it, instead of having to bear with his presence in person. Still, knowing he was just upstairs also had me upset, cause I could feel I missed him and longed for him, even if I wanted to slap him in the face for promising Barbatos I’d stay even more hidden from angels that I knew now I actually already was. Anyway, another great episode in the story of my emotional stability.
The instant I received a text from my demon saying the spear was ‘taken appropriate care of’, meaning I could finally get out, I immediately and aggressively texted both Winchesters. Sam was the one that got downstairs first to set me free.
“What did Barbatos say?”
“No idea, and I know him enough to guess that’s the whole point.” I replied, making myself a spicy corned beef sandwich - it was 8 in the morning. “He won’t tell us, and I bet he’s gonna disappear again, for a while. He does that.”
“So that no one knows where the Spear is, and Heaven will lose time searching for it. You guys really thought that through.”
“Hm?” I replied, my mouth full.
“That plan, it’s- mad but quite clever.” Sammy nodded with a smile.
“Oh.” I swallowed and chuckled. “Nah, not that much. I’d say a good half of that plan was improvised, to be honest.”
I went out with my snack and sat on the porch steps, having my first cigarette in three days. The panic-room is well-ventilated, so nothing technically prevented me from smoking down there, but I had a feeling I’d get bored and would do nothing but poisoning myself for the whole time I had to stay there, so I challenged myself, to see how well I endured without it. The answer was, not well, I wanted a cig and did not wait five minutes to get one. And it was a release to finally have my treat. Obviously, my body had growned very much accustomed to that, and the habit had turned into addiction. But again, the world was threatened to end, so the state of my lungs was not my top one priority in that period of time.
“Slept well?” I recognized Dean’s voice. A tingle of anger spiked in me, but I drowned that out in an exhale of smoke.
“Haven't slept yet, you mean.”
“Hm- full insomnia this time. Why, did you get more nightmares?” He said, sitting next to me, with that damn very considerate tone in his voice that just always showed how he cared and always managed to get to me. It calmed me down a little.
“No, not even that, I’ve just- been thinking, that’s all.”
“Hm, when are you not… Hey- since things actually been calm, and it’s safe, I’ve been thinking too. How about we take the car, go somewhere today, just the two of us. You know how good I am at road trip dates.”
I chuckled, taking my last bit of my sandwich. “I see what you’re doing. But I don’t think there something as cool as Niagara Falls in a 12 hours-drive radius around Sioux Falls, Dean.” I replied with a pouty smile. “How about we just grab some better food than this sandwich, somewhere, and not do anything special, together?”
“Sure? Well, your day, your rules.” He agreed, wrapping my shoulders with one arm and giving me a swift kiss on the forehead. “Happy birthday, love.”
As cute as it may have been, our little moment sadly got interrupted. A broad guy wearing a suit instead of his armor showed up out of nowhere, right in front of us.
“Oh yeah, happy birthday indeed.” I grumbled, as my hunter and I both stood up. “Hello, Virgil, was it?”
“Where is it?”
“Not here, so back off.” Dean barked, quickly picking up that this was another angel sent to ruin our day.
Virgil raised his hands to cool things off. “My orders are simply to retrieve the spear.”
“And you really think we’d have it around? Tell your superior, whoever between Naomi or Zachariah it might be, that we don’t have it.”
The guardian of the Armory grimaced and frowned. “Your demon has it, then.”
“Nah, Barbatos is too clever to keep it. I’d say he buried it somewhere. Oh, and good luck finding him, he’s an expert at vanishing into thin air.”
He wasn’t here for me, but my remarks clearly didn’t please him. “Careful witch. I wasn’t instructed to, but I’d gladly smite you out of the surface of the planet.”
“You’d have to come through me, buddy.”
“Don’t worry, Dean, he’ll do nothing of that.” I smirked, holding back a yawn. “First cause crossing off the Michael Sword surely won’t do good with his superiors. Second cause he’s met my demon, and I think our friend here is smart enough to recognize that one that’s kooky enough to step into Heaven will know no frontier to retaliate if something were to happen to me. And I think he’s busy enough looking for his- how d’you call that the other day? Poker stick?”
Virgil looked at me furiously. “Why haven’t we killed you already?”
“Don’t know, ask your old man about it. Maybe he’s secretly obsessed with me.” I said, still with a very provocative grin.
The angel didn’t escalate and left. His wings must be extraordinary large or powerful ones, as the gust of dirt their swing lifted was of a good ten-feet radius. Dean coughed, covering his nose as best he could. My lungs were surely ruined anyway, so I just grabbed my pack and went for a second early-morning cigarette.
“Son of a b- Was that the one you told me about, with his giant axe?”
“Yep.”
My beloved looked at me in awe, and a bit in shock. “He’s got a point. Talking to angels like that- How are you still alive?”
I shrugged my shoulders, taking a puff. “Well, few days ago, I’d have told you I had no idea. But from what that Naomi told me, I think that, because they have absolutely no idea who I am, and what I’m gonna do, angels actually might be scared stiff about me.” I exhaled and decided I was still very hungry. “I could go with Wendy’s salted caramel pancakes right now.”
Dean laughed, still amazed. “Wendy’s it is then.”
A few days later, we received confirmation that the Holy Spear of whatever was dropped by Barbatos into a British Men of Letters outpost - apparently somewhere in Virginia - and that its fate caused a grand dispute among their ranks. Some of them wanted it to be sent over to London, studied and archived there, some others, a little more clever if you ask me, asked their chain of command to return it to the angels. According to what Miles - or Mick, I can never remember his name - said, the discord and the threat to be under Heaven’s radar went back all the way to their headquarters, where the topic of withdrawing all their assets from the US was discussed. Which for us, sounded like a pretty good news.
I thought at first she was only showing off, but maybe there was some truth in what Liv said. No other angel showed up about that spear, certainly now too busy running after the Brits. And a year before, I thought she’d been co*cky to go after a few demons on her own, now she had Heaven hating her guts, and she was laughing to their faces. It was a little mad, her plan of causing chaos to try and short-circuit Armageddon. We were probably crazy to go along with that path. But of course, when it came to be crazy about her, I was leading the way.
That caused the last days of the year to be weirdly quiet. Sammy and I took the opportunity to fix stuff around Bobby’s house for the winter, since he couldn’t do it himself now. I liked that, carrying a tool box checking for any signs of leaks in the plumbing, mold behind the shelves, changing the bulbs, even sweeping the chimney. Liv liked to call that place our own headquarters, might as well make it comfortable for everyone. Some day I was working fixing the shelves in the pantry, I overheard her and Bobby talking. He asked her if she was planning on doing anything for Yule this year. My girl replied she hadn’t been following the wheel of the year very keenly, and that it didn’t make much sense to her anymore. That kinda made me sad to hear. I knew Liv had always identified and prided herself with being a witch, and even if I wasn’t fond of pagan stuff, it was a part of who she is and I had came around to accept that. I wasn’t sure how to feel, about her leaving that behind. I guessed the concept of the world coming to an end had each of us grow in our own way.
I was doing my best not to think too much about the Apocalypse. Well, it was always in a corner of my mind, but more like when I was doomed to Hell. It was a long-going hunt, with very low chances to be completed without taking a few hits, but that state of mind helped me get through, stay focused. It was my responsibility to keep a sharp mind, try and think of the bigger picture, stay calm. Keep the wheel straight, wherever the road was going. We couldn’t fully rely on Bobby anymore, as sad that truth was, and I had decided I’d also take a small step back, to let Sammy more space to get involved. I knew he had spent weeks, if not months, blaming himself, and I was helpless to do anything about it. We didn’t really talk and fully address the subject, up until he left for a while in September. It hadn’t been for long, but I think it got us back into the same pace. We had lost that, thanks to Ruby frying his good sense, but I could see us getting back into our good dynamic. I needed him at his best, for he could be a better hunter than I. I needed to rely on Sam, him more than anyone else, even Liv. I trusted her, of course, but she was a free spirit. Bold and surprisingly fortunate, but that could never be truly canalyzed. And I loved her for being just like that. Good news was, we could all rely on someone else: Cas. Having a literal angel on the team obviously was of great relief, given the circ*mstances. Even if he was away most of the time, on his desperately long search for God, I liked the idea that he was never truly far, always on the other side of a prayer, like I couldn’t lose him. That was a comforting thought. I needed that. After what had happened to Jo, I really did…
Still, on the last night of the year, our small team was gathered. Our old man pested against any kind of celebration, so we took the party outside. Well, party, that was an overstatement. Sammy, Cas, Liv and I just sat, on whatever chairs we had found, forming a small circle around a bonfire. We had beers and marshmallows, which for me was enough to make it a party. I guessed we must have looked like those hippies you see in movies, but I found the idea pretty fun. I kinda regretted I had never learned how to play the guitar, as I thought about when I was 15 and sure it’d grant me more hits with girls. But I never had that kind of leisure time as a teen and honestly, I’m glad I never had to carry that kind of fragile and bulky item everywhere. But a little classic from Jeff Buckley would have added a nice touch to the picture of that starry evening. Cas was telling Sam about the different places he’d been in his big research. I overheard he had started in the Middle-East region. The random image of him in his stupid trench-coat, somewhere between dry rocky mountains and windy dunes of sands made me chuckle. Of all of Heaven, the one angel that rebelled for me was a peculiar one. Pretty dorky too. Still, I was glad he did just that.
I had taken a couple plaids from the car and the house, even if we didn’t really need them. Despite being a cold night of December, we weren’t freezing. From the fire, Liv had created some sort of a magic heat bubble, to maintain a bearable temperature. She did so without even staying really focused on it. I remembered our flirty nights, not long after she reappeared, where she was testing out her new abilities and we were amazed that she could simply lit a candle. Now, she’d grown accustomed to it, and God knows (well, ironically, he doesn’t) all she could do with it. Some would say that was wicked power for one person to wield, but I knew my girl. Her heart burned in the right place.
It didn’t need attending, but I liked to go and stoke the flames, pretty amused by their glow. I started mindlessly whistling, doing so, and Sam stopped what he was saying and turned to me.
“Let me guess: ‘Hells Bells’?” He said, trying to guess the song.
“Hehe, melody’s close, but no. Foreigner’s ‘Girl on the Moon’.” I replied, gesturing him to threw me another beer from our cooler.
“I- had never noticed that. Since when you got such a musical ear?”
“I’ve always had one. You’re the one massacring every hit you sing!”
“Jerk.”
“Bitch.” I smirked, content that I bugged with him, before going back to sit next to Liv. I noticed she looked pretty amused as well.
“Then if you’re that good, I dare you to sing us a song.” My idiot of a brother threw across the flames.
“Come on, Sammy, don’t be ridiculous.” I deflected his stupid bet, opening the bottle with my ring, as usual. I could have sworn I heard my girl scoffing. “What?”
“Nah, it’s just- What you just said, Sammy. It’s almost a line from a Green Day song.”
“Again with Green Day.” I chuckled, impressed with her dedication to one band. “Is it a cool one?”
“Well, judge it by yourself.”
The challenge wasn’t even thrown to her in the first place, but of course Liv took it up. I guessed she didn’t give a single f*ck if we’d think she was being ridiculous. She would have been wrong to assume that anyway. She got us all by surprise, me especially, as she began her tune.
“‘Sing us a song of the century,
That’s louder than bombs and eternity.
The era of static and contraband,
Leading us into the promised land.
Tell us a story that’s by candlelight,
Waging a war and losing the fight.
They’re playing the song of the century,
Of panic and promise and prosperity.
Tell me a story into that goodnight.
Sing us a song, for me.’”
She didn’t leave the flames out of her sight the whole length of that short song. The reflects of the fire was doing magic in her eyes. A ghostly relinquishing veil at the beginning let place to some more resolved notes by the time she was done. The new year had begun, and I had no doubt I’d keep following her, however far she had set her glance to.
