The Heart Carrier

The Heart Carrier

Whether in reality or in the worlds that would come alive by a pair of creative hands, the power of a majestic throne would always seduce those with dark minds, causing wars to break among the ones who wished for the crown upon their heads and the law behind their words. Creatures of weak minds and weaker hearts would fall to the seduction of such a trap, and it had definitely caught the eyes of the angel currently being held against his will under the disapproving gazes of his fellow angels.

In the center of a large dark hall, the trapped angel was. His bent body was held captive by a set of thick chains. The end of each chain was clasped in the hands of the ones that shared the same blue blood with him. His stone-cold eyes took in the contempt within the pale eyes of his captors before they settled upon the lived face of their king.

“What words do you have to defend yourself?” asked the king. His voice was as calm as ever, giving no hint to the wild battle raging within his heart.

The captured angel raised a silver eyebrow in a mocking gesture and said, “No matter the words I say now, my fate will not change”−he flexed his trapped arm and sneered at the rattle sounds the chains had made−“for your mind is already set.”

The back of the king stiffened whilst his eyes turned as cold as ice upon the disregard he heard behind the nonchalant words. “Look at you! How you have fallen from grace!” He stared at the visible red stains, which were taking over the blue eyes of the now struggling angel, and shook his head. “How could the hate for such insignificant creatures push you to do these atrocious actions to your companions?”

“Insignificant creatures!” His rage manifested itself in his eyes, as they turned completely red. “You call them insignificant, yet you all gladly bowed to one of them.” He stood to his full height and made to step forward, but the sudden tightening of the chains around his body stopped him.

“Such an event was long ago, and yet you still hold a grudge against those creatures!” exclaimed the king bewildered.

The red-eyed angel snarled at his captors and hissed, “A seething fire has been raging inside my heart since the moment I had to bow my head and bend my knees to that foolish creature.” He fought against the chains, swinging his body fiercely to get them off but to no avail. “Have you no shame! You’re a king, and still you bowed to that weak−”

The king watched as the captured angel helplessly struggled against the suffocating hold around his throat. When a few seconds went by, he raised his right hand. Immediately, the chains receded, and the red-eyed angel fell to his knees gasping for air. “How dare you call me weak when I was only fulfilling our God’s order?”

“H-how could God prefer t-those mortal creatures over u-us? They are nothing−”

“Enough!” shouted the king. With his head held high, he slowly approached the heavy-breathing angel and said, “You have no power to question our God’s decisions”−he gave him a once over and smiled, but there was not an ounce of kindness to that upturn of lips−“after all, what makes you think you are more special than them?”

The king’s words could have cut through mountains from how sharp they were, but there were no mountains in that dark hall, and so it cut through the blackened heart of an enraged angel. Said angel remained silent as he glared at the king, but the hate inside the red eyes said more than words could have ever.

“The mortal creatures have their own world now and are of no concern of mine,” said the king. “You, on the other hand, have allowed your hate to take over your heart and mind.” His voice was as pained as the look in his eyes upon the reminder of their losses. “So many of us died by your evil ways! You poisoned them just to steal their souls!”

“Their souls were a low price to pay, for the curse I was to unleash on the mortals.”

The gasps and the angry shouts that stirred upon the nonchalant admission could not compare to the horrified expression upon the king’s face. His blue eyes darkened until it resembled that of a raging ocean being fueled by the wildest of storms.

“A low price to pay,” whispered the king, lowering himself to the eye level of the trapped angel. “I will not offer you death, for that is a low price to pay.” He placed his right palm upon the chest in front of him and felt the frantic beating of the heart beneath his hand. “An angel, you are no more, and as such you are to be stripped of all you have.” With a swift movement that no pair of eyes could follow, the hand tore through the chest and snatched the beating heart.

Everyone watched as the red-eyed angel threw his head back and let out a scream that made the hair on the back of their necks rise. Their grip on the chains almost faltered as the king made another swipe of his hand, and the red eyes fell to the ground with a soft thud. The pained screams continued, and so did the swipes of the king’s hand.

At last, the king made to stand, and upon that, they let go of the chains, for they were pointless now. What remained of the helpless angel could not even hurt a mortal man. The blue eyes did not even blink as their owner carelessly stepped over the red pair on the floor.

“Seeing as you like to play with curses, I will offer you one.” With a flick of his hand, a small apple tree came to be beside the silently screaming angel. “Your soul shall be forever trapped within this fragile tree. Its apples are as poisonous as the ones you had mercilessly offered to your fellow angels, and if anyone is to take a bite, your soul will be reaped.”

The angels in the hall crossed their hands and nodded at the fit punishment. There was no pity in their hearts for the one that had harshly betrayed his people’s trust; however, even they were taken aback by their king’s next words.

“My world is no place for a creature as horrid as you,” said the king coldly. With another flick of his hand, the struggling angel started to disappear. “I shall banish you to the world you greatly despise.”

Had there been eyes, they would have grown to an impossible degree; had there been a voice, undignified screams would have filled the hall. Unfortunately, the angel was stripped of all those and more, and as such, his fate was forever sealed.

“. . . and that is how the devil came to be,” said the black-haired man behind the wheel. He glanced at the silent woman in the passenger’s seat beside him and frowned. “Anna, I know you are not asleep so stop pretending.”

Sighing, Anna opened her eyes and straightened her neck. “How did you know?”

“We have been engaged for more than four years, I think I know all your tricks by now.” His blue eyes narrowed trying to see through the fog that covered their path ahead.

His words brought a frown on her face; nevertheless, she said nothing and focused instead on the movement of the windshields as they succeeded in getting rid of the fallen droplets of rain only to be attacked by another batch. “Then you should have known that I don’t like to hear about this superstitious stuff.”

He opened his mouth ready to object only to let out a high-pitched squeak at the sudden sound of thunder. The car shook and rattled as though afraid of the loud sound just like its owner. “T-the storm is getting worse, maybe we should stop and wait for it to calm down.” It gave another fierce rattle that made him jump in his seat. “This car is not meant to work in such a horrible weather.”

“And neither in great weather,” mumbled Anna with a roll of her eyes. The loud howling of the wind swallowed her words, and so they did not reach the ears of the man beside her.

“You know it is said that such weather is the favorite of the d-devil,” he said, gulping loudly. “Maybe we should call it a day and turn back.”

“Oh, enough of your superstitious,” huffed Anna and made to turn the radio on. “Let’s listen to some music and forget all about the storm.”

“. . . and now ladies and gentleman the next song we have is performed by a new group called the Devil’s Band−”

“Oh give me a break!” she exclaimed, glaring at the radio that she had quickly turned off. “What is it with people nowadays? Don’t they have anything to do than listen to this nonsense!”

The man beside her could only sigh in disappointment at her words. “Yeah it’s the people who are wrong,” he muttered, snorting.

Unfortunately for him, this time there was no sudden wind to cover up the sarcastic remark.

His companion immediately narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “And what is that supposed to mean Adam?”

Had it been anyone else, they would have heard the warning tone behind her words; however, the man behind the wheel was more than oblivious. He shrugged and said, “Well, if you would go to church like you should, you would realize that being religious is not about superstitious−” He shut his mouth as he felt more than saw the glare sent his way.

“Of course it’s not your fault my dear.” His right hand came off the steering wheel and made to pat Anna’s shoulder. “But perhaps your mother shouldn’t have filled your head with all that fairy tale nonsense and devoted more time for the teachings of the church.”

The narrow shoulder beneath Adam’s palm tensed before its owner hissed, “And what is wrong with believing in fairy tales?”

“Well nothing wrong with believing in them as kids”−he took back his hand and looked at her out the corner of his eye−“but we’re not kids anymore, are we Anna?”

She kept silent, but the dimmed look in her brown eyes said more than enough.

“All that mumbo jumbo talk of true love and beautiful princes saving the day are a waste of time,” said Adam, unable to see the ruthless scars his words had left on the tender heart of the woman beside him. “Time that could be used in going to church and learning all about our world and−”

“Watch out!”

The car gave a loud screech and spun a few times before it came to a stop. Upon the sudden pull of the brakes, the couple was pushed out of their seats and onto the car’s front glass. Had it not been for the seatbelts, they would have crashed through the glass and sustained great injury.

“Oh God! What did we hit?” exclaimed Adam horrified. His wide eyes roamed the path ahead frantically trying to detect what had jumped in front of the car out of nowhere.

Beside him, Anna groaned in pain and made to rub at the bruise on her forehead. “I-I think it was . . . a black cat.”

Upon her words, the black-haired man screamed in horror. “Oh God! Oh God!”

“What is wrong with you?” asked Anna, taken aback by his behavior. “I just told you we hit a cat. Thank goodness it was not a man!”

“It’s a black cat Anna! I wish it was a man!”

“Seriously! What is wrong with you? You’re . . . .” She closed her mouth and took a deep breath to calm herself down. With one last exaggerated glance in his direction, she opened the car’s door and got out.

Within seconds, Anna was soaked to the bone by the heavy rain but that did not hinder her as she made her way to the front of the car.

“Now where is the−” Her eyes widened, taking in the completely healthy cat. The large black cat did not even have a scratch on its body as though it was not hit by a car just moments ago. “Hey little one, are you alright?”

The black cat stopped licking its paw and looked up at her in silence.

Anna blinked at the cat’s weird behavior. She scratched her head and said, “Yeah that was a silly question to ask.”

The cat meowed in agreement making Anna laugh.

“Quite the attitude you have−”

The sound of a car door being opened cut her off. Within seconds, she met the scared stare of her fiancé as he stood beside her.

“Oh God it’s alive!” he exclaimed, inching away from the small creature.

Anna sneered. “As it should be.”

“Oh God help us!”

“Would you calm down already!”

Adam shook his head, scattering water everywhere. “Calm down! How can I calm down when a black cat just jumped in front of my eyes out of nowhere?”

“It’s just a cat!” shouted Anna back, pointing to said cat. “Just a small, harmless cat!”

“Just a cat!” repeated the black-haired man aghast. “Don’t you know what a black cat means? Look around you, we are in the middle of nowhere, and a cat just jumped at us! A black one at that!”

Feeling peeved, the brown-eyed woman turned around and kicked the front of the car. However, before she could voice her displeasure, the root of their problem stole her attention. She watched as the cat merely turned around and started walking.

Adam jumped in fright and moved out of its way. “This is all your fault. We should have done as I had said and returned back.” He groaned and buried his face between his palms. “All of this just to place some flowers on your mother’s grave.”

Anna stiffened at his accusing words. With one last glare, she moved past him and followed after the cat.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

“Away from you,” she simply replied, giving no hint to the pain that had been inflicted to her heart.

“Come back here, Anna! This is not funny!”

Ignoring the shouting behind her, Anna kept on walking, uncaring to the darkness that cloaked her from all sides. Something glowing caught her attention, and she wasted no time in walking toward it.

Soon Anna found herself in front of a medium-sized glass door. “Did the cat enter this . . . place?” She looked at the top of the two-storey building and saw the glowing thing that had caught her attention. It turned out to be a small sign.

“The Devil’s Hotel,” she read aloud and sighed at the name. ‘Well, it’s getting rather late.’ She tried to look through the glass but saw nothing but darkness.

With one last glance over her shoulder, Anna pushed the door.