Summon Part 2
PS: This chapter was possible because of steinsgrrl , who always has a moment to help me and I'm eternally grateful <3
Prologue
Chapter One
“When I die, I will decide how it happens.”
“But Tom, don’t you think you’re overreacting -”
“No, Gabriel. Not at all - not that any of this is your business.”
“It would destroy your mother if you took that route, you -”
“I can damn well do as I please!” Tom spat and threw one white-trousered leg over the feathered couch arm in his mother’s office, tucking the other under his body.
“You just wait until she hears that.”
“Hears what?” Simone asked, walking into her pristine office with a gigantic box of files and a Venti Café Mocha perilously balanced on the lid. “And feet off the couch, son.”
Tom shot Gabriel a hateful look as the elder stood and helped her unload her bearings. “We’ve been having a discussion about the afterlife. Tom is considering the worst possible choice.”
“Oh, honey, no!” She grabbed her coffee and left Gabriel standing with the box half empty by her desk, seating herself on the ottoman directly in front of Tom. “You can’t be serious! There’s no coming back, you know that, right?”
“Mom,” Tom shifted uncomfortably under her shining golden eyes, “that’s kind of the whole point. And it’s not like I was going to decide sometime this century… It was just an idea.”
“I tried to tell him,” Gabriel piped, brushing his slender fingers through his hair. “He won’t listen to me. God, he’s so very like you: adamant, stubborn, hard-headed -”
She threw her coffee at him and he caught it easily, upright. “You keep pushing me and it will be into the void with you, Lieutenant.” Tom poked a finger in his mouth to mimic vomiting and Gabriel gave him a shit-eating grin as his mother winked at him.
“When is Gaea coming back?” Tom asked as she stood and patted him on the knee. “Maybe when she takes the Reincarnation Sector over, Gabriel will stop trying to convince me to join his stupid born-again cult.”
“Gaea thought Reincarnation was a good idea,” Gabriel pulled Simone’s giant feathered office chair out for her and she took the seat behind her desk, “so much so that she chose that path herself. That’s something to think about.”
“But you don’t even know who she is now,” he pointed out, folding his bare feet back underneath his body when his mother wasn’t looking, “or even if she’s still alive! How can you be sure to catch her in her final moments to offer her spot back if you don’t know?”
“There is always an angel with everyone when they die,” Gabriel said softly, his boiling gaze burning into Tom’s face.
Tom walked to the door and crossed his arms, waiting for his dismissal, looking every bit of his eighteen years. “Can I leave now? I’m meeting Bill.”
His mother’s hands froze on her computer keyboard for an instant, just long enough for Tom and Gabriel both to register the hesitation. “You know,” she said nonchalantly, resuming her frantic typing, “you’ve been seeing an awful lot of that boy lately. I’m not sure he’s a good influence on you, with all this talk about the abyss and everything.”
“I concur,” Gabriel gave Tom a sympathetic look behind his mother’s back. “I realize you enjoy his company, but he is everything that goes against our values.”
“Mom!” Tom growled. “Stop calling him ‘that boy’. He’s your son, not one of those prissy shits you keep trying to make me socialize with!”
Simone stopped typing and tried to arrange her face into the pleasant mask that her position demanded. The mention of Bill had made her quite ugly, throwing shadows around the sharp curves of her cheekbones. “We will not have this discussion today, Tom. Go, but be careful and don’t speak to the man if you see him. Do you hear me?”
Gabriel placed a hand on Simone’s shoulder and the setting sun peeking through the window cast a dusky silhouette of the couple across the desk. Never one now without the other, and Tom was sick of it - sick of the comradery, sick of being out numbered, out voiced, sick of that hand touching his mother’s skin.
“Go ahead,” Gabriel’s eyes glowed despite the shadows on his face. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
The phone on the desk rang and Tom huffed, using the noise to cover the venomous “Fucker” he uttered under his breath at his mother’s Lieutenant.
She lifted it from the receiver with the tips of her manicured fingers as Tom stalked out and said in a cheerful tone, “High Office - God speaking!”
____________
In the clearing, set deep in the cool shade of a cave, the teacher paced restlessly as she answered the boys’ questions. Given special favor by the Lord himself, she’d been allowed to instruct the two in the only area available for them both - Purgatory.
But the blonde one shone so bright, she’d discovered that only by placing him near his dark brother could she even see him. His eyes, his hair, his very skin seemed interred with a source of light and her pupils, accustomed to the darkness, had a difficult time adjusting.
“To answer your query, Heaven can allow souls to be reincarnated - only Hell can allow them to pass on into the Void. We have a balance, though precarious. We have no problem with throwing those winged freaks into the abyss, but... Some angels like to abuse their power and deny our demons second life, and this is why we have procured the right to Summoning; otherwise, Satan's minions would never have the chance to see the earth again.”
“But isn’t it true,” he looked over at his brother, who nodded absently as he scribbled on the drawing pad set against the ground, “that the Goddess Gaea is responsible for Reincarnations? Is she not the entity to blame for any indiscretions?”
“Your angels have taught you well, Tom,” the teacher said as she stopped her pacing to try and focus on his face, “but Gaea has not been in office for several years now. Unfortunately, she chose to leave her duties for God. Surely they have told you this?”
“Ye-es..,” he drawled, crossing his legs to his chest as he sat on the cool stone. “I am aware of that. My Mother tells me that Gaea will return to her post as soon as she is able, which is upon her mortal death, I’m assuming. But why would an immortal choose to Reincarnate herself? This, I do not understand.”
“Think about it,” his brother spoke up from his position, lying on his stomach to his right, a worn-down pencil in his hand. “You do the same thing, day in, day out. With Dad and God I would guess it’s different - Dad’s got the mansion and Hell to run, and God has Heaven and all that shit that she does up there, but Gaia… The Earth is the same thing all the time - humans fighting stupid wars and destroying her rain forests and killing her animals - it’s got to be frustrating. Maybe she thought if she joined the human race for a while that she’d be able to, I don’t know, play the game instead of watch from the sidelines.”
“I think you’re on the right track there, Bill,” the teacher said. “I myself wish that Gaea had never taken this extended vacation - it’s been upsetting for all of us now that Gabriel is hogging the Reincarnation lists.”
“Why doesn’t our Father say something about this?” Tom asked and Bill shrugged. “He could threaten to stop the access to the Void for any angels wishing for eternal peace.”
“Because, contrary to popular belief, he is not an evil bastard.” She grinned at him and crossed her arms. “And I love how you put that… ‘eternal peace’. Is that what all angels call the abyss?”
“No, not really. Most of the angels think the Void is a trap by Satan to destroy my Mother’s people. They don’t believe that demons would ever want to destroy themselves and can’t understand how anyone could.”
“Do you understand why?” she countered.
“Of course I do,” he said softly. “Life is difficult, and being Reincarnated only makes you live through the pain over and over. Fortunately, we are not forced to choose either, but eternal life can be seen as both a boon and a burden.”
“But there are so many good things about life, Tomi.” Bill sat up and closed his drawing pad, placing his pencil behind his ear. “You speak as if it is nothing but heartache and sorrow, but being immortal is an incredible gift.”
“Spoken like a true romantic,” the teacher said, clapping her hands. “Unfortunately for me, my time with you is up. Will you be here next week, Tom?”
“Depends on if I can get away again or not, Lilith.” Tom shrugged and grinned. “My Mother still doesn’t know I’m coming here to listen to a demoness lecture.”
“She’d shit a brick if she knew anyway,” Bill growled.
The teacher laughed and waved as she disappeared at the mouth of the cave. Bill turned to his brother and handed him the drawing pad he’d been scribbling in. “I know you have to leave too, but I want you to have this. It’s full now.”
“Thank you,” Tom whispered and held the book gingerly. “I’ll try to come back as soon as I can.”
“Do you think you can sneak out tonight?”
“I’ll try.”
They embraced for a long moment. Bill’s arms were soon closed around the flickering outline of his twin as he blinked out of Purgatory, and he hung his head and closed his eyes.
He stood alone, listening to the soft sound of a stream flowing inside the cave, so intent on his thoughts that he didn't hear the footsteps until the owner called out from the shadows, startling him. He turned to face a mountain of a demon, wings larger than the space in which he stood, his horns glowing as red as his eyes. In his clawed hand was football and on his cloven feet were what Bill supposed were bunny houseslippers... but he couldn't be sure anymore, as trampled as the heavy body they supported had made them. He reached out and shoved the football into Bill's chest.
"Where's your brother? I thought we'd have a game before he left."
"He's already gone, Dad, but I'm free for a while." Bill clasped the ball and tossed it high.
Prologue
Chapter One
“When I die, I will decide how it happens.”
“But Tom, don’t you think you’re overreacting -”
“No, Gabriel. Not at all - not that any of this is your business.”
“It would destroy your mother if you took that route, you -”
“I can damn well do as I please!” Tom spat and threw one white-trousered leg over the feathered couch arm in his mother’s office, tucking the other under his body.
“You just wait until she hears that.”
“Hears what?” Simone asked, walking into her pristine office with a gigantic box of files and a Venti Café Mocha perilously balanced on the lid. “And feet off the couch, son.”
Tom shot Gabriel a hateful look as the elder stood and helped her unload her bearings. “We’ve been having a discussion about the afterlife. Tom is considering the worst possible choice.”
“Oh, honey, no!” She grabbed her coffee and left Gabriel standing with the box half empty by her desk, seating herself on the ottoman directly in front of Tom. “You can’t be serious! There’s no coming back, you know that, right?”
“Mom,” Tom shifted uncomfortably under her shining golden eyes, “that’s kind of the whole point. And it’s not like I was going to decide sometime this century… It was just an idea.”
“I tried to tell him,” Gabriel piped, brushing his slender fingers through his hair. “He won’t listen to me. God, he’s so very like you: adamant, stubborn, hard-headed -”
She threw her coffee at him and he caught it easily, upright. “You keep pushing me and it will be into the void with you, Lieutenant.” Tom poked a finger in his mouth to mimic vomiting and Gabriel gave him a shit-eating grin as his mother winked at him.
“When is Gaea coming back?” Tom asked as she stood and patted him on the knee. “Maybe when she takes the Reincarnation Sector over, Gabriel will stop trying to convince me to join his stupid born-again cult.”
“Gaea thought Reincarnation was a good idea,” Gabriel pulled Simone’s giant feathered office chair out for her and she took the seat behind her desk, “so much so that she chose that path herself. That’s something to think about.”
“But you don’t even know who she is now,” he pointed out, folding his bare feet back underneath his body when his mother wasn’t looking, “or even if she’s still alive! How can you be sure to catch her in her final moments to offer her spot back if you don’t know?”
“There is always an angel with everyone when they die,” Gabriel said softly, his boiling gaze burning into Tom’s face.
Tom walked to the door and crossed his arms, waiting for his dismissal, looking every bit of his eighteen years. “Can I leave now? I’m meeting Bill.”
His mother’s hands froze on her computer keyboard for an instant, just long enough for Tom and Gabriel both to register the hesitation. “You know,” she said nonchalantly, resuming her frantic typing, “you’ve been seeing an awful lot of that boy lately. I’m not sure he’s a good influence on you, with all this talk about the abyss and everything.”
“I concur,” Gabriel gave Tom a sympathetic look behind his mother’s back. “I realize you enjoy his company, but he is everything that goes against our values.”
“Mom!” Tom growled. “Stop calling him ‘that boy’. He’s your son, not one of those prissy shits you keep trying to make me socialize with!”
Simone stopped typing and tried to arrange her face into the pleasant mask that her position demanded. The mention of Bill had made her quite ugly, throwing shadows around the sharp curves of her cheekbones. “We will not have this discussion today, Tom. Go, but be careful and don’t speak to the man if you see him. Do you hear me?”
Gabriel placed a hand on Simone’s shoulder and the setting sun peeking through the window cast a dusky silhouette of the couple across the desk. Never one now without the other, and Tom was sick of it - sick of the comradery, sick of being out numbered, out voiced, sick of that hand touching his mother’s skin.
“Go ahead,” Gabriel’s eyes glowed despite the shadows on his face. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
The phone on the desk rang and Tom huffed, using the noise to cover the venomous “Fucker” he uttered under his breath at his mother’s Lieutenant.
She lifted it from the receiver with the tips of her manicured fingers as Tom stalked out and said in a cheerful tone, “High Office - God speaking!”
____________
In the clearing, set deep in the cool shade of a cave, the teacher paced restlessly as she answered the boys’ questions. Given special favor by the Lord himself, she’d been allowed to instruct the two in the only area available for them both - Purgatory.
But the blonde one shone so bright, she’d discovered that only by placing him near his dark brother could she even see him. His eyes, his hair, his very skin seemed interred with a source of light and her pupils, accustomed to the darkness, had a difficult time adjusting.
“To answer your query, Heaven can allow souls to be reincarnated - only Hell can allow them to pass on into the Void. We have a balance, though precarious. We have no problem with throwing those winged freaks into the abyss, but... Some angels like to abuse their power and deny our demons second life, and this is why we have procured the right to Summoning; otherwise, Satan's minions would never have the chance to see the earth again.”
“But isn’t it true,” he looked over at his brother, who nodded absently as he scribbled on the drawing pad set against the ground, “that the Goddess Gaea is responsible for Reincarnations? Is she not the entity to blame for any indiscretions?”
“Your angels have taught you well, Tom,” the teacher said as she stopped her pacing to try and focus on his face, “but Gaea has not been in office for several years now. Unfortunately, she chose to leave her duties for God. Surely they have told you this?”
“Ye-es..,” he drawled, crossing his legs to his chest as he sat on the cool stone. “I am aware of that. My Mother tells me that Gaea will return to her post as soon as she is able, which is upon her mortal death, I’m assuming. But why would an immortal choose to Reincarnate herself? This, I do not understand.”
“Think about it,” his brother spoke up from his position, lying on his stomach to his right, a worn-down pencil in his hand. “You do the same thing, day in, day out. With Dad and God I would guess it’s different - Dad’s got the mansion and Hell to run, and God has Heaven and all that shit that she does up there, but Gaia… The Earth is the same thing all the time - humans fighting stupid wars and destroying her rain forests and killing her animals - it’s got to be frustrating. Maybe she thought if she joined the human race for a while that she’d be able to, I don’t know, play the game instead of watch from the sidelines.”
“I think you’re on the right track there, Bill,” the teacher said. “I myself wish that Gaea had never taken this extended vacation - it’s been upsetting for all of us now that Gabriel is hogging the Reincarnation lists.”
“Why doesn’t our Father say something about this?” Tom asked and Bill shrugged. “He could threaten to stop the access to the Void for any angels wishing for eternal peace.”
“Because, contrary to popular belief, he is not an evil bastard.” She grinned at him and crossed her arms. “And I love how you put that… ‘eternal peace’. Is that what all angels call the abyss?”
“No, not really. Most of the angels think the Void is a trap by Satan to destroy my Mother’s people. They don’t believe that demons would ever want to destroy themselves and can’t understand how anyone could.”
“Do you understand why?” she countered.
“Of course I do,” he said softly. “Life is difficult, and being Reincarnated only makes you live through the pain over and over. Fortunately, we are not forced to choose either, but eternal life can be seen as both a boon and a burden.”
“But there are so many good things about life, Tomi.” Bill sat up and closed his drawing pad, placing his pencil behind his ear. “You speak as if it is nothing but heartache and sorrow, but being immortal is an incredible gift.”
“Spoken like a true romantic,” the teacher said, clapping her hands. “Unfortunately for me, my time with you is up. Will you be here next week, Tom?”
“Depends on if I can get away again or not, Lilith.” Tom shrugged and grinned. “My Mother still doesn’t know I’m coming here to listen to a demoness lecture.”
“She’d shit a brick if she knew anyway,” Bill growled.
The teacher laughed and waved as she disappeared at the mouth of the cave. Bill turned to his brother and handed him the drawing pad he’d been scribbling in. “I know you have to leave too, but I want you to have this. It’s full now.”
“Thank you,” Tom whispered and held the book gingerly. “I’ll try to come back as soon as I can.”
“Do you think you can sneak out tonight?”
“I’ll try.”
They embraced for a long moment. Bill’s arms were soon closed around the flickering outline of his twin as he blinked out of Purgatory, and he hung his head and closed his eyes.
He stood alone, listening to the soft sound of a stream flowing inside the cave, so intent on his thoughts that he didn't hear the footsteps until the owner called out from the shadows, startling him. He turned to face a mountain of a demon, wings larger than the space in which he stood, his horns glowing as red as his eyes. In his clawed hand was football and on his cloven feet were what Bill supposed were bunny houseslippers... but he couldn't be sure anymore, as trampled as the heavy body they supported had made them. He reached out and shoved the football into Bill's chest.
"Where's your brother? I thought we'd have a game before he left."
"He's already gone, Dad, but I'm free for a while." Bill clasped the ball and tossed it high.