Cancer the Archenemy

                                  This one is being published by Separate Worlds Collins Magazine.



Word Count 1164

The waning sun crept below the horizon, pouring out a radiant glow of orange and yellow streaks encircling Darian's angelic invisible ten-foot figure, waiting in the spiritual realm. He paced back and forth on the Mount of Olives dressed in a silver suit of armor, with his fingers curled around the sword strapped to his hip, poised and ready to meet his opponent. Darian turned his head, revealing handsome features and long raven hair, whirling around his tense face and shoulders. Clenching his teeth, he cupped his hand over his eyes and searched below for some sign of the adversary. He hesitated. Then, what he dreaded appeared in all its heinous infamy.

Dark clouds shrouded the sunlight, when blue lightning flashed down from the sky striking the ground, and the bowels of the earth cracked open. A black mist arose with leaping flames, taking the form of an unseen towering dark, demonic angel, covered in oozing pustules and rotting, slimy skin, whipping his tail around his dragon head. A pair of enormous sooty wings sprouted from his back, pushing through green lizard scales lifting him in the air. Darian stepped back, gasping from the putrid sulfur smell which permeated the atmosphere. The demon's red, fiery eyes shot out fury, when it caught a glimpse of the angel watching him.

“Back off, Darian, you know the rules. You've no right to interfere,” the demon snarled, flicking his forked tongue and licking the sores. “I've been given authority from Lucifer to pour out this disease on all the weak and unsuspecting fools that eat the chemical garbage of the pharmaceutical industry. There's nothing you can do to stop it.  As long as these idiot humans continue to gorge on pills, pesticides and plastic food, I can wreak havoc in their damn bodies.”

"I know you're Cancer, but how do you know my name?"

"Come on now, Darian, I didn't always look like this. Do you remember a dark-haired robust angel named Aries that served in the watch over the third world countries with you and four others before the rebellion?"

"That was you?" Darian's mouth hung open in shock, gazing down on the hideous form. "Why? You were the apple of my Master's eye. How could you choose to serve Satan? I can't believe you'd leave Heaven, to end up in the lake of fire for eternity, separated from God!" he answered, rolling his eyes in contempt.

"I made my choice, and there's no going back. I can't even if I wanted to," the monster bellowed, grinding his jagged teeth. "Let's stop all the sentimental crap and get back to business. I want to show you how I used greed to corrupt the medical doctors that receive cars, trips, and kickbacks from the drugs used by the pathetic people your God loves,” Cancer taunted, flashing his hellish eyes. "Look how they believe anything you tell them, human beings haven't changed since Adam and Eve, he shrieked with laughter, puffing up his chest like a rooster. "Now it's 2020, and they still can be hoodwinked. They think poison will heal them. See for yourself," he said, curling his lip into a sneer.

The fallen angel opened his mouth, and swarms of flies filled the air with the likeness of a black motion picture screen. Darian watched while thousands of people hooked up to machines pumping toxic chemicals into their bodies, became emaciated concentration camp look-alikes. Then, the insects separated and came back together, showing another view of victims holding hands up to their eyes and wiping away tears streaming down their faces as they laid in hospitals, dying with tumors bursting open and spurting out blood from their breasts, legs, arms, everywhere that one could grow.

"Enough, I've seen enough, Darian shouted," burying his face into the sleeve of his garment and looking away. "Look what a fiend you've become, and you've lost everything, for nothing," he said, his voice dripping with disgust. 

"Shut up, and stop your stupid griping about the past," Cancer barked. "You're nothing but a wimp."

Darian's face tightened with rage, but he couldn't cross the line and fight the beast. He waved his blade in the air in fury and reluctantly put it back on the holder on his hip. God sent him to oppose Cancer's assignment without physical conflict. He shook his head in sorrow, and then turned his eyes up to heaven and prayed, but he could only hear silence.

"I guess the demon's right," Darian sighed. “I can't stop him, but I know who can." He lifted his glowing gold sword and pointed it at the sky, crying out, “Saints I need your help! Please pray! We must stop this demon's mission.”

The blue sky rumbled and split open, revealing millions of worshipers, praying and singing praises dressed in glittering white robes. Then, a choir of angels blew their trumpets and filled the heavens with wondrous majesty.

The ethereal music flowed, penetrating every crack and crevice on the face of the earth. Colored flowers that sparkled like gems burst forth winding around the feet of the evil spirit. He raised his pus ridden foot and tried to flatten the plants, but the harder he tried to trample them, the faster they grew back and multiplied.

White doves circled the sky and landed on the enemy's head cooing soft tones in his ear. He reared up on his hind legs and shook his grotesque body forcing the birds to fly away, only to return in hordes, flapping their wings and covering him from head to toe.

“Get these stinking birds off me,” Cancer growled, rolling around in a carpet of flowers.

Barefoot Angels dressed in flowing cream silk gowns landed fluttering their white outstretched wings, as they walked on the mountain, on the ground, everywhere surrounding Cancer. They held up gold shields embedded with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and the "Lion of Judah" engraved on the surface. The holy light the jeweled armor radiated caused him to put his claws up to his face and hide his eyes. They didn't have to do anything, just their presence filled the demon with terror.

"Alright, I'm leaving. You can all go to Hell with your righteousness! You win for now, but it's not over, I'll be back, and it'll be worse than before,” he screamed, as his body started to deteriorate from the sacred rays and become smaller and smaller until he scurried away as a cockroach back into the core of the earth.

All the angels lifted their arms up and departed with the doves. Darian knew this was only temporary, and the battle would still go on until the Savior returned. Then, there would be no more sickness or sorrow. A smile crossed his lips because he belonged to the winning side. "Thank you Lord for choosing me, I am and always will be your humble servant," he whispered as he bowed his head and ascended to heaven.