Reversal

Theona had just awoken to another day. Blasted birds! Always outside her window at the crack of dawn, to sing their merry song, and wake everyone up in the process...

What was she thinking? Something that she shouldn't be thinking. The young girl shook her head, getting out of the small one-person bed and heading outside. She was already dressed, since she slept in her clothes. It wasn't like she actually cared. Nothing got dirty there, anyway.

Once she reached the door, she stretched. Did she really want to face another dull, boring day? It was always the same routine. Help a few mortals, grant a prayer or two, blah, blah, blah! Geez... She really had to stop her mind from wondering so much.

***

Endease fell from his ledge with a thud. Yet, he still didn't wake up. The dream he was having was too... Good... Full of... Flowers?!

Waking with a start, the boy rolled over... And fell, from another ledge. However, he caught himself just in time from reaching the bottom. If he had reached the bottom, he would probably have died all over again.

Slowly pulling himself to the top ledge again, Endease let his mind wonder. Why was he dreaming of... Flowers? And unicorns? Sunshine? Ack! He almost fell again when he expressed disgust at the last thing his mind listed. Sitting on the top ledge, he looked down at where he would have been if he didn't wake up.

A lake of lava.

***

Theona walked moodily towards a marble stone temple. It looked sort of like a church, like on the mortals built on Earth, but bigger... Prettier... And quite calming. The perfect spot to start the day. Or rest.

Upon reaching the door, she was bumped into by a rushing newly-dead. Both young girls stumbled back, staring at each other for a moment. The newly-deads' eyes were wide with shock. She was also the first to speak.

"S... Sorry!" She mummbled, then smiled. "Um, I'm Fee..."

The pissed off angel crossed her arms and huffed. "Yeah, well... Fee... Watch where you're going!" Theona muttered some incoherant words under her breath, then pushed passed the girl and into the temple.

The girl watched, stunned. Then a different angel came by, and eventually they went to explore. Fee had forgotten her little talk with the one she didn't even know, the angry 'angel', for now. She decided to ask about her. Later.

***

Endease trudged along. Today, or was it night? would be... Most likely, quite dull. Nothing new much happened. Minus the new arrivals. The ones who died. And came... Down here.

Looking around, Endease wondered why the place was so barren. Stone walls made from hardened lava... Or was it magma? Why were there no flowers? ...Flowers?! He shook his head. What the heck was he thinking?

Upon reaching the large, black, evil-looking temple, he looked around again. The only 'living' things were the new arrivals, the devils, the demons, the imps, and whatnot. And they couldn't even be classified as living. They weren't exactly of that realm. Endease began going through the door...

Then BAM! Two young boys collided, both stumbling back a bit. One, the new one, looked at who or what he bumped into... Hell, he didn't even know where he was! Or... Did he?

The other boy looked to the new arrival. He looked emotionless at the moment. "Sorry." For the moment, they both just stared at each other.

The new arrival smiled slightly. "...Hello." Now he knew where he was. He remembered that he had been in a car crash. The crash contained his fuel truck, and someones car, and BOOM! Neither survived... And he wasn't exactly the nicest person ever...

***

Theona muttered quiet things to herself. Why? Why had she been assigned to this particular case? They knew she hated children. Well, not hated... But extremely disliked. Especially the sick ones.

Sometimes, she wondered why and how she became what she was. She wasn't nice. Now, she did have her moments... But, why? How? Theona did drugs. Heck, she even killed someone. That someone... Was her freaking brother... Who wasn't in the same place she was.

And he was nicer than her.

Theona sighed. Better get her job done. And fast. Before she lost her temper again. If she did that... It might not bode well for the kid she was supposed to help...

The young angel looked to the cloud hole. The way to Earth. It would transport one where they had to go, and that was convenient. She hadn't an idea where the kid was.

Theona jumped into the hole, and a tube formed. The tube was bright, white, and very, very long. But it wasn't even five second before she was in a hospital room, a sick child playing with her mother on a bed. Neither noticed Theona. Then again, they weren't supposed to.

The young angel sighed. What was this girls prayer? Oh... Yeah... For her to survive her sickness. And how was she to grant that? The girls sickness was fatal. And Theona was in no position to create miracles. It just wasn't her job.

That, and she wasn't powerful enough. She wasn't pure enough, nice enough... Why, exactly, would they give anyone this assignment? It was both depressing and frustrating...

Finally, visiting hours were over, and the childs mother returned home. The child was alone. Now was the time for Theona to become visable...

"Hello!", the girl was smiling. At... Theona... But, Theona wasn't visable! How the heck could the girl see her, if she wasn't visable?!

The girl could clearly see the angels confusion. She giggled at it, happiness shone in her eyes. It was as if she didn't even care if she was going to die. "Yes, I can see you! I could see such things for a while! It's why I was pronounced schitzofrenic by the doctors... They gave me all kinds of shots, which led to... What I have now..." The girls expression of happiness faultered, but only for a moment. "But now, I might be able to go see my aunt soon!"

Theona shook her head at the girls last statement. "No, no, no... You wouldn't want to see your aunt. Not where she's at..." The young angel sighed, watching the little girls expression go from happy, to confused, then dissapointment, and sadness. "But... Don't worry. People can change... Even after life..." The last thing Theona wanted, was for the girl to cry. That would alert the nurses, and then everything would be a little harder. For both her... And the girl, too...

Still, the girl wasn't convinced. But what Theona said was enough to pull her from the brink of tears. The angel did know more about such things... Right? "Okay... But, um, why are you here?" The one question that kind of confused Theona.

"Because, you prayed you'd get over your illness, didn't you?" At the girls slight nod, Theona continued. "I was sent here on an assignment, to 'help rid you of your illness'... But, I'm not at the stage to create miracles. And your illness can't be cured without one..."

The little girl laughed, smiling now. As if it was all just a... Joke? "Of course it can't be cured... But I can hope, can't I?" She looked to the needle sticking out from her arm. Her smile had shrunk, and was almost expressionless. "Though I sometimes wonder if it would be possible to get rid of these... They don't hurt, but they are annoying! And they're the only things restricting me from going outside! I don't wanna die in here!" By now, the little girl was seething with hatred. It almost scared the young angel.

Theona walked slowly over to the little girl, placing a hand where the needle lay in her arm. "Well... Since I can't cure your illness, how about..." She plucked the needle from the girls arm, and let it go. What was the need for such things as IV if the girl was only going to die, anyway? And why not let the girl go where she wanted before she died...?

The little girl almost squealed with happiness. She was free! For the time being... Unless she died sooner than the doctors said. How long did she have without that... Stuff? It's not like she cared, anyway...

"Let's go!"

Theona stood back, staring for a moment. Even for someone near death, the girl was... Well, very child-like. How could she be dying? She was too... Full of energy... The girl she was sent to help wasn't. The girl she was sent to help... Wait. Had the girl deceived everyone? Was she lying to her parents? Did she think of Theona as just a hallucination? Was the girl really just a fairly insane kid?

Now Theona was mad. At what? Nothing... Kids were going to be kids. But this just made the young angel want to... Kill...

As soon as the thought passed through her mind, she was at the girls throat with the needle. The girl cried out in surprise as the needle found its way into her soft flesh, ripping from chin, all the way down to stomache. The child lay and writhed in pain, until she lost too much blood... And died...

Now it was Theonas turn. As she lay and writhed in agony only those who rested in Hell knew, she wasn't aware of what was happening... Her wings. The tips caught aflame, and were burning. The flames made their way to her, burning her. They enveloped her until all that could be seen was a ball of flame...

After around and hour of such a torture, the flames suddenly vanished. In their spot was a pile of ashes... The ashes, however, took on a life of their own as they flew around, in circles. One by one, they began to build themselve up, into a humanoid form. Wingless, coal-skinned, evil.

Theona knew what she was. She was the opposite of what she used to be.

***

Endease was cheerful after his talk with the new arrival. He had shown the new one around the entire place, telling the boy the do's and the don'ts. Now he had been summoned to the assignment place... What was it called? ...Why did he even care?

A few minutes later, he could be seen cussing out a boulder. Why, oh why, had he been given the assignment of destroying a childs life? He just did not like doing that.

But, why had he been sent to this place? He didn't do anything wrong. Okay, maybe the fact he totally dispised one single, measley person, but what harm did that do? Ah, well, on to the assignment.

Endease slowly walked in the general direction of the place that led up from Hell. The place where demons, imps, devils and the like had clear passage up to Earth. Well, okay, clear as long as an angel didn't block the way.

Eventually, he reached his destination. He stared at the large opening for a while. This would be his first time going out of this place... How'd they do it? Going up looked pretty... Steep...

Shrugging, Endease began the climb. It didn't take as long, and wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. He had climbed in, then ZOOM! He was standing in a childs bedroom. The child looked fairly happy, but the happiness looked empty.

The kid, a boy the young age of 5, was laying curled up on his bed, hugging a stuffed rabbit to his chest. He was staring blankly at the wall, smiling... This was a really spooky kid...

Suddenly the kid sat up, and looked stright over at Endease. The kids happiness wasn't empty anymore. It couldn't even be described as happiness. It was more... Cynical.

"Hi, there."

Now, Endease was shocked. The kid could see him? Wasn't that impossible? He shook his head, then looked to the boy and smiled. "Hi."

The boy looked as if he was thinking of something to say. Then he finally spoke. "What are you...?" As if he didn't already know... His parents spoke enough of them. The kid wouldn't be surprised if this was their doing.

The young demon tilted his head... How could the kid not know? Wasn't it obvious? His skin was like dried lava... He had horns. His eyes were yellow, slitted with red pupils. His tail was pointed with a triangle. The only thing he was missing was the black bat wings often pictured. That, and clothes... But that didn't matter, did it? He wasn't of the living.

The kid laughed quietly at Endeases' expression. "Yes, yes, I do know whatcha are! I was just checking..." And then came the question Endease had hoped wouldn't be asked. "Why are you here, though?"

Endease crossed his arms. He was beginning to really hate this, now. Looking to the window, he answered. "I was sent here to destroy your life. Why else?" He looked back to the boy, who didn't seem to care...

Instead of look sad, dissapointed, scared, or any such emotion like that, the boy still looked happy. "And that would be quite impossible. Nothing could destroy my life, it's already been destroyed."

Endease looked shocked, yet again. "How so?"

The boy picked at the stuffed rabbits fur in thought. Then he shrugged. "My parents only gave birth to me so I could be a sacrifice. Don't ask why, they don't know what they're doing... Yet, they wanted a girl. 'They always make the best sacrifice!' was what they said one day."

The young demon thought for a moment, then walked over to the boy. In one swift movement, the boy was being held in his arms. Then in an instant, they were outside a small cottage. Endease put the boy down, and hoped he knew what to do.

In another instant, the boy was left alone, staring at the cottage... Then he began walking towards it.

Now in a forest, in the middle of nowhere, Endease looked around franticly. A white mist had started up... But it wasn't any regular mist. It was coming at him, and enveloping him, until all that was left was... Something that looked like a cuccoon.

The mist began to melt away suddenly, but a bit of the mist broke away from the rest. That mist formed wings, white, feathery, but not very big... Dove wings?

The rest of the mist formed a long, flowy gown. White, silky, and seemingly lighter than air.

Endease was shocked... For the third time that night. Confused, now, too. He noticed his skin, which wasn't like dried lava anymore... It was more human like. He also had hair, now. No horns. Tail was gone. What the heck just happened?

He shook off his confusion, then it struck him. He wasn't a demon anymore. He was directly the opposite.

***

Theona stared at her hands. Wasn't the whole 'people can change, even after death' thing just a myth?

Well apparently not.

A sly grin graced her lips - or what looked like lips, anyway. Now that she wasn't expected to be all nice and such anymore, she could do... Well, anything. Which was what she wanted to do in the first place.

"Watch out world, here I come!" Were the only words to leave the newly-made demons mouth before she left the hospital room. Through the window. Which left the orderlies puzzled as to what happened - especially since there was a childs slashed corpse laying carelessly on the bed.

That, and something just jumped out the window. But they couldn't see anything.

How were they going to explain this to the childs mother, let alone the police...?

Meanwhile, down in the cities streets, Theona was having quite the good time. Currently she was scaring a middle-aged human woman, while the lady was trying to drive. How, you may ask, was she scaring this woman?

Riding the car like a surf-board. Theona was making quite a racket up there - jumping up and down. This had the woman quite frightened, as no one she passed seem to see anything on top of her vehicle. She breifly wondered if she was going crazy.

That was, until the roof gave in. But by that time, Theona had safely jumped away and was watching from a different roof as the womans car swerved and struck another.

And then Theona jumped on top of a different vehicle, since the one she had been on was slowing down to see what happened. Then she jumped to another. And another...

It was almost like a game of Frogger, really. Except she couldn't die, and she didn't have any actual destination.

***

Endease felt something... something troubling. He couldn't describe it - he just let his instincts guide his newly-gotten wings to... Where ever he was going.

He gasped when he saw.

Two cars in the middle of a bunch of other cars was on fire. When I say fire, I mean BLAZE... Surprisingly, the fire hadn't reached the gas-tank yet, for there were many a foolish mortal surrounding the wreck.

Not wasting any time, Endease swiftly dove towards the fire, attempting to blow it out with his puny wings. Did he succeed?

... No.

Fairly suddenly the tank erupted, causing more-or-less the whole area to go up in flames. People were screaming, dying... Cars were lit on fire, exploding... All around Endease. He glanced around, watching the deads' souls emerge from there bodies... To be swiftly sucked away to where ever there destination lay.

Theona...

The name popped into his head, and he didn't know why. Only when he rose up above the flames did he figure it out.

There was his sister - and he knew it was his sister, even if she wasn't the same as she used to be - running away from the wreckage. He swore he heard her cackling as she ran... Possibly looking for more mischeif.

Endease wouldn't have it. True, Theona was his sister... But now she was a demon. And he, an angel.

And so, he chased after her.

***

Oh, what fun that was! Absulutely amusing. Especially the explosion... And the screams.

Theona did not stop until she reached the city park. By now it was deserted; the humans were either off seeing what the explosion was, or inside, asleep. She had the place all to herself... Unless you count the wildlife.

Wildlife that would prove to be quite amusing.

Theona stopped abruptly upon stumbling upon a mouse hole. Breifly she wondered about her newly begotten powers... Could she? She would try.

Slowly she began to. She began to shrink.

Our little demon was about half her own hieght when she was tackled from the side by a fairly bright, white figure.

The two rolled a little, seperated, and stood. Theona glared at this new... Pest. Endease watched his sister, sadness flickering in his eyes.

It took the girl a moment to realize, this was her brother.

And this was not right.

"So Endease, became an angel did you? It's fitting. Too bad I'll now have to destroy you," Theona said, off-handedly... As if it didn't really concern her much.

His sisters little speech only seemed to make Endease sadder... But a little bit angry, aswell. "Theo... Theo, why? You... Why?!"

Theona idly inspected her nails, then looked to her brother as if he was the most uninteresting thing in the world. And to her, he was. "Because, brother... It's more fun this way." That was all the warning he got.

Theona, who had stopped shrinking and had returned to her normal size, jumped straight up into the trees above her... Seemingly disappearing.

***