Hora Mortis Nostrae (pt 7)

There is no update... I have no words.

Here, have the end of my story.

Recap: Felix and Jesus have finally made it through all seven floors of the Hell building, and have tumbled into the room belonging Kale.


Part Seven

Standing above us is a tall, very buff man with red skin and two little knubs on his forehead. He wore an all-black three-piece suit and shiny Italian leather shoes. He looked annoyed.

“Just what the Hell are you two doing in my building? How did you get up here?” he asked. His tonality suggested that he didn’t get surprise visitors very often.
“Uh.. mmm. Errr.” I tried. I didn’t fully know why we were here, only that I had braved seven horrific rooms to get here.

“Kale, we’ve come from Fiona,” Jesus took over. “She wanted to give you a message.” He dug around in his robes for the envelope.

Kale looked intrigued. I didn’t know what the story was between him and Fiona, but it appeared to be very different from the mortal enemy thing that church had initially made me believe about God and Satan.

Kale himself looked slightly Satanic, but less demonic, goat-like, and monstrous. He honestly seemed to be just a demon in a bad mood.

“Aha!” Jesus exclaimed as he held out the envelope.
Kale silently took it, thumbed it open, and pulled out a card with party balloons on it. When he opened it, the words “You’re Invited!” sprayed across the front in gold lettering. My stomach began to twist.

He read the card aloud:
“You are hereby invited to a re-birthday party for John Lennon, who will be re-rolled out into the world next week. We here at Heaven Inc. would appreciate your attendance, though we humbly request that you leave your pets at home. Please RSVP immediately through your messenger. We hope to see you there!” Kale smirks as he considers the invitation.

“Sure, “ He says, bemused. “I’ll go.”

I keep thinking that something else will fall out of the envelope, that some other important matter will be discussed. Perhaps Jesus had a verbal message too. But no, they chatted blithely for a while about the goings on outside of Hell, because apparently Kale didn’t get out much.

As they swapped small talk, my stomach began to twist in rage. I know I didn’t risk my life seven times in a row to deliver a party invitation. That couldn’t be. I glanced at the card in Kale’s hand again. No. No no no. Not fair.

I scanned the room for an exit, and there, in one corner, was a fire escape. I dashed towards it, far too angry to relish in the irony of the fact that Hell had a fire escape. Once reached, I rammed the door open and ran down the stairs, skirting the railing and flying towards the ground.

Once at the bottom, I continued running through the grey morning air, all the way back to 666 Heaven Street. I burst through the doors and booked it towards the executive elevator. Two security guards began to walk towards me as I furiously poked the ‘up’ button.

The lift finally arrived and I leaped inside just as the guards were upon me. I shoved my fingers into the “close door” buttons, watching them slide shut right as the two guards reached for their tazers.

I searched buttons and finally found number 214. I hit the button, and went zoom. I clenched my jaw and bulked up my shoulders, preparing to give Fiona a piece of my mind. When the elevator arrived, I stomped out of it, right past the secretary, and into Fiona’s office.

I burst in, hand raised, ready to shout and scream and all be all sorts of pissed off, but what I saw and heard in that small instance as I burst through the doors silenced my voice and evaporated my anger instantly. Fiona was at her desk, lounging in her chair, and Gabrielle was sitting on the corner of the desk, huge white wings folded at her back. Wait, Gabrielle was an angel?

She had been saying “Alright, fire and brimstone it is. When do you want me to tell the people?” as I burst in on their meeting.

Fiona and Gabrielle looked at me. Fiona raised an eyebrow and turned back to Gabrielle, continuing their conversation.

“It won’t be long now, but you just have to remember that you can’t tell them up until the very end. It has to be the real thing, otherwise your purpose will have been wasted. An apocalypse takes a lot of planning, you know.” She grinned.

Gabrielle nodded and readjusted her wings.
I understood now. Gabrielle….Gabriel. The Archangel Gabriel. Why didn’t they tell me?

The anger I had felt moments earlier came barreling back through my body, tenfold. I had to find out why Fiona deceived me.

“Fiona!” I shouted. “I risked my life for a party invite? A PARTY INVITE?! You made me believe that I was delivering a holy message, or some divine mandate, but no, it was a fucking PARTY INVITE. Why would you do that!?”

“Tell me honestly, Felix, did you have anything better to do?” Fiona asked, un-phased.

I opened my mouth to shout “yes!” but then I thought about it. What else would I have been doing? Getting high and hanging out with Marc? I closed my mouth, defeated but still fuming.

“I want to leave! Let me out of here!” I yelled.

“You obviously didn’t learn your lesson in there,“ Fiona continued. “So you know what? I’m just going to keep you up here until you do. I don’t care if you did what I said, you clearly learned nothing, so I’m just going to keep you in Heaven until you do.”

She spoke with such a calm anger that her words terrified me. I opened my mouth to retort, but Jesus burst in. Fiona rolled her eyes.

“If one more person barges into my office unannounced, I’m going to seal the doors shut.” She mused.

“Fiona, don’t punish Felix!” Jesus pleaded. “He did what you said. It was difficult in there. Polly nearly killed him within the first five minutes, he has a right to be a little angry about that.”

Fiona considered this. “But he still very rudely interrupted my meeting with Gabrielle here and has obviously gained nothing from his experience.”

“Just let the kid go back home. He’s young, maybe he just hasn’t realized what the lesson is yet.” Jesus replied.

“Hmmm.” Fiona considered this for a long while. “Alright. Gabrielle, show him the door.”

Gabrielle hopped off the corner of the desk and walked towards me, but I was already walking towards Jesus. I tackled him in a wordless hug. He’d gone through Hell with me, and I’d left him alone with Kale at the end, and yet he still convinced Fiona to let me go.

Gabrielle tugged at my arm and I released Jesus, turning to Fiona. “Erm.. Thanks.” I mumbled, then turned to leave.

Gabrielle led me out of the office and down the hall to a door in the wall. From what I could tell, if I opened the door and walked out, I’d be falling through the air down the side of the building. Not exactly what I meant when I’d said I wanted to leave.

Gabrielle pressed her palms to the door, then pulled it open, revealing only a pure white light emanating from within. Now, usually, one isn’t supposed to walk into the light if they want to remain alive. I glanced at Gabrielle uneasily.

She leaned in, kissed me quickly on the nose, then shoved me through the door.
I was surrounded by warmth for a second, and then nothing.


Nothingness.




It was a steady beeping that awoke me.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a hospital bed, surrounded by machines, in a stark white room. A doctor rushed in and began fiddling with the machines, speaking in a soothing voice to me.

“Hello Felix, welcome back. You’ve been in a coma for two weeks.” He said. He bent over me to check my IV bag. “You hit your head pretty badly when you ran into the street to save that girl. She didn’t make it, but if it hadn’t been for you, her entire body would have been pulverized under the wheels of that SUV,” he continued.

SUV? Girl?
Right. Car crash. Girl hit by car. My stupid heroism. It all began to fall into place.

“Now, Felix, you should make a full recovery, though you’ll have a few scars. Now, I’m going to call your family and let them know you’re awake. You just wait here.” He stepped out of the room.

So, two weeks in a coma. I’d been in the hospital along, I suppose. No angels, demons, pets, Jesus. Maybe I’d just been pleading for my life all this time, and my damaged brain manifested that as a dream about God. I turned my head and was about to fall asleep when I felt something brush my nose.

I blinked and there it was, resting on my pillow. A white feather.



The End :)

Julia