Santos had died, yet again.
He looked up into the dark and stormy sky and saw a large gate. It was made out of black stone, and smoke seeped out from its closed lips.
It was the Gate of Immorality.
The face of a goat, with six eyes and six horns, was the gate, and it had large pillars on the side. They were made up of screaming, tortured bodies, writhing in pain, crying as the weight of everyone's sins were too much to bear.
The crisp and sharp air was cold on Santos's brown skin, and then he shuddered.
He could feel something cold, for the first time in centuries, and it scared him.
The goat's mouth opened, and black smoke poured out of it, onto the ground, swirling onto the cracked and dry ground. Out from the dark mist came a tall and skinny man. His skin was pale and translucent, his hair short and black, his eyes a soft blue.
"Welcome back, Lyrica," he said.
"Hey Uriel," Santos sighed.
Uriel hugged Santos tight, and Santos felt that the world was playing a strange joke. The angel of death was friendly, and the few times he had met Michael, he was the rudest man he had ever met.
"What did you do now," Uriel asked.
"I did nothing," Santos screamed. "I helped people this time! Really!"
"Lyrica, it's not good to lie," Uriel said. "You'll get in trouble again."
"Stop calling me that."
Uriel shook his head no and went on and on about how he would always be Lyrica, deep down inside.
"Lyrica was my slave name. I'm Santos now," he said, through snorts and giggles.
"Don't be crass," Uriel huffed. "Do you want to play chess while you wait to get picked up?"
"Sure, why not," Santos said.
Uriel waved his hands, and a black cloud seeped out from his palms and swirled on the ground. A black and white chess table, with a white and black chair, appeared, just for them.
Uriel and Santos were excited to spend time together. Whenever Santos died, he would come back soon. The longest he had been gone was for a week. He once joked that he should have a frequent flyer card, for the number of times he ended up at the Gates of Immorality.
Uriel was so accustomed to his visits, that he tried to play as fast as possible, so they could get in at least a single match, before he was whisked away, back to the land of the living.
Uriel was a little excited that they could play a few games, catch up, and Uriel even got to learn about what was going on, upstairs.
"They got these freaks now, these astrals," Santos said.
"Oh, I know about them. Poor things," Uriel sighed. "They can never go to paradise."
This revelation made Santos look up from the chessboard, and pause. There were very few things he didn't know. It was exhilarating for him to learn something new, but this was not good news.
"Why… not? Half of those idiots up there play superhero, rescuing cats from sinking ships or some bullshit," Santos said.
He moved his pawn and tried to focus on winning, but he had never beaten Uriel, in the many times he visited.
"Father doesn't like them. They are descendants of other beings, from the eighth realm."
"Really? He's throwing a tantrum, again ?"
"He worked hard to take care of his realm. How would you like it if someone left their house, brought all their children, and left them in your house?"
"I mean… fair. "
Uriel moved his knight, and Santos knew he was going to lose again.
"Father was so displeased, that he even created the tenth circle, just for them. "
"What," Santos balked. "What is his deal? "
"Even I think it is wrong to punish them for the circumstance of their birth, but Father thinks differently. He placed the new circle underneath Judas's. He calls them all born liars. "
Santos didn't know which piece to move next. He was preoccupied with this new information. He started thinking about people like Carlos, those who tried so hard to be good, but it didn't matter. They were already damned.
How could someone be guilty of something they were unaware of?
The more he thought about it, the more Santos became worried for his children.
"Are all of the astrals there," Santos asked. "Each one? "
"I'm afraid so," Uriel replied.
"Oh no. He put Joshua Slater in there?"
"That was a sad day for me as well," Uriel said. "He was possibly one of the most ardent believers I had ever met, and here he was."
"When I come back, I'm breaking him out," Santos said.
Uriel gave him a look. "Why would you tell me this," he asked. "It's my job to keep them all in!"
"You ain't doing shit, " Santos sneered.
The timer for his turn went off, and now it was Uriel's. In a swift move, he took Santos' queen, and again he had lost.
"Fuck you," Santos spat.
"Just because you partake in filth-"
"You know what I meant," Santos screamed.
Uriel laughed, happy to tease him. It was rare that he would stay, especially rare that he had stayed so long.
However, after two hours, they both became worried.
Santos had watched people stream into the Gates Immorality, sobbing and crying, and was amazed at how Uriel cried along with them. Perverts and thieves, adulterers and murderers alike, Uriel cried with them, sad that he could never leave the gates, telling each and every one,
"I have failed you. I am so sorry. I should have been there to guide you."
He sent them off, and Santos couldn't understand how he could weep sincere tears for each and every soul that came in, assuring them that it would all be okay.
It would not.
After another hour, Uriel had some bad news.
"They know you're here Lyrica," Uriel said.
He sat on a white stone bench, wearing his usual black attire. He liked to keep up with the fashion of all the new people that streamed in, and compared to the rest of his siblings, he looked like he would fit in up above.
Santos giggled at his band t-shirt, his white sneakers, and black jeans.
"Are you listening," Uriel shrieked. "This is serious!"
"Don't they always know I'm here," Santos asked. "This isn't my first time."
"No… it's not," Uriel sighed. "The difference is, if you're here too long, they'll notice. Someone will come soon, and he won't be as friendly as me."
"Are you telling me to go to Hell? Really, Uriel?"
Uriel twiddled his thumbs and looked at the ground.
"Yeah, I mean, you don't have to put it that way," Uriel mumbled.
"I'm not going in there," Santos shrieked. "My kids are just having some difficulty breaking me out is all!"
"I… don't want you to leave either," Uriel whispered. "I love you. I don't want to never see you again."
Santos sat on the white stone bench, and for the first time, Uriel was being consoled by someone he had to send away.
"It's not fair," Uriel cried.
Santos rubbed his back and sighed. Another tear-filled moment, except this time it wasn't George, instead, it was his older brother, which just made it that much more strange.
Uriel stopped crying, and Santos grimaced. His tears sparkled, blessed Holy water coming out, and Santos wondered how he was ever anything close to what they are.
"Can I tell you a secret," Uriel asked.
"Someone as open as you has secrets," Santos sneered.
" Yes."
Uriel sat up, and somehow his translucent skin looked even paler. He weighed if the punishment would be worth what he was about to say, but he wasn't about to lose another person.
All the others he could not save. It was too late.
Maybe with Santos, there would be a chance.
"You can get through to the other side if you travel through all circles of each Divine Order," Uriel said.
"I already knew that," Santos said. "I just can't go through the last!"
"There might be a way….."
Santos listened as Uriel told him a secret that no one knew, except for Father, Michael, and Him.
"There are gates to the underworld, yes? There is a path to Heaven as well, on the mortal plane, but there is just one."
"That's… news to me…"
"Yes. If someone could travel through the gate, and meet you in purgatory, then they could bring you back."
Santos looked up at the gate in the sky and remembered that before he had died, he wanted to so badly. Now gone from all his children, living was all he could think about.
"You'll get punished, Uriel. Why are you telling me all this," Santos asked.
"Father is gone. He won't notice anything. That, or he is angry with us. He thinks we are too friendly with the born liars, and doesn't want us to be. They weren't made in his image."
"Wait. He's serious? Are you kidding me?"
"I wish I was."
Uriel, the kind soul that he was, started crying again, missing his father. Santos sighed, tired of being around over-emotional children that needed their parents to always be on standby, too afraid to leave the nest.
After more assurances, some neck rubs, and a little fibbing, Uriel's blubbering finally stopped, and Santos was worried that it would soon start again if he didn't leave quickly.
"I'm going. See ya."
He looked up at the gate, and the large black cloud pushed down, swallowing whole. Uriel cried again, upset that Santos had just left. He left without saying goodbye, and this just made Uriel emotional all over again.
"Don't go," Uriel sobbed. "How will you get someone from Adamh to enter purgatory and help you!?"
Santos was already gone, and Uriel cried harder.
He had sent his little brother to Hell.