Fiona stepped back as she felt fear creeping up in her veins. Her eyes slightly twitched as stress built up in her body.
"Oh, don't be scared." Azrael smiled. "You didn't recognise me, right?" He chuckled slightly. "Okay so how about now?" He waved his palm in front of his face as his sharp unfamiliar features turned into familiar ones.
"Roy." She softly whispered and he smiled as he waved his hand again in front of his face turning his features to his original ones.
"It's Azrael actually." He said.
"I know. I remember you attacking me." She said and he laughed.
"I came to rescue you and I even put a block on your mind so they can't manipulate you anymore. I'm not the bad guy here, Fiona."
She took a deep breath and whispered the word. "Lucifer." She called out.
Azrael laughed at her try. "This won't work here because your soul is here but your body is soundly asleep back at Lucifer's house."
"What do you want from me?" She asked, trying to sound firm and calm.
"I only want to save you." Azrael replied.
"From what?" She asked.
"I don't know… I guess the guy with a giant goat head and hoof as feet." The sarcasm was apparent in his tone.
"Lucifer doesn't have a giant goat head or hoof." Fiona gave a quick response but she was a little taken aback at her defensive comment for Lucifer. "And I think Lucifer was the one who has protected me from your people over and over again."
"Oh, right. I just started watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I confused them both. Well, you get what I'm saying, right? You're trusting the devil. The Devil! You guys have so many religions talking trash about this guy and yet I still have to explain it to you why it's wrong to trust him?"
"I don't." She said, "I don't trust, Lucifer. But right now he's the only one trying not to kill me."
"You really think Lucifer is doing that from the goodness of his heart?" Azrael retorted back.
"No. He's doing it because of a contract he signed with my mother."
Azrael's laugh boomed in the woods as she said that. "The contract with your mother? Did he tell you he made another one with her?"
"What?"
"Of course, he wouldn't tell you. Haven't you noticed that your mother keeps telling you to trust Lucifer?"
"That's because-"
"She signed a contract with Lucifer?" He said as he scoffed and rolled his eyes at her naivety. "Lucifer and your mother both are playing you, Fiona. You can't trust them."
"So I should trust you?" The sarcasm was evident in her tone as she crossed her arms on her chest.
"Duh." He shrugged his shoulders a little. "There shouldn't be any problem with that."
"Why? You and your people want me dead."
"What? No. We want to help you."
"Help me?" She blinked her eyes in surprise. "How exactly?"
"By offering you freedom." Azrael said.
"What kind of freedom?"
"Well, If you choose to side with us. We can end this once and for all. You can eradicate your existence, no one would know you ever existed so no one will get hurt and on the plus side you won't end up in hell."
For Azrael the concept of freedom was the eradication of existence because all he knew was his job that he was designed to perform. He wasn't supposed to have any desires, any emotions or any ambitions. All he had to do was get his job done so the only escape for a creature such as Azrael was eradication of his existence. It didn't feel wrong to him in any way.
What he didn't take into account in Fiona's case was that she was human, he only saw her as his kind, as an angel. The human part really didn't matter to him. That was where he lost to Lucifer because Lucifer had taken her human interests into account as he knew she had spent her life as a human and not as an angel so she didn't feel the same as other angels.
"You can't eradicate my existence." She said,
"I'm sorry, Fiona but that's your best bet."
"Well, then I'd rather sign that contract, live a life and then burn in hell." She said and Azrael looked at her as if she was the most annoyingly dumb person he had ever seen.
He stood in front of her. "You're not the target of Celestials alone, Fiona. You're a magnet for bad omen given your pure energy, evil things tend to get attracted towards you so they can taint your soul."
"You think signing that contract will solve your problems? The moment you're going to sign it, Lucifer's going to nullify the contract with your mother. Then you would die in a day because the buffer holding bad things away from you is Lucifer and you don't have a guardian angel because Lucifer killed him."
"Why would he nullify the contract with my mother?"
"Because your supposed 'mother' made another 'deal' with the devil and that 'deal' is for you to take her place if she convinces you to sign the contract."
She scoffed. "You're lying." She claimed but there still was a little doubt in her heart.
"Zafael." He said and the scythe responded to the name. "Can you play my conversation with code UI0987?" The scythe moved forward and backward like it was nodding and then went back to hovering. After a silence for a few seconds, Azrael said, "Well, play it!" He said and it nodded again. "It sucks to have a soulless object as a pet. They don't act like dogs or cats. I wish Zafael acted like a pup-"
The recording interrupted Azrael as he rolled his eyes in annoyance. The recording played right from the start which actually helped Fiona's doubt to slowly fade away but then as they moved further she learned what Azrael had told her was indeed true.
"She's suffering?" She said at the end of the recording more to herself than to question Azrael.
"You understand what I'm saying now? I would've loved to take you to heaven but I can't, you don't belong there, because you have committed sins, Fiona."
"What about Limbo?" She asked.
"Limbo is for humans. Angels are not allowed and since you're-"
"Part angel, I can't be there." She sighed in frustration.
"Look, I know it sucks. But I can put it to an end in a blink of an eye."
"By removing my whole being from the universe?"
Azrael sighed and then nodded.
"I shouldn't suffer this. It's not my fault that your system messed up. You guys should've been careful."
"Yeah. The angel on duty was new and he messed up by blessing your parents with you." Azrael said and she narrowed her eyes on him. "And that totally doesn't make it sound better."
She sighed. "Okay, let me think for a moment." She said resting her eyes on her knees and hugging her legs. She tried to wrap her mind around the whole thing as she revised everything that had happened in the past week. Then it hit her, she looked up at Azrael.
"Azrael, I have to go back."
"What?"
She stood up. "Send me back." She said and he looked at her confused. "Do it now!" She yelled and he nodded as he clicked his finger.
Fiona opened her eyes as she found herself in the same bedroom from before. Her hand was still resting on the black scroll. She let out a long breath as she picked it up and opened the ribbon. She carefully opened the scroll and saw the words were engraved in gold on the black shiny material of the scroll.
She started going through the contents written on it. She went through the terms and conditions that were thoroughly explained.
First few rules were typical ones about the responsibility of the client. But then she read a rule and she smiled.
The rule read:
None of the Party-B wishes regarding their angelic or celestial being will be accepted. The wishes that are concerned with Party-B's human interest are the only ones that will be accepted.
She looked up at Xulam. "How do I sign this?" She asked and he closed his eyes as a silver dagger appeared in his hands. He placed it in her hand and as their skin touched Fiona understood how she could use the dagger to sign the contract.
She gulped down her saliva as she looked at the shiny metal. She placed the scroll on the bed pulling it open carefully as she closed her eyes and focused on her wish. She then slowly rubbed the sharp edge of the dagger on her palm, piercing the skin softly.
To her surprise she didn't feel any pain. She kept her eyes closed and focused on her wish as she closed her hand into a fist pressing it letting the blood slide down her hand onto the scroll.
She opened her eyes and looked at the scroll. The words were written beautifully in the crimson of her blood on the black material as it absorbed the blood in it and the scroll disappeared in thin air turning into ash.
She looked up at Xulam. "Is that normal?" She asked and he nodded in reply assuring her. "Okay, Xulam, you were asked by Lucifer to help with whatever I need." She said and he nodded.
"I need you to get me out of here to a place where Lucifer can't find me?" He shook his head as he held her hand. "Right! Lucifer will ask you and you're going to have to tell him."
"Fiona!" She heard Lucifer shout her name downstairs.
"Okay. Xulam, take me any place for now." She said and he nodded as he took her hand and disappeared in thin air.
"Fiona, what-" Lucifer was saying as he climbed up the stairs but paused when he saw she wasn't there. He groaned in frustration.
You were trying to play her and she fucked you over, man! He heard Yaseen say.
"Shut up!" Lucifer yelled in frustration as he looked down at the scroll in his hand and read the wish that her blood had written on it.
The devil has to fall in love with me.