Wayward Son

By Dabeagle

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Chapter 11

“So?” Joel asked. “What happened?”

I glanced at Joel while chewing a sausage. He walked past me and grabbed a bagel from the counter. I finished chewing and forked another piece of sausage and went back to my breakfast. I didn't want to talk about it with my parents around, it would just sound weird. Joel smeared cream cheese on his bagel and then wrapped it in a paper towel. I sopped up the leavings on my plate with a slice of toast and put the dish in the sink. We left my house and started to walk to school.

Joel gave me a bump with his shoulder. “So?”

“Seth's mom is crazy.” I replied.

“Common knowledge.”

“No I mean she's really crazy, straight jacket, rubber room give her medication certifiable. Totally batshit.”

“Really. Wow. Poor Seth.” Joel bit into his bagel as we walked.

“When Aila and I got back to Gideon's Woolcott didn't say much about what we learned. He just said it would take a few days to find his old contact, that it would be delicate and...well, there wasn't anything to do in the short term.”

“What about Seth?”

“Gideon said he can keep healing him, keep the damage as minimal as he can, but it was like a band aid on a bullet wound. Eventually Seth will die.”

“Think his mom will report him missing?”

“No. She's probably relieved, she thinks God is punishing her.”

Joel snorted, “All about her huh?”

“Yeah, everything is about her. Seth's suffering is because she's being punished, never mind what he's going through. She thinks he's the son of the devil.”

Joel choked on his bagel.

“Exactly.”

“So,” Joel coughed a few times to clear the bits of bagel. “What do we do? Nothing?”

“Yeah, till Woolcott gets us the information we need. It's hard to just sit here while Seth is so sick. I feel helpless. I need to do something, you know?”

“Well, we have our game today. Plus you'll have us all for lunch tomorrow.” Joel remarked.

“I told mom I'd try and get Gideon to come, I never invited you two.”

“It's implied,” He shrugged.

“How do you figure that?”

“Are you kidding? Miss your mom fawn over Gideon? You wouldn't want me to miss that would you? It'd be criminal.”

As I approached the school doors all I could do was turn over the small meeting we'd had at Gideon's last night. The bottom line was I didn't fully trust Woolcott. He'd been too passive in his thinking that it was okay to just let Seth die when we'd discussed it the first time and made the decision to help him. Part of me was thinking he was just stalling so that with Seth gone there would be no distractions to whatever it was he thought Gideon needed to do. My mind was occupied with the dueling images of Seth squirming in pain on the bathroom floor and of his magically induced coma on the dining room table.

As we entered the school Joel tapped my shoulder in departure and headed for Aila's locker while I made my way to Gideon's. As I approached he was staring blankly into his open locker as if he'd forgotten why he was there.

“Forget something?” I asked as I leaned against the locker next to his.

“Hey you,” he smiled, shaken from his reverie. He reached out a hand and, putting it behind my head, pulled me to him for a morning kiss.

“You're in a good mood,” I smiled.

“I slept amazingly well, considering.”

“Woolcott says you don't sleep well,” I frowned.

“Yeah, not normally. I usually wake up a lot, but I must have been tired last night.”

“It was kind of a stressful day,” I admitted. “I didn't sleep that well. I feel like we ought to be doing something more to help Seth.”

“We're doing all that can be done right now,” Gideon closed his locker and started to walk down the hall with me. “Once Woolcott re-establishes contact with whomever it is he knows, things will happen fast I think. I don't know if it will be fast enough for Seth, but the fact is...there isn't anything we can do immediately.”

“So... what? Stay loose and ready to go when Woolcott says to?”

“Yeah. Look.” Gideon stopped and chewed on his lip a moment. “This thing with Seth, I know it's eating at you. It's eating me too. I've never run into something I couldn't heal, and you've seen the worst thing I've ever healed already.”

My mind shuddered at the thought of the gouges that had been running down Gideon's back. At the same time I had a random question and decided now was as good a time as any. “Speaking of which, how did you manage to heal Aila, teleport and start healing yourself with that kind of injury?”

“Well, she got hit first. I put kind of a quick, dirty heal on her. If I'd had time she'd have been healed completely but as it was, it was all I could do. I knew she and I couldn't win, we weren't prepared so I traveled with her and he hit me while I was doing that, like as I moved from the field to Woolcott's, he hit me. If I hadn't been traveling then he'd have put his hand all the way through me. I took so much damage that my body went right into a kind of stasis I think.” He shrugged uncomfortably at me, “It's all I can think of that might have happened. I've never been hurt that badly before.” He glanced away and whispered, “Believe me I've been wondering how I lived.”

We stopped outside his classroom door and he gave me a small, worried smile. “We'll do what can be done for Seth, I promise.”

I placed a hand on Gideon to comfort him, but in the back of my mind I couldn't shake the feeling that Seth's clock as winding down.

I struggled through the day, wishing I had Gideon in more of my classes. Not that I would have absorbed more but just to be near him. I held on to the idea that lunch was only a few hours away and then I'd be with my friends and boyfriend; people who shared this burden of Seth's life. Right then I felt like they were the only people that understood me. All three of them were already seated when I arrived at lunch.

“You should have smited her or something,” Joel was saying.

“Smote.” Aila replied.

“Huh?”

“I should have smote her.”

“Yeah, should have kicked her looney ass.”

“Believe me, I wanted to.”

“She's a victim too,” Gideon replied, “Not so much as Seth but a victim all the same.”

“Not a very sympathetic one,” I commented as I took a seat.

“No, she isn't.” Gideon agreed. “But don't forget that for some people meeting nephilim is mind blowing enough; to have met an angelic creature just creates all kinds of problems for them.”

“Yeah, look what it did for Seth.” I muttered.

“Like how?” Joel asked Gideon, ignoring me.

“Well, a variety of ways,” Gideon replied.

“For example,” Aila picked up the conversation, “Lets say an angel appears to a woman and impregnates her. He may have appeared, oh lets say, as a golden shower of light. Next thing you know the woman thinks her child is the son of a god.”

“That story sounds familiar,” I muttered.

“Of course. Zeus transformed himself into many manifestations in order to procreate with whomever he wanted,” Aila replied. “A bear, a satyr and the shower of golden light. He took the form of a swan to lure Leda. He turned into an eagle to claim Ganymede.”

“So weird that people believed that,” Joel grinned.

“They myths of today are yesterdays religions,” Gideon replied.

“Yeah but come on, a Swan? Really?”

“Is that harder to believe than a talking snake?”

“Touche.”

“Well, the virgin birth isn't so far away from those,” Gideon noted. “Christians think that Jesus was born of the 'Holy Spirit' entering the virgin Mary. How different is that from the old myths about Zeus?”

“Yeah, true, now that you mention it...” I replied.

“The so called angelic creatures may have been influencing things long before Christianity took hold.” Aila said.

“You think there is a link between the old Greek gods and Christianity?” I asked.

“Well, there are parallels. Lots of stuff repeats from one religion to the next. The idea of an afterlife, the use of spirits or gods to explain what we don't understand.” Aila put a hand up, “That doesn't preclude the existence of a god but I don't think it supports it all that well either.”

“But so many people believe,” Joel said.

“They all believe different versions. Being a member of a religion is like being a sports fan; we all think our team is best.”

“So Seth's mom meeting Lucifer...”

“Yeah, she didn't know what she was getting into. But when he revealed himself, and of course left her as all of the angelic seem to do...she kind of retreated into her religion.” She glanced at Gideon, “You do realize our fathers are the worlds oldest philanderers?”

“Back to the point though, what's the plan with Seth beyond waiting for Woolcott?” I thought I'd better get us back to the questions at hand before we got a world theology lesson.

“Well, once he makes contact we have two things to accomplish. We have to find Rafael and we have to find Lucifer. Which means we may also have to find Michael to find Rafael.” Gideon replied.

“Don't you think Michael will wonder why we want to find Rafael? He might think we're trying to free him?” Aila frowned.

“Timing will be important,” I conceded, “But according to Woolcott angelic imprisonment can only be broken by another angel. So if we wanted to see Rafael, Michael might not see a threat in that. After all, we're not angels.”

“I've been touched by one,” Joel said leaning against Aila. She shoved him. “Too much?” he laughed.

“A little.”

“How long can Seth be kept...like he is?”

“I don't really know,” Gideon conceded. “I've never run into this before and...” He shrugged, “I just don't have an answer to that.”

“Well, you guys are coming to the game right?” Joel asked.

“Well...” Aila looked at Gideon, “I guess it might be a good thing, something to take our minds off the situation a little?”

“What game?” Gideon asked.

“I play baseball,” I replied.

“You do?”

“Yeah...”

“I didn't know that,” Gideon frowned, “There's a lot I don't know about you. I'll come watch you play, this could be fun.”

“They wear tight pants,” Aila stage whispered.

I swear for a near angel her mind spent more time than mine in the gutter.

---

I couldn't keep my mind on the game. Joel wasn't making life any easier.

“Bro, you knew it was gonna happen probably by tomorrow at the latest, why sweat it?”

“Why?” I nearly yelled only lowering my voice as he waived his hands in a downward motion, “Why? Because I'm not up there to filter either of them! Do you have any idea how embarrassing this could become?” I slumped onto the dugout bench, “My life is over.”

“Um, Danny, you're parents showed up to your game. Not quite the end of life as we know it.” Joel flopped down next to me while the game continued unabated.

“No, that's the problem! My mother is up there!”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Well, she won't know who Gideon is though, right?”

“Joel.” I narrowed my eyes at him, “She knows who Aila is. She'll wave and go sit next to her to talk and what do you think Aila will do by way of introducing the devastatingly handsome guy next to her?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Think your mom will think you're holding out on her?”

“What do you think?” my head slumped forward.

“Man, you're so screwed.” Joel burst out laughing and I hit him. Hard.

I was due to bat fourth in the inning and stood up to select a bat while trying mightily to not hit Joel with it repeatedly. I heard the metallic echo of the bat hitting the ball and grabbed a helmet as well. As far as the game went, we were way ahead. In fact it was already a foregone conclusion that we'd win the only real question was by how much. Our league doesn't have a mercy rule.

The next batter lined out and I moved to the on deck circle. I took a few swings and tried not to look over at where my parents were seated, or where Gideon and Aila were. I could still imagine they were sitting separately. The batter was first pitch swinging and drove a shot into the gap in left center landing him on second base and putting the other runner on third. I stepped into the batters box and it was then I heard it.

“Go Danny! Keep your eye on the ball!” It was so loud, so high pitched and there were...so many voices. My head turned slowly, as if in a horror movie. The kind where the hero or next victim as the case may be finds one of the other characters lifelessly swinging in the darkness. This was so much worse. My mother was waving and sitting next to my beaming father, who was giving me the thumbs up. Gideon and Aila were sitting with them and, apparently, had annexed another guy and girl. My mother had her hand on Gideon's arm and the other guy was waving shyly at me. Confusion hit hard and I twitched.

“Batter up!” The umpire yelled and I twitched again before settling into the plate. The pitcher threw the ball and nearly took my jaw off, I hit the deck just in time. My little cheering section was booing as I stood up and dusted myself before settling in with the bat and a heck of a lot more alert. The next pitch wobbled over the fat part of the plate and I responded by putting the fat part of the bat on it. The ball shot over the second baseman's head and into the gap between center and right field. I took off like a rocket for first and as I rounded the corner I saw they were still racing to the ball.

As I approached second base I glanced at the third base coach who was urging me on so I poured on the speed and felt my thighs burning with the effort. This was the worst part, I had to rely on the coach because I couldn't see the ball. As I approached third he was staring intently at the outfield and waving his hand in a big windmill like motion and pointing towards home plate. I pulled out every reserve I had left and raced for home plate. I didn't look for the ball, I put my head down and pushed my legs to their absolute limit and threw myself in a dive at the plate.

“Safe!” The umpire called out. I tossed my hand in the air as I stood up and the umpire said clearly, “Little melodramatic don't you think? The slide?”

I looked at him in confusion and then turned to look out at the field. The ball was just now rolling in to the second baseman. How was I supposed to know their fielders were that bad? I walked over to the dugout with my cheering section going loudly and my teammates laughing and complimenting me on my epic slide. I sat next to a snickering Joel.

“Shut up.”

After the game, a handy 17-1 shellacking, Joel and I made our way to the bleachers. My mother gave me a teary eyed hug and my dad shook my hand like I'd just achieved something major and they just left. No scene, no...I was instantly suspicious. I turned to see Joel just leaning back from kissing Aila and Gideon smiling at me with a twinkle in his eyes. I walked over to him and his smile grew wider as he embraced me and gave me a small kiss.

“That was exciting! Your dad explained the game to me, he's a great guy.” He enthused.

“Yeah, he is at that. You...met my mother then?”

“I did! She invited us all over for lunch tomorrow. I don't know what you were worried about,” he smiled.

“I...wait you...you met...are you sure that was my mother?” I finally blurted.

“Great game Danny,” I glanced over at the speaker and realized, in horror, it was the red haired girl from the mall. She put her hands squarely on the shoulders of a smaller boy with red hair, “This is Cole.”

“Um.”

“You'll have to excuse my boyfriend, he's still working on two syllables when it comes to conversation.” Gideon told them.

“Hey!” I slapped his chest with my glove. He grinned at me and I looked back at the two red headed siblings. I held my hand out and Cole responded tentatively.

“Nice to meet you Cole, “ I nodded at his sister. “Sam, right?”

“Samantha, nice to see you Danny.”

“It's Daniel.” I smiled in return.

“You played really well,” Cole smiled with a nervous tremor in his voice.

“Thanks,” I smiled in what I hoped was a friendly, reassuring way.

“The slide, that was fantastic! Do you have to do that every time you get to home plate?” Gideon asked.

“Only if you're a moron,” Joel laughed and I felt my face go red.

“I didn't know where the ball was, exactly, and the coach was just waving me on so...”

“Why didn't you turn to look?” Samantha asked.

“Well, when you are trying to score you're not supposed to look for the ball, you just do everything to get to the plate so...”

“Well, it's baseball, you're supposed to slide. Right?” Cole offered.

“Well,” Joel smirked, “Helps if there's actually a play at the plate but I guess any chance to get the uniform dirty, right brah?”

“Yeah, that's it.”

“Come on, lets get cleaned up. Be back in a few,” Joel waved at the group in general and we headed for the locker room.

---

“So what were you guys really talking about?” I asked once Joel and I had showered. Samantha and Cole had departed and I was kind of glad. I didn't know how to deal with someone like Cole who...looked up to me, I guess.

“The team, mostly.” Gideon smiled. I narrowed my eyes at him. I figured Aila was pointing out other eligible and attractive guys on the team and I wasn't open to competition.

“What, specifically?”

“I told him the game would be more fun if you all played nude.” She burst out laughing and Gideon covered his mouth.

“Is sex always on your mind?” I laughed.

She pretended to think about it while Joel replied for her, “Yes. But then so would you, if you were dating me.”

“I can't imagine a world in which I'd date you,” I rolled my eyes. I leaned against Gideon who was sitting behind me on the bleachers. I leaned my head back and looked up into his face. “What did you think of the game?”

“Well, your team seemed really good. After all, you won...right?” He smiled at me and I sighed. “If it makes a difference, Aila was right about the pants.” I blushed slightly and angled my head up to regard Aila and Joel while continuing to maintain my body contact with Gideon.

“So how do you think Woolcott knows a fallen angel?” I asked aloud.

“Sorcerers are consumed with the thirst for knowledge, I'd only be surprised if he only knew a single fallen. Of course, calling them fallen may be a misnomer, after all if these creatures we call angels are actually older than we give them credit for then it's only the bible that calls them fallen.” The bitter tone of Aila's voice was unmistakable.

“I know I'm going to regret this but...what do you mean?” Joel asked.

“Well, considering their age what if these creatures are, for instance, behind ancient Egyptian mythology as well as Greek and Roman? Set or Horus, major figures from the Egyptian pantheon could now be a fallen angel, or more likely fallen out of favor with the group. And considering how many gods there were for Greeks and Romans...how many angels are there, really?” Aila fell silent in thought.

That set my mind wandering too. The Egyptians had a lot of gods, and the Greeks had a ton; one for everything you could think of. The Romans had fewer but were more warlike. How many angels were there? I mentally ticked them off in my head: Michael, Rafael, Gabriel...that's all I can think of.

“I can only think of three,” I muttered.

“What?” Gideon nudged me.

“I can only think of three angels. How many are there?”

“Depends on who you believe, I guess,” he replied.

“Isn't there some kind of definitive list or something?

“No. The bible only names a very few, then the torah names a few more and the koran has their own too. None of them agree.” Aila sighed, “The more I think about it, the more mind boggling it could be.”

“Like...are you saying angels could be behind all the major religions?” Joel asked.

“Well, it's possible.” Aila replied.

“Yes, it is possible,” Gideon straightened. “What if the angels are divided into factions? Not just good and evil, or good and fallen...what if,” his eyes got wide, “What if they have established their own spheres of influence all over the world?”

“Interesting theory. It might account for the overlap in theology,” Aila mused.

“Okay, we're so far off the subject...”

“We had a subject?”

“Fallen angels? Helping Seth?”

“Oh, right. Well, like I was saying, sorcerers live for knowledge so there's a pretty good chance he knows more than one. Where you find one, I don't know.” Aila replied while idly stroking Joel's hair.

“I hate to say this, but I think it has to be said.” Gideon spoke quietly, with a solemn conviction. “Seth isn't the only issue we face right now. There is the issue of the demonic activity, which Aila and I have discussed at length and we are in agreement. There must be a nest close by of Council of Light members.”

“Light's a good thing though, right?” Joel asked.

“Not in this case, babe.” Aila said softly.

“The Council is one of the more zealous light groups. They are working for the total eradication of human dark.”

“But...wouldn't the angels become involved? I mean...if their children were warring?” I asked.

“Even though Woolcott says the angelic care about their offspring, they don't seem to get involved past knocking up our mothers.” Aila replied bitterly. “Don't see why they'd jump in here.”

“So...this council...” Joel trailed off.

“Very dangerous, organized in groups of thirteen.”

“Thirteen is bad,” Joel muttered.

“Actually,” Aila stroked his hair as she lectured, “Thirteen is regarded in several different ways. Thirteen is the number of the Virgin Mary, and she is supposed to crush the serpent. In some circles it cleans and purifies. In others it means death,”

“See? Bad.” Joel interrupted.

“Death,” she covered his mouth, “And the transition to the spirit. Of course here thirteen is widely looked on as being unlucky. But in actuality, it's a number of power no matter what you believe.”

“Um.” I stared at Aila in confusion and Gideon poked me. Probably for my verbal skills.

“Thirteen,” Gideon took over for Aila, “Is the number of apostles plus the messiah in the bible. There were twelve knights of the round table plus King Arthur. In fact the idea that thirteen is unlucky, along with Friday the thirteenth in particular, it has been theorized, can be traced to a single historical incident.”

“The birth of Jason Voorhees?” Joel asked.

“Who?” Gideon frowned.

“You know, hockey mask? Big machete? Like eight, twelve movies?”

“This isn't a movie character, dummy,” Aila scolded him and covered his mouth again.

“Actually the historic date refers to the day the french king had the Knights Templar seized and destroyed. Friday the 13th, 1307.”

“So wait, what do the Knights Templar have to do with the Council of Light?” I asked in confusion.

“Nothing,” Gideon laughed, “I was making a point about thirteen.” He sobered as he looked up at the stars, unwilling suddenly to meet our eyes. “They need thirteen of them channeling light to burn human dark out of existence.”

“Out of...you mean kill them?” I sat up and looked shot a nervous look at Gideon who looked down from the stars and into my eyes with a gentle, serene expression.

“No. It means they sear the soul, burn him so far out of existence that people will forget they ever knew them. Daniel,” he took my hand and pulled me close into him and rested his chin on my head, “Daniel this … this superstition and occult that is so interesting and archaic has a very deadly point to it all. This group plays for keeps and if they are close, then we are all in mortal danger.

“Even others memories of us are in danger.”

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