Chapter 13

I stood up and looked at the landscape surrounding the hill. I didn’t know what the hell the glowing ring above my head was, but I was too tired to care. More balls of light rose toward the swirling clouds in the sky. I wondered if this was connected to that weird light from last night. But last night’s light looked like it came from a tear in the sky. These were spinning clouds like a hurricane with a glowing center.

“Well done,” a voice called out from behind me. “You’ve finally reached the end of your journey just as I knew you would.”

It sounded exactly like Rhoda but a little deeper. I turned around and saw a woman standing there holding her hands together. She wore a long white, red, and green colored dress that resembled a Roman stola with a strap on each shoulder. She had chestnut-colored curly hair that was so long it nearly touched the ground. She wore a green wreath made of white flowers around her head like a crown. Her skin was pale but appeared to give off a faint glow. Such beautiful eyes she had that were a uniquely pale-colored green like jades.

As she walked toward me her feet came out from underneath her dress revealing that she was barefooted. How was she walking in the snow without any shoes? She stood in front of me, touched my forehead, and a bright light came out of her fingertip. I felt as if all my energy had returned. In fact, all my injuries were gone as well. It was as if nothing happened. I wasn’t sore anymore nor did I have a migraine.

“I’m better,” I looked all over myself and then at her. “What did you do?”

“Oh, that’s one of my specialties,” she said with a chuckle. “Course my healing abilities have become a bit rusty seeing as it’s been awhile since I had to use them,” she paced around me and looked me in the eyes. Her lips widened as she smiled largely. “A small part of me was worried when you fell in the snow, but I knew you’d make it here. And here you are, alive and in one piece.”

“Who are you?” I asked. My eyes widened as I stood before her. There was something unusual about this woman. Her appearance, her liveliness, her whole personality was unusual to say the least. Her eyebrows raised slightly and slanted. With her smile she looked rather gentle as she also spoke gently.

“Come on, Stanford. Seriously? You know who I am,” she placed a hand on her chest. “It’s me, Ariel. The guardian of nature. As long as we’ve known each other. I can’t believe you’d asked that.”

I had no idea what she was meant. I’d never seen this woman a day in my life. I didn’t know who she was, how she knew me, why she was out here, how she got out here or why she was just tolerating the cold as she didn’t wear anything to keep herself warm. Not to mention her walking barefooted in the snow.

“I don’t know you,” I said.

“Uh, yeah you do,” she waved her finger at me in a ‘come here’ jester. “Come with me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Just do it,” she said sternly.

I raised a brow as I walked beside her to the edge of the hill. We stood there looking at the sky as more balls of light rose. Though I was intrigued by what was happening another mystery lied beside me. I may not have known who this woman was, but I had an opportunity to find out who she was. I attempted to spark a conversation.

“You said you were a guardian of nature, right? What does that mean?” I asked.

She stared hard out over the horizon. “Just as I told you, Stanford. I protect nature and help mankind learn to respect it.”

“But how do you know my name?” I asked.

She looked at me and squinted her eyes. She squished her lips together and made a small grunting noise. “Because you told me.”

That didn’t make a damn bit of sense to me.

“No! I haven’t!” I yelled. “I told you we’ve never met before! I don’t know you! Who the hell are you?”

Her brows raised. “Guess you must’ve hit your head harder than I thought,” she smiled again but rolled her eyes. I shook my head as I clearly wasn’t getting through. I didn’t know why she insisted that I knew her. My attention drew back toward the sky.

“What are those balls of light?” I asked. She crossed her arms and cocked her squinting eyes at me.

“Really? Isn’t it obvious?” she waved a hand at the sky. “They’re human souls.”

“What? Human souls?” my eyes widened as I quickly turned my head toward her. “Are they going to the afterlife? And what is that big swirling vortex in the sky?”

“No,” she chuckled. “The souls are not going to the afterlife. They’re just going to be cleansed. It’s the whole reason I summoned the advent, the swirling in the sky.”

“Advent?” I asked. “What’s an advent? You mentioned that when I visited that burial ground. So what is it?”

Her smile faded and her lips straightened. Her eyebrows straightened horizontally.

“Alright, I’ll tell you everything,” she looked down and again held her hands together. “You see the advent is a spiritual awakening. This type of event is held to help benefit mankind. As man are born into sin, they do things to benefits themselves while causing harm to the world around them.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“It’s like this,” she took in a deep breath through her nose. “Individually, each human sees themself as more important than everyone else. They will do whatever it takes to get what they want completely oblivious to the harm they cause others. They kill animals for their own amusement or out of curiosity. They kill air-giving trees for papers in offices and clear the landscape so they can put buildings up. They murder and steal from each other and justify it by saying they did what they had to for survival.”

“I see,” I said.

“Indeed,” she said. “People were originally placed on earth to work with one another but yet they destroy each other over disagreements and selfish reasons. They even destroy the natural world, stealing valuable resources from the earth. It’s always been like this since God put them here, an endless cycle of humanity destroying to get what they desire. They were given countless chances for redemption but neglected every single one.”

“So what are you getting at?” I asked.

“Every couple of thousand years we summon advents to cleanse the souls of man to wash away their sins. Afterwards, they’re reincarnate as better people. If this isn’t done man’s darkness will consume them and cause them to destroy the world.”

“But aren’t these advent things destroying the world?” I asked.

“Better some of the world than all of it. If people had their way this world would’ve fallen apart centuries ago.” she looked down. Her eyebrows slanted and her eyes looked teary. “You see, people think with their minds instead of their hearts. A human soul knows the difference between right and wrong even when the mind is shrouded in darkness.”

I thought about what she said. Her words made sense, but I wondered if now’s an appropriate time to be thinking about this. I was intrigued by what she said before.

“Earlier, you said we, implying that there are others like you. Is that true?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ariel nodded. “There are other angels just like me who were sent from heaven to initiate these raptures for the good of mankind.”

“Angels?” I shouted. “Did you just say you’re an angel, like those winged halo people in heaven? But you said you were a guardian of nature.”

“Yes,” she said chuckling. “I’m a guardian of nature. However, I am also an angel of nature. During these times several of us descend to earth to initiate the advents all over the world.”

“But if you’re an angel then where’s your halo? Where’s your wings?” I asked.

“Angels don’t have wings and halos like humans draw us on holiday cards,” she waved a hand. “In fact, most of us are actually warriors. Just read the bible, it tells you all about us.”

I looked back up at the sky. Even with all these weird things happening I still had trouble believing Ariel was some sort of angel. I thought about the ring over my head and wondered if she knew what it was.

“What is this thing?” I asked while pointing at the ring.

“That’s a halo,” she said calmly.

“A halo? Why do I have a halo?” I asked.

“That’s what people receive when they die,” she scoffed. “Of course you have one too, now that you’re dead and all.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I felt a drop in the pit of my stomach. “I’m dead?” I shouted.

“No,” she chuckled. “I’m just joking. You have that because of the wondrous event above. A side effect the advents have on the living is that their energy mixes with spirit energy and makes halos appear above their heads.”

“So, these events really are happening all over the world then?” I asked. “It’s really not just here, it’s everywhere?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And that weird light in the sky from last night. Were you behind that as well?” I asked.

“Yes,” she nodded. “I attempted to summon the advent yesterday, but my concentration was off, and it didn’t work as all it did was tear open the sky. However, I finally got it to work today.”

“Oh my god,” I placed a hand on top of my head as I felt another jolt shoot through my body. “If that’s true, then how in the world did you do all of this?”

“All the perks of being an angel,” Ariel smirked once more. She snapped her fingers. All of a sudden, the vortex rotated faster. More souls rose from the ground to the sky at a much quicker pace. “You see, Stanford. Ever since mankind left their innocence back at the Garden of Eden, they let their greed and selfish desires fuel their determination,” she sighed. “If only man would had focused more on helping the world and loved each other instead of just themselves. Maybe we wouldn’t need things like this. Politics, religion, sex, money, just some of the things that drive people apart.”

“Oh my god…,” I said to myself as the balls of light were quickly sucked into the void.

Ariel looked at me with a heavy look in her eyes. “People try to justify their actions by saying it felt good. I hate excuses like that. They think whatever feels right is right. People act as if the world and everything on it belongs to them. They never realized since they didn’t bring anything with them, they have no right to take anything with them when they die. They also need to know when something bad happens to them there is a reason for it.”

She held out her hand and her palm began glowing. Above, the vortex slowed its rotation.

“My main goal is to bring at least some of mankind’s innocence back and give them a newfound respect for nature and others. I want to open their hearts and make them aware of their destructive ways. I hoped for a long time that mankind would eventually see the error of their ways on their own. Unfortunately, my hopes were in vain.”

“Besides the lights in the sky were you responsible for all the other things?” I asked. “The earthquake, the thunderstorms, did you do all of that?”

“Yes. That was I,” Ariel said. I remembered something vital. The biggest problem that plagued me since this all started. One that I couldn’t shake. I just had to know.

“What about those damn birds? What the hell was up with them?” I asked.

“In my world birds are sacred messengers,” she said. “They’re our little helpers. I used them to inform the people of the time of change.”

“So you sent birds to go kill everyone? That’s your way of informing them?” I yelled. She looked at me with widened eyes.

“Angels use birds to send different messages. For me, this was my message. Mankind will never have control over nature as no one could control the birds. Nature always finds a way to slip through their fingertips. My point is that mankind with all its technology and advancements still couldn’t defend themselves from these simple feathered creatures. It wasn’t just here. This was all over the world. People used guns and other weapons, but my little messengers still delivered.”

“And you couldn’t find a better way to deliver that message?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Ariel’s eyes shimmered in the light. “I know it seems cruel. But for the people of this world it was the only way.”

I didn’t know whether to yell at her or laugh my ass off. People were dying everywhere. Although she had a point about mankind and nature, I thought I finally started losing my mind. I just busted out laughing. I bent over to grab my knees as I laughed as hard as I could. I knew Ariel looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but I didn’t care.

“Why do you laugh?” she asked.

“Because this shit ain’t happening,” I quickly regained my composure. “All this just to tell people they don’t control nature and that they’re too selfish? Really?”

“Stanford, you’ll thank me someday. I know you think what I’m doing is wrong, but you’ll see. There is so much that you don’t understand.”

Something else was on my mind. “Ariel. You said that all souls were going to be purified in that advent cyclone thing in the air. Why am I still alive? Those birds could’ve killed me a while ago, but they didn’t. Why?”

She turned and slowly walked toward me. She stood before me and stared into my eyes with a gentle smile.

“Because you’re my best friend, Stanford. I know I’m not supposed to single out people when I summon an advent. It may get me into trouble for when I go back but I just wanted to make one exception. When everyone else shunned me, you were the one who stopped and spoke to me, befriended me, took care of me. You were a friend when I needed one.”

A single tear slid down her cheek. I took a deep breath. “But I told you I’ve never met you before!”

“Yes, you did Stanford,” she said sternly. “You just haven’t seen me like this before. You treated me nicely, accepted me when no one else would, comforted me when I needed it. I really like you, Stanford. This is what I can do for you. For all the good you’ve given me.”

I sighed and flopped my hands to my sides. “Whatever.”

Maybe I did meet her before and couldn’t remember where or when.

She looked down at the snow and smiled. “Stanford, I know you don’t believe me, but the truth is we are best friends,” Ariel looked back up at the sky. “The time has come. Mankind’s awakening is at hand. The time of the advent is upon us.”

The vortex in the sky became larger and the light became brighter. A beam of yellow light came from the center and shined upon the land creating a large explosion. A dome-shaped wave of dust traveled across the snowy landscape like a nuclear blast. I shielded my eyes as the blast was so bright.

Before the wave reached us, Ariel held up a hand. When the wave struck us, we seemed to be shielded inside some sort of bubble. All the blast energy rushed over us as if we were underwater in a raging rapid. Though we seemed protected I still felt the mighty force of the wave. I screamed as loud as I could.

“It will be over before you know it,” Ariel said calmly. I wasn’t sure just how long the blast lasted. Eventually the wave died down. Smoky-looking yellow energy leaked out all over my body. I looked down and saw that my feet weren’t on the ground.

“What’s happening?” I shouted at Ariel.

“The time for your awakening has come,” she said. “You shall awaken different from the others. For your spiritual awakening will be without death.”

I felt a burning jolt in my stomach. I hated heights. As I floated upward, I wondered what was going to happen. I looked down at Ariel still looking at me with that gentle smile of hers. Before I rose too far, I shouted one last thing to her.

“My friend. Rhoda. Where is she? Do you know where she is?”

“You don’t know where she is?” she asked in a confused voice. After a moment she spoke in a very familiar voice. “Stanford, I’m right here.”

In an instant I felt another jolt course through my gut. But before I could react, I was sucked into the sky meeting with the swirling vortex. It felt as if I were inside a tornado. I spun violently. I wanted to scream but I couldn’t. I felt as if the world around me was being disintegrated, broken down to the molecular level. I felt as if I was also breaking down physically, mentally, and spiritually.

The light. There was so much light and then darkness.