CHAPTER 4 : AZAZEL'S GRIP

After all I saw, I was no doubt dumbfounded.

"Why didn't you send the demon back?" I asked, slowly turning over to Raphael.

"I couldn't, what is and was meant to be, will be." "This is a force I can't even comprehend as an angel." "It is the force of fate." Raphael replied, furrowing his brows as he explained.

"I'm sorry!" It was all I could say. 

"Don't be!" He assured sternly. "Don't apologize to me, apologize to the world, what you performed here, sent the prophecy into script. The prophecy that is meant to end us all."

"Why does this act as a fore runner before the prophecy?" I asked as tears slowly accumulated in my eyes. I tried to hide it from the angel. I cried because for my sake the world is going to end.

"John, it is a seal, one of the over three hundred seals that forty are to occur before the end of the world." "The seals started off as you being born, the birth of the first and last celestial and was followed by the bringing in of a demon to this realm." "Even I do not know what the prophecy beholds." "But trust me, it is of Chaos And Apocalypse." Raphael stared at me right into the eyes and said. "The plan is to restore you gift so you may be ready for the prophecy, fighting along side the witch and Khloe." "Although there will be hard times, hard choices, downs and ups." Raphael added.

"John! Listen, the only way you can tackle this and end the chaos that the prophecy beholds is to lay down your life." "That is a choice but I will not let you take it." Raphael made clear. He swore to protect me from death, to my face.

"Then how exactly can we win if that is the only choice?" I asked as I slowly drowned myself in self blame.

"We...fight." Raphael replied instantly.

"It usually doesn't take this long." Khloe had her hand over her head, massaging it as she walked from the left corner of the living room to the right and vice versa.

"You told me it took a while the first time, maybe they are just quite busy at the moment sorting things out." Maria replied.

"Maria this is five o' clock pm." Who knows when he left, who knows if it was Raphael that even called him. Open your eyes Maria, there are people out there, that are no on our side and as powerful." khloe detailed, angrily yelling at Maria.

"I can't take this any more!" Khloe said brooding at Maria who was on the couch.

"I think you are over thinking th.." Maria who was about to cool Khloe down got interrupted by a loud ear deafening yell.

"John!" Khloe yelled. Her voice shattered the glasses and cracked the screen of the television that was before Maria. Still she didn't stop, or maybe she couldn't. Her voice echoed down the street, putting by walkers to their knees and forcing them to hold their ears tight. Still she went further as her voice echoed across the realm she was in and the realm of Raphael.

"John!" The voice echoed dimly behind Raphael who stared peacefully at the still setting sun, putting him away from his calmness and into confusion. He turned, looking instinctively at the now grassy field of his realm and kept on hearing the echo.

"Khloe!" He uttered.

Where is John?" Raphael asked, adjusting the collar of the suit by moving my shoulder and pushing his neck forward.

He had his hand on his tie and adjusted it, still staring at Khloe who was panting.

"You're the angel!" Khloe stammered. "I have not seen him since I woke up, please help me find him." Khloe pleaded with a doleful face.

Meanwhile, out side the house stood a young man, who parked his pizza delivery motorbike, stared up at Khloe's house before taking off his helmet.

Raphael spawned another portal, instantly shutting the first one and just then, the boy walked in. He caught the attention of both Khloe and Raphael, and he was left dumbfounded.

"Oh my God!" He said before trying to reach for his phone. Right as he had it in his hands, it sparked forcing him to throw it far from him. As soon as he looked forward and saw Raphael, he fainted.

"Who is that?" Khloe asked inquisitively, staring at the body that was on the floor in their living room.

"One of you, as soon as he walked up, he will know as much as Maria knows." "Your house is sealed, no one can come in, no one can leave." Raphael concluded before widening the spark that created the portal.

They both walked through the portal and they appeared at a wide empty field, filled with green grasses only and red fire surrounding them. Opposite to them, squatted a man in a black suit, before John who laid unconscious. Not specifically a man though. As he turned, Khloe saw the two red horns sticking out of his red face, his forehead particularly.

"The demon." "Azazel!" Khloe whispered.

"Of course it is me I knew you will come for the boy." Azazel said out loud, with his hands apart, before he gestured them into the remaining part of his inferno.

Azazel slowly took his steps forward and forward towards Khloe, forcing her to her knees as he inflicted pain through her skulls and her brain.

You wouldn't kill her! Raphael made clear with a smile.

"Ahhh!" Khloe yelled.

"Watch and see as I do!" Azazel replied and suddenly vanished. He reappeared before John who laid on the grassy floor.

"Do not dare harm him!" Raphael warned the demon. He stretched his hand towards Khloe, gesturing to help her up. Khloe who had no idea she was a siphoner held hands with the angel, suddenly shutting down consciousness in her.

Her iris rolled up and over and all that was left was the white remains of her eyes. She siphoned the powers of the angel, powers she couldn't control and got her self instantly set at rage with her mind filled with destruction of what she hated the most that moment.

She stretched forth her hand and beckoned the demon. Few metres before her, she put him to his knees and slowly made him choke on his black demon blood that gushed out of his mouth uncontrollably.

Azazel vanished instantly and reappeared behind Khloe. Khloe who was not fast enough to react to the demon's move had a blade that grew out of the demon's fist go through her.

He lifted her up with the blade that was all the way through her back and her abdomen and threw her down.

Khloe regained consciousness as soon as she was about to die. She grasped for air while she was paralyzed. Her wide opened eyes stared at the angel who stood and watched her. Raphael stretched his left hand towards Khloe and white flares of his powers emitted from his finger tips and got into Khloe through her nostrils. She shut her eyes instantly and Raphael had his head down. He created a force shield around her body, still with his heads down.

"So this is what it comes to, the demon versus the angel!"

Raphael observed every sound he heard, from the flames and crunch of the burning leaves to the words the demon said. Suddenly the burning fire went off till a specified radius. Azazel smiled and ran towards the angel who he thought was absent minded.

As Azazel ran, few metres before the angel, Raphael raised two fingers of his right hand, his index and the middle finger and his thumb laid inside the flesh of his palm. Suddenly all movements and gestures Azazel performed stopped. The suit attire the angel wore off like ashes and his normal white attire with gold linen replenished. Raphael opened up his eyes and all that was seen was pure white eyes, emitting flares of white smoke.

"Hi!" Khloe said to Raphael with a sole purpose to call his attention to her.

"There is a missing name." She dropped her leg on the floor and sat upright. She had her right hand on her head with a rough face after feeling a pang. "From the list." She added.

"The name's Claire Johnathan. If he wakes, tell him to find her instantly and the rest of you." "Time isn't on our side anymore." "The prophecy will soon go into script." Raphael concluded as he walked out of the room.

Contradictorily,

Azazel stood at a corner and glared so much hatred at the house from the other side of the street, Khloe's house to be precise.

About to cross over the sudden heavy trafficked road, a car came speeding right towards him. The surprise face of the driver, fat, on glasses, signified he saw something unusual. Trying not to hit the demon, his brake failed and still he came crashing right into the Azazel, wrecking his car. The destroyed car and the dead driver wrecked havoc on the streets, causing more accidents. And Azazel was no where to be found.