Azrael
I broke a rule. Did a friend's homework.
Oh well.
A suicide note. By an angel. Yeah. Weird.
So, Azrael’s there, right? And he’s working away, working away, writing, erasing, doing his thing. Then outta nowhere, ‘cause he’s been banished years now, Lucifer shows up. And Azrael gets scared, and he wants to know what Lucifer’s doing, right? Because Lucifer’s supposed to be stuck in hell for eternity and all. And Lucifer, he starts chattin’ away, like they’re old friends (and they kinda are, after all), and he gets around to angels. And Azrael would be trying not to piss his pants, if he could piss his pants, you know? And he gets confused. But Lucifer was once the most brilliant Angel, yanno? So he listens. And Lucifer, he waxes poetic about how the angels have fallen to scum. And Azrael, he kinda agrees, deep down where it counts and all. And he finds that the more Lucifer talks, the more he agrees. Lucifer was proud for a reason, right? Right?
And so Lucifer says “to hell with man,” and he flings the book into the fire in righteous anger and all. And then he looks solemnly into Azrael’s eyes, and Azrael can’t see the lie in them because he’s just the Angel of Death, yanno? He’s not the Angel of Truth or Perception or something. Everyone knows that. Right? And Lucifer, he says, “Let’s purify this world. Everything needs to be repaired. Everything.”
And Azrael, he agrees. So of course, the first thing he does is he obliterates Lucifer.
Now, no one knows about this, right? No one cares either. Really, Lucifer’s just scum that needed to unexist anyway. He’s the one as destroyed the perfection of God’s Garden, right? And blasphemy needs to get removed, doesn’t it? God’s always on about it, isn’t he? Ranting and raving about how doing anything would damn your soul, right?
So Azrael, he goes out to find Uriel, ‘cause Uriel’s the fire of God and fire’s the most dangerous thing around, natural. Isn’t it? And when he does, he walks straight up to Uriel, who loves God so much he should understand why Azrael’s doing it, and he sits Uriel down, and explains for a while, only his explanation isn’t as good as Lucifer’s was and he can’t make Uriel understand and Uriel starts to reach for Azrael’s heart with his flame that is the pure love of God only Azrael don’t get it, and he panics and because he’s afraid of Uriel, kinda, he erases him too.
And Azrael, he’s not sure of this so much anymore. But he’s started it, and he can’t leave a job unfinished because Angels just can’t do anything less than perfect in what they do because they are as God and so he can’t let his actions be undone by the only one that maybe could, so he goes and he finds Raphael. And since Raphael doesn’t know what Azrael’s done yet, because no one cares about Lucifer (right?) and Uriel doesn’t come out of his place much, he removes Raphael before he can do anything.
And then because there’s another problem, his old pal Gabriel, who could maybe tell everyone else around what happened if he wasn’t stopped and now Azrael goes to find him. And when he does, Gabriel’s just relaxing, without a care in the world and all. But soon as Azrael gets close, he knows something’s up. Something’s wrong with nice old Azrael, the one that sits alone and works all the time, and he’s kinda gotta pity Azrael for that, because no one else has to do that kind of thing. It’d be enough to twine anyone else, wouldn’t it? But nice old Azrael, he’s a good guy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, just a man, because, well, that’s his purpose, right? He can’t do anything but what he was created to do, now can he?
So he’s surprised when he recognizes what’s wrong with Azrael. There’s always a sort of wrongness about those who kill Angels, isn’t there? And even if it happened a long time ago, he remembers what Lucifer felt like back then. He remembers because he’s not really in time, is he? He’s an Angel, ‘fter all.
And he asks, “Why?”
And Azrael, he tries to explain, but he’s not good with words like the Radiant One was. And all he can get across is that what has to happen happens because it has to happen. And he realizes that Gabriel doesn’t understand, so he prepares to erase him, see.
But Gabriel, he begs for mercy.
But Azrael, he says: “Sodom… and Gommorah… That was you. It was not their time.” And then he destroys Gabriel, and that little twinge of guilt tightens in him, where his stomach would be if he needed one.
And scared of that, Azrael runs to Michael, because Michael’s always know what to do, you know? God, Michael even visited Azrael sometimes when he had the free time, and Michael was one of the busiest angels. Michael was one of the Angels the creator of emotions tested them on. Poor Michael, Love and Hate. Probably why he liked Azrael.
But Michael, he feels the wrongness on Azrael. But he’s still Azrael’s friend, probably one of the only ones. So he embraces Azrael like Angels do. And he asks what’s wrong because still, he kinda loves Azrael in a sneaky sort of way because Azrael’s never done anything really wrong, has he?
So Azrael explains, but it’s still not as good as Lucifer’s was.
And Michael, he says, “You remember Patrick, Azrael? He drove all the snakes out of Ireland, remember? He rid the country of the plague that choked it.
“You remember what happened after, Azrael? All the mice and rats and vermin ran free and infected everything.
“Nothing is without consequences, Azrael. Getting rid of the snakes brought worse trouble. Aren’t the evil Angels rather like the snakes?”
And Azrael feels betrayed at this, you know, because this is Michael and Michael’s never disagreed with him before. So in his hate, which Michael ‘gifted’ him with, he removes Michael.
And then, Azrael realizes what happened. But because he’s an angel and all, he can’t stop. No stopping ‘till it’s finished. No rest until everything is perfect.
So he finishes it.
Azrael dropped the pen; his hands shook so badly the last lines were almost illegible. He persevered, and picked it up again to scrawl in an unsteady hand at the top, To God, if there still be one.
And then he found the place where his name was written. He began to erase it, but nothing happened.
Why, he wanted to scream. Why, when you could have stopped me? Why?
But all that he could voice:
“So… you’re still there… I hate you… so much…”
Oh well.
A suicide note. By an angel. Yeah. Weird.
So, Azrael’s there, right? And he’s working away, working away, writing, erasing, doing his thing. Then outta nowhere, ‘cause he’s been banished years now, Lucifer shows up. And Azrael gets scared, and he wants to know what Lucifer’s doing, right? Because Lucifer’s supposed to be stuck in hell for eternity and all. And Lucifer, he starts chattin’ away, like they’re old friends (and they kinda are, after all), and he gets around to angels. And Azrael would be trying not to piss his pants, if he could piss his pants, you know? And he gets confused. But Lucifer was once the most brilliant Angel, yanno? So he listens. And Lucifer, he waxes poetic about how the angels have fallen to scum. And Azrael, he kinda agrees, deep down where it counts and all. And he finds that the more Lucifer talks, the more he agrees. Lucifer was proud for a reason, right? Right?
And so Lucifer says “to hell with man,” and he flings the book into the fire in righteous anger and all. And then he looks solemnly into Azrael’s eyes, and Azrael can’t see the lie in them because he’s just the Angel of Death, yanno? He’s not the Angel of Truth or Perception or something. Everyone knows that. Right? And Lucifer, he says, “Let’s purify this world. Everything needs to be repaired. Everything.”
And Azrael, he agrees. So of course, the first thing he does is he obliterates Lucifer.
Now, no one knows about this, right? No one cares either. Really, Lucifer’s just scum that needed to unexist anyway. He’s the one as destroyed the perfection of God’s Garden, right? And blasphemy needs to get removed, doesn’t it? God’s always on about it, isn’t he? Ranting and raving about how doing anything would damn your soul, right?
So Azrael, he goes out to find Uriel, ‘cause Uriel’s the fire of God and fire’s the most dangerous thing around, natural. Isn’t it? And when he does, he walks straight up to Uriel, who loves God so much he should understand why Azrael’s doing it, and he sits Uriel down, and explains for a while, only his explanation isn’t as good as Lucifer’s was and he can’t make Uriel understand and Uriel starts to reach for Azrael’s heart with his flame that is the pure love of God only Azrael don’t get it, and he panics and because he’s afraid of Uriel, kinda, he erases him too.
And Azrael, he’s not sure of this so much anymore. But he’s started it, and he can’t leave a job unfinished because Angels just can’t do anything less than perfect in what they do because they are as God and so he can’t let his actions be undone by the only one that maybe could, so he goes and he finds Raphael. And since Raphael doesn’t know what Azrael’s done yet, because no one cares about Lucifer (right?) and Uriel doesn’t come out of his place much, he removes Raphael before he can do anything.
And then because there’s another problem, his old pal Gabriel, who could maybe tell everyone else around what happened if he wasn’t stopped and now Azrael goes to find him. And when he does, Gabriel’s just relaxing, without a care in the world and all. But soon as Azrael gets close, he knows something’s up. Something’s wrong with nice old Azrael, the one that sits alone and works all the time, and he’s kinda gotta pity Azrael for that, because no one else has to do that kind of thing. It’d be enough to twine anyone else, wouldn’t it? But nice old Azrael, he’s a good guy. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, just a man, because, well, that’s his purpose, right? He can’t do anything but what he was created to do, now can he?
So he’s surprised when he recognizes what’s wrong with Azrael. There’s always a sort of wrongness about those who kill Angels, isn’t there? And even if it happened a long time ago, he remembers what Lucifer felt like back then. He remembers because he’s not really in time, is he? He’s an Angel, ‘fter all.
And he asks, “Why?”
And Azrael, he tries to explain, but he’s not good with words like the Radiant One was. And all he can get across is that what has to happen happens because it has to happen. And he realizes that Gabriel doesn’t understand, so he prepares to erase him, see.
But Gabriel, he begs for mercy.
But Azrael, he says: “Sodom… and Gommorah… That was you. It was not their time.” And then he destroys Gabriel, and that little twinge of guilt tightens in him, where his stomach would be if he needed one.
And scared of that, Azrael runs to Michael, because Michael’s always know what to do, you know? God, Michael even visited Azrael sometimes when he had the free time, and Michael was one of the busiest angels. Michael was one of the Angels the creator of emotions tested them on. Poor Michael, Love and Hate. Probably why he liked Azrael.
But Michael, he feels the wrongness on Azrael. But he’s still Azrael’s friend, probably one of the only ones. So he embraces Azrael like Angels do. And he asks what’s wrong because still, he kinda loves Azrael in a sneaky sort of way because Azrael’s never done anything really wrong, has he?
So Azrael explains, but it’s still not as good as Lucifer’s was.
And Michael, he says, “You remember Patrick, Azrael? He drove all the snakes out of Ireland, remember? He rid the country of the plague that choked it.
“You remember what happened after, Azrael? All the mice and rats and vermin ran free and infected everything.
“Nothing is without consequences, Azrael. Getting rid of the snakes brought worse trouble. Aren’t the evil Angels rather like the snakes?”
And Azrael feels betrayed at this, you know, because this is Michael and Michael’s never disagreed with him before. So in his hate, which Michael ‘gifted’ him with, he removes Michael.
And then, Azrael realizes what happened. But because he’s an angel and all, he can’t stop. No stopping ‘till it’s finished. No rest until everything is perfect.
So he finishes it.
Azrael dropped the pen; his hands shook so badly the last lines were almost illegible. He persevered, and picked it up again to scrawl in an unsteady hand at the top, To God, if there still be one.
And then he found the place where his name was written. He began to erase it, but nothing happened.
Why, he wanted to scream. Why, when you could have stopped me? Why?
But all that he could voice:
“So… you’re still there… I hate you… so much…”