Afterlife: A Fall of Angels Novelette Read Free Page A

Everything inside of him shredded and grated.   Everything inside of him wanted to disappear.
    Looking up, Cole tried to orient himself.  He lay in a grass field, clothed in the same black clothes and trench coat he had stolen on his last visit.  Forcing the pain into one of Cole’s many dark corners, he pushed himself up onto his feet.
    Windows glowed bright with soft yellow light not far from where he stood in the dark night.  From the outside it looked like the perfectly charming farm house he’d seen on the covers of magazines at the grocery store.
    But Cole could feel him inside, and in a few hours that perfect farm house would be thrown into chaos.
    Cole moved soundlessly through the tall grass toward the house.  The rise of anticipation and dark inside of him was more powerful than any modern drug.
    There was something damningly exhilarating about ending a human life.
    Disappearing from human eye, Cole silently let himself in through a side door.
    The house inside did not match the house outside.
    The kitchen Cole entered into was cluttered with dirty dishes and overflowing garbage.  The floor was streaked with who knew what.  Fruit flies clustered on some kind of unidentifiable food on the counter.
    The entire space reeked of alcohol.
    Stepping soundlessly through the kitchen, Cole wandered inside.  Following his keen ears, he walked into an equally disgusting living room.
    Among the filth sat an overweight, balding, dirty man.  He stared emptily at the television, his eyes heavy and droopy.  A brown glass bottle hung loosely in one of his pudgy hands.  Cole could smell the alcohol already coming out of his very pores.
    Almost disappointed at the lack of challenge, Cole walked back into the kitchen and opened the cupboard under the sink.  Picking something that looked potent and colorful, he then went to the greasy-finger smudged refrigerator and pulled out another beer.
    Twisting the top off, Cole poured a third of the contents into the sink, then topped the bottle off with his chosen poison.  He dropped in a few pills he found in a cluttered cupboard for good measure.
    Casually reentering the living room, Cole focused his thoughts.  The man didn’t even stir as Cole invaded his head.
    “Have another, my friend,” Cole said, extending the bottle to the man.  He didn’t even look up as he accepted and took a long swig.
    He coughed violently as the toxins burned his esophagus but didn’t tear his eyes from the screen.
    Feeling the very skin he lived in tighten around him, Cole glanced down at his left hand.  His veins were already straining out against his flesh.  He watched the black of death slowly stain his skin.
    Time was up.
    “See you soon,” Cole said, patting the fat man on the shoulder.  He just grunted as Cole walked back toward the door.
    Cole barely made it outside before he collapsed onto his hands and knees.  The breath caught in his throat.  Everything felt crushed inside of him.  Cole eagerly gave into the pull of death.

 
     
     
    “ I came into a place void of all light,
    which bellows like the sea in tempest,
    when it is combated by warring winds.”
    - Canto V, Inferno, Dante
     
    Skin had a beautiful way of yielding to Cole’s branding iron.  It softened, gave into the red-hot metal.  Then it smoked.  Cole left a lasting impression on a great number of the residents of the afterlife.
    Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Cole inhaled the man’s terror.  It was an intoxicating thing.  The man on his hands and knees before Cole whimpered, begging for forgiveness.
    But there was no forgiveness for what this man had done.
    The condemned sprung from the staircase as Cole stepped back.  They heckled, screeched in glee as their hands wrapped around the man’s wrists and ankles.  The man thrashed and fought against them, but you can’t fight where you belong.
    With the masses disbursing, Cole prepared to join those he led.
    “Brother,” a kind voice said