Raphael

The rubble beneath me vibrated as another explosion went off a few streets over. Glass from hundreds of windows shattered and fell like glittering rain drops. My breaths came in short gasps as I hunched doubled over on hands and knees in the middle of the remnants of a downtown street. At least two or three broken ribs I thought.

I lifted my gaze just enough to see dozens of mangled and bloody bodies littering the street before me. This was not like the fairy tales written in books. This was the reality of magic and monsters, of hero’s and villain’s.

Sharp pain blossomed like fire from my arm as the head of a barbed arrow erupted from my left bicep. Crimson blood splattered the ground as the arrowhead severed tissue, muscle and veins. I screamed in pain as my arm went limp and dangled uselessly.

Gathering the remains of my energy, slightly refreshed from new found rage, I beat my wings and rose into the smoke filled sky. A dark streak passed in a blur no more than a foot away. My wings beat harder fanning the small fires below me into a single inferno. Carried along the wind I heard a voice.

“We condemn you Raphael.” My eyes searched for the source and found it. Far below stood a group of five men and two women poised for battle but not all armed. My eyes bored into the soul of the angel standing in the middle of his small honor guard.

“Mankind has poisoned these gardens for too long Michael. Let their bodies fertilize the land.”