Page 5 of Hell's Prisoner
I was about to tell Shahar that whatever he was saying wasn’t something I was allowed to know when Noah answered him, his own words just as incomprehensible as Shahar’s.
I glanced at Jonah, who shrugged. He didn’t understand either. He took a drink, not seeming bothered in the slightest by being booted out of the conversation. Then again, it was rare for anything to upset Jonah. He was easygoing and took everything in stride.
Their speech switched back to Hebrew, which I could understand, while Noah launched into a story about his sister’s wedding reception.
I ate in silence, listening to Noah and Shahar talk about old memories from their time on Earth and plans for their upcoming week.
After a while, I pushed back from the table.
“Where are you going?” Jonah asked, catching my wrist before I could make it far.
“I’m on greeter duty at sunset, and I want to mentally prepare before then.”
Greeter duty was the most draining task demanded of me as an attendant of Heaven. Welcoming new people into God’s court took a special kind of understanding and kindness. I loved having the opportunity to meet those who’d just passed on from their lives on Earth, but it wasn’t an easy job. Some people had a hard time leaving their earthly lives behind. They missed their friends and family. Others were dealing with traumatic deaths. Not everyone went peacefully, and it could take time to come to terms with what they’d suffered on Earth.
It was so rewarding to talk to them, to hear their stories and see the moment they met the Father face-to-face. I loved watching them sit at the table in the great hall and finally feel like they were home.
I stopped walking in a dim, vacant hallway of the palace. It was quiet here, and that made it one of my favorite places to think.
I rested my hands on one of the white stone railings that wrapped around the veil that separated me from the angels who’d died. From where I stood, it looked like a pool of silvery light.
As far as I was concerned, the veil was the greatest mystery in the palace. I wanted to know what was on the other side, had spent countless hours standing here, staring and coming up with theories I had no way of proving right or wrong.
I couldn’t cross through the veil. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if I jumped over the railing and tried, but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to get through.
Or wouldn’t be able to get back.
It was that deep certainty you can feel in your bones, the same kind of danger vibes humans get when they stand too close to the edge of a cliff or roof of a building.
Of course, here the humans could cross the veil. They never talked about what was on the other side though.
Just like the angels I’d met who lived outside the palace never said much about the rest of God’s kingdom either. Not that I’d met very many angels who weren’t in the first order. Just the guards stationed in God’s court and the occasional archangel.
The not knowing never seemed to bother any of the other angels, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was living in a bubble, ignorant to a big secret everyone else seemed to know.
I leaned over the railing, my platinum-blond hair hanging over my shoulders as if the strands were reaching for the veil.
What people don’t usually realize about paradise is that it can be a wondrous place to live in and still be a period of waiting. The souls of angels who have died are stuck behind the veil. They might be at peace, but they won’t be free until death is defeated once and for all.
And sometimes I felt just as stuck in God’s court.
The humans never seemed bothered by their period of waiting. All of them seemed at peace, happy with their tasks and lives. They had an appreciation and joy about them that I could never quite achieve myself. Living on Earth had given them perspective.
* * *
The girl blinkedup at me. She couldn’t have been more than twelve, and my heart hurt for her. She was too young to be here. At least I could take comfort in the fact that her pain and suffering was over. She was home where she could be loved and taken care of. She’d finish growing up here, surrounded by people who wanted the best for her.
“Are you a real angel?” she asked, awe in her voice.
I knelt so I was the one looking up at her. “My name is Laila, and I’m here to show you your new home. Can you tell me your name?”
“Nor,” she said quietly.
“That’s a pretty name.” And now came the part I hated most. But I had to ask. It was better for her to deal with her death now, while I was here, rather than later when she might be alone somewhere in the palace. “Nor, can you tell me what you remember about before you came here?”
She went rigid, her eyes becoming haunted.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe here, I promise. Whatever you’re thinking about, it can’t hurt you here.”
