Angels and Demons: Perspectives of a Violent Afterlife

By Rex Jameson

Heaven and hell are vying for human souls in vortices between humanity and the afterlife. When Lucifer and his demons overwhelm Archangel Michael and Gabriel, heaven is faced with the possibility of losing all souls on the planet.

Reincarnated in heaven, Michael must fight his way back to Earth to stop more demons from swarming the planet and help his brother Gabriel track down the devil before he tricks humanity into harvesting billions of souls into his fiery kingdom.

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"Angels and Demons: Perspectives of a Violent Afterlife" is an 11,250 word speculative short story that envisions the consequences of our blood-thirsty society on an afterlife determined by how you die and not how you live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rex Jameson
• Release date: Sep 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9780983935124

Rex Jameson

Rex Jameson is the author of three novels in the Primal Patterns series and half a dozen short stories. An avid history buff and an unabashed nerd with an appetite for science fiction and fantasy, he loves to create complex speculative fiction with layered characters. He earned a PhD in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University and researches distributed artificial intelligence in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Rex and his wife Jenny live in Pittsburgh where they enjoy hosting family and friends. Website: http://rex-jameson.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/rexjameson_fic.

Book preview

Angels and Demons

Perspectives of a Violent Afterlife

Rex Jameson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 by Rex Jameson

All rights reserved.

ISBN (Electronic): 978-0-9839351-2-4

This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual locales, events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover layout by Rex Jameson

Edited by Derek Prior

Table of Contents

Title

Dedication

Author’s Note

Into the Vortex

Harvesting Buddies

Reinforcements

Reckoning

Martyrdom

Acknowledgements

About Rex Jameson

Other Works by the Author

To Jenny, the love of my life.

Author’s Note

This novella is not connected to my novel Lucifer’s Odyssey or the Primal Patterns Series and presents an entirely different framework for the war between angels and demons. Each chapter of the story fills in details of later entries, but the perspectives should stand on their own. Feel free to read them out of order, but a linear read will be more rewarding.

Into the Vortex

I was too disoriented to panic when I first woke up. As the world came into focus, I saw the white and gray torrent descending from the clouds above, whipping my brown hair around my face. I knew I was in trouble. I screamed as the first shapes reached out to me from the swirling particles and scrambled away from their outstretched claws.

The calm area in the center wasn’t even five feet wide at the base, but above me, it widened. I stared into the heavens to quell my claustrophobia, but the winds were hard to ignore. I needed to get out.

I tried crawling into the black walls around me, but the raging funnel spat me out and spun me until I returned to the center. I crept along the shifting wall wherever I could perceive the boundary, but something kept pulling me back. Turning around, I found the culprit: feathered wings at the mercy of the winds.

Where am I? I asked.

The torrent gave me no coherent reply. Just angry screams.

I wondered how thick the walls were. If I could just manage a running start, maybe I could break through.

I edged closer until my nose touched the wall of wind and flexed my wings back into the calm center. I tried not to spread them, out of fear of being caught in an updraft. I readied myself to turn quickly and bolt toward the other side of the narrow funnel, but I was surprised by a fist to my face that knocked me in the other direction.

As I flew into the opposite side of the maelstrom, my wings spread involuntarily and the tornado hoisted me up like a fish in an ocean current. I blundered into other winged creatures, some of which tore into my flesh with six-inch claws from hands and feet.

Kill him! a larger one with feathered wings shouted. Kill him before we reach the portal!

Fighting through debris that was blowing into my face, I glimpsed two creatures maneuvering toward me. I put my hands out in front of me and asked them to leave me alone, but I was distracted by my own massive arms; my smooth, long legs were just as immense.

I caught the first small dark creature by its throat, but the momentum from the two of my assailants carried us toward the ground at an alarming speed. They mutilated my body with their scissor-like nails, and I