Guardian Angel

By Anthony Bell

When Aufero gets punished in Heaven he discovers a side of Heaven he never knew existed. In his attempt to get back in the good graces of God, he discovers love, an awkward partnership, and his dark side. Satan has discovered a new way to defeat the guardian angels and is eager to take the throne of God for himself. Determined to change the course of battle Aufero guides his fellow angels into a battle meant to change Satan's mind about attacking the Gates of Heaven. The battle doesn't go as planned and the object of Aufero's affection (Aphasia) is abducted and taken to Hell. Now against the wishes of God he must find a way to retrieve her and escape banishment from Heaven. Things don't go as well as he plans when he meets his match in battle. He finds himself helpless, hopeless, and in Hell. Unwilling to accept defeat Aufero challenges Satan and discovers a side of the fallen angel he hadn't expected. When Satan offers him paradise, he must make a tough decision that could find him in a no win situation. Forced to fight to the death he must find the will and strength to defeat a demon that's never been bested. Should he succeed in his action against the devil he is faced with another dilemma. Will his success in Hell lead to his failure in Heaven?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456715113

Anthony Bell

I think readers will be interested in Anthony Bell's ability to blur the lines between fact and fiction. When obtaining a Regents bachelor's of Arts degree at marshall he was exposed to Psycholgy, Sociology and Biology extensively. These areas of interest weave themselves into his writing giving readers a landscape that is both intriguing and realistic. His compleation of his Clinical Masters in Psychology is yeilding an even more indepth look at what it is to be human. This can only mean that his characters will seem all the more real and life like even in their extrodinary world.

Book preview

Chapter 1: The Truth

First off, God didn’t create the Heavens and the Earth in six or seven days. He didn’t even get it right the first time or the eighth time. It took many millennia and 177 known attempts. I know this doesn’t make sense, but I have proof. Look at all the planets and all their moons, each one an attempt to create the perfect place for a perfect race. You see, Earth was the second most successful attempt by the Almighty. His first successful attempt, of course, was the Garden of Eden. Oh, you’ve heard of it? I think you will find your idea of Eden is just a glimpse of what it really was. I know you were led to believe that Eden is somewhere on your planet, lost forever and known to no one. This isn’t true. Granted there are places that offer a mere glimpse of what Eden was, but the true Eden is what you know as the moon. I have your attention now, don’t I?

Yes, the moon was God’s first successful attempt at creating life. Earth was the second successful attempt, but the moon remains. You may ask yourself why; I know I did. The moon was left in the sky for one sole purpose: to be a constant reminder of what we threw away at night and a constant reminder of what awaits us during the day. Your society lost this important lesson somewhere along its evolution, but if you look back I’m sure you will see I’m right. Think about how many civilizations have worshiped the moon; now you know why. Now if you paid attention to my words, you are thinking about what awaits us during the day, am I right? What you know as the sun is actually what your societies would call Hell. Don’t believe me? Think about it for a moment and it should be obvious; stare at the storehouse of what is perceived to be pure evil, pure hate, pure sin, and what do you think would happen? That’s right; you go blind. You can’t see its true nature; it’s too ugly. You can’t even get close to it to inspect it further; to venture too close is to suffer the burn of the truth. I know what you scientific types are thinking: Aren’t all stars technically suns? The answer is yes, but this one was made special. Besides, if only one sun existed, then it would be a little suspicious, right? So how did the sun get to be Hell, you ask? That’s a story in and of itself, but I’ll give you the quick version since it’s important to our story.

The entity you call God … or perhaps you call him/her something else … but no matter what you call it, it wished to send away the being you know as Satan. But sending him away after what he had done didn’t seem like punishment enough. God wanted Satan to witness all he gave up and have to see the success of God’s new creation every day. The sun was the perfect station, or at least it would have been if everything had ended up as God wanted. Contrary to what your people like to believe, God makes mistakes too, and God underestimated Satan. This angel was unlike any God created before, and he was unusual in many ways. You see, when God created the first angels, they weren’t human. They were empty shells, robots of a sort. They were prototypes of humanity, what you might call the first humans. God filled them with all the things deemed necessary to be of service not only to God but to you humans as well. The angels’ sole purpose in the beginning was to maintain the paradise God built for the humans and to worship God for his greatness.

Satan when created was not an empty shell like the other angels. Upon the creation of his body, he came to life immediately with characteristics that had not been endowed to him. He was resourceful, intelligent, curious, opinionated, and powerful in a way God had never seen before. Since God had not bestowed any of these gifts upon Satan, God became fascinated with him. God’s curiosity grew into emotion and God found a caring for this angel unlike any care bestowed amongst the other angels. As a result God made Satan guardian of the throne of Heaven. This proved to be a big mistake, of course, but hindsight as you know is 20/20. Satan was given a name, something God had not done for the other angels. God called him Lucifer, which meant light bearer. Since Lucifer had brought the light of curiosity to God, it seemed an appropriate name. It was only after he had fallen that he was given the name Satan, which means opposer. Satan at first took it upon himself to commune with the other angels and raise the glory of God. In the process he named all the angels and gave them duties. God was amazed at his favorite angel’s forward thinking and initiative, so God requested his presence more and more.

Eventually Lucifer spent every day with God, watching the process of creation and discussing the many things they would do for the humans upon their conception. When God finally created the first humans, a change occurred. As the days continued, Lucifer felt God’s affection for him and the other angels waning. God was fascinated with the humans and the world that had been created for them. God even took initiative and named the both of them. Adam and Eve were now the most beloved of all created things in the universe. Soon all God wanted to do was talk about the humans and what they might do, create, or accomplish. God spent most days watching them grow, worship, behave, react, and interact. God finally told Lucifer that his presence was no longer required. God requested that he stay down with the other angels on Eden and see to the paradise and its needs. Lucifer was also tasked with making sure all the other angels kept on task and continued to worship. Lucifer felt emotions that had never been felt before by anyone or anything; he felt himself grow with jealousy and anger not only toward the humans but toward God as well.

Lucifer, as I said earlier, was gifted and he found out early he was a very persuasive speaker. When he talked the angels listened. As a result he talked some of the angels into forming a group known as the Nephilim or the fallen angels. They were called this because Lucifer believed they had fallen from the affections of God and had been replaced by the precious humans. The name stuck, and as it turns out was a foreshadowing of sorts. Lucifer began to speak out for the rights and liberties of angels and was met with surprising enthusiasm. Eventually he had gathered enough angels to have himself an army; one third of the original ninety angels created joined his group. When they met, Lucifer focused on better treatment for the angels; he felt they should have a paradise of their own and the humans should be required to build it for them. Feeling a change in the angels, God finally started paying attention to Lucifer again. At first God was amused and allowed this favorite angel some leniency, as this turn of events was unpredictable and intriguing. God thought worship would perhaps increase as a result of these meetings but the opposite was found to be true. Lucifer petitioned God for a hierarchy to distinguish angels from humans. He wanted humans to serve and worship not only God but also the angels. This was the breaking point for God. God became furious. No one is going to be worshiped but me, God said. God was outraged at how ungrateful the angels had become and demanded they stop meeting. Lucifer, knowing that God would eventually forget about this and go back to giving all his attention to the humans, started secret meetings. Lucifer claimed the angles were meeting for the creation of new fineries and more efficient ways to maintain Eden. God, believing the angel rebellion was dead, did as Lucifer predicted: quit paying attention to them. It wasn’t until Lucifer again began making more demands that God started paying attention again.

They only love you because you give them everything and they want for nothing. They have no real loyalty to you. Lucifer cried out to God. God decided to end this questioning with a show of proof. God introduced temptation into their environment to prove to the angels once and for all that the humans would obey and love just like the angels had. God created a tree that had all the knowledge of the universe, and its inner workings including good and evil. Each fruit bore a massive amount of knowledge that would be extremely destructive to the fragile nature of humans. Then God asked of them not to eat from the tree. When they asked why, God said, Because it is all that I ask of you in exchange for this paradise. When God wouldn’t bow to Lucifer’s demands, the angel knew it was time for drastic action. With the assistance of Samael and Gadreel, his two most trusted and powerful angels, he came up with a plan. Samael, with the assistance of Gadreel, transformed himself into a serpent. He slithered up the tree and whispered to Eve. When she came closer he proceeded to tell Eve how the fruit from this tree would bring her closer to God. Everything God knows, you will know, the serpent hissed. Being closer to God couldn’t be a bad thing she thought. It wasn’t more than a moment before she was convinced the snake was correct. She told Adam to eat this fruit with her so that they could be closer to God. Adam agreed, seeing nothing wrong with the idea either. When they bit into the fruit, it was as if a fog was lifted from their minds. They were aware of many things God had originally created, like emotions.

The first emotion they felt was shame. This shame made them fully aware of their nakedness and as a result they searched for something to cover themselves. They found some fig leaves nearby and fashioned them to cover their shame. This action made it clear to God that they had disobeyed orders and Lucifer had been right. God flew into a rage and demanded that all the angels bow in a show of support and loyalty. God found that thirty of the angels would not bow to their Lord. Instead they stood in defiance behind their leader Lucifer. Shocked and appalled, God called the Archangel Michael, the second most trusted angel, to take the thirty angels and make them see the error of their ways. This is what was said:

My brothers and sisters, I ask that you come to your senses. I don’t know what Lucifer has told you, but to defy your Maker is the worst of all sins. Don’t listen to him, my loved ones, these are tricks, if you want the truth listen to me, Lucifer. Michael only wishes to increase the glory of God who denies us love and attention. God sees us as servants and nothing more. We are not equals to the humans, we are their slaves. Michael panicked and replied, Listen to me: To defy God is to bring about the change of everything. We live a perfect existence and defiance could destroy that existence. God does love us. God’s allowing our existence is love. Without God we would be purposeless. Lucifer chuckled. We should have loyalty for life? How can you love something and let it suffer and be in pain? How can you claim that inattention is love? We are slaves, equipment to be used and manipulated. God has done nothing for us and nothing with us since Adam and Eve were created. When they refused to listen to Michael, God ordered their obedience one last time with the threat of death to those who would not bow. The twenty-nine defiant angels led by Lucifer stood firm in their decision, and Lucifer called a charge to take the throne of Heaven. I promise my love for all those loyal. When I am in power we will have the humans as our slaves and God will be cast out and made to watch our success without him. These were the final words that drove the Nephilim members to attack their brothers and sisters in an attempt to acquire the throne for the one who loved them.

The ensuing battle was both long and brutal. When the chaos and destruction ended, each side saw devastating losses. Only ten loyal angels remained, and of the thirty defiant angels only three stood when the battle was over: Lucifer, Samael, and Gadreel. Cornered, exhausted, and outnumbered, Michael called for their execution but God stopped him. God decided a better punishment was in order for these defiers. Discovering the plan that Lucifer had created and knowing it was a truly devastating punishment, God let happen to them what they had planned for God. God wanted them to have no part in the life created for the humans. God wanted them to have to watch what they hated succeed and flourish. He wanted the fallen ones to be alone forever, the ultimate punishment, to look at paradise but not touch it. God was left with the question of where to put these fallen angels. God knew the humans had to be punished as well; while they were tempted, their actions were disappointing beyond anything God could have imagined. God took some time to think about things and decided the humans could be tested and salvaged but not here, not in this paradise. So God started work on Eden II, what you know as Earth. Here there would be consequences to actions and work expected of them. When creating Earth, God decided the humans’ failure must be made known to them every day. That’s when he created the sun.

Because the sun was made to nourish the planet Earth originally, God gave it a new purpose. It would now show the moon at night (the constant reminder of humanities failure) and house the rogue angels. God didn’t have any concern sending them to the sun; it was deemed an appropriate place for Lucifer’s burning temperament. What God didn’t count on, however, was the influence Satan would have on the sun. The sun was meant to provide warmth, growth, and light to the Earth, but Satan had other plans. When he and his brethren arrived, he decided to manipulate its power and put it to his own use, so he amplified its intensity and made some changes to the world within. Now the simple presence of the sun burns your skin, and creates and furthers disease and age. Sounding a bit more like Hell now, isn’t it?

These facts seem so simple, don’t they; right before your eyes but explained and lied away? Now I will make you privy to some things that aren’t so obvious. To get to Heaven seems quite easy, doesn’t it? If all you have to do is worship God and make the right choices, then it should be no problem at, all right? Wrong. Each side has agents that are sent to tempt you. These agents are known as seducers. Think of it as having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. You see, I am uncovering yet another truth that your society has portrayed accurately but has brushed aside as fantasy. These seducers are very powerful, yet their job is simple. They merely whisper fates, outcomes, and plans that will lead you to their side. They push and pull an individual’s subconscious to influence his or her actions. Now don’t get me wrong. You ultimately are responsible for the choice made, but they are the reason for the back and forth thoughts. If you ever wondered how you came to that decision or how you came up with such a vile and cruel thought, the answer is simple: You had a little help. At the same time, when you do something overwhelmingly self-sacrificing and out of character, you probably had some help. These seducers sound dangerous, don’t they? The fact is they are, and as dangerous as they are to humans, they are even worse on the battle field. They are bold, beautiful, intelligent, and almost completely invulnerable to physical harm since they wage war in the mind … but we will get to that later. I only mention them now because they are so important to the story I have to tell. I’ve done it again. Here I am rambling on when I meant to tell you a very specific story. More will be revealed to you in this story, but I think it’s time to get to the real story, the reason I brought you here.

Enough about me and this world, this isn’t my story; this is the story of Aufero, an uncommon guardian angel. He is so unlike any of his other brothers and sisters, and you will find out why very soon. His story is an extraordinary journey into choice, freedom, failure, and consequences. We will follow him now as I followed him, and we will end with the part I had to play in all of this. I know it’s a lot to think about and it’s heavy material, but bear with me and I promise you’ll be better for it. Your future could change, your life could change … and that’s pretty important stuff if you ask me. Now let’s close in on our lead character, Aufero. There he is on duty as usual.

Chapter 2: Something Special

He crouched atop the tallest building in the city, sitting like a gargoyle would if it were guarding a castle. He wasn’t, however, guarding anything: He was watching her. As he watched he wondered, why was she marked for death? Why wasn’t she his assignment? Why wasn’t he here to save her? Why was he ordered to just sit here and make sure her death went through as planned, without a hitch? He should be here to save her, not to make sure no one interfered with her death. Surely there must be some mistake, he thought. He had never been one to be choked up or distracted by a woman, but this woman was different somehow. Something about her made him reconsider his orders. No matter what the orders were, this just didn’t feel right. He had to do something more than just watch; he had to act. The closer she got to her death, the more closely Aufero looked at the environment and all of its details.

This woman walked with a slow and easy slink that not only deceived her destiny but also had a way of drawing attention. She was a five-foot-nine Brazilian beauty, and from her dress and gestures he could tell she was from an affluent family. Even though she was exceptionally beautiful, it wasn’t her beauty that attracted him. It was something else. His mind began to wonder again. This wasn’t fair; he knew his orders, but how could he go through with something that felt so wrong? This was the toughest part of a guardian angel’s job: to sit and watch someone die when you knew you could save the person. It contradicts everything you are supposed to do, the sole purpose for your existence. When orders are passed down, however, you are expected to follow them no matter what, without question. Aufero continued to watch as all the light seemed to disappear from the surrounding area and that familiar shadowy figure with eyes of fire approached. Aufero paid careful attention to the figure as it came closer. He could see that it didn’t brandish its usual weapon, so it wasn’t intending to attack. By law he wasn’t allowed to interfere. Death was obviously there to collect her soul after nature had taken its course. She was going to walk right in front of that oncoming bus and die instantly. Watching was too much; emotion welled up within and overtook his actions. Aufero leapt from his watch, tucked his wings, and forced himself toward her with everything he had.

Aufero struck the voyeuristic silhouette so hard it seemingly dissolved before his eyes. The surrounding area was still dark so he knew he had not destroyed the collector. He had merely slowed it down, but that was all he needed. Now that Death couldn’t interfere, he was free to save this beauty from her unfair destiny. He turned and pulled her to safety just in time to see the bus whiz by. She looked up from her phone and then looked back to see what had stopped her. Aufero was surprised when this occurred. Something was indeed different about this girl. No one had ever been able to sense his actions before, so how was she able to do so? He quickly turned to see the cloaked figure gather itself and produce a weapon. He knew he was no match for Death here; the only option left was escape.

Escape was a problem in and of itself. How could he act on the environment in such a way as to not be suspicious to the world and still get this girl out of danger fast? You see, guardian angels are instructed to be neither seen nor heard on Earth, and punishment awaits those who break the rules. Aufero, however, had quickly decided that since he had already broken the rules once today, one more infraction wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. He scooped her up in his arms and flew away as fast as he could. Now that she was aware of him, he realized he would have to explain himself, but as he went to explain he realized his passenger had passed out. He surveyed the area below and saw the dark figure slowly retreat as the human spectators looked on in awe. To them it appeared that this young woman collapsed while at the same time taking flight into the air. He could hear the crowd’s comments and he could feel their ponderings, but he had saved an unusual life. Even though he didn’t know what to do next, he felt relief.

Aufero quickly performed a gustatory scan on his new companion’s hair and realized that whatever he thought was special about her had now somehow faded. She was still overwhelmingly beautiful, there was no changing that, but now his feelings were more manageable. Upon completing the scan, he discovered her address was not so far away and that he could have her home before she had a chance to wake. He thought about what the future held for him and he knew the boss wasn’t going to take this infraction lightly. After all, at least twenty people had seen an unexplainable occurrence. Still, he had earned some credit during his time as a guardian angel; perhaps he could get off with a simple slap on the wrist or extra hours of duty. He scanned the area below and found two things: one, she conveniently had a balcony on the rear of her apartment, and two, no hostile forces were near or alert to what he had done. All this left him free to take her inside without much difficulty or risk of being spotted, so he did. Aufero landed quickly, slowly opened the balcony door with his foot, and took her straight to her bed. He gently placed her in bed and covered her up, but as he did he came back to his previous thoughts: What had made him so unable to follow orders and leave her be? He couldn’t fathom it. At this moment he would be okay if Death came through those doors and stole her away while he watched. Why was disobeying orders so torturous this time?

He had disregarded orders before but never so blatantly, without a reason or care for consequence. This was just instinct and it wasn’t something he had encountered before. A loss of control like this was scary and uncommon. When he finished this, he was going to have a lot of thinking to do about this infraction and about what it all meant. The most important thing was that she was safe now, and strangely that’s all he cared about. He whispered to her as she slept, This was all a dream. Forget me. When he was sure his suggestion took, he leapt from her bedroom floor and into the air, passing through her ceiling as if he were a ghost. He scanned the sky for a portal that would allow him to jump to Heaven. He hovered in the air for a moment, knowing that this blatant disregard for orders was surely going to put him in trouble unlike