Where is the Faith?

Adrian takes a step out of the light of the last street lamp encasing himself into the darkness. Before he steps into the bar, he looks up to take in the scene that lay before him. Rotten wood cracking at the seams, plagued by the water damage of the storms that rolled through this area, the painted letters chipping off the red paint, he could barely make out the Bar’s name. Hearing the boisterous laughter and drunken calls, he knew his older brother resides in this pitiful pit. The door swings open, the dim lights make the scene more dire. Dante, decked in his black jacket, black glasses covering his eyes with a toothpick in his mouth that was cocked into a sly smirk, leans down toward the pool table. Looking up over his glasses he spots Adrian, awkwardly moving away from the drunken girl that was advancing toward him.

“Sorry boys, can’t take your money today. Looks like my little brother came to visit.” The words fell out of his mouth as he threw the pool cue down on the torn green felt and strolls toward his brother.

“Dad finally let you come down to play with the big boys, huh Adrian?” Dante sneers out, the coy smile pulling at his lips once again. Adrian shakes his head at his brother, feeling that maybe this meeting wouldn’t end well.

“No, Dante. I came down on my own, for I much desire to speak with you.” Looking around, he sees the others slowly begin to turn to eavesdrop on their conversation. “Alone, for that matter.” Dante scoffs at Adrian’s heaven like demnoior.

“Whatever you say little brother.” Dante brushes past Adrian, walking through the back doors and into the alleyway that connects to the bar. Dante leans against the wall, his face covered in the shadows, only his eyes were visible. The color different from the ones Adrian had grown up with, no longer the bright golden color but now a dark color that matches who he has become. Dante was once so hopeful, always trying to help the mundanes, always trying to do the right thing, being the Angel that Adrian strived to be. Then Dante fell to Earth, for falling in love with a mundane girl that was destine to die on her twenty first birthday. Dante tried to save her, but when Father found out, he stripped Dante of his wings and he was exile to live out eternity on Earth. Everything about him turned dark, he no longer saw the light in the world, only the suffering that plague it. Dante never understood how the mundanes could still believe in his Father after all the pain that he caused them. Adrian’s mission today was to try to get his old brother to return to being his hopeful self, by showing Dante that the light still exists in the world. “Why have you come down to Earth, little brother. Come to feed false hope that Father wants me back to be his good little soldier?” Dante question, raising his eyes to watch his brother. Even down on Earth, the light always seemed to find Adrian.

“No, I came here on my own brother. Father has no idea that I came to find you.” Dante’s smile creeps back to his face. His brother was rebelling against Father.

“You are turning into a good candidate for a fallen angel brother. Disobeying Father could cost you heavily. You could lose your title, and your powers. You could be the next fallen angel to join me here.”

“No I wouldn’t be the next fallen angel. For all I am here to do is to try to convince you that there is still light in this world. That the mundanes keep their faith for the reason that they still believe in our Father.” Dante scoffs at his brother’s incompetence.

“They keep the faith for there is nothing else to have faith in. They have this irrational idea that if they pray, it will be heard, and their loved ones will be saved. They latch onto the belief that they are allowed into heaven when they do pass on. There is darkness everywhere, slowly it will become true to all mundanes. Good honest people die young, and that’s how they lose their faith.”  

“Not everyone is Liliya, Dante.” Dante eyes bolt up to meet his brothers, pushing himself off of the wall. Dante grabs his brother by the collar of his shirt slamming him into the wall.

“Don’t. Ever. Say. Her. Name.” Dante growls out, his eyes blazing with the fire that he hides desperately every day, trying to forget her. “She should have lived. She should have lived out her days and had the family she deserved.” Adrian grabs onto his brothers hands and rips them off of his shirt.

“Dante, it was written before she was born that she would die on her twenty first birthday. There was nothing you could have done to save her.” Dante’s curls his fist  and slams it into his brother’s jaw.

“I could have healed her! I could have saved her!” He roars out, as Adrian holds onto his jaw, his eyes watching the turmoil roll off of his brother in waves.

“Why did she even catch your eye brother. She was normal, just a mundane.”

“Lili saw the world as I do now. She knew she was going to die, and even after all of the prayers to him, they remained unanswered. Her parents, her parents were hopeless in seeing their daughter’s fate. They saw it as a blessing, that she would no longer be in pain. Lili saw it as a punishment. Even going to church her whole life, praying for every meal, praying for her brother’s to return home, praying for everything. She saw the truth. That our Father does nothing to ease the pain of the suffering. She saw that good, honest people die young even when they devoted their lives to Him.” Dante turns his back on his brother, his fist still curled at his sides, his shoulders begin to shake. Adrian knew that he was crying. Liliya meant to world to him, and losing her was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Dante, it was the way that it was written and so it must be done. You know this. You can’t save everyone, even then there is still hope in their eyes. That when they do die they will be brought up to Heaven’s gate and begin their second lives.” Adrian placed his hand on his brother shoulder, as a sign of comfort, but all Dante felt was the overbearing weight of his Father. His father told him the same thing when he learned of Lili’s destiny.

“They deserved to live brother. There is no hope left in my heart, it died when she was buried six feet under. I see the truth, while you remain blinded by what our Father has told you. Go back to Heaven, look down at the World. Hear the cries of agony that fill the towns that are being terrorized, hear the screams of children being ripped from their dead parents. Listen to the world, then come back to me, and tell me that they deserved their pain. Tell me why they still hold onto to their faith and hope when everyone they love is slowly dying in front of them. Then come back and tell me, what you think, not the lies that were forced fed to you.” Dante jerks open the door, steps inside, leaving his brother standing alone in the alleyway. His body covered in the battle between light and dark, his brother’s truth and his father’s truth. With a blink, he vanishes.