Oh, this thing was pissing me off. Its aura wobbled and crackled; I could see through the fissures to the beast itself. I wanted to punch my hand through one of those cracks and tear out its spine. I brought my rifle up and fired again, but the shell went wide. The barrel was steaming hot and must have warped from too much rapid-fire. God. Damn. It.

Someone was back on a .50 cal, the tracers stitched up the side of the angel. I ran at it, mindful of the gunner. The angel ignored both of us and was retreating through the hole Claire made, possibly to finish what he started.

That was not going to happen.

As I sped towards the murderous monster, I reversed my rifle so I was holding the steaming barrel. My fingers sizzled where they touched the hot metal, but I barely noticed. I was too focused.

With a final burst of speed, I leapt up, over the edge of the stage, and into the air. It must have been twenty, thirty feet, I could not tell. The angel paid no attention to me until I smashed my rifle over the back of his head. The weapon deformed around the sparkling field and the barrel bent in half.

At least he turned around.

He regarded me with cool indifference as I swung a kick up at his head. Before I could connect, his hand was on my leg and he plucked me from the air like an errant insect and threw me down the wings of the stage. The world spun end over end; for all my strength I could not control myself. Another wall stopped my flight in a sudden and bone-crunching fashion.

Sliding down the wall, the world spinning around me, I thought that this was beginning to become a habit.

My vision was blurred; my eyes watered. I was healing, but not fast enough to simply laugh off the damage. Each breath was like fire in my chest. Around me, muffled, I heard gunshots and the occasional scream, but it all seemed so far from me. With my one working arm, I pushed myself to a sitting position so I could get a better view.

A shadow dislodged itself from the wall near me, creeping along the periphery of my vision. The shadow unfolded itself, till it was tall and thin. Music came from the shadow, beautiful, unearthly notes like nothing I’d ever heard before. Ice crawled up my neck. We knew that some angels could project sound as some sort of weapon. The shadow stopped and turned towards me while I was struggling to stand.

It was the man I’d seen earlier. My vision was still blurry so I did not get a good look at his face. All I could make out clearly were his large, piercing eyes that regarded me with a kind of melancholic kindness. Then he was away again, the music following him.

Maybe the angel heard the music, I don’t know, but it backed out of the hole on the wall and onto the stage. One hand was holding Claire’s limp, bloody body by the throat. The angel gazed towards the shadow and past him towards me. Notes rose in the song to some unknown end.

The patter of .50 caliber shells had stopped. Were they out of ammo? Dead? I was standing now, lifted by the song. My pistol was in my hand.

As the song swelled, the aura around the angel began to change with it, growing brighter and dimmer with the song. When it reached a mighty crescendo the lights around the angel throbbed like the final beats of a dying heart and then they were still. Gone.

I raised the pistol and snapped off a shot. My arm did not do what I wanted, and the shot went wild. There was a thunderous clang as the bullet struck the angel’s armor. The impact caught his attention.

He and I looked into each other’s eyes.

Sighting the pistol for his head, I said, “This is for Debra, you motherfucker.”

The gun roared in my hand. I watched the bullet fly towards him, followed by more as I kept pulling the trigger.

His eyes narrowed; a gaze filled with hate met mine. At last, I had a response.

Then he was gone. His body shone with a brilliant light and that was it: he was there and then he was gone.

The world sped up. I could no longer see the bullets in flight, only the pockmarks they left on the wall behind where the angel was standing. Claire hit the ground with a heavy thump.

I followed her, landing on my knees, my armor cushioning the blow. My raging hopped-up emotions evaporated quicker than the morning after, leaving me scared and hollow. Bones and tendons stopped shifting beneath my skin and pain stabbed me with a dull knife. Everything returned to normal.

It was just me on a deserted stage, with the unmoving body of Claire and rubble remaining.

The shadow man was no longer there.

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Thank you coming along on this journey with me! As Easter Holidays are upon us, I will be taking a two-week break to rejuvenate and spend time with the family. I should be back on the 19th.

Thank you for reading my story! If you are enjoying it, please consider leaving a ranking, review, or even just a comment! They all mean the world to me.

I also have a Patreon with a lot of advance chapters on it if you'd like to help support me and the story! 
https://www.patreon.com/localforeigner