Chapter 2: The Minute You Let Her Under Your Skin
Earth. A tiny ball of water and dirt speeding around the sun. On that dirt that made up a quarter of the exterior of that little ball lived all of humankind, standing on a layer thinner than apple skin. Too high up, and there was no air to sustain life. If one could dig down far enough, the inside was a sea of molten rock and metal, an even more impossible environment for survival. Life could only exist on a very small area of the tiny blue marble.
And yet, stretched across this inhospitable reality like a sheet of clear acrylic, there were realms inaccessible and unseen, right below and above that thin apple skin.
Below... there was the pit. Untold miles and miles of caverns, stalagmites standing hundreds of yards into the smoke-tinged air, rivers of magma, lakes of pitch, and untold acres of cracked scalding rock. It might not be so bad... if not for the millions and millions of derelict souls that lived there full-time... forever. Writhing like a pile of maggots, wailing and screaming and sliding against each other, like trying to ascend to the apex of a pool with no open air at the top.
Unlike the popular depiction... there were no horned fiends with pitchforks dispensing indiscriminate punishment. No enforcement of the misery was necessary from an outside party. To exist down here was to suffer. Some of the souls made it worse through their actions, stepping on someone's face to clamber away from the pit and towards... what? Maybe someone was stuck down near one of those cracks in the rock that constantly vented a toxic purple cloud... but it was comparatively cooling and dry.
Perhaps this was all part of the design. Give a momentary reprieve from all the misery, all so it would feel worse once that minuscule comfort was gone... all to extend a torment that never ended. Twist the technique so the pain never faded into apathetic boredom. (Whichever of the damned fiends learned that one weird trick to appreciate spankings and spread it around the damned needed to be punished. Then again, how WOULD they be punished? Not with a spanking!)
The pit was a place of unimaginable and endless horrors. By comparison, living in the sky was vastly preferable.
Some modern religions said there would only be 144,000 chosen to enter the Elysian realm at the end. As it was, the real number was much less. There were perhaps ten or so thousand certified angels doing the work for entire globe. It was hard work, but it never quite felt that way. Doing good, protecting the unfortunate, upholding virtue... it had to be done, and it was satisfying to work for the winning team.
The temperature was consistently comfortable. Even when in constant direct sunshine, it never felt anything more than warm. No sweating, no sunglasses, no parking the car under a tree to keep it shaded... for several reasons.
If they weren't watching from above, ready to intervene when necessary, they were reading or researching, possibly getting into a friendly flying race with a friend or even an exciting broadsword sparring duel. Swords had grown quite rare down on the surface, so this was mostly just clean fun and good exercise... not that the angels needed it much. They rarely indulged in food, nourished by fresh air, sunlight and virtue. Their enormous strength came from within and from one another... not from sit-ups.
Of course, going down to the surface inevitably meant dealing with less-than-savory characters. The humans were surrounded by carnal pleasures and sins. Most surface dwellers succumbed to a few of those temptations... sexual pleasures... aggregation of wealth beyond even excessive needs... artificial sweeteners. Some tried to fill their dance card with whatever they could. Maybe they would refrain if they had as much knowledge of what might await them as they did.
The immorality of the surface could lead their celestial visitors to come back feeling... tainted. It could feel like the sticky unpleasant coating of a hand that held a fistful of melting candy. Something sweet at the moment, but leaving the body feeling gross and tacky afterwards.
If an angel came back up feeling less than completely clean, they took some time to relax at the baths.
From above the sky, the purest water collected in huge porcelain basins that slowly trickled water down long narrow aqueducts and into the entrance of the pool. The baths itself was maybe ten feet wide, with steps under the water that allowed anyone to sit at their preferred depth. The baths stretched out for miles, further than even their eagle eyes could hope to see. No soap was necessary; angels would just sit in the water as it gently flowed past them, washing away everything they might have brought with them from the surface. Eventually, this water reached every corner of this earth to be redistributed... as rain.
That's where Ashley found herself after her last trip to the surface. The water was perfectly warm, just a touch above body temperature. She sat with the water just to her shoulders, arms under the surface. There was no need to scrub or otherwise touch her own body. The gentle current would do the work, if slowly.
But after what she had stumbled into today... she felt like she might be in here for a while. She had never been so embarrassed on a routine mission. All she had to do was get the escaped demon back to the pit... but she'd happened to find her while tangled up with a surface dweller in that special way, that congress of a thousand euphemisms. It was mortifying. Every time she thought of the horridly carnal scene, it jumped back into her mind, like poking a dressed wound with her finger.
That's what led to Ashley staying there... for a long time, attempting to relax and waiting for the baths to slowly wash away the sin she'd just seen. Maybe she should bring her head underwater to cleanse her mind and eyes from what had stained them...
But she really didn't like getting her hair wet. It didn't smell of the surface. No real need to wash it. Just relax and try to let the troubles of the world fade away...
And yet... this time, the world's troubles clung to her heart like pitch. No matter how long she sat there, the weight on her heart didn't feel any lighter. It was like the water would have no effect on it. Maybe this was why the surface-dwellers more often used that more effective stain remover when life troubled them... alcohol. Maybe that's why the surface told stories of holy people creating it out of water. What they attribute to the grandest force was actually the work of the tiniest microorganisms.
Of course, there was no alcohol up here. Even if she drank some, it would neither impair nor blind her. It would do nothing... almost like how there was nothing she could do to shed this horrible feeling as to what she had seen. It sat inside her like an indigestible and impassible bezoar. And so, Ashley sat there, unmoving on the marble steps of these baths... waiting to feel clean and fresh again.
The baths were much much longer than they were across, but still wide enough to sit across from someone... but the angels rarely did this. They usually gave each other plenty of room and privacy.
Sometimes, they made an exception.
The gentle tap of bare feet on the smooth marble could barely be heard over the soft trickling of the water, until the person was right on top of them. If this was the pit, someone sneaking up on you would be a terrifying proposition. Here... it was lovely, like finding a coin on the ground. An entirely positive experience.
That's how Ashley reacted as she turned her heard towards the sound, towards the magnetic presence behind her. It was Natalie. Describing her as Ashley's 'friend' was an unnecessary distinction. Most angels knew each other, and worked together in harmony. How else would it be? Some angels hadn't had the pleasure of working together, but that's surely what it would be if the opportunity arose.
Natalie was slender and lean, like most of those who worked here. She had a head of perfectly straight black hair that reached the small of her back, a dark line between her white wings. Her wings reached above her head and nearly touched the floor, even when folded. Her eyelashes were full and her eyes dark brown.
"Hello." Natalie smiled as she stood above Ashley.
"Hello." Ashley said back.
Natalie took a step into the pool. As her foot came down on the first submerged step, Natalie's wings vanished. They could 'hide' their wings to stand out less on the surface, or to keep them from getting wet... or to get through a narrow doorway.
"How are you?" Natalie asked.
