not a sinner, nor a slave.
The room was ice cold. The stone-grey marble walls and flooring did nothing to prove otherwise. Two long rows of metal seats with intricate carvings of the same sigil - a praying angel - were placed on the longer sides of the room with even spacing between them. Angels occupied random places among these rows, fidgeting, making notes and scarce comments. At the far end of the room stood a magnificent podium with five large chairs. Upon the chairs sat five very stern-looking archangels.Their faces as cold as the stone walls and floors.

Right before the podium, in the center of the room, is where I sat, in plain sight. All eyes glued on me, it made my skin crawl. My arms wrapped around me, my eyes cast downwards. In their unseeing eyes, I had all the makings of a sinner.

It was a courtroom and I was on trial.

The word "Fallen" in our realm was branded to the greatest sinners - ones who rebelled against God. They were cast out of heaven, and straight to Hell. Such an angel was usually called an abomination or more commonly, a "Demon".

Angels are messengers. God comes to each of us, in our dreams, and gives us an instruction, a task of spreading word to different people in different places. None of us have ever seen him, yet, nobody questioned his ways. We do as we are told. Even though we get these dreams, we have to run them by the Council. The Council consists of Archangels that have direct interactions with God - or so they claim.

They control all of Heaven and have eyes on our every move. Usually, they send us to the Human Realm, otherwise called "Earth" to spread messages about imminent happenings, to prevent anything that would ruin the balance of human life. However, recently, all the angels were called by the Council to spread a different word. They want us to spread word of the Apocalypse all around the world.

"We have not dreamt this!" the Angels argued, and rightfully so.

The Archangels were persistent, however, and forced the Angels to spread word to the chosen ones, the promised deliverers, around the world. We knew this would cause panic. It was almost as if it was staged, as there was no rhyme or reason to undertake this instruction. Most of the Angels were against the notion, simply because they had not dreamt it.

This had resulted in a riot, to put it nicely. Heaven in it's entirety had become a beautiful disaster. Trust reduced to ashes, secret societies forming, plotting against the Council. In their minds, we were rebels, and according to the rules of the Council, rebels deserved to be punished - eternally.

All the Angels who refused to spread the news about an oncoming Apocalypse were put on trial - to be judged if they were guilty or not. Fearing this, some of the Angels did spread the word. However, others, including me, stayed adamant.

"In lieu of the charges of unlawful act of treachery presented against..."

By then I was quite sure what the judgement would be. I raised my head and stared at the Archangel who stared straight into my soul."the High Court finds the defendant..."

Pin-drop silence. All eyes were glued on the podium. I waited for the verdict. I waited for their mouths to form the words, even though I already knew what they were. Everyone before me had, and everyone after me would also receive the same judgement.

The thought was squashed as soon as I heard the word: "Guilty".

~*~
That night was my first - and last - in prison. Prison in Heaven was a lot different than the ones in the Human Realm. It was quiet and pristine. The walls and floor were made of clear crystal. In fact, it was an enormous glass room which allowed everyone outside the room to look into it. It reminded them of who we were. The soon-to-be Fallen.
Quite frankly, I would have preferred a dark, dingy, underground cell. This was disgraceful.

It was dark outside, there were tall stone posts with small fires burning at the top; their glowing embers being carried with the wind. I watched as they faded into the moonless sky.

A sudden scratching noise distracted me. Followed by angry whispers. The voices were coming from my left. I shifted closer, eyes straining to see the source.

"It's done! Let's go!" said one voice.

"We can't leave them here..." said another.

I crawled to the two angels who were kneeling down next to a hole in the glass wall - big enough for one person to fit through."Are you planning on leaving?" I asked them, thoroughly shocked that they had the guts to do such a thing. None of us had ever disobeyed the Council and tried to escape their punishment.

They looked at each other and back at me. One of them nodded. "You coming?"

I looked back at the darkness behind me. There were at least thirty others.

"We're all coming."

That was the beginning of the end.


Credits
Profile & Banner;; chi
Background;; caveman
Art;; User not found: crystalblossom
Paper Pattern;; knald
Story;; Chii