So this is it... What do I do? Head straight for it. Hold your hand as you cower behind me and lead you to where I think it's safe. I take you toward the attack. It's got to be calm there. The eye of the storm. There can't be so much chaos out here and still be so much in there, right?

Stop crying. Look at it this way... we either find the calm and live in bliss or we die instantly. I'm up for both. No, stop listening to them! That's why you're crying, because you can't just shut it all out. You'll see. We'll be better off then they are. Burning and screaming, crying and begging. We won't be like that. It wouldn't hurt. There wouldn't be enough time for pain. It won't, I promise. Little does she know I can't hear it. All I hear is a soft melody playing over and over through my mind. It's been like this for hours. Ever since I saw Mom and Dad disappear into a cloud of dust. I'm numb.

I don't know how else to console you. You just keep crying. Hum or something. Yes, hum. It'll calm you. I hate making her cry. I hate being angry with her, but I chose anger instead of any other emotion. If I weren't yelling I'd be bawling my eyes out like she is and how confident could she be if she saw her older sister, who is supposed to be strong, crying? I will not. If I weren't trying so hard to distract her she would be able to see through me. She'll see that I have no idea what I'm leading her to. I shouldn't have promised that it wouldn't hurt. I'll never admit to her that I don't know what will happen. Never.

Mom and Dad are fine. Sis, you're crying for no reason. I place a finger under her chin and gently lift it so she'll look at me. Tell me why you are crying. With tears rolling down her cheeks she looks up at me and sobs that she doesn't know. I tell her that she cannot cry unless she can give me a good reason. So she stops. She holds my hand and begins to walk with me again.

We are so close to it now. The black cloud that's been hurling balls of fire down at our city for hours. As we walk up the mountain I notice that it's cooler up here. I'd originally thought the sun was exploding, but now I'm not so sure. I've got goosebumps. My hair is whipping back and fourth all around me. I can hardly see straight. I hold on tighter to her hand; hoping that she can't feel mine trembling as we make it over the last cliff. The air stills suddenly and my hair falls down my back again. I feel a soft breeze blow past me as I notice a figure standing about ten feet away. It turns to face us and I hear a small gasp from behind my back.

There he stood before us... Azriel the Archangel of death and destruction. He stands tall, his tattered and torn wings furled down from his back; plucked of light and stained with tears and blood. His robe, black, draped around him consealing his chest, a mere rib cage, empty save for the lifeless heart struggling to beat every few seconds. Against my better judgement I look up at his face and to my surprise I see the face only a human could have. Soft, light eyes gaze back at me as a quiet smile spreads across his lips. He stares at us in awe as we do him. Only feet from him, I stop. Little Alice behind me stops too, sobbing against my hip and never once looking up.

Perhaps it is just my imagination. But he is an angel and they are said to be beautiful. I am taken from my thoughts as I notice his left hand raised toward all the devisdation behind Alice and I. I look down at his right as he raises it slowly, palm up, out to us' welcoming us to go with him. And in a hurling ball of light... we were gone.

Are you afraid? Are you-... no.