Chapter 01: The Choice

The smooth pavement stretched onwards in either direction as far as I could see. Grass of vibrant green swayed along the edges of road and beyond as the wind brushed past. The skies were clear and bright blue. I looked around, but the empty road and endless fields of grass were the only things visible.

The last thing I remembered was my car starting to flip during an intense crash.

"Hello," a pleasant voice said from behind me.

I spun around and found a woman who hadn't been there a moment earlier. Her chestnut colored hair tumbled about her smiling face in lustrous curls. Only her face and hands were visible as she was draped in flowing robes of such a bright white they reminded me of the headache causing glares of sunlight on snow. Folded against her back were a pair of feathered wings.

"Are you an angel?" I asked, feeling stupid for saying it.

"Yes," the woman confirmed. She pointed to her right and the air divided, pulling back to either side and creating a doorway into a realm of hovering, glowing buildings and natural wonders beyond description. "You have one final test. You must choose."

"Why choose some stuffy place with a bunch of do-gooders?" taunted another voice.

I turned and found a man in a dark suit. His hair was slicked back and his angular face had a crocodile smile. His red eyes had vertical, reptilian slits, and I guessed he was a demon.

"Come this way," the demon offered. He snapped his fingers, and a flaming gateway burst into existence beside him. "Last chance to have some real fun."

"Eternal torment isn't fun," I replied. "Besides, I made my choice years ago."

I faced the angel and took a step toward the glowing threshold she offered me.

"Don't turn away from me!" snarled the demon. His fingers, now tipped by claws, dug painfully into my shoulder as the demon latched onto me. The pain, although intense, was short-lived as the angel produced a sword from the air with a blade made of the purest white light. The glowing weapon cleanly sliced off the demon's hand at the wrist.

"The choice has been made; you are not allowed to touch what is not yours without permission of the Most High," the angel reminded calmly. Her voice didn't rise in pitch or increase in volume. She redirected her weapon and lifted the point under the demon's chin, continuing in the same patient tone one might have in asking someone to brush a leaf from the sidewalk. "Do you need a further reminder of this?"

The demon said nothing, but it backed away, out the sword's reach. Black smoke drifted in twisting tendrils from the fiend's severed hand, but when the smoke abruptly dispersed in all directions, the demon's hand had grown back. Glaring hatefully at me, the demon allowed me to leave.

I walked forward into the glorious light of heavenly eternity.