Chapter Text
“ I fucking hate it here.” Adriel says, breathing out his cigarette smoke into the face of a new friend he made a day ago. “Go back to England then, or wherever you came from.” The friend, a rugged man and a true local, tells him. Adriel passes the box of cigarettes to his friend. “Can’t, trust me if I could I’d be out of here within minutes.” He took another drag of his cigarette.
“Why can’t you leave? Did you commit a crime or something?” Robert, the friend, asks.
“It’s my duty to be here.” Adriel says and gives Robert a clearly fake smile. The two men smoke together and talk about their lives, Adriel can’t say much to give away his true identity so he lies and tells Robert his job required him to travel a lot.
“It was nice speaking to you Adriel, I gotta get home before my lady gets angry.” Robert says with a grin and he leaves as the sun sets on the sky line.
The curb Adriel is sitting on quickly gets cold and uncomfortable without company, so he decides to take a walk into the city.
“Spare change?” A homeless man asks Adriel. “I’m just as poor as you dude, but sure.” Adriel answers and reaches into his pocket for loose change. The homeless man looks him up and down, “what’s with the outfit then?” He asks. Adriel is wearing a white waistcoat on top of a blouse, with white dress pants to pair. The bottom of his pants are dirty from the city, but his shoes are still polished and shiny black leather.
Adriel looks proper, and extremely rich. “Stole it.” He answers and gives the homeless man five bucks.
‘You see God, still a good angel.’ Adriel thinks to himself. He walks past a small group of hookers standing in front of a 24/7 Chinese takeout place. “Excuse me ladies.” He says pushing past them into the shop. One of them grabs his arm, “hey good looking.” She tries. Adriel raises an eyebrow at her, “are you serious?” He asks almost genuinely. The girls around them get a bit closer and start to whisper. “I don’t swing that way, but I hope you all have a prosperous night.” He says with a smile, and he walks away. Just before he closed the door he heard the girls behind him go ‘ohh’
Adriel orders his meal and sits down on a high stool to wait. “Another one dressed like that, is there an event?” He hears the cashier mutter behind the register. The gossip is followed by, what Adriel kan hear as, “mumble mumble, British, mumble.”
He decides to shrug it off, his look often gets him looks. He isn’t even wearing his coat tonight.
Yet Adriel can’t help but wonder about the other one, that apparently also stopped here for food.
His food is ready and he decides to eat in front of the window, sometimes glancing over at the hookers by the door. Adriel is left alone in silence, only with his thoughts, which is something he does not like to do. He thinks about why he’s here, for God. He often wonders if God knows if he is such a bad person, if God knows if he is a person at all.
Adriel thinks about everything he does on earth, he’s sure he has sinned almost every sin there is.
Pride, check.
Greed, check.
Lust, of course.
Envy, check.
Gluttony, check.
Wrath, every day.
Sloth, check.
Nobody has stricken him down yet, so Adriel stays on earth and does whatever he wants.
Like kill people, which is what Adriel has decided to do after his dinner.
He walks around the neighborhood, till it gets dark and the night owls come out. Some people already know him, and his crimes. They call him the devil, which is ironic since he’s exactly the opposite.
Adriel is looking around for a victim, but sees a storybook worth of people. A bachelor party ,with a bride bawling her eyes out. a woman yelling at a man ,who is most likely her husband, outside a strip club. There’s a gaggle of young adults, drunk on tequila singing and frolicking through the streets. The homeless return to their sleeping spots, surrounded by the junkies wandering through the alleyways.
Adriel would rather not know a lot about his victims, so he tends to lean to the unassuming type. Someone just calmly walking, no way to know where to but still calmly, not unstable or anything that shows how their life is. He isn’t sure why he has such a preference, he just can’t kill them.
And then his victim appears, from the corner walks an unassuming man in his thirties. He’s looking on his phone and walking in a normal speed with a normal expression, he’s perfect. Adriel steps into an alleyway, hiding in the shadows. He looks around, for a weapon and for people, there isn’t anyone. But there is a brick.
The victim walks into Adriel’s view, and gets a hand put over his mouth, he’s too scared to scream. When he’s pushed on the ground and tries to look at the perpetrator, the shadows of the night cover his face. He can only see a moonlit silhouette and a piece of blond hair.
This information isn’t important, because his head got smashed in by Adriel and within seconds he was bleeding out on the ground.
Adriel decides to go home via the alleyway he’s already in, he steps over the dead body and makes his way to his apartment. The blood spattered over his suit so Adriel stayed in the shadows till he got to his apartment.
That night he washes his suit, and once again it comes out lightly washed pink. “Fucking hell..” he curses and looks at his cheap laundry detergent, could that be the reason the blood spreads?
Adriel opens his closet and puts his now pink clothes on the pink side of the closet, everything is neatly folded and sorted by type and color. He decides to spend the rest of the night in sweatpants and an old white t-shirt, paired with whiskey from his cupboard. He switches on his tv, that his neighbors will surely hear through the walls.
The news is sharing a story about a man in England, who has started many free schools for children living in poverty. Adriel scoffs, “alright angel.” He mumbles, he can feel the holiness through the screen. When a photo appears of the amazing man, Adriel chokes on his whiskey.
He chaotically grabs his phone and searches up the contact ‘British boy toy’
The contact picks up after a minute. “Your on the news, Elliot.” The drunken Adriel says.
It’s silent on the other line, he can only hear a faint breathing. “You can take some inspiration from me Adriel, it’s never too late to be beter.” Elliot answers with a silky voice.
Adriel discreetly scoffs, “don’t scoff at me Adriel, you should be looking up to me.” Elliot, who apparently has impeccable hearing, says. “I’ve only ever seen you look up to me when your sucking my-“ the call ends before Adriel can finish his sentence.
‘Proud of you’ he texts, but the message doesn’t go through.
Adriel keeps watching the news that’s filled with tragedies and stupid stories, from all the amazing people they talk about he can tell three of them are angels. It’s easy to spot them for Adriel, even through screens he feels the light they shine, Adriel wonders if he still shines that way.
The news ends with a weather forecast, some days it’s going to rain but mostly it’s going to be slightly cold and cloudy.
It’s three o’clock and Adriel decides to sleep, angels don’t need much sleep so for him it’s more a hobby.
The next morning is like any other, there isn’t any food in the cupboards or in the fridge, except for a rotten apple and bottles of alcohol. And so, in his silk pajamas and matching white robe, Adriel walks to the corner store a minute away from his apartment. “Morning Adi!” Steven, who has been working at the store for five years, greets him.
“Morning Steven.” Adriel gives the enthusiastic boy a nod. “Another guy was killed last night,” Steven starts to say and Adriel quickly makes his way to the instant noodle section, “it was on the news this morning, you didn’t see?”
“No.” Adriel answers and chooses a simple chicken broth noodle. “Apparently he just adopted a kid from the foster system, poor girl now she has to go back after all those years.” Steven says and Adriel starts to feel nauseous. “Anyways, you should stay safe on the streets.” Steven finally finishes his story and rings up Adriel’s unusual breakfast.
“Stay safe.” Adriel says as he walks out of the store. Steven doesn’t have to worry, Adriel knows too much about him. And now he knows too much about the guy from last night. He isn’t hungry anymore.
When Adriel gets home, he throws the instant noodles in a cupboard and goes back to sleep. Maybe sleep will get rid of his nausea.
Adriel sleeps till noon, wakes up and eats his noodles while watching television. He doesn’t watch the news, this time he watches stupid reality tv for hours rotting into his couch. A knock at the door scares Adriel out of his trance.
Through the peephole he sees Robert, his friend from the evening before.
“Oh, yikes..” is the first thing that Robert says when Adriel opens the door. “Alright asshole.” Adriel says and goes to shut the door. “Sorry, wait!” Robert puts out his hand, with a pack of cigarettes in it.
Adriel furrows his eyebrows at him, “Cigarettes?”
“Yeah, to pay you back.” Robert says.
"Oh, Thanks man.” Adriel takes the pack and feels an unusual, warm feeling.
“Want to smoke together? You don't have to pay me back this time.” Adriel asks with a small smile and Robert nods. The two walk over to Adriel’s balcony and sit down on plastic lawn chairs. “Why do you look like a prince? Robert asks. It’s quiet for a minute while Adriel realizes he’s still in his pajamas. “They're my pajamas.” Adriel says and Robert answers with a chortle.
“Well what should I sleep in then?” Adriel asks sarcastically. “Something that’s not from the eighteen hundreds!” Robert says back loudly and breaks into a booming laugh.
The two crack jokes together for a long time, their slightly inappropriate conversation gets interrupted by Adriel’s phone going off. It’s an unknown caller.
Adriel picks up and says nothing first.
“He’s dead.” The caller says, Adriel doesn’t recognize their voice.
“I know what you two did, but I’m still inviting you to the funeral.”
I Adriel gets even more confused. “Who is this? What are you talking about?”
“Elliot is dead."
Adriel’s brain seems to be empty, the caller keeps talking but he can’t hear anything besides a static like white noise. ‘Elliot is dead’ the sentence replays in his head over and over again.
“I’ll text you the address.” The caller says and hangs up. Adriel still has his phone up to his ear, he’s still absently looking at the ground in front of him. He faintly hears Robert ask him if he’s alright. He can’t answer, it’s like something is holding his throat closed.
Adriel’s subconscious decides what he’s going to do, he won’t go to the funeral and ignore it, he won’t watch the news and he won’t leave his house.
But when the caller texts him the address, and Adriel realizes the funeral will be five minutes from his apartment, an overwhelming sickness pours over his body. He’s shaking, and his mind is tolling. Tears are streaming down his face, Adriel doesn’t notice till a drop falls on the message on his phone.
All his memories with Elliot resurface and the guilt goes straight to his stomach. He looks over to the concerned Robert, “I’m going to puke.” He whispers.
Robert tries to grab a bucket for him, but it’s too late. Adriel has already bent over the balcony railing and puked onto the ground below it.
Robert returns with a bucket, “are you okay?” He asks. Adriel pukes into the bucket and Robert peaks over the balcony onto the ground, when he sees the mess he inhales sharply through his teeth. “Yikes.” He whispers.
“A friend of mine died suddenly.” Adriel tells his friend with a quiver in his voice.
“My condolences,” Robert pats him on the back “when’s the funeral?”
Adriel sniffles. "Tomorrow."