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Oh god. What now? Really what was left to do? Elliot sat on his knees in the rubble outside of the blazing pizzeria. The smell of smoke and burning flesh filled his nostrils. He was safe, technically, the fire close enough to feel its warmth, to remember the feeling of his flesh melting, the screams he couldn’t voice as he started choking on the smoke, but not close enough to burn him again. He knew he should move away, try and go to the hospital, call anyone, someone, but what was the point? Elliot was alone. Completely alone. Everyone else had ran out of the pizzeria. He’d been in the back, unable to hear the screaming customers running. By the time he did, it was too late. It was a miracle he had gotten away, scarred and damaged but alive. But what was the point? He’d basically just lost his job and rent had been getting more and more expensive. He laughed. The ridiculous of it all hit him at once. Here he was on the brink of death, thinking about his job! About how one stupid child had ruined his life, about how tired he was, about how it would just be easier to close his eyes and go to sleep…
Then he heard a voice.
"Ah, what have we here?" the voice was deep and odd. He couldn’t say exactly what, but something about it was wrong.
Elliot turned around. Standing behind him was a man. A very tall man. He was wearing a hat with a big “S” on it and a suit. What odd clothes. The man had a small smile on his face, however hard Elliot looked he couldn’t see the man’s eyes. He’d look at them and forget them a second after. He thought he could make out the red feathers of wings behind the man. Or was the smoke messing with his vision? He wasn’t really sure, he didn’t really care.
"What a shame, to have everything taken away from you. And you could do nothing to stop it."
The man was right, of course. But why did he have to put salt in the wound? Elliot couldn’t really muster more than a weak and shaky
“Who are you? What do you want?”
"I go by many names, for this conversation it is irrelevant. I want to help you."
What? Elliot’s eyes focused slightly. Those were absolutely wings. Was the man death? Was he here to take Elliot to the afterlife? He wasn’t really religious, but at this point he’d believe anything, he’d seen more than enough ridiculous things in his life. The man walked towards him.
"I can take you somewhere where you will never truly die. You will be free from all of your burdens. Doesn’t that sound nice?"
It did. It really did. He didn’t have anything to lose anymore. No one would miss him if he went with the man. People would cry at his funeral for the reliable pizza guy. No one would cry for Elliot. This man really could be an angel.
The man leaned down and extended his hand.
"Take my hand and I will take you there."
So this was it. He either lets the angel take him to where ever the afterlife is, or he lays here and dies alone. The choice was obvious.
He took the man’s hand. The man’s smile widened. And everything went black.
Elliot wouldn’t know for a while, that he had been given false promises by a false angel.