Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

Maddy scrambled downstairs, still on the phone with Tom.

“Did you feel that earthquake, Kevin?” Maddy asked. “Kevin? What’s going on?”

Uncle Kevin was standing in the living room in his jeans and tucked-in polo shirt, frozen, open-mouthed, looking at the TV.

On-screen it looked like a giant whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. It was grim and terrifying, spinning slowly, like the eye of some dread hurricane. Its dimensions were enormous – a helicopter flying near it seemed like just a speck. It must have been over a kilometre across. The water was frothy and almost black as it slowly turned counterclockwise. And Maddy could swear she was seeing smoke and steamrise from its dark centre. The walls of the hole were steep, and it seemed to extend for ever downward into the churning depths. The news helicopter was directly above the hole but could not see to the bottom of its pit.

“Tom, what is it?!” Maddy brought the phone up to her ear and asked in panic, her hand fumbling for and finally finding the remote to turn up the volume on the television.

Tom’s voice was strangely detached. “I can’t say for sure. The people on TV know more than I do. It’s close to Angel City, though. Too close.”

Kevin moved closer and embraced Maddy as they watched the horrifying footage unfold on screen. The cameraman in the helicopter was talking.

“Within recent hours, this enormous sinkhole has appeared just fifty kilometres off the coast of Angel City, swallowing everything in its sight. It was discovered in the past hour, when a freighter bound for the Oregon port of Astoria was suddenly drawn into the pull of the hole and has since disappeared. Scientific assessment of the atmosphere shows that incredible heat and sulphuric gases are escaping from the hole, and it is expanding at an astonishing rate. And moving directly towards Angel City. For you viewers at home, I cannot explain the scope and terror of this sight. Although there has been no official confirmation, many believe this is indeed the coming of the often-doubted revelations from the ending chapters of The Book of Angels. And I, for one, am not about to doubt it.”

On-screen another helicopter dipped closer down into the swirling sinkhole. The rotating water walls became blacker and blacker as it dropped below sea level. The aircraft seemed like a mere toy against the massive swirling walls of the cone. Black brine and foam began splashing towards the helicopter’s blades.

“And it looks like they are trying to get a closer read on what is happening down there, and – oh my God, get out of there! Get out of there!”

Suddenly it

seemed as if the swirling black watery walls of the sinkhole bulged and grew, drawing the observation helicopter into its grasp. The helicopter teetered slightly and then suddenly was pulled into the foaming, glistening black water. It crumpled and twisted in on itself, instantly bursting into hot flames as the waters drew it into the bottomless pit that had opened.

Kevin pulled Maddy closely, drawing her face against his chest as she hid her eyes.

“And we are back in the studio after shocking footage of what, well, of what appears to be some kind of portal. Questions of the Angel-human war have immediately disappeared as humanity turns to this great threat from the ocean.”

Behind the anchor, TV-station workers were running around in pandemonium.

“President Linden, the GAC and military are reallocating all resources to fight the demons. No one’s even talking about the Angel-human war any more,” Kevin said. “But where are the Angels? Shouldn’t they be helping?”

Maddy dashed outside and looked at the skies. Off towards the ocean, aircraft were converging towards the sinkhole. No Angels flying, though. Neighbours were coming out on to the street, watching the skies as strange clouds seemed to be rolling off the coast. The clouds shimmered grey with the slightest hint of portentous red. The weather was becoming humid, sticky. Strange for Angel City. Suddenly, what looked like a compact fireball emerged on the horizon, sailing east. Maddy remembered the terror of last year and knew in her gut it must be a demon. The neighbour’s dog began barking incessantly. For once it was barking at real danger.

The fiery demon ball sailed over the hill, barely clearing the Angel City sign before heading into Burbank. Panicked, Maddy looked out in the distance towards the ocean, where it had come from. But it was the only one she saw. An early scout?

Maddy ran back inside, where Kevin was still watching reports.

“Are they saying anything about the clouds or . . . any demon sightings in the city?” Maddy asked.

“Not yet.”

“Now, we cannot say for certain that this is what is happening, but we have the world’s foremost Angel expert and philosopher from Harvard University, Professor Paul Kemper, with us via satellite. Professor Kemper, what do you have to say about this sinkhole?”

The man on screen was wearing a tweed jacket with elbow patches and a white button-up without a tie. He seemed calm, almost unnaturally so. As if resigned to his fate. He began speaking.

“Susan, we are undoubtedly witnessing the somewhat unexpected fulfilment of one of the most terrible of prophecies we have, that of the coming of the ‘Darkness’. Although many in the fringe communities have been monitoring world events and predicting this for months, it was ignored by the mainstream media. It all seems so clear in hindsight now.

“As many know, it states in The Book of Angels, ‘And then when the seven burn across the earth, evil will rise upon humanity from the West. The Darkness will come from a pit in the Great Ocean, out of which no light has ever been seen, straight from the depths of the other world. Death will surely find a home with you, and mercy shall be driven out by the hordes of doom. And you will beg for the end’.

“Given the early scientific evidence of what we are seeing, and its clear connection with the prophecy, it seems that we may be experiencing it at this very moment.”

The woman in the studio looked in disbelief at the professor. The bedlam was still occurring on screen behind her in the studio.

“What does it mean, the ‘Darkness’?”

The professor cleared his throat.

“That has been debated for some time among scholars. But after last year’s incidents with the demon in Angel City, it has been considered almost conclusive that it would be some kind of Dark Angel contingent. And from my confidential sources in both the Angels organization and the ACPD, we are almost certain it is demons. I just spoke with President Linden and urged him to focus all our available military resources, and those of all our allies, on meeting this threat. But conventional weapons will have limited effect on our supernatural enemies. Given the rapid growth of the hole, I would say we have twenty-four hours at most before the full attack begins. And we still have no idea what its form will take, or who or what is leading it.”