sight of blood alone was intolerable to me, but worse still were Casey’s involuntary cries of pain. I wanted to leave. But I just couldn’t bring myself to.
I looked up sharply when ice and fire started to rain down around us simultaneously, splashing and hissing on the ground but somehow not touching us. Then I realised that there was no sign of Michael or Mephistopheles, and for a moment I thought they had gone. The sounds of fireworks and celebrations drifted up from the city, thunder rumbled louder than before, and the falling ice cracked and splintered as it shattered against the Basilica. The shower of fire lit up the cathedral, spitting as the molten drops fell into the snow. I thought of the fire I had seen covering Michael’s church on Margaret’s Island, and wondered if all the partygoers below could see the battle that was raging above the Basilica, or whether it simply looked its usual quiet and dignified self to their eyes.
And then I saw them — Michael and Mephistopheles — hovering just above the tower opposite us, biting, tearing, clawing at one another as if they would pull each other apart if they could. They were both almost unrecognisable to me. Their bodies flashed between the familiar human forms I was used to and something altogether different. Michael was once again lit up with a light so bright that I could hardly make out his features at all — as if he were simply too close to the sun or some other light-emitting force for me to look at him. But I could clearly see his powerful, feathered white wings spread out behind him as the two angels flew round, over and above the cathedral’s towers, striking out viciously at each other. Every now and then, a white feather would flutter down from the sky to be stained by the blood already on the ground around us.
Casey was sobbing now, and I dragged my attention away from the angels and back to her. I must not let them distract me. I must stay focused. When, at last, the baby was born, I took a penknife from my pocket, cut the umbilical cord and shrugged off my coat to wrap the infant up in an effort to protect it from the freezing night. I was filled with relief as I looked at the baby in my arms. For she was human. A tiny, perfect, human little girl… not angel or demon as I had seen in my dreams… not one of those creatures fighting so viciously above us. And there was no aura around Casey or her daughter now. The swirling clouds of shining gold and dripping black had gone.
‘She’s… amazing,’ Casey whispered, gazing at her daughter in my arms. ‘Isn’t she beautiful, Gabriel?’
I couldn’t believe how fragile she was, how vulnerable. I mean, she couldn’t even hold up her own head!
‘Do you want to hold her?’ I asked.
Casey started to nod and then froze, a confused expression on her face, one hand trailing down to her stomach.
‘There’s a second baby,’ she whispered.
‘Second baby?’ I repeated stupidly, gazing round as if expecting to see one lying on the ground somewhere.
‘Twins,’ she groaned. ‘I never went to any scans so…’ She trailed off and then, to my horror, started to cry. ‘Oh, Gabriel, I don’t want to do all that again! I’m so tired! It’s so unfair!’
‘You’re doing really well, Casey,’ I said, equally horrified by the revelation that she was carrying twins but trying not to show it. I realised now that the aura I’d thought for a moment had gone, was still clinging about her. It was fainter than before but still that strange, unnatural mixture of gold and black. ‘You’re halfway through it now; halfway through.’
‘But I didn’t ask for this! I don’t want to have children like this! I always thought there’d be a husband here with me or at least a boyfriend; someone who loved me, someone who was going to share this with me! Last… last week I saw this young guy holding his baby in a… in a restaurant, and when I got home I couldn’t… I just couldn’t stop crying! I know feminists would hate me for this, but all I ever wanted was the white picket fence. A house and a family that loved me unconditionally. My… my Mom and Dad… didn’t-’
‘I love you unconditionally,’ I said at once. ‘And you can still have the house and the fence and the family. But first you have to have this baby. You’ll love your children. And you’ll find the husband later. But until you do, I’ll look after you, because I really do love you unconditionally, Casey, and I promise I always will. You’ve got one beautiful daughter already and now you’re going to have another. Just a little bit longer and then you’ll be the mother of twins. Won’t that be wonderful?’
I was relieved to see her start to try and smile as I spoke — looking at me through her tears for a moment like I was the most amazing person in the world. At last she nodded. ‘Okay, Gabriel.’
‘Good girl.’
I looked up sharply as the bell began to ring out loudly in its tower. Was this another phantom tolling that the celebrating Hungarians below would be unable to hear? Could all this really be invisible to their eyes? Could people really be so very ignorant of all that went on around them? The entire cathedral was being ravaged by the battle over our heads, and the bell continued to toll deafeningly. Half the building was on fire — including the tower nearest us. The other tower and the rest of the building was shining and glittering with a coat of ice three feet thick. Lightning, frozen from the sky by Mephistopheles, had fallen to the floor of the observation level, splintering into sharp, golden shards which crackled and fizzed with electrical energy as they slowly melted into the snow.
Although I didn’t want to put the baby down, I needed both my hands and I was afraid of dropping her if I tried to keep her cradled in my arm. So I wrapped the coat about her more securely and put her on the ground beside me before turning back to Casey. Although the second baby was also correctly positioned, I could tell that this time something was wrong. There was too much blood, much more than there’d been last time, and I realised Casey must have torn something inside. It was clearly hurting her more and blood was pouring out over my hands, making it difficult to keep hold of her second baby. I couldn’t think what to do, for there was no way to heal whatever had torn. All I could do was concentrate on the second child and try and get it delivered safely.
The bell ceased to ring the moment Casey’s second daughter was born, and a rain of fireworks burst into the sky as cheers were heard from below, and I realised that midnight had come and gone: we had all just passed from one year into the next.
‘Gabriel,’ Casey whispered. ‘I… I don’t feel so good.’
I didn’t know what to say to her. It was painfully clear that Casey was bleeding to death. I wouldn’t have thought she had that much blood in her to begin with. It was on my hands, my clothes, lying in glistening pools across the stone floor, freezing in the gaps between the flagstones. The aura had gone now. There was no black or gold, no beauty or repulsiveness around Casey or either of her daughters. I shifted her second baby so that she lay cradled in only one of my arms, and then took her hand with my free one, not wanting her to feel alone.
If I could only get her to a hospital for a blood transfusion.. But I would never get there in time. She would be dead before I’d even carried her down the Basilica’s stairs. I had never in my life felt so helpless, and the frustration of it tore at me agonisingly.
‘Can you see them?’ she asked, visibly struggling for breath now. ‘Those demons up there?’
The dying see demons… That was what Mephistopheles had told me, wasn’t it?
‘No!’ I cried with a sob. ‘Not demons, Casey. Please not demons! ’
I strained my eyes into the night and for moments I was sure I could see scores of them up there, vast armies both angel and demon, tearing and shredding at each other with their bare hands, fuelled by a truly limitless and ancient hatred.
‘Gabriel…’
I looked back down, Casey’s second daughter still cradled in my left arm as Casey held my right hand and spoke to me for the last time — words that meant more to me than expressions of love or friendship or thanks ever could. ‘I forgive you.’
She met my pathetic attempt at a smile for a brief, timeless moment before her grip went slack in my hand and she stopped breathing. I could see that she was dead even before I felt for a pulse. I know what dead bodies look like — after all, I’ve seen enough of them.
‘ No! ’ I screamed. ‘ No, no, no! ’
She still looked beautiful to me, despite the fact that her brown skin was streaked with sweat and her dark hair was disorderly, the lengths of coloured blue and pink hair shining brightly in the light of the fireworks and the fires that still clung to the cathedral.
The two angels above, realising that Casey’s children had been born, fell back down to the observation level of the dome, one on either side of us. They each retained shreds of their human appearance but their clothes were torn and stained with blood, and I could see the ethereal outline of the wings folded back behind each of them.
‘Is she dead yet?’ Michael asked coldly, indicating Casey.
‘ No, she fucking isn’t! ’ I screamed at him. ‘I’m here to save her! She’s not dead! She’s not!’
‘Of course she is!’ Michael said impatiently. ‘And the child must follow her.’
