The Threes

Chapter 1

Shades
 

Maybe, I screamed all the way down. I don't know. My attention was arrested by something else. I could but stare at the bricks of the floor that grew in front of my eyes. They were growing way too fast to my liking. I didn't like their looks. They looked frighteningly hard and solid. I didn't feel anything of the kind. I felt extremely soft and fragile.

Then, just three inches before my unintentional flight from the balcony came to an abrupt stop, my headlong rush towards the floor stopped. Just stopped. I was hovering in the air, my nose three inches from the stone floor, my feet considerably higher.

For some time, or maybe no time at all, nothing happened. I didn't move a muscle, I didn't make a sound, and nothing bothered me. Then, I farted.

I was a fraction of a second away from being crushed against that brick floor, hovering upside down in the air, letting gas out of my ass. How ridiculous can dying get? I bet my death was pretty high on that list.

The next instant, I was staring at a paneled floor that was rapidly distancing. I was flying upwards, fast. A few frantic moments later I crushed my ass on a flush carpet covering the ceiling.

"Ouch," I commented on my aching behind. Suddenly a clear thought broke through the pain. What am I doing, sitting on the ceiling? Definitely, I was sitting on it, staring at the floor below. Why are there chandeliers fastened to the floor? And, how do they stand erect on those chains?

"I would've noticed your arrival without the scented fanfare, Val," someone said behind me.

I twisted my neck as far back as I could and found a pair of slipper clad feet standing on the ceiling. I spun around and took a look down until I found the face attached to the feet. "Hi, Scott." For the life of me, I couldn't give him any riposte on his quip.

"You sound a bit confused," the old boy said grinning wickedly.

"Oh, do I, now?" I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster. Sitting on the ceiling, being just a fraction of a second away from my death, and talking with a dead friend it was a bit hard to muster any sarcasm, but since Scott always said that Val Ainsworth can muster sarcasm in any circumstance I had to try to keep up my reputation.

"I guess I'm dead, then, considering. I mean seeing you and all. Thanks, by the way, for making me forget the last few moments of my life. They must have been unpleasant."

"Actually, no. You're not dead, close but not quite," Scott said in cheerful tones. "And despite the face, I'm not your friend Scott. Sorry for that, but I didn't want to frighten you right from the start. Do you think I could reveal my real appearance now? Are you beyond the initial shock? No jitters?"

"It was nice of you to let me see a familiar face, thank you, but by all means, go ahead, show me the real you."

I felt a tiny little bit apprehensive about giving my consent, but I wasn't going to let him see it. The next moment I hoped I hadn't been so quick with letting him drop the disguise. A gray something stood there, towering below me. Immediately I saw that, whatever it was, it wasn't a male. Meh. She then, with those huge breasts.

She was tall, or maybe she just looked tall; I was sitting on the ceiling at her feet after all. In addition, she was big. It wasn't fat that I saw; she was big with rippling muscles. She was also clad in nothing but a tiny loincloth. It covered her private parts from my view but nothing else. So, I could see all those muscles. And, she was gray.

Her hair, her skin, her lips, nails, nipples, teeth, tongue, even her birthmarks. Everything was gray. Different shades of gray, but all gray. Until my gaze reached her eyes. What should've been whites of her eyes were yellow; what should've been her irises were living flames. The apples of her eyes were like diamonds, reflecting the flames around them. She was terrifying in her splendor.

Behind her, a pair of huge, batlike wings stretched to the floor, brushing against the chandeliers. They were gray, too.

"What are you?" I asked, unnecessarily.

"I'm an angel. But you knew that. Why don't you ask the question that really is in your mind?" She pinned me down with those frightening eyes.

"Why aren't you like the angels...uh...I've always believed in."

I blushed furiously, but in front of her eyes I couldn't hide the truth. I, Val Ainsworth, do believe in angels.

"A white, modest gown, unsexed appearance, white wings covered with feathers, blond curls, blue eyes? That's the look you want?"

"No!" From the bottom of my heart, I didn't. I did not want to change anything about her. She was perfection. Who would choose a goose when one can have a falcon? I thought. "I prefer what I see. But, what I really need to know is this: are there such angels? Were the descriptions I learned as a child, provided by priests, were they false or true?"

"True. The white angels do exist."

The angel stretched out a hand, and I reached down to take it. She pulled me down. With butterflies fluttering around in my stomach I was standing on the ceiling with her. Thankfully, she didn't let go of my hand. I felt almost safe. She was considerably taller and bigger than me.

"There are also black angels," she went on. "And my kind. That's all, no other colors."

"Is there a signifig...ah...there must be. Some reason for the different colors, I mean."

"Yes, there is. White and black angels are those that have taken sides in the heavenly war. I think you can guess the rest of it."

"White...the good?" I looked at her, hoping that she would confirm my guess. The lady didn't give me any clue. "If the priests have any knowledge to base their claims upon, white angels would be those that side with the God. Blacks would side with...who? Satan, Devil, what is the opposing power called, Lady?"

"Lady? You're a gallant man, Val." She laughed softly, delightedly. "The opposing power has been named the Fallen Angel by the godly."

"Lucifer?" I hesitated, unsure of my recollection of the name. It was such a long time since I had listened to any priest.

"Does it really matter to you?"

It didn't.

"You're gray," I stated the fact. "Undecided? Or are you...neutral?"

"Yes."

"But, that doesn't tell me which."

"No."

No? So, why isn't she telling me? Maybe... "Does it really matter to me?"

"Yes."

Well, what does that mean? Fuck! "Do you know how exasperating that is?"

"Yes." She smiled sweetly.

I smiled back. "Yes, Lady, it does matter to me. I do care whether you're undecided or neutral."

"Good," she commented but didn't elaborate.

She led me by the hand to a wall that in front of us opened like a sliding door. In front of her, I walked into a cozy living room. It was built to fit her size, but the only weird thing about the room was the fact that every piece of furniture was attached to the ceiling and the light fixture was below me. As in the other room, I was walking on the ceiling, like a fly.

"Take a seat," she said leading me to a sofa. "Whisky?"

"Yes, please!" Sitting up was a new experience. I wasn't very good at it.

Amazed, I watched as she poured me a drink. Of course, the liquid didn't fall from the bottle to the glass, so maybe she wasn't pouring it. She held the glass above the bottle and the whisky rose from the bottle into it and stayed there. That in itself was amazing enough, but in addition, she poured the drink from a bottle the likes of which I definitely had seen before. An angel with taste for rare malts?

She poured a drink for herself, too. Her glass was considerably bigger than the one she handed over to me.

The skill of drinking upside down was another skill that I found myself lacking. I made a mess of it, but I managed to get some sips into the right place.

I really needed this, about to die that I am and all that, I thought as the smoky flavor of the Islay malt scorched my tongue and left a trail of heath in its wake as it slid into my stomach. But I never thought I would end up drinking whisky with an angel! And they say it's a sin to drink. I couldn't help chuckling.

"I guess you'd like to know what's going on," the lady angel said, settling on the other sofa. I admitted to having that sort of thoughts. "As I already told you, you're about to die. However, it's happening too soon. In addition, you're dying because you saved a life. Your death is unfair, don't you think?"

"You aren't suggesting that I should consider that choice now, are you?" I hurried to chime in. "I admit that I did make that decision without thinking it through, but it doesn't change a thing. I could never let him die without trying to stop it."

"Good." The lady was pleased. "That attitude is exactly the reason why you're here. Your willingness to sacrifice your own life for another's gives you a chance of saving your life, too."

"Peachy."

"Attitude," she laughed, saluting with her glass.

"Well, tell me about that chance. What do I have to do?"

I won't stop screwing around, I thought, I won't start going to church every Sunday, I won't turn into a nice guy. Even to live, I will not stop being me.

"Don't be absurd," the lady said in curt tones.

"Oops," I reacted in sudden fright. "You aren't reading my thoughts, are you?"

"Of course I am. We've been talking mind to mind all the time. Didn't you notice?"

Apparently, I didn't. Fuck you, I thought, wanting her to catch that. Aloud I said, "So, why do you think that what I was thinking is absurd, Lady?"

"Those kinds of things are cooked up by the writers of bad TV shows, not by us. Why would we be interested in who you fuck, or in what you do on Sundays? Even less we're interested in changing you into someone you're not. It's your current personality that gives you this second chance."

"Fine. Sounds good so far." It did, but I wasn't going to buy the pig in the sack. "What, exactly, is it that you want from me?"

"What we want from you," she said with a little smile, "I can't tell you, not alone. Let me summon my siblings. They need to be here too." Without waiting for my consent, she withdrew into her own thoughts and, in a second, was back with me again, saying, "They're on their way."

It didn't take long. A wall dissolved, and a pair of angels walked in. One was white, the other was black. The white angel looked a lot like the pictures I saw as a child. It was as sexless a creature as I ever have laid my eyes upon: clothed in a white, sleeveless tunic and a pair of white breeches, its feet bare. It had the familiar set of feathered wings, and its eyes showed the expected color of summer sky blue. Regardless, the white angel had eyes as extraordinary as the gray. The blue was where in a human eye one finds white, the irises were showers of tiny shooting stars, and like the gray's, the apples of the eyes were diamonds. The angel was as tall and muscular as its sister, but its skin and hair were as white as the gray angel's skin and hair were gray.

Contrary to the white, the black angel surprised me. I expected to see something ugly and horrifying, but the angel was every bit as splendid as the other two. The black one was a male; there was no chance of missing that fact. He was naked. Deliciously naked and all the goodies on display. I like that! A bit big for me, but nice, I thought before I remembered that my thoughts were no longer private. I felt a brief pang of remorse, then I just grinned at him, thinking, Well, you've got your goodies on display in front of a bisexual man; what did you expect, dude? The angels, all of them, grinned back.

I went on with admiring the splendid specimen in front of me. The black angel was as tall and muscular as his siblings, and unsurprisingly, he had black skin and hair. Also his eyes reminded me of the other two angels: whites replaced by green, irises alive with tiny aurora borealis, the diamonds in the middle. But, as like to his siblings as he was, one thing about him surprised me: his wings.

There aren't too many kinds of wings in nature, and if I had had time to think about it, I would've expected the black angel to have the batlike wings rather than the gray. However, the black angel was endowed with a pair of butterfly wings. They were huge, delicate, fragile looking things that seemed completely out of place on a creature like him. Fairy wings on a creature that serves the Fallen Angel? That is a joke, I mused, once again forgetting that angels could follow my thoughts.

"You think that my wings are a joke?" the black angel said in mild tones. "The species that was granted my wings is called death's-head hawk moth. The creature is brave..."

"Foolhardy like you, more likely!" the two other angels chimed in.

"Brave enough to raid beehives for honey," the black went on as if the others hadn't said a thing. "It's a cunning species, capable of mimicking the scent of the bees and so able to move about in hives unmolested. Industrious little things, aren't they? In addition, as all hawk moths, they are capable of rapid, sustained flight. With wings like mine, that's a given."

"If you say so," I muttered.

"Ranin," the white angel addressed its brother, "could you, please, cover yourself, at least to the extent of the loincloth! We've agreed on that so many times, but you always choose to vex me."

"Why should I be the one making all the compromises, Jokela? Why aren't you willing to take off some of those clothes? Could it be because you've got nothing to show?"

"Behave, you two!" the gray angel stood up, the fires of her eyes burning even more brightly. "We aren't here so you could fight. Our guest has been hanging in between life and death long enough. Let's end this."

"Rinne, dear, you know that Jokela and I can't let it be," Ranin said. "We're opposite forces; we have to fight. Don't get mad with me, sis. I get to see you so rarely now that I've taken Luci's side."

"It pains me to agree with you, Ranin, on anything," Jokela said reluctantly, "but you've got it right this time. Let's not waste the brief time we have to be with our sister quarreling with each other."

"Could we finally get started with the business?" Rinne asked, clearly remaining as annoyed as before. "Val here deserves to be told what lies ahead of him."

"I'll go first then, unless Jokela has something against it," Ranin volunteered.

"Ranin!" Rinne cried out angrily. "Stop begging for a fight! You know, I know, and Jokela knows that it's always the black that goes first. So say it already."

"Calm down, Rinn," Jokela said gently to its sister. "Let's take our places and let him say his piece." Fuming, Rinne let her brother pull her to the middle of the floor where she took her place in the middle of their little row.

Ranin took a step forward. "Val Ainsworth," he declared, "your fierce need of saving the life of another regardless of the consequences to yourself has brought you in front of the Tribunal of Shades. You've been found worthy of the challenge of the Threes. The first of the Shades, the Black, the Darkness, the Lightless Night grants you one time to do what you do. Use your time wisely and live through the darkness of night to another day."

I heard all his words, but they went high above my head. I didn't get a chance to ask what he meant, though. As soon as Ranin stepped back, Rinne stepped out of the line.

"Val," she said, "your willingness to put the life of another in front of your own has brought you in front of the Tribunal of Shades. You've been found worthy of the challenge of the Threes. The second of the Shades, the Gray, the Twilight, the Balance Between Night and Day grants you one time to do what you do. Use your time wisely, and live through the dimness of dawn to another day, through the shadows of sunset to another night."

Tribunals and shades and threes were an unruly herd stampeding around in my head, and one more angel was preparing to give me its speech. "Valentine Amos Ainsworth," Jokela intoned, "your unselfish sacrifice of life has brought you in front of the Tribunal of Shades. You've been found worthy of the challenge of the Threes. The third of the Shades, the White, the Light, the Brightest Day grants you one time to do what you do. Use your time wisely, and live through the brightness of day to another night, to the time of your life."

The angels broke the line as suddenly as they had lined up. Right away, Jokela and Ranin started bickering on each other. Rinne rolled her eyes, and I chuckled. "Angels!" I said, grinning widely.

Rinne burst out laughing. "Angels indeed!"

"But," I said awhile later, when the mirth had run its course, "what does all that talk about shades and threes and times mean? Could the three of you be a little more comprehensible? Please?"

"Don't you try those eyes on me, puppy! But, you're right, of course. The phrasing of the ritual is a bit hard to understand."

"A bit? Hah!"

"OK. First, you'll remember every word that we said. You won't forget them. Second, there are meanings that you have to find out yourself. Third, there are some things that I can tell you."

"Thank God, or whatever power it is that has set that particular rule." My tone of voice was decidedly dry. "Go on, my Gray Lady. An inquiring mind wants to know."

"A confused mind, I would say." Rinne's grin was not an angelic one, not one tiny bit of it. I waved her to go on. "I can tell you what the challenge of the Threes means," she said.

"Ah, that's a start, I guess, my Lady. Go on; I'm listening."

"The challenge is that you have just three times to do things, no more."

"Three times? Wait a minute! You don't mean...?"

"But of course I do." Rinne smiled sweetly. "I mean exactly that."

"I have just three times left of everything I do?"

"Yes."

"But..." It was even worse than I imagined. Just three times to..."And what then? I die again?"

"Something happens, yes."

"And you aren't going to tell me what that something is?"

"Yes."

"Exasperating, Lady."

"Of course."

"I can't see a reason why you would be doing this. You're offering me a very short time to enjoy my second chance of life. Three heartbeats and it's over, or three intakes of breath. What would I do with such a short time? Why bother?"

"That's another thing I'm allowed to tell you. The rule of three times doesn't apply to every act of your body. For example your heart will keep beating as long as you live."

"Those things that are necessary for me to stay alive, you mean, are left out of the rule?"

"Yes."

"Seems reasonable. Is there something else you can tell me?"

"Yes."

"Why do I have to ask you to tell it to me?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you anything more unless you ask me to."

"Exasperating." It was getting frustrating to milk her for info. "OK. Let's try if this works. Tell me the things that you think I should know."

"Good phrasing, Val," Rinne said with a proud smile. She sat down on the sofa that she occupied earlier and indicated that I should take a seat, too. As soon as we were settled and were once again sipping the whisky, she went on with, "There are just two more things that I think you should know. First, there's a purpose for our challenge. We aren't acting on a whim."

That stopped me cold. Something isn't right... "You told me that I have a chance to live again, but if I get your meaning, that's not the purpose of the challenge."

"Good thinking, Val."

"You aren't going to tell me whether my good thinking hit the mark or not."

"That's not a question."

"No."

Rinne laughed. For a female, she had a pleasant way of laughing. It seemed to come from a very warm and big heart.

I smiled ruefully. "You aren't going to tell me the purpose either, are you?"

"No, but I will tell you that if the purpose of the challenge is fulfilled you'll be rewarded with a very rare choice."

"And, of course, you aren't going to tell me now what that choice is?"

"No."

"You can't tell me?"

"I can't tell you."

"And on this meager information you expect me to decide whether to take the bait or not?"

"Yes." Rinne dissolved her empty glass and told me to empty mine. "It's time to send you back. If you have chosen to take the chance we're offering tell me now. It will be a leap into the unknown. Do you dare?"

I thought about it for some time, but at the end, it was an easy decision to make. "Why not? What have I got to lose?"

"Good question. Unfortunately, I can't answer that..."

In mid-sentence, Rinne's voice, the sight of the room and the three angels in it faded from my mind.
 

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