Prompt 22 - Angel/Demon AU
@wolfstarmicrofic April 22, word count 816
Heaven was beginning to bore him. One could only stare at clouds for so long before they craved adventure, and Sirius had been staring at the fluffy things for millennia. He wanted to see what had become of Earth. So, without a word, he fell and dove below the clouds to the land below.
It was not what he remembered. Where were the giant lizards? The earth was infested with these little blobby things that seemed hellbent on destroying their only home. Sirius choked on the noxious air, coughing and spluttering until a warm hand fell on his shoulder, helping him to his feet.
“Thank you,” Sirius said, straightening up as he got used to this new environment.
“You’re very welcome. It’s been a while since one of you came down here.”
“One of us?” Sirius asked uncertainly. He’d assumed his saviour was another angel.
“An angel,” his saviour replied smoothly.
“And you’re not one of us?”
“No. I am what is collectively known as a demon, but you may call me Remus,” the demon said, waving his hand with a flourish and bowing low.
“What’s a demon?” Sirius asked, testing out the new word in his mouth. It felt funny.
“I am what was created when the first of the humans chose evil over good.”
“What is evil?” Sirius asked, confused by yet another unknown word.
“Something like this,” Remus replied and promptly flicked Sirius in the head, right between the eyes.
“Ouch!” Sirius yelped. “Ouch, ouch, ouch!” He repeated gleefully. This had to be pain. He’d never felt pain before.
“Sorry, I’ve found it’s the best way to show angels what I mean,” Remus said with an odd kind of grin Sirius had never encountered before. He’d later learn it was a sly grin.
“So, what do you do?” Sirius was finding all this very fascinating. Far better than staring at a bunch of clouds.
“Well, I and the others like me. We feed off the evil humans commit, so we would tempt them to do wrong.”
“That doesn’t sound very nice,” Sirius said, screwing his face up in disgust. Another new word he’d learnt.
“Well, it turned out we didn’t need to do much tempting as they tended to choose the wrong path themselves. They’re greedy, these creatures. Like locusts, they strip the land bare and move on to do the same elsewhere. It wasn’t so bad, say, a few hundred years ago, but as soon as they started mass production, that’s when it all started going downhill.”
“Locusts? Mass production? Greedy? I don’t understand these words!” Sirius was getting frustrated. He’d wanted to see the giant lizards, and now he was stuck with this demon and whatever these human things were.
The demon took pity and him and held out his hand for Sirius to take.
“Sorry, let me take you somewhere that’s still good.”
Sirius, excited by this prospect, grabbed Remus’s hand and allowed him to pop them out of existence for a brief moment to appear again on a sandy beach. He let out a deep breath. This was better.
“I like it here,” he admitted, walking to the sand’s edge and letting the warm water lap his bare feet. He looked around and realised they were on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. “Is this all the good left in the world?” he asked, worry creasing his previously angelic face.
“Well, as good as it can be,” Remus shrugged, moving to his side and pulling something see-through from the water’s edge. “This is plastic; it is choking the world. Its reach has even made it here. Soon the humans will destroy this world, and then there will be nothing.” Remus held up the plastic. Flames ran up his hand, and Sirius watched as the thin material withered before his eyes into a black goop, its acrid fumes spewing into the air around them.
“I think I want to go back to my cloud,” he muttered. He didn’t like Earth very much any more.
“You could, or you could help me fix it?”
“Fix it?”
“Contrary to popular belief, we demons don’t want the world to end. We feed off the humans’ misdeeds; we need them to survive. Without them, we cease to exist. So, I’ve been trying to influence a few into seeing the error of their ways, so to speak. I could use some help, if you’re interested?”
Sirius looked longingly up at the clouds above. He’d longed for adventure while he was lost up there, and now that an opportunity had arisen, was he really going to pass it up?
“I’ll help you,” he said and shook Remus’s hand. A strange feeling came over him. It seeped into his very being, dark and twisty like that burning plastic.
“It’s a deal.” Remus grinned and whisked them away to start putting the world to rights.
