Tempest’s POV

“P-Pandora?” I called as I cautiously walked down the dark street, clutching the old book for dear life. I had no idea where I was or where I was supposed to go. I mean, when Pandora said ‘run’, I did think twice to ask her to where, not that it would have helped any. I didn’t have a clue where anything on earth was and navigating in the dark was proving to be a challenge on its own.

The darkness burned my purple irises as I squinted to the left and right, trying to make heads or tails of where I was. I was lost! Completely and utterly lost! Could you believe that? An angel lost on these dark dirty streets? I had never been lost in my life, and now here I was, lost for the second time today. Or well… night I guess. I still didn’t know why I had been sent down to earth in the first place. I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong, unless reading was suddenly a crime against God. Were the ancient scriptures suddenly banned?

“Come on, Pandora, where are you?” I asked the air, only hear the bushes rustle behind me. I let out a squeak of surprise and quickly increase my pace. If I didn’t find Pandora or some other source of life soon, I know how I was going to survive in my new habitat.

I already learned with the group of men that abducted Pandora and I that people weren’t what they seemed, and didn’t want to stick around to find out who or what was hiding in the bushes. Let alone, run into another gang of fallen angels demons with unthinkable motives. I’d heard horror stories about them and I didn’t want to see them come to life.

About ten minutes later, I let out a sigh of relief as I came upon a streetlamp at the end of the street. Finally there was some light to give my poor eyes a break. I wasn’t accustomed to seeing in the dark, considering it was always light in the Silver City. I didn’t know how these humans coped with the darkness everyday, but I wasn’t a big fan. Couldn’t they just keep the sun on like in the Heavens?

Maybe if I stood under this light long enough, Pandora would find me? Yeah, that didn’t sound like too bad of a plan… unless those fallen angels came looking for me again. I didn’t think any of those men would be very happy when they discovered our escape.

I swallowed thickly as I envisioned them walking into the empty basement. Thank goodness Pandora and I weren’t there any longer. Just the menacing look from the Fallen with green eyes was enough to haunt my memory for months. He was simply terrifying! I guess that’s what happened when you sided with the devil.

Though part of me couldn’t help but think that the Fallen weren’t all truly bad. Even the greened eyed one. I mean, they were once angels and some goodness had to hiding in them somewhere, right? Maybe it was up to me to help bring it back! Maybe that’s why I was sent to earth in the first place!

A smile lit up my face as I hugged the tattered book to my chest. Yes, that must have been my mission here! Finally I seemed to have a purpose but I knew I just couldn’t waltz back to the mansion. No, I had to let the tension settle for a day or two… and then maybe I could start to help them. I knew they wouldn’t be open to the idea, but hey, angels have been known to work a few miracles here and there.

“Pandora!” I called out happily! “Pandora! I have a purpose!”

“No one fucking cares what drug induced state you’re in! We’re trying to sleep!” A voice suddenly shouted before an object was thrown in my direction. “Shut up!”

With a yelp, held my hands up and sidestepped just in time to avoid being hit by the foreign object. How rude! “But you don’t understand I—”

“Get the fuck out of here, you crazy bitch!” The very unhappy voice bellowed again. I opened and closed my mouth completely appalled. How could people talk to each other like this?

“Both of you stop your fucking yelling or I’ll come out there and beat both of your asses!” A female voice called from the other side of the street. What was going on here? “Shut the fuck up!”

Without being told twice, I started running down the street again, the darkness inhibiting my vision. I didn’t stop running until I reached the next area of light and thankfully this place seemed to have some form of life. Though I had no idea what that loud, bombastic noise was coming from the establishment. Was that supposed to be music? Music certainly didn’t sound like screaming cats in the Heavens but maybe things were different down here on earth. Hadn’t they ever heard of a string quartet or using their singing voice?

“Woo! Shots for everyone!” I heard a voice call through the open door and my eyes grew wide when I heard a crowd erupt with cheers. What was going on in there? Was it a group vaccination? What kind of things did these humans do down here? It all seemed a little barbaric, but then again, maybe Pandora was inside.

“Well, here goes nothing,” I sighed, shaking my head and looking at the door. I knew I shouldn’t go inside, but something was drawing me into the building. I didn’t know if it was strange music or my angelic intuition but something made me want to go in.

As I stepped toward the door, I realized I was still holding the giant tattered book. It just didn’t seem right to take this artifact into an establishment or whatever it was. Yeah, it definitely didn’t look like a place you’d be caught reading, especially with these beastly men walking out and looking me with wild eyes. Maybe should just leave the book here next to the building and pick it up on the way out.

I still didn’t understand why we needed to take this thing. It was tattered, old, and smelled like mildew. Maybe Pandora wanted some new reading material? Well, if that was the case I could recommend something a little more…cleanly, but right now I was more concerned with finding someone to help me.

Without a second thought, I set the book down around the corner and entered the dark and highly occupied building. What was this place? There were people as far as I could see and they all seemed to be dressed even less than Pandora. I didn’t understand how these humans could flash so much skin. It just wasn’t something we did in the Silver City. We were all required to wear our robes and there wasn’t any discussion about it.

And what was in the glasses they were all slinging around? Some looked like water or juice of various colors, while some looked like the sacred wine we had with dinner ever night. Was this one of those brothels I had read about? I mean, there were certainly scantily dressed women and men and they were dancing rather…oddly.

I shook my head and pinched my nose as I walked in past a group of men who appeared to be smoking something. It stunk to the high heavens and I moved as quickly as I could past it.

I pushed through the crowd to see what all the fuss was about, everyone seemed to turn and look at me with a look of distain. Did I do something wrong? Was it not the proper etiquette to say ‘pardon me’ when walking through a crowd?

“What the fuck…” I heard someone whisper as I made my way to the back of the room where everyone was gathered. It appeared to be like a long island surrounded with stools. People were drinking and laughing, and if I wasn’t mistaken, they seemed to be acting very oddly. What kind of drink was that?

As I reached the front, I saw both a man and woman behind the long table nod in my direction. “Hello!” I waved back only for the woman to my right to mutter something and turn and look at me.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” she muttered under her breath as my face lit up.

“Pandora! You’re here!” I squealed, reaching out and pulling her into a hug. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” She quickly pushed me off her and looked me up and down, her eyes growing wide.

“Fucking hell…” she said, quickly looking around behind me before holding up her middle finger at something. What and odd gesture? Was that a greeting here on earth? “What? She’s into Cosplay! Give it up! Like you’ve never seen it before!” she shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.

“What is cosp—” I started only for her hold up a finger and chug whatever was in her glass.

“Don’t worry about,” Pandora whipped her mouth with the back of her hand before motioning to the man on the other side of the bar. “So you found me, huh? Do all of you have built in GPS or something?”

“A built in what?” I was so confused right now it wasn’t even funny. By now Pandora was swirling amber colored liquid in her glass with an odd expression on her face. Was something wrong? “What’s that in your glass?”

Pandora laughed, throwing her long hair back. “Only the best thing ever…” she said, turning to look at me with her dark eyes.

“Like wine?” I raised my brow and took a seat next to Pandora at the bar, looking around to see people still staring in our direction.

“Yeah… like wine,” she chuckled and I nodded eagerly. “Do you want one?”

“Sure… I haven’t had anything to drink today. I’m parched. A little refreshment will do me good.” I thanked her as she passed me a glass chuckling. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she said, leaning back on her stool as I examined the glass. It had a strange smell but if Pandora was drinking it, it was good enough for me. I quickly pulled the cool glass to my lips and took a big sip, only to cough and sputter.

“Wha-what is this?” I coughed, covering my mouth and setting the glass back down. “It tastes like poison!”

Pandora just laughed and shook her head at me, looking more than amused. “That my dear, is a nice aged whiskey.”

“Whiskey? What’s that?” I asked only for her to look at me like I had six heads.

“And I thought you angels knew everything,” she chuckled before rolling her eyes. “It’s alcohol, Tempest… only God’s gift to the world.”

“That’s his gift?” I gapped, looking down at the glass. “There as to be some kind of mistake. He would never poison his followers!”

Pandora sighed and took another sip of her drink, muttering something under her breath that I didn’t quite understand. “Let’s try something else. I can tell you’re not the hard liquor kind of girl.”

A few minutes later, there was a pinkish drink sitting on the bar in front of me. “Are you sure this one doesn’t taste like the other?” I asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

“I’m positive,” Pandora replied as I picked up the glass and took a sip. Wow, this drink was so much better than the last. It was fruity and refreshing all at the same time and I quickly finished the glass and set it back down on the counter. “Another?”

I nodded eagerly and turned around, looking at my surroundings. It was dark, smoky, and over crowded with lots of provocative posters on the walls. There were a few billiards tables in the back room and a dartboard. It was an odd combination of things in one place if you asked me. “What is this place anyway? Do you live here?” I asked, bringing the tiny black straw to my lips.

Pandora chocked on her drink. “You’re kidding, right? Please tell me that you’re trying to pull my leg here.” I shook my head with a frown and she shook her head slightly. “This my dear, is a Johnny’s Saloon and I would live here if Johnny boy here didn’t kick me out every night,” she explained motioning to the man behind the bar as she kept talking. She seemed to do that a lot, like more than anyone I had ever encountered.

“Johnny’s Saloon,” I mused, drinking the rest of the juice in my glass as I took it all in. So this is what a saloon was. I didn’t picture it like this in my head when I read about them. Apparently they were old dusty places that served alcohol, the devil’s drink of choice, but I didn’t see any of that hear. I guess the stuff made people lose their minds and do crazy things, but I didn’t see anything that looked out of he ordinary from earth. Well, at least from what I had seen so far.

“I would slow down on those, love,” Pandora said, looking at me with a slightly blurry gaze.

I raised a brow as I pulled the straw of my third drink to my lips. “Why? They are so light and refreshing.”

“Yes but—you know what, never mind. I’ll let you live your first night on earth,” she chuckled, watching me enjoy my drink. “And speaking of that, did you figure out how you got here in the first place.”

“I have a purpose and am on special assignment,” I explained proudly, feeling my head spin slightly. What was that about? “It all made sense after we escaped that basement.”

Pandora pushed her long dark hair behind her ears as she looked at me with an amused expression. “Oh yeah? And what’s that? Oh, and where is the grimoire?”

“It’s outside in a safe place,” I said, bushing off her concerns. “But my purpose is to—”

“You left it outside?!” she snapped, jumping to her feet and immediately taking off out the door. “Do you have any idea how valuable that is?!”

“I-I’m sorry,” I said, following close behind her and stumbling slightly. What was wrong with me? “I thought it was just an old book!”

“It’s not just an old book… it’s a very special book with a very important purpose,” she snapped, looking both left and right out the door for the book. “Where is it?”

“Right around the corner,” I said, watching her. “But like I was trying to tell you inside, my purpose is to convert the fallen back to the light. You know, make them good again,” I explained, only for Pandora to stop dead in her tracks and slowly turn around to look at me.

“You've got to be shitting me…”

Notes

Tempest found Pandora... but was is such a good idea to leave the grimoire outside? What is going on with Pandora? Did she see something/someone? Is the grimoire still there? Or has Tempest completely lost her little mind?

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