IN Fic: Small Fates (warning: Child endangerment)

[jeriendhal]

"Mommy! Mommy, I'm scared!" Danny shouted, but Mommy didn't answer. He was naked and all the people around him were naked and bigger than he was, and couple of them had tried to grab hold of him and push him down, but the scary monsters had struck them with scary barbed whips and shouted, "Keep moving!" and they had let go before Danny was trampled.

"Mommie!!" he shouted as loud as he could. But Mommy wasn't here.

Maybe it was a really bad dream. The last thing Danny could remember was climbing over the front seat of the car, trying to grab his sister's book. It wasn't fair that she was three years older than him and could sit in the front seat while he had to sit in the back, and she got to do whatever she wanted. He remembered Mommy shouting at him as he fell across both their laps, and there had been a loud screech, and then he was here.

"Mommy, I'm sorry!" he said, as he started to cry, "I'm sorry I tried to bug Jessie! I'm sorry! Mommy, I want to go home!"

"Shut the fuck up, kid," the smelly, naked man beside him said, "ain't you figured out where we are yet?"

He looked around. Everywhere there was darkness and fire, and the road before them led to a massive gate, and standing before it was a huge winged lion on one side, and a scary looking man who was all black skin and black wings, and held a shining sword in his hand on the other.

"This is where bad people go, isn't it?" he said softly.

"No kidding, moron," the man answered, and shoved him aside. Danny fell down on his knees and cringed as he heard one of the monsters' whips sing through the air, to hit him for not moving fast enough, like they had to all the other people.

But the whip didn't hit him, and he looked up to see that it had been blocked by the sword held by the scary black-winged man.

Not this one, he/it rumbled. Danny let out a scream as the black-winged man reached down and picked him up off the ground, dropping him on the back of the winged lion. He grabbed hold of the lion's mane and held on for dear life, burying his face into the rough, dark fur.

Wait, the lion said, as the monsters below howled in protest.

A hand touched his shoulder and he flinched.

"It's all right, Danny." Danny turned and saw a big brown bear looking at him, sitting on the lion's back as he was. It wasn't a real bear, because real bears didn't have wings, and didn't smile, and didn't have really soft fur that felt so good as he threw his arms around it and held on for dear life. He felt the bear's arms wrap around him, and suddenly he didn't feel anywhere near as naked and afraid. "It's all right, Danny," the bear repeated. His voice was warm, and sounded nice, like a policeman or fireman's was supposed to.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."

"That's not quite true, is it, Danny?" the bear said, drawing back a little so Danny could see his face.

"No," Danny admitted.

"Do you know what you did wrong?"

Danny swallowed. "I was mad at Jessie for being in the front seat, so I undid my seat-belt like Mom told me not to and climbed into the front seat."

"Do you know what happened next?"

"I made…" he hiccupped back a sob, "I made the car crash. And everybody… and everybody…" he started to cry again, and the bear scooped him and held him tight as Danny buried his face in its shoulder.

"It's all right, everything is all right now."

"No, it is not," another man's voice said. Danny looked up, and saw a old man dressed in a fancy suit floating in the air beside them, an open book in his hand. "This one is mine, Christopher. He has met his Fate." The man's leather wings flapped once, and he settled down on the lion's back.

The bear, Christopher, growled. "No."

"Fated," the fancy man repeated.

"He said he was sorry," Christopher growled again.

The fancy man's lips grew thin. "Which means exactly nothing."

"You have an argument, bring it up with Dominic. I'm sure Daniel and Hurtiel will enjoy joining in the debate." Christopher shifted, so that Danny rested on his shoulders. "Come on, Danny. Your mom and sister are waiting to see you."

And then they flew.

Comments

[vitamancer.livejournal.com]

This makes the INverse seem darker to me, an AA taking a fated soul to Heaven.
Then again I usually run Christopher as being a bit more of an older brother from real life, nice, likes to play, but sometimes has to hold up the rules. Anyway, my two cents.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what the Angels of Final Judgement are for. To yank out the people who met their Fate, but don't really deserve to be in Hell. It makes for a less mechanistic universe IMO.

I tend to view Chris as more of a sentimentalist. He can do the hard thing if he must, but he doesn't like it, and unless a child is totally incorrigable he's willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.