Gabriel took in a deep breath. Not that he needed to breathe; he just knew humans did so before they had to complete an important task, and he was about to interact with humans again after several centuries and, you know, when in Rome. Another human phrase, that he didn’t quite understand, but knew this was the right context.
He gave himself one more moment, then stepped down from the astral plane, into a dimly lit apartment.
“Mary!” He cried, his voice ringing with angelic power, “I bear a message for you from the Almighty above!” He unfurled his majestic wings for affect, then glanced around. Usually humans would be crying in awe from his presence, but it took him a moment to even find the human he was looking for in all the clutter.
When he found her, he saw not a trembling maiden awaiting his instruction, but a bored looking young woman with – were those pins in her ears? Was he in the right place?
The woman chuckled slightly. “Dude, what are you on?” she asked, and Gabriel was dumbstruck. She was laughing at him? In all his eternity in the universe, he had never been laughed at. Clearly he was in the wrong place, but his own instructions had been clear, so he needed to make sure.
“You are Mary of Nazareth, correct?”
She laughed again. “Dude, I haven’t gone by Mary in years. And I haven’t been back to Pennsylvania in just as long.” She sprang up from where she was sitting on some sort of slouchy sack, and reached out a hand. “Call me Morrigan.”
Gabriel just stared at her. This was the woman he was supposed to find, but he didn’t expect… this. He tentatively took her hand, and watched in amazement as she shook it. He knew about the convention, of course, but had never actually participated. He kept staring as she grinned at him, and flopped back down on the cushion.
“Take a seat, man. What can I do you for?” Morrigan asked, and he sat delicately on the edge of a lumpy couch.
“I bear a message for you from the Almighty above,” Gabriel said again, but without quite as much angelic might as before. Honestly, he was still trying to figure out what was happening. This was the woman that had been selected to raise the next Messiah?
She appeared to size him up, her eyes a little less friendly than before. “So you said. What message, exactly?”
Gabriel grasped on her question, feeling his confidence return. This was how it was supposed to go. He delivered the message, she cried from joy and awe, and he left triumphant.
“You have been chosen by the Almighty to bear the next Messiah, the next shepherd of humanity, to bring about a more glorious future!” he boomed, his voice infused with it’s usual power.
Morrigan’s eyes widened. Finally, Gabriel thought, she is realizing what is happening, what power is near her, what her duty-
“You’ve got to be shitting me. Are you some kind of street preacher or something? Or did Darrell put you up to this?”
“No, you don’t understand,” Gabriel replied, a little lost in the conversation. “I am an angel of the Almighty, and I am bringing you the message that you will become pregnant, and your child will lead humanity in a new direction.”
“Says who? Your patriarchal asshole of a deity? What about humans having free will, making their own choices, deciding their own fate? Isn’t that the whole point of your religion, that people have to freely choose your god?”
Gabriel was stunned. She was arguing with him? Wait, did she just call the Almighty an asshole? This would not do. He drew on all his angelic power, until he grew in size, towering over her, his wings spread behind him, light emanating from every pore.
“You have been chosen, Mary. The Almighty has decided that you are to be the mother of the future, and it is an honor to have been selected.”
To his utter shock, she just glared at him. It hadn’t been this hard last time.
“Then your boss has a twisted sense of humor, trying to pick me,” Morrigan said, gesturing at the symbol painted on the wall across from them. Gabriel peered at the wall, and saw a red “A” painted in a circle.
“I’ve seen that symbol before…” he muttered, and his wings and aura deflated slightly.
“I’m an anarchist, dude. Not really the blushing damsel type to just do as I’m told.” She watched him, looking for a reaction. She got one.
“An ANARCHIST?!” The earth shook, and she finally looked worried. But Gabriel wasn’t yelling at her. “You send me to tell an anarchist that she has to be the mother of the Messiah, and didn’t warn me? You-” he gasped. He was about to use the same word Morrigan had about the Almighty. What was happening to him? He slumped down on the couch, his wings folded back into his robes. No wonder this was so hard. He had taken entirely the wrong approach.
Suddenly there was a glass of water in front of his face.
“You look like you need it,” Morrigan muttered, and after he took the glass, she moved away from him, watching warily from the other side of the room. Gabriel took a sip of the water, his mind racing. It was still supposed to be her. He needed to find a way to convince her to take up this mantel, to do what the Almighty was asking. He didn’t think he would be allowed home until she did.
“You okay?”
He nodded. “I’m sorry. You just weren’t… what I was expecting.”
She smiled, a little sadly. “I get that a lot.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, while Gabriel finished his water. To his surprise, Morrigan broke the silence.
“Why was I chosen?” Her voice was quiet.
“I don’t know,” Gabriel answered honestly. “My job is the deliver the message, not understand it.”
“Don’t you ever get sick of just doing what you’re told, of following the rules just because someone who is higher up the metaphorical food chain told you to? Aren’t you sick of all the rigid rules, of the power structure that just favors those at the top? A system that benefits the powerful at the expense of the weak, forcing them to comply out of fear and manipulation?”
“It’s all I’ve known. It’s the Almighty’s will,” Gabriel replied, and he almost thought she looked at him in pity, but that couldn’t be right. A human, pitying an angel?
“See why I’m an anarchist? Too many people are warped into following the rules, out of fear, or out of practice. It’s all you’ve known, and you’ve been taught to never question the system, so you don’t even know you are being oppressed.” She sighed. “You don’t know how to think for yourself. And that’s really the point of anarchy. Thinking for yourself, and not being forced or manipulated into subverting your will for some higher thing, whether that’s a deity, an institution, a political structure, whatever.
“Not that it means we don’t have any rules, or just run amok doing whatever we want. You still need to treat people with kindness, you still need to care for the people around you, you need to work with people towards a common good. I guess the point is that it comes from an internal desire, not because you are being told to do it. Something we need a lot more of these days… People who give a shit about people and things beyond themselves.”
She fell silent again, looking thoughtful, and Gabriel just stared at her. The pieces were clicking into place.
“That’s it!” He cried gleefully, and she looked startled.
“What’s it?”
“That’s it! That’s why you were chosen! You were chosen to bring the new Messiah to the world, to teach those ideas, and then the child can bring those ideas to the masses. You would be helping create a new world order, based on your own ideals! Last time, the Messiah radically shifted the world; that would happen again.” He felt renewed, and assured of his mission. It all made sense now!
But as he looked back at her, his jubilation faltered. She didn’t look convinced.
“It didn’t work out so well for the last Messiah.”
“True,” Gabriel said, “but the past isn’t always prologue. Clearly things have changed since I was last here.”
He watched her think, hoping she would see that this was the way, that this is what she was meant for. He couldn’t see inside her head, couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Finally, she spoke.
“Okay.”
“Okay? You’ll- you’ll do it?” he asked, surprised. He expected more of a fight, for her to refuse her role.
“I’ll do it,” Morrigan said, but her slow smile unnerved him. “But tell your boss I’m going to do it my way.”
Gabriel shuddered, the weight of his duty lifted as she said the binding words. He stood, but before he could leave, she spoke again.
“She’s going to be the most kick-ass Messiah, just you wait.”
With that promise lingering in the air, Gabriel stepped back, through to the astral plane, and made his way home. He didn’t see the smug smile on her face, but as he returned home he did hear the All-Powerful laughter echoing around him.
Inspired by a writing prompt from Writing Prompt Generator.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020