Chapter 28

                                    

                                          
"This place? You sure?" Gabriel asked me as we stood in front of an old house.
                          
"Pretty sure."
                          
I shrugged and Gabriel rolled his eyes. The house was old, but I didn't get why Gabriel was complaining. It looked perfectly fine, just old. It had been abandoned for a while. A faint sound reached my ears. It was a soft melody coming from inside.
                          
"Do you hear that?" I questioned. 
                          
"Hear what?"
                          
"The song."
                          
The melody turned into something more familiar. My feet lurched forward, sending me towards the house. I ran through the house, avoiding items left behind. The back room was large and surrounded by windows that revealed an overgrown backyard. A piano sat in the middle of the room, being played by a woman. She wore a long sleeveless white dress and her hair loose. The melody was soft, the same one she played so long ago.
                          
"Rina."
                          
She looked over her shoulder and smiled.
                          
"I'm ready to come home now, Michael."
                          
"Mich.....Michael.....ael.....snap out of it!....."
                          
Suddenly she was gone and the house became decayed. Wallpaper peeling and pieces of wall missing, wooden floor rotting, windows broken, what I thought were items were just holes in the floor. I sank to my knees as Gabriel reached me, still calling my name. The piano was still there, but broken and unplayable. Gabriel knelt beside me shaking my shoulders, his eyes shining with tears. 
                          
"Michael! Michael!"
                          
I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close, stunning him. But after a moment he returned the embrace. He was shaking, overflowing teads wetting the shoulder of my shirt.
                          
"You're a crappy big brother. I'm supposed be the one making you worried, not the other way around." Gabriel joked in a shaky voice.
                          
"Sorry, Gabe. I'm sorry. You're right, I'm supposed to be watching over you. I'm a bad brother, but at least I'm not as bad as Raphael."
                          
"Ha, stop it, I'm trying to be kinda mad at you. But you saw her, didn't you?"
                          
"Yeah."
                          
*****
Neither of us could stay inside that house. So, we laid on top of the roof, avoiding the holes. We quietly watched the stars above us until Gabriel broke the silence.
                          
"Michael, you know how dad disappeared shortly after I was born? You think dad left because of me?"
                          
I looked at him in disbelief. 
                          
"Gabriel, don't ever think that way. Dad loved you so much. I remember the day you were born. Rather than handing you to Lucifer or Raphael, he gave you to me. Do you know what he said to me when he did?"
                          
"No."
                          
"He said, 'Michael, protect him. He will be an important part in ridding the world of a great evil'. And to this day, I still believe that. It may be Rina, but it may not be, and I believe you will be a great part of it."
                          
"Geez, you're such a sap."
                          
"Shut up, I'm telling the truth."
                          
"I know. Do you know about the first time I met Rina?"
                          
"No, but I bet it's an interesting story."
                          
"I was. We were very young and I was running around the library. Unfortunately, I ran right into Rina. She dropped all of her books and got angry with me. Being an archangel, I wasn't expecting it. So I asked if she knew who I was and she said yes. She left and I became fascinated by her standing up to me. I began following her around, she became so annoyed. One she turned on me asked what my deal was and I told her that she was different. After that, we slowly started becoming friends. It took a long time though. Always used to talk about her 'rivalry' with you. And you talked about yours with her. And I would talk to both of you. I see now that I was inadvertently creating the base for your relationship, even if I was in love with her."
                          
"Are you still made at me about that?"
                          
"Nah. She chose you, that's all that matters. She could have chosen me, but she didn't. And as long as she's happy. Sometimes you gotta love someone enough to let them go."
                          
"And where did you learn to talk like that?" I said, eyeing him.
                          
Gabriel blushed and cleared his throat.
                          
"Uh, Rachel."
                          
"I know you've been around Rachel a lot."
                          
"Well, we are both working on finding Rina. We're kind of stuck together."
                          
"No, no, no, you know what I mean. You're around her more that you have to. Not to mention the smiling, the showing off, the excessive closeness, and the the look."
                          
"What look?!"
                          
"The look you get when you're with someone you love. The look you get when they do something cute. It's the look you get when you know that this is the person you will love for all of eternity."
                          
"Is that really the look I get?"
                          
"Yeah. And it's a very good thing. I know that look, because it's the same one I had when I was near Rina. When you love someone that much, you just....know. And it's honestly the best feeling in the world."
                          
"Yeah, it is. But do you....think she'll return my feelings?"
                          
I laughed. It felt nice to laugh after so long.
                          
"Of course she will, you idiot. It's like me all over again. It took me until the day before all this happened to tell her. And she initiated it. Because she was forced to! Whatever you do, don't wait. I know for a fact Rachel will accept your feelings. She loves you too, stupid."
                          
"Don't call me stupid!"
                          
He rolled over, trying to attack me. We wrestled on the roof, messing around like brothers should. But we rolled over to a hole in the roof, where I slipped, just hanging on.
                          
"Is it really bad that I want to push you off and say long live the king rathervthan help you?" Gabriel questioned, holding on to my arm.
                          
"Do it!"
                          
"What!?"
                          
"Do it! Do it for me, Brother."
                          
With my urging, Gabriel readied himself. Then he pushed me off. I fell through the hole, thankfully landing on my feet. Gabriel looked over the edge of the hole to make sure I was okay. We laughed when we knew both of us were fine.
                          
"And that is why you are the best brother ever!" Gabriel shouted down into the hole.
                          
"Of course, who else is going to let you reenact the loin king by pushing them through a hole in the roof of a broken down house?"
                          
"Only you, big bro!"