Friends Forever

“You can’t go out there,” Kyle said quietly. He caught Cody by the wrist.

“Who else is going to go out there?” Cody looked steadily at Kyle and watched, for the first time, defeat darken the boy’s blue eyes. Elise was gone; Marsh was gone; both their angels had descended in a fury of feathers and unearthly power, the trumpets of Armageddon and the entropy of the universe coming to bear on the forces of the Fallen, but it hadn’t been enough, and now the Fallen were at their door, and the only place to go was down.

Kyle glanced over his shoulder at Gabriel, who was clutching the wound in his side and trying to look as stoic as possible.

“Are you sure?” Kyle asked.

Cody smiled and said, “Maiorem dilectionem nemo habet ut animam suam quis ponat pro amicis suis.”

Kyle blinked.

“I can say it in Greek for you,” Cody said.

In the corner, Gabriel blinked, confused and amused.

Asrael curled a hand on Cody’s shoulder, and Cody said, “μείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ θῇ ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ.” He reached for the doorknob.

Kyle said, “You’ve been reading the New Testament.”

“I had time on my hands,” Cody said.

Asrael leaned down and whispered, “Time’s up.”

Cody nodded and opened the door, stepped out into the sunlight.

Kyle sketched a handful of Hebrew letters, turned the wall into a one-way mirror, and he and Gabriel watched Cody go to face their enemies.

Gabriel was smiling. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Kyle said, “I didn’t realize he thought of us as friends,” and watched Cody step back over the cliff.

(291 words)