As she walked down the hall, Amaris heard a loud crashing. Startled by the sound, so out of place in a world that was filled with clouds and feathered wings, she took to the air and bee-lined straight to the room it came from. Natural disasters were scarcely used, yet, as she entered the room she found The Ancient crouched in front of a globe suspended on a shining gold stand. He jumped up at the sound of Amaris' franticly fluttering wings.

\"I… I… What are you doing here Amaris!" he stammered.

                "I heard a crash…" It was then that she noticed the bits of red scattered at His feet, "I thought you weren't planning any major natural disasters for at least another 50 years… What are you doing in here?" Her eyes were wide with horror that did not belong on such an angelic face.

Looking down at the man everyone loved, feared, and worshiped so much, she was suddenly transported back to the day that brought her into the heavens to serve by His side. Natural disasters were a sensitive issue with Amaris; she had lost her friends and family in a fire, not to mention her own life. A bolt of lightning had struck a tree after a long dry spell one autumn, sending the entire forest and half of her home town up in crackling flames and billows of smoke. She snapped back to present time to find herself as the only person in the room. But where did He go?

Ignoring the fact that The Ancient had left her in the room without saying so much as an 'I'll be back,' she walked over to the globe. It was a perfect scale model of the earth, constantly changing and more trees fell and building rose, and it was currently covered in hundreds, if not thousands of bright red push pins, each of them marking a new natural disaster that had been placed. Amaris gasped when she realized what He had done. He had planted new seeds of calamity, dooming hundreds of thousands of people to a fate all too similar to her own. Amaris' wings failed her and she dropped to her knees in front of the globe. It was all she could do to keep from sobbing, all of those innocent lives, gone. But wait, she thought to herself, maybe there's a way to fix this… With that she began ripping pins from the globe and hurling them to the far corners of the room, the sound of their impact echoing slightly in the otherwise silent air.

Quiet footsteps in the hallway drew her attention and she turned to see a little girl of no more than five, staring at her with large, innocent eyes and sucking on the tip of one of her soft, white wings. The girl was the newest addition to the angel council, but Amaris couldn't recall her name.

\"Who are you?" the little girl asked, cocking her head to the side.

Amaris blinked rapidly and whispered her own name, "Amaris." The girl looked confused for a moment as she took in the scene; Amaris, backed by the glowing sphere of the globe, surrounded by dozens of tiny red pins…it was sure to look odd to anyone.

\"Can I help?" the tiny angel asked after a moment of awkward silence, during which Amaris just stared at the girl, unsure of how to proceed.

\"Oh. I… um… yes! I would really appreciate it! Just start pulling out all of the red pins," Amaris instructed. The girl sat cross-legged beside her and did as she was told, her small hands working quickly.

\"I'm Arrayah. I just got here. When did you get here?" the girl spoke in a rush, as if she were trying to fill up the silence with conversation. Amaris was silent for a moment. She glanced over at Arrayah. Her hair was a beautiful deep shade of red and fell in soft ringlets over her shoulders. Arrayah stopped pulling out pins and looked at Amaris. "My mom had red hair, too. So did my grandma. My dad had white hair though… Mom said it was because he was older. But I think it was because he stayed outside in the sun too long. He was always outside," she rambled, when Amaris didn't respond, the girl resumed pulling the pins silently.

\"He's out of control!" a male voice screeched. A man with blond hair and dark clothes swept into the room, a squirming toddler held tight against his chest. Amaris stood up slowly, confused, but Arrayah rushed forward, her arms outstretched.

\"Let me hold her," She said, reaching out for the baby. The man just ignored her and walked over to Amaris, his voice low and urgent.

                "I don't know exactly what's going on here, but I found her in the nursery… she doesn't have any wings…"

Amaris' head reeled as she took in this information; the natural disasters, the human child, it was all so out of character for The Ancient, and it frightened her. If she'd had any breath in her lungs she would have been hyperventilating.

\"Aurum, what do you know?" Amaris whispered, her eyes darting to the doorway, there was no telling when or if He would return.

Aurum shook his head, his hair falling into his eyes, "Nothing yet, do you think you could find a way into the records room… I'll find a way to distract The Ancient while I try and gather as many angels as I can to fix this."

Arrayah stamped her tiny foot, she didn't like being ignored. "I want to help." Aurum looked over, noticing her for the first time. He handed the toddler over to Amaris and knelt down so he was at eye level with Arrayah.

\"What's your name, little one?" Aurum asked gently.

\"Arrayah.\" Her face lit up with a dazzling smile and Aurum couldn't help but smile himself.

                "I think we found our distraction…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Within a few minutes, the three had their plan. Arrayah found herself outside the office of The Ancient, looking up at the tall, glass doors. She raised her hand to knock, but paused for a moment, intimidated. When she finally mustered up the courage to bring her fist down onto the door, it opened on its own and she poked her head inside. "Excuse me, Mr. God, sir?"

\"Come in, my child," boomed a voice from the darkest corner of the room.

                As Arrayah stepped inside, the room was engulfed in warm, golden light, revealing The Ancient, seated behind a desk of the purest white marble. For a moment, Arrayah just stared at Him, then He gestured for her to sit as a chair materialized out of the ether. She crossed the room and climbed up into the chair, her feet dangling a foot above the ground.

\"What can I do for you, my child?" He asked with a sense of warmth that belied the heinous acts Arrayah knew He had just performed.

\"Well, you see, Mr. God, sir… it's just that I miss my mommy a whole lot and I'm kind of scared of being dead and all…"

Aurum prayed that Arrayah would prove to be a useful distraction as he raced about, hurriedly whispering his knowledge to anyone who would listen. But as Aurum rallied angels to confront The Ancient, his whispers reached the ears of the archangels, those most loyal to Him. Within moments, one of them rushed into the office of The Ancient and held a hushed conversation with Him.

\"Bring him to me," The Ancient snapped, then he rounded on Arrayah, eyes blazing. "Sent here for a reason, little one?" Arrayah could only stammer nonsensically, rooted to the spot with fear. With a mere wave of His hand, The Ancient sent her hurtling into the wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arrayah woke to searing pain along her spine… At first she was sure that she had broken a wing, but when she reached back to check, there was nothing. She brought her hand in front of her eyes and found it covered with blood… blood far more silver in color than it had been when she was mortal, but blood none the less. As she was taking in the sight of this shimmery blood, she heard a faint groan over to her left. She turned to look, and only then did she realize that she wasn't in heaven anymore. Arrayah found herself surrounded by trees and shrubs of all sizes, still damp with the morning dew. She staggered to her feet and made her way toward the groan, there, she found Aurum spread-eagle beneath a thorn bush. As Arrayah approached him, he rolled onto his side and coughed once before getting to his feet. As he turned to face Arrayah, the little girl couldn't help but gasp. "Your eyes," she whispered, "they're black!"

                "So are yours," Aurum stated, apparently far more comfortable with the situation than Arrayah was. "Have you seen Amaris yet? Maybe she didn't get caught…"

Just then, the pair was startled by the sudden crunch of leaves underfoot. They whipped around to find Amaris, eyes black and clothes stained with silver, still holding the toddler. "Actually," she sighed, "I didn't get caught. Right after I found the file I saw them carry your bodies and dump them off the clouds… When they were gone I jumped after you, I thought it was the only way to keep her safe." She hugged the child tightly to her chest.

\"The file," Aurum asked, "what did it say?"

Amaris shook her head, "It didn't look good, her mother died as soon as this little one drew her first breath, then the couple that took her in died…and then the orphanage she was sent to burned to the ground, all within a year."

                "A year?" Aurum interrupted, "but she's at least 3."

                "I know. Let me finish. It looks like The Ancient has been bringing her up to heaven for short periods of time, waiting until He finds another orphanage or town He wants to pick off, then he would send her down for however long it took to get the job done… She was created to destroy."

                For a moment, there was utter silence as the fallen angels absorbed this information, then Arrayah spoke. "What was her name?"

\"Kendall.\"