Even with her eyes closed, Maggie can't help but squint. She opens one eye, and then the other catching the source of light. A beam of sunshine is reflecting off the gold cross hanging above the alter. She yanks at a church bulletin smushed underneath her back and holds it up to shade her eyes from the light. 

She reads the words etched across the page as she arches her back, stretching. "Deliver us from Evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen." She pushes her arms over her head and points her toes, tightening every muscle in her body and then letting the tension go, out into the air around her. 

Eli yawns. "Progressive Muscle Relaxation to start the day off right." He squints at the white light dancing over his face. "Robot Russell would be so proud." 

Maggie lets out a laugh at the memory of Dr. Sonia Russell teaching PMR to the psych ward group, flexing and releasing, inhaling and exhaling, never looking one bit less uptight. "How'd you sleep?" 

Eli rubs his eyes. "The best I have in weeks. The hard as rock bench and the cold as ice temperature beats being on the Hall, any day." Puffs of breath float from his mouth. He cups his hands and blows into them. "You?"

"Good enough," Maggie says, ready to move and think and plan again.  

The sanctuary smells of honey suckle clover and pine. 

Fire and light buzz around the room like fireflies. 

When they're still enough, Maggie can see the creatures. Some are ten feet tall. Others are more. White light fills them. Wings cascade down their backs like waterfalls. They have human-like faces, but they're not human. They are creatures of spirit and fire. They are angels. 

There's no snake-skin wings or bulgy eyes staring at her. There's no hint of that awful, raunchy smell. 

Maggie gazes up at the cathedral ceiling. "It's just like the art room." 

"The angels have won the battle here," Eli says, glancing around the sanctuary.

"You see them?" Maggie says. 

He nods.

She scratches her forehead. "What do they look like to you?" 

Eli pulls an envelope and a pencil from the back of the pew in front of them. He sketches translucent wings the length of a bright body. Long, flowing hair surrounds a human-like face. Eli points to the altar, just below the cross. 

Maggie lifts her eyes to the altar. Translucent wings and hair of fire, flow around a human-like face. Maggie closes her eyes and exhales a sigh of relief. "We see the same angel." 

Eli nods. 

"And the demons?" Maggie says. "What do they look like to you?" 

Eli presses the pencil against the envelope. "Armies have ranks." He sketches a creature with a body that is a cross between a lizard and a snake. "These ones crawl on their bellies. They have four legs with claws." He sketches a narrow sphere-shaped head with black bulbous eyes on either side of it. "They are Serpent Demons. They're the lowest ranked. They notice when people are at their most vulnerable and attach to them. They push people deeper into their darkness and despair."

Eli sketches snake skin stretched around two bony arms with five long fingers. Talons curl out from the tips of each finger. "These demons have wings that look like a bat's covered in snake-skin." He draws a wide head with narrow yellow eyes on either side of it. "They have a frill and horns like a triceratops. They are Soldier Demons. They battle the Angels to prevent them from rescuing souls. They influence people to commit violent acts against one another, through fist fights, road rage, riots -- that sort of thing."  

"The Soldier Demons look something like Dread," Maggie says. 

Eli nods. "But Dread is larger, isn't he? And he has more horns on his head." 

Maggie lets out a shaky breath. "And his eyes are wider and brighter."

"He's not just a soldier," Eli says. "He's something more." 

Eli presses his pencil against the paper. "There's one more demon I've seen."  He sketches a stumpy body with narrow, short wings. "They are the Informants. They fly around searching for those souls that are seeking a way out of their darkness - the Seekers. When the Informants spot the Seekers, they surround them with their death-colored bodies, camouflaging them from the Angels. They also inform the Serpents and the Soldiers so they can influence the Seekers into dark ways."

Maggie's eyes widen as she scans Eli's sketches. "It's exactly what I've seen," she tells him. From the moment we ran out into the Fallowshill streets, I could sense so much more than I ever could before. It's as if the lights were turned on in a dark room, and I can finally see what has been there all along. Angels, Demons, The Soul War, coming to life before my eyes. An entire world has opened up." 

Eli hands her a granola bar. "Maybe we're getting closer to what we're searching for," he says. 

Maggie's brow crinkles. Never in a million years did she think searching for the truth about Mary Stone would lead to an invisible world of Angels and Demons where a Soul War is in full swing. She rubs at her forehead. Her throat tightens. Her chin quivers. 

Eli folds her hand into his. "It's okay if you want to stop." 

Maggie looks up at him through wet lashes. "I don't want to stop." She wipes at her face.

"Then what's wrong?"

"What if ..." The words get stuck in her throat. "What if ...." she says, choking back tears.

"What if what?" Eli says.

"What if we find the truth and it ends us, like it ended her?" 

Eli points up at the words inscribed in the stain glass just above the cross. 

Maggie's eyes narrow. "Veritas vos liberabit," she says. "What does it mean?"

"The truth will set you free." 

                                           💙💙💙

https://www.deviantart.com/star-lit-beauty/art/Angels-43554302

https://swbible.org/resources/the-truth-shall-set-you-free/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/719027896755610950/