2.

It is a long road we travel and many a strange and interesting thing can be encountered along the way.

Half past two in the afternoon of the same day when a certain Angel by the name Michael meets another Angel by the name Gabriel out on a darkened dirt road, a third Angel enters a shopping center and moves right up to the main customer service desk.

'Hello ...' he speaks to the lady who is seated front and center behind that desk. 'I am Raphael, '

'Em ... alright ...' she says smiling, attempting to be as friendly as possible even with the oddness that has only just greeted her. '... My name is Emily; how may I help you today?'

There is no immediate response and Emily finds this pause quite uncomfortable, still she smiles.

'I wonder if you can help me ...' he begins to ask before once again taking quite the lengthy pause.

'Yes ... I will do my best?' perhaps she can aid him to pick it up a little.

'I am looking for one of the other seven angels who stands and serves before the Glory of the Lord. His name is Gabriel, he has curly blond hair, have you seen him?'

'I'm afraid I haven't ... I'm so sorry' her voice and tone are so soft and gentle. She is naturally friendly so the way she comes across is not just something of a professional curtesy. She is young and pretty, relatively new to the position she has, her pleasantness is something that may or may not change with time.

If she were to think about it she might consider a possibility that she might be in the process of being set up for a joke being a new member of staff though this is not happening at all. This moment is very much a real one.

'Oh, don't be sorry ... or afraid. It's alright, you see ... Gabriel came down to Earth to aid in dealing with a demon problem and in such he has taken a bit of a fall ... and that was three days ago.'

'So ...' she says attempting to consider all she has been told. '... your friend Gabriel is a fallen Angel? ...'

'Yes ... you can say that.'

'Have you tried the hospital?' ... a question asked in all honesty.

'The hospital?'

'Yes ... if he has hurt himself in the fall then maybe he is there.'

The hospital, sure why not? A plausible if not odd response in its own right. Gabriel is to become mortal with his fall. It may not happen right away though enough change could have already occurred that might see him incur injury because of his fall and if there is injury then a hospital administration is quite logical.

'Thank you for your time ... Emily.'

He had been about to walk away before deciding to take the time to look the young lady in the eye and speak her name. If it were that moment of the conversation in general or be it the conversation as a whole or the fact that he may just be exactly who or what he said he is, Emily could not help but feel-good inside. She felt a certain glow come from within herself and she certainly likes how this feels.

'You are very welcome' her smile and pleasantness are both certainly capable of brightening the darkest of any day.

The hospital isn't all so far away from where Raphael is but that doesn't matter. It can be ten feet away or ten million miles away, Raphael can have himself there in a blink of an eye and indeed he is there in an instant and right away it is clear to him that Gabriel had been here to this hospital, his glow, a glow all angels have whether or not it is on show, is still visible and only visible to Raphael.

'Wow' speaks a ten-year-old girl, the only person in the immediate vicinity to see Raphael appear out of thin air. He is a quick learner, going from having no idea of how to react with a mortal to now offering a wink to that little girl enhancing her feeling that she has just witnessed a piece of magic.

Gabriel's residual glow takes Raphael to the hospital oratory where it simply vanishes, leaving no trace of where Gabriel could have gone to next. What the residual glow can tell Raphael is that there had been shadow activity. There had been shadow creatures here, maybe even demons to some degree though he knew that. He knew of the kind of situation that Gabriel wanted to inject himself into.

Raphael has a need to get to Gabriel, a need to get to him before Michael does and if he cannot do that ... well ... he doesn't want to consider such a thing unless it is completely necessary. Thing is ... what now?

Being who he is, Raphael can track any angel on Earth and get to that angel in an instant, any angel that is except Michael for Michael is the most powerful angel in existence and of course Gabriel is no longer an angel but then again ... a change has only just begun.

Gabriel had only arrived on Earth a couple of hours or so prior to the moment Raphael is in. When Gabriel arrived, he was still as much of an angel as any angel can be. It was only in the moment of his disappearance that his fall took place, and his mortal transformation will take days to come complete. So, there should be some sort of trail for Raphael to grab onto.

'Of course, ...' Raphael says to himself. '... I should have seen it right away.'

In a nano-second he is gone and back where he had been not all so long prior. Emily is distracted and has yet to see Raphael's return. He attempts to gain that attention of hers though he is at a bit of a loss. Maybe he does need a little more time to master the art of interacting with mortal entities. She is startled when she does see him as for the fact he had been there with her one moment gone the next and now all of a sudden he has returned, seemingly out of nowhere.

'Oh ... you are back ...' she says after having gathered herself from her brief moment of surprise.

'Yes ... I am ... back ...' he says if it weren't already obvious. 'Miss Emily, I need you to come with me.'

'What? ... Why?'

'You will understand when we reach where we need to be ...'

There are two other ladies currently working this reception area with Emily, she takes a second or two to look at each of them, as they all are aware to some degree of what is happening, before going on and asking the question they all would like to hear this odd fellow answer before deciding as to if they need to do something or other about this ... situation ... 'Where do we need to be?'

Raphael reaches forwards and takes a hold of Emily's right wrist. He means no harm and there is not an ounce of aggression within him but still, none of the ladies can know what his intentions are, and they won't get the opportunity to find out either, well maybe Emily will, for as soon as Raphael has a hold of Emily's wrist both he and her vanish.

The two remaining ladies stand silent and shocked for no more than five or six seconds before they go raise an alarm. However, it may have happened, whatever may have happened, quite an odd fellow has essentially kidnapped Emily.