As the strong gush of wind shook everything around us, we entered the truck to keep ourselves safe. Collin tried to start the engine but it wouldn’t budge. The wind is slightly swaying the truck as Collin tried it again, “come on, come on, come on,” he whispered. As the engine roared to life, he immediately pushed down the handbrake and changed the gear into drive, stepping on the gas hard. Azriel looked behind the truck to see the blackest smoke he has ever seen. His green eyes were wide, tapping on his brother’s arm. “What?!” Merikh growled, then he looked at Azriel, following his brother’s gaze. “We got demons tailing us! We got demons tailing us!” he said out loud. Collin is trying his best to drive as fast as he could. Then we all took our hex bags out, a light shone through the exit. We drove in it, leaving the black smoke behind. 
As we got out, we saw that we’re on an empty highway. Sun shining brightly. Collin slowly stepped off the gas, slowing down the truck. All of us were panting. “Holy shit,” I said, “is Purgatory another way to Hell?!”
“Another way to it, yeah,” Merikh confirmed, leaning his head on the headrest, “I thought I wouldn’t see those ugly motherfuckers anymore.”
Collin was silent. He stopped the truck on the side of the road and pulled up the handbrakes. “Look, I know I owe you guys some explanation. I’m going to tell them now before I explode,” he took a deep breath and sighed, “okay. Well. I didn’t know Bart, or should I say Tamiel, was another fallen angel. He said he could help me after I helped him fight those monsters attacking him. He said he was an angel and he could, you know, help me find Mia. I believed him,” he paused for a moment, “then those days I was hunting and at the same time looking for you, I was getting phone calls from him. Telling me to go to places and hunt these monsters, then bring some valuables to him. I was already getting suspicious but I didn’t want to lose my only lead.”
“It was like asking you to treasure hunt?” Azriel interrupted.
“Something like that, yeah,” Collin nodded, “with every help I give him, in return he gives me directions. All of them leading to you.”
“But why were we in Purgatory?” I asked.
“Because my mom, my brother, and my sister died as vampires. As monsters. And where do monsters go when they die?”
“Purgatory,” Merikh answered.
“Exactly. Bart, well Tamiel, helped me find them. He told me to go to that place. Meet him there and all that. That’s why on the phone, I’m sure you heard, I said that I’m not leaving you three there as we try to search for them,” he paused again. “I didn’t know my mother was pretending to be an old lady. I don’t even know who brought them to Heaven.”               
“I can find that out for you if you want me to,” Azriel volunteered. “That’ll be great, thanks,” Collin smiled at him before continuing, “so yeah, the reason why I couldn’t and won’t tell you what was really going on was that Tamiel held them over my head. If I even as much as mention it to you that I’m taking you to Purgatory, he’ll throw my family out of the barrier. Let those monsters eat them.”
“But why is that part of Purgatory accessible to angels, like Raphael, and it looks like a small town?” I interjected.
“Because that part of Purgatory is where they will decide if you’ll go to Heaven or Hell. It’s like a stop-over for those who are not entirely good and not entirely bad. So, basically, you’re a –“
“A basic bitch?” Merikh suggested.
“A plain-Jane?” answered Azriel.
“A mayonnaise?”
“Ooh. An unsalted fries!”
“A flavorless Jell-O.”
“Pizza without the toppings and sauce.”
Azriel turned to his brother, “you could just say bread, you dumdum!”
“Y-yeah, sure, if that’s what you want to call it,” Collin was giving them a weird look, “anyway, if you’re a monster, whether you’re turned or was born into it, you get to be placed outside the barrier.”
“And you know this because?”
“Because Tamiel taught me a few things I needed to know about Purgatory. He taught me some ways around it. How to open the rift, how to close it. All of it.
”But did he tell you why he tried opening it? The rift, I mean.”
“No. He wasn’t able to.”
“I can ask Raphael though.”Collin smiled and nodded, approving of what Azriel wanted to do.
We drove to another abandoned house somewhere in Cleveland, Ohio. An hour away from Warren, where Purgatory was. We settled down there for a while, lighting up candles to give us light. We stole some food that was in an abandoned store a few minutes away from the house. Gotta thank God for those little ol’ cup noodles and sandwiches. We gathered some water as well, and some other snacks for Azriel. He’s like a child who loves to snack on jellies and chocolates.
Once we’re settled, we gathered on the floor, eating our noodles and sandwiches. The night was quieter than usual. To me, that should be some cause for alarm but right now, the quiet is just what we needed. Merikh leaned his back on the wall and fished out a cloth out of his pocket. He took a peek at it and placed it back in his pocket. “Your grace still good?” I asked after swallowing my noodles. He nodded as he took another bite of his sandwich. “Why haven’t you broken the crystal yet?” his brother asked.
“Because I feel like I don’t deserve it yet,” he answered.
“But that’s your grace. You deserve to have it.”
“Yeah. I guess when the time is right,” he shrugged and drank some water.
We all stood up and cleaned our mess before we spread some salt on the window sill, door, and every other entryway we got in the house. We should’ve done it when we got there but since I am part human, I needed some food. When we were finished, Azriel disappeared to Heaven to find Raphael. Ask him questions about Tamiel and Collin’s family. I was left with Merikh and Collin, who was laying down on the floor just talking to each other. “I hope my dad rots in Hell,” Collin said.
“I’m pretty sure he’s dead in Purgatory with the rest of those monsters. I mean, he doesn’t know how to fight, right?”
“Nah. Without a gun or a knife, he’s practically useless.”
Both of them laughed and then Azrael appeared in the middle of, what was once, a living room.
“So, I got good news and bad news. The intel I got is huge. I’m not sure we’ll be over hunting any time soon,” he started. His brother and Collin immediately sat up straight, and I sat with them on the floor. “So, what do you have for us? Good news first,” I said.
“Okay. Good news. Your mom, brother, and sister are all in Heaven,” he looked at Collin, “I was able to talk to her for a bit and she said she was sorry for not being able to tell you anything else other than what’s in the note. Your brother apologizes for not seeing you. And your sister, she was in Purgatory but she was disguised as a teenage girl, I think?”
“Wait. Did she say what she looked like? I mean, did she have brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles across her nose?”
“Yeah, that was her!” Azriel exclaimed.
“Why? Did you see her?” Collin looked at me.
“Yeah, I did. I bumped into her near the bakery. She beamed when I told her we were at Mrs. Durham’s, your mom’s, place. I also saw her in the library, hiding in the shadows. Behind the bookshelves. She’s probably peeking to see you.”
Collin was getting teary-eyed, “so, who brought them to Heaven?”
“Michael did,” Azriel said empathetically.
“The Archangel?”
Azriel nodded, “as for your father, he was in Purgatory. On the other side. But this is where the bad news enters,” he paused. “Remember, we were tailed by those demons?” we all nodded. “Well, turns out Beleth, one of our eldest brothers and the evilest fallen angel, have opened the gates of Hell. Collin’s dad was in Purgatory, but someone brought him to Hell. And since the gates are open, he’s probably back with a vengeance. And the reason why we were led to Purgatory is that they wanted to open the rift for the deadliest monsters to be raised again. For them to do that, Tamiel needed one thing,” he looked at me, dead serious, “he needed to sacrifice a Nephilim. The one that’s been conceived by an Archangel. A virgin, might I add.”
I looked confused, “but I’m not a virgin.”
“Really?” Merikh suddenly said.
“I had sex when I was 16.”               
“Then your partner didn’t do a good job at popping that cherry,” Azriel commented. All of us stared at him, I was left with my mouth open. Azriel added, “well, you said it yourself. Dragons like 2 things: golds and virgins. You didn’t have gold on you but he still took you.”
“If they wanted Mia because she’s a virgin Nephilim, then we got to do one thing,” Merikh was trying to suggest something and I am sure no one’s going to agree to it.
“So, what? Are you saying you want to fuck Mia just so they cannot use her as a virgin sacrifice, is that it?” Collin was coming to my defense.
“Or you want to do the fucking?”
Azriel was starting to regret telling them that part of the intel he got from Raphael. “Mia is not something that you can use to fuck just to make sure she can’t be sacrificed!” Azriel was pissed, “virgin or not, Mia is a person. She’s a Nephilim. She’s powerful than any of them! Now, if you want to talk seriously about this, then let me know. You know where to find me.”
He disappeared before our eyes. I am guessing he went back up to Heaven to cool down. The three of us were quiet, I moved far away from Collin and Merikh, and sat on the dusty couch. “I was kidding, Mia,” he said softly.
“Were you?” Collin replied and lay down on the floor again.
Merikh and Collin fell asleep on the floor, I waited up for Azriel but he seems to be irritated at his brother to come back down. I tried speaking to him in my thoughts but he wasn’t replying. I fell asleep waiting then a dream came. I was still in the house but Azriel was sitting on the armchair across me, “sorry for walking out like that,” he said. “I just can’t handle how those two were fighting over a person like you’re some prize to be won. Those two have been doing that since I don’t know, Mer felt Collin was a competition,” he sighed, “anyway, I have something else to tell you. I know you’re not going to like it but they found Collin’s dad. He’s in Reno Beach.”
“Near Toledo?”
“Yeah. I’ll fly down tomorrow to let Collin know, but we got to be careful ‘cause he’s not alone.”
“Who’s there with him?”               
“Beleth.”