In The Arms of an Angel - 46. Chapter 46 - Oh God, You're Hopeless

“Okay,” Gabri’el said. “Let’s assume for a moment you are what you say you are. What does that have to do with us?”

“Well.” Ari sat down and picked up his drink again. “It started with the dinosaurs and went downhill from there. I accidentally caused an ice age and changed the whole direction of evolution, not to mention the landscape and climate of Earth.” He sighed. “Climate is hard.”

“I’ll take your word for that,” Pasha said, dryly. “Get to the point.”

Ari glared at him. “All in good time. It needs a bit of explanation or you won’t really get it. Trust me, I really don’t want to have to go over all of this. Most of it I’d be more than happy to forget.” He swirled his glass and seemed to find something very interesting in there, because it commanded his eyes for a while. The others grew restless but felt unable to break the silence.

“Things settled down for a bit after that. Then I messed with climate again and things went to hell.”

“What do you mean?”

“I caused some extreme weather conditions that changed the Earth again. It led to some dramatic consequences and an entire civilization was wiped out.”

“What do you mean? What civilization?”

“The Atlanteans.”

“Atlantis was a real place?”

“Of course it was.”

“I don’t remember it.” Gabri’el frowned. “I’ve been here from the beginning and I don’t remember Atlantis.”

“You…. You weren’t here at the beginning.” Ari held up his hand to prevent Gabri’el’s retort. “Let me explain about Atlantis and you’ll understand.” Ari stared into the fire and sighed. “I’ve never been good at climate,” he mused. “Atlantis was a beautiful place, its people the most civilized for their time. They were beautiful and proud. They were so beautiful many angels fell in love with them, especially the women.

“The angels spent a lot of time in Atlantis and told the Atlanteans secrets they weren’t ready to hear. They advanced the civilisation too fast and they wouldn’t listen to me. I never wanted them to come to any harm. They were jeopardizing the project and I just wanted them to stop teaching humans arcane knowledge.

“I hit on the idea of sending a storm to wipe out the fields they’d planted with herbs and plants that weren’t meant to be grown on earth. The fruits gave too much knowledge and the herbs lengthened their lives too much.

“I’ve never been good at climate and once I started the storm I couldn’t stop it.”

“The great flood.”

Ari nodded. “I drown everyone and created a new sea that swallowed countries, split continents and completely destroyed Atlantis. Most of the angels, who tried to save their human lovers and friends, were killed too.

“Fortunately, there were enough Atlanteans left to re stock Eden. I created a new kind of angel, stronger, more stable and more intelligent…well you were supposed to be more stable and intelligent. I’m not sure about Micha’el.”

“I didn’t know about any of this,” Gabri’el said, his voice shocked. “It’s not written down anywhere.”

“No. I managed to keep it out of the history books, angelic and human. It wasn’t easy but if my professors had seen….”

“So this is all an experiment? The whole of history is a science project for a newly qualified scientist who…. What?”

He stopped at the look on Ari’s face. Ari turned away and took a deep drink. “I’m not quite a newly qualified scientist. This…this was kind of a…. It was an examination.”

“An exam? You did all of this as an exam project.”

Ari nodded. “I don’t think I’ll pass climate.”

“You think?”

Silence fell as Pasha and Gabri’el digested what had been said.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You don’t. What’s past is past and none of this was preserved in record. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Why should we trust you?”

“Because I made you.”

“You made me?”

“I made all of you; all the angels. I was given the DNA of humanity to seed the earth and I used my own DNA to create another race. I couldn’t be everywhere at the same time and I needed help. The rules of the examination say that I can’t interfere with humanity’s evolution by changing them , but I can – “

“What about the ‘missing link’?”

“I’m allowed some mistakes and, anyway, I was compensating for the dinosaurs. No one foresaw that.”

“That’s okay then.”

“Wait. You genetically engineered angels from humans and…whatever you are? You made us?”

“Yes.”

“All of us? All angels?”

“Yes.”

Gabri’el shook his head and got out of his seat. He started to pace while Uzzi’el watched him anxiously.

“Give me one good reason why I should believe you.”

“I’ve already given you one. “

“Not good enough. The fact that you say you created us doesn’t prove anything. It doesn’t add anything to your credibility.”

Ari smiled. “I honestly can’t blame you. I had a hard time convincing Uzzi’el too. I’m going to have to prove it to you the same way I proved it to him. Come with me.”

“Where are you taking us?”

“It’s okay, Gabri’el. He’s only going to take us to the control center.”

Gabri’el rolled his eyes. “Of course he is.”

Uzzy linked arms with Gabri’el and Pasha as they followed Ari. “You’re very quiet.”

“I have a lot to think about.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I don’t care what he has to say, whether he’s right or wrong. All I care about is that you’re back with me.”

Uzzy gave him a glorious smile and laid his head on his shoulder. Pasha put his arm around Uzzy’s waist. Gabri’el stopped and they all stopped with him. “You’re right,” he said as if it surprised him. “it doesn’t really matter. You’re here and you’re happy with him and we’re all truly together. That’s all that really matters.”