Nephilim Story


I stood on a street made from the purest and highest quality gold I'd ever seen. I knew I was standing there with a look that was half shock and half dumbass. I knew from the stories my mom told me, a long time ago, that this was Heaven. Well, just outside the beautiful Pearly Gates (which was the only entrance into Heaven).
Due to what I was; I never thought I would ever see this place other than in my own imaginings.
"I'm dreaming." I said after rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands.
When I saw I was still in Heaven, I took a more drastic action to wake myself up. The sound of my right hand hitting my right cheek traveled to my ears but no further.
"That hurt." I rubbed my stinging cheek. "That means I'm not dreaming. Right?"
I suddenly couldn't remember if pain meant this was real or proved it was a dream.
"Did he really just smack himself on his face?" A purely masculine voice said while laughing softly.
Even though I couldn't see the man who spoke, I could tell he meant no insult with his rhetorical question.
Suddenly two men were standing about 20 feet in front of me and directly outside Heaven's sole entrance.
"Where did you two come from?" I was just able to keep myself from giving myself a "facepalm" due to the absolute idiocy that was my question. "Forget I asked that."
The two males in front of me were tall, at least 6 foot 6, and had bodies ripped with muscles. They both wore leather pants and boots that looked extremely comfortable and it was obvious that very few if any weapon could damage. Their torsos were covered with white and gold armored chest plates. Both the white and the gold in the armor had an unearthly shine and brightness to them.
"The kid seems like he would be amusing and entertaining if he refuses to accept the mission." the male with mahogany colored hair laughed. He was the one I'd heard just before the two appeared just outside the Pearly Gates.
"Unfortunately he's not here for your or anyone else's amusement." This time the other male spoke and his voice was as serious as his stance and body language practically screamed.
"I hope you accept and succeed in the mission kid." Mahogany hair said genuinely.
"What are you talking about mister?" I asked the friendlier male. I didn't want to talk with "Mr. Serious" if I could help it.
"You've been chosen to…"
"Azrael!" Mr. Serious stopped the one named Azrael from continuing with whatever it was he was going to say.
"Sorry. I forgot it's your duty to offer him the mission."
By the way Azrael said "duty" I could tell he also thought the other male was too serious and needed to lighten up a bit.
"Adam, this is my 2nd in command Azrael." Mr. Serious motioned in Azrael's direction as he introduced us officially.
Wait a second…"How the hell do you know my name?" Mr. Serious reacted in a way that clearly said he didn't like my choice of language.
Too bad General Patton. I thought to myself.
"We will get to that." Mr. Serious answered, then took a long step towards me. "I am the leader of the entire Heavenly Army, Michael"
I should've been surprised, intimidated, and especially scared for my well being, but for some reason I wasn't. I was just…
Angry.
"Mom…" I said through clenched teeth.
This asshole had a huge part in why my mom suddenly disappeared on Easter Sunday 20 years ago.
For the first time Azrael looked uncomfortable. Michael didn't appear phased at all.
"Your mother…" Michael started.
"My sister." Azrael interrupted, giving me a warm familial smile.
Michael cleared his throat in a not-so-subtle, irritated way.
"As I was saying," Michael glared at Azrael, giving him a silent order to not interrupt again. "Your mother is back where she belongs. Back to her Holy duties."
Maybe I imagined it but I could've sworn I saw a sadness in the archangel army leader's eyes. It was gone so fast I couldn't be sure I hadn't just imagined it.
"What about her duties as a mother?" I slowly started stepping closer to the two angelic soldiers. "I was 5 years old when she suddenly vanished. Five!"
The anger that had built up in me for the last 20 years was releasing itself and there was no way I could stop it.
I don't want to stop it. I want this military sociopathic asshole to hear what I went through after he kidnapped my mom.
"I did not kidnap your mother." Michael responded to my thoughts.
I was too angry to register that he could and had read my mind.
"Didn't kidnap her?" I screamed, only a couple of steps away from the two soldiers now. "Did she go willingly and of her own freewill?"
Michael's expression said she hadn't wanted to leave me by choice.
"Exactly! So you and whoever else kidnapped her. Y'all stole 20 years of our lives that could have been spent together." The tears began pouring from my eyes. I couldn't stop the watery bastards from falling at this point.
Stupid tears. I growled at my emotions and the reactions my body was having to said emotions.
In the back of my mind I heard Azrael say "Holy crap", but I had a big reason for my mom's disappearance in my sights. I refused to back off or even ease up on the Archangel.
"My mom was all I had in the world!" my voice kept getting louder and louder.
"Adam you need to calm down." Azrael said to me in a soothing voice.
"Stay out of this Uncle Az." My instincts told me that my uncle had no part in his sister's abduction.
Where is that scorching heat and bright white light coming from? I thought as I noticed the light and heat becoming more intense with every passing second. At first I thought it was Michael doing something to defend himself from me, but the direction was headed towards the General. The source seemed to be...me.
"Adam listened to Azrael. You don't even realize what you are doing, much less control it."
"What the hell are you talking…?" I didn't finish the question because a smell hit me just then.
It reminded me of safety, laughter, home, and mostly love.
"Adam?" a female voice came from a few feet to my right. "Has my little Cherub grown up into a strong angel?"
The voice was full of tears and barely held back sobs but I knew that voice instantly. Twenty years away didn't dull every memory I had of her. She sounded exactly the same as she did before she was ripped away from me.
Slowly I turned to my right and there she was. She was just as stunningly beautiful now as she was 20 years ago. We looked about the same age now but mom had a wisdom in her eyes that belied her much higher age.
"Mom?" Part of me wondered if this was a trick from Michael to distract and calm me, but I knew it was really truly her.
"What are you doing here Gabriel? This is not what we agreed to." Michael reprimanded my mother.
He still wants to keep us apart!!!
"The deal changed the moment my son got closer and closer to unwittingly killing you and my baby brother." Gabriel's eyes narrowed at Michael in frustration.
Did she say I was close to killing Michael and Azrael? I thought with disbelief. Sure I hadn't heard what it sounded like.
"I had everything under control." Michael said in his own defense, but a tiny spark of some emotion I couldn't name lit in his eyes that said he was just trying to save face. Archangels tended to have egos the size of the Milky Way galaxy, and it appeared to be somewhat fragile too.
"Oh shut-up." Gabriel rolled her eyes at the great military leader.
She then locked her eyes on her son once again.
"Oh God how I've missed you!" she threw her arms open wide and without even having to think on what to do, I sprinted over to my mother and threw my arms around her and hugged her tight.
"It's really you." I sobbed. "Please don't leave me again." My entire body shook as the sobs just got worse. It was as if I had become the little boy she had last seen me as and I didn't care. It felt great.
"I'm never going to be forced apart from you ever again." Gabriel gave a pointed look to Michael.
"I was just following orders Gabby. You know that." Michael's voice wasn't super serious just then. He sounded apologetic and loving. I didn't raise my face from mom's shoulder to make sure it was the same Michael. I did, however, lift my face quickly to look at both mom and Michael when I heard my mother say, "I know you were just following orders. I also know that it was for the best that we be apart, but that doesn't make it easy even in the slightest...father."
"I think I was crying louder than I thought." I said as I rubbed both my ears with my index fingers. "I could have sworn you called the Archangel Michael, father." I chuckled nervously.
"I did call him father." Mom's small delicate hands exerted a fraction of her angelic strength to forcefully turn me around, so I was once again facing Michael.
"My baby boy" Gabriel took a deep breath. The type taken to give you strength. "Meet your grandfather."
Michael just nodded at me with a half grin, but a fully smug "Better believe it boy" grin, on his face.


Ch. Two
"You were kidnapped by your own dad?" The complete surprise to mom's news bomb was overriding my increasing anger towards my mom's kidnapper. For now.
"How many times do I have to say it?" God's chosen General growled. "I was following orders."
I glared at my grandfather, who apparently was an idiot who followed orders given by an even bigger idiot.
"If they ordered you to jump off the Empire State Building would you do it?" I asked in a mock parent tone of voice.
"Yes I would." Michael answered with absolute truth and absolute certainty. There wasn't the slightest trace of humor or sarcasm in his answer either.
Seeing the outrage/confusion on my face, mom said, "God gave father the order to take me away from you and bring me back to Heaven."
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would God want you stolen away from me?" Either I am in a coma with a traumatic brain injury and all of this was a brain injury induced dream, or someone had drugged me and/or my angel family with some highly potent drug.
"No one, not even us angels, can know and understand the mind and will of God." Michael told me, back to being Mr. Serious.
"He's right Adam." Gabriel stroked my cheek trying to soothe the hurt that had just appeared on my face as I finally realized her words were the God's honest truth. Quite literally too. "I'm not saying I'm happy I was taken away from you because I'm not. I'm also not saying that it didn't hurt to the very core of my soul to be snatched away from you, and to not be able to see or talk to you for 20 years." Tears started pouring from her eyes freely now. "Because all of Heaven's Host knows the never-ending pain I endured every second of every day, by being forced apart from my baby boy."
It still baffled me beyond belief but God is all knowing and perfect, unable to make mistakes, and all that. It was extremely difficult but I shoved any and all anger towards the Maker I held, to the deepest recesses of my mind and consciousness. I would trust in God's plan for me and my family.
Trusting my grandfather, the main archangel and baddest of the baddest military leaders? Michael had a seemingly impossible trust gap between the two of us. I didn't see myself ever being able to trust him even one iota, ever again.

Chapter 3
"You should cut your grandfather some slack." My mom said to me suddenly, sounding sad, irritated, and emotionally exhausted.
I nearly spit my hot coffee straight into my mother's face, when I'd finally comprehended what she'd said to me.
"I'm sorry. I could have sworn I'd heard my own mother," I started after cleaning myself and the table of my escaped coffee, "tell me that I should cut Michael some slack?" My wide eyes matched the incredulousness that was in my voice. "He kidnapped you!" I yelled, causing every set of eyes in the half full coffee shop to look at my mom and I.
"He's practicing his lines for a movie role audition he has coming up." My mom, God's own messenger and an archangel, told everyone there. This was Paris, TN not Hollywood, CA. That lie wasn't remotely believable to either the staff or the 11 patrons.
I just roll my eyes at her and give a quick, yet practiced, wave of my hand. Instantly everyone's eyes, except for mom's and I's, became vacant. In the space of less than half of a heartbeat, I removed their memory of my outburst and mom's pathetic lie. That particular move took me less than a full second to administer with complete perfection.
"That's impressive." Gabriel said proudly to her son.
Waving away the compliment, I sipped my coffee slowly.
"I learned that trick pretty quickly after overdoing it in classes and/or while playing sports." I grinned around the plastic top to my styrofoam coffee cup.
"Overdoing it meaning showing off for the girls." My angelic mother fake chastised me with mock anger.
I just gave a non-committal shrug that neither agreed nor disagreed with her.
After we were through we stepped out into the bright sunshine of the noonday sun. A UPS driver was just in front of us standing outside of his brown box truck holding a medium size dog kennel.
"Are you Adam Sprague?" The delivery Man asked me, seeming a bit confused.
"Yes?" I answered although it sounded more like a question. I looked to my mother to see if she knew what was going on and I noticed the look on her face. Her angelic face was lit up with a beautiful smile from ear-to-ear. "Mom? What did you do?"
"Sign here please." The UPS driver told me then handed me his electronic pad to sign. The driver then asked, " Would you be interested in selling him?"
"Excuse me?" I asked in confusion.
"No he is not interested in selling him!" Mom answered in anger. The UPS employee had good instincts because he then took a few steps away from the upset archangel.
"I'm sorry, I normally wouldn't even ask, but he's just so adorable." The UPS driver tried to explain himself and hopefully calm the angry but beautiful woman. He quickly handed me the crate when he realized that she wasn't calming down.
"He's a gift from me." Gabriel gave the driver one last glare then smiled at me. "The moment I saw him I knew he was for you." The powerful archangel was literally bouncing up and down with barely contained excitement.
Surely there isn't an actual animal in that kennel. Is UPS even legally allowed to deliver live animals? I silently asked myself.
An excited yip sounded from inside the kennel as if to answer my thought.
"You got me a dog?" I asked in astonishment then I suddenly burst into laughter. The sheer craziness of my mom, who has been absent for nearly my entire life and who just now came back into my life, bought me a dog. To be fair, Hallmark probably doesn't make a card for that particular situation.
"What's so funny?" Gabriel asked me, sounding hurt.
"Is a dog the proper gift you give your son when you finally come back into his life after being taken away by the general of God's army?" After a few seconds mom suddenly burst out laughing too.
"Will you look at the little guy already?" she rose up on her tip toes and kissed me on my cheek.
The emotions that brought to the surface was a tad overwhelming.
I knelt down on the sidewalk and gently set the travel crate down in front of me. I took a nervous breath, I hadn't even realized that I was nervous until then, and opened the metal door.
I thought I was going to have to reach inside and pull the puppy out until I suddenly had a mass of white and tan fur in my arms.
"Whoa there buddy." I laughed. "Are you excited to meet me or just happy to be out of that crate?"
In answer the puppy raised up and put his front paws on my shoulders and excitedly licked me in the face.
"Oh he loves you already." Mom squealed in delight.
I pulled the large puppy away from me enough that I could finally get a good look at my new friend. Our eyes met and I felt a connection that was amazing, new, and definitely scary. Surely a connection between a dog and his owner is supposed to take time to develop. Not only it happening instantly made it scary but it being so...deep and permanent just made it down right freaky.
"It can happen with..." mom hesitated, searching for the right words. "my side of the family. If we come across the right animal we can instantly create deep permanent bonds between us." I Was fascinated by what she was telling me but I was also noticing that a few people were giving her odd looks since they seemed to have overheard what she said. I quickly deleted the memory of mom's seemingly odd words then focused on my new buddy.
"Does he have a name yet?" I asked mom, keeping my eyes on the puppy.
"Not until you give him one." Gabriel lovingly ran her hand through my silver hair.
"What name should I give you?" He looked into my eyes and I literally felt the trust he had in me to give him the perfect name. At that moment my cell phone started ringing and it was the Highlander: The Series theme song "Princes of the Universe" by Queen. It was the ringtone I had set for when my best friend Jessie called.
Smiling, I answered my phone.
"Jessie you're timing is perfect." I laughed at Jessie's confusion then told her I'd call her back and explain.
"McCloud." I told my new furry best friend. "We'll call you Mac for short though." The newly named Mac barked his agreement with his new name and climbed up into my arms and snuggled close.
"I don't know where you came up with that name but he certainly seems to like it." My archangel mother picked up the crate and started walking to my car parked across the street.
"Let's go home Mac." I held him close to my chest in both love and protection.


"Where in the hell did you get McCloud as a name?" Jessie asked me as she twirled one of Mac's ears around her index finger.
"Remember that show I made you watch a couple of episodes of? The one with the long haired guy sword fights people and cuts their heads off?" I had called Jessie back and as soon as I had told her that my newly returned mom bought me a new puppy she hung up and hurried over to my house. Jessie barely looked at my mom, instead nearly sprinted to Mac who had been chewing on an old shoe of mine.
"Yeah but how does McCloud come from that?" She asked, completely lost.
"The main character is named McCloud but his friends call him Mac." No matter how hard I try I can't get Jessie to nerd out on the things I love like comic books or certain TV shows and movies.
"Your mom has great taste. Wish she had a more open schedule to you know raise her son?" Jessie refused to speak or even look at my mom. She was also unaware of what mom was, much less what I was.
"Jessie stop. It wasn't her fault. She was kept away from me," I held my hand up at her when I saw she was about to say something, "and no she can't explain it to you and neither can I." I walked over to where my mom sat quietly not even trying to defend herself.
"Just know that she's back now and I hold no grudges or anger towards her." I bent and kissed the top of her head. "It was beyond her control and she wanted to be with me so badly but couldn't until a couple of days ago."
Jessie studied my mom sitting quietly at my kitchen table. When my best friend's eyes widened I knew she had finally spotted the silent tears that were pouring down my beautiful mother's cheeks.
"I'm sorry!" Jessie ran to my mom and hugged her close. "Me and Adam are just protective of each other so anger was my reflex reaction." Jessie then started crying herself.
© Adam Guy Spraguep