The Path of Love and Suffering: Chapter 3 – Agony Until the End

Chapter 3 – Agony Until the End

Cinquo and Due exit the sewers and find themselves in a residential area of town. The sight of this calm neighborhood fills the two with a weird sense of nostalgia.

“Do you think our parents remember us?” Due says as they walk through the neighborhood while trying to avoid attention.

“I doubt it. Parents bear children and raise them at their homes while the schools taught us and send them off to the city to work then do the same exact thing over again with a new set of children. Besides, all slaves basically look the same.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“Why? Did you think they would help us?”

“Maybe. I’m really hoping that anyone will help us at this point.”

“Me too, but you don’t know who will betray us just like how Tribus and Four were betrayed.”

“You think it’s true that the angels ambushed us because we were betrayed?”

“I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t believe what Tribus said. Just because a person is free, doesn’t mean that they won’t become slaves again. You were ready to give up not too long ago.”

“That’s right. I guess I can understand why something like that would happen.”

As they aimlessly continue forward, they watch as two free teenagers, two boys sneak around a house. They quickly get to them and almost scare them.

“You’re free like us?” one of the boys asks.

“We are. What are you two? Brothers? Best friends?” Cinquo asks.

“Best friends,” a different boy answers, “My name is Sei. This is Uno.”

“What are you doing here?” Due asks.

“The people at the hideout we were at was betrayed by someone. I don’t know who, but we got out just as the angels were attacking.”

“We were just there. Tribus and Four lead us to it,” Cinquo says.

“Are they okay? They brought us to the hideout and taught us a lot about the world,” Uno says.

“I think they are. We lost them as they covered our escape as the angels were attacking us.”

“Hopefully they’re okay.”

“But what are you two doing here? Is there a safe place to hide around here?” Due asks.

“We’re here to find our parents,” Sei says.

“Are they free like us?”

“No, they’re slaves but they have helped us. We were just going back home after getting whatever food we could find.”

“You didn’t steal it, did you?”

“No, we have a neighbor who is also a slave that grows food in their backyard. They give us whatever little they can spare. You should come back home with us.”

Curious about these slaves who willingly help their free children, Cinquo and Due agree to the boys’ home. Surely enough, when they enter the suburban house, they find four parents who have the appearance of slaves. They converse with them and it turns out that they have their senses relatively clear and can see the injustices done to the free while not completely understanding it. Unfortunately, the dinner they are having together is broken up by a squad of hunter angels who say that they were sold out by the neighbor who gave them their food.

The boys, their parents, and Cinquo and Due are dragged from the house to a crater that separates the city and neighborhood. Along the way, they are repeatedly told by the angels to submit to them, but none of them do. At the crater, the parents of the boys are the first to be brought near the edge.

“Show your children what a real parent is supposed to do by submitting to us!” an angel says.

“We refuse!” the parents say before they are pushed down the seemingly bottomless pit.

The boys are next and told by an angel, “Submit to us and we’ll spare you. We’ll even make you rich and let you live like kings!”

“We’d rather die with our parents!” the boys say.

“So be it,” the angel says as the boys are thrown into the crater.

Cinquo and Due are brought to the edge and look over it.

“You’ve seen what happens to everyone who fights us at that hideout of yours and what is happening here. Submit to us and you can rule the world with us,” an angel says. Both Cinquo and Due look at each other as they firmly hold each other’s hands. “What’s it going to be? Your lives? Or your souls?”

“Our lives,” Cinquo says.

“What about you?” the angel asks Due.

“What he said,” Due answers.

Cinquo and Due are then thrown into the crater as they hold onto each other and accept their fate. Before they know it, they land at the bottom of the crater alive and well enough to walk.

“We’re…we’re alive?” Cinquo asks.

“We are! But how are we going to get out of here?” Due asks before she sees a light ahead of them with six figures walking towards it.

These six figures are the parents and Sei and Uno. The parents run to Cinquo and Due and help them up and tell them that they found the gate to Heaven. As they walk closer to the light of the gate, it is revealed that the parents of the boys have been freed and now appear to look half-human with the key to Heaven in their held hands. Sei and Uno place their hands where the imprint of hands are and the gates open with a thunderous roar. This roar attracts the attention of the angels above who fly down to try to stop the eight from entering Heaven, however, the force that is exerted from the door opening is too much for the angels as they are kept at bay by it while the boys enter Heaven. The force continues even as the door closes and waits for the next couple to put their hands on the imprint.

When it’s finally Duo and Cinquo’s turn, they kiss each other as they put their hand on the imprint then smile as they enter Heaven’s light after so much struggling, pain, sacrifice, and love, which ends up being the only path to Heaven.

The End