Chapter 10 – December 2025

Previously in ‘Heaven, Hell or High School’…

Nuriel is, was, an angel. But now he’s trapped in the body of a 17 year-old guy. It’s God’s idea of tough love to teach Nuriel humility and not to make bets with any demons, especially not Lamia.

And he has no idea what she’s planning next or what the Chrysolites will do … and now he’s got the Winter formal to worry about.

Nuriel

I woke up suddenly, my breath rattling in my chest as if I had been running.

For the first time in my mortal life, I knew fear.

Real fear.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I experienced fear—felt its claws under my skin; heard its forked tongue whispering doubt and dripping uncertainty into my ears;

 saw its hideous, laughing face in the shadowy corners of my room.

Winter is coming.

That’s what Father had said to me in my dream. But I didn’t know what he meant by that. And I felt a very human frustration that He had chosen to move in mysterious ways and that He had chosen not to make his warning clearer.

I had been an angel since the dawn of all creation. I had shouted with joy as He laid Earth’s foundations. I was more ancient than the world itself. I had been a mortal for only two short weeks.

And it felt as though this day would never end.

“Rell! Helloooo! Anybody home?” Forrest asked, rapping me over the head with his knuckles, an irritating and uncomfortable action.

“Of course there’s nobody home,” I said with asperity. “I am here in this so-called establishment of education but it seems few are willing to partake of it.”

“Speak for yourself!” said Esther, her eyes widening with surprise then narrowing again in annoyance.

Her face was mobile, her expressions playing rapidly and intriguingly across her symmetrical features, but it was her eyes that truly mesmerized me.

When I’d first met her, I would have described her eyes as gray, but now, that simple and single word seemed utterly inadequate to explain the depths of color I found within them.

It was astonishing how blue her eyes became when we were outside and reflecting the sky above us; how green they became when we stood beside the pounding surf; and how warm and brown they seemed to be as the setting sun reflected off the red sandstone hills which gave this town its name.

“You’re staring at me,” she muttered, long lashes tipping downwards as she studied her lunch tray and pink suffused the apples of her cheeks.

“Rell, dude! What is with you today?” Forrester sighed in frustration.

I swung my gaze towards him.

“I have many concerns weighing on my mind.”

“Like who you’re going to take to the Winter Formal?”

I had thought our conversation was of no interest to anyone else but a girl who filed her nails during history class was leaning over me, her large breasts forcing me off balance or else risk suffocating in the extraordinary valley of her, um, valley.

“I’m available,” she smiled, licking her lips in a way that made it clear she was in want of water.

There was an uncomfortable silence as I blinked up at her, wondering what was an appropriate response.

“He’s not interested, Shawna,” Forrester said at last.

“I’m not talking to you, dweeb,” she replied rudely.

At least I assumed she was being rude, judging by the annoyed look on Forrester’s face.

“I want to hear it from him,” and she jabbed a long and pointed fingernail into my chest. I lurched back further, fearing injury, and almost sitting in Forrester’s lap.

“What aren’t I interested in?” I whispered to him. “And why aren’t I interested in it?”

“Just trust me on this,” he said, then turned to my overendowed classmate. “Leave him alone, Shawna. He’s not your type.”

She laughed coarsely.

“Are you blind? He’s everyone’s type.” Then she leaned down, her lemon-chicken breath wafting over me unpleasantly. “Don’t worry, handsome. I’ll save the Sadie Hawkins for you.”

Then she strode away, the globes of her gluteus maximus showing an advanced development that matched her chest. I suppose it helped her balance.

Shawna turned and saw me watching, grinning widely as she waved her long fingernails at me.

I started to raise my hand to wave back, but Forrester grabbed it.

“Rell, no, dude. You don’t want to go there. Take it from one who knows. She’ll suck you dry and spit out the bones later.”

Esther made a peculiar noise in her throat and I turned to look at her as she started to choke.

Forrester slapped her on the back and her face turned dark red, her eyes watering.

Concerned, I pushed a bottle of water towards her and waited until she stopped coughing.

“Are you well, Esther?”

“I’m fine,” she squeaked, her voice abnormally shrill. “Something must have gone down the wrong way.”

“That’s what Shawna says,” Forrester muttered darkly.

My gaze swung between them. I had noticed that it was often the way with humans: there was conversation that they had with words, but a second conversation that took place with facial expressions and the eyes in particular.

Esther shook her head and Forrester rolled his eyes.

I wish I understood what conversation had passed tween them.

I raised my hand.

“Dude, you don’t need to raise your hand to ask a question unless you’re in a classroom,” Forrester reminded me.

“My apologies, Forrester. There are so many rules to remember.”

He sighed yet again. “What do you want to know?”

“Who is Sadie Hawkins and why do I need to save her?”

He groaned so loudly that I thought his peperoni pizza had not agreed with him.

“I’ll take this one,” Esther smiled, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “So, every winter, school has a winter formal, a dance, where we decorate the gym with a theme, like Paris in Winter, or Alaska, or something like that, then we all dress up in formal clothes and come here to dance and have fun. This year the theme is Blizzard Ball. Rumor has it that the decorating committee are having white fake snow and snowflakes covering the entire school, with a fake snow machine, ice sculptures and loads of other cool stuff.”

“It’s the hottest dance of the year,” Forrester grinned.

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but Forrester quickly added,

“That’s a metaphor.”

I nodded, understanding only vaguely. “And the girl Sadie—will she be there?”

Esther laughed.

“Um, no. She’s a metaphor, too. Well, more of a symbol: a Sadie Hawkins dance is where the girls ask the guys to dance instead of the other way around. It’s kind of an old-fashioned idea now though. I mean, if you want to dance with someone, you just ask them, right?”

I nodded, although…

“So, if Shawna asked me to dance, would I have to dance with her?”

“No, dude. You run like hell!” Forrester said vehemently.

I shook my head. I found this all incomprehensible.

“I won’t go to this Blizzard Ball—it sounds dangerous…” and winter is coming.

I didn’t know why Father had warned me not to go to this dance, but it couldn’t be a coincidence that he came to me in a dream the day before I learned about the Blizzard Ball.

“Oh,” said Esther, looking disappointed. “I thought we could go together. I mean, not you and me,” she said hurriedly, “but the three of us. I thought we could go as a group. Just hang out. As friends.”

Forrester looked at her in amusement.

“Yeah, whatever. But I already got me a smokin’ hot date.”

“Who?” Esther asked, intrigued.

“Peggy Moerman,” he said, kissing the tips of his fingers.

I tilted my head on one side. I did not know this girl, but apparently Esther did.

“You’re going to the Blizzard Ball with the Captain of the Cheer Squad?” she asked, looking stunned. Then she gave a cheeky smile. “Did she lose a bet?”

“Did she tell you that?” Forrester gulped.

Esther’s smile faltered.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Forrester. I was just joking. Anyway, I don’t have a date at all so I’m totally lame.”

My gaze jerked to her legs. I hadn’t seen her limping. Was she injured? But no, her legs looked just as long and lightly tanned as ever.

“Don’t worry, Cinderella,” said Forrester, his ready smile returning. “I happen to have three tickets here,” and he pulled them out of his pocket. “You shall go to the ball … and my man, Rell here, is going to take you.”

“But I…”

“No arguments,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.

“I really can’t,” I said.

He leaned into me, his gaze fierce.

“You’ll go, you’ll take Esther, and you will not break that girl’s heart. Clear?”

It was so unlike Forrester to be serious that I found myself nodding with him.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over me and Esther’s expression froze while Forrester looked uncomfortable.

“Hello, Nuriel,” Lamia said with a sly smile on her face. “I’m so glad you’re going to the Blizzard Ball. It’ll be illuminating, possibly even explosive.”

I stood up so quickly, my chair tipped over backwards and everyone in the lunchroom turned to stare. I gripped Lamia’s arm, shuddering at the repellent feeling of her skin as I marched her from the room.

“Don’t threaten me, demon,” I hissed at her. “Father has warned me what you’re planning. It won’t work and I won’t allow these humans to be harmed.”

Her eyes flared red with fury and I saw her true demonic form writhing inside her all too human-looking corpus.

“Is that right?” she hissed. “Well, bring it on, angel, and we’ll see who wins this time!”

She swept away from me, electricity crackling in the air as she passed.

I watched as her shadow reared up, then turned to slink after her.

I hung my head.

I had lied to her. I had no idea what she was planning and Father wasn’t minded to tell me.

Fear roared up inside me again.

How could I protect my friends against the dark forces summoned by Lamia when I was so utterly powerless?

And so utterly human.