James Hartel. Three years in this cell, two in the one before that, and three again in the one before that. His last three years of servitude played out like a good dog for a crime that wasn’t his. He went inside at eighteen, and he’ll be twenty eight before he leaves. Of course nobody inside is guilty so him pleading his innocence all over the show did him no good. But he was one of those very few truly innocent types that had the misfortune of being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lets just say that pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter when you were not even in the vicinity of the crime scene was not the wisest thing to do. In all fairness, and to put things into perspective, it seemed like a good idea at the time after being beaten and sodomised for seventeen and a half hours by a rather large, drunk and nasty small town policeman. It was a very brutal introduction to adult life for the comparatively relatively inexperienced young man.

James had learned a lot of things in prison. He learned that hard men learned the hard way, and that there were alternatives to the brutality of prison life. Inside he took many courses. In fact he took all the courses that he could, ranging from automotive maintenance to art to meditation. It all helped to ease the pain of boredom, and keep him apart from the mainstream prison population. It had earned him the moniker of "model prisoner" with the prison authorities and even his papers were marked -‘believed to be truly rehabilitated’. Even still, owning up to the murder of the town mayor’s seventeen year old daughter made it hard for him to get an earlier release, especially when the mayors brother is the prison governor.

And so it was under these circumstances that James Hartel meditated in his low security prison room, whiling away the time while waiting for the next seven hundred and twenty nights, all just the same, to pass, when BOOM! He was flung from his chosen place of peace to the reality of his blown-in cell window, the heavy, bullet proof perspex was shattered and a glowing white body lay on the floor. He jolted up, and ran towards it. Looking down. He saw the most beautiful creature he had ever seen on earth. It had a white luminescent glow which radiated lightly from it’s body, everything was the same colour, save for a dark grey stain flowing gently from it’s side. James saw that the body belonged to a creature, a female, it’s body swathed in white robe lying on its back on a pair of feathery white folded wings. Scanning upwards, he saw the swell of breast, the softness of it’s neck, and finally, the beauty of it’s face. He had seen little female company since his incarceration, and had not seen much before that time either.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" asked James, shocked by the whole procedure.

"My name is Serephone, I am an angel that has been sent to look after you in your time of injustice." She replied in a golden tone, melodious, but betraying a certain amount of pain.

"What" he replied in disbelief "I don’t even believe in God, I don’t understand."

"No, not God", came Serephone’s breathy reply "Only angels. Angels and demons. You see, we are under the control of Gabriel, and the demons of Satan the Fallen. What you can’t see in mortality, is the battle for the souls of men that takes place all around you every day on earth."

"But... but... what are you doing here" stuttered James, confused especially having being roused from his well practiced deep meditative state. His head swam with the supernatural revelations.

"Here... here there are many demons, it has taken many years for us to be able to get to you. These... prisons... are the demons domain, and we have had scant need to enter their strongholds before. I saw an opportunity, and I was coming here to help you, to save you from the constraints of your confinement, when I was attacked by one of their hordes and gouged by it’s talons here on my side, and flung through your window... I will die soon, once we are wounded and bleed... we die."

"No, wait, let me put something on this. I can help you." He rushed to his bed and tore a large strip from his bedsheet and pressed it gently to the angels side. He stared at her face, and perused her noble splendour. He drank in her beauty with not only his eyes, but it seemed his whole body was intoxicated with her perfection. She winced at the application of the compress, and he gazed at the blush that appeared on her clear translucent skin. He noticed the fullness and roundness of her mouth as she bit on her lower lip to try and divert the pain. He saw the clarity and delicate symmetry of her eyes and they created a tear that trickled down her soft clean cheek. He felt his own demons tear at his heart as he thought of the death of such immaculate beauty.

She turned to the eyes of her samaritan.

"You can’t help me. I am revealed. Now I will certainly die." Her voice gave way to sobs as she stared into his eyes. James soon returned the tears and they cried alone together in the cell.

"But I want to save you, Serephone, I don’t want you to die" he cried. His voice crackled with emotion, his words hampered by tears.

"No, there is no hope for me now, my life is vanquished. My only hope is to be saved by another angel, and all other angels fear and shun this place. I came because I have been watching you for years, and I yearned to put an end to your persecution." The volume of her words steadily decayed as she spoke, and James noticed her luminescence had decreased to a dull ashen pallour.

"How can I get another angel for you Serephone", he cried with desperation. "There must be one somewhere"

"No. Angels only come from the death of good people who have pure souls, and there are none to be found in places such as this." She motioned weakly about her with her arm, indicating the confines of the prison walls.

James was fired up, he wanted to help, but he could only come back with questions. "But what about me? If I die, will I be able to save you? Is my soul pure enough?"

"No one can tell" replied Serephone, "it is just something that either happens... or it doesn’t" Her skin was now a dark grey and no longer exhuded the same radiance as when she first arrived. James knew that he had to do something fast if he wanted to save this divine creature that had exploded into, and intended to save, his life.

"I will die. I will die and save you Serephone, but you’ve just got to keep alive until I can do that, can you promise me that?" The desperation mounted in his voice, but he felt convinced of his innocence and the purity of his soul.

"No James, let me go" replied Serephone listlessly, "I came to save you, not for you to save me. You must let me go and continue with your own life." With her final words, her eyes fluttered closed and her muscles once tense against the pain relaxed and her body became limp.

James got up and rummaged through the drawer in his bedside table and pulled out a Stanley knife that he had taken from his leatherwork class. He then went to his bed, took two pillows and placed one gently under Serephone’s head. He then placed the second pillow next to hers and sat down. He took the knife and switched it forward to reveal the blade. Once the blade was exposed enough, buried it deep into the wrist of his left arm and pulled it downwards, opening a crimson valley in the milky whiteness of his skin. He did it again, each time grimacing and moaning from the pain. After four vertical strokes, he switched the blade to his left hand and repeated the same operation on his right arm. When he was convinced that the wounds were sufficient, James Hartel lay down and submitted to death.

***

Blackness.

***

James awoke feeling refreshed and turned to face Serephone, whose motionless

body lay by his side.

"Serephone!" he screamed in anguish "Serephone!". He shook her shoulders and a feather fell from her folded wings. Her eyes opened slowly but a smile gradually unfolded itself across her lips.

Her voice was soft, and she croaked, "To save an angel, you must breathe angel life into angel lungs". With this, her eyes closed again and she returned to her senseless state.

He sat bolt upright above her and straightened his back, causing the magnificent pair of wings behind him to unfold. He took one large breath, pinched Serephones nose carefully with one hand, leaned over and pressed his lips against hers, exhaling firmly but gently into her mouth.

As he got to the end of his breath, Serephone opened her eyes. James leaned back to see if his breath had worked. His heart flooded with warmth to see Serephone looking, and smiling, back at him. Her surrounding greyness returned to its former brilliant white radiance before his eyes, and she sat upright and unfolded her wings. A few grey feathers fell to the floor, but in their place were white new downy ones matching the resplendence of the rest.

Footsteps and a gruff voice intruded.

"Hey what’s going on in there Hartel, if I find that there’s been any funny business..." Keys rattled on a chain, the lock fumbled and the door opened. The warder looked in with disbelief. He saw a broken window, and on the ground, two pillows, blood, a Stanley knife, a pile of feathers and a torn bedsheet.

What he couldn’t see however, was the pair of angels flying out of the window towards the sky. Together, and into freedom.