Helev crouched in the corner of the ceiling. From his perch, he monitored Christine’s labored breathing, her progress towards certain death.
Up. Down. Up. Catch. Down. Catch.
Her chest told the tale. Not long now.
The lights in her hospital room were off, but he didn’t need lights. He just needed her dead.
He crawled through the wall to check on his other patient in palliative care. Breathing still strong. Not worth the wait. He crept back to Christine’s room. She had to be the one.
He could possess her now and feel the pleasant coolness of death when it hit, but this was no time for sensual pleasure. He had to take the right body, and if it were somehow not Christine, he’d miss his window, and the Enemy would win again. He couldn’t let that happen.
He’d lost too many rounds in recent decades, which is why the powers that be had relegated him to this babysitting job at the hospital. The only responsibility here was watch them die (enjoyable in itself) and to make sure none of God’s children ever spoke with them before it happened.
Christine was an easy win—no family, and no friends to come visit her. It’s why it had been so easy for her to agree with the doctors: no machines, just an IV drip of morphine and let the cancer do its work. End this miserable existence quickly. Glorious.
Up. Catch. Down. Up.
But it wasn’t Christine’s fate that mattered tonight. That seemed sealed.
Two floors down, another Patient was waiting. Machines were running on that one, but his life was fading too, and Helev’s superiors had sent out an urgent message: that Patient’s well-protected Cousin was coming, making her way to the hospital to confront this dying wretch with hope from the Enemy. If the past could predict the future, that was a recipe for disaster.
This Cousin was a reportedly gifted child of God, hence her angelic entourage. She had a way with words that cut the heart of the dying. All attempts to stop her from arriving at the hospital tonight had so far failed. Helev’s superiors were scrambling, even going so far as to use Helev as a last defense!
They had given him no specific assignment besides “Stop the Cousin.” But Helev had his ideas—ideas that might finally bring him back into the good graces of his superiors and back out of this despicable hospital to do his damage in the real world. Or, of course, he could fail and seal his fate here and now. It was worth the risk.
Down. Catch. Up.
His idea was simple and effective, though he knew from history that, if overplayed, the humans might actually take notice. Both sides of this war knew the dangers of that ever happening. Helev even sensed that the superiors from both factions had tacitly agreed to keep their battles on the spiritual front only—to keep the veil zipped tight, preferring influence over presence in the physical realm, at least for the time being.
But Helev had also heard stories of overt manifestations in the physical world—again, from both sides. Someone was permitting it, and since no one had told him he couldn’t do it, he knew it was worth the risk.
Up. Catch. Down.
Down. Down.
Nothing.
This was it! He had no idea the timing but knew that speed was essential. The Cousin might already have arrived. The nurse might be on her way to Christine’s room for rounds. The Patient two floors down might already be dead.
No matter. Christine was dead, and he had to move fast.
He peered once into the empty hallway then flung himself from his perch into Christine’s body and immediately sat up. He had rehearsed this in his mind so many times that he moved like clockwork.
He threw the bony legs off the bed, the bare feet hitting the linoleum floor. He grabbed the IV tower and pulled it alongside him. The hospital gown barely clung to Christine’s frame, but that added color to the scene he was hoping to display.
Helev flung the door open and exited into the empty hallway. He rushed Christine to the stairway and hurried down both flights—the sound of her bare feet slapping concrete the only sound to be heard. At the second landing, he peered through the door’s window to ensure no one dangerous to his cause was lurking there. Again, empty.
He slowly creaked the door open and entered. His plan required darkness, so he reached Christine’s bony fingers towards the light switch and turned off only the first three sets and the stairwell. No use alerting anyone else down the hall.
And then, as Christine, he waited. He had not yet heard anything in the spirit realm to alert him that he was too late. No cheers from the angels, no laughter from his friends. The Patient still lived. The Cousin had not yet arrived. But how long must he wait?
Someone in a nurse’s smock walked past the intersection. Thank whichever devil oversaw him that he didn’t look to his left and notice the lights out! Again, Helev waited.
He was actually grateful for the delay. The more time that passed, the cooler Christine’s body would grow—comfortable in itself—and the bluer she would turn. This was to his advantage. Stiffness wouldn’t come in a while, but that had never worried him.
He enjoyed the silence of this midnight hallway, until he saw them. Even before the Cousin turned the corner, he saw her protectors. Two before and then two behind. Although the same in essence, these angels were so vastly different from Helev. Ten thousand years of banishment from the courts of Heaven to this place will do that to a spirit. Where they shone with a golden brilliance, he cast shadows. Where they marched together with order, weapons flaming, he still cowered alone.
But he didn’t need a flaming sword. He didn’t need compatriots. His weapons were wit and stealth.
These angels of God had power to protect, but they could never inhabit the stinking humans themselves. Helev had full power to possess and control almost anyone he chose—and he could ride them straight to Hell, if he dedicated his time to it. The only ones outside his control were those whom the Enemy Himself had filled. Sickening opportunistic maggots.
The angels weren’t fooled by the darkness and noticed Christine immediately. They hesitated and the Cousin kept walking.
Helev moved Christine to the border of the lights and growled. It was an old trick, but it had its desired effect.
The Cousin stopped abruptly in the hallway looking directly ahead. She stopped just 10 feet from the Patient’s door.
Helev sunk Christine’s head low beneath two bony shoulder blades jutting high like broken wings. Staring straight into the Cousin’s eyes through Christine’s deadened orbs, he moved her forward, dragging the IV tower alongside. He growled again, and then he spoke an ancient tongue—Perizzite, if he remembered it correctly—though any language could have worked. He probably could have spoken modern Khurd for the same effect.
He cursed the Cousin and the angels beside her with all his gusto through Christine’s mouth and progressed steadily forward. All he needed was for the Cousin to turn around and leave. He’d love to see her run, love to hear her scream, love to see the angels forced to abandon their mission of redemption—oh how he wanted to see that!
The Cousin took a step back. Christine continued, one foot after the other.
The angels had no power here. They didn’t know Christine was already dead. They couldn’t pick the Cousin up and carry her into the room. It was just Helev and this woman—a showdown in this hallway between human fear and something humans fear the most.
Helev cocked Christine’s head to the side—to the point of nearly breaking the spine—as he kept spewing his ancient curses.
The Cousin took another step back. By now, she was praying. The angels immediately stepped in front of her, but she couldn’t see them. Helev could never touch her, but she didn’t know that.
He continued his slow walk, Christine’s skin showing a nice bluish pallor. He quickly turned her head to the other side and raised Christine’s voice.
Helev could now see hospital staff through the angels’ transparent bodies—one on the phone calling for security, but none of them daring to approach.
The Cousin took another step back.
Helev threw Christine’s IV tower against the wall with more force than the little woman could have mustered in her healthy days. The Cousin screamed.
Christine’s body had just passed the patient’s door now. Helev had secured his territory. One more push and the Cousin would have to flee!
He got down onto Christine’s hands and feet and crawled again toward her, like an animal ready to pounce—and then Helev raised Christine’s head high and—with one final gurgling cry—bashed it into the tile floor, once, twice, three times until his charade had its desired effect.
The Cousin bolted away—as did every human in the hallway—along with three of her protectors.
One remained behind, flaming sword still drawn and mumbling curses of his own.
As Helev exited Christine’s corpse, a smile etched across his dark face. The angel scowled at him.
They recognized each other from another battle many centuries ago, a battle that—like this—had ended in a sort of draw, though Helev knew that this time he had won the upper hand.
Of course, Helev didn’t know if the Cousin would regain her courage enough to return and speak to this Patient. That didn’t matter to him right now, for he enjoyed savoring the moment. The Cousin was gone, and every minute that ticked away was another opportunity for the Patient to crawl closer to death without ever hearing a word from that fearful little believer.
Helev had hoped to remain here in the hallway and watch the door, but the angel must have had his assignment too, for he kept his flaming sword drawn as he walked through the wall to stand beside the bed, protecting the room itself in case there were still time.
The Enemy apparently loved this patient and had great hope for its conversion before death. Helev would have to report this unfortunate news to his superiors, of course, but at least he could report his own efforts first.
Perhaps his days of babysitting the dying were soon coming to an end.
Perhaps soon he’d get to serve his Master once again in the real world.
©2026 E.T.
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Check Out More from This Series:
- Before I Wake Series Introduction
- Before I Wake, 01: Simon
- Before I Wake, 02: Ahmed
- Before I Wake, 03: Jakob
- Before I Wake, 04: Christine