To Pray or Not To Pray {open!}

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"SPEAK TO ME!"

The church was crowded with Sunday morning church goers, and amidst them was a raving lunatic. Or so it would seem. Adriana had reached her limit, and silently praying for forgiveness was getting her nowhere. And worst of all, no one seemed to be listening to her.

She had been powerful. She decided the fate of the delicate humans that sat with her in the pews. But now she was no better... okay, a little better, she would comfort herself, than the fragile creatures she mingled with. Ms Lachesis was accustomed to being heard, respected, revered, even feared. Here, where every mortal could see her, she was just another person.

Fuck that!

She wanted to be special again. She wanted to be beautiful and divine and all-powerful. Why weren't her sisters talking to her? Isabella Clotho and Elaina Atropos, her sisters in the Moirae, were her family. How could they too abandon her? They hadn't visited, hadn't even 'called'. She felt betrayed in the worst way, and it hurt.

At first the pain was agonizing, and she could feel the depression and despair sinking in. But she was stronger than this; she always had a default to go to when she was wronged, and that was anger. Pure, unadulterated fury. Adriana replaced her sorrow with her seething spite and here she was, storming down the aisle of the church, shaking her fist at the altar.

"YOU CONDEMN ME TO THIS LIFE BUT CANNOT LOOK ME IN THE EYE! SPEAK TO ME!" She screeched, her voice hushing the usual murmuring of the humans surrounding her. The angel knew she was making a scene, but she didn't care. She'd tried every other way to get their attention, and after those failures they knew very well what she was capable of.

Adriana Lachesis would not be ignored.

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"Can you be quiet please?..."

A crisp, calm voice spoke. Breaking the tension and the apprehension in the over-crowded room, like a sheet of melting ice. Some people could be so rude... this was a place of worship, a place for praising the lord, not condemning him. The voice belonged to Suriel Night, since the dawn of time itself and possibly before, she had been the Angel of Healing. She was responsible for the great flood of Noah's age, the one to wipe out so many bad lives for the good few who listened to what god himself had to say. Though these messages were always delivered by angels like herself, Suriel could never remember such a time. It wasn't the fact that she had been on earth now for centuries, trying feebly to keep the peace between warring nations of humans, vampires and Lycans alike. No, it was merely the fact that she'd given her life for one unruly and disgruntled vampire, the very same one she'd married and been reborn for. He sat next to her on the very front pew, not entirely sure why he was here, it wasn't as though this place had ever done him any good.

Glaring angrily at his black polished boots, he growled something inaudible to the rest of the congregation but for an angels ears it was as clear as the open bible lying half open on the altar itself. "Do we seriously have to be here?... this is messing with my 'no mortal killing' record." He grumbled, obviously not entertained in the slightest by the new addition to the service. Ranting lunatics weren't exactly the favorite on his menu but he wasn't about to go on a diet now just because some crazy lady with black wings couldn't keep her yap shut. Snarling is grievances at the old lady who sat down beside him, Orion quickly muttered something about needing fresh air and then disappeared in an instant. Probably dashing off somewhere to feed before he went insane with hunger, Suriel sighed with pent up frustration as every mortal being assembled began to leave as well.

"Honestly, why can't people just get along?..." she complained feeling abandoned and annoyed, it wasn't like she came here very often. She had hoped with some luck that God might send someone to tell her what she wished to know, she'd never done anything to break his trust, to become one of the darkened fallen. She did her job well, she'd been paid for it twice now in fact... yet she still wanted more but "ask and you shall receive right?" Perhaps she was missing something, was there something else she was supposed to do in order to get all her memories back? Some good deed that could only be done by her own hands here on earth? She really had no clue, at the moment though the only thoughts circling her pretty little head were why this dark one continued to rave about her punishment. Suriel glanced towards the back of the church, making sure everyone had cleared before leaving her pew to stand closer to the altar itself. She wanted answers too. "Do you think he listens to you?... You betrayed him. You've done bad things to benefit yourself, I don't care who you think you are but this is not the place to terrorize innocents!" Suriel shrieked, lashing out at Adriana with all her frustrations. She was more human now than angel, not being able to remember who she was or where she came from was crippling Suri. Only Orion's strength seemed to keep her going, he had faith that she would remember eventually, faith if nothing else that she wouldn't forget him. How could she? he was her whole life up until this point, she remembered nothing else.

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Adriana opened her mouth to start screeching some more when someone interrupted her rant. She spun on her heel, not quite reaching the altar, glaring daggers at Suriel. But the dangerous slits her eyes made widened to express her surprise. She could see Suriel's wings, and she was silenced instantly. She pretended not to hear Suriel's lover muttering, and instead examined the other angel.

She paid Orion no attention as he left, her eyes on Suriel as she left the pew to join her. She flinched as the woman chastised her, but she stood her ground.

"Of course He doesn't listen to me. He never listened to me," She spat, eyes narrowing to slits again. Talk of her betrayal aggravated her, and she twitched visibly. She wasn't very rational when she was being provoked. Suriel might not think it provocation, but Adriana saw it as an insult to question her. No one questioned her.

"What are you doing here then, if you're so righteous?" Behind the spite was curiosity she couldn't quite conceal. Try as she may not to be bitter and angry with Heaven, Adriana could not help but feel the way she did. She was the victim here. This was her firm belief, and Suriel was trying to make Him sound like the victim. He was untouchable, she should know that. What could they have done to offend him? Well, Adriana knew what her sin was. What was Suriel's?

She turned to the altar, loathe to find that she still respected the faith despite her eagerness to break from it. Lady Lachesis was Fate, Destiny if you called it that. She decided what was to come - it was her decision, and no one else's. She took the thread of your life from her first sister, and twisted it, knotted it, weaving it through a beautiful tapestry so you mingled and met with others. And once your purpose was complete, once your thread created the perfect design, she would hand the thread off to her sister to sever your connection to this world. She decided whether or not your duty to the tapestry, to the world was complete. Only this artist controlled how much or how little you contributed to the ultimate design.

And now she was nothing. The threads she wove were nothing button cotton string. The colors were so limited, so dry and ugly. Who could replace such a visionary as she? Why hadn't Heaven summoned her back? She was still waiting for her apology, damnit!

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"What are you doing here then, if you're so righteous?"

The words cut her through, unlike any others she'd ever heard before, these were not spoken out of jealous malice or vicious spite. It was truth, curious bewildering truth. "I don't know..." Suri breathed, her voice heavy with sadness as she smoothed the front of her snow white dress, the beautiful laced edging swaying in a gentle motion as she did so. What was she doing here?... she was trying to figure out why she could no longer remember certain events of her past, seemingly important events that no longer existed in the fragile makeup of her mind. The longer she stayed here praying to her magnificent creator, to fix this slight oversight, the longer she wondered if this wasn't some preordained occasion. "I came here seeking answers to the questions of my past, questions that could be answered by my own memories if i had access to them. "And why of all creation should he ignore either of us?!... we are not his enemies." Suri cried frustratedly, she didn't entirely mean to include this black angel in her matters, she was after all being punished for a crime she should never have commit. Suriel though had done nothing wrong as far as she could tell and still had no answers... Why was her lord and master treating her this way? She had always done everything he'd ever asked, as driven as the snow to perfection and purity, she'd even done such a good job in the past that she'd been allowed to remain behind on this earth when her time was done to choose a mate, a partner for her glorious afterlife still ahead.

Orion was hardly a good choice in anyone's eyes for that role but he had no alternative, he'd never chosen this life or had it forced upon him by another, he was unique in every way. He had been born to this life of constant murder and far from accepting it, he did everything he could have done to oppose it short of ending his own life. She remembered very little of all this though, she only had what he remembered and felt about her, a secondhand version of events from someone else's eyes. It was insufficient at best. Orion had been more than patient in letting her sort out her own affairs regarding memories and the fragments of her past that no longer made sense but she knew he was becoming impatient. He longed for them to return to the way they had once been, a possibility that now seemed an endless circle of questions, conniving thoughts and crippling emotions as Suri searched for the answers to her past life. At times it seemed like she was in someone else's domain, filling in for someone long gone from this world. All she knew of her past was that she'd once been a great healer, the key to her powers was buried somewhere deep inside those memories, the memories she seemingly had no right to anymore.

"I haven't done anything to deserve this..." She added quietly. No longer caring about the dark one beside her or the fact that she was within ear shot, instead she wished Orion would return shortly, she needed someone to lean on, someone that could understand her pain and retributions. She doubted this lady would be able to understand her wants and needs better than Orion but she was in a similar situation. "What about you sister?... you say this is unfair, what have you done to be ignored by the fates?" It was a term shed used many times 'the fates' she no longer understood its meaning but used it anyway, 'old habits die hard' or something like that. She could see this angel seemed concerned about what was happening here to her as well and although Suri had no business being apart of it or even asking what her crime had been, she too was curious to know what evil deed this dark one had done to earn her this vile position at the lords feet. Curious as to why one such as Adriana was here asking for her penance, her forgiveness in the house of the lord.