We're Setting Worlds On Fire

The night was perfect-the stars in the sky were shining brightly, there was a cool breeze floating through the air and it just seemed like the perfect time to be outside. LA was usually a bustling city-people always walking down the sidewalks, no matter the time and often one could knock in to someone and not even notice. Lily and Andy had been out enjoying the evening-the guys had played a small show in a new club in town and everything had gone well. The Army had shown up in full force, everyone was on their A game and Andy had just enjoyed being on stage. They had been home from the UK for a week, recording and working on new material for the album-it had been a productive week.

So to celebrate a good show and after he had met with some fans, Lily and Andy had decided to take a stroll down the streets of LA and ended up getting ice cream. As they licked their cones-Lily her mint chocolate chip and Andy his double chocolate chunk-they laughed and talked about random things…anything to keep their minds off of what was really going on.

Satan was growing stronger, according to Lily’s sources and when she told Andy this, the singer felt his stomach drop. They weren’t prepared for this-there was still so much work to be done and more people to recruit before they would ever be able to fight Satan and have a chance of beating him.

Couldn’t they just enjoy the night together? Andy had tried bringing up the soul mate topic again, but Lily quickly shut him down with her usual answer. They weren’t soul mates any longer-soul mates were a real thing and Lily and Andy weren’t destined for one another. Andy kept trying to get Lily to give him hints as to who his soul mate might be, but she would only smile and say that the summer time would get here soon enough.

What did that mean? Andy thought it over as they walked down the streets-their hands held together tightly as they walked-and all he could come up with was the fact that this summer they would be going on their first tour with the Vans Warped Tour.

When Jon told the guys this they flipped out-even Lily seemed to get really excited-and Andy had quickly asked her what the big deal was. She spoke highly of the tour-a two month long festival type atmosphere where all sorts of bands got together, played and then hung out afterwards. The biggest thing though was that it was a way for the bands to get even closer to their fans.

For the fans-Warped Tour was a time and place where they could be themselves for an entire day and not have to worry about being judged for their looks or their music. As she spoke about it, Andy noticed that Lily got a soft look in her eyes-like she knew exactly what it meant to fit in for one day.


“You guys ready for this new album?” Lily asked suddenly, breaking the silence with a smile in his direction and Andy nodded his head as he licked at his ice cream cone.

“So fucking ready. There are so many songs that I want people to hear-plus that means more touring.” Andy smiled as he finished off his ice cream and tossed the paper wrapper in to a nearby trash can. Lily was only half way through her own-she had always been a slow eater.

“You really love this don’t you…” She smiled up at him, her lips soft and pale in the light of the full moon and Andy only nodded as he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. They were cold and tasted like mint, but as the two embraced, Lily let her cone fall from her hand and didn’t even think about where it landed.

“I love you…” Andy said as they broke apart, his hands still cupping her cheeks as he opened his eyes and saw her staring at him. Her lavender eyes were filled with love and Andy had missed seeing her look at him that way.

“I love you too Andy.” She replied and they both smiled. Suddenly there was a crashing noise and Andy grabbed a hold of Lily and brought her towards his chest. They both were looking around them and finally Lily spotted a dark figure leaning up against the side of the one of the buildings.

“Oh isn’t that just so sweet. You guys are gonna make me cry…” A voice spoke out to them and Lily shivered as the figure moved towards them and entered the patch of light that surrounded the couple.


The girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen, her pale skin ghostly and covered in slash marks. Her eyes-ringed heavily in purple and blue bruises-were pitch black and held a hate in them that Lily had rarely seen. Blonde hair hung down in sheets, stringy and greasy looking as the girl got closer and Lily could take her in more clearly. She was wearing a Black Veil Brides t-shirt and her jeans hung off of her lanky frame like curtains. This girl had been a fan, she had been a fan of Andy’s when she had been alive, but now she was just another creature of the dark-another creature that Lily would sadly have to kill.

She was a Hybrid and she had to be destroyed.


“Nice shirt.” Andy growled as he moved away from Lily and took a defensive stance in front of the Angel. Lily only rolled her eyes-it was always going to be this way with him and one of these days he was going to get seriously hurt.

“Yeah I know-too bad you didn’t try hard enough to save my life…” The girl quipped as she moved forward and Lily noticed that Andy had stiffened. This was a sore subject for him-he knew that because of his screwing around, that a lot of their fans had been lost to the other team.

“Don’t listen to her Andy! She’s isn’t human anymore…” Lily said as she moved forward and placed a hand on the singer’s shoulder. He was shaking, from anger or sadness she didn’t know, but Lily did know that this little Hybrid needed to be stopped.

“Oh and you-I’ve heard about you and your fire. Think you can destroy me? You’ll have to catch me first…” The girl smirked, wickedly, as she moved around like lightening and soon enough Andy and Lily were running after the girl.


They had ended up in an alleyway, the stench of garbage from a local restaurant making Lily’s nostrils burn but she ignored it. There was no one down here and as they walked, Lily felt Andy grab for her hand and hold on tightly. He was wounded-not physically, but emotionally and Lily knew that this was always going to be his weakness. When she had first come down to Earth and told Andy about what his slacking off had done, she hadn’t been the nicest person about it and she knew that she had made him feel guiltier than he should. But what happened had happened and they both needed to just move on from it and get things done.

Lily looked around, but she saw nothing but dumpsters and boxes that were waiting to be thrown out. There was one lone street lamp lighting their way-why were these damn alleys so poorly lit?-and Lily tried to focus as she walked slowly down towards the very end. Her sneakered feet slipped as she stepped in something grimy and as Lily looked down her eyes grew wide-red, sticky and smelling like life-blood. Where was it coming from? Lily looked back up and she noticed the Andy had frozen in place, his eyes wide with terror as the Hybrid was closing in on them.


“Please Andy…please save me…y-you were supposed to save me…” The girl cried. She had her arms held out before her, palms up and Lily noticed that there was blood running down her wrists. She had slashed her own skin, the liquid life flowing down her pale arms and Lily instantly knew-this was fighting dirty.

“Andy.” Lily said softly, but the singer said nothing. He didn’t even look at her, his blue eyes just stayed on the girl in front of them, his bottom lip trembling and Lily knew then that he was close to tears.

“I died because you couldn’t save me…others have died as well. I trusted you to save me…” The girl cried out again as she placed a small dagger against her skin and more blood spilled forth. Lily knew it was an illusion-Hybrids didn’t have blood running through their veins anymore, but Andy was clearly buying in to it.

“Andy-don’t listen to her.” Lily said through her teeth as she rubbed her hands together. Soon enough her gleaming sword was in her tiny hands and the Hybrid only smirked. Both Andy and Lily watched as the blood disappeared and the Hybrid moved slightly to the left, that wicked smirk still on her pale lips.

“Come on guys…lets play!” The Hybrid cackled as she moved forward and Lily felt herself being pushed back. Andy didn’t honestly think he was going to take this girl on alone-did he?


Lily shoved Andy out of the way, watching as the Demon fell to the ground and growled as he flipped himself up and reached into his vest to remove a dagger. The Hybrid was running circles around them, reaching out and pulling on Lily’s wings or Andy’s hair. They needed to get a hold of her-Lily needed Andy to grab her and hold her still so Lily could catch her on fire. They had quickly learned after their encounter with Brianne that fire, Divine Fire, was the only thing that could stop these monsters. They had also learned from an ill-fated training session that Andy was immune to Divine Fire and so he could hold on to the Hybrids while Lily torched them.

Lily swung her sword around, watching as Andy ducked and she smiled as the Hybrid cried out in pain-her left arm had been sliced off and now she was slowly down slightly. Andy moved forward and finally he was able to get his tattooed arms around the Hybrid's waist. She struggled, growling and biting at his skin and Andy cried out, throwing his head back in pain, but thankfully he was able to hold on. Lily was out of breath and as she moved forward and tried to concentrate, she felt something in the air. A vibration-a feeling…something was coming.


“Any last words?” Lily asked as the small fire ball began to swirl and form in her hands. The Hybrid only laughed as she writhed around in Andy’s arms, but there was a fear in her black eyes that made Lily happy.

“He’s coming. Satan will rise and when he does he will rip the flesh from your bones an-“ The girl stopped as Lily cut her off with her laughter and Andy only rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah we’re all gonna die…we know…we know.” Lily said before letting the fire ball go and suddenly the air was filled with a piercing scream.


Lily felt her stomach clench as she watched the girl before her burn-her hair flying up around her head with the wind and her flesh turned from a pale color to a smokey gray until it was completely black. Andy held on, keeping his head as far away from the burning girl as possible and he finally let her go as she stopped struggling and had expired. The burning body fell to the ground, where it laid smoldering until finally everything became a tiny pile of dust. Andy sighed-this was the most terrible thing ever and he wished he had never let her words get to him, but they did.

He had fucked up-he had fucked everything up and he knew it. But what was done was done and as Andy wiped the soot off of his hands and onto his jeans, he caught Lily staring at him. She looked so sad and unsure of what to say that Andy only smiled and walked over to her. He brought her to his chest, rubbing his hands against the back of her head as she buried her nose in his shirt. He smelled like a camp fire and although it was grim to think about, Lily had always found comfort in that smell. The two of them stood there in that alleyway, hugging and staying silent, when suddenly a bright light flash before them and they both trained their heads on the sky.

A giant ball of the fire and light was coming towards them and Lily felt her heart stop as she knew what this meant-an Angel was falling to Earth. Who would it be? Gabriel? Michael? Perhaps another Angel who had been chosen to come down and fight alongside them. Lily felt her breath catch in her throat as the ball grew larger and larger and she felt Andy shaking beneath her. Was this what she had looked like when she fell to Earth? Had Andy been as scared then as he was now? The two of them watched as finally the ball grew so big that it seemed almost as if it were daylight out and then the ground shook as the mass hit right to the left of where they were standing.


“What the fuck?” Andy asked as he held Lily in place, but the Angel was having none of it. She quickly got out of his reach and Andy only sighed, running a hand through his messy hair as he followed behind the small girl.

“Hello?” Lily called out in to the massive crater that had formed. There were bits of concrete all around, burning trash and smoke was filling the air. She heard a slight amount of grumbling the closer she got and as Lily looked down into the crater she gasped.


A pair of giant white wings were all that she saw, the very tips singed from falling and the white robes that this Angel was wearing were covered in soot and debris. All Lily could see was the very top of a brown head, the hair messy and all over the place and she felt her heart grow light. She would be alone no longer-finally someone who understood her completely was here on Earth and as Andy reached her side, Lily said nothing as she wrapped an arm around his waist and smiled up at the unsure Demon.

Suddenly they both jumped as the Angel turned around, the lavender eyes slightly angry, but Lily laughed as they grew soft upon seeing her and she knew then…her best friend had come to her rescue.

Notes

Who could it be?

Review to find out on Monday <3