New Short Fiction: ‘The Blood of Angels’

The Blood of Angels

By Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi

Translated by the author

A young astronomer stood gazing in awe at the mountain observatory. In front of Leila stood a massive structure perched atop a rocky peak, surrounded by a sparse forest. The landscape was dominated by a single round building, which was topped by a gleaming metal dome that housed the telescope. The enormous dome was partially open, revealing the giant telescope aimed up at the sky. The surrounding buildings were simple in design: they had metal frames, and their small workspaces were connected to the main structure.

The observatory’s outer walls were a blend of metal and glass, with round windows lining the perimeter. These windows looked old, and cracks appeared in a few of them, just like they did in the fractured walls. A feeling quiet isolation hung over the remote location.

After some mysterious disappearances, the observatory had been closed down years ago. No one knew exactly what had happened to the people who had entered the observatory, but local legend—from a village at the foot of the mountain—spoke of strange lights and eerie sounds heard on dark nights. Some villagers claimed that those who vanished had been swallowed up by the sky.

But Leila, who had spent her life observing the stars, didn’t believe any of it. The abandoned observatory had caught her attention, and, after she’d read everything she could find about it, she realized that its unique location would allow her to observe an uncharted section of space, potentially uncovering astronomical secrets that could change our understanding of the universe. Her scientific curiosity was stronger than any nerves, and she saw this mountain observatory as an invaluable opportunity. For months, she worked tirelessly to secure the permits necessary to reopen it. Now, here she was, staring at the observatory shrouded in mysterious secrets.

She arrived at the observatory at night, together with her team. The air was bitterly cold, and the wind whistled through the trees, as if warning them to turn back. Upon entering the abandoned building, Leila felt the deep chill seeping through its cracked walls. The doors creaked ominously, and the wooden floors groaned under her footsteps. The building was swallowed up by darkness, and the air was stale, as though the place hadn’t breathed in years.

The first thing the team did was try to get the generator running. Luckily, the electricity still worked, and, as soon as power to the observatory was restored, the team spread out, documenting the condition of the facility. Meanwhile, Leila headed toward the main observation hall.

The place was cloaked in a mysterious aura. The dim lights from small ceiling lamps and the faint glow from scattered instruments were reflected in the arched metallic dome, which bore the marks of time. In the center of the hall, the large telescope was pointed toward the sky through the opening in the inner dome. It looked like a window to the infinite universe.

It was cold inside the observatory, and the wind’s whispers seeped in through small cracks in the metal walls. On the side tables, there were old scientific papers and numbered instruments; however, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, a testament to how long the place had been abandoned.

Even the air itself felt thick with mystery, carrying the scent of cold metal mixed with the silence of empty space. Everything suggested that this place had once witnessed great discoveries. Yet there was something else—something dark, hidden within this once-great edifice, which no longer welcomed visitors.

Leila carefully began wiping the dust off the ancient telescope, as if she were bringing life back into a machine that had been neglected for years. She examined the lenses and ensured the mechanical parts were balanced. After several minutes of adjustments, she felt her heartbeat quicken, as if she were on the verge of something extraordinary.

She pointed the telescope at the sky, where the night had cast its dark veil, studded with shimmering stars. Her eyes gleamed as they reflected the vast expanse of space before her, and she navigated between planets and stars as if diving into a sea of distant lights. She smiled, awestruck, as she marveled at the corners of the universe through the telescope’s lenses, watching the stars move as if they were dancing to a silent melody.

She directed the telescope toward the constellation Orion, still wearing a wide smile. But suddenly, her smile began to fade, bit by bit, as she noticed a light pulsating strangely in an area that was supposed to be empty. Her curiosity pushed her to adjust the telescope, and with every adjustment, the light grew brighter.

She searched her memory for everything she knew about the stars in that region. Was it a supernova? Or had she discovered a new star?

She felt a strange sensation, as if this light didn’t belong to the known universe. She tried adjusting the focus of the lenses to better see what she was looking at, but the more she looked, the stranger the light became—as though it were a living entity, pulsing with mystery.

The light rippled, as if something was moving within it. When Leila fine-tuned the focus of the telescope, her eyes widened. There was a swirling vortex of energy—as if it were a gateway to another world.

As she concentrated on the light emanating from the depths of space, she noticed something odd moving inside it. At first, the scene was too blurry, as if space itself was wavering. But soon, strange entities began to emerge from within the light: massive dark shadows, their forms undefined.

What frightened her the most was that the forms of these entities were not stable, but constantly shifting and changing, as if they were forming and dissolving at the same moment. One moment, they seemed to have arms and claws stretching toward the stars, and the next, they turned into enormous masses of pure darkness, pulsating without outlines or defined features. It was impossible to understand their shape or nature, as if the universe itself struggled to contain their existence.

Leila thought that these strange entities were not just natural phenomena. No, they were unlike anything she had ever seen or even read about.

As she stared at this strange phenomenon, thoughts began to flood her mind, as if pieces of a puzzle were gradually falling into place. How could these dark entities be connected to the abandoned observatory?

Leila quickly rushed toward the scattered, yellowed papers on the tables, which she had ignored when she first entered this place. Now, she frantically searched through them, looking for an answer to this mystery.

There were many scientific documents, star charts, and some instructions on how to operate the observatory. Suddenly, her eyes fell on scientific papers that caught her attention—papers discussing a theory that suggested the universe was composed not only of the matter and energy we know, but also hidden layers, parallel universes, and perhaps ethereal realms that humans could access only under special conditions. This observatory, with its unique geographic location and orientation toward an unusual angle of the sky, had been used to study invisible waves, the nature of which scientists did not fully understand.

Leila found another paper indicating that the observatory had been built on an ancient site believed to be a “heavenly gateway.” It mentioned the legends spread in the villages and towns surrounding the mountain, which spoke of this place as having been sacred in ancient times, one where people believed they could communicate with the heavens. The people who wrote these papers—likely the observatory’s scientists—were not fully aware of what they were dealing with, but they had come very close to discovering a link between astronomy and the ethereal realm. Some form of energy was being emitted by the telescope, and it might have caused a breach in the barrier between worlds.

Leila’s mind raced with thoughts, working frantically. Could all of this be related to the mysterious disappearances that led to the observatory’s closure? She vaguely thought that there was some sort of interaction happening between the observatory and the entities that appeared in space, as if they were connected by a hidden force. Maybe these entities had always existed, hiding among the stars, and humans had never had the ability to see or communicate with them. But over time, with the advancement of science and telescope technology, it became possible to see these beings, who interacted with humans in ways not yet understood.

A crazy idea crossed Leila’s mind: these entities didn’t appear randomly now, but rather, their appearance was the result of the observatory’s advanced technology interacting with hidden natural forces that had always been present in this place.

Then she felt something strange and gave a startled jump. There was a faint light rising from the telescope, and she saw threads of light extending toward the sky like spiderwebs, connecting the earth to the stars. She shuddered in awe and fear, her heart thundering violently.

Leila suddenly felt a deep sense of isolation. None of her team members were with her, and none of them had returned from the tasks they had gone out to accomplish. She began calling their names one by one in terror, but the only response she received was silence.

She decided to flee this place, but as she turned to leave, she noticed another stack of papers in a dark corner of the room. She hesitated for a moment before she was overcome by curiosity.

Leila hurriedly brought the papers to the table under the light of the metallic dome, and, to her astonishment, she saw that the papers were written in an incomprehensible language, filled with strange symbols. However, after a while, she began to notice that some of the symbols repeated in a clear pattern. On one of the pages, she saw a sketch of what seemed to be the observatory atop the mountain. But, in the middle of the mountain, she noticed something that resembled a glowing sphere with strange engravings.

As she examined the drawings, she found a note scrawled in shaky handwriting at the edge of one of the papers: “The portal never fully closes…not unless the final key is activated.”

Leila felt a wave of anxiety wash over her. She whispered to herself, “The final key?”

She began searching for more information among the papers until she stumbled upon a crudely drawn map. It depicted hidden passages beneath the observatory, leading to deeper parts of the mountain. The map pointed out another room, unknown to her, labeled “The Heart Chamber.”

Suddenly, Leila heard whispers, faint sounds that resembled the rustling of wind, and yet they were clearer, seeping into her mind and whispering incomprehensible things that touched a primal fear buried deep in her subconscious.

The walls of the observatory began to tremble slightly, as if something powerful was stirring deep within the mountain. As Leila tried to grasp what was happening, a dark entity formed in front of her, similar to the entities she had seen through the telescope. Its features were unclear, even as it stood close to her, as though it was veiled by layers of shadow, its form constantly shifting and changing. Leila felt the air grow heavier, and she struggled to breathe.

The entity advanced toward her, and she flinched, backing away until her back pressed against the cold wall of the hall. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the dark figure, which continued its slow approach.

The whispers flooded her mind, multiple voices speaking at once, their words unintelligible but laden with fear and dread. She tried to move, but her feet wouldn’t respond.

Leila gathered all her strength and, in despair and a trembling voice, asked, “What do you want?”

At first, the entity did not answer; it simply stared at her with its shadowed face, as though piercing the depths of her soul. Then a deep voice echoed in her mind, and it felt as if this voice were coming from a bottomless abyss: “The sky is not what you think… There are secrets buried in the stars, secrets as old as the universe itself. We have been here since the beginning.”

Leila mustered her courage and asked, “Who are you? And why are you here?”

“We are the children of the stars… We ruled these skies long before you were born, before humans learned to gaze at the heavens. And now we are here to reclaim what was stolen.”

Terror crept into Leila’s core. She swallowed hard, then asked, her voice wobbling, “What was stolen from you?”

“The blood of angels…” The entity spat out those words as if they were an ancient curse.

Leila stopped breathing for a moment, then gasped. “But… angels? Aren’t they just mythical beings?”

The entity laughed, a hollow sound that Leila felt echoing both in her mind and throughout the hall. Then the voice spoke again: “Myths are often forgotten truths.”

Leila felt the shadows surrounding the entity grow denser, and she began to feel her body being pulled toward the darkness. She tried to resist, but the force that drew her in was stronger than her will. She screamed loudly as scenes flooded into her mind—visions of distant worlds; stars exploding; giant beings roaming through space; angels with wings of light battling dark entities in cosmic wars.

She stood before the shadowy figure that engulfed her in its heavy darkness. Terror gripped her heart, and her breaths quickened, her limbs trembling. Overcome with intense fear, she tried desperately to banish these strange images from her mind, but to no avail. It felt as though she was sinking into an endless abyss, and she felt a strong urge to surrender.

But suddenly, amidst the darkness, a point of light appeared, like a shining star. It began to expand, forcing the shadows to retreat and collapse in upon themselves. In a flash, a luminous being with two radiant wings of pure light manifested before her. Its presence enveloped her with warmth, calm, and serenity, even in this overwhelming darkness.

“There is no time to waste,” the radiant being said in a deep, resonant voice, as though it had come from the depths of the universe itself. “You must close the portal.”

Leila felt confused, unsure of what to do. Then she saw a tunnel of light leading to the door of the observatory hall. She shook herself free from her fear and quickly made her way to the door, recalling the map of the observatory from the old papers.

She found herself running through the dark corridors of the observatory, the dark shadows rushing to catch up to her. Angry, hissing voices pierced her mind, while at the same time, she was surrounded by an aura of light, as if it were a shield protecting her.

With every step she took, the shadow relentlessly followed, chasing her without mercy, creeping into her mind and whispering, “You can’t escape… We know all your fears.” Leila felt the weight of the whispers in her head, as though they were pushing her to stop. But she forced herself to keep going. She knew that the fate awaiting her if she gave in would be far worse than death.

Leila descended further into the sloping corridors, feeling as though she were plunging into the heart of the mountain. In the light that surrounded her, she noticed intricate carvings on the walls, strange drawings that combined mythological scenes with incomprehensible technology. Some of the carvings resembled the patterns she had seen on the yellowed papers.

The corridors narrowed, and the walls seemed to ripple, as though the observatory itself was pulsing and breathing. She was on the verge of giving up, but suddenly found herself before a massive stone door, engraved with unfamiliar yet strangely familiar symbols. It quickly dawned on her: this was the “The Heart Chamber” mentioned in the manuscripts!

Leila eagerly examined the massive stone door, but found no key, no lock, nor any visible mechanism to open it. The air around her grew thicker, and the shadows crept closer and closer.

She pounded on the door with both fists, but it remained firmly shut. Feeling powerless, she nearly sagged to the ground. But then she heard a voice inside her say, “The answer lies in the stars.”

Leila hesitated for a moment, staring at the door in confusion. How could the stars be the solution? But as she examined the engravings on the door, she noticed something familiar… the carvings covering the door resembled something she had seen before—intersecting lines and interwoven symbols. Suddenly, she remembered! These engravings weren’t just random symbols. They represented constellations!

Her heartbeat quickened as she studied the carvings once again, and soon she found the constellation Orion among the symbols—the constellation where she had seen the mysterious light through the telescope.

Cautiously, Leila extended a hand to touch the door and began tracing her fingers over the carvings, mimicking the pattern of the Orion constellation. As her fingers moved, the carvings started to glow, one by one.

With the final point illuminated, the door began to tremble, and a deep sound echoed through the corridor, as if ancient echoes were being awakened. The door slowly creaked open, and a faint light emanated from within.

Without hesitation, Leila rushed inside, finding herself in a vast, rocky chamber. At its center, a strange orb was pulsing light, emitting beams that danced around it like the rhythmic pulses of a mysterious life force.

She watched it in silence and bewilderment until she heard the voice again deep inside her: “To close the portal, you need the blood of angels.”

A wave of unease swept over her, but the luminous entity appeared once again, surrounding her with its wings, and then began to merge with her. Leila felt something change within her, as if an invisible force flowed through her veins. Slowly, she advanced toward the orb of light, now knowing what she had to do.

The shadows followed her into the chamber, swirling around her in a storm of black mist. Voices whispered in her mind: threatening, pleading, promising her dazzling rewards.

Leila shook her head violently, then raised her hand to her mouth, biting down hard until she felt the pain. She looked at the wound; strange liquid oozed from it.

When the blood of angels flowed from Leila’s wound, it appeared as the most beautiful substance in the universe. It shimmered in colors that could not exist in nature, shifting between golden hues and silvery light that sparkled like sunlight on water. It was not just liquid; it pulsed with life, as if it held the energy of the universe itself. Leila felt as though it contained the wisdom of ages and the secret of creation.

The translucent blood had a hidden glow that inspired warmth and awe, and every drop glowed softly upon touching the air, releasing a radiant aura of light.

The blood did not behave like normal liquid; it drifted slowly through the air as if it knew exactly where it needed to go. The orb glowed strangely when the liquid touched it, absorbing the liquid greedily, and the surrounding shadows screamed like a million tortured souls. Suddenly, the light began to fade, dimming gradually until the orb finally went dark.

Then everything vanished—the radiant glow, the screaming shadows, and the myriad voices that had whispered in her mind. Leila felt as though she had never understood the meaning of silence until this moment.

After several minutes—Leila could not tell how many—she felt she could finally move again. She dragged her tired legs back through the door and the winding corridors until she finally reached the observatory, now engulfed in darkness.

To her surprise, she found the research team holding flashlights, questioning the sudden power outage. When they saw her, one of them asked, “Where were you, Leila? We’ve been looking for you all up and down the observatory hall.”

She hesitated for a moment, glancing down at the wound on her hand—the only thing that proved that this wasn’t a dream—and finally replied, “I was just looking into the power failure.”

She glanced around in the darkness under the beams of the flashlights, and she felt a deep longing to be far, far away from this place. Then she said, “We’ve done enough for today. We should leave.”

“And what will you write in your report?” a man asked, puzzled.

Leila hesitated for just a moment before answering: “This observatory must remain closed forever.”

“But what about the research?” he protested. “The scientific reports? There’s so much to explore.”

Leila replied firmly, “I’ve seen everything I need to see.” She glanced one last time at her wound before she murmured to herself, “I’ve seen the blood of angels.”

Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi is an Egyptian writer, translator, and critic. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Department of Arabic Language, Cairo University. He has published six novels in the genres of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, the latest of which is The Hillside Curse. Two of his novels, Reem and Malaz: The City of Resurrection, have been translated into English, with Malaz also translated into Italian. He has published several short stories and literary and critical articles in both Arabic and English, with some of them translated into other languages such as Romanian and Spanish. He is the recipient of the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction’s Best Short Story Award. He has translated numerous novels, including Isaac Asimov’s famous science fiction series Foundation, which was recently adapted into a TV series on Apple TV, and The Eye of the World, the first book in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, recently adapted into a TV series on Amazon.