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Once, the Archangel Gabriel Gabriel had grey eyes.
But Gabriel detested them, as he thought of them as a repulsive shade.
Eyes, the colour of concrete.
Eyes, the colour of dirty water.
Eyes, the colour of clouded skies.
The body was a gift from the Lord, he knew. Yet the eyes of other angels always proved to be the source of his envy, so from away he sat upon the clouds. That way, no one else could know what coloured eyes he had.
One day, a kind Throne saw how he sat alone and took pity on him.
“What is wrong, brother Gabriel?” Asked she. “Why do you refuse to let another angel gaze upon your face?”
“It is my eyes,” he instantly said, hiding his eyes so that she may not see them. “They are hideous. For if the others gazed upon them, they would surely turn away.”
“Then let me give you a pair of mine so that you shall gaze upon other angels without fear.” And the Throne plucked a pair of her ochre eyes and offered them to Gabriel.
Gabriel enjoyed wearing the Throne’s ochre eyes very much, as they got rid of his fear of being scorned. With the gift, he finally allowed himself to meet and gaze upon his fellow angels.
The Archangel did one day seize the opportunity to upgrade his eyes when a woman who lived by the Black Sea called for him. “Oh, mighty Archangel Gabriel!” Pleaded she. “Please take my eyes away. I am old and frail and want to be alone, but people near and far travel to my home to see my eyes. I have family who can take care of me when I’m blind, and I have seen enough of the world already.”
So Gabriel took those blue eyes and put them into his head.
The Black Sea woman’s eyes were special indeed. For after Gabriel wore them, no eye in Heaven looked away. Even humans looked at Gabriel’s eyes with the awe that he had always craved.
Centuries later, several more eyes were donated to Gabriel so that they may be used to fulfill their full potential. So angels, humans, and even demons alike may gaze upon the Messenger with reverence. Yet still, Gabriel was unsatisfied, as the other angels of Heaven bore eyes in a spectrum of other colours. Green, brown, and blue.
One day, a new angel was born, with beautiful eyes and a metallic, emerald sheen. However, this angel was born blind, and so he chose to visit Heaven’s healing ward for procedures to give him sight. Gabriel visited the healing ward often, eavesdropping on the many medical procedures he underwent. Gabriel simply wanted to see whether the fledgeling could lend him his eyes, that was all. And there was a likelihood he did not need them anyway.
The healers of Heaven crafted many pairs of experimental eye grafts for him. When none of them worked, they would be placed within boxes, stored away in a closet, gathering dust. All were beautiful, and sure Gabriel wanted to take some of them, but none so as those original emerald eyes that lustered like a beetle’s wing.
The fledgling first met the Archangel Gabriel in Heaven’s hospital ward, after Heaven’s healers acknowledged that the fledgling would live with blindness.
“I am the Archangel Gabriel,” announced he. “And I could not help but notice how beautiful your first eyes are. As the Almighty’s messenger, I keep eyes that are otherwise of no use so that they may reach their full potential, showing the extent of the Almighty’s creations.”
“If it’s for such a noble purpose, then you may take the many eyes Heaven’s healers made for me,” said he. “But I have one condition.”
“What may that be?”
“I want to keep my original eyes.”
It was not the answer he wanted. So Gabriel took the box with his emerald eyes.
This incident was an exception, of course. He wouldn’t take the eyes of many more angels if the outcome was not worth it.
Gabriel needed new eyes, so he descended upon Earth and gazed at these many nameless faces. One day, a face in a magazine caught his attention. It was the eyes of an American actress, eyes that sparkled like amethysts. Even the poor quality of the photo could not hide how they lustered. Gabriel couldn’t help but stroke the glossy magazine page, imagining how those eyes would look on him.
He wanted to take those eyes for himself. But as the media prized her unique beauty, he could not take them. And he was not a monster who would blind a human. But patience was a virtue, one he had much of. And all humans must wait for their time soon.
And so Gabriel waited. He wore imitations, but none of them were good enough for him. At the American actress’ funeral, Gabriel was there. When everyone else left, Gabriel plucked out her amethyst eyes for himself to wear.
“Oh Archangel Gabriel,” an angel asked. “How did you get these new eyes?”
“They were given in an act of charity,” said he. “The most beautiful woman in the world had died last week. For her to die with them would be a shame. And so to honour her, I shall wear them, to show the beauty of the Almighty’s creations.”
The angels believed Gabriel’s excuses. All of those eyes were borrowed with consent. Right?
Gabriel had never been interested in demons’ eyes before. They were too animalistic and flawed to be worn by him. But this time, a demon had trespassed across a Holy site and so Gabriel had to act.
The demon’s eyes caught Gabriel’s intrigue. This was a hare demon. His iris was a meek peach shade, but streaks of gold hatched across each other in delicate veins, like kintsugi. Shame that such gorgeous eyes were on a demon.
“And for your penance, I shall take your eyes,” announced Gabriel. The demon begged and pleaded. But still, the Archangel ripped the eyes out anyway.
All of Heaven looked away.
The hare demon was, in fact, a Count under the Master of Torment Dagon. Sickened by what he had endured, Dagon vowed to avenge him one day, and make that angel pay .
Armageddon failed, and Heaven’s faith was diminishing.
No one was looking at him.
Gabriel was on the hunt for a pair of new eyes. Demon, human, angel, all were not safe. Gabriel’s right-hand angel, Sandalphon, was worried about such greed and desperation he could see in Gabriel. He could not trust a demon. But it was true, the Archangel Gabriel was vain in picking many eyes to wear.
The Archangel Sandalphon decided to investigate matters in his own hands and so sneaked into Gabriel’s domain in Heaven. Sandalphon remembered there being a room that Gabriel had told him to never enter. So therefore this must be the first room he should explore. Swallowing, Sandalphon swung open the door.
A hall of mirrors with shelves of silver boxes stacked to the ceiling. All were meticulously stacked together so closely they looked like bricks. The boxes reminded Sandalphon of jewellery boxes where humans would keep their valuables. Behind them were walls of mirrors so polished it was as if gazing from another pair of eyes. Suddenly, there were footsteps, and so Sandalphon willed himself to be invisible. When Gabriel entered, the lids of every box opened. And the sight horrified Sandalphon.
Within the velvet lining inside each box rested a pair of glossy eyeballs of any colour that was ever seen. Sandalphon’s throat dried as he recognised some of these eyes, whether from orations or a simple meeting with Gabriel. He had always thought Gabriel threw out the eyes as soon as he was done with them. As Gabriel walked across the room, the gaze of the eyes would follow him.
Sandalphon gagged as Gabriel opened his mouth and pulled out a pair of eyes. It took him all his energy to not gag again when Gabriel turned around at the sound. Only empty eye sockets looked at him. Sandalphon quietly paced away from Gabriel’s gaze and luckily Gabriel still didn’t see him. Gabriel reached for a pair of indigo eyes and, holding them over his mouth like pills, swallowed him.
Sandalphon had seen enough, so he ran out of the open doors. All of Heaven turned a blind eye. Until now.
He needed to take Gabriel’s ways down. Other angels would not believe him, but a demon might. He travelled into Hell and found Dagon. As the demon remembered the hare Count fondly, he gladly volunteered to avenge him. Together, Dagon and Sandalphon devised a plan.
They found a demon with no eyes, but rather hollow eye sockets. A friend of the hare Count, he agreed to their plan. Next, they found the finest crafters to make fake eyes. Beneath the crusts of Hell were lustrous minerals worth more in their weight than the finest gold. First, the largest, whitest pair of pearls were siphoned off the seafloor. Then, the darkest jets were chipped out of the blackest coal. And finally, fire opals that flowed and refracted every colour known to humankind were set inside.
Sandalphon distracted Gabriel by reporting a demon that Gabriel should smite.
Tracking the demon took Gabriel and Sandalphon several days, as was planned through their strategically set clues. All to enrage Gabriel and make him more and more desperate.
At last, Gabriel found the demon. He gripped the demon by the neck and pulled the eyes out of the skull. Too enamoured by their iridescent beauty to notice that they were cold and hard like rock, Gabriel swallowed the eyes.
And Gabriel saw darkness.
"My eyes! I am blind!" He cried.
Gabriel kneeled and coughed out the fake eyes. The fake eyes clacked and rolled onto the ground, limp gems that had no use otherwise.
And yet the Archangel kept hacking. He coughed out the kintsugi eyes of the hare demon and the bright purple eyes of the American actress.
He coughed out the emerald eyes of the fledgling and the blue eyes of the Black Sea woman.
He coughed out the Throne’s amber eyes.
At last, only one pair of eyes remained.
Gabriel’s own eyes that the Almighty had given him.
The eyes of the demons sank into the ground. The eyes of the angels vanished into the aether. And the human’s eyes melted into dust, their colours gone forever.
Gabriel shrieked at the loss of his collection. Sandalphon, observing this sorry sight, could only shake his head.
“I am sorry,” sighed Sandalphon. “But your actions must be stopped.”
Sandalphon and Dagon left the Archangel on the floors of Hell.
Gabriel stumbled up the stairway to Heaven alone. No angel would look his way as he crawled back to his headquarters, like some lowly creature. He went back to his hall of eyes, but found all of the boxes opened, and his vast collection vanished. And so Gabriel screamed, and crashed what was left of his hall. Eventually Gabriel became too spent and he collapsed onto his knees. But when he saw a cracked piece of the mirror, Gabriel couldn’t help but stare at his reflection.
Colour is a peculiar trick. Don’t you think? A repulsive shade in one light becomes a gentle one in another.
While these eyes may seem like concrete to some, to others they were like nuggets of platinum.
While these eyes may seem like dirty water to some, to others they were the glint of a silver river under a bright Summer sun.
While these eyes may seem like clouded skies to some, to others they beams of the moondance that cut through the dark night.
Yes. Colour is a peculiar trick indeed.