The bell sounded seven times, letting angels know their shift was over for the week.
"Hallelujah!" rang out a few happy voices, and melodious laughter followed. Virta rolled her eyes but smiled as she watched her co-workers fly out the door.
She twisted a lock of midnight hair between the slender fingers of one hand while she browsed the latest job openings on the computer. Many of them she skipped right over, knowing she didn't stand a chance of landing them.
Why even bother to apply? she thought gloomily. I wouldn't even get called in for an interview on most of these. She purveyed the list:
Principalities needed! Advanced knowledge of religions and politics preferred. Strong management skills a must; Relocation required.
Dominions wanted now -- to be considered for position, candidate must have middle management experience, proven memory and note-taking skills required. Full benefits package.
She sipped her mug of Substance and continued to click down the screen. Principalities, Dominions, Powers, Cherubim, Seraphim. She cursed under her breath as she searched, but the list of jobs for which she was underqualified went on and on.
Virta sighed. She'd never be any of those things. It was her own fault that she wasn't climbing the corporate ladder, but her heart wasn't in it. Working at the Office was definitely not her calling.
She wanted very much to be in the thick of things, on the front lines where the real action was: Earth. But everytime she'd applied for the job, she'd been denied. The Managers who interviewed her said that Earth work was gritty, demanding - even dangerous to one's soul. But that sounded perfect for her. She didn't want to be stuck behind a desk for all of her immortal life.
Earth and humanity's day-to-day interactions were Virta's secret obsession. She was especially interested in the baser parts of human nature. This fascinated her to no end.
What must it be like to have a soft, rounded body like an Earth woman - one that could carry and bear children. Humans could actually create life! Virta shook her head in amazement at the power of humanity. While many angels she knew looked down on these creatures, Virta secretly yearned to partake of human nature, even if only for a day.
For example, what was it like to taste Earth food with real taste buds? Food in Heaven was rather bland. Virta wrinkled up her nose at the thought of it. Most of it tasted pretty much the same. It was only eaten for something to do at gatherings, for socialization. It was certainly not a requirement to sustain angel life.
She found she did have an insatiable appetite for watching humans, however. She'd persuaded her best friend, Mick, to patch her into his Watch Over channel online. Due to his position, he had access to a very small portion of the Watch Over program at the Office. When she had time and nobody else was around, she would access the live cam to see what was going on in the life of a human female, Mandi.
Mandi's life was a source of endless fascination for Virta. She was a young woman of twenty years, who had her own life. Nobody told her what to do or think. She dressed in daring attire, earned her own money, and dated men. The girl was brunette with lovely brown eyes and a female form that Virta would have been proud to have. Mandi had sexual encounters of all kinds, and although Virta felt a little bad about watching, she couldn't pull her eyes from the screen.
She would turn the sound on her computer down just low enough that she could still hear Mandi's moans and cries of pleasure as the male human would use his tongue and hands to cause wonderful feelings all over her body.
Sometimes Mandi would take a long, thick part of the man into her own full lips. What was it called? It had many names. She had grown to like the word "cock", since that's what Mandi seemed to prefer.
Virta would watch transfixed while the man stood with his head tilted back, his whole body rigid in ecstasy. Mandi would be down on her knees before him, her face pressed between the man's legs, veritably worshipping the man's cock. And Virta did know a thing or two about worship. At first, sex was hard for her to understand. She would have thought the humans were in pain if not for the glorious smiles these actions produced.
And Mandi was happy indeed as the man shoved his rod-like organ into her body over and over. He would thrust and pound away between her voluptuous thighs.
Virta would sometimes imagine that she was Mandi, and the male was banging her with his stiff cock, watching it grind in and out of her slick, wet hole. But she had no idea how this really felt, since her body was without these pleasure centers.
She could only watch while Mandi would seemingly get lost in her own ecstasy, writhing in pleasure beneath the man, or on top of him sometimes, moaning and gasping.
Sometimes, Virta would slip a finger between her own legs while she sat watching Mandi and her latest partner. She didn't think the cameras mounted in the Office were picking her up since her lap was under the desk. Oh well, if they were. Nobody had said anything to her yet, at least.
Of course, had no sexual organs between her legs like the human, but she would pretend. She would rub herself like she watched Mandi or her boyfriend do, and then make the same cooing, moaning sounds of pleasure.
It was fun, but it did not satisfy her. Oh, how Virta would love to trade places with Mandi if only for an hour! Just to feel what a human body could feel during these acts. Why were angels denied this? She thought in frustration.
She looked down at her own glorious angelic body. Though it was perfect in every way, it had no parts designed for sexuality. The only way that could happen, she knew, was to get a human assignment on Earth, and even then there was a strict "no sex" policy, or -- and she could barely make herself think the word -- to Fall, that is, to get herself kicked out of Heaven and become a demon.
Not an option, thank you. For all of the ways her heavenly life sucked, she had no desire to turn into a savage monster.
There were times though, when she was feeling at her lowest, she would muse that her real father must have been a devil. After all, she had such wicked, rebellious thoughts and desires.
But she knew this was not so. She was just an angel, created the way all angels were made; not through any type of procreation, but simply fashioned out of common stardust. During orientation, Virta and her class had even been able to watch more angels being made on demand, as they were needed for Office work.
There's always the need for more entry-level peons as the older angels move up in position, she thought wearily.
Virta herself had been crafted out of the need for more support at the Office. And no matter how much she begged and pleaded for just one chance at an Earth assignment, she was always denied.
The Managers said she was better suited for life at the Office instead of in the trenches. The irony was, when she did apply for an Office position above hers, she was always told the same thing: Go back to school; Get this class under your belt, and then come back and we'll talk; You need to learn to play by the rules, your attitude needs work, blah, blah, blah.
But Virta didn't want to sit in a classroom and hear more of those tedious lectures. She knew she did her best learning hands-on. If only management would give her a chance to prove herself, but she knew it was very unlikely. She was doomed to the rat race of an Office job. She sighed deeply.
The Office was the command center of the Universe, one could say. There, Virta did menial tasks such as filing, answering phones, making Substance, and being everyone's "gopher".
She realized the value in such work, but it was not what she wanted to spend eternity doing. Her longing for assignment on Earth crowded more and more of her thoughts each day. She figured there had to be a way to break into a position there without going back to school for years.
