I huddle, cold. The clouds are as uncomfortable as ever, and I swirl my fingers into the cottony wisps. They bite my fingers with frost, and I recoil and massage the warm back into the tips. The world up here rejects me slowly, bit by bit. My feet are always numb, my nose always frostbitten. The others here laugh joyously, but lies dance on my tongue. I have no idea of the norm, and shiver incessantly. Others exchange warm smiles and words, while I hiss softly at everything.
I hear a small sneaking sound, and look up. Who is it? Oh. It’s a messenger named Sky. She laughs at me, holds out a hand. I sense a shift in the wind around me, afraid to accept it. Her expression slightly changes, and I quickly reach towards her offer in order to stop any more tension and unsaid awkwardness.
There’s a jolt, like electricity coursing through me. I feel like every cell in my body is getting singed, like tiny needles being inserted through each and every atom. Of course the shock is the most prominent on my hand. The pain is almost unbearable, and I try to stand up straight and act like nothing happened. Still, I feel my hand on fire, but it’s apparently perfectly fine. Something rolls in my stomach, and it lurches back and forth. Heat starts to sear my hand once again, and I’m surprised that my skin isn’t flaking off, charred, layer by layer.
My voice is silent, my thoughts non-existent.
Sky pulls me by the hand, oblivious to the splitting pain that she is sending through my body. She laughs merrily, cracks a few jokes, and keeps on telling me to follow.
“I’m going to have so much fun!” She smiles to no one in particular.
I note how she say’s I’m and not We’ll. Does she know anything about me? Is there something malevolent in her smile? She manuevers in the darkness, swiftly and fearlessly, almost as if the sun is lighting up this dark and gloomy clouds. For me, the damp moisture clams up my skin and it seems that there is a cloak of darkness threatening to smother me- the light that shines upon this world is disappearing. There only seems to be a low flicker of light that only licks the edges of figures, allowing me only the most minuscule level of seeing ever. If you could even call it that.
Dancing on the clouds, with her feet barely touching, she springs up into the air and twirls around. Pure bliss softens Sky’s face, and I wish I could be like her. Even if that would only be for a single day.
“Come on!” Sky beckons me with her hand, just begging me to join her. I can barely make this out, but understand what she wants and shiver at the thought.
“I’ll pass,” I murmur.
Sky’s face grows serious, her eyes fading to a dull color. Her mouth curls up into a doubting frown, and I shrink away.
“You have to enjoy yourself. Everyone does.”
I open my mouth to reply, glance at my hand that still feels scathed, and then form some sort of reply. “I’d prefer not to put it that way.”
“Then join me,” Sky whispered, her lips sneaking into that merciless smile again.
I try. I really do. I try to leap upon the clouds, dance through the air. The world here seems to crush me down, the gravity increasing when I wish it didn’t exist. The oxygen seeming to leave the air when I try to gasp down as much as I can. My coordination escaping my memory as I try to spin around. My body is being crushed. I can’t breathe, can’t take this anymore. I stumble, fall, and scream.
Sky stares at me.
“Sky. SKY!” I plead, desparate for some sort of excuse, even though I know there is none. Sky, in a flash, unfolds her wings. Three soft and downy feathers waft down, fluttering in an uneven pattern. Her wings span twenty feet, a long width for anyone up here. The pure white glows in the dark, and the beautiful arch on each wing is the highest I have seen up here yet- her ranking as an angel is high.
Almost near the Carol.
With three strong steps and pulses, she speeds up higher up in the sky and leaves me as fast as she can.
I lay on the ground, crushing pain from my heart and body threatening to let me die right then and there.
Would I care?
In this world, I have no say
I do. Struggling up, I need to follow Sky. She’s already long gone though, and I can barely see her anymore.
Am I even an angel?
I unfold my wings as well, my shoulder blades feeling like they are being prepared by a mandoline slicer. My breath is still shredded, my pulse is still racing. Finally, after a minute, my wings gracefully lie open. I stare back upon them, viewing their every detail. The wings are not only flat, as in the worst rank of an angel, but dipped downwards as if there was such thing worse than a flat-wing.
I also swear my wings are slowly turning black. At the base, there are small spots of black taking over the feathers, and overall my wings are slowly fading to a gray shade.
It burns. This time, it’s like ice, frostbite, crystillazing my wings. Nothing is happening, really, but this world, once again, is rejecting me. And it’s doing it in it’s very own special way. And it’s effective.
The pain is eating away at my soul
Still, I do my take-off. With ten long strides, I head off into the direction where Sky fled me. My dark hair floods my face, but I ignore it. The pain is already distracting me enough.
I make it into the air, surprised that I’m able to stay there as well. Then the rejection hits me all at once- the world robs me of my wings, and I need muscle memory to keep me afloat. I can’t feel them anymore, and every few strokes I forget to beat my wings and it feels like my soul partly dies.
In the strong air, my skin feels as if it’s being sliced apart by sharp darts of hardened gas. My skin stings, and I fear everything. My eyes water and they instantly freeze in the air.
I scream, my eyes cut and bleeding. I fall on the ground, hard, and make the mistake of letting my bare skin come in contact with the clouds.
My vision grows fuzzy in pain. Everything feels scathed, whether from heat or cold.
Make it stop
My metallic flavor dances on my tongue. Blood.
I reach to touch the scarlet life within my mouth; retracting my finger, there is none. My eyes blur and focus on just the shine of saliva glaring in the sun.
Sky was above me. She slows herself down, her great arched wings sending powerful gusts of wind blowing down.
Her eyes dull with unveiled horror. “You’re a broken angel.”
“No.” I can’t be. I claw at my eyes, praying for them to refocus.
“You are.”
“No.”
I can slightly make out her frown through my blurry eyes. The pain racks my body periodically. I convulse, reaching my hand out to her. I realize the truth- the messenger only stopped by me to find out if I was broken or not. And now she’s going to collect her prize.
Her toes point downwards delicately, almost hovering over the clouds. Sky stares at me, her face unbelieving. “Why do you keep trying? Stop. You’ll only hurt yourself more.”
“I can’t.”
“I don’t understand,” Sky responds.
“It’s because I want a friend.”
Sky glances back to the empty, dark expanse. Avoiding my eyes. “I would become a flat-wing.”
My heart plummets inside. “That’s the true nature of all angels. They would sacrifice broken ones so that they could stay prestigious and not fall in rank.”
Sky’s getting angry. “That’s not true! Broken angels aren’t even meant to be here. And that means you.”
I nearly choke. “That’s just your true nature. You just would throw me off the clouds.”
“You’re not even a flat-wing. You’re a dip-wing.”
Sky said it. I swear, my hope in the clouds are fading faster than anything else. Sky then sucks in a deep breath. “Don’t you know? My rank will fall just to help you. Then I’ll become a flat-wing with you. And if I go one step further, for you to be an arch-wing, I’ll then be the one as a dip-wing.”
I process this information slowly, the pain making my head cloudy. When I understand, strangled laughs escape my throat. “Do you have proof of that?”
She hisses. “I don’t. But you must know that I won’t let my rank drop no matter what.” She begins to unfurl her wings again, to leave me behind.
“All I need to become unbroken is a friend.”
Sky hesitates. “Shay, you aren’t going to convince me.”
“You can’t leave! Don’t! Just don’t…” My voice gurgles with uncontrolled fright.
I can’t see very well in the dark, but I feel the gusts of wind from her wings battering my face.
I know that now I’m doomed. In these clouds, we know one thing. Every single angel knows that the Carol was the mighty angel who looked over all of us. Broken angels were reported, and status was heightened when the information was passed onto the Carol. I knew Sky was going to report me- there was nothing I could do about it.
My throat swells, closing up. A hiss rises from somewhere, and I’m unsure if it’s coming from my lungs or not. Sky had left me- for dead. Or whatever came after this.
Time passes, every second lengthened into fuzzy pockets or space. It seems to take forever for the minutes to tick by, and then hours seem to elapse in seconds. My brain is mental, not functioning correctly.
Did Sky report me to the Carol? Did she not? I was doubtful now of all angel’s true heart- were they really pure and good, or were they just vying to get to the top spot- next to the Carol?
My doubtful thoughts flit around. This way, that way. Soon, my hair is buffeted once more by strong beats.
A light overpowers the darkness, chasing everything away. My fear melts in the aura, my confidence flooding back.
What is this feeling?
The Carol stands before me, her face still but her mouth slightly open. Her fair skin glows in the light she seems to emit. She tilts her head to the side and looks down to face me.
“Shay,” She murmurs.
“Yes?” I respond, my voice bubbling up from within. “The Carol, right?”
She folds up her wings and slightly nods, her eyes a transparent white that lets me see her muscles and brain behind. They eyes are clouded with hints of gray, and her hair is- pitch black. Definitely not what I expected it to be.
“Shay,” She calls again, her voice slightly sandpapery. “Will you be my Catalyst?”
“What?” We’ve just met, and I’m starting to doubt her. My mind still swirls in pain, untrusting. Why was she saying this, when the Carol was about to get rid of me?
“You clearly don’t understand, Shay. I don’t remove the broken ones. I fix them. I only have twenty days left to find the six left. The Carol is not meant to rule, but meant to correct.”
I ponder on this thought, different situations racing through my mind. “I don’t believe you.”
She becomes silent for a few seconds. “You don’t have a reason to. But, just hear me out and decided whether to trust me or not at the very end.” Then she points to her right eye, glassy but barely clouded with gray at the same time. “This is just like your wings. These are sins collected and manifested into a physical form.”
That shocks me. “Will it… kill us?”
“No. It’s harmless. We are people who have been given a second chance, either for being stellar and having an unfortunate end, or for the wrong-doers who wish to right their previous actions. For some reason, we’re still the same. For example, you were a gentle and compassionate person who died at a young age. The cause was simply heart failure. Here, you’re an angel with true desires to make friends. However, with this ranking system, other easily look down on you and offer no compliance”
I slowly nod. I feel something coming on, something big is going to be revealed to me. “And so the others are horrible just as they were previously.”
“Don’t be so hard on them. Back to what I was saying, the Carol decides to create a plan. However, she must find a first step, and is only given thirty days to finish it. Otherwise, her plan dies as well as this world. If she does finish it, she must have chosen a Catalyst before so the Catalyst can finish the plan.”
“So you’re saying when you die I’m supposed to finish what you started,” I frown, doubting almost everything she says. “Don’t you find that a bit peculiar?”
“Well, isn’t this?” She points to her left hand, which has a timepiece embedded in it. Golden rimmed and clear in the middle, it had two arrows slowly jerking around. Below it, near her palm, two black numbers were embedded in it. 20. “I’m pretty sure it’s how many days I have left. My plan is to destroy the ranks and make everyone equal- so my first step is to fix the broken angels.”
The Carol steps closer to me, and I scoot backwards. “What do you mean, fix?”
“Just hold still.” I do, my breath caught in my throat. She taps my forehead lightly, and her eyes cloud a little darker.
The pain is gone- the light comes flooding back at full force. My feathers tingle, a pure white without a trace of the speckled gray.
“I have six more broken angels left to fix. I want to chose you as my catalyst- to finish the plan. I will die no matter what happens.”
“Why?” I choke, realizing what this meant. “But… you’re the cause of greater good.”
She laughs, her voice like tinkling bells. “I have to- see, it’s a way to stop a total dictatorship.”
My eye glances towards her hand. It said 5 already. What?
“I think you know by now. I have five seconds left. Will you agree to be my Catalyst?”
I want to reply. I feel like I’m being tricked. The timepiece on her hand hits zero.
Then the clouds break apart.
I watch her, falling from the skies. The clouds have shattered violently into pieces, ripping our world into shreds as it descends.
I’m in a a cube, clear and ice cold. I press my hand against the one foot inch thick material; there’s no escape or any way out. I draw my knees up to my chest, hugging them tightly.
I expand my senses, focus on what’s around me.
I see Shay. A small angel trying, struggling to stay up in the sky. There’s no sound, and even as there’s an angel who is a foot away from me, and we made eye contact, she just passed down without seeing me.
I’m invisible.
I start looking past all the destruction. Suddenly there’s a faint ring of people. The cube to my right has the other Carol who told me her wish. To the left, there’s a wisp of shadow-Shay. She’s not really there, I know that, because it is just her soul. The cube next to her holds a dead body.
The first Carol.
I press my palm against the cool wall, look at my Carol. Staring at Heather, she notices me and turns around.
She suddenly bites the palm of her hand. Blood starts seeping out. She bends her fingers back and writes on the wall.
She’s the last.
I look up, see my last world, see all the events unfolding once more. Shay meeting Sky, them twirling, then Sky flying away. It repeats and repeats and repeats.
Below more clouds start to form.
I hug my knees tighter.
I’ve done my part. 
No comments:
Post a Comment