𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 ✓

10 • Angel Alone

CHAPTER TEN: ANGEL ALONE

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The next day came with even worse snowfalls, thick flakes were falling from the sky, covering London in utter white. The neighbors even rumored that the Thames had frozen up, but Angel wasn't too sure. She had her hair up in a bun, wore a woolen headband to warm her ears, and had her scarf as tightly around her neck as it was comfortable. It was a stormy winter morning, the freezing breeze got everyone to stay inside — except for Angel.

The brunette was out and about to try and do some Christmas shopping. Presents for her family always were the most fun to buy. She was caught up in her thoughts as she stumped through the muddy snow on the pavement. Her mind circled around the gifts for her father and Nova. They hadn't had a single holiday together for five years, Angel thought their gifts ought to be the most amazing ones possible. So, naturally, she made a list in her phone until her fingers turned blue and she had to warm them by shoving them deep into her pockets.

Christmas had usually been the most anticipated holiday of the Fields family. Living in New York City, the insanely sumptuous decorations and the undeniable good mood the city was covered in made them feel like a movie. As a kid, Angel had always imagined living in a rom-com, the city covered in snow while she fell in love with the perfect man.

And then, the snap dusted half of her family away in front of her eyes, just the year she graduated high school. She was 17, quite young to graduate, and her older sister had just begun applying for colleges all over the States after working for a year after her own graduation. All the young brunette had left was her mother, who slipped into deep grief and a month-long phase of mourning the apparent death of her husband and daughter. All holidays had been left uncelebrated from then on. Angel's best friend went through a similar situation, she found her entire family dusted away when she came home.

Angel never blamed anyone for what happened, simply because she didn't know whether she could. As far as she was concerned, it had something to do with extraterrestrial forces, and as a mere 17-year old, she didn't find herself worthy of deciding if she should blame something she hadn't even completely believed in before that fateful day.

.  .  .

The young woman went from shop to shop, trying to make out appropriate presents for all three of her family members, and realized she was supposed to leave the next week already. Instantly, her thoughts circled back to Steve. How he didn't have anyone to celebrate Christmas with. It made her heart ache a little, to know she would leave him alone soon. There was a part of her that wanted to ask him to accompany her, but then, he had told her that he was determined to never go back to New York.

She sighed, two white paper bags in her hands by now, filled with gifts and a few new sweaters for herself, and began the walk home. The snow had lightened up a little, but the streets were still empty. It almost felt like the day she went out to her neighborhood to find that almost everyone in Manhattan had been dusted. Her guts twisted in a knot, she walked quicker, trying to make her way home as soon as possible. All she wanted was to warm up with a shower, a tea, and then lay in her bed to watch her favorite show until she had to leave for work.