Iridescent

Worth the Fall

His wings, those beautiful, pearly white things, more beautiful than the most intricately embroidered tapestries, and softer than the softest cotton, were torn, bloody, fading... it was like every single strand gave way, disintegrating into star like sparkles, and dust, the threads binding them together coming undone; the halo that had once hovered over his head shattered into pieces like glass, but glowing, and sharper, having scraped the side of his face while coming down, drawing more blood, and now rested on his collar bones, digging in, continuing to wound him, and make him hurt more. His lips twisted in a smile, a genuine one, fighting the pain, attempting to tell her he was okay, while blood ebbed and flowed from the side of his mouth, even his once sparkly teeth stained red.

She couldn't pry them away, the spiked chains, the shards of the halo, she couldn't keep his disintegrating wings from fading, but the more she touched him, the more she tried to make things right, her touch ruined him all the more, as if wiping a hand on an already dusty glass, leaving greasy fingerprints on it, even worse than before... Amelia Jones couldn't do anything but hold him, and cry, while he reached a hand towards her, gently cupping her cheek, still smiling.

"Javi, Javi no..." she sobbed, feeling his touch on her skin, giving her goosebumps, " please" she pleaded, holding on to that one hope that maybe Javi would be okay.

"I'll find you" he said, his voice barely a whisper, hoarse, and coughing out blood as he spoke, "you trust me, right?" he asked, and she nodded, vigorously, which made her head spin, the tears wouldn't stop running down her cheeks, she held his head in her hands, letting his body rest on her, while his wings started falling off from his back, leaving black vein like scars, cracks appearing on his back, making it look like it were a desert in drought, blood oozing out.

Her fingers dipped in that blood, caressing his back, seeing that it didn't discern him, he didn't mind her touch in his wounds, it didn't increase the pain, if anything, it made it lesser.

" I love you" she finally said the words that had been stuck in her throat for oh so long, she wished she'd have said them earlier... she'd been afraid, too afraid. She didn't want him to be in a situation like this because she loved him, but they were in this situation because she loved him, because he'd known, and that he'd never needed her to tell him that either.

His eyes twinkled, hearing that, and he stared at her for a really long minute, before finally whispering "I love you too" and with that, she watched him close his eyes, and felt the weight fall, press over her body, and she found her own eyes snapping shut, as she let out a loud scream, the teams now gushing without any restraints...

He was gone. He was actually gone.

XXX

If anyone was going to end up befriending an otherworldly being, purely by accident, of course it was going to be Amelia Jones. Twenty three years old, with nothing to show for it, swinging between jobs, because the only thing her attention could be fixated on would be the paranormal, things out of the ordinary, be it ghost stories, or poltergeists, zombie apocalypses or romance with vampires, she always found herself drawn to these otherworldly creatures... she'd never imagined she'd actually meet one. Guardian Angels were strange things, she'd decided. She'd never expected to find out that she had one, and she had most definitely not expected him to be... well, anything like he was.

For one, she hadn't expected to meet him when he fell off a tree.

"Aren't Angels supposed to... like... fly? Or something?" to say she had been puzzled would be an understatement. But it was fair on her part, because no one can expect to step out of a coffee shop, trip over a can of soda on the sidewalk, and steady themselves with the support of an electricity pole, just to hear a thundering crash behind them, and turn around to find a human like creature sprawled on the muddy snow under a huge oak tree, in a rather awkward angle, feet up in the air, with exquisite, pearly white wings bent in ways no one would preferably like, and faceplanted into the ground.