Heaven's Secret (Malbonte POV)

Season 2 Part 4

It's so hard to breathe

Smoke inside my lungs

Burning in the heat

A haunted reverie

Oh, my eyes are blurred

Trapped inside a dream

Walking through the fire

Running from the embers

But I keep breaking under

The weight of everything

— The weight of everything by ill Factor, Katie Garfield

Bont

Rhea had suggested a place where I could lie low for a while, close to school, yet secluded enough. I wondered how the search for me would go, how the angels will react — Seraph Crowley and the rest. The news finally reaching Shepha... But my thoughts got easily clouded by flying; I was getting used to it, flapping my wings idly to the morning breeze as we went down to the caves.

As soon as we landed, I picked up the distinctive earthy scent. That of age and time. The cave was damp, cool, and probably countless years old.

"They used to come here to pray. But now this place is abandoned." Rhea said behind me.

I walked ahead, exploring my new hiding spot. It was eerie, with the ethereal structure of angels. But it wasn't captivity, and that was what mattered. "When you spend your life within four walls, everything else seems so huge..."

I wanted to ask why no one prayed here anymore. But a peculiar instinct drew me to the water. I stared at the faces of the statues, dejected and miserable looking. Then I lowered my hand to the pool, touching the water. And a deep sorrow grappled me from within. My chest tightened with an unexplainable pain. "What a strange feeling..." I breathed shakingly.

Rhea quickly caught up with me, stopping in the middle of the stairs. "Is everything alright?"

No, I didn't feel alright at all.

The walls of the cave closed in on me. Suddenly, it became harder to breathe. This place... It was as if the sadness of the world had fallen on my shoulders, pressing me down to the stony ground. I was alone in the cave. Completely alone.

I shivered, gritting my teeth together. Heat piled up behind my eyelids and streamed down my cheeks. I looked up. "Why do I feel so much pain?"

"Bont!" Rhea gasped.

I blinked, no longer seeing anything with the thick bloody tears. I could hear my savior's hurried steps. She grabbed my tense shoulders and picked me up from the feet of the angel statues, dragging me away.

Please spare him, Shepha.

A distant cry drifted by my ears. I couldn't tell if I imagined it or if the statue had talked to me...

"Something isn't right... Something isn't right here, I feel bad." I didn't understand. I couldn't explain anything to Rhea as I half leaned on her slender body. She scanned my face for the blood; it apparently had stopped. We reached the end of the cave when I confessed. "Can we go to another place? I beg you..."

"Of course!"

Since she offered this one, I didn't expect her to agree so quickly. But worry had painted her widened eyes the whole time. And once again, Rhea spared me suffering.