Skyborn The Divine

5: Heroes

Alice descended from the sky above the trailer park, her arms gently floating up by her shoulders as though she were drifting down through calm water, despite the fact she was really struggling to stay in one place as the wind snarled and dragged at her in nearly every direction.

A sound rose to her ears, slowly stabbing through the howling wind as she floated closer to the silver truck. Alice realized it was the sound of screaming. The woman, towards whom Alice was slowly descending, had spotted her in the air while she was still fifty feet above her. Apparently, the sight of this girl in the sky had launched her into a panic, and the only thing that seemed to keep her from fleeing in terror was the water that seemed to hold more terror still. Even so, the woman was shrinking into the furthest corner of the truck's roof away from Alice, as though seriously considering taking her chances with the rapids.

"Please, don't scream!" Alice shouted above the hurricane. She suddenly realized the irony of her situation was such that if the two of them were to talk, they would have to practically scream just to hear one another above the wind. She decided approaching the woman from above might only feed her panic.

Alice wondered also who else might see her now that she was so close to the ground. She peered around herself and saw some of the other people pointing and staring at her, some of them with fear stamped on their faces just like the woman she was trying to help. She decided that, given the inherent panic caused by the flooding, it would be best to appear as ordinary as possible to avoid adding to the fear of everyone around her.

Trying to avoid the gazes of the people she could see, she settled down on top of a shed behind a blue trailer. The small, unstable structure nearly collapsed under the combined stress of her weight and the torrent pressing against it. Alice jumped down into the cold water and waded past the home into the street. She gasped as the chill reached through her clothing and squeezed her lungs like an icy fist. The sound of the rain on the flood water drowned out everything but the thunder. The strength of the current surprised her, and she had to be careful not to lose her footing and be swept away. She comforted herself with the fact that if she ever did get swept off her feet by the river, she could simply fly out.

When she reached the truck, the woman had her back turned, and she was calling out to a group of refugees down the street who had their children on their shoulders.

"Please, help me!" she cried out to them. Alice wondered if she was wishing for help from the water or from her.

The family didn't hear her over the sound of the storm on the water, and so they moved on.

"Please, wait!"

Alice made her way around to the other side of the vehicle, the down-river side. She worried briefly about the wisdom in putting herself against both the car and the current.

"M-m-ma'am," Alice tried to sound soothing but it was a hard feeling to convey under the circumstances "I can help you down!"

The woman screamed when she saw her, warning her to stay away and praying to God in the same breath to save her from the devil.

"Ma'am, p-please. I'm t-trying to help you. I'm not the d-d-devil. I'm just a girl."

The woman seemed to stop long enough to look at her. Whether it was because her hair from beneath her beanie was plastered to her face, or perhaps because she was shivering so badly it was difficult to speak, the woman seemed to finally be convinced Alice was there to help.

"I can't swim," she whimpered.

"It's not that d-d-deep," Alice answered, trying to coax her down with hand motions. Clearly, she was deathly afraid of the water. She shook her head and whimpered something Alice couldn't understand and remained clutching to the roof of the vehicle like a newborn to it's mother.