This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Seven

Reya's eyes froze in their sockets. Her entire body became paralyzed, her fingers clenching shut over nothing, the nails digging into her palms, drawing blood. Her heart nearly stopped, and her jaw snapped shut.

She thought she would faint.

The shadow looked like a column of smoky, tattered, stygian cloaks, wafting slowly in the breeze. It had no discernable head, no discernable limbs, no nothing. It was a three-dimensional shadow.

"Your information is correct," the shadow hummed, its voice smooth and even. "I will not harm you."

Reya could not speak. She was frozen. She stared blatantly, struggling to loosen her lips.

They quivered and let out a whimper.

The shadow spun in a circle, its many ragged cloaks flying and twirling as it did. Reya could only stare. When it stopped, it looked exactly the same as it did before.

"What are you?" Reya breathed.

The top of the column flexed slightly in her direction, as if it were inclining a head. But it did not speak.

Reya waited for an answer. "Who are you?" she tried again.

The shadow shuddered, its cloak shifting. It was not threatening, merely strange. Reya began to feel herself relax, despite all of her instincts screaming. She began to feel curiosity towards the creature.

"Do you have a name?" she asked.

The shadow jerked its top in her direction.

"No."

Reya wrinkled her eyebrows.

Neither spoke for a moment. Then, to her surprise, the shadow continued.

"Only eight of my brothers were given names."

Reya's confusion increased tenfold. "There are more of you?"

The shadow tilted again. "No."

Reya blinked, not understanding. "Um."

"I am the only one of me. My brothers' names are Michael-Gabriel-Raphael-Uriel-Raguel-Ezekiel-Barachiel-Jegudiel."

The shadow fired off the list so quickly that Reya only really heard the first two. "Michael? Gabriel? Those are the names of the archangels, in Heaven."

Again, the shadow tilted. This time it said nothing.

Reya stared quietly at it. "Are you an angel, too?"

The shadow straightened itself and rose a few inches off the ground, its longest cloaks dragging across the blanket of red needles. It levitated backwards a few feet, then landed, crumpling slightly.

Reya was not sure what it meant. She'd never seen anything like it. In the millenniums of humanity's existence, nothing they'd ever crafted could move in such a fashion.

She waited for a response. The shadow said, "I am not."

Reya nodded slowly. "Then what are you?"

"I am not."

Reya scrunched her eyebrows together. "You are not?"

"I am not."

Reya simply stood there.

"I am not. I am not. I am not. I am not."

Reya began to grow worried. What did she say?

"I am not from Heaven."

Relief flooded Reya again. "Oh," she breathed. "I see."

"I am from the Vatican."

"The Vatican?" Reya asked. "Where's that?"