as i fall

Chapter 39 - As long as we believe

            “This world is so beautiful,” I whisper in wonder as I look up at the stars in the dark sky.  The night was so cold that the air when I breathed out was visible, but the warm body that lay next to mine kept me from freezing.  In my 17 years alive in Heaven, I have never seen anything that compares to the beauty of Earth’s night sky.  The way that the stars seem to wink and sparkle at me takes my breath away.  With the universe exposed to us overhead; it wasn’t hard to believe in dreams and miracles, even with all the reality that sat on our shoulders, threatening to crush us.

            “The sky feels so big, it makes me feel as if we’re so insignificant and that the night could swallow us up and no one would notice we were gone,” Caleb mumbled to me, his eyes staring distantly at the blackness above our heads.  I looked down at where our hands were interlocked, and I felt anything but insignificant.

            “Everything is so peaceful, you would never know that there are Angels and Seekers roaming the Earth for us, that they’re trying to tear us apart and to destroy all that is good and bad in the world.  The truth of this world is too large for us to bear on our own, Caleb, we’re only teenagers.  How are we going to survive what is coming?” I worried aloud, my teeth digging so hard into my bottom lip that I tasted blood.  Next to me Caleb propped himself up on his elbow and turned to look at me.  His green eyes shone with the life of a boy who knows the hidden horrors of the world he lives in, who has seen what no one should ever have to see, and I all I want to do is hug him and shield him from the reality of the world.

            “Alex,” he sighed and looked me in the eye.  “Yes, the truth of the world is to heavy for us to carry on our own, but we have each other to lean on, and we can get through anything as long as we love each other, as long as we believe,” he told me in a firm voice that sent shivers down my spine.  I leaned over and pressed my lips to his, placing a hand on his chest to hold myself up and one on his cheek.  His hands tangled themselves in my hair and held me to him.  Sparks flew behind my closed lids and I felt as if we the stars in the sky and that we lit up the world.  I pulled away and hovered over him, our noses still touching.  Electricity spread through my body as I gazed into his eyes, and I knew that I could get lost in them if I wanted to.

            “Caleb…” I whispered, my breath mingling with his and he sighed in content as I kissed him again.  “I believe,” I said against his lips and I felt him smile.

            “So do I, Alex, I believe,” he told me and the rest of our words got lost in the cool midnight air.

            Absentmindedly, I brushed my fingers over my mouth.  What was it that I believed in?  I can’t remember.