Seraphim's Gift

Fragments of a Shattered Light

"Sera? Are you alright," Luz asked as she stared at her friend with worry. It's been three days since her friend was unconscious in the hospital. There was an incident at the park, strange dogs emerged from the forest behind the park and started attacking everything. It was all over the news. When Luz got a call that Sera was in the hospital she feared for the worse, but when she arrived, her precious friend was unharmed asleep in that bed.

For three days Luz had been coming to see her after school, and finally after the third day her friend woke up. Taking her dainty hand in hers, Luz smiled softly and held Sera's hand tightly. "Sera....I'm so glad you're finally awake!" Luz's smile started to fade a bit when she noticed how confused and lost her friend's expression was. "Sera?" Seraphina's eyes whipped towards Luz and locked on to her.

After blinking for a bit, familiarity returned to Sera's eyes. "Luz?" The smile was returned to Luz's peach lips and her head nodded, her brown princess curls bouncing as she did so. Sera's eyes moved from her friend and looked around the strange room she was in. "What happened? Where am I?" This wasn't a dream still, right? It couldn't be...

Placing a hand to her head, Seraphina shook her head as she tried to remember. What happened? Everything was spinning and one big blur. She couldn't tell which parts actually happened or which were apart of the dream. Maybe the entire thing was a dream. It would make sense, right?

A heavy sigh left her lips and Seraphina's eyes to Luz when she felt her friend's hand touch her shoulder. "You're in the hospital, you've been here for three days," Luz answered with a kind smile. "Three days? That long," she muttered and clicked her teeth. Luz tilted her head at her friend's behavior and stared at her worriedly.

"Sera....do you remember what happened Thursday? If so, please tell me." Sera's eyes widened a bit, "Thursday? I...I..I was at the park..." Her words wouldn't form and it was like her mind went to mush. How could she possibly explain what had happened to her? There was no way a sane person would believe her silly dreams and demons. But...for as long as Luz has been around, she was always able to tell her sweet friend about everything. So, wouldn't it be alright if Sera did? It wouldn't hurt to try, right?

Her eyes narrowing to normal before closing them, Seraphina took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. She tried calming her mind, recalling the first thing that had happened when she arrived to the park. Yes, that's right, everything was normal up until she had heard a scream. That's when the demons and the wings and Dike came. That name as well. Apollyon. Just thinking about the name sent shivers down her spine. Whoever that name belonged to was no good.

"I was at the park, sitting on the swings, just minding my own business," Sera said softly when she opened her eyes. But, to her surprise, something odd happened. The longer Seraphina stared at Luz the more her appearance began to change. It wasn't so much that her physical appearance changed, but rather the fact that Luz looked older.

Luz became older, more mature looking. Her kind eyes seemed to have became kinder, wiser. Her beautiful smile became softer and her face seemed to glow. Her brown curly hair was now straight and was now a soft red-brown color and was braided over her right shoulder. Her cheeks as rosy as they could ever be, even her body had matured, greatly, into that of a young adult. Her bright blue eyes were now the color of golden and she had angelic wings sitting folded apon her back.

Seeing this caused Sera's head to ache. Her eyes widened and she clenched the sheets tightly as, what it seemed like, an old memory resurfacing came to her mind.

Seraphina was sitting there on the cold ground. Her eyes wide, skin trembling, tears falling from her eyes as she watched her friend being hoisted up into the air and chained to three large wooden pillars. Blood dripped down from her body and her wings were nearly torn. Behind Seraphina, was the sounds of angry humans shouting. They shouted words like, "Witch! Witch! Witch!" and "Devil's spawn! Devil's spawn!"

Seraphina's eyes locked onto the Angel's and a smile formed onto her lips, "Oh...don't be sad.....we'll meet again. We'll always meet again my dear.....just like we'll meet everyone else.....don't cry.....I...I want to see you smile." Seraphina sniffled and she quickly wiped her face. Looking back up at the chained Angel, Seraphina tried to smile. A small laugh came from the Angel's lips before the chains started to pull and pull at the Angel.

Seraphina's eyes went as wide as they could, anger and terror flooded her entire body, as she watched the Angel being torn apart. Her first clenched tightly, Seraphina let out a long, sadden cry. Her lips cried out the Angel's name over and over as she sat there in front of the dead Angel.

"-ra." As someone shook her, Seraphina snapped out of her sadden trance to find that her friend, Luz, was sitting there in front of her. Her face was once again filled with worry, "Sera! Are you alright? Oh....oh no, you're crying...did something happen? Does something hurt?" Instantly, Seraphina's fingers touched her cheek. She was crying. Seeing that memory was still affecting her. Seraphina quickly wiped her tears away before saying, "I'm fine. I...was just remembering my dream."

After a few hours of being check on and waiting to leave, Seraphina was finally able to leave the horrible white room she was in and go home. After changing and gathering her stuff, Seraphina and Luz started for the exit.

As they neared the exit, Seraphina was lost in thought. She couldn't help but think about the day dream she had just seen and why it was affecting her emotions so much. She was so deep in thought, she didn't noticed that she was about to ran into someone before it was too late. With a hard bump to the head, Seraphina snapped out of her thoughts and looked up to see the face of the tall person she had just ran into. "Ah...sorry," she had said before blushing softly. W-what?

Seraphina placed a hand to her heat, it was racing. A small chuckle left the boy's lips, which only made her heart pound faster, as he spoke, "It's not biggy. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking as well." A small smile formed on her lips, "I-I see....um...I'm Seraphina." The boy's lips widened into a smile. "What a nice name! So you're named after the Seraphim I see, I'm Clay." Seraphina stared at Clay for a long moment. S.....Seraphim? Flashbacks of the strange figure in her dream that chanted that word over and over as it chocked her sent shivers down her spine. Rubbing her arm, Sera bit her lip. "Clay....it's nice to meet you." The boy nodded before glancing at the clock. "Ah! I gotta go! It was nice meeting you Seraphina!"

Sera's eyes watched as the boy hurried down the hall and to the elevators. Slowly, her heat started to slow back down and her skin started to cool. "He was cute," Luz said with a giggle. Ah! For a moment Seraphina had totally forgotten that her friend was there, watching the entire time. Sera blushed darkly, "N-not really....." Another giggle left Luz's lips and she took Sera's hand. "Come on silly, let's go get something to eat. I'm sure you're starving."