Before the Angels Fall

Chapter 2~ Death in the Ocean

Pain. That's all she felt as the water slapped her falling body. Her eyes had been open, but she closed them just before her body hit the water, so the salt wouldn't sting her eyes. The impact caused tiny electric sensations to run all over her body; painful as it was, she thought it would be a nice way to die.

''Catch me at the bottom!' she had pleaded jokingly at her boyfriend. However, he hadn't known how serious she was. Now, here she was, eyes open, floating amid this blue world of calm decorated with bubbles and foam. The ocean. 

Was it really the ocean? She couldn't tell. And was she dead? She didn't know either. All she did know was that she fell from a cliff. But what if that wasn't real. What if her everything she knew and thought was a lie?

These thoughts didn't help anything, she soon realized, and felt her life slipping away from her, as easily and as quickly as bubbles popping upon contact. Closing her eyes slowly, she felt herself starting to fade out, her spirit leaving her body but still staying in the world. What a fine place to die. In the ocean. The calm, the beauty, the serenity. 

Quite unlike those gory battle scenes where people die with bloody wounds and such, her body stayed intact as it floated in the ocean, where no one would discover it most likely until much later. Her body, bathing in the gentle currents of the waves, probably could feel them if her spirit was inside. 

Slipping out of her body, now free, she floated upwards, higher and higher, reaching towards the sky. I wish I had wings, she thought wistfully. 

You can have whatever you want, a voice called out, resounding in her spiritual body. Anything? she asks. 

Anything. And suddenly, she felt something branching out of her back, long and graceful, with the elegance of a swan and the power of an eagle. The purity of an angel and the demonic aura of a demon. 

She had wings now, and could feel them beating alongside her, synchronizing beats with her heart. 

The wings lifted her higher and higher before she saw her destination: a mountain. It didn't seem like an amazing place, but she felt attached to it the moment she landed on the top-most peak among the clouds and the chilly mountain air. 

Spreading her arms out wide, chest out, inhaling and exhaling the cool air, she felt herself settle in with the surrounding nature. Serenely, the girl closed her eyes, and felt herself falling backwards but made no movement to stop herself.