Before the Angels Fall

Chapter 4~ Discovery

Stephanie ran over to the boy, who stayed immobile while she inspected him. He looked to be around fifteen years old, but still with the aura of innocence around him.

His eyelashes fluttered weakly. 

"Um, are you alright?"

There was no answer. Stephanie sighed. Of course not. He probably was some survivor from a car accident or something. But he didn't seem human especially with those wings of his and that pale complexion.

"Over here Steph!" A voice called out. Stephanie turned around and smiled. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Coming!" she shouted back. Stephanie started to rise from her crouching position next to the boy when something grabbed her ankle.

"Don't leave me alone," whispered the boy, eyes intense and filled with longing. Taken aback, suddenly Stephanie felt compelled to save this helpless boy. She nodded and scooped the boy up into her arms-at first thinking that the boy might slip through her arms like a ghost- and ran after the sound of her friend's voice.

"Look at what I found!" Cassandra shouted. In her arms was... Impossible! thought Stephanie.

It was a girl, this time, with the exact same pale complexion as the boy and white-black wings. "Where did you find her?"

"Over there. I guess she fell or something," replied Cassandra, gesturing to where she had found the girl. "Oh! There's someone else like her as well?"

"So you are saying that she fell backwards from that ledge?"

"Seems like it."

Stephanie glanced again back at the girl in Cassandra's arms. Her pale face was calm, calm as the ocean on peaceful days, and it was white, white like the puffy clouds in summer, but with a shimmer, a faint hint of transparency.

As Stephanie laid the boy down onto the soft earth, Cassandra followed suit, placing the girl down, and the girl started to stir faintly. The boy sat up and stretched his wings. "Where am I?"

Stephanie shrugged indifferently. "I don't know. I just found you over there," she waved her arm in the direction they had just came from.

"That's why you can't rely on humans," muttered the boy. "They always forget and don't know anything."

Bristling, Stephanie snapped back. "That might be true to some people, but not all are as forgetful and as ignorant as you think. Besides, who was the one who saved you?"

"Saved me? Saved me? Don't be idiotic. I could have saved myself."

"Really? Okay. Well, I'm just going to leave you now, all alone in the human world. Would you like that? Could you survive in this world with those wings and arrogant head of yours?"

The boy glared at her. Stephanie glared back. "Well, I've made my point. Seems as if you really do need to depend on us."

A few feet away, Cassandra and the girl who had just woken up were holding a calm, unconcerned conversation.

"Look at how calm they are," sighed Stephanie, causing Cassandra and the girl to erupt in laughter, making a smile break out in Stephanie's face.

The boy only turned away disdainfully. "Humans," he murmured.