The Angels' Last Gift

Chapter 3

The journey home was one I would never forget, Luke wanted to know what I'd been doing whilst I was gone, funnily enough I hadn't been doing much, angels don't tend to work very hard. I then asked what he'd been doing, mostly schoolwork, I also asked how mum and dad were, they were both fine but missed me greatly.

That wasn't surprising.

We travelled in near silence but then I heard footsteps coming slowly forward, Luke heard it too and hid behind my back, as the figure approached us, I held my wings out as wide as they would go, but a light and calm voice chuckled a response of,

"Relax, Jade, it's just me. I mean no harm." as my closest friend, Cleo walked out of the shadows, her wings were an ice blue in colour, I noticed a spray of red across her right wing and asked,

"What happened to you? Are you hurt?" Cleo smirked as she explained that she had been grabbed by a wild fox, she wasn't concerned about it though. Luke peered cautiously from behind me, I then smiled and said,

"It's alright, she is a friend of mine." he calmed down at this but mentioned that we ought to be getting home by now, I grinned and nodded, Cleo agreed to accompany us back, and as such we struck up a friendly conversation she started with,

"We hadn't realised that you were only 10, when you... Well, you know..." I frowned and replied with,

"Yeah, everything changed so quickly, I didn't even know what had happened to begin with." she thought about something but didn't bring up the subject again.

The snow was falling heavily now, flurries clinging to our little trio's hair and clothes. We didn't mind it too much, it was nice to see snow falling, almost stress relief. Luke loved it best though, kicking it up his trousers as we walked on.

Finally our old family village fell into view, and now I had to make a hard choice, I knew that I would have to at some point, but it made it no less complicated.

I had to let Luke go, I had to leave him behind to live out his life...

I was starting to feel a terrible pain in my heart, could I even manage to explain this to him, something told me that this goodbye would be the hardest thing I'd ever done.

We walked up to our house, our parents were dressed in the best winter clothes that they had, as they saw Luke they ran over and our mother told him in a stern voice,

"Never, dissappear on us like that again... Oh, sweetheart you had us worried sick." our dad, chuckled and said,

"Who brought you back? A friend of yours?" Luke shook his head and pointed at me, our dad looked at me with clear green eyes that were brimming with tears of an unresolved pain, he whispered,

"Could it be... Amy, do you think that it really is her?" our mother looked up at me at this and clapped her left hand to her mouth, she muttered,

"Laura? But... How?" I smiled at both of them, my own eyes burning from the tears that were building, my eyes were the clearest shade of hazel, just like my mother, before I whispered to Luke,

"Take care of yourself, and don't wander off into the woods without someone else with you, okay?" he said in return,

"You're not staying? But, why sis... I don't get it." I said quietly,

"I can't stay, you know why, please... Just, promise me that you will fulfill your own goals in life." Luke looked into my eyes, and nearly crying replied,

"Sis... I can't lose you all over again, we just found each other. Please stay." I knelt down meeting his eyes and repeated,

"Promise me, brother. I don't want to leave, but you and I both know that I can't stay. Promise me that you will live to a decent age." Luke looked at the floor, then ran forward and wrapped his arms around my chest, holding on to this last moment, I felt myself breaking, I didn't want to leave, I hugged him in return and growing regret, before pulling a loose feather from my left wing, passing it to his small hand I whispered,

"Even if you can't see me, I will always be there. I love you so much little brother, so just take care of yourself and look after mum and dad too, okay?" he nodded and held the feather close to his chest, turning to head inside, by the door he looked back, hoping to see me once again.

But there was no trace that anyone had ever been there apart from him and our parents.

He whispered,

"I love you too Laura, take care of yourself, you deserve it sister..."