My Fallen Angel

Chapter 9

So all I had to do was imagine where I needed to be. That's... easier said than done when you have the weight of the world crowding your mind. But I did my best to take Bianca's advice.

I breathed. 

I pictured the ruined church, though the details were fuzzy and incomplete. Frustrated, I muttered to myself and shook my head. I needed something stronger. 

Instead, a picture of Jungkook rose to my mind. I visualized his round, dark eyes, his straight nose, the soft curve of his eyebrows and the hard line of his jaw. I remembered the silky texture of his hair beneath my fingertips. I was almost surprised by how vividly I recalled his every perfect feature. I would never, could never, forget his face.

With his image formed distinctly in my mind, I concentrated on the thought of being where he was. My eyes were tightly closed, my fists clenching in effort, when that familiar warmth began to spread from my hands and up my entire body. The heat rose and rose, just skirting the edge of pain. I focused so hard that I felt like my brain was on fire.

In a sudden rush, I moved. It felt like someone had reached inside of my chest and pulled me forward from within, flying at the speed of light across the city. And just like that, I was back at the church. 

For a moment, I didn't think it had worked. I didn't recognize the ruins of the church around me, even though the entire place had been reduced to rubble when I'd left. Now, everything was a mess of ash, stone, and fire. The heat of the blaze pushed against me maliciously. I searched wildly through the destruction to find any signs of life, stomach twisting with the fear of finding nothing left in this god-forsaken place. 

But a flash of movement caught my eye. A shadowy figure was standing over a monstrous, fiery creature attempting to claw its way out of a gaping hole in the earth. Without hesitation, I launched into a run toward them. 

True, I had no idea how I was supposed to help purify a demon, but Bianca had told me that she believed I could, so part of it had to be instinct, yes? Well, I was about to find out. 

I approached and skidded to a halt at the edge of the pit. The scene in front of me solidified, causing me to visibly gasp in equal parts dread and relief. Jungkook was there, wings out, kicking desperately against a burning, clawed hand locked in a viselike grip around his calf. His pants were charred and burning around that hand. It must have been excruciating, but as my eyes traveled over the rest of him, I realized that it was just one injury among many. There were long gauges in his right forearm, a massive red mark across his cheek that would become an ugly bruise, and an angry burn on his chest through his tattered shirt. 

But that wasn't all. The beautiful wings had by now become more shadow than feather, writhing and dripping off of his back like tar. There was something insidious about those wings. Hearing my approach, his head snapped sideways to face me and what I saw took my breath away. His face was deadly pale, and his eyes were entirely black, like the twisting darkness I'd glimpsed in his pupils had spread until every part of his eyes was swallowed in swirling ink. I couldn't sense any semblance of recognition in those terrifying eyes. 

The creature reached out of the pit to grip Jungkook's other leg, but he was too fast. The shadows flew from his fingertips and solidified like daggers, piercing what looked like it could have been a head wreathed in flame. The creature unleashed a shriek so loud and so hot that I stumbled backward from the force of it. It released Jungkook and slid backwards into the pit.

Jungkook did not move a muscle. He stood right where he was, gaze riveted on something in the darkness that I could not see. He did not seem to notice the smoke creeping up his burned leg. I stepped closer, deciding to deal with his injury after we took care of the threat. 

It was strange, I'd expected something much larger than the creature I'd just seen. Perhaps it was more powerful than it looked? Or maybe they'd basically taken care of it by the time I got back?

But as I peeked over the edge of the hole, I discovered the truth, and felt my heart sink. Climbing slowly, deliberately, toward us was a monster so large that my brain could barely process it. It was probably the size of the church it had dismantled, if not larger, with dozens of enormous twisting horns jutting out of it's hideous skull above at least fifty blazing holes of inferno that must have been its eyes. Its mouth was cracked open, almost in a smile, revealing countless jagged glowing coals that resembled teeth. Several limbs were extended from the main body of the demon, all of which were slowly digging into the earth and propelling the monster upward. 

Whatever I had imagined a demon would look like, this was infinitely worse. Smaller demons, like the one I'd seen gripping Jungkook, scrambled across the surface of this creature's body like ants. No wonder Jungkook hadn't even flinched when one of them had come for him. He had bigger concerns. Much bigger. 

"Jungkook," I whispered, "how... what..." I couldn't even form the words to ask, so palpable was my terror. 

He did not respond. He didn't even acknowledge that he'd heard me, keeping his focus locked on the rising monstrosity below us. 

I looked around us, desperately hoping that the rest of the angels would come to the rescue and could help me figure out how I was going to purify this thing—if that was even possible. Despair gripped me as I found them, lying unconscious and scattered among the burning debris. It was just me and Jungkook left standing against this thing. 

It climbed steadily upward, biding its time and inching toward us with such deliberate slowness. It's toying with us, I realized with a jolt. But that was fine with me, since it gave me time to think of what to do. 

My mind raced, trying to remember any helpful detail Bianca might have let slip. Nothing came to mind. Nothing except for her last instruction for me to imagine where I needed to be. Which got me here. But what now?

Well... what if... what if I tried to imagine what it would be like to purify it? As vague and baseless as that seemed, it was all I had to go off of. So I took a deep breath, held my hands out, closed my eyes, and imagined. 

I visualized the soft sunlit glow of my hands spreading over this pit, filling it with peace and light, strangling the fire and darkness that threatened to emerge into the world. I remembered how I'd felt when Jungkook had first grabbed my hands and brought that light to life in me. I thought of the tranquility of the glow I'd seen when I met Bianca. I thought of divinity, what I imagined it would look like, feel like, be like. 

My hands were heating up, but this was nothing like the painful heat of the fire around me. It was a comforting heat. That was a promising sign. Somehow, even with my eyes tightly closed, I could sense that the creature had stopped its climb. A furious snarl reached my ears, but I blocked it out and refocused my attention on my efforts. Over and over again, I began to whisper chanting syllables that were foreign to my own ears. It was like the knowledge of centuries was flowing through my body, guided by a force that was greater than myself. Trusting that knowledge, I let myself surrender to the light. 

The creature was screaming now, a horrible chorus of anguished, raging cries cutting through the night. It had resumed its ascent, rapidly scaling the length of the pit until it was upon us Oppressive heat and a sinister sense of dread and death pushed at the edge of my power, but I held firm. I would not let this thing beat me. I was stronger than this. I was not going to let it hurt anyone or anything ever again. I would protect the world I loved and all the people in it. 

Maybe it was by sheer force of will, maybe it was something divine. I doubt I'll ever truly know what made the miracle happen that day. I've never been able to replicate it since, and I will never fully remember all the details, but what I do remember was the sensation of my feet leaving the ground, of my head tilting up to the sky and light flooding from every part of me in a brilliant, white explosion. It could have been for hours, or just seconds, I don't know, but I hung there, suspended in the air, spreading that light into every dark corner of this destroyed place until all was bathed in a purifying fire.