Saturday 19 April 2014

Fallen Angel



Today I looked in my inbox and found our challenge:  pick one of the opening lines from the contest from last week, and use it in a story.  We can’t use our own.  So, I’ve picked out Rebecca Shuttleworth’s and I hope you like what I’ve done with it.



Plummeting, Daria closed her eyes and resigned herself to the fall, concentrating only on the effort of becoming lighter, weightless, free.  The force of the freefall from the aircraft was terrifying however she felt as though she had done this all before…



Somehow…

Somewhere…

Her hair pulled off her face and her clothes flapped out behind her as she pulled her body tight, arms out to her sides – as though she was on a crucifix – felt the wind stop as she hung in the air for a moment.



And in that tiny moment in time, she felt as though something happened to her… something amazing she had never experienced before.



She was no longer falling.

She was flying!

Daria felt and heard feathers around her shoulders moving… flitting around her shoulders… and yet couldn’t see them.  Only a moment ago, was falling in fear and now?  Now, she was floating through the air effortlessly.  A smile crossed her face as she relaxed and let this happen, let it take over… how many times in life does this kind of thing occur where you control your surroundings?   Not much!



A gunshot shocked her!

It came from above!

The hi-jackers who had taken over her twin-engine, grabbed her from the cockpit and shoved her out without a parachute were trying to kill her!

She didn’t have time to think as they shot again and a sharp pain in her shoulder made her roll, causing her body to fall like a stone to the ground!



Daria woke on the ground in the middle of the highway.

She should have been dead.  But she wasn’t.

“What the hell?” she sat up, looked around just in time to see an eighteen-wheeler screaming towards her!  She raised her hand up and a shining light emanated from her whole body as she closed her eyes for a moment and then found herself on the side of the road. 

The truck had stopped nearby and driver was standing next to his cab looking at her, “Exactly how did you do that?”

“I was…”

“In the middle of the road a few seconds ago.” He said, “And now you’re here.” Then he frowned, “And where did you come from?”

She looked at him, then looked up to the sky, “I don’t think you’d believe me.”

“I’ve seen some really strange things behind the wheel of that thing.” He said, “Try me.”

She pointed up into the fading sky, “I was pushed out of the plane I was flying… I was hi-jacked.”

“We have to get you to a hospital.”



Two days and a myriad of tests later, Daria was given the all-clear from the doctors.  She sat in her room and looked at herself in the mirror as she got dressed, wondering how she came to fall from a plane thirty-five thousand feet up and didn’t have a single scratch on her.

“Hi.” The familiar voice of the nurse said at her door.

“I’m wondering how I survived the fall.” She said.

“We all are.” She walked in and closed the door, “But I have your X-Rays back and there’s something strange on them.” She pulled out the films and put them onto the light box on the wall and switched it on, “You have something engraved into your bones.”

Daria took the films down slowly, “Shit.”

“Do you remember anything happening on the way down?”

She laughed, “Yeah, I was shot at and wounded.”

“Where?”

“Left shoulder.”

The nurse turned her around and looked carefully, “You have no such injury.  Are you sure you took a bullet?”

She nodded, “Yes, I remember pain and how fast I fell after it hit.”

She nodded, “Okay, so you should have more injuries or…”

“Should be dead.” Daria looked back into the mirror as she pulled her dressing gown from the hospital closer around her body, “But I’m not.”

“Do you feel any different?” the nurse asked.

“No.” she lied.



The next morning, Daria was released to go home.  Her parents picked her up and took her to her Grandmother’s house; which she had inherited and now lived in.  She spent the day out in the garden looking at the flowers; just staring at them before going into her studio and writing in her journal about what happened to her that day:

‘17th, April, 2014… I came home today.  I’m at my place.  It’s strange, as though I’ve never been here before.  I don’t know where anything is… and yet I’ve lived here for over a decade.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  But today, I was out in the garden and I found the flowers talking to me.  They whispered to me the secrets of the galaxy.’

Daria looked down at the page, “I’m going crazy.”

“No, you’re not.” A voice said behind her.

She turned to find a man in a suit in her studio.  He walked up to her desk, moved the book she had written in closer so he could read it, “Wait, that’s private.”

“No it’s not.” He said, “I found you, Haniel.”

“Who?  I’m Daria.” She put her hand out to him and he awkwardly shook it, “Who’s Haniel?”

“The Archangel who has been protecting you since you were young.  Now, things have become a little more…” he gazed out the window toward the house, “… complicated.” He looked back at her, “Haniel has given you her Grace, thus making you an Angel and she’s out there somewhere.”

“So, what am I?”

“That’s what I’m here to find out.” He said, “I’m Raphael, a friend of Haniel’s, and you are to come with me now.”