A Moment Behind The Vale

A Work of creative Fiction

The angel looked down at the shell of a woman. Her head cradled within her hands, kneeling before the balcony ledge. A dark storm filled night, as bleak as the woman’s heart.

Sobs of regret racked her body, threatening to burst through her chest like a cannon. Her sobs filled with shame from choices forced upon her, and choices she hoped would dull the pain. But in the end, those choices only added to her pain. The guilt she felt burning around her like an unseen flame.

The wind whipped up around her, fueling images that raged within her mind. Whispering for her to take that one last step. Promising freedom from her pain, if only she stepped into the abyss.

Her sobs subsided, and she lowered her hands. Makeup stained her cheeks. Her eyes bloodshot from the sting of salt.

She stared into the starless night. The words from the wind taking root in her mind.

She frowned. A shape shimmered in the distance. But as she looked closer, it was gone.

Her face lost all expression, and a darkness veiled her face.

With a sigh, she rose to her feet. Her tear-stained eyes filled with the only path left to her.

The angel saw what was there. The shadowy spectre of a black demon hovering just beyond the ledge. Its jagged wings, silhouetted against the starless night. Its lips whispering words of death on the wind.

It sneered a sinister smile to the angel, reveling in the elevation it would receive from its pending victory. But the angel would never give up on the woman. How could he? He’d been with her since before she was born. He’d watched with joy as she was knitted together in her mother’s womb, and he would be with her until her end; for there was always hope while her spirit remained; as was written in the book he was taught.

The only sad thing for him was that during all his time, he’d tried to lead her back to the path of truth. Using whatever opportunity’s presented itself. Friends, strangers, books, and even movies, but the more he tried, the further from the path she strayed, and deeper into darkness, she sank.

He wept for her, but not in the way we weep, for angels cannot shed tears. But his heart agonized over her. Especially to see the plans and purposed grafted into her life before she was born, wither and die.

With a sigh, the angel unsheathed its sword and placed the tip to the floor, forming a cross in front of him. He kneeled behind the woman, curling his wings in front of him, shrouding the two of them like a cocoon.

Silently, his lips moved. Speaking unspoken words too beautiful for ears to hear, his unspoken words drifting like a fragrance that washed over her soul, rising like incense out into the night.

****

On the other side of town, the woman’s grandmother lay sound asleep in her bed. The smell of joint medication and musty books filled the room. Outdated curtains swayed in the warm night’s breeze. An array of pills filled the bedside dresser.

Another angel stood at the end of the bed, quietly watching the peaceful ebb and flow of the woman’s breathing. The sound soothing his spirit like a summer’s breeze.

Like his counterpart, he had watched over the woman since before she was born. But unlike her granddaughter, her grandmother had blossomed and grown, despite all the hardships she had endured throughout her life.

The angel ran his fingers down his face, feeling his smooth, unblemished skin under his hand. It had always intrigued him how humans aged. His kind always remained the same, never knowing the pleasure of growing old. And for that reason, he envied those of the mortal realm.

He’d observed over the centuries that the lines on people’s faces had a certain appearance as they aged. Some aged early, through the indulgence of worldly pleasures. Others were furrowed with unresolved anger, sadness, or grief that had taken root in their heart.

Occasionally, there were those whose lines shone from an inner beauty from walking the path, and even though the trials of life had left its mark on their lives, it only added to their aged beauty; just like the lady under his care; wearing her weathered lines like refined gold.

Tonight was bittersweet for the angel. Tonight the woman in his care would pass beyond the shroud of this life and enter her eternal rest. And with this, his journey with her would end.

The angel closed his eyes to meditate. Only his master knew the exact time for her to leave. All he could do was wait. While he was meditating, an uneasiness brewed within him. He focused, and a vision of the grandmother’s daughter filled his mind.

With a nod, he acknowledged to the angel his request and kneeled beside the sleeping woman’s bed. Then, with unspoken words softer than silk, impressed on her heart the vision of his granddaughter’s distress.

The grandmother woke with a start. But ignoring her protesting bones and aching joints, as she had done so many times before, kneeled at the foot of the bed.

She bowed her head and rested her bony elbows on her late husband’s wooden footlocker. The indentations of her elbows imprinted in the wood. Another set lay bare beside them that would grow no deeper.

Words poured from her heart over frail lips. Her eyes clenched tight. The lines on her face furrowed as tears ran down her cheeks.

The angel kneeled beside her, occupying the empty space where her late husband once kneeled. His heart aglow from the woman’s fragrant prayers. He smiled. A vision filled his mind. His brother and the woman on the ledge enveloped in a cloud of white.

****

The black demon recoiled. The foul stench of the fragrance surrounding the angel and the woman smelled like death to his kind. He ignored the stench and unsheathed his sword, his fetid blade engrained with dark words of death.

The woman opened her eyes. She blinked as if waking from a nightmare. Scales fell from her eyes. The lies behind them faded as her sanity began to return.

She remembered the words learned as a child. The ones her grandmother told her whenever she would stay the night.

She began to mouth the words and light ignited behind her eyes. But a moment later, they faded like a fog from her mind.

Her eyes glazed over and a dark gloom filled her heart once more, the woman unaware of the fetid blade that slipped between the angel’s wings to pierce her chest. The blade stained with lies that poisoned to her very soul.

The angel was furious. He jumped in front of the woman, forcing the demon off the ledge with the tip of his blade, rebuking him for breaching the eternal rules of of their kind. The demon lost its grip on his sword, its blade firmly embedded in the woman’s chest.

The demon glared menacingly at the angel, its wings beating the air while it hovered in place. It clenched its fist, and with a roar, called out into the night. Dark-winged shapes appeared in the distance, silhouetted by the swirling storm.

The woman rose to her feet. The angel turned to her, pleading for to say the words with his eyes. The woman looked blankly back at him, her thoughts already sinking into the abyss. As he watched, tears formed in the corner of her eyes, and the angel knew she was still there, somewhere deep inside. There was still hope.

The sound of beating wings grew closer. A quick glance behind him showed the demons were almost upon him, and the only choice in front of him was forbidden by his kind. He had no choice. He closed his eyes and clasped the hilt of the demon’s sword.

Searing pain surged up his arm. He fell to his knees. His hand blackened, moving up his arm like oily frostbite. He released the hilt. The pain and the blackness subsided.

The woman shuffled closer to the edge, her arms outstretched to embrace the abyss.

The angel steeled himself and clasped the hilt of the sword. With a scream only his kind can hear, he pulled the blade from her chest. Darkness seeped through his body, and he froze in place. His eyes pleading with the woman, until they too became as black as the sword in his hand.

The woman blinked, unaware of the frozen angel in front of her. Or the demon’s about to strike. She was only aware of a soft, warm glow that rose within her, and the words, softer than a child’s breath, whispering on the wind.

With an acknowledging nod, she closed her eyes and spoke the words her grandmother had taught her. Words she’d always been too afraid to say.

As the last of the words rolled over her tongue, a peace she had never known fulled her to her very core. She flung her arms wide and was engulfed in a wave of light. Tears of joy streamed down her face.

She never saw the demons flee from the brilliant white light that enveloped her. Or the chorus of angels that surrounded her. Or even the figure in white that stood in front of her. All she knew was she was finally free. Free from fear and guilt. Free to live the life she always dreamed of. Free to follow the dreams that had lain dormant all these years.

She smiled. Her first actual smile since she was a child. A smile filled with promise. She walked to the elevator and waited for the elevator to arrive; her smile growing with each confident step.

The angels didn’t follow. They stayed behind with their fallen brother, whispering to each other with searching eyes, unsure of what their brother’s fate would be.

A hush fell over the angels as the figure in white moved between them. The figure in white looked long and hard at the blackened angel. Then, with eyes fulled with mercy, reached out and drew the blade from the angel’s hand.

He held it up, turning the blade over in his hand, looking at the words engrained in its blade. He smiled, seeing the words for the lies they were. And with a word, the blade turned to dust, whisked away like smoke in the wind.

The figure in white turned his attention to the blackened angel. He frowned and folded his arms. “Now, what to do with you?”

The angels looked nervously at each other. They knew the rules, and the rules could not be broken. But the figure in white had authority. He had been to the abyss and returned unscathed. Now he had the authority. But where did his authority end?

The figure in white heard the unspoken thoughts of the angels. He closed his eyes as if speaking to some unseen presence, then with a smile, unfolded his arms and whispered into the angel’s ear and placed his hand on the angel’s chest.

Nothing happened for a start. Then, slowly, a soft glow appeared in the angel’s chest. The glow traveled throughout its body; the darkness draining behind it until his body shone white once more. There was a flash of light within the angel’s eyes. The angel blinked awake as if its soul returned to life.

The angel saw the figure in white standing in front of him and hurriedly bowed to his knees. His eyes firmly focused on the figure in white’s feet.

There was a moment of silence; even as if the storm held their breath, until the figure in white finally spoke. “You broke the law. The law that was set down from the beginning. Even though you knew the consequences… So what am I to do with you? Do you have anything to say in your defence?”

“No… No my Lord. Only… I did what I did, only because it was in my power to do so. I would have been remiss in my duty if I hadn’t tried even knowing the consequences. I only hoped your mercy would see the purity in my actions to save a soul.”

The figure in white’s eyes smiled. “Rise, good and faithful servant. Mercy will always outweigh the law, and the truth will always set you free. Rest now. For you, this journey is at an end. Others will take your place. When it’s time, your next journey will begin, for I have a particular assignment in mind for you. One more attuned to your ability.”

The angel rose to his feet, and with one final bow, ascended with the chorus of angels by his side like twinkling stars. And with a flash of lightning, vanished from sight.

The figure in white turned his attention to the woman waiting at the elevator. He smiled to himself. The woman’s confusion evident to why the elevator doors still hadn’t opened. He walked up beside her and just when she was about to press the button one more time, the elevator doors opened.

With a queried look, and a “hmm,” the woman stepped inside, the figure in white by her side.

As the doors closed, the woman’s smile returned. Her mind full of joy and someone she had to go and see…

*****

The grandmother had just closed her eyes when the sound of a key jangling in the door pulled her from her sleep.

Her granddaughter burst in, her face beaming with joy. She rushed to her grandmother’s side and threw her arms around her. “Nana, Nana, I did it. I did it. I said the words you told so long ago.”

Tears of joy ran down her grandmother’s cheeks. “I knew you would find your way, my dear.”

For a while, they said nothing. Sobs of joy speaking louder than words could express.

Finally, the grandmother pulled her granddaughter away. “I’m so proud of you, my dear. She embraced her one more time, then propped herself up on her pillow. Now, tell me all about it, my dear.”

The granddaughter began to tell her tale of transformation. The grandmother nodded and smiled, basking in the joy in her granddaughter’s voice. After a while, her face saddened.

“Nana. What’s wrong?”

The grandmother looked deep into her granddaughter’s eyes and touched her cheek with her hand. “My dear. Tonight was the best present you could ever have given me. But tonight I am going home.”

“But nana, you are home.”

The grandmother smiled. “My precious girl, it’s my time for me to leave this world. I can feel it in my bones. But now I know the reason I couldn’t leave until now.”

“Nana… said the granddaughter, fear rising within her. I don’t want you to go!”

“We will see each other again, my dear. You wait and see.”

The granddaughter lowered her head. “But Nana…”

The grandmother lifted her granddaughter’s chin. “My dear, tonight is not a night for sadness, but for celebration. You finally found the truth, and I got to see it before I left.”

“But… But if you go, who will teach me?”

The grandmother’s smile broadened. “The truth will. The truth will always be with you to show you the way.”

“But nana, why can’t I go now? I want to go now to be with you!”

“It’s not your time. His timing is always perfect. Always remember that. Now promise me you will always follow the truth? He has plans for you. Remember to always follow him. Everything else will take care of itself. We only get one life, make the most of it. One day, we’ll see each other again. And what a day that will be. I will wait at the front of the gates to welcome you home.”

“I… I understand. She wiped away her tears. Will you really wait for me?”

“Of course, my dear, you’ll see.”

The grandmother looked at the foot of the bed. She smiled. “Well, my dear, it’s time for me to go. Remember, I’ll be waiting for you when you come home.”

“O… Okay Nana. said the granddaughter with a tear. I Love you so much, Nana.”

“I love you too, deary.”

They embraced one more time, then the grandmother lay back on the bed. She sighed, like people sometimes do after a job well done. And, with a smile, closed her eyes for the very last time.

The granddaughter started to cry. But through her tears, she glimpsed the angel at the foot of the bed. The angel took the grandmother by her hand and she rose from her body, and as she did so, the years fell away. Her grandmother transformed into a beautiful young woman in her thirties. Even more beautiful than she remembered as a child.

The grandmother and the angel smiled at the granddaughter. Then, as the first rays of sunlight spread across the room, the two of them vanished into the early morning light.

The granddaughter pondered for a moment. The early morning sun reflected in her eyes. Then, as the sun rose on a new day, she whispered under her breath.

“Thank you Nana. Thank you for always being there for me.”

THE END

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Photo created by AI. Inspired by AJN Gallagher