"Angel of Death *" by Stephanie Rennolds

The blue-eyed angel watched as the two fell. Falling, always falling. The black, bat-like wings folded with the white, angelic wings as both beings hurtled towards the sea.

(It was impossible.)

Raven-colored hair blew into her eyes, and she brushed it back hastily. “Damn you,” she whispered in pain and sorrow. The two figures never heard her. Her pearly wings were ruined. The right was fractured and broken; the other hung limp by her side, punctured by arrows and stained by blood.

(They never would have survived.)

Still they fell. Demon and angel; entwined as they were in love, life, and death. Cecily in Hell-born black and her lover Jason in Heaven’s-own silver, two halves of one whole. Both hurtled to the sea.

(I wouldn’t have believed they could live like that.)

Just as they reached the water, their wings snapped out, and they swooped apart, skimming the water. The sea was now jet-black and indigo, the waves crashing upon one another.

(But they did.)

Tears brimmed those deep, sorrowful eyes. Tears of blood, tears of pain, tears of regret. ‘An angel should never regret’. “But I do,” she whispered. Her wings were in agony, and the waves pounded against the cliff she stood on, the tendrils reaching for her.

(And I should have died.)

She went weak, and her legs could no longer hold her up. She stumbled and fell plummeting from the seaside cliff. Her wings, battered and broken, did nothing for her. She swallowed tears as she fell into the troubling sea.

(But I didn’t.)

It cushioned her, though the breath was taken from her lungs. The water enveloped her, warm and calming, like a mother holding her child. The broken angel’s wings closed about her in a ball of soft feathers, and the blood streaked them in a pattern of swirls and cacophony.

(I shouldn’t be here.)

Her eyes opened, pale and ice-cold. She opened her mouth, and water rushed in – but she could breathe. She hungrily gulped it down, and felt her lungs start to work again. Her wings started to heal –

(I should have sank –)

The girl-child rushed to the surface, wings and body whole again. She broke the surface, and sped into the air. The two lovers, demon and angel, hovered there in front of her.

“Shyl.”

They spoke her name.

(My name…)

The angel boy’s silver wings were streaked with crimson, just as the demon-girl’s were. The demon-child’s wings were indigo and silver; thin as paper, but powerful as Death.

(Oh, Lover Death, why didn’t you take me?)

She stared into their eyes, one at a time, and they fell, crashing into the indigo waves. The sea swallowed them up. The girl looked to her woven wings, her healed body, and her eyes. Some thing split her forehead-

(If only it had killed me.)

And then she could see. Really, See. She saw the dance of the energies, and the dying blue and red as the two lovers sank into the pitiless ocean. Her third eye was opened. And she heard, “Angel of Death. Leareth. No longer Shyl.” The name rang in her head.

(Reaper…)

And she rose, powerful silver and crimson wings beating the air. She rose into the dark sky, into the thunder, and into the night. She hovered for the last few seconds as she felt the dying pulse of the two of the two worlds. They had given her her new title. They now were free.

(Sister Death. Reaper. Angel of Death. And I wish I could die.)

She turned blood-red eyes Heavenward and she smiled.