Fallen Angel

Sleep-Like Death

It was almost as if she was asleep.

Her body was still and pale, making her armor look dull and plain. You were anything but plain, I thought sadly. Kneeling beside her, I brushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Tears stung my eyes as I gazed upon the arrow plunged deeply into her stomach. Blood drenched her torso, spilling onto the floor in a large pool.

Although my chest wanted to sob, I refused. I cried too much when she died. This wouldn't be right if I cried now. Taking a deep breath, I brushed my thumb over her cold cheek.

"You were so beautiful." I whimpered. "Damn, why couldn't you have just stayed a little bit longer? I had so much to say, Alessa." I almost expected her chest to rise and for her eyes to pop open. It was a ridiculous hope, and I felt even lonelier for thinking about it.

Worried about Bliss finding her, I scooped up Alessa's limp body in my arms, careful not to get her blood on my armor. That would be impossible to explain to Bliss. Alessa's weight seemed familiar almost.

Once, I had lost a bet to her, and because I lost, I'd had to carry her around Olympus for a week. It was a stupid bet, but my arms had gotten stronger from it. She had definitely enjoyed it. The only time that she hadn't asked me to carry her was to use the bathroom, take a shower or play Skóto̱se to Omoío̱ma. (That had been another stake of the bet)

The broken hole in the ceiling was about six feet from the ground, so I had to hold Alessa in one arm and grapple to the ledge with the other. It took a minute before I was on the surface again, carrying Alessa's delicate body. It felt wrong, somehow, to be carrying her like this. Alessa was always an Undesirable of pride, and this seemed like she was undignified somehow. Ignoring the haunting idea, I searched for a decent place to hide her.

The garbage? No. Behind the apartment? No, it'd take too long. Out of all the places, I could find a single area to hide Alessa without disrespecting her body. Then, it hit me.

Bliss would never look hard enough to see Alessa among the dead demons. Although it was a little bit disrespectful, it was better than trying to shove her in a garbage can. So, I went a few yards from the crater and looked for a clean place to lay her down. The smell of burning flesh was almost overwhelming as I picked out a spot between a hairy demon and a winged one. The hairy demon had brown fur and a large, black horn on the top of it's triangle-shaped head. The winged demon had translucent skin that had turned dark as it had burned to death.

"Please, forgive me." I muttered, setting her down between the two monsters. You don't deserve this, I thought. I promise I'll come back for you. Just to make sure that she was concealed, I wrapped the demon's wing around her, doing my best not to get her covered in burned guts.

"Okay, Erich! I'm back!" Bliss emerged from the apartment, holding two cylindrical items. "Hey, how'd you get over there so fast?" She shouted. I jogged closer to the fence just in time to help her climb to this side. "What were you doing over there?" She brushed some dirt off her pants and handed me the cylindrical object. It was round and bright orange with a glass lense at the front.

"I was uh, just making sure that everything was dead." I nearly patted myself on the back, grateful for the amazing excuse I had made on such short notice.

"Oh, okay." Upon seeing my distress with the device, she rolled her eyes and pressed a black button on the object's side. Suddenly, light burst from the glass lens.

"It's a flashlight, numb nuts." She grinned as we both began walking closer and closer to the crater.

"These mortal items, they confuse me, sometimes." I held the 'flashlight' in my hands, amazed on how something so small could create light. And there wasn't any fire, either! The light was sustained from a small glass bulb-not a torch or candle! The idea was preposterous!