When the Angels Fell

Chapter 22

The landing, when it came, was surprisingly soft. Braced for a brutal, bone-shattering impact, Abigail had instinctively folded herself into a crouch. It was in this position that she fully returned to her senses, with a pulsing headache developing in her right temple and the coppery scent of blood on her tongue. Taking a deep breath and waiting for a series of violent shivers to recede, she opened her eyes.

Her first impression was of a deep, vibrant green that seemed to stretch away from her endlessly. However, upon looking up, she was confronted by a sea of black, absolute and unbroken. No lights were visible, yet the whole scene was bathed in a ghostly silver luminescence. Reaching out to the grass with a hesitant, shaking hand, Abigail was surprised to learn that it was warm and...pulsing. That was enough to send her to her feet, recoiling in horror with a gasp that seemed to echo out into the void and reverberate back upon itself.

It was then that she realised just how utterly alone she was. The sea of grass, if it was grass, was completely flat and uniform, stretching out across impossible distances before joining up with its black twin overhead. Her ragged breathing, still recovering from the sensation of breathlessness she had experienced after stepping through the door, was the only sound, echoing endlessly in an infinite loop.

Just as she took a step forward, the silence was broken by a sudden wind, howling around her in a sudden fury. Taken off guard, Abigail could only raise one arm to shield her face, losing her balance and tumbling onto her back. The grass had turned icy cold, attacking her with a chill that went bone-deep. As quickly as it had begun, the gale subsided, leaving her shivering and splayed out on the ground like a prize piece of meat. It was then that she realised she was not alone.

Ten feet away, where previously there had been only empty space, a pulsing ball of darkness writhed and span. It was horribly familiar and, instinctively, Abigail knew she was in trouble. She scrambled to her feet and backed away from the darkness, which was now twice as wide as she was and pulsing with a horrible un-life. It expanded once more and then contracted horribly.

And then the black shapes began to drop and she was catapulted back to the night in the theatre. Except this time there was no Daniel, no swords, no one to save her. She was alone, totally and utterly alone. Even her power had abandoned her, sucked into the silent void that surrounded them. She could do nothing more than stand there, utterly frozen and helpless.

The first of the creatures moved towards her, raising its bladed arms, and it occurred to Abigail, absurdly, that she had learnt no name for her executioners. She felt nothing as the first blade came scything down, biting savagely into her shoulder. Her thoughts were far away by the time the second blade punched through her chest a second later. Then there was a brief flash of white and a distant, whispery sound that could have been singing. Then the darkness fell like a magician's cloak and the void around her was replaced by deeper, endless oblivion.

***

Aiden was finally home, and he was less than impressed. He had, after all, just completed an impossibly long journey across the black realms and saved his sister from the very cusp of death, only to discover that she had died anyway. In the very place she was meant to be safest!

He stormed through the corridors of the place known only to a handful of select individuals as Haven. At the minute he was on the third floor of a multi-storeyed building that extended both above and below ground, with the more mundane floors concealing countless sub-floors that no more than three people in the whole complex could access. At the minute, Aiden was searching for one of these three people, wanting to know exactly what had caused such a catastrophic mess.

The few people working around him wisely moved out of his way as he stormed along the corridor, the slate grey walls and occasional brown door sliding past him without acknowledgement. The only door he was interested in lay at the very end of the corridor and was unusually thick. Additionally, the surrounding frame was covered in sigils that would utterly annihilate the sanity of any who tried to cross the threshold without the proper protection. As it was, Aiden was more than protected and simply shoved an arm against the door, throwing it open and entering without bothering to knock.

There was a man sitting at the desk as he entered, working through a thick sheaf of papers with a black fountain pen in hand. He looked up as the door banged against the wall and Aiden entered, carefully laying the pen down on the desk's polished surface. The man's apparent calmness only served to infuriate Aiden more, but he rose and raised a hand for silence before he could even utter a word.

'I know why you're here,' he began, in a deep, strong voice that seemed to resonate to a person's very core. 'And I can say for a certainty that anger will not help you.'

'You-' Aiden replied, suppressing a tremor in his voice. 'You sent her in there and I agreed to it, like a damn idiot. Did you know what would happen? Did you?'

His voice had risen to a shout at the end, yet the other man did not even flinch. Instead, he moved around the desk to stand so close that they were practically touching. He was tall and incredibly broad, which would have scared any other man into leaving the room immediately. As it was, Aiden stood his ground and looked up, ignoring the fact that the top of his head barely reached the man's nose.

'There are circumstances that even we cannot predict,' he resumed, raising a hand again when a second outburst from Aiden seemed likely. 'But, all is not lost'

'She's dead,' Aiden spat, taking a step back. 'Looks pretty lost to me'

The big man shook his head, frustration flashing briefly across his sharply chiselled face. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Aiden had heard enough. He turned on his heel and marched quickly from the room, not bothering to close the door. He would save his sister, again, and this time he would do it properly.