Feathers

Chapter 11

We had been fighting for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes. He just kept throwing punches. I couldn't keep up with him. It was intense and I was getting tired. I knew it, he knew it, everybody knew it. I was bruised and bloodied, and I'm pretty sure I had a concussion.  

"Getting tired yet, sweet girl?" Kushiel asked.  

"No," I panted. "Are you?" 

He hit me again, hard in the stomach. I let out a groan as I went flying a few feet back. I didn't want to move. I lay there, staring up at the sky and counting the stars.  

1...2...3... 

Kushiel was suddenly on top of me, straddling my hips, with a knife in his hand.  

4...5...6...

"How many cuts does it take to kill a human?" he asked me. It sounded like a riddle but I knew better. 

"How many?" I played. 

"One, if you cut them the right way." I swallowed the lump in my throat realizing it was the end. He put the blade to my throat. "Any last words?" 

"You can go to hell," I spat in his face. His shoulders shook with laughter.  

Just before the blade cut my skin, the pressure of his body was off of me. I looked up to see Jeremiah and Kushiel fighting.  

I jumped to my feet, well not really jumped. I struggled to step to my feet but I got up. Jeremiah and Kushiel were apart for a moment so I stepped into the fight. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked Jeremiah. 

"You were going to die without me, is there really a question?" he asked. Then he laughed a little. "You're going to die with me so I guess there is a question." 

I gave him a dirty look but then remember my condition right now. I was getting tired just standing here. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the fight.  

"This is between me and her," Kushiel shouted at Jeremiah.  

"It's not a fair fight. I mean, really, who brings a knife to an angel fight? Pick on someone your own size," Jeremiah said.  

"Ok," Kushiel replied. With a  flick of his hand, Jeremiah wasn't next to me anymore. He wasn't even near me. I couldn't see him in sight.  

"That's better. Now, it's just the two of us," Kushiel said.  

I looked around desperately looking for Jeremiah. Before I could find him, my throat closed. I desperately grabbed at what was holding my breath hostage but there was nothing to grab, just my own skin. I looked down and saw Kushiel smiling to himself with his hand pointed at me. Grace... I should've known. 

His powers were going to kill me, not his fists... or my own concussion. I think I would have rathered the latter. The force around my throat got tighter and I fell to my knees. Tears welled in my eyes and my lungs burned from lack of oxygen.  

"So, any last words?" Kushiel asked. 

I opened my mouth and struggled to breath.  

"Oh, wait! You can't talk!" He laughed at this. He laughed at my agony. He laughed at my death. I was just a human to him. I was a nuisance to angel kind as he said.  

It felt like drowning. I was drowning on nothing. I was just dying. It didn't take long, I only suffered for a minute of two.

Then I was dead, and there was no bright light, there were no dead relatives to see me to the other side. I was actually looking down at my own body, but I was in another world. A world separate from humans, angels. I was alone in a cold dark place. Nobody could see me, they couldn't hear me, and they couldn't feel me.