Angel of the lake

Chapter Eleven

Giselle was dead.

Dead, as in never coming back. Dead, as in lost to the world. Dead, as in gone.

Dead, as in not living anymore.

Since seeing her, Meg had never felt more alone.

By no means had the two girls been close. They'd been friends, sure, but Meg would call most of the girls up there her friend. Especially since she and Giselle were amongst the older angels.

In her head, the image of Giselle was alive. Meg saw the same passing smiles in hallways or small talk when they'd sit near each other.

She'd never seen eyes so vacant as those from before.

Giselle's skin had been cold, as if her blood had lost all heat. Her once rounded lips had turned blue from the cold, drooping at the edges. Her head had lolled to one side, her body resting in the shape of a sack.

Puncture marks had lined her stomach where the snakes had gotten to her.

She'd been asking Claudio about it. He pulled a face each time she asked as if he didn't want to tell her, but she wouldn't quit badgering until he did.

"You don't want to hear this," He said. "It won't change anything now."

But Meg wanted to know. She needed to know everything.

I need to know what I'm walking into.

Claudio explained that snakes went into a state of hibernation in the winter where their body temperature was too low for them to digest food. He told her that Giselle must've stumbled across its shelter somehow, rousing it from its sleep.

At that, Meg had wanted to laugh.

How could it all be so relative?

The same thing had happened to Giselle just days ago.

The fates had been hibernating. Brumating. Whatever it was called. Their true sides, their real intentions, were resting just beneath the surface. Giselle's sin-her mistake-woke it up.

Gods help anyone who passed an angry snake.

Like the snake had done, the fates had cast them aside. Once they were gone, they were no longer important.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Meg had never seen anyone dead before. Maybe that was the ice bucket she needed.

Refusing to meet the same fate, she bit her tongue on the demon complaints.

She wasn't in the heavens anymore. She couldn't pretend evil wasn't happening right beneath her very nose. She couldn't go back to how things were before.

This was the fate waiting for them. The fate that waited for her friends if Nadine had her way.

She'd weaponize them. Who cares if they die, right?

Because death was so very terrifyingly real.

Claudio burnt Giselle's body. He explained to Meg that it was a cremation. He'd done it from a distance. Meg couldn't look.

Now, she sat on the opposite side of a fire from him. A fire he'd made in front of the tent he'd put up. Because he could do that. Claudio could make fire from his mind.

She felt like a brat now. Whilst she'd been hurling rocks at him and saying nasty things, he'd only been trying to help her out. If he hadn't, she would've been in the same state as Giselle by now.

Dead.

Don't think about it.

She wished Giselle had stumbled across someone like Claudio too. Maybe then she'd still be here.