The Rapunzels ONC 2024

12: Fallen Angel

 I'm running. I'm flying. I am the wind. The earth. Everything in between.

Darkness is a needy embrace. I push through its arms while my sisters call after me in the loudest stage whispers they can muster.

"Fia. For Heaven's sake. Stop." Lexi's voice is at my neck ticking my skin.

I lift my hands and scratch the sound away while in the back of my brain, I hear grandmother Alexis chastising me with her hoity-toity tone. She's calling me a bitch.

I open my mouth and scream at the trees.

"Shut up!" Lulu's voice claws at me. It is a feral cat at my ankles. "They'll hear you. They'll wake up."

"You shut up, Lucile." It's been a long time since we saw great-aunt Lucy on the TV – the aunt Lulu's been named after. I don't use her nickname because no one ever uses her full given name unless they are mad at her. And I'm mad at the world right now. Almost.

I clasp my hands briefly over my eyes as ghostly whales whoosh past me. When I drop my hands it's to use them as mock wings.

The moon above is my eyes. I howl again.

"Shut up!" Lu calls.

"I was going to. But, then I asked myself, 'Why?'" I push past moonlight and past the trees.

I shut my eyes and do not stop running. I know my way.

Before I reach the guest house, I hold out my hands and splat against the door. I am hugging the house. I don't know why.

Opening my eyes, I see my sisters not too far behind.

I grab the doorknob and turn. The door opens and I am inside. I blink and find myself in the bedroom standing next to him. My stranger. He is not awake but the gentle rise and fall of his chest tells me he's not kicked the bucket.

Lulu and Lexi skitter to the bed like scared puppies. They cower behind me. I don't think they are breathing.

There are stray fingers of moonlight poking through the windows. They dance over my stranger and inside I rage. I don't want anyone touching him but me.

I move closer and put an arm on either side of his body. "Who are you?" I whisper.

"Oh, don't get that close," Lulu whimpers.

Without turning around, I kick back my leg and hit her square on the shin.

"Ow."

"Hush."

"He's a demon," Lu chirps. She is a wounded sparrow.

"He is an angel," I state and then turn to face them.

Lu's chirp has become a croak. "If he is an angel, where are his wings?"

I look her in the eyes and scowl. "If he is a demon, where are his horns?" I move to the head of the bed. My hands run through the man's hair. It's so soft I could die. "No horns," I say but my voice is far away. And, just because, I run my hands through his hair once more. When I pull away I realize I am shuddering.

My hands fly to my mouth. I bite down on my fingers until I am calm.

"But no wings either, dummy," Lucile's voice has become a hiss and I am not fond of it.

My stranger is wearing a baggy button-down shirt which will take no effort to remove. With each button I open I feel I am falling deeper and deeper into another world. Another vortex. His skin is tanned, slightly darker than anyone in my family.

Lexi grabs me before I can finish off the buttons. "What in tarnation are you doing?"

"I'm going to check for wings," I snarl and pull away. "Stop me again and I'll bite you."

I'm sure they won't touch me after I've threatened them but I work quickly. I soon finish with the buttons and turn him slightly so I can slip a sleeve off.

He makes no sound. He is fluid. Putty.

When his shirt is low enough to expose part of his back I see it – deep black, covering from shoulder to lower back –  wings. A pair of wings are drawn on his flesh.

My sisters see them too. One of them gasps but in my awe, I don't know, nor care, which one.

"He is Gabriel, come down from the sky."

"No, he is Cassiel."

"Gabriel."

"Cassiel."

"Shhh!" I glare at them, ready to tell them to stop so I can concentrate, but at that moment, my angel groans.

My sisters yelp. They run out of the house before I can even draw breath and leave me all alone with the angel who's about to come out of his deep slumber.