Lucas ✔️

Forty-Two

The world was pale and airy, as though I was walking through a thin fog. People walked past covered in white robes and oddly sewn clothes, similar to the ones Uriel had been wearing. But these people they... they looked exactly like Lucas. There were slight differences – their gait, their gestures, a small freckle here and there, but their faces were ultimately the same.

"Can you see?"

I turned to the voice, my hair arcing out slowly and floating like I was underwater. Uriel was standing behind me and he smiled gently, nodding his head in the distance.

"Can you see Lucas?"

"Lucas?" I breathed, checking my surroundings.

My actions felt slow and heavy, but Uriel looked light and soft. I wondered why I felt I was being crushed by the air, my lungs burning and my eyes watering, but he looked so comfortable. In a sense, I felt as though I was drowning, ever so slowly breathing in water that was killing me. Uriel's hand gently laid on my shoulder and he looked down at me.

"I'm sorry, you must be uncomfortable here. We won't be long," he said softly before lifting his hand and pointing in the distance.

My eyes followed his long arm and spotted Uriel in the distance, just past his own arm. I looked back at him and did a double take. Uriel was next to me but ahead that was... Lucas. They were almost identical, apart from the long white gown Lucas was wearing. Lucas' long black hair was a blinding gold, much brighter than Uriel's, and his eyes looked like molten pots of gold they were so bright. He floated around softly, speaking to those near him, his hair swishing gently as he did so.

"That's Lucas?" I coughed harshly, struggling to breathe properly in the foggy air.

"This is Lucas, before his fall," Uriel said with a slightly sad-looking smile, something that looked unnatural and uncomfortable on his face.

Pre-fall Lucas was different to the Lucas I knew – he looked happier and more content with the world. He still moved the same, soft and light, but he seemed less reserved in his actions, almost child-like and innocent.

"What is he doing?" I asked Uriel as Lucas grabbed something long and shiny from the air and spun it, twisting it around his arm before disappearing.

"Lucas was one of the higher angels," Uriel said, grabbing my hand and pulling me gently somewhere equally white and foggy. "He used to answer prayers and blessings of humans. Many of us wish to impact the human realm as he did, but it is also the most precarious position for an angel. As you will see."

Uriel stopped moving and Lucas was in front of us again, this time on Earth. Lucas was standing at a lake and looking at his reflection, poking and prodding at his face as it rippled across the water. Lucas looked like he couldn't breathe, and I felt the exact same.

"Not many angels ever have the chance of seeing what they look like, although we admittedly all look similar." Uriel grabbed my hand again and guided me to a new scene, patting me on the back as I gasped for some air. The world felt like it was closing around me, as though the foggy air was crawling into my lungs and squeezing all oxygen out.

Lucas was bent over, inspecting the ground. He had human clothes on – if that was what they could be called. Tattered and destroyed material hung from his body, something that looked like home-made sandals protecting his feet from red dirt. I moved slightly to look past him and gasped, watching as Lucas eyed the dead man.

"What happened?" I asked Uriel with a breathless cough, turning to look at him as he watched my movements carefully.

"He was abandoned by his mule," Uriel explained as he moved to stand next to me. "Dehydration was common in these times."