I came back to my body. My hands were ghost-like in front of me. I felt my fists clench defensively, shaking uncontrollably as the creature snarled, bearing his fangs.
And he wasn’t alone.
The thunderous noise underfoot had stopped, replaced with high-pitched squawks, piercing my hearing and surrounding me.
They were watching.
My gaze traced the quill-shaped lines of black ink that ran across his face. He had a hypertrophic scar stamped across his glabella, a spiral that coiled in the middle and branched out above the brow of his left eye.
He extended his arm and, with his clawed finger, signaled for me to move closer. I felt odd, compelled to do as he bid.
“Francesca!”
The darkness broke apart, cracks of light separating the black.
His burning flames extinguished, and he dissipated.
The fragments of light hung in the air until I heard my name again. With the second strike, they bounced and further shattered, becoming tiny shards. In one final swift movement, they disappeared.
I was back.
I looked down at my hand, scrunched into a tight ball. I’d caved in the lemonade glass, sharp pieces gouging into my skin.
“Francesca! Francesca!” Hearing Gabriel’s voice was comforting. It soothed me until I barely felt the glass. “I’m here,” he whispered more calmly, bringing his lips to my cheek. His voice, like a song, traveled through me.
I released my straining fingers, which had crushed the glass shards deeper into my palm. “How did you do that? How did you pull me back here?” I asked softly.
But Gabriel had already left. He rushed back to me, and placed ice cubes in my hand and wrapped a clean patchwork tea towel around my sliced skin.
My hands and legs were shaking uncontrollably, and my knees were knocking together. I was suddenly overwhelmed with a full range of emotions, coupled with complete exhaustion. It felt like I had climbed a mountain to reach this point. A mountain I could barely recall scaling—though the physical and emotional scars all sat below and on my skin from the lengthy journey.
Gabriel leaned in and placed his hands on either side of my chair, which was wobbling as I shook. I turned my face away from him, embarrassed. But he wouldn’t allow it. “Hey…” Gabriel murmured.
His soft voice floated to my hearing, carried by a single breath that tickled my neck as he tilted his face to meet mine. I wasn’t sure how he did it, but my body stopped convulsing.
Hesitantly, I rolled my neck so my eyes met his and I was surprised to see his bottom lip trembling. He gulped, hard. Gabriel stared into my eyes, and I watched his eyebrows dip—he looked sad.
His composure changed and urgently he lifted me up and wrapped his strong arms around my back and waist, pulling me into a tight embrace. I held my hands clamped together on his chest, his chin resting on the top of my head as the tip of my nose brushed his skin just below his Adam’s apple.
Eventually releasing me, he placed his hands over the top of mine, rewrapping the towel firmly. He demanded, “You need to tell me everything.”
I sat back down, and took a few minutes to gather myself while Gabriel sat patiently waiting. His blond curls were pushed back behind his ears, leaving a few unruly strands hanging above his shining eyes. His expectant stare reached deep inside of me. I felt exposed. “What do you want to know?” I asked quietly.
“Let’s start with what just happened,” he said. “You were sitting here one second perfectly fine, and the next thing you’re completely frozen, as if you were in a trance.”
“I was locked in a memory,” I replied. “I have visions of things that happened in the past. Memories, I assume, when I’m asleep, dreaming. Sometimes when I’m awake it happens to me too, if I touch something that was familiar.… Sights, smells, sounds can all take me back.”
Gabriel pondered. “You didn’t look like you were experiencing a happy memory. You broke the glass from gripping it so hard. What did you see?”
“That was something different. I was watching you and me, having a picnic in the summer. But the memory dissolved and something, or rather someone, came to me.”
My hands started to shake again, and my eyes prickled with a stinging sensation. A tear ran down the side of my cheek.
Gabriel appeared startled and began to hum low, comforting sounds. I felt calm instantly. I ran my fingers over my cheeks to dry them and panicked when there was blood on my fingertips.
I stared at Gabriel, confused. “Why are my tears blood?” I asked, as if he might possess the answer.
“Has that happened to you before?” he inquired as he tightened his grip, adding more pressure. It was starting to sting.
“I’m not sure.”
He paused and seemed puzzled with the answer I had given. “Does it hurt?”
“A little,” I replied, looking at my hand.
“Francesca—”
“Call me Cessie,” I interrupted.
His lips curved up just a little at the edges, a sad smile.
“Francesca.” Ignoring my request, he inhaled sharply. “We knew each other, we were quite close … a long time ago.” He stopped to gauge my reaction, and I stiffened.
“I’m pretty old, I get that. But I don’t age; I’ve been seventeen for a very long time. But I can die, it’s just … I wake up again. My dreams, my visions are the only windows into anything that came before, and I don’t pretend to understand them.”
His face fell away from mine so I couldn’t see his expression. He leaned back before he said, “When was the last time that you … died?” His wide eyes flashed up to mine. He seemed to hold his breath as he waited for my answer.
“Six years ago.”
His shoulders slumped forward and I felt him tighten his grip around the tea towel. “So you don’t remember me at all, not really.…” He trailed off.
“Maybe I don’t remember you, but I never forgot you. Who were you to me?”
Glancing up to meet my eyes, I felt warmth resonating from his being, almost stroking my skin. “All that time ago, we were … well, we were close friends.” He smiled.
“I see. If we were friends then how are you still alive?” I asked. “Are you a Vampire too?” I don’t know why I even asked that; I could tell he wasn’t. He was so different.
“No.” He inhaled. “I’m an Angel.” He waited for my reaction.