Part 16 (2/2)
”Who... who are you?” She asks, chancing to open her eyes, only for blinding white light to send her pressing her eyelids tightly shut again.
”Oh G.o.d! I'm dead!” She cries out panicked.
”Yes, but all will be alright!” The voice echoes with benevolence, though it lacks tenderness.
”I'm dead! I'm dead...”
”Relax. Azrael has your soul now.”
”And?” She asks terrified, her voice a high pitched shriek.
”He will give you back your life.”
”Who are you?”
A sigh escapes her before she answers, ”Archangel Gabriel!”
”Oh!” Is all Caroline manages to say, as shock of the incredulity of it all weighs down on her.
”As I was saying, it's good you came. Now I can grant you what you need to be strong in your quest.”
”It's not my quest!” She manages to retort firmly.
”It is all mankind's quest...”
”It is a battle of angels against fellow angels!”
”Yes, but it is for mankind's sake.”
”I just wish you'd all leave me alone,” she implores.
”I'll grant you some tools...”
”Can't you pick another soul to do this...”
”Would you stop being difficult!” The voice orders firmly. ”You are currently the only portal back home, the only channel of communication. I can't risk not putting you back to life for the chance that another child born would host my consciousness so effectively.”
”What about my free will? Do I get a choice in this?”
”You've always had a choice. You agreed to this before you were born, you yourself chose your own destiny in this lifetime. But in the next one, if by some miracle you refuse, something you've never managed to do in the past thousands of lives that you've lived...
”Thousands!”
”..You will get the choice again,” the Archangel finishes curtly, attempting to suppress her impatience.
”I don't understand...” A strange warmth radiates through her body right then, stopping her words mid-sentence as it sears her nerves. But the sensation is gone just as quickly as it began.
”Go back. You're now well equipped with the necessary tools...”
”What tools?”
”Communication, the grace of perseverance, among others. Tools you'll need for your quest...”
”I told you, it is not my quest..!”
”Caroline?”
”Caroline?”
”Why is it taking so long?”
”I don't know. She should be back by now..”
”Caroline? Caroline!” A voice calls from somewhere in the distance.
”Caroline?”
Did I just die? I think to myself. However even just trying to think is painful, so much so that I seek the dark abyss in a certain corner of my mind and hide there. I won't leave this place, I think. I will not get out there. I don't know how long I stay there, before the voice starts calling me again.
”Caroline?”
I hear it call, sounding like it is coming from a very distant place. I don't move from my dark corner, scared of the unbearable pain any movement could create.
”Why isn't she rising?” Another voice sounds in the distance. A worried voice. ”This was a terrible idea!”
”It was your idea!” Another bellows in repressed anger.
”You two shut up! Maybe she is just scared. Caroline?”
”Princess, princess open your eyes,” another gentle voice calls, but I don't obey it, I don't move, I don't let myself even think. Out there is pain, in here is calm numbness and darkness. I am not getting back out there. Instead I coc.o.o.n myself in the dark corner of my mind, creating the walls around me and making them thicker and thicker.
”She is slipping further away...”
”It's your fault! Now we can't go home!” A sound like a loud clang of swords meeting angrily ensues, right after the sounds of powerful wings snapping open.
”You said you'd bring her back!” Another voice accuses, before the sounds of steel meeting steel over and over again continues.
”I a.s.sumed she'd want to come back! I did not think she would embrace her death!”
”Stop you two. Stop this instance!” A different voice calls frantically. ”You are acting like cherubs! We need to put our heads together and come up with a solution!”
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