| FANG-FREAKIN-TASTIC FEATURE AUTHOR | divine purpose. Maybe she wasn’t my charge to protect, but I had flown as fast as I could. I meant Each moment that ticked by, a resolve grew and hardto reach her before something happened that I ened in my heart. couldn’t fix. Vengeance could still be mine. My creators demanded obedience to the hierarchy. I could not move against the Death Angel. The He dragged her lifeless body into the corner of the allaws of the supernatural assured it. I could only ley and covered her with dirt and trash. One foot shoewatch the end unfold. less, the other tied in a ballet slipped that her mother had given her as a reward for good grades. Longing curled my toes and weakened my ankles until I swayed and wished an avenging jusI grimaced at the row of gargoyles beside me, positice onto the world. I should have been sooner. I tioned every few feet along the parapet that surrounded the flat portion of the rooftop. Thunder interrupted the should have sacrificed myself to save her. I could have. As an angel, I existed inside the spiritual, cacophony of prayers that the stone figures funneled hidden from the physical, and I remained to watch upward from a thousand voices below. of the rest of the hideous scene play out. The clouds parted. Another brilliant flash of lightning Helpless. illuminated the posh uptown. Fire escapes laced the sides of the old buildings. Each one crisscrossed the A long sigh drifted toward me, intermingled with walls like jagged arrows, the ladder-tips pointing to the alleyway. the low grunts of evil bent on finishing its task of destruction. He doused a bright light, the impact of that moment slammed me into a darkness so Defeated, I turned toward the high-rise apartments behind me. From a window, another man watched the deep. city, his finger tapping his chin. A helicopter whirred I stepped over the edge and landed on the paveoverhead. ment behind the creature that dared harm my HanAn empty train ran along its elevated tracks. The winnah. I tucked my wings away. dows blinked like celluloid frames of a silent film, and Her last heartbeat shuddered through me. the rhythmic clacking was the orchestral accompaniment. On this street, a woman wept at a bus stop, and My knees trembled, and I crept forward. a siren echoed like the memory of the cries of the condemned, burned at the hypocritical stake, hundreds of She left her body. It was finished. years ago. Death gathered her in his arms, and the laws of my world meant I had to leave her in the arms of its mercy. Above us, tears streaked the gargoyles faces, weeping each time an innocent died. She made no more sounds. I arrived too late. My sweet Hannah. 68 | UncagedBooks.com
Obedience thwarted my intentions. I wasn’t supposed to step in. The One Rule was clear. Do only what you’re told when you’re told to do it. Nothing more, nothing less. I couldn’t help Hannah. I had been too late to rescue her. What useless wings.