Unfortunately for me, the fall itself didn’t kill me. Descending from Heaven didn’t entail a great height as much as it did a great distance. Even though the journey itself was never-ending, even as I felt the last of my Grace disappear into nothing, at the end of it all, I was still alive.
(What a pity, what a pity.)
The first thing I felt was pain. It crawled up and down my arms and legs and all along my back, snapping ferociously at the junctures where my wings had extended. The sudden realization of loss sent a different kind of pain crawling, consuming, through my chest.
(My wings, my beautiful wings…)
There was pressure building at the base of my throat and I remembered that humans had to breathe—but when I inhaled, a hurt I’d never known before blossomed immediately into another, almost physical, pain and my breath was accompanied by a sharp, stilted sob.
I felt dizzy and weak. I couldn’t even summon the strength to rise to my feet, so great was the pain in my head and my chest. I had fallen straight into the form I had kept for the last few centuries, but without any of my powers, I was as powerless as I felt.
(What do I do now? Where do I go?)
Moisture gathered at the corner of my eyes and then escaped in torrents. It was as though there was a hand wound tight around my throat and a boulder sitting atop my chest and all I could do was sit there, hurting. I’d never known fear before this moment. Of course, I’d never cried before either.
(Yunho knew. Yunho knew.)
Yunho, who’d held me and kissed me and made promises to me, who I trusted more than I had myself, who had always favored me since the beginning of time—he had known all along. So many times I’d seen him, so many opportunities he had to tell me that they were going to rip my Grace from me and he hadn’t said a word.
“Help.” The word came out a whimper, but I had nothing left—not my pride, not my wings, not even the one being in the universe I thought I could trust without reserve. The sound trailed into the night and the field remained quiet and empty. “Please help me.”
romaincrisis
