Before the Fall

by L. G. Castillo

  Before the Fall

  (Broken Angel #3)

  L.G. Castillo

  Copyright © 2014 by L.G. Castillo

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, or institutions is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

  Cover Design: Mae I Design

  Before the Fall/ L.G. Castillo

  First Edition: March 2014

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  THANK YOU

  1

  Naomi carefully placed herself in one of the overgrown bushes behind her grandmother’s house, careful not to scratch her arms.

  She held her breath when she heard the crunching of pebbles. Someone was near her hiding place.

  There was a tug on one of her thick ponytails.

  “Ugh! Chuy! Go away. Find your own hiding place.”

  “Awww, come on, Naomi. I don’t want Lalo to find me first,” Chuy said, a skinny arm reaching out to tug her hair again.

  She whacked it away. “That’s what you get for making a bet with him against your Luke Skywalker doll.”

  “It’s not a doll. It’s an action figure.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  “Please Naomi, you’re smaller than me. You can find another place to hide.”

  Seven-year-old Naomi looked her cousin Chuy up and down. This wasn’t the first time he had tried to cheat when they played hide-and-seek with his best friend Lalo Cruz and other kids in the neighborhood. Her father had told her to be nice to him. Chuy had lost his parents a few years ago. He lived with their grandmother, Welita. Every summer, Naomi spent two weeks with Welita and Chuy. She loved it, despite Chuy’s constant teasing.

  She turned and peeked through the bush.

  “I don’t know.”

  Chuy rubbed the back of her neck, chanting, “I wish Naomi would leave and find a new hiding place.”

  “Stop it, Chuy!” She slapped his hand away. Ever since Chuy discovered the patch of freckles on the back of her neck when they went swimming two weeks ago, he’d been rubbing it and making wishes. He claimed it looked like the number seven and that it had to be lucky.

  A chubby brown hand reached in and Lalo yelled, “You’re it!”

  “Damn it, Chuy! Now look what you did.” She stomped out of the bushes.

  “Chuy! Naomi! Lunch is ready!” Welita’s voice yelled from a distance.

  “Ooh, what’s for lunch?” Lalo asked as they all ran to the front of the house.

  “Chicken mole,” Chuy said.

  “My favorite.”

  “You say that about everything Welita cooks.”

  “Because it’s true.”

  “You better ask Welita if Lalo can eat lunch with us,” Naomi said, panting.

  “Welita, can Lalo have lunch with us?” Chuy asked when they reached the front porch.

  Welita stood on the top step, wiping her hands on her apron. “He eats lunch with us every day.”

  She looked over her pink tinted glasses at Lalo. “Isn’t your mother expecting you?”

  “No, I told her I was over here and that you’re the best cook in all of Houston. Then she threw her chancla at me and started yelling. I think she’s mad.”

  Naomi giggled at the vision of his mother’s flip-flop sailing through the air. She knew it was a harmless gesture. But, he should know better than to insult a woman’s cooking.

  “Ay, Dios mío.” Welita pulled a kitchen cloth from her apron pocket and wiped her forehead. “I’ll have to have a talk with her this afternoon and make it up to her. Don’t worry, Lalo. I’ll set things right.”

  “Thanks, Welita,” he said as he and Chuy ran up the porch steps.

  “Naomi,” Welita placed a hand on her shoulder when she reached the top step. “Would you take down the sheets? I hung them early this morning. They should be dry by now.”

  “But Chuy and Lalo will eat everything by the time I finish. They’re probably half done by now.”

  “I promise your lunch will be there when you come in. It’ll only take a minute.”

  “Oh, alright.” Naomi leapt off the porch and ran to the back yard where Welita hung the sheets to dry. She definitely knew what she was going to ask of her parents for Christmas this year—a dryer for Welita.

  As she turned the corner, she heard Welita yelling. “Ay, stop eating so fast. Now I have to make more for me and Naomi.”

  Naomi slowed down. There was no need to hurry now.

  The white sheets flapped in the wind. She placed a hand on one of them. It was dry. Stepping on her tiptoes, she reached for the clothespins.

  She was about to fold it when from the corner of her eye she saw a shadow moving behind the other sheet.

  “Ha, ha, Chuy. You can’t scare me. I know it’s—”

  Her jaw dropped when a woman floated toward her, the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Her dark hair lay in soft waves on her shoulders. Her skin was like smooth porcelain. She wore a delicate cream-colored dress with lace around the collar. The dress fluttered as she approached.

  Soft hazel eyes gazed at her. As scared as Naomi was, it seemed like the woman couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The woman reached out her hand slowly.

  “Naomi,” the woman breathed.

  “Uhhhh.”

  “I’m sorry.” The woman pulled her hand back. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  Naomi took a deep breath and jutted her chin out. “I’m not scared.”

  The woman clapped her hands with delight. “It is you. You’re finally here. I’ve waited so long for you.”

  Naomi looked around for Chuy and Lalo. They had obviously paid this woman to come and trick her. Though she had no idea how they came up with the cash.

  “Who are you? How do you know me?”

  “We knew each other once a long time ago. My name is Rebecca.”

  Naomi scrunched her face. “I don’t remember you.”

  “You wouldn’t. But someday I hope you will.” She looked around as if expecting someone. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Okay.”

  “But I’m not sure if you will believe me. You’re still young so maybe you will.”

  “What is it?”

  She got down on her knees and looked into her eyes. “I’m an angel.”

  Naomi looked at her skeptically. “You are?”

  She nodded. “I want to show you something. Don’t be scared.”

  Rebecca placed a hand on her forehead. “Hizahri”

  Naomi wondered what the strange word meant. It didn’t sound like English
or Spanish. There was a dull sensation in her temples as if she was about to get a headache. She saw a vision of a young woman with long dark hair and pale blue eyes. She gasped. It looked like her if she were grown up. It was as if Rebecca was showing her the future. But it couldn’t be. The young woman looked like she’d stepped out of the Ten Commandments movie set. That was the longest four hours she’d ever had to sit through watching a movie with Welita.

  The vision changed to a young man that looked like Rebecca. The man was extremely handsome and strong. When he approached the young woman, she smiled and called him “Lahash.”

  Rebecca removed her hands and the vision disappeared.

  “Hey, I want to see more.” The man named Lahash looked familiar. Maybe she’d seen him in one of those Christmas plays that Welita liked to drag her to during the holidays. That was the only place she could remember seeing men dressed in robes and carrying around big sticks.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t show you more.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, let’s say I could get in trouble with my boss for what I did show you.” She stood up and walked toward the hanging sheet.

  “Wait! When will I see you again?” Naomi brushed her bangs off her sweaty forehead.

  “Not for some time,” Rebecca said, turning to face her. “And I fear that when I return, you won’t see me.”

  “Why not?”

  She rubbed her eyes when Rebecca’s body started to fade. “Because when people grow up, they stop believing.”

  “I won’t. Please come back and show me more. I won’t stop believing.”

  Rebecca gave her a soft smile. “And that is why you are special, Naomi.”

  Then, she was gone.

  ***

  Naomi gawked at Rebecca. A gentle smile lingered on her face when she finished speaking. Everyone around the room—Jeremy, Lash, Uri, Rachel, Raphael, and even Gabrielle—looked at Rebecca with anticipation.

  When Rebecca began her story about how she met Raphael, Naomi hadn’t expected her to begin with the time she had played hide-and-seek with Chuy and Lalo.

  “I think...” Naomi said, breaking the silence. “I remember that happening. I didn’t think it was real. I thought it was a dream. Like the time I dreamed about the Sesame Street characters having a parade in my neighborhood.”

  “You dreamed about Big Bird?” Lash flashed a lopsided grin.

  “Who is this ‘Big Bird’?” Uri whispered.

  “I’ll show you later,” Rachel replied under her breath.

  “Oh, sounds kinky.”

  Naomi rolled her eyes at Uri’s response. “You’re missing the point,” she said to Lash. “When I was a kid, my dreams felt so real I thought they were really happening. When I got older, I knew better. Like there was no way Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus would be in front of my house in the middle of the night. I always assumed it was a dream.”

  “So you thought meeting Rebecca was a dream,” Gabrielle said.

  “Yes, thank you. I mean, I was just a kid and then . . . and then I grew up.” She gazed back at Rebecca, swallowing thickly. “And I broke my promise. I stopped believing.”

  When did that happen? Is this really what happens when you grow up? Naomi thought.

  “Oh, no.” She turned to Lash. “What if I hadn’t stopped believing? What if I had held on to it? Maybe I would have remembered you. I mean, there were times right after I first met you when I felt like I knew you. There were bits and pieces of memories that came into my head. It was so strange. I didn’t know where they came from. I had déjà vu every time I was with you, and I just pushed it all away.”

  “You didn’t know,” he said, taking her hand in his. “Hey, neither did I.”

  “Naomi,” Rebecca crossed the room. Lash moved over to give her space and she sat between them. “I didn’t share the event with you to make you feel bad. I wanted you to understand that I was always there watching and waiting for you.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s part of our family’s story.”

  “Our story is not an easy one to tell,” Raphael said. “All of us”—he swept his hand around the room—“experienced what transpired long ago differently. If we all share what we remember, we can get a better understanding of what happened. Shall I begin?”

  “Okay,” Naomi said as the others nodded.

  “It all began when Raguel—excuse me, I mean Rachel—and I were sent on a mission to the city of Ai.”

  “Oh my,” Rachel said. “That was such a long time ago. I haven’t thought about that time in ages. That’s when I changed my name for Obadiah.”

  “I thought you changed your name because Jeremy started to call you Ragú spaghetti sauce,” Lash said.

  “I did not call her that,” Jeremy said. “Oh, wait. I did.”

  “Classic.” Uri grinned, fist bumping him.

  Rachel glared at Uri and he choked back a laugh, clearing his throat.

  “Sorry, my love. Just trying to lighten the mood. I do not like to remember what I was like . . . how I treated you so many years ago.”

  “I know. It’s hard for me too, but we survived.” She kissed his cheek softly before turning back to Naomi. “Now where was I?”

  “You were talking about a man named Obadiah,” Naomi said.

  “Oh yes. Obadiah. I remember that time so well. It was the first time I touched a human.”

  2

  1400 B.C.

  “Are you sure, Raphael?” Raguel asked.

  Archangel Raphael studied the cluster of tents at the bottom of the hill. Tears glistened in his eyes as he took in the people who made their home outside the city gates. They were outcasts, shunned for a disease they had no control over. Young or old, man or woman, wealthy or poor, it didn’t matter to the people of Ai. Once the sores appeared on the flesh, the person was thrown out of the city’s protection. In their eyes, God had turned his back on the disease-ridden, and so should they.

  He turned to his petite companion. “Yes. I am sure. We were sent to bring comfort to them. How can they feel comfort without touch?”

  Her brown eyes widened at his words. “Michael would be angry if he found out.”

  Raphael smiled. “Then let’s not tell him, shall we? They have been removed from their homes, shunned by their family. They have suffered enough.”

  “They’re afraid. These people show all the signs of leprosy and have been declared unclean.”

  Raphael frowned. “They are still His children. They deserve any comfort we can give them.” He looked down at her. “We may not be allowed to heal their bodies, but we can heal their souls. The mere touch of a loving hand can mend a broken heart.”

  She looked down at her hands. “I’ve never touched a human before. What does it feel like?”

  “Warm, alive. It’s like no other feeling I’ve ever experienced. The Most High has created a magnificent creature.”

  “I know the feeling.” Her eyes gazed in the distance, and by the expression on her face, Raphael knew her thoughts were of Uriel, Heaven’s Archangel of Death. If it hadn’t been for Gabrielle telling him about Raguel’s growing feelings for Uriel, he would’ve never known. He was not one to notice such small things. Thankfully, Gabrielle had sent Raguel on this Earthly mission with him, in hopes that she would get distance from Uriel. Though there was good deep in Uriel’s heart, lately he walked a fine line between good and immoral, much like Lucifer.

  Lucifer was a dear friend to him and admired by all in Heaven. Although lately, Raphael felt discomforted by some of the outrageous suggestions Lucifer had made to him. Over the years, Lucifer had amassed himself a number of followers, or friends, as he preferred to call them. He talked of how God loved humans more than his angels. He claimed that angels should rule humans, rather than serving them. At one point, he had even suggested that angels breed humans out by taking humans as wives and creating a master race greater than the one God had created.

  Raphael shivered at the thought. It
was when Lucifer showed his envious side that Raphael saw evil taking root within his friend.

  He looked at Raguel and the soft expression on her face. His brow furrowed with worry. Her love for Uriel would test her if he chose the path of immorality. Like humans, all angels were given free will. He worried about her. Her only salvation was that the selfish Uriel did not appear to reciprocate her feelings—he was too infatuated with himself.

  “Do you know how to change form?”

  He took her hand in his, ready to assist if necessary. It was rare for any of the angels to be sent to Earth. Most of their work was limited to watching over people from the Heavens. When angels were sent, they rarely took on their human form. He himself had only done so once . . . with Archangel Michael’s permission.

  “No. Is it difficult?”

  “Not at all. First, you must fold your wings into your body.”

  “They can do that?”

  “There are many things we can do. You are not aware of the gifts we have compared to humans.”

  “Well, I haven’t really interacted with them. It’s my first assignment on Earth,” she said as she moved her shoulders back and forth, face scrunched as she tried to figure out how to fold in her wings.

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, it might be the first of many more to come. I recall a time when angels were sent to Earth maybe once or twice a century. Now, the frequency has risen, and I fear we will be needed more in the future.” For some strange reason, Lucifer came to mind as he said that. He shook the thought away.

  Raguel stopped flapping her wings.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  He circled around her and placed his hands on the back of her shoulders. “It works better if you stand still. Now, pull your shoulders back and turn the shoulder blades inward as if you were trying to get them to touch each other.”

  “Like this?” Her small chest puffed out as she pulled back her shoulders.

  “Yes. Very good. Clench your back a little and your wings should—”

  With a loud whoosh, she stumbled forward, wings snapping into her body.

  “Ouch! Does it always hurt like that?”

  He chuckled and held out his hand to help her up. “You clenched a bit too hard. You will get used to it with practice.