by Luke Valen
My body moved out of pure instinct. Muscle memory. It was as if I was becoming myself again. Someone I had once been, someone forgotten.
Memories flashed through my mind, memories I could not recognize. They all came so quickly, like a slideshow set on hyper speed. Images blurred together. Though they were unrecognizable, my body saw them. My body felt them. Emotions of all kinds flooded my being, only to be overcome by the thought of her. The feeling she gave me. When her lips touched mine for the first time. The sound of her sweet voice saying those three words I could never unhear.
The falling rain began to sting as I ran faster, each raindrop hitting my face like endless bullets from the clouds arsenal of dihydrogen oxide. The pain was numbed by the feeling of anger. Anger toward whoever was behind this. Anger toward Uncle’s pain. Anger to those who took Nile. My mother. And now taking away the one person I loved, the one person who loved me. I would not let it happen. I ran faster and faster, so fast I streaked the sky invisible to the naked eye.
I began to catch up to her. Getting closer and closer, she was within view. Fifty yards away now. The ground began to shake, more violently than before.
My mind flew backward to a fateful day. My birth, I could remember the rain, the screaming, the feeling of fear, the feeling of losing something I once loved. I could remember the earthquakes. The planet on which I now lived shaking as it rotated on its invisible axis, floating in space, tracking the gravitational pull of the sun.
Trying my hardest, I focused on running and nothing else. Placing one foot after the other was more difficult with the shifting plates below me. Twenty yards away. I’ve almost got her. Lightning lit the night sky left and right, the electrons collided like a massive highway pileup one after the others. The whites and purples bounced off my face.
Ten yards away. She is so close.
Five yards.
I reached out my hand. Her eyes—the fear in her eyes—it broke me.
“Abigail!” I screamed, reaching my hand out, stretching it every inch I could.
The ground began to crack and rip open forty yards ahead. A deep fissure formed in the earth. So deep, bubbles of molten magma from the planet’s core spouted out from the canyon like angry volcanoes.
“Grab my hand!” I could feel her fingers touching mine—I’ve almost got her. She was being pulled so fast through the air.
“Dean,” she whispered.
I was too late.
Her soul—torn from her body—exited in full form. I could see the life leave her physical eyes, the fear transferred into the eyes of her translucent soul. Time reached slow motion. Her body fell just inches from the cliff’s edge, landing in my arms.
I slid to my knees, pushing pebbles and rocks into the bottomless fissure. Her transparent hand reached desperately for mine as I watched her being dragged down. Down into the depths of Hell. I couldn’t reach, desperately as I tried.
Holding her soulless body in my arms, I could not move. The heat from the fiery depths licked my face like the tongue of a dragon as the cold rain pounded me from above. My mind went blank. No fear. No anger. No love. Nothing.
I felt…nothing.
Then…tears.
Tears formed in my lost eyes, dropping like the rain that fell from above. Rage flooded my being. Every cell in my body. Rage. Blood and rage pumped through my veins. I could feel my soul ripping from its seams. My heart pounding out of its cage. My skin began to feel hot, smoldering hot. I could feel my skin tightening as my muscles expanded.
I was completely aware. Completely in control.
No longer bound by the rules, I let myself go. I bowed my head. “Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…I will fear no evil.”
Ripping through my skin like razors, they emerged. The length of twenty-five yards on each end, half a football field in total, they unraveled in all their glory. Like the wings of an eagle, they spread. Stretching and spreading my feathers, I placed her empty shell of a body on the soft earth below. Leaving nothing behind but fear, I dove in. The blistering heat scorched my face.
Ready or not…here I come.
About the Author
Luke Valen, born and raised in small town America, grew up on green chili and hot desert days. After attending New Mexico State University, Luke embarked on his life journey in the direction of Los Angeles, California. He has had the pleasure of sharing the television screen with some of the best. From network shows of TNT, CBS, TBS, and more, Luke has expanded his skills from script to screen. Though a more true flame burned within; the fires of an author. Having always had a passion for creating, writing was no stranger. In fact, creating alternate worlds from pen to paper has always been his number one art form.
“I can’t wait for my daughters to enter the world of books, to enter the world of Angelfire.”—Luke Valen
Having now completed his debut novel, book one of three in the ANGELFIRE series, the invisible war is becoming visible. Luke lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and daughter (and another on the way).
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