Olive Branch

Chapter 1 - Cecilia

Cecilia knew before she even opened her eyes that she was handcuffed. Perhaps it was a little pathetic to already know that before she'd even opened her eyes that she was handcuffed to something but in her defense, it was hard to ignore the cold metal that was wrapped around her small wrist. It wasn't like this was an uncommon occurrence either, as unfortunate as that sounds. She knew the feeling of a handcuff when she came into contact with it. Which had to be why it wasn't surprising when she opened her eyes to find that yes, indeed, her right wrist was entrapped by the cruel metal.

To her shock, it wasn't a bar that she was handcuffed to. It was a girl.

An Angel.

Cecilia recoiled instantly, inching away from the sleeping girl because while she might not feed into the stigma that a Demon and an Angel shouldn't be together, mostly because it was stupid, but the idea that she had no knowledge as to why she was handcuffed to this particular Angel, let alone, no idea who she was, was enough to convince her of only the worst things. Her wings fluttered, flapping uneasily in the air, as Cecilia forced herself into a sitting position the best she could without waking the other girl.

The ground was cold and hard, concrete was the worst to wake up on. Cecilia scanned the room for any sort of clues as to what was happening but all she found were shelves and shelves of stocked goods. Some sort of warehouse if she had to guess. It was a terribly inconvenient way to wake up. Even less of a place that she would have willingly brought someone, especially handcuffed. It couldn't have been some sort of drunken dare. She didn't have a hangover. She would have remembered something like that.

The Angel groaned, wings twitched and beat against the ground gently. Cecilia shifted, almost too worried to move because she was sure that if she did, something would go wrong and she'd be the blame once again. While she could be the one to blame, there wasn't any evidence to support that claim. In fact, if anything, Cecilia had even more evidence to blame the Angel. It was clearly not her own fault. And if it couldn't be her, it had to be the only other person around. That was typically how logic works.

The Angel was certainly interesting. She had short blonde hair cut close to her face in a pixie cut that continued to slide down her forehead and into her eyes. Two wings lay under her in what was bound to be an uncomfortable position, but they shone a pure white against the gray and dirtied concert. Her clothes were rather simple as if she'd taken a look at the modern, twenty-first-century teenager and bought the most similar-looking outfit she could find. Her hands curled against the ground repeatedly, slim fingers opening and shutting over and over for a reason Cecilia was unsure about. She was a pretty thing, at least while she was asleep, and she turned fitfully as if the dull pain in her back had suddenly become too much.

Cecilia was positive that the Angel would have slept longer but the chain connecting them rattled and it startled the girl awake. She shot up, frantic and quite the opposite of Cecilia herself, glancing around the warehouse in a panic. Her wings shot out and Cecilia's own came around her quickly, vailing her in a sheet of black feathers before she could be hurt.

"What... what did you do?" The girl spat after a minute. Cecilia uncurled her wings enough to peek out and was met with the harsh glare only an Angel could give. Now, this? This wasn't right. Cecilia had already gone through the mental checklist and concluded that this situation occurred through no fault of her own. In fact, she was so sure that she could only conclude that it had to be the other's.

"Very funny," Cecilia chuckled, forcing herself to laugh and opening her wings back up the rest of the way. "You angels think you're so clever, don't you? It was a great joke, waking up in the middle of a warehouse with no knowledge of how I got here, but you can cut the gig now. You had your fun." The Angel sputtered, crystal blue eyes widening, and she pulled on the chain connecting them as if to test if it worked.