the fallen;; zm {slow updates}

forty two

CHAPTER FORTY TWO;;

My eyes flickered open to familiar oak paneling on the sloped ceiling above me. My bedroom. A sense of reassurance flooded over me and then I remembered where I had been. In the gym with Arthur. And the memories came rushing into my mind; feeling a shiver slid over my skin.

"Zayn?" I said, my voice hoarse from disuse. I tried to sit up, then gave a muffled cry. Something was wrong with my body. Every muscle, bone, cell was sore. I felt like one giant bruise.

There was movement near the doorway. He was leaning against the doorjamb; his mouth was pressed tight and lacked its usual twinge of humour. His eyes held more depth than I had ever seen before. They were sharpened by a protective edge.

"That was a good fight back there," Zayn says. "But I think you could benefit from a few more boxing edge,"

On a wave, everything came washing back to me and my voice cracked with panic, "What happened? Where's Arthur? How did I get here? I threw myself off the rafter -"

"And that took a lot of courage," His voice turned husky and he stepped all the way inside my bedroom. He closed the door behind him and I knew it was his way of trying to lock out all the bad. He was putting a divide between me and everything that had happened. He walked over and sat on the bed beside me. "What else do you remember?"

I tried to piece my memories together, working backward. I remembered the beating wings I had heard shortly after I flung myself off the rafter. It was almost like a dream, a hallucination that I didn't believe it was real. But without any doubt, I knew I had died. I knew an angel had come to carry my soul away.

"Oh my god. I'm dead, aren't I?" I said quietly, reeling with freight. "Am I a ghost?"

"When you jumped, the sacrifice killed Arthur. Technically, when you came back, he should have too. But since he didn't have a soul, he has nothing to revive the body," He explains. Then, he sighs, looking deep into my eyes and I could've sworn that I saw a flash of desperation and fear in them, "I don't want you to ever do that again, Angel. You hear me? I thought I lost you -"

"I'm sorry," I apologised, knowing that I made him upset with my choices. But my eyes went wide when I realised what he had just told me. "Wait, I came back?"

"I didn't accept your sacrifice. I turned it down. I didn't want it,"

"What, why? It was what you always wanted," I reminded him, feeling a little disappointed. "Why would you give up getting a human body for me?"

Zayn lifted my hand and my eyes caught sight of my bruised knuckles that was still throbbing from punching Arthur. He kissed them, keeping his eyes glued to mine, "What good is a body if I can't have you?"

I smiled at his choice of words, feeling butterflies in my stomach. If he had turned down the sacrifice then ---

"You saved my life!" I exclaimed, not bother hiding the excitement in my voice. "Turn around,"

He gave a sly smile and indulged on my request. I rucked his t shirt up to his shoulder; his back was smooth, defined muscle. The scars were gone.

"You can't see my wings," Zayn tells me. "They're made of spiritual matter,"

"You're a guardian angel now," I was still too much in awe to wrap my mind around it but at the same time I felt amazement, curiosity. . .happiness.