In The Arms of an Angel

Epilogue:

She scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue, straining with the effort and struggle of her reach.

"Damn these short arms." She cursed as she edged herself closer, slowly and cautiously moving her feet that much closer to the edge. She was so close, the book would soon be in her reach, she could almost feel her success now, the proud warm feeling rushing through her as she held onto her book and gratefully flipped through the seemingly endless pages to prove herself right.

She hated being wrong, despised it in fact, a quality her father says she inherited from her mother although now, after having lived a full sixteen years of life, Contessa believed that both her parents contributed rightly to her pride.

"You're going to fall." The wise words of Aidan, her eldest brother floated through the rafters as he watched his little sister. He was always so wise or so she thought, she often looked up to him as a child.

"Let her fall, it's the only way she'll learned her lesson." Her other brother Alexander waved off any concern as he went about his task. Alexander was only eighteen, not too much older than Contessa making it hard for her to really take him seriously as an authority figure often leading them to have many fights all broken up by either their parents or much older brother.

It was because of Alexander she was up in the first place.

"I've almost got it - " she strand one last time before her foot slipped and she came tumbling down - her hands reaching out to grab the first thing they could.

With a loud thud, Contessa landed in heap pile on the floor only to soon be joined by the loud sounds of everything falling around her.

She had grabbed the large curtains on the way down which led to the breaking on a window as the metal curtain rode feel awkwardly into the thick glass while the other end of the stick hit the ladder sending it backwards and into the bookshelf, now beginning to fall and free itself of the hundreds of books on its large shelf.

Aidan and Alexander watched on in horror as the large library became a war zone in only one swift and un unwise movement by their little sister.

"She never stops to think." Aidan sighed as he watched the last object to break - their mothers favourite and most beloved glass vase.

"Mum is going to kill us." Alexander nodded with the realization. "And not just metaphorically, no, she is going to full on murder us!" His panic began to rise with the very thought of igniting his mother's wrath. Too many times grounded as a small child can do that to a young man.

"Someone. Help. Please." Contessa groaned as she struggled to get up having fell a good distance.

Her two brothers quickly rushed to her aid, pushing through some books to rescue her once again.

"Tess, how many times do I have to tell you to be careful."

Contessa rolled her eyes and let the boys pull her to her feet and dust her off before she held up her hand in triumph. She may have caused more damage then its worth, but she had the book like she promised and was ready and waiting to give Alexander her winning proof.

It was a dusty old book that the children hadn't reached for in years. It was part of a 'private collection' their father kept on the top shelf. Their mother had often told them not to touch them and that they nothing important but the children couldn't resist the urge to read them - not even Aidan, the wisest of them all.

Contessa and Alexander didn't understand why they were private and why they were off limits to them. The books talked about a place in the Bermuda triangle, another realm of sorts where all things that went bump in the night hid from the world. The two loved the tails and often debated about the stories in the books and searched through each book for proof to prove the other wrong - just like now.