Fallen Angel

☾CHAPTER FOUR

☽ Luke

     "IT IS RARE, but it is possible. You are not the first and you will not be the last."

     Weightless, suspended, and numb, I felt the march of footsteps but knew I wasn't walking. Inside of me, every particle in my body seemed to vibrate like I'd been heated up in a microwave. My head was buzzing. The blood in my veins pulsed to the beat of a silent drum. I felt simultaneously like a cloud and a pile of bricks.

     "Do you really think I'll be okay?"

     Arms were wrapped around me, carrying me like a bride on her wedding day. The vibrations in my body buzzed their way up to my head. My ears rang with a sound like the echo of a steel pipe being hit with a crowbar. Dizziness washed over me, and my head lolled to one side. I tried to open my mouth, tried to speak, but only guttural sounds escaped my throat.

     "Are you awake? I think he is waking." Someone shook me. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't keep them open. "Look. He is blinking like he has hot sauce in his eyes."

     "Mmf." I tried to say something, but my tongue wouldn't cooperate. It lolled out of my mouth and stayed there. I attempted to push it back into my mouth with my hand, but my numb arms didn't know their own strength. They flew in a wild arc, and the person carrying me almost dropped me.

     "He hit me in the face!"

     "On a scale of one-to-ten, how much do you wanna leave him here right now?"

     "Approximately 30 kajillion units of measurement."

     "Rounding up, or...?"

     "Rounding down."

     "Gotcha."

     I forced my eyes open and kept them open, despite the harsh stinging. They filled with painful tears and my vision blurred, but I could just make out the sharp jawline and the Adam's apple of my best friend.

     My body jolted like I'd been electrocuted, and I fell out of Grim's arms faster than a bullet. He dropped my weight and I tumbled down, groaning when I finally rolled to a stop. Every part of me felt broken and bruised, and I would've taken numbness over pain any day.

     "I think he's awake," someone — JT — said drily.

     "Woohoo," Grim said flatly. "You are alive."

     The two of them managed to drag me to the Hell Rock without my bones shattering like glass, although my body still felt like it'd been run over by a tank a couple hundred times. My lungs wheezed like fireplace bellows. I couldn't open my right hand as a result of a bloody gash I couldn't remember receiving. Dried blood covered my whole hand and trailed up my arm, and there were huge crimson patches on my shirt and pants.

     What can I say? I clean up nicely.

     "We are here," Grim announced, stepping away from me. My legs buckled, and I would've collapsed if JT hadn't been there to catch me. She lifted me back up and held me steadily, making sure I wouldn't topple over before hesitantly letting go.

     "Where exactly is 'here'?" she asked, looking around. I guess to an outsider it would look like a regular clearing in a forest, except with a massive boulder just chillin' in the centre. Then again, there was literally nothing aesthetically special about the Hell Rock/The Gates of Hell.

     "The Gates of Hell," Grim answered nonchalantly, like he brought people there all the time. Oh, wait! He did.

      "Grim, why...are...we...here?" I choked out, collapsing onto the Rock. I could barely see in the darkness. My vision blurred suddenly, and I felt my body sway. JT caught me once again and steadied me.