The Daughters

Fourteen

I walk along the wet road towards the wreckage. A car crushed against a tree, the front of the vehicle not even recognizable as it tragically embraces the strong trunk of the tree. Skid marks from tires show me its path as I walk to the driver's side. A young woman's body crushed between the steering wheel and the driver's seat; they would need to use her driver's license to identify her. I place my scythe on her swollen forehead and watch her soul leave and float beside me before her soul shifts into her human appearance. She looks at me in confusion before her bottom lip pouts and starts to quiver. Instead of her, I hear a young baby cry out. Her eyes widen in panic, before looking to the car. 

"My baby!" she cries out, she then looks at me begging me with her eyes. "Please help her," Tears roll down her face as she falls to her knees, grabbing my robe in desperation. I sigh as I look at the car and walk towards the sound of crying. I look into the car and see a car seat protecting the infant. The infant screams in terror, and I open the door. The shrill of her cries seem louder, and I allow my body to materialize to the human world so that I may pick her up. The mother peers over my shoulder as she looks down lovingly at her child, though sad tears still rush down her cheeks. She tries to touch the crying infant's forehead, but her hand goes straight through, causing her to sob harder.

 I look at the crying mother for a moment; it was impossible to let a soul materialize to touch human bodies. No reaper had that power, yet something comes over me as I find myself touching the woman's forehead with two fingers, a slight glow goes through before I let my hand drop. I then hand her the baby, a surprised gasp goes through her as the infant coos in her arms. 

I look ahead and see a truck coming our way. I look back at the mother and see her already looking at me with a pained expression, but she nods her head in understanding while clutching the baby closer to her. She looks down at her infant once more, and I hear her whisper how she loves her so before rushing towards the truck, waving her hands frantically. The car pulls over an older man rushes out, making sure the woman is okay, she hands him the baby as he calls 911. The man quickly walks to the wreckage with the baby in arms, and with his back to her, I take the materialization away; she is no longer visible to the living. I watch the older man stop in shock as he spots the woman's mangled body in the car, he turns around frantically looking for her as he explains to the police where the wreck is.  

I turn back to the woman and extend my hand; her lip trembled as she struggles to hold herself together; nevertheless, with one last glance to her child, she takes my hand. Knowing she has no other choice. My wings break from my back, and I carry her to the gates of heaven. 

**

Somehow I find myself back on earth on the banks of a lake. The lilac purple that mixes with pink, pink cools to orange and orange burns to the golden sun. I materialize myself and close my eyes as I feel the breeze flow through my hair as the departing sun's rays kiss my skin goodbye. I open my eyes as she continues to slip beneath the lake, the moon not far from taking her place.

"Thana, are you okay?" I don't turn my head at Avalyn's voice as I stare at the fleeting sun as if I had never seen a sunset. 

How could I put into words the grief I was feeling, how could I explain that the devil awakened my aching soul? How do you tell someone that Lucifer made me crave the warmth of a sunset, even if I am only left with the cold from the night sky in the end? I had been scorned from love before, killed by it. Yet Lucifer made me want to forget about it all, and I could not understand why. I had gone more than a century without love, to the point of forgetting its definition. Love was only an illusions humans constructed, and yet here I was dressed in envy of the sunset.

"I want to feel it again," I whisper as a dark sky takes over where the warm colors once were.  I squeeze my eyes shut and look down as I start to miss the warmth from the sun as the cold emptiness of night sky takes its place. "I just want to feel it again."