2 Broken Covenant

Is this how dying feels like?

For a few seconds, I started getting flashbacks of my entire life. Most of them were the happy moments I treasured.

I can clearly see Celandine in front of me. The beauty of her emerald hair freely flowing. Her soft cherry lips smiling at me. I can hear her soothing voice calling out to me. Her arms were wide open -- trying to call me home.

Her eyes, her soft beautiful eyes are staring straight at me, but my God -- they were the most beautiful pair of eyes I have ever seen. I am probably getting delirious, that I am laughing at my hallucinations.

Celandine always had a pair of hazy blue eyes. She's blind, she can't be looking at me with those beautiful pair of eyes. But I have always imagined her to be prettier if those haze has not dimmed her eyesight.

I am indeed getting delirious, death will be here to claim me any time soon. I am happy that the sight of my beautiful wife will be the last thing that I will see -- even if it was all nothing but a product of my hallucinations.

I've been staring at her for God knows how long now, but it was funny that every second I fall, Celandine's image is becoming vivid. I feel like she is falling her way into me, reaching out to me -- as if she was trying to catch me.

What's funnier, is how she suddenly grew some wings. Now I am becoming unsure if the rush of air I am feeling through my battered body was due to the pull of gravity, or was it because of those gigantic pair of wings fluttering from each side.

I always thought of my wife as an angel -- but to see her become a literal angel in my sight at the last minutes of my life is utterly a divine comedy. My brain is probably entering into a dissociative state, trying to shield me from the tragic fact, that I will be dying very soon and my body will either be crashed, get squished, or get drowned to death.

I am losing the battle. In between all of it, I felt Celandine's hand as she caught me. Then I felt something soft, as my body crashed into hers. She held me tightly in her arms. Her wings enveloped both of us into safety -- keeping all those debris away from crashing into us.

"C-c-celandine, my wife," I mumbled in between my tears.

I could feel her warmth. Being in her arms made me feel comfortable and safe. My head is still trying to be logical -- as if it's trying to pull me away from going to a complete dissociation.

My, I am too tired to figure anything out. I don't care if this is real or not anymore. I am just too tired, too tired. I am giving up.

Then I saw a blinding light...

- x - x - x - x - O - O - O - x - x - x - x -

"Estrelle! Stop this! You are breaking the covenant! It will not be worth it!"

I lift my head up and saw another celestial being appeared just a few meters above me. It was the archangel Lovelle.

"I'm sorry Lovelle! I am willing to pay penitence or whatever you see fit. I just can't watch him die like this. At least not now."

I look at the man cradled between my arms. I can hear his labored breathing, and his heartbeat is starting to get slower. He is losing his consciousness. It won't be long until I lose my privileges as an angel for breaking the covenant. I must do something now.

Just beneath us, I caught sight of the Archangel Azraelle. The sight of her only means one thing -- death.

Only a miracle could save him now! If only I could perform a miracle at will!

Miracles are not so easy to perform. People often think that angels are equally created and could easily perform them. The truth is -- it requires spending hundreds of years in sanctification to learn the divine knowledge and acquire the power to bend the rules of the natural world at will.

I've had my fair share of performing miracles too -- but just a few times.

And those few times I performed them, they were all just made out of blind luck. Yes, even Angels could use some blind luck too. I just hope that I have one right now.

I am nothing but a neophyte trying to perform a miracle here, but I need to believe in myself and have faith. I must at least try!

"Don't give up Phaedon. You will get through this. I will help you!"

I close my eyes and summoned all the energy that I have. I started chanting the Psalm of Healing and Deliverance.

"I pray to the most Divine. Have mercy I pray thee. Heal this inflicted being, free his soul from harm, deliver him from his death, so that justice may be served fairly."

A blinding light came enveloping the both of us. I close my eyes and felt a warmness surrounding us.

"Oh Divine, forgive me if I have transgressed against thee. But I pray that thou grant this man thy benevolence, and grace us your mercy."

After chanting, I felt that the warmth that was surrounding us was slowly fading. I opened my eyes and saw the limp body of Phaedon.

I failed. I failed. It didn't work!

Sadness came rushing through me. I feel a tightness in my chest, as I held him in my arms motionless. I buried my face between his neck and shoulder.

I started crying -- I always feel attached to the people I am watching over. But the death of him -- I cannot bear. The occurring scenes that lead to his death were unjust. He put up a good fight to stay alive, but the favors were not on his side.

As I was crying, I started to notice pink feathers slowly drifting away in the air.

My wings! I am losing my wings!

One by one my feathers began to fall, every flap it made, the feathers came falling down like how the leaves would in autumn.

We are still a hundred feet above the ground, and below us are angry waves who are ready to devour us into its depths. I started losing control, in a matter of seconds, we are falling rapidly into the ocean. I held on to Phaedon's body tightly.

Now that I have acquired the vulnerability of a human, after being subjected to the retribution for breaking the covenant -- I am a hundred percent sure, that I won't make it out alive. Only a miracle could save us now.

For the first time in a hundred years of my existence, I never feared death. I can never fear death, cause I have never confronted one before -- not until this very day.

Is this what dying feels like? Is this what Phaedon was feeling when he was poisoned, cornered, and fell? I never felt so helpless.

Then, a realization came to me -- to be human is to be vulnerable.

I close my eyes, as I saw the scary waters dancing a few feet below us. The raging waves look so terrifying, it is like dancing the dance of death, preparing to claim our lives. Then I saw huge sharp rocks by the shoreline where the waves break.

If we fell into the water, and make it out alive, those waves and rocks are what will kill us. I held on to Phaedons body tighter than ever. I close my eyes and prepared myself for impending death.

My body shivered the moment it touched the cold water. Colliding with the huge waves felt like hitting a solid wall. I felt pain in every inch of my body -- it's like being smashed and beaten up to your core. The impact made me lose grip of Phaedon.

I can only watch him get drifted away and away from me, as we were tumbled and rolled over, then pulled by a strong force into its depths. A strong current came, engulfing me away with it, making me gasp for air.

But the moment I did, instead of air filling my lungs -- I was filled with saltwater. I felt a stinging pain surging into my airways.

Air, I need air! Please! Please!

I cried silently in my head. I felt suffocated and started feeling sharp pains in my chest and below my rib. I look blankly above me, as I slowly fall deeper into the water.

I'm sorry Phaedon, I tried to help you, but we only fall into our demise. I can only do so much.

I close my eyes and spent the last minutes of my life praying. I accepted the tragic fate that befalls me. The only thing I want right now is to put my heart in peace as I welcome death.

As my consciousness started to float away, the last thing I saw was Archangel Azraelle, gloriously coming down from the heavens. The raging waters shying away, as an invisible force seemed to encase her causing the waters to dissipate in her presence.