“You've found hope
You've found faith,
Found how fast
She could take it away.”
-Even Angels Fall, Jessica Riddle

I skipped down the long street behind David, as happy to follow his lead as I always had been. He was my best friend and I went everywhere with him. He was perfect. He was smart, he was funny, all the archangels loved him, he never made mistakes. It was like he had never been alive…never even had the chance to make mistakes. He was always right, but he never gloated. He never even seemed to notice how often he was correct.

But I did. I thought he was the best. I looked up to him. He was my idol and it had always been that way. He was my big brother, my father, my best friend, my protector (not that I really needed one here)…he was my everything. The only thing I didn’t think about him…was that I loved him. I mean I did…but like a father, or a sibling…not like in a creepy way.

“So David,” I chirped cheerfully, “what’re we doing today?”

He smiled down at me; that lovely, caring smile that he seemed to save only for me. “I think that we’ll go to my place today if that’s alright with you, Allison.”

I giggled. “I told you already. Please, call me Ally. Allison sounds too formal between friends.”

I knew I shouldn’t….I knew it was wrong…but I wanted to be just like him. I would give anything to be like David, to be the perfect angel he was. To have everyone look up to me in the way they looked up to him.

And just then I knew I’d done it, I knew I’d gone over. I’d gone from admiration to envy…and I knew I’d be punished. As that knowledge hit me, I tripped. The step to my gleeful skip faltered and I was falling.

But, suddenly he was holding me. David had caught me and now his arms were wrapped around me securely, his face only inches from mine. “Are you alright?” he breathed carefully. His arms were quivering slightly and it got me curious.

I nodded slowly, suddenly even more nervous than before. I didn’t like that look he had in his eyes. They looked almost glazed over. It was odd, I’d seen him look like that before. But, now that I really thought about it, I’d only ever seen him look like that at me. It made me uncomfortable; the way he was looking at me, the way his arms clung to me.

He hoisted me up and carried me off towards his home. “So you felt it too just now?” he asked me quietly, walking a bit faster towards the pristine building. “You just crossed the line too? Went from acceptable to sin? Well, did you?” he looked scared. He was hoping I had. Oh God, what had happened to my David.

“Y-yes,” I stuttered, “I-I did. And I’m frightened. David, I’m really scared…I don’t want to fall. I love it here. I want to stay here with you and help you and-” I broke off, having to pause to choke back my oncoming tears “-I just don’t want to go.” I clung to him tightly, needing to feel that there was something solid still there, something that still cared about me, that I could ground myself to.

He held me tightly; probably tighter than he should have, but it didn’t matter to me. He cared; he wouldn’t let them snap my wings. “Shh, it’s alright Ally. Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you. And I’m not leaving you, not now, not ever. They won’t separate us. I-I…” he cut off, and for the first time since I’d known him, David looked afraid to speak.

I held on tighter to the front of his shirt and lay my head to his chest, imagining a heartbeat there. “You what, David…?”

He set me down on the couch in his house…which I didn’t even remember entering, how odd. He sat down next to me and turned my face gently to his, hands shaking slightly. He sighed, suddenly leaning in and kissing my forehead. Pulling back he looked nervously down at me. “I think I love you…”

“I-” had no idea what to say. This was exactly what I had not wanted to happen. I didn’t love him like this…but I couldn’t not give him what he wanted. Wait…what was it he had said..? ‘You crossed the line too?’ So that would mean…

I scrambled back a bit. “D-David you didn’t…”

He bit his lip and stared back down at me with that same glazed look he had before. “I’m sorry…but I love you. And I guess I went a bit too far with it…”

I shattered. Crumpling over on myself in held my head in my hands. Everything I had known was falling apart in only minutes. I had committed envy. And David…my idol…my most perfect being…had committed lust…towards me…

He moved to put a hand on my shoulder, to comfort me, but I shoved him off. “David, how could you?” I shuddered.

“I’m so sorry, Ally…but at least we’ll fall together, right?” he was clinging to the last hope he had, the hope that I didn’t hate him.

I couldn’t destroy that for him, especially since I needed him as much as he needed me. We were two halves of a whole and we were completely dependant on each other. “Of course, David.” I looked up and smiled shakily at him. “I’ll always be here for you. Just not in that way. I’m sorry, but I don’t love you like that…”

His face fell, and he looked so sad that for a moment I contemplated lying just to make him smile again, I hated to see him like this. But then I thought about what we had done. “Oh God, David…they’ll be here any moment. They’re going to snap our wings…”

I trailed off because I heard them just then. The archangels, just outside the house. I could hear them saying what a pity it was that such a good angel had to fall for such a petty sin. Then suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door, even though it wasn’t locked; no one put locks on anything, there was no need for them.

“Please, come in sirs,” David’s lovely voice echoed through the quiet house.

The door opened quietly and four archangels filed in. All in their beautiful white robes with the shimmering gold belts and their huge white wings folded flat to their backs.

“David and Allison,” the angel in the front said quietly…sadly. “You have both been confirmed to have committed deadly sins. You must now be rightfully punished. David, if you would come with us, first.”

He got up from his place beside me, easily slipping my clinging hands off of his shirt and ignoring my pleas for him not to leave me. He stepped out of the door and I heard him ask the angels quietly to be gent with me, to not hurt me, please. That only made me sob harder; that he was about to fall from heaven, the most perfect place in existence, and all he was thinking about was me. He was too selfless…he didn’t deserve to fall, he deserved to be a saint. Everyone makes mistakes, he didn’t deserve to be punished so severely for such a minor one.

I saw the light from the flame on the street just outside. I heard his clothing and skin crackle as they burned, and smelled it from inside the house. And then I heard the worst sound I had ever listened to; the horrid crack of his wings being snapped. Not even severed, just broken at the base. I imagined his pain, and was astounded that he didn’t cry out, that he didn’t scream, or anything. He just let them break them and fell…

I sobbed into my hands as I heard that horrible sound and knew he was gone. I barely even noticed as the head angel came back into the house. “Allison,” he said quietly as he knelt in front of me, “it is your turn. You have committed the sin of Envy, and shall be rightfully punished.” He quietly pulled a needle and spool of wire out of the pocket in his robes and motioned to me to lean my head towards him.

I was absolutely terrified, so it took me a moment to make my body respond. He just smiled sadly at me as he threaded the wire into the needle. I knew what he was going to do; he was going to sew my eyes shut, to prevent me from gaining sinful pleasure from what I saw.

Closing my eyes, I leaned forward and bit my lip hard, waiting for the pain. But in truth, I barely felt it. I felt the disgusting stinging as the needle pierced my eyelid and the same feeling again as it pierced the skin below. But after that, it all went numb. The only time I did feel anything was when he started sewing my second eye. Then I felt the same stinging.

When he was finished I heard him sigh wistfully at me. “Alright, child, I am finished. You have been punished, now you must fall for your sin. Please stand.” I did as he said, stumbling slightly. “I am so very sorry, Allison,” he said quietly as he lowered his hands to my small, pure, snowy-white wings. Then, with one swift downward motion of his hands, he snapped them, probably staining the soft feathers bright red.

This one I felt, and this time I screamed. It was the worst agony I had ever felt. Even when I died, and I had been stabbed to death on a street corner, even that didn’t hurt this much. I screamed until I felt myself start to fall, and then I just stopped, I knew there was no use.

I just fell in silence, crying quietly to myself, in pain and pity. And then I heard the ground whistle up to meet me, and was quite glad they had sewn my eyes shut, so I couldn’t see it as I slammed into it. I felt every bone in my body quiver, and then they all shattered on contact. For the second time that day I screamed. And this time I blacked out.

When I woke up I could open my eyes; they were sore, and I could see tears where the wire had been ripped out. It hurt to blink. Also, I was generally sore all over, probably from impact. And I saw that over on my left my severed wings had been lain on a table, the edges a bit crimson, but not the bright red I’d expected. They’d been cleaned.

I looked up to see a kind face hovering over me…it was David. He looked relieved that I was awake and his eyes were full of pain…my pain. He kneeled down next to me and kissed my forehead. “See, Ally? I told you I’d always be here for you.” He smiled that wonderful warm smile at me and I knew he was telling the truth.

I sat up slowly, wincing at the sudden rush of pain to my entire body. As I sat up and looked more closely at him, I noticed he was covered in horrible burns and I gasped, bringing my hands to cover my mouth. “Oh, David…” I was horrified, he was absolutely coated in them, these disgusting, blistering, burns.

He took my hand gently in his and held it to his face. “I’m alright, really I am. It just stings a bit. The worst part was not knowing if you would be able to survive that fall…I couldn’t have dealt with it if I’d had to see you dead…again. But you did, you survived, and now we can start a life here. See,” he looked eager now, “we don’t have to worry about sins, or anything like that. We could be together if we wanted and-”

I brought my hand to cover his mouth. “David…no. I don’t love you like that, I’m sorry. And, I think from what I have seen of this time, it would be odd and unacceptable for someone your age, and someone my age, even though I’m really so much older than you, to be to be together. You would be more like my father, David…”

Smiling sadly at me, he kissed my hand and slid it into his, back onto his cheek. “Then I’ll be your father, I’ll find a wife and we’ll be your parents. How would you like that?”

I grinned from ear to ear and blinked back tears. “Thank you so much, David. Thank you so much.” Ignoring the pain, I flung my arms around his neck, feeling both of us wince but neither of us caring, too happy to be bothered.

I buried my face in his white shirt and cried silently; more out of joy, but slightly from the pain. As I looked up I noticed that there was a red stain on his shirt and held a hand to my face. Pulling it back and looking at it, I noticed blood. I was crying blood…

Turning my face to his, David looked worried. “You should probably try not to do that around others, they might worry. That and you might want to stay out of the public for a while. I can make the excuse that the building we moved out of caught fire, but you cannot make any excuse for why your eyelids would be shredded like they are. Or the scars all over your back.”

I brought my hand gingerly to my back and felt around. I felt the place where my wings had been neatly cut off, and I wasn’t even going to ask how he did that. But another thing I noticed, was that the stab wounds I had died of, were scarred over now, they were short thick scars covering my back. “Oh…I didn’t realize those would be there. But David, how did you die, then? I don’t see any scars on you…”

He smiled sadly and hugged me tightly. “My wife smothered me with a pillow in my sleep. I’m not going to have any scars except for these burns.”

Hugging him back, I cried again, not caring that I was staining his shirt. “I’m so sorry, David, that’s terrible.”

But, as I cried, I noticed this whimpering sound. My head shot up at the pitiful noise and I turned around, quickly wiping the bloody tears off my face. Only to see that it was a dog…no, a wolf? Two of them! The first a female, with a gunshot wound in her leg it looked like. And the second male, hovering protectively over the other, making that horrible sound.

“David! Wolves! We need to help them, look, the female is injured. We can’t possible just leave them here.” I turned to him and my eyes begged him to help me take care of the poor things.

He nodded. “Alright, Ally. Let’s help the wolves.” He walked over to them slowly, ignoring as the whimpering turned to a low growling. “But how odd,” he mused, “for wolves to look for help in humans. Don’t they usually-”

There was a sudden flash of light as he broke off, and then…there were no more wolves. There was a boy, only a few years younger than me I’d have to say, sitting next to a beautiful woman who’s leg was bleeding, who I assumed was his mother. Shivering slightly because it was cold and they had no clothing, he stared up at David pleadingly. “Please,” he coughed. “help us…”