“Oh God, my head! Did someone get the number of that bus?” Avery muttered as she tried to open her eyes. Last nights couple of drinks with the girls had turned into a couple more and then a couple more after that, with a vague memory of inappropriate dancing and then… Nothing... Well that’s never a good sign, she thought to herself.
She finally pried her mascara encrusted eyes open, and quickly slammed them shut again, as piercing white light nearly blinded her and set the jackhammers from a dull roar, to a Pamplona style stampede. Where the hell am I? Instead of her tired old apartment, she seemed to have woken up in an enormous white room, on the Sun, if the pure white light that had scorched her retinas was any indication.
She slowly cracked her eyes open again, trying to find clues to her whereabouts. On second glance it wasn’t a room, just pure white as far as the eye could see. “Shit did someone slip something in my drink, and now I’m freaking out in some kind of bland ass Wonderland.”
She turned her head and hit her nose on a small locked box, its blackness shocking against the stark white landscape. “Curiouser and curiouser.” She quoted Alice snidely, as she rolled over and turned the key.
Inside the darkness stood a crystal goblet of red liquid that shimmered incandescently with an otherworldly glow. A breeze suddenly swirled around her carrying a hundred whispering voices. “It’s Clarity!”
“Drink it”
“It’s Destiny.”
“It holds the answer.”
“Yeah, I’m more of a white wine girl, and never been a fan of hair of the dog. Now if it was Tylenol and some water you’d have me sold.”
The wind picked up tearing at her, the voices booming in her ears. “Okay time for this little freak show to end,” she pinched at her arms and legs, even slapped herself across the face, “wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!” When that failed she stood up, and whimpered as she kicked off her brand new Jimmy Choos, loathe to leave behind shoes that cost more then her rent.
She muttered, “Run Forest Run” as she took off as fast as her legs would carry her, and she ran and ran and then ran some more, until her body collapsed, exhausted, her limbs shook, her lungs burned, and the sound of her pumping blood screamed through her ears. Yet the voices were still there, and that damn box sat beside her again, mocking her. “FINE!” she screamed grabbing the goblet; she gulped the contents down in a single mouthful. As soon as the liquid passed her throat, her whole body burned like it was engulfed in flames. A blood curdling scream was ripped from her, as every feeling she had ever had or caused another to have bombarded her, every good time and bad, every hurt intentional or not screamed through her body like acid, just as she thought the agony had started to recede the pain, fear and sorrow of every living creature cascaded through her Soul. Falling forward she curled herself into a ball and thrashed while her body seemed to come apart a molecule at a time. After what seemed like a lifetime of agony and despair, a white light burst from her limp body, wrenching her off the floor. Then it felt like the flesh was ripped from her back as enormous white wings exploded from her shoulder blades.
Then everything seemed to suddenly dim, and Avery was left panting on her hands and knees, the soft downy feathers of the heavy wings brushing gently against her face, like the soothing hand of a mother.
“You have been chosen Avery. Welcome to the Guardianship.” A beautiful melodious voice whispered across her tortured flesh. She looked up into the strikingly blue eyes of the handsomest man she had ever seen.
“What?” her brain having obviously overloaded and gone home.
“You have been chosen as a Guardian. It is a very big honour to have bestowed upon you.”
Avery looked from her wings and back to his, as it suddenly clicked. “I’m a Guardian Angel?” He nodded, his gentle smile lighting up his whole face.
“Well, crap on toast!”
