Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“I knew you were going to hurt me. I didn’t think you’d try and have me killed.” I try to sit up. It is a bad idea. I can’t move off the bed. I get a fraction of an inch off the mattress before I am punished with extreme pain.
“Shh,” he soothes as I wince and cry out. Usually, he enjoys my suffering. It seems to be different this time. I suppose he’s never actually wounded me before. He’s made me suffer in a variety of ways, but this, I don’t think he planned this. I don’t think he wanted it. “Take it easy. Here.”
He lifts a glass of water to my parched lips. I sip out of reflex.
“I knew you were going to play rough, Starlight, but I didn’t think you would have arrow bolts driven through my flesh.”
“That was not supposed to happen. I am sorry. The men responsible…”
“What did you do to them? Kill them? Put out their tongues? I know you have medieval tastes, Sheriff.”
Talking hurts. Everything hurts. But I will not give up this moment of advantage to give him hell. I ask him the question that just came leaping to mind.
“How did you catch me? I must have fallen such a long way. I should have died, and you should have died when I fell on you if you tried to break my fall. What did you do? What magic have you twisted, Starlight?”
“Don’t you worry about that, Katie.”
He sits back in his chair. The man even sits dominantly, taking up space in a commanding way even in the institutional chair that should do nothing but make him uncomfortable. He does not seem inclined to jump up his own ass and die, which is disappointing. Instead he seems to be intent on watching me lie here and be wounded.
One might wonder who I am to invite this attention and cruelty. I have often wondered that myself. On the surface, it seems obvious. I am Sheriff Starlight’s greatest desire, and I am also the thing he fears most. I am as close to an angel as one can get on Earth.
My journey to this planet was the same as every other soul present. I am a physical accident. I, like everyone, am an object of pure chance. A hundred million sperm shot toward a single egg. A hundred million different variations of the person who happened to end up being me. Just one of those underwent the formality of birth. The rest of those sparks of possibility slowed and then went forever still.
Nobody on this world chooses to be here. I remember that whenever I look into the inevitably confused and concerned faces of the general public. Poor, meaty mortals who pave over the yawning chasms of incomprehensible terror in their lives with junk journaling, fast cars, and the support of sports teams. I see what they most want to hide. I feel their deepest fears. I think Starlight might too.
The only point of difference between me and everybody else was the fact that the seed that spawned me was not of man, but of an angel. The physical difference is less pronounced than one might imagine. As luck or fate would have it, my mother was also a carrier of some divine blood. Their union was not sanctioned by any authority, above or below, but it resulted in my existence. A gift to me, and arguably the world.
I have personally sought to do something much like what Starlight is doing, to the extent that some might call this a dose of my own medicine. Those would be stupid people who do not understand nuance. I wanted to study those with angelic blood and create new technologies to benefit the entire world. I wanted to share our gifts with all civilization.
It was not to be, thanks to this asshole. Even gaining funding, setting up a purpose built laboratory, and recruiting top European scientists was not enough to guarantee my safety. I held the divine flesh, a piece of the true meat of the savior of mankind. I held all the cards, until they were slapped from my hands by men who did not want us to discover our power, but instead wanted to possess it for themselves. I built an entire facility on the premise that angelic powers can be harnessed and shared, and here I am in the custody of a man who wants only to corrupt and control.
Sheriff Starlight will put me to what he considers good use without a second thought. You would think an angel would be worshipped, but that’s not how things work. Not in these modern times. Now, everything with any kind of power is considered something to be exploited. The very notion of worship has been erased from most of the world.