Archanghel: Tale of the Universe

Chapter 5

Rabia ran the remaining distance from the highway to St. Matthews Hospital’s Emergency Room. She was looking for her daughter that got into an accident. But she couldn’t find Xandriel in any of the beds there. She's not in there.

“Miss, have you seen my daughter? She was bought here by an accident. She was sixteen years old.” Rabia grabs the shoulder of the passing nurse.

“Are you, her family? She just got here.” Rabia nodded.

“She was still in the Operating Room. She was already in a critical condition when she got here because of the impact there from the accident.” The nurse said.

Rabia quickly offered her thanks and ran to the Operating Room. She did not pay attention to her aching feet. She also didn’t care if she had been running since. She just wanted to see her daughter.

All she thought about was Xandriel, her well-being, and her safety. When she reaches the Operating Room, just as when a doctor comes out from inside.

“Doc, how was my daughter?” She cried as soon as she got near the doctor.

“You must've been mistaken. The patient that I operated on was an older woman. Your daughter was still undergoing surgery in the next room. Excuse me.” The doctor slowly explained to Rabia.

Rabia sat down and waited. She waited for many hours but the operation was still ongoing. She heard footsteps and when she looked up, she saw Janus along with two unknown people.

“*Tita, how was Xandriel?” Janus sat down beside her.

“The operation was not yet done. I have been waiting here.” That was all Rabia could get out of her mouth before she then again fell into sobbing fits.

All Janus could do was hug the older lady as if she was his own mother and they waited for the operation to finish. After almost three hours, a doctor walked out of the operation room and it was the one that handled Xandriel’s operation.

“Are you the family of the patient?” Rabia and Janus immediately stood up. The other people who came with Janus stood near the doctor too.

“I am her mother,” Rabia answered.

“We did our best. The operation took a lot of time because the patient underwent shock. And sadly, her body gave up in the middle of that.” The doctor explains to them.

Rabia didn’t take the news lightly. She was now crying her heart out. Screaming and thrashing to release the heartache she felt inside. She did not expect this. She did not prepare herself for this. The only daughter she had prayed to God to be saved would eventually get taken from her.

She did not expect that at a young age of her daughter she would leave her side. Xandriel had so many dreams and goals and now all of them will be left just that, dreams.

+++

Where am I? It was what runs through my mind ever since- since when? I don’t know how long I have been running around in this place. My scenery was all the same, from left and right. It was pure black. Endless blackness. What is happening? I tried to remember what happened to me earlier. Is it earlier? When did that happen, again? My last memory.

I was talking to a woman and then I rushed to the road. Right! I ran toward the kid who was about to get hit by a car and saved him. I did manage to do just that but I was left standing in the middle of the road. And then I couldn’t move until I remembered that same car colliding with my body. I also remember a woman’s voice, praying for something. Why would she do that?

I was just walking around the void. I did not know when I started walking here or how long I had been walking. My body was not getting tired, I couldn’t feel any exhaustion. From time to time, I would see a flash of light and it would pass right before me before I could get to wherever it was.

“Could it be...?” I stopped walking and thought for a moment.

“Is it possible that I was just dreaming? This might be a dream or a nightmare! Wake up! Xandriel, come on wake up!” I closed my eyes and continued chanting to myself to wake up.

When some time passed, or what I thought, I opened my eyes again but nothing changed. I was still in the middle of the void. I released a defeated sigh. I was now losing hope, but I still continued my walk.

“Just where am I? What time is it now?” I put my hand on my stomach. Surprised that I didn’t feel anything on my body.

I may have been walking endlessly for a long time but my stomach was not rumbling from hunger. I don’t even feel tired. I just continued walking and walking towards who-knows-where and when.

Sometimes, I would stop, not from exhaustion but because I would get bored of walking. Or I just wanted to humor myself. Sometimes, I just look for some other clues about where I should go, even though that is obviously a futile attempt.

I should have walked a good amount of time and had stayed a great distance from where I was before, well, from my assumption, that is. I just don’t have any sense of rationalization right now and maybe even reality. I release another sigh. I think I'm going crazy. I need to get out of here. But how? I don’t know. Xandy, you need to think!

I turned down my mind's protest when I saw a small flash of light now far from where I was standing. There was a weird feeling surging up from my body. Hope. A hope that I might get out of this place. Or this nightmare. I gathered all the strength I had in my body, which was there all the time and ran. Towards the light.

As I got near the light, it slowly grew from just a small orb and then like a flashlight. Slowly, the light was growing and growing until it almost consumed half of my vision. Because my eyes got used to the darkness, I squinted to let them adjust to the light that almost blinded me. I was near it and it fully consumed my vision, making me close my eyes altogether.

What’s happening? That was what I thought first, as I felt myself free-falling out of nowhere and when I opened my eyes all I could see was white. Everything was the opposite of the place that I was before. What was happening to me?

And then there’s a thud. My body came into contact with the ground and it hurt. A feeling that I haven’t felt for so long. I groaned and rubbed my back as I tried to get up. I look around me and scan the place. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s definitely not that.

I was surrounded by tall trees that were basking under the lightest ray of sun. It's marvelous and beautiful. It was like paradise. And then, at the farthest part of the place, beyond the trees, I saw the tip of what looked like a castle and I could see the bits of its amazing decorations. In front of me is the way, rows of flowers lined the side, that I suppose leads to the castle.

I walked, following the path. This place is pretty and amazing. It looks like heaven. Is topped. Something crossed my mind. This place, it’s breathtaking. Just like the ones that were presented as heaven. Could it be-?

“I’m dead.” My own mouth ended my thought.

“I’m dead?” I repeated the words. Rolling the words into my mouth, trying to make sense of it. Because it felt foreign.

My mind and body were conspiring together to dismiss the word and not believe what my mouth had just said. But how can I even explain this place? The void and darkness? Maybe I was here in this place because of the accident. The accident...

“I’m really dead.” I wanted to faint with the fact that I'm no longer alive. Is that possible? A soul losing her consciousness? I saw that in movies but I don’t know if that also applies in real life. But I don’t have that either. I think I'm totally going crazy.

I heard a fluttering and was followed by a soft thud behind me. Out of curiosity, I turned around to see the source of the sound. My eyes almost fell out of their sockets as they bulged into what I was now seeing. It's official, I will accept the fact that I’m dead. Because angels, they don’t appear in front of people, unless the said people are dead. I can’t believe what I'm seeing.

Because he was so tall, I needed to literally crane my neck to look at his features. She was wearing a white cloak with his giant wings framing his body even though it was already folded behind him. He had long hair that almost covered his soft blue eyes.

“Xandriel?” is what he said to me first with his voice that sounded like a lullaby.

He knows me. The angel. He called my name. I was in utter shock that all I could do was to stare at the man in front of me. How did he know my name? I have no idea.

+++

“Guardian. What are you doing here?” I heard a familiar voice that woke me up from my reverie.

“I just escorted someone, *nekros.” The angel in front of me answered.

I turned my gaze to look at the newcomer’s face. Because I knew that voice. I can never be mistaken. And I was not really mistaken. In front of me stood a very familiar person. A very, very familiar person.