Chapter 9

I was falling, I was screaming, and I was starting to get annoyed. You would think that annoyance would be the last thing on my mind right now, but no. Seriously, the last thing I expected was to fall out of a house, who falls out of houses anyways? Also, girls like me were not supposed to walk into murder scenes, girls like me were supposed to have happy lives, and husbands who spoiled them, and lots of babies.

It might not be odd for someone to stumble upon a dead guy, that sort of thing happened to often for comfort; But who finds a dead guy and finds out that someone is out to kill them at the same time? Oh yeah, me, and now I had fallen out of a house. Who builds a house on a mountain, and how did I get up there anyways? I was actually kind of mad, regardless of the fact that I was about to become a pancake I had stopped screaming. I was too pissed off to be scared now, this whole situation was far from fair.

I believed in Karma, if you were good in life, life was good to you, and vise verse. I had done nothing wrong damn it, I did not deserve to die, especially like this. I could see my family now, talking to the police about my death asking 'How did she fall out of a house?' What a way to die, right?

"Valery!" I heard a shout from above me, at first I thought that Kerian and Emrys were standing just at the door, unable to do anything but watch me fall.

The voice sounded too close though, and of course, I looked up too see them one last time before I died. As my gaze rose above me, all thoughts of death flew from my mind because at once I was sure I was already dead. I had to be dead, though it was obvious I was still falling, there was no other explanation. Well, either I was dead, or I had gone crazy, I am not sure which one I preferred.

I say this because as I turned my head, expecting to see Kieran and Emrys looking down at me from the house, I saw instead, Kieran and Emrys falling towards me. At first I thought them to be crazy, who jumps out of a house? Falling out of a house was bad, but jumping, that was just stupidity.

Then I noticed that they had one very helpful advantage , that I didn't. Wings. Kieran was gaining on me, a graceful display of charcoal gray feathers flattened against his back as he shot through the air towards me. Emrys was not far behind, his butter gold wings flapping at the air around him as he came at a slightly slower pace.

That's when I decided I must be dead, or dying, and they were angels coming to fly me off to Heaven. Of course I couldn't find an explanation on why these angels looked like Emrys and Kieran, but I told myself it didn't matter. I was dead, and I was on my way to heaven, or at least I hoped on was on my way to heaven. To be honest the winged man who looked like Kieran didn't look like an angel. A fallen angel maybe, but then why would a fallen angel be trying to save me? Weren't they supposed to be bad apples or something?

That's when I thought that instead of being dead, I had gone insane; That while I had fallen I had instantly become crazy and made up a world where men can fly and they were going to save me. For a second I wondered if craze people ever thought they were crazy or not, but then I pushed it aside, deciding that a delusional world was better than reality at the moment.

If they wanted to save me, even if they were only a figment of my imagination, I was not going to stop them. I would choose a fictional life over a reality death any day, wouldn't you? So as the angel/fictional Kieran wrapped his arms around me about a hundred feet from the ground I molded myself to his body, and placed my head on his shoulder with a calm smile.

If this was what all insane delusions were like, I was sad I had never experienced one before this. Fictional Kieran smelled good, and I liked the way his arms wrapped protectively around my body as he held me. Being saved was a good feeling, I had always thought the idea of a man storming in saving the damsel in distress to be cliche, but now that I was experiencing it, I decided that I liked it. I made a mental note to put myself in similar situations more often, maybe next time Fictional Emrys would save me, variety was always nice.

Part of me wondered how I could be living in an fictional, insane induced world if in reality I was probably dead already. Then I decided that it didn't matter, maybe this is what the afterlife was like, a dream like world where anything could happen, there were no limits or restrictions anymore and anything was possible. So now that I could do anything in the world, what should I do next?

I looked up at Fictional, flying Kieran and asked, "Can we get some ice cream?" For a second he looked down at me like I was crazy, which was okay, because I was crazy, but I couldn't be the only one who thought that flying and ice cream sounded like a good combination.

He opened his mouth to speak, the word 'no' formed on his lips and I scowled. This was my delusion, my insanity, how dare he even think to tell me no. Crazy people deserve ice cream, it should be a rule. I squirmed in his arms, moving over him like a jungle gym until he only held onto me by the legs as I looked over his shoulder.

I smiled as I saw that Emrys was only a few feet behind us, I reached out my hand and instantly he reached back. His hand slipped into mine and I pushed myself away from Kieran, he had not expected it and I slipped from his grasp with ease. Emrys latched onto me right away, grabbing at me with strong hands and pulling me into him. I hugged him, noting that he smelled just as good as Kieran did.

"I want ice cream," I rephrased, hoping that telling instead of asking would get me what I wanted. Besides, who didn't like ice cream?

Fictional Emrys looked to fictional Kieran and I saw them shrug at each other, they both looked confused by my craving, but they changed direction none the less and headed towards town. I was happy, I might have been dead of insane, but I was getting my ice cream and that's all that mattered.

Life was good, or would that be death? It was hard to tell, I knew I had fallen out of the house, and surely I must have been dead, but I was still living, kind of. I guess if I was dead I couldn't say I was still living, I existed, in a strange afterlife where men flew and who knows what else. Who knew death would be so lovely, the men smelled nice and there was ice cream, I really couldn't think of anything else I wanted at the moment.

I had a sad thought that being dead was a downside, I was young and had barley even begun to live my life. I could live my afterlife though, maybe my family would be here too. I hoped so, it would be nice to have ice cream with them sometime, too. For right now Fictional Kieran and fictional Emrys were good company, and I cant even began to tell you how good they smelled. It was the strangest thing, they smelled nothing alike, I couldn't put my finger on what the smell was, but they both smell like home. Warm, comforting, and though I was sure I had never come across such exotic scents before, they were familiar.