Chapter 1 - Attachments

Lilah saves Abel's life at the risk of her own.

Abel Morrow fell sixteen floors to what should have been his death, but as luck would have it, he landed at my feet.

 

Standing at the back entrance to our high-rise condo, staring directly at me with her emerald eyes was Abel’s younger sister Ebby. She was eleven years old and I had known her now for close to a year. We lived across the hall from each other and she made it a point to get to know me.

 

Ebby wrapped a spa package for me at Christmas and brought me flowers on Valentines Day, among other treats throughout the year. She would deliver my mail when the postman would stick it in her slot instead of mine. She took the time to decorate my envelopes with stars, hearts and ribbons.

 

After six months of ignoring her, I finally gave in. We had made plans to see a movie together after playing video games in my apartment. I made it a few steps from my car when her brother’s fall interfered with our plans for the night, and the rest of my life.

 

My name is Lilah Abrams, Dana Reid, Carly Simmons, Heather Smith, really it does not matter I have no name. I have no age; I was never born, as least not like you, not from a man and a woman. I live outside of time. I have walked the Earth for centuries and I have healing abilities.

 

I get paid in large sums for this ability and it is a well kept secret by the extremely wealthy all around the world. I don’t know how it works or why. I don’t even know what I am really. Here are the things I do know; I grant wishes, though I do not own a lamp most people in the Middle Eastern world would call me a genie.  To the not so smart I have been a witch, a vampire, a succubus, or just the regular demon straight out of hell. I am the source of all stories told to children in order to keep them in line.

 

What would I be to Ebby tonight? Her parents died only a year ago and Abel quit college to take care of her. I had to touch him; he was all she had left. I could hear her screaming her wish as she walked slowing towards me and her brother lying on the concrete pavement.

 

“SAVE HIM!” Ebby Demanded.

 

Her lips did not even move. I could hear her thinking. Ebby’s voice rang in my mind, more clearly than it would, had she been speaking out loud. How did she know? Or did she really know what I was? Did she know what I was capable of doing? As if I were her puppet, I knelt down by Abel’s side and placed one hand on his head and the other over his heart. A surge ran through me to him and his entire body jolted, but nothing happened.

 

Ebby was thinking once more, not as loud as before, but I still could hear ever word. “Please, he has so much more to offer the world. He has so much more to give.”

 

I could hear her in my mind and now oddly enough I could see her thoughts in words. Ebby’s words were floating in the air, in various shimmering colors. She was standing directly in front of Abel and me, when the words in the air charged towards me. I did not resist as they seep into my pores, energizing me.

 

I spoke softly and slowly. “I can’t do it. He’s gone.”

 

“You can, you’re an angel.” Ebby said with much confidence.

 

The looked up at her eyes and saw this entirely new sight, it was one of faith, she believed in something greater than herself. She believed that I was something more than I thought I could be. Ebby believed that I was an Angel.

 

Time had now stopped and I could see more clearly the sun was almost out of sight and the darkness was approaching. The sky was a brilliant purple to orange gradient.  I had goose pimples all along my arms and for the first time in my life, I could remember feeling a chill. The air smelt of dew, like just after a rainy day, but it did not rain today.  There was blood all around us, but I could not smell it. Abel was dead, but I could still feel him all around me.

 

I had been around death quite often and it had a smell, a sort of sulfur scent. I had expected that smell right now, then again I had expected Ebby to be yelling and screaming and for people to be all around us, but nothing about the day was right.

I don’t have the power to read minds and I can hear Ebby’s thoughts, I don’t have the power to bring the dead back to life and here I am trying.

 

Abel’s skin was moist; he had worked up a sweat before falling. With my hands still on his head and heart, I let Ebby’s belief flow through me. Abel’s eyes opened, and I am delighted to see the same emerald shade as Ebby’s. Abel could not move, but he was alive. I had no time to celebrate, there would only be a few minutes before the transition would start.

 

Ebby was frozen in shock as she saw her brother coming to life. Abel moved involuntarily, his broken bones were being reset, he was beginning to reanimate. This meant that I would have to die in his place at least for awhile. The time started moving again and I could feel it. If anyone heard or saw the fall they would be heading out now to see what had happened.

 

“Ebby. You must listen to me carefully. Take him to my apartment.” I said, as I handed over my keys. “I will be gone for a while. I don’t know how long. It will take him a few days to recover.”

 

She stared blankly at me, and I decided to shout.

 

“EBBY! THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you can not get him up to the apartment, drag him to my car until he is able to walk on his own.” I pointed at my Toyota Prius just behind her. “When it is safe…”

 

Ebby interrupted me. “I don’t know what is happening. He’s- ”

 

Not knowing how much time I had left in this realm, I gave her no chance to doubt herself, I interjected harshly. “LISTEN! I have no time. Clean up his blood, use lots of bleach on this area. Wait a day before going back into your apartment.”

 

“Why? Where are you going? I can’t do this...” Ebby said with much disorientation.

 

I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself so that I could get Ebby to be calm as well

 

“I will disappear before your eyes.” I grabbed one of her hand and pulled her down to my eye level. “You believe that your brother fell from your apartment balcony and that I brought him back to life?” She nodded yes. “Then belief me when I say that I have to die in his place.” I suddenly got winded and found it incredibly hard to breath. “I will come back, I don’t know how long it will take for me to recover, but I will"Aww…” My right leg was braking and I yelped.

 

“Lilah! What’s wrong?” She asked desperately.

 

Ebby was crying hysterically, bend down on her knees and tried to hold be up.

 

“This is normal. Please get your brother out of this spot. We don’t need there to be any questions.” I said softly as I stared directly in her eyes. “Be brave! Pull him to my car. When I get back… I will explain everything.”

 

She must have decided to trust herself, because she swallowed hard, stood up and began to pull Abel by his shoulders to my car, he may have been too heavy for her to manage, but I was in no shape to help. On the bloody pavement on my hands and one knee, I feel myself fazing out of reality. This was happening a lot faster than I expected it to. I need to get to my apartment or at least behind the large garbage containers.

 

“Ebby I can’t hear you…” I am in between realities, I don’t even know if she could see me. I felt myself falling to the ground and I still try to get as many words out as possible while crawling toward the back door entrance. “Stay in my apartme-”

 

After touching Abel I took his last minutes of life, my bones are all breaking slowly, my lungs will collapse, my stomach pushed all to one side, my heart will give out, but the last of what I will feel is my brain busting out of my skull as it breaks on the pavement. I don’t know how far I had crawled, I don’t know if I made it even to the garbage containers.

 

I am now in it, I am experiencing Abel’s fall. I know that this part is not real, but it feels like it is my life, and I still have not learned how to disassociate with the feelings the memories bring. I wanted to scream as I fell, but the air is too great and it muffled what should be the sound of my last words (his last words). I am in shock, I am panicking but it makes no difference, I will die. Here it comes; I will see Abel’s life flash before my eyes.

 

A white light at the edge of a cliff speeds up towards me and as it touches me the light turns into a flood all around me. The light is comfortable and it holds me and I feel at ease. I don’t know who or what I am and I don’t care. I want to stay here in this place, in this state forever. I am finally at peace and then a pop in my ear wakes me up. The state of peacefulness lasted only for a short moment.

 

There she is baby Ebby, I am holding her in my arms, I am nine or ten years old, my mother is sitting on the bed, actually this is Abel’s life and Abel’s mother sitting on the bed, sweating with her hair all tousled. Abel’s father is off to the side talking to a nurse. I see through Abel’s eyes.

 

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Abel’s mother said to me. “That’s your sister; her name is Ebbinetta Candianne Morrow.”

 

I look down at her and smile. “Mommy she is beautiful, just like you.”

 

I am speaking but Abel’s voice comes out. This was weird on so many levels. I have the ability to see pieces of people’s lives when I heal them, but I have never lived their lives. I have never experience their life from a first persons’ perspective. I am in a video game and wishing it was Halo. I know that it is a memory, but it feels so real.

 

“Will you take care of her Abel?” His mother said, while taking short, sharp breaths.

 

Staring at his mother, Abel said. “Of course, I will take care of her for as long as I live.” To the baby in his arms he said. “I love you Ebby.”

 

Abel’s father walks over and holds onto is shoulders. “Ebby, I like that; it’s a cute little nick name for her Abel.” He kisses Able on his head.

 

All the flashes from Abel is of Ebby, his mother, his father, he had experienced great lose, but most importantly great love. They are so close together and I can’t tell them apart. They hug and kiss and cry together. I have touched hundreds of lives and none as intense as this, no picture as clear. The flashes were fast and plenty. He had lived for only twenty years and his life was filled up with more substance than my three centuries. I had now understood what envy felt like, I wanted to be him. I wanted his life more than anything else; I wanted feel that kind of love.

 

The thing that was special about these memories was that he knew what he had in his family and he treasured every moment. He did not miss he parents at all; while they were alive they did everything as a family. They lived in a commune and when he decided to go to University they all moved to the city to be close to him. He was happy to quit school for his little sister, she actually meant more to him than anything else. They had lost almost everything and they were still happy.

 

No one is that selfless. These memories must be forged, this is a dream. The constant joy was almost making me ill. It was something that I wanted, but I did not see the possibility and Abel’s life could not have been real.

 

The flashes came slowly to an end, the transition was over and I was home once more under a large tree with multiple leaves and an assortment of fruits I wake naked and in a panic. How long have I been gone? Did Abel make it? Did anyone see me or what I had done? I need to get back; I need to find them both. I should not be here for too long.

 

The tree of life "or so I call it" is large, and is at the center of what appears to be a floating rock; there is nothing underneath as far as I can tell. I am too weak to venture out so I investigate the tree itself. I know that most of the fruits and leaves are not from earth, I have eaten most of the fruits and they grow back within the instance of me picking them.

 

The leaves have DNA codes and when I match up the correct ones I am able to create various life forms. I make a game of it; I try to find all the codes for a Horse or Fungi, the most complicated one so far was of an Elephant but I made it happen.  When I get all the codes in the correct sequence the life form projects above me and stay until I pull the leaves apart. I create creatures right from my imagination and they make funny sounds as if they are communicating with me but I am not able to understand what is being said.

 

The incredible thing about this game I invented was that I discover new humanoid species and if I am able to put them together here, it means that they exist in real life. If this tree is real then there must be more that I am not aware of and I want to learn more. I want to know what I am. I have never been able to explain this place to anyone, mostly because I had never been here this long to fully grasp the magnificence of it all.

 

This floating rock is more of an island about two thousand square feet across and the tree is at the center point. The island does not seem to be moving and below it is nothingness. The main source of light is from the tree itself; it changes colors throughout a day. I thought to track the colors in order to tell the time but I keep falling asleep and I miss count. When I walk to the edge in any direction a pink light appears and it comes towards me and then I pass out.

 

When I wake up each time the pink light hits me I am back in my casket. Mine is one of eight under the tree. I am assuming that it’s mine only because I wake up in it. I have been here for so long now it must be a few weeks. I am lonely so I talk to the tree.

 

“Hello Mr. Tree, how are you doing today?” I asked.

 

I am so bored that I answer for the tree.

 

“Fine thank you for asking Galileah.” I replied on behalf of the tree.

 

“You know my name.” I said.

 

The tree replied sounding much like Darth Vader. “Of course I do, I am your father.”

 

This went on for a while, we shared secrets and rants and the tree took my sporadic tantrums without complaint. I was feeling strong and I could walk again, most of my movements had be dragging and crawling on the ground. My days would start off with me falling out of my casket and rolling in the direction I wanted to go.

 

I would usually transition back by now, but I was wondering if I had finally been trapped here. Had I done something wrong? I showed Ebby and Abel what I was. Am I being punished? Or maybe it’s from trying to see below, the pink charge at the edge of the island may be making me sick. I am more interested in getting home now more so than figuring out this place and I decide to leave the edge for a trip in the future.

 

Madness is setting in, I hear voices, I can not make out what is being said but it’s coming from all around me. I make a plan to get better and get out. I pick the fruits that are hanging low and that are familiar to me. I grab an apple, a plum, a nesberry, june plum and what appears to be a ginep, I stuff it all in the pockets of the rob I had found in my casket and pulled myself back to it.  I eat slowly and listened to a song being sung by one of the voices in my head.

 

Once I finished my meal I laid down to take a nap, I thought that it may speed up the healing process. I woke up still on the damn island, I sit up in my comfy resting place and stared at the tree, the trunk had a slit, so I got up and tried to wedge it open with no luck. I decide to check out the caskets, I memorize the names written on each of them, they sparkled as if the words were alive. I tried to pry each of them open to search for hidden treasures left behind, but they were all empty. In mine I found at the top, a little pouch hidden behind my pillow.

 

I open the pouch to examine its content. I pull out what seemed to be a charm bracelet, but it is large enough to wear as a necklace, it had space for maybe ten charms but only had six charms attached. Of all the things on the rock, this was the one that bothered me the most. The charms were all tiny glass bottles containing blood, fire, light, water, and the others I was not able to figure out.

 

This bracelet was in my casket, but why should I be surprised at all. I sleep in a casket on a rock under a tree that changes colors and has leaves with DNA codes and various fruits that I have never seen on earth. The level of strange was so elevated that nothing should bother me here.   

 

While trying to figure out what the contents in the remaining two bottles were, I tried to open the one that looked as if it were empty. I heard a voice from behind me.

 

“Don’t open it.” The voice whispered.

 

Startled, I look quickly behind me but there was no one there. I finally gave in to madness and the voices in my head lying dormant for years have decided to turn the volume up a few notches.

 

“It’s time to go home Galileah.” The voice said.

 

“Who is that?” I asked, scared out of my mind.

 

“The empty bottle contains air, you can’t see it, but it is there. Don’t open it.” The voice said, this time it is unambiguous, it is a female’s voice and directly in front of me.

 

“Are you a voice inside my head?” I asked foolishly.

 

Laughing frantically, the voice responded “No, at least I hope not. You don’t seem too smart.”

 

I stood up firmly clutching onto the charms. “Where are you? Why can’t I see you? Show yourself!” I demanded.

 

I felt a light gust of wind, and then I saw a smoke trail moving through the caskets and going to the other side of the tree. I followed it but it led to the casket labeled Sage. I tried to open it again but nothing, it’s locked. I pulled and tugged and pulled again and fell right in the spot where I died.

 

I made it behind the garbage containers after all. There is no blood; Ebby did well with the clean up. I look around to see my car but it’s not in my parking spot. Abel must be alright, he must be using it. The thought dawned on me that I am naked and outside of my apartment building in broad daylight.   

Author's Note

I am looking for errors of all kind. But most importantly, is it a good story so far. Do you want to hear more?

I am only posting a page a day so it;s not long and annoying to read

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

yes, it is a good story and WOW - the first line - you set the hook quite nicely. I'm always fascinated by angels so I may be a bit biased. peace.

[Craig2591]

This is very good! You have a lot of imagination. I think you do a good job feeding a little information to the reader at a time to keep them interested, but not bore them with a bunch of boring facts.

[Short.Nerd]

The characters are great and I think it's a good story so far. I would love to read more!

[Laura Maidah]

I like the characters. Very multi-dimensional. I feel like I know them a little. Cool naming too.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

fascinating read, yes, more would be awesome.

[West Coast]

I thought it was fantastic! I couldn't stop reading. I love the mystery to it, it is a very good begining.

[Allen Smuckler]

Very descriptive, well structured write Maya. I was keeping my eyes open for errors of any sort...and would offer a couple of minor suggestions....I might lose the word "idiot", only because of its negative connotation, and I think the word "but" should be replaced with the word "and" in the first sentence ...and as luck would have it....
You've done a great job wrapping so much information about Ebby into such a short space.
Abel "coming to life" is a bit far fetched, but I love the way you described the process. I am curious as to where you are going with this...and would definitely continue to read the next excerpt....bring it on, Maya.

[Jaxter_Nick]

this is very good and i think it will make an awesome story

[reflectingus]

WOW this is amazing. It was a rather interesting topic, a description of a close encounter with death, and I just loved the way it all came together, your time is commendable. However, since this is first person, there were some discrepancies, sometimes even I forget to stick to it, for eg, in the 6th para, when you could hear Ebby's thoughts, it was kind of confusing, maybe instead of saying "She thought", it would be better to say "I felt her think" or something like that. Also, second para, 'brother's death' would mean that he's dead, however, we find out eventually that he's half alive, so maybe you should replace with 'her brother's plunge' or something. Be sure of which tense you're using, and make sure you stick to it. I'm just being extra picky, because I so desperately want this to be amazing, and I'm so looking forward to reading the rest of it! Keep writing!! :D

[Pencrafter]

Your story looks interesting, so far. You might identify Ebby as the speaker each time she says or thinks something. Also, in the very last line you should break off the first four words into a separate sentence. You could possibly flesh out the scene descriptions, her apartment or building, the climate or weather, that sort of thing. You have a good writing ability.