Angel Dust by Aurora Morgenstern (summer beach reads .TXT) 📕

"The higher you climb, the farther you fall.

But don't be ashamed of wanting it all.

Cause the view from the top is beautiful but fleeting.

The world seems to stop, but looks can be deceiving.

 You're surrounded, but you'll always be alone. 

So pick a place, pretend it's home"

-Pretend it´s home, Beth Crowley

Light, blinding light. I shut my eyes, but I can still see it. Feel it. It feels warm and golden, like a mothers embrace or a late summer evening. The warmth that envelops my body gets hotter and hotter and begins to close in to one spot in particular between my shoulder blades. I begin to feel a tingeling sensation that spreads outward from this spot, it feels as if new bones and muscles were growing out of my back. I panic a little but there is something about the light that reassures me that everything is just fine. The light vanishes and I open my eyes. Insinctively I turn to look at my back and hold my breath when I spot...Wings! I have wings! They´re of a deep turqouise blue colour and the feathers are soft to the touch, but yet I can feel firm muscle underneath.I must be dreaming! That is the only reasonable explanation for this!  A voice rips me from my thoughts.

 "Welcome Felice, we have been waiting for you.", the voice is soft and melodic. I turn to look at the person speaking. She has a set of green wings the colour of her eyes. The wings set off her red hair that flows around her face in waves. She is beyond beautiful with her tall slender figure and soft curves.

"For me? I think you have the wrong person, my name is Katherine not Felice", all a dream, I think to myself. "My dear I am quite certain that I am not mistaken. Michael himself named you. You should feel honoured, named by an archangel...", her voice becomes dreamy.

"A what? This is just one of my freaky dreams...", I say to her, but it´s more to reassure myself.

"Archangel, they rule over the courts of heaven. This may be many thing but it is not a dream, of that I can assure you.  Don´t you remember?", she looks quite perplexed.

"Remember what?", I inquire more than a little puzzeled as to what all this really is about. "I don´t know how to put this gently, but you are dead. Your mortal body died in a car accident. As I speak they are carrying your body away." Great I´m dead, this dream can only get better now. I only wonder that if dreams are suppsed to be messages from your subconsciousness what this is supposed to tell me.

"Okay I´d like to wake up right about now", I state a little sourly. The woman just looks at me in utter confusion.

"You cannot wake up, this is not a dream. You truely are dead, I am very sorry. Come with me, Michael will explain everything to you and you definetly won´t want to wake up when you see him...", her voice trails off but I am able to hear the rest of the sentence just as clearly. I decide to follow her, afterall what else is there to do. I attempt to ask her more questions along the way but she just keeps saying that Michael will explain it all. It strikes me then that she is talking about the archangel Michael from the bible, I was never very religious but I do know a few basics from school. We walk through a large field of grass until we reach a small cobblestone path that leads to what looks like a group of mountains and a town. As we grow nearer I begin to pick up on details. All houses are made out of a radiant white stone and look like ancient greek houses, with marble pillars and wide open windows. There are many plants including big oak trees and ivy climbing the walls of several buildings. Flowers are everywhere, hanging heavy from baskets, growing in the grass that runs along the pathway that has now turned into a wide road. I earn many curious looks from the inhabitants of this small village.

"Is this all the angels, I mean there´s gotta be more than that!", I can´t help it but stare at all winged men and women and even children around me, not a pair of wings is the same. Shekinah laughs and answers in a tone that makes it cloear she cosiders me a child

"Off course not, this is just one part of our heaven.Every religion has their own place and their own sacred messengers and protectors. You just happened to land here because it was Michael that spotted you, so we brought you right to the central of our realm. Only the more important angel families live in this town, well and the archangels protegés.".

"So let me get this straight? This heaven is just for christians? And there´s another one for say Buddhists?"

"No, this heaven is for all those who serve our god. The dead rest in the garden, paradise, the promised land, whatever you want to call it. That is the one place where all faithful and faithless meet. It is merely us servants that choose to live in different realms to avoid conflict."

"If you don´t mind me asking then, have you ever met god or spoken to him?"", I suddendly don´t feel half as excited anymore. What if I am to meet god and he doesn´t like what he sees? I haven´t exactly always been a good person. Shekinah swallows heavily and looks disappointed, I sense that I must have hit a sore spot.

"No, I have not been fortunate enough to have been summoned yet. It rarely ever happens to the archangels, nevermind ordinary angels like us. So I wouldn´t concern myself with wondering about your wrong doings as a mortal if I were you."

"How did you know I was worried about that? Did you read my mind?", at this point itw ouldn´t surprise me if angels had that ability. 

"Merely a lucky guess, you looked quite tense when you asked. And no, mind reading is not one of my abilities", she replies. I focus on my surroundings now rather than asking more questions. The road ends at the bottom of a staircase that seems to be part of the mountain itself. 

"Since you can´t fly yet we´ll have to climb the stairs", Shekinah doesn´t seem to be jumping at the chance to climb the stairs and neither am I really. 

"Just joking, come on Raph promised he´d teleport us this one. He doesn´t usually use his power for small things like this but I managed to persuade him. Just don´t tell Michael", she winks at me. I look up and I can distantly see a tower at the top of the mountain, like the stairs the tower appears to just grow from the rock itself but I can´t see very well over the distance. As I look a little harder I can also make out the shape of a plateau beneath a mass of overhanging rock underneath the tower. It seems the only way to reach the toer is by flight. I can feel a tingeling sensation in my stomach and almost panicking I turn to Shekinah.

"Don´t worry, that´s just Raph teleporting us up. Close your eyes maybe, that helps", I take her advice and clench my eyes shut. For an instant I feel like all the air is knocked out of my body and then just when I feel my lungs may burst, fresh air hit me and I open my eyes from the shock. I now stand at the top of the staircase on the plateau, from here I can overlook the village and I can see as far as the field. I marvel at the sight for a few moments until Shekinah impatiently clears her throat. 

"Come on now, we don´t want to keep Michael waiting Felice!"

"Off course not", I take another quick glance at the impressive scenery before I turn to follow Shekinah. The sight infront of me is almost as magnificant as the scenery of the valley. Eight massive houses sit on the plateau that I must have underestimated in size judging from the size of these houses. Three of them sit to the left and the other four to the right of a small cobblestone crescent shaped curve with the road forking out to each house, giving it the looks of half a wheel. All of these seven look similiar in their fundamental structure, but there are small additions to eah house that make it clear the owners have varying tastes. Hoever it is not these seven houses that catch my gaze, but the eight that is in the center of the crescent. It is by far the most beautiful of them all, its windows catch the light and throw them back like a prism, scattering tiny bits of light and small rainbow coloured specs all around. On closer inspeaction I see that all of the houses have a golden plaque on the exterior reading the owners name. The plaques on the right read Uriel, Chamuel, Jophiel and Raguel while on the left I encounter more familiar names such as Gabriel, Raphael and Michael. It is the plaque of the eight house however that makes my heart drop and I feel a small shiver down my spine, Lucifer. Shekinah grabs my hand in an attempt to draw me out of my haze and leads me towards Michael´s house. I notice that the houses on the right are slightly bigger and more extravagant than the other four and I wonder if the size of the house has anything to do ith the importance of the inhabitant. All of Michael´s windows are covered by heavy blue curtains so I can´t catch a glimpse inside. Shekinah walks me up to where the road forks into a small pathway that leads to the house and lets go of my hand. 

"I think you´ll be fine from here on! I better get back to Raphael, but I´ll see you around. Oh and good luck!", she gives me a quick hug and walks away. I stand there for a minute, undecisive as to hat to do now. I mean I could always just walk back to the field, lie down and hope to wake up from this absurd dream. My curiosity gets the better of me and although I am nervous I begin to make my way toward the big, sturdy oakwood door to Michaels house. I take a deep breath and knock twice. When the door opens I have to take another deep breath because Michael is not exactly what I expected, but then again I´m not even sure what I did expect him to be like. Michael is tall and he displays the body of what I can best describe as a warrior. His face features high, strong cheekbones that are only softened by the chin lenght hair that