Free Praefatio: A Novel by Georgia McBride

I also get some more water? Nothing. Nurse Cipher checked the supplies in the bathroom as I wondered how she’d heard me in the first place. Can humans hear me? Nurse Cipher?
    The wall crumbled.
    Nurse Cipher took my wrist in her hand and listened to my pulse as she spoke slowly, deliberately. “Humans hear your words as their own thoughts, or like a sixth sense. You can plant thoughts, ideas, or suggestions into the minds of humans, but there are rules about that,” she added, pausing to see if I understood.
    I smiled. “I knew it. You’re an angel too! Why am I so sick? Why can’t they figure out what’s wrong with me?” I twisted, trying to find a comfortable position.
    “Your body is rejecting the invasion of a new cellular and skeletal structure. It’s fighting against your transformation like it would any invasion. It’s how humans were designed. We call it ascension,” she stated with an air of satisfaction. Done checking my pulse, she let my arm fall to the bed. “New appendages will soon appear. The good news is, your wings are grown from the blood feathers of your mother, so they’re less likely to be rejected.”
    “Ascension. Mom mentioned that. But she didn’t say anything about blood wings,” I mumbled, confused.
    “Your mother, Rosa’s, wings. It’s to give them a better chance of being accepted by your body. She’s a blood relative, Rosa,” she said, turning abruptly toward the door. “As for ascension, no one really knows what to expect since no other human has ever done it without dying first. But angels ascend all the time. It’s when we come into the full knowledge of who we are, what we’re capable of, and accept our fate, as you humans say. It’s our purpose, what we are made to do. You can only ascend when you are fully attuned to The Divine One and His purpose for your life is all you care to fulfill. Some of us Fall because we reject their purpose. Anyway, it’ll make sense soon enough.”
    You’ll be released tomorrow afternoon, she added from halfway down the hall. I realized then she had spoken those words to my mind. It was the first time I had spoken telepathically with another angel besides Remi.
    OUCH, OW, OUCH. OH GOD. I thought she said she gave me more morphine. It can’t possibly be midnight yet! The sound of my ribs fracturing one at a time was thunderous in my ears. The pain was more than I could bear. I could not move and risk more breaking or pain. I closed my eyes: nothing. No visions, no relief from reality. I pressed the call button as hard as I could. Nurse Cipher? Mom? Somebody help me, please. I can’t do this . Tears burned my cheeks. Snot ran from my nose to my chin. I screamed and screamed, but no one came.
    I closed my eyes tightly and grabbed the sides of the bed to brace myself against the searing pain. The heat of a thousand flames burned my back and sides, which felt like they were being stabbed repeatedly with blunt force. Sweat poured out of me, soaking my gown and sheets. The contents of my stomach lurched abruptly into my throat. I leaned over the side of the bed just in time to empty them onto the floor. My hair, chin, and face were covered in vomit, tears, sweat, and snot. I was shaking and chewing the skin off my peeling bottom lip, which by then had started to bleed. My stomach lurched again in a series of dry heaves. I lost control of my bowels, and I could feel my intestines twisting and turning around in my gastric cavity.
    I lay still for a brief moment, sure I was about to die as my eyesight faded and my heartbeat slowed. They say before you die your life flashes before you. I was not so lucky. Instead, I heard: Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Seventeen ribs to go.

I Feel Like a Hero
    I had stopped questioning; I simply appreciated the fact that the life-altering pain and the stench of my body’s indiscretions were gone. Oddly, I smelled of gardenia petals, jasmine, strawberries, and white amber instead. I ran a