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My heart beat faster as I shifted on the pew, craning to see. As the harp music quivered around us again, the choir began to sing in pure, silvery notes, their voices lifting up to the high vaulted ceiling. Slowly, three people in sky-blue robes filed out and stood facing the congregation: two women and one man. I spotted Beth immediately. She was on the left, her honey-colored hair falling loose on her shoulders. Even without the huge TV screen, I could see that she was smiling — a radiant smile that stretched across her face like a beacon.
Leaving the pulpit, the preacher moved down the short line and greeted them one by one, clasping their hands. Finally he turned back to the congregation. On the screen behind him, tears were glistening on his round cheeks as he spoke into a handheld mic: “And now, as our beloved angel blesses our new members, let us all reflect on the angels and give thanks for their eternal love. ”
Our beloved angel. I tensed, wondering what was about to happen. There was a rustling noise as people seemed to get settled, some bowing their heads, some closing their eyes. Only barely lowering my own head, I peered up through my hair, keeping an anxious eye on Beth. What if she was whisked away again after this, and I wasn’t allowed to speak to her?
A deep, waiting stillness fell over the church. Several endless minutes crept past; I fiddled with the drawstring of my bag, twisting it around my finger until it hurt. At the front, Beth was looking upward expectantly.
And then I saw it.
An angel had appeared; a glorious haloed creature of radiant white light and stretching wings. My breath wilted in my chest. It was like the being I’d seen in Beth’s memory, but here, real, right in front of me, shining so brightly that it dazzled my eyes. Its wings moved slowly as it hovered over the new members. From the sheer delight on Beth’s face, she had seen it, too. She smiled at the angel above her like a child experiencing all of her Christmases at once. Drifting to the floor, the angel landed beside her.
I stared up at the big screen and stiffened as I saw the features of its proud, beautiful face. Oh, my God, it was the same angel that I’d seen in Beth’s memory, the same being that had turned up on my doorstep. The angel said something in her ear; she nodded eagerly. And then it reached out to her with hands of light and —
I went rigid. What was it doing? As I watched, Beth’s energy field came into my view. The angel had its hands buried deeply in it, and it was . . . draining her. Beth’s energy looked sort of grayish already, with a dim violet light streaking through it; now, at the angel’s touch, the violet faded and died. Her energy field shrank in on itself, like a deflating balloon. And Beth just stood there, smiling.
“No,” I whispered. I had meant to scream the word. My fingernails dug into my bag as I looked wildly around me. Wasn’t anyone going to stop this?
“Please come,” murmured the woman next to me, gazing toward the front. “Please, blessed angel, come and greet our new members. ”
She didn’t see it. Abruptly, I realized that no one else did, either. The congregation all sat there smiling, the same beatific look on each of their faces. I started to shake. I wanted so badly to go racing up the aisle and yank Beth away from that thing, but what would the angel do to me if I did? For that matter, what would everyone else do? Terror at my own powerlessness swept over me.
Swallowing hard, I peered back at the dark-haired guy. A jolt went through me as our eyes met; he was watching me. Immediately, he turned his gaze to the front of the church, his expression grim. An odd relief filled me as I stared at him — he could see what was happening, I could tell. Suddenly my eyes were pricking; I looked away again, swiping at them with the heel of my hand. Neither of us could do anything. I knew that.
But at least he had noticed. At least he saw.
When the angel finished with Beth, it moved on to the next new member. And then the next. Once all three had been touched by it, there was a great movement of shining wings and it departed, vanishing upward into the brightness of the vaulted ceiling until I lost sight of it. The preacher said something to the three in a murmur; they smiled and nodded. He grabbed up his mic, his words booming around us: “Our angel has been here! It has blessed our new members!”
Electricity leaped through the building as the congregation burst into cheers and applause. “Thank the angels!” “Praise be to angels!” The church member beside me was clapping so hard that it must have been hurting her palms. Beth and the others were all beaming; she and the woman next to her hugged, their blue robes wafting together.
“Let us greet our new members!” The preacher’s voice rang through the speakers as he lifted an arm. “Beloved brother and sisters, walk among us now, so that we can feel our angel’s love through your touch!” Smiling broadly, the three of them each took a different aisle, slowly making their way down it. People leaned toward them, shaking their hands, patting them on the back, jumping up to embrace them. Joy crackled through the vast room like wildfire.
Beth was in my aisle. I sat up straight as I watched her approach, my pulse pounding in my ears. She looked more beautiful than ever — her face was alight with such a deep, pure happiness. But I could sense her exhaustion, could see the slight stagger in her step. Oh, please, God, I know it’s hopeless, I thought. But, please, please, let me be able to get through to her.
It took almost ten minutes for her to reach me, and then she didn’t even see me at first — the woman to my left was craning past me over the pew, reaching out to Beth. “Bless you. Bless you,” she said fervently, clasping Beth’s hand in both her own.
“Thank you,” said Beth. Still smiling, her gaze fell on me . . . and she froze.
“You,” she breathed. Her eyes widened, and she took a step backward. “What are you doing here?”
I rose to my feet. “Hi, Beth,” I said, gripping my bag. “I — I just wanted to talk to you for a second. ”
“Get away from me. ” Her face was white, her lips pinched.
The church was still filled with the buzz of the other new members receiving hugs and congratulations, but around us it had gone deathly silent. Conscious of everyone nearby watching us, I glanced back at the tall silver doors. “Look, can’t we just step outside and talk?” I started to touch her arm, and she jerked away.
“My angel told me you’d be gone by now,” she hissed. “That they’d taken care of you, so that you could never hurt them. ”
The church, the pews, the people — all of it seemed to fade away as I stared at her. “Hurt them? What are you talking about?”
Beth’s face was so full of hatred that something shrank inside of me; her beautiful lips were almost a snarl. “My angel told me, OK? You’re sick and twisted! You hate the angels; that’s why you told me all those terrible things — you’re a danger to them; you want to destroy them!”
Her voice rose as she went on, until she was almost shouting at me. I shook my head dumbly, unable to speak. A danger to the angels? Was she completely insane?
Beth’s cheeks had gone paper-pale, with a single spot of color high on each one. “You’re never going to hurt them, Willow,” she said softly. “I’m going to stop you. ”
She turned and ran back up the aisle, her blue robes churning over her slim calves. I stared after her in a daze and slowly became aware of the low murmurs all around me. “A danger to the angels?” “Yes, our angel said so. ” “That one, the girl with the long blond hair. ” My throat went dry. People were whispering, glaring at me. Not a single face looked friendly. Then up at the front, I saw Beth talking urgently to a man with sandy hair, pointing back at me.
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