[M] Fallen for You

[Eldora]

Thump-thump thump-thump

Thump-thump thump-thump

The sound of Deb Chandler's heartbeat was all she could hear. Something was over her face covering her eyes. It took her groggy head a while to piece together the rest of it. Her body was just kind of moving on its own. Her legs felt numb and she had a headache, but she was walking. Her hands were tied behind her back and there was something around her neck. As she gradually became more aware, she realized the noise she was hearing was people talking. It sounded like a party. It was cold. That was when she realized she was naked.

What the hell?!

She couldn't say it out loud for the gag in her mouth, but she stopped walking. The thing around her neck tightened. There was laughter as she fell to the ground. No, floor. It was hard and cold. She scraped her hand against something when she struggled to get up.

"She's not bad. Too bad we don't get to play with this one."

"The one during the solstice was better looking."

"How do you think she'll taste?"

She grunted. Taste?!

"Doesn't really matter, does it? What matters is she's good enough to make THEM happy."

"I overheard him say this girl's special. I bet we can ask for whatever we want once she's dead."

"I don't care about that. I'm not doing it for the perks. I just want to see the whole fucking thing crumble."

"Same here. But it's nice watching them bleed out though. Hope she puts on a good show."

She didn't know what was more alarming. What she was hearing, that they were talking about killing her so casually, or the fact that they didn't seem to care that she could hear them.

"Stop your squirming. It'll be over soon."

She felt them grab her hands and feet, lift her up and tie her down to something. She tried to scream but even without the gag she knew no one would hear her who cared. She started crying. Why? Why was this happening? Who were these people? At first she thought it was a prank. Wishful thinking, she realized as she heard what was unmistakably something metal being sharpened. Oh god, they were really going to kill her and... eat her or something. What kind of twisted cult was this? How had she even gotten here? She couldn't remember anything except getting in her car to drive home from work. She stopped sobbing when she felt something sharp at her throat.

I'm going to die, and I don't even know why or where I am. No one is ever going to find me. No one is ever going to know what happened to me. I didn't even get to do anything. Just because of these sick bastards.

She gulped reflexively on feeling the warm trickle down her neck, already wet from her tears. She closed her eyes tightly even though she couldn't see anyway.

Please, God, just let it be over quick...

She was never good with pain. Plus she didn't want them to have the satisfaction.

There was a scream, then another. The knife clattered to the ground. Sounded like an explosion or an earthquake, something. It was one shock too many for Deb. She fainted.

[Life]

The divine awareness that encaptured those who dwelled in the celestial realms functioned as a
balanced network, with angels sharing their knowledge of the conditions of realms in suffering in automated fashion, as if tied to their celestial nature. Their interactions with the mortal realm was proof of this; as it came to the attention of an angel by the name of Jacel that a human with a formidable destiny was gripped by death. It'd been known to him for considerable time
that this woman, Deb Chandler, was left by her guardian angel. The young lady gripped his mind since this occurrence, and he'd begun to identify the vacancy as God's will directing him to act. Jacel observed her ever since her guardian's desertion, and current circumstances demanded the debate of a vital choice that concerned the retention of his angelhood, or its denunciation.

The Destroyer's gaze fixed itself towards an etheral window that manifest afloat before him, depicting a visual within its framework of a live-feed of the mortal realm. Within the window was the scene of an occultist's lair, with the human Deb imprisoned. "So this is fate," the Destroyer thought to himself, his brow furrowed in attunement to his reluctance-driven thoughts and bubbling apprehension.
With a wave of his arm, the etheral window vanished, his eyes peeling shut promptly afterward. "I feel my place no longer here, Lord," the angel sharply declared to himself, before suddenly an aura bursted from his person. Its waves fluctuated vibrantly, and ignited spatial distortions in the fabric of space-time that surrounded him. The celestial realms begun to unbind itself from Jacel, whom had seemingly decided to cast himself from the heavens. His person visibly began to disinigerate then, dissipating into a steam-like quality as fractral etheral shapes bent and twisted in the fabric about him. Jacel felt the divine root of his senses disenchant, as if God willed his nature to a lower tier of existence.

The next occurence was instantaneous and consciously registered as a great descent which could be likened to traversing a torrent of a rapid river. Jacel felt as a comet ripping through the layers
of an atmosphere as his condition of his spirit transitioned to that of the mortal laws. He'd groan
considerably in this transformation, his being now having left the heavenly realms. The echoe of his screams resonated in the hallway between the immaterial and the material, perhaps perceivable to those that knew him as an angel. Nonetheless, the Destroyer at last manifested in the mortal world, materializing in the chamber where Deb Chandler lay detained. A small band of occultists shared her company, their eyes and demeanor immediately exuding their fear at Jacel's presence. Seizing this element of surprise, Jacel swiftly engaged them. The first shrieked before Jacel's hand coiled about his collar, reeling him back with a heave of his arm before hurling him forward. The man was slung through mid-air, his person smashing into a couple others, a bone-shattering collision incapacitating all of them.

Only a few remained, with Jacel's attention centering on a knife-bearing individual. Drawing upon his celestial strength, he'd stretch his arms at his sides,flexxing his biceps in the process with closed fists. He'd cry out in a singing fashion, a high vibration frequency then embodying his vocals which he'd siphon as psionic energy dispersion that'd manifest as supersonic rays that raced towards each man remaining. As he sung, the men were dispatched in near simultaneous fashion; the knife-bearer lying victim to perhaps the most precisely placed ray, which had sent his person crashing into a wall, a gush of blood splattered across a radius of the wall surrounding his skull, before gravity tugged him forward, meeting the ground face-first in what harmonized as a splash of flesh and bone. The knife had slid some stretch before having found its resting place near Jacel's feet.

The fallen angel briefly analyzed the scene as it was now, his eyes scanning the room, before directing themselves unto Deb. "It can't be safe to stay here," the Destroyer internally deduced, as he'd walk towards the restrained and unconscious woman. The young woman was bound to a sacrificial post by rope, which Jacel hastily undid, stretching her legs and lower body across his knees as one arm wrapped about her back. His posture lay kneeled holding her, using his left hand to strip the garb that cloaked her head. His steel-gray eyes met her face then, a resonance of relief showering his expression.

"Deb Chandler, you're safe now," he'd gently proclaim, before standing to his feet, cradling both arms about her person now to carry her along. "No time to linger here," he thought, jogging towards a nearby door that led to a stairwell, quickly making an ascension.

[Eldora]

Deb moved in her unconsciousness, but something of the angel's words reached her even there. She relaxed and her face softened. It was just like when she was a child, being carried by a loved one to bed after playing too long. She sighed softly, completely at ease as if everything that had happened before was nothing but a bad dream.

Then she frowned sharply and shuddered.

"Jacel. To what do I owe the pleasure? I didn't expect to see you for a couple of centuries yet." A slick voice, dripping with sarcasm, spoke out from behind him once he had ascended the stairs. "You know, if you were hungry you only needed to ask. But to break up a party and steal from the host without even announcing your presence? Tsk tsk." The being stepped into the light, but he didn't have to. These two knew each other. It was Hananiah, the former Guardian. The one who had abandoned his post. "That little thing you are carrying is mine. I should have guarded her better, but I will not make the same mistake twice. You win this time, you know very well I can't fight you in my current form. But you cannot protect her forever." He stepped aside. "We will meet again before too long." Then he turned and descended the stairs. There were screams from below as he finished off the humans that were now useless to him save as food.

[Life]

The fallen angel ascended the stairs hurriedly, feeling the fluctuations of human activity below. He’d note Deb’s mild movements in her sleep which he’d felt was a sense of serenity returning to her. It seemed his assessment was confirmed before a sudden shift in temperament overtook her; a grimace seizing itself unto her. In that very moment, a recognizable aura made itself present in synergy with its fervent introduction. “Jacel,” it uttered boomingly. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” it tauntingly inquired, bringing him to a halt in his tracks. “I didn’t expect to see you for a couple of centuries yet.” There was no mistaking this entity’s identity: it was Deb’s former guardian, though now the angel’s energy felt foul and polluted. Hananiah paraded on in his graceful articulation of the current state of affairs, Jacel lending ear without lending a word in return.

The Destroyer lightly turned his head as to gain visibility of his former peer. “Traitor,” he’d voice in restrained vexation as Hananiah threatened his inability to protect Deb’s life. “We will meet again before too long,” the former Guardian vowed conclusively, followed subsequently by the drumming of successive footsteps. Jacel abruptly spun around then, but only for a moment, his gaze casting towards the descending steps. His heart knew this was but the beginning of his conflicts with Hananiah. Disengaging from this brief introspection, he’d continue his ascension of the stairs seconds later. Jacel found ground-level, exiting the stairwell through a door that led to what appeared to be an entrance chamber. Deciding it a quicker and less blatant escape, the angel harnessed his matter phasing talent, embodying the two in a state that permitted their travel through solid matter. The fallen angel passed through a nearby wall, arriving on its other side at the exterior of the occult’s base.

Jacel was met by a cold night and artificial lighting casting their rays upon the stretches of urban civilization fixed all around him. He’d carefully traverse his way through this collective of private properties flourishing with human activity, paying mind to the nature of the places he’d pass and moving wisely as to elude any notice. To their fortune, his attention befell a physician’s clinic in the distance. “It’s best I get off the streets as fast as I can,” he’d tell himself, his gaze adjusting to Deb, racing across her bare form from head to toe. Submitting nothing to hesitation, the fallen angel jolted towards the clinic, phasing through its walls once at its doorstep. Jacel proceeded to find a room equipped with bed, turning on the light before gently laying Deb upon its gel mattress. A shuddering sigh escaped him then, as if expelling the scene of chaos that just shadowed them. “I should find her some clothes and blanket, at the least,” Jacel elaborated, leaving her there to explore the clinic for these supplies.

[Eldora]

Deb awoke almost as soon as he had left her side. It took her some time to make sense of her surroundings and come to terms with what had very nearly happened to her.

"Someone saved me... and brought me here." She put a hand up to her neck and winced with pain. Yes. It was real. It was all real. Yet here she was, alive. As she went back over what had transpired, she began to sob. She covered her face with her hands and cried it out until she felt better. What was she supposed to do now? How could she go on like normal after something like that? She had never been more afraid in her life. The fact that she was still alive didn't comfort her as much as it should have. People like that... actually existed... and they wanted her dead. They would come after her again. She was sure of it. Lying there on the table, not knowing what had happened to her clothes or her ID or her purse, anything, she felt completely exposed. It didn't help her frame of mind any.

"Excuse me, sir. Visiting hours were over at six." The nurse said catching sight of a strange but handsome man in the hall. When she approached him, she felt that there was something different about him. Something intense, but safe. "What I mean to say is, be sure you are quiet in the hall. I'm sure you are staying overnight with a loved one. If you need something, all you have to do is ask."

[Life]

Jacel wandered through a hallway, peering through windows of the doors that he’d pass. He was utterly determined, his haste driven by the thought of Deb’s welfare. An effeminate voice then addressed him, to which he turned towards. He’d retain a silence as she clarified the visitation hours, which led to a perceived approval of his presence, even going as far as to politely offer any assistance. Reassured by her trust and beneficial naiveness, the Destroyer decided he’d break the distance between the two. As he’d draw upon her, he’d smell the fragrance of her perfume; it briefly set his focus adrift, the sensual experience of this scent through his newfound mortality mildly captivating.

This self-absorbed trance ended shortly after he took some seconds contemplating the composition of the fragrance, snapping back into a sense of social coherence. “Right, I’m sorry,” he’d state boldly with an apologetic undertone. “My friend’s ill. She’s spoiled her clothes and bedding,” Jacel explained in assuring tone. “I’d appreciate help getting these things for her,” the fallen one conclusively declared softly. His mind then fell blank, dwelling on the energy that resonated from his contact with Deb’s body, his mind briefly rippled with reflections of her naked form and warmth. “Hmph,” he’d mutter, cutting off this trail of visualization. “So this is a facet of what it is to be mortal?” he’d sarcastically inquire to himself mentally, reflecting on what he’d identified as temptation. Returning his attention to the matter at hand, he’d nod heedfully as the nurse replied cordially in request to these items and waved for him to follow.

Some minutes later, they stood again in the hall after returning from gathering the supplies. She’d hand him fresh, clean bedding in addition to a set of scrubs. “There you are! But sir, are you sure that the patient is fine? I’d really like to make a quick evaluation,” she’d offer, a moderate concern evident to her demeanor and mannerism. “That’d be fine, but we just need a moment to ourselves; I’ll ring when she’s calmer, okay?” he’d retort politely, to which she agreed, and then the two exchanged a goodbye.

Jacel then returned to the room, opening the door graciously as he’d assume she still slept. His gaze would swoop towards hers upon entering.

[Eldora]

Deb had brought her knees up to her chest and was hugging herself, and she let out a soft gasp and scooted backwards in the bed as she heard the door open. Her immediate thought was to try to run, but there was nowhere to run to. She shivered involuntarily and dropped her gaze. "P-please don't hurt me." She didn't know what any of her abductors looked like or how long she had been here. He might be the one who had saved her, but the thought was far from her mind. Until she saw a blanket and a set of scrubs in his hands. Not weapons.

She dissolved into tears again. Rocking back and forth and shaking. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I just can't... I can't..." Things like what happened to her just weren't supposed to happen. Cults were something out of bad old B movies. She had been sure she was going to die. And then screaming and explosions. "Where am I? What hospital?" She took a few deep breaths and tried to not act like a crazy person. Maybe just asking questions and getting answers would feel better. "I gotta get home... No wait. That's probably not a good idea. Um... Who are you anyway?" For the first time she met his eyes. She was embarrassed to be sitting there naked in front of him, but right now that didn't even make the top ten on her list of concerns. Besides, the way she was sitting he couldn't see much. "Was it you? That saved me? H-how did you find me?"

[Life]

The Destroyer watched as she’d display an anxious, jolty mannerism upon his entrance. It tugged at his heart, his demeanor softening by simply bearing witness to her fearfulness. He’d stand at the door as she radically wavered through her panicked state of mind. The fallen one’s eyes sealed shut as she’d speak, somewhat pained by her traumatized condition and seeking to reinforce his sense of stability. Jacel only awaited her to finish, patiently allowing the young woman to vent and express herself as desired. His eyes opened at hearing ‘home’, and it was promptly afterward she lent her gaze towards his.

“Was it you? That saved me? H-how did you find me?” Deb inquired eagerly, though Jacel did not answer right away. After a brief silence, he’d take a few steps in her direction. The fallen angel stretched out his hand, offering up the snowy-hued blanket. “I’ve known you, Deb,” Jacel gently stated, a tranquil essence embodying his demeanor. “I’ve been willed to protect you,” he’d explain as he’d set the scrubs at her feet. “It may not be easy for you to accept.. but you have a heightened destiny compared to most of mankind. Those men that kidnapped you are agents of a greater force trying to soil peace in this world.” His eyes wettened as his gaze studied hers, feeling the weight of the fear she projected unto herself.

“My name is Jacel. I hope you’ll come to trust me.”

[Eldora]

"I've known you, Deb."

Her face fell as she listened to him. A part of her wanted to believe him as she reached out and took the blanket. But what he said made no sense. "Do you mean to tell me that you've been watching me? You were able to rescue me from those people because you were stalking me in the first place? Oh, I suppose that is supposed to make me feel safe. If I'm so special and you're on some mission from God to protect me, why wait until now? Don't you know what I've been through in my life?! I don't want to be special. Whatever you're selling, I don't want it. Just get away from me." She pressed the call button, hoping someone would come quickly and get this crazy man out of here.

"I'm right here ma'am. What do you-"

"Get this man out of my sight. I don't know who he is and he won't leave me alone."

The nurse looked stunned. Knowing it was best not to jump to conclusions, she grabbed the chart from the door. The woman might be having some kind of episode. Only it was empty. "Ma'am... I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you both to leave or I'll have to call security."

"What?"