Chapter 17: A Leap of Faith

I reverently rubbed my fingers along the silken mattress. Instinctively, I pressed my cheek into the cool, velvet pillows. The comforter was thick and irresistibly soft, like a billowing cloud. I felt like I was floating as I came out of my dream.

My eyes fluttered open to see a figure sitting at the edge of the bed.

"You're awake."

Angelo looked down at me, his eyes settling into an emotion of relief.

"Where am I?"

"I took you home."

My eyes wandered around the room, the space being a bit unfamiliar to me.

"My home," he corrected.

"Why?" I asked and went to further expound on my inquisition but my throat started acting up. I coughed as a feeling of irritation overcame me and my hand went up to the area.

"Here, drink some of this." Taking the glass of water from the night table, he offered it to me carefully.

My fingers trembled as my hand wrapped around the lukewarm cup. "Thank you."

I took a sip of it and pulled away like I've been stung because of the acidic taste of it.

"What the hell is this, poison?"

He calmly shook his head no.

"Then..."

He looked hesitant to answer. "It's a dilution of my blood."

My eyes popped out of their sockets, a chill crawling up my spine.

"It heals your body quickly. It was a necessary step towards helping you. Your heart was on the verge of collapsing after being exposed to chronokinesis, even though it's in its lowest form."

"So that's why you gave me your blood? Didn't you have any other solutions? Like, I don't know, CPR!"

My body complained about my shouting as a fit of coughs followed. I brought my hand to my mouth promptly and tried to swallow the rest of it, feeling annoyed that my state was as bad as he said.

"I could have given you a feather off my wings; it makes for a good metabolic level booster. Unfortunately, they were bound together as a form of punishment."

"Punishment? What were you being punished for?"

His eyes roamed over the span of my face and with the look in his eyes, I got my answer.

"Me?" I gasped.

"You said after we came back you would need some answers. Well, here we go." He took a deep breath before elegantly folding his leg over the other in a posture that was impossible straight.

How the heck could he do that? I couldn't even go two minutes of sitting up straight before slowly digressing into hunchback again.

There are more important things to worry about than your imperfect posture!

Submitting to my subconscious' scolding, I sat up against the bed head - with the aid of Angelo, of course. He was quick in resting his hands on my shoulders and bringing me up. After fluffing the pillow behind my back, he gazed at me softly. "Is that okay?"

Dumbfounded by the tenderness of him, I merely nodded.

Then he did something he hadn't done since the first time we met.

He smiled.

My eyes were practically dancing in joy at the sight of it.

Holy crap. Did someone always look this attractive while smiling?

It wasn't even a full one but it still got my heart doing odd things from inside of my chest. It had me willing to do anything in order to bring out that precious reaction from him again.

"Do that again," I aired lightly. His head tilted in confusion, resembling an adorable puppy. "Smile for me, Angelo."

Despite my clear order, he didn't react to me at all. Just continued to stare. And that's why I pulled at the edge of his shirt, eyelashes batting themselves in a manner I hoped came off as cute and not psychotic. "Is that too much to ask of you?"

"No, it's not." He admitted, turning to the side almost nervously.

"Then smile for me."

Meeting my eyes, he forcibly tugged up the corners of his mouth and gave me the creepiest smile ever.

I let out a nervous chuckle while trying to erase it from my memory. "You know what, never mind."

His reply was a somewhat coherent grunt before he regarded me seriously. "Do you or do you not want to hear the truth about your past life?"

"I do!" I shouted in panic at him going back on his words. "You said you would tell me now do it, mister."

Finally after what seemed like forever, he looked up and down with a purse of lips as if what he was about to say disturbed him. "As you already know, we met in Ancient Rome, but as for how I ended up there it is a bit of a long story."

"I've got time. I asked for two days off before you took me to the magician just in case it was a hoax for you to kidnap me."

"How would you have even returned back to work after those two days if you were indeed kidnapped?"

I shrugged.

"It seemed like a logical idea to me at the time."

He shook his head at my reasoning.

"As I was saying, my journey to you was no unplanned one. At least not for The Higher One."

By that he meant God, didn't he?

He did say that he was...an angel.

And as much I tried to see the ridiculousness in his words when I looked back on everything that has happened since I've met him, it all seemed to make sense now.

His unexplainable powers.

The sanctimonious manner in which he carried himself.

Not to mention how he looked like he was carved out of the finest marble to ever exist.

It all made sense.

I began to wonder how my therapist would react if I were to tell her that her little angel or demon theory had been correct.

"The only goal of Angels," he gauged my reaction to the words but I allowed only the twitch of my lips. "Our goal is to cause good in the world and undo the damage that is caused by evil beings. We do this by coming down to Earth and posing as people like teachers, social workers, therapists - the list goes on and on. That is how I ended up in Ancient Rome; I had a mission to save a special person's life. It was written for me to do so. The strange thing about this was that for the first time ever, I was not given a face to match the description of the person. All I knew was that she was proudly devoted to God and lived a good life so it was unpleasant for her to meet a tragic fate just because of a little slip. It was when I'd seen her, or you rather, lingering by the waters that I realized it was probably your life I was supposed to save. I gathered as much because of how outstanding you were. People near the verge of death usually have a certain light covering them, but yours was different. It was breathtakingly luminous." The way he stared into my eyes as if he was seeing me for all that I was made me speechless.

It was almost as if what he had seen captivated him. Like there was this special light inside of me he wanted to keep shining forever. It was new for someone to look at me like that and it was making me emotional.

"I figured it was because of how young you were. You know how they say the younger you are, the more pardons you get from the Lord and subsequently, you're more likely to receive an abundance of blessings."

No, I didn't know that.

There was only the fable of one's sins starting to be counted in the pre-adolescent years. The age of accountability they called it or something like that.

"Well, you were eighteen in human years at the time so I thought it was because of that. And the fact that you were leading an exceptionally good life. You were an orphan but never let that affect your growth and you always saw the greatness in the world. It made others with more than you can imagine look contrastingly ungrateful, which indeed they were."

I was an orphan in my past life?

Figures.

Since I've been able to wipe my own butt and make my own breakfast, which was at the ripe age of six, I was practically living an independent life. My parents were always on the go, too busy to give their own child the time of day.

Money and expensive gadgets covered their lack of parental guidance - as if all of that could compare to the love a child should receive.

"Long story short, I saved you and was congratulated on a job well done. You were someone useful to the Lord, always shedding light on his grace and prompting others to do so as well. Even when they refused, you still showed them kindness and respect for their own beliefs."

That did kind of sound like me.

From as long as I could remember, my grandmother was the one who kept me company when I was small and she was a very religious woman. I had to attend church every Sunday with her because of that. It used to bore me as a child, but I had found solace in being in the company of an adult who actually acted like one was supposed to.

My grandmother was a wise woman and some said she was even scary because of how accurate she was about her oral warnings.

She once told our neighbor that if he didn't stop cheating on his wife, he would no longer have the liberty to do so anymore.

Nobody knew what that meant until one day he was found dead in their backyard, his wife sat beside him with his genitalia in her hands.

It had been a traumatic experience for poor little Timmy whose mother sent him over to borrow some sugar to say the least.

Since then, my connection with the big man upstairs was never severed even when my grandmother passed. She always said I was too special to let that happen and even if the whole world turned their back on me, He never would.

I lived by that, especially with my dysfunctional family.

And even as I grew older and more corrupted by society, I didn't care what anyone would say about my foul mouth or my non-attendance to church.

I was who I was and believed in whomever regardless.

None of that took away from my faith.

Though there have been many who tried to convince me so - that I was a pagan pretending to be someone I was not.

They were hypocrites who were probably living a far worse life in church than on the outside.

With their fake smiles, they judged others and forgot to look at themselves. At their own flaws and never made any efforts to correct them - it made me sick.

"Angels and humans are only supposed to be of service to each other, in the purest form. But I guess I had taken that a little too literally."

My brows met my forehead in confusion.

"I fell in love with you," he admitted, a certain redness creeping up the side of his neck. "I knew I should not have fallen victim to your smile, your eyes and the way you treat everyone with such kindness but I did."

His words stirred something inside of me. It caused my heart to erupt, on the verge of cardiac arrest and I had to subtly bring my hand up to calm it down.

"I couldn't help it and still kept your company in secret. You had opened up to me once I admitted to having saved you, something that was taboo in and of itself. But there was no way you were going to give me the time of day, at least not in the way I desired you to if I hadn't. After that, we spent almost every day together and it was the best time of my entire existence."

I swallowed at that.

Wasn't he immortal?

Did that short period mean that much to him? That he would remember it with such fondness despite living for so long?

"It didn't take long before you..." His lips hesitated with the next words. "Fell for me too."

My mouth dried at that.

I didn't know why I was surprised by the fact that I had been in love with him too.

It made sense in a way with how charming he was but I still was taken aback.

"However, just as the seasons change, all good things must come to an end."

My interest piqued at that. "What do you mean? Did someone break us up?"

He smiled sadly. "I guess you could say it was something like that."

My face settled into a frown. "So now after all this time, after I've reincarnated you come and find me? How did you even manage to do that?"

"It's a long story," he sighed.

My eyes become slits. "I told you, I've got time."

"That is a story for another day. I will tell you everything slowly to not risk you becoming too overwhelmed. All I wanted to do first was make the history of us credible. So tell me, Isabelle, do you believe me now?"

His eyes were begging me to accept it - to accept him. I didn't know if it was going to be a decision that I would end up regretting, but in this moment I felt for him. That was why I was willing to take a leap of faith this time around.

"Yes." I bit my lips nervously. "I believe you."

***

Pray it won't become baby steps in the future.