Page 11 of Fallen Angel

H-a-n-n-a-h…

The whisper surrounded her, and her breathing accelerated into short, shallow gasps. Then suddenly, something shifted within her. Her temperature cooled, and the prickling softened. Tranquility washed over her, and she was overwhelmed with this curious sense of satisfaction.

Hannah didn’t understand. She didn’t do any of the exercises that typically helped her calm down, but even when she would, she never felt this good. Though she knew she should question it, she didn’t want to. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this at peace.

H-a-n-n-a-h…

Her name was sung in a soothing, airy tone. It was alluring and called to her, wanting to be found.

Leaving her belongings scattered on the ground, Hannah lifted herself to her feet. She walked to the back-right corner of the room, where the voice sounded loudest. The long-ignored bookshelves carried books on Haitian Voodoo, Feri Tradition, Brazilian Quimbanda, and Seidhr and Galdr from Norse Tradition, but none of them were the source of the voice. When she stepped backward, she faltered over the aged, maroon carpet. It dipped lower than the rest of the floor.

She pulled back the carpet and found a stone slat embedded in the creaky wooden floor. That was where the voice was coming from. She could feel it.

Hannah tried to use her fingernails to pull the square slat loose, but it was no use. She ran to her bag and rummaged through it for something that might be helpful. She pulled out a steel ruler and a pair of scissors from the front pouch and rushed back to the stone in the floor—still feeling at ease and even exhilarated.

She wedged the ruler between the wood and stone, then crammed the scissors beneath the stone slab, prying it upward. She shifted her instruments back and forth, and the slat moved. It was much thicker than she thought. It took all her strength to push it out of the way, revealing a deep pocket beneath the floor.

H-a-n-n-a-h…

The voice was sweet and intoxicating and she was so close. She dug through debris of rocks and dirt, and finally, a leather bind peaked out from behind the dirt. Hannah removed the cobweb-covered rocks and dug until she could wrap her hands around the book. It was large, beautifully bound in old, black leather with pewter edges and clasps. She blew dust off the cover.

An odd sensation, like warm liquid, ran through her. While the feeling was unfamiliar, she didn’t question it. She couldn’t quite put her finger on how she was feeling. Tranquil? Empowered? Entranced? Either way, she knew what she wasn’t feeling: anxious. Though she knew that something bizarre was happening, she didn’t want it to stop.

She brought the book to the table. The book’s energy, or whatever it was, felt like silk against her skin. She ran a finger along the spine and let it trail across the pewter clasp. At her gentle touch, it unlocked, and the book flipped open. The pages were similar in consistency to the one she’d been taking notes on, yet it was more organized and purposeful than the random notes scratched in the soft-bound journal.

Awaken him,the book sang.

The book’s breath swirled through the dust in the air. The pages rose and fell like lungs. Her mind raced with endless, yet impossible, possibilities of what could be happening before her.

Was this magic?

The pages flipped to a page titled,An Incantation of Awakening.

Awaken him…

Hannah slammed the book shut. She stood and shoved it in her backpack, completely ignoring the rules to not checkout these books.

As Hannah made her way down the spiraling staircase of the library, she felt invigorated. Something was happening, and though she didn’t know what, it felt important.

“Leaving so soon?” Edwin said while re-shelving books on the first floor. Hannah blew past him, unwilling to slow down.

He followed her. “You all right? You seem…”

“Just lost track of time. Running late to my next class.” She quickened her pace and clutched her bag. She didn’t want to be caught removing a potentially valuable book from the library. Holding her breath, she walked through the library detector.

“Okayyy…” Edwin said, his voice trailing with suspicion.

It didn’t matter, though, because the detector didn’t go off. She doubted the book in her bag was even in the library system; no one probably even knew it existed. The silence of the detector only justified her stealing it. No one was going to miss it or even realize that it was gone.

Hannah stepped outside and inhaled the cool air. It felt fresh against her face and smelled like salt. She instinctively headed for the beach. It was where the book wanted her to take it, and she willingly followed its command.

The beach was empty.Hannah knew full well that she should have been sitting in her Irish Literature class admiring the works of James Joyce and Jonathan Swift instead of walking on the beach with a spell book, but at the moment, it didn’t feel like she had a choice. The beautifully-bound book directed her here, and she felt deep within her bones that she had to follow through with the book’s command.

She was not surprised when it led her to the shallow cave-like opening. She pulled the book out of her bag and placed it on the pebbled sand before the cavern. Kneeling in front of it, she unlocked the clasp and allowed the pages to flip themselves. It opened to a page that read:To Withdraw a Barrier.

R-e-a-d,the voice instructed. Hannah took a deep breath and did as she was told.

“What once was not there,” her voice shook. She cleared her throat and licked her lips, tasting salt. “Can no longer stand.”

---