Limbo: Life's Kiss by Simone Leigh Martin

Author:Simone Leigh Martin [Martin, Simone Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke to splintered darkness. I was coming out of a dream where I was sitting on the porch of my grandpa’s house, watching the sunset and eating homemade ice cream. My mom was under a blanket beside me, even though it was late summer and her sleeves were sticking to her arms. My mom was telling me a story, some rambling thing about sun goddesses and golden chariots and healing wings. She gripped my hand in her icy fingers and pointed to the horizon.

“All day long, she marches across the sky, you know? So focused. So distant. We avoid her, because she burns us, doesn’t she? And we can’t look directly at her, in case she blinds us. But at the end of the day, when her work is done, she turns back for one last, precious moment.”

“Can you see it, Albie? Right there, when she shows us her face. Can you see her, flushed and smiling? It’s like she’s giving us a peek under her armor. So that we’ll recognise her again when she rises in the morning.”

My mom’s face, so young and untouched by pain or grief, shone with a fervent light. “That’s what a sunset is, Albie. A reminder there’s more to life than death. And more to death than quietly slipping over the horizon, never to be seen again.”

As I rubbed the sleep from my gritty eyes, I tried to hold on to that little piece of myself. Not the memory of my mom, because she was an illusion, eaten up by cancer before I was old enough for ice cream and stories on the porch. But the girl comforted by the promise of something more. One who could look at the sun sinking into the ocean and hope her fading body was part of a bigger plan. I wanted to believe that at the end of the day, someone was watching over me, caring enough to look back and smile.

But the strange sight flaring above us shattered my sense of calm. Not a pink and gold sunset, but a blinding light. As I stared, wide-eyed, it swept back and forth across the landscape like a giant, probing finger. For a moment I thought it was a search and rescue helicopter until I remembered where I was. Limbo, where the only celestial beings are vengeful angels. And the only things in the sky came with giant wings and a lethal attitude.

I hissed at Serena, but the other girl was already stirring, her eyes widening as the light carved a pathway through the darkness. “Michael,” she said grimly, and just hearing the name of the firstmade was enough to make me scramble to my feet. My spine screamed at being so rudely woken, but I tried to ignore it as Serena snatched up her pack and grabbed my elbow. With an apologetic look, she forced me into a bone-jarring run. Gritty salt and bleached wood twisted under my boots, but I kept pace, glancing over my shoulder to track its pursuit.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.