just feet away from him, but he couldn't open his eyes - he had to concentrate.
There was no pain, just an odd tingling sensation in his back. Just a few more seconds and it would be finished.
He opened his eyes. Around him people were no longer gazing at the sky, there was something else more amazing.
Kat's mouth was agape. Her boyfriend. Or who she thought was her boyfriend stood in front of her. "Wha.. What are you?"
In one fluid motion Milo leaped into the air and flapped his wings, pushing himself upwards. A gush of wind blew Kat's hair around and Sam desperately grabbed onto her leg. Another flap on his powerful wings and he rose higher into the sky.
"Your angel."
**
Kat stood with her mouth wide open. Not in shock, but in awe. Milo had always been exceptionally handsome. His bright blue eyes, high cheekbones and boyish blonde hair earned him admiring glances wherever they went.
But now his handsomeness took on a whole new angle. He was beautiful. The purest sense of beauty she had ever seen. It radiated off him.
"Mommy, where is Milo going?" Sam's small hands tugged on the lapels of her denim shorts.
It hadn't been the first time Sam had asked Kat a question she had no idea how to answer. He was a curious kid and fiercely smart, he wanted to know the answer to everything, but sometimes she just didn't have an answer for him.
Milo always did.
Oh, god. I miss him already. She bent down and cupped his cheek. "I don't know, Sammy. He'll be back soon, okay?"
Another horn blast rippled through the sky, Kat looked up but Milo was gone. Above them she could now see it wasn't clouds but hundreds and hundreds of wings circling.
Angel wings.
----
The ground shook violently and was shortly followed by a loud crack. There was a second of silence and then screams rung out from a few blocks away. Kat stood up and, eyes still on the sky, reached for Sam's hand.
"Come on Sam. Milo said to get to a church. There is bound to be one around here somewhere."
Kat jogged slowly down the street, past various shops and businesses. Shopkeepers were popping their heads out of their doors, shouting to each other from across the street.
“Why are we running, mom?”
“It’s, er.. good exercise hunny.”
Another tremor shook the ground. Kat had been through earthquakes before. Milo had always wrapped her up in his strong arms. She’d joked that she felt safer in his arms than any underground bunker. But this earthquake was different. It felt like the tremors were coming from far deeper within the earth. Not just below the crust, but from its core.
Car alarms started to go off all around them.
As they rounded a corner, a fire hydrant exploded behind them.
“What the fuck!” Kat screamed. She’d been trying to cut down on curse words around Sam, but this was too much.
BLAH
They practically fell through the heavy oak doors of the church and landed in a heap inside. Kat and Sam both breathed deeply as they recovered from their run. Running from what? They still didn’t know. But now they were in the church they somehow felt safer and protected. It was a weird feeling, sort of like how when you know someone is watching you.
Yet the church was deserted, and the only person watching them was the virgin Mary in a huge stain glass window.
“Ouch.” Sam was grasping his knee.
“Oh, Sammy!” In the fall Sam had grazed his knee slightly. 12 months ago this would have resulted in a teary eyed tantrum, but that was before Milo. He’d helped Sam as much as he’d helped Kat. He always knew the right thing to say and how to soothe.
“Up and at ‘ em!” Kat mimicked Milo’s deep voice.
Sam smiled. “ Haha, good one.”
Kat broke out in a cheesy smile too, she couldn’t help it, Sam’s smile was so contagious. “Right, you. Let’s find somewhere to wait.”
She couldn’t show how scared she was to Sam. She had so many questions running through her head. Everything seemed so clouded and upside down. Why were