Like An Angel
Okay… here’s my entry. All OCs! Zee required line is in bold, yo.
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He was so young, I think. My brother. My older brother, named Luke like the apostle. He was so young.
I can’t remember how he died. I don’t remember the specific place or time. I don’t remember how he looked. That was such a long time ago. I don’t want to. But it feels like I have to.
I kick at the pebbles as I walk down a long road in the middle of a pasture full of white grass. It is light outside, the sky is a thick blanket of angry gray. Trees with black leaves dot this plain, tall and foreboding. I know that if I turn around, the city will be at my back. If I turn around, I may be able to see it as the small village I once knew. It was such a long time ago.
I’m going to visit Luke’s grave. I think it is his birthday. He was born in the winter. The lady, she told me. A lady… a sweet smile, kind eyes, long hair tied back… I believe she is our “mother”. Yes, my brother’s mother, and therefore my mother too.
In my hand, I have a bundle of flowers. The thorns on these pale roses- roses that symbolize death- are digging deep into my palms, but I feel no pain.
“Happy birthday, Gabriel!” My older brother’s excited voice yells in my mind. Luke, his name is Luke… I have to keep that in the forefront of my mind, or I’ll forget that too. “I got you a present;open the box!!”
My name is Gabriel. Like the angel. Angels are a symbol of light… if I could’ve been there for my brother, then would he have died?
“Lucky, you think you can… what?!!?! Done already?!?! How did you beat Leviathan that quickly?!”
Snatches of polite conversation float through my conscious, I know that I was standing next to Luke, staring at something bright… what was it?
“Here ya go.” Luke turned to me and handed me something that felt heavy in my hands. The bright light danced across his face and in his eyes. “It’s not that hard if you know what to do, Gabe. You could always watch your awesome older brother and learn yourself!!” And he laughed.
I don’t remember the rest. Luke… “Lucky” had shiny blond hair that made him appear sweet and innocent. Like an angel. His eyes are green like the bright neon lights across from the house. Our house, I think.
Thunder booms and it threatens to rain. I think I feel a few drops on my face already. A cold winds blows through the world and through me. I don’t remember what I felt when my brother died. I was there. How did Luke look? Was it day? Was it night? Did my hands tremble? What did I do as my brother drew his last breath? What did Lucky say? Did his eyes roll back in his head before he could finish?
I don’t know.
“Gabe.”
He was so young.
I’m approaching the cemetery. I can see the large headstone, fancy white stone, adorned with a weeping angel carrying a bundle of roses and bearing a cross sitting across it already. Luke’s headstone, decked out with climbing ivy for purity and pretty white lilies and bright rhododendrons to symbolize his energetic personality. My brother’s shining blond hair. Like an angel.
I kneel on Luke’s grave and stare at the headstone.
LUKE RAPHAEL LEFERVERE
DECEMBER 22ND, XXXX-
His middle name is for the angel, Raphael. I can’t make out the date of his death. That day, my brother “Lucky”…
DEVOTED SON
CARING BROTHER
NOBLE FRIEND
GRANT HIM ETERNAL REST IN YOUR ARMS, O LORD.
