We’ve wrapped up the judging of the First Annual QSF Flash Fiction Contest early, so we’ll be sharing the top stories over the next 6 days. After that, most of the submitted stories will be posted on the site for everyone to enjoy. We had some fantastic submissions this year – congrats to everyone! All stories were limited to 300 words max, with the theme “endings”.
Our third of three honorable mention winners is Kiterie Aine – congrats, Kiterie! Here’s the story – enjoy!
Angel
By Kiterie Aine
The monitors went silent and the staleness of the air told her time had stopped. “You again?” V wasn’t surprised the angel was back; her patient wasn’t a likely candidate to survive such a horrific crash.
The angel continued examining the young girl, pacing around the table and passing through nurses with a shimmer of black feathers. “Shall I leave?” The tone gave nothing away.
“No.” Fae were fickle, the angels mercurial, and the one that visited her particularly reticent. “Do you show yourself to all doctors or am I just special.” Her snarkiness was going to be the death of somebody some day, she just hoped this wasn’t that day.
“You’re special.” The tone remained detached, but she glanced up.
V’s heart sped up. With nearly black skin and deep golden-brown hair that floated around her face like a halo, it was hard to deny the angel’s beauty or it’s effect on her.
“There’s a laceration on her liver.”
The words startled her out of her thoughts. They didn’t completely erase the feelings, but they did significantly dampen them. No matter how pretty her angel was, she was still an angel of death, and they could never be friends. She might have said they were enemies, but that was hard to imagine when those piercing blue eyes saw what she would otherwise miss. It was harder still to imagine when such observations were freely provided.
Her angel didn’t look back down; instead she reached out, touched V’s hand, and then disappeared.
She waited for the world to speed back up or for herself to slow down; she was never entirely sure which. The back of her hand tingled where her angel’s touch had been, and she could only stare at it while the universe sorted itself out around her.