Falling

This was written in response to a ThursThread challenge on Siobhan Muir’s blog on 22/2/24. You need to include a line from the previous winning entry. For this challenge the line was This is where she fell. Obviously my mind goes straight to angels…

“This is where she fell.”

The ground was scorched in a perfect circle. Blades of grass blackened and bent inside the radius. The sulphurous haze still lingered when I crouched down and got close enough. I could imagine her curled up in the patch, frightened and alone in this place.

“Witnesses?”

“It was just after the schools let out, all the kids and their parents were walking through.”

“How come I only just got called?” I stood up and faced the uniformed officer.

“There were a lot of people to calm down, lots of conflicting reports. I don’t know details. I was just told to watch the scene ‘til you got here.” He shrugged and held his hands up.

I let out an annoyed growl and turned away, scanning the park. She could have gone in any direction.

“She must have changed quickly as we haven’t had reports of a woman in burned rags running round.”

I was barely listening. I was well aware of the lack of reports; I’d been glued to the radios since I got the call. Fallen angels tended to make a big scene. Tracking them wasn’t too hard. Then we could check them over and get them settled in on Earth, once we found out everything they knew.

Disappearing without a trace so quickly was hard. I should know, I didn’t manage it when I fell.