Back To: An Angel Gets its Wings

"And I am still hated for who I once had been two lifetimes ago?"

The room was an iridescent blue and it radiated a calm, soothing presence, as if it were another being inhabiting the room. The color itself had life and personality. Perhaps more so than the two individuals who now sat in the center of the room it was providing color for.

"Hate is demonstrative."

"Evil is not."

The last time she checked, her name had been Carla. From all immediate observations she remained female, but whatever name she now bore was irrelevant. In this place, far removed from the dark, cold and firey streets of Rancho Nuevo, no one recognized the names one is given by other living things by which to refer to them. She preferred this place, for it left her feeling comforted and unalone. Her previous stop in Rancho Nuevo had provided much the opposite feelings.

"You have received your desire.
Are you not glad for this?"

To revel in what seemed most closely identified with sarcasm was not foremost on afterCarla's list of things to do at this point. At least this room was devoid of those who had threatened and abused her in the past. AfterCarla suspected that was what this stranger meant by his comment. As if on cue, she crawled over to a soft bed of cloud-like material and deposited herself on it so that she could lie flat and stare up at the ceiling. Like the rest of the room, the ceiling was blue. The color kept the room cool. The temperature was almost too comfortable to be accepted by afterCarla's mind. Nothing could feel this pleasant after the lives she could remember living.

"Where do I go from here?"

Her host suggested that she rest. For several moments, hours or perhaps even days or years, afterCarla rested. She stared at the ceiling and relaxed her mind. Then a new presence entered the room and smiled upon her. The new presence was the shape and form of a human being, but afterCarla could not focus on the presence's appearance. This apparition had the consistency of a dream that one could not escape. It made afterCarla comfortable and filled her with a sense of purpose. It smelled like inspiration. Then it took afterCarla's hand and led her out through a doorway that had not existed until that point and would never exist again.

AfterCarla sensed that something about her next frame of existence would be very different and would help quell the nightmares of lives now past. It was the way of things.


The Rancho Nuevo Series:

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