Fall From Grace, part 1

Liliana wisely chose to stay silent as she walked with Jasmine through the school halls to the clinic. Once they had arrived, they had to wait a few minutes for the school nurse to finish with another student before the nurse could examine Jasmine.

Having completed her task of seeing her to the clinic, Liliana hung by the door while the nurse checked up on Jasmine.

"So, it's gotten worse?" she asked, while Jasmine grimaced and quietly nodded.

The nurse sighed and the sat back in her chair as she continued, "Well, it's too soon for me to be able to give you any more medicine. I can see about calling your guardians to see what they want to do. In the meantime, you can lay down on the bed in the next section," the nurse said as she turned back to her desk to pick up the phone.

Liliana broke in at this moment, "Should I go back to class and get her stuff?" she asked just before the nurse could start dialing.

Turning to notice that the blonde girl hadn't left, the nurse nodded. "That may be for the best."

With this, Liliana quickly turned to leave and rush back, while Jasmine went to the neighboring room that had a raised bed.

Jasmine looked at the sparse room that had just a sink, a few cabinets, the raised bed that had a slight inclination and blank white walls. Finding the light switch at the door, she turned them off as she got onto the bed.

The lights from the office and the wide-open door was making the migraine intense but laying down seemed to help. Closing her eyes, she tried to rest and tune out the nurse's voice in the other room.

She could hear the nurse's side of the conversation and it seemed as if she had gotten in touch with one of her parents, but Jasmine couldn't be sure of which one.

Her father should be at work, right? While her mother would be either getting ready for work or still asleep, depending on how late she had gotten home from the hospital last night.

Either way, the nurse's voice seemed to have gotten softer, which made Jasmine's chances of eavesdropping all that much harder. Her discomfort wasn't making it any easier, she rolled over, placing the door and the rest of the room at her back.

Like this, she began to relax and drift into sleep for a little nap.

------------

A pounding headache assailed Levana as she regained consciousness. She grimaced in pain and went to touch where she had been hit on her head to find that she couldn't. Her hands had been bound behind her, trapping her wings against her back, yet the same bindings also were tied around her waist to keep her from dislocating her arms to escape. She was laying on what felt like stone, dirt and gravel, or maybe a combination of all the above.

Slowly opening her eyes, she immediately shut them again as a strong sense of vertigo hit her and made her nauseous.

In just that glimpse, the world was doing so many flips and twists that it was obvious that there was more than just a bump on the head that she had incurred. However, she gathered that she was somewhere that was dark and enclosed in earth.

She turned her focus inwards to assess her body to find.... nothing.... and everything that was wrong.

First thing she noticed was that she had lost contact with the abilities she normally had. The lightning she could normally call upon, the healing and even the slight empath powers seemed to be absent. She was as vulnerable as a mortal human.

Second, she realized that her stomach had been upset prior to opening her eyes, which meant, she had been force fed something and it did not sit well. Poison. That was the first thing that came to mind. She had been poisoned.

Deciding to grit and bear it, she tried opening her eyes again to focus and learn the situation. Again, the surroundings moved in ways that, if she would ever get to experience a funhouse, she would be able to describe as walking through an ever-revolving hall of distorted mirrors.

Except that the scene was obviously not a reflection of her, but the world was expanding, contracting and even swirling the same way as one's reflection would while they walked through that part of a funhouse. It made it hard to focus and even harder to believe what one saw as it could push you not to trust your eyes.

In that distortion, she could make out figures, but with all the flux, their features were a little harder to distinguish. In fact, the only one she could identify was Belial. Those poisonous, bright green eyes along with the long dark red hair were just too recognizable.

Levana's heart sunk as she understood her predicament. Belial poisoned her, which meant that they knew.

A malevolent grin was on the deputy's face as he reveled the most when his victims realized their hopeless situation. Belial was difficult to be around even in normal situations, but Levana had seen how twisted this guy was.

"Uriel's little pet has finally woken up!" he announced as he kicked off the cave's wall where he had been leaning against, walked over to stop before her form on the ground. "About time!" he sneered and then sent a ruthless kick to her stomach, which seemed to have not just forced up the contents of her stomach but shifted some internal organs as she was launched into the cave's wall.

Being bound, she struck the uneven wall with her backside and heard a crack followed by searing pain along one of her wings as the limb was broken. Levana cried out, but it was cut off as had to fight the reflex to throw up, as the vile taste of bile gathered at the back of her throat.

Still, tears filled her eyes as the pain from the broken wing quickly eclipsed that of her headache and she struggled to not to vomit. Belial just laughed and closed the distance to squat, then smirked as he asked with the most sweetly venomous tone, "Does it hurt?"