Chapter 7: Invoke the Angel

Lily stepped into her large private bathroom, took her clothes off, hung them on the wall, and descended into a relaxing hot tub. The hot air and the boiling water soothed her mind, and, for a moment, she found peace within, reclined against the edge of the tub. However, soon, she resumed thinking about that black apparition.

Maybe, after all, it was just a grim reaper, as Loriel said? Maybe out of fear she couldn’t see it clearly? Maybe she saw an angel-like silhouette only because she wanted to see an angel? She heaved a sigh – there were too many possibilities. One would never know for sure… Besides, she had never had an angel. If it had never appeared to defend her before, why would it appear now? It really didn’t make any sense. No, it was all probably just her imagination, her eager wish to have an angel. She didn’t have any. She must get used to it…

Tears appeared in her eyes – she promised herself she would not give up so easily this time!

No, I must try to invoke it! Maybe it was an angel?

She prepared her hands to draw the sign that she saw Evy draw earlier to call upon her guardian angel, Loriel.

“My guardian angel, I invoke you!”

She drew the exact same sign Evy did – swung her right hand from the top to the bottom, and then, from the right to the left, forming a cross in the air.

Nothing happened.

“No, I won’t give up so easily!” she shouted, “I know it was an angel, but it was probably black because it got too weak having me as a hostess. I’m too soft, and furthermore, as I thought I had no angel, I’m untrained. It’s not strange at all that my angel would be weak… My guardian angel, I invoke you!”

She drew the same sign, but now with more eagerness. However, nothing happened this time either.

“Ugh, there must be some trick to this! If I cannot invoke him this way_ Wait, maybe it’s not black because I am weak or it is weak, but simply because it’s different! Maybe, to invoke it, I need to draw a different sign? Maybe… if black is the opposite colour to white, I should draw the opposite sign to a cross to make a black-winged angel appear?”

This thought actually made sense. She nodded to herself, determined to give it a try.

“My guardian angel, I invoke you!”

She now drew not a cross, but an ‘X’ with her right hand, assuming it would be a perfect sign opposite to a cross – it was a bent cross, after all.

Nothing happened again.

“Ugh! Why can’t I do this?”

Evil thoughts embraced her:

Maybe, it was no angel after all?

She frowned and quickly discarded this thought:

What am I thinking? It must just be a different sign… How could I think an ‘X’ is opposite to a cross? It is a cross too, but just different-shaped. I need to draw a real opposite sign. Maybe, if I draw the horizontal line at the bottom and not above?

“My guardian angel, I invoke you!”

She drew the cross again, but now, instead of drawing the horizontal line before her shoulders, she drew it more below. Nothing happened nevertheless.

No, no use. But, maybe… Okay, this is the last try. If this doesn’t work, I give up…

She clenched her fists as if gathering all of her remaining hopes and energy, and shouted:

“My guardian angel! I invoke you!”

She drew the sign once more, but this time, she did it in a completely opposite way – used her left hand, drew the vertical line from up to down like before, but the horizontal line from the left to the right. She waited eagerly for the black matter to appear.

Please… Please…

Minutes passed. Nothing appeared.

It was not an angel… I shouldn’t even have hoped for it from the beginning!

Tears gathered in her eyes. Her heart sunk, having lost its last hopes. She whimpered and dived into the hot tub even more, now only her nose and eyes left on the surface.

I’m a failure…

“Um, you called upon me?”

She started, raised her head from the water, looked aside, and screamed in fear – there was a tall young man in her bathroom!