The Angel of Death Is My Savior

Why am I back?

Chapter Three

“Why am I back?”

Echo POV

My eyes snap open as if I was struck by lightning. I gulp in air and look around myself. I’m still in my bathtub. The water is stained red from my blood, yet the cuts on my wrists have disappeared. I feel no pain in my stomach, yet I took all of those pills.

A heavenly being chose to save me.

Why? What have I done to deserve it? I wanted to die!

I look up to the heavens and speak.

“Why? I was ready to leave!”

I start breaking out into sobs, angry and somehow grateful at the same time. Now that I was given a second chance, it must mean something. I must take it. Still, however, I don’t understand why anyone brought me back. I pull the drain on the bathtub, slip out, and turn on the shower. I slip off my now- ruined but once favorite dress, and step into the hot water. The hot water almost seems exhilarating, feeling like it woke me up from a deep slumber. I guess it kind of is.

After standing under the hot water for twenty minutes I head into my room. I shred up the note I wrote and throw it in my trash bin. Then I slip on shorts an a t-shirt, and go to the bathroom to look in the mirror. My hair, even in it’s drenched state, has a shine to it that it didn’t before. I guess a form of rebirth will do that to you.

“Well, here I am,” I start speaking to myself in the mirror. “I can’t throw away this chance at life I’ve been given, because I guess some heavenly being chose to keep me on this earth. I have to go back to keeping up appearances, but also actually allow myself to be as happy as I seem. It won’t be easy, but it’s quite doable. I just have to give it a go. You can do this, Echo. You got this. Don’t throw away this shot you’ve been given. You’re relatively smart, you have an averagely- nice body, and stunning eyes and hair. You have perfect grades and more money than half of America combined. You have everything you need, you just gotta use it. Wear something sexy to school tomorrow to boost your confidence. Choose to thrive rather than survive. Go see grams and gramps. You got this, girl.”

After monologuing myself I actually manage to feel quite a bit better. I actually feel optimistic, which is definitely odd considering I just tried to kill myself. Something tells me that’s not normal.

But, then again, being brought back from the dead isn’t normal either. Who knew that I, of all people, would be dealing with this crazy scenario. Glancing at the clock I see that it’s 6am.

“Okay, Echo. You’re going to walk to school for fresh air, and you are going to be ready. It’s as if nothing happened- you’ve been given a second chance. Don’t waste it, Echo.” I give myself yet another peptalk.

School starts at 8, meaning I should leave at 7:30 for the 15ish minute walk. Normally I drive in case I need to go anywhere after school, but today I’ll just walk straight home after the swim meet.

Throughout school, despite me continuing to act like my happy bubbly self and continuously getting hit on, I can’t seem to feel the actual happiness. It almost seems like a part of me doesn’t want to feel the happiness.

At the swim meet, our coach has me do the butterfly stroke for the end of the meet relay race. I win, and get a lot of admiring looks from both boys and girls. I’ve worked hard to make it so that girls don’t feel the need to be jealous of someone else doing better than them. Not even the popular girls. Thankfully, it seems to have worked.

I take my time showering in the girls locker room, using my shampoo, conditioner, and my Mark Jacobs decadence body wash. I don’t like the smell of chlorine sticking to me. After my shower I quickly moisturize my legs with my Mark Jacobs decadence lotion, before putting on skinny jeans and a T-shirt, and get ready to walk home.

Since I always take the longest in the showers, I’m always the last one out.

As soon as I step outside I regret not bringing my car. I have this off feeling that somebody is lurking in the shadows, watching me. Even if someone is, however, they likely don’t know that I’m both a blackbelt and a self defense champion. No, seriously, I won the champion award in my self defense class. I was going against a bulky 250 pound man, and managed to escape him. Three times. None of the other people, girls and boys, were able to escape them once.

I smile at myself slightly before readjusting my backpack on one shoulder and swim bag in my hand, and start walking home. It really is only a 15 minute walk, so if I need to run- it’ll be about five minutes.

As I start forward on the sidewalk, I hear the engine of a car behind me. I discreetly glance behind my back, to see that it’s a black van. I swiftly pick up my walking space, but the van pulls up a few feet ahead of me and then stops. Out of it steps Azrael, a kid I remember seeing around lunch. He actually asked me out once.

He’s definitely hot as f**k, but I wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time. I’m still not.

He seems to have an incredibly dominating and menacing aura around him. I’ve honestly never seen him like this before- but to be fair I was never paying that much attention.

I proceed to calmly try to walk past him. I don’t know what he’s doing in front of me, but he’s making me a bit anxious.

“Azrael,” I acknowledge while attempting to pass him. He grabs my hand, though, stopping me.

“Azrael, I’m going home. Please let go of me.”

He shakes his head. “No. You’re mine. Forever.”

What the f**k?

“Azrael, I’m going to ask you one more time before I make you regret your actions. Let. Go. Of. Me.”

“No. Don’t ask me again, because I will absolutely never let go.”

Fine. He wants to play this crazy prank or whatever the f**k this is? Two can play this game. He’s made his move, now it’s time for mine.

I shrug. “You asked for it.” With that I bring up my knee to his crotch in a gesture so harsh that I doubt he’ll be able to have children. When he doubles over I kick him in the face, before starting to run home. My house has a state of the art security system that nobody will be able to penetrate, so once I’m inside, I’m safe. I’ll call the police, and see what happens from there.

“Seize her!” I hear Azrael’s voice behind me. Then, I hear four pairs of footsteps running in my direction. I don’t dare look behind me, and push myself to run even faster. Suddenly I feel one of the people snag the hem of my shirt, stopping me.

I turn around and without wasting a moment kick the stomach of the man who just stopped me. He falls to the floor, and I look around at my other opponents. All men, all incredibly muscular and tall. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take them all, but I’m not going down without a fight.

I had assumed that Azrael was playing some sort of prank to scare me, but clearly this is more serious. He wants to kidnap me, which I will not allow. I start with punching the face of one man and karate chopping the neck of the other, causing him to double over. The guy I kicked is starting to get up, so I now focus my attention on him and my fourth opponent. I pummel them with swift kicks and strong punches until they’re all on the ground.

Damn, I’m f*****g proud of myself. I knew I was good at self defense, but I never thought that I was that good. I turn to start running, but am faced with the very chiseled and muscular chest of Azrael.

“You’re not getting away so easy, darling” He whispers in my ear before spinning me around and placing a rag coated with the smell of chloroform to my mouth and nose. What the bastard doesn’t know is that I can hold my breath for five minutes. I count to thirty seconds before going slack in his arms. As soon as his death grip loosens, however, I kick him and start running again

“Fates, you really are a fighter, huh?” I hear him wheeze behind me.

I run faster than I ever have, and soon my house comes into sight. I run up to it, but as I step on the front lawn, one of the guys tackles me. He presses the same cloth to my mouth before calling over his shoulder “Hey Roland, feel out her pulse, would ya? That way we’ll know when she actually falls asleep.”

Roland walks up to me and grabs my wrist, pressing his fore and middle finger to my pulse. I push myself to wait the whole five minutes I can hold my breath, but eventually, I have to breathe.

“Jesus, this one really is a fighter” one of the men mumbles. That’s the last thing I hear before darkness takes over.