Prompt: Waking with angels

Thanks to Angélique Blanpain for permission to use her beautiful “welcome to heaven”!

Tori felt her foot slip off the ledge and grabbed for the statue as she fell. Her fingers clutched the thickly muscled arm and could find no purchase on the smooth stone, sliding together and slipping away from any hold. Her back smashed into the wooden railing, and for a long moment, she thought it would hold her. She tried to throw her weight up and forward, then she heard the splintering of wood to the side, and the balcony gave way beneath her. She looked up into the blank eyes of the angel she’d been restoring, mesmerized as always. As she tumbled, and her head fell backward, she thought she saw the eyes turn white. The head move. Impossible.

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The wind was cold, not the warm summer breeze she’d enjoyed working on top of the cathedral. It knifed through her clothes and froze her skin. Her eyes popped open and stared into angry grey skies. It had been a summer shower, not like this! What…She felt the stone against her back and looked down. She was wearing some gown, sheer, like an old-fashioned nightgown. She didn’t have time to blush, when she saw beneath her.

“No!” She cried out, scrambling upright, losing her balance, and sliding into a safe crook. An angel’s shoulder. She stared around, struggling to understand what she saw. She was perched on top of a tower of statues – angels in combat. The ones closest to her pushed and pulled against each other in a battle frozen in stone. She shrank against the arm supporting her, looking down, and down, and down. No end in sight to the tower.

“I’m the topping to an angel tree?” She giggled hysterically, clapping her hand over her mouth. “Think, Tori,” she admonished herself. “Think!”

The tower began to tremble. Tori clutched the arm behind her and peered down, terrified of what she might see. The wind roared even louder, whipping her long gown around her bare legs and arms, her hair across her eyes and mouth. The stone beneath her hand grew warm. And the arm moved, carrying her down with it…

Dogs in house	Houdini, Brindle
Time writing	~20 minutes, interrupted
February word count	6,758