Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the End
Charlotte's world faded in from the inky nothingness so quickly she had to squint her eyes to keep from being blinded. That a world appeared at all was more than a little surprising to her, given what had happened only minutes before, but her surprised grew even more when she looked down at her body and saw no scars. No bleeding. No school uniform. All she saw was a fluffy white dress and the perfect skin she'd always wanted, with a pair of comfortable white shoes—not tennis shoes—on her feet. Something was certainly amiss.
Her body was not the only unfamiliar thing she could see: in front of her rose a fence with a gate fashioned out of gold and a variety of sparkling gems. A middle-aged man in a white suit sat in the gate's gatehouse. Behind that, she could see nothing but architectural marvels. Statues of happy-looking children playing trumpets adorned fountains in the middle of a shiny cobblestone street leading directly away from where she stood. On either side of the street were buildings intricately carved from a sort of stone she could not recognize right away but which looked to be rare and expensive. Someone had carved patterns of flowers and lions and other baroque themes into most of the side buildings, straight out of the rock from which they were built. Back in the distance, Charlotte could make out what was either a building or a series of connected buildings, tall as a skyscraper and wide as a mountain. Their walls looked as if they were carved from marble. Sunlight reflected off of everything.
Much to her relief, this all looked nothing like Charlotte's middle school.
She stared ahead at a particularly gaudy statue in the middle of the street until someone tugged on her arm and requested that she move forward.
"You're blocking traffic," a woman's voice told her. "Angel Academy is quite the spectacle, but I'm afraid you'll have to admire it from a slightly different vantage point."
Charlotte blushed and allowed the newcomer to lead her toward the gate. "I-I'm sorry. I don't mean to get in anybody's way."
She risked a glance sideways at the woman holding onto her arm. She looked young but not young enough to fit any reasonable definition of a kid. She was medium height and build. She wore a white dress similar to the one Charlotte had on, but hers was slightly less fluffy, and it came with a round white cap on top of her head, hiding most of her dark hair. Her eyes were somewhere between blue and gray. On her back, she had a pair of feathery wings.
The lady smiled welcomingly. "Everyone here is confused at first. Just follow my lead and we'll get you situated right away. We'll try to ease you into your new life, so don't expect to go exploring everyone right off, okay?"
"Exploring?" Charlotte grimaced. "I don't even know where I am."
"Oh?" The lady stopped for a second. "You really don't?"
"No," said Charlotte. "Should I?"
"I guess not," the lady said. "Forgive me; I'm new at this. You'll be part of my first class. My name is Amina, and I'll be your guide to life as an Angel here at Angel Academy."
Charlotte's face went red as a beet. "Angel? Am I… dead?"
Amina put her hand on Charlotte's shoulder. "I'm sorry. It is true, though. It happens to us all sooner or later. For me, it was a long time ago. Train accident. Splat. I never stood a chance. Luckily, death isn't the end here."
Charlotte put her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. "So I'm dead, but I'm not dead."
"Right on, young Angel."
"My name is Charlotte, by the way. I am pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," said Amina. "I think you'll find that death isn't as bad as you might have thought. At least, not with the friends you'll be making. You're the last one in my group to arrive, so why don't I introduce you to the others?"
Charlotte nodded and followed Amina to the gate. The man in the booth waved to them; Amina smiled and waved back. Charlotte attempted to smile.
"This'll just take a minute, okay Charly?" said Amina. "I have a little bit of paperwork I need to process, and then we'll need to get you an ID card, and then we can go right up to the dorms. Just bear with me."
While Amina spoke with the gate official, Charlotte took the time to look back at where she had come from. She immediately regretted it. The space where she had apparently appeared a few minutes earlier looked like a cloud, not the hard, safe rock on which she now stood. Her little cloud was circular and blue. Behind it, a rolling layer of clouds overtook all pretense of a rocky ground and then dropped off into a vast expanse of sky. Sky below her. Sky where she could fall if she took a wrong step. But to Charlotte's surprise, she did not feel dizzy like she normally would when up high enough that she could imagine falling.
Several more circular cloud platforms lay along the edge of the clouds, each one a slightly different pastel color. Everyone minute or so, one of the cloud platforms would glow bright pink or green or blue or yellow or whatever color, and a winged humanoid figure—and Angel, Charlotte guessed—would appear on the platform. Within seconds, a taller Angel dressed like Amina would run over to the platform and greet the new arrival, and the two would make their way to the wall of the city. Now that Charlotte had a clearer head, she noticed that there was a gate for each cloud platform, probably to save everyone from having to stand in a long line at a single gate.
Charlotte could make no more observations before Amina once again tugged at her arm, pulled her into the little gatehouse, and sat her down on a small, black folding chair in front of a blank white screen and behind a camera. The gatekeeper aimed the camera at her, urged her to say something cheerful, and snapped a photograph.
The camera's flash set spots dancing in front of Charlotte's face. She shook her head to clear them and stood up, while the gatekeeper took his camera off to a back room.
"Amina, you said this place is an academy, right?"
"That is right, Charly," said Amina. "It is an academy where you will learn how to be a proper Angel."
"Is that like heaven?"
"Sort of. Only, most Earth fables hold that heaven is a place where you can sit around in luxury for all eternity. It's a rather unrealistic view. If everyone were to sit around doing nothing, then nothing would get done, and society would decay. Up here, everyone has a job. We have been assigned special jobs. Only a lucky few end up at Angel Academy, so we have to work hard to live up to expectations."
"That sounds so exciting!" said Charlotte. "Do you know what we'll be studying?"
"Lots of things," said Amina. "There will be etiquette, magic, dancing, art, fighting, music, cooking…."
"Fighting?"
Amina stopped smiling. "Yes. While things are generally peaceful here, it's still a good idea to keep in shape in case of a demon invasion."
"Demon invasion?"
Amina sighed. "I probably shouldn't have said that. It's not something you'll need to worry about, anyway. The Celestial Realms have not been invaded in millions of years. That won't be changing anytime soon. We mostly use our martial training in fun little tournaments, and to settle disputes over lunch money, and things like that. The odd demon appears here and there, yes, but most of them are smart enough to stay away. After all, everyone in this city has been through some degree of training at the Academy. We prevent large-scale invasions with a show of strength."
"It sounds to me like you learned all that from a book."
"Would a book tell you to use your training to beat up some bully who stole your money?" Amina winked.
"I guess not."
"That part is off the record, by the way."
Just then, the gatekeeper returned with a small white plastic card decorated by a mugshot of Charlotte's face and some fancy script spelling out her name. There were some other words written on the card below the photograph, but they were in a language Charlotte could not read.
"You like it?" Amina asked.
"It's fancy," said Charlotte.
"Well, your paperwork is all cleared, so why don't we head off to meet your new friends?"
The gatekeeper waved goodbye as Amina and Charlotte marched outside and crossed through the gate into the city. This time, Charlotte waved back.
