~Chapter 4
It was an angel! She seemed young and small, yet she was wearing a sumptuous silver gown that shimmered. And her wings…! They were large, covered in white feathers, and dusted with pale glitter. Her hair fell down her back like a waterfall of spun gold. She looked at Angelique with brown eyes, and she was not smiling.
Angelique gasped again. "It's Michaelle! This is impossible!"
"Good evening, Mademoiselle," said the angel, with a mocking tone.
"Y-you are not real!" Angelique stuttered. "You are a little girl! A vagabond!"
'That was my disguise," the Michaelle-angel explained. "But, you see me now how I am in reality. I had given you a test, and you failed."
"What are you saying?" cried Angelique.
'Do you have a heart?" demanded Michaelle. "I doubt it. If you do, it is made of stone."
"How dare you!" growled Angelique.
"Silence!" commanded the angel. "You have many good things in your life, and yet you abuse them like they are nothing! You do not realize all you have! You think your money makes you better, and everyone else is worthless! You are a wicked, terrible person, and you don't deserve the good things you have. You have used your power to hurt the lives of others, like me. Now, I will punish you."
'What will you do?" said Angelique, who was a little afraid.
'You must stay here, in the forest, in the snow, in the cold, without help, forever," decided the angel.
'No! No, no!" cried Angelique. "Please! Don't abandon me! I'm sorry; I'm very, very sorry!" She started to cry.
'It's too late to be sorry," said the angel solemnly. Then, she paused. "Or, is it? That's for you to decide…"
Angelique blinked. "P-pardon?"
But, the angel smiled mysteriously. She spread her wings, and the pale sparkles that rested upon them floated in the air.
Angelique looked at them for a minute, but, suddenly, she was feeling tired. Then, she fainted.