After the Service

It was an angel, no matter how I looked at it.

Not a well-made doll or model, but a real, living angel.

The eyes embedded along the wheel were tightly shut, and its pure-white wings were forcibly spread open, caught on transparent wires.

The angel's motionless body hung from dozens of hooks, like meat in a slaughterhouse.

At a glance, it looked as though it had died.

But the faintly glowing halo told me that the angel was still alive.

That made my skin crawl even more.

Because I couldn't understand what the humans down there had been thinking when they hung an angel up here.

And because I had no idea what would happen to this city the moment the angel opened its eyes.

…...