For the second time in an hour, Natalie was marching toward Pete’s home. This time there would be no second-guessing, no polite retreat at the door. She walked right inside, heading straight for the stairs. Passing the bedrooms of Pete’s roommates, she sensed their curious gazes upon her, the determined curly-haired brunette who wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.

  And climbing the attic steps, her conviction only grew. “I’m meant to be here. WE are meant to be here. I can feel it.”

  She was halfway up his steps, nearly in the room, and moving quickly by the time Pete registered her presence.

  He turned to set his guitar down, planning to reason with the headstrong girl, but by the time he faced her again, their lips met … hard. Her arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

  She remained in his embrace, and for the briefest instant, he began to pull back, only to change his mind, kissing her even more fully.

  Natalie teared up pausing to breathe, their foreheads resting against one another. No words could match her relief. Everything she had done to reach this point. The risks she had taken, the embarrassment she had gone through. This leap of faith with no safety net. “Thank God!”

  But then, Pete stepped back. “Wait. Hold on.”

  “What?” she asked, a mix of fear and annoyance in her voice.

  “Listen, I really like you. I do.” He backed away another step. “But I’m not the guy you should be starting something with right now.”

  Natalie looked at him, exasperated. “What? What is it? I don’t understand. Is it because I’m a freshman?” (She was convinced that this was his issue.)

  “No! No. It’s not that.” He seemed agitated, possibly trying to avoid saying something specific.

  “Well then what? What is it that’s so wrong?”

  “Look. I’m not... good for you.” He said, sounding embarrassed.

  Natalie was losing patience, and her voice rose in response. “Pete, I know we don’t know each other that well, but could you just be honest with me?”

  Her anger flustered him, and he briefly scanned the room, searching for an escape. But as Natalie watched, his posture gradually changed. Relenting (albeit reluctantly) …

  …into his confession.

  “Okay, well for starters, I hate school,” he began. “I’ve dropped out once and got kicked out another time.” He pulled a shirt from his closet as he spoke, and it occurred to Natalie that she couldn’t remember when his original shirt had come off. “I don’t know if I’ll ever graduate. and I’ll be paying off my student loans for the rest of my life. I mean, you’re just starting out! Things can still be good for you.”

  “So what? You think I’ve got it all together? Everybody has stuff like that to deal with.” She would have said more, except he cut in.

  “It’s not just that.” He looked down at the floor. “I’ve had a really bad year. I’m kind of... messed up.”

  There was a twinge of guilt that started creeping into the back of Natalie’s mind, and she moved to temper her own emotions.

  “Listen, I’m not going to force you to do anything,” she tried to reassure him.

  He sighed, frustrated, and neither spoke for a beat. The space between them growing with their silent impasse.

  Seconds ticked by …

  “What’s the tattoo?” she finally asked shifting tone and breaking the quiet. She had only just noticed it, the markings on his back. They were strange. Like some kind of weird equation. She whispered reading, “6E+24”.

  A pained smile instantly appeared on Pete’s face, the look of someone who knows they’ve just been caught. He clearly hadn’t expected her to ask about the symbols. And though it took a moment to understand, Natalie eventually realized what had happened.

  “Wow!” She thought, surprised. “Is this it?” She had only meant to keep him talking but the tattoo question had obviously touched something important.

  Like the key to a door.

  “Natalie,” Pete said. “I don’t want you to think that I’m a bad guy.” His forced smile faded, and the intensity of his eyes, seemed to vanish, as his voice became soft. “I’ve never told anyone this.” She could just barely hear him whisper. “Last year... I got someone pregnant.”

  He quit speaking.

  She quit breathing.

  And the romantic air disappeared from the room.

  “Pregnant?” the word struck her like an invisible force. “He got a girl pregnant?” Natalie could only stand there staring. In her mind, she had braced for many possible revelations. But now…

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “No,” she thought. “Why does it have to be this? Things like this don’t just happen. And what about …” but she said nothing.

  Pete sensed she wasn’t ready to respond, so he adjusted his shirt and continued. “She isn’t here in Athens,” he said quietly, “and there is no baby.” He paused again. “She ended the pregnancy.”

  But Natalie could hardly hear his words. “What do I do now?” She wondered, “This isn’t some small ‘oh I got kicked out of school’ confession. This is a major life event. Something that couples are supposed to do …together.”

  Though looking at him, despite her own storm of thought, Natalie could see his expression had dulled evermore. Even with her in the room, he looked alone. Lost in another place, a million miles away.

  “Abortion.” She recognized. “God, it’s wrecked him.”

  “I understand it was her decision to make, not mine,” He went on, “still, I tried to stop her. We argued about it a lot, right up until it happened. Part of me was relieved when it was over, but I blamed her, which was awful of me. Just… seriously awful.” He went quiet again, likely reflecting on hurtful things said in the past. “Everything is just … dark around me, now. And maybe that’s how it should be.”

  Natalie, meanwhile, had never been close to the issue itself, and as Pete spoke her mind bounced back and forth. Anger toward him for hurting a girl she never knew. Confusion over her own feelings.

  “How could he be so insensitive?” she thought. “How could he...?” But she stopped herself. “I can’t know what it was like for him either.” She acknowledged. “It’s personal. It’s obviously painful, and me judging him isn’t fair for…either of them.”

  She remained still. Trying to take in the scope of what was happening.

  Here she was, looking at a guy she inexplicably felt destined for, and with each word, they seemed to be growing both closer and further apart.

  It was becoming difficult to keep her thoughts organized. And she realized she was running out of time to reconcile her feelings. So, she refocused on what she felt was most important.

  She still wanted him.

  And despite all that was being revealed…he was still worth wanting.

  “There’s something to be said for a guy choosing honesty when his bed is just five feet away.” She considered. “That means something, doesn’t it?”

  “And the tattoo?” she asked again.

  “The tattoo is kind of like a punishment.” He answered. “A reminder that I let it happen, or that I caused it, or that I was selfish …probably all of the above.”

  “Honestly…” and here he stopped, studying his own back in the mirror. “…sometimes even I’m not sure what it really means.”

  Then, he smirked, embarrassed, and reiterated, “So yeah. Probably not the kind of guy you want to start dating right now, you know?”

  He clearly expected her to leave the attic at that point. He appeared resigned to it. And seeing that, Natalie chose her next words carefully, for the both of them.

  “Look,” she said, stepping toward him. “I can't understand what you’ve been through, but whatever it is that you're going through, I’m not afraid of it.” She smiled, her expression, compassionate, and disarming. “I appreciate you trying to protect me,” (she reached for his hand), “but please… trust me to make my own decisions. Okay?”

  Now, it was Pete’s turn to be shocked. But before he could respond, she closed the space between them and kissed him. It was the only way this could be. They held each other in that moment of honesty, in the attic, without saying a word. Daylight through the window, painting ribbons across the walls.

  And when they finally let go, Pete’s resistance to their relationship faded as well. This one important moment turning to many. Lives, forever changing. Pain bearing love as a storm carries the spring.

  And five years from that afternoon in Pete's attic, they were married.

  The wedding, held in a small church close to Natalie’s home. A beautiful ceremony, surrounded by family and friends. Natalie wore her mother’s wedding dress, and Pete played his guitar at the reception. It was a perfect day.

  6E+24

  “Do you see the pattern?” Gabriel asked.

  “She saves him?” Raphael replied.

  “She saves him, over and over,” Gabriel emphasized as he closed the fractal lens of the Kaleidoscope. “Their entire relationship history, all the critical moments are the same. She saves him, pushes him, inspires him, despite his natural tendency toward self-destruction. She is the force that drives their whole story.”

  “So what are you saying? It's her and not him?” Raphael asked. “That he doesn’t matter? He has no Light, Gabriel! I admit she is important in ways we don’t yet fully grasp. But no Wreath can hold without a Light. At the very least, this man is enduring something unprecedented.”

  Gabriel could already see what his friend really wanted, and although he disagreed strongly, he wasn’t about to launch accusations. “Raphael, don’t misunderstand. I’m interested in Pete Bishop too, even a little frightened by him. I’m only pointing out that we could study him daily and still never truly grasp what’s happening unless we understand her place in all of this.”

  “He was attacked by Abaddon,” Raphael quickly reminded him. “That means it was an attack commissioned by Lucifer himself! Attacks that are becoming more frequent. There was a time when we went decades without a confirmed breaking. Now, three to five per year. And for the first time, we have the chance to reach out to the victim while he’s still lucid! Pete Bishop is significant for that reason alone.”

  “There it is!” Gabriel announced triumphantly. “You want to meet him!”

  Raphael looked away, angry. His great metal wings flaring in embarrassment before folding back behind him. Each celestial silver feather making a sound like scissors cutting in consort. “Don’t you?” he finally asked.

  “Brother,” Gabriel began. “I know your heart aches for them, but still, manifesting? For this one? Surely there have been others more worthy.”

  “Are you saying the abortion makes him ‘unworthy’?” Raphael countered. “You know that’s not the Law. Besides, his reaction shows his depth of feeling.”

  Gabriel’s armor glistened illuminated by the lenses swirling around them. “Of course not. It’s admirable he cares so. I suspect that it’s his ‘Door’. If not the pregnancy itself, then the way he treated the girl involved. Actually…” Gabriel turned away, gathering his thoughts. “. . . that is probably what holds him back. Not being able to forgive himself. In fact, I would wager that if we examined the totality of his life, we would find countless moments of personal failures he refuses to absolve himself for.”

  “I’m not interested in the totality of his life. I’m focused on how he is alive right now,” Raphael stated flatly, his eyes stern.

  “I am as well. So, let’s see what happened next.” Gabriel gestured, and a different lens came forward from the mass. “They’re married, they’re happy, and then…”

  6E+24

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