Six paragraphs from Miracle Above All, Book 1 of the Miracle Trilogy.
1. She halted suddenly. Her unexpected stop broke
their contact, and her hand slid out of his. Immediately the freezing weather
slammed into her and she fell, gasping in shock, against the bank. Whirling
around, Coheed grabbed her by the upper arms, and the indescribable warmth
returned. For nearly a full minute she stood there, head bowed, and tried to
make sense of what was happening to her. This was not a reality she could make
sense of or adjust to. And the trembling that was overriding her body wasn’t just
because of the cold blast she’d just experienced.
2. The Father clasped his hands in front of him on
the table. “The Book of Daviel dealt with the demons coming out of Hell during
the Apocalypse. It was…” he grimaced, “considered to be too dark, too
controversial. The clerics felt that including it would raise a profound fear
in mankind and possibly lead to a rebellion against the Church. Furthermore,
they determined that the information the prophet laid out must be kept within
the Church itself, accessible only to a select few who would keep it safe from
the rest of humanity.”
3. More than that, she couldn’t face the
mounting tension of knowing the church was slowly assembling a crowd of some of
the most evil presences walking the earth because of her. Because she had come
back from the dead. Plus, there was the fact that out of less than a handful of
people in all of the history of mankind to have arisen after dying, she was the
only female. There had to be a reason for that, she reckoned. But seeing those
creatures standing out there like silent sentinels only made her more nervous
and fearful. She felt like she was being suffocated, piled upon like a small
flame having tons of dirt thrown upon it in order to extinguish it. Sometimes
she couldn’t breathe, which was why the need to break away and run grew
stronger and more persistent the longer she remained here.
4. Coheed kept himself invisible to the human
populace and pressed his back against the outer restroom wall. Hopefully, Casi
would emerge in time where they could catch the next train going uptown. From
there, they’d make their way over to Penn Station to catch the Amtrak to
Philadelphia. Once they got out of New York, then he would consider them taking
a bus. But at this moment it was imperative to get her out of the big city.
Demons were gathering en masse and
using the dense population, as well as the closely-packed architecture, to keep
from being discovered. He needed to get Casi in a location where they had
enough room where they could see the creatures approaching.
5. She had no idea
how long she remained clinging to the life ring in the cold water. She’d lost
all feeling in her legs and she knew she’d suffer from hypothermia if she
didn’t get back to land soon. Changing her grip on the preserver, she managed
to drag herself on top of it and started kicking. Little by little she was able
to maneuver her way to shore where she climbed up onto a grassy bank, but her
legs would not hold her up, and she collapsed in the mud.
6. “Are you asking if he approved or disapproved?”
Coheed shook his head. “It matters not one whit to me what he thinks. What I
did, what we did…” He took her hand again, this time opening it palm up.
Bending over, he kissed it, then reached out to cup her cheek. When he spoke
again, she would swear she heard unshed tears in his voice. “You are my miracle,
Casi. I was assigned to protect you, and if need be, to give myself for the
cause. I never expected you to touch me to the core. I never believed I could
come to love someone this way, or that this love would be this
all-encompassing.” Dropping his hand, he clasped them in his lap. “When I
confessed to Father Daviel about what we did, he told me this was part of the
prophecy.”
