Excerpt: Chasing Miracles

He looked away again and twirled his fork upon his plate before setting it down and folding his hands on his lap. “Thomas, when I brought you up…you were so cold, but you looked so peaceful sleeping there. I have never seen you look so beautiful even in sleep since. Are you truly so desiring of death?”

Thomas closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall and seat as he remembered. It was cold and he had been stripped of everything. His body was covered in shadow and there was so much darkness. Then a bright arm had ripped him away from it all like a child from the womb. From the cold and the empty despair to the warmth and pain of life he had come screaming. Carmine was crying on his knees and begging someone- no, this was an abomination…

He was begging something to save him, to bring his friend back. No matter the cost to himself.

“No, Carmine. It is not that I desire death. I fear your contract with that fallen angel coming to fruition. He promised me life, yes. But what if, even after all we do, he tricks you? What if this is all for nothing? I lose and you lose and everyone loses?”

“But…he promised…”

“Even children break promises, Carmine.”

“I do not.”

Thomas sighed and reached out to touch his face, his expression patient and soft. “The world does not deserve you. Hell does not deserve you.”