Popular belief has it that the universe is comprised of atoms. In reality, the universe is actually made up of…

As it was written in The Book of Life, the time had finally come when Abigail Loughly was scheduled to die. A stray bullet during the bank robbery pierced her right atrium as she attempted to move a pregnant woman to safety.

A tiny instant before she hit the ground, witnesses reported that Abigail’s body appeared to go out of focus, her clothing springing away in tatters as if the fabric itself had exploded off her and she began a bizarre transformation into a new form that was still recognizably human but somehow more than human.

When she finally came back into focus seconds later, her skin seemed as if it were made of solid light, her torso and extremities had thinned and elongated, all outward traces of gender had fallen away, and its back was now crested by wings which roiled and shifted as they unfurled like white satin sheets in the wind.

“No one else need die this day,” the being formerly known as Abigail said in a voice that was more akin to music than speech.

No-Longer-Abigail flicked its sylphlike wrist and shifted the molecular structure of the bullets, remodeling them into delicate gunmetal gray butterflies when they were mere inches from their intended targets.

Then the newborn angel turned its attention to the bank robbers. Gone was the previous musical quality and now its voice was a layered thing, numbering thousands upon thousands, when it spoke in a language that was not meant for human understanding.

The weapons, rendered inoperative, slid from the robbers’ grip and clattered on the tiled floor. These once tough men who held no regard for human life fell upon their knees and sobbed uncontrollably like lost children desperate for the love of the parent who abandoned them, which was how they would remain until the authorities arrived.