Page 2 of Lightning Angel

“Thank you, all of you. Like Cassie said, we are thankful you are here with us today.”

Tristan opened the door and stepped into the deserted foyer. He spied the closed doorway ahead of him, where the vulnerable female voice came through themicrophone and walked toward it. He didn’t know why he was here, why he had decided to stop just because he saw his dad’s carandwas daring to enter a religious building to attend the funeral of someone he didn’t know.

He just did.

“Everyone who knew Mark Ford knows that he was always cool, easy-going, and carefree about everything; he was the same even on his deathbed. When Dad told me four days ago that he wanted me to singI Can Only Imagineat his funeral, I scolded him and told him he wasn’t going to die. He told me to promise him, and I did, saying I would sing it for him when he died of old age—”

Perhaps it was better if no one saw him.

Tristan decided and slipped into the room—a hall, rather—unseen in a way only he could do; being him had a lot of perks even though it came with a great pain. The moment he was inside, his eyes scanned the room.

That’s when he saw her.

On the dais, in front of the coffin that held her dad’s body, stood a tall and slender girl in a knee-length black dress. Hoop earrings dangled from her earlobes and a cross necklace rested at her throat. Her dark, wavy hair was pinned to the sides and her hazel eyes were glassy, her mascara smudged, and her nose and cheeks red from crying.

Though everything about her looked vulnerable, Tristan couldn’t help but notice the air of boldness about her.

She was everything he had never seen before. So he stood still and stared as she continued her speech.

“—but Dad was so sure his time onearth was nearing its end, that he was going Home to his Savior. He made me promise him, so… this is for him.”

The girl paused and exchanged a glance with the blonde standing to her left. That was when Tristan noticed her too. She seemed to be around his age, and he assumed them to be sisters even though they didn’t look anything alike. From what he heard from his dad, the friend who passed away had two daughters.

The older girl gave her a soft, encouraging look, and the other girl began singing.

“I can only imagine what it would be like…”

And lightning struck Tristan in the heart.

Even though it was merely afeeling, he was highly aware of the aliveness filling him and flowing through his veins. His heart flared to life.

She had the voice of an angel. Not that he had heard an angel before, but she sounded like how an angel would.

Tears ran down her face as she sang, eyes closed, her angelic voice shaking and often breaking. When she stopped after a few more lines, Tristan wished she hadn’t. He wanted to hear more; he wanted to keep listening to her heavenly voice as long as he could.

Unfortunately, she was unable to continue. Yet, she refused to break down in front of everyone. She stepped down from the dais with her sister and took her seat in the front row as a man took to the stage for his speech.

Tristan moved to the front. No eyes saw him. No one was aware of his presence in the room. He reached the front row and saw her seated between her sister and—Tristan blinked—the dark-skinned boy from yesterday who dropped off the SUV at his house.

The girl dabbed her eyes with a tissue and blew her nose, dragging Tristan’s gaze from the boy to her. Something inside him tightened and softened at the same time. Just when the strange desire to comfort her rose in him, he saw the boy taking her hand and intertwining their fingers. He lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

The girl offered him a weak smile.

He must be her boyfriend,Tristan thought.

But that didn’t stop him from watching her intently, almost unblinkingly. He wanted to figure her out. No lightning had ever struck him in the heart; nor had it ever filled him with aliveness. She, however, did, with immense force and intensity that went through him.

The feeling was unworldly, illogical, and exhilarating at the same time.

Tristan felt like he could stare at her all his life and never get bored. Like he could listen to her voice until his last breath and never get enough. Who was this girl that had lured him like a siren with her song? He wanted to know her, and he wouldn’t back off until he did.

Even the fact that she had a boyfriend wouldn’t stop him.

1

Handsome Stranger

“You’re a good, good Father, it’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are…