This story first appeared in the submission thread for a  short story contest on Scribblehub.  It was inspired by Israfil by 000Fesbra000, the image prompt for the contest.

Thanks to MrSimple, JAK, and clancy688 for feedback on earlier drafts.

My other free stories can be found at:

I also have five ebooks for sale, most of whose contents aren't available elsewhere for free. Smashwords pays its authors higher royalties than Amazon.