Size / / /

In the event that you are bitten by an angel,
immediate steps must be taken to
prevent the infection from spreading. If
the angel bites an arm or other extremity,
a tourniquet is advised to arrest
blood flow until proper treatment may
be obtained. If you are bitten on the head,
neck, or torso, it is imperative to seek
professional help immediately. (It is
recommended that the patient approach
a secular authority, as ministers, shamans,
and gurus may have divided loyalties
in the matter of angels.)

If you are unable to consult a trained
metaphysician (if, for example, the bite
occurs on a camping trip, or while deep-
sea diving, or, as so often happens, while
wandering in the desert), take as many
of the following steps as possible:

Rub a paste made of wood ash and urine
into the wound. Scour the bite marks
with sun-warmed sand. Remember your sins
in vivid detail, and whisper them into
the indentations left by the teeth. Ask
someone you despise to lick the wound.

In extreme cases, amputation may
be the only option. If so, the removed
limb should be burned before it begins
to fluoresce or attains a separate
consciousness.

If left untreated, angel bites often lead
to transformation. Victims may be
consumed by inner light, or melt into
a faintly honey-scented mist, or become
semi-conscious whirlwinds. Other effects,
more profound, have been reported
but not substantiated.

As always, prevention is better
than any cure. If you encounter
an angel, do not look upon its brightness.
Try not to attract its attention. Do not engage
it in philosophical debate. Stand very still
until it passes by, and the thunderous sound
of its beating wings
has entirely subsided.

 

Copyright © 2003 Tim Pratt

Reader Comments


Tim Pratt is editor of the poetry journal Star*Line and co-editor of slipstream 'zine Flytrap. He lives in Oakland, California. His previous publications in Strange Horizons can be found in our Archive. To contact him, email timpratt@sff.net.



Tim Pratt won a Hugo Award for his short fiction (and lost a Nebula and a World Fantasy Award), and his stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy, and other nice places. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife Heather Shaw and son River. For more information about him and his work, see his website. To contact him, send him email at tim@tropismpress.com.
Current Issue
25 Mar 2024

Looking back, I see that my initial hope for this episode was that the mud would have a heartbeat and a heart that has teeth and crippling anxiety. Some of that hope has become a reality, but at what cost?
to work under the / moon is to build a formidable tomorrow
Significantly, neither the humans nor the tigers are shown to possess an original or authoritative version of the narrative, and it is only in such collaborative and dialogic encounters that human-animal relations and entanglements can be dis-entangled.
By: Sammy Lê
Art by: Kim Hu
the train ascends a bridge over endless rows of houses made of beams from decommissioned factories, stripped hulls, salvaged engines—
Issue 18 Mar 2024
Strange Horizons
Issue 11 Mar 2024
Issue 4 Mar 2024
Issue 26 Feb 2024
Issue 19 Feb 2024
Issue 12 Feb 2024
Issue 5 Feb 2024
Issue 29 Jan 2024
Issue 15 Jan 2024
Issue 8 Jan 2024
Load More
%d bloggers like this: