C6 The Angel Who Hates Me

Eli felt it before seeing it.

A weight hanging in the air, sharp, silent—like the instant before the strike of lightning. The singing birds had vanished from the trees. The wind didn't hum through the leaves anymore. The current of the river almost seemed to recede into a dreadful stillness.

Amon stood with his back turned to Eli at the field's edge, near the barn: he was stripped to the waist