Amanda sits in the chair opposite me trying to look at anything and everything except my face. Every now and then she pats my shoulder awkwardly in an attempt to comfort me.
I long for the closeness of another person. It’s like a burning need inside of me. I feel so alone. Alienated. Amanda lays her hand on the table after patting me and without thinking, I reach for it. I lace my fingers through hers and the warmth of her palm clears my head a bit.
She tries to pull her hand from mine. “What the hell are you doing?” She looks at me as if I had stripped all my clothes off.
I know I should feel embarrassed and probably scared by how she is going to retaliate but I don’t. I feel empty. “I’m sorry, I just need someone and you’re the only one here.”
She thinks about what I said for a moment, but then sighs and tightens her hold on my hand. “Fine. But if you try to kiss me, I will punch you.”
I flinch, not from the threat but from the thought of kissing someone other than Katie. Are she and I even still together? Or am I supposed to move on and find someone else like Amanda? I look at Amanda. Her tanned skin is smooth and toned. Her dark eyelashes brush her cheeks when she blinks or looks down. She is pretty, I can’t deny that, but could I be with her?
No.
I have to save Katie. She is living in a world where all her best memories have been stolen from her and she would not be okay with that.
I stand up but I don’t release Amanda’s hand. It still feels nice to have her near, even as just a friend. “Let’s go.”
She stands and lifts one eyebrow as she stares at me. “Go where? Hopefully not to my bedroom because I haven’t really cleaned it ever and -”
“No. We’re going to spy on Michael. I’m going to save Katie.” I don’t know if she was seriously thinking the bedroom was an option for us, but I don’t want to ask.
“Well, that little experiment lasted a whole two minutes.” She snatches her hand from mine and stalks past me to the door.
“It wasn’t an experiment. I needed someone to help me calm down.”
“Glad I could be of some use to you.” She opens the door and motions for me to go out.
“It’s not like that Amanda. What’s wrong? Look, I’m sorry I held your hand. I won’t do it again.” I walk through the door and steal a glance at her. Is that disappointment I see on her face? Once outside standing on her porch, I turn and really look at her, but she has her I-hate-the-world look plastered on.
“Whatever, Lover Boy. What’s the plan?”
If she wants to be like that, I’ll forget the whole thing. “We’re going to the mansion.”
“You do realize the sun is setting right?” She looks up at the twilight sky.
I look up. It’s getting dark, but it doesn’t matter. “Haven’t you noticed? I suppose death takes away human needs. I haven’t eaten a meal all day and I’m not hungry. It’s been a long two days and I’m not tired. I haven’t even had to go to the bathroom. I’m going to the mansion tonight. If you want to stay here then do it, but I’m leaving.” I turn and start walking toward town. It’s not long before I hear Amanda’s quiet footsteps beside me.
“You really lover her, don’t you?”
The softness in her voice catches me off guard. “Yeah I do.”
It grows quiet between us. We walk through town and begin our hike through the forest that will lead us to Michael’s. The moon raises high in the sky and it finally begins to cool off.
I’m glad Amanda came with me. I enjoy her company even with her snarky comments and brash attitude. There’s more to her than she lets on. I wonder if I’ll ever know who she really is when she’s not being the tough girl.
“Amanda, can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” she answers absentmindedly.
“You said everyone here committed suicide, and I told you why I did it, I was wondering what made you do it?”
She doesn’t answer right away. I think she is trying to figure out how to word it but then her voice hardens, and she coldly replies, “Maybe you should tell me what you did to Katie. You did say it was your fault she killed herself.”
My non-beating heart freezes inside my chest. She couldn’t have said anything more hurtful. The answer to my question must be more painful to her than I thought.
The appearance of Michael’s dark mansion breaks the uncomfortable tension between us. “I need to get inside.”
“You’re crazy. If we get caught there’s no telling what they’d do to us,” Amanda hisses.
“You don’t have to come, but I’m going in. The answers to whatever they’re doing to Katie and the other people here, are in there.” I slip out of the cover of the trees and creep toward the front door. Amanda doesn’t hesitate to follow.
I turn to look at her, silently questioning her intentions.
“What? I can’t let you go alone. You’re the worst spy ever, remember?”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes at her. I’m thankful she came along because let’s face it, she’s right.
When we reach the door, I try the knob. To my surprise its unlocked. Of course, who would they need to keep out if everyone’s brainwashed?
The room we enter is huge with two staircases on opposite sides leading up to the second floor. Amanda closes the door quietly behind us and takes the lead. I don’t argue, but I stick close to her side. This place is really creepy. The wood of the walls, floors, and stairs is black. All of it. Making the darkness more prominent. There’s very little furniture and our footsteps sound loud in the emptiness.
Amanda bends down and unlaces her boots. She pulls her feet from them and motions for me to do the same. Walking in our socks is much quieter and I am again glad to have her with me.
It doesn’t take long for us to pick up voices in the quietness. We follow them down a hall off from the main room and find ourselves outside a metal door that is cracked open enough to peak through. Amanda squats down and I stand above her so we can both see inside.
Michael and another angel hover over a large control panel. There’s dozens of buttons and flashing lights. Above them are several TV screens all tracking the movements of different people. Hooked to each TV is a monitor measuring heartrate and something else that ranges on a spectrum of red to green.
The other angel is closely watching one TV in particular. It shows a young girl, about fifteen, who is huddled on the floor crying. Something about him seems very familiar.
“Michael, look here.” He gestures to the screen and taps a few buttons.
Michael walks over from where he was watching another screen. “Yes, I’d say she’s getting close.”
“Let me go there and finish it. One heartbreak and she’ll be over the edge.” His voice tugs at a memory just out of reach.
“I was going to send Jeremiah for this one.” Michael turns away, but the other angel doesn’t accept his reply. He squeezes his hands into fists.
“Why would you send him when I’m clearly the best choice?” He swivels in his chair and I get a glimpse of his face. That’s where I’ve seen him before. He’s the guy I bumped into at Katie’s funeral. “I’ve already brought in Erin, May, and Katie just this week! That’s sixty altogether that I’ve added to your numbers.”
Katie?
Michael turns back to the other angel, his face is angry. “You need to learn your place Matthew.”
Matthew?
And Katie.
Anger seizes hold of me, and I reach for the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Amanda rises to her feet quickly and wedges herself between me and the door. She looks sternly into my eyes and shakes her head. I don’t need her permission. I have something that needs to be settled.
I put my hand on her shoulder to push her aside but in one swift movement she pulls her pocketknife out and snaps open the blade. She glares at my hand and I snatch it away. I know she’s crazy enough to use that knife on me and I need all ten of my fingers to wrap around Matthew’
s throat.
She shakes her head again as if reading my thoughts and points in the direction of the front door. I plant my feet on the ground as a show of I’m not going anywhere.
Her jaw locks tight and she points again. When I don’t move for the second time her impatience shows on her face. She moves around me, and I feel the sharp point of her knife pressed against my back. She presses it hard enough that I know she’s serious but not so hard to break skin.
Instinctively I raise my hands up, still holding a shoe in each, as a sign of surrender and I begin walking to the front door. She doesn’t remove her knife until we are outside, hidden in the trees. The grass and leaves feel weird under my sock feet. The moment I no longer feel the point, I spin around, enraged. “Are you insane? Whose side are you on?”
“I should ask you the same questions! If I had let you walk in there it would all be over! They would know about us and you wouldn’t be saving anyone!”
In the back of my mind I know she’s right, but it doesn’t matter. I have to get to Matthew and make him pay for whatever he did to Katie. Somehow, I know this is his fault. I didn’t know that until now, but it makes sense. He was in the room with Katie the night she killed herself and he saw me at her funeral before I killed myself. He’s the link. Somehow.
Amanda watches my face. She must see my anger evaporate because her voice loses its hard edge. “So, what is it? What set you off?”
I feel deflated, like a balloon that lost all its air. “The other angel, his name is Matthew.”
“So is like a thousand other guys on the planet. What’s it matter?”
“That’s the name of the guy Katie was with when I called her right before we…broke up.” The words are bitter in my mouth. I never told anyone we broke up. The news of her death came before I could come to terms with what I had done. Speaking it aloud feels like a lie.
“Ah, so the truth comes out. You and Katie aren’t even together. You dumped her because you were jealous and then she killed herself.”
“I had every right to be jealous! She was with him, but she lied and said she was alone. I didn’t know it was a freaking angel with her!” I ball my hands into fists. Why her? Why did he have to come into our lives and manipulate her? And why was he at her funeral? Why did he tell me I was going to see her again soon? Did he know I was going to kill myself? Did he make it happen?
“If you were so sure she was being unfaithful then why did you feel guilty and kill yourself at her funeral?”
“Because…” My voice trails off. I don’t know. Why had I felt such strong emotions? Was it Matthew’s doings or my own? Both when I broke up with Katie and at her funeral, I hadn’t felt myself. Sure, I was angry, but that anger had been more. It had engulfed me and made me its slave.
“Look, Lover Boy, I want to figure this out as much as you do but I need to know if I can trust you to not let your hurt pride get in the way again, alright?”
I nod slowly.
“Okay, let’s go back in.”
We sneak back into the mansion and once again stand outside the room. Michael and Matthew must have resolved their argument while we were outside because now Matthew is sitting back in his desk chair with his hands clasped behind his head looking very pleased with himself.
Michael picks up a golden bracelet out of a basket of many identical ones. He tosses it to Matthew. “This needs to be done as quickly as possible. We need to have the numbers on our side if we are going to even have a chance at defeating the others. They may not be able to stop us here, but Earth is fair ground.”
“And that’s why you have me. I’ll be back before you know it.” Matthew slides the bracelet on his wrist and disappears.
I look at Amanda, my eyes wide. She glances at me and rolls her eyes then returns her focus back to the room.
Michael mutters to himself, “I have you because I can’t do it myself.” He then moves toward the control panel and watches the screen. The girl looks around as if she had heard something. She stands and opens her bedroom door. Standing there with a broad smile is Matthew.
Is he on Earth?
His wings and white robe are gone, replaced with a black T-shirt and jeans. The girl hugs him tightly. I wonder what he said to her. There doesn’t seem to be any sound.
“Oh, you’re feeling love my little Jamie? Well let’s turn that up.” Michael turns a dial on the control panel and the heart rate monitor for the girl’s TV speeds up. The arrow on the spectrum points well into the green.
What did he just do to her?
On the screen the girl kisses Matthew. He picks her up and walks to her bed. He leans over top of her and kisses down her neck.
“We can’t have you feeling scared, Jamie. You need to get attached.” Michael turns a few more knobs and the heartrate goes even faster and the arrow is all the way up on the green end.
As the girl gives in to Matthew, I find myself no longer able to watch the screen. Did he do that to Katie? Amanda must have noticed my change because she grabs my hand. I look at her and she gives me a sad smile. It helps a little, but I still have so many questions and uncertainties.
After a while I will myself to look back at the screen. The girl is wrapped in a blanket and sobbing heavily as Matthew looks to be laughing at her. The arrow points at the red section.
“Sadness, guilt, betrayal… good. Let’s turn those up to an overwhelming high.” As soon as Michael turns the knobs, the arrow drops to the lowest point in the red.
On screen Matthew leaves the girl’s room and moments later he is standing in the middle of the room with Michael with his wings and robe back. “Piece of cake.”
“I’m beginning to think you enjoy being with the humans. Feeling homesick?” Michael takes the bracelet from Matthew and drops it back in the basket where it came from.
“Not a chance. They’re just fun to mess with, so naïve and desperate for love. I like being able to get something out of this plan of yours.”
“Look.” Michael points to Jamie’s screen. She’s stopped crying and her heartrate is slowed but now she has a pistol in her hand. She raises it to her head, and I look away. Amanda taps my shoulder and points into the room. I follow her finger with my eyes careful not to look at the screen. The girl’s heartrate is a flat line.
She’s dead. Just like that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“I guess I should go to the gate and greet her. Why don’t you go to town and act like an angel if you’re going to wear the wings?” Michael’s voice reminds me that I don’t have time to be sad about Jamie.
Amanda and I scramble away from the door as the two angels walk toward it. There’s another door across the hall and she opens it. It’s a small closet but it’s empty so we both squeeze in and shut the door just in time before the angels enter the hallway.
I crack the door and peak through to watch the angels walk to the front door. Amanda is packed so tightly against me I can feel her hot breath on my back through my shirt.
“The wings are badass. Plus, I’ve seen a couple lingering stares from the ladies.” Matthew spreads his wings open wide.
“Sometimes you remind me of a kid playing dress up.” Their voices carry down the hallway as Michael opens the front door.
“But I do it so well. Even your leader thought I was like you.”
Finally, the front door closes shut with the angels’ departure and I pour out of the closet. Amanda follows with her arms out in a stretch. “Well that was close in every sense of the word.”
“I don’t want to hear any of your carefree comments. That girl just died, Amanda.”
“I’m well aware. I watched it too. Does it really surprise you? I knew something was up.”
“How can he control her emotions like that?” Everything is coming together in my mind. This must be why I had been so angry before. This is why I lost control and broke up with Katie. This is why I killed myself. This is why Katie killed herself. It has to be. But why?
“The
y’re angels. They have powers.” Amanda shrugs.
“They’re not angels. Angels wouldn’t kill people like that. So, this place can’t be Heaven. You said yourself that you couldn’t find someone here that you knew was dead.”
Amanda averts her eyes.
“I have an idea.” I cross the hall and open the door to the control room. “I have a crazy hunch. You said to remind Katie about me I should show her physical proof and I tried that with our promise rings, but it didn’t work. I bet showing her the locket I got her for our third anniversary will wake her up.”
“How is a necklace going to be any different than those rings?”
“Because the necklace is still on Earth. It hasn’t passed through the gate and become a forgotten memory.”
Understanding spreads across her face. “But you don’t know how to work those things.” She gestures to the basket of golden bracelets.
I take one anyway and glance at some of the buttons Michael had used. Most knobs are labeled with different emotions, but then there is a set of buttons labeled one through twelve. I brush the questions away and focus on the more important task before me. “It’s probably easy like everything else is around here. It’s all been telepathic. I probably have to think about where I want to go and then poof I’m there.”
“Are you sure you even know where this necklace is?”
“It should be at Katie’s. I just have to slip in, grab it, and I’ll be back here in no time.”
“I’m coming with you.” She reaches for another bracelet.
I bat her hand away. “No, I need you to stay here. If Michael comes back and we magically appear we’re both done for. I need you to stay and make sure I don’t get caught coming back.”
“You want me to be a distraction?”
“Amanda, we don’t have time for this. Yes, I need you to be a distraction. We have to work together if we’re going to accomplish anything.”
She thinks about my words, then nods. “You’re really stepping up, Lover Boy. I’ll make sure you don’t get caught by Michael.” The look in her eyes is sad but she stands confident and ready.
Sacrificial Lamb (The Other Angels Book 1) Page 11
