by Susan Reid
I was scared for him, scared that I may not ever see him again, because I knew something bad was happening. There were demons outside, darker ones that made me sick to my stomach, and I was already beginning to gag, my stomach cramping and my esophagus burned with pure bile. I couldn’t breathe, I felt like I was going to die.
Was this how I was going to die? During a panic attack? Or maybe a heart attack? No! I had to see Cam one last time at least; to let China know that the living will I had made up and gotten notarized a while back was under her mattress; to tell Joel that I wasn’t mad at him, and that maybe in another time or place, we could have been together as more than friends.
There were loud thumps on the roof that startled me. I crawled to the door and listened, bracing myself against it for support, once the sick feeling began to make me dizzy. The room was spinning, and I gripped the door knob to steady myself. I managed to turn the knob, but it wouldn’t even move; my damp palm sliding uselessly over the metal. I tugged and pulled, hopelessly falling against the door as another pang of nausea hit me like a wrecking ball. I had to lie down, I was going to pass out or faint at any second.
I clumsily stumbled to the bed and lay partially on it, still feeling no relief as I gripped the comforter trying to suck in a cleansing breath, yet feeling as if I were suffocating at the same time still; my chest was tight, feeling constricted from within.
Maybe…maybe if I just ended myself, none of this would be an issue. Whatever the reason these dark angels wanted me, they couldn’t have me if I killed myself right? Then Cam wouldn’t have to fight and possibly be killed for me. I slid off the bed and sat with my back against it, drawing my knees up to my chest and burying my face in my hands, as I cried. I now knew why I was being punished.
I was never truthful to China about needing help and someone to talk to about the grief I had suppressed for years. I had been in denial, thinking if I did show vulnerability and weakness, the demons would have been able to take or kill me a long time ago. There were thoughts that I had and things that I had felt that I couldn’t even tell my grandmother, even though I knew she would understand and make it all better. It would’ve broken her heart. The harder I thought of these things, the harder I cried and I couldn’t stop.
I had thought many times of taking my own life, coming close a few times actually, but something from deep within me always stopped me. Those reasons were why I was being taken to hell, why these demons were after me now and wouldn’t leave me alone.
There was only one thing to do now then — because it would never stop, and though I think I actually loved one of them, a fallen…I think that loving him only added more to my sins and my doom. But how could love be a sin? We can’t help who we love can we? Even if it is a dark being, right?
I sniffed and caught my breath; moving over to the window while saying a silent prayer in my head for forgiveness for what I was about to do. If I had to spend eternity in Hell for this, would Cam be able to visit me if he was a fallen? Would he forgive me for hurting him in taking my own life? Would God forgive me? I scolded myself for how stupid and ridiculous the idea and the thought of all that was. What was I thinking? I was obviously emotionally delirious, frightened and ill, and now desperation was talking.
The banging and crashing of glass downstairs made me gasp and jump in alarm, although it was similar to what I had heard downstairs earlier, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I sort of wished that no name fallen girl was with me right now as rude as she had been. At least I wouldn’t feel so scared and alone right now.
I thought of everyone; my parents, my grandmother, China, Joel, Ms. Hawthorne, Lenell and Drake, Cam…Drake?
I glimpsed out of the window to see him jump from the roof in one bounding leap like a superhuman acrobat, and he had a weapon…a silver, wicked looking sword with a curved tip. He looked…different. No longer beautiful and serene or even human for that matter; he was twisted and ugly like the dark angel in my dream.
I saw Cam swooping down from the roof at him with a long, black sword that glinted like diamonds or light on one edge, gripped firmly in his hand, and aiming down at Drake.
They were in a full blown fight, demons and dark fallen swarmed in from everywhere all of a sudden, like cockroaches closing in on the feast, and I paled feeling my legs nearly give out.
Then there were other dark fallen coming from literally out of nowhere, and all diving in at those who had joined the fray. I couldn’t tell at first, who and which side they had been fighting for…all I cared about was Cam and his friends, the ones I had met already.
Glass shattered and a powerful gust of wind flung me pin-wheeling backwards, along with the broken shards of glass that lanced me all over as I was smashed sideways against the wall, hard. I heard a distinct crack as blinding, white hot pain shot up my arm from my elbow to my shoulder.
I screamed, sliding down to the floor and feeling all those shards of sharp glass scratch and stab into me as I did.
Instantaneously, the dark fallen who had tried to come bursting in through the window, howled in a shrill screech, and then completely imploded, winking out of existence entirely, and leaving behind a foul odor that lingered for a few seconds. I bit my lip and tears flooded my eyes, as I cradled my broken arm. The burn and sting of the dozens of cuts all over my arms and my back were now bleeding.
What had just happened to him?
Then the door splintered open in an explosion of wood and dust, and I screamed just as Ray burst through like a huge, black, incredible hulk. He had destroyed the entire doorway, jamb and all, leaving a jagged ripped hole where the door and each side of the wall had been. He was furious. The fiery heat of his anger and the fight was still wafting freshly off of his dark, sweaty skin as he searched the room for me. I backed away, unsure of what to make of his demonic fury.
When his glowing orange eyes met mine, they winked out, his eyes returning to normal, and his face transformed into worry and concern. The wicked, black talons curving from each finger of his large hands also disappeared, just as easily as his glowing eyes had winked out.
“Oh no, are you hurt?” He asked in a gravelly, deep voice as he quickly moved to kneel down next to me.
“I’m okay.” I whispered holding my arm.
“Come, I need to get you out of here.” He then said, reaching to scoop me up.
“No! Not without Cam.” I argued.
“Cam will come, don’t worry.” Ray tried to assure me.
“No, I need to know he’s coming. I don’t want to go without him! He said he wouldn’t leave me!” I was whining now, I knew it but I didn’t care.
“He isn’t! Star, Cam is a fallen, he has powers, millennia’s worth of fighting skills and abilities that you do not…believe me he will come, and he will be fine.” Ray said calmly and pointedly as if he were talking to a small child.
He flinched when I cried out. His arm had gripped my cradled broken arm wrong and his eyes went wide.
“I’m sorry! You aren’t okay, your arm is injured. Damn.” He grimaced with chagrin, and then wasted no time swiftly carrying me down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out of the back door.
Amid the sounds of the evident full on battle that was going on all around us, those in Cam’s legion had obviously created a plan to keep an open path for Ray to get me to the SUV safely. He put me into the back seat of the Suburban, gently.
The girl was in there, in the passenger seat at first and she was looking into the back where we were.
“Her right arm is broken.” Ray told her, and then hurried into the driver’s side, got in and floored the gas making the SUV jounce and rock as he headed the opposite way, down an unpaved country road behind the farmhouse.
She sighed with an eye roll, shaking her head and right before my eyes — she winked out of view from the front passenger seat, and was now sitting next to me in the back. I blinked, holding my arm and staring wide eyed at her.
“I was in a relaxing spa bath wi
th soft music playing. No point in trying to hide anything anymore. Obviously there’s been a lot that’s been revealed today no doubt. You’re a ghastly mess. The poor sucker has you bleeding everywhere, what a moron. Here, let me see your arm,” She said reaching out a hand.
“You want me to just pull it off and hand it to you? It’s broken!” I shot back at her with sarcasm.
She looked at me surprised, and then she smirked,
“You do have promise yet. Now unless you want a matching set, don’t you ever use that tone with me again, ok? Just call me Eden, for now,” She smiled.
We stared at each other for a silent brief moment, and then — I couldn’t help but smile back, despite my fears and current pain.
I don’t know how far out we had driven, but it hadn’t been far when we came to an abrupt stop that nearly threw me forward onto the floor of the SUV. Eden had done something to my arm that took away the pain, and then wrapped it as any doctor would a broken bone. Was she some sort of healer? I wondered.
“Uh oh, this is not good.” Ray said.
“Oh…shit.” Eden mouthed.
For both of them to seem…frightened or hesitant, it must have been bad.
I scrambled up to look out of the front windshield at a small pond that had begun to bubble and steam as if something large were about to rise out of it, and rise it did…looking like a blazing loch ness serpent with horns — it rose up at least ten or fifteen feet high and roared, blowing fire from its mouth.
I was frozen with fear.
“Back it up! Go now!” Eden told Ray as he shifted into reverse, and punched the gas.
I flew back into the seat, pressed flat as the car bounced and rocked again.
“Can you shield the car?” Ray asked Eden.
“I can try but it won’t be a match for him!” Eden then said, and then she began to chant as Ray maneuvered and shifted back into drive, turning the car around, but the tires stuck on something before finally jolting forward, and we peeled back towards another direction.
“We can’t outrun him. We’re gonna have to fight.” Ray shook his head.
“Who is it? What is it? Who is he?” I asked desperately looking out of the back window at the serpent beast who was stomping after us now.
“You’ve seen him already, earlier.” Eden said.
I wrinkled my brow.
“The Jehovah witness at the door,” Eden then answered.
“Him?” I was flabbergasted as I looked behind us again.
“No, not just a him. Star — meet Morning Star,” Eden smiled with a casual sweep of her hand in gesture towards the approaching monster through the back windshield.
I couldn’t breathe for a full minute it seemed. I couldn’t even feel my legs. I felt as if I would wake up at any moment, and this would all be a dream. But no, then it would mean that I would never know and love Cam. He would’ve simply been another fallen that only existed in the darkness that I feared.
“That’s…Satan?” I repeated incredulously.
“Yes, and he wants you. Don’t worry, he won’t do anything that will get us hurt or killed while you’re in here.” Eden then said.
“Wants me? What? Why? I don’t…”
“You won’t understand Star, not now. We just need to keep you away from him for as long as we can,” Ray then said.
“And how long will that be? You just said we couldn’t outrun him, and your powers weren’t a match for him. If he has me will he leave you guys alone?” I asked.
Eden snapped her head around to face me, “No, don’t even think that! If he has you…never mind just don’t say that.” She looked angry, as she pursed her perfect pout, and then turned back around to face forward.
Ray stopped the SUV, turning to look back as he wielded a weapon, a large mace with deadly, sharp spikes. I was amazed, wondering where it had come from.
“Why did you stop?” Eden said as she turned to look out of the back windshield just then too.
“I don’t think we’ll need to fight him…maybe. Look who’s intervening.” Ray nodded.
We all turned to look out of the back windshield, seeing Drake and his legion swarm in front of Morning Star to cut him down.
“He’s insane, Morning Star will annihilate him!” Eden commented.
“Good. Then we won’t have to do it. He’s only trying to protect his prize anyway.” Ray then said.
“Huh? What prize?” I asked.
“You’re just popular today.” Eden quipped.
“Me?” I was so confused.
“Wait, I thought Drake was an angel.” I then said.
“He was. If anything Morning Star will wipe him and his legion out. Stay with Star, if anything happens, use a protection spell, and drive her as far as you can get her.” Ray said to Eden as he hopped out of the car.
“He isn’t that stupid, he’ll let them all fight for him before he lets that happen.” Eden said.
Drake had fallen? When and why? Was it because of me? I suddenly felt ill again, and I hugged my middle feeling the chunks rising in my throat.
Cam suddenly appeared next to the SUV on a revved up motorcycle and opened the back door with a hand to help me out.
“Get out of here, I’ve already told everyone else. We won’t win against Morning Star right now but at least he’ll take care of Drake and his legion, now go, I mean that!” He told Eden.
“What about you?” She seemed worried about him, as her eyes went from Cam to me.
“Don’t worry about me. I know what I need to do.” He then said.
She seemed to read that as enough information when she nodded, “Be careful Cam.” She said as she ghosted away.
“How’s your arm?” He asked me.
How had he known?
“It’s better.”
“Let’s go,” He said quickly hoisting me onto the back of the bike.
“Hang on to me tightly,” He called back to me as he revved the throttle, and we sped off at high speed, bound for the darkness of the unlit back roads behind the farmhouse.
I gripped Cam around his strong torso with all my strength, shutting my eyes against the cold wind that whipped painfully past, us given the high rate of speed he was pushing.
There was nothing to see anyway, everything was a dark blur.
A blurred nightmare actually, and I wondered where he was taking me, and how long we’d drive being as we would not escape Satan, who could? Would God intervene now?
I felt safe with Cam, and at this point, as long as I was with him, I didn’t care what happened to me and I was no longer afraid. The only thing I had been aware of past sight, was the sound of large trees and branches being trampled, split, uprooted and thrashed around alongside of us at the same rate of speed as the motorcycle. If it had been Morning Star, I feared he would strike and kill Cam, but if he did, I’d be killed too so I think I was keeping him safe for the time being too.
A strong gush of wind pushed down on us from above and it was impossible to see with the wind whipping my curls wildly into my eyes and mouth.
Cam looked up and then turned his head to the side,
“Don’t be afraid, when I count to three, I want you to hang onto my hand as tight as you possibly can okay?” He shouted.
I would have questioned that, but there was no time. He had already begun to count as we sped up, passing an orange and white traffic construction sign that I couldn’t read.
Whatever it had said, something told me it meant danger or caution, and we were going to be heading straight for it.
My heart was hammering so fast and beating so hard into my ears and throat, that I felt as if it would explode out of my chest altogether. I was freezing, feeling as if I’d pass out at any moment from the adrenaline rush overload, and the sheer rate of speed.
“Three!” Was all I heard him yell before the bike fell from beneath us…down into a dark canyon and disappearing from view. There was no longer pavement beneath us — nothing solid actually, and for a few
brief moments, I was free-falling. I instantly felt Cam’s strong hand swiftly grip mine, leaving me to dangle precariously from his hold.
I shut my eyes. The pain in my right arm came alive with a vengeance, but before I could scream out Cam whipped me into the safety of his arms with ease, in one fluid motion. A sound like a large blanket or parachute snapping out made me open my eyes just as Cam’s shirt fell away, and his strong arms encircled my waist. He then entwined his warm, strong legs around mine securely. It was like I was hand-gliding, with him as my glider.
I marveled with wide eyes, my mouth in an ‘O’ at the span of his incredible wings. Both dark and pure white feathers meshed together to form symbols of supernatural glory, power and darkness, as they fanned out majestically on either side of us.
We were flying! He was flying over whatever open canyon lie below, and then over a large lake of some sort. He soared smoothly, but at high speeds, ascending to just beneath the clouds.
I could barely hear anything, my ears were popping, given the altitude and I was freezing, but I loved every second of it. Though I kept my eyes closed to keep from passing out if I looked down, I felt safe and warm in Cam’s arms as he held me firmly against him.
I don’t know how far out he had flown, but I felt my gut tense and tighten as he began to descend.
I swallowed hard to suppress the feeling of my stomach rising into my throat. I cracked open an eye, seeing that we were dipping lower to ground. The closer we got, the more the ground began to take shape of what looked like an abandoned open, shadowed field of some sort, but hard to tell exactly in the darkness.
“Hang tight.” He whispered in my ear.
I shut my eyes again, as he began to descend even lower; my stomach lurching into my throat again the way it does when you’re going down in an elevator or a roller coaster.
That had been the most exhilarating experience that I had ever imagined or dreamed of in my life!
