by Carlos King
In a calm tone of voice, Alex tells her, “You can’t outrun a demon in a car…it isn’t fast enough. There’s only one way to get rid of her.”
“Then why did you tell me to go faster?! Especially if you knew it wouldn’t do us any good in the first place!”
“I wanted you to speed up so the demon would speed up. You can’t outrun a demon with any manmade vehicle. Luckily for me, being an angel means I don’t have to run from their kind at all.” Alex rolls down the passenger window and prepares to climb out.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to get rid of her. No matter what you see or hear, don’t stop, okay? Once you get my signal, slow back down to normal speeds. I don’t want you getting pulled over by the cops.” Before Jade has a chance to voice her opinion against what Alex is planning to do, Alex cuts her off by adding, “And don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up to you. I promise.”
Her unwillingness to cope with Alex’s decision is outweighed by her trust and belief in his promise. Alex carefully crawls out of the fast moving car and climbs onto its roof. Jade keeps a close eye on the beautiful woman chasing behind her car, all the while remaining attentive to Alex’s existence on her roof. Jade hears something moving over the top of her head that sounds like footsteps. The steps start from the front of her roof and quickly move towards the rear.
She looks into her rearview mirror and sees the evil being, so close now that she’s only an arm’s length away from touching the trunk. All of a sudden, Alex jumps off the roof and dives directly into the woman, tackling her. The two tumble down the street and eventually vanish into the darkness.
Jade can’t believe what Alex just did. Who would commit such a reckless stunt? It would be nothing short of suicide to jump off a car moving at this speed.
Jade finds herself being conflicted between two different sets of emotions. The first is an emotion of immediate freedom from the nearing grasp of the terrifying force that was chasing after her. The second emotion she feels is that of fear and grief. She’s worried about what may have happened to Alex. No one could’ve survived a fall like that, she thought. She’s dreamed of being reunited with him for two years and now that she’s been given a chance to finally do so, it’s over just as quickly as it came.
With her vision blurring due to the onset of tears forming in her eyes, Jade is finding it hard to focus on the dimly lit road. When the first tear rolls down her cheek, it triggers an instant emotional breakdown which leads to a reaction of uncontrollable crying. Jade reaches over to her glove box, reaching inside for the Kleenex she keeps in there.
Trying not to take her watery-eyes off of the road and not wanting to pull over, she feels around the inside of the small compartment for the Kleenex packet, but she can’t find it. She takes her eyes off of the road for a second to glimpse inside the glove box. Jade finds the packet of Kleenex tucked in back and pulls it out. She looks back at the road and continues driving at a safe, yet steady speed. She takes her eyes off the road for another few seconds in order to open the packet and when she looks back up at the street she sees an unexpected image that momentarily causes her simmered fears to boil back over. Standing eerily in the middle of her lane is an indistinct human figure.
Her cause for alarm is immediately transformed into happiness when it registers to her that the person standing in the center of the road is Alex. She slams on the brakes. The car’s tires screech to a halt, stopping just as the bumper softly nudges Alex’s knees.
Jade hops out of the car and runs into Alex’s arms. She wraps her arms around his neck and he wraps his around her waist. “I thought I told you not to stop,” Alex joked.
Jade pulls away from Alex and throws her tiny fists into his chest as her mood changes from being excited to seeing him alive, to being upset for scaring her the way he did. “You scared me to death, you jerk! Don’t ever do that again!”
To stop Jade’s ineffective assault, Alex wraps her in his tone arms and holds her tight. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Calming down, she runs her hands across his back and feels large holes in his coat. She steps out of Alex’s embrace and walks behind him to investigate. His outer clothing is covered in holes and rips.
“Are you okay?!” Jade asked.
“I’m fine now. You should’ve seen me when I first got up.”
“You’re lucky you got up at all. You could’ve been killed.”
“It’ll take a lot more than a fall like that to keep me down,” Alex confidently replied.
“Where’s the woman who was chasing us? Who was she?”
Alex sits down on the hood of Jade’s car and rests. “Her name was Shyla. She was just like the demon we encountered at your apartment…Only better looking.”
“Where’s she now?”
“She’s not a factor anymore. I sent her back to where she belongs.”
“I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” Jade said to Alex, taking a seat beside him on the hood. “With these things popping up every twenty minutes, I won’t get a second’s peace.”
Alex wraps his arm around Jade’s shoulders and comforts her as best he can. “Things are only going to get harder, Jade...There’s no doubting that. I realize that this is a lot to deal with, but I’m sacrificing a lot to be here with you. If I’m willing to give up my life for you, I’m gonna need you to want to live in return. If you lose hope now, then all of this would’ve been for nothing. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Jade nods in agreement. Wiping a single tear from her eye, Jade queries, “I guess my life is in your hands, huh?”
“You wouldn’t want it to be in anybody else’s. Come on, babe. Let’s get out of here before we’re swarmed by those things. I’m not sensing any more of them right now, but it doesn’t take them very long to get around.”
CHAPTER 12
Back in Terre Haute, the two brothers who raised havoc in Los Angeles are now walking through the ruins of what was once Jade’s apartment. As they peruse the apartment, they find a pile of ashes in the form of a human body on Jade’s bedroom carpet. They automatically recognize the pile of ashes as being the remains of one of their own. Zavior kneels down and sifts through the ashes when he and Trent are overcome by an overpowering sensation. Their eyes burn red-hot and the edges of their teeth sharpen.
“Do you feel that?”
“Yes,” Trent responded. “They’re leaving the area. I’m picking up on something else, though. It’s another scent that I can’t make out.”
“That, my dear brother, is the reek of an angel. I don’t know why one’s here, but it seems we’ll have more of a challenge than I expected.”
“Challenge? What challenge? If an angel wants to stick his nose in our business, then he deserves everything he’s going to get.”
Zavior approaches Trent and demands his absolute attention. “Pay close mind to what I’m telling you. Never underestimate the power of an angel. They’re exactly like us and we’re exactly like them. Their strengths are paralleled with our own. They may not be able to call upon the dark powers like us, but that’s only because they don’t need to.”
“I know already. The dark powers don’t work against them. They’re protected by the light. You don’t have to treat me like a child, Zavior.”
“Then don’t act like one, Trent. Look, all I’m trying to do is prepare you for what we may face. I want you to be ready, because if you lock horns with this angel, it’s going to mean pending death for either you or them.”
“Thanks for your concern, brother, but I’m sure I can manage on my own.”
“You’ll have your chance to prove that soon enough, Trent.”
Zavior sets his eyes on the nearest window, and with the slightest twitch of his hand an unseen force blows out the glass. Trent jumps out of the window first and Zavior follows. The two make the three-story fall look insignificant.
Zavior scorns Trent, “And just to think, if you wouldn’t h
ave snapped the neck of our transportation we could’ve still been traveling by automobile.”
“They’re not that far away. We’ve gone greater distances than that purely for fun. What’s the matter, Zavior? Getting old?”
Smiling, Zavior answers, “You just keep up, little brother…If you can.”
The brothers take off running at supernatural speeds, in hot pursuit of Jade and Alex.
CHAPTER 13
Jade’s blue Ford Taurus pulls into the driveway of her parents’ picturesque home. She slows the car to a stop as she nears the top of the driveway and shuts the engine off as she reaches the garage. The lengthy drive has taken a toll on Jade. She reclines her seat, relaxes her head on the headrest and shuts her eyes.
With her eyes still closed, Jade tiredly says, “I hope we don’t have too many more nights like last night. I feel like a zombie.”
Thoroughly looking around the area, Alex tells Jade, “I hate to break it to you, but this is only the beginning. Are you sure no one’s home?”
“I’m sure. My mom and dad are vacationing for the next couple weeks. You don’t have to worry about them coming home anytime soon.”
“Me? Worried? I’m not the one you’d have to worry about. Your parents are the ones that’ll go into cardiac arrest if they saw me. Luckily, another trick of the trade for me is that I can hide my real identity.”
Jade turns toward Alex and opens her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“The only person who sees me as Alex Henley is you. To anyone else I’m just another stranger in the streets.”
“So what you’re saying is no one else remembers Alex Henley?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I could walk up to my best friend, a guy I knew since third grade, and he wouldn’t even recognize me. He’ll remember Alex Henley as well as he’d remember his own name, he just won’t see Alex Henley in me. It’s just way for me to keep a low profile.”
“Yeah, real low profile,” Jade said jokingly. “You might want to consider getting rid of the dirty trench coat if you really wanna be inconspicuous.”
“I have to wear enough clothing to cover myself. When sunlight hits my skin it releases an invisible aura that draws people in to me. They wouldn’t know why they’d be doing it, but anybody around me would be enthralled by me, and would break their necks to do anything for me.”
“Kind of blows your low profile right out the water, huh?”
“Just a bit,” he light-heartedly replied.
Jade suggests, “Come on, let’s get you inside. Last thing I need right now is for a nosey neighbor calling my parents and telling them I’ve brought a strange man to their house.”
Jade gets out of her car and walks to her parents’ house. The very instant the back door is unlocked and opened, the warning beeps from the alarm system her dad installed a year earlier begins to sound. She waits for Alex to come inside and as soon as he crosses the threshold she asks, “Can you close the door for me? I have to put the code in before that thing signals the police. Another one of those things I don’t really need right now.”
Alex fulfils Jade’s request by closing the door and snapping the lock into place. Jade runs for the system’s keypad and enters the proper sequence of numbers to shut the alarm off.
Alex remains in the kitchen near the door. He walks around the nicely-sized room and recalls the last time he was there. Jade returns to the kitchen, spots Alex staring at an overhead cabinet mounted on the kitchen wall.
Curious as to what’s on his mind, Jade inquires, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Alex breaks his concentration on the door, turning to Jade, grinning. “You remember the story behind this cabinet door?”
“Of course I do.” Jade smiles as she remembers the history behind the cabinet. “We had been talking for a while and we had finally gotten the okay from our parents to do our homework together. We were sitting at the kitchen table—only it wasn’t where it is right now—it was over there by the back door. We got hungry while working on our Calculus homework and decided to make something to eat.” She walks directly up to the cabinet that Alex is standing in front of and stares at it. “I suggested we make some popcorn, cheese-flavored of course, and you happily agreed. I walked over to this cabinet to grab a bag and—”
Alex picks up Jade’s sentence, “The box of popcorn was on the top shelf, out of your reach. You asked me if I could hand it to you. I got up from the table, walked over here and stood right beside you, just like how I’m doing right now. I reached up, and as I think back now, I can only remember thinking of three things at that time.”
“And those three things happened to be what?” she curiously asked.
“Well, the first thing I remember thinking was that I hoped I’d be tall enough to reach the popcorn myself.” Alex and Jade share a brief laugh. He goes on to recount, “Second thing I remember was me thinking about how the scent of your perfume or body spray was driving me wild.”
“Body spray,” Jade confirmed.
Alex’s lips curl into a smile. “After I got the box down, I remember being nervous, but then our eyes locked for a brief second. I wanted to kiss you right then and there with every fiber of my being,” Alex confessed.
“And you almost did. At least until the family cat jumped onto the counter and knocked over a glass cup. We both were scared to death because we thought it was one of my parents.”
Laughing as they reflect, Alex adds, “Yeah. I tried to put as much distance between us as I could, but I turned the wrong way and walked face first into this cabinet door.”
“You walked into it so hard I thought it was going to break free from its hinges. Your head recoiled back like somebody jabbed you in the face,” Jade teasingly added. “You turned around to look at me and the first thing I saw was this huge, red bruise on your forehead. You looked dazed and confused. I remember feeling really bad for you.”
Alex takes a step towards Jade, leaving an inch of space between them. He gazes deep into her eyes and says, “And then without hesitating, you put your hands on both sides of my face, pulled my face towards yours and gave me the sweetest, softest kiss right on the spot where the cabinet hit me. I didn’t want that moment to ever end. I’m almost certain it was at that exact moment I fell in love with you.”
“That was our very first kiss. And it was also when I fell in love with you, too.”
Alex asserts in good grace, “Yeah. That was our first kiss…but it definitely wasn’t our last.”
A silent pause forms between the two, which creates a perfect opening for them to rekindle a long-lost flame. With their passions burning high, they bring their lips into range of one another’s, their eyes lowering as they draw near. They’re close to doing what it is they’ve been longing for every day and night for the last two years—the feel of each other’s touch. Their lips are a fraction of a centimeter away from meeting when Jade’s cell phone rings. The unexpected disruption causes the two to tentatively draw back from one another. Jade digs into her jacket pocket and answers the incoming call.
“Hello, mom,” she said in a frustrated manner as runs her fingers through her hair.
Alex leans his shoulder into the section of wall underneath the memorable cabinet, patiently waiting for Jade’s conversation to end.
“Yeah, mom, I back home…I know I said I planned on staying in Terre Haute…No, nothing’s wrong, mom. How did you know I was home, again? Oh, one of the next door neighbors…Figures.” Alex gives a silent chortle. Jade takes the phone away from her ear and looks at the caller ID screen when her line beeps. “Mom, can I call you right back? I have another call coming through.”
Jade clicks over to the other call. She looks at Alex with an uncomfortable eye as she addresses the person on the other end. “Hey, Drake. What’s up?”
At first Alex is unaware of who Drake is and what his relationship to Jade consists of, but after overhearing their conversation, he slowly begins to get gist of their situation. Onc
e he realizes this, his demeanor changes slightly. His bright smile disappears and a meager look of resentment develops. Not wanting to intrude on Jade’s conversation any further, he walks out of the kitchen and into the living room.
Jade wanted to stop Alex from walking away, but over the course of time that she’s been with Drake, she’s developed feelings for him that can’t be ignored. With that in mind, she reluctantly lets Alex go and stays on the phone with Drake.
Trying to pass time until Jade gets off of the phone, Alex picks up the remote control and turns on the TV. The sixty-inch television comes to life and fills the room with its acoustics. Alex flips through a number of channels, eventually stopping on ESPN. A few minutes go by, before Jade enters the living room.
Alex sets the remote on the coffee table and turns to Jade. “I almost forgot how much I missed watching this stuff.”
“You are still a man, Alex. Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean you’re immune to the allure of sports. Hey, about that call—”
“You don’t have to explain a thing,” Alex interrupted. “It’s been two years since we’d last seen each other. That’s a long time for anyone to wait. Besides, you had no idea I’d ever come back.”
“You’re right about that one. I want you to know that if I had known I’d ever see you again I would’ve never dated anybody else. It’s just that your death really took a lot out of me. It took a long time for me to put the pieces of my life back together. It was only because of Drake and a few other friends that I was able to finally move on.”
“Jade, I told you don’t have to explain a thing,” Alex calmly reaffirmed. “It wouldn’t have been fair for you to stop living just because I died. You’re only nineteen.”
Jade is relieved that Alex is taking the news of her dating someone else so well. It’s not like she felt he would throw a tantrum or anything. Her main concern was hurting him emotionally. Jade takes off her jacket, kicks off her shoes, and takes a seat on the couch. Alex sits down beside her.
