by Pierce, SJ
Focusing back on her body, Alyx’s endurance amazed her. She had always been in fairly decent shape, but as fast and agile as they were now she fully expected to be gasping for air at this point. Her heartbeat had lifted, and her breathing deepened, but her body wasn’t close to being exhausted yet. If she never had to use her shield again, she would be just fine with that; it seemed to be the only thing that truly drained her to the point of collapsing.
They broke over the top of a small hill, and the horizon presented a sparkling, emerald ocean that lay beyond where the land dropped off to a cliff. She stopped to stare in awe. It was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the sea, and through her new eyes it appeared as though someone had scattered pieces of glass over the rippled waves. Her hearing detected the sound of them as they grew larger, rolling and crashing against what sounded to be massive rocks.
“Keep going straight!” Cindra shouted as she sped by, and Alyx took off running again to catch up.
This place looked like something she had seen in the movies – the flora and fauna seemingly untouched and wonderfully magical, illuminated by the setting sun that beat down through the wispy clouds and felt warm and comforting on her healing skin. The fresh, island air allowed her soul room to breathe. Her gut told her that everything was far from over, but after being a prisoner to trepidation for so long, this was a welcomed break.
When they arrived at the cliff, Cindra stopped along the edge. Alyx slowed to a jog just short of reaching her and walked to her side, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to stop soon enough and run right over. Her toes lined up to the ledge, and she peered down its rocky slope that rose several hundred feet above the white, sugary sand below. A strong urge tugged at her to scrunch the powdery substance between her toes.
Just off the shore line laid the jagged boulders she had imagined. Salty white caps barreled into them, spraying water into the air. Her vision magnified the mist which looked like tiny, glass globes, reflecting the ocean, shore, and sky in each one.
“Breathtaking, isn’t it?” her friend asked with a peaceful smile, and Alyx turned to meet her eyes. When they locked, Alyx stumbled backwards, and her friend’s arm shot out to catch her fall. “Whoa!”
Cindra’s eyes shone black as night, something Alyx hadn’t expected to see. She knew Cindra was a Protector now, but to see her friend like that for the first time was a little disturbing. “Sorry,” Cindra giggled, and her eyes returned to normal in a quick flash. “When I’m running I like to be able to see everything.”
“You can change form?” Alyx asked as she worked through her breathing. The run had barely winded her, but she was still slightly breathless.
Cindra looked her over worriedly. “Are you… tired?”
Alyx forced her lungs steady. Was she not supposed to be tired? Her friend’s breathing hadn’t been affected, and she could hear her stable, exact heartbeat as though it were on a timer. Embarrassed, she brushed it off and inhaled a lung full of the warm air while she wafted it toward her face with her hands. “No, I’m just soaking all of it in,” she insisted.
Cindra curled her lip. “Ok, you weirdo,” she said and playfully jutted her elbow into her arm.
Alyx chuckled as she jumped to the side, hoping Cindra hadn’t caught on as she usually did. Apparently, her tiredness was a flaw of some sort, and she wasn’t ready to admit it. At least not out loud anyway.
Cindra tugged on her arm to sit. “I’m surprised you didn’t know you could change back,” she said as they settled on the patchy ground of rocks and grass. “Let me help you.
Intrigued by this possibility, Alyx closed her eyes to concentrate.
“Imagine there is an invisible layer of skin over the top of yours. And remember when you changed, that burning sensation in the center of your chest that flashed out to your arms and legs?”
Alyx shuddered. “How could I forget?”
“I know. Close your eyes and imagine pulling that inward, back to where it came from.”
Alyx pressed her eyelids tight and imagined drawing the invisible layer back through her limbs. Tingles covered her skin. I must be doing this right. They flashed up her spine and hurled into her chest, like someone delivering a swift punch. She gasped, and her head jerked backward from the pain.
“Hurts at first, doesn’t it?” Cindra said through clinched teeth, in pain from merely watching. “Sorry, girl. It gets easier.”
Alyx’s brown eyes reopened and scanned over the water, its sparkle more of a shiny glistening. Her body felt the same though, strong and solid. Being in ‘form’ must have strictly been about the heightened senses. She enjoyed tapping into them but definitely felt more at home in this form.
Her gaze moved to Cindra who eagerly awaited her commentary. “This isn’t so bad,” Alyx said.
Cindra rolled her eyes. “Oh, whatever! Feels weird to be out of form, huh?”
“No, I think I prefer this form.”
“Oh, you’re crazy! To me, it feels as though I’m living in a big foggy bubble.”
“Well… why do you, then?”
She flung her arms in the air. “We were told to. They said it would help us to stay ‘equal’ in the eyes of the humans. Something about everything staying as ‘normal’ as possible for them.”
Alyx understood that instruction after seeing Cindra in form. It did look intimidating. “Makes sense, I guess,” she said and bounced her leg that lay stretched in front of her on the grass, worried that her preference for this form was yet another mark against her. Not only did she tire, unlike Cindra, but she was also more comfortable with her senses restrained. It would be too much for her if she was constantly aware of every microscopic detail and buzzing insect – and something wasn’t particularly right about that, just as she had speculated about her instincts on the car ride there. Something was ‘off’ with her. Broken.
“We aren’t to fly either,” Cindra added. “Only when they allow us to. Otherwise, we’re to walk around like normal people. Do you know how hard that will be? I flew straight here with my Marked and loved every second of it.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to fly here.”
“I heard that too, but I didn’t care,” she said with her chin in the air, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
“It wasn’t hard for you to fly and keep your shield around the both of you?” she asked, remembering how hard it was to concentrate on driving, nonetheless if she had attempted to fly.
“Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of concentration, and there were a few times I dipped down in the air when it broke. Those beasts are ruthless. But I did alright. We were the first ones here!”
“Show-off,” Alyx jibed and rocked sideways, bumping into her.
Cindra bumped her back, and they laughed, leaning into each other.
“So, what is this place?” Alyx asked to change the subject, not wanting to disclose how hard of a time she had. Although, the healing wounds spoke for her anyway.
“I’m not sure, but from what I gather we’re still on Earth, just a different dimension or something. Someone guessed an island in the Bermuda triangle.”
They chuckled at the thought of it. “Maybe we are,” Alyx mused. “And this life certainly suits you. You look great!”
Cindra grinned as she pulled one of her golden lochs straight and watched it recoil into a perfectly shaped spiral. “Thanks. I guess I’m better at being this than I was a true human. It was hard to know how to fix your hair and what to wear. Now it’s like my appearance simply falls into place.”
She looked over at Alyx and nudged her with her elbow. “You, on the other hand, must have been the exception.”
“Well, I had three lifetimes to learn how to be a human.”
Her face lit up with amazement. “Three lifetimes! We do have a lot to talk about. I’ve talked to the other Protectors, and this was all their first lifetime, including me.”
Alyx flashed a smile and looked back over the ocean. It came as no surpris
e to her that this had been Cindra’s first year alive; her optimism and naiveté about the workings of life and love had always been humorous to her. It actually made a lot of sense now. Maybe Cindra’s quick adaption into this Angelic lifestyle was because she hadn’t lived as long as a human, and maybe that was why Alyx had the opposite problem. She had lived the longest of any of them, after all. Adjusting to her new body took awhile when she first changed, and being able to switch between forms and shield her Marked wasn’t second nature. In fact, it didn’t feel natural at all. Her comfort remained in her former humanity.
“The other women, they must be Protectors too,” Alyx surmised.
“Yes. They were the ones standing there when I ran up.”
No wonder they looked at me like that, she thought, and her face flushed with mortification. It would take every ounce of will power to go back and face them now, knowing what they had seen.
Cindra touched her knee. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh nothing,” she said, swatting her hand in the air, “I didn’t get a friendly vibe from them is all.”
To add to the list of things she couldn’t acknowledge out loud yet, kissing Isaac was one of them.
“Everyone is so nice, don’t worry,” she said, patting her leg, “getting along with them is easy.”
Easy? Alyx thought. Nothing has been EASY for me yet.
Cindra tugged at Alyx’s white streak. “New dye job?”
Alyx had noticed that, as well. None of the others had the same white streak that she did. “No, it happened when I changed.”
“Weird… wonder why that happened.”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I’m defective, I suppose.” To put it lightly.
“I guess we should talk about the inevitable now, huh?” Cindra said as she picked a blade of grass.
“Now or never,” she agreed.
“Let me start by saying that I’m sorry I went AWOL on you there in the end. That is, of course, after you went AWOL on me.”
Alyx nodded. Of course she would throw that in there. “I’m sorry too.”
Cindra smiled in approval of her apology and looked down at the blade of grass as she picked it apart. “I’ll start first. This might be the only time we have to talk privately so I’m going to be one hundred percent honest here.”
“Go ahead.”
“When you left early from work last Monday, and you didn’t answer my phone calls or texts, I knew something was wrong. So I stopped by your apartment late that night, and your door was open.
Alyx thought back through the days. So much had happened since then, and it was hard to remember exactly what had happened that Monday night. She started with the weekend first, Saturday was their girls’ day, Sunday was dinner and Benjamin’s apartment, and Monday was work and the rooftop…
Alyx’s heart sank. Oh no, the rooftop, she thought, and it all came back to her; the drinking, Isaac confronting her on the dark sidewalk, her staggering home and passing out naked on the couch. Crap.
“I came in your door and I saw you on the couch, smelling like wine with cuts all over your face. And I noticed your scar.” Cindra lovingly placed her hand on Alyx’s shoulder, and her voice lowered to a reflective whisper. “All of this time, my best friend, right in front of me… and you were just like me.
Alyx pressed her cheek against her hand. She had always felt a connection to Cindra, she just never fathomed how deep it actually was. She was also thankful that Cindra was the only one who had seen her scar or had walked into her apartment that night. Who knows what could have happened – or what she could have compromised – if the man in the black suit had found his way in.
“I just knew something was wrong,” Cindra continued. “Because of the way you acted and the way I found you, so I had an impulse to look through your camera – sorry, by the way – and I saw the picture you took of the window, and it confused me. That was the window that my Marked lived at.
HER marked? Alyx couldn’t wait to see where this went.
“I couldn’t understand why you would do that. Why would you take a picture of his window? But then I thought back to the restaurant and remembered how you acted around Isaac – nervous, hesitant, and totally giving off vibes of attraction.
Alyx squirmed. She didn’t realize it had been that apparent.
Cindra smirked gratifyingly at Alyx’s reaction, which had confirmed her utter accuracy. “It was obvious you were into him, but,” she said, raising her finger in the air, “at first I thought you were avoiding him because you wanted to be faithful to Benjamin, but when I saw the picture I realized it ran deeper than that.
You have no idea.
“Even though you were with Benjamin, you could still have anyone you want. But yet, here you are taking pictures like a stalker outside of his window, and I determined that it was because you couldn’t have him.
Astonishment seeped into Alyx’s expression, but she didn’t want to interrupt Cindra’s train of thought with words of incredulity. Her friend was just getting started.
Cindra drew in a breath to continue. “And I had texted Benjamin earlier that day to check on you because you wouldn’t answer me, and he said he hadn’t heard from you either. I knew that was weird too. So there you were, my ‘together’ friend, who’s also a Protector like me, passed out drunk in your apartment with a picture on your camera of Isaac’s apartment window, who you’re also ‘into’, ignoring both Benjamin and I. Why would Isaac be the one person you agonized over? You could have anyone, and he was obviously willing to get to know you.”
Alyx shook her head. “You amaze me, you know that?”
“The answer was so obvious!” she trilled, her voice raising a decibel in sync with her enthusiasm, “it was the ultimate forbidden love scenario. Which you’ll have to explain to me, Alyx, because seriously… your Marked?”
The way Cindra emphasized the word “Marked” made it sound like she accused her of incest. Perhaps the concept was just as disgusting to someone who didn’t understand.
“You really are the most intuitive person I know,” Alyx said with a sigh, brushing off her nearly insulting tone, “to the point of annoyance sometimes.”
Cindra stuck out her tongue. “You’re stuck with me anyways.”
“But, I am confused about something. Why did you say Isaac was your Marked?”
Her nose crinkled. “What? I didn’t!”
“Yes you did! I don’t understand how you came to that conclusion if he was your Marked. He couldn’t be both of ours.”
“Oh, good grief!” she said and flicked the side of her head. “Do I have to spell it out? His son Micah, he’s my Marked.”
What?! Alyx fell backward from the shock and her arms shot to the ground for an anchor. When the words finally sank into every nook of her conscience, a smile swept across her face, elated that his disappearance wasn’t because of her carelessness. Isaac would be reunited with his son and know that he was safe after all. If he were awake now, they were possibly having their very own reunion this minute. “So he was with you all along?”
“Yes! As soon as I changed form I went and snatched him up.”
Alyx’s hand cupped her forehead. “Wow, I don’t know what to say, Isaac will be so happy. You know, we both thought he’d been… Wait a minute, she thought. Why didn’t they tell Isaac that they were leaving? She smacked her friend across the shoulder.
“Ow!” Cindra howled and held her arm.
“Why didn’t you guys tell him? Isaac thought his kid was dead!”
Cindra swatted back. “We tried to, but he wouldn’t wake up. He was asleep in the bathtub. We tried everything – smacking him, cold water to the face. Nothing worked.”
“You could have left a note, at least.”
“We did. I left it on the table!”
Alyx patted her leg with an apologetic smile. “Never mind, then. You’re off the hook.”
It’s not my fault he didn’t see it,” she grumbled as she rubbed
her shoulder.
Alyx wrapped her arm around her friend’s back, pulling her into her side. “I said you’re off the hook. And why didn’t you tell me all of that back then,” she asked, wondering why she had abandoned her, “that you knew about Isaac, and you were the same as me? I could have used your friendship.”
“Well, this is what I didn’t want to tell you,” she said, picking another blade of grass, “one of our Elders visited me shortly after I left your place. He told me to keep away from you; they said you were being followed and didn’t want me to become mixed up in it. So I had to quit Bachman and Yorkshire and move out of my apartment.”
Alyx tucked her hair behind her ears from where the wind playfully whipped it in her face. “I see.”
“They didn’t want me in jeopardy of being followed too, and as far as they knew, whoever it was, wasn’t following me yet.”
Alyx swallowed hard. “They were right to tell you that.”
“What? Tell me.”
“I guess it’s my turn to be honest now,” she said and took a deep breath. “I completely screwed things up back there.”
“What happened?”
“Remember the man in the black suit? The creepy man in the elevator at work?”
“Yes! He made my scar tingle!”
“Yes, mine too, but apparently it was me he was after because he kept popping up at random times. And apparently he was associated with those beasts that we had to protect our Marked from.”
Cindra’s eyes widened. “Whoa, no wonder the Elders warned me.”
“They were absolutely right for doing that, because the beasts must have followed me to Benjamin’s apartment and-
Alyx threw her hands up to cover her face. This part would be the hardest. Cindra had only met Benjamin a handful of times, but this news would hit her hard, as well.
“Tell me already!” Cindra pled as she tugged on her arm.
She tried to swallow again before continuing, but the lump was too large.
