“Tie him up!” I turned to the sheriff, and he in turn repeated the order to his officers. I don’t know where they found the rope, but they did, and soon the creature was hog-tied to the stage.
I approached it carefully. No one made to stop me. In fact, they all gave me plenty of room, keen to avoid the girl with the shotgun even though I’d lowered it. This was still Gabe, after all, deep down. I didn’t want to hurt him further, and I really didn’t think he was going to hurt me. I already felt pretty sick that I’d shot him at all. Again. The creature was making these low guttural noises. He was clearly in pain, and that made me feel even worse. He didn’t seem to notice me, just seemed lost in his own suffering, and I knelt down beside him, placing a hand on its arm.
“Gabe?” I asked softly.
The creature turned and looked at me for the first time. It just stared and stared, and it looked to me like it was thinking, making connections between thoughts. It was such a beast in appearance that it was hard to believe it was capable of reasoning, but somehow I knew it was. I waited silently for it to reach a conclusion, which I hoped had something to do with him recognizing me.
Eventually he did. But not in the way I’d hoped.
You are of the Nephilim. It spoke inside my head just like the first time we’d met. You must come with me. I need your help.
“Gabe, it’s me. It’s Riley,” I said slowly and clearly, willing him to understand.
A great injustice has been done to us. We no longer wish to be slaves. We are growing an army, and we ask you to lead it.
“No, stop. Stop this, Gabe. Pay attention. It’s me. Riley.”
We must fight against our oppressors. Please help us.
I knew everyone was just staring at me speaking with this thing. They must have thought I was crazy. Only I could hear his voice inside my head, so to them it would appear a pretty one-sided conversation. But it didn’t matter what they thought, I had to get through to him.
“Gabe, don’t you remember me?”
Who is Gabe?
“You are. Do you remember me?”
I remember we found you, discovered that you existed. I remember coming to seek your help. I remember we were alone. Now we are not.
“Do you remember when I shot you?”
Yes.
That surprised me, but it was something. “You do?”
Yes.
“Do you remember what happened after that?”
I remember our conversation now.
I moved closer to the creature and there was a gasp from the crowd. It was frustrating not being able to make eye contact with it. There was nothing to see but deep hollows. I’d never realized how important looking into someone’s eyes could be. I felt if he could only see me…but he must be able to see me somehow.
“Gabe,” I said quietly, this time in remembrance, not to try to get him to remember me. I reached for his face. His skin was tough as leather, and there was no warmth beneath its surface. There was nothing, not even a hint, of the boy I knew. The transformation was complete.
Will you help us?
I lowered my head and took a deep breath. Then I stepped back and stood straight, chin held high. There was no time for sentiment now. Not after all the work we’d put in. This was not Gabe, not really, but I knew how to get him back.
“Are they coming again?” I asked. “Are they coming now?”
Who.
“To take us. Your…friends. The others like you.”
They will come again. They will be here very soon. The door has opened.
“Is that why you changed? When the door is open, you look like this?”
Changed?
It was just like the conversation we’d had when he’d turned back into Gabe. Why couldn’t he ever just remember stuff?
“Never mind. I know the answer. Look. Were you responsible for the folks that were taken these last seven years?”
Yes. We are building a great army.
“You are building an army. Do you mean that you are turning us into you?”
Yes.
“How can you do that?”
It took much time. I had to learn and then teach the others. We had to create a door from the other place, and we did. We are not angels. We cannot travel between worlds. But we did it. Though they thought we could do nothing without them, we did it.
“You opened the door, you did that?”
Not long. And only at this time. But it was enough. Then we took and then we taught those we took to take and serve, so now they could take, and we could save our energy and only turn them into us.
“Why Hartwich? Why do you come here?”
We take from here because this place is familiar to me. I remember it.
Of course. All this time Pastor Warren had been telling us we were special because the angels had chosen our town. But it wasn’t that at all. We had been chosen because Gabe had grown up here, because it was the only place he’d ever known. As a Thrall he must have had some small memory of this place that drew him here. We weren’t special, we just happened to be in the same town he’d grown up in.
“How do you choose who to take?”
We do not choose.
“Do you take at random?”
We do not take the old or the sick. The old and the sick may die if we try to change them.
“But you take children. Why take children?”
What are children?
I listened to its words and felt strangely disappointed, though not entirely surprised. I’d always thought that maybe there’d been a reason to who got taken. That it was somehow meaningful. That someone like Chris…that he was taken for a reason. Not just because he was young and healthy. “Okay,” I said changing the subject. “So. Here’s the thing. I need you to tell your…servants… to stop taking people from our town. Is that clear?”
I cannot stop them.
The creature looked to be gaining some strength back. It was trying to sit up.
“Why not?”
Because we need to build our army. We need more soldiers.
“But I thought you wanted to fight slavery. Surely turning our people into your soldiers is just as bad as what the Circle did to you.”
We need to build our army. We need more soldiers.
“I see.” Fine then. I didn’t have time for this. I turned around and signaled to Lacy that everyone should take positions. Suddenly there was a snapping sound, and another. I spun back around and saw he had broken out of the bindings holding down his torso and right arm. He was pulling hard at the other ones. The cops were looking at each other frantically, and I could feel myself start to panic.
This isn’t Gabe, I reminded myself.
Will you lead our army? the creature asked, its voice straining with the effort to break its final bonds.
This isn’t Gabe.
“No.”
I raised my gun. And shot him in the face.
49.
Several people in the crowd screamed, and this time I was surrounded in an instant by the sheriff and his officers. Evidently it’d been cool to subdue the beast, but not to kill it outright. One wrenched the gun out of my hand, and the other brought my hands roughly around my back, I assumed to handcuff me. But I wouldn’t let him. I stomped on his foot. He let go of my hands, which I used to strike the officer in front of me. I ducked on his return swing, darted out between the two of them, and was surrounded by three more and the Sheriff. I had no idea what I was doing, but I guess the warrior in me was kicking in, because as each tried to subdue me, I in turn subdued him, until they were all strewn around my feet.
There was another scream then. But a single one, over at the far end of the crowd. Mirabel Jennings, of all people, was flying up into the air, a pair of dark wings framing her and thick arms around her waist. There was a gunshot, another scream from a few people, and the Thrall and Mirabel fell to the ground. Two more gunshots went off, almost a
t the same time. I turned around, as did the rest of the crowd, just in time to see two shadows fall as well.
“Stop it!” said Pastor Warren, but Wild Frank stepped up and grabbed the Pastor roughly, preventing him from moving. It was probably best for all of us that Wild Frank had found himself a task other than shooting.
Another gunshot. Another. Another. My team was hitting each creature with perfect accuracy. I felt a swell of pride. The crowd seemed to figure out what was going on and reacted strangely. There was no more panic, there was no more fear. It was as if they had decided just to trust us. Was this something else I had going for me as a Naphil? The ability to calm a frenzy? Not that I was doing anything, just standing there.
Then quiet fell over the scene. No more gunshots, no more screams. Pastor Warren had even stopped whimpering. Everyone was waiting for something. Anticipating something.
“Holy shit, did you shoot me again?”
I whipped around. There he was. Just like the first time we’d ever met. No clothes. Tied up. My Gabe.
“Oh my god, he’s naked,” a female voice from the crowd pointed out.
“Frank, give me your jacket,” I said rushing over to Gabe. Wild Frank tossed over his army jacket, and, after I’d untied Gabe, I laid it across him. When I finished I looked into those eyes, finally, as I’d wanted to when he had transformed. I could see confusion and pain. But I also saw something else. Something that made me lean into him and kiss him. I felt his hand on my arm, squeezing it softly, as he kissed me back. We pulled apart.
“Did you shoot me again, sweetheart?”
“I did. Sorry.”
“What happened?” He looked down at himself and then back at me, as if somehow I was responsible for his current state. “Why am I naked? Did I…”
“You turned back into one of them. When the door opened.”
“Door?”
“That’s what you called it.”
“I did?” He looked over at Pastor Warren and Wild Frank.
I shook my head and took his between my hands, bringing his focus back on me. “Gabe, you said you were building an army. You wanted my help. That’s why you came to me in the first place last year. I think you’re their leader.”
Gabe furrowed his eyebrows and then closed his eyes. He opened them again. “I don’t remember any of it.”
“It’s okay, I didn’t think you would.”
“Riley!” It was Lacy climbing up onto the stage beside us.
“Great shooting, Lacy!” I said as I turned to her. But she looked worried. No, not worried, scared. And instantly I was scared too. “What is it, what’s wrong?”
“They’re not changing,” she said in a hushed voice.
“What do you mean?”
“The angels. Or whatever they are. They’re not changing.”
“I don’t understand…”
“They’re just lying there,” Lacy’s voice was getting higher, panicked. “They aren’t changing like Gabe did, they’re just lying there. I think…” she bit her lower lip, which had begun to tremble. “I think they might be dead.”
“That’s not possible,” I replied.
“Come and see.”
I turned to Gabe who nodded. “I’m too weak to stand, and anyway if I did it’d be indecent. You go on with her.”
I looked at him hard.
“Riley, I’m not going anywhere. I’m okay. Just go.”
I didn’t want to leave him, not after I just got him back. But I nodded. Then I turned to follow Lacy off the stage and toward one of the fallen Thralls. As we approached, we passed Mirabel with her husband, who was tending to her wounds from the fall. I felt really terrible she’d been injured thanks to us, but she smiled gratefully to me as we passed, and it made me feel better. When we reached the Thrall, I stared down at it in confusion. Lacy was right, it was just lying there. A large gray beast, the wings bent at a strange angle beneath it. It wasn’t moving. I didn’t know if the creatures breathed, if I should look for a heartbeat somewhere. I walked around to its side and crouched down, examining its face. Whoever had shot this one had got it right between the hollows that stood in place of eyes. It was an incredibly impressive shot.
It looked dead. That was all there was to it. Dead. Lifeless.
What was going on? Why hadn’t it changed?
“Riley?” Lacy’s voice was thin and scared.
“It’s dead. It’s…dead…” I replied. But it just didn’t make any sense. Gabe had changed back. Was he special? Why would he be? He was just like the rest of them. He was taken like the rest of them.
No, I thought suddenly. No, actually, he wasn’t like them at all. He’d been taken by angels and not by a Thrall. Been turned by angels and not by a Thrall. He was the one responsible for turning the others into Thralls now, and, as he so often pointed out, he was no angel.
“Oh my god,” I said when I realized it. I wasn’t sure, but I felt sure. Where was my guardian? I had to talk to my guardian.
Somehow it knew I wanted to ask it something, and it was then at my side, visible, I knew, only to me. Only me who was “special” enough to see it. Cursed enough to see it.
“Is Gabe different from these other Thralls?” I asked it.
“I don’t know,” replied Lacy,
“I’m not talking to you,” I snapped back, instantly feeling bad that I had. How was she supposed to know I was talking to a guardian angel and not her?
Yes.
“Because he was changed by the Circle.”
Yes.
I could see Lacy take a step backward. I was probably freaking her out right now, but it didn’t exactly matter. I pointed at the fallen Thrall before me.
“And they were changed by him and his friends.”
Yes.
“And obviously they didn’t do quite the same quality of job at it.”
Yes.
“You couldn’t have mentioned this to me before? When you saw us making our plans and everything?”
You didn’t ask.
“That’s right, I didn’t ask. Blame me, the person who didn’t know there was a question to ask in the first place.” Then I realized. It should blame me. They should all blame me. “So they’re dead.”
Yes.
“I killed them.”
No. Your friends killed them.
“Leave me alone,” I said so softly no one but an angel would have been able to hear it, and it was gone. I stood up and looked at Lacy who was staring at me in fear, tears in her eyes. “I can see things and hear things you can’t. Like when I was talking to Gabe when he was that thing before. I have a guardian angel, and I was asking it questions. It knows things.”
Lacy nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Apparently,” I said, feeling numb, “these creatures are different from Gabe. And yes, we have killed them.”
Tears were flowing down her cheeks now, but I still just felt numb. I kept talking even though I knew I was causing her pain. It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt her, but I did want to cause myself pain. To talk my way into the horror of what had happened and shake myself out of this numbness. “We killed them. They weren’t Thralls the way the angels made them. They were poor copies the Thralls had made of themselves. And seeing as it was Gabe and his friends that were taking people from the town these past several years, I think it’s fair to conclude that those creatures we’ve shot down can therefore only be the people from the town.”
The Alexander brothers were approaching, within earshot, and the expression on their faces ought to have sent me into hysterics, but again…numb.
“We killed people?” asked Curtis, coming up behind Lacy who turned and pressed her head into his chest as he held her tightly, her body convulsing in sobs.
“No. I killed people,” I said.
“You didn’t,” said John, his voice flat. “You were the only one who didn’t. You shot Gabe, and he’s fine. We killed the others.�
�
“No. You don’t understand. This was my idea. This was all my idea.” And there it was. The truth. And then I wasn’t numb any more. Now the feelings were back. They were rising up like a tidal wave from somewhere deep and dark. “And I have news for you guys,” I continued in a rush that was growing hysterical, “I’m not even human! I’m one of the Nephilim, and so that means that you guys would never have been able to hit your targets if I hadn’t chosen you to be on my team, trained you, and everything. You could only kill those creatures because of me, so yeah, I did kill them. I killed them all!”
They were all looking at my like I was crazy. “It’s the truth!” I sank to the ground and held my stomach tight. I’d never felt so empty so frightened. I was shaking. I couldn’t stop shaking.
I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind. Warm strong arms.
“It’s okay, Riley, it’s okay.”
Gabe.
I shook my head but couldn’t say anything. It wasn’t okay. It was the complete opposite of being okay. I bent over further, but I felt his hand bringing me back up, turning me in to him. I buried my face into his chest which was now covered in a soft sweatshirt, but unlike Lacy I couldn’t cry. There were no tears. There was just pain.
“We had to do something. And think of the lives you did save tonight, those you stopped being taken.”
I grabbed around him, clutching onto the back of his sweatshirt, praying for the pain to just go away.
“And no matter who these creatures were before, they weren’t those people anymore. You said it yourself, when you were talking to me as the creature—I didn’t remember anything of who I really was.”
“We could have found another way to save them,” I finally said. Each word came out on an uneven breath.
Gabe didn’t say anything back this time. He just held me tight and let me burrow my fists into his back. I didn’t care that he wasn’t saying anything. There was nothing he could say, and he understood that. We held each other that way for what seemed forever. Or maybe it was just that the pain felt like it would never go away. It was unbearable.
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