He continued. “I would like to offer myself for this role. I want to lead us into a new time. I want to overthrow the council. And I want to do it for all those we have lost. I am standing here before you, seeking your support, and hoping you are with me.”
The silence was deafening. Jerome’s heartbeat filled his ears, along with the ticking of the clock. Every minute that passed was closer to Ambrosia’s arrival.
Nobody was moving, no-one was talking. Besides the occasional shuffling of feet, the room was deathly still. Jerome stared at the sea of faces, wondering if they believed him. Why should they? He never gave them a reason to, he hadn’t proven himself before. He didn’t know why they would choose to support him over Ambrosia. Perhaps he was just fooling himself into thinking they would.
“Thank you for your time,” Jerome said as he turned to leave. His wings drooped as he headed for the door. Perhaps he could sneak out before Ambrosia arrived. He would have to deal with the councilor when he found out what he had tried and failed to do. No doubt there would be consequences.
He reached the door, his fingers on the handle and ready to turn it. He had failed, everything he had been so excited about had been wrong. Why would he expect anything different? He had failed Leila, he had failed Alexander, and now he had failed himself. There was nothing he could get right. Time and again, he was proving it to himself. He opened the door.
“I’ll support you,” Gabriella’s voice filtered through the silent crowd. The angels standing in her way let her through. Jerome turned to look at her. “I think you are the kind of leader we need. You saved the world, you can save us too.”
He returned to the podium. “Thank you, Gabriella.” One angel supporting him wasn’t going to change anything. He gave her a nod in thanks and went to leave again.
However, before he could reach the door, voices started chiming in.
“You can do it, Jerome.”
“It’s about time you did something about this.”
“We need you.”
The positive comments kept coming until Jerome couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. He held up his hands to silence them again, needing to get down to business. Every second that passed was one wasted.
“I appreciate your support,” he said sincerely. “But it’s going to be a lot of hard work. Are we really prepared for this?”
A resounding cheer rang through the small room, sending it spinning around in echoes. One thing was certain, they were prepared to do whatever was necessary to get the change they needed.
“Ambrosia is going to be arriving any minute,” Jerome continued, trying to keep them quiet long enough to listen now. “I need you to support him for now. He has to think he has your allegiance. I don’t have time to explain everything now, but please trust me in this. Ambrosia is vital to our plan, he has to believe we all support him. Is that okay?”
The general consensus was a nod of the head. Suddenly, the side door swung open. Ambrosia’s short figure partially filled the doorway. For a second, Jerome was certain he had overheard everything. He wouldn’t put it past Ambrosia to have been listening at the door if he heard voices inside.
“Welcome, everyone,” Ambrosia greeted them happily as he made his way to the podium. Relief flooded through Jerome, he hadn’t heard, he couldn’t have done.
“I was just warming them up for you,” Jerome lied, amazed at how easily it rolled off his tongue. He stepped off the podium to stand next to Alexander, crossing his fingers and hoping his plan was going to work.
Ambrosia spoke to his audience with the same voice he used when addressing the council in meetings. His speech was formal, setting out how he wanted to overthrow the existing council and promote the lower members who deserved the positions more. According to him, there were a few in the council who ruled with an iron fist. If he could upset them, he would be able to take over.
Jerome listened with curious intent. He hadn’t heard exactly how Ambrosia had planned to overthrow the council before. It was interesting to hear his thoughts and exactly what he had planned. His path was far different to Jerome’s. The way Ambrosia put it, it wouldn’t really be change at all – just a few promotions to his friends.
Jerome considered that if he hadn’t spoken to the crowd beforehand, they wouldn’t be thinking of supporting Ambrosia now. Even if he did like the guy, he wouldn’t have pledged his allegiance. He, like everyone else, wasn’t going to support a man who placed his own self interests above the good of their kind.
Ambrosia, fuelled by the positive response, concluded his speech. “… and so I say we need to put this plan into action. We need to show them we aren’t going to be pushed around any longer. We are going to be the change we want to see in the world.” His fist shot up into the air, triumphantly punching the sky.
Jerome inwardly groaned, he even stole his speech off someone else. How could he trust a guy who couldn’t use his own words to inspire others? He waited patiently for it all to be over.
The angels gave Ambrosia a round of applause, probably out of sympathy. Or they could have just been happy that he was finished. The councilor stepped off the podium as the angels started filtering out. He caught up with Jerome before he could sneak off.
“Jerome! That went wonderfully.” He grabbed his hand to shake before continuing. “Thank you for warming them up for me. We’re going to make positive change, I can feel it in my bones.”
“Congratulations,” Jerome mumbled. “What’s your next step?”
“Rally support from within now I’ve got it from the outside. I’ve already started speaking with some of my colleagues. If they love me as much as everyone here tonight, this is going to be a breeze. A walk in the park even.”
The difference between the two angels was that Jerome knew not to take the support for granted. He could never assume others would blindly follow him wherever he would lead them. Life didn’t work like that. Unless you had a cushy job in the council, anyway.
“Well, no need to stand around.” Ambrosia patted him on the arm. “I’d better be off. Wouldn’t want to be out too far after dark, you never know who’s lingering. Good night, Jerome.”
“Good night, councilor.”
He watched Ambrosia hurry away, not even bothering to speak with any of the other angels. His flippant attitude was shocking, even to someone who didn’t know how to lead a revolution. At least Jerome appreciated the others.
“You totally made the right decision,” Gabriella’s voice came from behind, making him jump with the sudden noise. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Forget about it. You really helped me out in the meeting tonight, thank you,” Jerome said sincerely. If it wasn’t for her to start the ball of support rolling, he may have not got anywhere. He instinctively looked around for Alexander, he was hiding in amongst a group of angels – typical.
Gabriella shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “I believed in what you said so I thought I’d say something. It’s about time you realized how important you are to everyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“You saved the world, Jerome, we’re going to follow you into whatever battle you take us to. How many other people can say they saved the world? Uh, none.”
Jerome took a breath, ready to launch into the same speech he had recited over and over again about how it wasn’t him that had killed the demon, it was Leila. But he had second thoughts, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if people believed it was him. He wouldn’t lie to them, he would never take any of the triumph away from Leila, but perhaps he shouldn’t try to convince them so hard to think otherwise. He had to think like a leader now, he couldn’t retreat into his humbleness like he normally would.
“You shouldn’t just follow me because of that,” he said lightly. “You should follow me because you believe in what we’re going to achieve.”
“Oh, I do, don’t get me wrong. I’m not stupid.” Gabriella flashed him a charming grin. “But I want to see chan
ge in the village, it’s the only way we can protect the humans to the best of our ability. They deserve it as much as we do. So tell me what I need to do to help and I will do it with a smile.”
“We’re going to need lots of help, do you really mean it?”
She nodded, the grin never leaving her face. “Of course I mean it. I didn’t come here tonight to put my hand over my heart and pledge allegiance without expecting to do anything about it. I will do whatever you need me to do.”
“Thank you,” Jerome replied, at a loss for any other words to convey how much her offer meant. “I’ll hold you to your word, just as soon I work out what I need.”
“You better. Have a good night.” Gabriella squeezed his hand before leaving, his wave goodbye felt so underwhelming compared to the warmth she emitted.
He scanned the dispersing crowd and spotted Alexander approaching. Now Gabriella was gone, of course he would suddenly appear. Jerome couldn’t understand why he didn’t like her so much. She had never been anything but pleasant and kind to him.
“She’s finally gone, I didn’t think she would ever leave,” Alexander sighed. “That girl doesn’t know when enough is enough.”
Jerome was tired of hearing it. “Why don’t you give her a break? She really helped us out back there, she stood with us when it looked like nobody else was going to. She went out on a limb and you can’t even talk to her? What’s your problem?”
Alexander was taken aback by the sudden outburst. He took a step back, putting his arms up in surrender. “Hey, calm down, I was only joking.”
“Even so, you shouldn’t talk about her like that.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
Jerome took a few deep breaths, over his little tantrum. The stress was getting to him already and it had only just begun. “She’s offered to help. You’re going to have to get used to having her around and working with her.”
“Gee, that will be fun,” Alexander replied sarcastically, teasing him at the same time. Jerome wasn’t going to take the bait.
“If she likes you, my friend, you are a very lucky man. It will be fun working with her. You should rethink your feelings.”
Alexander wasn’t going to take the bait either. “Perhaps we should talk to your supporters.” Jerome nodded, letting it rest.
They spent the rest of the evening mingling with the few angels that remained. Jerome made it a priority to listen to their thoughts, he considered it one of the most important things he could do. There was no way he could lead change without knowing what everyone wanted. He wasn’t sure that he entirely trusted his own instincts anymore.
By the time they made it back to the hostel, they were both exhausted. Jerome plodded up to his room, barely registering he was in bed before falling fast asleep. His mind was finally still.
Morning was another matter. All the enthusiasm was lost in his fatigue as he forced himself out of bed. He quickly checked on Leila before getting a move on for the day. She was still asleep in her bed, safe and sound. Thankfully there was no sign of that human around her.
Walking along the path, Jerome’s mind raced with his plans for the village. He wanted to restore it to how it used to be, rebuild the destroyed houses and restore the hopes of the angels at the same time. With so many reminders of the demons around, nobody would be able to truly move on from the tragedy.
Jerome found himself standing in front of a house he didn’t know so well. He had never been inside but he knew it belonged to council member Michael. During the war the councilors had all moved into the council building for safety but they had returned home four months ago when it was deemed safe again.
He watched for any signs of life, still remembering Michael’s absence from the last meeting. It was mandatory for the members to attend those weekly meetings, no matter how boring or pointless they were. Even the archangels couldn’t get out of their duties. Michael must have had a good excuse to skip it.
The house was completely still, the curtains drawn. The grass was overgrown and spider webs clung to the eaves. The whole place looked decidedly unkempt, abandoned even. Jerome walked around the fence line, looking for anything that might tell him where Michael was. It was silly to think the fence or the trees would be able to shed light on it, but he couldn’t help it anyway. He circled the entire house before he was satisfied.
Jerome tried knocking on the door last, just to double check there was nobody home. Judging by the tall grass covering the path, he figured quite some time had passed since anyone had tread there.
No answer came to his knocking, nor to his calls for “Is anyone home?” Jerome was certain he had seen Michael since the end of the war so he couldn’t have fallen victim to the demons. Little else injured angels so it was unlikely he had met with foul play. There didn’t seem to be a reason for his absence.
Unless, it was possible Michael had been called away on council business. He didn’t have a human to protect as a member of the council so he didn’t have anything else on his duty roll. Curious, Jerome decided to pay a visit to the chambers, he needed to go there anyway so he may as well kill two birds with the one stone.
He decided to walk instead of fly, enjoying the quiet solitude along the path. He still couldn’t let his guard completely down, he figured he probably never would. It only took a second for the memory of his demon attack to become real again, he could feel their talons in his back, their teeth in his leg. His feathers ruffled with the memory of the pain. The only good thing to have come out of that attack was falling to Earth and meeting Leila. He tried to think of the good rather than the bad.
Jerome entered the cool foyer of the Grand Council of Guardian Angels and was greeted by the receptionist. He was getting used to speaking with her lately.
“Hi Cassidy, beautiful day we’re having.”
“It sure is. Are you here to see Ambrosia again?” She smiled with more teeth than necessary, her happiness reflected in her sparkling eyes. Cassidy was probably his favorite person in the council, the only one he actually liked.
“I was wondering if I could see Michael, actually, would he be available?” Jerome leant on the counter, trying to portray a casual air. He wasn’t entirely pulling it off, not when he was so clearly nervous. He had no business asking about Michael, if he actually got through he wouldn’t know what to do.
“Michael isn’t available today,” Cassidy replied. She had hesitated for only a moment, but it was a moment that didn’t go unnoticed.
“How about tomorrow?”
“He’s not available then either, sorry.”
Jerome stood tall again, wondering how far he should take his questions. He decided to go a little further. “I couldn’t help but notice he was missing in the meeting the other day. Is he alright? I hope nothing has happened.”
“I’m sure he’s just fine, but he’s not accepting visitors. I’m sorry you wasted your time coming all this way for nothing.” Cassidy gave him a sympathetic look, cocking her head to one side. “Perhaps you can hang out with me for a while? I could use another set of hands and yours are so nice and strong.”
“As tempting as that sounds, I think I’ll pop up and see Ambrosia. If that’s okay?”
“For you, of course. Go right on up.”
Jerome thanked her and started padding through the hallway. Cassidy used to accompany him but she now trusted him enough to go alone. He made sure to go straight there, making sure he didn’t break her trust. He considered she might come in very handy in the near future. He didn’t know where her loyalties lay but perhaps she could be convinced to join his cause one day.
“Jerome, come in,” Ambrosia greeted him. “I am glad to see you. I’m still on a high from last night. We’re going to do great things.”
“That we are,” Jerome matched his light hearted tone.
“Are you here to read the rule books? I can let you into the archive room.”
“Actually, I was wondering if you’ve seen council member Michael lately? I noticed
he was missing from the meeting the other day.”
Ambrosia shrugged with non-commitment. “I guess he was too busy to attend.”
“So you haven’t seen him?” Jerome pressed, tired of not getting answers to any of the questions he asked.
“Oh, I’m sure he’s around somewhere. It’s not like he has run off or anything.” Ambrosia let out a chuckle at his own joke. Jerome didn’t think it was funny but laughed anyway. “While you’re here, you should check out my latest achievement, I’ve finally managed to get us council workers an early mark every Friday. How great is that? The revolution is starting already.”
Jerome wanted to roll his eyes but refrained from doing so. He reminded himself he needed to stay in his good books, he needed Ambrosia to think he was fully aligned to him.
“That’s great, councilor,” he replied instead. “Congratulations on your achievement.”
“We should brainstorm some more ideas. I want you involved in this process too.” Ambrosia excitedly sat behind his desk, his quill pen poised to get writing. Jerome reluctantly took a seat, wondering how long he would have to stay to be polite.
Suddenly, Jerome felt the pulling of Leila. Something was wrong, he had to get to her – fast.
“I have to go, my human is in trouble.” He stood, ready to flash out.
“Damn, and I was so hoping we’d come up with some ideas today. See if it’s urgent and then come back.”
Jerome didn’t reply, he thought he would probably only say something bad if he did. Instead, he hurried down to Earth without wasting another moment thinking of Ambrosia and his petty problems.
Leila was surrounded by four men, one on each side of her. She had been backed into a wall with nowhere to go. The men couldn’t have been more than twenty at the oldest.
“Leave me alone,” Leila whimpered in barely more than a whisper. It only encouraged the men to continue.
“You shouldn’t be walking around here all by yourself, little girl, you never know who might be lurking.” One of them sneered at her. He was tall, almost at Jerome’s height. His dark hair was greasy, a layer of filth covered his clothes.
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