Wish for Santa: Average Angel

by Felicity Green

“No. She’s at Sam’s. Where are you, Stella? I need my car to pick her up. Jeannie called and told—”

  I hung up. It was really rude, and I would have hell to pay later, but this was a race against time. I had just wanted to see if by some miracle Anna had been put out of harm’s way. No such luck. My sister was in danger, and I had to act fast.

  Next, I called Sarah. I didn’t even explain anything to her. “I need your help. Can you look up Lake Winnisquam and let me know from where you’d look out at this group of three little islands? I need an approximate area, a stretch of shore I can search.”

  “Will do. I assume you’re in a hurry.”

  “Yes.” I swallowed hard. “It’s a life-or-death thing, and it concerns Anna.”

  She inhaled sharply. “I’ll work as fast as I can.”

  “Thanks.” I fought against the tears as I clicked off the phone. I was so thankful that she hadn’t asked a ton of questions.

  With a stern, silent “pull yourself together,” I wiped my eyes, sat up straight, and sped off toward Lake Winnisquam.

  I had just passed Franklin when Sarah called me back. She gave me directions and named a couple of roads I should check. The trouble was that two sides of the lake were a possible match, so I would have to drive all the way around the lake if one location didn’t work out. She said she would text me the names of the roads and told me to call if I needed any more help.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I hung up and drove another couple of minutes until I got to the lake. A thin strip of trees separated the narrow road from the lake. I could see bits of glittering water between the tree trunks and autumn-colored foliage. It looked peaceful, and there was hardly any traffic. I got my phone out, looked at Sarah’s text, and checked a couple of street names on my Google Maps app. There was more infrastructure on the other side of the lake, and I had gotten the impression from Irene’s description that her friend’s cabin had been in more of a secluded area. The stretch of shore Sarah had found on this much-less-populated side was closer, so it made sense to check it out first, anyway.

  As I drove there, I muttered under my breath. “Now would be a good time for you to come back, Zack, to tell me you’ve fixed everything or just to let me know what to do. Any time now.”

  Nothing.

  Finding the right spot wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped because trees were blocking my view. I had to get out of the car sporadically, go to the lakeshore, and check where in relation to the three islands I was. Time was ticking by, and I was getting more and more desperate.

  I cursed Zack for not letting me know what was happening while at the same time telling myself that he was really busy trying to save Anna and Sam.

  The road had curved away from the lake, and I decided to get out one last time to see if the shore still faced the islands or if I should drive to the other side of the lake. I came across a narrow dirt road that looked like a driveway to a lake house or cabin, but the turn had to be farther ahead on my road, because I hadn’t come across it. If it was a driveway, chances were that it led to the lake, which had to be very close, so I followed it.

  When I spotted the cabin, my skin started to tingle. I could feel in my gut that this was it. Cautiously, I took a few more steps and froze when I saw the lakeshore and two figures, one tall and one small. I ducked into the tree line and crept closer.

  It was Mal and Sam.

  That is to say, I assumed it was Mal and not Zack. They looked identical, at least from a distance.

  My heart was pounding so loudly that I couldn’t hear myself think. What should I do? Where is Anna? A tiny flicker of hope ignited inside me that maybe Becca had taken her home after all. That flicker was extinguished less than two seconds later.

  I heard a strangled scream from somewhere on my right—a girl’s scream.

  Panicked, I took my eyes off of Mal and Sam and pushed into the strip of woods, toward the noises that now sounded more like gurgling.

  Branches scratched my face, and leaves got caught in my hair, but I didn’t care.

  Between tree trunks, I caught a glimpse of a small blond girl lying on the ground. Anna!

  I rushed forward and tripped over something. I just managed to stretch my hand out and break my fall. I landed on the ground, just a few feet away from Anna’s face. It was turned toward me, her blond hair sprawled across the red maple leaves on the ground. Her eyes held a single desperate cry for help, and blood was gushing out of her slit neck. It was ruby red and looked harsh next to the warm colors of the autumn leaves.

  I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. My mouth and throat were as dry as a desert.

  I could only stare.

  Becca’s voice wakened me from my paralysis. “She’ll be fine.”

  I hadn’t even noticed she was there. My head whipped around, and I pushed myself up on my knees.

  “Sam will heal her, and everything’s going to be all right,” she said soothingly before I had the chance to say anything.

  I crawled toward Anna, carefully cradled her in my lap, and took off my suit jacket. “What do you mean?” I asked, distracted by trying to stem the flow of blood from Anna’s neck wound.

  When I finally looked up at Becca, I saw a small dagger in her hand, dripping with blood. “What… you did this to her?” I asked incredulously.

  “It’s fine. This is just a test, Zack said. We have to do this so Sam makes the right decision, chooses the right path.”

  “Zack?” I was so distraught about Anna that I had momentarily forgotten about Mal having tricked Becca. “Where is he? Is he here?” My gaze darted around, but I saw nothing but trees.

  “He’s by the lake with Sam.”

  I closed my eyes. Of course. She meant Mal.

  “He’s explaining to Sam that he can save Anna with his healing touch—a gift he has because he’s the son of archangel Raphael. Well… Zack is pretending to be Raphael, actually, just to make a greater impression on the boy and to fulfill his wish of meeting his father, because Raphael would never come, of course. That’s why he sent Zack.” Becca sounded as though she was talking about a movie she had recently seen, not as though she had just slashed a young girl’s throat.

  Tears were spilling from underneath my closed eyelids, and I stroked Anna’s hair. I really wanted to feel her pulse, but I was too scared that it wasn’t there anymore.

  Zack, where are you? Please come and help us. I was praying silently when the meaning of Becca’s words penetrated my mind.

  If I could believe her—or Mal’s—words, the person who could help Anna was there. Mal could have lied, of course, but I had read that Raphael was the healer archangel. Wasn’t it at least conceivable that Sam, his son, had inherited some of his healing powers? I struggled to understand why Mal would want Sam to heal Anna—how would that corrupt him? If he healed her, she wouldn’t be a human sacrifice anymore. She would live.

  And that thought echoed in my head as I sat there on the cold ground with my unconscious, bleeding sister in my lap. If there was the slightest chance…

  I carefully repositioned Anna and got up, lifting her in my arms. “Let’s go.”

  Becca led the way. I had difficulties carrying Anna and making my way to the lakeshore across the uneven, brush-covered ground.

  When I spotted Mal and Sam, standing together and talking, I stopped walking and started shouting. “Get away from him, Sam! Get away from him now!”

  They both spun around. At first, I only had eyes for Sam. On one hand, I was really glad to see that nothing had happened to him. On the other, it made me sick to my stomach that he was in such close proximity to Mal.

  Sam looked happy but confused to see me. When he noticed Anna in my arms, his brows drew together even further. “Is that Anna? Is she okay?”

  It was the first time I had heard Sam talk, and I had gotten so used to him being mute that it took me by surprise. Becca took Anna out of my arms, and even though I wanted to hold on to her, I didn’t want to hurt her in a
ny way, so I didn’t struggle. Becca really did seem to believe that she was doing a good deed, however twisted that was. Maybe a part of me also didn’t want to step any closer toward Mal, so I was kind of glad Becca would do that for me. “I’ll carry her to Sam so he can heal her,” Becca said.

  I wanted that to happen too, so I let go of my sister. There was so much going on at that moment, inside me and around me, I didn’t know why I hadn’t held on. I would come to bitterly, bitterly regret that for the rest of my life.

  As soon as Becca had taken a few steps toward Mal and Sam, I shouted, “No, she’s not okay, Sam. She’s bleeding really badly. You have to help her.”

  “What?” Sam wanted to rush to Anna, but Mal held him back.

  “Wait, son.”

  Sam looked up at him with uncertain eyes.

  Becca laid Anna down on the ground. My sister looked like an oversized doll with her limp limbs clad in jeans and a pink anorak and her long hair splayed across her face.

  My heart ached. “You have to save her now, Sam,” I pleaded. “You can heal her.”

  Mal shot Becca a glance. It seemed to me that he was communicating something to her, because she looked at me apologetically then back at Mal for reassurance. He gave a curt nod, and his eyes narrowed.

  Becca said something under her breath and gestured in my direction at the same moment.

  I decided that Mal scared the shit out of me, but I didn’t care. I needed to stay with Anna. I wanted to rush toward her—but I couldn’t move.

  A scream rose up inside me but got stuck in my throat.

  I again wanted to urge Sam to help Anna, but my lips were frozen. All I could move were my eyes, and they darted back and forth between Mal and Becca. His evil, self-satisfied grin and her apologetic half-smile told me that Becca had done something to me. She’d probably performed a binding spell so I wouldn’t interfere.

  But I didn’t understand why. Becca had told me she was bringing Anna to Sam so he could save her. I definitely wanted the same thing.

  “Stella is right,” Becca said, addressing Sam. “You can save Anna. You have a special power. You can heal people. You just have to come and put your hand on Anna’s wound. Then she’ll be all right.”

  I wanted to let out a breath of relief, but the air in my lungs didn’t seem to move. The feeling of relief didn’t last long, anyway. I got a new shock when Mal held Sam back. “Wait. It is true. You could save her. But I don’t want you to. I want you to come with me instead.”

  Sam looked up at him. “But… isn’t Anna hurt really bad? It looks like—”

  “Yes, real bad,” Becca said. “But make all that go away, and Anna will be fine again.”

  Sam looked up at Mal again. “Then I want to do this, Dad.”

  Now I understood the binding spell. If I had the power of speech, I would have shouted, “He’s not your father, Sam!” But I had been so preoccupied with saving Anna that Mal’s deception had slipped my mind.

  “I know you want to. But you have to trust me on this. I am your father.”

  Sam looked back and forth between Anna and Mal. “What’s going to happen if I don’t help her? She’s my friend.”

  “It’s very simple,” Mal said with a smile. “You help her, she will be okay. You don’t help her, she won’t. I’m telling you not to, to come with me instead.”

  Sam was beginning to look very upset. I could completely understand that. I struggled and struggled against the binding spell because I desperately wanted to tell him to do the right thing.

  “Anna is my friend,” he said again, his lips trembling.

  “You have to make a choice, Sam,” Becca said. “It’s a test. How your life will proceed depends on what choice you make.”

  “D-D-Dad?”

  Mal took a step back and stuck his hand out. “It is a test, son. And you need to choose me. That’s all there is to it. Just take my hand, and everything will be all right. You want to live with me, right? You don’t want me to go away again?”

  “No,” Sam shouted quickly. “Don’t go. It’s just…” He looked at Anna again and took a step toward her. Then he stopped and turned to Mal. Tears were streaming down his face. “I don’t want anything to happen to Anna. I don’t want her to be hurt. Will she wake up again, or is she…”

  “Remember what I told you about the great life I’m leading overseas? Where I was stuck and couldn’t come get you? How much money I earn and how big the house is? Don’t you want to come there with me? Live with me? You can make lots and lots of new friends there. Forget about the girl.”

  Sam inched toward Mal, still crying.

  No! I wanted to shout but couldn’t. Don’t believe him! Save my sister!

  The boy threw another glance over his shoulder at Anna.

  “Or don’t choose me,” Mal said, suddenly sounding cold. “Stay here. They’ll send you back to your mother. You can live with her in squalor. I will never come to see you again because you didn’t trust me, your father. Don’t you trust me?”

  “I do. I do trust you. I want to live with you, please,” Sam sobbed.

  “Then take my hand. Come with me. I love you, son.”

  Sam stretched out his hand. Slowly, very slowly, he reached up for Mal’s fingers.

  When I’d been little, I had witnessed a horrible accident. We had been waiting at a traffic light when two cars crashed into each other in the intersection. Nothing could have been done about it, and we could only sit there, watching the inevitable happen, almost in slow motion. This felt exactly like that.

  My last hope was Becca. Maybe I could somehow signal to her with my eyes that she needed to break the spell.

  Becca looked… disconcerted. The entire time, she had been almost impassive, good humored. That seemed to have changed. “But Zack, I thought you said he would choose saving the girl, choose the right path?”

  Sam evidently hadn’t heard Becca’s question through his sobs. Maybe Mal hadn’t either, because he didn’t react. But I heard it, and it suddenly became clear to me what was happening.

  This was Sam’s corruption. He could make the right choice, the good choice, and save my sister. Or he could choose to side with evil, with Mal. He could choose to go with him, wherever Mal would take him, never mind that Sam didn’t know “overseas” was actually the underworld. If he did that and didn’t save Anna, she would be a human sacrifice. She would die.

  And Sam was about to make the wrong choice.

  This registered with me in the space of a second, while Sam’s hand moved toward the person he thought was his father.

  I stared, desperately willing him not to do it, somehow trying to convey to him the telepathic message that it was all a lie.

  Sam’s fingers were inches away from Mal’s when a voice boomed. “Stop! This is not your father, Sam.”

  Sam dropped his hand and, along with everyone else, turned his head to see who had spoken.

  I knew the voice.

  It was Zack’s.

  19

  Sam’s eyes darted from Mal to Zack and back again. Evidently, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing—the person who claimed to be his father, twice.

  Becca seemed just as confused, but unlike Sam, she voiced it. “What’s going on?”

  “I am Zachriel,” my angel said to her. “This is my twin brother, Malachriel. He impersonated me and thus got you to do something for him. Isn’t that right?”

  Becca looked from Zack to Mal and nodded slowly.

  Zack continued to explain. “He did this so he could use you. You opened yourself up to him, and now he has got you under his spell. That’s what he does with witches. I am the real angel. He is a demon.”

  Becca narrowed her eyes. “He is an angel. I have seen it.”

  “His white wings? Just glamor. I could spread mine, but that’s not going to make you more inclined to believe me.” Zack raked his hand through his hair. “Okay, I know. Release Stella from the binding spell so she can confirm what I just said.
”

  Becca hesitated for a second then flicked her wrist in my direction.

  I had been straining so hard against my invisible bindings that I stumbled forward. “He’s right,” I croaked, crawling the last few yards to Anna. “He is Zachriel. And it is Malachriel’s M.O. to impersonate him. Everything he said is true.”

  I had reached Anna. Her condition didn’t seem to have changed. I pulled her close to me then looked up at Sam. “Sam, please, you have to help her. This man is a liar. Do you really think your father would ever ask something like that of you? If you can help her, that’s what you have to do. Don’t you see?”

  Sam slowly walked toward Anna, his cheeks wet with tears.

  Mal had been suspiciously quiet throughout all of this. Last time he and Zack had faced each other, Zack had banished him with just a few words. In retrospect, I wondered why Zack didn’t do that, right there at the lake. Maybe there was some other rule that the corruption attempt needed to play out, that Sam needed to make a decision. Or maybe Mal’s strategy was to wait quietly for Zack’s move to play out so that Zack didn’t notice him and didn’t banish him straight away. In that moment, I couldn’t question either Mal’s or Zack’s motivation because I was focused on Sam and Anna.

  Then something else caught my attention, almost as though I had developed a radar for it. I felt a deep sense of regret pouring off of Becca, as if she was wishing very hard that she could make up for her mistake of falling for Mal’s deception.

  Of course, I could have been wrong; I could have imagined it. But I knew how powerful a repellant it was if I committed to and put all my intent into fulfilling a wish. It had worked during my last encounter with Mal.

  With Sam approaching Anna and my sister just moments away from being saved, I hoped I could buy time and get Mal to stay where he was. I hoped I could protect Sam and Anna from him with sheer faith alone.

  I concentrated really hard, and something strange happened. It was almost as if I heard the bindings snap. I had somehow freed Becca from Mal’s influence with my thoughts alone. How is that possible?

  Becca noticed too. She shook herself and tried to cast a spell. By the look on her face, it hadn’t worked. Zack seemed to understand what was going on and took her hands in his. Suddenly, they were both bathed in a bright white light.