Vindicated

by Keary Taylor

  My phone vibrated on the floor next to me and I opened it to a text from Emily.

  Where are you?

  “Crap,” I said under my breath as I scooped the pages back into their folder and stashed it and my name book back in the darkest part of my closet.

  It felt like it took me forever to get to the restaurant. Emily seemed pretty annoyed that I had completely forgotten about her. I gave her an apologetic smile as we sat in our booth.

  “I’m so sorry,” I started after we ordered. I tried to ignore the way the waiter stared open-mouthed. “I got… distracted.”

  “It’s fine,” she said with a sigh as she twisted her napkin between her hands. “I just… I’m having kind of a crappy day.”

  “Want to talk about it?” I asked, watching as the napkin shredded between her hands.

  “It’s just hard, you know? I meet this totally amazing guy. He’s perfect. And then he’s gone. I mean, I know I didn’t really know him, and he was dead, but still.”

  “It doesn’t seem fair.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Emily said as she leaned back in her seat, rubbing her eyes. “It royally sucks.”

  Our drinks were brought with our salads at the same time. I tried not to meet the waiter’s eyes. He was borderline creepy.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said, unsure of what to say when he finally left. It seemed that when angels were involved there were no happy endings.

  “You know, I look at you and Alex and there’s not a doubt in my mind that its love between the two of you. Anyone can see it. But I don’t… I don’t really think that’s what me and Cormack had.”

  “What do you think you had?” I asked cautiously. Emily had blown up at me once about her jealousy before. And then run straight to Cole to console herself.

  “I don’t know,” she said quietly, shaking her head as her eyes stared at the blank space passed my left shoulder. “A connection, I guess? As simple as it sounds I guess that’s what it was.”

  I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table. “I think… maybe you just needed someone. Do you think anyone else could have given you the hope and drive that Cormack did?”

  Emily met my eyes, not answering for a long moment. “No,” she answered simply.

  “Then I think that it’s okay if you didn’t actually love Cormack. He affected you. You needed him for a time and I think he needed you.”

  A small tug of a smile worked its way to Emily’s lips. Her eyes reddened slightly.

  “Cormack didn’t have to be the end for you, Emily,” I said as I took her hand in mine. “There’s still someone out there for you.”

  Emily chuckled, a smile spreading on her face. She wiped at her cheeks, brushing away the few tears that broke free. “Good going, Jess,” she teased. “You made me cry.”

  I chuckled with her, sitting back in my seat. “Sorry. You okay?”

  She rolled her head in a circle, stretching the muscles in her neck, closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. “It’s okay. I’m okay. You’re right. It’s time to let life move on.”

  I could only give her a small supportive smile as she plastered a bright, fake one onto her face.

  “So, you’ve got his ring size?” Emily asked, changing the conversation as she forked a big bite into her mouth.

  I nodded. “I just got paid yesterday, so we’re good to go.”

  Emily’s eyes suddenly narrowed at a spot over my shoulder. “Someone’s watching you,” she whispered.

  I whipped my head around, my heart leaping into my throat. I only caught a glimpse of dark eyes and sandy colored hair before he was gone.

  “Do you know who that was?” Emily asked, her eyes looking back to the place where the man had disappeared.

  “I didn’t see anyone,” I only half lied.

  Emily shook her head, looking back down at her food. “Sorry, I didn’t sleep very well last night. Maybe I’m just seeing things.”

  I knew she wasn’t.

  We finished eating and headed for the jewelers store. I felt overwhelmed as soon as we walked through the doors. Emily’s eyes lit up as she scanned the glass cases.

  “Welcome ladies,” a man with a very feminine voice greeted us with a brilliant smile. “Is there something I can help you find today? A little something special for yourselves?” he asked with a wink.

  “She’s ring shopping,” Emily spoke up when I hesitated. “She just got engaged and the wedding is less than two weeks away.”

  “Ooo,” he drug out, giving me a mischievous look. “Shotgun wedding huh?”

  I just nodded, giving a small smile. “October third.”

  “Wonderful!” he said as he clapped his hands together, flashing a brilliant smile. His teeth were just a little too white. “Well we have a wonderful selection of men’s wedding bands. Right this way ladies!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I said good-bye to Emily as she headed toward the University and I started back down the highway to the bookstore.

  There was something inside of me that felt wrong as I drove down the road. It was the feeling of the calm before a lightning storm.

  And then the traffic started to slow down. I leaned out my window, trying to get a glance at what was going on ahead of all the cars.

  I could see a gray SUV plowed into the side of a restaurant, its front end totally embedded into the glass window. A mangled blue sedan was sitting on its side, halfway on the curb, halfway on the road.

  People started jumping out of their cars as traffic came to a stand-still. I stepped out, looking back down the road, searching for signs of flashing lights. There were none.

  “Call 911,” people started shouting as everyone gathered around the horrendous wreck. I slowly walked over, looking for signs of life inside the vehicles. People ran in and out of the restaurant, a woman with small shards of glass stuck in her face came stumbling out to the curb. My stomach lurched.

  It wasn’t until I came within ten feet of the building that I smelled it.

  A propane leak.

  “Clear out!” I shouted before I could even think about the words. I shoved my way into the building. “There’s a propane leak! Get out of here!”

  The entire inside of the building was littered with glass, people still trying to help those who had been injured by the crash. They all paused and looked at me for a moment.

  “You’ve got to get out of here!” I yelled again. “This place could blow any second!”

  They finally jump to life and people started racing through the front door.

  The smell of propane was getting stronger.

  With everyone cleared out of the building, I ran back outside. Others were clearing people out, shouts about the propane leak erupting all around. I watched as a man clambered out of the blue car, his entire frame shaking, but otherwise looking alright.

  “Who was in the gray SUV?” I asked to no one in particular. People started looking around as they continued to clear out of the vicinity.

  I looked back at the SUV, the propane smell growing stronger by the second.

  Running faster than I should have, I yanked the door open, nearly tearing it off the frame. Inside was a woman and who I assumed was her teenage daughter. Both were unconscious, blood dripping from various wounds.

  I unbuckled the teenage girl first, being careful not to injure her further. Gathering her up in my arms, I stumbled back toward the retreating crowd. Picking out a man who looked strong, I handed the girl off.

  “You,” I said pointing to a girl who looked my age who stood close by. “Call 911 and stay with her until help comes.”

  I didn’t wait for either of them to respond before I ran back to the SUV. The driver’s side door was forced closed, half of the SUV stuck in the brick wall of the building. Checking to make sure no one could see what I was doing, I yanked harder, bending the door around the brick.

  The woman rested with her head against the steering wheel, the airbag deflated in her lap. There
were many gashes in her forehead, a long, dripping one in her right arm. The entire frame of the car had been twisted and the center consul of the vehicle was pressed into the seatbelt. After yanking hard enough, the entire unit snapped and the woman slumped into my arms.

  Just as I started to carry her away, I saw a match being tossed toward the car.

  The entire SUV and most of my body was consumed in flames. Glass sprayed all around me as the rest of the window and the store exploded.

  I’d never screamed like I did as the flames licked at my body. I knew, even before I dropped her to the ground, that the woman I was trying to save was gone. I watched as her hair burned away, her flesh blackened.

  I landed on the rough cement on my hands and knees before collapsing onto my face.

  That’s when I felt him. Standing in the crowd right before me.

  In a movement that was too fast for any bystanders to see, I leapt up and grabbed the man around his waist.

  The next instant later I was standing on the narrow stone catwalk.

  In the afterlife.

  I was shoved to the ground as the man I held onto pushed me away. I looked up at him with fear pulsing in my body. His black eyes looked down at me, his wings raised and menacing.

  “Jessica?” I heard the horrified voice call from behind me. I whipped my head around to see a small gathering of angels on the spiral staircase that lined the cylinder. And there he was.

  Cole.

  “You will not escape judgment much longer,” the blond man before me half growled, half hissed, reaching down to grab me.

  At the same time, I heard the beat of powerful wings. The next moment, strong arms wrapped around my chest from behind and I was being pulled upward.

  “What are you doing here?” Cole hissed into my ear. “You can’t be here.”

  “I grabbed him,” I answered in a shaky voice as Cole hauled me upward another thirty feet before setting me on a section of the staircase. As I dropped to my feet, Cole whipped around, lashing out his arm, just as the other angel had ascended, blood in his eyes. As Cole’s arm connected with the other man’s face, he went sailing across the cylinder, crashing with force into the stone walls.

  “Why did you bring her here?” Cole bellowed, his entire countenance seeming to grow with power and force as he leapt across the cylinder. His hand met the other angel’s throat, and Cole pinned him against the wall.

  The man clawed at Cole’s hand, his eyes wide with fear. “I didn’t mean to. She grabbed me. She must have been pulled back with me.”

  “Why were you near her?” Cole hissed.

  The other man’s eyes narrowed, becoming cold. “You know why.”

  Cole slammed his head against the wall, an angry growl clawing out of his chest. Gripping tighter around his neck, Cole literally hurtled him down into the fiery depths below.

  I hadn’t realized I had been holding my breath until Cole turned back to me. He beat his wings again, coming to stand before me on the stairway.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Cole said simply as his eyes traced my face.

  I could only shake my head.

  “I told you not to let them know what has happened,” his eyes narrowed.

  “I didn’t mean to,” I struggled to talk. My eyes flashed back to the fiery space below us. “I don’t know what happened.”

  “You’re not supposed to be able to come back here,” he half whispered, looking around. There were only three other angels in the whole cylinder that I could see, the ones Cole had been speaking with. They watched us intently. “Things are happening, you should not be here.”

  “Then get me out,” I said as I met his black eyes.

  Cole looked at me for a long moment. Slowly he raised his hand, tracing his fingers lightly against my cheek. His skin didn’t burn and decay now. The rules of the afterlife were different than the rules of the world of the living.

  “I’ve missed you,” he breathed.

  I closed my eyes as my skin tingled, my stomach did a little quiver. “I need your help.”

  “Come see me when you’re closest to death. Wish it, and it will happen.”

  Before I could ask him what he meant, he pushed me off the staircase and I plunged toward the fiery depths.

  I sat straight up with a gasp, spreading my hands out in front of me to catch my fall. But I was sitting on the sidewalk, my clothes tattered and shredded. There was a crowd gathered around me, fear and concern in their eyes. I could hear sirens wailing in the background. Not ten feet from me I made out the form of a body covered with a kid’s blanket. The woman’s feet poked out the end of it.

  “You should probably lie back down until the medic’s get here,” a woman said as she placed a hand on my shoulder warily. I looked up at her, blinking hard, trying to get my brain and body functioning at the same time.

  I shook my head as I shifted my weight forward, pulling myself to my feet. “No, I have to…” I stuttered, my body swaying slightly. My clothes were charred and still smoking slightly. Something in my stomach twisted. “I have to go.”

  And before anyone could stop me, I took off into the crowd back to my car.

  My hands shook as I worked my way out of the traffic jam. I fought to keep my eyes focused on the road as everything inside of me felt like it was shifting and solidifying. I fought to force every breath in and out.

  Something felt wrong.

  Something wanted to go back.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the bookstore, a full forty minutes late for my shift. Thankful for the black yoga pants and extra work shirt I had in the back of my GTO, I changed in the car, put my singed hair in a loose braid, careful to make sure my brand was still covered, and wiped the blackness from my face and arms.

  I still looked like I’d taken a visit to hell.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late,” I started apologizing to Rita as I walked through the door. “There was this huge…”

  “Did you hear about the accident?” Rita asked me absent mindedly as she turned up the radio. “Just down the street from here. There was a woman killed. A building exploded!”

  “Yeah, it sounds like it was terrible,” I swallowed a hard lump. If I’d been just a few moments faster I would have been able to save her.

  The image of the match being thrown toward the car flashed across my vision.

  The angel who had been watching me had thrown it. He’d been trying to kill me.

  They know something’s wrong.

  “Those poor people,” Rita said quietly as she leaned against the counter. “Nine people taken to the hospital.”

  I nodded, even though I only half heard what she had said.

  “Bystanders reported that a man stepped in front of the SUV, which swerved to avoid him, hitting a blue sedan in the process,” the news caster said. “The sedan rolled into the curb and the SUV collided with Garry’s Deli…”

  I zoned the rest of the report out. He’d caused the accident. He’d just been waiting for me.

  And an innocent life had been lost in his quest to expose me.

  “I’m going to go stock the shelves,” I said quietly, my stomach feeling queasy. “Has Austin come in to help you at the counter?”

  “He’s not coming in,” she replied as she shuffled something around behind the counter. “His youngest sister was admitted into the hospital last night. The family is staying with her.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’s been waiting for a kidney transplant for a few years now,” Rita said with a sigh. “None of the family is a match and things have taken a turn for the worse.”

  I felt my stomach twist all the more. “I hope they find a match for her soon.”

  “Me too. That poor girl has gone through so much.”

  As I worked in the back room I couldn’t help but feel once again like I was strapped to a missile. Everything was going to blow up at any moment. The danger we were all in had just been taken to a whole new level.

  The da
y passed painfully slow. But eventually my shift ended and as I walked out to my car in the evening light, I couldn’t help but feel paranoid. I was constantly glancing over my shoulder, my eyes scanning for a pair of black ones looking at me from the shadows.

  Sliding into my car, I carefully worked my way to the freeway.

  I had to stop this. They had killed an innocent woman.

  Somehow this whole crazy angel crap had to stop.

  When I arrived back at home there was a note on the kitchen counter from Alex, saying he had gone out with Rod for some “guy time”. I actually felt relieved. I had too many things going on in my head, things I wasn’t sure if I wanted or could talk to Alex about.

  Sal was already asleep when I went to check on her. I checked her pill bottle and discovered she’d taken one of the sleeping pills on her own.

  I took a shower, watching as the burnt parts of my hair broke off and slipped down the drain. I scrubbed my skin until I couldn’t smell the smoke anymore. Pulling on some pajamas, I started pacing the living room.

  There were a few things Cole had said that I couldn’t stop thinking about. He seemed genuinely concerned when he said “things are happening, you should not be here”. I’d never seen Cole act concerned. And something just felt weird about the cylinder as I visited. The hushed tones the other angels used as they talked to Cole, the demanding tone the other angel used, the one who had accidently taken me back with him.

  But it was his last few words that I couldn’t understand the most. “Come see me when you’re closest to death. Wish it, and it will happen.”

  What did that mean? When was I closest to death? Did that mean I had to try and cause my death that apparently couldn’t happen? Did I have to wish death upon myself in order to see Cole and ask for his help?

  I had so many questions these days but never any answers.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The next four days flashed by in snapshots. There was wedding planning. There was work. There was wondering what Cole was talking about.

  And there was the constant glancing over my shoulder.