World Without Angels

by Campbell, Jamie

  “What does it do?” He asked.

  “It surfs the internet for information. It’s how we can find out about all the people in Aron who have Sagittarius as their star sign. But we need electricity to run it.”

  “I saw a battery in the last house we searched through. Would that work?”

  Leila shrugged, she had no idea. “I have no clue how to hook up a battery.”

  “Well it’s a good thing I do then,” he grinned. “I’ll be back soon.” He headed out the door before she could ask him any more details.

  She placed the laptop on the coffee table in the garage and waited. He was back within minutes, obviously using some of his angel powers to move in fast forward.

  Jerome held up the car battery triumphantly, Leila wasn’t impressed. She couldn’t see how the battery was going to power the laptop, there wasn’t even anywhere to plug it in.

  He took the laptop and fiddled with the power cord, unwrapping the outer plastic and exposing the colored wires underneath. Leila watched in awe, how someone that didn’t even know what a computer was could manipulate electricity was beyond her understanding. She just let him go, his hands moved like they knew what they were doing.

  “Turn it on,” Jerome handed her the laptop and waited while she fired it up. They crossed their fingers, watching intently and praying it would work.

  The power light came on. “It works!” Leila couldn’t believe it. Not only did Jerome’s dodgy electrical hook up work, but the laptop too.

  “Now what?”

  “Now, we surf,” she grinned.

  Jerome watched on as her hands flew across the keyboard. It was like riding a bicycle, it all came back to her so quickly. There were some skills you never forgot.

  She went to the registry of births, deaths, and marriages. It hadn’t been updated for a while, but luckily the records she wanted dated back a while. If the mortal was meant to rise up and save two worlds, then they couldn’t be a child.

  “What age would be the minimum, do you think?” She asked, trying to narrow down her initial search.

  “I have no idea, our ages aren’t like yours.”

  “How old are you?” Leila had assumed he was a teenager, judging by his looks, but she had never actually thought to ask him.

  “Seventeen in human years.”

  “And in angel years?”

  “I’m in my third level.” One look at Leila’s confused face told him she didn’t understand. He went on, feeling the need to explain further. “We have different levels of life. One is birth, two is basic school, three is advanced school, four is wisdom attained, and it goes on. You stay in a level for as long as it takes to move onto the next.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we have to be ready before we can start to protect humans. If that takes ten or twenty years, then so be it. We can’t risk the life of the human we are sent to protect. We must be ready.”

  There were so many questions Leila wanted to ask but she didn’t know how long the battery or the computer would last. She shelved the questioning for now, making a note to come back to it later. She wanted to understand the whole thing.

  “Okay, so I’m going to start with people over the age of sixteen,” she declared and typed in the search box. “That’s the generally accepted age of maturity here. Or at least, that’s when you can start to drive.”

  Jerome nodded, not arguing. She completed the rest of the search boxes, looking for anyone born in Aron during the days from the twenty-second of November to the twenty-first of December more than sixteen years ago.

  Over thirty-three thousand names came back. Leila started typing again, this time searching for only those still living. It wouldn’t take away anyone that had passed since they updated the database, but there was nothing she could do about it. They would manually have to start crossing off the names at some point. She hit search again.

  The list dwindled down to just under twelve thousand. She wasn’t sure what was more depressing, the thought that so many had died or the thought of having so many left.

  “Twelve thousand people could be the mortal that rises up to end the war,” Leila sighed. “That’s too many for us to look through.”

  “But it’s a start.”

  “It will take us years to go through all these names.”

  Jerome refused to see the glass half empty. “Then it will take years but we’ll find them.”

  “We don’t have years.”

  “The prophecy said they will rise up and they will. We are meant to find them so we will. We will be guided to the right one.”

  Leila wasn’t convinced but didn’t voice her protests. Perhaps Jerome was right, perhaps there was some kind of cosmic guidance going on and they would be led to the right person. Or perhaps they would just search endlessly until they became yet more victims of the war. Either way, it helped to stay busy and keep their minds focused.

  “So do we start at the top and track down the people?” Leila asked, desperately needing a plan. “There’s no addresses here and even if they did they would probably be wrong, but we could start.”

  “We could-”

  Jerome was cut off by the sound of an alarm in the distance. It was loud, far louder than anything else he had heard since falling to Earth. Leila saw the panic on his face. “It’s a warning signal. It means something big is going on somewhere in the city.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, it could be an explosion or an invasion. It could be anything, but it’s dangerous so they’re telling people to leave and not stick around.”

  “Does that include us?” He hoped not, it had taken all day to set up their new home. The thought of finding a new one was almost overwhelming.

  “No, it’s not loud enough to include us.”

  “It gets louder?”

  Leila nodded, knowing it could get much louder. It had rung out the night her family were taken from her. She had heard the alarm every evening in her nightmares since. The moment it started sounding it sent a shiver through her entire body. It wasn’t a voluntary reaction, she couldn’t help it. There were some things you couldn’t forget, even if you wanted to.

  “How often does it go off?” Jerome asked, completely distracted by the noise. The constant wailing created panic within him, it was such an unnatural sound.

  “Every few months, I guess, every time something serious is going down.”

  “Will you be alright if I go and take a look?” Jerome asked. “Someone might need my help. I could be useful.”

  “Go. But don’t get hurt. I need you here too.”

  Jerome stood, letting his hand gently squeeze her shoulder on the way out. “Don’t open the door to anyone. I’ll be back before nightfall.”

  He left her there, listening to the doors lock behind him before leaving. He started running down the street, flapping his wings and feeling the air underneath them. He ran faster, letting the breeze lift him into the sky. It was more difficult taking off from the ground, it was far easier jumping into flight. He was out of practice too, he should spend more time flying rather than walking.

  Jerome listened for the sound, flying directly into it. He wished he had something to put into his ears to drown out the horrible noise, but he didn’t. He would just have to wince through it.

  As he got closer, he realized there was a sound even worse than the alarm and that was the sounds of humans screaming. He slowed down, circling high above the ground below. He had found ground zero, the place where people were supposed to evacuate from. And there was a good reason too. Hundreds of people were below, fighting for their lives. Jerome landed on top of a building, letting his feet dangle over the edge while he looked down.

  People were fighting everywhere, most had some sort of weapon while others were relying on their fists to get them out of it. Knives, sticks, pieces of wood, and even guns were being thrashed about everywhere without thought.

  There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to the fig
hting, they were just fighting. Jerome couldn’t discern one side from the other, they all looked like they were fighting for themselves rather than a united cause. It was the single most disturbing thing he had ever seen.

  Humans weren’t meant to attack each other like that. If they fought, it was for a reason – something they believed in. But what he was looking at was just mindless violence for the sake of it. It was wrong, so wrong. Jerome could only find one word for it: evil. It was plain to see the influence of the demons filtered through the people below. They were no longer fighting with a pure purpose, they just wanted to hurt each other.

  Jerome wondered if there was anything he could do. He considered flying over the scene and trying to distract them enough to cause a ceasefire. He thought about dragging away some of the injured and taking them to a hospital. He pondered whether he should bury the dead. But there was nothing he could really do. Even if he could distract the fighters, it would only be momentarily. The injured would die before he could get them help, even if the hospitals were still functional. And the dead didn’t need burying, it wouldn’t be long before the fire burning at the side of their battleground would take over and set ablaze everything in its path.

  All Jerome could do was pray for their souls. He prayed they would be lifted to heaven instead of hell and they would find peace there. The quiet that eluded them in life would find them in death. He prayed their demise wouldn’t be for nothing. Perhaps somewhere in the violence there was some purpose. Maybe it was a war that had to happen. He had no idea why, but he had to believe it. There was supposed to be a reason for everything, and a place for everything too. But things seemed to have gone askew.

  Through the alarm, Jerome heard screams. They pierced the sky like lightning, capturing his attention like nothing else. His eyes darted around the streets below, trying to find the source of the sound. They weren’t the cries of battle, they were the shrieks of fear. Someone that scared did not belong in the middle of a bloody fight. They shouldn’t be there.

  He spotted a woman holding a toddler in her arms. She was standing on the balcony of an apartment on the second floor. The fire was raging on the floor below her. If she made a jump for the ground, she would probably injure the child. If she made it to the ground safely, then she would probably be killed in the fray. She couldn’t stay there with the fire consuming the building. It was a hopeless situation.

  Jerome sprung into action, not even needing to think about what he should do. He leapt over the edge of the building and glided down to the balcony. Without stopping, he wrapped a strong arm around the woman and child and took them with him. He held them to his chest so tight they couldn’t move. They probably didn’t even know what was going on.

  He left the battlefield behind as he flew through the buildings. Dodging light poles and avoiding balconies, he darted through the city. He didn’t know where he was going but he figured it had to be better than the war zone. He flew until the alarm was only a mere buzz in the distance.

  Landing in the backyard of a dark house, Jerome thought they would be safe there to orientate themselves. He let go of the woman, she hadn’t struggled for even one moment of the flight. It was like she had given up all hope of safety, surrendering to whatever had her.

  Jerome took them in clearly for the first time. The woman was young, probably in her early twenties. The child could only be a few years old, three at the most. They were filthy dirty and skinny, well underweight for their height. The woman was startled to say the least, clutching her child to her chest.

  “What are you?” She muttered, her eyes darting around looking for an escape route.

  “I’m a guardian angel, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” He made no sudden movements, fearing he might cause her more fright. She had enough for one evening.

  “Did we fly here?”

  “Yes. I think you’ll be safe now.”

  The woman was lost for words, trying to take everything in. It seemed too difficult, nothing was processing in her mind. Everything was so far removed from normal that it was like living in a nightmare.

  “They were killing each other,” she stuttered.

  “Yes, they were. But you are safe here. This house doesn’t look like anyone lives here, you’ll be fine until at least the morning. Then you can move if you need to.”

  The woman nodded, at least understanding there would be shelter for the night. Jerome looked towards the sky, the sun was almost down. He promised Leila he would be back before it got dark. He didn’t want to break that promise.

  “I have to go, will you be okay?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good. Go inside and settle in for the night. Morning will bring a new day for you.”

  Jerome turned to leave. Before he could run into flight, the woman added: “Thank you.”

  He didn’t stop, instead waving as he went. The woman would probably tell the story to others but he didn’t mind. The story of a guardian angel rescuing her from a fiery death would probably be heard as an exaggerated tale than a story of fact.

  He flew home, first needing to orientate himself to work out which way home was. He returned to the city and then moved outwards, searching for the house he now called his. He wished he had marked the area somehow so it would stand out a bit from all the others. He thought of Leila, trying to zone in on her energy to use as a beacon. It was a skill he was still yet to master, only being a level three. It was how angels could always find their human amongst all the others.

  Everything started to look familiar. Jerome found the house and landed nearby, walking the rest of the way to make sure he wasn’t bringing any unwanted attention with him.

  Leila unlocked the door and let him in, glad to see the angel. Every minute she spent alone felt like an hour. She had become so accustomed to Jerome’s company that she felt naked without him there. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she threw her arms around him and held on tight.

  “I missed you too,” Jerome smiled. “Did anything happen while I was gone?”

  “Nothing.” She let go of him and returned to her dinner. The second night of having hot vegetables and it was heavenly. Almost as good as having her angel back. “What was causing the alarm?”

  “A fire, nothing major,” Jerome lied, trying to play it down. He didn’t feel like recounting everything he had seen in all of its horrific details. Plus, he didn’t want to scare her. If he told her of the violence and death, she would probably freak out. He wanted to protect her from that whenever possible. She had seen and been through enough in her short life.

  “It must have been pretty major if the alarm was on.”

  “The fire was kind of big.”

  “Were people hurt?” Leila asked as she ate, she needed to know the details. Information was what kept her sane, it was the not knowing that killed her.

  “A few.”

  “Poor things. Perhaps it was a good idea to get out of the city centre.”

  Jerome nodded, hoping she would let it drop. At least there were no newspapers or television stations still reporting on events. It was difficult to keep a business operating when nobody had any money to buy things and electricity was touch and go.

  They settled down for the night, talking mostly about the prophecy and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. Jerome tried to get the young mother out of his head, praying she was still safe. They decided to get an early night, the day’s events taking a toll on both of them.

  Before he crawled into bed, Jerome checked every lock and window in the house at least twice. There was nothing to stop those in the city high on adrenaline and blood thirst from coming out to the suburbs. When they had no-one left to fight, they could come searching for more trouble.

  Jerome didn’t want them to come his way, not in the middle of the night when they didn’t have any warning. If they could get outside, he could fly them to safety. But if they were trapped inside, they would be doomed. In a way, they would be safer being
outdoors, even if that left them exposed to the elements.

  He was still jittery when he pulled the blanket over him on the bed. He didn’t need it for warmth, but it was somehow comforting. The bed was bigger in the house than at the apartment, but he almost wished it wasn’t.

  “Are you sure everything is okay?” Leila asked, staring at the wall in the dark while she waited for an answer.

  “Yeah, it’s fine. Get some sleep.”

  He edged closer to her, sliding his arm around her waist. She settled into his embrace, feeling his warmth and the security of having her angel back.

  The alarm didn’t end its relentless wailing until the early hours of the morning. It droned on in the distance, keeping Jerome awake for most of the night. It wasn’t the noise that was getting to him, but the images he had seen replaying in his mind. Every creak outside made him wonder if someone was trying to get into the house. While Leila slept soundly, he did anything but.

  Morning was a relief. The darkness could hide many things, but the light could not. Jerome left the house and stepped into the backyard through the gaping hole in the living room wall. He stretched his wings, letting them fully spread out. The air was cool in the early hour, the breeze flowing through his grey feathers. It was a nice feeling, refreshing.

  Leila joined him, watching from the wall. He looked glorious standing in the sunlight. She couldn’t help but stare. His muscles pulled against his clothes while his loose hair hung in curls around his face. He was far more handsome than any other guy she had ever met. There was such a glow to him that had nothing to do with the sunshine, his glow came from within. Whether it was the goodness in him or just his aura, there was something memorizing about him. She could have stood there all day watching. A lifetime even.

  Jerome noticed her, mid-stretch, and suddenly felt embarrassed. He didn’t realize he had an audience. He tried to cover it. “I hope I didn’t wake you when I got up.”

  “Not at all.” She didn’t add it was missing him next to her that had caused her to awaken. She would never admit to that. Especially not when all the thoughts running through her head were centered around him and were so wrong. She tried to think straight again. “Did you have any revelations about the prophecy last night?”