“You will be a bit hard to explain,” Leila agreed, looking at his wings. “There isn’t exactly a way to hide them, is there?”
“Not really.”
“They don’t retract or anything?”
“We don’t have a need to hide them in the angel world. They’re functional,” he explained. Humans were never meant to see them, so there wasn’t a need to hide their wings. Falling to Earth and being stuck there wasn’t supposed to happen. If it was, then perhaps they would be able to retract their wings.
They reached the door. Leila stood on the stoop while Jerome lingered by the side of the house, out of sight. Seeing her would probably surprise them enough, having a large angel with her would be too much for anyone to bear.
She knocked and waited patiently, crossing her fingers that they would still be there. The house looked functional. If they felt safe there, then they wouldn’t have a reason to move around. Leila, on the other hand, had to. She was running from her memories, the Sinclairs might not be in the same position.
Without warning, and so fast that it barely registered, the door to the house swung open. A man grabbed Leila and pushed her to the ground. He had a knife, wielding it over her like a sword. He was crazed, his eyes wide open with menace. He had just one intent and that was to hurt the intruder.
In an instant, Jerome was there. The man was no match for him. He pushed him away from Leila and stood over her, growling until she could get up. The men stared at each other, each one daring the other to make the first move. Neither was willing to, they circled each other.
Leila stood, getting off the ground and moving out of the vulnerable position as quickly as possible. She took one look at the scene and went into action.
“Stop it! Mr. Sinclair, it’s me, Leila Loudon. We’re not here to hurt you,” she pleaded. The men didn’t stop circling, probably not even hearing her words. She took a deep breath and stepped between them, putting herself right in front of Toby Sinclair and his big knife. “Mr. Sinclair, it’s Leila. Please, we just need to talk to you. We’re completely unarmed.”
Toby blinked as he stared at her, like he had to recall a long forgotten memory from the back of his mind. “Leila?”
“Leila. Mr. Sinclair, I’m so happy to see you.”
“Leila,” Toby smiled as she stepped forward into his hug. He wrapped his arms around her. Jerome watched on, not entirely happy his companion was in the arms of a man still holding a large knife. As subtly as possible, he stepped forward and extracted the knife from his hand. Toby let him, without even realizing he had relinquished his weapon to the creature.
Leila let him go, stepping back so they could face each other. Toby had aged considerably since she had last seen him. His hair needed a good brush, he had lost his beer belly, and he seemed desperately alert. He had been through a lot, it was clear to her. She wondered if she had changed similarly.
“Mr. Sinclair, I would like to introduce you to my friend Jerome,” Leila stepped back again so he could see the angel. Jerome didn’t move, just in case he needed to act swiftly again. “Jerome is a guardian angel. He won’t hurt you.”
“An angel? They’re not real,” Toby stared at him, starting at the feet and moving his eyes to the tip of his wings.
“I can assure you, they are. Jerome has been protecting me for almost two weeks now. He fell to Earth after being attacked by a demon. I didn’t believe it at first either, but he’s definitely real. I’ve lost count of how many times he has saved my life.”
Toby walked to stand directly in front of Jerome, examining every inch of him with his wide eyes. He shook his head as he tried to comprehend it all. “Well, if you’ve kept Leila alive, then I guess you’re okay with me. Why don’t you come inside before someone sees us?”
They followed Toby inside the house. It was dark, the only lighting coming from a skylight in the hallway. Besides the dreariness, everything still looked the same to Leila. All the walls were still intact and so was the furniture. She wondered whether they still had hot water, it seemed possible judging by how good everything looked.
“You’ve got no damage,” she commented before she could stop herself. “Everything looks just like it used to.”
“We’ve been lucky,” Toby agreed. He walked up the hallway and yelled: “It’s okay, you can come out now. Leila Loudon is here, she’s come to visit.”
Leila hadn’t dared to hope she would still be alive too, but Maree Sinclair emerged into the hallway. She was more frazzled than she used to be too, and she walked with trepidation, but it was still the same Maree that had visited her house on so many occasions and gossiped with her mother.
“Leila?” Maree asked, as if she was seeing imaginary things instead of them being real.
“It’s me, Mrs. Sinclair.”
Maree ran at her, embracing her like there was no tomorrow. Leila smiled, it reminded her of the hugs her mother used to give her. If she closed her eyes, for just a moment, it was her mother.
“I’m so glad you’re alive. I thought your whole family…” Maree’s voice trailed off, but she didn’t need to finish anyway, Leila understood.
“They did. I was lucky to get out.”
Toby cut in, not wanting to go down such a dark memory lane. “And this is Leila’s friend Jerome. He’s an angel, apparently.”
Maree turned to Jerome, sizing him up. “Well, I guess I’ve seen everything now. I’m not even going to ask.”
“Probably a good thing,” Jerome joked, thinking of all the times he was told not to speak to any humans. He hoped the council would see the funny side of it too.
They sat in the living room while Maree made tea for them all. It almost felt like a normal visit on a normal day. No war, no prophecy, no angels. Just how it used to be in the past. Except the people had wearied, nothing could change that.
Toby sat down with the tray of tea. “I knew you were a fighter, Leila. You used to always be the one kid in the playground who could take on anyone. All the boys were terrified of you.”
“You make me sound like a bully.”
“No, not a bully, just strong willed. Remember that time when you got suspended from school because you broke that girl’s arm?” Toby said, teasing. Like she could forget.
“That girl was being mean to my sister and I didn’t break her arm,” Leila tried to redeem herself. “She fell off the monkey bars and blamed me for it.”
“Sure she did.”
“I swear, she did. I didn’t touch that girl. I’m not that mean.”
“No, I have to agree with you there.”
Maree got in on the conversation next. “I remember when Leila was just a little girl, probably about six, when she told me she was a super hero and nobody knew about it.”
“I don’t remember that,” Leila was embarrassed already and they’d only just started.
“It happened. You said I couldn’t tell anybody because then you would have blown your cover and they would take away your magical powers.” Maree stirred her tea, looking at the wall like it was a portal into the past. “I didn’t tell anyone.”
“And yet my magical powers still went.”
Jerome tried the tea, unsure what it was supposed to taste like. It seemed bitter, it wasn’t exactly pleasurable but he didn’t want to be rude. He held the teacup, hoping nobody would notice if he didn’t drink it all. “So Leila was a bit of a wild child, was she?”
Toby nodded, grinning from ear to ear. “She knew what she wanted and what she didn’t like. She’s always had a heart of gold though. Her parents were very proud of her.”
At the mention of her parents, Leila desperately wanted to change the subject. “So how have you been surviving?”
Toby grew serious. “We have a vegetable garden in the backyard, we eat mostly from there. We also have a water tank so we have access to water all the time. We try to not leave the house as much as possible. We don’t want people to know we’re here.”
“Well, it looks like it�
��s working,” Leila commented, it was far more than she had.
“How about you? How have you been coping?” Maree asked. “If I knew you were alive, I would have looked for you and offered you a room here. You’re still welcome to stay with us, of course.”
Leila shook her head. “No, I’m fine, but thank you. I had an apartment until a few days ago. Someone tried to break in so we moved out to the suburbs. We’ve found a house that appears safe for now.”
“Well, the offer stands if you ever need it,” Maree sighed. “Who knows how much worse it will get.”
Jerome stole a look at Leila, wondering if it was time to bring up the real reason why they were there. You couldn’t just confront someone and ask them if they were the chosen one, willing to sacrifice everything to stop a war. You had to build up to it. Leila gave a slight nod, she was ready.
She placed her tea on the coffee table, pulling the prophecy from her pocket. “The horrible state of everything is kind of what brings us here today.”
“It’s a terrible thing, it’s like everyone is possessed,” Toby said, his face twisted with the thought of the violence and pain surrounding the world.
“Everyone is possessed,” Jerome started to explain. “Demons are killing guardian angels and tipping the balance of good and evil. Evil seems to be winning.”
Maree was surprised, disbelieving. “That sounds like a fairy tale. There can’t be such a thing as demons.”
“There is,” Leila interrupted, trying not to scare the woman any more than she already was. “A demon attacked Jerome which caused him to fall to Earth. Now we believe he was sent here to help stop the war. We found a prophecy.”
She unfolded the well worn piece of paper that the prophecy was scribbled on. She handed it to Toby, not moving until he took it and read through.
They waited, Leila holding her breath while he read every word on the paper. They weren’t sure what they were expecting from Toby, but they were hoping there would be some recognition, like a light bulb going off inside him or something. Any sign that he might understand the words written on the paper.
Finally, Toby spoke, ending their misery. “That’s some poem.”
“It’s a prophecy,” Jerome corrected. “It was written three thousand years B.C. by a prophet named Tiresias.”
“We’re looking for the mortal it refers to,” Leila added. “Does any of the prophecy make sense to you?”
They stared at him, hoping for something positive to come from their meeting. As good as it was to see her old family friends, they came there for a purpose – even if that purpose was a long shot.
“Sorry, it just looks like a good story to me,” Toby replied, shaking his head. “Are you sure it’s real?”
“Positive,” Jerome said without even having to think about it. There was no way in the world that the prophecy was a hoax, a fake, or a fairy tale like Maree had suggested.
Leila was disappointed. She had told herself not to get her hopes up because surely they wouldn’t find the one person in thousands on their first go, but she couldn’t help it. Everything would have been so much easier if Toby was the one they were looking for. She knew him, she knew he would want to help, and she knew he would do it for her father.
It also didn’t help her frustrations with the knowledge they didn’t know what exactly they were looking for. Perhaps Toby was the one and they didn’t know how to tell. They didn’t know what sign they should be looking for, perhaps it wasn’t going to be so obvious who the mortal was. After all, Tiresias wouldn’t want the demons working out who the chosen one was, otherwise they might get to them first. The blind prophet had to disguise the identity of the one mortal to protect them. Otherwise the Protectors wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Are you certain it doesn’t make sense?” Leila asked again, praying for a miracle on the second reading.
“Sorry, they’re just words. Should they make sense?” Toby asked, sensing there was more to her questions.
Jerome took over, seeing Leila was getting frustrated with the whole thing. “The prophecy refers to a person. We have deciphered some of the lines to narrow the mortal down to a person born under the star sign Sagittarius and that lives in Aron. You fit that description, we thought maybe it might be you.”
“There are hundreds of people that could meet that criteria,” Maree added, reading the prophecy too. “I’m sure Toby isn’t the only one.”
“Thousands, actually,” Leila sighed. “Mr. Sinclair’s name was the only one I recognized. I just hoped it might be him.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Toby gave her a reassuring pat on the arm. “I would be happy to put an end to the chaos that’s going on. But I’m afraid I’m not your man.”
“And he doesn’t have a birthmark,” Maree added. Leila and Jerome exchanged a glance before looking at her, wondering what she was talking about. They never said anything about a birthmark.
“What do you mean?” Leila asked.
“Marked by the Creator’s touch, an innocent will set them free,” Maree repeated, reading the two lines of the prophecy. “A creator’s touch would be a birthmark. Toby doesn’t have any.”
“A birthmark, of course.” Jerome inwardly scolded himself, he should have thought about that himself. The one they are looking for would have a mark on their body somewhere. Where or what it looked like could be anyone’s guess though. But still, it was something and another line dealt with.
“That’s a huge help, Mrs. Sinclair,” Leila started. “You haven’t managed to solve any of the other lines by any chance, have you?”
“Sorry, honey, that one just seemed obvious to me. And before you get too excited, I’m a Scorpio not a Sagittarius.”
It didn’t matter anymore, at least they weren’t leaving empty-handed. They now had a new clue. Unfortunately, there would be no way to cut down their list based on a birthmark. However, it would give them another clue when they tracked down the next person on the list. They were a little bit closer, even if just a little.
They spent the next few hours with the Sinclairs, not because they had to but because they wanted to. Within the walls of the house, it almost felt normal with the only signs of the trouble surrounding them being the boarded up windows. Toby and Maree had done a good job of being self-sufficient in the home. They showed Leila their stockpile and their hiding place – behind a false wall in the walk-in robe. Before they left, they reminded her again that she had a place with them if she needed it.
“Thanks, but I’ve got to work with Jerome on this prophecy. I can’t leave him to do it alone,” she explained.
They gave her a hug in turn, so glad to know she was alive and okay. Toby shook hands with Jerome. “Make sure you look after her. I don’t want to hear of any harm coming to her.”
“I will do everything I can to protect her,” Jerome promised. “You have my word.”
Maree didn’t shake his hand, she gave him a hug too. “I dare say the word of an angel is as good as gold. Look after yourself too.”
“Take care of yourselves,” Leila told them before turning to leave. They walked out the back door, trying their best to blend in and not be seen by anyone. The last thing they wanted to do was to blow the Sinclair’s cover and expose them. Jerome helped Leila over the back fence, careful to avoid the newly erected barbed wire, and they disappeared into suburbia.
The walk home wasn’t as bad as they had feared. While they didn’t find the one they were looking for, they did get a little further ahead with the prophecy. Not that it would help much, but every piece of the jigsaw puzzle they put together was going to help with the big picture. They were both certain of it.
Arriving back at the house, Leila couldn’t describe how she felt. It was a mixture of happiness but it was tinged with sadness too. Happy because she had spent a few precious hours with people she really cared about and that felt like family. Sadness for all the memories of the good times it stirred. She couldn’t even think about the Sinc
lairs without thinking about her family too. It was definitely bittersweet.
Jerome couldn’t put a finger on his feelings either. He had enjoyed hearing the stories of Leila’s childhood from the couple and they seemed nice enough. But they shared a bond with Leila that he didn’t, a connection he would never be able to share. In a way, he supposed he was jealous of the couple. When the time would come for him to leave Earth, they would still get to know her, spend time with her, and love her. He wouldn’t.
The walls of the garage suddenly seemed like prison bars. Jerome couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t want to have such terrible, jealous thoughts running through his mind. It was wrong, so not becoming of an angel and he knew it. Jealousy was a sin, it was an emotion that didn’t have any business being inside him. And he had to get rid of it.
“I need to go for a flight,” he said as he stood.
“Is everything alright?” Leila asked with concern.
“Yeah, just need to stretch my wings for a while. I can find you some more food. Will you be alright on your own?”
He waited until he got the nod of confirmation and headed outside. The sun had started its descent towards the horizon and it wouldn’t be long before it grew dark. Jerome ran down the street, taking liftoff when he had sufficient momentum.
He flew high, soaring deep into the clouds above and feeling the air slip through his feathers. It was heavenly, the breeze cool and refreshing as he flapped. As he dipped and weaved, his stomach did back flips. It truly was like nothing else either on Earth or in the angel world. Flying was a luxury he never wanted to give up, a gift he treasured.
He flew all around Aron, crossing back and forth whenever he felt like it. He didn’t pay much attention to what was going on below, he was going too fast. People were mere ants below and the buildings looked like they could have been miniatures. All the troubles and concerns of the humans didn’t even enter into his mind. For those few precious minutes, it was just Jerome and the sky.
The sun was threatening to sink below the horizon when Jerome remembered his other reason for coming out. He had told Leila he would find her some food and bring it back. Her stores were getting low and he couldn’t have her go hungry. Not that he knew what it felt like, but he supposed it must be uncomfortable to say the least.
World Without Angels Page 13
