Fly Me Away

Chapter 14

I woke the next morning when an aggravating beam of sunlight hit my face. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head, opting to slip back into my dreamless sleep.

“You’ll appreciate me waking you once you’ve had time to think about it.”

I leaped out of bed.

Jackson was standing with his back to me in front of my balcony, holding one of the curtains open. My mouth almost dropped off as I remembered everything that happened last night. I’d sort of, at first, brushed it all off as a dream....guess that wasn’t happening again.

“You’re still here...” I mumbled.

“How perceptive,” he replied smugly.

He proceeded to completely pull the curtain open followed by the balcony door. I must have missed morning, judging from where the sun was. I glanced at my clock.

12.34 PM. Not too bad, but nothing like my usual 9 o’clock start.

I felt the warm breeze hit my bare skin and I scampered over to my wardrobe. It was a warm day, so a pair of shorts and nice singlet/cardigan combination seemed in order. I started thinking about the hot shower I was about to experience, but as I dug in my draw for a nice pair of underwear, something horrendous dawned on me.

I lifted my eyes back towards the balcony and saw Jackson standing outside it looking in on me, an unreadable expression on his face. I gasped and covered my body with my hands. What I was wearing at the time was fine, just a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt, but it wasn’t that. It was what I could have been wearing if you catch my drift. How long did he say he had been following me?

My face turned a bright scarlet and my eyebrows knitted together, “How long have you been here?”

“You mean here guarding you? Since you turned 18, I told you that.”

That was 2 months ago.

“And you’ve just been following me everywhere, without me knowing?”

“...is there a problem?”

“Is there a problem?!? Heck yes there’s a problem!!” I just about exploded in a rage of embarrassment and fury. The amount of profound things that I had done in the past couple of months was horrifying! And the fact that he’d secretly been there and seen them all.... One such incident immediately sprung to mind— I cringed. The sound of his laughter drew me from my thoughts.

“You...I...haven’t ....can you read my mind??” I stumbled, finally throwing the last part out with force.

“No I can’t, but I think I know what you’re getting at, so don’t worry. Even if I did look at you, nothing would interest me. I only have one thing on my mind.”

“Yeah, well so do most guys!”

“Protecting you Maggie, that’s all I’m here for. Not to watch you while you’re in the shower.”

My voice rose and octave or two, “you’ve seen me in the shower?!”

He rolled his eyes “No, listen with your ears. I have enough respect for you to stay outside the bathroom and to turn my head when you dress.”

I rushed to pick up my clothes and scuttled towards the door, still outraged. Even if, by some chance, he was decent enough to do that, there was no proof. No proof, no trust.

“Though there was that one time when you made yourself particularly difficult to avoid....”

I screamed and stormed out of the room, slamming my bedroom door. I heard a commotion from downstairs and remembered that Mom was home, thinking I was still sick. Oop’s. She came tumbling up the stairs in a mad rush and stopped at the top, seeing me on my way to the bathroom.

“Maggie what’s wrong?! Are you okay?! You look a little flushed, let me check your temperature.”

I sighed, “I’m fine Mom. I actually feel a lot better today.”

She smiled for a second, then frowned, “Why were you screaming?”

“Oh, umm, I thought I saw a mouse. False alarm I g—Ahh!!”

Jackson suddenly materialized behind me mother. Mom turned around quickly to see where I was looking.

“What’s wrong Maggie? Is it the mouse again?” she asked, searching the carpet for mice. Jackson side stepped her as she walked past to check behind a cabinet.

“She can’t see me, only you can,” he spoke normally, and I was certain Mom would hear—but she didn’t. I contemplated talking back, but then thought seriously about it. I didn’t want Mom to think I was crazy.

“No, no mouse....false alarm again,” I laughed nervously, “I’m gunna take a shower. Excuse me.”

I hurried past them both and shut the door quickly, making sure to lock it behind me. I threw my clothes and towel on the floor in a heap and flipped the shower on. This would be my first moment alone to think about things, and I was going to make it count.

I waited a moment before I undressed to make sure Jackson wasn’t going to materialize again. After what felt like an eternity, I gave in and slipped into the shower. The hot water was amazing, but it did nothing to ease my discomfort. In the beginning, the idea of an angel watching over me had me excited. Of course, my first Jackson would have been ideal. The thought of having him with me all the time gave me goose bumps; perhaps, if I asked nicely, the new Jackson would just....pretend again....

I sighed and leaned my head against the wall, the water pattering against my neck. He still looked the same, at least. Not so neat anymore I might add, which was kind of ironic. The word angel sort of came with an image; a beautiful divine being with wings and a halo who was perfect in every way. Weird as it was, Jackson seemed less angelic than before.

Still angelic though. I sighed again.

I had questions for him; I made a list of what I would ask in my head. Most of them were about halos and God and how his wings really worked. The most important things would come first though. After asking whether my Mom would be okay, I was going to request that he changed back to my perfect Jackson, since I was going to have to tolerate him hanging around.

I emerged from the shower just as uneasily as I entered—I didn’t trust this Jackson. I was, however, dressed and ready in record time. No matter how much I detested doing it, I checked my appearance in the mirror. My hair was completely saturated, but everything else was in order. I hated the fact that I still wanted to look nice for him.

When I opened the bathroom door, I expected him to be waiting outside, leaning against the wall casually; that was what I pictured. Once I got out there, he was nowhere to be seen. I strolled back to my room again whilst attempting to dry my hair with a towel. I knew he would be in there.

He wasn’t.

I wondered into the center of the room and glanced around outside. He was gone.

Where the hell did he go? Wasn’t he supposed to be protecting me from demons? I sharp jab of fear spattered in my chest at the image of him leaving.

Then it began to disappear.

“....are you in here?” I spoke to the air, feeling a bit mental, and glad there was nobody around to witness this.

“Yes.”

My head whipped around and there he was, leaning against the end of my bed with his arms folded.

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, “Could you just...not be invisible anymore please?”

“Alright, but you didn’t mind it before.”

“I didn’t know before, and I can’t bear the thought of you just sitting there watching me. It creep’s me—hey! You weren’t in the bathroom with me were you?!?” I shrieked.

“For goodness sakes Maggie, would you just let that go? I am not going to spy on you.”

“So, you’re not going to stick to me like glue? You’re allowed to leave me alone for a bit?”

“It’s not a matter of being allowed too, I am my own boss. I would like to keep an eye on you, but I will give you your space.”

I walked over to the corner of my room and dropped the towel I was using to dry my hair, “good.”

I tried to ignore him as I checked my appearance in the mirror again. A bit flushed, but not quite as bad as before. I made my bed quickly, then picked up a few stray items of clothing from the floor and put them on my dresser. Once I felt a bit more organized, I sat myself down on my bed and folded my legs.

“Questions?” he asked, gliding over to my bed as well.

“Firstly, I want to know if my Mom is safe from these...things.”

“Yes. They don’t seem to be interested in her,” he responded quickly and seriously.

“Good,” I took a relieved breath in.

He frowned, twisting his head to look out the window, “I just need to say something before you ask anything else.”

I nodded and he continued,

“I’m not a jerk; I was just angry last night. That demon caught me by surprise and I couldn’t believe it. I don’t want you thinking I’m going to be bothering you all the time.”

I shrugged, apology excepted. I guess it would have been mean to ask him to pretend to be old Jackson after that. I decided to skip that part and move on.

“I don’t understand how this whole thing works,” I asked, lost in thought, “Does everybody get an angel?”

He shook his head, “Only people who need them get their own personal one.”

“So there aren’t many angels out there?”

“I don’t know. We don’t socialize with each other, but usually it’s a small amount per town.”

“There’s no secret angel society?”

“No.”

“So you don’t have any angel friends?”

He shook his head.

“...where did you get that car then?”

Jackson let out and exasperated sigh, “You’re asking the wrong questions Maggie,” He grumbled.

Wrong questions....

...I guess it was a bit irrelevant. I didn’t know what to say anymore. I had so many questions, but which ones were right in his eyes? My list had been forgotten in my rush to get into things. I fiddled around with the ring on my finger for a moment, before I came up with something.

“ Why me? You said you don’t know why the demons are after me, but someone must have told you to come find me right? Was it...God?”

“Ah, there is a good question.”

He laughed at some kind of inside joke. I guess it would have been funny— a human asking an angel about god.

Then he continued, “I have never heard from this ‘God’. There could be a higher power, but we are all kept out of the loop, in case something like this happens. I got told by another angel, a messenger angel, to seek you out. It’s the messenger you would want to ask, but apart from delivering messages, they aren’t very talkative,” he sounded a bit livelier, like he enjoyed talking about this.

“A messenger...” I trailed into thought, then snapped back up, “There are different kinds of angels?”

“Yes, only a few. Most angels are just out there living normal lives. They stay in one place for a few years, watch over it, then they move on to a different place. That was what I was doing before I was sent here to become your guard. An angel can either be picked to be a guardian or a messenger; who chooses is a mystery to us.”

I was in awe as he spoke, “so there is kinda a secret angel society?”

“I suppose... in a way.” He stood up and moved over to the balcony, seemingly staring at something outside, “None of us are in sync with each other, we all rely on the messenger angels to tell us what to do.”

“And nobody knows were the messages come from?”

“Only the messengers.”

“But they don’t talk....” I found myself deep in concentration, trying to think of a solution to the problem. I was more interested in finding out who was running things that I first thought.

“I’m not sure. I’ve only ever seen one before, and I’ve never asked questions. I don’t know where those messenger angels go, but they can just teleport anywhere delivering messages.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointment clear on my face. I wanted to know more, “You can teleport places too can’t you?”

“No.” He glanced back at me and raised an eyebrow.

“What? Yes you can. I saw you do it before, back when you just, like, materialized behind my Mom.”

He laughed a bit, “I didn’t materialize Maggie, I’m just very fast; much faster than you. I am physically a lot better off than a human, simply so I can fight off anything you can’t. That’s my job.”

I smiled. Awesome. Even though it made me feel wimpy, and it would have been cool if he could just teleport anywhere, this piece of information brought comfort. Even more comfort than his calming super power.

I stood up and stretched my back; my brain was feeling a little bit fried, and I was curious now as to what he was looking at out my window. He watched me warily and I strolled over and stood beside him before the balcony.

I stared out at the afternoon sun and saw a flurry of swallows dancing around cheerfully. I was shocked, there were so many!

“Wow!” I couldn’t hide me excitement.

When I looked up at Jackson, he was grinning, “Watch this.”

He held his hand up and all the Swallows came swooping down onto the balcony rail one at a time. They sat in a line from one end to the other, twisting their heads and looking at us. I gasped and the smile stretched right along my face.

“Did you do that?!” I asked elatedly, unable to take my eyes of the birds.

“Yes. I can speak in their head’s just like I can with you.”

He dropped his hand again they all simultaneously flew away in a big mess of feathers and flapping wings. That was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

“They won’t be sick will they?” I asked, picturing bird vomit all over Mom’s garden.

“No, swallow brains aren’t as developed at humans. Animals don’t usually have that problem.”

I nodded absentmindedly, still trying to follow the little pairs of wings through the garden.

I opened my mouth to ask more, when he held a finger up to his lips, “You’re Mother's coming.”

I nodded and obediently shut my mouth. Must have been what he said before about being ‘physically better off’ so he could hear her coming up. He might just come in handy.

I had a new found admiration for Jackson, now that I kind of knew what was going on. I liked the fact that he was really dedicated to his job; that was what made him so serious. I decided I could live with this — he had saved my life God knows how many times.

There was a soft rapping on my door. I leaped back onto my bed and rested my head on a pillow.

“Come in,” I sang.

Mom walked slowly through the door and knelt at the side of my bed, even though I was clearly fine now. Mom in nurse mode was so strange, I’d never noticed it before, but now I was thinking about it because I knew Jackson could see. I glanced up at him, but he wasn’t watching at all; he was back to gazing out of my balcony.

Mom stroked the side of my hair, “Hey little one, how are you feeling?”

“Still fine,” I responded, nonchalantly.

“Good,” She put her hand on my forehead quickly, the pulled it away, satisfied, “I made you some late lunch and you have a friend downstairs. Do you want to go down and see her?”

“Oh Pip is back?” I asked perking up a bit.

“It’s Kelly actually.”

My eyes widened – Kelly was visiting? I definitely wasn’t prepared for that.... I glanced back at Jackson again; He was still facing away. He probably knew before she said anything. Mom scrunched up her eyebrows and looked in Jackson’s direction too, “Is there something out there?”

I cleared my throat quickly, “Swallows are out.”

Though I would have preferred a little bit more time with him, questioning Jackson could wait a tiny bit longer – I had a friendship to mend.
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Here you go kiddies!!

I have a big roster at work coming up so I thought I should get this one posted before I go. Hope you like it.

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