Night of the Hunter

Teaching the angel was tedious.

That was the nicest and simplest way to put it. He was defiant and had a short attention span. He didn't care for the signs I was trying to teach him, instead pointing at my eyes and huffing at me when I glared at him. If nothing else could come of this, at least I was beginning to understand what his different noises meant.

He had patience; I could tell by the way he watched me. His huffs were more playfully annoyed than angrily annoyed, and it was a little scary to think of what could happen if his huffs were more angrily annoyed than playfully annoyed.

"See if he can hide his wings, Christian," Shannon said as he walked into the study. Not his study, an entirely different study he had assigned to me so that I could work with the angel and he could continue his research. I signed at him, trying to tell him that the angel barely understood me, but I could see that he barely caught any of my movements, let alone their meaning. He paused, glancing at the pad of paper he told me to keep by while he learned sign language, then shook his head. "We'll work on it later. We should figure out a name for him. We can't just keep calling him the angel."

I turned toward him, finding him studying me intently, as if I was his research as much as he was Shannon's. We hadn't bothered to try to get him into a shirt, there was no way any of Shannon's would fit around the angel's wings. I pulled one of Shannon's laptops toward me, determined to pretend like it wasn't mine and he hadn't been showering me with things since I'd arrived. A few clicks and clacks later, I was browsing websites full of names, lips pursed, tapping on the side of the laptop thoughtfully. Names and their definitions scrolled past until I found one that popped out at me.

I turned the laptop toward Shannon and tapped on the name. His eyes scanned over it briefly, and then he looked up at me, his eyes squinting slightly.

"That's a little sadistic, isn't it?" I smiled slightly, then looked at the angel for a second, before signing at Shannon, slowly, that it was something in his face that made me think the name was appropriate - although the Hebrew definition of the word still worked. I left that part out.

Shannon hummed thoughtfully and nodded after a few moments. "Jared it is then. Jared Leto, my brother who came to visit." He closed the laptop. "That's the story you'll give if anyone asks." I squinted at him much as he had at me and he smiled sheepishly. "You understand what I meant."

I shrugged and set the laptop back on the desk, wringing my hands again. Jared's hand settled on mine, holding my fingers still. I looked up at him and he pulled his hand away, slowly but surely signing that he wanted food.

A wide smile split my face. I signed that I would go and make lunch and stood to find Shannon staring at me, eyebrows lifted in confusion. I signed food at him and he nodded slowly, eyes falling on Jared, who had stood and was now following me out of the room.

He jumped over the stairs again, but landed way more softly than before, weak wings fluttering in an attempt to help smooth over the landing. I was already making my way into the kitchen, wondering what I would make for the day.

What did angels even eat? Apparently they eat meat, because he'd gulped down the sausage soup last night and even tried for seconds. I wasn't even sure if he'd enjoyed the potatoes or just eaten them because they were there. What kinds of food existed in...heaven?

My hands were wringing again, but Jared wasn't stopping them. He was trifling through the pantry, picking up food, looking at it with distaste and throwing it to the side. Canned vegetables and fruits flew, and I attempted to catch as many of them as I could.

"I imagine he's more used to fresh stuff," Shannon said, helping me put the food back as Jared sat at the table, looking bored. "Why don't you head to the farmers market and grab some stuff?" I bit my lip and nodded, going to grab the keys for the car I'd used yesterday. Jared stood but Shannon moved in front of him. "No, you have to stay here, until we can figure out how to hide those wings." I moved toward the door and Jared made a sad sound, moving to push Shannon out of the way.

I turned to him and shook my head, signing for him to stay. I'd been forced to use it several times when he tried following me into the bathroom, and definitely more times than I'd tried teaching him food, so hopefully he understood. I'd never quite understood the "puppy dog eyes" expression until right that moment, staring at him as he watched me, about to leave. I signed again for him to stay and stepped out into the garage before I gave in and made Shannon get the groceries.

I climbed into the car and drove down to the town, finding the farmers market easily. I fished out the wallet Shannon had given me for my card, counted my bills and climbed out, perusing the different stalls, finding fresh vegetables and fruit.

"Fancy meeting you here." I turned to find the dark haired man from yesterday, looking down at me with a small smile and a gleam in his eye. "I'm afraid I didn't really introduce myself to you, and it was all I could think of yesterday. My name is Tomislav Miličević. My friends call me Tomo." I smiled slightly, but my hands were full with bags of fresh food, and I couldn't sign. He realized that I couldn't respond and his face fell, mortified. "I'm so sorry, you can't respond. Please forgive me." I smiled at him, the best way I could respond, and gestured lightly with my hands, trying to convey that it was okay. "Please, let me help you with your bags to make it up to you." He took my bags and started toward my car before I could begin to attempt a response, and I had no choice to follow.

He slid the bags he carried into the back seat and held the door for me as I put the bags I carried with the rest of them. As I stood back up, a wave of nausea washed over me, and I grabbed the car to hold myself steady. Before I could gain my bearings back, Tomo's hand pushed the door closed, slamming my fingers.

I screamed.

Or I would have, except I couldn't. My pain was silent, but thankfully he noticed, quickly opening the door and cradling my fingers in his. "I'm so sorry!" he said repeatedly, wiping at my cheeks as tears started to fall from the pain.

All I could think of was the throbbing in my fingers, but all of a sudden I couldn't think of it anymore - I had this feeling in the pit of the stomach like my angel - like Jared was screeching. Tomo had fallen silent, and I pushed him away gently, to show I wasn't angry, and stumbled into the driver's seat of the car, starting it without another thought to him.

I started driving, glancing back in my rear view mirror to find that Tomo was watching me drive away - and was that his thumb in his mouth?