Angels Born of Hell and Fire

Chapter 13:

Savannah lead us through the quiet halls. It seemed to be quite late at night, most people away safety in their bed, pleasantly unaware of the beast that walked amongst them.

I kept my eyes down, watching my bare feet slap against the cold tile floors. Savannah placed her hand firmly on my shoulder, as if she was afraid at any moment I would spring away. I couldn’t tell her that such a thing was impossible. Even if I had any life left inside me, I wouldn’t waste it by trying to run away. As it was, I couldn’t even be sure I was alive.

Was I? Surely my heart was still beating and I was still breathing, but did those really define what it was to be living? I couldn’t feel anything, my mind and senses having shut down. My whole being was in denial. Surely I hadn’t… I couldn’t have… it wasn’t possible…

“This way General. The doctor will look over you,” Savannah said next to my ear.

I went in the direction she steered me.

We walked into a brightly lit room, the lights pricking at eyes that had become accustomed to being in darkness. I was better suited to be in the dark though wasn’t I?

A man waited for us, dressed in a white coat. I looked at it in dim surprised. I was pretty sure it was the only nonblack piece of clothing in the entire household.

Upon seeing us his eyes widened, and I was sure he was taking in my bloodied appearance. Or maybe it was the way I was still being clung to, despite the gore covering my limbs. The girl I had saved watched the doctor with distrust, hiding her body against mine. Looking at her in the light for the first time, I realized she couldn’t be very much younger than me. I wondered what she had done to end up down in that evil place.

“General,” the doctor seemed to come to his senses, and approached our huddled group cautiously.

“I don’t think she’s injured, it’s mostly not her blood,” Savannah informed him, and he nodded, taking this statement with composer.

“Right... Savannah can you help her get cleaned up then? I’ll tend to the other one’s wounds.”

“I am not ‘the other one’,” the girl at my side said snidely, “My name is Taylor.”

“Right,” the doctor smiled in a way that did not reach his eyes, “well if you want to come this way, Taylor, I can tend to your back.”

Taylor slowly unwound her arms from my waist and as she stepped away from me I stopped her.
“Wait, how do I know you’re not going to just send her back there?” My voice was hoarse, sounding dark and angry. I eyed the doctor in front of me suspiciously. I hadn’t done all that, just to have her sent back. I would not fail.

“It’s okay General, I won’t let that happen,” Savannah’s hand squeezed my shoulder, her dark eyes looking down at me intently. I could trust Savannah. Despite her methods, Savannah had always helped me.

I nodded, and the doctor directed Taylor onto an examination bed. I knew she was in terrible pain, the welts on her back standing out in stark contrast beneath the tattered remains of her shirt. She hid herself well, despite the wounds.

My eyes followed them as Savannah led me into an adjoining room, watching for even the slightest notion I had been lied to until a wall blocked them from view. I was told to stand in a shallow shower; warm water swished against the dirt clinging to my toes. Deftly Savannah began washing the blood off of my skin as I stood numbly, watching the red tinted water run down the drain. There wasn’t even enough emotion left in me to feel embarrassed from having another person bathe me.

“You’ll be okay General,” Savannah suddenly proclaimed, her voice sounding strangely tight.
I looked up into her face, seeing her scowling at the wash cloth in her hand. I stared mutely as she continued.

“I know you’ll be alright, so just hang in there alright? The Empress has been worried sick for you. And just so you know Peter feels horrible about all this, and personally I think he’s an idiot, letting you take the blame for such a dumb reason,”

She attacked the snarled knot of my hair.

“Its better this way,” I muttered.

She frowned at me but continued to rinse out the strands of my hair. I felt like a child, unable to do even the simplest actions for myself. But I couldn’t tell her I could do it by myself, because I wasn’t sure I would. The sticky feel of drying blood no longer bothered me, I couldn’t really feel it. I was sure I probably smelt horrible, but I couldn’t smell it. I probably looked like something that had crawled from a horror movie, but as there were no mirrors I couldn’t see it. If I couldn’t feel, smell, or see it, I wouldn’t believe it was real.

Once she was satisfied that all the muck had been cleaned from my skin she bundled me into a black robe and guided me back to the examination room.

Taylor sat waiting, wearing a similar robe to my own. Upon seeing me she smiled, a truly bewildering reaction.

The doctor poked and prodded at me for a while, checking for signs of life. Apparently I was indeed still alive and in surprisingly good condition.

“It’s pretty amazing honestly,” the doctor said shaking his head, “Sure she needs a good meal but otherwise her body managed to sustain itself without nutrition surprisingly well. Had it been anyone else they would be either dead, or near death and hardly walking around like normal. You’ll have your father’s genes to thank for that I guess.” He smiled, as if this was something amusing or good news.

I wanted to punch that smiled right off his face.

I wouldn’t of course, because what he was saying was true, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be reminded. I didn’t need him to tell me what I already knew. I couldn’t deny my relation to Adam any longer. The longer I stayed here the more clear it seemed to become, and now I couldn’t even run away from it. There was no point because I knew he would find me no matter what. Adam would never let me go. No matter how much distance I put between us he would close it easily, he had made sure of it the night he had made me drink his blood. A ‘bond’ that tied me to him for the rest of eternity.

We found Gabriel slumped against Jasper’s door, his blond head tilted against the doorframe in slumber. It made me think of the first time I had met the boy, in front of Jasper’s door. I suppose some things never changed. It was comforting in a way.

“Gabriel,” Savannah kicked her boot against his leg, causing him to startle awake.

Blurry green eyes blinked up at us in the darkness. He saw me and jumped to his feet, lips parted in surprise.

“General you’re back!” He seemed so excited, it was dumbfounding. “The Empress will be so relieved.”

Ahh, so that was it. I was unable to find a reply however, as there was a sudden pounding on the other side of the door.

“Gabriel open the damn door already!” Jasper’s voice came through the heavy wood. I became aware I could feel her in my head again, probably could have for a while now but had been so out of it I hadn’t noticed. I watched as Gabriel fumbled with the keys, taking more time to unlock the door in his haste than it should have taken.

Jasper didn’t even wait for him to remove the key from the lock, tearing it open as soon as the bolt came free. She stood in a long nightgown the color of snow, her scarlet hair a mess of snarls and her pale face looking haggard. She sort of reminded me of a ghost for a moment.

“You’re really alright,” she said staring at me with wide glassy eyes.

I had to concentrate to move the corners of my mouth upwards; pulling my face into what I hoped would be a smile.

“Hey,”

“You all should probably get some rest,” Savannah said into the silence that followed. Jasper was frowning at me, sensing that something was wrong. I couldn’t really hide anything from her, she could just waltz right into my brain and find it. Which is what she was doing now, yet only finding the blank empty slate I had turned into.

“Uh, I guess you’d want Taylor to stay with you as well?” Savannah’s question was directed towards me and I nodded. I didn’t trust that Taylor wouldn’t be sent back to the pits yet.
Jasper looked over at the brunette questionably and Taylor raised a hand in a sort of wave.
“Hi, I’m Taylor,”

Jasper spun around in my head, looking to the answer to her questions, but there was nothing there. I was completely devoid of thought and emotions. Her alarm was growing by the second.
As Savannah closed the door behind us, I heard her tell Gabriel to go to bed, and that she would be taking over watch. I was glad it would be Savannah out there, it made me feel safer.

“Megan what happened?” We had been left alone no longer than 30 seconds before Jasper questioned me.

“Nothing happened…” I muttered, swaying slightly as my eyes unfocused. Considering I hadn’t eaten anything in a fair amount of time it didn’t surprise me.

“Two weeks. You’ve been gone two weeks,” Jasper said, reading the question out of my head.
The length of time surprised me; it hadn’t felt that long had it? At times it had felt like eternity, other’s like mere moments. It all depended on if there were any screams or not. The screams always made time stretch on for forever.

Besides me Jasper inhaled a shaky breath. She turned to Taylor, who hand curled into a ball on Jasper’s comforter.

“What happened to her down there?”

The dim light reflected off of Taylor’s eyes as she looked from me to Jasper and back.

“She saved me,” the girl finally said.

“How did she save you?” Jasper pressed, her intensity unnerving the other.

“She-she killed the guard,” Taylor finally said and I felt like a chair had been knocked from under me.

I had killed him. That’s right. I killed him.

A flood of images and emotions came back to me and I fell, unable to stand under their weight. Everything I had so carefully blocked from my mind came rushing back in one fatal swoop and I was once more at the mercy of what I did not wish to see.

Air refused to enter my lungs, my eyes refused to blink away the pools of tears, I stared down at the back of my hands as they clutched at soft green carpet. I wasn’t really seeing them, I was back down in that hole, back down in the mud and grime. Terrible wails assaulted my ears, cold rocks pressed against my frozen flesh; I was still caged, still imprisoned. And eerie hue of red overtook my eyes, painting everything the macabre color.

“Megan! Megan!” Hands shook my shoulders. Was I going to be taken to the back room? Was it finally my time to be dragged across the stones by cruel chains?

“No Megan its okay you’re safe now! You’re safe!” A frightened voice was pleading with me.
Safe?

I didn’t understand the meaning of this word. How could I possibly be safe? There was no such thing anymore.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Megan,” that voice was sobbing in my ear, I was vaguely aware of arms wrapped around my shoulders, rocking me back and forth. “I’m sorry.”

Over and over those words filled my brain until finally the screams started to fade, the red in my eyes dimmed and I was once more back in Jasper’s room, listening to her broken breathing.

“It’ll be okay, we’ll make it okay. It’ll be okay,” she whispered to me and I wanted to believe her. But how could it possibly be okay ever again? How could I ever be okay again?

Closing my eyes I let her cry for me; the tears that formed beneath my eyelids unable to fall.

[End Chapter Thirteen]