Angels Born of Hell and Fire

[Chapter Nine]
“Jump out a window” was what she had said. She didn’t tell me anything else, and told me not to think about it. With Adam coming and going in my head as he pleased, it was far too dangerous. I’m not sure how I was supposed to accomplish this. In fact, I wasn’t sure how Jasper planned to achieve this great jail break she had concocted. I wanted to sit and toss it around my brain, I wanted to ask questions and figure out what she was thinking, but I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about it.

How could I think about anything else though?

Jasper said she’d get us help. I had no idea what she had meant.

She said she saw the opening. Adam was leaving the mansion tonight for something on the outside. That was our chance.

I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about this.

Internally I eyed the dark door in my head. He didn’t seem to be paying attention, he was too far away from my room to had picked up on anything without effort.

I chewed my lip in the darkness of my room, staring at the ceiling. I had been allowed to return to the black and white room down the hall from Jasper. It comforted me knowing it could slip into her brain whenever I started feeling like a crazy person again. This wasn’t helping with my ability to sleep however.

When Savannah knocked on my door the next morning I was well aware I looked like the walking dead. I didn’t even need to look in the mirror to feel the way my skin sagged on my bones. I felt grey and lifeless due to my consistent insomnia.

Savannah scanned over the length of me.

“Have you been eating?”

I thought about it. My meals were always brought to me, I vaguely recall downing some of it, but I wasn’t sure if I ever managed to eat more than a few bites. I was rarely hungry lately.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Mhmm,” she hummed doubtfully, leading the way to our training room. She had told me once that there were bigger ones, within the main hall. But she never took me there since it was always crowded with people. She was pretty confident that I would pass out, and I wasn’t sure why. It’s not like large crowds scared me or anything. Though being ogled and blatantly stared at did, so maybe it was for the best.

I was trying not the think about what I was not supposed to think about, instead puzzling over another question that never seemed important. Why Peter seemed to hate me. Jasper said he was fine around her; it was only me he specially reserved the death glares for.
I withheld the question until we were taking a much needed 30 minute break before we moved on to the weights I despised with my whole being.

"Hey Savannah, why does Peter hate me?"

She paused in the movement of wiping her face with a towel, and then continued, there was a moment of silence where I thought she wasn’t going to answer when finally she said,

“He’s probably just jealous of you.”

I stared at her, a frown cutting lines into my face. “Are you serious?”

It had to be a joke, of course it was. What the hell could possibly make this boy I had barely spoken with jealous of me?

“Probably. Peter had always been Adam’s favorite out of our generation, ever since we were kids. He probably is just annoyed as you’re supposed to be Adam’s daughter but you just appeared out of nowhere. I think Peter always saw Adam like some sort of father figure,” she shrugged, sipping her water as if this wasn’t the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard.

“That’s stupid,” I blurted, forgetting I wasn’t supposed to say rude things in her presence. “I don’t even like Adam; if I could I would gladly give him to Peter and they could go on with their peachy relationship or whatever the hell they had before I showed up.”

I expected to be slapped again, had even braced myself for the impact, my shoulders tight and my eyes squeezed shut. It never came.

Savannah chuckled, leaning back against the wall.

“He would like that; Peter can be such a baby. Ever since we were kids he had this wild fantasy in his head about Adam being some glorious person who could do no wrong.”

“Are we talking about the same Adam here?” I asked, stunned.

“Mhmm. Like I said, Peter is a bit delusional when it comes to Adam,” she shrugged, “I guess it’s only natural since we grew up here.”

“You’ve been here your whole life?” I was horrified.

“You make it sound so horrible,” she rolled her eyes. “Both Peter and I have been here since we were 4. We were picked up the same day actually.”

“Has everyone been here so long?” If everyone had been here since they were children, and never once got away in all that time, what hope did I have of getting back to my family?

Thankfully, Savannah shook her head.

“No, do you really think Adam would want a bunch of kids running around all the time?”

I guess she had a point. That man was too…. Dark, to be affiliated with children.

“As far as I know, just me Peter and Gabriel were ever brought here as children. I’m sure you’ve noticed most people are older than us.”

I had. The youngest person I had seen was still 5 or so older, the eldest being a wrinkled general with greying hair who had teared up when he saw me. The emotion I felt from him was joy.

“Why just you guys?” I had always thought it strange that such young people were in charge of Jasper and I. I would have thought we would have had those big burly intimidating guards from the front doors watching us.

“Adam said it was because he couldn’t bear to watch our human families ruin us.”

I waited for her to explain that bewildering comment, but she just sat back, staring off into space.

“What do you mean?” I inquired farther.

“Hmm, well apparently Peter and I were both orphans, and we had been adopted out to families when we were four. I don’t much remember my adopted parents to be honest, but Adam told me they weren’t worthy of raising me, so he took me and brought me here. He did the same with Peter, and we’ve been here ever since,” she shrugged like this was the most normal thing in the world, there was nothing strange about knowing you had been taken away from your family when you were barely big enough to walk.

“How can you be so calm about it?” my voice was tight, leaving my lips like a squeak.

Savannah frowned at me. “Haven’t we been over this? I told you, I never had any desire to go back, this is my home.”

I shook my head, completely mystified. No matter how hard I tried I could not understand this girl sitting next to me. To me, this sounded insane, that she could fight for someone who had taken her away from her family. But maybe that was because I could still remember my family? I could still see my mom’s face if I closed my eyes, or still hear my sister’s laughing if I concentrated hard enough. I had a whole life, a history, a family, but not Savannah, she had been taken away from all that when she was still too young to remember.

“I don’t understand you,” I told her, unable to say anything else.

She looked sideways at me, smiling slightly.

“That is what I should be saying isn’t?”

“What about Gabriel? You said he’s been here a long time too?” I was always forgetting about the quiet boy. Every time I thought of him it was always in Peter’s shadow.

“Gabriel was brought here when I was seven; he was still a baby, just 3 years old at the time. His parents had died in a fire that night Adam said. I remember Gabriel still smelt like smoke when I went to take him…”

Eye’s wide I stared in horror, sympathy for the boy flooding my chest.

“So, Adam raised you guys then?” I asked, trying to imagine Adam dealing with cranky toddlers.

“No, Marie was in charge of taking care of us. This was back before she was head housekeeper, and was just a regular maid in the household.”

This I could imagine. The small woman had always appeared to kind to be in this type of setting.

“Is that why you guys are in charge of watching Jas- Calamity and I?” I stumbled over the name, forgetting that I wasn’t allowed to call her ‘Jasper’ in anyone’s presence.

“Adam always said we were destined to guard the Empress,” Savannah looked at the ceiling, sounding lost in thought. “He had always told us we had the most important role out of everyone here, because one day he would bring his daughters to meet us and it was our job to protect them. We are the Empress’s Guard.”

“Protect us from what?” I asked, confused.

“From God.”

“… What?” I thought I had heard her wrong. She shrugged, noticing my expression.

“That’s what he’s always said. I’m not sure I understand it either. The Guard member’s job is to protect the Empress, that much I do understand and plan to fulfill to the best of my abilities, even if I have to die trying.”

I shivered, feeling the honest determination in her voice. Die trying?

“How can you just agree…”

Savannah stood and stretched her back.

“Because this is my home,” she said simply, “Now get up, it’s time to run.”

I couldn’t tell her that I had full intentions of running; running away from this backwards place she called her home. I felt that if I didn’t leave soon, I would be sucked into the insanity right along with her. I would never call this place my home, I couldn’t.

:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x

I waited anxiously in my room, pacing the black and white carpet. Black square, white square, black square, white square; over and over they passed under my restless feet.
Jasper had said she would come get me. We were going to get out.

I had told her about my conversation with Savannah, she surprised me by saying she already knew about it. Peter had told her. Apparently they were friends now. I didn’t understand it. I guess stranger things had happened right?

I felt Jasper approach my door, knew she was there even before I heard the soft click of the lock being released.

‘Hurry,’ she spoke in my head, not chancing the noise of speaking aloud. Was handy being in each other’s heads sometimes.

The halls were quiet. A somber feel engulfed the mansion, muffling all noise. If I didn’t know better I would have thought it was deserted, such was the atmosphere.

‘We’re going to Adam’s office.’ Jasper told me as I followed behind her. I noticed she had somehow managed to get a hold of a uniform, pants included. A small backpack hung between her shoulder blades.

‘Peter got it for me,’ she said, reading my thoughts. ‘Did you know your eyes glowed in the dark?’

‘No… I did not know that.’ I frowned. She thought I was creepy.

‘Only a little.’

That didn’t really comfort me.

We crept down the stairs, clinging to shadows created from the moonlight slanting through the windows. At every little sound we stopped, our hearts leaping to our throats. Eyes wide in the darkness we glanced around anxiously, cringing at every malformed shape our eyes thought they saw. When finally we reached the large wooden doors we sought, my nerves were completely fried. Ten minutes of hypersensitivity and I was already exhausted.

Adam’s office had the only window that didn’t have bars covering it. Which made sense, no one else would dare to enter this space. I’m not even sure if I wanted to.

The door was unlocked, strangely enough.

We slowly entered, flinching as the door let out an angry creak into the silent hall. We didn’t dare chance the ugly noise a second time to close door, leaving it slightly ajar.

Jasper went straight to the window. I thought about that first day, walking into this room to find Adam standing right where I was now, staring thoughtfully out the window I now planned to make my escape from. What would he think when he found us gone? Surely he’ll come after us, but by then we should be long gone. Hopefully.

Jasper’s hands carefully unclicked the locks from the window, and shoved it up.

All the lights suddenly clicked on, glaring into my dilated pupils. Something was flashing above the corner of the window; a small light that had been concealed behind the curtain.
All of this had been too easy; I knew it had been too easy. I knew that things couldn’t go so smoothly, nothing in my life ever did. I knew this, so why did I always delude myself with hope, only to be so sorely disappointed.

I met Jasper’s horrified gaze, seeing my own matching expression reflected upon the blue planes.

“Megan, RUN!” She screamed, and I remembered how to move once more.

Cold night air smacked my face as I placed my boots against the smooth wooden frame. I didn’t look down, I didn’t stop to think. Jasper’s form hovered anxiously behind me, urging me forward. Fear driving my limbs, I launched myself into darkness.

{End: Chapter Nine}