The Freeing Blood

Chapter 14

I couldn’t help what came next out of my mouth. It just sounded so completely insane. Laughter bubbled up inside me and slipped from between my lips until I could feel my sides beginning to hurt from the excessive laughter. An angel of God? There was no way that could even be remotely true…right? If I were an angel of God…wouldn’t I have known? Wouldn’t I have pearly white wings and have otherworldly powers?
My laughter slowly began to fade as a thought struck me. Why would a demon inside of Zak hate me so much…if I WASN’T an angel? And if I didn’t have some sort of otherworldly powers…then why would it have to come down to me, a nobody, to have to take on such a large task?
“Are you finished?” Mary sighed irritably as she glared at me through narrowed eyes.
I abruptly cut off the rest of my laughter and nodded. There was something scary about Mary when she wore that kind of look. I may have saved her from the darkness, but she had definitely kept a few of her dark traits.
“Good. I told you to stay open minded about this,” she reminded me.
“I know you did, but seriously? What person in their right mind would hear that and just be completely ok with it and roll right along like their entire world hadn’t just been flipped?” I huffed.
“So you mean to tell me that you can accept everything that is going on with Zak and his little “darkness”, but you can’t accept the fact that you’re an angel just as easily?” Mary inquired with a raised brow.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat on the stone bench as Mary watched me under scrutinizing eyes.
“Well…that’s…different…”
“How so?”
“Because it’s not ME that is being told my life can no longer be the same!”
“How did you expect to save him, Aerolynn? By hoping that his darkness would just up and disappear all because of your love for him?” Mary hissed.
My eyes went wide with shock; I jerked back like I had been slapped. The only other time I had seen Mary act this hateful to me was when her humanity had slowly been dying inside of her.
“Mary…no…I was just—”
“Look, Aerolynn, do you want to save Zak or not?” she finally asked; her eyes quickly darted away after she saw the shock in mine.
“Of course I do,” I softly answered.
“Then just…just listen to me ok? I know you have a lot of questions about what I just told you and I am going to do my best to answer those questions, but listen to me first.”
I nodded, keeping my tongue tucked gingerly away inside my mouth. I was afraid that if I spoke again then she would never tell me what I wanted to know.
Mary scrubbed her face hard before raking them back through her curls.
“I’ll only tell you what I have been told. While, yes, you are an angel of God, you were not born an angel. God made you with a specific purpose in mind. Only He didn’t make you in Heaven like all the other angels. Instead He gave you a mortal life and bestowed upon you the gift of an angel. He gave you the gift of saving souls. Out of every mortal here upon Earth, you had the purest of hearts; the brightest of energies. It is because that you were not made in Heaven that you have no wings. God wanted you to live as normal of a life as possible,” Mary explained.
“Then why make me ‘Savior of Souls’—” I air quoted— “if He wanted me to live a normal of a life as possible?”
“You know how everyone is always saying ‘don’t worry, dear, God has plans for you’? Well, that’s not really true for a lot of people. He creates them with a purpose in mind, sure, but does anyone ever follow down the path He sets for them half the time? No. Why? Because they’re human. They don’t know for sure what to believe in, what exactly is right and wrong, or which path is set for them. All they know for sure, or should at least, is that they are here living for a reason. It’s ultimately up to them to discover that said reason.
“You on the other hand? God couldn’t take the chance for you to stray from your set path. The plans He had for you were too specific. Since the moment he made Zak and foresaw the path he would go down, God spent the next 10 years molding, shaping, and creating YOU. He needed for you to come in at a specific time in your parents’ life so that things would end up the way He needed for them to go.”
“Are you saying…God…planned my parents’ deaths?” I quietly questioned unsure whether to feel angry or not.
Mary hesitantly shrugged her shoulders. “That is a question I can’t answer for sure. All I know is that He placed you down here when the time was right in order for your path to be set. Once you were born, He bestowed upon you the gift of saving souls; this is something given, typically, to angels made up in Heaven.”
“But because He needed me for a specific purpose down here…” I began.
Mary nodded. “You were basically a mortal with angelic powers.”
“Did He expect me to save all the souls I came into contact with?” I asked her as the thought of me being partial angel began to sit comfortably within my mind.
“No, not at all,” Mary replied shaking her head. “He knew that it would take time for you to realize your true potential. He even knew that having that particular gift would most likely scare you from what your purpose was, but that is why He encouraged Zak down the path of ghost hunting. Even though God knew the consequences of what He was doing, He needed someone that could set you back on the right path.”
“So, He made Zak go through pain and misery…just so that I would realize my true potential and save his life? That’s insane!” I said shaking my head in disbelief.
“Believe it or not, but it’s true, Aerolynn. God made you for a specific purpose unlike 98% of the rest of the world and He couldn’t afford to have you stray from your destined path. When He saw you were too frightened to accept who you really were, God made sure that there would be someone to bring you back into the light. Someone that would help you see your true purpose. Someone destined to come into your life for you to save.”
“The way you’re making it sound…” I started wondering if she was meaning what I think she was.
“That’s right, Aerolynn. The fact that you won that contest on the radio and met Zak was no coincidence. That was not a chance meeting. That was Fate. God made Zak your destiny. You were born to save him from the very beginning.”
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~~~~~~Zak’s P.O.V~~~~~~

I could feel my body moving. I could feel the tiny grains of sand bite into the palms of my hands as I stood up from the ground. I vaguely remember having passed out shortly after having seen Mary. Or…had I really seen her? Had I only wanted to see her? What had she said to me before I blacked out?
'Don’t worry, Zak. She’ll save you before time runs out.'
Did that mean that Aerolynn was coming for me? Had Mary alerted her to my whereabouts? Although I felt my knees grow weak from relief…I wasn’t falling. I wasn’t even stumbling. In fact, I could feel the sand dip beneath my boots as I walked across the beach, but…I wasn’t in control of my legs. I didn’t want to be walking. The more I realized that I had no control over any of my actions, the quicker panic set in.
I quickly glanced around my surroundings. Darkness built walls around me. It felt like I was looking through my own eyes from very far away. Where was I? Was I trapped inside my own body? If that was the case then how was I…? Fear stabbed my heart.
'Let me out!' my screams echoed inside the confines of my own body.
The rumbling of my own laughter reverberated around me. Only it was not my laughter. No. This laughter was too deep…maniacal…demonic. That laughter confirmed all of my suspicions.
“I am in control now, little boy,” It spat back.
'What are you going to do? Stay away from Aerolynn!' I warned it as I frantically searched for a way to gain control of my own body again.
“You’re pathetic. You think that I spent all this effort trying to gain control just so I could go after THAT skinny little whore?”
'Don’t fucking talk about her like that!' I growled clawing at the darkness around me. I needed to find a way out. How had this happened? I had been in control. It had receded back into its hole, so how had it completely overtaken me?
“Don’t threaten me mortal!” It snapped at me. I dropped to my knees as a sudden wave of agonizing pain stole the breath from my lungs. It felt like a thousand blades were cutting into my body. “Now that your soul is completely mine to own, you no longer have control over me. Had you not been around that disgusting angel then maybe you would have survived longer.”
'Angel?'
“She made you WEAK!” It growled. I could feel the invisible hands grip tighter around my throat; the unseen blades cutting deeper into my flesh.
'She…WILL…save…me…' I choked out with a triumphant smile.
“Not if there is no body or soul for her to save,” it maniacally chuckled.