City of Dark Angels

The leaves crunch sharply under my feet as I take my morning walk throughout the forest, walking through the park and smiling over at the kids playing on the playground. I breathe in the wonderful spring air, grateful for the life I am given.

Grateful for my second chance.

It’s been six months since the accident, six months since the path of my life changed forever; last week I just graduated from the first part of my college experience. It was an amazing day; all my friends and family surrounding me, cheering me on while I walk across the stage. Something the doctors said I would be unable to do, something that six months prior to today I shouldn’t have been able to do.

But I did it.

“Delilah, hey!” I hear a voice from behind me call out, I turn around to see Travis standing there. He’s carrying a backpack full of textbooks and is grinning from ear to ear. I walk over to him. “Guess what!”

“What is it Travis?”

“No, you have to guess.” He smirks, and give him a playful shove on the shoulder.

“You failed your G.E.D?” I joke, and he frowns shaking his head but smiles again.

“Quite the opposite actually!”

“I’m so proud of you Travis, you worked so hard for it!” I tell him giving him a hug. He most definitely did work hard to pass that test. Staying up until almost 5 am studying, and spending all day in the library getting caught up on extra assignments.

“Thank you! There’s more good news!” He tells me, another grin forming on his face. His brown eyes shining in pride.

“Do I have to guess?”

“I think you already know!” He says, as we walk down the street towards my apartment building.

“Something about being six months clean maybe?”

“As of tomorrow!”

“I knew you could do it!” I feel a sense of pride inside me, knowing that I helped him achieve his goals to the best of his ability. It was all him.

“Thanks to you.” He tells me, kicking a pebble on the ground.

As we near my apartment I can feel a presence behind me, I turn around to see an old woman watching me. I shake my head and the sensation goes away, I ignore it thinking maybe I am just seeing things or that I’m just going crazy. I unlock my apartment front door and Travis and I make our way up towards my apartment.

As we near closer I can hear Maisie begin to howl from inside the door, she was always able to sense me coming from down the hallway. Crazy dog.

“Hello Maisie! I’m back!” I tell her as she attacks Travis and I when we enter the apartment, she took to Travis right away and he adores her. “I was only gone for a half hour silly dog, relax.”

I walk into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of orange juice, then lean against the wall taking a large drink of the cold drink. Maisie watches me with curiosity and gives me the look she always gives me when she desires a treat.

Travis plops down on my couch in the living room and pulls out his laptop from his backpack, he scrolls a page for a bit before turning the laptop towards me.

“Look at this article, you’re gonna laugh.” I walk up to the couch and sit down next to him peek over at the screen.

Its an article about my father claiming his innocence about having nothing to do with the murder, I laugh and read on as he claims there's no way as a dead girl could be able to turn him in.

“A dead girl, and her dead friend.” Travis chuckles, and I shake my head in amusement at the stupidity of my father.

“We weren’t dead, we were in a coma.” I say matter of factually placing my cup down on the table and turning on the TV.

“True that.”

“Are you coming to Sierra’s birthday party tonight with me?” I ask Travis, and he looks lost in thought for a moment before nodding his head.

“I can come by for awhile, I’m assuming Stephan is going to be there.” Stephan and Travis never really got along, ever since finding out what he did to me.

“Of course, it’s hard seeing them together and I can’t help but still be hurt but I am still happy for her.” I say, feeling a slight sadness come over me. “It’s just at her house, and don’t worry I won’t let you drink.”

“I don’t know how you can still be friends with her after what she did to you, it obviously still bothers you Delilah.” He says, reading the hurt on my face. “I may not be able to read your mind anymore but I can still tell that it hurts you.”

“I try not to let it bother me, they seem happy together.” I say to him, sighing in frustration and just wanting to change the subject. “Whens your appointment today?”

“Not until two thirty." He answers me checking the time on his phone, it is nearly 10 am.

"Perfect, you can come with me to pick out a present for Sierra." Travis groans at this.

"Just get her a pair of shoes or something." He says, rolling his eyes in a joking matter.

"She hates shoes, well she doesn't hate them but she isn't a huge fan." I say, knowing that Travis is just attempting to get out of shopping with me.

"Well, I don't know then. I'm not a girl." He laughs, "I'm just messing with you, of course I'll come shopping with you. I'll complain the whole time, but I'll come with."

I clap my hands in delight, excitement filling up inside me for the events of this evening. "I know you're not drinking, but I am."

"Oh great, remember what happened last time you drank?" He snickers, and I cringe thinking about last week after graduation.

"To be fair, that seagull had whats coming to him."

"You chased him, around the parking lot, for an HOUR! Then you kept telling the cab driver all about it, even though he really did not care."

"Yeah, so?" I laugh, suddenly feeling that sensation again from earlier. I get up and glance out the window of my apartment, and see that same old woman from earlier looking up at me from the window. There is also another man beside her, they are both making eye contact with me.

"What is it Delilah?" Travis asks, catching on to me staring out the window; looking concerned.

I turn back to him, "Oh, nothing."

"That didn't look like nothing, but alright." He shakes his head, reaching into his pocket for his phone.

"My Uncle is going to be back from his business trip next week, I told him that I passed my GED so he said he's taking me out for a celebration dinner; want to come with?"

"Of course I want to, I'm so proud of you!" I tell him again.

Travis beams at this and types out my answer to his Uncle on his phone, Maisie gets up from the floor in the kitchen and starts barking at my window loudly.

"Maisie!" I call out to her trying to get her to calm down, my neighbors downstairs always got angry when they hear her barking so loudly. I get up and look out the window of which she is barking at, there is now three people down below staring up at me. The old lady, a man, and now a child. People seem to be walking right through them, and ignore their existence.

"Okay, now I know it's nothing. What do you keep looking at?" Travis gets up off the couch and looks out the window too, but has no reaction to the people that I see.

"Do you not see them?" I am starting to become fearful now.

"See who?"

"The old lady, the man and now a child!"

"Delilah, there's no one there!"

I look out the window and to my surprise all three of them are now gone, and Maisie has calmed down on her barking and retreats to the kitchen again.

"I could have sworn..." I shake my head in confusion, knowing for sure that I had seen them standing there staring up at me. "Whatever, lets get to the mall before your appointment."

"Are you okay? And don't lie to me." Travis asks looking at me in a serious way, I just nod and head to the door to put on my shoes and grab my keys.

"You know you can tell me anything right, I'm your best friend." I hear Travis say as we leave the apartment and walk to my car. My new car, as my other one was totaled from the accident.

I smile at him as I unlock my car door, "I'm okay Travis. Probably another episode, they've been happening a lot recently."

We drive out onto the street, I drive carefully on the busy rode. Only recently I was able to start driving again, the accident caused me about 3 months of being terrified to get behind the wheel. I quickly learned again after lots of practice to not be scared of driving.

"When do you see your doctor again? You should probably let her know about the episodes since they've been happening so frequently."

"Not until next week, she says its a natural after effect of being in a coma and should wear off eventually." The episodes consist of me seeing things that aren't really there, at first it was just objects that seemed out of place but lately it's been people and other unearthly beings.

"I still worry about you." He says, a concerning look filling up in his eyes. We pull up into the parking lot of the mall and park near the entrance.

"I know." I say smiling at him. "Believe me, I know."