by Terry Reid
The Boy Who Played With Stars
By Terry Reid
First published on Amazon Kindle in 2014
First published in the UK by Amazon Kindle in 2014
Copyright © Terry Reid 2014
Cover image by John Loudon k12
Terry Reid asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel is a work of fiction.
The names, characters and events portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Epilogue
Chapter One
Alexander slumped to his knees, his head falling into trembling hands. He could still hear the screaming, thousands upon thousands of his kin crying and shouting in agony as they burned. His stomach roiled from the memory as the star fire peeled the flesh from their bodies, scorched the feathers from their wings, and burnt the very essence of their souls. It came to him in a flood, a sweeping tide of overwhelming pain and death transmitted inadvertently through the psychic bonds that held them all together. But feeling and living the deaths of thousands of soldiers, his soldiers, was not the worst of it. The worst had been the silence that followed. It was maddening.
He slowly lifted his head, puffy red eyes glancing around the deserted control deck of the space shuttle. For the first time in a very long time he was alone, truly alone. Alex sniffled, fighting back a torrent of tears that would not stop flowing. His shaking hands fell to the floor, forcing him to look at the smooth grey tiles between his fingers. But it was the orange glow in the corner of his left eye that called him; demanding that he look. He shut his eyes again and sobbed, nearly collapsing from the violent shaking that wracked him. But at the last he did as he was commanded by an unheard voice and turned his head to look upon the destruction he had created.
The black canvas of the sky had been extinguished in a torrent of fire, coloured red, orange and gold. The stars behind the dying sun burnt white hot as if they were angry, despite never being touched by the flames of the exploding sun or the blood of angels. They seemed to be watching him, staring at him, judging him. Alex’s wide eyes looked this way and that, drinking in the madness he had created. The planets were gone, all of them. The System of Aylie was no more. But he had known that when he heard his comrades screaming. What have I done? he asked himself, staggering to leaden feet. Then another, different voice inside his mind asked the same question.
Alex woke with a gasp. He stared at the bedroom ceiling from where he lay in bed; heart pounding in his chest. Alex could hear it hammering inside his mind. Overwhelmed, he brought his hands to his face and quietly wept into them. After a few minutes he calmed down. Still shaken, he looked for Hayley, who lay with her back to him, sleeping softly. With sudden desperation gripping his heart, he reached for her. Hayley mumbled as the angel wrapped his arms around her and draped his left wing over her body. Drawing a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves, Alex closed his eyes and pressed his head against Hayley’s. She shuffled back further into his embrace. I love you, he said inside her mind, but she was already asleep again. Inside Alex’s head though, the horrors of yesteryear and the shocking revelations of the day’s events rekindled themselves anew, and the angel knew he would have no more sleep this night.
******
Twelve hours earlier they had been in a mortuary, to see the corpse that had attacked John on his walk home from school a few weeks before. What the undead woman had told them had rocked everyone to the core.
The colour had drained from Alexander’s face. Hayley had never seen the angel look so mortified. The ancient warrior had fought and survived many wars through the millennia and seen many terrible things, but his expression left no doubt among his companions how serious and terrifying this new situation was.
“Gabriel’s dead,” Hayley started. “He’s dead...”
“I know,” Alex said, casting a long look at the frozen corpse that had just spoken to him.
“We killed him.”
“I know, Hayley,” Alex stepped away from the body. Sighing, he ran his hands through his black hair and stared at it. “It is not possible…it’s just not.”
“Then why did she say it, Alex?”
“I don’t know!”
Constable Gordon Sloan looked to each of his strange companions in turn. They had brought him to this place; this cold, frightening mortuary, to speak to a corpse. It had once spoken to him and to his coroner. The body had been discovered by Hayley Foster’s teenage friend, John Hughes. In truth it had not really spoken to the middle-aged policeman, but rather, repeated a name - Alex’s. After a long search and a series of strange events, Alexander and his friends had turned up at his office today unannounced, asking to see the talking body. Less than ten minutes before they had arrived at the mortuary and in the same ten minutes the policeman had learned that Alexander and his blond-haired companion were in fact angels. The knowledge had turned his world on its head; everything he knew and believed had been thrown into doubt. Now he had just witnessed the corpse talking again, which was the last thing he needed.
“Gabriel?” Constable Sloan asked, looking at the two angels. “Like in the Bible?”
“Yes, the very same one,” Alex said bluntly, folding his arms.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry but I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. If this man is dead, what are you all so worried about?”
“Because, officer, Gabriel was a very nasty piece of work who tried to kill Hayley and I two very short years ago and if our talking body here is right, he is also the one responsible for the fireballs that rained from the sky six weeks ago and killed seventy seven people.”
“But that was a meteor shower. It was on the news…”
Alexander slammed his palms hard against the tray that held the body. Sloan jumped as it shook and rumbled. The woman within slept on, indifferent to the angel’s outburst. “Oh come on, Gordon, you saw fire fall from the sky! You saw the clips on the news and the internet about winged women fighting on the Clyde Arc and you’ve seen a dead corpse move twice! Why do you find all this so difficult to believe?”
“Alex, that’s enough! Leave him alone,” Hayley chastised him.
“I will not, Hayley! I’m tired of being asked stupid questions by stupid humans all the time.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Well shouting at him isn’t going to change anything. It’s not his fault that Gabriel’s still alive.”
Alex drew a deep breath and ran a hand over his face. “Look, I’m sorry, all right? I’m just…I’m just a little edgy.”
“We all are,” Hayley said. She n
odded toward the stiff. “Who was she?”
“You don’t recognise her?”
“Why would I? Most people I know aren’t missing half their face.”
“It’s the guardian from the House of A Thousand Paper Swans.”
“What?”
Alex sighed, his sorry eyes looking over the ruins of the deceased angel. “Marli or Gabriel must have killed her.”
“That must have been why I found the House of Paper Swans destroyed. They must have got to her before I did,” Christopher, Alex’s blond-haired younger brother, said.
Hayley covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide with shock.
Alex went to Hayley and wrapped his arms around her. “There’s nothing anyone could have done for her,” he said as she looked up at him through teary eyes. Alex cast his gaze back to the remains and then to his brother. “I’m just grateful that you weren’t there when they were, Christopher. They would have done the same thing to you.”
Christopher walked up to the body. “There is something I do not understand. Why did they bring her to this realm?”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a threat.” His heart hurt at seeing such a beautiful angel mutilated out of cold blood. “It might explain why John had never seen anything along that footpath before. They must have known he went that way home from school.”
Christopher’s eyes widened. “Then the boy is not safe.”
“No,” Alex agreed. “Can you go and speak to him and his mother, please? I think we would all be much safer staying under one roof for the time being. Also, go to The Elders. They must know what we’ve learned here.”
Christopher nodded. “I will return shortly.” In a blink of the eye he was gone. There had been no flash or sign of movement from the angel. He had simply been there one moment and gone the next.
Alex caught the shocked expression on the constable’s face. “I know you have questions but they’ll have to wait. First we need to burn this body.”
“You can’t do that! It’s evidence!” Constable Sloan protested, striding over.
Parting from Hayley, Alex squared up to the policeman. He shot him a dark look. “This goes way beyond your jurisdiction now I’m afraid. Please get out of my way.” Constable Sloan stood his ground but made no move to intervene when Alex stepped around him. When Alex closed his right hand a small orange and yellow light began to poke from between his fingers. When he spread his palm again, he revealed a handful of dancing white flames. The fire danced like liquid over his flesh but did not burn him. Its bright flames swayed hypnotically without as much as a crackle. The two humans watched in awe as the angel placed it into the hollow chest cavity of the fallen guardian. Whispering something inaudible, Alex closed his eyes and the flames exploded in a dazzling light. Hayley and the policeman looked away, dazzled. When they turned back the light was gone and so was the body.
PC Sloan blinked in disbelief at the empty metal tray. There was no evidence that a body had ever lay there. There were no bones, no blood. There was not even so much as a single flake of grey ash. He turned to Alex, stunned. “Who exactly are you?”
“We’ll go get a coffee then we will talk,” Alexander said. The officer nodded, unsure of what to say. Turning to Hayley, Alex held out his hand and she took it.
Constable Sloan watched them leave. They made for quite a sight. The inconspicuous Alex with his long, pearly white wings draped across his back and Hayley, the Glaswegian girl who had seemingly came back from the dead, walking off hand-in-hand. With a sense of deep foreboding he pushed the tray back into the wall and hurried after them.
Chapter Two
Hayley was the first through the door when they arrived home. They were living in a new flat in the Merchant City end of Glasgow and still needed some decorating. She had to side-step a stack of boxes that contained the maroon wallpaper for the hall. They were currently greeted with the same tired, peeling cream walls as the rest of the bland two-bedroom flat.
“I will do it this weekend,” Alex said, sensing her thoughts as he closed the door.
She turned back to him. “It’s fine, there’s no rush.”
“Are you ok?”
“Are you?”
Alex did not answer. Quietly they took their coats and shoes off and headed to the living room.
Hayley screamed when she rounded the door to come face-to-face with Christopher. The angel stumbled back. “Jesus! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Just don’t do that!” she sighed, walking by him to the couch.
“Where are John and Stacy?” Alex asked.
Christopher shook his head. “They would not come, brother. Stacy said that it was a ridiculous idea.”
Alex sighed. “I can’t say that I blame her. It’s not like we could have kept them here forever. John has school and she has a shop to run.” He scratched at his chin, thinking. “What about The Elders, what did they say?”
Christopher hesitated. “They…er…they said we were to capture Gabriel if he comes here and to bring him home, to stand trial.”
Alex and Hayley exchanged looks. “What for?” Alex asked, folding his large arms. “We all know he’s guilty of attacking the city!”
“Yes, The Elders believed me on that, and it is one of the things he stands accused of. But they want to try him for all his other crimes as well.”
Alex’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack.
“Alex?” Hayley asked, catching his look. She stood.
The angel’s eyes suddenly narrowed again and the lines around his jaw tightened. Christopher looked away.
“I don’t believe it,” Alex said.
Hayley looked between the two brothers. “What is it?”
“They were the ones who brought him back, Hayley,” her guardian said. “They brought Gabriel back from the dead to stand trial for his past crimes and he escaped.”
“What? How is that even possible? We killed him. You said those swords of yours could kill anything.”
“They can,” Christopher said, his sad grey eyes meeting hers. “But some of The Elders have the power to bring our kind back from the dead.”
Hayley looked at Alex. “Do they do that with all the angels that turn into arseholes?”
“No but sod’s law they would pick Gabriel.”
“Alex…” Christopher sighed, shaking his head. “They did it because of the severity of his crimes, nothing more.”
“And what would a trial prove, Christopher? They’d just find him guilty and cart him off to Hell! But he would still be alive! Even that’s too good for him in my books!”
“Brother, you know that is not your place to decide,” Christopher warned, holding his gaze. “Do not even consider interfering.”
Alex’s eyes grew dark. “Who said anything about interfering? If I find him, I’m going to kill him!”
“Those are not our orders!”
“Why are you sticking up for him? You know what he’s done! Our real brother is dead!”
Christopher’s wings arced high behind his shoulders. “I am not sticking up for anyone!” he spat back.
“Guys! That’s enough!” Hayley shouted stepping between them just before Alex reached Christopher. The two angels remained locked in a stare. Neither budged. Hayley turned to Alex and pressed her hands gently against his chest. “Come on, leave it. Please…” she whispered. Alex held his stare and for a long minute she thought he would not go. At the last, he suddenly stepped back. Giving his brother one last, dark look, he turned and stormed from the room.
******
Hayley found her guardian standing on the rooftop of their high rise, just as a gust of a cold, bitter winter wind picked up from the north. Hayley huddled inside the hatch to the sloping roof, shivering as icy claws tore at her scarf and jacket. It quickly passed. Alex turned away from the edge of the roof as she climbed up and out into the open.
“You shouldn’t be up here,” he shouted;
his tone as flat as the colours of the dark, grey world around him. The building was enclosed on all sides by the fat, short grey sentinels of neighbouring flats and offices, all standing silently. Hayley’s block of flats stood three floors above the rest, however, allowing a wider panoramic of the city, as well as a better view of the stars.
“Where you go, I will always be, Alex,” she said. She saw the corner of his lip curl into a smile, despite the poor light cast by the crescent moon that hung high above.
“You have it the wrong way around.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, taking a nervous step onto the slick, snow-coated roof. “You came up here and I came looking for you.”
Alex walked to her as if the roof was no more treacherous than a walk in the park on the warmest summer’s day. “I never left your side, not truly. You know I never would.”
“It’s still not the same as having you in front of me,” she replied, as he came to stand before her. “Are you ok?”
He gave a slow nod, lifting his gaze skyward. “I will be. I’m just angry, that’s all.” He shook his head and his gaze fell back to Hayley. “None of this would have happened if they hadn’t brought him back.”
“I know,” she said, weary. “But what is done, is done. We’ll catch him, you know we will.”
Alex looked doubtful. “I don’t know that and neither do you,” he said, but not unkindly. The angel sighed and lifted his head up to the glare of the cold, moon-lit sky again.
His wings were hidden, Hayley noticed. The angel could make them disappear at will; a great advantage when they were out and about. Otherwise they would have drawn too many stares and too many questions. Hayley loved seeing them though, even if it was only ever in the privacy of their flat.
Stars twinkled from afar, like little eyes in the night sky. Alex knew he was being watched; like he knew he was being watched every day in his soul. Father, please, give me the strength to stay my arm when the time comes, he prayed silently. He did not let Hayley hear them. Instead, he looked back to her and said, “It’s typical, the one time when I could really use a vision of the future.”