Avia’s grip on the bottle tightened as she remembered her episode in the kitchen that morning. She quickly forced the memory back and shook her head in denial. Before he could protest, she started dancing her way towards the crowd.
“Still, maybe you should try to take it slow!” Cheshire called after her. “Don’t push your luck, ya know?”
“Not a chance!” She finished her drink and tossed the empty bottle out of the room. “I came to have fun, just like you wanted me to. My fun just isn’t on this side!” She blew him a kiss, then disappeared into the thrall.
Within hours, Avia was wasted. She had found her way to the center of the hoard and was wildly swinging about her hair and arms. She vaguely
recognized her own voice slurring the words to every song at the top of her lungs, but everything was starting to haze over. It was a constant rotation—drink then dance, drink then dance. Every shot seemed to take her farther away, but no matter how much she drank, she couldn’t completely cross over. Occasionally, her vision would go black, but her sight would return seconds later. Blurred. Blurred and with everything spinning.
After the fourth blackout, Avia felt like the floor was about to give out. She staggered to the living room and fell back on a couch. The turtle tattoo guy was still stationed at his loveseat across the room, smoking away to oblivion. With renewed strength, Avia stumbled over to the loveseat. She snatched the blunt from his hand, then quickly returned to her spot. His hand grasped the air, reflexes slowed, but he seemed too high to process what had happened. He shrugged and laid his head back against the cushions.
“Avia!”
Cheshire stepped into the room and sat down on the couch. “You look terrible,” he said, taking the weed out of her other hand.
“Doesn’t matter,” she mumbled, grabbing the blunt back from him. “I’m not there yet.”
“Avi—”
“Ches, why are you trying to stop me?! We’ve gone so long without ev- without you, with, without you ever acting like such a buzz kill. Just take a few shots!” she yelled, throwing her arms on his chest. “Just weelaxxx… Wait.” She poked him on the nose. “Or are pussy cats too pussy to have a good time?”
Avia took another deep puff and blew the smoke in his face. Giggling maniacally to herself, she seemed to have completely forgotten he was there. Cheshire pushed her arms aside, to which she blinked in surprise. Something in her eyes snapped and she started to convulse.
“Avi!” he screamed, wrapping his arms around her.
Her vision greyed. The walls and floor began to melt. The air cracked and shattered like glass. The shards that made up reality started to fall into an abyss. The thin wall that separated the world from endless darkness was caving in. While she normally would have welcomed the nothing with open arms, something felt wrong this time. Terror struck her heart like a bullet. Everything was numb, and she couldn’t see or speak. Her mind raced to remember what drugs she’d taken, but her thoughts silenced at the unimaginable pain. Her body and mind were slowly being torn apart, thread by thread.
She writhed in Cheshire’s arms, muscles tensed, eyes rolled back. She tried to force out the tempest, but all she could feel was rage. Not at Cheshire, not at her parents, not even at Julian. Only rage. An inconceivable, unrelenting hatred that mirrored the flames of Hell itself.
Avia opened her mouth and a banshee-like wail shook the entire house. Her body glowed a pale orange and sparks shot from her skin like fire.
Cheshire dove across the room and grabbed a blanket lying on the ground. He sprinted back to Avia, cocooned her in the cloth, then carried her up the stairs to the bathroom. He set her down, then closed and locked the door, going the extra mile to prop the small cabinet under the doorknob.
“Avi, talk to me!” he yelled, trying to avoid the sparks as he leaned over.
“I just wanna burn it all away! Burn it all away!”
“Avia, you’re slipping! Come back!”
The blanket erupted in flames and her body was engulfed by fire. She screamed and rolled back and forth on the floor. Taking several deep breaths, Cheshire threw himself to his knees beside her. Despite the heat, he grabbed her shoulder and placed a hand on her burning forehead.
Chapter 14
A heaviness hung over Avia like she had entered a funeral service. The heat that had been burning through her nerves was gone. In its wake was… nothing. A gentle lull was softly rocking her, and she couldn’t help but feel like she had breathed in someone’s last breath. Even so, she embraced the peace for a moment.
The reprieve was short-lived.
Cold air coiled around her body and the soft sway was now a deathly lurch. She was almost positive that she was splayed on the deck of a ship, but she still couldn’t see anything. She shivered and ran her hands over the rows of goosebumps down her arms. Realizing her eyes were clenched shut, Avia released her breath and slowly opened them.
She gasped. She was trapped inside a glass bottle, rocking violently in the ocean’s waves. Outside, black clouds were painted with streaks of lighting. But there was no thunder. She was met only with silence.
Terror clutched her heart as she stared out of the opaque glass. There was no visible way out, and even if there was, she was surrounded by water. Avia gingerly reached out to touch the glass, but another roll of the sea sent her stumbling back to the floor.
“Where am I?!” she yelled. The sound was instantly swallowed by the bottle and the silence pressed back on all sides.
Then, after about a minute, a soft voice answered from the outside. “That’s a good question, Avia. I guess you’re in my head.”
It sounded like Cheshire, but there was something different about the voice. Cheshire’s tone would carry life, or peace, meaning with breath. The speaker outside of the bottle was completely devoid of those things. The voice was that of loss. Of sorrow. Of death.
As she squinted to see outside of the bottle, Avia saw a silhouette form a few meters away from her glass prison. A smoky outline solidified into flesh and bone. The figure cracked his neck before looking up into the seething clouds. His height and build were similar to Cheshire’s, but his back was turned so she couldn’t see the face.
“Avi…” the hollow voice spoke again. “I’m sorry you ended up here. I really hoped you would have gone a different path. Ever since we met, you’ve been going a million miles a minute. I guess it’s a curse for people like us to end up nowhere.”
“Cheshire…” she whispered, positive it was him now.
Turning around, Cheshire began to walk across the waves towards the glass. A flash of lightning illuminated his face and Avia gasped, throwing herself to the far end of the bottle. It was Cheshire, without question, but he was...damaged. His glossy skin was sickeningly pale, the dark circles around his eyes screamed of death. His hair was without its silver streaks and matted against his face. But what truly terrified her was his mouth. A grotesque Glasgow smile was carved into his cheeks while blood still poured from the cuts.
“When I was alive, Avi,” he began, his voice shaking. “I was a lot like you. I hated everything about this life. The people, the places, the emotions; they all just sucked the life out of me. But I carried on. I bore the burden for those around me and put on that charming smile every day—until I just couldn’t take it. I thought, maybe, just maybe, if I could make the smile permanent. He made a cutting motion across his face. “I would be happy in the next life.
“When I crossed over, I met the Hatter. I mean, you know how it—it is.” His whole body twitched, his gestures growing more erratic. “I just couldn’t go back. I begged him to let me stay, told him I would do anything. He told me the way he does it is cutting all ties to every realm. He doesn’t dreamwalk. The guy takes his whole body. But he gave some warning and crap… said that if I crossed over in my body, I’d spend eternity in the state I left.”
“Cheshire, you…”
A shadow fell over his face and he looked down. “Yeah. Figured as
long as I was on the other side I would be happy. Wrong. Turns out Earth wasn’t the problem, Avi, I was.” His head shot up, rage twisting his every feature. “You see this place!” he screamed, slamming his fists against the glass. “This is my home! A sea of the tears I have shed over the decades!” Blood gushed from the cuts and streamed down his neck. “It was this, or let my wrath and my pain burn me alive! I am trapped forever in the hell of my own mind. You can try crossing over as much as you want, Avia, it will do nothing!”
He slammed on the glass again. “We’re all mad in the end. We can douse our flames in the sorrow or burn until there’s nothing left. When I met you in the aether, I thought I could save you. I warned you, again, and again, but look where we are?! I did everything I could, but you just played it off with a stupid smile! But now we’re here. Just look at me! Behind the smile. I am just as fucked up as you are!”
“Cheshire! No!” Avia sobbed, throwing herself towards him. “You aren’t… you can’t be…”
He sighed and placed his palm against hers on the glass. “Avia… Please don’t go any deeper, or you’ll never find your way back. Just…. Just find someplace where you won’t be alone.”
He turned away from her and disappeared into the raging storm.
“No!” she screamed. “You can’t leave me alone! Cheshire!”
Avia smashed her fist into the glass over and over until a crack began to spider web along the top. “You can’t leave me here alone!” She threw herself against the glass, again. The bottle splintered and water flooded in through the widening gaps. She raised her fist to strike again and the bottle imploded. Waves smashed her into the debris and quickly filled her lungs. The current dragged her under and she slowly sank to the bottom of Cheshire’s ocean.
“Are you sure I’m going to be able to get her out?” Zadkiel asked, staring into the pod. Her skin was still a glowing orange. The flames that blazed from every inch tested the enchanted glass that held her.
Michael had tasked him to pull her from the rubble of a frat house. In the middle of the night, no less. He’d begrudgingly dug through ash and debris for an entire five minutes until he found the glowing ember that they now stood before. Her flames almost matched the fires of Tartarus. It had actually been necessary to use five different enchantments to bring her back without getting burned. It wasn’t difficult; he simply believed himself to be above the menial task of retrieval.
“I’m not concerned,” Michael said, placing his hand on Zadkiel’s shoulder. “I have faith in you.”
“I think Vlad had an easier job….” Zadkiel muttered, leaning in closer to the pod. “All he had to do was stalk a ghoul.”
The king ignored his cynicism. “Call for me when you pull her out,” he answered, turning towards the door. “You are my Pride, after all.”
“Avia.”
“Who’s there?” she demanded. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone. Everything was still black.
Her spirit had retreated into the depths of her mind where the nothing thrived. There was no sound or light; only the endless expanse of darkness. She often questioned if she really was in the abyss, but it didn’t matter. The dark went on forever. Now she remained in quiet solitude. The burning rage in her chest warmed her through the everlasting night.
“You really buried yourself deep in here,” the voice spoke again. “It took a whole year to stabilize your flames.”
A white light flashed and blinded her momentarily. When the light dimmed, she opened her eyes and saw a man standing in front of her. Messy, blood-red hair cascaded past his shoulders, and deep wrinkles cut through his white dress shirt. His skin glowed with a golden aura. Perhaps that was the source of the electric hum that now filled the blackness.
Avia blinked, making sure she really saw the wings jutting from his shoulder blades. They were almost as large as her. Each white feather flowed perfectly into the next and gave off its own soft light.
“Are you...an angel?”
“Mmmhmm.” He sleepily wiped his eyes then gestured behind him. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t leave.” Her initial shock extinguished with the return of her resting scowl. Orbs of flame erupted in her eyes.
“That’s why I’m here,” he muttered, unfazed by her aggression. “Your flames scorched Earth Proper and the aether, killing everyone and everything. I need to get you out.”
“Why would you do that? That sounds like reason enough to leave me here. All I want to do is watch the world burn.”
At this, the corners of his lips curled and something alive sparked in his face. “Counting on it.”
The fire left Avia’s eyes, and she stared at him. There was something about this angel that she liked. Even though he was barely awake, she could sense a soldier-like seriousness about him. Perhaps that’s why she trusted him. Maybe it was the ‘counting on it’ that had her intrigued. Either way, something told her to go with him. She had to find out why.
The angel stepped forward and knelt beside her. Reaching into the air, he pulled out something like an ancient quill. He placed the tip on her bare arm and began to write, the ink glowing bright red as it burned itself into her flesh.
When he stepped back, Avia looked down at her upper arm. A roman numeral four, surrounded by unreadable runic symbols, was now set into her skin. She looked up and realized he was extending his hand.
Zadkiel.
She then understood who he was. She tightly grasped his hand and he pulled her to her feet. There was another flash of light, and she felt her abyss slowly disappear behind them.
Part III:
Paradise
“This entire region was sealed off after the massacre. No human or mirage has entered since.”
Interlude
“Father! We continue to fight the demons and gods who have not yet relented their thrones of darkness. We are only by coincidence helping humanity. Why will you not save them from the dynamically greater threat—themselves?! Extend your rule and have them bow before the throne of Le Ciel!”
“Too many years have passed. The mirage developed their territories; man, his kingdom. To interfere would unbalance life itself.”
“If you do not interfere, there will be no life left to unbalance! Humanity and all creaturedom will drown in rivers of self-shed blood, all because we did not act!”
“Do you not remember Kadia? What happened the last time we directly interacted with man?!”
“I do remember, Father. I remember the situation grew to the extent it did because you let those animals run without a leash. And when the beast became feral, you didn’t have the heart to put it down. I can’t do this right now. If you need me, I’ll return tomorrow.”
“Michael, wait!”
“It’s almost complete, Father,” Michael whispered as he stared across his kingdom. The terrace he had built behind the castle gave him a much-needed space to himself. It was a pleasant distraction from the darker thoughts that visited his mind. He loved his subjects and those who stood beside him, but he had to remain strong. He couldn’t be seen as weak; indecisive. He couldn’t look like his father.
He’d inherited the throne nearly seven centuries ago. With those seven hundred years came seven sins. Some were his fathers. Perhaps, some were his. Regardless, the world had been stained. The past king had offered humans false hope, but Michael presented a means to an end. An end to suffering, and pain. An end to death.
“Still trying to outgrow the shoes Daddy left you?” a familiar voice whispered in his mind.
“At least I haven’t abandoned his name,” Michael bitterly retorted, trying to force himself to ignore the taunts.
“Why so angry, Michael? Has that Wrath you’ve been so eager to find finally crawled out of its hole?”
“Enough!” He leapt to his feet and brandished his sword. He could hear his voice and feel his presence, but Michael knew he wasn’t there. He hadn’t been for centuries.
The voice whispered again after a pause. “E
ven when I was here, it didn’t matter to you. Me, Maria, Mom, Dad… How much longer until you end up like us?”
“Your highness.”
“What?” Michael snapped out of the trance. He sheathed his weapon then looked up. One of the servants stood outside of the door—Ren, if he remembered the name correctly. Names were one of the few values he shared with his father. For Michael, that meant servants, knights, and anyone else he would possibly encounter in the castle. While strength was necessary, no one would follow a king who didn’t care for his people.
“The girls are awake.”
“Oh, really?” A smile formed across his face.
“Yes, sir. Master Zadkiel ordered me to inform you the second the infirmary staff sent word. I believe Master Vladimir has gone to check on them.”
Michael internally sighed. The thought of Vladimir being left alone with the young women when they awoke by no means helped his mood. “And why is it that Zadkiel didn’t see over the situation himself?”
“He said he had more important things to do, sir.”
“Of course he did...” Michael sighed, then followed Ren back into the castle.
Chapter 15
Val shot up and gasped for air. Soft light flooded the room from swirling overhead ceiling panels. The golden walls and floor created the effect of being trapped in a sunset. The only things that appeared to be in the room were rows of empty beds and an elegant gold and silver door positioned inside the far wall.
She tossed the sheets aside and noticed soft materials against her skin—a thin, white shirt and sweatpants. The fabric was unfamiliar, but it felt like she was robed in clouds.
Questions barreled through her head. Where was she? How did she get there? She sat up and stared blankly at the wall. The last thing she remembered was seeing an old man pulling over to the side of the road. Then everything went black.
When We Were Still Human Page 14