by S E Lunsford
Felicia smiled over at me as we followed our angels, making our way towards the sliding glass doors that led outside.
“I love that color on you,” she said to me. “You look like Red Rose.”
“Who?” I asked as a laugh bubbled up out of me.
“Red Rose, you know the story character? Oh,” she said staring at me before smiling. “You’ve never heard of her?” I shook my head no.
“Well,” she said. “She’s kind of like Snow White, except she always wore red and was way prettier.”
“I’ll take that,” I said as we walked through the doors.
Glancing over at Bob, I was surprised to see that he was smiling at the two of us, a look of pleasure on his face that faded as he looked out across the vast dimly lit pool area. His wings twitched as he watched angels milling around the area with their women, as waiters in tuxedos and white gloves served champagne and canapes on silver platters. Torches burned around the area casting long streaks of reddish orange light that intermingled with shadows.
The faces of the two angels turned to stone as they continued to watch the scene. Glancing at one another, they seemed to make a silent agreement before they began to move quietly to the outskirts of the group making sure that Felicia and I had our hands wound around their arms. As we settled into a spot to the side, Bob looked over and smiled gently at me his face returning to stone as he looked around again.
Felicia’s angel’s lip curled as he watched something at the far end of the pool. Following his gaze, I saw a group of angels sitting and standing around a familiar looking angel who laughed as a woman was pushed from one angel to another. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized him as the one who was in the town where I met Chris. Stepping back slightly, I found I didn’t want him to see me, even though I was too far away and in shadow.
My nose wrinkled as the scent of creepers wafted over us causing my muscles to tense. Pushing down the nerves that began to dance in my stomach, I looked around trying to figure out where they were. Moaning sounds came from a distance beyond the pool, getting progressively louder as we stood looking at the group. Glancing over at Felicia, she didn’t seem to pay any attention to the sound, and the angels seemed unperturbed too.
“Bob?” I whispered.
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied glancing over at me. “You’re safe.”
“Angel Bob,” an amused voice yelled out from across the pool. “Come on over here with your new plaything.”
Gritting his teeth, Bob flashed the angel a breathtaking smile before taking hold of my hand and making his way over. As we slowly went closer, my nose began to wrinkle as I took in a new scent. The burning smell was the same one that I noticed in the town we were in just a few days ago. The town where Chris had saved me from them by shielding me with his own scent.
The angel eyed me appraisingly as we came to a stop in front of him. His eyes narrowed, and he took a deep breath through his nose, something I barely registered as my mind whirled with thoughts of conversations with Chris and what did, and didn’t, happen when he was around.
The angel began to laugh as he leaned forward looking straight into my eyes. I could sense Bob’s muscles tense, as he tightened his hold on my hand where sweat begin to gather in his palm.
Suddenly, I was hyperaware of this angel who couldn’t take his eyes off of me, a glint of something I’d never seen before in his eyes. It was too simple to call it insanity because it went through that door and completely out the other side of that padded room.
“Fi fi fo fum,” he said quietly watching me intently.
Every muscle on either side of my spine seemed to seize up, and I pushed down a gurgle of fear that threatened to rise into my month. Swallowing carefully, I noticed that his brown irises were rimmed with red. Forcing my muscles to relax, I smiled the best beauty queen smile I could muster.
“Read a lot of Jack in the Beanstalk do you?” I asked, gently tilting my head to the side, and tugging on the end of my veil.
Everyone went silent at my words. The angels at the outskirts of the circle faded even further back into the darkness, while the other women looked at me as if I was insane. My words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity, as my cheeks began to hurt from holding the smile. I took shallow breathes in an attempt to not choke on the cloying burning smell that radiated off of him that was completely at odds with how beautiful he looked. His ebony wings moved lazily back and forth behind him. Focusing on those as I stood there, I watched their graceful arc as if I didn’t have a care in the world.
The angel looked over at Bob before a smile slowly crossed his face, looking for all the world like a cat that just ate a canary. He began to laugh and immediately the others began to laugh with him, Bob smiled as did Felicia and her angel.
“A sassy Daughter of Eve,” the angel said settling back in his chair spreading his wings out on either side of him. “It’s too bad she’s wearing a veil. So many of them,” he gestured dismissively to the women who were in the circle standing in their cocktail dresses and high heels, their hair loose down their backs free from a veil. “Have no, shall I say, joie de vivre.” He steepled his fingers together looking at me consideringly. “Ah well, that is the way it is, no?” He tilted his head to the side, smiling at me before turning to an angel on his left.
Bob relaxed beside me, not letting go of his grip on my hand. The group lightened up too, returning to their chatter and women. Bob leaned over to an angel, whispering something I couldn’t hear as the smell of creepers became more noticeable in the darkness that surrounded the party. Trying not to crane my neck, I looked around to find out where they were when I heard their telltale moaning.
“I guess someone forgot to take out their larynxes,” said an angel standing near Felicia.
“And their tongues,” a voice belonging to someone I couldn’t see replied. “And, the smell,” the voice continued. “Whoever fed them?”
“Someone who obviously didn’t know better,” commented the angel next to Bob.
I tried to keep my face from registering surprise. I didn’t realize that creepers telltale smell went away if they weren’t fed. Of course, I had never run into creepers who hadn’t been fed. I said a silent prayer of thanks that the ones that Cassie and I ran into had fed on something, hopefully not human, because it was my hyper sense of smell that had kept us safe a large part of the time.
Looking over Bob’s shoulder, I saw creepers brought toward individual cages and pushed inside. Edward stood nearby trying not to show his fear as he held the tray of champagne. He walked deceptively fast into the crowd of partygoers making it look like a languid move as he offered champagne here and there. Glancing up he met my gaze, tilting his head to indicate that I should meet him inside before he disappeared in the group.
“I need to ..,” I whispered leaning towards Bob, who immediately nodded in understanding.
“Felicia?” He asked as my stomach sank realizing that he was going to send me with a chaperone.
“Come on,” she said taking my hand and hurrying me towards the hotel. When we stepped into the hotel lobby, I was struck by how quiet it was, with people standing around waiting to serve. Everyone else who was outside was serving.
“They don’t want to go outside if they don’t have too,” Felicia said, glancing at those who stood around trying to look inconspicuous before leading me down a hallway. “There have been accidents,” she whispered her eyes darting around.
“Accidents?” I felt my eyes widen. She nodded.
“Yes, you know with creepers, it wasn’t pretty.”
“I get the picture,” I replied, as we went into the sumptuously decorated bathroom.
As I sat in the stall wondering how I was going to get alone to talk to Edward, I heard a slight whimper from the stall next to me. Bending down, I recognized the silver heels of the slight blond in the blue dress who looked as new as I was to this world of the angels.
“Hey,” I whispered.<
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A sheet of blond hair lowered to the floor near the silver shoes in response.
“Are you okay?” Inwardly I groaned at myself, hoping she wouldn’t too. “I saw you earlier,” I continued in a rush. “I’m new here too.”
“No,” her voice came to me on butterfly wings making my heart clench.
“You know they won’t let you hide in here forever,” I said wondering what they did with the women who didn’t want to come to their party. I shuddered to think that what they would do was only limited by what they could do. As I sat there folded in half my mind hitching on thoughts of what could be done to help the young woman in the stall next to me, my veil slid down into my face. Pushing it out of my eyes, I stood up and rearranged my dress along with the veil. As I carefully smoothed it out down past my waist, an idea came into my mind.
“Come out and wash your face, I have an idea,” I said to the stall wall.
As I washed my hands, she came slowly out of her stall setting her face into lines of bravery as she looked at Felicia and me. Felicia’s eyes narrowed, first at the young woman then at me.
“You don’t have anything to do with this,” I whispered. “Just check the other stalls.”
She surprised me by nodding before she opened every stall door making sure no one was there. Glancing up, I wondered if there were cameras in the bathroom.
“No, that’s why they sent me,” Felicia said following my gaze up to the corners. “But, I don’t want anything to do with this,” her hand flapped towards the young woman. “If they ask me, I don’t know a thing.”
“Okay,” I said shrugging. “What’s your name?” I asked, turning my attention to the girl.
“Becky,” she said her voice stronger than it was before.
“Okay Becky, we’re going to make it so they don’t touch you okay?” I took my veil off and searched for the seam in the center that I knew was there.
“You’d better not just rip it, Bob won’t be happy,” Felicia said, as I started to tug it to rip out the stitches. She grabbed the veil from me, pulled out one of her earrings and began to use the post to carefully break each stich. By the time she was done, the veil was in two perfect pieces. “It’s not going to match, they’ll know,” she said handing me the now two veils.
“That’s not the point,” I said as I carefully laid the veil over Becky’s hair. “They can’t touch us if we have a veil on, right?”
“Right,” Felicia said.
“So, it doesn’t matter what color it is as long as it’s there, right?”
“Yes,” she replied slowly. “Except Bob will get the brunt of it because whoever her angel is will think he’s pushing in.”
“Pushing in?” Becky asked, smoothing the veil down over her hair. A look of relief passed over her features as she looked at herself in the mirror.
“Yeah, you know taking what’s not his.”
Felicia’s words hung for a moment before the main door to the bathroom swung open. We turned in unison to see two unveiled women push through, falling over themselves in their rush to get in. Stopping when they saw us, they stood unsteadily wobbling in their heels, their eyes wide as a wave of alcohol rolled off of them.
“We were just leaving,” said Felicia imperiously before walking out. Becky and I followed in her wake. Just before the door closed I heard one of the women slur something about the veiled thinking they’re so safe, but they’ll get theirs in the end.
“Champagne ladies,” Edward appeared behind us as we made our way slowly down the hallway.
“No thanks,” Felicia waved him off even as he leaned towards me.
“Be ready,” he said, before he took off in front of us.
Looking over, I saw that Becky’s eyes were wide as she absorbed what he said. She stepped closer to me, taking my hand. I clasped hers and smiled reassuringly as we rounded the corner and almost ran into Felicia’s frozen form. Edward was just a foot or so in front of her, both of them were riveted watching the scene that played outside the glass windows that could only be described as something out of Dante’s Inferno.
The random thought that English Literature had actually taught me something worth remembering flitted through my mind along with how proud Mr. Smith would have been that I, an academically unrepentant cheerleader, would have retained something so deep, were forefront in my mind before both of them were caught up in the horror of seeing creepers on fire, strung up in cages like they were torches. Underneath them, figures ran and ducked out of the way as other creepers raged, hungrily biting one person, then another. A server in a white shirt and black bow tie ran for the door only to have a creeper leap on his back and rip at his neck. The hapless server tripped into the window making it shiver as he hit it before the creeper was distracted by yet another warm body. We stood watching as the young man's body began to twitch succumbing to the virus.
Edward moved to the doors to find some way to lock them as I looked around trying to find something I could use as a weapon. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Becky bend down and pull both of her shoes off her feet. She clasped them in both hands, the 4-inch blue spikes pointed at who or whatever came her way.
“Good thinking,” I muttered, pulling my own shoes off and saying a silent thank you to whoever might be listening that there was something I could fight with. Bending down I ripped the skirt of my dress as high as I could so I could move freely as Edward looked back at us.
“I can’t keep this closed,” he said. “Make sure your veils stay in place, they may be what save you, at least from the angels.”
We all nodded. Felicia was trembling as I stepped in front of her and Becky stepped behind her. By this time, the server turned creeper was standing on unsteady legs looking around hungrily when he spotted us through the glass. His mouth dropped open spilling glistening saliva that was only starting to turn into a blackish ooze down his chin and onto his shirt. He stared at us for a moment before throwing his body against the glass and releasing a keening cry that made my spine shiver. He hit the glass, again and again and again until it began to splinter.
“This way,” Edward called out as he made his way down the hallway we had just come from. We ran after him as the sound of crashing glass came from behind us mixed in with the moans of not just one creeper but many. Screams came out of one of the rooms down the hallway as Edward made a sharp left opening the door to a stairwell and gesturing for us to follow. He pushed it shut, only to have it shudder as creepers ran into the other side. I knew that we had a little bit of time until they accidently opened the door by hitting the door lever as we began to make a quick ascent, the lights above us flickering.
“Come on,” he whispered, just as Felicia tripped hitting the steps hard. We all stopped, looking at her prone body and the blood that began to drip off her forehead onto the step. The door went still as if the creepers on the other side sensed the blood, then they began to howl, their moans sounding like they were doubled from before. The door began to shake and buck as they threw themselves against it.
“What do we do?” I whispered.
Edward just looked at me, raising his shoulder slightly.
“We can’t just leave her here,” I said glaring at him.
“We can’t carry her either,” he replied.
Looking back and forth between us with wide eyes, Becky took a deep breath before bending down and shaking Felicia, who moved slightly.
“Come on,” she said to Felicia. “You’ve got to get up, none of us can carry you, and if we drag you you’ll start bleeding even more and then that’ll leave a trail…” her words dropped off as all of knew what that would mean.
Felicia’s eyes opened looking a little dazed as she put her hand to her forehead. “Please don’t leave me,” she whispered. “I can’t,” she shuddered and glanced down the stairs at the door. It went suddenly quiet on the other side as the door latch twitched a little.
My stomach dropped. Shaking my head a little, I tried to dislodge the thought that
somehow one of them was smart enough to figure out the door latch. As it wiggled again, thoughts of my aunt and the creeper on the rooftop that knew enough to come at me where Bob couldn’t see rose in my mind. As I watched the latch wiggle down a little further, I silently asked whoever might be upstairs in this hell we were living in that the creepers weren’t somehow morphing and using their brains instead of being mindless bodies looking for their next meal.
“Can you get up?” Edward’s hiss brought my mind back to the right now, and how we were going to manage Felicia.
Felicia tried to stand, but her head wobbled and her body slid down the wall as soon as she pulled herself halfway up. We watched as the creepers pounding was becoming more insistent. Finally, Becky and I helped her stand as I realized she still had her heels on.
“These may be the problem,” I said as I took them off of her and handed them to Edward. “You can use these, just in case.”
“Wicked,” he said with a tight smile looking at the points on the heels. “I’ll take the rear. We just have to get to the third floor, which should be safe for now.”
I had no idea why the third floor was safe, but I had to assume he did. I could see by looking at Becky that she wasn’t fully convinced either as we each took Felicia arms around our shoulders and began to make our way up the steps. Each step was arduous even as she tried to help us. By the time we got to the door with a large 3 written on it the door downstairs sounded like it was going to rip off its hinges. Felicia could carry more of her weight and seemed more coherent, although she kept mumbling about finding her angel and how he would protect her. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the thought of any angel coming to anyone’s rescue.
“You hold her,” I said to Becky, who stood solidly as I carefully put all of Felicia’s weight that I was carrying onto to her. She grimaced slightly but didn’t move.