The Last Angel

by Jon Jacks

  Chrissy leant across the back seat, reaching out a hand to wake Si.

  ‘Leave him, Chrissy,’ Jial said, raising her own arm to block Chrissy’s move. ‘It’s best if he stays asleep. Waking him won’t help: trust me.’

  ‘But Emma–’

  Jial shook her head.

  ‘I’m sorry about Emma, and her parents, Chrissy. But we need to stop arguing. And we need to help the officers by looking out through the windows for anything unusual. Especially when we reach town.’

  ‘Anything unusual? Like what, Jial? What’s happening?’

  ‘I’m sorry Chrissy, but I’m really not allowed to explain.’ She briefly looked Si’s way. ‘But I think I know a way to help Si: and this might be the only chance I’ve got to arrange it. So I have to go for a while.’

  ‘Go? But Jial–’

  Chrissy reached out to stop Jial. But it was too late.

  Jial had vanished again.

  *

  At first, after the almost complete darkness of the surrounding desert, the edge of town seemed strangely, ridiculously bright, with its street lamps and randomly lit office and house windows.

  This was just a first impression, however. It soon became obvious that, beyond the globes of light, most of the town was actually poorly lit. It was an indistinct and formless mass of dark greys, while many areas remained shrouded in deep, impenetrable shadows.

  It was into these dark and dimmer areas that the officers edgily peered, slowing the car down to a crawl. They studied each area carefully before moving on.

  ‘What is it exactly that we’re looking for?’ Chrissy asked.

  She had been fooled a number of times into thinking she’d seen something, only to realise it was nothing more than a change of light and shadows.

  ‘Your angel hasn’t told you?’

  ‘Where are the angels?’

  Both officers sounded incredulous, anxious – terrified.

  ‘The tracking must be off,’ the officer holding the gun said in answer to the driver’s query.

  Chrissy frowned in puzzlement. Why were the officers expecting there to be angels around when, for the moment, the whole town seemed to be deserted?

  She hadn’t seen anyone out on the streets. Of course, no boy or girl would be out at this time. However, it was well known that their parents and other adults would normally be out until reasonably late, either in the bars, restaurants or the movie theatre.

  Moreover, how did the officers know for sure that there weren’t any angels around when, being adults, they wouldn’t be able to see them?

  ‘So, what am I looking for?’ Chrissy asked once more, peering as intently as she could into the darker areas.

  ‘You’ll know it when you see it! Believe me, you’ll–’

  There was a booming thud, a screech of agonised, shattering metal.

  The car’s rear lurched wildly upwards, catapulting Chrissy up out of her seat. She painfully struck the ceiling.

  To the sound of splintering glass, the officer in front of her was suddenly whipped away from her. His body shredded around its edges as it seemed to shoot out through the broken windshield.

  A dark, massive shape was crouching on the hood, effortlessly holding the quivering, shrieking officer in one hand. With a relieved groan from the car, it leapt into the air, so quickly it almost seemed to simply vanish. It landed on the other side of the road. Then, in an effortlessly lithe, bounding lope, it rushed down the street, dragging the unfortunate officer along with it.

  ‘What…what was that?’

  Chrissy was terrified. But the motionless, wide-eyed driver appeared to be even more petrified than she was.

  ‘Oh God, oh dear God no!’ he muttered in a daze, more to himself than Chrissy. ‘It was a chiasmus!’

  *

  Chapter 26

  The driver shook his head, like someone trying to wake up from an overpowering sleep: to pull themselves together, to focus on what was really going on around them.

  ‘Stay here,’ he commanded brusquely, looking back over his shoulder at Chrissy as he leant across the front seats.

  With one hand, he reached out through the shattered windshield for the butt of the gun his partner had dropped on the car’s hood. With his other, he tried the controls of the radio. There was only a vain hope that the mangled mass of crushed plastic and loose wires might still be capable of transmitting a call for help.

  ‘What…what if it comes back?’ Chrissy asked unsurely.

  ‘Don’t worry: your angel should be able to give you some sort of warning or even help.’

  The officer slipped out of the car’s door before Chrissy had the chance to tell him Jial had vanished.

  ‘But my angel–’

  Her desperate cry was cut off by the slam of the door swinging shut behind the officer. He set off in a sprint, resolutely clutching the gun before him. He headed down the street in pursuit of the monster, obviously determined to rescue his friend despite his fear.

  ‘What the heck was that?’

  Wide eyed, and with his hands still uncomfortably fixed to the overhead bar, Si looked Chrissy’s way.

  ‘You’re awake? Why didn’t you let me know?’

  Chrissy was furious that he’d pretended to sleep through such a terrifying attack.

  ‘Course I’m awake! How could anyone sleep through that? But those cops were nervous enough to kill me before all this happened. I felt sure they’d bump me off after that thing had attacked us!’

  ‘Now we know why they were nervous!’ Once again, she unfairly took out her fear and confusion on him. ‘We need our angels to protect us from those things, whatever they are! That’s why Emma was killed, and her mom and dad along with her too!’

  ‘How’d you figure that? It didn’t seem to be after me! I’m still here – oh, talking of that, how about helping me out of here?’

  Si had noticed that, along with his gun, the unfortunate officer dragged off by the beast had also dropped his bunch of keys. Or, rather, as he’d been pulled through the splintered hole, his belt had shredded. A section had been left hanging across the dashboard.

  With a nod of his head, Si indicated the hanging keys to Chrissy. She leant across between the gap in the front seat, reaching for the keys

  ‘I don’t know how it works, do I? Perhaps not having an angel draws the monster your way. But then it just takes whoever’s nearest to it!’

  Easily retrieving the keys from a loop on the belt, Chrissy slipped back into her seat. Turning Si’s way, she tried to work out which key would unlock the handcuffs.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ she said abruptly, remembering the officer’s order. ‘We’re supposed to stay here!’

  ‘Ohh, and what if you’re right? And that thing does come back for me?’

  *

  They would have preferred to choose a completely different direction to that taken by the beast. However, they agreed that the nearest, safest place for them was Chrissy’s, and so they ran zigzag style through the streets.

  They moved quickly, quietly, constantly watching out for any movement.

  ‘Wait, wait!’ Si urgently hissed. Grabbing hold of Chrissy’s arm, he pulled her to a halt and into a crouch. ‘If the beast is after me, I’ll be drawing it towards your parents – and towards you, if you stay with me! I need to leave you: to head off somewhere on my own!’

  Chrissy hesitantly bit her lip.

  ‘No, no: I’ll stay with you,’ she declared, taking his hand in hers. ‘But yes, we need somewhere other than my hou–’

  His eyes wide in warning, Si placed a finger against her lips to stop her talking. He nodded his head, an indication that he’d seen something over her shoulder and she should turn around.

  Dreading what she might see, Chrissy slowly turned. The street seemed thankfully empty, silent, peaceful. It was even pretty, with tall, globular street lamps casting their orbs of light over small clumps of bushes planted along wide kerbs.

  Si
pointed towards one of the larger clusters of bushes, one more heavily-shadowed than most of the others.

  The shadows shifted, moved.

  Against an aura of dim light, first a head showed itself, then the angular crock of an arm.

  But it was smaller than the beast. And as it briefly moved more into the light, it was revealed to be nervously clutching a rifle.

  It was the police officer. Squatting behind the bush, he uneasily peered around it. He was looking towards the minute garden fronting an office block, but set back from the kerb.

  At first, Chrissy couldn’t understand his interest in the garden. But then, as before, the shadows beneath a weeping willow stirred, flowed, and took on a new form.

  It was human.

  Standing up beneath the spreading branches, the man shivered.

  Then he danced, bizarrely, like a loose-limbed puppet. His feet were hovering above the floor.

  He limply crumpled to the ground.

  The shadows swept across him, this time massive and impenetrably dark.

  And this time it was the beast.

  *

  Chapter 27

  ‘Die, die, die, die, die!’

  Screaming to give himself courage, the police officer at last emerged from behind the cover of the bush. As he charged towards the beast feeding on his friend, he levelled and fired the huge gun.

  Two, three, four thunderous blasts completely shredded the shrouding branches of willow. Blood, flesh and muscle splattered like red rain into the light. Some of this was human, one of the powerful blasts accidently striking what remained of the body lying on the floor and sending it hurtling into the air.

  The beast roared. He spun around to face the still oncoming officer.

  He burst from beneath the willow, rushing out into the light.

  Both Chrissy and Si gasped in horror and fright.

  Perhaps part gorilla, part rhinoceros, it was massive and immensely muscled. It could have been a primeval version of a bear, transported here from an age when giants ruled the Earth.

  It moved shockingly swiftly, taking the charging officer by surprise. With the swing of a huge arm it brutally batted him aside, knocking him high off the ground. It sent him bowling into nearby bushes, his gun whirling uselessly into the air.

  Spinning on its heels, the beast bounded towards the bushes. It raised an arm in readiness to smash down once more – then abruptly slewed to a halt, freezing in mid-strike as it gawped skywards.

  It was suddenly surrounded by a flickering light, as if caught in the edges of a helicopter’s probing searchlight. High above, however, up to where the beast was gaping in wonder, the light was stronger still, a blaze of gold and silver.

  The beast appeared to be hypnotised by the blinding light. He was unable to drag his eyes away from the swirling sphere of flame even as it rapidly descended, growing in size and power like a falling star.

  The fiery orb swooped down towards the beast, in an instant briefly enveloping it completely. A shaft of the brightest, most blinding light struck it hard in the chest, penetrating the thick flesh so deeply that the light emerged laser-like from the beast’s back.

  Reeling back from the tremendous force of the blow, the beast howled in agony. It clutched at the glowing, deeply embedded lance as if amazed by its sudden appearance.

  Unhindered in any way, the glowing light continued on its swooping course. In its midst, a golden armoured, mounted knight raised his hand as he released his lance. Rising slightly up into the air, the knight halted and spun his horse around in a fluid swirl of expanding, dispersing metallic light.

  He drew his sword and, with a flap of his huge wings, urged his horse into the attack once more.

  ‘Saint Michial!’ Chrissy and Si both breathed at once in awe.

  *

  Chapter 28

  The beast stumbled, unbalanced by the weight of the lance. It should, of course, have fallen, should be swiftly dying if not already dead.

  Instead, it angrily grasped the lance spearing its chest and, with a single wrench of its massive, powerful arms, snapped the shaft in two. Then, rather than casting the broken piece aside, the beast took it with both hands and swung it like a club at the swiftly oncoming angel.

  Saint Michial and his mount passed through the swinging club as if it didn’t actually exist. Yet when the knight swung down with his own weapon, the bewildered beast gave an anguished roar, the sword striking it hard across a shoulder.

  The knight brought his horse to a halt. Whirling her around, with an urgent clenching of his knees he sent her charging towards the beast once more.

  Throwing aside its useless club, the beast spun around with surprising agility, despite the still encumbering lance lodged in its back. It fearlessly leapt straight towards the onrushing knight, reaching out with immense hands and bared claws at the horse’s neck.

  This time, the knight and his mount didn’t pass through the beast’s attack unharmed. All three collided with a tremendous jolt. The beast’s hands grabbed at the horse’s throat and the back of its neck, threating to slash open a vein, or effortlessly cleanly snap away vertebrae and bones.

  The horse reared and whinnied in terror, trying to back away with a panicked flurry of its own vast wings. Yet the beast clung on, snarling as if readying to take a bite out of the poor creature’s throat.

  The knight calmly stood up high in his stirrups. He leant forward in his saddle – and brought his sword down hard in one straight, direct plunge into the top of the beast’s head.

  The beast fell back, howling, the sword protruding from the top of its head. Reaching high above its crown, the beast clutched at the blade. It wildly tugged at the sword in a desperate, fruitless effort to either shatter it or withdraw it.

  A flame burst from St Michial’s hand, transforming immediately into another glistening sword. Spurring his mount forwards, he slashed down again and again at the frenziedly whirling beast, who was now lashing out only aimlessly and weakly.

  At last, the beast’s legs began to crumple. He staggered, sagged – then dropped with a loud thud to the floor.

  Stilling his horse, the knight observed the beast closely, warily, as if even now there might still be signs of life. He ignored the rustling of the bushes behind him, as if fully aware that it was only the police officer who had previously been flung there by the now dying beast. Still entangled amongst the branches, the officer managed to sit up slightly, raising his head and shaking it as if in a daze.

  He jerked in fear as he saw the beast on the floor, vainly attempting to scramble back through the bush as he abruptly recalled how he had ended up here. Then he relaxed, slumping back into the bushes in relief, realising the beast wasn’t moving.

  St Michial similarly seemed to decide that the beast was finally dead.

  He raised his sword in front of his face in a salute to his vanquished foe – and then both he and his winged mount instantly vanished.

  *

  ‘How many more of these things do you think there are around us?’

  Si nervously glanced into every darkened corner as he and Chrissy ran down the streets once more.

  ‘Surely that’s the only one,’ Chrissy gasped breathlessly. ‘Besides, it seems like the angels can take care of them, whatever they are.’

  From somewhere ahead of them, the crack of a gunshot rang out, echoing down the surrounding streets. Another crack followed, then another.

  Si and Chrissy slewed to a halt. They instinctively reached out towards each other, tightly grasping each other’s hand.

  As the crack of the shots finished reverberating around the various buildings, the sound was replaced by the growl of heavy engines, the clank and thud of swiftly moving large vehicles.

  Rapidly flowing cones of light lit up the streets stretching out before Chrissy and Si. Then, suddenly, a convoy of covered trucks roared across a junction lying far ahead of them.

  The column vanished into the streets once more, t
he haphazardly illuminating headlights briefly flickering against building tops and roofs as the growls and clunking quickly faded.

  ‘They weren’t coming from your mom and dad’s street.’ Si gave Chrissy’s hand a reassuring clench. ‘The shots or the trucks,’ he added for clarification.

  ‘No, but they were pretty close.’

  Chrissy bit her lip apprehensively. She fleetingly glanced Si’s way, trading looks with him that were both anxious and yet defiantly assured. They had both come to the same decision in regards to what they had to do.

  ‘Come on!’ Chrissy yelled, dragging Si along with her into a frantic sprint. ‘We have to make sure Mom and Dad’s okay!’

  *

  Chapter 29

  The lights from the row of assembled trucks created a dome of gradually paling light above the street. Even so, most of the gardens and houses were dark. The interior lights of the few homes that were still lit were all being rapidly switched off.

  Chrissy’s home was one of those that were already enveloped in darkness.

  She and Si had halted at the end of the street, hiding in the deep shadows of a high hedge. They watched as armed police officers edgily escorted people from the houses to the covered trucks.

  Every adult seemed to be carrying a large rifle. Some had joined the police, standing guard around the waiting trucks rather than boarding them.

  Even in the poor light, Chrissy thought she could recognise some of her friends – Mary Pickers from the end of the street, Victor Grange from just a few doors down – as they clambered into the back of the trucks. She thought, too, that she could see bewilderment and hesitation on their faces, until their parents seemed to persuade them that they needed to quickly get on board.

  Suddenly, harsh cries rang out from the porchway of the Burfords’ house.

  Chrissy had to stop herself from gasping out in surprise as Tom Burford and his parents were abruptly surrounded by officers aggressively levelling guns at each of their heads. There was a chaotic scuffle and anguished yells of protest. The Burfords had their own weapons deftly snatched out of their hands.