by Alex Apostol
“This is that guy’s doing isn’t it?” he asked me, raising his voice slightly. “He’s got you thinking all these crazy things so that you’ll feel obligated to stay with him or something, is that it?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could Don even think I would be stupid enough to fall for someone’s tricks like that? I had proof I was out of the ordinary.
“Sari would never do that to me,” I defended, raising my voice to match his. “What he told me is true.”
“Yea?” he asked, not trying to hide his sarcastic undertone. “And what’d he tell you?”
“That my real father was an angel which makes me half,” I answered, lowering my voice halfway through the sentence.
Saying it out loud did sound a little crazy to me, but there was no way I could keep this secret from everyone I loved. Don was the closest thing I had to family, except for Cara, and I wasn’t going to take them for granted. If something were ever to happen to Don and he died without knowing who I really was, I would never be able to forgive myself.
“And how do you know this is true?” he asked after a long pause.
Don glanced at me out of the corner of his eye as if he were unsure he wanted to know the answer to his own question. What would be most convincing and impressive way to prove my point? The fact that I can travel anywhere in the world without ever leaving my hotel room, or that I can actually kill a demon and have the victim survive? Any example should be more than enough proof.
“I’ve done things…things normal people aren’t capable of,” I started off.
He glanced over at me again. His eyes widened, asking me for more information.
“I’ve traveled the country and found evil just by closing my eyes. I can see things happening inside my head. I stopped a soul sucking spirit with the touch of my hand…I killed a demon who was possessing a girl…actually killed it and the girl lived!” I said, the elevation of my voice escalating.
Don just stared at me, forgetting that he was driving at night on a dark highway. The honk of someone else’s horn as he crept over into their lane brought him back to what he was doing.
“What else can you do?” he asked, trying to hold back a tiny grin of excitement.
“You don’t think differently of me?” I questioned, double checking I hadn’t gone from a hunter to hunted for being different.
Don was the one who taught me to discriminate against the unnatural. He always said no matter what it is, even if it appeared to be good, do not trust it if it wasn’t entirely human. I thought for sure when he found out about me it would be the end of my little tight-knit family. I pictured him dropping me on the side of the road and speeding off while his tires squealed. The actuality of being abandoned on the side of the road wouldn’t bother me as much as the emotional abandonment from someone I cared so deeply for.
To my extreme dismay, the truck began to slow down as it cautiously swerved off the road and onto the shoulder. Don put his car in park and turned to look at me, his eyes full of disappointment and anger.
“Don’t you ever think for one minute that I could ever hate you for being you,” Don said, narrowing his eyes.
I looked away from him and stared out the window as I thought about the strong statement he had just declared. I turned back and smiled, leaning over to give him a long, tight squeeze. I was so relieved to hear that he wasn’t going to turn me away and forget all about me because of this.
“You will always be my sweet Kamlyn. Nothing can change that. It’s your core…it’s who you are,” he muffled into my shoulder as we hugged.
Once we loosened our grip on each other, Don smiled at me mischievously.
“So, show me something,” he demanded.
There was only one thing I could think of that would really show off just how amazing my abilities could be. I had only done it once successfully while held up in the hotel room practicing with Sari. He had warned me it was dangerous and should only be done when absolutely necessary. I debated this for a moment before grinning back at Don.
“Okay, watch this!”
I closed my eyes and thought about the back of Don’s station wagon. I cleared everything else out of my head and pictured myself standing next to it instead of sitting in the passenger seat. I felt as if I were as light as air, drifting through the breeze before feeling my feet land on the cold hard pavement.
“Oh wow!” I heard Don exclaim from inside the car as he looked around.
I walked over to the driver side window, knocking a few times to get his attention. He rolled down the window and stared at me with his mouth wide open. I felt exhilarated, as if I had just been somewhere no one else had ever discovered before.
“I can’t believe it!” he yelled as he stared at me.
I ran back over to the passenger side and climbed into the warm car. I shook the water from my hair, letting it splash Don a little.
“They call us Earth angels apparently and I am the last of our kind,” I said, now enthusiastic about giving Don all the information I could.
I suddenly couldn’t wait to get back home and tell Cara all about me as well. If anyone was going to truly appreciate this, it was going to be Cara.
“Who’s your real father then?” Don asked, bringing me back to reality and the one question I was constantly asking myself.
“Sari said he has to be a fallen angel too because they were the only ones to have had relations with humans, but he hasn’t figured out who it is yet,” I admitted.
“Why doesn’t he ask some of his other angel buddies and see if any of them know which one could be your father?” Don asked innocently.
It was the same question I used to ask. If the watchers weren’t trying so desperately to be invited back home then I could easily figure out who my real father was. It was the possible imminent death in revealing what I was to them that was stopping this from happening. I looked at Don and all the excitement and joy that now filled his usually tired face and wondered if I should tell him about the dangers I could be facing if I was figured out.
“The thing is…my existence threatens the watcher’s chances of being accepted back in and if they found out who I was they would…” I stammered, trying to be blunt and to the point. “They would kill me.”
Don was strong. I knew he could handle anything, including what I had to say. But as I stared into his wrinkled eyes that were now filling with tears, I doubted my decision to tell him anything at all. I had never seen him react this way.
“And Sari knows this? What if he tells them?” he started to ramble as the panic built up in his voice. “How do you know he’s not going to just give you up and…?”
“Don, stop,” I interjected before he could throw out another accusation. “Sari and I love each other and once this Lamia thing is over with and I quit hunting for good, he is going to cut his ties with them and stay with me. We’re going to be fine. No one is going to find out.”
I felt like an eighteen year old telling her father she was moving out of the house to go live with her boyfriend. Instead of arguing with me further, he accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do about me and Sari. He lowered his gaze to his tightly clenched hands on the steering wheel and took a few deep breaths.
“If that’s the case I want you to quit now,” he whispered, but his voice had an underlying determination.
“What? Are you serious? I can’t quit now. I’m this close to finding Lamia and destroying her,” I said in an uproar, not sure how the conversation even took this turn.
“If you’ll be safe once you quit then I want you to quit now. I’ll take care of Lamia. You and Sari should go now and find a safe place,” he begged, his eyes wide and pleading.
“You know I can’t do that, Don…”
He heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
“Yea, I know…”
I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to console his fears of me being hurt or killed. I knew no matter what, he was going to
worry about me but it killed me to see how much this was hurting him.
“I’ll be alright,” I promised him.
I knew he wasn’t convinced. His eyes remained closed as he continued to take deep breaths to settle his nerves.
“Kamlyn, what’s going on? Are you two alright?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of Sari standing next to my window. I opened my door and invited him into my seat as I scooted over to the middle next to Don.
“I told you not to transfer yourself unless you absolutely had to,” Sari said, looking at me with a stone cold face.
“I did have to,” I tried to explain. “Don needed to see what I could do so he knew I was serious about what I was.”
Sari smiled at me despite his efforts to fight it.
“You’re going to kill me with all this worrying, you know that right?” he laughed as he leaned in to kiss me on the forehead.
“I know what you mean,” Don chimed in, putting the car into drive. “Are you joining us now?” he asked Sari, not seeming pleased with the idea of spending hours in the car with the two of us.
“Look, Don…I know you don’t completely trust me and you’re not too thrilled with the fact that I’m with Kamlyn, but we are together and that’s not going to change,” Sari responded in a matter-of-fact tone.
Don turned to look Sari in the eye, his own burning with fury.
“How do you know how I feel about you? Were you spying on us? Listening to our conversations?” Don challenged, taking no note that I was caught in the middle of them. “How can you trust someone that spies on your every move, Kamlyn? He’s bad news!”
“That’s it!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Stop questioning Sari because everything he has ever done has been to protect me. You should be thanking him, not arguing with him!”
Don let what I say sink in and lowered his gaze in shame. He knew I was right; he was just too stubborn to admit it openly. Sari smiled at his victory, like a younger brother reveling in his older brother’s punishment.
“And you!” I turned my gaze to Sari to continue the scolding. “Stop challenging Don and start getting along with him because he will always be a part of my life. Get used to it.”
I lowered my voice when I saw a wounded look overtake Sari’s once smiling face. It was hard for me to stay mad at him, no matter how angry I started out.
“I’ll accept you two are together now,” Don stepped up, as if wanting to show he was the bigger man. “But if you ever hurt her in any way, trust me, you will regret it.”
I glared at him, silently reminding him of what I had just said. He cracked a wide, slightly fake smile to show he was willing to play ball.
“Let’s get this show on the road then,” he said in a pleasant voice as he drove away from the shoulder and onto the road again.
The sun was beginning to make its first appearance before us as the snow started to let up. It would only be a few hours before I was in the same city as Lamia. The thought of being so close to her made my whole body tingle from a mixture of nerves and excitement. I looked over at Sari who was pretending to sleep so he wouldn’t have to make any more conversation with Don the rest of the way. I thought about the risks I would be taking by challenging a powerful demon goddess. I knew the odds of me coming out alive. They were not good, to say the least. I was inexperienced with my abilities and far too emotionally invested, but I felt there was no one else who could do it. It had to be me.
I leaned my head against Sari’s chest as he put his arm around me, pulling me in closer. His smell stimulated the memory of our first kiss. I nuzzled my nose deeper into his chest, wanting to take in as much of him as I could. His thick, long sleeved shirt cushioned my head as it moved up and down with his deep soft breaths. I closed my eyes, letting his rhythmic breathing carry me swiftly to sleep.
*
“Hi, baby boy,” I greeted as Danny emerged from behind the double swinging doors of his old elementary school.
“Hi, mommy! Look what I did today!” he smiled as he handed me a finger painting.
“That’s great, sweetheart,” I said, causing a proud grin to take over his face. “Is this us?”
“Yep,” he answered, pointing to the picture. “That’s me, that’s you…and that’s the lady.”
A dark figure stood in the distance behind a happy colorful stick figure of me and Danny. It was Lamia, watching….waiting.
“Are you still going to stop her, mommy?” Danny asked, questioning my memory of the promise I’d made him.
“Of course I am. I’m on my way right now to do it, so don’t you worry okay?”
I smiled at him and picked him up in my arms. I squeezed him tightly to me and spun him around. His high-pitched giggles filled my head and echoed throughout the parking lot of the school. I set him down and immediately he attached himself to my leg, not showing any signs of letting go.
“I’m going to miss you, mommy,” he said, hugging my leg tighter.
I pulled him from my body and knelt down to his eye level, confused by what he had just said.
“What do you mean, Danny?”
He took one of his little hands and brushed a piece of my hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear and smiled. It never ceased to amaze me how different he was from other children; more of a little adult than a child.
“Once she’s gone, I’ll finally be allowed to nap,” he said, smiling.
I knew exactly what he meant by this. Once Lamia was destroyed, Danny would be free to move on and I would never see him again. I hugged him tightly, tears streaming down my face. I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.
“I love you,” I said as the vision of my dream faded away and I woke up.
16
“However short or long our lives are going to be, I will live in you or you will live in me…until we disappear together in a dream.”
– Wilco
I blinked several times to clear the sleep from my eyes. Sari still had his arm around me while the fingers of his other hand ran through my hair. I sat up and looked out the window just as we pulled into the jam-packed parking lot of a busy college campus. There were thousands of students it seemed, walking from one tall building to another, backpacks thrown over one shoulder as they rushed to their next class. How was I supposed to find Lamia in this mess? Dive right on in and just do it, like everything else of course. What other choice did I have?
“Looks like Sleeping Beauty is finally awake,” Don laughed to Sari as he parked the car in the only available spot he could find.
I was glad to see the two of them were on speaking terms at least. Now for the hard part…there was no time to waste.
“Don, I don’t want you to get upset or fight me on this,” I began hesitantly. “But I don’t want you to come with me to find Lamia.”
He was looking at me in response just as I thought he would; a shocked face masked by a stern ‘are you crazy’ glare.
“It’s just…she’s very dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you and I feel it’s something I have to do on my own,” I rambled all my reasons off as I tried to clear the look on his face.
After a minute of silence and consideration, Don turned to me with heavy eyes, as if agreeing out loud would have been too much for him to handle. I knew he had given in, though. I wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. Who knows if I’d ever see him again after this. I wanted to make sure there were no regrets in our possible goodbye.
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me. You mean so much to me, you have no idea…” I breathed into the collar of his shirt.
I could hear little sniffles in my ear as Don tried his best to fight back the tears. Unable to speak, he held onto me tightly. We parted slowly as I smiled at him through misty eyes. Sari opened the door and we both got out of the car. The engine rumbled softly as Don started it up and backed out of the parking space. I watched as he drove away until I couldn’t see
him anymore. I hoped this ended well so I could see Don again. I knew if I didn’t return it would tear him apart. He’d had enough pain in his life.
Sari took my hand in his as we walked forward into the jungle of campus life. We strolled hand in hand, keeping our eyes and ears open for any possible lead on who Lamia could be posing as. She could have disguised herself as any of the girls there; the stressed red-head running past us because she was late for a class, the flirty leggy blonde leaning on the bike rack as she chatted up a few boys at once, the hippie chick sitting under a tree while reading an anti-political book for pleasure. I didn’t know what tell tale trait was going to give her away, but I knew there was going to be one and I had to keep myself alert.
In the midst of all the gray institutional buildings was a small center of different food and beverage vendors. I walked up to a coffee stand and ordered the largest hot coffee they had, asking for extra cream to make it sweeter. Sari and I sat down at a wrought iron table for two and scanned the crowd of students and faculty coming in and out of the large outdoor lounge. As I watched a young couple sit together and attempt to study as they giggled and smiled at each other, I felt a twinge of envy. Their lives were so simple and normal. They would finish college with a degree, go on to work in their chosen profession, get married, have kids, watch those kids grow up… I couldn’t help but feel like no matter how hard I tried, normal would never be an option for me again. I wished I could be sitting across from Sari as we were right then, but instead of watching people pass by in hopes of finding a demon goddess, we could be discussing a reading assignment for an interesting sociology class or something. I could feel Sari’s eyes on me as I let my mind carry me away to another life just out of my reach.
“I know you feel like you missed out, but you’re wrong, Kamlyn,” Sari said, putting his hand on top of mine. “You’re not out there searching, trying to find out who you are…you already know.”
I let Sari’s voice pull me back to reality as I focused on his warm, loving eyes.