Bound Angel Bound Demon

by Claire Spoors

  Alex could see the tension in him. Harry knelt down in front of Alex. There was blood on his T-shirt.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Harry smiled at her, “Always concerned Alex, Gary doesn’t deserve someone like you,” said Harry, his voice full of hatred.

  “Whose blood is that?” she was concerned now, she could see Harry hadn’t been cut.

  “Not to worry Alex, Gary is fine for now, but he’ll soon find out what it’s like to have something taken away from him.” Harry stroked Alex’s cheek and she tried to turn away, but the ropes stopped her.

  “Come on Alex, I thought we were friends,” Harry began to laugh and then he grabbed her face and kissed her hard.

  “Get off Harry, Gary will be back soon.”

  “I’m planning on it,” Harry moved behind Alex and held the rope and pulled her back towards him. Harry whispered in her ear, “I hope he comes soon, I wouldn’t want him to miss a thing.”

  Alex tried to jerk away from him but she knew it was no good. “Why are you doing this Harry, what have I done to you?” asked Alex trying to buy time.

  “I will explain once our little party is complete,” said Harry.

  The door opened and Gary stood on the threshold of the room.

  “Get away from her now,” shouted Gary as he took a step inside the room towards Harry and Alex.

  “Come on Gary, now why would I do that?” Harry laughed at the panic showing in Gary’s face, this was just what he wanted. Gary took another step closer.

  “Stay right there and don’t come any closer,” screamed Harry. Alex felt something sharp near her stomach, she cried out, panic began to set in, she looked desperately at Gary.

  “Put the knife down, we don’t need Alex to be involved. You and I can talk this over,” pleaded Gary.

  “I don’t think I will do that just yet Gary, we need to talk, I need you to understand”, said Harry.

  “What do you need me to understand?” asked Gary, all the while trying to remain calm.

  “You don’t know what you’ve done to me at all, do you?” said Harry.

  “You’re talking crap Harry, I’d never met you until that day in the bar with Alex and then again here, you’re not making sense,” Gary said trying not to raise his voice.

  “Now you’re pissing me off, you ruined my life, you asshole. You took the one precious thing I had and now I’m going to show you what it feels like.” Harry pushed the knife a little further into Alex, not too far to cause too much bleeding, but more than enough to make Alex scream.

  “Stop, stop, make me understand, but please just stop,” Gary pleaded.

  Harry now had full control, “You took Tracey from me,” he said.

  “Tracey, what the girl you just beat up?” said Gary. “I didn’t take Tracey, you’ve got the wrong guy.”

  “You did, you got her hooked on this dirty sex den. You used her and took her away from me, you played with her mind and made her leave me. Gary you took her away,” shouted Harry.

  “Harry, or Nathan, whatever your name is; it wasn’t me. Tracey came here out of her own free will, she came with Ray, not me,” Gary took another step closer.

  Alex was whimpering with pain.

  “Please Harry, please just untie her and let her go and we can sit and talk this through,” Gary begged.

  “I don’t care if it was you or Ray or whoever, this club stole Tracey from me and you’re going to pay,” shouted Harry and pushed the knife deeper into Alex’s flesh.

  “Stop! Please!” screamed Alex, blood was drenching the ropes that bound her as Harry slid his knife into her.

  Suddenly Briggs and Ray were at the door, Briggs pointed a gun at Harry.

  “Drop the knife,” Briggs demanded. Harry just laughed. He pushed the knife into Alex right up to the hilt, let her fall to the floor, and with one swift move, he slit his own throat.

  Alex lay motionless, Gary ran to her and lifted her up, blood streamed everywhere. Ray came and untied the rope and threw it across the room. He took off his shirt and put pressure on Alex’s stomach wound, the shirt was soaked red within seconds. Gary took hold of the shirt and pushed harder.

  “Don’t you leave me Alex, stay with me,” Gary begged, tears streaming down his face.

  “I’ll get an ambulance,” Ray said.

  Briggs surveyed the scene of carnage. “It’s time to call in a favour from some of our clients to help with this mess. We need to keep this out of the papers. I am going to talk to a couple of the big dogs in the other rooms so we can use our friends on the police to make this go away without too much fuss,” Briggs said and left the room.

  “The ambulance is on its way,” Ray said, and picked up a blanket and covered Harry.

  He went back over to Gary, who was holding Alex tight. “Keep talking to her Gary,” Ray said.

  “Alex baby, please open your eyes, let me see your eyes,” Gary said softly and calmly. Alex opened her eyes, she looked at Gary and smiled up at him. “That’s it, you will be fine, just stay awake!” said Gary trying not to cry.

  “It’s ok Gary, I’m fine I can’t feel any pain, I’m just tired that’s all, it will be ok, we are meant to be together forever, never forget that,” she said in a strange low whisper.

  Gary leant down and kissed her on the lips, Alex closed her eyes again.

  Only minutes passed before the ambulance arrived, but they felt like hours. Ray followed in the van and they were soon rushing to the hospital.

  Gary watched helplessly as the paramedics in the back of the ambulance attached tubes and wires all over her. He prayed she would be ok.

  They arrived at the hospital and Alex was rushed straight into surgery. All Gary could do was wait.

  Part IV: Bound

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Now starts the next part of Alex’s journey. One minute she was lying on the operating table looking up at the ceiling, the next she was looking down. She watched as the doctors and nurses rushed around her. She wanted to tell them it was all over and that they could stop.

  She could feel a pull, not pulling her back to her body, but upwards, though something in her mind was telling her she needed to stay.

  She was floating, everything went black and then she was with Marie in her little back room watching her doing a spell of some kind. Marie stopped and looked at her and began to cry.

  “I’m sorry I was too late”, Marie said and came towards her.

  Alex reached out to hold her and stop her from crying but something weird happened. Alex passed right through her.

  “What’s happened to me?” She couldn’t hear her voice but Marie seemed to understand.

  “I’m sorry, but the hospital couldn’t save you,” answered Marie.

  Alex shook her head, it couldn’t be true, but a part of her knew it must be as why else would she have been there, wait, how come she was here?

  “I know, I was thinking the same thing,” said Marie. “It must be the spell I was just doing, I had another vision showing me you were hurt, I knew I would be too late to stop this from happening, so I put all my efforts into trying to save you, but I failed, but somehow it has brought your spirit to me. You should have passed over to the other side,” said Marie and then she started turning the pages in one of her books.

  “It’s the spell I cast to keep you and Gary together forever. That’s why you’re still here, the spell must have worked in a way. Even in death you will never be apart,” Marie sank onto the sofa.

  All Alex could do was watch, she wasn’t sure how or what to do next, this was something she knew she was going to have to learn to live with.

  Marie began to look through her books again. “Well if you are going to be stuck here, we need to get you back to Gary, but first of all I need to help you deal with your new form, and help you learn how to use and control yourself.”

  Right now all Alex could think of was Gary, and how he was coping. All of a sudden the room started to fade and then sh
e was back at the hospital. She could see Gary speaking with a doctor, she moved closer, she wasn’t sure if it was more floating than walking, it all seemed so strange.

  They couldn’t see her, so she stood listening.

  “I’m so sorry Gary, but she’d lost a lot of blood by the time she got here, we repaired the tear in her stomach, but it was just too much and her heart stopped. I am so sorry for your loss.” The doctor put his hand on Gary’s shoulder.

  “Can I see her?” asked Gary.

  “Of course, one of the nurses will take you through once we’ve had a chance to clean her up, we’ll find a quiet room,” said the doctor.

  Gary walked over towards the other end of the hall, and pulled out his mobile.

  She heard him speaking to her dad. He was explaining what had happened, leaving out the details of the club, all the way through the conversation he kept apologizing. Alex could imagine what her mom and dad would be like, but her intuition told her she needed to be here with Gary. She didn’t know how to get to them even if she wanted to, anyway.

  Gary ended the call by saying he would make all the arrangements for getting them over for the funeral, and would call again soon. Always the organized one.

  Then Gary sat down and waited, and Alex just waited watching him. The nurse came out and Gary stood up to follow her to the room they had prepared. Alex followed close behind them, she was worried about how to go through doors.

  The nurse left Gary alone in the room. He looked at Alex’s body lying on the bed with a sheet covering her up to her collarbone; she looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Gary brushed a stray hair from her face and leant down and kissed her cheek.

  Alex watched him kiss her and thought for a second she could feel it, she lifted her hand to touch her face. Gary pulled a chair close to the side of the bed and held Alex’s hand. He lay his head down on her chest and began to cry.

  Alex wanted to hold him and let him know she was still there for him. She moved closer and reached out to put her hand on his shoulder. She wanted him to look up and see her, but he couldn’t feel her touch.

  The room began to turn black again, fading out before her eyes, she knew she was leaving him again, but not sure where to. She needed help to control this moving about, and she knew Marie was to person who could teach her.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  “It seems that when you think of someone you can appear wherever they are,” said Marie.

  She’d been asking where Alex had faded out, and Alex explained that she was thinking of Gary and then she was with him.

  The bad part was that Marie said she should stay at Marie’s home until she’d at least covered the basics of being a spirit.

  Alex asked why no-one else could see her and Marie explained it would come with practice, and the only reason Marie could see was because she was a witch.

  It seemed that everything had to be treated as though she was learning from scratch, like a baby. Marie told her she would help her become stronger, but that she couldn’t visit Gary or anyone else just yet, Marie was frightened she might get lost, and not be able to return.

  Alex didn’t like the sound of that, the thought of roaming this world forever was scary enough but to be somewhere she didn’t know was worse.

  Marie explained that in time Alex would be able to walk among the living world and be seen when she wanted to be. She would be able to touch things and be heard. Plus she would be able to appear anywhere in the blink of an eye.

  It all sounded pretty cool, but there were also downsides to being dead. She couldn’t go to her mom and dad, it might drive them over the edge. They had lost a daughter and to see her like this would be terrifying.

  In time, Marie said, she might find out new ways to exist in the living world, but for now she wanted Alex to practice controlling her movements, trying to walk rather than float, talk so she could be heard, and appear so others could see her. The rest would come in time.

  Marie wanted her to be ready to see Gary. Marie was convinced that Alex was still around because of the love spell, and that she was meant to see Gary and comfort him.

  She had been hanging or floating around the cottage for a week and had managed to walk and appear in one room and then the other. Making herself visible was still a bit tricky, and making her voice heard was also hard. She did have to laugh though with a grim black humour: she had gone from being trained in love by her master, to be trained in being a spirit by another master. Ok, there wasn’t that much fun in this at the moment, but she was hoping it would be sorted soon because she was really missing the sex, and it’s not like she could just pick up a vibrator and relieve herself. Anyway she wasn’t even sure if she could still have an orgasm.

  It was the early hours of the morning on the day of her funeral, which Marie would be going to, but which Marie said Alex couldn’t go to.

  She looked at the clock, 2 am, Marie was fast asleep and Alex was just roaming around, she hadn’t slept one moment since her death, it made her feel like a character in a vampire book or movie. But they got to have sex, yes she was still hung up on that one, she hadn’t mentioned it to Marie, how did she go about asking if she could have sex once her basic ghost training was complete.

  She couldn’t take her mind off Gary, this was as strong as her longing had ever been. She wondered if it was because he was thinking of her.

  Again the room began to fade, she knew she was going to visit Gary.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Alex appeared in their bedroom; Gary was sobbing quietly as he gripped her pillow tightly.

  Alex went towards him, she remained invisible as she approached. His eyes were closed and he was talking in his sleep, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have left you like that, I shouldn’t have let you come to the club in the first place. If I hadn’t been so stupid you would still be here right now.”

  Alex moved so she was beside the bed now, he looked so lost.

  “I don’t want to say goodbye tomorrow, I want to hold you and never let you go,” said Gary to himself.

  Alex was now on the bed and lying beside him, she put her arm around him. Gary shivered but didn’t open his eyes.

  “Alex, I can feel you, it’s like you’re right here with me,” said Gary.

  Alex leant over and kissed him on the cheek; she wasn’t sure if it would work but she just couldn’t help herself. Gary placed his hand on his cheek where she had kissed it; he seemed to wake up. Alex knew she couldn’t risk him seeing her. So she disappeared just before Gary opened his eyes.

  She was back at Marie’s cottage just in time. Alex could hear Marie upstairs in the bathroom. The sun was up and shining in through the window.

  Marie stood at the top of the stairs looking at Alex. The sun made Alex look different, she was glistening, shimmering like glitter.

  Alex turned to Marie, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “You, you look beautiful, can’t you see the effect the sun has on you?” said Marie.

  Alex looked down and saw her skin glinting like diamonds in the sun; and then she felt the wings on her back. She walked towards the mirror in the hallway and saw for herself the beautiful white wings gently folded behind her back, they began to open out, though Alex was not sure how or why.

  “What’s happening?” asked Alex.

  “I’m not sure, maybe they’ve been there all along and we can only see them in the sun, or it could be something you can switch on or off. Maybe they’re invisible unless you want to show them, it’s like you’re an angel. You are an angel,” Marie said, “See if you can concentrate on hiding them from sight.”

  Alex looked in the mirror again and tried to think of ways to make them disappear. They began to fade from sight and her skin returned to normal.

  “Wow, that’s amazing. But it makes me think you’re meant for other things and you’re only here because of unfinished business,” said Marie.

  “Unfinished, what are you on about Marie? Really, sometimes you
say some mad things.”

  “Well I bet you wouldn’t have believed what’s happened to you so far, you never know what will happen next,” said Marie as she practically skipped into the kitchen.

  “Don’t you have a funeral to get ready for?” said Alex. “You can’t turn up all happy and smiley,” laughed Alex.

  “Oh don’t worry, I can put on a great act when I want to, anyway as soon as this day is over and your mom and dad are going back home to Spain, and then it’s one step to Gary,” said Marie. “By the way, don’t even think about coming, that would freak out I don’t know how many people,” laughed Marie as she made a cup of herbal tea.

  Alex knew she couldn’t risk being seen again, this morning had been enough with Gary. She needed to wait for the right time.

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Marie arrived at Gary and Alex’s house. The front lawn was covered with flowers. Marie felt strange as she walked up the path towards the open front door, she heard voices coming from inside as she got closer.

  Ray and Melissa were standing towards the back of the living room, there was an older couple on the sofa holding each other, they must be Alex’s parents, thought Marie.

  Marie smiled at Ray who nodded back, there were many people she didn’t know, she scanned the room for Gary, but he was nowhere to be seen. Marie went over to the older couple. The man looked up at Marie.

  “Hi, you must be Alex’s parents,” Marie held out her hand towards the man, and he smiled sadly back at her and shook her hand.

  “Yes, and you must be Marie, Alex talked a lot about you,” said Alex’s father.

  “Well, we became great friends, she was a lovely girl. How are you both holding up? Silly question to ask, I’m sorry,” said Marie.

  “No, it’s fine, it’s hard to think what to say at these things anyway. You feel guilty for smiling, and you feel you should talk to others to see they’re ok, when all you want to do is get it over with and not have to face anyone,” said Alex’s dad.