by Laury Falter
“I didn’t know who you were until it was too late. By then, your soft side had already been revealed.” Though I intended to tease him, my voice sounded bland, unrecognizable to me.
“This isn’t funny,” he chastised and the seriousness of his tone chilled me a bit. “That radar is there for a reason, Maggie.”
“I know…I know.” I looked away not wanting to hear it.
“You’re lucky…that I’m different than the others,” he said, clearly perturbed.
“Yes, I realize that…” I was tired of hearing others tell me that my life was constantly in danger. That fact was clear to me. “There’s something that I don’t understand. Why are you different? You’re the only one who hasn’t tried to kill me yet.”
His jaw immediately clamped shut and he looked away, his face etched with remorse.
“Or do you plan to?” I asked, hesitantly, hoping I was misreading his expression.
He shook his head, still looking away. “No, I’m not like the others.” He sighed, discouraged. “That’s not true. I am like them in the way that…that I have taken lives before.”
He waited to see how I would react but I concentrated on keeping my face still. I didn’t want my actions to keep him from telling me what he evidently needed to confess. Seeing nothing, he continued, struggling through his declaration of guilt. “But I will not take yours. Your life is safe with me.” He stopped to stare intently at me and what he said next seemed more like an apology to me than a statement. “I will forever be repaying that debt. I openly accept it, whether I’m forgiven or not.”
When he fell quiet, I reached out to place a comforting hand on his shoulder but he shied away.
“It should be me who is comforting you,” he mumbled. He gave me a grave expression and said, “The least I can do is attempt to save you. That is why I’m here. I came back for you. I-I move around Fallen Ones and there’s talk that Abaddon will appear. I’m not sure, but I think other Fallen Ones will be there too, to assist. If not assist, then simply to watch.”
“Abaddon? Who’s Abaddon?”
“He’s the most feared of our kind. He’s imperious, Maggie…indestructible…tenacious. Once he has decided to take a life – human or otherwise – he never fails.”
“Great…” I muttered. “And am I to assume he’s appearing again in order to come after me?”
“There’s no assuming, Maggie. It’s been confirmed.”
I allowed that news to sink in, waiting for the feeling of fear to surface, but nothing came. The emptiness permeating me after Eran’s admission the night before left me inescapably repressed.
I shoved aside that line of thought to find Gershom shaking his head at me. “You have some powerful enemies, Maggie. It takes a lot to protect you. Time and energy.”
I almost laughed, but couldn’t muster the emotional energy it required. “I’ve heard that before.”
He didn’t find the humor in my reply. “You and your roommates need to leave town…now.”
“I was just on my way,” I commented as my heart skipped a beat. It took a minute for his entire message to register with me. “What did you just say? About my roommates?”
He gave me a bleak look. “Abaddon doesn’t leave any loose ends.”
“They aren’t loose ends, Gershom. They have nothing to do with this.”
Gershom shook his head and dropped his shoulders reluctantly. “It doesn’t matter. Abaddon will use them to get to you. They’re in danger, Maggie. They need to leave town with you.”
Anger welled up in me, surprising me with its intensity. When I spoke, it was through clenched teeth. “I was told once that the Fallen Ones will never stop chasing me. Does that now include my roommates?”
Our eyes met and I noticed his were filled with sadness. “He leaves no loose ends, Maggie.”
It took what seemed like a long time before I could quell my fury. I was only slightly aware of my fists opening and closing and my pursed lips quivering. Gershom gave me time, though I could see the nervous hurry in his expression.
Once again, I was putting others at risk. This was not acceptable.
“What will you do, Gershom? Are you in danger also?”
“I’ve walked with Abaddon for a moment in time. I know him better than anyone, what he’s capable of. I’m your best chance at getting you all out of here alive.”
“I’ll ask it again. Are you in danger?” I demanded.
He was reluctant to answer, his mouth pinching together in protest.
“I won’t leave without knowing you’ll be alright,” I stated, unwavering.
“I don’t deserve your sympathy, Maggie.”
“Gershom,” I urged.
“I will do my best to stay out of harm’s way, all right?” he finally conceded, though it was clear he only did it for my benefit. Still, I’d gotten his word for it and that appeased me more than if he hadn’t said anything at all.
“Good. What do we do now?”
“Now…” He drew in a quick breath. “Now we run.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FALLEN ONES
I’d never experienced the same level of urgency before as I did now. I even considered asking Gershom to pick me up and carry me to Jackson Square the way he carried me across school grounds but realized that would cause a stir and make it easier for the Fallen Ones to find us. Instead, I raced my bike through the city faster than I’d ever gone before. Gershom held on to the back and took the turns well. I was thankful he wasn’t entirely human because if we were to collide with anything I wasn’t sure either of us would survive at these speeds.
When we reached Jackson Square I didn’t bother to stop on the street like I usually did when the area was crowded – as it was now. I pulled right up to Felix who was in the middle of a palm reading. The loud roar of my bike caused them to postpone the reading until I’d turned off my engine.
“Sorry,” I said to both of them to which the woman in his customer chair scoffed. “Felix, there’s an emergency. I need you to get home…right now.”
“Is Ezra all right?” He was suddenly wide-eyed and standing.
“So far…” I replied and he let out a whimper. “I need you to get Rufus into the car and meet me back at the house.”
Noticing a security guard furiously marching through the crowd toward us, I started my bike and yelled to Felix, “Hurry!”
He listened, briskly handing the woman’s money back, and started in the direction of Rufus’s table. I turned my bike and began to head out of The Square, narrowly avoiding a young couple walking hand in hand.
With Felix and Rufus on their way home, I was now focused on getting us back to the house safely. I had just reached the street when, without any warning, it felt as if someone was ripping out the hair on the back of my neck. The feeling was so intense it made my head jerk – causing my helmet to knock against Gershom’s. My stomach was now churning, my hands were sweating, and my eyes were burning. I felt as if someone had shot mace at me. It was the most extreme reaction I’d had yet to any Fallen One.
Instantly, I knew what this meant.
Gershom made two fast, light taps to my shoulder, an action that would not have been detected by anyone unless they had been standing right beside us. It confirmed my assumption.
Across The Square, in the shadows beneath a wrought-iron balcony, stood a group of ten men and women. They were of all different heights, sizes, and ethnicities. Only one distinct similarity stood out. Despite their superficial characteristics, you could detect their age was far older than any of them appeared.
Each focused on us, all with the same furious glare. I was surprised I missed them before. They weren’t exactly dressed to fit in with the crowd – each wearing a grey trench coat and black gloves despite the humidity. I immediately recognized Achan, Elam, Sarai, and Sharar. The rest I didn’t recall but I wondered if they knew me from past lives.
The one in front, the one that towered over the others, drew my attention the strongest.<
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His hair was long and black, hanging knotted and straggling down his shoulders. His arms dangled at their sides appearing long enough to reach across The Square and take hold of us. His elongated, narrow nose had the curvature of a beak. His skin was just as smooth as I’d noted the other Fallen Ones had, not a single wrinkle but unable to hide the years aging beneath it.
“Abaddon…” Gershom said, just loud enough for me to hear over my engine’s roar.
I spun my bike around and headed back into The Square.
“Where are you going? We’ve got to get out of here,” Gershom clamored in my ear.
“Felix and Rufus! I need to make sure they’re safe!”
I headed to the side street where I knew Felix regularly parked and found the two of them already in Felix’s car. Behind the wheel, I saw Felix’s face and it stunned me. His carefree, flighty countenance was gone, replaced with stone cold determination. He almost looked like an entirely different person. That was comforting, knowing he took my urgency serious. The moment the car started, he raced through the lot, out on to the city street, and headed for home.
I followed them, keeping an eye out for Abaddon and any other Fallen Ones. It appeared that we lost them and I was relieved – but only slightly because I still remembered Eran saying that Fallen Ones stay hidden and wait for the right time and place to attack.
Eran…the thought of his name made my stomach churn from the pain. I was certain he’d felt that – my longing for him – so I instantly pushed it away, not wanting him to know I was thinking about him. Despite realizing I needed him now more than ever, my pride kept me from allowing my emotions to run free and send him a signal. I was on my own now and I had to remember that.
I told myself to focus. This was not the time to dwell on a broken heart. I needed to concentrate, to remain alert. There were things far more important at risk than my pain: My roommates’ lives. My job now was to get my roommates and Gershom out of harm’s way.
Once at the house, the four of us charged through the door so quickly that Ezra was on her feet before we got to her office.
“What’s happened?” she asked, instantly apprehensive.
A moment later, I realized they were all looking at me, waiting for the reason why I collected everyone to the same spot.
“Sit and I’ll explain,” I said, which they did, each stiffly on the edge of their chairs.
I inhaled deeply, preparing myself for what I was about to admit, the guilt welling up in me before I even spoke. “I have put you in danger. There is someone after me – more like a group after me - and now they’ve found me. I had planned to leave this morning to keep you all safe. Rufus, that’s part of the reason you found me crying.”
They turned to Rufus for answers but he simply shrugged in confusion.
Ezra cleared her throat. “When you say ‘leave’ do you mean you were planning on leaving the city – for good?”
Her question, it being the first one of all the ones she could ask, made me pause. “Ezra, you’re in danger,” I stated.
“I understand that. Please answer me,” she said insistently.
Certain my face was fully expressing the guilt I felt, I gave in. “Yes.”
Ezra let her head drop as if my confirmation was the worst of her fears. When she raised her head again, and focused on me, she didn’t bother hiding her disappointment. “Maggie, you are in greater danger alone than with us.”
“No – I’m not explaining this clearly.” I groaned, much to my chagrin. “I am putting you in danger just by being near you. They are after me! Not you!”
“And who ya talkin’ ‘bout anyways?” asked Rufus, again with a shrug. “Who’re ‘they’?”
I was speechless. They didn’t care that these Fallen Ones could walk through the door at any moment, each with their own ability to inflict harm. They were more insistent on asking questions than protecting themselves. It was incredibly antagonizing. I knew the only way I could help them understand the risk they were in was to help them understand who the Fallen Ones were, so I looked to Gershom for assistance.
Gershom raised his hand meekly and said, “Hi, I’m Gershom.” He then laughed uncomfortably.
No one laughed with him. They simply stared, waiting for an explanation.
“Gershom is a friend of mine from school. He knows these…people.”
“Are ‘these people’ from your school?” asked Ezra.
“Yes…and no. I-I think they came to school to find me,” I said.
Ezra was now standing. “You mean you’ve been going to school with these people?”
Finally, at least Ezra was alarmed.
“Not all of them. Listen…Gershom knows them better than I do.”
Ezra didn’t bother to sit back down. Instead, she turned to face Gershom, not intending to but very much looking like a mother who’d just found out her son was ditching school.
“Um…yes, I can explain.” He leaned forward in his chair propping his elbows on his knees. “I…uh…I’ll start with Abaddon…”
At the sound of that name, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Ezra, Felix, and Rufus each turned to look at one other but by the time I’d glanced in their direction they were back to staring at Gershom.
“Abaddon, well, he’s…he’s…”
Rufus growled and said, “Wouldya just spit it out already?”
Gershom shook at Rufus’s ferocity and replied, streaming his words together. “He’s seen what Maggie is capable of. He knows that she can destroy him…and all others like him. Her very existence threatens him.”
He paused and glanced around the room, waiting for acknowledgement that everyone understood him and grasped the severity of his message.
“I see,” said Ezra, unshaken. “Go on.”
Gershom’s face conveyed no affect to Ezra’s nonchalance as he began to speak again. “Abaddon has been sending his followers to find and to…to kill Maggie before she can do the same to them. And he’s here now…looking for her.”
“Does he feel this way because of her ability to speak with the dead?” Ezra asked, sounding as if she were a detective interviewing a witness.
Gershom’s eyebrows rose. “That…that’s very insightful.” Gershom paused and turned to me. “Maggie, you returned to earth fully human.” He glanced around the room uncertain. When no one bristled at this statement, he continued. “So what you don’t know is that you’re involved in a war that has been in existence for centuries. Many lifetimes ago, you came here to exterminate Fallen Ones. Since then you and Abaddon have hunted each other, battled each other, during every incarnation on earth. It was only the last time you incarnated that a battle between all Fallen Ones and your…well, your kind…raged for days, and it was thought that we were eradicated. But the Fallen Ones did survive, staying hidden…until your return. There is bad blood between you and Abaddon, centuries of it, and nothing will stop him in finding you and killing you.”
“If he can find her,” Rufus suggested, determined.
“That won’t be a problem,” Gershom said wistfully. “He senses her.”
“Senses? What does that mean?” asked Felix, speaking up for the first time. His stoic expression hadn’t budged since I spoke with him in The Square and I was amazed at how well he could hold himself together during times of emergency. “How does one sense another person?”
Gershom was incredibly shaken up being in the same room as my family and it occurred to me that it may be because he didn’t have any family of his own. That thought filled me with sadness and I answered the question to help him shake the feeling. “We sense each other when we’re near without even trying. My main sensor is the hair on the back of my neck. It goes crazy, standing on end…among other reactions.”
I was thankful when I looked around the room and didn’t find them staring back as if I was crazy.
“Well…” said Rufus, calmly. “That must come in handy.”
“You have no idea…”
/> “And we…” Gershom paused uncomfortably. “They, I mean, feel electricity run through their bodies when she is near.”
“Okay, so this Abaddon character…What can you tell us about him, Gershom?” asked Ezra, taking a seat again, coolly watching him.
“The most important thing you need to know is…well, he has this ability to control your movement. A form of telekinesis but far stronger.”
Gershom and I waited for them to respond. What he was explaining was commonplace for him and for me but to them it would sound strange, impossible even.
Instead, Ezra nodded serenely.
Again, my roommates weren’t taken aback. It took me a moment to figure out the reason and when I came to it I instantly relaxed a little. They were shock-proof. After years on the psychic circuit, dealing with all types of individuals, certainly ones with questionable sanity, they were more prepared than most to hear this news.
As if Gershom read my mind, he threw up his hands lightly and asked, “How-how is it that none of you are surprised by any of this?”
The three of them chuckled together but it was Ezra who answered.
“Gershom, having traveled around the world, you wouldn’t believe what we’ve seen on the road.”
“Ay, this is nothin’,” added Rufus.
Felix shrugged one shoulder and nodded in agreement.
When Ezra spoke again, I quickly found the nearest vacant chair before my legs collapsed under me.
“I’d have to say Abaddon may have been the cause of a few of our friends disappearing along the way.”
Felix and Rufus nodded in agreement.
“Do you think you know him?” I asked, leaning forward, reminding myself to breath, unable to contain my anxiety.
“Actually…I think we’ve been introduced.”
Gershom and I glanced at each other, completely shocked.
“If I recall, he didn’t travel alone, though.”
“That’s right,” said Gershom, more relaxed now. Apparently his angst was partly the challenge of explaining something to others assumedly unable to comprehend it. Thankfully, this issue had been resolved.