My Sweet Escape: A Touched by an Angel Novel

by Roselynn Reyes

  I heard another truck approach and Angel stared down at me still concentrating. “Stay behind me.”

  Angel left the wall and began to shoot with both guns. I quickly followed him and hid behind his large body. I wrapped one arm around his waist and I covered my face with the other. The gunshots exploded again like firecrackers. I could hear the gunshots fly past us with a whistling sound. We slowly walked towards another cement wall on the other end of the small houses. Right when we made it there, I heard a grenade launcher go off and aim straight towards us.

  With both guns in his hands, Angel grabbed me by the waist and we went crashing to the floor. I knocked my head against the wall when Angel fell on me, forcing all the air out of my body because of his weight. I felt the rubble of cement fall on top of Angel’s body. I could feel how heavy each rock was by the way his body vibrated. His head was resting on my shoulder as everything went completely silent, including the community around us. He brought his head up and looked into my eyes. What I wouldn’t give to wake up every morning to those eyes.

  Getting up, he grabbed my arm and we ran to the other side of the house we were using as a shield, because the gunshots were raging towards us as family members ran in every direction, screaming. Angel ran towards the other house, looked over his shoulder, and then signaled me to come towards him. I did and covered my ears as the gunshots followed me. Angel shot three consecutive shots.

  There were only a few men left, and they were running towards us from the other direction. One of them threw a knife towards me. It was coming straight for my head. Angel shot the knife in mid-air, stopping it abruptly. Angel pulled out a grenade and threw it towards them. He threw me on the floor again as it exploded loudly.

  I got up as the smoke and debris began to settle. One man came from the side of a house and began to pound on Angel, he got up and they began to fistfight. I was pulled away from the floor with my mouth covered. I began kicking and screaming through the fingers while they pulled me inside a small room and locked the door. I was thrown on to the bed and one of the men pointed an automatic to my forehead, quieting me instantly. The other man came and turned me on the bed, tying my wrists with rope while he sat on my legs.

  I heard a gunshot go off and I assumed Angel had been killed. I lay there, letting the tears run down my face. The man came around the bed and tied a cloth around my eyes and another one around my mouth, keeping me quiet. Everything was silent. At this point there was nothing I could do. I was blind and mute, and Angel was dead.

  One of the men pulled me to a standing position when I heard gunshots erupt again. I walked backwards until my body hit a wall, then I sank down to the floor and turned my body into a ball. The gunshots continued as I sobbed uncontrollably. Everything went quiet again. I heard silence, calmness, until someone crashed through the door.

  I knew he was near me, I could feel him. Don’t ask me how; I just knew it. Tranquility radiated through my body as he began to untie my wrists. When he did, I wrapped my arms around my body in defense. His cool fingers removed the cloth from my mouth and my eyes.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I knew it was Angel, but I just wanted to stay this way, in a ball with my eyes closed. I was trying very hard to cooperate with him so we could get out of this alive. But I wasn’t him. I wasn’t prepared for war. I wasn’t prepared for all this.

  He began to un-wrap my arms from my waist and I opened my eyes. I looked up at him crouching in front of my body, with both of my hands on his. I jumped on him with excitement and threw myself at him, knocking him on his butt unintentionally. He pulled me into a tight hug and let go quickly, looking into my eyes.

  I rubbed my hands on his chest for comfort. “Thank you for saving me.”

  He pulled me into a standing position. “Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s get away from here,” he said and led me out the door.

  There were bodies everywhere. The village people were quiet, some women and children were crying. I looked around as everyone had horror and depression written all over their faces. Some children didn’t know what was going on, so they went to small puddles of dirty water and began drinking it. Angel began to walk around the bodies and pick up as much ammunition as he could. He grabbed the grenade launcher that was still in the man’s arms. I just stood there and looked at everyone. Certainly the video games made it look fun, but they don’t show how the soul haunts your dreams and won’t leave your mind at peace.

  Angel walked next to me and said, “We should get out of here before anyone else comes along. We’ll take the truck so we can move faster.”

  We walked towards the pickup, black and dirty with sand and mud. Well, at least we weren’t in a taxi with a mysterious driver. Hopefully, were going to be able to control our luck now. The quicker we got to Egypt, the quicker we got home and ended this nightmare for good. But I need to be realistic with myself. Getting home would be the easy part. Moving on with my life and pretending like nothing happened would be the impossible.

  Angel threw the bag in the backseat and started the engine. I got in and he said, “We need to get away from Iran. We’ll head for Turkey to avoid Iraq.”

  I didn’t say anything. I just faced forward and concentrated on my view of the mountains far ahead. He looked at me, but I didn’t dare look back at him.

  “I never said this escape was going to be easy, Samantha. But I didn’t think it was going to be this difficult either.”

  I watched him drive and his eyes glowed with the stars. “I’m not blaming you.”

  “Sam,” he said for the first time. I looked over at him. “I’m sorry for getting angry at you earlier, and for kissing you.”

  I just looked at him. He said it arrogantly. Jerk! I mean, I liked the kiss. But I couldn’t compliment him on it. It would probably make his head bigger. Ew. I leaned against the passenger door and cranked the window shut. I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against the cool surface. I was able to hear laughter in the background of the engine’s loud rumbling. I should apologize for cursing at him.

  He began to reload his Magnums while still driving. I saw him remove the ammo on the grenade launcher and a logo that I would recognize anywhere caught my attention. Knowing that it was completely harmless without its ammunition, I tried to snatch it from Angel’s grip, but he was much quicker. He gave me an angry look, but I ignored it.

  “Can I see that?”

  He looked at me again for a few seconds before handing it to me.

  “Do you know what this is?” I held it up so he could get a clear view of the logo.

  He looked at it for a brief moment then ignored me. I turned it back to my face, making sure I wasn’t seeing things. No, this was definitely what I thought it was.

  “This is the logo to my father’s manufacturing company.”

  He looked at it again, this time his expression changed. “Are you sure?” he asked me, even though his face confirmed my suspicions as true.

  Everything began to flash back slowly. My father, his manufacturing company. My mother’s death. Everything was coming back.

  “What is this doing all the way out here? My father only builds this for the army and stuff. I’m positive that he never sold it to terrorists. This must be a mistake, or someone must have lost it somewhere.”

  Angel shook his head as he inspected the ammunition that had collected on the floor. They also had the same exact logo.

  I couldn’t say anything more than, “Oh God.” I covered my face with my hands and sighed loudly. But then I thought of something. “Wait, why did you act like you didn’t know the logo at first? I can tell by your face that you did know. Why did you do that?”

  He took a deep breath and let it go slowly. “When I picked up all this stuff back there, that’s when I realized that it was your father’s logo. I’m just as confused as you. I don’t know what’s going on, I swear. The only reason I didn’t say anything earlier was because I didn’t think your memory would recognize it. I was just trying to
protect you.”

  I stared at him for a while without saying anything. Could I trust him? Was he lying? Right then there was nobody else I could trust. “I didn’t recognize it until the logo hit the light from the dashboard. It gave me flashbacks.” That’s all I needed to say for now.

  He pulled over and turned to me. “Samantha, the only way we can solve this mystery is to go back to the campsite where I found you and see if there’s anything there that can confirm our suspicions.”

  I was already shaking my head, even before he finished his sentence. “No. I can’t go back there.”

  He looked me in the eye. “Sam,” he said again, “something is telling me that this is something much deeper than just a kidnap case. We need to find out what’s going on. It will help you remember.”

  I put my head down. How was it possible for me to go back there? I didn’t want to look back, but at the same time, I wanted to know what was going on as well. I looked out the window. Angel waited quietly for me to make up my mind.

  A part of me was saying no. I needed to get as far away from the torture as I could. There was no way in hell that I would go back to the same exact place where I was abused. I was treated like garbage. How could I just return to that place to look for some answers?

  But at the same time I was very curious. It was no coincidence that these terrorists were running around with my father’s munitions. There was something weird going on and I needed to find out what.

  I finally turned and faced Angel. He was still looking at me. “Let’s go back.”

  He caressed my cheek. “I won’t let them hurt you. I promise. But we need to go to a base so I can provision myself and get a new truck.”

  He started the car again. I didn’t respond to his comment. I stared out the window, afraid of what the future had in store for me now.

  Chapter 7

  SNAP!

  “I’m telling you, we’ll be looking at these pictures when we have a football as a back and our wrinkles are worse than a pug’s,” she tells me as I’m trying to refocus my eyes.

  I laughed and leaned away from the statue of Achilles. We’d always promised ourselves that Greece and Italy were the first places we were going to visit in our future of traveling the world. When we were little girls, we were obsessed with Greek mythology. Even though we knew that most of the stories were folktales, they captivated us completely.

  I looked up at him and said, “You know, choosing Brad Pitt to play his role was a huge mistake, because I envisioned him to be a lot sexier. But then again, his statue says otherwise.”

  Hunter walked next to me and giggled, “You mean because his whole package is being exposed?”

  I looked at her and blushed. “I didn’t even mean it like that.” I couldn’t look back up at the statue. Didn’t they have a toga to cover themselves with or something?

  She bumped her shoulder against mine and flipped her black hair. “You will always be the innocent one of the two of us. Live a little, will ya? Now come on, let’s take pictures of all the statues before dark approaches.”

  She ran towards Alexander the Great, where I first saw the dark man in robes standing at the far end of the park, looking at me. Something told me to get away from there, and take Hunter with me. I shook my head and jogged towards her, I was always the negative one. I always looked at the bad before the good, and according to Hunter, this held me back from a lot of fun that I could’ve had in my teen years.

  Hunter handed me the camera and wrapped her legs around Alexander’s thigh. I smiled and snapped a few photos before I gazed around the park. We were the only ones left.

  I didn’t want to sound like a party pooper so I said, “I’m starved. Let’s get some yummy Mediterranean food tonight.”

  She hopped off the statue and her brown eyes glittered with the moonlight. “The night is still young, babe. Plus, we need one more photo of Zeus.” She pointed towards the fountain where the man was still standing.

  I grabbed her wrists and we whirled around in the darkness. “Let’s come back tomorrow. This feels weird.”

  “No way, just for one? Come on!”

  She pulled at my wrists and we began to walk towards the fountain. A few short minutes later, we were gazing at the most beautifully sculpted statue of all. Surrounded by the fountain and lilies everywhere, I took my pose sitting on the fountain with my bare feet in the water. I decided to look up at the King of the Gods, kind of like a metaphor, since he was also the King of the Sky.

  I waited for the flash, but it never came. Curiously, I looked over at Hunter. That’s when I saw the man behind her. With one swing to her neck, he slit her throat, letting blood pour out in every direction before he began to make his way towards me. I couldn’t make my feet work, so the only thing I was able to do was scream.

  So I screamed as loud as my lungs would let me. He slammed on the brakes hard, making me launch my arms forward to avoid contact with the windshield.

  “What is it? What?”

  Tears were streaming down my cheeks like waterfalls. My throat felt tight and sore. My body felt weak, I’d finally found the point where I couldn’t go any more. This hurt more than being tortured in the shack. Her being gone forever felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I looked over at him and said out loud, “Hunter, she’s dead.”

  He closed his eyes for a brief second, and then reopened them. “Samantha…”

  I looked at him with hate. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  He took a deep breath. He turned his body completely towards me. “Your father informed me about her death. I was waiting for the right time...”

  “I can’t believe you,” I interrupted.

  He turned his head and stared out at the road. I jumped out of the truck and walked away. I didn’t know where I was going, but nothing mattered anymore. I let the tears flow more freely now. Hunter was like the family I’d never had. We’d been friends since the second grade. Her family was my adopted family. Neither of us had any siblings, so it was as if we were.

  My mother died when I was nine, and before my disappearance my father was so consumed in my stepmother-to-be’s life that he forgot about me. Special events and birthdays didn’t matter to him much. I felt like my father hired this man to keep his reputation up. I knew from the moment I was taken to the campsite that ransom hadn’t been the reason I was taken. It was because my father stopped selling and distributing his merchandise around the world, behind the United States’ back. My father was afraid of the outcome of war with such powerful weapons in the hands of the enemy. That’s why Angel’s secret organization was hired instead of my father going completely public with my disappearance. Of course the public knew I was missing, but all the important facts were hidden. And now I’d lost my better half, my twin. I’d lost the only person who had been there for me since I could remember. All of this because of my father. He was to blame.

  I felt his soft hand wrap around mine. I looked up at him and only saw shadows, except for those eyes. I buried my face in his chest and sobbed. I felt him take a deep breath before he wrapped one arm around my shoulder while still holding my hand with his other. I just sobbed and sobbed with all my might. I could still hear her giggles. It was like a poison running through my veins. Something so beautiful was slowly killing me inside.

  Many people say that they never got the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones because they were either angry with them or they weren’t there for them. I didn’t get to say goodbye to Hunter and I watched her die with my own eyes. I saw fear written all over her face.

  Angel pulled away and stroked my cheeks, wiping away all the tears. He didn’t say anything to me. He didn’t have to. Despair and sorrow was written all over his eyes. His silence soothed my pain away. His touch erased the bad memories. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me back to the truck. We walked around to the driver’s side and I slid down to the passenger’s. He got in next to me and closed the door. He pulled me towards
him, his cool skin sending his familiar aroma around my nostrils. I cuddled up next to him and buried my face in his neck, soaking it with tears within minutes.

  I felt the car in motion again and I shut my eyes, but quickly opened them again. I was afraid that if I went to sleep, I would see Hunter dying, over and over again in my memory, in my dreams. All of my lost memories were slowly coming back to me. Something I desired so badly was now something I wished I’d never gotten back. They would be my torture. I had to face it one day; because this was the only way I would ever see her again, in my dreams and in my memory. Pain and excitement walked hand in hand in my life.

  I woke up to the sun shining through my eyelids. I opened them to realize that Angel was still driving. The sun stung my eyes but I still looked over at his slouched body behind the steering wheel.

  “Ohmygod, do you want me to drive for a bit?”

  He looked over to me and smiled his charming smile. He looked a little tired, and his smile quickly faded away. “Nah, we’re almost done. We’re in Turkey. We have about a week to kill before we’re supposed to be in Egypt. Since staying in one place for a long time increases the chances of being caught, it is best to move around. And I thought that since we’re here, we might as well take advantage of some ancient buildings.” He pulled out a digital camera from his pocket and handed it to me. “I don’t want you going back home completely empty handed from this.”

  His sincerity took me off guard. I stared at him briefly before turning my attention to the digital camera. I looked at the red digital camera in my hands and turned it on. There weren’t any pictures saved on the memory card so the first thing I wanted to do was capture his beauty and I did. I turned the camera to him and snapped a few pictures of him driving. He looked tired, but even the circles under his eyes couldn’t hide his perfection. I thought about taking more pictures of him when he was all rested, and looked the most stunning.