In the Dark

by Iris Sweetwater

  “Got it,” Carlie said with a thumbs up, the bottom of her short black hair shaking out the humidity.

  With a deep breath, Alexandra opened the door and let the two of them into the place that had been her own private travel space for the last…who knew how long. She probably should have been keeping track somehow, but she just couldn’t stand it. Maybe they could tell her what day it was on the outside, and she could start there.

  She shut the door behind them and followed them up the staircase, noting how Tanner was much slower than she was her first time. Carlie kept having to stop and turn around and wait for him. Those two moved around each other like satellites. It was kind of interesting to watch. They were never going to be separated in life, she could tell that. They would probably get married and all four of them move into a big house together. She felt honored that they pulled her into this dynamic at all. They even seemed to see her as a leader, which was strange. She had never seen herself that way, but looking at herself through someone else’s view, she could see it, how she could take charge in this situation.

  Finally, they all came up through the hole, standing right there in front of the bell. She watched as Carlie reached out to try and touch the bell, one leg dangling dangerously over the edge. “I am never going to get over my fears if I don’t challenge them, she defended, making Alex and Tanner both shake their heads.

  Alex scooted in front of her and came around the bell, afraid of what she might find or not find for that matter. But here he was in all his glory. The only difference was there being more embers, more ash. It was like his wings were burning away. The rest of him was just the same other than his hard jaw as he saw she brought others. k~1~2

  “I was coming to say goodbye,” Alexandra admitted with tears already in her eyes. Damn it, how embarrassing, she was such a sissy. But she just couldn’t hold back the floodgates this time. “I was going to come tell you goodbye today because I can’t watch you die. But then these two found me. They said they have powers, that they were led to me. That we are supposed to save the world or something.”

  Amon collapsed on his knees right there in front of her, his hands wrapping around her legs like a begging man. “You want to save me,” he said simply as if he didn’t believe it. “You came back to me.”

  She dropped to her knees, mildly aware this was an intimate moment in front of two strangers as her hands went to cup his face. He began to cry his own tears, tears of ash and blood. She wiped each one away. “I am so sorry I made you feel something for me. I am so sorry I caused you pain. You should move on, but I have never felt so much hope than now that you have told me there might be a way to save me.”

  “I am so sorry for the way I ran out of here. I just couldn’t take it, the idea of finding you just to lose you.” She turned around and pointed to Tanner and Carlie who were looking down at their shoes awkwardly. She stood up and backed up to them. “Sorry guys,” she sniffled. “This is Amon, the angel of time.”

  Carlie came forward and waved at him, and Tanner reached out his hand to shake.

  “What powers do the two of you have?” Amon asked in a serious tone, straight to business, but Alex couldn’t help but meet his eyes and hold them on her. It just was the only thing that felt right.

  “Well, I have astral projection,” Carlie told him. “And Tanner has a bunch of shit.” She instantly covered her mouth from the curse, and Alex couldn’t help but laugh through her tears.

  “Angels have more important things to worry about than profanities, especially dark angels who are dying,” Amon told her with a bitter sneer.

  “Okay, well, he can read minds, and he’s telepathic, but he can also see the possibilities of the future sometimes, like if the world might end if we did or don’t do something. Personally, I think there is even more to him than that.”

  Amon nodded, pondering with that serious look of his. Alex wanted to go and touch him, but this wasn’t the time. They had more important things to worry about.

  “So, you saw her when you used your power?” he directed the question at Carlie, and she nodded. “Well, I think that confirms that she is the center of all of this. She was the first to see me and the first to notice about the time issue. If anyone can save me it’s her, and if anyone can save everything and everyone else, it’s the two of you,” he confirmed. “I just don’t have all the answers. I have been locked up here for a long time, and I am only visited or communicated with when it is deemed necessary.”

  “Communicated with? By who?” Tanner piped up, looking lost.

  “There are others like me; other angels. Some punished like me and some light angels as well. There are many of us, almost as many of us as there are of humans,” Amon answered, and Alex could tell it was blowing their minds. She understood. It was a big thing to learn at the age of 17 or 18. It opened up room for so many more mysteries and questions.

  “Wow,” Tanner huffed out, running his hands through his hair. “That’s…a lot to take in. Do these angels, do they have the power to help us or save us, a way we can communicate with them if they can?” he asked, and Alex wondered why she hadn’t thought of that. It would only make sense that something like this would be in their job description of sorts.

  “The Revenant might get involved at some point, but I can’t say whether it would be in our favor or not. The concept of angels and higher beings, it’s not quite something any of you might understand or think of.”

  “What in the world is The Revenant?” Carlie interrupted, making Alex give her a sideways glance.

  “They are like an angel ruling class. It’s a lot. I think he’s right, that we will only understand so much. I don’t think what we’re doing has so much to do with politics as it does with using what we have been given. You both have powers, so why don’t I? Or should I have them?” Alex asked, stepping forward.

  “I would guess that you must, I can’t imagine us being led to you and you being the first if you didn’t have any,” Carlie said, looking at her.

  Alex looked to Amon for confirmation. “I am sure you will discover it eventually.” There she was getting mesmerized by him again as his eyes raked over her, and her cheeks burned as the other two watched. Was it obvious what was happening between them?

  “It’s late, you should probably get back home, maybe sleep on all of this. This has to be a lot for them to take in,” Amon suggested. Alex didn’t like that they were being kicked out, but he was probably right as the voice of reason right now. Alex knew if she didn’t go now she would stay out all night. She wouldn’t leave his side now that she knew he was dying. Instead, she went up to him and offered a chaste kiss on the cheek, his hands holding hers. “I need you to believe in us,” she told him. “And I need to know how long we have to do this. How long you have left.” It was the last thing she needed to hear before she took them back home to talk this over. She couldn’t walk away without an answer, but she didn’t appreciate the one she got.

  “You don’t want to know, Alex,” he said darkly before releasing her hands, her eyes welling up again in tears. She turned on her heel and didn’t look back as she took the stairs back down two at a time, only stopping at the bottom to wait for Tanner and Carlie.

  Carlie’s hand landed on her shoulder, and she shrugged it off. She didn’t need that kind of thing. This was something she had to deal with inside of her own heart because no one else could know that pain. Sure, they knew the burden she was taking on with their powers and their job to save the world, but they would never know what it was like to love a dying angel, a most amazing creature that turned her world upside down that may no longer exist soon, whether she succeeded or failed. It could all be too late.

  “I am sorry, I just need to deal with this,” she told Carlie with an apologetic smile. “Let’s get home. We can talk about things there. Or sleep. Whatever you guys want.”

  Tanner and Carlie took her side silently as she opened the umbrella, and they walked as quickly as they could back to her
home and the window which was covered in the rain, the sill covered in water droplets as they slid in as quietly as they could. They each took their turns in the bathroom, giving Alex much needed time alone, staring at her hands which still felt warm from where he had touched them.

  Alex took a deep breath after they were all finally in the room, Carlie sitting on the floor at the end of Tanner’s sleeping bag and Alex on her bed, laying on her belly and looking over at the two of them. “So…what a night,” she began awkwardly.

  “You can say that again,” Carlie said, slapping her knees. “I never thought I would meet an angel even when I died. I don’t mean to be insensitive or anything, I am just enjoying all of this. Not the end of the world part, but it’s; all such a trip, an adventure. And if we can’t enjoy this, then what can we enjoy anymore? I mean, time’s not moving, right?”

  Alex nodded and didn’t meet either of their eyes. She wished she had an attitude more like Carlie, but she just didn’t. It was all getting her down. But that was the importance of having her around to keep them going.

  “I think you must have powers,” Tanner added. “Are you sure you haven’t experienced anything outside of the whole time thing? Maybe your powers are related to time since you seem to force yourself outside of it. I mean, even we didn’t notice the days were the same without looking at our diaries, and that took almost a week, and you noticed in three days.”

  Alex had to agree with them. She was the one to find the angel of time. She didn’t want to say it out loud, but she thought maybe it had been fate or something; that she was supposed to love him and save him. It was just too cheesy, and she didn’t want to appear weaker than she already had.

  “Hopefully, I find out soon. So, what do you guys think we should do next?” she asked them, shifting the subject a bit.

  “Well, I would like to be certain that there aren’t more of us, and then I think it’s going to take us somewhere else. Being stuck in the middle of a city where time doesn’t move is not exactly conducive to saving the world at all. We will either have to travel to somewhere further away from the center of this, or figure out how to find these other angels. He said there were more, even those who were punished. I would gather they would know even more about this. We need information, and I hate to say it, but for the most part, we have probably gotten all of it we’re going to get here,” Tanner speculated.

  Alex didn’t like the sound of that; leaving when Amon could be dying, but she knew they were right. They couldn’t stay still.

  “Let’s give it three whole days; 72 hours, to make sure no one else is here and nothing else changes. And then I understand if we need to go. We’ll pack up everything e can and go.”

  They all nodded in agreement before settling in for sleep. It had been a long day, and sleep was the next logical thing, though Alex wasn’t sure she wanted to fall asleep. That’s when the nightmares came, and that was the last thing she needed right now.

  Chapter 13

  History never really says goodbye. History says, ‘See you later.’ ~ Eduardo Galeano

  CARLIE could see them both standing there; two distinct figures in the darkness of the night, the clock tower the scene of it all. She was getting better now at realizing when she was using her astral projection, so she could focus in on details.

  Amon, the angel of time, was tangled up in his chains and down on his knees in the corner with the other figure looming over him. For now, she could only see him from behind, like that’s where she was standing. She hadn’t necessarily perfected that part of it yet, finding how to get the right vantage point. From what she could see, it was male, another angel. His wings were black just like Amon’s, though they lacked the burning embers inside of the feathers. They looked new and glossy as they sprang from his shoulder blades. His back was covered in a white suit jacket with holes cut in it for his wings to expand out, and there was a top hat on top of his head, matching the white of the jacket. His hair was long, going down his back, and it was white and choppy, kind of like an edgy cut. Did angels have those?

  He was tall and thin, though there was still something beautiful about him in a sinister way. Even from the back.

  She tried to feel herself, find herself somehow so that she could move and see more, but all she was able to do was move a few inches, so she could see the shadow the moonlight cast over the other angel, the one whose name she didn’t know. And then she listened in to see what was happening here. They would be hitting their 72-hour mark the next night and knew nothing else that they could use, nothing at all. This could change everything if she could find out who this other angel as and what he knew.

  “Oryx, it can’t be a good sign that you’re here,” Amon said, looking up towards the tall figure. It seemed like there was a reason he didn’t stand to greet this other angel…Oryx his name was. She couldn’t tell if it was because he couldn’t get up due to some power or maybe a ranking situation. Though, the ire Amon was showing toward Oryx told of another possibility. It could be out of complete disrespect.

  “I don’t know why I am always treated so horribly when I show up for a visit. I am an angel too, a high ranking one I might add,” he said in his voice, this husky but high-pitched tone that reminded her of something she might hear out of a Rockstar from the 80s.

  “Maybe it’s because of your purpose and the way you revel in it. It’s meant to be a punishment, Oryx. You may not be in chains, but dolling out death is not exactly something to be proud of. Shouldn’t you be humbler?”

  Was he the angel of death? That would make sense of Amon was dying, but she didn’t know how she was going to wake up and tell Alex about this. How she would take it.

  “I will agree that it is not something I expected to be doing for the rest of my existence as an angelic being, but one does go crazy if they don’t find a way to be happy. Rumor has it you’re up to something you shouldn’t be as well. But then again, my visit tells me a little something about why. You don’t look so good. Are you seizing the day, my old friend?” Oryx asked, stepping around as if to taunt him. That’s when Carlie finally caught the side of his face. He was even more stunning than Amon, not that she should have been surprised. He was an angel, but his face was so long and angular, so smooth, and his tattoo wrapped around to his cheek. She could see he wielded a sword with him, something that looked like it came out of a child’s imagination rather than something real.

  “Spit it out, Oryx, are you here to take me?”

  He shook his head. “No, not just yet. I thought you deserved a warning. When your time comes, it will be much more dramatic than a little conversation like this. I came to tell you that you had a little time, and you should use it. We all should. The Revenant is coming, and I think they will be particularly interested to know what you are up to. What all these rumors are about. That some humans know about us because they can see you.”

  Carlie found herself waking up gasping at the implications of the vision she just had. She had no way of knowing when it happened, but she was pretty sure this one was in real time. That she had just been there and seen it. And it was like she knew that he could feel her there; Oryx. She just thought he somehow knew.

  She stood up to look out the window to see that it was still dark outside. It was still the middle of the night. But she didn’t think she should wait to tell them about this. She crawled carefully onto Alex’s bed and placed her hand on her shoulder before shaking it a little. When she didn’t wake up, she shook her again until Alex rolled over and blinked her eyes open.

  “Carlie, what’s going on?” she asked, pulling herself to sit up and look at her, her hair miraculously not even a mess even though she had been sleeping on half of it for hours. Carlie rolled her eyes for a second before she began to explain to her everything she had seen. She didn’t want to include Tanner until Alex knew and decided what she felt about it. She felt like Alex deserved privacy.

  “Thank you, for waking me up to tell me,” Alex whispered into the dark
, unable to look Carlie in the eyes. She just didn’t know what to say or what to do. She knew time was running out, and she was devastated. They had figured out nothing, and now the angel of death had visited Amon, letting him know that not only was his time going to be up, but that other angels knew about the three of them being able to see him and knowing things. She didn’t know what that would mean; if they would try to stop them.

  “I don’t know what to do, But I thought you might,” Carlie said, breaking the silence as she put her hand over Alex’s. She felt like this new friend of hers needed a little encouragement or comfort right now. She couldn’t believe how close she had gotten with her in just a few days after her whole life of having no one and now she had two people that she couldn’t imagine being separated from now.

  Alex nodded. “If they are coming for us… I don’t know if there is any way to run from angels, but I get the feeling that we either need to run as far as we can to do and learn as much as we can, or we need to let them find us and hope that they mean to help fix all of this. Either way, I know I need to say my goodbyes.”

  Carlie nodded, understanding what she meant. “Do you want to wait until morning, or do you want to go now? I wouldn’t blame you if you did go now. And we can come, or we can just stay here. I can tell him when you leave what I saw,” she offered to Alex.

  Alex shook her head. They were in this together. There was no reason to do this alone anymore. It wasn’t a good idea anyway to split up. “No, I don’t want to split up. I am going to take a shower, and you can tell him and wake him up while I am in there. Then, we will go. Then, we’ll come back and get our plans together to leave.”

  Carlie could feel the sadness practically dripping off of Alex and knew it was best to leave it alone for now. She seemed like the kind of girl who might need to wallow for a moment to come to terms with it all.