Seraphina: Initiation

by Sheena Hutchinson

  “Really?” Just when I think I have the hang of all this, I realize there is so much more I don’t know.

  “Well, I got this chant from an old book about Demon worship, but I twisted the words to work through God instead.”

  “Hmm,” I sit processing for a few minutes before climbing to my feet with a smile on my face. “I’m going to take a nap!” I practically squeal with excitement. Nate breaks into laughter, which I can hear behind me even as I climb the stairs, so ready to close my eyes in peace.

  Chapter 21: He’s Coming For Me

  My eyes don’t open again until the sun is rising high in the sky the next day. I sigh and lean back against my pillows. Ah, good night sleep never felt so good. I can’t help but feel the shield around me. I no longer hear the sound of birds in the distance, the wind against the house, all is silent. It’s actually kind of eerie. I’m tempted to take another nap when I reluctantly decide it’s too silent. I think maybe I’ve gotten used to the chaos that is my life now. I roll out of bed and stumble barefoot out into the upstairs hallway.

  Nate is once again locked away in his office. I can hear his fingers tapping across the keys of the computer even up here. I don’t mind. I’ve always preferred my solitude. I walk around the house, trying to locate another secret door he might have hidden somewhere. I think I’m secretly hoping to find a library like in the story of Beauty and the Beast. Walking across the wooden hallway floor as I eye the shield through the window out back, I can’t help the pride that I feel when I remember—I created that. I shake my head as I make it to the door across the hall from mine. I twist the handle and walk inside. This must be Nate’s bedroom, I think because it’s very simple, minimalistic, and modern. The complete opposite from my cluttered, cozy room and I can’t help but notice it’s a whole lot smaller. He has a Queen sized bed against the far wall, two nightstands and a lonely desk by the window. The furniture is made of plain unfinished wood and the sheets on the bed are boring black. No muss, no fuss and to the point—very much like Nate. I blush when I think that maybe he didn’t plan on sleeping here long, maybe he thought… I shake my head again at the turn my thoughts have taken before closing the door behind me and heading downstairs.

  After an hour or so later I have run my fingers across every wall before I come to the conclusion that there isn’t anything more to find. Ending my little tour in the dining room again, staring out towards the gorgeous cliff. I wonder what it will look like in the summer, picnicking outside on the grass above the flowing stream. I hold onto that dream as a hope, that one day I can go outside safely again. I mindlessly walk up to the glass and place my palms against it, craving to be outside, to smell fresh air again. I’m suddenly woken out of my daydream when I hear a thunk against the glass wall. I open my eyes to find a little black bird has mistakenly hit against the glass. It hit so hard it’s beak is still stuck in the glass. It’s little feet perch against the window fighting to get itself out. Walking over to it, I place my finger on the tip of the beak sticking through to my side and poke him back out again. Only he falls to the floor outside with a screech so loud I have to cover my ears. That’s when I see a swarming cloud of black approaching. I watch in horror as it swirls around the house a few times like smoke spiraling around me. What have I done? Until I hear it again—a thunk, then another, and another until they are pounding the glass so often I lose count. Hundreds of birds are hitting my window, splintering my glass—trying to attack me. Their eyes red are penetrating into my soul, their claws drawn reaching for me, their screeching echoing through my eardrums. I watch in terror as they squawk in pain before hitting the ground and dying right in front of my very eyes.

  Nate finally bursts out of the office to see what all the commotion is. The grass before me is covered in dead black ravens, like a strange Halloween display. He finds me on my knees in front of the glass with my finger circling a splintering hole where a dark beak once was. I don’t notice I’m swaying back and forth until he places his hand on my back. He seems to be speechless, but I am not, “He wants me to know he can reach me anywhere.”

  “I won’t let that happen,” he states reassuringly.

  I turn to look at him, one day I hope to have faith in myself the way Nate does. Turning back to the glass I numbly state, “I don’t think you have a choice in the matter, he’s coming for me.”

  “Who is coming for you?” Nate asks bracing one hand against the cracked glass.

  “Lucifer,” I numbly state keeping my stare straight ahead.

  Nate paces back and forth apparently mad, “When did you come to this decision?”

  “Nate... I should have told you before, but I wasn’t sure—”

  “Tell me what?” he interrupts, trying to hide a mixture of anger and panic from his voice.

  “He contacted me the night in front of my house when I killed that… lady, gave me an ultimatum, and I refused. Yesterday, during my dream, he tried to contact me again and again, I turned him down—he’s trying to kill me.”

  Nate stops pacing, “Of course,” he whispers carefully processing my words.

  “What?” That’s definitely not the response I was expecting. He’s staring at the floor so deep in thought, I have to jump to my feet before he turns to me, apparently just now remembering I was still there.

  “This goes deeper than I thought, but it’s finally starting to make sense,” he states still deep into his pacing.

  “Make sense?” I finally reach out to grab an arm because his pacing is driving me insane.

  “Only a Greater Demon could have invaded your dreams, Lucifer is the highest ranking Demon there is. Waking up trying to kill me, of course that would be him trying to get me out of the picture. Possessing you to the point where you can’t remember anything that’s got pure evil written all over it. The question is, why? What does he want? … And what was he having you do?”

  I have no words. Why didn’t I tell Nate about this earlier? How could that have slipped my mind? We could have been figuring out a way to fix this instead of continually being surprised over and over. Maybe we are just from two different worlds, maybe this isn’t meant to work. Then a thought hits me, maybe we are playing for two different sides. Maybe I’m more like Jack than I care to admit.

  Chapter 22: Jack-teraction

  Finding myself on the floor of my closet a little while later, folding clothes. I had to escape to a quiet place to think and cleaning my closet seemed like the only logical conclusion. I think I could probably just imagine my clothes away like I did with the dinner plates, but I feel like I need to be doing something productive. Sitting around the house is driving me insane. Throwing another pile of clothes in front of me I begin to fold them into piles. I sigh in the silence as the monotony of folding begins to relax me. Picking up my soot-covered clothes my eyes tear with not confusion anymore, but anger. How could Lucifer be using me in my sleep, what the hell was he having me do? My fist clench around it so tight it bursts into flames and disappears from my hands. Blinking a few times to make sure I envisioned that correctly, I pick up a dirty shirt and attempt it again. Just like before it bursts into flames at my anger and evaporates to ash that falls to the floor. Maybe I am a little like Nate too, the Fire Angel. Maybe I can be a mixture of both, good and evil.

  Shaking my head, I turn back to the lump of dirty clothes piled against my crossed legs in front of me. I pull the dirty striped dress into my hands and I shiver remembering waking up with no memory, covered in dirt like I had walked for miles. Where did this come from? This would have been in the boxes with my old stuff. Black and white striped dress… the last time I wore this dress was… OH MY GOD! I don’t seem to believe it. I’m on my feet in seconds, throwing the dress into the trash and zipping into a hoodie. I’m going to punch that little coffee house twerp in the face if he did this to me again! I can’t believe it! Lacing up my black combat boots I carefully open my door softly and sneak down the steps. Craning my neck, I hear music coming from Nate’s
office and I know I have about ten minutes before he realizes I’m gone, maybe less. I sneak out of the front door and surprisingly walk over the gravel silently before softly closing the car door. Taking in a deep breath before I start up the car and start heading down the driveway. Once I’m out of sight of the house I step on the gas and zoom off towards town. I know I have only a few minutes and I want that first shot at Jack. I’m sniffling back tears as I round another corner. I think what hurts the most is the betrayal, I thought Jack was my friend. I thought he had my best interests at heart, I thought he promised me he’d never let them harm me again! What kills me the most is I’m really going there expecting an explanation, maybe a denial –I’m hoping I’m mistaken.

  I swerve into Jack’s parking lot, tires screeching in protest as I zip into a spot and I’m out of the car heading for the door. I ignore the feelings twisting inside me, the cold, and the feeling of eyes on my back. Storming into the shop I lock the door behind me and flip the sign to ‘Closed.’ The girl behind the counter with the blonde hair and hot pink streaks looks over at me curiously.

  “Hey…” she yells.

  “Beat it Blondie!” I sneer through clenched teeth as I stalk my way to the back. She looks around nervously like she’s waiting for back up before opening her mouth to speak again. “I SAID GET OUT OF HERE!” I whip around as if my glare could turn her to ash and she frantically runs into the kitchen to head out the back. I turn back to Jack’s office my face red with anger, my fists clenched, and my teeth grinding against each other. Once I’m approaching I start to make out voices, he’s not alone. I don’t care, I think as I lean back and kick his door in. It smacks against a filing cabinet making a loud thump and all three of them look up to take me all in.

  “Hey Baby,” Jack calls to me from behind his metal desk as if he were expecting me. There is no mistaking my face is fuming with anger! Is he serious right now? “Come have a seat, we are almost done here,” he states indicating the black leather couch before him. I can tell from his eyes and his nonchalant attitude, he had everything to do with this. My anger gives way to confusion and I finally take a look around. That’s when I allow myself to feel around the room. It’s cold… too cold. My senses are going haywire once again and I look up to the two goons on either side of him and their eyes are all red. They look like he possessed them from the gym, they are built like body builders and they are wearing obnoxious white tanks and basketball shorts. Jack hands one of them an envelope, “Give that to him,” is all I hear before I’m walking inside the room. My rage is out of control as I walk up to the desk and with one swing throw all the papers off his desk, in a whirlwind of loose leaf they scatter before falling to the floor. All three eye me curiously waiting for my next words.

  “Jack, you have five seconds to run…” I surprisingly calmly state to him.

  “I take it the honeymoon is over then?” His eyebrow raised and he seems to be sizing me up. Inspecting me like it’s the first time he’s actually seeing me. My eyes bore into him seeing the intensity written all over his face until he turns to goon numero uno and orders, “Grab her.”

  His goons take a step towards me and I grip the side of his metal desk hearing a creaking under my hands. They are once again glowing in anger, I lift them to face each of the gym rats and spread out my fingers in a nonverbal sign that says stop. They pause tilting their heads looking at me curiously before I pulse with energy and blast them into the two corners they came from with all the anger burning inside me. Once the limp bodies have slung to the floor and dissipated further into the ground. Jack looks at me surprised, finally climbing to his feet.

  “Sera… I’m sorry, I’m just trying to keep you safe!” he starts to reason with me with his hands up showing me no harm. Finally witnessing the power of what I can do has shaken him slightly.

  “Jack! What did you do to me?!” I scream in pure fury, “Why can’t I remember anything?!”

  “How…” he begins to ask coming around the desk.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? YOU ASS!” I scream again when he doesn’t answer my question.

  He comes closer testing his limits as he raises his hand to push my hair behind my ear, “I was just trying to protect you,” he whispers near my face and I slowly fall into his trance again. “Jack…” I whisper softly as I feel the warmth of his hand on my ear. The memories of my dreams of us rolling around in bed together cloud my mind again. My happiness, the feeling of home, of safety.

  “Yes Baby,” he responds coming closer to my lips now.

  “I have to say…” I breathlessly state before my eyes flutter open to his again pausing to make sure he’s paying full attention to me now, “I hate your stinking guts!” I push him away from me before bringing my arm back and punching him across the face. He collapses to his knees taken completely by surprise at my strength, his hands gripping his jaw as he looks up at me. “I can’t believe you Jack, How could you? I hope you rot in the Hell you created for yourself!” Those blue green eyes appear wet and something in me breaks. I never thought this is how Jack and I would end. A part of me still believes it’s not over. But I turn away from his face and walk calm and collected back out the front door. I never looked back, not once. I make it to my car before I burst into tears. I put the car in reverse and I glance back about to put the petal to the metal again when I see a black shadow jump down from above. I almost hit him when I recognize the blue eyes of my Nate. I hit the brakes just in time and he calmly walks around the car and climbs inside.

  “Something you want to tell me?” he calmly states… too calmly.

  “I took care of it,” is all I can respond as he notices the tear marks down my face. He listened to me the entire way home about the striped dress, a vague description of my dreams, and how I knew it had to be Jack. He seemed especially pleased when I told him that I punched Jack in the face. I think he might be a little jealous.

  By the time we pull up into the house I can tell there is something on his mind. I’m about to climb out of the car when he grabs my arm to stay, “Sera, I know I haven’t been the easiest guy to live with. I’m over protective and over bearing, but please don’t keep leaving without telling me,” he states softly looking out the window at the vast forest about our home, “You don’t know what you put me through when I notice you are missing,” he finally looks at me now letting his hands fall to his lap, “We promised to be a team and yet we have both still been playing solo. I want to change that—I’ll tell you my discoveries if you tell me yours and when you’re leave the house—consciously that is.” He smiles and my heart sinks, he’s right. We’ve both been acting like we are alone in this.

  “I’m sorry,” I admit looking down at my hands holding my keys.

  “Team?” he offers holding out his pinky finger for another promise.

  “Team,” I smile looping my finger inside his once again.

  ***

  We make it inside and I find myself yet again admiring Nate as he builds the fire working with such grace even in the simplest tasks. I hope that one day I’ll look like that. Climbing to his feet, he grabs something off a side table beside the window. Looking closer, it seems to be a bottle of wine.

  “I thought we’ve been through this? Alcohol has no effect on me anymore,” I flirtatiously tell him.

  “I’ve researched some and this is my own personal recipe, I think you’ll like it,” he responds as he begins carefully pouring me a glass. I take a sip as he sits down on the sofa beside me. It’s delicious, I’ll give him that. We sit side-by-side staring into the flames of the fireplace before I break the silence.

  “Okay, so Team right?” I reaffirm and he smiles before nodding, “So, what kind of research have you been doing in that office of yours? I mean you’re always in there! What the hell could you possibly be doing?”

  “At first, it was a way to research you. What you are, what you could do, if there were others like you… things of that nature,” he admits running his fingers through my
hair.

  “Me?! What did you find out?” I can tell he had more to say, but I couldn’t help but cut him off.

  “There is no research in the world that can tell me anything more about you. You are the only one of your kind as far as I can tell.” I try to hide my disappointment, but then I notice the way his voice lowers towards the end of his statement and it leaves me wondering.

  “I feel like there is something you want to say but aren’t…”

  “There is something I just want to make you aware of…” I knew it! My senses have been extra accurate lately, especially when it comes to Nate.

  “Go on…” I take another sip of wine.

  “Well, we said that you are probably more Angel than Human now, right?” he struggles out the words like he doesn’t know how to tell me. I nod taking yet another sip, “So, that means you can’t do some things that Humans can do.” I think he’s getting more and more cryptic as he continues.

  “Nate… Team remember?!” wiggling my pinky for emphasis. He smiles quickly before it disappears completely.

  “Sera,” he sighs before giving in and just gets right into it, “Female Angels can’t reproduce. Only God can create more Angels. I don’t think you can bare children,” he pauses waiting for a reaction, but I don’t seem to give one right away. Maybe it’s the wine or maybe it’s the mental picture of my future family being ripped apart inside my head. I sit up and turn to look at him with a blank stare. “I’m sorry Sera, I’m sorry if I took that from you.” He whispers putting a hand on my back with his face plastered with internal pain and guilt.

  “Wow…” is all I can get out as I turn away still processing this. I somehow feel like something else has been yet again taken from me without my knowledge. “It’s not your fault Nate. Without your actions I wouldn’t be here today. I guess there is always a price to pay when you cheat fate.”