“What did she do?” whispered Mia, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“She betrayed us all. She betrayed you - she meant for them to kill you.”
CHAPTER THREE
Mia stared back in silence, thinking she had surely misunderstood or misheard. Her mother had meant for “them” to kill her? Who were they? Why would her own mother want her dead? Who had she betrayed? Why? The questions tumbled through her mind, but she was unable to form them into words. She didn’t have to, it seemed - the stranger’s face told her that she understood perfectly.
“I can explain to you what I know, but since I am forbidden from speaking of it, I will have to tell you a different way.” She crossed the room and sat on the bed beside Mia, taking her limp hand gently in her own.
“How can you tell me, then, without words?” Mia asked dully, her mind still reeling. To be unwanted by your mother is pain enough - to know that she wanted you dead is worse. That she sought to have you murdered was a pain almost unimaginable, and quite unbearable. This was one nightmare in particular that Mia would prefer ended quickly - and from her visits to the tower, she had learned that the quickest way to get through these dreams was to play them out.
“I can show you. But you have to trust me.”
Mia nodded, without looking back at the stranger sitting next to her. She was vaguely aware that the stranger was holding her hand, and wondered when it had happened. The stranger had said she would “show” her things. She turned to ask the stranger what she meant by that, but the stranger was no longer sitting beside her on the bed, or holding her hand.
With shock, she realized that she was no longer sitting on her bed either. She was standing in an unfamiliar street, in front of an unassuming row of houses. She looked around in confusion, much like she had the first time her dreams had swept her off to the tower. Then she heard a rapping sound, and looked up sharply. It was the stranger, in one of the houses, beckoning to her through the window. Confused, she wondered how she would get into a complete stranger's house. Even in a dream, it didn’t seem likely she could just walk in unnoticed. And then the stranger in the window was gone.
“Take my hand, Mia” said a now-familiar voice from behind her. She whirled around to see the stranger standing there, a silhouette in the light from the streetlamp. The stranger smiled, and held out her hand for Mia to take “we must be quiet though - be sure not to disturb anything, or they will certainly notice we are there”
As Mia took the stranger’s hand, she found herself inside a house. There had been no transition, not even a blurring, they were simply there. She looked questioningly at the stranger who had brought her here, who smiled back reassuringly.
“I imagine it’s quite odd, the first time.” Mia heard the stranger's voice clearly, but the smiling lips weren’t moving. As Mia opened her mouth to ask “what just happened?” the stranger’s voice came again, urgently “Shh!! Don’t speak! They’ll know we’re here!”
Who on earth she was talking about, Mia had no idea, there were only the two of them there, and then the strangers voice came again: “Them” and she lifted her arm to point. The lights were on in the room, and there were indeed people there. The scene had changed again, in less than a blink of an eye.
There were four figures in the room, a woman on the floor, another kneeling beside her, a man standing next to them and a third woman standing in the corner, watching on. Mia looked up at her stranger, who raised a finger to her lips and shook her head and did not speak. Instead, she simply pointed at the scene again.
“It’s a girl” the kneeling woman announced matter-of-factly, as she reached for a towel and began to rub something. The woman on the floor flopped back, exhausted, and the man beside her smiled. All the while, the third woman simply watched from the corner.
“We’ve done it!” cried the man “They said it was impossible - but we’ve done it!”
He took a bundle from the kneeling woman, and smiled down at it.
“Hello my daughter,” he cooed gently. The woman lying on the floor sat up now, and watched him intently “you’re a very special little girl, you know. The very first of a kind. You will lead us to victory my sweet little Angel” he continued
The stranger in the corner smiled now, and stepped forward.
“She is healthy, then?” she asked “Not like the others? She will live?”
“Aye, she’ll live all right” replied the woman kneeling on the floor “Not a thing wrong with that one, near as I can tell. I saw those others” she paused briefly “this one’s not like those”
“See for yourself, Leonara” the father said, handing the baby over to her.
Gingerly, she took her from him, and Mia watched curiously as she pulled back the towel a little, exposing the child’s bare chest. Slowly, deliberately, she placed her finger on the baby girl’s chest, but what happened next Mia didn't know. She was vaguely aware of the baby’s dreadful screams, but they sounded very far away and unreal. All that was real was the burning agony spreading through her own chest. She cried out, and fell to the ground.
As she did so, four heads whipped around and stared at the exact spot she and her stranger were. The stranger uttered an oath, grabbed Mia roughly by the arm, and then they were back in Mia’s room, and she was lying on her bed. The pain was gone, and Mia wondered if she had woken up.
“I told you we must be quiet!” the stranger’s voice broke into her thoughts. Still dreaming then, thought Mia to herself “Is it too much to ask that you simply be quiet? All you had to do was stand there!” the stranger paced as she ranted, her beautiful features contorted in anger - and fear, Mia noted - so that she looked quite terrifying.
“I’m sorry” Mia cried, but rather than sound sorry, she sounded like a petulant child. “There was a pain, a burning….right through my chest, it gripped hold of me, I couldn’t feel anything but pain... it was when she touched the baby.”
The stranger stopped pacing, and looked Mia squarely in the eye.
“Hmm. Well. Unexpected. But a problem nonetheless.” The stranger murmured thoughtfully. She seemed instantly calmed, and crossed gracefully to sit beside Mia on the bed. Gently, she took Mia’s hands in her own, and once again the serene friendly expression was back on her face, looking into Mia’s eyes.
“I am sorry, Mia. It was wrong of me to be so angry. But you cannot possibly understand what this has done. You were never supposed to see. Now they will know you are alive, and your mother may come for you again. They will all know, because they all saw you there.” She sighed gently “I didn’t know it would hurt you. I thought…well, no matter. The reason it hurt you…do you understand what happened?”
Mia shook her head, of course she didn’t understand - none of it made any sense. A few days ago she had thought that no dream could be as simultaneously realistic and bizarre as the tower dreams. Now she realized that she had been wrong.
“Mia, this is not a dream -” the stranger said softly. “the reason it hurt is - that little baby was you.”
“How…how could it be me? How could I….how could I be at my own birth?” Because it’s a dream, stupid, Mia scolded herself silently.
“How could anything that happened tonight have happened, Mia? And how could the visits with your mother have happened?” Mia started as she realized the stranger was speaking about the tower dreams. So the woman was her mother, she thought in wonder. “In your Truth, none of it is possible. But your Truth is just one of many, and I have the great privilege of having access to many of them” continued the stranger
“What did she do to me - when it hurt?” Mia asked, deciding that perhaps the way out of this dream, like the tower dreams, was to play along.
“She was checking the child. Testing, in a way. It was the only way to be sure you were healthy, and that you were what you should be. We had been trying for a long time, before you came along, Mia” she smiled.
“We? Who is ‘we’? Trying what? I don’t understand.”
The stranger sighed again.
“It is a complicated matter Mia. You have grown up to think you are nothing but an ordinary human child - you are anything but ordinary, and barely human at all,” she smiled wryly “but will you believe this Truth, or will you insist on sticking with your own, with the familiar Truth that all humans - well, most of them at least - live by?”
Mia considered her reply carefully, and finally looked back into the eyes of the stranger, who was waiting for her reply.
“Tell me your Truth, and then let me decide what I believe.”
“Very wise, little one. I see everything - well, aside from losing you for fifteen years of course - went right with you. You must promise not to interrupt, and to hear everything with as open a mind as you can manage”
The girl nodded and, taking a deep breath, the stranger began to explain to Mia all that had happened that night - and in the years before.
“You are the product of many many years of trying to create a new kind of life. Trying to create a child from two very special parents who would not otherwise have been able to have a child. Beings like your parents, like me, like all our friends, do not have children. And I know, that seems strange, impossible. And for the human race to survive, yes, it would be impossible.
But we, Mia, are not humans - we are Angels.”
CHAPTER FOUR
She said it simply and matter-of-factly, as though she was stating that it was raining outside. Mia almost laughed aloud, but something in the stranger’s face told her that this was not a joke. The stranger truly believed she was an Angel. That was her Truth. But if this impossible scenario were actually true, then that would mean that Mia was…she stopped herself from completing the thought - and mentally shook herself once again, scolding herself for getting so caught up in the dream.
“Yes, Mia. You are an Angel too. Well. Almost.” The stranger smiled kindly. “Angels, you see, are not born. They simply are. One day they do not exist, and then they do. It is our Truth, the way it has always worked, since the world divided - and since before that - this is how things have been. Our adversaries exist in the same way. Their Creation Truth is the same as ours. They simply come into being one day, they are not born and they do not die.
Unfortunately, this way of existing means that there are no stronger or weaker amongst us. Because we are all created truly equal. The human Truth, for those who want to believe it is that “all men are created equal”. But that simply isn’t true, is it? There are stronger, weaker, better, worse, kinder, meaner…not at all equal. For us, the Angels, we truly are equals. And equal also to our adversaries.
That is a problem. It means that we cannot defeat them. Because we are not stronger or more numerous to them. We are equal to them in every way imaginable - other than our purpose. They oppose everything we stand for, and we are powerless to stop them from spreading their poison throughout the worlds and Truths.”
“Are you talking about demons?” Mia asked, wide-eyed. The stranger laughed.
“Demons are the fanciful invention of human minds. Human religion. Human stories and myths. Our opponents, they are Angels, just as we are. Created in the same way and everything the same but their designs for the universes. They would see us stamped out, for we will not join their cause. But no, Mia they are not demons.
We needed a new weapon, something that would be stronger than them. There was an old story, passed down through the ages in certain Truths, from long before any of us Being today were created, that a child born of Angels would be the one to lead us into the final battle.
But such Truths, when so few have them, are hard to bring into being.”
Mia didn’t understand, and knew that it showed on her face. The Angel recognized it too, and patiently began to explain.
“Truths, darling Mia, are a complicated fact of our lives - our existences. Truths are, in a way, like human beliefs. The key difference being, that they are real because they are believed. I know, it sounds strange, makes little sense to a human mind. So confined, you have been, Mia, unable to spread your wings and explore the Truths on offer.” Catching the look in Mia’s eye, the Angel smiled again. “Not literal wings. Winged angels are, like the demons, the fanciful invention of human minds. Human minds who cannot comprehend our Truths. So limited, their minds. They miss out on so much because of it…In their minds, they give us wings to explain how we can be anywhere at all. In our Truth, we have no need of wings. We can simply be where we wish to be.
Take, for example, the events of this evening. No doubt it confused you to find yourself in different Truths, ones that seemed impossible to you? Here one second, in a strange house less than a fraction of a second later?”
Mia nodded. Yes, it had confused her. Not nearly as much as the apparent time travel she had undergone, in order to be present at her own birth. The mind boggled.
“It wasn’t ‘Time Travel’, Mia.” Although it had happened several times already, Mia was still startled when she realized that the Angel was hearing her thoughts as clearly as if she had spoken them aloud. Quickly, she realized the Angel was still talking, and pushed her awe aside to focus and listen. “It was a Truth. Well, I suppose that’s as good a place as any to start your training - and maybe help you understand Truths too.” She rose from the bed, and beckoned to Mia to do the same.
“Now, Mia. We are both standing by your bed, is that true?”
Mia nodded her reply.
“That is one Truth. Another is that we are standing over by the wardrobe, and not by the bed at all.”
As Mia opened her mouth to reply, she was surprised to find that the Angel was right. Mia was by the bed, but the Angel was standing by the wardrobe, in less than a blink of an eye.
“Now Mia, the reason I am by the wardrobe and you are by the bed, is because we are experiencing different Truths. I’m reasonably sure that you have enough Angel in you to at least achieve this kind of Truth Switch, even without much training. You try. Try it.”
“But…what do I do?” Mia asked uncertainly.
“Its very easy. Just know that you are standing here, beside me.”
“But…I’m not.”
The Angel’s smile faltered just slightly.
“You are thinking with your human mind, Mia. Trust me. Believe that you are standing beside me, and it will be true”.
Closing her eyes, so that she couldn’t see reality, Mia focused her attention on where she wanted to be. No, where she was. She was standing next to the Angel, by the wardrobe. She opened her eyes - and was still standing by the bed.
“You didn’t believe Mia. You just wanted to. No matter, you’ll get it in time! I…I don’t really know how to help. It’s hard. I have always been this way. I don’t know how to teach you. I hope it can be taught…try again, Mia. Focus really hard. Focus on the tiny details. What would standing here next to me be like? Would that jacket brush against your arm? How would that feel? You’re barefoot - the floor would be colder than it is on that rug. You might brush against me. My hair might tickle your face. You could smell my perfume, if you’re close. concentrate Mia!”
Mia did as she was bid. Squeezing her eyes tight shut, she focused all her thoughts and energies on being by the wardrobe. Yes, the floor is cold there, on the wooden boards. That jacket is cold too, being leather against her bare arm. And the slight flowery fragrance of the Angel’s perfume would be wafting towards her. No, not would be, she thought, it is. And if she shifted her left foot very slightly, that floorboard by the wardrobe would creak.
She shifted her foot gently, putting more of her weight onto it. She heard a creak. Her eyes flew open, and she was looking straight at her bed, rather than at the wardrobe she had been facing a moment earlier. She turned and saw the Angel beaming down at her.
“I didn’t realize you’d get it so quickly!” Her eyes shone with excitement. “This is very good! A very good sign, Mia. You did it! You switched Truths!! Are you ready to try something trickier?” Ex
citement shone brightly in the Angel’s eyes, and Mia felt she could not refuse.
Mia nodded dumbly. Sure, why not try something trickier. Trickier than teleporting? The Angel laughed again.
“Oh Mia, you must stop thinking in your silly human terms! It’s not ‘teleporting’ its Truth-Switching! And once you can do it right, the possibilities are practically endless!! How about this, a tricky switch. Very tricky, but seeing as you picked this up so quickly, I saw we give it a go!” The Angel was almost feverish in her excitement, her eyes burning brightly and some colour appearing in the previously pale and perfect cheeks. “Another Truth to this, is that we, you and I, are standing outside this room listening to this conversation right now!”
Doubt crept into Mia’s mind, she didn’t know if she could do that. How could that be possible?
“Oh Mia, don’t let me down now! It is possible! You know it is! We’ve already done it! And this time will be easier, it doesn’t matter if you make a noise, you already know you’re doing it!”
Awakening (Children of Angels) Page 2