Aira and David smiled.
“We had ice cream,” Aira lightly laughed.
“Oh really?” Barry smiled and shook his head at Maddy.
“I guess that means we’re even.” Maddy winked at her children.
Barry shook his finger at Maddy and started to play fight with her. He picked her up, and
Maddy started to laugh. She touched his face. “I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.” She kissed Barry and then he put her down.
Aira saw the love they had and was happy they had each other, but in that moment it also felt painful. Aira just looked away.
“It’s getting late, David, you should jump in the shower before bed. You guys have school tomorrow,” Maddy requested.
“Okay, Mom, and thanks Barry, thanks a lot,” David said, feeling very happy as he walked out of the kitchen.
“Aira, you should try and get a good sleep tonight. I am exhausted. I’m going to do some reading before bed. I love you.”
“Goodnight,” Aira replied as they walked out of the kitchen, and down the hall to their room.
Aira pulled herself out of the kitchen chair and stood up to go upstairs. David walked back into the kitchen.
“Aira?”
“Ya, David?” David walked cautiously over to the table, and Aira sat back down.
“Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine, really,” Aira answered, nodding her head. She didn’t like when her brother worried.
“I mean, I know how you feel,” David continued.
“What do you mean?”
“I know what it’s like to feel how you feel right now.”
“I know, David.”
“I hope Israel realizes how great you are,” he said quietly. Aira closed her eyes in pain for a second, then she stood up and hugged her brother.
“I love you, Aira.”
“I love you too.” David hugged her tightly and Aira walked him to his room.
“I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
“Okay,” he smiled, and Aira went to go upstairs.
David’s hand was still on the door handle. “Aira?” David spoke again.
“Ya, David?”
“Israel came to see me one day, just before you got home from school.” Aira lifted her brow a bit. She didn’t expect that.“I really like him.” he continued, and he put his head down.
“I know, I do...” Aira wouldn’t finish what she was going to say. “David I’m going to go finish up some homework before bed, okay?”
“Okay,” he said. He then opened the door to his room.
Aira went to walk away, but quickly took a second look. What had been super hero pictures on his wall, were now pictures of angels. All of them he had drawn himself. His walls were covered with them.
Aira walked into his room and started looking at all the drawings. David watched her.
“You’re into angels now? David, these are amazing.” Aira walked closer to one, then noticed its eyes. They looked just like Israel’s. Aira kept her eyes on it, turning her head slowly to look at David. He still didn’t say anything. Aira looked back at the drawing, then looked at the next, and the next. In all of them the eyes were the same.
“David, um…” Aira felt almost breathless, she was in shock. “I have some homework to do. Have a good sleep, okay?” Aira walked out of his room, then quickly ran upstairs and closed her door.
She ran over to her bed, grabbed her laptop and went straight to a search engine. The first thing she did was think, what could she write? She typed in ‘angel’s eyes’, but mostly all that came up were pictures of different cars and some kind of animal tear stain remover. She shook her head but continued to scroll down a bit. There were a few pictures of eyes, beautiful ones.
But none were like Israel’s. She scrolled to the top, deleted ‘angels eyes’ and wrote ‘angels’.
Most of the pictures were drawings, art, digitally done. She then typed in ‘real angels’. She scrolled for quite some time, really concentrating. She came to one picture, saw white wings and instantly had a very, very quick flash in her mind of when Israel had jumped out of her window. Something she swore she had dreamt. While she searched page after page, she started to play with the pendant Israel had given her. She typed in ‘what are the characteristics of an angel?’ One page was called Twenty Characteristics of Angels. Then she typed in ‘angels in human form’. The deeper she looked, and the more pages she went through, the more she realized a lot of pictures she saw were of angels going against darker angels.
She then typed in, ‘what are dark angels’? And the answer that came up was demons. She began to search demons and looked through the pictures, reading as much as she could. Page after page. On one page it said that demons are related to the smell of sulfur. Aira pulled her hair to her nose for moment, then moved it away and continued. When she looked through the pictures of demons and people who had been demon possessed, she moved her fingers over her mouth. She noticed a lot of them had black eyes, and in that moment she had another quick flash in her mind of the creature in her dream, and the man, and then the blackness in Israel’s eyes. “There’s no way.” She spoke quietly to herself, shaking her head gently. Aira closed her laptop and pushed it away from her, using her foot to then push it right off the bed.
Aira curled up in her bed and stared over at the picture on her wall. She was in deep thought, not really wanting to fall asleep, but after hours of trying to keeping herself awake, tossing and moving herself around, her eyes slowly became heavier and heavier. Aira fell asleep and instantly into a dream.
The forest was light, so it must have been late afternoon. The day was beautiful. The sun shone off every tree. Aira was in a white, strapless, light-flowing dress that hung just above her knees. She was running, she looked happy, content.
She stopped, coming to a small pool of water. She could see the reflection of the trees in the water as she bent down to put her hands in it. The water rippled a bit from the movement on her hands, and there was Israel’s reflection in the water. Aira looked, then turned around seeing him standing there. He held out his hand to help her up and then placed his hands on her bare shoulders. Aira felt relieved, he was completely normal again.
Israel gave her a smile, cupped each side of her jaw with his hands, then leaned in and kissed her lips. Aira closed her eyes feeling the same rush she always felt when he touched her. He slowly pulled away and she stared deeply into his eyes. Israel turned his head and Aira, not wanting to take her eyes off of him, slowly turned her head and looked. Darkness was coming over the forest towards them faster then she could think.
“Aira, run,” he spoke calmly. She didn’t want to leave him as scared as she felt.
“I’m not leaving you.” She tried clenching onto him as he gently tried to pull her hands off of him.
“Please trust me… run… Now!” He instantly pushed her away, then he turned around and faced Darkness. He stood looking like an impenetrable wall between them, as if he was protecting her from them. His eyes were intense.
The closer Darkness came, the harder Aira’s heart pounded, and as fast as a flash of lightning, the dark one’s face came into Aira’s vision, looking right at her. She felt paralyzed with fear, literally knocking her to the ground. She turned herself around, forcing herself to get up and run. It felt almost impossible to move. As she ran, she turned around to look, and Darkness barreled into Israel, making him fall to his knees.
“Israel, No!” She cried. His arms were straight out like he was welcoming it and he screamed out as if it pained him.
Then, silence.
Aira’s hand was over her mouth. She was breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. There was no more darkness.
Israel slowly rose up off the ground. She wanted to go to him but stood where she was.
> Israel turned around and looked at her, his eyes cold and remorseless black. He gave her a half smile, and in an instant he started to run at her. He was so fast. As unsure as she was, she closed her eyes and turned to run. It felt like slow motion, then as fast as she could, she ran quicker. She was terrified. She ran for what felt like forever, then something stopped her. She had run into someone. “Get off of me!” she screamed, moving around to try to get away.
“Aira.” She heard a calm and familiar voice. “It’s okay!”
Aira lifted her head with tears in her eyes, completely confused. It was Jaidas. His was strong, warm, safe. Aira looked at him, and he took the back of his fingers and stroked her cheek. “I’m here,” he said.
She closed her eyes, then taking a breath, she opened them to the sound of her alarm.
All she should could think about was getting to school. She needed to see Israel.
She got out of bed, dressed herself and threw her hair into an elastic, not even brushing it.
She grabbed her keys, and her bag, ran down the stairs, and out to her truck. She was out the door so fast her mom could not have got a word in.
Aira jumped in her truck, backed out, and drove.
Every stop sign made her more impatient. The day was gloomy, mundane, but somehow more surreal than any other.
She pulled into the school parking lot, and drove around searching for his car. She eventually found it. She parked her truck, sat for a few minutes to compose herself, and finally got out. She walked towards the school, saw Avery and Joshua, and walked over to them.
“Hey.”
“You look like crap,” Avery said, smiling in a playful way.
“I know…” She scratched her head a bit, “Um, have you seen Israel?” she asked. Joshua shook his head at Avery not to say anything.
“No, we actually just got here,” Avery answered.
“Okay, I’m gonna go look for him.” She started to walk away.
“Aira,” Avery shouted a bit.
“Ya?” Aira turned around.
Avery couldn’t think of anything to say, so she said the first thing that came to her mind.
“I want to go camping.”
Aira let out a light laugh, and Joshua looked at Avery like, ‘what was that?’
“I miss you,” Avery spoke again.
“I miss you too, we’ll do something soon, I just have to sort some things out first.” She started to walk again.
Jaidas sat in his car watching her.
Aira stopped for a second at the school doors, closed her eyes taking a small breath, and then opened them.
She walked down the halls searching for Israel. Then, walking around the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Israel was pulling books out of his locker.
Aira felt relief. She took another small breath and started towards him. As she came to him, he continued looking through his locker.
“Israel?” She waited for him to say something. He said nothing. He closed his locker, turned and looked at her, and he just silently stood there.
She noticed his eyes were completely black. He didn’t look like himself, and from behind him, Mary ran up.
“Hey, baby,” she said as she looked at Aira with a bragging smirk. Israel turned, put his arm around Mary’s waist and moved her in between him and Aira.
“Who’s this?” Mary asked Israel. She pretended like she didn’t know.
“She’s no one,” he replied. He grabbed onto Mary’s hand and pulled her away.
Aira stood there looking spaced-out, slightly lifting her brow. She felt like her heart had been torn out of her chest. She could barely breathe. She turned around and started to walk.
It didn’t feel real, and it didn’t make any sense. She had hoped that everything she made up in her mind was wrong, but if it was really true…
She slowly made her way to her locker. Avery and Joshua were there talking. They started to talk to Aira, but to her it sounded like she was under water. She could barely make out Avery saying, “Are you okay?”
Aira rubbed her temple, “Ya, I’m fine.” Aira looked at Avery. “I don’t understand.”
“I know, I just saw them, I don’t get it. Where did she even come from?” Avery replied, horrified for Aira.
“Don’t worry, it’s not just you. He won’t talk to me either,” Joshua spoke, trying to make Aira feel better.
The bell rang.
“I’ll see you later, okay?” Avery hugged Aira. “Come with us after school, you need to do something else,” Avery said to her, nodding.
“Okay,” Aira agreed.
“Really?” asked Avery.
“Ya,” she spoke, nodding her head. Aira was devastated, but she needed to get him off her mind.
“Thank God,” Avery said, smiling, “I’m holding you to it,” then walked away with Joshua.
Aira looked into the class she had to go into, and knew that he was in there. I have to talk to him she said to herself. She grabbed her books and walked into class. She was going to make him explain everything.
There he was. He looked up for a second and then looked back down.
She walked over to her desk and Jaidas walked in.
Aira put her books down, waited a second, and finally just turned around and said,
“Israel, what happened to you? What is this? You’re not even the same person, or maybe you were always this person and I was just dumb enough to believe you.”
“Yes,” he answered.
Jaidas listened to every word.
“Yes what?” she asked confused.
“You were dumb.” He smiled.
Aira started to get pissed off and just looked at him. “Are you being serious?”
“Yes,” he said.
“That’s not good enough,” she spoke shaking her head, obviously really upset.
“What do you want from me?” he asked annoyed.
“I want you to tell me the truth.” Aira didn’t take her eyes off of him.
Israel stopped moving the pen on his page and he turned and looked at her. “The truth?”
Aira looked away for a second, feeling uncomfortable. “Yes.”
Israel smiled, “It’s always been her.” He looked over to the door, then Aira looked to the door, and Mary stood outside giving him a smile, blew him a kiss, then walked away.
Aira’s heart dropped into her stomach. She turned around and didn’t say any more.
The hour dragged on forever. Distracted by her own thoughts, she couldn’t even think.
Finally the bell rang. The sound pierced her.
Israel got out of his desk and walked out the door.
“Right,” she said to herself. She grabbed her books and walked out.
Class after class, Aira sat in pain struggling to make it through hour by hour. The day finally ended and the last bell rang. Aira walked to her locker, filled her bag and waited for Avery.
She could hear Avery’s laugh as she walked up with Joshua, and Aira smiled at them.
“You’re smiling?” Avery said confused, but happy to see it.
“Seeing you guys calms me in a weird way.”
“Long day?” Joshua asked.
“Ya,” Aira replied.
“Well, let’s get out of here,” Avery said dramatically.
Aira couldn’t help but smile, and they all walked out of the school together.
As they walked, Aira stopped. She saw the girl sitting on Israel’s car as he stood in between her legs.
Avery looked over and said, “Aira, don’t even look.” Aira turned her head away and they walked to Joshua’s car.
Jaidas walked over. “Hey guys, ladies, bro?” he said, feeling like a nervous idiot.
Aira shook her head and smiled at his uninte
ntional charismatic personality.
“I love your smile,” Jaidas said, looking at her like she was everything to him. She almost felt sorry for him.
Joshua was moving things around in his back seat to make room for Aira.
Jaidas noticed there wasn’t much room and he looked at Aira.
“I’ll take you,” he said hopeful.
Aira looked at him. “I do have my own vehicle.”
Jaidas looked around, looked over to Israel, then looked back at Aira,
“Ya, but that wouldn’t be as fun. You guys going to The Moose?” he asked Avery and Joshua.
“Yaa...” Avery answered as she looked at Aira.
Jaidas quickly grabbed onto Aira’s hand, and pulled her towards his car.
“We’ll meet you there,” he shouted at them. He opened the passenger door for Aira, and she looked at him like he better behave, and that it meant nothing.
He looked at her. “What?” he asked, like a guilty little boy with a smile.
“Nothing.” she said. He knew what it meant and she got in. Jaidas smiled and walked over to the driver’s side.
He looked over to where Israel and Mary were. Israel’s back was turned towards him. Jaidas couldn’t see Mary, he saw Cleo.
Cleo looked over at Jaidas looking at her. His eyes were dead serious, a, ‘back off’ kind of look.
Aira kept her head forward. Jaidas got into his car, turned it on, put on his seat belt, and pulled out of the parking lot.
Israel picked Mary up by her bum and walked with her over to the passenger side of his car. He opened the door and put her down in her seat. Grabbing onto her seat belt, he pulled it around her and his vision went into slow motion. With eyes blacker than the night, he looked at her and she smiled. He closed the door, and walked over to his side of the car to get in. Just as he was getting in, a black feather fell out from underneath his sweater onto the ground.
Jaidas and Aira got out of the car as Avery and Joshua got out of theirs. He smiled at her, aware that she was upset. He put his arm around her trying to give comfort, and they all walked into the coffee shop.
Everyone was there, all of their friends, happy to see them. They got up and hugged her and Avery, and shook Joshua’s hand.
Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga Page 12