HIM

by Brittney Cohen-Schlesinger

  I have to.

  “Jensen…” I trailed off. He shared a confused look with me.

  “Yes?” he asked, his voice gruff.

  “How are you doing?” I gripped the bars to keep myself from falling down. I had had one hell of an experience and needed the stability.

  “I am okay.” He looked away from me. “I am living.”

  “Yeah, I can see that, thank G-d,” I replied. “Jensen, I’m going to get you out of here.”

  “You cannot.” He sounded robotic.

  “How come?”

  “Because I do not trust you. You could be dangerous, a threat.” If I didn’t know any better I’d say there was anger, pure anger in his eyes. Towards me.

  “I’m not dangerous. I’m your girlfriend,” I laughed with no emotion.

  “Who?” he asked, an absolute perplexing look on his delicate face.

  My stomach sank and my breathing hitched. “Do you know who I am?”

  “You are a visitor,” he responded.

  I didn’t say another word. Jensen didn’t know who I was.

  “No one ever visits me. I have been here for one, full year. No one comes. Until you.”

  Every angel in here appeared just as brittle and robotic - no emotion, no movement - nothing.

  “Jensen what are you talking about? You’ve only been here a few hours.”

  “One year,” he repeated. “Angel time is different than human time.”

  “Look at me,” I commanded. “Please, look at me.” He shook his head.

  “Why not?”

  “You are too beautiful for me to look at. Go to someone else so they can admire your beauty.” I didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or to cry.

  “Look. At. Me,” I told him, more control in my voice. His head slowly rose. “Can you let me in, Jensen?”

  “Why would you want to come in here? You have power outside this cage. Use it to your advantage.”

  “But I want to come in there with you.” I didn’t know if what I was doing was smart enough but I had to do something.

  “I do not understand your words.”

  “I love you,” I said, placing a shaky hand over my heart.

  “Love? I do not know what that is.”

  Anxiety was taking over and I didn’t know what to do - how to get through to him. It was only a matter of time before the Shadow Angel would return and Jensen and I would be separated.

  But then I had an idea.

  “Place your hand over your heart,” I said. “Is it beating?” I prayed it was.

  With a steady hand, he did so. His eyes widened. “Yes,” he breathed. “But…how?”

  “You love me. Just as I love you.”

  “Angels do not tend to fall in love with your kind. Angels do not fall in love at all.”

  “You know I’m human?”

  “I can see the difference within hues. Light Angels are a golden-white whereas Shadow Angels are a blackened-red. Humans have a pale blue-hue. But you? You’re blue and blackened-red. How strange. You are different from the others like yourself?”

  “You seem to think so,” I sighed, trying hard not to think about what he had said to me about having his power of premonition inside me. “Now, will you let me in? Please?” His hands trembled at his sides. His eyes darted to the side of the cage I was on - a door was there but it was shut. “Please.”

  His eyes locked on mine, walking over to the entranceway. He placed his hand over the doorknob; an electric current shot through his body in multiple jolts. His body shook and he screamed in excruciating pain. I nearly cried out but he opened the door, smoke rising from where his hand had been.

  I walked in quickly, carefully prying his fingers from the doorknob. He caught his breath, his hand burnt and sore. I held it in mine carefully, kissing his knuckles. I didn’t know what else to do so I sobbed. It wasn’t doing Jensen any good but I needed to cry for many reasons. I was now with Jensen, which was a good thing. But more bad seemed to conquer - he didn’t know who I was and he was trapped in here.

  “Oh Jensen, I’m so sorry,” I blubbered.

  “Don’t be, Avalon,” he sighed. His voice had a different tone to it; a tad bit happier. I looked up at him. His eyes were softer - blue again - and his skin was a little less pale.

  “You know my name?” I was shocked, praying it was really him and not the robotic Jensen who scared the crap out of me.

  “Of course I do,” he smiled wearily. “You’re the reason I’m in here.”

  “Jensen.” I wish he hadn’t said that. I felt guilty enough.

  “Oh, Avalon. I didn’t mean it like that,” he bit his lip. “I know who you are now. I don’t know what they did to me, Ava, but it’s not working on me anymore. The feeling of being completely powerless and controlled is no longer here.”

  “So you’re really…you?”

  “I’m really me.” I breathed a sigh of relief and buried my face in his chest.

  “I thought they had taken you away from me.”

  “Never.” He kissed the top of my head.

  “Why did you let me in?” I wondered, still lightly holding his burnt hand in mine.

  “I don’t know. But subconsciously I guess I knew who you were. And probably felt how good you are - how you wouldn’t harm me.”

  I smiled slightly. “Does that usually happen when people try to break someone out of here?”

  “There’s never been a breakout in angel history, Ava. No one’s tried freeing one of us before.”

  “That’s because no human’s ever been in love with an angel before.”

  “You’re absolutely right.”

  His lips touched mine, soft but burning kisses followed. We’d experienced passionate kisses before but nothing like this. It wasn’t long but it would suffice. It made my insides warm. He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my temple.

  “Aiken will be back shortly. He can’t see you in here with me,” he spoke, his hand on the small of my back, which sent shivers up and down my spine.

  I imagined Aiken shoving his body into Cole’s lifeless corpse, stretching him until he fit and having Cole’s body snap together the way it looked before. It made sense why they could only possess the dead and not the living - a person’s soul doesn’t leave their body until death. The Shadow Angel wouldn’t be able to fit inside unless it was an empty carcass.

  “I need to get you out of here, Jensen,” I said, changing the subject.

  “There’s no way. I’m stuck here.”

  “How? Why? You’re obviously not under the Shadow Angels’ control anymore. Can’t you just leave?” For a brief second I noticed the irony in this situation: I had told Aiken not too long ago that I was only a human, not being able to break Jensen free from this prison chamber. Now look how much progress I had made since that statement.

  In a way it frightened me. I didn’t know what I was capable of. Maybe Aiken was right. Maybe I was destined to become a Shadow Angel. I couldn’t tell Jensen that though. It would have broken his heart. He’d give his life trying to stop the transformation from occurring. But could he really stop something that was unavoidable?

  “You see all these charms and this emblem around my neck? I can’t go anywhere unless these things are far away from me.”

  “I can take them all down.” I was sure of myself.

  “You won’t be able to. Your hands will just go right through them. Humans can’t touch anything transparent.”

  I didn’t know if that was true - because I had no idea if I was a human or not anymore - considering I’d touched the bars on the cage. But just in case I tested my abilities on Jensen’s necklace with the weird swirling symbols. I focused on grabbing it and to his and my surprise I grasped it and took it off his neck. His body shook and lost control, falling to the floor.

  “How in the hell did you do that?” he breathed, looking better already.

  “I don’t know,” I gasped. And then his voice rang inside my head: One of us.r />
  He said I would become a Shadow Angel. Was this, along with my premonitions, a part of some pre-Shadow Angel transformation?

  Before I could let my mind wander off I carefully and quietly took down every charm keeping Jensen hostage. Once they were all down - and thrown out of the cage - the tense air surrounding us dimmed and Jensen embraced me in a graceful hug.

  “Thank you.” Jensen lightly touched my swollen eye. “What happened?”

  “Aiken,” I replied.

  A low growl came from within Jensen, shaking his body. I stared around me, looking at all the other Light Angels trapped in this place. I wished I could have rescued them, too. That would have to be for another day. For now, I had to get Jensen out of here.

  “Jensen, we have to go,” I instructed, suddenly feeling in control of the situation for the first time. Jensen stared straight ahead, eyes squinting.

  “I hear Aiken. He’s coming.”

  Before I had a chance to speak Aiken burst through the door, angry. “Avalon, Avalon, Avalon,” he said, headed straight towards me, “you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” He snarled.

  “Guess I like to make things complicated,” I answered back, not giving a damn about Aiken in the slightest.

  “You’re as strong as I thought you would be.”

  Jensen gave a questioning look. I didn’t have time to explain to him what Aiken had meant by that.

  I held onto Jensen, tightly, as we stepped out of the cage. “Don’t you dare hurt him,” I threatened through gritted teeth, shaking.

  “You might be strong, young one, but not powerful enough. Therefore, you’re powerless to me.” I wasn’t only human anymore, now I knew. “Your threats don’t faze me.”

  “But mine do,” Jensen said, as he leaped forward, tumbling onto Aiken.

  Because they could both blink they disappeared then reappeared in different areas of the room. Aiken could be heard from anywhere in The Middle Plane, I was sure, what with his loud moans and all. Jensen was inflicting pain. He was strong. I hadn’t known how strong until now. He was always so incredibly gentle with me. I hadn’t realized if I’d ever really set him off how much damage he could have actually done. I shuddered.

  Then Jensen flew across the floor, sliding with speed of at least a hundred miles per hour. His head hit a transparent wall, cracking from that point up, then diagonally down. Within milliseconds he propped up on one elbow, got on his feet, steadied himself and then attacked once more. He was angry. A loud scream escaped his throat as he punched Aiken in the jaw. His head twisted completely around, then snapped back like elastic. I almost threw up from the sight of how unnerving it looked.

  “Bet you wouldn’t hit me if I had your little girl toy in my arms, now would you?” Aiken said. Before I knew it he blinked over to me, gripping me tightly against his body -Cole’s body.

  He blinked once more. We were no longer in the room with the cages. Now we were in a dark, damp place - possibly underground? There were dead human bodies strewn all over the floor on the far side of the room. Dark red blood was smeared on the transparent brick walls that surrounded us. It made me sick. Thankfully, Jensen appeared just a moment later, fists clenched.

  “Gonna hit me now?” he taunted.

  Jensen looked at me with sorrow, wishing he could somehow get past me to get to Aiken. But he could never kill Aiken. Only The Angel Vaad could do such a thing. I briefly saw Jensen touch his chest. My guess was his beating heart - the heart that was beating because he’d fallen in love with me.

  Aiken gripped my left hand and held it up in the air as if he were showing it off to a stadium of people. “Forfeit now or the girl has five less fingers to work with.”

  I shut my eyes as I waited for the pain.

  “Aiken, please, let her go,” Jensen cautioned. I opened my eyes to see him walking forward, ever so slowly.

  “Oops,” Aiken said.

  Snap!

  He laughed, breaking my pinky finger without any force. It was like he twisted off a bottle cap - minimal strength needed. I whaled in pain as I saw the bone force itself through my skin. Blood dripped down my arm and onto the clear floor.

  “NO!” Jensen yelled. He blinked over to us, punching Aiken in the jaw, who lost his balance. But I went down with him, hard.

  Tears burned my eyes. From what I could see Aiken was smirking at Jensen, not caring the slightest bit as to what he had done to me. “Finger number two - goodbye,” Aiken sang.

  Snap!

  And just like that he broke my ring finger - the finger I hoped that one day an engagement ring would be placed upon, followed by a wedding band . . . both from Jensen. Again I screamed, keeling over, wanting the pain to stop. I moaned loudly. The pain was so excruciatingly painful; I couldn’t even bring myself to cry.

  Jensen blinked next to me to blink us out of the room. But Aiken came along for the ride. We were in a different, clear room. Same high ceilings, same walls; but the structure was slightly different.

  Snap!

  This time he broke my middle finger. I shrieked, practically blacking out from the ache. Pretty soon I’d be passed out on the floor. The pain was too much for me to take.

  Aiken smacked Jensen across the face, causing my boyfriend to fly through the air and land through a wall a little ways away. He looked badly injured.

  “Aw, poor baby. You gonna cry? Man up,” Aiken spoke sternly to Jensen from across the distance.

  Snap!

  My pointer finger was forced backwards, blood gushed everywhere - onto my white party dress and my face. My hair, in the long braid, was now being yanked from my head - the hair-tie being pulled with such force, chunks of my hair came out. Aiken dangled the pieces of hair in front of me.

  I could barely see anything. My scalp bled, trickling down my back.

  “Don’t take this personally,” Aiken whispered in my ear, quickly, dropping my hair to the floor. His breath was hot on my neck. “I have to do this to have you for myself.” If I could have smacked him across his face I would have. He knew that by hurting me it was hurting Jensen. He was evil.

  “Please,” Jensen said, “you’re hurting her. Stop.”

  “That’s the whole point, Jay-man.” He eyed my hand, admiring his work. “Oops, I forgot one!” Aiken flashed a glowing smile. He was truly enjoying himself. I felt ill.

  I didn’t need a vision to pop into my head for me to know what was coming next. I held my breath as I waited for the unwanted throbbing to begin.

  Snap!

  My thumb was now broken. I cried out, body going numb. He threw me to the ground, stomping hard on the palm of my hand. I heard multiple cracks and felt my entire hand split down the middle to my wrist. My whole left hand was completely destroyed. And Aiken didn’t even care. My body went into shock, head hitting the crystal clear floor. It felt like concrete. This vaguely reminded me of the night in the club when I’d collapsed after seeing Cole - or rather, Aiken - there, staring at me with menacing green eyes.

  Jensen flew across the distance, cursing as he made his way over. Aiken ran around the perimeter of the room, Jensen running after him. I didn’t think he’d ever make it but he did, tackling Aiken to the ground. He got on top of him, punching across the face a few dozen times. In between the crunching of skull and bones I could make out Aiken’s voice.

  “Too bad you never got to do what I did to her,” he laughed cynically.

  Crunch!

  “She was so good in bed!” he laughed again.

  Crunch! And groan.

  “She was such a good girl.” He said good girl exactly the way he’d spoken those words to me the night he stole my virginity - full of satisfaction and gruesomeness.

  “DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT AVALON THAT WAY!” With a loud punch to the groin, Jensen had Aiken wishing for death as it sent his body flailing downwards, crushing the building we were in, creating a gaping hole in the foundation. Jensen ran over to me, limping.

  “Avalon!” he nearly
screamed. “Ava, can you hear me?” He gently lifted me, cradling me in his weak arms. Blood was all over his clothes and skin.

  “Mmm,” I tried talking, but only the weak moan of my voice could be heard.

  “Sweetheart, I’m going take us somewhere safe, okay?”

  He elevated us off the ground - were we up in the air? - and within seconds were somewhere else - an apartment building? I couldn’t tell. But we were on the inside of some place with a comfy couch. He rested me on it, head propped up on a clear, comfortable pillow.

  Everything about The Middle Plane intrigued me - even when I was out of it. I pictured myself coloring in everything that was translucent to take my mind off of the pain. Adding a little blue to the window curtains, a little yellow to the pillows. I imagined anything colorful - anything beautiful. And then I saw Jensen’s face again.

  He is beautiful.

  “This is where I live. This is my home,” Jensen said, tucking my unruly hair behind my ear. When he pulled his hand away, a red substance showed.

  Blood. I could smell the iron. I wanted to vomit.

  He stroked my swollen cheek with his fingertips. “Although anywhere with you is my home.” He half-smiled, then ran to get a towel - see-through of course - with water on it, dabbing at my bloody forehead. The blood from my scalp had trickled there as well.

  I cleared my throat, but it burned. “Water,” I croaked, as I attempted to clear my esophagus.

  “Oh yes, of course,” he said. “You must be parched.” He was back in a flash with a glass full of water. “We only use water for plants.” I’d forgotten that he didn’t need to eat or drink here. I didn’t know what I’d expected to taste but it tasted just like regular water. It cooled my throat, soothed the ache. But everywhere else killed me - especially my hand.

  Jensen continued to dab the wet cloth on my head, then moved it down to mop up the blood that drizzled down by my ears, neck, chest, arms and back. He then placed it on my swollen eye, which I could barely see out of. I knew I looked a wreck without having to see my reflection.

  “Jensen,” I whispered, “where is he?” I coughed. “Where’s Aiken?”