by Lola StVil
“I don’t think it’s love.”
“Would you know love if you saw it?” I quip.
“Would you?” she counters.
“Okay, what’s the problem? You don’t like Marisol?” I ask.
“I don’t really know her. East just pointed her out to me in the hall earlier today. But for the record, I dislike most girls.”
“Of course you do,” I reply, shaking my head.
“I’m just being honest.”
“Well, East says she’s amazing. They are mad about each other,” I shout back in Marisol’s defense.
“Maybe, but I don’t trust her,” Ruin replies.
“Yeah, yeah, I know—she’s a girl.”
“Well, that and the Owin she wears,” Ruin says.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a mixture that you use to stop someone from wiping your mind.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” I reply.
“Yeah, most Healers don’t use it because it’s a pain in the ass to make and the smell clings to you. Who wants to walk around smelling like almonds all day?”
Almonds…
“Oh shit! We gotta go!”
Chapter Twenty-Six:
The Chosen
Ruin and I hide behind the shrubs out back and sneak a peek into the house. Standing there, in all her demented glory, is the Apprentice: Marisol. She’s in the center of my kitchen surrounded by some kind of force field.
At her feet lie Swoop, Key, Aaden, Bex, and East. They are face-up and motionless. There’s something unnatural about their stillness. A wave of dread unlike any I’ve known before washes over me.
“They’re not moving; she killed them. She killed everyone,” Ruin says in a state of shock.
“No, no, they are still alive,” I reply desperately.
“How do you know that?”
“They’re still alive because I need them to be, okay? Now stop getting emotional on me and summon up some of that inner demon.”
“Okay, okay. We can’t do anything to her with that force field around her. How do we get rid of that?”
“The force field consists of energy. We don’t have a way to drain it from her, but maybe we can overload it somehow.”
“There was a downed power line not far from here—add that to your powers and her force field should be weakened. Well, at least long enough for you to get a good shot at her,” Ruin says.
“You can’t carry a live wire, you’ll barbecue yourself,” I point out.
“Aw, I didn’t know you cared,” she quips.
“How are you going to get the wire?”
“I have a vial that can protect my hands from shock. It’s not enough to help me get past the force field, but it’s enough to help me get the wire over here. You need to go in and keep her distracted.”
“Yeah, killing me should be very distracting,” I reply.
“Silver wasn’t moving at all,” Ruin says to herself as sadness seeps into her eyes.
“I don’t know what she did to them, but I’m sure they are alive. Thinking differently isn’t going to help us,” I point out. She nods and runs off to find the wire.
Telling Ruin that she doesn’t need to worry keeps my mind off the fact that I am terrified that my team is in fact dead. I push that thought as far away from me as I can because it’s just not something I can handle.
I enter my house, and even if I hadn’t seen what Marisol did in the kitchen I would still know that something was off. The house is too quiet. I live in a house full of teenaged angels; there should never be silence. Swoop should be blasting music. Key should be tinkering with mixtures in the kitchen. The guys are normally training, talking to girls, or in Randy’s case, playing video games.
“You’re late,” she says.
“What did you do to them, you psycho bitch?” I shout as I bend down to the floor to check on them.
“Do you remember the team telling you about one of the nastier creatures they ran into in the forest called Eway? Well, Eways have fangs that paralyze you. Bishop found a way to extract the poison from the Eways’ teeth and put it in a mixture. He was good with things like that, but then again, look who I’m telling. You witnessed his genius firsthand. All I had to do was lace their drinks. One minute we were all joking around and the next…”
I raise both hands in the air to strike. The power springs from my palm and leaps into the air, headed for her. It hits the force field and bounces the surge back towards me. I duck just in time to avoid my own blast.
“What is that around their necks?” I ask as I frantically search my mind for a way to get past Marisol’s force field.
“See that thing that looks like a crystal dog collar, it’s called Skin. It’s a delivery system that inputs chemicals into your body at a preset time. You see how it’s glowing? Well, once it has delivered the mixture I filled it with, the glow will be gone. It’s a great little invention.”
“And what did you put inside it?” I ask, fearing the worse.
“Duh, I put Balance into it. Did you think that The Center kept all its supply in one place? Now, that would be dumb, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t get it, Marisol. Why are you doing this? East loves you,” I plead.
“Easton is the sweetest guy. I am fond of him too. But us girls can’t let guys distract us from our true purpose, now can we?”
“What is your purpose? I mean really, what is it you want from us?”
“For starters, I want you to tell me where the last member of your team is.”
“Randy isn’t here, he’s not a part of this,” I reply.
“I meant the demon. Where is she?”
“She’s not part of my team. She was helping us out for one mission. She got what she wanted.”
“Liar! I saw her in school today.”
“She just came to collect her pay. She’s gone,” I spit.
“That’s a shame. It would have been nice to have her join us,” Marisol replies sincerely.
“I don’t understand. How do you even know about The Center?”
“I found Bishop online. He was ranting and raving about how strong all of you would be someday and how there had to be precautions taken to deal with it. I befriended him and he told me about The Center. I thought it was a great plan. Study the Noru and find ways to eliminate them should you all cause trouble.”
“So you and Bishop were what, best friends?” I ask, pissed and perplexed.
“He had a huge ego. I stroked it, and soon he was laying his plans out to me. I was a very necessary part of his backup plan. All I had to do was gain access to the group and get information. And man, I learned so much about this team from Easton.”
“What was the point of it all?”
“If he failed, I was to continue his work.”
“So that lunatic Bishop was your mentor?”
“More like a tool I used to get what I needed. You see, Bishop formed The Center so he could destroy the Noru should the time come. I, on the other hand, have a different goal,” she informs me.
“Oh, and what is that exactly?”
“I don’t want to take out the Noru; I want to take on the entire Angel world.”
“You seriously want to kill all of us off?”
“No, that would be cruel. I don’t want to take your lives; just your powers,” she replies with a deranged smile.
“Great, so all of this because you think you can handle our power inside your system? That won’t work,” I explain.
“I don’t want your powers. I just think you all shouldn’t have any. No one should have powers. It’s unfair to the rest of us.”
“You’re really bat shit crazy, you know that right?” I ask.
“After my mother died in that cruel way, after she was nearly severed in half in the car accident, I was inconsolable. That’s why my ex boyfriend was able to beat me—I didn’t care about anything, not even myself. Then that night I
met East, the night he saved me from getting pulverized by Zack, I was reborn.
“When I found out that there are angels right here on Earth, I was beside myself. That night I slept sound knowing Omnis had sent angels, real honest-to-goodness angels to help humanity. But then in the morning, another thought occurred to me: if there were angels all around us, why is this world so damn shitty? I mean, there’s starvation, war, diseases, and so much more.
“I thought maybe Omnis had made angels the same way he made us: helpless. So I spent every waking moment learning about the Angel world. And it turns out not only did Omnis use all his creativity on you angels, he granted an infinite amount of power to you.
“You angels weren’t just loved by Omnis—you are his chosen creation. He has given all of you so much power! And all of that power was to be used to help humanity. Instead what do you all do with it? Party. Fuck. And fight each other.
“I couldn’t understand why Omnis just stood by and let you all get away with running wild. That’s when I realized the awful truth: Omnis is just as culpable as all of you.
“This whole time I’ve been saying how much I hate bullies and it occurred to me that the biggest bully of all is Omnis. He enjoys watching humanity suffer. He loves knowing that we are down here drowning in a pool of blood and piss. Omnis is in fact the biggest bully of all.
“That is why he has to be made to pay. I am going to take away that which he holds most dear: his precious chosen angels. I’m not just talking about the Noru; eventually I will take every angel down. Once your team drinks the Balance, you will lose all your powers. And that will be the beginning of the end. In time, you angels will be like us: powerless.
“You see, it’s very simple really. Omnis is like my ex, Zack. He had all the power. And I’ve come to learn that when one being has all the power, they always, always take advantage. So since I can’t give all of humanity the kind of power your team has, I’m going to take that power away. You see, Pryor, either all of us have power or none of us do…”
“I really don’t want to kill you, but since you are the Apprentice, I fear I don’t have a choice,” I warn her.
C’mon, Ruin. Where the hell are you?
“Yes, I’m sure if you could get to me things would be very bad for me right now. But just so you know, I believe in this cause and if it came down to it I would die for it if I had to.”
“I’ll remember that,” I promise her.
“It looks like there’s only a few more minutes until the mixture is in their system completely. Now all I need is for you to take that pretty device next to you and place it around your collar so that like them, your powers will cease to exist.”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
“I wanted to get Randy, but we missed him, so we had to settle for the next best thing: Randy’s father. So, you can try and play hero if you want, but I touch this button on my phone and Randy will have lost both his mother and father,” she says as she pulls out her cell phone and plays a video of Randy’s dad fixing dinner.
“How did you get like this?”
“Well, it turns out when you’ve been bullied by the best, you learn a few things. Put the Skin around your neck or I will blow the human up.”
“You said you care about humanity, so why are you blowing up an innocent dad? He never did anything to you,” I point out.
“No, but in every war there are casualties. I’m willing to sacrifice so that the ones who come after live in a balanced and just world.”
“It doesn’t work that way. Marisol, humans can achieve great things.”
“Yes, if we had power like yours but we don’t, do we? No! Instead we just grow old, get sick, and die like some cosmic joke. Well, now it’s our turn to laugh. Put. It. On.”
I reach over and take the device on the table beside me. Placing it around my neck will render me weak from the moment it makes contact. Yet I can’t refuse knowing Randy’s father’s life is at stake. I’ve known him for a while now and he’s boring and tells awful jokes. But he’s kind, loves Randy, and has always been there for him. Randy would die if something happened to his dad.
“I am not going to tell you again,” Marisol promises.
As I slowly reach for the collar-like device, I see Ruin through the window behind Marisol. She quietly snakes the live wire through the open window. I give the signal and Ruin bursts through the door with the hose in her hand.
“Now!” I yell.
Before Marisol understands what’s happening, Ruin turns on the hose. When the water meets the live wire, the force field fails. The shock catapults Marisol across the room. She drops her cell phone. I run over to take it while Ruin frees the others.
“Oh crap! The fall activated the bomb in Randy’s house. Get on a Port and get his dad out, now!”
I scramble to finish what Ruin started, releasing the rest of the team. I’m so focused on helping them I don’t notice Marisol coming up behind me. By the time I do, it’s too late. She jabs a needle into my neck and injects its contents into my body. In a matter of seconds I am unable to move.
She stands over me, her flesh exposed and peeling from the live wire. Her crazed stare reveals the madness in her soul. I watch helplessly as she grabs the nearest knife from the table and goes to plunge it into my chest.
East grabs her from behind and pleads with her as he wrestles the knife from her hand. The knife goes flying to the other side of the room. East quickly comes to my rescue, or at least he tries to—Marisol leaps onto his back. She is now in full psycho mode. Having no other choice, he throws her off of him and she lands near the window.
The other members of the team are finally free of the poison and the collars around their necks. They help me sit up and Key shows me a text from Ruin they all received. She tells us the bomb went off, but she was able to get Randy’s dad out in time.
“We need to get Marisol to the hospital before—” I don’t get to finish what I am saying because I realize for the first time what actually happened to Marisol. She didn’t just land by the window; she landed on top of the live wire for the second time. This time there was no force field to absorb the shock. The Apprentice is dead.
* * *
East Mind wiped Randy’s father so that he doesn’t even remember being saved by Ruin. The official story is that there was a gas leak in the building. While Randy is grateful that we were able to save his dad, he was devastated we couldn’t save his apartment. It’s where he lived with his mom before she left them. Now it’s just a pile of ash. But on the bright side, one thing did survive. Randy’s other best friend—Mr. Frog.
A few days later, we all attended Marisol’s funeral, although East said we didn’t have to. The only one who wasn’t there was Bex because he had to appoint a new steward to replace Hollander. The service was beautiful, filled with her friends and family. East asked to be left alone with the coffin so we respected his wishes and headed home while he said one final good-bye to his first love.
We don’t see East until later that night. He’s up on the roof looking at the skyline. I’ve never seen him this crestfallen before. I know the look well. He’s missing her so much it pains him. He’s so deep in his thoughts that he doesn’t realize I’m there until I speak.
“The service was nice.”
“I guess,” he says distantly.
“I know it hurts right now, but we’re here for you. Just let us know how we can help.”
“Help? Have we actually ever helped anyone, Pry?”
“What do you mean?”
“Marisol was right; we have all this power and we waste it. And when it comes down to it, she was a human being. It was our job to make sure that she lived, and we not only failed at that but we killed her. Since when is it okay for angels to kill humans?”
“We don’t kill innocent humans if we can avoid it. But Marisol wasn’t innocent. She would have killed you to get her way.”
“You shoul
d have let her kill me. At least she would have been alive. She was human and we owed her that.”
“East, this is coming from your grief.”
“So what if it is? That doesn’t make me wrong. She died at seventeen. I mean, what the hell?”
“We tried to get her to put the knife down and she wouldn’t,” I remind him.
“She wasn’t evil. She was just an idealistic kid with a black-and-white point of view. She didn’t deserve to die.”
“Neither did you.”
“I’m a part of this team and have been for years. I know what comes with that. There’s danger at the end of every corner. I was prepared to die if need be, but she wasn’t. We should have saved her. I should have saved her.”
“East, you were paralyzed,” I remind him.
“No, before that. She showed signs of rage and anger. I ignored them. If I had been able to pick up the signs maybe her family wouldn’t be in mourning now,” he says.
“I don’t see how you could have known. I mean, none of us did.”
“Yes, but I should have. I failed her.”
“East, you didn’t. You tried to help her in the end but you can’t force someone to accept your help. I know you’re hurting, but I promise it will get better. It’s late and you need to Recharge. Let’s go inside,” I say gently.
“I can’t go inside.”
“Why?”
“Because every evening I stand on this roof and at 7:03, she calls me. It’s stupid really. It started out as a joke. She happened to call at 7:03 p.m. two days in a row; and on both days I could hear a cooking show in the background. So I’d ask her what the chef was making.
“It’s one of those traveling cooking shows. The chef goes around the world and makes exotic things with the help of the natives. The first time she called me, the chef was making alligator stew and wild rice. The next day it was bacon ice cream. So every day at exactly 7:03, she calls and before she even says hello, she tells me what was on the menu.
“She’d call and say, ‘7:03; Monkey brain and red chili pepper sauce.’ And she’d sound so excited. She swore she’d travel the world and eat everything on the chef’s menu. The smallest things gave her the most joy.