“Get them in the truck and get the hell out of here!” Nolan screamed to Gabriel, who grabbed them by the arm pulling them towards the truck.
Caleo punched Gabriel in the face and Gabriel toppled over letting go of him as he stumbled into Jillian.
“Oh come on, big brother, this is war. Why not let your little weapon do its job? That is what a weapon is for,” Steve said, appearing beside Nolan holding a shotgun aimed at the advancing Will. Steve casually pulled the trigger, shooting Will in the knee and causing him to stagger to the ground. “That’s far enough. I’m the only one who is allowed to kill my brother.” Steve cocked his gun, turning a crooked smile towards Nolan. “I just love you that much.”
“He isn't a weapon. He's the Angel. Get him out of here. Get him as far from here as you can … please, Steve, he's our only hope. We need him if we're ever going to be free,” Nolan begged.
“What? He’s the Angel?” Steve asked in over exasperated confusion. “Do you think I’m stupid? I've known that for years.”
“Please, Steve, you can kill me later. Just get him the hell out of here,” Nolan pleaded, nearly screaming.
“Okay, brother, but don’t go getting yourself killed. What would I do with my life if I couldn’t torment you and foil all your plans of a happy life?” Steve smiled at Nolan when he saw Will climbing to his feet, blood pouring down his legs in a crimson liquid flame, burning Will’s clothes as it touched them. “Good luck, brother, I'll find you when this is all—”
Steve was interrupted by Caleo whizzing past them in a full on rage leaving frost footprints in his wake. Once Caleo was within reach he jumped head first at Will, ramming his shoulder into Will’s chest and knocking him off balance as Caleo fell to the ground. With lightning speed, Caleo launched off the ground and latched on to Will’s waist with his legs and rammed his fist repeatedly against Will’s nose.
“Caleo!” Nolan screamed, but Caleo was lost in his own vengeance to pay him, or anything other than Will, any attention.
“Caleo, the cliff,” Jack said, his voice coming through as clear as a bell even though it was barely over a whisper as he lay on the ground.
Caleo stopped his attack and took stock of his surroundings. He was holding onto Will with his legs while Will was staggering backward towards the cliff edge just inches away. Caleo tried to uncurl his legs but couldn’t. He tried again and realized that his blood soaked trousers must have frozen to Will, fusing the two of them together. Panicked, Caleo tried desperately to free himself, pushing and wiggling as much as he could.
“I’m stuck!” Caleo screamed, reaching out for Jack.
Jack climbed to his feet, but stumbled and fell back to the ground screaming in pain as his face dug into the dirt.
“Steve, get him out of there!” Nolan yelled.
“Can’t, he's too cold. Look at the ground, I would be frozen the second I materialized,” Steve said, his voice disinterested, turning when he heard a stick snap behind him to see three Blessed soldiers advancing on them from behind. Steve shot one, then teleported behind the second and grabbed his exposed face with his left hand.
The man collapsed dead as Steve drained the energy from the human attacker and stuck a knife into the face of the third. “Sorry, brother, I’m out of here, this battle is lost.”
“At least get the kids to safety,” Nolan pleaded with his brother.
“What would I need more dogs for? No, they are better off this way. Living in my world is going to be rough for their kind.” Steve vanished, ending the conversation.
“Help me, I’m stuck!” Caleo yelled again. Will seemed to be getting his bearings back and he seized Caleo in a bear hug.
Nolan ran over to help Caleo, but as he reached for him his hand froze solid an inch before it touched Caleo.
“I can’t!” Nolan screamed as the ice raced up his arm. “Jillian, get Jack out of here now!” Nolan yelled, his arm now frozen up to the elbow just before Will stumbled backward unable to see from the blood in his eyes. Nolan dove forward, reaching for Caleo, and his froze arm snapped off from the impact; leaving Nolan screaming in pain, clutching at his nub.
“Nooo!” Caleo yelled desperately as he and Will toppled backwards falling over the cliff, both screaming as they plummeted toward the ground.
“Got him!” Gabriel yelled diving over the cliff, catching up a brief second later; Caleo and Will were rolling in the air head over heels.
“Grab my hand!” Gabriel yelled over the gale force wind blowing pass and both Caleo and Will stuck out their hands to be saved. “God this is going to hurt.” Gabriel reached down and grabbed Caleo’s hand as it flipped around.
The second their hands touched Gabriel’s shirt ripped free as two large white wings erupted out of his back, jolting Caleo free from Will with a loud rip. Caleo thought he was safe. Then, as quickly as his fall had come to a jolting stop, it began again. Caleo had just enough time to look up and see a frozen Gabriel still holding onto his hand, but quickly Caleo realized that the arm was no longer attached to the frozen angel boy, who glided into the rock face of the cliff and broke into three pieces that battered against the steep cliff face as they raced Caleo down. Instinctively Caleo looked down at his fate rushing towards him. It only took a few seconds, but to Caleo it felt like minutes. First, there was a sense of relief as he watched his grandmother’s killer splat against the ground right below him, then Caleo felt remorse for everything he had just done: killing Will, getting his family involved in this whole mess, getting his grandmother killed.
“I’m sorry,” was all Caleo could get out before he hit the ground.
19
“Caleo!” Jack bawled, crawling to the edge of the cliff looking down at him, who he could clearly see had smashed into the rocks below. Even from that high up he could see a big hole missing from his gut where a rock had penetrated and broken off on impact. A large stream of blood poured from Caleo’s head onto the ground, flowing into the nearby river. “Get up!” Jack said softly to himself, willing Caleo to move to show any sign he was alive. “Move, damn it! Get off your lazy ass and move!” Jack hissed, fighting back tears. “Move!” Jack cried as loud as he could, and tears streamed down his face. “Just move!” Jack collapsed, his head hanging over the edge of the cliff.
Jillian sat on her knees beside him, tears flowing down her face as she looked at her brother lying dead at the bottom of the cliff.
“What’s that?” Jillian asked, pointing at a silver snake like object climbing up the edge of the cliff.
“You two need to get to the tunnel and hide; I’m going to wash away this mess. Go start a fresh life away from all of this. It’s what he would have wanted,” Nolan said, pointing to the secret cave they had just escaped from the house through. Jack watched as Nolan turned his head, as if to greet the essence that had just crested over the edge, then said, “Go!”
Tears streamed down his face as his body became clear as water. The second the silver ooze touched Nolan it started to pour down rain. At first it was just over Nolan, then the rain spread engulfing everything in sight.
“Jack, let’s go.” Jillian pulled Jack to his feet and started forcing him to the tunnel.
By the time they got to the entrance the rain was pouring down so hard they could barely see three feet in front of them and they were drenched. Jack stopped before the entrance and looked back at the cliff.
“Jack, he’s gone,” Jillian said, pushing Jack into the narrow opening. “We have to get to safety.”
“I'll kill you all!” Jack hissed as he tried to push past Jillian, who wedged herself into the opening blocking his way.
“You heard Nolan. This is our chance to get away from this war,” Jillian said, trying to calm Jack. “It’s what Caleo would have wanted.”
“Caleo would have wanted revenge,” Jack said bitterly.
“He would never want you to get hurt.”
“How much more can they do to me?” Jack said, venom dripping from his words.<
br />
“They could hurt me,” Jillian said softly, and Jack’s face melted as he realized Jillian was scared. “I don’t want to be in this, I want my old life back.”
Defeated, Jack slid to the ground. “I promise you, Caleo, they will all pay. Every last one of them will pay.”
“You two, out here now,” a Blessed soldier yelled, pointing a gun into the cave.
There was a loud moan and a small, soaked kitten jumped out of nowhere and latched its claws onto the soldier’s face; hissing, spitting, and scratching as it attempted to climb up the man’s face. The soldier dropped his gun and tore Stinky from his face by the collar and flung him against the cliff wall. The man went to toss Stinky over the cliff, but realized he was just holding onto the cat’s collar and Stinky had slipped free. When the soldier looked up Jillian had the gun pointed right at the man, her hands shaking as she stared the man in the eyes.
“You don’t want to do that, just give me the—” the man was cut short by the sounds of an empty gun as Jillian pulled the trigger repeatedly.
“That was stupid of you,” the man said, laughing and reaching for his side arm only to have Stinky climb up his leg quick as lighting and tear into the man over and over again as he ran up the man’s chest and bit off a chunk of his nose.
Spitting and scratching, Stinky continued his assault as the uniformed man fell backward into the mud.
The rain poured harder, making it impossible to see out of the cave. Jillian, wanting to take advantage of the man being down to finish him off, ran out only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw a tan, naked man with long, black shoulder length hair straddling the Blessed soldier’s chest. The tan man ruthlessly pounded the uniformed man’s head into the mud until he was lying limp. With deep breaths the tan man pushed the dead Blessed soldier over the cliff and watched crouched down like a gorilla as the man fell out of sight. When the man heard Jillian approach, he turned and hissed a warning as he bared his teeth.
“Stinky?” Jillian asked confused, squinting trying to look past the rain.
The man’s eyes widened for a moment in surprise, then he dashed over some rocks and disappeared into the rain. Both Jillian and Jack exchanged confused looks. Jack pulled at Jillian’s hand, leading her further back into the cave until the light was just a tiny dot in the distance. They stayed there breathing hard and crying till morning as the rain outside poured down harder and harder outside.
Jack woke up in a panic when he felt his body bounce. “Jillian?”
“I’m right here, Jack. Just relax, we’re safe,” Jillian said, playing with his hair with one hand and patting his side with her other as she shifted her weight. Jack could tell his head was in her lap.
“Jillian, I can’t see,” Jack said, his speech slurring from his tongue feeling too tired to move in his mouth.
“Just lay still and try to go back to sleep, I'll take care of you. You're still drugged up and we're in a car,” Jillian explained.
“Okay. Jillian?”
“Yeah.”
“You sound like Grandma,” Jack said softly as he fell back to sleep.
“Jack, I need you to wake up and take this. We ran out of the IV,” Jillian’s voice woke Jack out of a deep sleep. “I need to change your bandages, but I would like to get out in the sunlight for that if you're up to it.”
“Okay,” Jack said, sitting up and opening his eyes or at least he thought he opened his eyes. Everything was still dark and he couldn’t see anything at all.
“Jillian, where are you?” Jack asked, confused. Turning his head he remembered his burns as they cracked open from the movement of his face. “Ahh,” Jack mumbled, not wanting to move his mouth anymore than he had to.
“Your face is still bandaged up. Mickey, can you please help him outside? I'll get the bandages,” Jillian said calmly.
“Okay, just give me your left arm and I'll lead you. Please don’t hit me again. I’m just trying to help,” a deep soothing man’s voice said softly as a hand grabbed Jack under his left armpit and helped him to his feet.
Mickey, Jack thought, trying to fight through the drugs clouding his mind but came up blank on who Mickey was when another thought occurred to him.
“How long have I been out?” Jack asked.
“Almost two weeks now,” Mickey’s voice was kind and seemed to flow like he was singing softly.
“How?” Jack asked confused.
“I'm a nurse; you have been hooked up to an IV of pain killers for about two weeks now. We used up everything that wasn’t destroyed in the fire at the compound.”
“Where are we?”
“We're … watch it, there's a step up ahead and a low hanging beam so stay low as we climb up,” Mickey said, helping maneuver Jack into position with a hand.
Frustrated, Jack pulled free from Mickey who took a step back and said, “Please don’t hit me again.”
“I can’t see with this shit over my eyes,” Jack said angrily, feeling around his head looking for an edge to unwrap the bandage.
“You might not want to do that,” Mickey said softly.
“Just back off!” Jack yelled, shoving Mickey’s hands away.
“Jack, you touch me again like that and you'll be on the floor cupping your balls,” Jillian said sternly.
“I thought you were—” Jack tried explaining, realizing that he just pushed his sister.
“You’re lucky you’re hurting or I would be the one hurting you. Now hold still while I cut the bandage off.” Jillian slipped a small pair of scissors up under the bandages, slicing through them.
“Now close your eyes. This is going to hurt a little.”
Jack reached up with his right arm and pulled away the bandage gingerly. The smell of rotting flesh filled the air. He slowly opened his eyes painfully and looked around. After a moment he realized where he was and smiled.
“I’m home,” Jack said, looking at the old green dryer in the corner still tore apart like he left it.
Then his eyes found Jillian, who eyed him curiously before she carefully hugged him. Jack saw Mickey’s brown eyes looking up at him from the bottom of the stairs. The man was darkly tan, giving him the appearance of being Native American. His hair was raven black and pulled back over his shoulders into a loose ponytail.
“Let’s go up where I can see you a little better,” Jillian said, letting Jack put his arm around her for support as they climbed the stairs. Mickey walked in front of them.
When they reached the top Jack noticed Mickey was crouched under a big, metal door which he lifted off and slid out of the way letting the sunlight pour in. Jack squinted to help block out the light and it caused his face to hurt more as the scabs cracked. Jillian walked him over to a makeshift bench made from half a burnt chair and a coffee table with a white board taken from a portion of the porch that hadn’t burned.
Jack looked around at the broken, burnt house imagining where everything was supposed to be and seeing where it was now.
“Jillian,” Jack said after a moment of silence.
“Yes, Jack?” Jillian asked as she was examining the burns on his face.
Jack reached out and stopped her face, inches from his, and pushed her back gently so her whole face came into focus. “I lost him,” he said, his eyes filling up with tears. “It was my job to protect him.”
“No,” Jillian said, grabbing Jack’s hand and squeezing it softly.
“Yes, it has always been my job, my responsibility. Since his first day of school, before Mom and Dad even …” Jack’s voice cracked. “Mom asked me to look after him. She said he was going to have a rough time fitting in, she told me I was to protect him,” Jack said, wincing as the memory. “I had no clue what she was talking about at the time, but we all know how cruel the world is … was to him. I just couldn’t—”
“No, Jack there was nothing you could have done,” Jillian said, fighting back the tears herself.
“I neve
r even told him how I felt. I never told him how much I really loved him.”
“He knew. He was our brother,” Jillian said softly.
“No, Jillian, not as my brother. I was just to chicken to—” Jack couldn’t hold the tears back as they streamed down, burning as they traveled through the wreckage that was now his face. They both sat together crying until Jack said coldly, “Jillian, how bad are the burns?”
“They’re pretty bad,” Jillian said with a pitiful smile on her face.
“What?” Jack asked when curiosity got the better of him.
“I was just thinking what Caleo would say, It’s a big improvement if you ask me,” Jillian said, poorly mimicking Caleo’s voice. Jack smiled, and then winced when the smile stretched the burnt skin again. “We salvaged your stuff from the compound and brought it back with us,” Jillian said, wiping the tears from her face with the palms of her hands. Then she turned to Mickey, who was making himself busy cutting wood by the house to give them some privacy. “Stinky, can you bring me Jack’s bag from in the house?”
“Yeah,” Mickey said, before running down the stairs to the basement.
“That’s Stinky?” Jack asked, trying not to smile, more out of fear it would hurt than that it would be offensive to someone.
“Yeah. Apparently you were right, he was a pervert,” Jillian said, blushing as she flashed a quick, loving smile at Jack.
“Told you,” Jack huffed. “We should have left him at the cave.”
“Then who would have toted your dead weight across the countryside? And I have to say, I didn’t throw your stinky hide in the river either,” Mickey said as he crested the top of the stairs and laid Jack’s bag in front of him.
“Mickey was the one who helped me get you out of the cave and brought us back here to hide,” Jillian said, looking at Mickey’s face lovingly. “And he's been getting us supplies and helping taking care of you, too. I would never have known how to do an IV, so I think you owe him a little gratitude.”
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