by Yvi Valentin
“I understand,” Andy said. “Just try to relax. You deserve it.”
I closed my eyes and realized it was harder than I thought to forget about everything. “Are we going to change cars? Evan saw this one so he’ll be looking for it.”
“Yeah, Frank and Liz are on their way with a new one,” Brian answered.
“How long until we meet up with them?” Andy asked.
“Probably in a few minutes.” Just as Brian said it, a car sped up right alongside us. The windows were tinted so I couldn’t see who was inside.
“Please tell me that’s Frank and Liz,” I said dreading the other possibility.
“Yeah, it’s them. We’re going to stop at the next gas station and switch cars,” Brian answered.
“Where will we go from there?” I asked.
“We set up a new safe house while you were gone,” Andy replied.
“Really? I wasn’t gone for that long.”
“Don’t you know by now that we work fast?” Brian laughed.
“Obviously,” I said.
It wasn’t long before we arrived at the gas station and switched cars with Frank and Liz. I wondered if Evan was smart enough to check the traffic cameras to find me. Brian must have read my mind. “We’re going to drop the car off at a parking garage and fly the rest of the way to the house.”
“Good idea,” I said. “What about Frank and Liz? Are they doing the same thing?”
“Of course, we can’t do this without them,” Brian laughed.
“Right, so where is this new house?” I asked.
Andy had mischief in his eyes. “It’s a surprise.”
“Of course it is.” My exhaustion was starting to get to me but I was too scared to fall asleep. “How long will it take for us to get to this mystery house?”
“A few hours,” Brian answered.
“Take a nap, Aims,” Andy suggested. I didn’t think it was that obvious I was sleepy. “Judging by the look on your face, I’d say you’re too scared to sleep.”
“Yeah…what if Lucifer is waiting for me to fall asleep again? He might be able to track me down.”
“That’s a possibility, but you can’t stay awake forever. You’re going to end up falling asleep at some point,” Andy said as he held me in his arms.
“I know but…” I started.
“You’ll be fine,” Andy interrupted. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“But you can’t keep him from looking into my dreams.”
“No, but I can keep him from getting near you.”
“Really? You can fight off the devil?” I asked, unconvinced.
“Believe it or not, I do know how to protect you.” There was a hint of hurt in Andy’s voice. I felt bad; I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“This can’t be happening,” I mumbled under my breath. I was so tired that I kept drifting in and out of sleep. I fell asleep for a few seconds and woke myself up before I could go too deep. Before I knew it, the car was stopped in a parking garage. “Is it time go to the house?” I asked sleepily.
“Yeah,” Andy answered as he helped me out of the car. “I think we’re going to get something to eat first, are you hungry?”
“Starving, but I don’t want to risk having to run again. Can we just go straight to the house? It won’t take that long will it?”
“No, you’re right. Let’s just go to the house,” Andy agreed. He grabbed my hand and before I knew it, we were standing in front of a beautiful mansion. “Welcome home.” We walked into the house and the first thing I noticed was that the place was ransacked. “Are you kidding me!?” I’ve never seen him so livid.
“What the hell happened in here?” Brian was just as mad as Andy.
“How could they have already found out about this place?” I asked, completely horrified. We all knew how bad this was for us.
“There’s no way Evan or anyone could have found out about this place!” Andy yelled.
“You know what this means right?” I asked, still shocked.
“It means there’s a traitor among us,” Jen replied.
Chapter 19
I was scared to be near anyone. I didn’t know who could be trusted and who couldn’t. No one was above suspicion, not even Andy. I hated the thought of not being able to trust him but I had to be positive he wasn’t the traitor. I thought maybe Andy and Jen could be trusted because I saw both of them interact with archangels and nothing seemed to be wrong in that department. Andy seemed to trust Brian so I thought there was a chance he was trustworthy. Despite what I wanted to believe, I couldn’t let my guard down until I got answers.
“Aimee, we have to get out of here!” Andy yelled as he pulled me out of the kitchen and towards the front door. I was so deep in thought I didn’t even realize I had been walking around the house.
“I’m tired of running!” I yelled. “We need to figure out who here is really working for Lucifer and get rid of them! I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to talk to Michael!”
I found myself standing in front of the entrance of critical issues. I opened the door and without thinking or saying a word, I walked towards the room Michael was in. I could feel everyone staring at me in awe though I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because there was always such order in headquarters that they found it unbelievable for me to be rushing through with such great purpose. It must have seemed chaotic to them.
“Aimee! Welcome back!” Michael greeted me the moment he saw me.
“Thanks, we really need to talk.” He seemed to be taken aback by my tone. I hadn’t been this serious in a long time.
“Alright, what is it? Where’s Andy?” I could tell Michael was puzzled, which was new territory for me.
“I needed to come here alone. There’s a lot I have to tell you. Can we sit down?”
“Yes, of course.” He pulled out a chair and helped me sit. “So what is it you want to talk about?” he asked as he took his seat in the chair across from me.
“You know I was captured by Evan right?”
“Yes, Andy told me what you found out, is there more I should know?”
“Yes…lots.” I took a deep breath before I told him everything. “Lucifer is planning on using me in some aspect of the apocalypse, but I’m not sure what. I know he wants to train me for it and won’t give me the full details until I’m ready. It seemed like he was in a hurry to get the ball rolling.”
“That sounds about right,” he began, “the apocalypse can only be started under the right conditions and they only line up about every 2000 years.”
“What are those conditions?” I asked. I didn’t think Michael was going to tell me, but I had to ask, I was curious.
“It is better if you don’t know.” Michael paused for a moment as if he was waiting for me to protest or something, but I knew there was no way I was ever going to win that argument. “Is there anything else you want me to know?”
I knew this was going to be hard to say. I took a moment to gather my composure. “Andy and everyone else we’ve been working with set up a new safe house while I was stuck with Lucifer…” I trailed off.
“Yes, I have been informed. Did something happen?”
“When we got there…we found the house torn apart. No one could have known about this place in the short amount of time it had taken to set up and no one could have been watching them because I was right where Lucifer wanted. I think there’s a traitor among us and I don’t know who I can trust.”
“I can tell you right now you can trust Andy, Jen and Brian. Frank and Liz I am not so sure about. I’ve never seen either of them around here.”
“Is that even possible?” My heart sank. My worst fear had been confirmed.
“The children who are on Lucifer’s side don’t come near any of the archangels,” Michael explained. “They usually target other star children on earth.”
“So you think both of them are working for Lucifer?”
“I believe this is the case. We
keep record of all of our children, but cannot be as sure about everyone who gets lured in by Lucifer.”
“How can we know for sure?” I was desperate to know who I could trust.
“Think about Frank and Liz while I look into your mind.”
I thought about the two of them. I thought about what they looked like and what their personalities were like. I remembered how Frank kidnapped me and how he was in the house when Evan came along to take me to his farmhouse. I remembered both he and Liz knew about all of our plans. I remembered Liz was there at the salon when Gina showed up. I realized the two of them were hardly present in anything that had recently gone on. I realized the two of them were working for Lucifer.
Michael gave me a look and I knew I was right. “They both are followers of Lucifer.”
“Well I guess it is better that I know now…what do I do next?”
“Get rid of them as soon as possible. After that, you need to make sure there are no mass suicides or any substantial amounts of people dying. It is a sign the apocalypse is coming,” Michael answered.
“How do I keep that from happening?” I was flustered as I was still trying to process everything.
“Tell Andy exactly what I told you and he’ll know what to do. Now you should get going, there’s a lot to be done.” Michael rushed me out of the room and all the way to the exit.
I woke up feeling refreshed, looked around and noticed I was lying on the couch in the messy living room of the mansion. I didn’t remember making it to the couch and figured Andy moved me.
“Hey, she’s awake.” I heard Brian say. I wasn’t sure where he was but I was glad to have been greeted by him and not Frank or Liz.
“Yeah…where’s Andy? We really need to talk.”
“He’s in the kitchen. Don’t move. I’ll go get him.”
Within a matter of seconds Andy rushed into the room and wrapped his arms around me. “How are you feeling? You scared the crap out of me.”
“I feel fine…how did I scare you?”
“You started yelling about how you were tired of running and wanted answers and then you collapsed.” I could feel Andy’s concern for me. I always felt bad for making him worry about me so much. I knew how much of a toll it took on all of us.
“I went to see Michael. I told him everything.”
“What did he say?” Jen asked as she entered the room.
“Where are Frank and Liz?” I whispered.
“They’re out looking for another place for us to stay,” Brian said.
“Do you guys still have your earwigs up and running?” I asked, still whispering. Everyone seemed confused by my behavior but they were about to understand.
“Yeah, why?” Andy asked.
“Get rid of them. Frank and Liz can’t be trusted,” I told them telepathically.
They each reached into their ear and pulled out the small bud. They threw them down on the floor and got ready to leave. We all walked out the door and down the street without saying a word. I had no clue where we were going and thought it was best I didn’t know. I followed Andy’s lead as I thought about my conversation with Michael.
“I was ready for something like this to happen. The car is a few blocks away,” Andy explained.
“How did you know something like this would happen?” Jen asked.
“Lucifer doesn’t give up easily and he’s resourceful, I figured he would find us sooner or later,” Andy clarified. It wasn’t long before we got to the car. It was an old beat up rust bucket. I couldn’t believe this was the getaway car Andy got. I must not have been able to hide my feelings. “I thought this would be better for us to blend in. No one would really expect us to ride around in this crap car.”
I got in the car. “Well…you got that right.”
Once we had been driving for a while Andy asked, “What did Michael tell you?”
“He told me both Frank and Liz are on Lucifer’s side,” I started.
“That explains so much,” Brian said.
“Yeah, Michael told me we need to get rid of them. I’m not sure if he meant to ditch them or kill them, but either way…we have to get rid of them.”
“Was that all?” Andy asked.
“No, he also said we have to stop any massive amount of deaths. It’s a sign of the apocalypse,” I explained.
“Alright, we can do that,” Brian said.
“Where are we going?” Jen asked.
“I have no clue, I’m just driving in a random direction,” Andy answered. “Any ideas?”
“We could go to New Jersey,” Jen suggested.
“Good idea, Aimee and I have never been there,” Andy said.
“I’ve never been there either,” Brian chimed in.
“Me either, that’s why I suggested it,” Jen replied.
“New Jersey it is.” I thought about everything for a moment and asked, “Do you guys think we’ll run into more problems now that we ditched Frank and Liz?”
“I don’t think so, but you never know,” Andy replied.
“With all the creatures Evan has up his sleeve, who knows what’s going to happen next. Plus since he doesn’t have his little spies with us anymore, he’s going to have to rely on the other creatures,” I pointed out.
“You’re right,” Jen said. “What do we already know about these creatures?”
“He uses vampires for tracking,” Andy answered.
“And ghosts, but I have no clue what exactly he uses them for…fighting maybe?” I added.
“He did use them to try to capture you once,” Andy mentioned.
“Anyway, what are we going to do once we get settled in New Jersey?” I asked.
“We keep the apocalypse from starting,” Brian replied.
Chapter 20
“Home sweet home,” Brian said as we walked through the door of our new house. At least someone was cheerful. I loved having Brian around, he always knew how to lighten the mood whenever it seemed like everything was doomed.
I dragged myself across the threshold. “I just want to sleep all day.”
“I thought you were too scared to sleep,” Andy teased.
“I’m so tired that I don’t even care anymore.” I walked up the stairs, went into the first bedroom I saw and threw myself on the bed. Seconds later I heard the door creak open and footsteps walk towards the bed. I felt Andy’s intoxicating energy quickly approach. I knew he didn’t want to be away from me as long as he didn’t have to. The magnetic pull between us was too strong to ignore.
“Want some company?” Andy asked as he lied down next to me.
“I would love that,” I answered sleepily. I was still hardly able to keep my eyes open. “I can feel you staring at me.”
“Sorry, I can’t help myself,” he said. “We haven’t done this in a while.”
“I know. It’s nice to finally have a moment to ourselves.” I stayed awaked for as long as possible, enjoying the moment with my Andy. I didn’t know when there would be another.
“Aimee, tell me where you are!” A fuming Lucifer yelled.
The second I heard his voice, I forced myself awake. I hoped it wasn’t starting all over again, but part of me knew the truth.
“What’s wrong?” Andy asked, half asleep.
“Lucifer got into my dream.” Andy was wide awake at the mention of his name. I knew he was concerned but at the same time felt bad for me. All I wanted was to sleep and Lucifer was making it near impossible. “He’s pissed and trying to find me.”
“Did you say anything to him?”
“No, I forced myself to wake up right when I heard his voice. I don’t think I was asleep for very long.”
“You weren’t. I’m sorry; you can’t seem to catch a break.”
“Seems that way doesn’t it?” I paused for a moment as I thought. “Do you think we’re going to have to run again?”
“No, I don’t think so.” I was relieved to hear his words.
“Is there a way I can keep people from invadi
ng my dreams?”
“Yeah, but it’s very tricky.”
“I’ll do anything to keep the devil out of my head,” I said desperately.
“Alright, let’s get started. The first thing you need to know is that if you can control someone’s dream, you can keep anyone from controlling yours.”
“Does that mean you’re going to teach me how to control dreams?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure you’ll be able to do it but since you’ve been able to do a lot of other stuff I never thought possible, I think you might be able to pull it off.” I could tell Andy was interested in finding out if I could do this and so was I. It had to work; I really needed to get a decent amount of sleep for a change.
“Where do we begin?” I asked.
“It’s best to start by trying to control your own dream.”
“How do I do that? I’ve heard of being able to control your own dreams but I only managed to do it once in my life and it didn’t last long.”
“You have? What happened?” I loved seeing that shocked expression on Andy’s face when I was the one who caused it. It always made me smile.
“One night, years ago, I had a nightmare and it was like I woke up in the middle of it and realized it was just a nightmare. I decided to get out of there and go somewhere else but while I was thinking about where I should go, I was in this wormhole looking thing. I realized what was happening, got excited and woke up. I’ve never been able to do it again.”
“It sounds like you did everything right, except the whole getting excited thing, doing that will cause you to wake up.”
“So how do I make myself aware that I’m dreaming during any dream and not just a nightmare?”
“It’s like a shift in consciousness. It’s really hard to explain but you have to pull yourself out of it and become aware of the fact that you’re dreaming. It should be easier now that you can do all of this other stuff and you’ve already done it once before.”
“Do you think keeping someone from controlling my dream is a lot like keeping someone from being able to read my mind?”
“That’s a good way to look at it, I never thought about it like that,” Andy said.