“Whoa, Cole huh? What about Alex?”
I jumped about two feet in the air when I heard Austin speak.
“Geeze, Austin!” I screamed at him as I put a hand over my heart, feeling it racing. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry,” he chuckled and he bent down to pick a box up. “I thought it might be that order Rita was talking to me about last night. So who’s Cole?”
“None of your business, that’s who,” I snapped at him.
“Man, Jess, calm down,” he said, his expression a little offended. “I was just teasing you. I know that’s not your hand writing.”
I looked back down at the letter. It was folded in half so Austin had only seen the last half of it. He wouldn’t have seen the part about this woman’s father, James, the engagement, or the very old date.
“Sorry, for flipping out on you,” I said as I put the letter back in the envelope and stashing both of them back in my purse and then under the counter. “Cole is, um… an old acquaintance.” There, that was at least some of the truth. Cole was old, though acquaintance wasn’t the right word for Cole. I wasn’t sure what to refer to him as. My stalker?
“Is everything okay?” he asked as he started putting some books on a shelf. “You seem a little freaked out.”
“There’s kind of a lot going on right now,” I said, not sure why I was talking to Austin. “I’m kind of not sure how to deal with it all.”
“Are you and Alex still fighting?”
His question jarred me a little. I had almost forgotten the night he had come to the house and I had spilled my guts to him. I mostly remembered the other part of the night, the part where Alex and I had gotten nearly naked and went swimming.
“Oh, uh, not as bad. I just… I haven’t been able to find him since yesterday. That’s kind of weird for Alex.”
“Why is that so weird?” he asked, his expression almost mocking as he continued to stock a shelf.
“Are you forgetting that we live together?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow at him. That reminder ought to put a damper on his ego. I felt a little bad, but he just didn’t get it.
“Right,” he said quietly and wouldn’t look at me for a few moments.
I turned my attention to the inventory book and started checking some things, trying to look busy. “Then my sister showed up yesterday morning too.”
“I didn’t realize you had a sister,” he said, his attitude suddenly perking up. I could only roll my eyes at him. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your family.”
“Exactly,” I said as my eyes fixed on a blank spot on the paper before me, not really seeing anything. “I haven’t seen her in about five years.”
“Well why not?”
“I kind of left home when I was sixteen.” Why was I telling him this?
“I bet it was good to see her though,” he said. I was glad he didn’t press on the last statement I had made.
“She ran away from home. Her boyfriend beat her unconscious. She came to me to hide.”
“Dang,” he said as he paused and looked at me. “Is she okay?”
“She’s bruised but I think she’ll be alright.”
“No wonder you’re all worked up,” he said as he broke down the now empty box.
“I just wish that was all I was dealing with,” I said under my breath, thinking about the letters Cole had left for me and what they meant. Again, Emily’s saying that Cole had lied brought up the question, why me?
And now I knew he was still around.
“I haven’t seen Emily in a few days,” I said, not realizing I was saying it out loud. “She hasn’t returned any of my phone calls either. And her class has been canceled.”
“Your hot blonde friend?” Austin said. I didn’t catch the joking tone in his voice, nor did I really even hear what he had said.
“Yeah,” I replied automatically.
Great, just one more thing to deal with. Not only was Alex missing, Emily was too.
X
As soon as I got home I made calls to all of Alex’s other houses, the one in southern California, a condo in Hawaii, and a small apartment in New York City. There was no answer at any of them, just the sound of his deceased grandmother telling me to leave a message.
Luckily I didn’t have to worry about keeping Amber company for too long. As soon as Rod was done with his shift at some part-time construction job, he came over. Apparently Amber wasn’t going to have any problem moving on from Todd and apparently Rod wasn’t going to miss having Alex gone too much.
As soon as they were gone, I headed down to the apartment to take a very hot shower. I fought back panic as I went into my bedroom and found four more letters sitting on my pillow. Cole had been inside my house. Was he still there now?
My stomach rolled as I sat on my bed and clutched the envelopes in my hand. I hated Cole more than I thought it was possible for me to hate someone but I couldn’t help but be curious to learn how he had come to be the way he was. How did one come to be the leader of the condemned?
The letters that followed the ones I had read earlier that day were rather embarrassing to read. They depicted two days in which Cole hid out in this woman’s barn and her many long visits to such barn. The woman’s recollection of the events was rather descriptive.
But the difference between the letter on June 14, 1779 to the letter on July 2nd was night and day. The former being full of desire, longing, and begging for another day, the latter was short and cold.
I fear father has begun to suspect you again. I cannot risk what my family has worked so hard to establish. This is the end, Cole. Good-bye.
I didn’t get it. Why was Cole leaving these letters for me? Letters from and to another woman? It made no sense and if I was honest with myself, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know the reason why. It was looking like there was more involved with Cole’s obsession with me than I had first realized. That thought scared the crap out of me. As if the whole messed up situation with Cole hadn’t been bad enough, now it seemed there was more to it than met the eye.
There was still no sign of Alex the next day. And he was still missing the day after that. I was a mess, a wreck. I knew I wasn’t giving a good impression to Amber after having not seen me for years and years. I didn’t care though. She could think I was crazy. I was going crazy.
In an effort to distract myself from the constant urge to throw up and break into tears, I pulled out Cole’s letters again. I had found another dozen in my car the day after I had found the four in my bedroom.
Just as I was about to open a letter, my ears piqued at a sound and horrifyingly, the brand on the back of my neck prickled. I wasn’t even sure what the sound was, almost like a choked off cry or a scream. I strained my ears to pick up on the sound again, rubbing a hand on the back of my neck.
I was all too familiar with that sensation.
“Amber?” I called, severely hoping for an answer from her. I heard only silence.
A familiar feeling of fear settled itself into the pit of my stomach as I climbed off my bed and walked into the living room. The apartment appeared to be empty, as I found the rest of the basement to be. An inspection of the upstairs revealed it too was empty, Rod’s car gone and with it I had assumed Amber.
I didn’t even register as I walked back down the stairs that I had already counted to ninety-seven.
Even though I had been denying and fighting it, I knew what the prickling on the back of my neck meant. Those feelings didn’t come from this world and I had heard voices from the other side before. It was my body’s response to the call from the dead.
Jessica.
I whipped around as I stood in the basement family room, searching for whoever had whispered my name.
The house was still empty though.
I fought panic as I quickly walked back into my bedroom and closed the door and the drapes. My breathing picked up and my hands started trembling. My brand prickled again.
Jessica.
The voice was a little louder now, sounding panicked and distressed.
“No,” I whispered as a tear rolled down my cheek. I shook my head as I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. “No.”
Jessica!
And I knew why I was suddenly consumed by a fully-fledged panic attack. I knew the voice I was hearing. It was Alex.
Jessica! the voice screamed, this time full of pain and agony.
I suddenly knew exactly where Alex was.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ALEX
My fingers lightly trailed across her cheek, ever amazed at how perfectly smooth it was. Her nose twitched as I did but she still didn’t wake up.
The sun started creeping up in the sky, casting a golden glow through the window. The metallic glint reflected off of Jessica’s shoulder, the wings exposed under the small straps of her tank top. They were the most terrifying and beautiful things I had ever seen, all at the same time. I recalled how my stomach had quivered the first time I had seen them. A sure and unarguable conformation that everything she had told me was true.
A small smile crossed my lips as I briefly pressed them to her forehead and climbed out of her bed. My silent feet led me out of the apartment and into the shower.
As the scalding water poured over me I felt happy, content. I hadn’t had that feeling the last few weeks. I hoped that maybe things were finally settling down, like we could move past this unsolvable problem and just be us again.
When I had gotten the call while I was in Kenya, I never would have guessed how my life was going to change. While I had lost the only two family members I had left, for I now really felt like an orphan, my world was finally going to be made complete. I’d found everything ever worth living for. And dying for.
I shut off the water, toweled off, and walked into my room. I opened a drawer and scrounged around for a shirt. Not really thinking about it, I grabbed a red one. It was Jessica’s favorite color on me.
Before I even started putting it on, a sickening feeling sprouted in the pit of my stomach. The feeling as if a hole was forming in it and the rest of me was going to fall in. The pull of the darkness had never been so strong. A feeling of dread punched me in the chest followed by the sensation that all my insides were being sucked into nothingness. Like I was collapsing in on myself.
“No,” I gasped.
The next second I burst onto a narrow path of stone and into the world of the dead.
There I was again, standing before the ten dead beautiful creatures that would send millions to hell or paradise.
My wings ripped out of my skin as I caught my balance, my eyes growing wide as I stared down into the depths of the cylinder as I nearly fell. I looked up and my emotions crashed. My entire body shook with fear, terrified to be standing in this horrifying place again. At the same time, I was livid. Apparently they had decided my time on Earth was up and were going to finish up my trial.
“Alex Wright,” the glorious man with blue eyes spoke. “We have called you back to ask you some questions about our brother who has escaped and failed to return.”
“You mean Cole?” I asked. It felt like I had a huge rock in my throat as I tried to swallow. At the same time I felt a little hope. Maybe they weren’t going to keep me here forever.
“Yes,” the man said, sitting still as stone, his eyes boring into me. “Unlike you, he has no reason to be in the world of the living. He needs to return and hasn’t.”
Maybe this wasn’t about me. But I sensed where this was going and had my heart still been beating in my chest, my blood might have run cold. I didn’t have any answers for them and I sensed they weren’t going to like that.
“Do you know where he is?” the glorious man asked, confirming my fears.
I shook my head and tried again to swallow. “No, I haven’t seen him since he broke my neck and killed me.”
“He lies,” one of the beings with eyes black as the night sky interjected. “This man is with the object of the escaped one’s obsession. He must know where he is.”
“I don’t,” I insisted, panic forming in my system. I was very aware of the fact that there were ten of them and only one of me. And for every one of them, there were thousands more of them on their side.
“You have no idea where he has gone?” a woman with brilliant blue eyes asked.
“No,” I said, my voice sounded hoarse. My mouth felt very dry suddenly.
“He is not to be believed,” a condemned angel hissed at me.
“I swear!” I shouted.
“Liar!” two of them hissed.
Before I could do anything, four angels had ascended to the catwalk and each took hold of my wrists and ankles. A moment later I was being dragged down into the fiery depths of the cylinder. Horrified, I looked pleadingly into the blue eyes of the ones above us. They only watched over the edges of their seats.
The heat engulfed us and threatened to choke me. Hands reached out from everywhere as we descended. I felt my feathers being pulled out, yanking my body in different directions as we fell. To my terror, I saw the five condemned council members following us as we plunged into sheer hell.
I was roughly shoved onto a landing that sprouted off the wall of the cylinder. I tumbled to the ground, fighting to regain my footing. Before I could even stand, I was shoved back down by another angel.
“I’ve told you the truth!” I yelled as I backed up against the wall. “I don’t know where he is!”
“That may be so,” a man said as he took a step closer to me. “But it couldn’t hurt to make extra sure you aren’t holding anything back.” My eyes widened as he drew a coiled whip. Two other angels grabbed me roughly and strapped coarse metal bands around my wrists before attaching the chain welded to them to the floor. I wasn’t going to be going anywhere.
“Please, no!” I started to beg, pinned on my hands and knees to the floor. Just as the words escaped my mouth, the whip came down on my exposed flesh.
The beatings were unlike anything I could describe. I was whipped mercilessly for hours on end. But just as bad as the beatings themselves, were all the angels that watched and simply laughed and smirked. I was in more pain than I could even comprehend and they were enjoying every second of it.
“Just tell us where he is and you will be released,” a black-eyed being bellowed as he brought the whip down on my back again.
“I don’t know!” I screamed for the thousandth time. “I don’t know!”
“Liar!” the man screamed as he coiled his hand back to strike me again.
They came and went. After a few hours of my stifled screams they would tire of the game and leave for a while. I waited, broken and defeated on the narrow ledge only to have them come back. They would ask the same question every time before the whipping started again. “Where is he?” My reply was always the same and always the truth. And they didn’t care.
I waited alone on the ledge, my wrists still chained to the ground. I knelt on the stones below me, my forehead resting on its cool surface. No matter how I tried to block it out, I heard every word that was spoken above me.
“Down,” a glorious female voice said.
“Down,” another male sentenced.
All ten of them sentenced Nathanial Groves to a branding.
I heard it as his flesh seared and singed under the metal rod. I felt sick, thinking of Jessica having to endure this, over and over again. No wonder she went days on end without sleeping.
“Nathanial Groves, judgment has been placed.”
I heard his screams. When the heckling and demented laughter started I couldn’t help but look up. As I did, I saw a mass of condemned angels grabbing their new brother and watched as they fell past the landing and into the darkness of the cylinder.
Countless hours later, I was released from my bonds and dragged back before the council.
“Are you sure you do not know where our brother is?” the leader of the blue-eyed ones asked me.
??
?No,” I said as I shook my head, barely able to hold it up. “Please…” I tried to beg them.
“He needs to return,” the man spoke again. “He has a duty here to perform.”
“I think he is lying,” a woman with black eyes said, her voice a hiss. It was disturbing that it was still beautiful. “He is hiding him.”
“I’m not,” I said breathlessly. I just wanted to collapse, to crawl into a hole and be left alone. “Please, let me go back.”
The man who had taken so much pleasure in whipping me suddenly joined me on the catwalk, standing too close to me for comfort.
“The woman you came to us for. She is the object of our brother’s obsession. She may know where he is. Perhaps we shall bring her here and question her.”
“No,” I said, panic burning in my system instantly. “No, she doesn’t know where he is either. You know he can’t touch her, you promised!”
The man standing next to me gave a sick little smile, enjoying the new and much worse torment he was putting me through.
The blue-eyed council members just shook their heads. How could they do this to me? They knew this was unjust, that they were just wasting their time. They knew everything that was happening up there.
Not caring about anything I had said, two more of them grabbed me and knocked me off the ledge. Just before I fell, I thought I saw a familiar face watching from the staircase that wound up and down the cylinder, far above the council. The face looked much like I recalled my father’s to be.
The crack of the whip seared my skin and I could feel yet another welt blossom instantly. I was beyond tears of pain, had I actually been able to cry that is. With every connection of the whip to my skin I wished I could die, but then again I was already dead. I wished to simply never exist.
But that wasn’t true. I had a reason for existing. A reason that I had to get back into the real world.