A Dance Of Gods ✓

7. Question Everything

Taylor

  Blood drips from my nostrils and time seems to move in slow motion. He waits like he's genuinely expecting an answer, but I can't decide whether to run or surrender.

My eyes dart around as I look for my way out. The street remains empty- did he kill potential witnesses too?

A sudden wind gust blows hair in front of my face- I let it stay there to hide my fear.

"How did you.." I gulp. "Your hand...was... on fire two seconds ago."

  "It was." He says matter of factly. I take a single step back, trying to process what just happened.

  "How... how are you not dead? I.. I just saw... you were...." whatever part of my brain that is responsible for thinking fails me. It touched him. The human body is very, very flammable. He should be screaming in pain. There should be welts rising on his hand right now. Neither of those things have happened.

  "That's the funny thing about being able to control flame- it doesn't affect us the way it would a normal human."

  "....what?"

  "Oh for fucks sake-" He curses under his breath, frustrated- and I still can't understand why. Maybe I know him from somewhere- possibly a class, and maybe he's trying to drive me insane so I'm easier to kidnap. "You're not a human being. Not fully."

"Are you hearing how crazy you sound right now? That doesn't make any se-"

  "A lot of things about earth and the way the universe works don't make sense." He interrupts. Yep- definitely trying to make me go insane. "I never really got why my father gave angels the ability to reproduce with humans in the first place- the few times descendants have discovered what they are it's yielded disastrous consequences. Volcanic eruptions, tornados, the wildfires of the early 1500's....entire villages wiped out.... entire settlements going poof like they never existed- all because the ancestors of those descendants never passed on that 'Hey, there's an Angel in our bloodline.'' But Taylor- we have a unique opportunity here. We've caught your gift from your ancestry-"

"I really don't want to talk about my ancestry-" I snap. Flashbacks pass through my head, reminding me of the years I'd rather forget. Any mention of them gives me suicidal tendencies again, and I know this man can't possibly know- but he seems to sense the sensitivity of the topic.

"before it's had a chance to manifest into something bigger- more destructive. We can help it grow as you learn to control it."

We?

"This... this isn't real. I'm having some sort of trauma induced hallucination-"

"So you killed a cheating moron, who cares-"

"I CARE!" I scream, the tingling in my hands more intense than when feeling returns to sleeping feet. "I FUCKING CARE HE WAS STILL MY BOYFRIEND FOR SIX AND A HALF MONTHS!"

He had bad moments of course. The cheating and drinking was a habit. He tried to blame both on the other- then me eventually, but all I can remember is the good. He would always make dinner and read the Bible to me when I was tired, clean when I didn't feel like it, and genuinely tried to get his porn addiction under control. He was never successful- but it's the effort that counts.

A few buildings down, a young couple walks out of a small apartment complex's lobby. They remind me of us; the way they cautiously cling to each other, standing far apart enough to avoid temptation. The tingling shoots up my arms.

"Careful Taylor-" Now, he's the one cautiously stepping back, giving me space. "You don't want them to die. I know-"

  "Yeah well they're not going to because I can't... control fucking fire!! Jesus Christ!"