Angels Underground

Chapter 4: Eat My Flesh, Drink My Bones.

"You're not going to answer?" She breathes and checks her golden watch sighing heavily. "You're running out of time. Tick tock, tick tock."

I press my lips together raising an eyebrow. She was litterally melting in front of me; disintegrating into the air. From her feet up. She wanted me to answer her? How can one even form a sentence while watching a seemingly innocent girl...literally...just disappear?

"Ready or not," Only her head was left. "Here I come." And she was gone. The black spiders and rats seemingly disappeared along with the girl. I look around. Nothing. Yet, something was in the air. My heart squeezes more adrenaline through my system.

I start moving one foot in front of the other. They would barely lift up off the ground, my limbs were getting heavy. I heard footsteps, such a close distance that the ground began to warn me itself. I was too scared to turn. Yet I did so, seeing a person in a black hooded jacket. The black spiders dripping from him. I turn to him head on covering my mouth in fear. I want so much to scream and cry. I know for a fact, no one would hear me. I start walking backwards. He puts on step forwards lifting his hood off of his face to stare at me. His cold eyes moving across my body.

I turn and start running. My body too slow. I knew he only had to take five steps to catch up to me. He was faster then me. He was the enemy. My animal instincts humans normally push aside started kicking in. I was as scared as a kitten in a thunderstorm.

I blink and see him in front of me. I jump backwards, letting out a scream. A smile only escapes his mouth before he grabs my throat, picking my body up like I was a a toothpick. I grabbed his hands and tried to push his hands off of me. To claw his hands off of me. I could feel the spiders crawling all over me. Melting into my skin. Burning it like battery acid. I tried to let out a scream, but could not. He slams my body onto the sidewalk, letting go of my throat. I turn my body away gasping for air as he tries to fight me to turn and face him. Bruising my hips with his grip. I crawl the sidewalk moving myself away to grab a brick that must have been dug from a garden. I turn to him and scream as I swing the brick. Hitting his face. He falls on the ground screaming himself. He is only human. He's a human being. He's bleeding. And crying. I kick him off me leaving the brick on the ground. Running or limping quickly towards the school I just had came from.

The girl stands in front of me with her doll. "You don't hide well." She says smiling devilishly. "And you hurt my doll." She rose the doll to her face looking past me to the man crying in pain. "Poor thing." She says and moves her hand over her doll's face. I look from the doll to the man. Who suddenly stops crying.

"No...." I whisper hoarsly. "No....No! No!" I scream tears overflowing my eyes and spilling over. He looks up. The blood dry over his pale face. He opens his mouth and lets out a growl.

"Those are going to be your last words? Kids these days," The girl shakes her head. "They need to become a bit more poetic. Don't you think?"

I put out my hands trying to calm to man down. As if he were a beast. "Please...please don't hurt me..."

"Kill her." The girl beams. I look at the girl my vision blurry, my throat raw. The man picks up the brick. I pause, letting one tear go down my dirt stained cheek as I look upon the man coming forward. The man who was only moving at normal pace to build anticipation. His eyes empty. Pure black even. This wasn't the man. Only his body. He was the doll. There was nothing I could do to plead, to beg, to bargain.

He pushes me back down on the sidewalk, pinning me down to the ground. He raises the brick, I could feel my pupils dilate as I come to a realization. The voice echoing in my head as I speak the words. "All fate...must be answered." I whisper as the brick comes in contact with my head. I clench my jaw, feeling another hit. Memories of my mother holding me as a child play in my head. Another hit. The first steps I took in the world. Another hit. My father kissing my forehead. Another hit. The first time I held my little brother. Another hit. The first time my heart was broken. Another hit. The first time I saw Gabe. Another hit. Matt kissing me, the feeling of the kiss. Taking my breath away once more.

Everything goes dark.

I stand in a room, pure white. There is a metalic table in the middle of the room. I'm in a white dress. My body warm, no more pain. "Where am I?" I ask out loud, my voice echoing in the room that seemed to be endless.

"Purgatory." Gabe's voice says behind me. I turn to it. He is in a white tux, smiling warmly, sadly at me. In his hand, a folder.

"Gabe...?" I whisper. A small smile, relief breaking upon my face.

"I'm not him. I just look like him. A familiar face gives you some comfort and trust during this difficult process." He says very professionally. "Right now, Gabe is picking up your body and preparing it for the...transition."

"What?" I narrow my eyes. Surprisingly, I was calm.

"Please, sit down. The quicker we do this, the quicker you can go back to normal." He gestures to the seat in on one end of the metal table. I sit down. He sits on the other end. He opens the folder and grabs papers, flipping through them. I tugged at the white dress. It was light. It felt like a cool spring in the room. "Do you have any questions as of now?" He asks me.

"Am I dead?" I immediately ask.

"In a way," He begins sighing."You're dead of course. But you're not supposed to be. As in you're supposed to be to fill out the purpose of why you were born. But in order to ensure that you had to die before you were ready to." And so the paradox begins. "To keep it short: Grace, you are dead. But you have another chance."

"I see...I'm grasping it." I nod slowly. "Tell me what's going to happen."

"Do you want another chance?" He asks smiling warmly at me.

"I don't have a choice." I reply truthfully. "I'm not ready to know what lies beyond the pearly gates. They seem forbidden to me."

"The terms of this agreement. It is simple. You save enough human lives, you become human once more. You must also kill the thing that killed you.. One life to grant another. Clean slate. Are you willing to do this?" I nod. "Good. When you awake, you will look a little...different. You'll still be you...but with a few minor addings to your program. The beautiful thing is though, you will still be my child." The man, looking like Gabe, stands up. The folder disappearing. He comes over to me and lifts my chin. I could tell this was not Gabe. He was something much more."Arise, my child." A familiar feeling came over me. As blinding light surrounded me. It was warm. The feeling of sun bathing. The little scents that made you smile. Cut grass. Warm cupcakes. Cinnamon. Rain. The gentle hugs embracing you.

I woke up.