Ice Cold

23: The Truth

Chris

"So you're telling me that you had wings in the dream?" I asked, staring at Scarlett's slightly fearful face. She nodded slowly and frowned, obviously trying to remember more about it. We were sat in my room, a couple of hours after she had woken up.
     "Yeah, but that's not all. It was as if you didn't know me. And...I think you were going to kill me." She said quietly and I put my arm around her.
"I promised that I'd never hurt you. Remember? It was just a dream, after all." I started to feel beads of sweat on the back of my neck and brushed them away nervously. Why was I so scared? It wasn't as if it was actually real. But if what she was telling me was true then that meant that we were one step closer to finding out what the glowing was all about. I took her hand in mine and stroked it with my thumb, racking my brain for answers.
"There was something else." Her words cut through the silence so suddenly that I jumped, my nerves getting the better of me.
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion and she looked down at her feet.
"There was a girl in the dream. But she had these glowing yellow eyes and I think she was trying to protect me." My eyes widened in surprise as I realised who she was talking about. But how had she known what Indigo was?
     "Trying to protect you from what?" I asked, trying to take the focus away from Indigo. Scarlett paused for a moment before looking me straight in the eyes.
     "You." Silence. I had seen it coming. But why did her dream cast me in such a bad light? I shifted uncomfortably on the bed and she eyed me carefully, following my every move.
     "None of this makes sense..." I muttered and stood up, pacing back and forth.
     "I don't think of you any differently, I promise." She whispered timidly and I shook my head, brushing away the thought.
     "I'm just confused, that's all. You had wings in the dream..." I fell deep into thought as I tried to work everything out. Scarlett was obviously not human, that much was clear, but then what was she? I didn't know of any supernatural creatures that actually existed that had wings. Except - no, that couldn't be possible. Definitely not. I tried to shove the thought away but it started to nag at the back of my brain. With a sigh, I looked at her and smiled wryly.
     "What?" She asked suspiciously and I sat down next to her again, taking her hands in mine.
     "I have a theory as to what you are." I told her, squeezing her hands. She nodded and stared into my eyes, unblinking.
     "Okay." She said, a little hesitantly, and I took a deep breath.
     "This is going to sound a little far fetched but I promise you that I'm not joking. Scarlett...I think you might be an angel."

Scarlett

Silence. My mouth opened and shut again, completely empty of words. I blinked a few times and he looked down at his lap.
     "An angel?" I murmured nervously and he nodded.
     "I'm not saying that it's one hundred percent true, but it's probably the most likely option." He tried to comfort me but I turned away.
     "An angel..." I whispered again, trying to comprehend the words.
     "If you are an angel, then you must have only just become one. I don't know how exactly you became one, though. When did this start happening?"
     "When did what start happening?" I asked in confusion, turning back to him. He gestured to my hands, which still had a slight glow about them, and shrugged.
     "I was talking to Indigo the other day and it just started happening. I don't know why." Okay, so that was a lie. But I couldn't tell Chris about how I'd held a knife to Indigo's throat or he'd know about my psychopathic side.
     "Hmm...well, I guess it could've been random then." He muttered and I frowned.
     "What do you mean?" I asked and he shook his head.
     "Usually one becomes an angel after they've done something incredibly good or something has irreversibly changed their personality for the better." And in that moment, I knew. When I had found out that Chris was a vampire, I had felt a weird kind of happiness and peace within me at the thought of him being an outcast just like me. All of my murderous thoughts had gone away. But I couldn't admit any of this to him.
     "But I have changed as a person." I said quietly and he turned to me.
     "How?" He asked and I smiled at him.
     "Because of you." I said simply and kissed him. He didn't object, although I knew he had questions, and I continued to kiss him, prolonging the inevitable.
     "Why me?" He was slightly breathless once we were able to finally break away from each other.
     "You're different. An outcast. You're not shallow like I thought you were." I smirked and watched as he looked deeply offended.
     "You thought I was shallow?" He asked with a pout and I winked at him.
     "Yep. But there is an actual person within those limited brain cells." Now he looked even more offended. I grinned at him and put my arm round his shoulders. "Awe you know I'm only joking. You're smarter than a lot of people." He still refused to look at me so I sighed.
     "Umm, I have something to tell you." His quiet voice was somehow able to silence the birds chirping outside of the window and I knew that this was important.
     "What is it?"
     "There's more to this angel thing. I haven't told you everything." I nodded, not sure where this was going. He took a deep breath and started to speak again.
     "Sometimes, when an angel does an unforgivably bad thing, something happens to them."
     "Like what?" I asked after a few seconds of silence. Whatever it was he was trying to say was obviously difficult.
     "They become a demon." He whispered, almost as if someone was listening in.
     "Okay, but wh - " I was cut off by him speaking again.
     "Humans cannot become angels or demons. Nor can angels or demons become humans." He rambled a little too quickly.
     "But - "
     "Demons can, however, become angels if they do something really good." He looked at me then, almost willing me to put the puzzle pieces together.
     "So I was..." I trailed off, unable to finish the awful sentence.
     "You were a demon."