Judas

Marriage

Key Eleven: Marriage:

Kit sometimes dreams about her.

He didn't remember much about himself back when he was human. But, he did feel like he had known her before the Woman in Red walked the world again. Kit remembered seeing that little angel for the first time in the Fallen City. For years, he had been alone, roaming the muddy eighth circle of the city. He did his best to hide from Tate and his angels. Sometimes, Kit would lay in the mud and stay quiet until they were gone. He was surviving, but he already felt hollow inside.

That all changed when he met her.

Kit was wandering around for a place to hide one day. Tate's boys had gotten more aggressive lately. If he stayed around any longer, they would probably smell him around the area. The angel shuddered thinking about it. I do not want to be eaten.

Suddenly, he froze when he heard a low moaning.

Kit froze and looked around. He followed the sound all the way to a fallen building. The angel stood on his tiptoes and peeked over the empty frame. She lay huddled up in the mud, struggling to get up. Her eyes weren't opened as she groaned and kept slipping. Kit's feet stayed stuck in place.

"Excuse me?" he asked. "Excuse me?" She tried to stand up, but ended up slipping back into the mud again. Kit couldn't tell if this was trap by Tate or if this was a new angel. He crawled over the frame of the crumbling building.

"Hello?" he asked. "Are you okay?" The angel in the mud stopped moving around, but didn't look up.

"What are you trying to do?" Kit asked. The other angel didn't move.

"Do you need any help?" he asked. Kit leapt over the frame and tried to keep his balance. He grabbed onto the other angel by the hips.

"Hang on, I've got you," he said. "I've got you." The angel used his weight to pull the other into standing. When he stared into her brown eyes, his heart pounded in his chest. He had seen these eyes before. Kit gulped.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes," she said in a tiny voice. She looked around at the empty space. "Where am I?"

"The Fallen City," Kit said.

"What?"

"Where did you come from?"

"I don't know." She stumbled in his arms as she tried to stand on her own.

"Whoa," Kit said. "Take it easy there." It was then he noticed that she still had her large white wings. Oh. This isn't good. He looked around as he held the other angel tighter in his arms. "Let's get you somewhere safer." He pulled the angel with him in the emptiness.

Kit carried the winged angel around in the empty desert landscape. He prayed the whole time that no one would spot them. Tate and his crew would tear her to pieces if they saw her. But where could they hide? Kit didn't stop moving as he was looking and thinking. In the distance, he noticed a small light flashing from a hill. He narrowed his eyes.

What is that?

Kit walked through the sand as the wind started to pick up. The distance had never been so long in his life. Still, he wouldn't stop moving. Before he knew it, Kit stood in front of the crack glass doors of a run-down hotel. He placed his on the cold surface and managed to push them open.

"Hold on," he whispered. "We are just about there." The angel sat the other one on a plush dull red and gold chair.

"Stay right there," Kit told her. "I'm going to take a look around." She stared at him as she tried to grab his arm.

"I will be back, I promise," he insisted. "I will not leave you." The female angel eyed him quietly before she let go of his arm. A flash of strange memories jumped in his for only a second about this woman looking so terrified as he was about to leave. Kit shook his head and backed away to explore the run-down hotel.

This place looked abandoned just like everything else in the Fallen City. Kit couldn't sense anyone hiding in anywhere. Maybe this hotel would be a go place to rest for the time being. Rest, clean up the new angel, and figure out what to do next. Kit his forehead.

Right...

It helped that all of the doors to the rooms were unlocked. After testing out different showers, Kit found one that was working properly. No hot water, but it would have to do for now. He returned to the lobby to find the female angel rocking back and forth in her chair. She bit on her thumb as she mumbled to herself.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kit shouted as he ran over to her. "It's okay. You're okay." He pulled her into his arms, shushing her. "You're okay now, I'm with you. Come on." The angel had to lift his new baggage into his arms and carry her to the shower that he found. He stripped her tattered clothes and sat her in the tub. The female angel eyed him as Kit took the shower head in his hand.

"This is going to be really cold," he said in a low voice. He turned on the shower and hosed down the other angel. She yelped at the cold water hitting her skin.

"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay," Kit said. "Just let me get you cleaned up." All of the muddy water swirled down the drain. The angel had to help the other one out of the tub. She could barely stand as she shivered. Kit managed to find a towel and wrapped it around her body. Afterwards, Kit tossed her clothes into the tub. He did his best to rinse out her clothes. Her skirt and shirt were hung over the shower poll. He walked her to the bedroom. The angel sat her on the bed. Kit drew the thick red torn curtains closed.

"We should be safe in here for now," he said in a soft voice. Kit pressed his forehead against hers. "You just rest here while I'll take another look around this place." The female angel lay on her side and drew her eyes closed. Kit used the blanket from the other bed and covered her. Once he was sure that she was sound asleep, he quietly slipped out the room.

The angel stayed by Kit's side. He let her to keep her safe and he was trying to find out why she looked so familiar to him. She had to stay in the hotel because of her wings. He couldn't help but wonder why she still had them.

"Most people like us end up losing our wings when we first arrive in this city," Kit told her one night. "You're lucky I found you first."

"What happened to your wings?" she asked.

"Ripped off," he said. "I was beaten up afterwards."

"But why?"

Kit chuckled sadly. "I was weak. Some people like us spotted me and attacked. Now, I just hide to survive." The female angel pulled him into her arms and held him. Kit felt another flash of memory spark in his head. She held him like this before. Whether either one was sad or scared, she held him in this intimate embrace and wouldn't let go until they were calmed down. Kit inched his arms around the other angel and let himself collapse internally in her grasp.

Back in present day, Grace sat up in the sand and looked beside her. She tilted her head as a puzzled look covered her face.

Are those... tears?