Val The Vessel

21 / Black Angel

I sit up in bed with my backside facing the headboard. I endeavour to center my attention on the tv in front of me rather than the salivating mystery on the left side of the room—Doron's closet. My mom used to tell me that a man's closet contains his darkest secrets.

My eyes dart left, then quickly right. There's nothing but empty furniture and unresponsive plants in the room. Andrea customarily sleeps in on Saturday mornings so it's needless to say that she won't be a problem. Doron had departed with Kayla earlier this morning to take care of some 'business'. They won't be back for at least another hour or so. So much for that 'story' Doron had promised to tell me.

I take one last glimpse at the bedroom door. It's locked shut without a morsel of sound behind it. My bare feet tiptoe across the glossy hardwood floor until they're inches from the closet. A delicate skew of the knob, and the girthy door gives the impression that it opened on its own. It almost feels as if the closet's darkness is pouring into the room the more I crack the door open. I stick my head into the blackness for a daring peek at the other side knowing fully well that I won't be able to see a thing. My feet shiver from the floor's chilling touch then rock into a groove further into the empty space. There's a blurry contour of a lever-shaped object ingrained into the opposite side of the closet.

Footsteps ring out from somewhere in the distance, but the sound fades out after some time. Andrea must have just gone into the bathroom to pee as she routinely does before crashing back to sleep a second time.

I creak my way towards the opposing wall and gaze at the peculiar lever poking out from it. Cautious not to leave any evidence of my being here, I place two wispy fingers on either side of the handle and yank it downwards. An entire section of the wall slides down with it, uncovering a black cavern within the closet's structure. I can't see anything so I slide my phone from my pocket with the flashlight turned on. I hold it in front of the dark hole in the wall and a body stands tall from inside.

"SHIT!"

I shriek quietly and back six steps away, wishing I had never attempted this stunt in the first place. Nothing comes out of the wall after that. Did I imagine the human shape?

Curious to try again, I shine my phone's light into the wall once more. The spotlight hits a set of chiseled abs, then I raise the light upwards. There's a breast plate with tiny diamond-shaped carvings all around it. I raise the light a final time. A blank face comes into view with two holes where the eyes are supposed to be. It's a black mask.

"Having fun?"

I jump to my side and whirl around. It's a tall woman with square studs in her ears. I recognize her immediately. It's Nicole, staring menacingly at me with cold unfeeling eyes. To my astonishment, her left leg is fully healed. Sometimes I fear that Nicole is more monstrous than I am. "You're not supposed to be in here."

I feel my inner throat bob up and down with choked up words. My mouth wants to speak but Nicole beats me to it, her dark chocolate lips convoluting a sigh. "It's okay. I'll let it slide for now," she speaks, looking up at the frightening body in the wall. "Do you even know what that is?"

Words leave her mouth in resemblance to a teacher's. She never looks away from the figure. "I'll take your silence as a no. That's the ensemble of the infamous 'Black Angel'."

Nicole blows brown strands from her face and raises a pointy finger towards the figure's abdomen. "Many don't know this, but the inside of the suit is lined with a bullet-resistant padding. It's not thick enough to repel bullets completely, but it's thin enough to grant the wearer an astonishing amount of mobility. It was specifically designed to resonate with the wearer's powers."

It's hard to tell in the musky darkness, but it almost looks like Nicole is smiling. "What do you mean by 'powers'?" I sound out.

She narrows her eyes in passive remembrance and ignorance to my question. "They were incredible. I wanted to be them so badly when I was a kid. To get behind that black mask and tear your enemies limb from limb with such grace and fear, it must have been an exhilarating experience."

Nicole gives one last look of respect before turning around to make way towards the exit. "Be sure to close that wall back up," she orders. "It's not me you should be afraid of. Doron would blow a fuse if he found out what you did here today. Be smart, Val. Not stupid."

She halts on her way out. "You're called to do so much more. Believe me, I can tell. Doron's realized it too, which is probably why he dug his claws into you as soon as he could." Nicole steps out of the closet in her black slippers.

I call out to her in a low voice. "Wait, why are you telling me all of this?"

I can only see her backside when she speaks. "Doron is my friend. But there's a lot about him that you will fail to perceive because he's just that good at bottling his feelings. For starters, that suit in the wall isn't his. It belongs to somebody else."