Ethereal [Completed]

Beginning

“Astrid,” Gabe called. “Come down. Now. We have to go.”

“Coming!” I raced downstairs, and we stepped into the cold, dark night to start working.

Three days had passed since the pageant, which also meant, three days had passed since Claire came back to life after being killed by a demon who disguised as my sister.

Earlier, every time I walked around town, people would stare. Nothing new there. Only this time, they weren’t about how out-of-place I looked or how I won the pageant. It was because of that incident with Claire. We’ve answered all of the authorities’ questions, with a few lies here and there.

However, a few people were skeptical about me not seeing the perpetrator. They think it was Celeste who mysteriously disappeared from the party, and I was just lying to cover her crime. Well, it was Celeste, physically, but it wasn’t her who actually did it. But for the most part, we’re good. Fortunately enough, there were two Rosiers acting as Celeste. One Celeste was doing the crime, while the other Celeste was talking to George. I guess Rosier was not aware that she helped us at that time.

After that night, everyone said that the Louise Heinrich they knew had been gone for years. I tried asking Drake but apparently, Drake’s real mom had died when he ten years old. I assumed that some time after her death, Louise stepped in, modified everyone’s memories, and behold, Louise Heinrich, Drake’s “mom”. Or worse, they could have caused the real Louise’s death. It’s kind of sad how Drake, Iel and Queen had forgotten about her for years.

From then on, we had been keeping an eye out for Rosier’s schemes. It’s 2:00 am right now. Gabe and I had been going around town at night to alter people’s memories.  After tonight, people would have forgotten about Claire being stabbed, and just consider it as her fainting from fatigue. They would also forget that Celeste was ever seen during the pageant. Gabe and I agreed that Celeste went back to London for a long vacation, which is why she wasn’t here at the time.

Tonight’s the last batch of people whose memories we have to change, which included the Anthony couple. Robert had been holed up in Claire’s hospital room since that time, and he had volunteers to patrol Celestial Cove 24/7 to make sure nothing would happen to anyone. Flying above the clouds helped us navigate through town without being seen.

When we arrived at the hospital, it was deserted. There was this deafening silence, and it felt a bit scary, like someone will pop out of nowhere and attack us.  Actually, I was just too paranoid. When we were at the corner near Claire’s room, we peeked and saw two policemen talking with each other while guarding the entrance.

“What do we do?” I asked Gabe. I felt like I was one of those people from movies who were sneaking around to break into somewhere.

“Wait one second here,” he answered.

“Wait,” I said, but before I knew it, he was gone and back in a flash. The chattering men grew silent and I saw them unconscious on seats near the door. “Are they dead?” I asked.

 “Of course not. Just unconscious. “

“How on earth did you do that?”

“Nothing else is faster than an angel flying.” He answered, and I looked at him with pleading eyes. “I’ll teach you later. First, we have work to do.”

“Right.” I said.

I walked toward the door and opened it carefully. To my surprise, Claire was blinking at me. Her gray eyes highlighted by the moonlight and prominent against the dark room. I froze at the door.

“What are you doing? Get inside.” Gabe whispered.

“You don’t need to worry dear. I’ve been waiting for you,” Claire said and invited us in.