Four-Leaf Clovers, Not Lucky
Silence reigned throughout the hallways. Long and dark, except for a mere flickering of dim lighting to suffice the evidence of solid objects along the walls. Portraits of random greenery with barren paths leading to nowhere produced an unsettling desire of anxiousness. That's when I saw her from the corner of my eye. Brief for a second, it seduced my attention. Her strands of hair whisked around the lone corner before disappearing on the other end. Her back had been turned; yet, I knew her prescience well enough to confide in its presentation. She was gone. If for a bleak recollection of time and space, she surfaced amongst the chaos of flames subdued to her wanderings. Were she alive, then she wouldn't be a figment of my imagination or memories.
A tear jerked me awake in union with the single cry erupting from my vocals. "Mom!" I screamed out into the darkness, scaring Benji back into consciousness. Trying to wipe the wet from my cheeks before he turned to observe my night terror, the moonlit window reveals the action of concealment.
"Lae," He starts, but I turn away almost automatically in embarrassment. His fingertips retreat away from my body from the touch. Suddenly, I felt alone once released from the grasp. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" The blanket, which was a thin sheet of white, covered the better half of my mouth, muffling the words I wanted to confess. He doesn't need to know this. "Is it about your mother?" Asking seemed rude at the time, but it was all he knew that constantly kept me in doubt about myself and why I continued to feel lost and separated from everyone else. And if that included him, then I guess he would make it a point to get to the bottom of it -just like a friend always does.
A few more droplets pelted the sheet as I cleaned them away. I still couldn't face him in wake of the dream that would never be real. That 'she' had never existed in the first place. That all this time I had wasted trying to figure out why she left or where she went was completely a disturbing, endless path. One, in which, would always lead off the painting of the portraits in the halls. It appeared as though those paths never ended and yet, they halted at a certain focal point to where nothing could be assumed except infinity. It made me sad to realize that every step attempted in the right direction would always draw me backwards miles away from my final destination. There was a reason I was unwanted, unloved, by the most important person that should have been part of my life. Where the path ended was where I wanted to see beyond but couldn't.
"It's nothing." I finally say back in a controlled voice. Sometimes he mistook my silence for anger, but it was a diversion from the fact that I would have sounded like a blubbering idiot with a sob story had I actually opened my mouth when he asked the first round of questions.
"Well then," He pulls his arms behind his head, nodding a confident grin in the turn of events. "Mind screaming in about an hour till dawn? I'd like to have an early breakfast before school." A smug smile spread across his lips while his eyes remained closed. What an asshole?
Underneath, I knew my skin burned hot with rage from the remark. I knew it, and he knew it. "That's all you've got to say to me?" As if friendship lasted only two seconds after a nightmare. Somehow, this was worse than being asleep. At least if it was a dream, I could deny his intentions.
"I'm trying to sleep." Moving his mouth in a subtle way, his nose twitches in content with his breathing. That was, until I clamped both my thumb and index finger over his intake of oxygen. "I can breathe through my mouth, you know." He whispered in wake of the event. My other hand slides upwards to smother his words. His fingers enclose around my wrist, twisting and turning away from its target. Struggling with the contempt in suffocating his ignorance, his lips consume mine. Pulling and tugging subsided into an abrasive clasp of affection as I leaned back to catch my breath.
"Benji?"
A break in snoring crosses the mere quiet space. "What Sloane?" My eyes rotated onto his silhouette masked in the dark shadows as he stirred a midst his sleep. Inside, I was scratching my head about the situation that had just occurred. Had it?
"Did you kiss me?" His eyes blast open on the last phrase as I turn in the bed.
"What?" He asks, shaking his head at the notion. "Why would I kiss you?"
Rolling my eyes and anchoring my chin on my fist gave him a flustered look. "I don't know. Why would you?"
"Go back to sleep." Benji orders, but I don't plan to.
"No," I begin by stretching my legs and arms in wake of the moment. "I can't sleep."
"What do you want me to do about it?" His arm moves behind his head for a makeshift pillow as he closes his eyes. A strange roar muddled its sound behind the concrete wall. "Seriously, Lae?" My eyebrows furrow in response to his line. Again, another disgruntled noise complicated the sweet nothing of his dream state. "Alright, man you're high maintenance." Benji grabs his hoodie, pulling it around his shoulders loosely before exiting through the room door.
My eyes open once a set of flames encapsulate the darkened corner of the room. "Behold the Metatron, herald of the Almighty." Flames erupt near the bed frame, allowing various colors to shift into endless shapes of twirling lights. "Behold the Metatron, herald of the Almighty and voice of the one true-" A spool of white foam spurts onto the concealed man within the embers. "Good Lord," Coughing back the extinguished smoke rising against the clean air.
"Benji, stop!" Sitting up, wires tug onto their attachment within my skin. Cringing from the minor searing of pain, it awakened my instincts towards his heroic act.
Pausing to search for any reaction to the attack, he points the nozzle at the perpetrator. "Are you alright?"
"No," The man once engulfed in flames counteracts his concern about me. Benji flinches, pushing the handle of the extinguisher down hard to compensate for his fear through utter shock. Again, the man coughs from the chemicals filtering throughout the once clean air. "No wonder your biggest act of heroism involves someone who was in distress prior to my appearance. And, your weapon of choice being an archaic novelty item of the nineties. Give me that." Snatching the metal canister from his grip, Benji jumps back while searching for another weapon of defense.
"Wait a minute." Leaning forward for the second attempt at freedom, the cords which tangled their web of conflict around my arms pull at a disturbing tug of persistence. "You're the voice?"
"-Of the Almighty. Yes." Collapsing his palms to his thighs, a strain of relief crosses his features. "It took your mother quite a while to accept that notion. Gotta say, I like your courage." Benji holds a scalpel out in front of him in order to protect himself. "Him, not so much." He states brushing off his blazer from the last flame of light. Snapping his fingers together as Michaels immediately drops the weapon in pure horror. With a clink, the blade crashes to the floor.
"How did you do that?" Benji squints down at the rejected item, inspecting its curves.
The ball of flames, formally known as the Metatron, chuckles a sneer answer to his question. "I'm special, my son." His eyes cross over to mine and wink while confronting his illusion sparingly. "But the next time you decide to smother a superior, supernatural being with a canister full of nitrogen, I highly recommend you don't. The consequences can be quite…dire." A swallow trickles down Benji's throat as he lowers his grip on the extinguisher. When it taps the floor, a small amount of foam bursts out at the messenger once more.
"Sorry," He admits with a smug smirk. If he knew him like I did, he's not entirely sorry.
"Wait?" Turning to face me once again due to the disturbance. "Aren't you suppose to have colossal wings and glowing skin?"
After the remark, I can see his chin drop from utter shock. "Is she serious?" Asking back at Benji seemed repetitive and unnecessary. He nods in confirmation once Benji motions subtle gestures about a book, a hat, a staff and finally a necklace in the shape of a cross. "Right," The guy keeps shaking his head up and then down at the acceptance. "Interesting…" Very few words were being exchanged between the two but all the man had to do was look back at Michaels and understand everything he was saying inside himself. When the notion about my mother had crossed lines amongst the conversation, he paused rigid and dismissed his intention of communicating telepathically. "We have a lot of work to do."
"You never answered my question." I press further.
"What? A blazing ball of fire isn't considered glowing anymore?" A set of wings stretch out from underneath his jacket as Benji takes a residence near my side and away from the shrinking space. "I'm the Metatron." His voice booms deeper at the phrase while the tip of his wings tap the top of the ceiling, barely scraping the light above.
"You should have opened with that, dude." My head tilts to stare at my friend. "Much cooler."
"Shall we?" The Metatron snaps his fingers together urgently, sending us into a nearby pub. Everything was lavishly decorated in green and gold. In the background, bagpipes play their serenading rhythm of chorus's amongst the setting. A giant four leaf clover covers the window pane to our side.
Observing the surrounding tables, it was clearly later in the midnight hours. From the blinds, the darkened skies presented no natural light inside the place. As my eyes flooded with the scenery around me, I see Benji sitting across from me and next to the disturbed, supernatural being whose arms remained crossed while staring down his personal space in which my accomplice unexpectedly invaded. He apologized and slid in next to my side on the booth.
"O' Malley's?" I ask unimpressed.
Grunting at the tone, he protests. "It was either this or Mexican. Thought I would change it up."
"In an Irish pub?"
"Is that disgrace, I hear?" An eyebrow raises to a point?
"We can't drink."
A nudge comes to my side before a couple of glasses clink onto our table. The waiter sets two glasses in front of him, one was empty while the other was full of alcohol. "Speak for yourself." Taking a huge swig, he swishes it around in his mouth for a bit before spitting it into the empty glass.
Looking back to Benji, he began to release his arms from the restraints of his hoodie. Motioning a finger to a fellow waitress down a couple of booths for a glass as well. She sunders over, suddenly a smile spreading across her lips as she approaches our table. Immediately, my arms cross as I look up to see Metatron grinning at my sullen attitude. He spits another drink of alcohol into the reserved glass.
Benji flashes a flirting gesture at her attire. "And what can I get you?"
"Couple shots of Black Velvet." His eyelashes flutter in sequence with the syllables. Tilting his head to the side all the while as the college girl twirled strands of her golden hair, I leaned back into the cushions to demonstrate my conservation.
"Do you have an ID?" My palm conceals my snort while I graciously nodded back at our supernatural guidance. A few moments passed in hesitation before Benji continued his illegal harboring of alcoholic beverages. I kind of wished for a drink on top of all this medication. If I wasn't being routinely checked on every two hours in the hospital so they could take my vitals, then I wouldn't be sleep deprived. So, instead of helping the situation like a normal person would, I subjected myself to opting out in efforts of testing Benji's skill of improvisation. He's got this. At least, I thought he did.
He snorts a laugh at her question. "Of course," Pulling out the card with his picture ID. Of course, I knew he looked eight years older than the number on the card. The weird part was how she brushed off her apron, pushed back a loose burette, and accepted the notification upon response.
As the waitress walked away towards the bar, I unfolded my arms to elbow Benji and then confront the Metatron. "Wow, you have awesome powers." I mock intentionally.
"Actually," He spits again. "That was all him."
Again, I can feel a confiding smirk in his actions. My foot crosses the threshold of his personal space as he howls with the sting of pain. He should have been quick to assume my actions instead of his own. Too late. "What can I say? When you got it, you got it." Two glasses of Black Velvet clink onto the wooden table while our conversation was temporarily delayed due to a small display of interesting behavior.
A wink confirms her flirtatious nature. My eyes roll at the display away from Benji as I confront our captivator once more. "So, why are we here?"
A mumble of words form into place underneath his glass. "Wrong bet."
"What?" My accomplice stutters after his sip.
"You're here because we've lost contact with the Last Scion." His eyes pause on me before continuing. "Her disappearance was deliberate." Slowing down his syllables at the end of the sentence intrigued the better half of the mystery. Benji looks to me as we ponder the current state of affairs. "For God's sake, do I have to spell it out for you?" Concern raises in his voice while I shift my weight in the booth.
"What does that have to do with us?" I ask sarcastically.
Huffing out a restrained breath of air from his lungs, the messenger briefly restores his calmness. "Because you're the one who's destined to make a difference. You're the one who will change the way this world thinks, acts and… believes."
"Right," I accept at first. "Who am I now?"
"The girl in her medical gown." He snaps back. "Why does the title matter to you?" Rhetorical for sure, I still had the balls the answer his questions until Benji stepped in.
"Wrong bet." He mumbles under his fist before crossing his arms.
Taking a deep breath in and then out. "Why does it matter? You're joking, right?" I start, not intending for burst of emotion to over spill onto the table between us. "I grew up my entire life not knowing who I was, or who I should be. And, I have my mother to thank for that. No title and no identity to even begin to know what I was destined for. So, yes it does matter to me."
"I tried to warn him." Benji mutters again, and I snap at him.
"Shut up," His knuckles dig into his scalp after the slam.
"Oh, come off it." The Metatron suffices for imploring another whim. "What's past is past. Whining about it won't change a thing." Clearing his throat from the displaced liquor emanating off his breath, I try to ignore his speech. "You're mad because your mother left you against her better judgment. Don't you think for a moment how it affected your life? The hurt, the pain, the abandonment made you stronger, braver, courageous." My crossed arms fall to my side. His words laced with a truth that had shaped my very existence. "She let the world be your mother. You are who you are because of it. Don't blame her for that." I wanted to choke back the tears rendering me silent, but a projection of sadness was concrete within my eyes.
"So," Out of the corner of my ear, I can hear Benji's vocals boom deeply. How he felt the instant need to take over after the kink in my armor attempted its own repair. "This 'Scion' has been missing for how long?" A fingertip graced the edge of my eyelid to remove the fallout. I just didn't want the Voice of God reporting how sensitive I was about past events.
"We estimate at least three days." He responds quickly.
"Who's we?" I guess I wanted to know as well.
"Mind your own business about who 'they' are." Spitting into the empty glass once more, I remain hesitant of his next response.
"I don't get it." Benji flings his hands forward in union with the talk. "What do you need us for?"
Tapping his fingernails to the counter subsequent to his activity. "I need you," Pointing his nod of confirmation in my direction, he resolves his agreement. "-to find her before the Rebels do. 'They' are not as pleasant as we are." The glass set in front of me twinkled brightly from the crystal in its emptiness.
My eyes shifted back and forth between the two. "Rebels?" An eyebrow raises to question the word.
"They are," He waves over for the waitress to take the empty glass. "-for a better word: damned." A flash of recognition floated across my forehead from the sound of the initial clarification. "Believe it or not, they were actually the ones who did good and kept things in order." His neck cranes into the table further for importance. "Some, dear I say, were insane enough to be my fellow siblings." A smile cracks the solid surface of his dominance over the revelation. "Some, my brothers."
"What happened?" Daring to ask, it seemed relevant.
Leaning back in the booth, his head wanders up at the skylight above us. Speckles of stars glistening in the far away distance to the North as they had every night of my life. Still, looking for meaning up in an abyss of vast glows of dimming energies was such a hopeful waste of time. "A revolution." He states solemnly. "After two angels fell from Heaven while living the remainder of their lives amongst the state of Wisconsin and banished from ever returning to their once perfect paradise, they began a rebellion which ultimately resulted in absolute chaos. The world, as you know it, was on the brink of expulsion."
"Who were the angels, again?" Benji chimes in.
The Metatron rolls his eyes in a vague effort to dismiss his question. "Well, one was good. The other hasn't hindered his intentions on getting revenge for being sent to the Pits. Sometimes, hatred has a way of fueling the fire even without the victim in its prescience."
"Okay," I begin slowly. "Whoever these Rebels are, they're responsible for her disappearance?"
"Correct."
Green beads wrap around Benji's neck as the conversation buries itself deeper into context. "And, whoever this so-called angel is, he has the person your looking for?"
"This is more than just about a person." He leans in. "Existence, in all its form and splendor will seize to be." Seriousness in his tone turned the room cold upon impact.
"Armageddon," Benji confirms. "Cool."
"If there's anything left to get rid of." His attention turns back to me. "Honestly, mention something about the end of the world and suddenly everyone thinks it's a celebration. Mention sex, and there's an applaud towards indecent exposure. I guess, my one question would be whether or not any human being this day and age has modesty, pride, integrity?" A quiet hum fell between us from the opinion.
"Not every human being." I mumble against better judgment.
"Except for those without clothes." Of course, he would make that comment. Unsurprised by the effort, my face still blushed embarrassed.
The Metatron chuckled, un-amused by his response. "Back in the beginning, that was acceptable. Nudity wasn't a humorous pastime like it is now."
"Why yes. No one likes to give away the celebration." A punch comes to my side in a form of consideration.
"So, the world instantly crashes into peril because of this one person?" He could have only shook his head in pure agony after so many interrogations. The good part, which was the best part, meant he would drag the explanation further while me and Benji processed the information. It was tough to reconsider an exit when you were afraid your captor would magically burn into flames and draw more attention than what was needed. Expect the unexpected from the guy in the blazer with such hauntingly, dark eyes -all the more to burn a hole right through your soul.
His fingers cross and overlap each other. "If she dies, yes."
"And, she would happen to have a name?"
"Bethany," A servant with such a bittersweet name?
"She was there when the angels rebelled?"
Pausing for a mere moment, he protests the substitute. "The ones who went completely rogue, one by the name of Loki and the other Bartleby."
"What exactly did they do again?" My elbow smashes into Benji's rib as his inhale exited in a small huff. "Spit on the cross? Piss in the holy water?" At this point, the Messenger fought hard not to comply with his involuntary laugh. Instead, a hand lay a top his forehead as he turned his head left and then right again. "Break into a church, perhaps?" His eyes lifted underneath the veil, signaling truth to the confusion. "Wow, the state of Wisconsin is strict on their laws of damnation." His eyes falter over to mine. "Remind me to never disobey His laws. Wouldn't want to wear a holy cheese hat for the rest of eternity."
A snort comes out from my end. Damn, that kid. I swear he'll keep going until you crack a smile. By this time, the lights in the pub had dimmed considerably to a subtle glow. The four-leaf clover colored in a metallic green hue jingled against the edge of the wooden table as Benji leaned forward to investigate the remaining liquid left in the almost, empty glass. There was a moment of hesitation between the three of us of what to talk about. Every answer revealed itself along the way as our questions withered away one by one. I still couldn't grasp the reality of the proposal.
Finally, I slammed a fist to the counter. "How am I suppose to find someone that doesn't want to be found? Let me guess, I use my super powers to make an alternate universe where my doppelganger follows in the same footsteps of my own only to discover another path, which leads to the world not spontaneously com-busting?"
"Your sense of humor baffles me." Being a know-it-all has its advantages of making him distinctly sarcastic in the rarest of circumstances. But then again, why should I be so quick to judge? "Nobody's asking you to do this alone. God, I hate that I'm even considering the possibility-" Looking over to my right, all I notice is Benji playing with his empty glass only to rest both his palms on his chin and pretend to be the cutest of all species. The Metatron rolled his eyes at the expression. "-to charge you with a holy crusade." Benji's fist thrusts into the air in pure excitement. He must be hammered by now.
Antsy as my fellow companion was, he still managed to convert his slurs into actual words. "That possibility of participating in that crusade would include my expertise, would it now?" His lips curled inward in anticipation while I tried to cover my laughter. He's more entertaining when he's drunk. Why have I not known this?
Reluctantly, the man in the blazer replies. "It would be a rare circumstance as to where your expertise would thrive in absolute conflicts."
"Yes," He belts out of nowhere. I have a feeling if he fist pumps one more time, I'll have to reconsider his former birthplace other than here.
"But, you would be a suitable soldier when it comes to a means of protection." Something struck a cord at the mention of this. Suddenly, I wasn't okay with this circumstance.
"Wait, what?"
Shaking his wrists to loosen the tension of sitting in one spot, a word of advice covets his actions. "You don't expect the Prophets to watch you twenty-four seven, do you?" Again, confusion hit my nerves.
"Who said anything about Prophets? We're talking about a Scion, some rebel angels and Benji-"
"-the ultimate protector. Gotta love that title."
"Whatever," I erase the distraction. "There's more to this than I thought. I'm suppose to save the world with a holy crusade made up of Benji and some random Prophets in an effort to rescue the Last Scion, who by the way is completely off the radar in terms of discovery. And, you expect that somehow, some way, I'll elude the wandering eyes of the Rebels during the process? I don't even know where to begin, where to start!" People surrounding us stopped their conversations to glance over as I yelled out the final form of my grievance. Suffering was never a great pastime of mine. Understanding it was a whole other animal together.
"You know why this one person is so important?" He interjects after the rampage. "Because she made a difference. She sacrificed everything-" His gaze falls upon me once more. My face resembled anger while my arms crossed to form a bridge of solitude and stability. "-to protect the ones she loved. She made a choice, much like I'm asking you to do. It won't be an easy task, but nothing ever is. That's the beauty of it, Leila. You'll never truly appreciate anything until you've given it a chance to be noticed. The world is good, bad-" Staring over at Benji once more, he concludes the remaining factor. "-and stupid."
"Hey," I hear him object.
"Still, you owe to yourself to find the missing piece all these years."
"You mean?"
"If you do this for me, for Her," Pointing up towards the ceiling with his index finger, the Metatron smiles upon recognition. "-you'll have the answers you so desperately desire."
My eyes searched back and forth, attempting to disguise my contained motivation. "Where do I find her?"
"Last she was seen before her disappearance was in a town called Red Bank."
A light lit up in my friend's eyes at the sound of the word. "New Jersey?" He laughs, coming around from the booze that first made him loopy. "You're serious? That's my hometown." Another fit of laughter pours from his mouth in craziness. His foot taps the floor in union with the ending chuckle. In an exaggerated British accent, he mocks our fellow adviser. "Ah, I believe my expertise are in order."
The flash of brightened exposure replaced the pub with that of the hospital room. In wake of current events, I face forward, observing the disorienting surroundings. Benji lay next to my side curled on the edge of the mattress, half his body still stuck in the chair while the other rested sleepily on my pillow. At first, I wanted to shake him and tell him how strange everything was. That maybe my mind couldn't comprehend the mental state in which I resided and dealt with it in the means of disturbing dreams. An interpretation didn't really mean much good if I was insane already. "Benji," I whisper lightly, not intending to pressure the situation. He shifts upon the touch. Something was off, though. A glitter of green shone from the moonlit glow diminishing from the windows. A four-leaf clover? The entirety of the conversation jolted me back into the dream, flashing the evidence in front of my eyes once more. How she was missing. How we needed to find where she was being kept from us. "Benji," I whisper a little louder. "We have to go to Red Bank, New Jersey." The last sentence provoked him enough to wake him out of his slumber.
A/N: Leila has an interesting dream... about being the chosen one to save the world. What she doesn't understand is how or why, just that if she doesn't find the Last Scion, then her luck, along with Benji's four leaf clover necklace, will seize to be. Everything they discover will be exactly where it started in the first place: in Red Bank, New Jersey.