Ectoplasmic Angel

Chapter 2

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

After Tucker peeked through the window and saw his Aunt, Uncle, and cousins greeting his parents, he knew he'd have to act fast. He turned to Blue Eyes who was watching him from his seat on a pile of leaves. The teen seemed entranced by the colors of autumn.

"Okay, so unless I'm hallucinating, you fell out of the sky and landed in my tree with, like, zero injuries," Tucker exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at the other boy. Blue Eyes pointed back. "And since I can't understand a word of what you're saying, we have an extreme language barrier. And dude, by the way, I know like twelve different languages and you sure as hell aren't speaking anything close to one of them."

Surprisingly, that got a reaction out of Blue Eyes who suddenly whipped his wide eyed stare upwards to glare at Tucker, who couldn't really apologize because he had no idea which part of his sentence had offended the kid.

"Literally the only thing I can do is sneak you upstairs or just," Tucker paused as he watched Blue Eyes shove a yellow leaf in his mouth and chew happily, "leave you by yourself."

Blue Eyes was beginning to eye a red leaf when Tucker grabbed his arm. "Okay, I guess you're staying in my room for now because leaving you alone is not an option- and would you stop eating those! Don't you know they're leaves?" Blue Eyes warbled sadly as he was dragged away from what he believed to be a feast.

The two teens approached the backdoor of the Foley household and Tucker pressed a finger to his lips. "We have to be really quiet, okay? That means no noises." Blue Eyes blinked at him.

"Oh man, this is going to be harder than I thought, isn't it?" Tucker mumbled, intertwining their hands to ensure that the other teen didn't run off, surprised at how cold his hand felt.

Blue Eyes made a startled noise and brought their hands up to eye level. His mouth moved, emitting those strange sounds again, but his expression was of astonishment. "What?" Tucker whispered. "Jeez, did your parents never hold your hand or something? Quit making those noises!"

Thankfully the bright eyed boy sensed Tucker's frustration and settled for simply staring at their conjoined appendages. Although Tucker was focused on sneaking past his family, he couldn't help but worry if Blue Eyes really hadn't even been held kindly by someone before. Did he even have a family?

The backdoor thankfully didn't creak as he pushed it open, and Tucker thanked the Lord for small mercies. He and his companion quickly sneaked past the voices coming from the front room and raced upstairs. Blue Eyes only made one confused warble in the direction of the voices, but it was a quiet one so no one heard. Once in the safety of his room, Tucker shut the door and plopped down on his bed.

The teen groaned as a weight joined him. Blue Eyes was smiling at all the posters hanging off the walls and books on his shelves. He gingerly started moving around and touching everything he could find. "Be careful," Tucker ordered when the teen passed over his spelling bee and Mu Alpha Theta awards. Blue Eyes hummed reassuringly.

While the mystery of a teen was distracted, Tucker analyzed his options. One, he could leave Blue Eyes up here and risk him trashing the place, running away, or venturing downstairs when he got bored, or two he could make up an excuse for his presence in their house, the language barrier, and his odd behavior by lying to his entire family. Neither were promising choices, but Tucker was really interested in finding out more about the stranger who landed in his tree and seemed to have no idea what anything was. For some reason, he didn't want to get rid of him yet.

Suddenly, Tucker had an idea "Okay, kid, come here for a second." Blue Eyes looked up and followed. Tucker pulled out his desk chair and guided the other teen to sit in it. He made a noise- one that Tucker recognized as caution or confusion- but seemed to understand what Tucker wanted. Once he was seated, Tucker logged into his computer and opened up the stupid poptart cat video that would play on repeat for 10 hours.

Blue Eyes jerked back when the screen lit up and started moving. "No way," Tucker muttered, eyebrow raised. "I didn't think this would actually work. You seriously haven't ever seen a computer before? Wait till I introduce you to cell phones." The other teen wasn't paying attention, eyes completely glued to the screen. "Man, wherever you're from, they must be stuck in the middle ages or something."

Once he was certain the teen was occupied, Tucker made his way to the door. "Okay, stay here and don't leave," he ordered, knowing that Blue Eyes couldn't understand him, but still wanting to voice it out loud. "Just in case, I'm locking the door, okay?" Tucker quickly shut his bedroom door and locked it from the outside. He sighed in relief. At least that was over; one obstacle down, several more to go.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"Maurice, could you be a dear and tell Tucker it's time to come down?" Mrs. Foley asked as she guided her in-laws to the table. "He ran upstairs to wash up."

Mr. Foley gave his sister a quick kiss before walking halfway up the stairs. "Tuck! Buddy, it's the holiday season! It's time to suck up to your family members and stuff yourself with turkey!" Maurice heard the startled laughter of his sister from the family room and his wife's groans.

"I'm coming," Tucker said, racing his father past the last step.

"Oh no you don't!" Mr. Foley yelled, grabbing Tucker under the arms and giving him a huge kiss on his head. "All children must pay the toll before passing."

"Dad!" the teen whined. "I'm almost seventeen!"

Mr. Foley gave him an unimpressed look. "And the big bad stair troll doesn't give a flying turkey how old you are. Kiss, or he won't let you eat any meat," he teased. Tucker rolled his eyes at his fathers antics but turned around to give him a hug. "The stair troll has accepted your meager payment. You may pass."

His wife was giving him a look as they both entered the dining room in ruffled clothes. "Really?" she asked, unimpressed. The Foley men grinned at her before sitting down.

The rest of their guests arrived rather quickly, but Mr. and Mrs. Foley could tell their son was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the turkey, not their family. The table was set and finally everyone was ready to eat. It was the perfect Thanksgiving dinner laid out before them because the Foleys would never go wrong with food. Cooking (and eating the food) was their specialty. Tucker quickly reached for a slice of turkey, but let out a pained sound when his grandmother slapped his wrist.

"Oh no you do not," she tutted, waving her finger. "Mind your manners, son. Grace has not been said."

Mrs. Foley nodded. "Of course. Let us all join hands and pray."

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Danny liked the boy with pretty skin that didn't look like him.

Falling into the large pointy thing had hurt, but he'd found a mortal without even trying so he supposed that was a plus. The boy made weird sounds he couldn't understand, but Danny figured the mortal couldn't understand him either since only Angels could speak Voynich. Though the mortal did say a word he recognized, the one for the place in which no Angel must fall to. Danny knew he was lucky he'd only fallen into the mortal world for there were worse places farther below.

One thing Danny didn't like was the pain he felt in his stomach. He supposed even though he was an Angel, fallen ones must be subjected to some of the rules of the mortal world. Hunger seemed to be one of them. He'd tried to make it stop by munching on the colors he'd found, but the mortal hadn't liked that. Maybe the colored things were important to him? Danny once heard an ancient talk about how humans kept something called "pets." Maybe he ate a pet.

The pretty skinned boy made all sorts of weird gestures with his hands, but the weirdest one yet was when he touched Danny. The Angel was so shocked and confused. Mortals were so warm! How did they do that? And why was there something moving inside the boys hand? It felt like liquid and Danny was surprised that he actually liked the odd feeling. Ancients talked a lot about mortals and Danny was always curious about them so he listened in sometimes. The older Angels always said how disgusting the mortal body was while complaining about how "feeble their existence continued to be." Danny didn't understand all the words they said afterwards, but he bet they were mean.

The mortal was nice and took him inside a warm dwelling. Danny could hear more strange noises from the other direction, but the mortal didn't want him going there. Then they entered a room and Danny was sure this was the human's special place. It smelled of him and he got defensive whenever Danny tried to touch the things in it. Danny knew what that was like, he hated when the older Angels messed with his special place.

Suddenly the mortal was talking again. Danny tilted his head and asked what he wanted, but the human just had him sit. Then the most wonderful thing happened because the human made something come to life. Danny was so shocked that he couldn't speak. He thought only God could do that! Maybe the mortal he found was special. The weird object made noises and had colors so the little Angel watched it and listened as it spoke to him. He was sure the colored thing was trying to communicate in the same language as the other mortal, but even though he couldn't understand it Danny wanted to be polite so he listened to it.

The colored thing was intriguing, but didn't hold Danny's attention very long when a warm feeling suddenly rushed from the top of the Angel's head to the very tips of his toes. It was a feeling so welcome and nostalgic that the little Angel almost sobbed. The mortals were praying!

The prayers were warm, soft whispers in that strange language, and because Danny wasn't a Speaker he couldn't understand, but oh could he feel it. The whispers stopped, but the prayers and wishes kept flowing because even though the mortals ceased speaking, their hopes and dreams carried on for eternity. Danny sat basking in the glow of their prayers for a long time.

Ever since Danny had realized he was falling, he'd tried to hold back his emotions. He'd lost his home. No, he'd been cast out. For some reason God and the other ancients didn't want him anymore. And now that he was getting a small taste of home, that realization hit him full blast and he shattered.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Their plates were practically licked clean, as was customary for a Foley dinner. Even the smallest of Tucker's cousins had finished off everything they had chosen because Foley eyes were just as big as their stomachs.

Tucker himself had several pieces of turkey during the meal and almost had to physically fight his father for the last piece. His mother rolled her eyes at their antics, but the rest of the family laughed when her brother in law joined the battle. Dishes were easy to clean up and put away once everyone had their share, and the Foleys were starting to say goodbye to their relatives when a high pitched scream came from upstairs.

"What in the...?" Mr. Foley said, covering his ears. His sister and her family doing the same.

Tucker looked panicked. "Oh! Wow sorry, guys, I forgot to turn off my T.V. after that horror movie I was watching!" he explained, laughing as he raced to his room. "Give me a minute to fix it. I think I lost the controls!"

The Foleys sent apologetic looks to their guests, but Mr. Foley's sister seemed to find it hilarious. "I bet you it's one of those slasher things those boys watch. My son's been getting into those recently," she explained.

"Ah, the teenager years," Mrs. Foley sighed.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"Crap, crap, crap," Tucker cursed, unlocking his door and throwing it open. "Dude what- oh my fuck!"

Blue Eyes was on the ceiling.

Tucker panicked, completely ignoring how he'd gotten up there- and how he was staying up there- in favor of grabbing every pillow, stuffed animal, blanket, and soft object he owned and throwing it underneath the crying boy. "Oh my God," Tucker said, freezing when the kid started to cry louder. "I mean oh my gosh, dude, seriously, please calm down." Blue Eyes didn't even seem to notice him.

Tucker didn't know what to do. He tried coaxing the kid to calm down, but nothing seemed to be working. Finally, the teen gave up and grabbed his phone. He dialed the number by heart and waited.

"Hello-"

"-Sam! Oh my- shit, Sam please you've got to help me!"

"Tucker? What the heck is going on? Where are you?"

"I'm at my house and I can't get him to stop screaming!"

"Screaming? What are you talking about? Who's him?"

Tucker paused and looked up. He'd been so panicked that he hadn't even noticed Blue Eyes had stopped crying. His face was red and splotchy, but those large eyes were trained on his phone now. "Hold on, I think he likes my phone."

There was silence on the other end. "Tucker, if you're fucking with me right now," Sam threatened.

"Keep talking, but just get over here as fast as you can, okay?" Tucker pleaded, moving so he stood a little closer to Blue Eyes who was still hanging from the ceiling. "I could really use your help with this."

Sam sighed and Tucker could picture her rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Fine, I'm on my way. You're lucky my parents already finished eating. What do you want me to talk about?"

"Anything," Tucker said as he took the cell phone away from his ear to hold it closer to Blue Eyes. The teen followed the movement and gasped when Tucker clicked the speaker button. Sam's voice echoed in the silence of the room as she droned on about the weather, and Blue Eyes made a startled, confused noise before dropping down next to Tucker.

His pale fingers grabbed for the device, making strange clicking sounds as he fingered it. "Hey, Blue Eyes, wait!" Tucker said, sternly. Sam paused for a moment and muttered "I'm not even going ask" before continuing. Blue Eyes looked down at the device and then back up at Tucker, making a thrilled warble before hugging the device to his face.

"Fine, sure, you can hold it," Tucker muttered, moving to pick up all the blankets and things he'd thrown on the ground while the strange teen was occupied with listening to Sam's voice. Minutes passed, but Sam's voice never stopped. Blue Eyes let out some small hums here and there, but he was pretty content with cuddling with Tucker's phone.

Finally he heard a truck pull up outside and Tucker sighed with relief. Sam was here. As she was already seventeen, she could drive, and didn't live that far from Tucker since Amity Park wasn't all that big of a town. Blue Eyes heard the noises from Sam as she climbed up the vines on the side of the house and rapped on the window. Tucker opened it for her and she leapt inside, shutting her phone.

Blue Eyes heard the beep from Tucker's phone as the call canceled and made a concerned warble.

Sam stared at the teenager on her best friend's bed. "Okay, he's hot. But please tell me you didn't bring me all the way here to try and set me up with some kid."

Blue Eyes screeched suddenly and looked at Sam in shock. He shook his head and said something in his strange language before looking down at the phone in his hand. Another shrill sound escaped him when Sam tried to speak again. "Uh, yeah, kid. That was me on the phone," she said, jerking back when the teenager launched himself at her. "Woah! Jesus!"

The small teen pressed his fingers against her lips and then pressed them against the phone, looking back and fourth between the girl and the object. His eyes were so wide that Sam was afraid they'd pop out of his head. Blue Eyes suddenly turned to Tucker and whimpered.

"I think he thought you were the phone, or in the very least trapped inside of it," Tucker explained, looking sheepish. Blue Eyes made another panicked sound so Tucker took the phone from him- ignoring the screech- and dialed Sam again. Following along, the girl opened her phone and spoke into it.

"Hi there, My name's Sam," she said, voice echoing both from her mouth and Tucker's phone on speaker. Blue Eyes froze and looked back and fourth between her and the device. Suddenly his mouth formed an O shape and a bunch of noises came out of his mouth.

Sam winced. "I think that's his language," Tucker said, already used to it.

Blue Eyes nodded as he looked at Sam. Then his eyes widened and he ran to Tuckers computer. The stupid poptart cat video was still playing, but the sound was low so it wasn't that annoying. Blue Eyes warbled and pointed at the screen before looking back at Tucker, confused.

Sam snorted. "Oh wow. Since I'm real he probably thinks the cat's a person too somewhere out there."

Tucker cringed and shook his head. "No, dude, that's just an animation. Sam's real, that's not." Blue Eyes hummed, but seemed to understand as he settled down to smile at Sam and Tucker, happily waving.

Sam chuckled, turning to her best friend. "So, do you want to tell me what's going on now?"

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

The pretty skinned mortal did it again. He brought another weird object to life. The bright light and weird language coming from it wretched Danny from his sorrow and he was eager to know more. The voice was soft this time and reminded him of one of the ancients that took care of him when he was of a younger age.

Danny cradled the object carefully, positive that this was what the humans called a pet. Those colored objects from earlier must have been something else of importance because these were the only things Danny had seen the mortals bring to life. They were super important.

Then suddenly there was another human in the first mortals special place and Danny was worried they'd be kicked out for trespassing. But then the mortal spoke and Danny shrieked because this human had just stolen the life of the pet he was holding! How dare they!

It was weird, however, because the Angel was certain the human had the same soul sound as the dead object. Danny raced towards the new mortal and pressed his fingers against their mouth, eager to see how this mortal had stolen the life and voice of the pet. The pretty skinned mortal made a funny sound and said something to the colorful newcomer. Suddenly the newcomer was less hostile and tried to speak to Danny.

Danny didn't understand, but he tried to get them to tell him how the mortal spoke in the same soul sound as the pet. Soul sounds couldn't be copied. Both mortals moved and sound began to come from the pet again. Danny was surprised when the same soul sound came from both the mortal and the pet at the same time! Did that mean humans were connected to their pets?

Finally understanding, the little Angel cheered. These humans weren't so hard to figure out! Then he remembered his friend from earlier. It had multiple soul sounds because he could hear several mortal voices talking occasionally. Danny pointed at the pet and asked the humans where the mortal was that is was connected to. The newcomer made a sound of enjoyment, but his first mortal seemed conflicted. Deciding the whole pet thing was really complicated, Danny let it go and settled down.

One way or another, he was going to survive in the mortal world. He didn't care that he didn't know why he'd lost the love and favor of God and the ancients, he'd show everyone in Heaven that he hadn't deserved to be cast out, and make them regret ever leaving him behind.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

A/N: So now introductions have been made and a couple things about Danny are known, but there's still that pesky language barrier that they have to fix before the plot can thicken. And if he's an Angel where are Danny's wings? Next chapter coming soon!