I hear her approaching , so I decide to stay "asleep" until I see what she's up to. When she starts to duct taping my ankles and wrists, I let her do it, it's best if she thinks I'm vulnerable . I'll rip my bindings when she's distracted.
While she is tying me up I observe her, she is short and skinny, her clothes folding and hanging everywhere and her hair is dark brown, cascading down to her waist.
She poses no threat to me, that's for sure, she can act like a mercenary if she wants but she's just a daughter of man, and a tiny one I must add.
Finally, she ends her work and looks at me with her deep deep brown eyes. For a second these eyes distract me from everything. There are just so many things hidden behind them that one wants to get to know this little monkey. I have second thought about damaging her.
But just then, she speaks.
"Where did they take my sister? "
I almost roll my eyes. Not this again please, I already told her she was dead, end of story. Why oh why couldn't she just let it go, do the normal thing, cry a little and then move on with her life. That's the behavior I've observed in my years of watching at least. Even if she was alive there's no way this scrawny daughter of man could do anything about it.
She holds my wings and takes scissors. A wave of fear comes over me without me being able to control it, my wings have been a source of pride for a long time, I'm getting really anxious which I see as I sign of weakness on my part, so I reassure myself thinking they will be a sign of my splendor soon, I'll get them back; I HAVE to get them back. There's no choice, no other way of living. The resolve of doing so numbs the sadness but not the burning hatred I feel for Beliel and the bastards that helped him cripple me. Hatred now directed to this scraggy little monkey threatening to deform my beautiful wings.
"How the hell should I know?"
I know I'm not being useful to her, and she's showing she's desperate so I need to keep my cool, take my wings.
"Because you're one of the stinking bastards."
"Ooh. You cut me to the bone with that one."
If it wasn't for my wings being what she's threatening to maim, her pirate pose with all the swearing and the attitude would be kind of funny, but they are so I don't find it funny at all.
"Didn't you notice I wasn't exactly chummy with the other fellas?"
"They're not 'fellas' They're not anywhere near human. They're nothing but leaking sacks of mutated maggots, just like you."
"leaking sacks of mutated maggots?" I raise an eyebrow, mutated maggots, seriously?
She snaps her scissors cutting through some of the feathers of my wing. They won't ever look the same as they did. All the rage I've been feeling directs now towards her. I'm not tolerating this, a stinky human disfiguring my wings?
"Try doing that again, and I'll snap you in half before you know it"
I give her a menacing look and she seems to get it.
"Big words from a guy who's trussed up like a turkey. What are you going to do, wobble over here like an upside-down turtle to snap me in half?"
"The logistics of breaking you are easy. The only question is when."
"Right. If you could do it, you would have done it already."
"Maybe you entertain me. Like a monkey with an attitude and a pair of scissors"
She does entertain me, if it wasn't for her with all her funny angry kitten fury , I would allow much darker thoughts to surface, maybe let them swallow me, paralyze me.
"You think this is a game? You think you wouldn't be dead already if it wasn't for my sister?"
She viciously chops through the soft perfection of my wing making it look jagged and mangled, red hot fiery feelings flow through me, right now, she's like the incarnation of every single one of my enemies to me. She's paying for this.
"Penryn?" a woman's voice comes through the door "Are you all right?"
As she turns towards the door I rip the duct tape and snatch the scissors out of her hand.
"I'm fine mom"
Her voice is pretty steady, considering that she knows she must know I'm going to kill her, well along with stubborn and annoying she's brave, she doesn't want her mum to be endangered but that is not a big enough redeeming quality for what she has just done.
I slide my arm around her thin throat and start to squeeze it. She grabs my arm, presumably trying to loosen my grip, but no, she crouches and springs back with all her might, even when I feel as if my back has just caught fire I don't let her go, she does the same move again and I feel something stabbing my wounds, the pain is unbelievable and I let go.
Her mother keeps calling her, each time more frantic than the last one, but she seems to be having a hard time trying to speak as she struggles to breathe normally. To my regret I feel a reluctant admiration for this creature. She was not going to go down without a fight, even knowing she could not beat me in any way. This behavior is more typical of me, a warrior than of a skinny thing like her , but thanks to that courage my back feels in flames again, so it doesn't' make me feel inclined to help her.
"Penryn Young, you open this door right now!"
Her mother sounds like she's about to knock the door down.
"Penryn? Are you okay? "
Penryn ….I know her name now, names have power and this one is special, one of a kind. I'm starting to believe that her owner possesses the same qualities.
"Yeah, it's okay"
We are both in bad shape, I don't think she's going to attack me so I lie down on the sofa, try to get some healing rest.
Us angels heal a lot faster than humans, but that takes energy and I've had a whole lot of healing to do so I'm exhausted. I eye her, and she flashes me an evil grin, feeling smug I see, little witch.
"You," I shoot her a dirty look "don't deserve salvation."
"As if you could give it to me," she croaks "Why would I want to go to Heaven anyway when it's crammed full of murderers and kidnappers like you and your buddies?"
Keeping her bravado up uh?
"Who says I belong in Heaven?"
I've never been in Heaven, the messenger is the one that supposedly goes there and talks to God, and then comes back and tell us what to do next. Gabriel sent me and my Watchers to roam the earth protecting the humans for they are God's beloved children, but now as the little witch pointed, we are tearing their world, killing them, and since Gabriel's dead maybe entirely without a higher purpose. Things like this make me question if all the death I have brought upon this world makes me unworthy of Heaven, or if it even exists.
But instead of sharing these angelic matters with a daughter of man, I give her a dirty snarl to illustrate my words.
"Penryn? Who are you talking to?" Her mother sounds even more frantic than before, if that is possible.
"Just my own personal demon, Mom. Don't worry. He's just a little weakling."
Her….what? Her mother is going to burst in one way or another, what kind of answer is that to a worried mother? This girl has a weird sense of humor.
"Okay. Don't underestimate them. And don't make them promises you can't keep."
She sounded calm and I hear her steps as she goes away, What on earth? What kind of motherly advice was that? I hear the girl chuckle. Chuckle, I'm starting to think she's insane.
"Here" she says as she tosses me a roll of bandages, "You probably want to put pressure on that"
Nah, I don't , this is no angel sword wound, it'll heal as soon as I get some sleep, and besides….
"How am I supposed to reach my back?"
"Not my problem" Of course. I throw the roll onto the carpet letting it roll I curl in the couch and start to take deep breaths counting the seconds I hold the air in. I know this will relax me enough and I'll fall asleep. I need it. Apart from healing I will also welcome the sweet oblivion of sleep, being able to not think about the little-monkey-Penryn, my wings or what I'm going to do to Beliel and his buddies seems awfully pleasant right now.
"You're not sleeping again, are you?"
"Ummmm" At least I'm trying to.
I wake up right before dawn; the girl has chained me to a freaking cart. Creative, I must give her that. She's sleeping in a chair in the corner, and without really thinking about it I come closer to take a better look, she looks so frail and doll-like in her sleep, that her being the same person who has chained me and tortured me seems almost impossible.
Some noise interrupts my evaluation of the sleeping girl, I hear several men slipping in the building, crystal shatter and footsteps getting closer. Penryn wakes up and I clamp a hand over her mouth shushing her before she reveals our location. She understands that something is wrong immediately, and we both tense in anticipation.
"Hell-ooo," a man's voice calls out playfully through the dark. "Anybody home?"
There are twelve of them, they hoot and holler outside, trying to scare us out so by the time they find us we'll be easy to beat. A woman's scream pierces the night, Penryn's mom.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Penryn banging a chair against the window causing almost no effect, my guess is she's trying to cause a distraction to help her mother, even if that leads the men to us.
Even injured I can take on twelve starving humans, and it doesn't seem fair to let them murder a defenseless woman to buy me some time. I swing the cart towards the window and it explodes. Penryn tries to help me escape through the window when something thumps hard against the door, but before she succeeds the door crashes open. Here they come.
I glance at Penryn and tell her to run, she has no chance to survive a fight against these men, and after all, I do owe her my life. This makes us even, I don't like to feel indebted to anyone.
She vaults out the window.
I face my opponents , as they hurl towards me I swing the cart at them, they look more cautious now, but still they are going in for the kill.
The cart is very heavy and each swing sets my back on fire, I know that it's just a matter of time, eventually I won't be able to lift the goddamned cart and…
"What have we here?" The girl is holding my wings behind her trying to make it look like she's an angel in order to scare off these morons "Michael, Gabriel, come see this," She makes a weird voice, the scene is so ridiculous and her acting is so poor that I almost burst out laughing. "The monkeys seem to think they can attack one of our own now." Everyone is staring at her like waiting to be thunderstruck or start burning in heavenly fire any second now, again, ridiculous.
In that moment she slips up, her… wait, MY right wing wobbles and trying to right it she ruins the charade but the distraction she's caused already is enough. The men are still in some kind of shock, how stupid can they be? Whatever.
I throw my cart at the three who are across me knocking them out, three more come for Penryn, I hope she can outrun them, I can't help her with five other coming at me.
I place the cart in the way of one of them, he trips and falls bringing one of his pals along with him, as they touch the ground I kick them both in the head while placing the cart like a barrier to direct my attackers. Two less, three to go. The next one is very sloppy in his attempt to cut me with his little tin knife; I just have change the arch of his arm, and let inertia do the rest. The last one is standing near the door, he has witnessed the fate of his friends and by the look of it, he's not eager to share it. I arch an eyebrow and he just runs off.
Behind me I hear grunts and moans of pain that must be Penryn's but they seem really … masculine, then again she never struck me as girly. I follow the sounds to find that they sounded masculine because they were. The moment I get where she is two men are rolling in the ground clearly in pain and she is fighting the last one. He's on top of her but she twists under his body and flips him onto his back, before he has time to react she slams her heel in his groin, gets up, and kicks his head, hard.
The kitty has paws.
"Nice" I say.
AN:
HAPPY NEEW YEARRRR! :) Hope I'm getting better at this!
XXX.