Chapter Fourteen
Who are you?
Angela stared at the waterfall from within the cave as it fell along with the heavy rain outside.
She opened her bag so she could eat her lunch, yet she just stared at her food, her mouth felt dry.
Sighing and putting her bag down she rested her chin on her knees and continued to stare at the falling water.
"You know Nigel, mum's still bothering me about the future, asking what I want to do, like college, or travelling, I can't help but think she wants me to do more than just be working at Subway, but right now, I can't think! I don't know what I want to do!"
Angela pulled out the photo of herself and Nigel from her bag and stared at it.
"You were always the ambitious one Nigel." She lamented "From the day you could walk and talk, according to mum and dad you wanted to be a pilot, it was like it was written in the stars! You longed to soar above the clouds and see the world."
She looked at the waterfall again.
"I share the same passion, I want to see the world too, but there are so many restrictions that prevent me from doing so, time and money!" Angela looked at the photo again.
"There's so much I'd love to do, if I had the chance, I would walk the Great Wall of China, see the Northern Lights in the Icy North Pole, go on a safari in Africa and see the lions, elephants, and gazelle..." Angela lowered her head "There's so much I wish I could do, and if you were still here, we could see it all together."
She lowered her head and blinked away tears.
From the back of the darkness of the café, Diablo sat very still and listened.
He breathed slowly, yet the noise of the water outside prevented him from being heard by Angela.
He had listened to her sorrow and her grief over her older brother, and he could almost see himself in her.
Like him, she had an older sibling she looked up to, like he looked up to Monalisa those years back, and had been deeply grieved when they had gone from their lives, well Monalisa had vanished, and he had had no idea what had happened to her until he and Jake had found out last year.
As much as the Raven shared a few sad pasts and moments with his fellow disciples, this girl was different.
Samson had lost his parents and grandparents as a young boy, Rex had been a forgotten war veteran, Sophie had lost both parents and suffered at the hands of her uncle, Regan had lost her mother and now had no memories of her due to the car accident that they had been involved in, Lamia had been nearly murdered, and Ravage had been in a toxic and abusive family and wanted to escape.
Yet neither of them had shared something as similar as he did with Angela.
Diablo felt tempted to reveal his presence to her, but after her first reaction to him when he saved her from the mugger, he knew she may react the same way or maybe even worse so he continued to keep still.
Meanwhile Angela, still completely oblivious to the fact there was a mutant Raven in the cave with her, kept talking to herself, or rather to her and Nigel's photograph until a gust of wind blew into the cave and the photo was blown out of her hands!
"NO!" Angela cried as the photo flew behind her and she turned around to catch it!
At the same time, Diablo saw the photo fly out of Angela's hands and come towards him and his heart leapt to his throat!
"Shit!" he thought, and he attempted to snuggle deeper into the darkness, yet as he did, he stumbled and landed on his side with a grunt and the photo landed on his wing!
Angela saw the photo land on something, and she reached out for it! No sooner did her fingers touch the photo than she felt Diablo's feathered wing!
Angela gasped as she felt the silky texture and she instinctively reached for it again.
Diablo meanwhile remained frozen on the ground as she reached out and stroked his wing.
"What the hell?" Angela muttered and she reached for her phone as she couldn't see what it was, she was touching and needed a torch.
"What is this?" she asked, "A bird? But…." Her hand glided down Diablo's wing "It seems huge!"
She wondered why she couldn't find her phone but then realised it was back where she left her picnic bag near the entrance of the cave! She stepped back but she ended up tripping over a stone and fell backwards.
Diablo meanwhile looked up and opened his wing and Angela soon saw it move in the limited light from the entrance and a yelp escaped her lips.
"What is it?" she cried starting to feel scared and she started to move towards the entrance of the cave to find her phone.
Diablo meanwhile stood up and moved backwards into the darkness.
"Damn!" he cursed as he crouched and covered himself with his large wing "She's going to see me! And I can't get out of here without going to the entrance of the cave!"
Meanwhile Angela had found her phone and she switched on the torch!
The strong beam of light filled the cave and Angela's eyes widened as she saw Diablo's large black wing!
"What the fuck?!" Angela asked and she moved closer to Diablo "What is it?"
As she approached, she soon saw the wing move and she saw a taloned hand and behind it she saw Diablo's face!
Angela screamed in fear, and she dropped her phone.
"MONSTER!" she shrieked.
Diablo jumped up and opened his wings in shock, yet that seemed to frighten Angela more and she started to crawl away.
"Monster! Monster!" she shouted.
Diablo paled as he thought her screams could be heard from outside, so thinking quickly he leapt for Angela and jumped on top of her and clapped his taloned hand over her mouth muffling her screams.
Angela's eyes widened as she was pinned down by the Raven and she continued to try and scream in terror.
"Shhh! Shhh!" Diablo hissed "It's okay! It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you! I promise!"
Angela stopped screaming but she didn't stop trying to get away from Diablo.
She remembered that night when hat man tried to rob her, and she had seen what she believed was a large black bird and now here was a large black bird!
She blinked and shook her head there was no denying that what she saw was what she had seen or rather thought she had hallucinated seeing.
Diablo kept his hand over Angela's mouth.
"It's alright, I promise…. I going to take my hand away from your mouth and you're not going to scream, alright?"
Angela nodded with a muffled yes and Diablo took his hand away from her mouth yet didn't get off her.
"Easy does it…" Diablo said yet he almost jumped out of his skin when Angela screamed again.
Diablo grabbed Angela's shoulders and shook her.
"Shut up! Shut up!" he barked "Pull yourself together!"
Angela stopped screaming but she stared at Diablo in horror.
"It's a giant Crow!" she closed her eyes and banged her head on the ground "Wake up Angie! Wake up!"
"Crow?" Diablo frowned "I'm a raven actually!"
But Angela didn't hear him as she kept banging her head on the ground.
"I'm having a nightmare! Wake up! Wake the fuck up!"
Diablo groaned and shook his head before pulling Angela up.
"Quit that! You'll give yourself brain damage!" he said.
Angela gasped and blinked.
"You can talk?" she asked.
"Of course, I can talk!" Diablo replied.
"A giant talking crow!" Angela cried.
"Raven!" Diablo corrected "I'm a Raven!"
"And I'm talking to it!" Angela muttered.
"I'm not an it!" Diablo growled "I'm a he! And the name's Diablo!"
Angela opened her mouth and closed it again like a fish.
She was lost for words, she had spent hours trying to convince herself that what she had seen the other night wasn't real and she had imagined it, but now, she was face to face with what she had seen that night, or at least what she had believed she had seen, and it was just so overwhelming to believe.
"Are you alright?"
She was snapped back to the real world as she looked back at Diablo, yet she didn't answer him.
"Are you deaf?" Diablo asked impatiently, "I asked, are you alright?"
Angela shook her head again and she started to laugh.
Diablo frowned.
"Oh my god…." She managed "This is just…. OMG!" she laughed harder, and Diablo loosened his grip on Angela feeling uneasy at her hysterical laugher.
"I've gone crazy!" Angela choked "I've gone totally cuckoo! Like why wouldn't I be looking at a giant bird and thinking I wasn't mad?"
She looked at Diablo and pinched her hand.
"I'm not dreaming, I can't be dreaming as I'm not waking up in my room, so I suppose I should just go along with what's going on…." She looked at Diablo and with a large insane grin on her face she waved "Hi there!"
"Hello?" Diablo replied confused "How are you, Angela?" he asked without thinking.
"And you know my name?" Angela asked to which Diablo cursed within.
"You've been stalking me!" Angela shrieked "Stalking….me!"
The shock was just too much, and she passed out on the ground.
"Damn!" Diablo groaned as he looked at Angela on the ground.
He knew that she would have reacted the same way as she did the other night, but he didn't want to leave her in that state.
He sat next to her and rested her head on his lap, so she was comfortable.
"I'll stay with you until you wake up." He said, "And when you do, hopefully we can have a calmer conversation, I hope." He added the last part under his breath.
So Diablo and Angela have met, though it was a rather drama filled meeting.
What will happen after Angela wakes up? Well you'll have to wait and see!
Btw, what Angela spoke about seeing the world, it's what I dream about if given the time, but I hope to achieve all that before I die! It's always great to have ambitions, or a bucket list!
See you next chapter!