Her heart pounded in her head and her blood rushed through her ears drowning out all noise. She was still on the floor, her body ached and was bloody with the memory of Jacob's attack. No, Apollo's attack.
Morpheus' final words flitted around her mind, don't eat the valerian root.
How was he giving it to her? It would have to be something consistent, valerian root had an awful taste if she remembered correctly her brief talks with human apothecaries centuries ago. He would have to have been masking the taste somehow. How?
She could only hope that Morpheus found her before she succumbed to the Valerian Root again.
Her whole body ached as she attempted to move, her celestial healing had obviously not done much to help. She wondered if it was a consequence of loosing her wings that -what she assumed to be - hours after her attack, she was still bruised and bloody and felt as though she has been hit by a truck. It was not a good feeling to say the least. No, that was too painful a thought to dwell on.
Her memories were still foggy and she couldn't quite remember everything. Some things were still being kept at bay by some invisible force. The kind being who struck her as familiar had done a lot to return her memories. But whatever spell Apollo had woven through her mind had been too much even for them.
She could hear Apollo moving around downstairs. She was almost afraid to move in case the floor boards creaked. Slowly, she rose into a sitting position. Her hair fluttered into her face, breaking away from where it and been stuck to her head. Her platinum hair was stained a pinkish colour from the blood that she knew would take a few washes to remove. How was she meant to keep pretending to live her life knowing that this evil, insane fallen angel had tampered with her memories? How was she meant to treat him as she normally would?
He was humming, the sound had drifted upstairs to her ears. It was too painful to move, but she knew that she needed to. Clutching onto the bed pole she dragged her body into a standing position, wincing as something cracked as she stood. She definitely had a few broken ribs.
Now that she was aware of who she was, now that the block on her memories had been removed; she could feel the phantom feeling of feathers brushing her back, it tickled and brought a tear to her eye. She almost attempted to expand her wings before the sickening remembrance that there was nothing there to extend hit her. She would have to savour the phantom feeling, knowing that she would never feel the actual feathers ever again. It was heart breaking.
Gathering her confidence and holding her breath, she lowly inched towards the door. Each step she took sent panic coursing through her veins. She grabbed hold of the handle, the cold metal sending a jolt through her. She attempted to open the door. It wouldn't move. It was locked. She cursed under her breath and then paused, hoping that Apollo hadn't heard despite the distance between them. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how to escape.
The stairs began to creak. He was coming up.
She could hear rattling as he was walking, like he was carrying something. The lock in the door began to shake. The door swung open. He was stood on the other side, a tray of tea held in his hands and a hesitant smile on face.
"Hey, darling. You feeling okay? You went a bit crazy before." He said slowly as if she was a wild animal. His eyes kept glancing to her hands, as if he was expecting her to hit him. "I'm just gonna put this down over here. I've called Dr. Lohan. She's gonna do a house call to address your behaviour." He set the tray down on a side table and slowly moved back towards the door, he never once turned away from her.
"My behaviour?" She hissed. He was the one that hit her.
"Yes, your behaviour. You went all crazy on me, I had a concussion from where you hit me. Friends don't hit each other, Stray." She was confused, he hit her, he beat her, she had practically died. She scoffed.
"You see, this is the behaviour Dr. Lohan is going to address." He moved out of the room, "Don't forget to drink your tea." He left, shutting the door behind him and locking it.
Astraea collapsed back to the floor. She was in so much pain and she was so confused. Why couldn't Morpheus have told her more? Why was she here? Why was Apollo acting like she abused him?
She glared at the tray of tea he had left. She picked herself back up after a minute and went to see what he had brought her. It was her tea, prescribed by Dr. Lohan. She took a sip of the tea and let the familiar taste sooth her. Familiar. It was the only consistent thing she ate or drank. The tea. It would be such an easy way to get her to take the Valerian. She would never question anything prescribed. Setting the cup back on the tray, she hoped she hadn't ingested enough for it to have too much of an affect on her.
It was ten minutes later that she heard voiced downstairs again.
"Thanks for coming, Doc. I don't know what happened. She'd come home late and when I asked where she'd been she completely flipped. She hit me over the head with an umbrella. I locked her in the bedroom upstairs. I know I shouldn't have, but I was scared and didn't know what else to do."
"We see this in trauma cases quite often, Jacob. I hope you don't mind, I brought Dr. Martin with me. You never know the response that these patients can have, safety in numbers, I'm sure you understand." She heard Linda say a quick hello to Jacob.
"I completely understand, Dr. Lohan. I went up about half an hour ago, she's a bit bashed up, she destroyed the room when I locked her in. I left the tea you prescribed with her." There was a moment of silence before she could hear Jacob coming up the stairs.
The lock rattled again as he unlocked the door and it opened, "You ready to come out now?" She sighed, she should probably play along with Apollo's game until Morpheus was able to come and get her.
She didn't say anything, she just left the room and descended the stairs, seeing Dr. Lohan and Linda on the couch.
"We heard about your outburst, Astraea. Tell us about it."
"Can someone please tell me why a little angel was just in hell?" Lucifer's voice cut through the tension between the trio.
"Morningstar." Morpheus acknowledged, the memory of their battle fresh in his mind.
"My, My Lord." Crowley dipped down into a half bow, glancing at his angel as he did so. Aziraphale merely stared at the Lord of Hell.
"I don't have time for pleasantries. Why was there an angel in Hell." They hissed, staring at the three like they were dirt on the sole of their shoe.
"Her name's Astraea." Aziraphale hissed back, startling the endless and demon. Crowley attempted to quickly apologise for the angel's disrespect, being stopped by Lucifer.
"I know very well what her name is. The great angel of justice and innocence. I can say that she is neither just nor innocent." Aziraphale stared at the higher angel, "Did you expect me not to know of dear Astraea? We spent much time together in our youths." They went on, their voice was serpentine and sent a pulse of terror though the three others. "I will repeat, why was she in hell?"
The three looked between each other, none wanting to respond to the lord of hell.
"She was kidnapped, a week ago. We suspect by Apollo." Morpheus finally spoke up, "why she was in hell, I have no idea."
Lucifer seemed to deflate at the words, their shoulders sagging as they collapsed into a chair.
"She was injured. Badly. When she came to hell. Has no knowledge of who she was either. She was practically dead. Her body was so cut off from her soul, it was mortal." The silence was only interrupted by a whimper from Aziraphale at the description of his sister's state. Crowley slowly sat the angel down to stop his legs from giving out.
"Whatever I can do to help, it is yours. Astraea was a dear friend to me before the fall." The four looked between each other and slowly moved to the table, planning their rescue of Astraea.
"We heard about your outburst, Astraea. Tell us about it." The words kept fluttering around her head as Apollo and Dr. Lohan discussed the previous nights events. Linda was giving her sympathetic looks from across the room.
"So, Astraea. Why don't you tell us why you hit Jacob?" Dr. Lohan questioned. Astraea blinked, not quite registering the question.
"Uhm. He had me pinned against the wall, I was scared." She muttered, not meaning the psychiatrists eyes.
"That's not what Jacob says, Astraea. So why don't we try again, why did you hit him Astraea?" She could see Linda staring at Dr. Lohan from across the room.
"That's what happened. I went out, came back home and he threatened me to tell him where I was." The words came out a little louder this time, but they were still breathy with panic. Apollo was sat next to her, she could see his hands clenching into his trousers from the corner of her eye.
"Astraea, come now. We just want to help, we can't do that if you don't tell the truth."
"Melody, I don't think-" Linda attempted to interrupt.
"This is my patient, Linda. You are here for safety and that is all." Dr. Lohan cut her off. Dismissing her protest.
"Why don't I make us a cup of tea?" Apollo inquired, "Dr. Lohan, would you like to come and choose what kind?" She agreed quickly and followed him into the kitchen.
Apollo's movement away from her caused her to flinch, her nails digging so hard into her palms that she could feel the warm trickle of blood seep into her clothes. As soon as they were out of the room, Linda sat on the couch opposite her, grabbing her hands out of her lap and wiping away the smears of blood that were there.
"I have no idea what is going on with her. Are you alright? Are you in danger, Astraea?" She whispered, leaning in close to her. In her lap was a notebook and pen, she had clearly been taking notes throughout the session in an attempt to help. Linda saw Astraea's gaze, "is there someone I could call? Would you like to write a number down? Is someone looking for you? Have you been kidnapped? Astraea, I need answers to help."
She motioned for the notebook, quickly scrawling something on the page and handing it back before Apollo and Dr. Lohan came back in with a tray of tea.
"I've made you your prescribed tea, Astraea. I saw you didn't drink it earlier." He handed her a cup, and set the other three on the table, allowing the two psychiatrists to pick up their own.
Astraea panicked, she was convinced the tea was how he was giving her the Valerian. How could she drink it, knowing she could lose herself again? Dr. Lohan was staring at her, motioning for her to drink the tea. She stared down at her cup for a few beats more before hesitantly bringing it to her lips and drinking some. She could feel it sliding down her throat and now that she knew it was there, she could feel it clutch onto her mind like a cage. She could feel her memories becoming locked away again. She focussed on her brother, Crowley and Morpheus. Hoping for her last memories as herself to be of those she cared for.
"I think this is as far as we are going to get for today." Dr. Lohan said, rising from the couch and pulling Linda along with her.
They said their farewells and departed from the house, leaving Astraea alone with Jacob. The name seemed bitter in her mind, but she couldn't attribute a reason why to it.
"A.Z. Fell's book shop, Soho, London. I'm afraid we're not taking calls at the moment. Please leave a message at the tone." The soft voice called through the phone.
"Mr. Fell. I was given your number by a friend. Her name is Astraea, I hope that you know of her, if you could call me back that would be-"
"Astraea? You know where she is?"