Chapter 3 #2
“And supposedly I’m not dead, so that leaves three,” I mutter to myself, hoping that speaking my thoughts aloud will keep them clearer. “I’m most likely asleep. The dreams are getting too lucid, and now I’m having full conversations in them.”
“You’re not asleep, either.”
I narrow my eyes at the angel. “That’s exactly what you’d say if I were asleep.”
“Then count your fingers.”
“What?”
“Just do it. One at a time, out loud. You should have five on each hand.”
This is stupid.
“One, two, three, four, five. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.” I huff in annoyance, as if I hadn’t just failed to count correctly in my head only moments before. “Happy? I don’t know what the hell that has to do with sleeping.”
“Odds are you wouldn’t find ten fingers if you were asleep,” he answers. “They would jumble together. It works better than pinching yourself because you can still feel pain in your dreams.”
Oh. That’s actually a very logical thing to do. I wish I had learned that little trick sooner… Fuck, maybe he is real. Or maybe I’ve slipped into an alternate dimension. I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. “Okay, but I could still be hallucinating—”
“If I’m a figment of your imagination, Dawn, then how could I have just told you something you didn’t already know?”
I curse under my breath. He’s right, as much as I hate to admit it. The only option left is the one I’m least willing to accept. There has to be a trick somewhere. “Then why are you here?”
“I don’t think you’re ready to know.”
Unamused, I flatten my tone and shape a demand: “Tell me, you so-called angel.”
When he responds, his voice is equally straight and serious, but a smirk lies on his lips. “Say please, you so-called human girl—”
“Are all angels so unbearable?”
Malak shrugs, completely unbothered. “You’re actually lucky they sent me. I’m one of the better options.”
“So there are more of you?”
“Already that distracted, darling?” He leans forward, resting his elbow on his knee to stare me in the eyes. “I thought you wanted to know why I’m here?”
Instinctively, I move to back away, though my back is already pressed into the arm of the bench as far as it’ll go.
Malak’s eyes track the movement, too, but his expression shows no remorse.
If anything, he seems to be enjoying my reactions.
Why wouldn’t he? I’m playing his game, and he holds all the cards.
Trying my best to ignore the cold shiver that crawls over my skin, I take a moment to collect myself before speaking again. “Would you please just tell me?”
“Fine, but only since you asked so nicely.” Malak resumes his casual posture, looking off into the distance with an enviable nonchalance.
“If you go to a chapter in the Bible called Revelation 9, there’s a prophecy about a star falling from Heaven that gives someone the key to opening the Abyss, therefore unleashing millions of locusts on the enemies of God during Judgement Day.
For reasons we don’t understand, that star landed on your soul, which makes you the key.
Or, at least, the holder of its power. Oh, and the world is ending, if you didn’t gather that. Sorry. Questions?”
My expression morphs from disbelief to shock to genuine fear. “Like my nightmares.”
“You’ve been having nightmares?” His eyebrows lower slightly, pinching towards each other. “For how long?”
Far too long.
I snatch my feather off the ground and jump up. “I’m going to go to bed. I’m sleep-deprived and extremely unwell right now.”
“Kae,” Malak growls, immediately jumping up to block my path, his gold eyes staring down at me with an intensity that spans centuries. “This is real—”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
As soon as I try to walk around him, he steps to the side, blocking me again.
I scowl up at him, to which he only smirks in return. I wish I could smack that look off his face. I hate it. I hate how pretty he is, how convincing he sounds, how nothing seems to bother him… I’m tired of this insanity.
One of his neatly groomed eyebrows draws upwards. “Do I need to pop my wings out again?”
“Please don’t.”
“How about I perform some more miracles for you? Lightning’s my specialty, but I have many talents.” He has the nerve to fucking wink. “We could even go for a little flight, if you want.”
“I’m not kidding. I need to go to sleep. Desperately.” Possible hallucinations aside, I’m quickly approaching the cliff where I can no longer function enough to drive. If that happens, I’ll have to sneak into an on-call room and crash for however long the nightmares will let me.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that I won’t be giving you any more nightmares, now that I’ve found you. Sorry about that.”
I snap my head toward Malak. “You. Did. What.”
“It wasn’t intentional. An occupational hazard, if you will—”
“You’re telling me that you are the reason I’ve been in a living hell for the past five months?
” I can’t contain my rage, my embittered voice escalating to a shout as I wave my finger at him.
“You are the reason I had to drop out of school the semester I was supposed to finish? Some goddamn piece of shit angel you must be!”
Malak steps backward, holding his hands in front of him, palms facing me. There’s not a trace of his smile anymore. “I can make it up to you.”
“Bullshit! Unless you can turn back time and give me the whole first half of this year back, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to make it up to me! Nothing!”
“Okay, so, nobody can manipulate time like that, but—”
“Then do me a favor and piss off! I am this close to punching you in your pretty little face if I have to look at you for one more moment. And here in the real world, angel boy, that’ll get me locked up!”
“…You think I’m pretty?”
I barely refrain from letting out a wordless scream with all the fury in my lungs. As much as I want to, that may actually send the security guards running.
Instead, I pinch the bridge of my nose, willing myself to calm down.
“I’m going to get my car, drive home, and go to sleep.
Since, apparently, I actually can now! And if you don’t let me pass you right the fuck now, I swear to God, I’ll never do whatever it is you want from me.
I will literally let the whole world end just to spite you. ”
Finally, he allows me to storm past him—but not without a frown and a very patronizing, “Drive safe, Dawn.”
I flip him off over my shoulder. “Maybe if my guardian angel were any less of a piece of shit, I wouldn’t have to worry about it!”
Surprisingly, he leaves me alone, and I get to drive home in a blurry, barely functioning, semi-peaceful daze.