The Impact (Book II)

A Taste of Heaven

Driving wasn't my favorite thing but with the way the area has changed over the last two thousand years, it would be too troublesome to walk. So, Will helped me learn how to drive back in the 1950s when he bought our first car. Zach crashed it seven months later after he took it out without his father's permission.

We lived in the same area, just a few miles from the portal to Hell, still surrounded by forest. Our house was located on a dirt road that led out to a paved main road. About ten minutes driving on the road, aptly named Thrush Street, would lead into the town of Whitewood. Given how small it used to be, its population was triple what it had been in the past. The children always bemoaned staying in the same place for all these years, begging us to decide to move, but I didn't dare stray far from the portal.

I pulled into the elementary school and stopped in front of the building. I looked at Keith in the rearview mirror and smiled. "Have a good day at school. Emily will pick you up at the end of the day."

He nodded and sulked out of the car. I frowned. Keith hated school. While he wasn't necessarily bullied, no one had attempted to befriend him. The humans seemed to sense something was off about him. As a result, he spent most of his time alone. In contrast, Emily and Zach had a bounty of friends. Cole was much more reserved and had maybe two or three friends.

When he entered the building, I drove to work. The bakery where I worked was called "A Taste of Heaven." I worked at the counter, getting the baked goods for customers rather than make them. Something told me I'd be too tempted to eat them than sell them.

The door pinged as I entered. Just one customer was present eating a croissant. I ducked under the counter to punch in and get my apron. The apron was white with the logo, a smiling cupcake with angel wings and a halo, and the name printed on it. I adjusted my name tag and went back to the front to begin my six-hour shift.

Some teenagers running late to school came in wanting some rolls. I handed their order to them with a polite nod, thanking them for their service, and to come again. For most of the day, busybody wives breezed in with their toddlers tucked on their hip. One particularly scatterbrained woman even handed me her drooling baby so she could fish money out of her purse. I held the baby far from me, struggling to keep my nose from wrinkling when I smelled its soiled diaper.

I sat on the curb out back during my lunch break, munching on a roast beef sandwich with a bottle of root beer beside me. The sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze to help stave the late spring heat. A fat bumblebee flew lazily by carrying pollen in its pouches.

It took centuries for me to adjust to the blinding light of the Human World. For about four hundred years, we had to have dark curtains to keep the sun from entering the house while I built up my eyes' strength. The sun still bothered me, but I no longer risked becoming blind. In fact, I could sleep in the sun now.

I took a sip from the root beer and wiped the crumbs from my mouth. Standing up, I wiped the dust from the back of my capris.

"This is quite the sight. Melanie working? What would Tavor say?" A flanging, gravelly voice said from behind me.

I froze and turned around.

My older brother, Zane, leaned casually against the brick wall with his hands in his pockets and a wicked smirk on his face. His once black hair was now streaked with white. His eyes were still gold, the only thing about him unchanged. Heavily muscled and littered with more scars than I remembered. He wore what looked to be leather pants, a white shirt, and a long black coat with the sleeves rolled up. Crow's feet lined the corners of his eyes, though he wasn't much older than Will; if he were human, he would have been in his late thirties.