Looking for a place to lie down, even for a few minutes, I stumbled across an alleyway, with nothing but a few large wheelie bins and a cat as its occupants. The cat seemed sound asleep, but once I got closer, it peeked open an eye and left in an instant. Oh well. At least I wasn’t sharing this place with a hobo... not that I had anything against hobos. They just weren’t my thing, I guessed. And those rowdy ones coming back from pubs; at least I was saved from them too, for now anyway. I thought it was little weird though, not having come across one yet. Wasn’t it classic tradition for a young girl on the streets late one night to be harassed, even just a little bit? Not that I wanted to get harassed, I was only comparing to general knowledge.
Shaking my head, I lied down on the cold ground, using my arms as a pillow, and rolling up into a ball. It was no surprise that in a few moments I was falling out of consciousness, my last thoughts of Aaron.
Chapter 23
I awoke to the midday sun shining brightly onto the alleyway, casting it in a weird, eerie sort of light. Even though I was a really light sleeper, for some reason, I had been completely out of it the previous night, since the traffic was in full swing when my ears finally decided to register what was surrounding me. But even before the unnaturally loud environment I was in, of cars honking, exhausts and chatter got to me, I noticed the aching on my sides. Slowly opening my eyes, I was surprised to be met with the face of a rather fat rat staring down at me through large beady eyes, and a mouth wide open.
It only took me a few moments to realise the true horror of my situation, and I let out a large shriek, jumping onto my feet. By the time I looked down again, the rat was gone. Shuddering involuntarily – partly from the cold, and partly from the disgust – I stretched my legs first, and then my arms, cracking my joints. My neck especially felt uncomfortable, even after I had rubbed it with my muddy hand.
Looking around, it finally dawned on me – everything that had happened the day before. Was it possible that it had all happened in only a day? It felt like days, months, years even, for all I had discovered. Ancient feuds of divine creatures, and I was caught in the middle of it, by associations... more like disassociation on this occasion. All my life... all my life I had known that I wasn’t exactly the most normal little kid on the playground, but this whole thing about fallen angels, fallen demons, about me being half an angel, my mother, the twins, Aiden, Aaron, it was mental!
It shook me that I wasn’t human. I was a half angel, some creature out of a fairytale, maybe not even. How could they say that to me when everything I used to do, used to say, used to act like... that had been human, hadn’t it? I was sad so I cried, I was hungry so I asked for an apple or a chocolate or a cherry, I was tired after P.E., so I wanted to just ditch the rest of the day and go home. I got sick, I took a tablet. I needed to get somewhere, so I took the bus. This was normal, human behaviour, so why couldn’t I be human? You hear of these creatures, these imps, these sprites, vampires even! They didn’t function the same way, if they got hungry they didn’t eat apples, if they got tired – if they got tired – they sure as hell didn’t sleep like a human, especially not a vampire. Half the time they didn’t fall asleep, and the other half they turned into bats. Not exactly your average habits.
But the difference was that I did these things, so how could you ask me to dissociate myself from these actions and say that I wasn’t human? I was angel... but the trick was, it was only half. Didn’t that mean that I was getting the best of both worlds? Oh dear, lucky me, how lucky was I, who could say luck wasn’t on my side.
Sighing out in frustration and anger, I brushed off the dirt from my pyjamas, and tried to make some sort of sense with my dishevelled hair. Eh, these were the times that I would just prefer if it was cut like a boy. You know what? I would do that. The next time I went to the hair salon, on a lovely sunny day, I was going to ask them to chop it all off.
YOU ARE READING
Forbidden Enchantment (Book One)
FantasíaA compelling tale about a teenager named Heather and her struggle to fight her inner demons in her quest for self discovery.
