Heaven

chapter 34: Saint Agatha's

Twilight found the dusk and they danced.

Cookie had carried Aunt May to her room before he tucked Sina in and told him to sleep. But Sina couldn't. Eleven pm quickly became midnight and painted everything black.

Sina lay next to his friend and watched him breathe. Without the dramatic eye makeup, bright lipstick, and garish outfit, Sina thought that Cookie looked lovely. Masculine and feminine features blurred. High cheekbones, lush lips, eyes that dug into the marrow of your very being.

"You belong someplace where fairy tales come true," Sins's voice ghosted across the room. "Not here where everything good turns to dust. And that goes for puddin' brains, too. You two don't deserve this. You're both good people."

A deep sigh furled in Sina's core as the reminder of Cook's words found him and echoed, "Go to him tomorrow. Tell him. If this is how you really feel, then I think he needs to know."

Knowing he would not be able to wait – nor sleep – Sina silently slid out of Cookie's bed. He tossed on his now-dry clothes, scribbled a note to his friend, and crept out of the tiny home.

Heaven was desolate. The low buildings arched over Sina and judged him as he hurried towards Saint Agatha's. The sparse streetlamps sputtered and spat out mouthfuls of pitiful light that were barely able to cast a glow on the pavement below.

On the sidewalk, someone had written a poem in chalk. Sina walked slowly over to read it. "In the presence of devils and angels, sanity bows out. Some say we are pleasantly damned. But what we are is madmen all the same. We reside in this dark paradise. And we are so perfect and so poisonous." Sina's brows jerked up. "That's some dark stuff. Who even writes that sort of shit? Whatever, they must have a drinking problem of one heck of a dark mind."

A lone breeze wrapped itself around him and softly howled. A chill gnawed at his bones. He thought that if he was living in some horror tale, this would be the part where things of nightmares came out to eat his brains.

"Why do I feel like I'm a character in a really bad book? I mean, it's like someone's writing all this tragedy solely to make me suffer." Sina balled his hand and shook a fist. "I demand a happy ending, you joy-sucking vampire!" With a grunt, he opened his fingers wide. "OK. No more spooky shit and negative thoughts." He cupped his hands over his ears briefly. "Got to keep walking."

The breeze vanished. There was a silence in the air now caressing him. But all he felt were Caleb's words against his skin. "I know what you are. A demon. Not human. Not man."

Sina winced. The words were a spear piercing him. "How? How the hell do you know, Cal?"

"I know because of what I am. And what I am is someone who could harm you."

Above, the sky rumbled but shed no rain. Sina allowed the thunder to touch him and electrify him. "You did harm me, Caleb. You broke my heart. What sort of pain could be worse than that?"

Sina stopped and looked down at his hands – at the spot he had accidentally cut. He remembered the blood. Blood that had gushed from his wound and dripped onto the floor.

The vision of Cal falling to his knees played like a movie. "This is my alter. I am shattering inside."

"You're not a vampire. I would have sensed it. Vampires smell like copper and soot; like sex and candy." Sina quickened his steps. On the horizon, a flash of light struck the sky.

"I want you out of here. Go before it's too late."

"No," Sina whispered as the church came into view. "I will not go. I will not leave you. I don't know what you are nor why you don't want me, but I'm going to find out if it kills me."

Saint Agtha's stood before him. The stairs of the church looked unwelcoming. The sky had swallowed the moon and left him in darkness. The sole flicker of light came from beyond the windows – from the candles lit by whoever was inside.

"Caleb," Sina whispered into the wind. He stopped on the dry, patchy grass. Below him, the dandelions looked up in admiration. But he hadn't noticed them. All he saw was the shadow of the preacher floating ethereal before the flames.

He looked to the steps. There weren't many but they may as well have been a mountain. "I can do this."

In the distance, a clock chimed three. Daylight was still worlds away. Sina placed a sneaker-wearing foot on the first step. He paused and looked at the cross hanging above him.

"I was never here." His voice was a hushed blend of fear and awe. "Look away, JC. Please. This is beyond your jurisdiction." Taking hold of the banister, Sina took another step, then another until he was standing by the door.

"Has my existence become a cemetery where hope goes to die? No...no. I can do this," Sina's voice trembled. He could not recall a time in the past when his voice shook. Glancing at his hands, he saw they were shaking too. "You're kidding me, right?"

Before he could stop the trembling, he felt a vile wind come and suck all the air out of his lungs. "I can't breath." Falling to his knees, Sina gasped. He clawed at his throat. "Stop!" His words fell on the ground and shattered into desperate syllables. "I'm. Not. Causing. Any. Harm." Arching back, his gaze caught the hanging Jesus' and for an instant, he felt as though the world had stopped turning. Even the stars above stopped moving. In a blink, constellations began to rotate again and he stopped feeling like he was suffocating. Sina pulled in a mouthful of air and began to breathe again.

Pawing at the side of the church, he made his way up.

Before him, the door knob shone in the limited moonlight. As silence surveyed the surroundings, a flash of light tore open a sliver of the sky and lightning fell all around. Blazes of light slammed to the ground near the forest and sliced trees in two. Sina raised his hand, closed his eyes briefly, and whispered, "I'm not leaving without him knowing that I'd die for him." Turning the handle, Sina opened the door and entered the church.

* Fun Fact: The poem Sina finds on the sidewalk is one that one of my characters had written in a story called Salvatoria (which is no longer on Wattpad).