Polaris Skies

Chapter 13

Hana sat in a locked utility closet on the first floor where her brother had shoved her. Sleet pattered on the roof of the building two stories above her. Footsteps echoed in the hall, growing louder. A key slipped into the lock on the door, and the hinges creaked as the heavy metal door slipped light into the cave. Michael peered into the closet, his face bruised, gouges running across his left eye and cheek.

Hana sat spinning the chipped wheel on a cracked mop bucket. Furrowing her brows, she refused to meet her brother's eyes.

"Haniel?" He opened the door a little wider. She didn't look at him, but she stopped spinning the wheel, waiting patiently. He slipped into the closet and shut the door, the latch clicking. "Look, Haniel, the Flock has been desperate to have the Seventh Trumpet back. For the sake of the Promised Land, we all need you to support us. The devil has played with your head. I can only thank you for bringing his spawn here so that we can purge them from the Land." When she made no reply to him, Michael pushed through. "Raphael - Raphael is dead, Haniel," he stuttered.

Hana shrugged, her voice cracking, "You told me Elly's gone already."

Michael flinched under her cold scrutiny. "Well, I guess I should explain myself?" he ventured cautiously. Hana regarded him suspiciously. "A messenger from Hell's throne, like that wolf of yours, defiled her. Went and got himself hit by a bus the same night he left her. She bore this abomination. It was dead, and she bled out for her sins."

"There is a definable difference between your concept of 'defiled', rape and murder, brother. Let me attest to that difference as someone who came close to that encounter on more than one occasion since leaving here. At least with murder, you're dead. With rape, you wish you were. Your concept of defiled is so warped and misogynistic. Sins? Are you hearing yourself?" she snapped. "Why didn't she know that her baby was stillborn before going into labour? A c-section would have saved her life."

"We couldn't afford the ultrasound bills. She said she would be fine and she'd give birth in the house so that it wouldn't cost money at the hospital. She went into labour in Central Park. I had been out to get food. I got back to where she had been sitting, and she was gone." He wiped away a burgundy tear.

"Bullshit. You didn't get her the help she needed because of your twisted brain. That man may have committed a vile act, though I'm reserving my judgement from your warped brain cells." Hana spat at her brother. She had left because of his screwed-up cult mentality, and she was not scared to lay into his side about it now that she had put distance between them long enough to see his messed-up ways for herself. "He didn't kill her. Your unwillingness to seek proper medical treatment and your fucking bigoted incompetence contributed to her death." She choked back a sob.

"It wasn't an act of nature, Haniel. Those," Michael steadied himself, trying not to cuss, "those wolves. We aren't meant to mix with others not like us. Mother and Father had designed us to be better, higher than the others."

Hana caught his eye. "Mom and dad fucked us up, and you're going along with their supremacist ways. You know, if they hadn't tangled with the avian DNA and made us into 'angels', we would be normal. Elly probably wouldn't have died. Grow a brain and quit with this messed up cult, Michael. You're poisoning yourself with this type of thinking."

"Come on, we should get you out of here and find you a more comfortable room to stay in," Micheal bit out between clenched teeth. He caught her beneath the arms and pulled her up. Dragging her from the closet, he led her down the hall.

"Why did you bring the Flock back to Ioda, Michael?" Hana dragged her feet.

"Mother and Father always talked of this place being the promised land, far enough away to not be bombed or intervened with by the militia. "I returned to Neo York to collect Raphael when you left. We needed a Seventh Trumpet here, and with you gone, the Flock was losing faith."