Unkillable (Monsters Series #1) (Wattys2014)

Chapter 16: Dreams

I was walking along a white, sandy beach with waves crashing against my bare feet. The water was thick and opaque liquid black, like after an oil spill. I felt uneasy by the black water; I saw something peculiar about it.

There were clear blue spots in the water, revealing its cleanliness. I picked up a large rock and threw it into the water. The water became as blue as the sky on this clear day.

I hated the blue.

I turned around and saw a large mountain of black rock. I climbed it. When I reached the top, I looked over the edge of the opening. I saw down there a bubbling mass of magma. I smiled down at it.

“Finally!” I whispered to myself, opening my arms wide as if to embrace someone.

I leaned over the edge of the erupting volcano and willingly fell into the mass of magma.

~

Before I knew it, I was in a waiting room with toys all over the floor and on all the tables and unoccupied chairs. Beth was in the corner, drawing in her sketchbook. I had an agonizing feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched an all-too-familiar looking little girl and her posse go over to Beth's table.

"Look girls!" The little girl I recognized as my mother sneered, "its batgirl!"

Beth flinched in agony.

"What're you doing, batgirl?" Her friend sneered.

"D-d-drawing." Beth whimpered, obviously scared.

I would have been too.

"Drawing what?" Another one squeaked, snatching away the sketch.

The posse gasped.

"That," the leader said, "is disgusting."

She dropped the sketch on the table as if it was covered in grease. I could finally get a view of the sketch.

It was a picture of me and my Angel, kissing at the altar.

"How so?" Beth asked more confidently.

"How so?" The girl asked, "How so?!?! This is...unnatural!"

"How so?" Beth repeated.

The little girl gave Beth a familiar expression, an expression the grown up her would give me many times in my life, of pure fury.

"If I were you," she continued, "I'd get over this obsession with...monsters."

"They aren't the monsters here." Beth replied sassily, "You are!"

Then, the posse formed a circle around her. The leader leaned on the table in front of her as if she was interrogating Beth.

"At least I'm not a retard." The leader said, smiling, "C'mon, let's go."

The posse left the room. Beth's unseeing eyes spilled out salty, silent tears. A familiar looking man entered the orphanage hall.

It was my Angel. He was in black jeans and a tee shirt under a trench coat, wearing a maroon amulet with a gold chain and an ornate gold frame. His ebony hair that matched his eyes was slicked back with his usual hair gel.

Suddenly, Angel saw Beth a crossed the crowded room in the corner, crying silently. He walked toward the table, and he pulled up a chair next to her. Angel put his arm around the crying Beth, stroking her long, platinum blonde hair.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Angel whispered soothingly, "Bad day?"

Beth was silent for a few moments, trying to decide whether or not the voice was a figment of her imagination.

"Is it really you?" Beth asked in awe, "Are you Angel?"

"Yes." Angel answered, "How did you know?"

Beth flipped through her sketchbook, feeling every page for indents and folded edges. She finally found the page she was looking for after a few moments of flipping.

"This is you, is it not?" Beth asked, holding up the sketch of Angel in uniform.

"Yes, it is." Angel replied, awestruck, "This in the most wonderful piece of artwork I have ever seen. Have you taken any art classes?"

"No, sir."

"Remarkable!" Angel exclaimed, "You know what? When I'm your father, you will have an easel, a paint set, and you will have an entire room dedicated just for your art."

"You mean...you want to adopt me?"

"Of course I do."