The Basil Children

Chapter Four

Tess lept out the window, Paris followed her with a graceful backflip, while James cautiously crawled out of the window alongside them.

Their feet met the dewy grass, their sneakers picking up the wet blades. Tess stretched her hand out to Paris as they jogged across the lawn, and she took it. James hopped behind them awkwardly, questioning his purpose about being there at all.

The three angels reached the spot where Winston, Delilah, and Candace were waiting. Candace was leaning against a wall, nonchalantly picking at her cuticles, while Winston and Delilah waited patiently.

Tess stopped in front of them, sighing.

"Alright enough of this sitting around. We've got just one more angel to find." She uttered snidely. Candace stood up and dusted herself off.

"How much more of this running around are we going to have to do?" Candace asked, annoyed.

"Oh," Tess smirked. "Lots more."

----

The group stopped to catch their breath. Delilah stood with her mouth open. They gazed over a deep valley, blanketed with trees. Right smack in the middle of the valley there was a great blue lake, teeming with all kinds of life and glittering in the early morning sunrise. It was gorgeous.

Winston paused his staring at the scenery. He shifted his view to the blonde beside him, who was grasping his hand for dear life. She seemed frightened by the whole thing. Angels and whatnot.

Tess began to stride down the dip of the valley, her heavy combat boots leaving imprints in the fresh grass and pine needles. The others followed cautiously after her. When the dark-skinned angel stopped at the rock speckled shore of the lake, the others stopped too, looking around them at the thick wall of trees.

Tess had been staring at a rustic log cabin across the water. As she began to walk along the beach, the five other Children marched after, their sneakers collecting stony sand when they walked.

James bent down, picked up a huge handful of dust, and looked at Candace's back menacingly. A stretch of an arm later, Candace was yelling at him. But James had won the attention of her, and that was all that mattered.

"Could you quit with the flirting?" Tess hollered.

James continued to snicker as Candace walked away, fuming and brushing dust off of her shoulderblades.

Paris sighed at them and continued down the shore, kicking pebbles. Winston and Delilah hung back, simply talking and skipping stones across the seeley lake.

When Tess stopped again at the cabin porch, Paris nearly ran into her back. Delilah giggled at her as she stumbled, and Paris whipped around to glare at her.

Sighing, Tess raised her hand and knocked on the door three times. An old, balding man with thick, horn-rimmed glasses opened it.

"Who the hell are you?" He spoke raspily.

"Nobody of importance." Tess replied. "Is Art there? We'd like to speak to him."

The man turned his back and screamed into the cabin, "ART!"

Tess was met by a familiar plump faced boy coming out the door, shutting the old man in. Art looked exactly the same as he did back in the alleyway, when he had escaped his recruitment after getting in that cab.

"What do you want?" Art asked, exasperated.

"Listen. And really listen." Tess said. "We are all fallen angels. We need you to help us save the human race. I can't tell you exactly in detail here, but if you come with us, I can explain."

"Why should I come with you?" Art asked rudely.

Paris spoke up from behind Tess's shoulder. "Just trust us, please."

Art sighed. "Fine. What is it I need to do?"

Tess grimaced at the angel in front of her. "You need to come with us." She whipped around and lead the angels away. Art rolled his eyes, but curiosity got the best of him, and he followed.

A strawberry blonde haired kid stepped toward him, slapped Art's bony shoulder, and smiled. "I'm James, and we're about to run like the Flash." James seized Art's arm and they sped away in a chain of angels.

---

Tess stopped again, after the world seemed to dissolve, and then reform around the angels. Paris gaped at the cramped alley wall she had stopped in front of. As the other angels caught up to her, they ran into each other's backs with the sudden halt.

The wall was covered in a thick layer of rust and mold, and the bricks were crumbling apart. Both Winston and Delilah were expecting Tess to tap the brick wall, and have it open to Diagon Alley. Instead, Tess simply walked into the wall. The bricks shimmered and Tess's back disappeared. Delilah and Winston shared a look, preparing each other to see platform nine and three-quarters beyond that wall. The others simply stood there with their mouths open. Tess's head broke through the ripples of brick and she said, "Are you kidding me? Come on, get in here!"

Paris looked at Delilah and shrugged. "Might as well."

One minute she was in front of them, the next she wasn't. Paris had gone through the wall.
Winston and Delilah followed.

"I am NOT going in there," Candace whined.

James and Art seemed to agree with her. Tess, knowing this would happen, gave them all looks, hoping a little mind connection would convince them. As if in a trance, they followed Tess's head one by one into the wall.

The environment spun and changed around them, and the angels landed in a foyer, facing several corridors. Any sign of the crumbling brick wall had vanished. The angels were rooted to their spots in bewilderment.

Tess just smirked, "The guys upstairs maintain a spell, hiding us from any questioning."

Everyone gawked at their surroundings in response.

"Any questions?" She asked sarcastically.

When nobody answered, Tess sighed and began to answer the question she figured would come up eventually, knowing her past.

"You guys know I'm gay, right?"

That broke the others out of their trance.

Paris looked at her with a wink. Delilah shrugged and continued looking around the foyer. Winston shrugged too, giving Tess a thumbs up. James chuckled and nodded, saying, "Nice." Candace just nodded, as did Art.

"Thank god you guys are cool with that. I know the folks upstairs are."

Paris winked at Tess again.