Fear

Chapter 35

 Chapter Thirty-Five

  I didn’t slow down until we while out into the middle of nowhere under the night sky. Aiden hadn’t taken his eyes away from the window since he got into the truck. I had felt the wound on my shoulder stop bleeding and the blood was starting to dry up and stick against my skin. “What are you looking at?” I asked looking over to Aiden.

“Everything.” He said and finally peeled his eyes away from the clear glass. “There’s a lot to take in.” for a moment I stared at his bright green eyes and almost swerved into the other lane.

“I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that you’re actually sitting beside me.” I said trying to pay attention to the road.

“Yeah I can’t believe it either.” He said. “Stop the truck you’re going to drive off the road.” He said noticing my lack of concentration. I pulled the tires to a stop in the middle of a bridge. A small creek ran swiftly underneath the concrete supports. A light breeze made the trees leaves sway side to side and I could hear the sound of whispering through the rustling as I pushed myself onto the hood on the truck.

“Look stars.” I said and pointed to the sky as Aiden came and wrapped his arm around me.

“I thought they’d be brighter.” Aiden said staring up into the sky with me. “I bet I could name more of the constellations then you.”

“Try me.” I challenged smiling and leaning my head onto his shoulder.

“Ursa major, Pegasus and Orgin.” He pointed to three different clusters of stars that hung above our heads. I busted out laughing when he finished and he took his arm away from me and crossed his arms. “What’s so funny?” He asked in a sarcastic angry voice.

“The last one behind you is the big dipper, Orgin is right I front of you.” I said and he started to laugh with me.

“Well I’ve been stuck in a damp dark room for seven years; I have the right to be rusty.” He stated.

“Seven years, so right now you’re almost twenty one.” I said. “You missed all of your teen years.”

“I was in a time loop, I aged slower then I should have.” Aiden explained. “I’m still only fifteen.”

“Thank god I thought I fell for someone who was old.” I joked. His eyes sparked with hope lighting up like a firework.

“Even after earlier would that have been that bad?” He asked referencing the kiss in the room.

“No I guess not.” I said and lifted my head up closing my eyes and breathing in the fresh air that surrounded the creek. We gazed up at the stars for what seemed and endless amount of time. I shut out all my fears and worries and embraced the silence. Frogs had started to sing by the time anything worth overthinking happened.

 “Are going to thank me for saving you.” I turned to see Kelly walking up from behind me.

“What do you mean saving me, you didn’t do anything?” I said and felt Aiden push himself off the hood to stand in front of Kelly.

“You think it was magic that made sure you didn’t shatter into pieces when you decided to jump out of a two story building window?” Kelly pointed out.

“You were going to jump out of a window?” Aiden asked worriedly and seized up. I gave him a weak smile and he just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“It’s all over now, so nothing to get worked up about.” I said, Aiden dropped his tension and nodded.

“You’re both wrong.” Kelly put in. “Pain isn’t done with you two and their leader Santo is going to make his small army of Fearfuls unleash out as much misery on the world around us as they can handle.”

“Wait he has an army I thought he only controlled one?” I questioned.

“It takes more than one of those suckers to make a real major hurricane and tornado at the same time.” It finally became clear to me how dangerous the Fearfuls were. If only a hand full of them could cause that much disruption, I couldn’t imagine what every single one would try to do.

“Well we’ll have to do something about it.” Aiden said and held his gaze on Kelly, his eyes hungry for answers. “But I have to ask why now, they’ve had hundreds of others years to pull off something like this.”

“As Jenna already knows seven members of Pain are just people without souls.” Kelly informed. “Their souls have been replaced with the souls of Pain, but people die and every few years Santo the only remaining full member of Pain has to find hosts for his family. The hosts are still the same people just with a different soul; Santo will never really get to see the real seven again so he picks real people with personalities closest to the originals to hold his precious souls.”

“What happened to the other seven, I mean why they are only souls?” I questioned cutting him off.

“When God’s archangels came down to put Pain in their place they destroyed most of them.” Kelly told us in a low quiet voice. “Santo collected their souls and ran right before they caught him. He found a way to place the souls into humans and remove their souls, but this is the first time he has ever found a host for each and every one of them.”

“But the hosts still can think for themselves and they can act on their own feelings can’t they.” I started to think about Zero and how he risked himself to help me.

“Not they can’t, they barely remember being human once they’ve lost there souls.” The angel gave me a weird look asking where I could have got that theory. I didn’t pay attention to his odd glares and wondered why Zero had the qualities Kelly had pointed out to be impossible for him to have.  “You have to stay on you guard, because they can shoot back at any time and when they do just call.” Kelly winked as spread his hidden wings and hovered in the air just above our heads.

“You’ll be first one our angel hotline.” Aiden called as Kelsiphone began to disappear into the stars.  “Guess this isn’t the ending I dreamed of.”

“We’ve only meet part of Pain’s dream team any way.” I answered. “And I’m dying to meet the rest.”

“I’m not.” He said answered my sarcastic side comment. He took my hand and pulled me off the truck till he could wrap his arms loosely around me. “And they can wait one night.” He leaned down and pressed his cool lips to mine again. I leaned in and held on to the peaceful moment. He lifted his head away from mine and I placed my head in his shoulder counting the amount of deep breath his took in. I wished I could have stayed on that bridge in his arms listening to the soft hums of the crickets forever. But I knew that we had only survived the twister, we hadn’t even stepped out into Oz yet.