An Angel Among Us

Chapter 4: Down Boy! Sit!

 The next day, I am bored in my mind. Because my mother grounded me for a week, I have nothing to do. She took away my computer and TV privileges so that option is nonexistent. And I've read every book in the house so I can't do that. My Mom is currently at the school doing some last-minute things before she takes her vacation from school. You're probably wondering where my Dad is.

My Mom told me he left because they fell out of love and weren't right for each other. But between you and me, I think he left because he couldn't handle being a Dad. I wasn't an easy kid to deal with growing up and most of the time I drove my Dad and Mom crazy. It was harder on my Dad because he wasn't much of a kid. He left the day after my 10th birthday because I put blue dye in my Dad's shampoo. Mom says it's not my fault and that it was bound to happen someday, but I don't believe her.

Anyway, I am sitting on the couch, flipping through one of my Mom's magazines when I hear a scuffling sound. I look up from the magazine and inspect the living room. The television is across from me up against the wall and between me and the TV is a clear coffee table. The kitchen and living room are combined with no walls.

The only way you could tell where the living room ended was the carpet and tile on the floor. The room is completely empty except for me. I am about to go back to looking at the magazine when I hear a crash from behind me. I hop off the couch and look towards the noise and am shocked by what I see.

Standing right behind the couch is a gigantic beast with black fur and sharp teeth the size of my arm. It looks like a monstrous wolf except for the flames that lick its fur and don't seem to harm it. The monster is taller than me and it's back raked the ceiling slightly causing it to catch fire. Its breath smells like smoke and death which caused my skin to crawl. My whole body is frozen in shock and fear. It isn't until the beast edges forward a little that my adrenaline kicks in.

I quickly run towards the door nearby but before I can get close, a ball of fire shoots over my head and crashes into the door, causing it to go up in flames. I hit the brakes; quickly keeping myself from going headfirst into the flaming door. I turn around and spot the monster a foot away from me. It is growling. Its maw fills with fire. In a flash, I leap out of the way as another orb of fireflies inches away from my skin, causing all the hairs on my arm to burn off. That moment, I realize that the smell of burnt animals and humans are the same!

I land on my stomach in front of the couch, the air knocking out of me. I hurriedly crawl out of the way as the couch burns to ash. By then I am in the corner of the room with my back to the wall. I am stuck between a gigantic fire breathing monster and a hard place with nowhere to go. The monster edges forward slowly. The heat radiating off of it was so hot I am having trouble breathing.

"Back away, puppy. Down boy!" I say nervously, but on the inside, I am trying not to scream. All of a sudden, the monster leaps forward, aiming to kill. A weird feeling hits me and my adrenaline starts pumping. I kick off the ground and leap 10 feet into the air, doing flip mid-air, and land on a table across the room. The hellhound crashes headfirst into the wall causing it to become dizzy. It starts sniffing the air around it searching for me. The monster eventually catches my scent and turns to face me, growling and baring its teeth at me, drooling fire droplets onto the floor. The floor starts steaming as the fire melts through the floor.

"Pretty smile you have there," I say sarcastically. I can't help but think that's probably not a smart thing to say, because I was about to be killed by a fire-breathing monster.

My first instinct is to find a weapon. I run over to the fireplace nearby and grab the fireplace poker. It is a short, rigid metal rod that people use to move logs in a fireplace. I hold it in my hands like a sword and quickly jab it forward at the monster's eye. It growls in pain as black blood drips from the wound onto the floor.

It blows a bigger flame at me and I quickly dodge it and stab it in the left hind leg, causing more blood to splash onto the carpet. Everywhere the blood splashes cause it to burn and sizzle. I take the poker's hook and stab it into the monster's throat, causing blood droplets to splatter onto my arms, burning on contact. I yank out the poker and the beast explodes into ebony ashes that cover the floor.

As the monster disappears, my knees start to shake and I feel like my adrenaline has completely melted from my body. I feel like I had the after-effects of a sugar high without the candy. My mind is slowly starting to catch up with my body as I realize what had just occurred. A fire-breathing monster was in my house. I killed it with a poker. I killed a monster with a poker. No matter how many times I say it to myself, it still sounds insane. The last time I saw something like that was in Hollywood movies.

I stand there for what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes before something happened. The window shatters as a person jumps through it and lands crouched in front of it. I stare, shocked, as the person stands up straight. It is Jayden. His hair has a messy, windblown look to it and he is wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with Sketchers tennis shoes.

His wings aren't there this time, so does that mean he can hide them at will? I am completely shocked and agitated from everything that happened so far. And I have tons of questions flowing through my brain yet I can only think of one thing to say.

"You know you're going to have to pay for that window right," I blurt out.

He looks at the window with a false surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about. The window was broken before I got here." Before I could respond to that, he quickly spoke. "So what exactly happened here?"

I shake my head in annoyance before going into a quick explanation of what occurred. I tell him about the fire-breathing monster that suddenly appeared in my living room and attacked me. I tell him about how I did a front-flip over it and fought it off with the poker and how it turned to dust when I killed it. When I finish my story, he doesn't seem surprised.

"Hellhounds can be very dangerous. I'm surprised that you survived without any proper training," he says, a little impressed.

"Hellhound?" I repeat, confused.

"It's a mythical watchdog of hell. They are mostly hunters that get sent to track people and kill them quickly without being seen by mortals. They're not the strongest monsters in the world but they tend to get the job done. Yeah, it's kind of brutal," he explains.

I want to tell him that he was crazy and that there are no such things like hellhounds but I can't get the words out. I had just fought a fire-breathing dog monster and met a boy with angel wings. I didn't know what to believe anymore. My normal life is gradually being erased and overshadowed by something else.

"Who sent it? And why would they want to kill me?" I ask.

"It's hard to explain. There is a lot I need to tell you but here is not the place. Will you please come with me? I promise I will tell you everything that you need to know when we get there," he says seriously.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"I told you before. We need to go to the angel city. You'll be safer there and I can tell you everything you need to know," he says.

"Where's the Angel city?" I inquire.

"It's above the Pacific Ocean," he answers, smirking. Looking at what just happened, I am curious to get answers and end all these mysteries about me and my originality, and if it means leaving what I am used to and the people I loved, then I have to so that I can clear all conflicting doubts from my mind.