Prophecy: Tome of Skin

18. The Boy with the Broken Wing

Each person seemed to have a different reaction when they saw Angel sitting there, stuffed in the same chair in the brothel while she stared despondently off into space. It had taken a lot of preparation, but Percy finally decided that she was ready, and floated over to where she was just to stare at her, to see the woman who had, in effect, taken her place. At first she had felt pity for her, when she'd heard everything, but as time went on she found that she had less and less compassion to offer, and a whole lot more anger that still needed to find its way out.

"Get over it." She snapped, eyes burning intensely on her.

"Dill told me about you," it took a full minute for Angel to respond, and when she did, she laid her heavy stare on the ghost. It was remarkable how alike she looked to her father. It wasn't in the hair, seeing as she had a platinum blonde color compared to his dark brown-though, she thought, maybe it was dyed because she still had dark eyebrows. And also she had umber eyes instead of his blue ones. Yet in the structure of her jaw, of her cheeks, it was unmistakable, and it made Angel smile a little. "You look like him."

"You didn't know him." Instead of responding directly to that offensive statement, Percy instead chose to continue on with the dialogue she had planned in advance. "You think you did, you think he was a good man, but he wasn't. Because the man that you knew, he was only in it for himself. He used you, don't you get that? You were a tool, a means to an end, nothing more, and the second you would've lost all value he would've tossed you into the fire and watched you burn."

"No, you're wrong. What a hard life you must've had, born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Trust me, you could never have been where I've been, and I know what a bad man looks like."

"You didn't know him! And you don't know me, don't pretend like you have it all figured out. What was such a hard life for you, huh? Maybe you were poor, maybe your parents were drug dealers who cared more about their fix than they cared about you, I don't know. But I would've taken that instead. I would've taken anything instead of my dad, because the things he did to me, the things he made me do, well, they're worse than anything else you'll find in this world, believe me."

"God, I want to be mad at you, to yell at you and tell you to respect Alistair, but damn, you look so much like him."

"Stop saying that. I don't want to be compared to that son of a bitch, may be burn in hell."

"Here I am sitting around, feeling sorry for myself, when it's you I should be feeling sorry for. Your pop was not a bad guy, I don't believe it for a second when you say that, he took me and mine in, took care of us-took care of me. Made sure I was okay, saved me when I needed saving, set me on my path and helped me in all the ways that he could. That's a true father right there, to the bone, and it's sad that you don't see that." Indeed Angel chose not to grow angry with her, but the bitter undertone of her words was almost as bad.

"Pathetic, you of all people don't deserve to know my secrets, things that I wouldn't even tell my friends, but I'm letting you know so that maybe you won't be so willfully blind. Yeah, poor me, my dad was a bastard and I'm a ghost, but see, I'm being so honest with you even though the idea of your pity is worse than death for me." It was almost like Percy could see the wall that her companion was throwing up, a deliberate maneuver to avoid hearing the painful truth.

"You never gave him a fair chance, that man risked everything-everything-to make right what happened. He was willing to pay any price to avenge what they did to you, and it cost him his life. So let me do you a favor, let me impart one of his gifts onto you. You know that prophecy that you all go on and on about, the one you think Warren is supposed to lead? Well that bitch and her mutt have the original copy somewhere in their little fortress." Now Angel could see her shift in stance, and she hoped it would gain some favor for the deceased.