UnBound: Battle of the Half-Angels

It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream…Justin Deaton repeated this mantra inside his head over and over, but it was proving to be useless.  Yeah, he knew it was only a dream, but it didn’t stop the horrors he saw every night, from giving him chills and waking him in a cold sweat.

Every night for the past two weeks, instead of the heated dreams of his girlfriend, Jess Hardin, he usually had when he slept; he’d been visited by visions of death and destruction.  Sometimes, in these dreams, he had huge black wings, like some type of avenging angel and he fought alongside other angels.  He didn’t know why they fought; only that it was important that they win.  He felt with the whole of his being, that something detrimental to mankind hung in the balance.  Loosing was not an option.

At other times, he saw huge inferno’s engulfing the world’s great cities.  Monuments falling in ruin, and churches destroyed.  There were always churches.  He saw children dead in the streets, victims of pestilence and plague.  Plague!  In the twenty first century.

Justin looked over at his alarm clock and sighed.  It was six twenty three am, which ordinarily wouldn’t be such a bad time to get up. But when you’d tossed and turned all night, six twenty three could just have easily been three am.

“Might as well get up,” he muttered, as he reached over and hit the off button before the alarm had a chance to go off, and sat up, “No reason to lay here like I’m actually going back to sleep.”

Justin stood, stretched his toned six foot four frame and headed for his bathroom.  He reached out in the darkness, flipped a light switch and immediately regretted it.  He slapped his hand tightly to his face to shield his sensitive eyes from the blaring lights.

“Bright move Justin, “he muttered, as he lowered his head toward the ground.  He stood there for a few moments then slowly removed his hand, giving his eyes time to adjust.  Justin hated the stinging sensation that always accompanied ‘light blindness’, as he called it.  But in truth, he should be used to it by now, it seemed like he did the same thing every morning, no matter how many times he reminded himself not to.

With his head still slightly bowed, Justin turned the cold water on, and ducked his head under the chilling flow of water.   If the cold water didn’t wake him, then nothing would.  As it turned out, it wasn’t the water that proved to shock his senses into full awareness.   The moment he lifted his head and looked in the mirror, Justin froze.

Staring him in the eyes was a tall golden haired man.  A man that was even taller than he was, and he was looking at Justin with a curious expression on his face.  Justin swept the water away from his face and spun around in one quick movement.  “What the hell.”  Justin scanned the tiled room, only to find it empty.  “I could have sworn…”  He rushed into the bedroom to search for the supposed intruder.

Justin checked all the obvious places, the closet, under the bed, behind the door.  He even threw open the window and looked outside, thinking maybe the intruder had used it as a means of escape.  He didn’t find a thing.

When Justin was satisfied that he was alone, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.  He ran a trembling hand through his hair.  “This is so not cool,” he said to the empty room.  “First the nightmares, now I’m seeing things.  Keep this up and I’m going to end up in therapy.”

Justin showered and dressed in record time.  Even though his eyes told him that no one was there, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him.  He was downright freaked out and eager for the company his family would offer.

Michael smiled, in spite of himself as he watched his son.  Even without his full powers, he senses my presence, thought Michael.  He never imagined that he’d get the opportunity to be a father to his son.  A son that should never had been.  His existence was the reason Michael had spent 15 years confined in the desolate darkness of purgatory.  But now standing there, looking at Justin, he knew that he’d made the right decision.