Tainted Beings

Chapter two

Posted- May 8, 2017
(unedited)
(pictured above-Evangeling Harvest)

Evangeline walked briskly down the street, the cold air whipping her golden hair behind her as she went. She pulled her Ipod out of her coat pocket and changed the song a couple times before she was satisfied. She expertly weaved her way through the crowded sidewalk and kept her gaze low. Today was a day she definitely didn't need to find trouble, but sooner or later she knew it was going to find her. Ducking into the next alley she came across she sighed out in relief, she was almost home and those thugs from early seemed to have lost her trail. She leaned back against the wall and gave herself a brief moment to relax gazing up at the passing clouds. It was a beautiful day, albeit a little chilly but nothing she couldn't handle.

"Alright, you're only two more blocks from home, lets keep it going" She whispered quietly to herself in reassurance.

She peeked out of the alley and cursed quietly as she spots the three douchebags from earlier walking in her direction. She ducked back in the alley and ran to the end climbing on top of the dumpster and jumping over the fence. It would set her off course a bit but it would keep her out of trouble so she continued on her way.

"Hey girlie! Don't I know you!!" A man shouted at her from a few feet away.

She whipped her head in his direction and scowled, of course there was more of them than just three. She ran across the busy street narrowly avoiding cars, hearing the man follow her with pounding footsteps only seemed to push her faster. She made a mental note to herself not to steal money from a gang the next time she needed a couple bucks. She made it into an alley across the street and jumped up to grab the ladder of a fire escape. Of course an impossible jump for any other human was easy breezy for her, although it was no match to how high she could go with her wings out. Fortunately even with her wings tucked in, as a fallen angel she was still a little lighter than air and had enough strength to push herself high enough to reach the fire escape.

The man cursed in bewilderment as his buddies met him in the alley and continuously tried to grab the ladder to the fire escape. She chuckled and continued her way to the top of the building. She shook her head and smiled at how cliche this chase seemed to be. She ran across the roof and had no trouble jumping to the next one, impractical as it seemed this would have to do for a safe and quick route home. She made excellent time crossing the city reaching the run down outskirts by midday. Fortunately for her this part of the city was almost completely abandoned.

She stopped on the roof of a corner building and caught her breath while taking her headphones out and shoving them into her pocket. She slipped her coat off and tucked it under her arm, she flexed her back and shoulder allowing her wings to melt out from her skin. She winced as the bones shifted and popped into place finally breathing a sigh of relief when the were fully extended. It had been a little while since she had allowed her wings to breathe. She ran to the edge of the building and jumped off allowing her wings to catch the wind and carry her up into the sky. She couldn't help but fully smile as she felt the wind flow through her hair and the feathers on her wings. She flew down a couple streets and landed on top of her home, an abandoned apartment building.

She hopped down onto the fire escape ad opened the window to the apartment on the top floor and made her way inside. She glanced around at the dingy apartment that she tried to keep as clean as possible. The living room which was connected to the kitchen had a broken couch and a coffee table covered in candled and spilled wax. where a tv stand would usually be was a small bookcase with an array of old and new books that Evangeline managed to pick up everywhere she went. She looked over to the empty kitchen and sighed as she realized her stockpile of non-perishables was running extremely low. She threw her coat on the couch and walked down the short hallway to her bedroom. With only a twin mattress on the floor and a trunk full of clothes she didn't have much.

Living like this it was easy for her to fantasize what her life would be like if she had stayed in the light realm with her parents instead of becoming fallen. She knew though that she made the right choice, there was too many rules and she wanted to be free. Of course being free meant falling from the light realm and being banished but that wasn't the only shortcoming. While angels could use charm to manipulate humans into doing anything they wanted fallen angels could only use charm to get things they needed and nothing more. She was just glad she still had the ability to retract her wings and still retain the feather-like weight of angels. She had heard horror stories as a child of those who had fallen who couldn't hid themselves at all and they were killed by the cult of humans hunting beings such as herself. Although she hadn't run into any members of the cult yet, she figured she would sooner or later.

This was one of the reasons she decide to enroll in college, although it wasn't very easy. She had to charm the dean into giving her a full ride and she was so worried it wouldn't work. She supposed that because she was homeless and barely had any food or safety going to college would be something she needed. Either way she wasn't going to question it, she was just happy she would be able to escape from this lonely hell for a little while. It was strange that all angels were very close and like a giant family but as soon as you fell other angels wanted nothing to do with each other. She had learned that the hard way. collapsing on her bed she sighed and stared at the ceiling, she was wasting time and she knew it. Move in day was today and had started at about nine this morning and it was about twelve-ish now. She would have left earlier but she wanted to grab some emergency money for the road, of course that had turned out worse than she would have liked. She did however manage to breakaway with a decent amount of cash. Sitting up she grabbed her old run down laptop from the end of her bed and tucked it into her trunk with all of her clothes. She pulled off her bedspread and managed to stuff it down into the trunk just barely closing the top. Grabbing her backpack she dragged it into the living room along with her trunk. She pulled the wad of cash out of her jacket and stuffed it into her backpack along with her ipod and a couple of books.

She pulled everything out with her onto the fire escape and used every ounce of strength she had to float down to ground level without dropping her things. She frowned knowing she would have to hide her wings in order to get to the college campus undetected. She flexed her back muscles and loosened her shoulders allowing her wings to sink into her skin, again she winced at the unnatural movement of bones. Slipping her coat and backpack on she grabbed a handle on her trunk and wheeled it behind her down the street. She headed towards the nearest cafe with wifi so she could call a cab to take her to the college campus.

after an hour of walking she finally managed to stumble into a cafe and sink into one of the chairs to catch her breath. She pulled out her Ipod and quickly connected to the wifi then opening an app to request a cab. While she waited she bought a cold drink and slowly sipped it waiting for the app to notify her that the cab had arrived. Upon looking at the clock she scowled at how late she had managed to be, it was 1:42 now and campus was about an hour and a half away. She huffed and took a gulp of her drink only to become slightly startled by her Ipod violently going off. She fumbled around with it until it shut up and quickly grabbed her things as she realized the cab was outside. Struggling to throw her trunk into the trunk of the car she finally managed to hoist it up and into the back of the car with a huff.

She slid into the backseat and sunk into the seat as the driver pulled into the road and started in the direction of her future home for the next few months. Evangeline stared out the window at the passing scenery and felt a headache forming along with her eyes getting heavy. Wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap, after all she would soon have to deal with a roommate around the clock. She let her eyes close and the gentle rock of the car pulled her into darkness.