Heaven on Earth: Terminus (Book 1)

Chapter 9: Disclosure (Nate)

Camp Seraphic 

I open my eyes to the sound of the annoying and persistent repetition of my name. I adjust to the wild light coming into my room and notice that it’s Tom calling my name and poking me on the shoulder. “Wake up, Nate. We have to see the Oracle!” I jolt at the mention of it. The vague sense of dreaming has now left my mind but I don’t want to make it seem that I’m cliché so I don’t mention it. I sweep my legs out to the side  of the bed and scratch my messy bed of dark brown hair, I yawn and decide to reply to the quite perky Tom,

“Now?”

“Yes, now.” Tom replies, “Go brush your teeth and hurry downstairs. You can take a shower later when we get back.”

“OK.” I say and without any more comments, he leaves my room quietly. Where to start, where to start, I think to myself. I push myself up from the excessively comfortable bed and make my way to a door nearby. The bathroom. I find a new toothbrush and toothpaste and brush my teeth, up and down, back and front, water, rinse, gargle spit, done. I have to punish myself by splashing cold water on my face, my body untangles itself from the grips of sleep and my eyes fling wide open. I shake my head and find a towel hanging on the door pegs to dry off my soaked face. My shirts are soaked as well now so I take the plaid and tee off and drop them in the laundry basket outside the bathroom. I walk to my bag which is lazily leaning on the floor next to the coach, I pull out a new white long sleeve tee and decide to reuse my jeans. I walk out onto the stair balcony and notice a bouncing wisp of read bounding down the stairs, I want to go around to knock for Azalea but I have a feeling that she’s already downstairs and I end up being correct. As I walk out into the dining area, I see her sitting on one of the grand dining chairs in a conversation with the Archangels, I figure that it’s too important to interrupt so I go over to the breakfast counter with Tom, a little girl and a girl with burning red hair.

“There you are!” Tom proclaims, “I like your hair.”

“I totally didn’t notice the sarcasm.” I reply back with a morning front,

“Let me introduce you to two very special girls to me.” He points to the little girl enthusiastically digging away at her scrambled eggs, “This is Shannon, my little sister.” She looks up at me with a blank look and goes back to her breakfast. Before Tom can introduce the red headed girl, she’s already up on her feet and shaking my hand,

“I’m Betsy.” She smiles, “I’m Tom’s guardian angel...well he doesn’t seem to think so.”

“I’m Nate.” I reply, trying to bury the obvious tension,

“Pleasure meeting you.” She says, “Now if you excuse me, I will go find some of my friends and I shall vent to them.” She grabs her satchel and very calmly storms out.

“What did you do?” I ask Tom, sitting where Betsy sat,

“Nothing!” He expresses defensively, “Honest.”

Elena walks up to the counter with a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs and places it in front of me, “For you.” She smiles at me but it disappears as soon as she turns to Tom, “When you come back, you need to apologise to her. If you can’t talk to her as your guardian, talk to her as your best friend.” Elena goes over to the sink and starts to ritually clean the plates. I dig into my breakfast and once I’ve finished, I suddenly realise how hungry I was when I woke up.

“Right.” Someone says behind me and when I turn around, it’s Mike, “We should get going.”

“Yes, we should.” Tom replies, “Come on Nate.”